Orochimaru? Orochihime!

Just as Orochimaru was about to reveal his presence to meet his "younger brother," Touma's actions left him even more dumbfounded.

The kid was actually hovering several inches off the ground, drifting into mid-air while maintaining the Wind Style Chakra Mode at full power.

After seemingly refining his chakra form a few more times, he suddenly shot upward; Orochimaru estimated he had already reached a height of nearly a hundred meters from the ground.

However, the faster he flew, the more unstable Touma's flight posture became. What started as simple wobbling quickly spiraled into a complete loss of directional control, causing him to plummet headfirst toward the ground.

Seeing this, Orochimaru rapidly formed hand seals, casting Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld in hopes of catching little Touma with the soft, muddy terrain.

Yet, when he was still thirty or fifty meters from the ground, a massive cloud of white mist suddenly erupted from Touma's body. He transformed into a palm-sized Kestrel and burst out from the mist.

At this moment, Orochimaru had to admit that he had misjudged the situation five years ago; the "younger brother" he had acknowledged was a genius who was in no way inferior to himself.

With his keen eyes, he could naturally tell that the Transformation Technique Touma used involved a highly advanced nature transformation of Yang-style chakra. He had only ever seen this level of Yang-style chakra manipulation on Tsunade when she was performing her Mystical Palm Technique at full strength; even he wouldn't dare claim he could achieve such a feat.

Touma also noticed the change on the ground, recognizing the bubbling mud of the swamp as the Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld developed by the Third Hokage—one of the Third's signature ninjutsu.

The only person who could possibly be here was his "big sister" Orochimaru. After all, the Third had been busy working on the construction of barrier seals lately to bolster the security around Kushina, leaving him completely overwhelmed.

Not to mention, after the Cloud Village failed to kidnap the jinchuriki-in-waiting and suffered casualties, they had actually issued an extremely severe diplomatic note from the Land of Lightning to the Land of Fire, demanding full compensation for the loss of three elite jonin!

Yes, you read that right.

The barbarians of the Cloud Village had quite the appetite; they were trying to extort the Land of Fire by passing off three ordinary chunin as three elite jonin. It looked like if Konoha didn't proactively pay for their "losses," the Land of Lightning would have a ready-made excuse to declare war on the Land of Fire.

Hearing this news from Minato, Touma's mouth twitched uncontrollably. After all, he was far too familiar with this plot; in his past life, a certain shameless small country had pulled similar stunts many times.

Of course, although war was inevitable, mobilization would still take considerable time. Furthermore, when two great nations went to war, they generally wouldn't choose a battlefield within their own borders, opting instead to tacitly select a smaller nation as the theater of conflict.

"Big Sister Orochihime?!"

Landing on the ground and reverting to his original form, Touma looked around. Finding no sign of Orochimaru, he called out the unique title he had given her.

The "maru" in the name Orochimaru was, in fact, a suffix denoting masculinity, often used when bestowing human attributes upon objects.

Orochimaru's full name was Kusanagi Orochi; he was a descendant of the Kusanagi clan, a family of legendary ninja tool smiths in the ninja world, most famous for the blades that bore the name "Kusanagi Sword."

However, the Kusanagi clan had been scattered to the winds during the Warring States period. To preserve their lineage, later generations abandoned their surname and integrated into the five great nations as commoners.

It was said that Seimei, the founder of the Land of Artisans, was also a member of the Kusanagi clan. Of course, Seimei had been dead for so long that no one could produce evidence to prove it.

It was actually after his parents passed away that Orochimaru, while sorting through their belongings, accidentally discovered the clan's heirloom scroll. He also obtained the contract scroll for Ryūchi Cave, and with the help of the three snake princesses there, he successfully developed the snake-series ninjutsu he used today!

After learning Orochimaru's real name, Touma had gotten into the habit of calling her "Big Sister Orochihime." Orochimaru had tried to correct him a few times, but eventually, she just let it go.

Hearing Touma's call, Orochimaru revealed herself from her cloaked state. This was the Phantom Scale Technique she had developed while stationed at the border—a form of optical camouflage based on bionics.

"Little brat Touma, have you been training hard lately?"

"I could even hear your name mentioned as far away as Kikyo City!"

"It seems you've done well, daring to go and save people from three chunin all by yourself!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Orochimaru placed a hand infused with medical chakra onto Touma's back, checking his body for any lingering hidden injuries.

The Orochimaru of this time did not yet view life with such disdain, nor did she spend her days spouting philosophical haikus. She placed great importance on life, especially the lives of her companions.

It was only later, after witnessing the constant fading of life, that Orochimaru was pushed by reality to the other extreme, becoming the "Cold-Blooded Orochimaru" of the future!

As the medical chakra circulated through Touma's body, Orochimaru found no internal injuries, but the vigorous vitality within him gave her a sense of familiarity.

At this point, Orochimaru had not yet revealed her research capabilities, nor had she been secretly recruited by Danzo for the "Wood Release Replication Project." The only other people she had felt such a sensation from were her teammate Tsunade and her younger brother, Nawaki.

Come to think of it, Nawaki was a classmate of Touma's, though he hadn't been assigned to Ise Goro's Class A. Because his written exam scores were too low, he had been barely squeezed into Kato Haruna's Class B.

While his grades weren't exactly "bottom of the barrel," he hovered in the lower-middle range of Class B year-round, mainly because he had no interest in book knowledge and his theoretical scores dragged him down. However, his practical combat scores were always at the top of his grade.

Nawaki relied on that immense vitality of his; having undergone extremely rigorous taijutsu training since childhood, his practical results were naturally never going to fall behind.

Last year, when they were in the fourth grade, Touma had sparred with Nawaki. Touma was certain that even if he didn't intentionally hold back, Nawaki could defeat him within a hundred moves. Even if he used his cheap father's staff techniques, winning would still be very difficult.

Of course, if Nawaki were to spar with the current Touma, and Touma didn't hold back, Nawaki would certainly be unable to win. This was not just a gap in experience, but a difference in physical constitution.

The unawakened physique of the Senju clan simply could not compare to Touma's body, which had already completed the initial nature transformation of Yang-style chakra!

Seeing that Touma was unharmed, Orochimaru suddenly proposed a full-effort spar to see how much he had progressed over the last five years.

Touma didn't refuse. It wasn't that he was confident he could defeat Orochimaru, but he also wanted to measure his current level.

In particular, he wanted to see how long he could hold out against a ninja with top-tier combat intelligence like Orochimaru, using only taijutsu, the Three Basic Techniques, and the Wind Style Chakra Mode!

He had never harbored any delusions of defeating Orochimaru; one had to remember that this "big sister" of his was an "immortal" existence—in the original work, in the hands of the animation team, and even in the works of fanfiction writers!