"Ah!!"
In a forest filled with towering trees, a pained feminine cry rang out.
Anko, dressed in a black mesh ninja outfit, knelt painfully on an enormous tree trunk. Veins bulged on one slender hand as she clutched the back of her neck tightly.
After hearing that magnetically hoarse voice echo through the forest, her pupils contracted. She forced her eyes open and, as though enduring unbearable pain, tremblingly raised her head to look ahead.
When that tall, pale figure entered her sight, her expression twisted slightly. Gritting her teeth, she said coldly, "It... it's you... Orochimaru!"
As her words fell, Orochimaru, who had appeared there at some unknown time, stood not far in front of her in a light-colored kimono.
An eerie smile rested on his pale face. His crimson-yellow snake eyes watched Anko with amusement as he slowly approached her, one step at a time.
Seeing Orochimaru draw closer, Anko forced herself to endure the pain and shakily rose to her feet. Holding a kunai before her, she said in a trembling, cold voice, "Stop... stop right there. If you come any closer, then even if I have to die with you, I won't hesitate!"
Orochimaru did not pause in the slightest at Anko's threat. He continued forward, a faint smile curling at his lips as he said with a hoarse chuckle, "Do you really think the techniques I taught you could possibly pose even the slightest threat to me...?"
"If that is what you think, then I truly would be disappointed, because I actually taught such a foolish disciple..."
At those words, Anko's pupils trembled slightly.
The next moment, pain flashed across her face again. She collapsed onto the ground, and the kunai slipped from her grasp and fell onto the tree trunk.
By then, Orochimaru had