Naruto: Building Insect Kingdom Chapter 66 66: Appearance and Conflict with Orochimaru

As Manda and the swarms of snakes appeared, screaming for sacrifices and threatening to tear the world apart, Shisui Abura knew the other man was done playing gas.

Orochimaru was forcing a confrontation, determined to drag the shadow out into the light.

"Sigh... why must it co to this?" A long, weary sigh echoed through the air. The voice was calm, yet it seed to vibrate from all directions at once.

In the village not far away, civilians and ninjas alike suddenly felt a strange sensory dullness. It was as if their hearing had been muted; they began to subconsciously ignore the distant commotion.

Though they continued their tasks, they felt a sudden, inexplicable urge to return ho, check on their loved ones, or perhaps settle down for an early afternoon nap.

As the voice faded, Orochimaru snapped his head toward the distance. Countless swarms of insects were surging from every direction, humming with a low, rhythmic vibration.

They erged from the earth, from the walls of the valley, and condensed out of the very air. They were diverse and terrifying: so shifted like liquid ink, others flowed like sludge.

The ordinary snakes stood no chance; under the relentless gnawing of the swarm, they were reduced to bleached bones in seconds.

The larger giant snakes fared better, lashing out with raw physical power, but even Manda was becoming visibly irritated by the sheer persistence of the insects.

"Orochimaru! For this, the sacrifice must be increased by a hundred people! No, a thousand!" Manda roared.

But Orochimaru didn't move. He didn't even blink. His slit-like pupils were locked onto the distance, watching as the swirling mass of insects gradually coalesced into a human silhouette.

Black clothing, dark glasses, and a shimring aura of buzzing wings. A young face, wearing an expression as calm and undisturbed as a pool of still water.

Orochimaru's pupils contracted slightly. He recognized that face.

"So it's you, Shisui Abura. I never imagined that the unremarkable insect-user from Konoha would grow to such a height."

"It makes sense now... everything explains itself."

His gaze swept over the surrounding swarms, his eyes burning with a feverish, intellectual hunger.

"Your talent is truly breathtaking. To think you broke the shackles of the Abura clan and elevated the art of insect mastery to a completely new dinsion."

Nearby, the chaotic battle between insect and serpent raged on. While the swarm couldn't pierce Manda's thick scales, the great serpent had fallen into a trap set by the Earth-Construction Insects.

Their self-detonating bodies released a viscous, sludge-like mud that acted like a Yellow (Swamp of the Underworld), pinning Manda's massive form into a sticky pit.

Both masters stood watching their summons clash, neither having made a direct move yet. Orochimaru continued to study Shisui with a look of pure, unadulterated fascination.

"No wonder I felt watched... It wasn't a person tracking , but these insects. I'm curious—how did you engineer them to blend so perfectly into the local fauna? And how do you bridge the cognitive gap to have them transmit everything they see and hear directly back to you?"

To Orochimaru, insects were low-intelligence organisms. The standard Kikaichū could collect scents and return with vague information, but that was the known limit of the Abura.

To see that limit shattered by soone he had once let slip through his fingers was a mystery he desperately wanted to dissect.

Shisui—or rather, Shisui's Insect Clone—did not respond to the flattery. He spoke with a detached coldness.

"Would it not have been better for us to test one another's boundaries and then part ways? Lord Orochimaru, I recall you being a man who values personal space.

You loathe it when others probe your secrets. Why, then, were you so confident as to force my hand?"

Shisui's hands began to weave signs. The earth began to tremble as untold billions of insects surged from the four corners of the battlefield, closing in on Orochimaru.

"Is this the arrogance of the strong?"

"Arrogance?" The smile vanished from Orochimaru's face. "No. It is rely curiosity."

His hands blurred into a counter-sign.

More giant snakes erupted from the ground to et the swarm. Vipers spat venom to dissolve flying insects, while the bugs crawled into the snakes' orifices to devour them from the inside out.

Orochimaru unleashed various elental ninjutsu, creating a periter of fire and wind to incinerate any insect attempting to bridge the gap.

The battlefield had beco a restricted zone; Naoto and the elders had no choice but to retreat to the very edge of the clearing, carrying the wounded.

After a minute of intense struggle, Orochimaru found himself breathing heavily. His recently bolstered strength seed insufficient against this overwhelming "sea of insects" tactic.

Yet, he wasn't afraid. He felt an odd, surging sense of hyperactivity—a frantic urge to keep fighting until the end.

Suddenly, Manda let out a pained, furious howl. "Argh! These damnable, wretched bugs are crawling into my eyes! Orochimaru, I'm done! If the sacrifices aren't ready by the next ti you call, don't bother!"

With a massive puff of white smoke, the Great Serpent unsummoned itself. Seeing their leader flee, the other intelligent snakes followed suit, vanishing from the battlefield.

In that mont of silence, Orochimaru's eyes snapped into focus. His pupils, which had been dilated with excitent, narrowed sharply with alarm

Sothing was wrong. This was an asymtrical battle; he was fighting a re clone, yet he was being drained of his energy and sanity. Why was he still standing here?

He channeled chakra to disrupt his own flow, performing a ntal dispelling technique. The fog in his mind cleared, but the physical hyperactivity—the racing heart and twitching nerves—remained.

The air. The scent in the air...

He scanned the periter and found the source. As the swarm appeared, they had begun secreting specific pheromones into the atmosphere.

Once inhaled, the substance didn't kill; it subtly manipulated the subject's brain chemistry, inducing a state of aggressive euphoria that clouded judgnt.

Genjutsu? No... it's a hybrid of neurotoxins and pheromones!

His rhythm broken, Orochimaru held his breath and retreated several ters, his eyes flashing with a sharp, dangerous light.

"No wonder Yuhi Shinko fell to you. A combination of Genjutsu and biological pharmacology... if an opponent has a weakness in either, you catch them in the gap.

Shinko was a master of illusions, but he knew nothing of biology. His defeat was inevitable."

Before he could finish, the hair on the back of Orochimaru's neck stood up—a primal instinct for survival screaming at him.

An invisible scorpion had sohow bypassed his senses and crawled onto his back. Its stinger, dripping with a virulent sheen, whipped upward toward his heart.

Orochimaru twisted his body at the last possible microsecond. The barb missed his spine but sliced a deep, ragged gash across his left lower back. The blood turned black instantly.

"Poison..." His face paled. He no longer had the heart for battle.

Without hesitation, he bit his thumb and slamd his palm against the ground once more.

"Summoning: Manda!"

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