Orochimaru Appears! Anko's Discovery!

The tall, thin man found that his arm would no longer obey him. Even the bandages on his face seemed damp with cold sweat.

"You... the Sharingan..." His throat tightened.

The figure in the treetops tilted his head slightly. His voice was quiet, yet it carried clearly across the entire clearing.

"You dare attack ninja from our Konoha Imperial Village?"

The moment he finished speaking, Sahiro vanished.

The tall man's eyes flew wide. A blur flashed across his clouded pupils.

Before he could react, a foot slammed into his wrist, sending the scroll flying. A knee drove into his chest, and the crack of breaking bones rang out.

He flew backward like a rag doll, snapped two tree trunks, and sprayed blood from his mouth. He never got up again.

The bald giant roared and swept the Executioner's Blade across the clearing. The force of the swing carved a deep trench through the ground.

Sahiro did not even look. He ducked, letting the blade skim over his head, then drove an elbow into the giant's ribs and kicked the inside of his knee.

The bald giant lost his balance. The Executioner's Blade slipped from his hand and plunged into the dirt as his massive body crashed to its knees. Sahiro was already behind him. He clamped a hand over the giant's bald head and shoved it down, smashing his forehead into the ground. Dirt flew, and the giant passed out on the spot.

The short ninja saw how badly things had turned and tried to flee, but his body seemed nailed to the ground.

Sahiro's Sharingan had locked onto him. With the terrifying vision of the Three Tomoe, there was no chance Sahiro would let him escape.

In just three breaths, all three Rain Ninja were down.

Shikamaru slumped to the ground, his lips trembling. He could no longer tell whether the poisoned wound on his back or the shock of what he had just seen had left him speechless.

Choji was covered in blood, but he grinned, managing a smile uglier than a grimace.

"Sahiro... aren't you on Team 7? What are you doing here?"

Ino knelt on the ground, her disheveled blond hair clinging to her tear-streaked face. She stared blankly at him, her blue-green eyes brimming with the joy of surviving and a hurt she could not put into words.

Her lips trembled again and again before she finally cried out through her tears.

"Sahiro! What took you so long?"

Somehow finding the strength, she staggered to her feet, stumbled over to him, and grabbed his wrist.

His wrist was warm, just as she remembered.

Ino's tears burst forth. Her whole body shook as she cried, but her fingers held on desperately, afraid he would disappear again the next moment.

Sahiro glanced down at her, then at Shikamaru and Choji. His brow furrowed slightly, as though he had sensed something.

"Can you stand? You need to get out of here, now."

There was an urgency in his voice that they rarely heard.

Shikamaru picked up on it. Struggling to hold himself together, he asked, "What is it? Didn't you already take care of them...?"

Sahiro did not answer. His gaze had passed over Shikamaru and fixed on a point deep in the forest.

A figure stepped out.

The figure wore a Kusagakure Forehead Protector and had a long, thin build. A wide-brimmed hat hid most of the face in shadow, leaving only a stretch of chin so pale it hardly looked alive.

Sahiro's pupils contracted sharply. Only he knew who this "Grass Ninja" really was.

Only he knew that this seemingly ordinary ninja was one of Konoha's Sannin, the Third's most prized disciple, and one of the most dangerous, deranged, and unpredictable monsters in the entire Shinobi World.

Orochimaru.

Sahiro had no time to think. He spun around and screamed at Ino and the others with all his strength.

"Run! Run! Get out of here now!"

Ino flinched at his voice. She had never seen Sahiro like this. She shook her head instinctively. "No... Sahiro, what about you? We can't leave you—"

"I said run!" Sahiro's eyes were bloodshot, his voice nearly breaking. "This isn't a fight you can be part of! Go!"

Shikamaru understood too. He grabbed Ino's wrist, hauled Choji up with his other hand, and gritted his teeth. "Listen to him! We're leaving!"

Ino was dragged away, but she kept staring at Sahiro's back until tears blurred her vision.

Moments ago, Sahiro had dispatched the Rain Ninja as effortlessly as a god descending from the heavens. Now he was braced for a deadly enemy, every muscle taut, cold sweat beading on the back of his neck.

"Sahiro! Be careful!" Ino screamed, her voice torn apart by the wind in the dense forest.

Sahiro did not look back.

He stared at the approaching Grass Ninja and forced each word through his teeth.

"You'd better stay away from them."

The Grass Ninja finally stopped.

From the shadow beneath the hat, an impossibly long tongue slowly emerged and licked pale lower lips. A low, delighted chuckle followed.

"Heh, heh, heh... Sahiro Uchiha. I've heard so much about you. You seem afraid of me. May I ask why? After all, I'm only a Genin from Kusagakure..."

Sahiro did not answer Orochimaru.

Instead, he released the Cursed Seal of Heaven's Aura.

"This is..." Orochimaru's voice turned cold. The teasing note vanished, replaced by excitement held barely in check. "This certainly is the Cursed Seal of Heaven I developed... but it isn't quite the same."

He took a step forward. A low laugh rose in his throat, as though a deep craving were about to be satisfied. "Sahiro, who placed that Cursed Seal on you?"

Sahiro raised an eyebrow and gave Orochimaru a provocative look. "Well, well. Interested in the Cursed Seal of Heaven?"

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes. His tongue slipped out again, almost unconsciously, to lick his lips.

"You really do know everything. What I'm more curious about is how you got that Cursed Seal."

"You aren't the only one in this world researching Cursed Seals." Sahiro suddenly smiled. "Did you think you invented them? Orochimaru, you think far too highly of yourself."

Orochimaru's smile turned strange and dangerous.

He said nothing, but the pressure radiating from him steadily rose.

"Since you've seen through my disguise, I won't hold back."

The instant Orochimaru finished speaking, Sahiro's Sharingan sharpened. Chakra surged around him almost tangibly as he readied himself for a fatal strike.

Yet at that very moment, as the two stood on the brink of battle, a Konoha Ninja outside the Forest of Death went deathly pale at the sight before him.

The Chunin assigned to guard the perimeter of the second exam had been making a routine patrol when he caught a thick, nauseating smell of blood at the edge of the woods, less than two kilometers from the entrance to Training Ground 44.

Holding his breath, he carefully parted the waist-high weeds. His pupils contracted, and his stomach churned.

Three bodies lay sprawled in the grass, wearing standard Kusagakure Forehead Protectors and gray ninja uniforms. Their faces were twisted in pain.

One had been completely stripped of the skin on his face, leaving the mangled flesh exposed. His eyes bulged, with the terror of his final moments still lingering in his pupils.

The Chunin fought back the urge to vomit. He stumbled backward a few steps, then turned and sprinted toward the Command Post.

"Examiner Anko! Something's happened! The ninja from Kusagakure taking the exam have been killed!" He rushed into the tent, his voice shaking and his forehead slick with cold sweat.

Mitaraishi Anko was sitting at the low table in the Command Post, leisurely chewing a dumpling. She froze at his words.

"Take me there."

At the scene, Anko crouched beside the body whose face had been stripped of its skin. She reached out with her index finger and gently pressed the blackened skin around two tiny puncture marks on the side of its neck.

The instant she touched it, she jerked her hand back as though pricked by a needle.

"This is..." Her pupils contracted sharply. For a moment, she stopped breathing.

She knew this method of taking someone else's face all too well.

It was Orochimaru!

Her teacher.

A Rogue Ninja from Konoha.

The madman she had once worshipped, who had abandoned her with his own hands.

Anko's face went deathly pale. Cold sweat slid down her temple.

"He's back..." Anko's voice was so low it seemed squeezed from her throat. "He's infiltrated the Chunin Ninja Exams."

She shot to her feet, her gaze chilling.

She turned to the Konoha Ninja beside her, who were too frightened to make a sound, and barked, "Go to the Hokage Building at once and report this to the Third! Have Lord Hokage send ANBU here. Hurry!"