An Unavoidable Attack

"Why must you do such dangerous things again?" Tsubaki said, looking both deeply dissatisfied and worried. "Your injuries from the Land of Waves haven't even fully healed yet; why go out and stir up trouble?"

"Don't worry," Mizuki explained. "No one discovered me this time. Even Orochimaru doesn't know it was me; I fled from far away."

Hearing that the situation wasn't too dire, Tsubaki felt a great sense of relief.

"Then don't go near the Forest of Death again. It would be disastrous if you were discovered."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. I'm a mobile reserve for the second stage of the Chunin Exams. With such a major incident occurring, I have to go and take a look."

"With a dangerous person like Orochimaru there, shouldn't you leave it to the Anbu?"

"Hmm, don't worry," Mizuki said. "It's getting late. Let's cook dinner first. There might be an emergency mission later, and we won't have time to eat then."

Sasuke Uchiha was in a foul mood. His team had just repelled a lone ninja, but they had failed to seize the opponent's scroll. Although the three of them had ganged up on the individual and won, they still couldn't capture him, and they had to watch helplessly as the enemy escaped.

Even against an ordinary genin, we struggle this much!

Among the three-man squad, Sasuke was originally the strongest, clearly a cut above the other two. However, Naruto had gradually begun to display extraordinary talent. His Shadow Clone technique, combined with his immense stamina and massive chakra reserves, allowed him to execute "human sea" tactics that proved extremely troublesome for most chunin and genin. He was beginning to show the bearing of a powerhouse, which put immense pressure on Sasuke.

What was even more embarrassing was Sakura Haruno. She was a girl he had once dismissed as a mere fangirl—someone whose only merits were decent grades in the ninja academy's theory classes and good chakra control, with everything else being unremarkable. Yet, her ability to navigate through those complex layers of traps and barriers just a short while ago had been truly stunning, even to him.

Looking at himself, aside from activating his Sharingan, he was still relying on the basics from the academy and his clan's Fire Style techniques to get by. Compared to his two teammates, his progress was unacceptably small.

"Your vigilance is completely insufficient. It's truly disappointing." A hoarse, peculiar voice drifted down from a tree branch nearby.

"Who's there?" Sasuke hurriedly stood up, on guard.

I was careless. I exhausted too much stamina in the battles today, and I didn't even notice someone sneaking this close. Sasuke felt a wave of self-reproach for his lapse in focus.

The sudden turn of events also shocked Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno, who hurriedly turned their attention toward the source of the voice.

"Sasuke Uchiha?" Orochimaru, having long since shed his Grass Ninja disguise, said in his eerie tone. "A pleasure to meet you. My name is Orochimaru, and I am the one who will make your wishes come true."

Orochimaru, with eyes only for Sasuke, began his seduction immediately. As for the other two, they were nothing more than dispensable insects in his eyes.

"Wishes? Do you think I'd believe such deceptive words?" Although the opponent's strength was intimidating, his brazen tone deeply annoyed Sasuke.

"Are you unconvinced?" Orochimaru, who understood the human heart well, remained unperturbed. "Hasn't the battle just now made you realize your own weakness? Or has the peace of Konoha Village made you forget the hatred of your entire clan being slaughtered?"

At the mention of his deepest, most painful wound, Sasuke's eyes turned red with rage. "How do you know that? Could it be that you were the one who set those traps earlier?"

"Not at all, Sasuke-kun. As the last survivor of the Uchiha, it's understandable that your strength is lacking due to the lack of guidance after your clan was wiped out. However, to be toyed with by such playful traps is truly disappointing." Orochimaru relentlessly hammered at Sasuke's will. "With such meager resolve, when will you ever be able to kill that man?"

"You've met Itachi Uchiha?" Sasuke asked, stunned.

"Yes, he is truly an admirable powerhouse. Konoha is indeed a cradle for geniuses. He is vastly different from you, though your appearances are quite similar."

"Killed? Revenge? Who is Itachi Uchiha? What are you two talking about?" Naruto Uzumaki asked, confused. "And by the way, you were the one who unleashed that terrifying attack earlier, right?"

"No, that was the work of the person who set the traps. I was the one being attacked below. Though I still don't know who it was, they are nothing but a rat hiding in the shadows," Orochimaru replied.

"What?" The unexpected answer shocked the trio. If the strength required to pull off that attack was already godlike, then surviving it was unthinkable—let alone the fact that Orochimaru seemed to have walked away completely unscathed.

Seeing that the three of them couldn't believe it, Orochimaru decided not to waste any more time. It was about time for Konoha Village to take action.

"It seems you know nothing of the reality of this world, Sasuke-kun. I will let you experience the cruelty of the ninja world firsthand. First, you need to understand your own weakness and incompetence."

With that, a genjutsu laced with terrifying killing intent struck them directly, instantly robbing the three of their ability to move.

The effect of the Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique, combined with a killing intent far beyond what a genin could withstand, gave the young ninjas a momentary glimpse into the terror of death.

Just as Orochimaru was preparing to observe Sasuke's reaction before deciding his next move, Naruto Uzumaki unexpectedly regained his ability to move first.

"Oh? What's this?" Orochimaru felt a sense of wonder at this turn of events. "It wasn't the strongest one, Sasuke Uchiha, who reacted first?"

Naruto Uzumaki's face was now marked with savage, beast-like patterns, and his eyes, filled with a mix of fear and rage, looked eerily unnatural.

Once Naruto regained his mobility, he formed hand seals, and a dense swarm of Shadow Clones surrounded Orochimaru, followed by countless kunai as the clones swarmed him.

Facing such a dense barrage, Orochimaru remained unhurried and performed the Summoning Technique. A massive serpent suddenly appeared, and the kunai that struck its body couldn't even scratch its thick scales. With a flick of its giant tail, a large number of Shadow Clones were reduced to chakra smoke and vanished in an instant. Naruto's foolproof trump card was completely ineffective in the face of such overwhelming power.

Seeing that the clone attacks were useless, the fear of death further stimulated the negative emotions in Naruto's heart. A sinister, crimson chakra erupted from him, and his already fierce expression became even more terrifying. His blood-red eyes had shifted into unnatural, beast-like vertical slits. His fingernails grew abnormally long, resembling sharp claws. He leaned his upper body forward and charged at Orochimaru like a wild beast.