Sahiro Wounded! Orochimaru Crushes Team 7!

Orochimaru stood in the thick fog, his dark golden slit pupils shifting slowly.

"Trying to draw every exam candidate in the forest here, Anko?" Orochimaru's voice was low and pleased, as if he were catching up with an old friend. "Too bad the one who needed to leave is already gone."

Anko's pupils contracted. She seized on his words at once. "The one who needed to leave? Who? The person who forced you to summon Manda?"

Orochimaru chuckled, his shoulders trembling slightly.

He raised one hand. A trace of dark red blood stained his fingertip, and he held it beneath his nose, inhaling with an almost rapturous expression.

"His name is Sahiro Uchiha. Even more delicious than I imagined... But he paid a price, too."

Anko's heart sank.

Sahiro Uchiha—the boy who had stunned the Jōnin during the first exam.

He had fought Orochimaru and been wounded?

"Don't look like that." Orochimaru lowered his hand, showing no sign of attacking. "That child is clever. He knew he couldn't beat me yet, so he chose to retreat. His injuries aren't light, though."

"Oh, right. He seems quite attached to his little brother Sasuke, the one on Team 7?"

The Cursed Seal on the back of Anko's neck burned as if branded by fire. She sucked in a sharp breath. Orochimaru had brought up Sasuke. That could mean nothing good.

"What are you planning?"

"What do you think?" Orochimaru's slit pupils flashed in the fog, and his tone abruptly turned cold. "I came here to give Sasuke a gift. That boy got in my way and delayed me a little. But it doesn't matter. It'll happen soon."

Anko understood at once.

Orochimaru hadn't come to fight Sahiro to the death. His target was Sasuke.

Zuo Hao had merely been an unexpected obstacle.

"Not a chance, you Rogue Ninja!" Anko roared and sprang forward, her Kunai drawing a silver line through the dim light toward Orochimaru's throat.

Orochimaru barely moved. He tilted his head, and the blade skimmed the edge of his hat, severing a few strands of black hair.

The next instant, Anko's wrist went numb. A supple force wrapped around her blade and dragged her forward.

She reacted instantly, drawing a Kunai with her left hand and stabbing behind her, but Orochimaru was no longer there.

"Too slow, Anko." Orochimaru's voice came from behind her.

Every hair on Anko's body stood on end. Just as she tried to turn, the Cursed Seal on her neck erupted. Agony raced through her like an electric current, and her knees buckled.

Orochimaru did not strike again. Instead, he backed away step by step, his figure vanishing into the fog.

"Next time we meet, I'll reactivate that Cursed Seal for you. Now I'm going to find Sasuke."

"Stop!" Anko gritted her teeth, veins bulging on her forehead, but she could barely stand.

The fog closed in, and Orochimaru's presence vanished completely.

The next day, in a hidden corner of the Forest of Death.

Sahiro had caught Orochimaru in a genjutsu for an instant, then detonated the nearby Explosive Tags to create enough chaos to escape.

Yet that snake had found his real body through the illusion and explosions. One Multiple Hidden Shadow Snake Hands had nearly pierced his side.

If he hadn't strengthened his body with Cursed Seal chakra beforehand, a corpse would be lying here now.

"At my current strength, I'm still just short of being able to take Orochimaru head-on." Zuo Hao closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down. "But he didn't pursue me. That means Sasuke is still his priority."

His eyes snapped open, and he looked toward the place where Team 7's three members were most likely to be.

A night had passed. Thanks to his Uzumaki Clan blood, Sahiro's body had fully recovered.

"It's already the second day... Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura... Time to find you."

Suddenly, he sensed Orochimaru's chakra.

Then, farther away, a boy's scream tore through the forest, startling countless birds into flight.

"Sasuke!"

Zuo Hao's brow furrowed. He became a streak of black lightning and raced toward the sound at full speed.

Deep in the forest, the wind seemed to be shredded apart.

Sasuke flew sideways, snapped two wrist-thick vines, and slammed into a cluster of raised tree roots.

He grunted. Blood surged up his throat and stained half his face red.

He struggled to roll over, but a long, pale hand pressed against the back of his head. Its grip was neither harsh nor gentle, yet he could not break free.

"Don't be so eager to die, Sasuke." Orochimaru's voice drifted down from above. "I haven't given you your gift yet."

"Sasuke!" Sakura's voice cracked into a shriek. Her eyes widened, and she collapsed to the ground as though all strength had left her.

She scrambled backward on her hands and feet, then froze when she hit a tree.

She wanted to move. She truly did.

But even the hint of killing intent radiating from Orochimaru left her trembling, her body refusing to obey.

"Don't look down on me!" Sasuke jerked his head up, his Two-Tomoe Sharingan fixed on Orochimaru.

"Good. Those eyes are just like your brother's." Orochimaru chuckled, near-mad excitement filling his gaze. "Unfortunately, you're still far too slow."

Sasuke's pupils contracted. Before he could react, an icy presence closed in on the back of his neck.

Pain struck like lightning, exploding from his neck and shoulder into his skull.

Orochimaru's fangs sank deep into his flesh. Scalding Cursed Seal chakra poured into his veins like molten lava.

Sasuke opened his mouth, but only half a broken scream came out. His body curled like a shrimp before crashing back to the ground.

"Sasuke!!!" Sakura tried to throw herself toward him, but her legs felt like cotton. She fell before taking a single step.

Naruto's eyes had gone red.

Or rather, his entire world had.

When he saw that snake bite Sasuke's neck and heard Sasuke scream and Sakura cry, the last thread of reason in his mind snapped.

"You bastard!!!" Icy red chakra erupted from Naruto's abdomen, sending a gale in every direction.

His eyes became slits, the whisker marks on his cheeks thickened, and fangs no human possessed showed at the corners of his mouth.

He lunged straight at Orochimaru.

Orochimaru released Sasuke and leaped back several paces. Watching the storm raised by the red chakra, he actually smiled. "The Nine-Tails brat has gone berserk too? What a shame. A brat is still a brat. You can't control that power."

Naruto's claws tore through the air, but caught only the afterimage Orochimaru had left behind.

The next instant, Orochimaru appeared before him. He thrust out his right palm, five different-colored formulas flaring at his fingertips, and slammed it against Naruto's abdomen.

"Five Elements Seal!"

Orochimaru used the Five Elements Seal to lock down Naruto's Eight Trigrams Seal.

"D-damn it... Why..." Naruto braced his arms to push himself up, but he could not even hold himself on his knees. It felt as though a block of ancient ice had been lodged in his abdomen, leaving him unable to summon even his own strength.

Sakura finally crawled to Sasuke and took hold of his shoulders with trembling hands.

"Sasuke... Sasuke, how are you? Wake up... What am I supposed to do...?"

Sakura sobbed so hard she could barely breathe. The boy in her arms was frighteningly hot, yet his body would not stop shaking.

Sasuke's eyes were half-open, his vision blurred.

He saw Sakura's tears fall onto his face. He saw Naruto sprawled on the ground, blood covering his hands. He saw Orochimaru standing ten paces away, as if admiring a feast that had just ended.

"I'm... too weak..."

"That's it." Orochimaru narrowed his eyes in satisfaction. "Do you want power, Sasuke? I'll be waiting for you."

He suddenly tilted his head toward the northern forest, his smile deepening. "Your brother got here quickly. But this round is already over."

Orochimaru's figure began to fade, his tongue leaving one last trace of a bloody stench in the air.

Deep in the forest, a black figure sped just above the treetops, the Three Tomoe trailing a crimson glow through the darkness.

Sahiro could already see the devastated woodland ahead and the red dust hanging over it. His face darkened with fury.

"Orochimaru, stop right there!"