Chapter 544: The Great Snake Garaga

Chapter 544: Chapter 544: The Great Snake Garaga

Naruto stared blankly at the enormous orange slit-pupiled eye before him, an eye even larger than his entire body. He was utterly dumbfounded!

Whoosh...

Accompanied by the sound of rushing wind, Kabuto, who had been standing some distance away, activated the Body Flicker Technique. He grabbed Naruto and Hinata, one in each arm, rescuing them from the great snake’s jaws before retreating to the opposite end of the cavern.

"This is bad..."

After setting Naruto and Hinata down, cold sweat streamed down Kabuto’s forehead.

Now that he had seen the great snake named Garaga with his own eyes and witnessed its enormous size, Kabuto no longer harbored the slightest hope of success.

Without a doubt, Garaga was exactly as he had anticipated: a powerful summoning beast on the same level as Manda, one that only a shinobi of Orochimaru’s caliber could hope to command!

"You’ve got some nerve barging into my territory!"

Garaga raised his head, his single slit-pupiled eye fixed on Naruto and the others as his enormous forked tongue flicked up and down.

Having abandoned all hope of success, Kabuto decisively gave up on the trial of obtaining Garaga’s reverse scale. His gaze swept imperceptibly toward the cavern passage through which they had entered.

However, although Kabuto was an expert at concealing his intentions and had betrayed nothing through his expression or demeanor, the complete collapse of his fighting spirit had exposed his thoughts.

As a snake, Garaga was particularly sensitive to such things. He had no need to interpret Kabuto’s expression to sense that the adult shinobi before him had lost all will to fight and was thinking only of escape.

"Hmph!"

With a heavy snort, Garaga opened his mouth and spat a stream of black, ash-like substance toward the cavern’s exit.

Whoooosh...

In an instant, the cavern entrance turned into a solid wall of rock!

Having sealed off their only way in or out, Garaga shifted his enormous body and declared, "It’s been ages since I’ve tasted a shinobi. Since you’ve delivered yourselves right to my doorstep, I’ll have a nice feast!"

Seeing that Garaga had sealed off their escape route, Kabuto’s heart sank. With no time to worry about anything else, he rapidly formed hand seals and shouted, "Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"

In an instant, an enormous water dragon materialized out of thin air and lunged toward Garaga.

Rumble...

Under the impact of Kabuto’s Water Dragon Bullet Technique, Garaga was slammed against the rock wall, causing the entire cavern to rumble. The water dragon formed by the ninjutsu then burst apart, sending water spraying everywhere.

"Damn you!"

Amid the splashing water, Garaga flew into a complete rage. With a twist of his body, his enormous tail swept toward Kabuto like a whirlwind.

Bang!

Like a fly struck by a flyswatter, Kabuto was instantly sent flying. He slammed heavily into the rock wall with a dull thud.

"Cough, cough..."

Before long, Kabuto struggled to his feet, coughing up blood. The wounds on his body, including the obvious fractures along his ribs, rapidly healed amid wisps of pale green smoke.

Naruto and Hinata hurried over and asked, "Big Brother Kabuto, are you okay?"

Kabuto shook his head, his expression grave.

With his mastery of medical ninjutsu, injuries of this severity were not enough to kill him. However, he also understood that his chakra would eventually run out.

If he couldn’t find a way to escape soon, they would inevitably end up as food for the great snake.

In the blink of an eye, Kabuto came up with the only way to escape their predicament: summon Manda.

However, unlike Orochimaru, although Kabuto was also capable of summoning Manda, there was absolutely no guarantee of success. Whether the summoning worked depended entirely on Manda’s mood at the time. Only when Manda was in a particularly good mood did Kabuto stand a chance of successfully summoning him.

Unfortunately, the notoriously short-tempered Manda was very, very rarely in a good mood.

"I’ll just have to gamble on it!"

Biting his finger, Kabuto poured his chakra into the technique without holding anything back and slammed his palm against the ground.

Poof!

An enormous cloud of white smoke billowed upward, nearly filling the entire cavern.

At the same time, Kabuto, along with Naruto and Hinata beside him, suddenly shot upward, as though some enormous object beneath their feet had lifted them into the air.

"WHO DARES SUMMON ME?!"

Before the three could recover from their surprise, a deep, thunderous roar echoed throughout the cavern.

Immediately afterward, an enormous purple figure emerged from the white smoke, making the previously spacious cavern feel somewhat cramped.

"It worked!"

Kabuto let out a long sigh of relief before politely addressing Manda beneath his feet.

"Lord Manda, I’m the one who summoned you. Please help me escape from here."

Manda rolled his two slit-pupiled eyes upward, glancing at Kabuto standing atop his head, and snorted coldly.

"Hmph! So it’s Orochimaru’s underling. You dare summon someone like me? Are you asking to be swallowed whole?!"

Kabuto replied helplessly, "Lord Manda, please rest assured. I’ll prepare an offering that will satisfy you once this is over."

At that moment, Manda shifted his gaze toward Garaga on the opposite side.

"Well, well! If it isn’t Garaga!"

Garaga hadn’t expected Kabuto to actually summon Manda. Somewhat wary, he said, "Manda, these humans were the ones who trespassed into my territory first. Are you planning to interfere?"

Manda turned to Kabuto and said, "Hey, brat! Don’t forget the offering you promised me!"

With that, poof! Manda transformed into a cloud of white smoke and vanished from the cavern.

Just as Garaga was wary of Manda, Manda, who was known as the ’Strongest Great Snake’ of Ryuchi Cave, was equally wary of Garaga. He had absolutely no intention of fighting Garaga for the sake of an insignificant nobody like Kabuto.

And with Manda’s departure, Kabuto fell from midair and landed on the ground, his expression utterly blank.

He had never imagined that Manda would simply run away so shamelessly. Worse still, before fleeing, the snake had even gone out of his way to remind him about the promised offering!

Garaga’s single slit-pupiled eye locked onto Kabuto as rage boiled within him.

"This... this is bad..."

Kabuto was now completely out of options. The summoning had consumed a tremendous amount of his chakra, yet not only had it accomplished absolutely nothing, it had actually enraged Garaga even further.

In an instant, Garaga moved!

Like an enormous dark-red boulder rolling downhill, he lunged ferociously toward Kabuto and the others.

But just as Garaga was about to reach them, a mysterious mist suddenly surged from Naruto’s body.

Garaga immediately halted his advance. As though stunned, he froze in place.

At the very moment the mist emerged, Naruto also seemed to lose consciousness, standing there in a daze.

Sensing the dense aura of natural energy emanating from Naruto’s body, Kabuto was taken aback.

In truth, even Kabuto himself was unaware that he possessed a special talent for manipulating natural energy. It was precisely this rare gift that allowed him to detect the change in Naruto’s aura so keenly.

Suppressing the shock and confusion in his heart, Kabuto studied Naruto and Garaga, both of whom had simultaneously fallen into a trance, and secretly wondered:

"Why is there such an enormous concentration of natural energy emanating from Naruto? Could the White Snake Sage have done something to him earlier? But... but why would the White Snake Sage do something to Naruto?"