Cowardice

Orochimaru's boneless body coiled around the tree trunk. Like a real snake, he rapidly slithered up the trunk, quickly closing in on Sasuke.

As the man drew closer and closer, Sasuke let out a terrified cry. "Aah~~!"

At that moment, more than a dozen kunai suddenly struck the tree trunk in front of Orochimaru. Naruto's voice rang out at the same time. "Sorry, Sasuke, I forgot the password!"

Though he said that, Naruto's real thought was—

Sure enough, heroes always make their entrance at the very last moment!

To fit his role as a hero, Naruto deliberately struck a pose, arms folded across his chest and a smile on his face. His bright, spirited eyes seemed to shine.

"Naruto!"

Sakura cried out in delighted surprise, finally letting out a breath of relief.

Sasuke, however, was nowhere near as optimistic as Sakura. If even he could not defeat this opponent, what use would an idiot like Naruto be? He would only get the entire team killed.

"Naruto, I don't care whether you came to save me because you wanted to look cool or show off. Just run! This guy's strength is on a completely different level from ours!"

Orochimaru looked at Naruto with great interest. This brat had actually managed to kill his pet?

"Could you tell me how you killed that giant snake, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto looked at Orochimaru, whose body was wrapped around the tree trunk. No matter how he looked at him, the guy seemed like a snake. Thinking of the gray snake that had swallowed him whole, even an idiot like Naruto understood that this snake-like man was behind it all.

"Hey, hey, hey! You sure look like you're bullying the weak. Since I, Uzumaki Naruto, am here, I'm definitely going to teach you a good lesson!"

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