Fighting Orochimaru

Orochimaru quickly used Earth Release to harden the training ground again, then led Touma to its center and formed the Seal of Confrontation.

After Touma returned Orochimaru's Seal of Confrontation, the two vanished from where they stood.

Orochimaru's Body Flicker Technique was already fast. After five years of being tempered by blood and fire on the border of Kikyo City, it had grown even more ferocious.

Touma's Body Flicker couldn't keep up with that speed, so he could only activate Wind Style Chakra Mode to enhance his basic physical abilities.

The current version of Wind Style Chakra Mode had two main abilities.

The first was to use a Chakra Cloak to disperse the air currents and reduce wind resistance as he moved, greatly increasing his speed and agility.

The second was to deflect the trajectories of direct-fire ninjutsu and ninja tools, keeping them from hitting him, their primary target.

Orochimaru tried drawing his katana and exchanging a few blows with Touma's long staff. He quickly realized that the boy's staff technique had undergone a complete transformation since five years ago.

The original owner had used staff techniques by stiffly copying the moves his cheap old man had developed, without adapting to changing circumstances. As a result, there were huge openings between moves.

But Touma had now absorbed a large number of Taijutsu-related traits. Not only did he have extensive combat experience, he had also absorbed the essence of the Ninja Ape clan's Huaguoshan Staff Technique. His movements had become fluid and natural, leaving no clues for his opponent to read.

Orochimaru tried several times to attack from outside Touma's field of vision, but Touma nimbly blocked each sword tip with a flourish of his staff.

At that point, the experienced Orochimaru stopped pressing the attack. Instead, he used his strength to drive Touma toward the rocky wall at the edge of the training ground, wanting to see how he would respond when cornered.

To his surprise, Touma used the force of his final diagonal cut to leap onto the wall, sticking there with the chakra in his soles.

Orochimaru wasn't surprised that Touma could use chakra to stick to the wall. What astonished him was that Touma was still maintaining Wind Style Chakra Mode while controlling the chakra in his feet.

Most ninjas had very poor chakra control before adulthood. Cases of someone maintaining both a change in form and a change in nature at the same time were exceedingly rare.

Even Orochimaru, who considered himself exceptionally gifted, hadn't been able to maintain both changes at once before the age of eighteen.

The crucial point wasn't the "change," but the "maintenance." In Orochimaru's view, only someone born with tremendous spiritual energy could manage it.

Of course, perhaps Touma was simply an exception. If Orochimaru waited a few more years, he would notice another genius. Unless something unexpected happened, that genius would be born into the Uchiha Clan!

Seeing that a simple Taijutsu duel wouldn't end the fight quickly, Orochimaru shot Touma a look. Four or five gray-scaled giant snakes poked their heads out of his sleeves, fixed on Touma, and shot toward him.

Touma didn't panic at the incoming snakes. He quickly shifted backward, pressed his palms together, and rapidly compressed the whirlwinds produced by two Gale Palms. When the snakes drew close, he suddenly released his control, sending scattered wind blades swirling toward them.

Orochimaru could no longer hide the delight in his eyes at seeing Touma use Gale Palm that way. Still, he wanted to see what other tricks his little brother had up his sleeve.

He swiftly formed Hand Seals, and a stone wall suddenly rose behind Touma, blocking his retreat.

Feeling the stone wall behind him, Touma's body reacted instinctively with the basic Clone Technique. Three clones fled in different directions: around either side of the wall and over its top.

Orochimaru was momentarily taken aback by the Clone Technique, then realized that his little brother knew very few ninjutsu. Under these circumstances, thinking to use the Clone Technique was already pretty good.

He pressed his right hand against his left wrist, summoned three shuriken, and hurled them toward the three fleeing figures.

The three shuriken traced three beautiful arcs through the air. Just before they could hit the stone wall, they collided. Then, using the force of the impact, they shot toward Touma's three figures.

This was the signature Uchiha Style Shurikenjutsu, a remarkable technique gradually refined over generations of Uchiha copying and learning the throwing techniques of other clans.

Generally speaking, without the Sharingan's extraordinary powers of perception, this incredible throwing technique was impossible to perform. But to Orochimaru, those difficulties were hardly a challenge.

While at the Ninja Academy, Orochimaru had analyzed countless data points using mathematical models, continually strengthening and refining his muscle memory. He could perform Uchiha Style Shurikenjutsu without the Sharingan's heightened perception.

It sounded simple, but was extremely difficult in practice. Of the few people who trained with him, only Hatake Sakumo had stuck with it.

Even Hatake Sakumo had never fully adapted his muscle memory to the special throwing technique. Instead, he had applied Orochimaru's training model for strengthening muscle memory to his own swordsmanship, unleashing unprecedented power from the Hatake Clan's sword techniques!

But Orochimaru was dumbfounded when the three shuriken struck Touma's three figures and failed to disperse the chakra projections. It wasn't until Touma vanished behind the stone wall that Orochimaru realized these weren't ordinary clones.

In fact, they weren't. Touma had blended the C-rank Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Technique into the Clone Technique, misleading his opponent about the clones' distance and allowing the technique to realize its true tactical value.

In particular, the False Surroundings Technique's chakra interference was so subtle that unless a ninja actively heightened their perception, they couldn't easily sense that the illusion had already settled over their corneas.

Realizing this, Orochimaru dispelled the illusion in his body with a single thought. He then swiftly formed Hand Seals and dispelled the stone wall he had summoned!

The next moment, he saw something that delighted him even more.

Touma hadn't hidden after escaping Orochimaru's field of vision. Instead, he was right behind the stone wall, preparing a ninjutsu. Seeing the huge amount of chakra gathering frantically in Touma's hands, Orochimaru's fighting spirit surged to its peak.

He immediately planted his feet firmly against the rock face and readied his hands to form seals. Then he shouted at Touma, "Come on, Touma! Show me what you're made of!"

"Gale Palm Secret Art: Wind Roar Cannon!"

A huge whirlwind of energy was compressed to its limit and fired from the tips of Touma's index fingers, held in the Tiger Seal.

The compressed whirlwind found a path to unleash itself and rapidly expanded, forming a devastating cannon of air that shot straight toward Orochimaru.

The loose hair at Orochimaru's temples rustled in the turbulent airflow. He quickly bit his thumb and formed the five hand seals of Boar, Dog, Rooster, Monkey, and Ram.

"Summoning Technique: Rashomon!"

A massive gate carved with demonic masks burst from the ground, blocking Orochimaru and stopping Touma's Wind Roar Cannon!

However, the Wind Roar Cannon's violent energy began to shatter the demonic mask on Rashomon, leaving a huge crater in it.

Just as Touma was about to press his advantage, a chill touched his parched throat. Then Orochimaru's hoarse voice sounded beside his ear. "That was an impressive move. Its power is on par with Teacher Sarutobi's Five-Projectile Combo!"

Hearing this, Touma knew there had to be a catch.

Sure enough, Orochimaru's teasing voice rang out again.

"But next time, remember to pay attention to your surroundings. If you'd been more careful, you would have noticed I'd used Earth Release to get behind you!"

"Ninjas on the battlefield often die because they overlook details like that!"

"Of course, you little rascal already have this kind of strength before graduating, so I'm not worried!"

Orochimaru put away his kunai and patted Touma on the shoulder, speaking earnestly. But Touma could still hear the deep concern in his words!