The large-scale attack, which had been months in the making, was finally unleashed.
The sheer expenditure of chakra left Mizuki reeling, pain flaring in his very bones.
"The quality may be poor, but the quantity makes up for it… barely," he muttered to himself. "It's the kind of tactic you can use once in a blue moon, not something sustainable. Not worth burning through months of preparation for a single long-range strike."
His gaze shifted toward the battered clone, its chakra threadbare and body scarred.
"The pseudo-Jinchūriki still isn't self-sufficient. It needs periodic chakra injections just to stay active. It can't operate independently for long. Ordinary chakra clones don't meet the demands—they lack durability, vitality, and lifespan."
Just thinking about it gave him a headache.
"And after that kind of commotion, I don't even want to imagine how the village is reacting right now."
Outside the Forest of Death, Mitarashi Anko—Chief Examiner for the Chūnin Exams—scowled. Her good mood, sustained by a plate of dumplings and the anticipation of watching Genin tear each other apart, had soured in an instant.
Everything had been going as expected. A few screams here and there. A few unconscious bodies dragged out. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Until now.
Suddenly, the peaceful chaos of the exam gave way to a terrifying surge of chakra that shocked even the seasoned Jōnin outside the barrier.
"This isn't good. Someone dangerous might have slipped into the exam."
Before she could investigate, a Chūnin runner approached, breathless. "Chief Examiner! There's something strange. You need to see it."
Anko followed him quickly and froze at the sight: the bodies of the Kusagakure trio—deceased. Their documents were intact, but their faces had melted away like wax.
"A facial erasure and disguise jutsu…" she whispered, expression darkening. "He's back…"
Pain lanced through her neck as the cursed seal burned, confirming her fear.
"Alert the Third Hokage. Request two squads of ANBU immediately!"
She sprinted into the forest without hesitation.
"What the hell are you trying to do, coming back now, Orochimaru?!"
Elsewhere, Gaara stood drenched in blood, having eliminated three Ame-nin with disturbing ease. But his bloodlust was unsatisfied, and something in the distance had caught his attention—an enormous chakra flare.
He turned without a word, but Temari and Kankurō urgently tried to hold him back.
"Gaara! We can't go there. It's dangerous!"
On another front, Team 7—Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura—moved quickly after sensing the chakra surge. The air practically buzzed with power, and even Naruto felt the danger.
"What is that?!" Sasuke muttered, eyes narrowing.
A crimson summoning array shot skyward, hundreds of feet tall. Terrifying energy coalesced, drawing the eyes of every candidate.
Karin, nearby, fled without hesitation. Her teammates? Left to their fate.
"We need to hide—now!" Sasuke shouted.
Even Naruto, usually reckless, grabbed his teammates and pulled them to cover.
"No way someone this strong is a candidate," Sakura whispered. "This is something else entirely…"
As the light culminated into a radiant beam, Mitarashi Anko caught sight of it from a distance.
"Damn it—I'm too late!"
The blast struck with immense force, shaking the ground for miles. Even from far off, the heat and pressure were palpable. A curtain of plasma rolled outward, vaporizing everything in its path.
What followed was a clash that defied reason: a Rasengan-sized lightning sphere clashing with a summoned triple-layer Rashōmon gate… and then, a mushroom cloud.
Sasuke, watching from afar, stared wide-eyed at the devastation.
"If someone has power like that… maybe they can kill Itachi…"
Still ignorant of the true levels of power in the shinobi world, he dreamed.
"Sasuke-kun, are you okay?" Sakura asked gently.
"…Yeah." He barely registered her concern.
"We should go check it out—maybe we can snag a scroll," Naruto suggested.
"No!" Sakura said firmly. "That's not a candidate. That's something else—maybe an enemy. We should leave this to the village."
"Let's find a weaker team and take their scroll," Sasuke decided grimly. "Everyone else is too strong. If this keeps up, I'll never get strong enough to take revenge…"
Elsewhere in the forest, Team Dosu watched the distant chaos unfold.
"It looks like Lord Orochimaru encountered someone strong," said Kin.
"Should we go help?" Zaku asked.
"No," Dosu replied. "If that level of chakra is real, we'd just be in the way."
Then he turned to leave. "You two go ahead. I have something to do."
"What a jerk," Kin muttered. "Ever since Orochimaru-sama started favoring him, he's gotten cocky."
"We'll see who earns the most credit in the end," Zaku agreed.
In the Hokage's office, Hiruzen Sarutobi set down the latest report with a heavy sigh.
"I don't even need to read this to know the situation is dire."
The chakra surge had been felt across the entire village.
"Dispatch ANBU. First priority: locate Orochimaru and determine his objective. Stop him if possible. Second: identify the individual who fought him. If you can't capture them, eliminate them on sight."
"Understood!" The masked shinobi vanished in a blur.
Back in the Forest of Death, most sensible Genin avoided the blast site.
Gaara, however, didn't listen.
When he arrived, all that remained was a crater slowly filling with water.
Frustrated and unsated, Gaara trembled on the edge of madness. Temari and Kankurō could only watch in helpless fear.
"This is bad," Temari whispered. "He's losing control…"
"Who would've thought something like this would set him off during the Chūnin Exams?" Kankurō added nervously. "Forget the plan—at this rate, we're the ones in danger."
"Let's just head for the tower and hope nothing else triggers him…"
Back in Konoha, the streets buzzed with alarm. Civilians mistook the tremors for an earthquake. More shinobi than usual patrolled the streets.
At home, Mizuki had just finished stabilizing his condition when the door flew open.
"Tsubaki? What are you doing here?"
"Was that you, Mizuki?" she demanded. "That blast—it was the celestial attack you mentioned, wasn't it?"
Only a few knew the truth. But Tsubaki had always been perceptive.
Mizuki sighed. She deserved an explanation.
Months earlier, he had asked her to help collect chakra. He'd spoken vaguely of long-range sealing and summoning techniques, a theoretical sniping tactic that combined summoning arrays with massive chakra outbursts. Only after returning from the Land of Waves mission—bolstered by resources granted by the Third Hokage—did he refine the idea.
Step one: gather massive chakra to open a long-range space node.
Step two: allow that chakra to ride the spatial distortion, delivering a concussive first strike.
Step three: use the kinetic plasma discharge generated by the transition to form a second wave of burning, shredding damage.
And finally, step four: a ball-lightning sphere charged with electromagnetic force mixed with spatial energy—an unstoppable third strike and a built-in escape mechanism.
The entire technique was a gambit. The clone delivering the strike had nearly been pulverized in transit.
"The weak body and poor chakra reserves are the biggest bottlenecks," Mizuki admitted. "Without a strong enough vessel, I can't generate or control the kind of power I need to reach the next level."
He considered the idea of transplanting Hashirama cells, but the risks were immense. And relying on Orochimaru's Cursed Seal was out of the question—trading life for power was a fool's bargain.
"For now, I'm stuck."
"Then it was you," Tsubaki murmured.
"…Yeah. I didn't mean to get into a fight. I just wanted to scout. But I ran into Orochimaru. Had no choice but to fire off the escape sequence."
He didn't mention Karin or the Genin team caught in the crossfire.
Instead, he turned and gestured toward the prototype pseudo-human Jinchūriki, battered and twitching.
Tsubaki stared, horror in her eyes.