It was not that they had never considered surrendering outright, but they stubbornly felt it would be too embarrassing. They were not worried about their own pride; they simply did not want to disgrace Uchiha Yin. That was an unspoken understanding among the three of them.
The instant Hinata charged forward, Orochimaru felt his heart tremble as he stood off to the side. At this rate, injuries among the three girls would probably be inevitable. He could already imagine the miserable fate awaiting him afterward.
A chill settled in his heart, but all he could do was resign himself to watching. Kabuto raised his right hand and slashed viciously down toward Hinata's arm.
If that blow landed, Hinata would no longer be able to use her Air Palm. Alarmed, Sakura charged straight at him with a shuriken, aiming directly for his eye.
Sakura was gambling that this man was not insane—that he still cared about his eyes. Sure enough, just as the Chakra Scalpel was about to fall on Hinata's arm...
The shuriken in Sakura's hand was already nearly touching the lens of Kabuto's glasses. He pushed off with his toes and sprang backward, successfully avoiding Sakura's attack.
Ino hurriedly formed hand seals, hoping to seize the opportunity to take control of Kabuto. But just as she was about to succeed, he stamped hard against a tree trunk, launched himself diagonally away, then twisted in midair and landed firmly on the ground.
Ino Yamanaka's Mind Body Switch Technique missed its target. She had thought Kabuto would stop at that tree, and that single second would have been her best opportunity.
She had never expected him to use the tree to propel himself away instead. It had caught her completely off guard.
The instant the Mind Body Switch Technique missed, Ino's