"So you've finally shown your true self, you know," Naruto stated with bluntness and daring that one would not have expected to see from a young man facing off against a massive snake while one's own arms were injured.

"It's a pity that I had to show my hand so early, I had intended to absorb more of your Nature Chakra and finish you off with my own Sage Mode but this new power of yours mucked it all up." Orochimaru hissed out, his voice turned huskier by his transformation but also augmented, despite its husky, whisper-like tone, it spread far and wide and the volume of the Sennin's speech boomed all throughout.

"I didn't intend on making this convenient for you anyway, you know," Naruto smirked. He put up his arms despite his hands still recovering from his wounds sustained earlier. The Kusanagi Sword which Orochimaru used was no ordinary blade nor was it an alien concept for the man aligning himself with snakes to apply venom on his blades. Regenerating slashes, even ones localized in his hands, took more time than Naruto had intended, that much was evident from his lack of a carefree attitude.

"I will take your body, but before I do that, I'll see you dance, Naruto-kun!" Orochimaru hissed, as every minute scale on his serpentine body opened up beaming, ebony eyes of their own. Every scale on the Sennin's body was a serpent, living, and breathing and most importantly – regenerating with the same efficiency as their master.

The white strands of living reptilian tendrils extended and sent Naruto into a blitzing trip. It took a mere blink for the cloaked Jinchuuriki to outrace Orochimaru's attempts to entangle him though Orochimaru drove him further and further into the corner by merely sealing off the room and making utilizing his full speed a harking task for Naruto. It didn't take long before one snake managed to latch onto Naruto's numb hand and then wrap itself around it and the rest were quick to follow.

Muffled grunts of pain did make out from the pulsing and constricting cocoon that Naruto became trapped in. Orochimaru's own head slowly moved toward the subdued enemy, wary of possible diversions and his expectations for an easy feast to be subverted. A marigold glow found its way to squeeze out and illuminate the Black Cube, shocking Orochimaru and forcing the serpentine Sennin to slither its upper body away from potential threats.

With a combined roar of Naruto and something more bestial, a vigorous construct of pure, bright chakra burst forth from inside the white coils. Orochimaru tried pulling his head back, reeling from the intensity of the chakra's brightness and sheer destructive power but found his head pressed against the cube's wall. In this case, his tremendous size served also as a disadvantage though it was one both he and his opponent now shared for Naruto was no longer just Naruto. His chakra cloak had formed a haori-like formation, floating freely behind him while a form of the Nine-Tailed Fox created a living armor around its Jinchuuriki.

"T-This…This is… Combination Transformation?" Orochimaru hissed out, his once booming and powerful voice, while still just as vociferous, became drowned out by the valorous glow of Nine-Tailed Fox's more ethereal form.

"No. I've had to acquire all sorts of new powers to get rid of that parasite-guy. Let's just say that I don't need my own arms when Kurama can lend me his." Naruto yelled out from inside the standing and breathing cloak of chakra he floated in.

"Are you sure about this brat? You've skipped and pranced around actually ironing this out, we won't be able to last long in this form and if we mess it up, you'll get no more help from me, not even the Cloak Mode." A much more malevolent sounding voice boomed in the area.

"Speaking out loud, aren't you? Yeah, it might be good to let this snake-bastard now what he's dealing with now, you know…" Naruto beamed out a smile of excitement and childish aloofness. "Don't worry, by the time this times out, my own arms should be healed up. I've thought this through a bit, you know…"

"Alright… This snake's caused us plenty of trouble before, I've been itching to sink my claws and teeth into him for a long time!" the Nine-Tails' voice boomed, sending shockwaves from the mouth of the ethereal cloak of the Nine-Tails as if it was truly the Nine-Tails speaking.

"So you're talking to that thing then… I see… It makes sense, it seemed as if though you were acting a bit too intelligent at times. It whispering into your ear explains that." Orochimaru regained his composure and took a low, stalking stance, ready to lash out for the Nine-Tails' throat the moment it makes a move, regardless of if the construct of chakra even had organs and vitals to hurt.

"It's not like that, we're partners now, deal with it, you know!" Naruto pointed at Orochimaru while the Nine-Tails lashed out with rapid claw slashes. Blood sprayed and littered the floor of the Black Cube, sinking its floor in a layer of the fluid while hundreds of snakes perished underneath the claws of the Nine-Tails. Despite its valiant efforts, it failed to reach anything of note inside that bothersome construct of white snakes that Orochimaru had become.

With a singular, focused dash, Orochimaru coiled around the Nine-Tails with all of his body while every tiny, living scale tried sinking its fangs through the Nine-Tails' cloak. Naruto felt chakra surging outside of his body almost immediately as every single ounce of it was necessary to maintain the integrity of the Nine-Tails' cloak shape.

"Get off 'o me!" the Nine-Tails roared alongside Naruto while they pushed their arms to the sides, forming a thunderous shockwave with their voice that ripped, bashed and ground the white snakes into mush once again, Orochimaru's head, thrust by the powerful bash of the shockwave, slammed against the Black Cube and the Nine-Tails was quick to press its paw against the snake's head to prevent it from moving.

The Nine-Tails grinned before driving its hand forward, feeling the adamant and unmoving texture of the enigmatic Black Cube and smashing the snake's head, feeling its contents dripping and flowing over its ethereal arm and boiling away into smoke and vapor in his heat.

The headless snake slumped on the floor, its body twitched a pair of times, oozing off some more blood for a few belches and went limp. Even the thousands of snakes composing the scales of the White Snake Form all relaxed their snouts and showed not a single sign of life. Naruto looked around, his eyes saw more than just a crimson vapor collecting in the room.

"Something's off, you know…" he muttered.

"Stop playin' dead, you asshole!" the Nine-Tails let out a mighty roar while spitting out a sphere of black and white chakra from its mouth that swallowed both opponents upon detonation, sinking the Black Cube in a flash.

Once the flash died out, Naruto and the Nine-Tails stood to smell the ashes of their destruction. The Nine-Tails looked around in synchrony to the ninja floating in the center of the cloak. Each one of them browsing the field for the source of something peculiar that they picked up.

"His chakra is still all over the place, it's weak but he's gonna get us if he gets a drop on us, you know," Naruto warned the Nine-Tails. Whatever reply he received came to him telepathically, similarly to how the fox has been communicating to its Jinchuuriki up until now.

A mere snout of a white snake peeked from the layer of blood, due to its massive size and the vast area that he had to cover, Naruto might not have noticed it. The layer of blood underneath the Nine-Tails' feet bubbled on and on as if boiling. This could not have escaped the attention of the colossus. Naruto looked down behind him and witnessed the booming rebirth of Orochimaru in a white pillar of coiling serpents, all rising up in a shapeless pile before yellow eyes opened up and gleamed through the spaces in-between the living scales at the head, a bony protrusion shot out for a pointy chin and black hair began sprouting and falling down from the snake's head.

"This runt just won't die!" the Nine-Tails growled.

"Death is reserved for humans. I have abandoned such flimsy things!" Orochimaru hissed with all of his might. "I must admit, I did not see it coming that your cloak would protect you from the paralyzing fumes in the blood of the white snakes. It's a most amusing discovery. Still, without a way to defeat me, it's just a matter of time, you'll run out of chakra before long and fall prey to the fumes yet."

"I can sense your chakra, you know," Naruto called Orochimaru's bluff. "It's taking a massive dip every time you have to regenerate. Who knows if you can even survive a hit like the last one, you know. Your evil intent falters as well, I can sense it weakening."

"Next thing you'll say is that you'll convert me to your side, talk me out of my plans…" Orochimaru hissed, mocking the very root of such a thought.

"No, I don't think I can do that yet. You're too far up your own ass for that, you'll need some time to think what you've done through before you can try to redeem yourself by applying that head of yours on something useful, you know." Naruto pointed at Orochimaru.

"What can be more useful than eternal life and infinite knowledge?" Orochimaru extended its head onward as if slowly attempting to wrap itself around the Nine-Tails.

"Don't you know? Oh… I guess I got too wrapped up in all the punching to tell you…" Naruto smirked and rubbed the back of his head. "It was you who helped me deal with that body-parasite-guy from the future. I've tried getting in touch with Kurama, the Six-Paths old-geezer and countless versions of me and Boruto from all over the multiverse. It was a version of you that helped me process and get rid of him, seal off all the evil parts and keep the good parts, you know."

"Six-Paths? You've met the Sage of Six-Paths?" Orochimaru's eyes widened, extending the black markings around his eyes to where they drowned out the majority of his serpentine head.

"That's right, I got all that power outta him and I could use it swat you aside but I won't. I won't because I wanna help you become the person you can be, you know. That Orochimaru, the one that helped me, that guy was happy. Older than you, a heck of a lot smarter but more importantly – happy and carefree. I know you can be that guy too, you know. No… You will be that guy, as long as I, or Sasuke, ruin that for you, you know." Naruto growled out at the transformed Sennin.

"Hey, could you please not try that talking routine on him while we're literally bleeding chakra just keeping this transformation together?" the Nine-Tails complained at Naruto.

"Hmph… And what makes you so sure of that? That I would ever waste my time helping you get rid of some body-hopping space-ninja when I could be gathering all the knowledge in the world and transcend human mortality?" Orochimaru seemed to spit at Naruto's revelation.

"Because you don't know something that the other you told me. He said he used to be a lot like you until he realized that one thing that helped him open his eyes for once!" Naruto pointed his finger at Orochimaru, defiant of the Nine-Tails' warning.

"And what would that be?" Orochimaru tilted his head to the side, the inner curiosity that led him to pursue all the knowledge in the world once fueling his need to know, even if he was sure he wouldn't pay it much heed.

"That when you're constantly worried about dying, you're not living at all, you know!" Naruto stated. "All this time you've been running away from death and it hasn't been chasing you all that hard because secretly, deep down, you know you've been dead all along. Dead on the inside, too busy and too consumed by your race with death to live just one day."

Orochimaru's eyes widened and he froze for a second. His golden eyes disappeared in the blackness of the space between the scales and the black spikes of his hair fell over his snout, covering those voids up. Once those eyes opened again, Orochimaru's head lunged with a wicked bite straight at the Nine-Tails' core, where Naruto floated.

The Nine-Tails raised its arms over its head for a double ax-handle slam but its arms just phased through the lunging snake, Naruto felt weightless, falling down from the chest of the Nine-Tails' cloak where he had been situated all this time. The warmth of it no longer caressing his skin. Just the breeze of one long fall and the drenching of blood that seeped inside and through his sandals when the young man fell onto the ground. At least with the disappearance of most of his target, Orochimaru had missed his mark too, but he now loomed over Naruto as if attempting to swallow him whole with his hateful eyes alone.

"What utter rubbish, did you really think you'd talk me down with that? You should have gone ahead and used all of your power when you had the chance. You were right, you know. My body is at the brink of running dry at which point I might have truly died. I have never been disgraced like this, never been this close to death and for that, I will never forgive you, Naruto!" Orochimaru hissed out with a booming voice that shook and rustled the very blood that filled the ground underneath Naruto's feet.

"Tsk!" Naruto growled while he looked at his frozen arm, no longer did his Nine-Tails' cloak protect him, not even his clutch method of letting the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode cover him up worked. He needed the full Tailed-Beast transformation or nothing would have worked. Nine-Tails Chakra Mode or Six-Paths Mode, Sage Mode or any other trick Naruto had in his book…

"That's right, Naruto. Breathe in the blood you've shed and let it freeze you in place. Look at what you've done, ruining my perfect body and forcing me to jump into someone like you. Then again, all that talk of Six-Paths and space-ninja did sound intriguing, maybe I'll look around and see just how much your talentless shell has grown. I might not be able to perform the Living Corpse Reincarnation for three more years, but I have other ways of transferring my soul!" Orochimaru snapped his jaw open and let a single, pure-white serpent slither from his mouth, scale-less and colorless as if comprised of white clay.

The serpent slithered over Naruto's frozen body which could only twitch in a sluggish manner of resistance as it moved up Naruto's mouth. A flash! The snake wriggled powerless in Naruto's hand. Marigold skin and spiky hair moved freely, rustled by the outburst of chakra leaking out from his body. The cloak turned black down where the body began except for the silver and sky-blue sealing marks spreading with oriental, tendril-like formations on Naruto's abdomen. A white haori covered his shoulders and upper arms, flowing behind him until it ended in a flaming shape decorated with four diamonds, two black and two white with black outlines.

The snake let out a hiss, a pale comparison of the might of voice it had once wielded. Naruto in his current, Celestial Form pointed the snake he grasped in his arm toward the collapsed body of Orochimaru's True Form that was withering away now that he had transferred his soul and his consciousness inside a single scale-snake and sent it to occupy Naruto's body.

"You utter imbecile, as expected from a lesser-being such as you…" a strict voice made the snake coil around Naruto's wrist to gander at an ethereal shape of Isshin Ootsutsuki manifesting behind Naruto. "You were told that my Vessel has met an older, wiser version of you. Did you truly think he was not told exactly how to humiliate your pathetic self?"

"Calm down now, you know…" Naruto exclaimed in a calm tone very much unlike him. "I only let you out because it was the only way to catch Orochimaru's soul while paralyzed."

The snake still struggled to escape Naruto's grasp. If snakes had the capacity in them to cry, it would have surely shed oceans of tears for the withering body that was burning up in azure flames and seeding the puddles of blood that lingered in the cube after the massive battle.

"You see, my body is no longer just my own. It's hosting all sorts of interesting souls so it was naïve of you to think you could just hop in and take it over, you know." Naruto calmly explained. "Even if I was in my Nine-Tails Chakra Mode or my Six-Paths Mode, Kurama would have likely kicked you out all the same."

"If only you didn't skimp around on your training and fail to properly control all those forms, you lesser being. If it wasn't for me, you'd never be able to access this Celestial Being form at all. Even then, you are only borrowing it. I wouldn't mind letting you stay in this form however long you like though, just think of the power of a Celestial Being becoming all your own, think about it, Vessel…" Isshin began bartering with his host who seemed all to disinterested as if he had heard this tale all too many times.

"Sorry about this guy. I'm kind of stuck with him ever since I've mastered the Celestial Mode. I thought we've cleansed every cell of this guy but the moment I've perfected this mode, he just started showing up and emerging like that, you know. The other you said it might be a fraction of Isshin's consciousness or something like that, nothing to worry about but… I guess you can't rid of those Celestial Beings that easy, you know." Naruto sighed after a calm explanation, lacking any of his usual vigor. Orochimaru's soul-snake just slumped in surrender in the young man's arm.

As Orochimaru's True Form body dissolved, forever burning the body of Pain it had inhabited in the azure flames of his demise, Naruto casually lobbed the snake up. Orochimaru's soul-snake wriggled around for a while as if wanting to glide away into freedom and escape but a black portal, shaped like a massive ink-stain gobbled him up.

Now that the paralyzing blood vapors no longer filled the room, Naruto was all too happy to get rid of his Celestial Mode and the passenger he manifested along the way. The young man then turned toward a corner of the Black Cube and raised a lively thumb-up, confirming his victory and that his opponent was no longer a threat to this or any other universe now that he would spend however long the lifespan of a soul was in the dimension Naruto threw him to.

Now there was just the matter of the Chuunin Exams to see through…


Author's Note: Okay, so I did make the whole "Celestial Mode" up entirely, it's just because Isshin is sort of a new threat explored in Boruto and it's not quite clear exactly how he works, who he is and how to beat him since the full extent of his power is unknown. Given the limitless potential of the multiverse, I sort of didn't feel all that bad about making all this stuff up, honestly.

P. S. Isshin is totally now just Naruto's Stand when he's in Perfected Celestial Mode, deal with it! It's not like it's that big of a deal since Naruto won't play that much of a role in the finals of the Exams or the future of the story once he goes back home to his universe anyway... Plus, Talk no Jutsu'ing Orochimaru just felt like a very Naruto thing to do, as long as it didn't work immediately :D