I Have a Bunch of Relatives Who Want to Be Hokage Chapter 49

Mitarashi Anko attacked Uchiha Shingen with taijutsu.

For someone her age, her movements were decent, and her stamina was indeed quite good.

After fighting for quite a while, Mitarashi Anko had not even touched the corner of Uchiha Shingen's clothes.

So, she grew anxious.

Students her age generally had rather simple thoughts when a teacher told them to "come at me and give it a try."

If I can hit the teacher, the teacher will teach me the good stuff.

If I can't hit the teacher, the teacher will be disappointed and won't teach me the good stuff.

That was, well... you know...

Mitarashi Anko began forming hand seals. They were not especially fast, but they were above the passing line.

Once the seals were complete, she extended a hand, releasing several snakes from it.

Unlike the Snake Style Substitution Technique, Hidden Shadow Snake Hands was not something Orochimaru had put much effort into researching.

At its core, it simply summoned snakes from Dragon Cave. The stronger the user, the more snakes they could summon, and the larger those snakes would be.

The reason Orochimaru had made such a big deal of turning this move into a ninjutsu was because he had combined bodily enhancement with summoning.

The few little snakes Mitarashi Anko summoned had barely approached Uchiha Shingen when they were sent flying by a single sweep of a tail.

A snake nearly ten meters long coiled around Uchiha Shingen, enclosing him in the middle. It was the one that had just sent its own kind flying with a single tail strike.

Mitarashi Anko looked at the little snakes lying dazed on the ground, then at the giant snake before her, and curled her lip.

She actually knew very few ninjutsu at the moment. Orochimaru mainly focused on drilling knowledge into her.

Most of her effort had always gone into training her body, which was also Orochimaru's requirement.

To be fair, Snake Style ninjutsu was rather demanding when it came to physical ability.

"Alright, I have a rough idea of your level now." Uchiha Shingen released the summoning.

As he walked back to Mitarashi Anko's side, he reached out to pat her shoulder and said, "Let's head back first. I'll treat you to something to eat."

Just as his hand was about to touch Mitarashi Anko, it suddenly stopped and withdrew.

Mitarashi Anko looked at him in confusion.

"Anko, I suddenly remembered something," Uchiha Shingen said. "Do you know the way back?"

"Huh? Oh, I do."

"Mm. I was going to say you could head back by yourself first, but it seems someone disagrees." Uchiha Shingen turned around and looked at the figure standing in the shadow of the trees behind him. "So you're the protective sort, are you?"

"So it was Shingen-kun."

A pale-skinned man stepped out from the shadows.

His distinctive attire and a face no one dared imitate.

Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Sannin.

"I thought someone had taken Anko away."

Orochimaru always spoke unhurriedly. His presence was never imposing, yet his tone was always full of confidence.

Still, Uchiha Shingen felt that compared to the last time he had seen him, the man's aura had become even less likable.

"Lately, your reputation has truly been soaring. No, that's not right..." His snake-like pupils lit up with something called "interest." "Should I say that recently, you've stopped hiding your strength like before?"

"You make it sound as if I have ulterior motives," Uchiha Shingen said. "Isn't it only natural to keep one's own information hidden?"

To reinforce the validity of that statement, he added, "Among the Legendary Sannin, you are the 'information expert.' You understand that better than anyone, don't you?"

"That makes sense." Orochimaru truly agreed with that.

The title of Legendary Sannin was, in fact, a little embarrassing.

After all, it was a title bestowed upon the three of them after Hanzo of the Land of Rain thoroughly beat them down.

But now Hanzo had become dry bones in a grave, and no one would remember that embarrassing part of the Legendary Sannin's history.

That was just how impressive the newer generation was.

Of the three, Orochimaru, who excelled at infiltration and intelligence gathering, placed the greatest importance on information.

Gathering intelligence was an instinct ingrained into his very bones.

According to the Legendary Sannin's usual setup, he would take the front line, launch fierce attacks, and draw enemy fire.

During that process, he would use his exceptionally durable Snake Style ninjutsu to gather and analyze intelligence on the enemy in the field.

Then Jiraiya would deliver the killing blow.

He was also quite interested in Uchiha Shingen's information.

He simply had not paid much attention before, and by the time he did, he had not had many opportunities.

When he learned that Uchiha Shingen had taken Mitarashi Anko away, he felt that a good opportunity had arrived.

Of course, he could not say that openly. He still had to use Mitarashi Anko as the excuse.

Keeping one's true purpose hidden at all times was also a basic requirement of being a ninja.

Battles between ninja were battles of the heart.

"Still, Shingen-kun may be the man of the hour right now, but taking my disciple away without even a word..." Orochimaru smiled. "That makes me lose face."

"Not communicating with the parent in time was indeed my oversight. After all, it's my first time being a teacher." Uchiha Shingen sighed convincingly.

Like hell I'd believe that.

But this worked out perfectly. He had wanted to draw Orochimaru out anyway, to see what stage this guy had reached by now.

Damn, he was practically at the final stage.

That bloodlust, that killing intent—it was no act.

Generally speaking, when a ninja had that kind of presence, they genuinely intended to kill.

As for Orochimaru, he really did intend to kill too, but... maybe the next second, he would decide not to.

To Orochimaru, it held no special meaning. Killing someone was the same as fighting—it was that simple to him.

As expected of an early-game final boss driven purely by his interests.

This made Uchiha Shingen look forward to it. He needed to test just what level he currently stood at in the ninja world.

One of the Legendary Sannin, Orochimaru—was there a better benchmark than that?

Why the Hell Are You Grinding Here?

A badass ninja only needed one glance to know what the other was thinking.

When Uchiha Sasuke said that to Naruto, it carried several meanings.

But the saying did make some sense.

Orochimaru licked his lips. The moment Mitarashi Anko saw that expression, she obediently ran far away.

She knew that look of her teacher's all too well.

Uchiha Shingen activated his Sharingan, his three-tomoe red eyes locking onto Orochimaru.

The genjutsu was cast instantly, but the Sharingan genjutsu that had never failed him before did not work this time.

Orochimaru had not fallen for it.

Or rather, he had, but a genjutsu of that level could not bring him down. His body differed from ordinary people's, as did his chakra pathways, allowing him to withstand that degree of chakra interference.

Uchiha Shingen did not mind. It was only a probe.

After all, his genjutsu resistance was high right now. At the three-tomoe level, he could not cast Mangekyo Sharingan-level genjutsu.

"So that's it. I'm the target." Orochimaru smiled. The Uchiha Clan truly suited his tastes.

The next instant, his hand shot out before Uchiha Shingen. Two fingers, sharp as arrows, thrust toward the Sharingan.

He lunged all the way before Uchiha Shingen, yet his feet remained where they had been.

Squelch!

Without the slightest effort, two fingers plunged into Uchiha Shingen's eye socket.

But what Orochimaru felt against his fingertips was not the sensation of piercing flesh and blood.

Orochimaru immediately pulled back, but he was still a step too late. Uchiha Shingen's body exploded into a curtain of water.

A chill cold enough to freeze blood burst from the water curtain, instantly turning Orochimaru's upper body into a lump of ice. White frost continued spreading outward.

With a crack, Orochimaru braced himself with his feet and tore his body directly into two halves, escaping the cold in time.

Two hands reached out from the remaining corpse, pulled themselves free, and Orochimaru crawled out of it.

The moment he looked up, a massive fireball was plummeting straight down at him.

"Boom—!!"

With a tremendous blast, scorching shockwaves overturned the earth. Crimson flames bloomed like flowers, smashing the nearby trees to pieces.

Once the fiercest flames had passed, Orochimaru burst from the scorched earth, his snake-like eyes locking onto Uchiha Shingen's position.

Like a snake, he moved in an eerie fashion to avoid the burning areas. Forming hand seals, he opened his mouth and unleashed a violent gale.

The raging wind howled, sweeping up sand and stones, flattening everything before him and creating an obstruction between the Sharingan and Orochimaru.

In Uchiha Shingen's eyes, chaotic streams of chakra filled the space ahead.

The storm covered a wide area. Uchiha Shingen used the Body Flicker Technique to evade the gale, then drew his blade.

He would fight properly and conventionally.

He could not give that intelligence master on the other side too much information.

Two flashes of cold light collided in midair. Wind Release did not come out worse for wear, but the weapon quality did.

A notch appeared on Uchiha Shingen's short sword.

The blade had been forged from chakra metal. It was expensive, but compared to the Kusanagi Sword, it simply did not measure up.

Still, he had just received his bonus. With money in his pocket, he had nothing to worry about.

He whirled the short sword, and it seemed like a silver dragon soaring up and down, coiling left and right.

An inch longer meant an inch stronger; an inch shorter meant an inch more dangerous.

Relying on his superior Body Flicker Technique, Uchiha Shingen closed in on Orochimaru several times and struck from blind spots, cutting several gashes across Orochimaru's body.

Their Shadow Clones were also cut apart and dispelled several times.

In the end, quality won out, and the short sword was severed by the Kusanagi Sword.

Uchiha Shingen did not even look at it. He casually tossed aside the broken blade, his Sharingan precisely catching the trajectory of the pursuing Kusanagi Sword. With a short-range Body Flicker, he dodged it and drove a backhand punch into Orochimaru's arm.

His monstrous strength burst forth, knocking the Kusanagi Sword from Orochimaru's grasp. It pierced several trees thick enough to take multiple people to encircle before embedding itself in the dirt.

Orochimaru's arm twisted into a grotesque shape, but it did not break. With a flick of his hand, it returned to normal.

Uchiha Shingen closed in again, unleashing the taijutsu of the Senju of the Forest and Uchiha, the two great cheating clans.

The Senju style emphasized swift attacks, overwhelming enemies with immense instantaneous strength, seeking to defeat and kill opponents before they could react.

The Uchiha style emphasized precise strikes, finding the enemy's weaknesses and delivering flawless fatal blows. It manifested as tremendous explosive power, allowing for the most dazzling offense and breakthrough capability in battle.

In Uchiha Shingen's hands, it became still as a crouching tiger, moving as a flying dragon, slow as drifting clouds, swift as lightning—steady yet graceful, showing off the best of both styles at once.

Orochimaru was also a taijutsu master, but against such taijutsu, he immediately fell into a disadvantage.

But he was also a Transformer—absurdly tough. Blows that would have killed anyone else ten thousand times could be endured by him without affecting his condition.

Uchiha Shingen had also placed several Flying Raijin marks on Orochimaru, but he found them largely meaningless. The Snake Style Substitution Technique was fundamentally different from ordinary substitution techniques. Each substitution produced an entirely new body, rendering the previous Flying Raijin marks invalid.

"Your flesh modifications really are cheating." Uchiha Shingen gave up on continuing his taijutsu exchange with Orochimaru and retreated.

"From the sound of it, Shingen-kun seems to have spent quite a bit of effort investigating me?" Orochimaru sneered and refused to let up. The moment Uchiha Shingen retreated, he followed, flicking his hand as a swarm of snakes burst forth.

Hidden Shadow Multi Snake Hands.

The summoned snakes wore vicious expressions as they writhed toward Uchiha Shingen.