The swarming snakes were instantly sliced to pieces by wind blades, their blood splattering everywhere. A bandaged man stepped out from behind them with a sinister chuckle. "Hehehe, I didn't expect you to come here-"
"Orochimaru." The instant Lin Chuan saw him, he recognized the bandaged man as Orochimaru, and every hair on his body stood on end. No one else in the entire shinobi world had such a chilling presence.
What was Orochimaru doing here? Wasn't he supposed to be waiting for Sasuke at his base? He'd clearly just switched bodies, and he was already out roaming around?
"Hehehe, I'm very interested in you, too." Orochimaru extended his long tongue and unleashed another snake ninjutsu, spewing a swarm from his mouth toward Lin Chuan.
"Stay away! That's disgusting!" Lin Chuan slashed through the snakes with his Vacuum Sword and ran. He had no desire to face Orochimaru. Fighting him meant certain death.
"You can't escape. Hehehe." Unable to move his hands, Orochimaru chased after him with both arms dangling.
Lin Chuan fled, and Orochimaru pursued him, all the way out of the Valley of the End and downstream-
"Orochimaru, I'll take you on! Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!" Lin Chuan hurled a kunai and immediately formed hand seals, multiplying it into a dense barrage that tore the snakes and Orochimaru behind him to shreds.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Orochimaru crawled out of a snake's mouth and continued chasing as though nothing had happened. Lin Chuan felt utterly numb. Orochimaru simply couldn't be killed, not without sealing jutsu, and he didn't know a single one. He felt he was really going to die this time.
When he reached the river downstream from the Valley of the End, he stood on the water and faced Orochimaru across from him, drawing