"Though I don't know what this 'Hajikami' you mentioned is, I can't shake the feeling you're saying something really offensive!"
Kiba Inuzuka rolled his eyes at Kazeka. But as soon as he finished speaking, his eyes suddenly widened.
"Wait, Orochimaru? You mean Orochimaru? Could it really be that Orochimaru?"
"Of course. How many Orochimarus are there in this world?"
Seeing the disbelief in Kiba Inuzuka's eyes, Kazeka spoke slowly.
"Although Sasuke only trained with me for a few days, his combat strength should be at least Chunin level now.
Yet even with Naruto going all out, they were still toyed with like babies. This isn't some ordinary enemy.
As far as I know, Sasuke's eyes are a rare prize right now, and they've always been one of Orochimaru's coveted targets.
On top of that, the special combat outfit he's wearing is something Orochimaru has always favored.
And most importantly, Orochimaru ran a lot of experiments on me..."
As he spoke, a feral grin crept across Kazeka's lips.
"Even if someone chopped him into mince and burned him to ashes, I'd still recognize that distinctive stench of his!"
"Hyuga Clan brat, a failed experiment created by a spur-of-the-moment act..."
Naruto, Sasuke, and the others had appeared, forcing Orochimaru to put some distance between himself and Naruto. Orochimaru didn't pursue them.
Instead, he looked Kazeka up and down, and a trace of disappointment appeared in his eyes.
Orochimaru was a thoroughly cold-blooded man, in every respect.
Once he'd experimented on a subject, he lost all interest in them.
"I thought you might become more interesting by the time we met again. But you're still the same.
"What puzzles me is that you'd dare show your face in front of me again.
"Have you gone completely insane? Do you want to be my test subject again?"
"When you call me a failed experiment, do you mean the result of your own inability, which caused the experiment to fail?"
Kazeka smiled casually, then taunted him.
"And stripping someone of all their thoughts, turning them into a puppet who only follows orders? To me, that's just the futile effort of a poor wretch who's exhausted every option in medicine and is trying to take the easy way out."
"I'd planned to leave my failed experiment to fend for himself. I didn't expect you to have such a self-destructive streak..."
As a researcher, Orochimaru hated nothing more than being mocked for having exhausted his options.
Kazeka's words had struck a nerve.
The slits of Orochimaru's pupils sharpened. He formed Hand Seals and raised his hand, sending a dense swarm of snakes surging toward everyone!
"Shadow Many Snake Hands!"
Orochimaru only had to get a little serious for everyone to see how terrifying he was.
The countless snakes poured over them like a blue-gray flood.
Everything in their path was bitten apart and smashed to pieces. With unstoppable momentum and overwhelming force, the swarm crashed toward them!
"Good grief! That many snakes, with that kind of attack power!"
Faced with the swarm's ferocious assault, everyone could only retreat. When the snakes' charge finally began to slow, Kiba Inuzuka and Akamaru used Fang Over Fang together to shred the ones at the rear. Then Kiba couldn't help complaining to Kazeka.
"Kazeka, I'm not trying to criticize you, but that's Orochimaru over there! He's one of the legendary Sannin, the Third Hokage's personal disciple, and ridiculously powerful.
"We can barely escape if we give it everything we've got. Why did you have to provoke him?"
"If I hadn't provoked him, we'd already be down..."
Kazeka gave a cold laugh.
"I know how Orochimaru is. He never holds back against enemies who haven't caught his interest.
"Whether we die or get knocked out and can't help Sasuke, neither is acceptable.
"The only way to buy ourselves some time is to make him interested in torturing us..."
"Torturing us? That's a really unpleasant word..."
Kiba shuddered. It wasn't because he was a coward.
The fact that he was still able to fight against the infamous Orochimaru, a man whose name had been feared for years, was already impressive.
"Kazeka, do you have a plan?"
"What plan do we need? The moment we showed up around here, he'd already noticed us.
"Against one of the Sannin, all we can do is fight with everything we've got..."
Hinata glared at Kiba.
"Get in there and hold the line. If you turn into a pathetic coward and run away, I'll stab you in the back!"
"Tch!"
Kiba glanced helplessly at Hinata, silently marveling at how bizarre Kazeka's potion was.
The Hinata he'd known had been a shy, adorable girl.
She was still adorable, but her personality had become downright terrifying. She acted like some delinquent princess, ready to fight anyone she saw without the slightest hesitation.
She also treated everyone around her like her underlings, ordering them around without a hint of politeness and chewing them out at the slightest annoyance!
And the most important thing was that Hinata was terrifyingly strong in this state.
Both her intelligence and combat ability were incredible, leaving everyone else with no chance to argue back!
"Fine. We can only fight..."
Kiba knew they had no choice but to fight. He'd only been hoping Kazeka had some other plan.
Since Kazeka didn't object to Hinata's orders, Kiba prepared to counterattack again!
"Ninja Art: Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!"
Before Kiba could charge in, Naruto was the first to attack.
A mass of clones cloaked in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode charged Orochimaru one after another.
Quite a few were still wiped out, but at least they weren't being killed the moment they appeared.
"Fang Over Fang!"
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
"Eight Trigrams Air Palm!"
"Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms!"
With Naruto's clones serving as a suicide squad, everyone else joined the fight, launching ranged attacks or taking the chance to close in and engage Orochimaru!
Even Sakura, who'd been slumped helplessly on the ground, had recovered somewhat. She hurled several Kunai at Orochimaru from a distance.
The battle was spectacular, with all kinds of dazzling effects filling the area. When a huge cloud of smoke billowed up, everyone stopped and stared at its center.
"Even an experienced Jonin should have trouble handling an attack like that, right?"
Sakura only knew what she'd read in books, and her understanding of combat was still lacking.
"Did we win?"
"Of course not. Haven't you heard the saying, 'Where there's smoke, there's no damage'? Orochimaru was just playing with us..."
Kazeka activated his Byakugan and stared intently at a spot in the smoke.
"But we didn't waste our efforts. We bought enough time for our reinforcements to arrive!"
"You kids did well!"
A woman's voice rang out. Anko, the earlier examiner, appeared.
"I received your distress signal. I'll take over the fight from here... Urgh!"
Before Anko could finish speaking, she suddenly clutched the Cursed Seal on her neck and collapsed in agony!
"What's..."
Sakura stared at Anko in shock.
"What happened?"
"It's obvious..."
Kazeka answered calmly.
"Anko the Jonin arrived, and Anko the Jonin fell!"
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