The Sakura Legend

Sakura channeled a massive amount of chakra, releasing it outwards. Instantly, the white snakes constricting her body shattered into pieces.

Naruto's shadow clones had been completely annihilated, and Sasuke was being forced into a perilous situation by Orochimaru's attacks.

Seeing that Orochimaru's attention wasn't on her, Sakura stealthily moved behind him. Even if she couldn't kill him, she could at least cause him some trouble.

Just then, Orochimaru suddenly stopped moving. Naruto and Sasuke also gained a momentary reprieve.

"Sasuke, I can give you the power to become stronger. Don't you want to kill that man?" Orochimaru said, his voice laced with temptation.

Sasuke's pupils contracted at Orochimaru's words. It wasn't that Sasuke didn't desire revenge; he had simply buried that thought deep within his heart. Normally, Sakura wouldn't intentionally bring up subjects that would upset Sasuke.

But now, with Orochimaru mentioning it, the hatred within Sasuke surged up. His eyes turned ice-cold. "What do you know?!"

"Hehehe… I know more than you can imagine. Uchiha Itachi slaughtered your entire clan. He killed your father. He killed your mother…" Orochimaru spoke nonchalantly to Sasuke.

Sakura realized what was happening. Orochimaru was deliberately provoking Sasuke. He might not know the full details, but he knew that simply mentioning Itachi would make Sasuke lose his composure.

Orochimaru had likely already sensed that she'd broken free from the snakes. To avoid delaying his plans, he was intentionally angering Sasuke to draw out his attack. Even if Sakura wanted to protect Sasuke, his lack of cooperation would make it difficult.

Since Sakura had already been exposed, she no longer hid. Activating her chakra to enhance her body's speed, she rapidly appeared behind Orochimaru and threw a punch.

"That's not his real body," Sakura realized. The Orochimaru she flattened turned into a Mud Clone.

With substitution techniques, the real body and the clone switched places the instant the attack landed. Only with sufficient attack speed and sensory perception, could one counter this ninjutsu, like Sakura.

The real Orochimaru gradually materialized behind Sasuke, lunging to bite him.

"Damn it!! I won't make it in time!" Sakura watched as Orochimaru's fangs sank into Sasuke's neck.

Sasuke immediately collapsed, writhing in pain. The three-tomoe Heaven's Curse Mark surfaced on his neck.

How could this be? She still failed to stop Orochimaru from placing the curse mark. Sakura stared blankly at Sasuke lying on the ground.

After biting Sasuke, Orochimaru didn't leave. He remained standing there, his expression shifting between sinister and uncertain.

"Heh heh heh… Quite impressive, Sasuke. I'm becoming more and more interested in you," Orochimaru's low, raspy voice echoed.

At that moment, a swarm of Narutos jumped down from the trees, pouncing on Orochimaru from all directions.

"Sakura-chan, Sasuke, hurry!" Naruto shouted urgently.

Sakura snapped out of her daze. Ignoring what had just happened for the moment, she instantly concentrated the largest amount of chakra she'd ever used since creating her water blade technique, slicing towards Orochimaru.

"Pop! Pop! Pop!" Naruto's clones vanished one after another. Trapped in the middle by Naruto, Orochimaru was sliced in half by the water blade.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

A massive fireball descended from above Orochimaru's head, striking him directly.

Sasuke and Naruto quickly regrouped with Sakura, forming a triangular defensive formation.

The Sasuke who had been lying on the ground, seemingly being consumed by the curse mark, vanished with a "pop" a moment later. It had been a shadow clone.

"Hmph, that was just my shadow clone. When I released my shadow clones, I had them hide the real Sasuke. Since the enemy's target is Sasuke, we'll use their own strategy against them to confuse our opponent," Naruto said smugly. "What do you think, Sakura-chan? This idea was all mine."

"Don't get so cocky, you idiot! If Sakura hadn't given you a hint, you never would have thought of it," Sasuke retorted, deflating Naruto.

Sakura didn't find their bickering annoying this time. Both of them had grown. Sakura thought, feeling a sense of relief.

"That Orochimaru guy should be dead, right?" Naruto asked, holding his kunai and looking at Orochimaru's bisected, charred corpse.

Sakura shook her head. "No, Orochimaru isn't that easy to kill. He's one of the Sannin, on par with my master, Tsunade. He has strong survival abilities."

"What?! He's still alive after that?!" Naruto exclaimed in disbelief.

Sasuke, beside him, also seemed slightly shocked.

"Orochimaru hasn't even used his full strength. My water blade technique isn't invincible. Tsunade-shishou can easily block it. There's no way Orochimaru would be killed by a move like that," Sakura explained further.

"Um, Sakura-chan, I've been a little confused since earlier. What are the Sannin?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke subtly turned his head, also wanting to hear the explanation. He was clearly intrigued by Orochimaru's earlier claim of being able to give him power.

"The Sannin is a title," Sakura explained, seeing that Orochimaru hadn't reappeared yet. "Jiraiya-sama, Tsunade-sama, and Orochimaru were given the title during the war, after fighting against Hanzo of the Salamander, who was known as a demigod of the ninja world. They made significant contributions to Konoha during the war. They all possess Kage-level strength. My master, Tsunade, is one of them."

"Huh? So, Sakura-chan, that means Orochimaru is a Konoha ninja? Then why is he attacking Sasuke?" Naruto asked, puzzled.

"Orochimaru betrayed Konoha because of his human experimentation. He's now an S-rank missing-nin. If we were to put it in terms of missions, confronting him would be an S-rank mission," Sakura said, a bit bitterly. "He probably wants to capture Sasuke because of his Sharingan. After all, he's the only one left of the Uchiha clan now."

"Another scumbag coveting the Sharingan, huh?" Sasuke said, hearing Sakura's explanation. His sense of clan pride immediately resurfaced.

Oh, dear brother, how dare you say that? Your whole clan's about to be wiped out, how can you be so bold? Right now, the three of us are at Orochimaru's mercy. Sakura looked at Sasuke with the expression one might reserve for an idiot.

Just then, the upper half of Orochimaru's bisected body began to move. His mouth opened wide, and a hand emerged from it. Then, Orochimaru slowly crawled out of the mouth of his own severed corpse.

"Hehehe… It seems Tsunade thinks highly of you, to tell you even these old stories," Orochimaru said, his voice hoarse, after emerging. He didn't immediately attack. "How much of Tsunade's strength have you inherited? Let me see."

Saying this, Orochimaru bit his finger, pulled up his sleeve, and used the bleeding thumb to draw a line on his arm. On his arm was clearly a summoning formula.

Then, with a "pop," a gigantic, earth-gray snake appeared before the three of them.