First Encounter with Orochimaru

Naruto racked his brain, and a few seconds later, his expression turned somewhat awkward.

When was Orochimaru supposed to show up again?

Naruto had not watched the original in far too long, and only vaguely remembered that Orochimaru had intimidated Sasuke with killing intent. Sasuke had then forcibly stabbed a kunai into his own thigh to break through his fear before escaping with Sakura by the skin of his teeth.

That scene had left a deep impression on him.

Naruto turned to Sakura and lowered his voice. "Where is Orochimaru right now in the original?"

"...I remember he disguised himself as you, and then Sasuke and Orochimaru had their solo fight."

"Right."

So here was the question: how was he supposed to coordinate with Orochimaru?

As he was thinking, Naruto suddenly vaguely sensed powerful gusts of wind slicing across his cheeks ahead, making his skin sting.

The next moment, the gentle breeze abruptly transformed into a hurricane. With unstoppable force, it swept up everything around the three of them, forming a towering pillar of wind that smashed straight into them!

Naruto's eyelid twitched as he remembered. In the original, he had parted ways with Sasuke and Sakura behind this very pillar of wind.

He withdrew all the Nine-Tails Chakra wrapped around his eyes and let the wind pillar hurl him into the distance.

"Boom!!!"

Naruto's back slammed into a large tree. The bark boomed as he was smashed into it, leaving a deep crater!

His internal organs felt as though they had been displaced and churned upside down, while stars swam before his eyes.

Naruto used the tree trunk to pull himself up, then leaned against it for a while.

"Fine, fine, this grudge is set in stone now." Naruto was somewhat annoyed. If he had not forgotten some details of the plot, he would not have had to suffer this beating.

"Cough. Should I go beat up Gaara, the Sound ninja, or the Rain ninja..." Naruto kept the teachings of the sages from his previous life in mind: venting his emotions promptly was beneficial to his health.

At that moment, a roar broke Naruto's train of thought.

"Hiss—"

Coiled around a dead tree, a giant python several times larger than a person flicked its tongue at Naruto. A thick stench wafted from it, its triangular head held high, and its eerie green vertical pupils gleamed with ferocity.

"Oh, Orochimaru is sending me some warmth. He even summoned a punching bag just for me. What a warm-hearted guy." Naruto gave a feral grin and immediately switched to Nine-Tails Mode.

The giant python immediately charged with its head, rushing straight at Naruto. Naruto pushed off with one foot and easily dodged the attack, landing on the tree trunk.

He extended the Nine-Tails Chakra on his back and transformed it into the shape of a hand. Meanwhile, he held his right hand palm-up as swirling Chakra continuously gathered within it.

The Nine-Tails hand began moving rapidly around Naruto's right hand.

"Buzz—"

Vast amounts of Chakra continued to gather. The surrounding earth and stones cracked apart, and the air twisted into a vortex!

His right hand radiated dazzling light with a faint purple hue, flickering with an eerie, bewitching color.

Nine-Tails: Rasengan!

"It's unfinished, but it'll be enough to deal with you." Naruto gathered a small amount of Chakra beneath his feet and narrowed his eyes. Sensing the immense threat in Naruto's hand, the giant python let out another hiss and began rapidly circling the tree, launching a surprise attack at Naruto!

"Bang!!"

Naruto pulled a smoke bomb from his left hand and smashed it beside his feet. Once the giant python lost sight of him, he burst out from the side, Nine-Tails wings sprouting from his back as he flew toward the python's back!

"Boom!! Splurt!!!"

A huge hole was instantly blasted open in the python's back. Naruto saw his right hand plunge deep into its body, then stopped maintaining the Rasengan's stability and let the sphere, packed with overwhelming energy, completely blast apart everything around it!

"Boom!!" The enormous shockwave flung Naruto away. Just before he crashed into the tree trunk, he pulled an extended chain from his ninja tool pouch, wrapped it around a branch, and yanked hard. He barely managed to control himself, landing on the tree trunk in a relatively stable stance.

"Hiss..." Waves of stabbing pain shot through his arm. Taking a closer look, he saw that his right hand was covered in bruises and looked gruesomely bloody.

"The Nine-Tails Chakra was too overbearing. Combined with detonating the Rasengan midway, it ended up injuring my right hand instead." Naruto analyzed the situation aloud, completely unconcerned by the giant python lying broken into two pieces before him.

It was dead beyond dead.

He took another scroll from his ninja tool pouch and summoned the medical supplies stored inside it.

This was the space-time ninjutsu Tenten had taught him. By infusing Chakra into a scroll beforehand and setting specific spatial coordinates, any item placed inside would be transported to the alternate dimension corresponding to the scroll and could be summoned at any time.

As for whether it counted as a token of affection, that was another matter~

Naruto quickly finished the basic treatment and wrapped his right hand several times with bandages.

"Fortunately, fortunately. If I hadn't hurried up and bandaged it, it would have healed already." Naruto joked, after all, the Nine-Tails' regenerative ability was extraordinarily strong. Even without bandaging, it would have completely healed within a day.

He jumped onto the snake's body and began checking the surroundings for signs of humans. He also used a kunai to leave marks on the nearby tree trunks. This was one of the signals he and Sakura had agreed upon.

As long as someone saw the marks and followed their direction, they would be able to find Naruto.

"I'll scout toward the central area first. Sasuke and Sakura should be fine."

He began walking toward the center while keeping an eye on his surroundings and leaving marks along the way.

However, when he reached a certain tree trunk, Naruto froze.

Several crooked little characters had been carved into the trunk.

Elsewhere.

Sasuke and Sakura stared at the "woman" before them. She wore a conical hat, had a tall, slender build, and glowered at the two of them.

"You have the [Book of Heaven], so you want the [Book of Earth] in my possession..." Orochimaru wrapped his tongue around the scroll and slowly swallowed it.

Was this the real person?

Sakura's thoughts were not focused on fighting her opponent at all. Instead, she carefully analyzed Orochimaru's every microexpression and tiny movement.

At least for now, his performance could be said to be exactly the same as in the original.

"Then, let us begin... Either you die, or I die..."

"Whoosh!"

Before Orochimaru could finish speaking, Sasuke had already used a Body Flicker to close in on him, thrusting the kunai in his hand straight toward Orochimaru's eye!

"Sakura, cover me!"

Sakura's eyes widened. She had not expected Sasuke to be the first to change!

There was no way he had suddenly been possessed, right?

"Splurt!" Orochimaru allowed the kunai to pierce through his palm, then seized Sasuke's right hand in the same motion!

"You're rather impatient, brat." Orochimaru licked his lips.

Sasuke spun his entire body with the momentum, reached into his ninja tool pouch with his left hand, pulled out another kunai, and swung it backhanded across Orochimaru's arm!

"Slash!"

Orochimaru's right hand was severed completely. Everything happened in the blink of an eye!

Sakura stepped forward to force Orochimaru back, her hands forming seals at lightning speed.

"Ninjutsu: Hidden Mist!" In an instant, mist spread everywhere, completely swallowing Sakura's figure.

She could not help glancing toward Sasuke. His eyes held no trace of fear, only battle intent.

Perhaps because of Naruto's stimulation and the higher intensity compared to the original, this Uchiha prodigy displayed powerful initiative from the moment he first encountered Orochimaru, even leaving Orochimaru no time to release his killing intent.

But Sakura knew very well that such a merely fatal injury meant nothing to Orochimaru.

As the founder of the Great Snake Serpent Substitution Jutsu, he could shed his skin by expending Chakra and restore himself to his original state. Even Amaterasu could do little to him.

Their brief clash just now had been nothing more than a test.