The timing of Yumie's Earth Jutsu was impeccable and it trapped Hiruko in a muddy river just an instant before, Tsukihi's Fire Jutsu was about to hit him.

Hiruko chuckled in disdain at the pathetic attempt of the two ladies, he immediately stretched out his hand towards the huge fireball coming towards him. "Dark Release: Inhaling Maw!"

Following Hiruko's action, the huge fireball coming towards him was immediately sucked into his hand in a spiraling whirl.

Hiruko did exactly the same with the Earth Flow River below his feet and absorbed the chakra.

With the suction of Chakra, the Earth Flow River lost its effects, making Hiruko free.

After regaining his movement, Hiruko said with a chuckle, "Both of you have a very delicious chakra!"

Tsukihi thought to herself, 'He really can freely use all the Kekkei Genkai he has absorbed, and Dark Release make most of the ordinary ninjutsu useless against him, killing him without the use of Susanoo would be very difficult, unfortunately, I can't reveal my Susanoo here, else it would put both this clone and Shinichi in a danger.'

Yumie's face also had a thoughtful look.

Yumie (or Orochimaru) is a type of Shinobi who is an expert in almost all forms of combat, be that taijutsu or Kenjutsu, ninjutsu or Fuinjutsu, Kinjutsu or Juinjutsu, so although her combat effectiveness is not that restricted, she still doesn't have a very good way of dealing with Hiruko without giving off her true identity, and she would obviously not do something foolish like revealing her true identity in front of entire Akatsuki.

As such the methods she can use to deal with Hiruko are quite limited.

Moreover, Hiruko is almost immune to most of the Ninjutsu as well as Physical Warfare type attacks courtesy to the five Kekkei Genkai he has selected, as such even with her experience, Yumie doesn't have a very good way to fight Hiruko.

Thinking so, Yumie turned to look at Uchiha Tsukihi, she has been paying close attention to Tsukihi throughout the battle, and she was highly surprised to find that similar to her, Tsukihi has also been calm and collected from beginning to end. Which is unexpected according to her.

In Yumie's opinion, she, a Sannin, with experience of thousands of battles, deep knowledge of many Kinjutsu, along with various means to be able to make it out alive even in the worst-case scenario is calm in the face of a monster like Hiruko is understandable.

But Tsukihi, a seventeen or eighteen-year-old Kunoichi with just three tomoe Sharingan, facing a monster like Hiruko, who can literally use five different types of Kekkei Genkai to deal with all kinds of situations, is still calm and not afraid is not a simple matter.

Even Yumie (Orochimaru), the temporary teammate of Tsukihi can't help but respect such mental fortitude, but sigh at the same time, 'The Uchiha Clan's arrogance doesn't put anyone in their eyes.'

Crackling… ZZZzzzzzz...

At this moment, Hiruko waved his hand, the storm clouds that were covered the top of the mountain suddenly sent outbursts of electric discharge.

As lightning started to rage the mountain, Hiruko who was shrouded in lightning spoke, "That's the end of the warm-up, now let's get serious and take this fight up a notch!"

And immediately Hiruko disappeared from his position.

With the movement of Hiruko, the lightning also raged all over the platform, and for a moment it seemed as if the entire ritual platform became a pool of dazzling blue lightning.

Wherever it fell, the rock pieces vaporized.

Tsukihi with her Sharingan noticed Hiruko's running trajectory, and without any hesitation, she drew out her Katana and threw it along the predicted trajectory.

Whiiish…

The Katana flew out and went towards Hiruko, although Hiruko managed to avoid the Katana, all the lightning covering him hit the Katana's metallic blade which is a conductor.

Tsukihi did not waste that opportunity and immediately shot out several Kunai.

The ends of Kunai were tied with thin metal wire, and with the assistance of her Sharingan, Tsukihi shot the Kunai in such a direction, which greatly limited Hiruko's movements because of the metal wire.

But Tsukihi did not stop there and subsequently shot Kunai tied with large strings of Explosive Tags, the targets were Hiruko's eyes, throat, both axilla, then, ribs, Achilles' heel of the body.

All the Kunai were shot in the blink of an eye, and with such precise actions that even the Akatsuki members were all amazed.

Even Hiruko was caught off guard for a moment as his body was entangled by the metal wires.

Just when Hiruko was about to get rid of the metal wires that restricted his movements, he suddenly noticed the next set of Kunai tied with a series of explosive tags also wrapping around him.

And from the sound made by Explosive Tags, they were about to explode any movement.

"Steel Release: Impervious Armor!"

With Hiruko's angry shout, his body hardened and darkened.

Break… Break…

With his solidified body, Hiruko easily broke free of the metal wires that bound him.

But before he can celebrate, two rubbery pale white arms suddenly stretched out of nowhere and bound Hiruko.

And because the two arms were rubbery, which means they could stretch and shrink like rubber, so even if Hiruko tried to break free of them, he was unable to.

Boom… Boom… Boom… Boom… Boom… Boom… Boom… Boom… Boom…

At this time, the Explosive Tags also exploded, which led to a series of violent explosions that shook the entire mountain, covering the entire platform in fire dust, and smoke.

Yumie immediately retracted her arms, then printed the hand seals to cast a simple Wind Style Jutsu to blow away the cover of dust and smoke.

And just as the cover of dust and smoke cleared, the figure of Hiruko, who was the center of the explosion was immediately revealed, from the first look, Hiruko doesn't seem to have suffered any injury.

But Hiruko's face was gloomy, he stood at his position for a few seconds while Tsukihi and Yumie took deep breaths.

The atmosphere was extremely quiet, but both the Kunoichi knew that this was just a silence before the storm.

And as the drop of sweat that slid down her face dropped on the floor, Hiruko's figure disappeared and instantly appeared in front of Yumie.

Yumie, who was already prepared for the coming attack was about to leap back, but just for an instant before she could do so, the eyes of Yumie and Hiruko crossed, and immediately Yumie stopped dead in her position, her dead bent down as if she was unconscious.

'Genjutsu!?' – Tsukihi was startled, and only then did she notice the scarlet pupils with three black tomoe spinning in Shinichi's eyes.

Yumie's (Orochimaru's) biggest weakness is Genjutsu, even in the original story, Orochimaru suffered because of the Sharingan's Genjutsu, but at that time his opponent was Uchiha Itachi, who had Mangekyou Sharingan.

And who Uchiha Itachi is must not be forgotten.

So even if Orochimaru was subdued by Itachi, it cannot be said that Orochimaru's Genjutsu resistance is so poor that he would be affected so easily.

And the fact that the Genjutsu cast by Hiruko can affect Orochimaru must mean that the pair of Sharingan in his eye sockets is unusually strong, although not to the level of Mangekyou Sharingan, the ocular power is still very high.

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Read up to Chapter - 525 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: p-atreon.com/Milta_translations