People talking: "Speaking"
People thinking: 'Thinking'
Chapter 7: Snake in the Grass
It's been two months since I started Naruto on his Hatsu training. So far he hasn't made any real progress on making the ability. All we know is that it will most likely utilise the use of his clones in some way. During this time I've been working on construction on the base. Progress has been smooth so far. It was hard getting material to learn architecture, but thanks to the books from Land of Snow and basic trial and error with the clones I was able to learn how to build buildings at a somewhat competent level.
Fuinjutsu has been a big help with that as well. I have knowledge on how to make utilities like plumbing now, but it's nowhere near the level I needed for the buildings I'm creating. So I instead used fuinjutsu to replicate utilities like electricity, plumbing, heating, and anything else that's necessary to living comfortably. Fuinjutsu only allows for sealing, unsealing, and very limited pocket dimension creation, but it's still insanely useful because so far I haven't found anything that's impossible to seal.
It can seal someone's soul, someone's ability to move, seal gravity in an area, and anything else if I am able to figure out how to target it specifically. The reason why every seal master isn't able to seal everything under the sun is because we have to figure what formula will allow us to seal what we want. It's simple enough to seal whole objects, but it gets a lot harder when you try to be specific on what you want to seal. When creating a new formula it could take weeks to months to create a new one that works due to having to physically draw it without any mistakes. Just one mistake can make a seal you spent over 30 minutes on a dud, and if you don't realize you made a mistake you might just scrape a formula that actually worked. However, I was able to minimize this problem with the use of a printer and a very primitive version of a digital drawing application on a computer from the Land of Snow.
My ancestors are probably rolling in their graves at the thought of an Uzumaki not drawing seals by hand, but I got to say it's insanely useful. Since I'm able to draw seals digitally now, I can fix mistakes I make when drawing new formulas. You can't erase ink mistakes when you're physically drawing it, but on a computer you can. Not only has this improved the process of making new seals, but making a large amount of seals at a time has never been faster.
All I have to do is recreate seals that I know works with the painting software, save the image to the computer, and print them out whenever I need them. This also fixes one of the less noticeable problems with fuinjutsu; their size. There's no size requirement for seals. As long as the ratio of the seal's lines stay roughly the same it will work. I was able to make an explosive tag that was the size of the tip of my finger, and it still had the same power as a normal size tag. Making a seal this small was impossible before because it had to be either hand drawn or made with Chakra made seals like the ones Minato did to mark people with the Flying Thunder God jutsu.
It takes immense Chakra control to even make seals with just your Chakra. To make a seal smaller it takes even more control. There's no one that has enough control to make a seal the same size as the one I printed out. There's also the method of making a big seal and then shrinking it, but it requires Chakra control as well. Now with the ability to decrease the size of seals drastically whole new levels of seals can now be made. Seals that would be too big to make before are now a viable option. With all of these benefits there comes a few negatives to using the printer method.
It's impossible to use the printer method without the use of Nen. I have to use one of the aura control techniques to embed my Chakra into the ink while it's printing. The other problem is surprisingly the vast amount of seals that can be printed out in a short amount of time. On the surface this just sounds like a positive, but it's also a negative due to one of the requirements to make the ink for a seal.
At least ⅓ of the volume of ink has to come from the blood of the user. Normally this isn't a problem because it wasn't possible to make as many seals as a printer can in a day. Now though, with the help of clones, I'm making thousands of seals a day due to experimentation to create new ones, producing seals to replicate utilities for the buildings at the base, and other projects I'm working on. This requires a lot of ink and blood to do. I have to drain around 10 liters of blood a month to keep up with the production of seals. Due to my regeneration I'm able to drain this amount in a couple of hours, but it was during my first blood drawing that I found out how my regeneration works.
Before I thought that it was just purely my Chakra that allowed me to regenerate, but that's not fully the case. When I was drawing blood I found that my regeneration was slowing down even though I was near full on Chakra. The only difference was that my Chakra had less physical energy to use. When I use the energy absorbing method to gain Chakra I'm only getting spiritual energy. I always assumed that my physical energy is what allowed me to regenerate, but now I know for sure that's the case. Spiritual energy is probably just used to enhance the physical energy to make it have regenerative properties.
This probably explains why my regeneration is a lot more noticeable than my other clansmans. Even though I don't have as much natural physical energy as a full Uzumaki I make up for that with my physical training. My body type is unusual for a shinobi. I'm a lot closer to a bodybuilder body type than a shinobi body type. This allows me to have a lot more physical energy than even full Uzumaki would normally have. Good thing I have access to Nen because this is the only way I could make my body type effective in a shinobi lifestyle.
It takes too much Chakra to move around effectively with a body type like mine using Ninshu. Really the only people the only people with muscle mass that's the same or above the amount I have that do well in this field are people with an extra source of Chakra at their disposal like Killer Bee or the people who have a special technique to assist them like third and fourth Raikage or the Akimichi clan. If people got more muscle/mass, they would have access to more physical energy which means they would have more Chakra, but they would waste more Chakra than they gained if they don't have either of those two requirements.
On the topic of physical energy I had another growth spurt during the two months. My height is now 155cm. I felt that body was finally ready to start using the Eight Gates. I already know how to open them because they're just some specific tenketsu that I need to open fully. However, I ran into a huge problem with me using it. My body is able to handle the gates all the way up to the seventh thanks to the conditioning I put my body through and regeneration. The problem is that my control over all of my techniques went to shit by just opening the first gate.
The Eight Gates are limiters on the body to stop it from harmfully exerting itself. When one of the gates are opened the body is able to push itself further and produces more physical energy for the person to use. The problem is that physical energy is extremely hard to control without an equal or higher amount of spiritual energy. It's great for improving your taijutsu, but it cripples your use of techniques that require Chakra control.
All of my techniques were practically unusable when using the gates. I couldn't sense anymore. My attacks would go into random directions. The worst part was that I can't fight while using it. I can't use Air Body Possession at all while using the gates. I tried to and I broke one of my arms while doing so because the increase in my Chakra makes me use more power than I want to. I would just fight without using it if I was any good at fighting without it.
Before I developed Air Body Possession I coasted on the fact that I was extremely faster and stronger than the person I was fighting. I didn't matter if my attacks were predictable and rigid if they were too slow or too weak to take a hit from me. Now though I'm going to be fighting people who can keep up with and take my attacks. If I were to fight them without mentally controlling my body it wouldn't matter if I was slightly faster and stronger than them. They would beat me easily.
I also get tunnel vision at the speed I move at while using the gates. I actually get tunnel vision when moving at my normal speed as well. I've been using my sensing abilities to keep up with speed. Without being able to sense anything fighting anywhere near my normal speed is imperceptible for me at my current level of skill right now. I've been practicing with the gates to make it usable for me, but the only progress I've made is being able to use very basic techniques like producing wind in the first gate. I now know why only Guy and Lee use them now.
Since I got a growth spurt I had to get a new outfit. Still wore a crimson jacket but now I have an upturned collar with the jacket fully open. I had a tight fitting black shirt underneath, black cargo pants, and black sandals.
Other than that I've been spying on Danzo with some clones, and surprise, surprise, turns out he's working with Orochimaru to help with the assassination of Hiruzen during the invasion. He plans on backstabbing Orochimaru by killing him after Hiruzen is killed. He's banking on both Jiraiya and Tsunade not taking the Hokage position after Hiruzen's death. Also found out he's really pissed at me for crushing the eye he got from Shisui. He doesn't know it was me for sure, but he was unable to see what crushed the eye and he knows that I can make my attacks invisible so it's easy to put two and two together.
My plan to stop any casualties from happening is to first stop Orochimaru from marking Sasuke with the curse mark. After that I'll fight him until the ANBU arrives. I don't want to use Sage Mode on him when I'm fighting him in the forest, so that it will be easier to kill him in the third phase due to it being a surprise. It's already going to be annoying to kill due to him being able to heal from lethal injuries mid battle. I could do to him what I did to Kakuzu, but Orochimaru can escape a lot easier than Kakuzu can. Also I'll probably be fighting near the village so I won't be able to launch an attack like that at him. After Orochimaru is chased off my next step depends on if a curtain person is at the exams.
Karin is one of the few Uzumaki that is alive. If she is at the exam like she was originally I'm going to try and convince her to come live in Konoha. Especially if Kusa is using her like a human sized medkit against her will. Konoha does have a law that we're obligated to give any members of the Uzumaki asylum due to being unable to help when Uzushiogakure was being attacked. As long as they don't pose a major threat to the village we will accept them.
If Karin is there I'll find her in the forest. If she isn't there I'll just get the scroll I need and make sure me and Team 7 pass the first phase. After that's done I'll gather some more evidence to show Hiruzen later. Have to find a way to talk to him without drawing suspension. I can make it so that no one can hear or see us while we're talking, but from the outside it will look suspicious if I did that without context.
After that is the third phase. I'm going to be arriving late to the stadium because I will be handling the army that's outside the village stealthily. I need to finish before it's my time to participate in the tournament. I'll rig the matches if I have to give myself more time. Now I could take out everyone in that forest in two seconds by just creating wind blades where they are, but I don't want to reveal that I can do that. That would just cause a lot of future problems if people knew that I could create attacks anywhere in my sensing range. I'll just set up some traps using fuinjutsu to help me take them out without using those types of attacks.
After the army is taken care of I'll piss off Gaara to make him start releasing Shukaku. This will cause the Suna and Oto shinob in the stadium to rush their attack and reveal themselves to everyone else. Right after they start their attack I'll suppress Shukaku before Gaara is able to release him, kill all the Oto-nin in the Stadium, and restrain the Suna-nin. After that's done I'll announce that their army outside of the village has been destroyed, and that Orochimaru has impersonated the Kazekage. I'll tell the Suna-nin that none of their soldiers have been killed and that they should cooperate with the village now that all of their forces have been detained. I would then go after Orochimaru.
When I go after Orochimaru I have to first get him and his guards outside of the village. There's a high chance that Orochimaru has that Eight-Headed Serpent Jutsu and I don't want him anywhere near the village if he does have it. Once he's out of range of the village I'll kill the Sound Four and focus on fighting him. I should be able to kill his current body in that fight before he's able to run away.
That's roughly the plan I have so far. I'm probably going to run into some problems, but I should be able to handle it for the most part. I have a week before the Chunin Exams starts. Naruto will be training with his team for this week, so I planned on doing some Senjutsu training for the rest of the week.
-Break-
Today is the start of the Chunin Exams. Naruto went to meet up with his team and I went to the exam room early. There were very few people in the room when I got there, so there was enough room for me to sit in the back row seats. The only team that I could recognize was Kabuto's. As more people started filing in I sensed a massive amount of Chakra entering the exam building. It was Bijuu Chakra I was sensing. I went on alert because this wasn't either Shukaku or Kurama that I was sensing. I went into Ren just in case a fight started. I was going through everything I knew to think of a reason why another Bijuu would be here.
I was able to sense that it was attached to someone else's Chakra signature, so this was Jinchuriki. I was going through everything I knew to come up with a reason for why another Jinchuriki would be here. From what I could remember, all of the Jinchuriki besides Naruto and Gaara were already Chunin and above right now. The signature was rapidly approaching the door. I silently prepared an attack while watching the door like a hawk. The door bursts open.
The Jinchuriki was a girl with short, layered mint green hair with an orange clip attached that matched her eye color. Her outfit consisted of a short sleeveless white midriff shirt with mesh armour underneath, long white armlets, and mesh shorts with a short white apron skirt over it. Her forehead protector was worn on her right arm and had the symbol for Takigakure on it. On her back was a cylindrical object in red wrapping. She had a petite, androgynous figure with caramel skin tone. She had her arms stretched with a look of determination on her face.
"It's time to ace this exam! Come on Kegon, Yōrō, you're going to miss talking to everyone!" Her attitude was a steep contrast to everyone else in the room.
'Oh, it's one of the Jinchuriki that Obito was using in the Six Paths of Pain technique. Guess she was a Genin during this time.'
I cancelled the attack I was making and stopped using Ren. Two other guys came running in after her.
"Fū you're supposed to stay close to us!"
One of them had short, curly brown hair and black eyes. He was wearing a violet jacket, with the inside being green, black top, with his midriff exposed, and dark pants. He also has two holsters attached near each of his elbows and had his forehead protector on his head. The other one had short spiky black hair and small black eyes. He wore a dark violet vest, with two scrolls attached to it, a light violet turtleneck, and dark green pants. Both were close to the size of an adult and their Chakra levels were near an adult's level as well.
'Well those two guys are suspicious. They're probably secretly guards for their village's Jinchuriki.'
"But I didn't get that far, you were right behind me." She protested.
I continue to listen in on their conversation, but it's just them arguing about how she should act during the exams. She eventually breaks off from them and starts trying to talk to everyone in the room.
'Why would Taki send their Jinchuriki to a Chunin Exam that they weren't hosting? It would be too easy for another village to find out who your Jinchuriki is during a Chunin Exam you don't have control of. The only reason Gaara is even being sent here is because he's needed for the invasion. A village wouldn't risk having their Jinchuriki's identity being leaked out when they're not fully trained yet without a good reason. Taki is one of the minor villages. Maybe this is a show of strength? Would explain why those two guys on her team probably aren't Genin.
Although that's still not good enough of a reason to send their Jinchuriki. If they wanted to do that, they could just have some of their Chunin and Jonin pose as Genin. They're the only minor village with a Jinchuriki. If they lose her that would be a major loss in military power for them. They're also too weak to be considering attacking Konoha. Sure they have the Seven tails, so they definitely would still do some major damage to us, but that still would be suicide for them.'
An idea popped into my head.
'Could they know about the Invasion happening? It would give an opportunity for them to attack both Suna and Konoha while we are weakened from fighting each other. That could propel them to major village status if they were able to pull that off. If that is the case, how could they have found out about it? Orochimaru and Danzo do a very go job of keeping things hidden, so-'
I put my thoughts on hold when I see Fū come up towards me with lips curled up into one of the brightest smiles I've seen.
"Hello! My name is Fū, what's your's?"
"Emiya Asahi. Is there a reason why you're trying to talk to me?"
"Well I'm trying to make some new friends and I can't do that unless I talk to people."
I see her teammates facepalm behind her. I couldn't determine if this was just an act, she was naive, or she was just oblivious. I raised one of my eyebrows.
"You do know that you're in the Chunin Exams, right? This isn't really the place to try and make friends."
"I mean, yeah this isn't really the best time to do it, but that doesn't mean that I can't, right?"
"That's not exactly wrong I suppose, but why are you trying to be friends with me exactly?"
"Oh, I'm just trying to talk to everyone I could here. It hasn't been going all that well, but you're the first one to not just ignore me or tell me to go away so this shows that my plan can work."
I looked at her with an expression of bewilderment.
"How is me not ignoring you and telling you to go away show that your plan can work?"
"Because if you didn't want to talk to me then you would have stopped talking to me by now."
"Just because someone is willing to talk to you doesn't mean they want to be your friend. They could be trying to get information on you to get an advantage against your team."
She puffed up with pride with her hands on her hips.
"Me and my team are pretty strong, so we don't have to worry about that. I'm like a super weapon. It's going to be hard to beat me even with an advantage. Also you just proved that my plan can work even more. You just gave me advice without me asking for it. That's totally something a friend would do. Speaking friends, where's your team?"
"I'm taking the exam by myself. Also someone giving you advice doesn't mean they want to be your friend either."
"Whoa, you're taking the exams by yourself!? That's crazy! You must be pretty strong to be taking this by yourself."
Fū turned to see more people entering the room.
"Well I got some more people to talk to so catch you later Asahi."
She darted off to the crowd coming in.
'I'm pretty sure she just ignored the last thing I said and thinks we're friends now. If this isn't an act I can at least get some information out of her if I'm friendly.'
I felt someone grab my left shoulder. I had already sensed that the black haired guy on Fū's team was going to do it, so I wasn't surprised by it. I turn around to my left to see her two teams doing their best to look intimidating. While black haired one was looking down on me, the other one was leaning against the wall.
"I know our teammate seems a bit clueless, but I suggest you don't think she's an easy target for a second. You'll regret it."
"It would leave a bad taste in my mouth if I were to target her. She's been nice so I don't have an interest in attacking her. No need to try and be all intimidating now. It won't work on me anyways, so just save your effort."
He tried squeezing harder, but all I had to do was add a little bit of aura in the area he was grabbing and it did virtually nothing to me. He flinched a bit and pulled back his hand.
"Tch, you've been warned."
They walk off towards Fū. Suddenly a weird En field started covering the room. This was unlike any other En field that I've seen a sensor use. It looked a lot closer to the way I use it. The person that was creating the field entered the room.
It was a girl with crimson eyes and fair skin. Her red hair was short and spiky on the right side, while longer and straight on the left side. She wore brown narrow glasses, a mesh shirt and stockings, a purple skirt, a light brown short sleeved jacket with an orange stripe going across the chest, and black sandals. She wore the Kusagakure forehead protector on her forehead. Uzumaki Karin; one of the few remaining members of the Uzumaki clan.
She was with her teammates when she came into contact with my En field. Unlike other non Nen users she was able to notice it. I wasn't using In to hide it like I usually do, but I was still impressed that she was able to detect it at all. She looked around the room and spotted me. She was completely stunned when she saw me. With my red hair and similar sensing ability to her, she probably realized the similarities between us. Once she got out of her stunned state she started to walk towards me until one of her teammates grabbed her.
"Hey, don't go walking off on us."
"I just wanted to-"
"We can't have you just walking around here. You won't be able to protect yourself if someone were to try something. You're here to make sure we stay healed during the exams. You're no use to us if you get damaged."
She walked back towards them looking dejected.
'Looks like her situation is Kusa is the same here as well. Hopefully she makes it to the second phase so that I can talk to her there.'
Soon after that Team Guy entered the room. Neji had the same outfit he wore when he graduated. The only difference was that he was a little bit taller. Lee and Hanabi on the other hand now had a significant new look from the last time I saw them. Lee now looked like a mini clone of Guy. Hanabi now had her hair cut short, framing her face in an asymmetrical bob style with the front bangs reaching below her chin. She wore a sleeveless, blue v-neck shirt on top of mesh armor under a tan vest jacket, blue shorts and sandals, with white wristbands on both hands. She wore her forehead protector on her forehead with her hair covering the sides.
Me and Hanabi make eye contact and she quickly looks away from me. She drags off Lee and Neji. Lee just looked confused while Neji just sighed and followed her.
'Guess she's still mad about me training Hinata. Don't really know how to fix that because it's not like I'm going to apologize for doing that. Well she will see Hinata in action during the exam, so maybe that will ease her worries about Hinata being a shinobi.'
Team Kakashi and the rest of the rookies enter the room. Ino and Sakura start to argue due to their whole rivalry over Sasuke. The teams started having a conversation with each other which drew the attention of everyone else in the room. Kabuto walked over to them to tell them that they were making a scene. Eventually he brings up his Ninja Info cards.
'Mission records up to A-rank are accessible to anyone Genin rank and above, so it's not strange for him to have information on the people from the village. The thing that is suspicious is that he has information on people from other villages. Doesn't necessarily scream spy, but it would bring attention to him. He must be pretty confident that no one would be able to find him out if he's ok with bringing this much attention to himself.'
"Do you have information on individuals?" Asked Sasuke.
"Of course, anyone you worried about?" Said Kabuto.
"Rock Lee, Gaara of the desert, and Emiya Asahi."
"You even have their names. You're making this easy."
He takes out one of the cards and pours his Chakra into it. The info on the cards are revealed in a small puff of smoke.
"Rock Lee is a year older than you guys. 20 D-ranks and 12 C-ranks. His taijutsu has greatly improved over a year under Might Gai. His teammates are Hyuga Hanabi and Hyuga Neji. This is his first time taking the Chunin Exams."
He takes out another card.
"Next is Gaara of the Desert. 8 C-ranks and even a B-rank as a Genin. Due to him being a foreign shinobi I don't have a lot of info on him, but what I do know is that he has returned from all of his missions without a scratch."
"The guy has done a B-rank as a Genin and has never been injured!?" Said Shikamaru.
The rest of the rookies had varying expressions of shock.
"He's not one she should be most worried about. The final one is Emiya Asahi. He's only been a Genin for as long as Rock Lee, but he's done 40 C-ranks, 12 B-ranks, and get this, 2 A-rank!"
"WHAT!?" A few of the rookies said together.
While Naruto and his team were left stunned, the other rookies were in panic mode.
"Not only is his amount of missions insane, but you mean to tell me that he's done B and A-rank missions as a Genin!? How was he even allowed to go on multiple B and A-ranks!?" Said Choji.
"Asahi isn't a normal Genin; not in the slightest. While he was made rookie of his year, he was so high above his peers that he was placed on a team where he's the only Genin. He's been able to take down Jonin by himself without any serious injuries. Even if he were to be injured it wouldn't hinder him at all. He is able to regenerate from injuries that he sustains. The limits to it are unknown.
His specialities lie in kenjutsu, sensory techniques, wind-release, speed, and elimination."
"E-elimination?" Said Sakura with her voice sounding shaky.
Kabuto pushed up his glasses.
"Yes, he's very proficient in it. More than half of his missions were classified as elimination, and he completed all of them flawlessly. Some he's done completely by himself. He's even taken out dozens of targets in a few seconds without them seeing a glimpse of him."
I Flash Stepped behind Kabuto.
"Come on now Kabuto-san. It's starting to sound like you're trying to scare them more than inform them." I said.
I was forcing a smile on my face while I talked to Kabuto. Team Asuma and team Kurenai jumped back when they noticed I was suddenly there.
"How long have you been there!?" Said Ino.
"Oh I just got here. Just decided to come by when I heard someone spilling a large amount of information on me."
Kabuto let out a nervous laugh.
"My apologies; just wanted to give them a heads up is all. You are one of the top Genin here after all. This year's exam is going to be one of the toughest ones with all the talent that's here. Every village has sent some good talent this year. Well, everyone except for Oto. They only formed a year ago, so their Genin don't seem all that special."
"Asahi-nii why did you never tell me that you've been on an A-rank mission before!?"
I shrugged in response.
"It just never came up before."
Shikamaru looked back and forth between me and Naruto.
"Now hold on. Naruto, are you related to this guy?"
"Yeah, he's my older brother."
"HUH!? He's your older brother!? You've never said that your brother was anything like this!" Said Ino.
Naruto crossed his arms and looked away.
"He gets enough attention already. I didn't feel like adding on to it."
"But, why do you guys have different family names?" Shino asked.
"Oh that's because I-" Before I could finish explaining I sensed the Oto-nin running towards us.
Zaku threw a few kunai while Dosu was going towards Kabuto. I stopped the kunai in mid-air and quickly pointed my index and middle finger at them. I used a quick activation phrase.
"Sai(Restrain)"
Both Dosu and Zaku suddenly have their arms locked behind their backs and fall face down on the floor. I dropped the kunai harmlessly to the floor. I crouch down next to Dosu.
"Come on guys the exam hasn't even started. No need to start fighting just yet. We'll have plenty of time to do that later."
I sensed three senbon needles head towards the side of my neck. I used some air manipulation to stop them before they made contact. I looked at Kin from the corner of my eye.
"Well you guys seem eager to fight. Though that eagerness of yours is going to cause problems for you in the future." I said while having my lips curled into a smirk.
The Oto team was giving me looks full of anger. Ibiki arrived in a large cloud of smoke shortly after.
"Quiet down you bastards!" Said Ibiki.
There was a group of shinobi behind him.
"Thanks for waiting. I'm Morino Ibiki, the examiner for the Chunin Exams first test. Oto shinobi don't go picking fights without our permission or else you will fail the exam. Whoever is restraining them, release them now."
I released Dosu and Zaku.
"We will now be starting the first test of the Chunin Exams. You will receive a tab with a number on it. That will be the number of the seat that you will be assigned to sit in during the test."
We got into our seats and I ended up next to Fū and another random person. Ibiki goes over the rules. They weren't any different from the visions so that meant I would be waiting for an hour. Once we are able to look at the test I checked for the 10th question. It was the same as well. Now all I had to do was wait for Ibiki to give the 10th question. For 30 minutes I sat there while resting my face on my hand. I felt a wave of Chakra come from Fū.
"Come Asahi you can't give up! You gotta at least answer one of the questions!" I heard Fū say through the vibrations through the table.
'Hmm, she has a Jutsu that seemingly allows her to communicate with other people through vibrations on a surface. That's a neat ability.'
I picked up the test and acted like I was going to answer some questions. I created a Save State around me and Fū.
"Fū I appreciate you-"
She kicked me under the table.
"Asahi you're going to get us caught!" She spoke through vibrations again.
I let out a sigh and got up from my seat. I then stood up on the desk and had my arms stretched out.
"As you can see, no one can see or hear us right now!" I said with a booming voice.
All this did was make her panic, but when she looked around and saw no one reacting to what I was doing her panicked expression turned to one of confusion.
"Can no one actually notice what we're doing right now?"
I got down from the desk.
"Yep, I have a barrier around us that blocks people on the outside from seeing or hearing what we're doing inside of it."
I created a mini Save State on a portion of my test.
"I have a smaller version of the barrier on my test right now. The way the barrier works is that it projects an image of what was inside of it when it's created."
I moved the test away from the barrier. The barrier still projected the test like it was still there.
"Everyone on the outside just sees us looking at the test."
Her eyes sparkled with amazement.
"That's so cool!"
It looked like something clicked in her mind and she started looking at me with suspicion.
"You don't use this to do perverted things, do you?"
I narrowed my eyes at her.
"Why is that the first thing you think I would do with this?"
"Don't most guys fantasize about being able to make themselves invisible so that they can peep without girls seeing them?"
"I'm not Jiraiya damn it."
"Who's Jiraiya?"
"A pervert. No sorry my mistake, he's a self proclaimed Super pervert. If he was able to do this no woman would be safe from his gaze. I'm not some peeping Tom like him."
She let out a sigh of relief.
"Good, for a second there I thought I made friends with a pervert."
"With that now cleared up I'll go back to what I was saying earlier. Fū I appreciate you trying to help me, but I'm not actually giving up. Since you tried to encourage me I'll give you a little hint. The 10th question is the only one that truly matters."
"Why is the 10th question the only that matters?"
I wagged my finger while smirking.
"It wouldn't be right of me to tell you why; this is a test after all. You'll just have to figure that out for yourself. Also going to be taking down the barrier in a few seconds. Don't want people to get too suspicious because of us not moving for too long."
She pouted in response.
"That's not much of a hint at all."
"It's the most you're going to get out of me so I guess you're just going to have to deal with it. I'll be taking the barrier down now."
Fū went back to focusing on the test and I took down the Save State around us. To kill some time I created a Save State over my eyes and created a Viewing Plane inside so that I could see how the rookies were doing. For the most part the rookies were doing ok. Naruto actually had some answers written down this time thanks to him and Hinata using their aura to communicate to each other.
Hinata can easily cheat off other people thanks to the Byakugan. Naruto doesn't have control over his aura to the point he can make complex shapes yet, but Hinata does. Looks like she's been signaling the answers to Naruto by shaping her aura into symbols and numbers. However, the rookie that really interested me was Shikamaru.
I looked at his test only to see not a single answer was on it. You would expect someone having no answers written down at this point to look stressed in this situation, but he didn't look stressed at all. In fact, he looked bored. He was on the last page of the test with the 10th question on it. Seems like he realized the trick to the test.
Eventually Ibiki started going over the rules for the 10th question. Now with the threat of never being able to take the Chunin Exams again if they fail the 10th question people started dropping off like flies. With Naruto having more confidence about passing the test this time it looked like he wasn't going to give his speech this time around. Only 22 teams remained when it was time to receive the 10th question.
"For everyone remaining I only have one thing to say to you...that you all have passed the first phase of the exams." Said Ibiki.
Confusion and outrage came from most of the candidates in the room before Ibiki explained the purpose of the test. He gave his speech about what it took to be a good Chunin commander. Once it was over he called someone into the room. It was a random Jonin that I've never seen before. He was the proctor for the next phase of the exam. We were told that it was going to be happening tomorrow early in the morning and that our squad leaders would tell where to meet up. When we were dismissed I received a light punch in the shoulder from Fū.
"You jerk, did you know that you didn't have to answer anything?"
"No, only that the 10th is the one that mattered. Think about it, you really only needed to answer one question correctly to be right to pass, so when I saw that we had to wait for the 10th one I knew that it was probably significant. If it was just a normal question almost no one would even try to answer it due to having a less amount of time to think about the question. Even if you were just required to answer, it still wouldn't be a problem because it would only take away 2 points if you were wrong. So I knew that the 10th question was most likely what determined if I passed or not. Ibiki cemented that when he said if you get it wrong you would be banned from the Chunin Exams forever. So I just waited. If I still needed to answer a question I already got the answers due to being able to view other peoples answers."
"And you couldn't have just explained that to me when we were talking? I was getting so nervous when the rules for the 10th question came up, and your hint just made it more suspenseful."
"You wouldn't have truly passed if I had explained it to you. Wouldn't want you to be promoted and you don't actually have what it takes to do the job now do we?"
"Fine, I'll let you off the hook this time. Hopefully the next part of the exam is something more physical. Having to fight is a lot easier than taking a test."
'Well Fū, I'm sure you're going to get what you wished with these next few phases.'
-Break-
It was the next day and we were now standing in front of the Forest of Death. The proctor went over the rules for the next phase. The rules were the same as the ones in the visions here as well. After the rules were said I started checking all of the candidates Chakra signatures. I stopped when I found the person I was looking for. He was in disguise, but I would be able to notice that Chakra signature anywhere.
Orochimaru of the Sannin. It was the same Chakra signature that would come off of Anko's curse mark. He was disguised as one of the Kusa-nin that passed the first phase of the exam. He's here to mark Sasuke so I'm going to have to keep a close eye on him and Team 7 to make sure that doesn't happen.
When the scrolls were being handed out I secretly watched everyone to see what scrolls they had. I memorized their Chakra signatures so that I would be able to find them later. Each team was sent to a seperate entrance gate and were told not to enter until it was time for the exam to start. I already had my gravity seals off to get ready for the inevitable fight. Once we were allowed to go inside I immediately went after the closest team that had the scroll that I needed, then I went after another team that had the scroll that team 7 needed. I knocked them all out before they could even get out of view of their gate. I got the scrolls and headed towards my true objective of this test.
-Third Person POV-
Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke were jumping through the trees in the forest in an arrow formation. Hinata was in the front with her byakugan activated.
"Hinata do you still have eyes on the team that we're after?" Sasuke asked her.
"Yes, they're 4km away from us. We should reach them in a few minutes."
"Hehe, man Hinata your eyes are amazing! We're going to ace this part of the exams! Hey, do you think we'll be able to set a record for the fastest clear time!?" Said Naruto.
"Don't get too excited yet Naruto. We still haven't gotten the scroll from the team yet. We don't want to get too overconfident and get sloppy with our attacks." Said Hinata.
"Yeah, and I don't see us setting any new records with your brother taking this test as well." Said Sasuke.
"Uggh, don't remind me. It just makes me remember the gap between us. It feels like it's never closing, but I swear I'll surpass him one day!"
Sasuke's eyes glazed over. Naruto's words reminded him of the goal that he set for himself.
"Yeah…"
Hinata right now had most of her aura focused to her eyes. This increased the range of byakugan dramatically. Her range with her dojutsu ranges from 3km to 15km depending on the amount of aura she focuses to her eyes. It was thanks to this range that she was able to see a powerful stream of wind coming towards them from their front.
"Attack incoming! Dodge to the left now!"
Without missing a beat they all dodge the attack way before it would have hit them. The attack passed in front of them. In its path it left a small trench in the ground. Hinata was able to see the person that attacked them coming towards them.
"The person that sent that attack after us is coming towards us directly in front. It's a woman with long black hair from Kusa. Naruto, flanking maneuver."
"Right."
Naruto created 10 clones and had them spread out. Once the clones were out of sight they used Zetsu to hide their presence. Orochimaru in disguise landed in front of the group.
"Impressive, I wasn't expecting for you three to dodge that attack. I thought I would've separated at least one of you from your group with it." He said in feminine voice.
He looked towards Hinata.
"I guess I have you to thank for that. My, my, for a Hyuga to be able to see that far at such a young age, you must be pretty exceptional."
His gaze then shifted to Sasuke.
"And we have the last loyale Uchiha too. It looks like this might actually be interesting."
His lips curled into a smile that promised this was going to be an unpleasant encounter for the Genin. They started getting a little uneasy.
"This lady is giving me the creeps." Said Naruto.
"I assume you're here to get our scroll from us. Where's the rest of your team?" Said Sasuke.
"Oh they're handling something else. I just thought I'd have some fun testing you three."
He took out a heaven scroll.
"I know you three have an earth scroll. Which means that if you get my heaven scroll you'll be able to pass this phase of the test. However, it would be too boring if you just kept trying to steal it from me during the fight."
He brought the scroll to his mouth and wrapped his elongated tongue around the scroll. He then shoved the scroll into his mouth and swallowed it.
"By the end of this fight one of us will be passing this phase of the exam, and the other one, will be dead!"
Orochimaru released killing intent so potent that if any normal shinobi were to come in contact with it they would be paralyzed in fear. To protect themselves from it both Naruto and Hinata used Ren to stop it from reaching them. Hinata split off a bit of her aura to protect Sasuke from it as well. Aura allows a Nen user to protect themselves from mental attacks such as killing intent.
Naruto made the clone hand seal, and 10 clones appeared in a puff of smoke. Five of them rushed Orochimaru while the other five went to flank him on his sides. The five that headed towards fought him defensively while the clones on the sides would attack with thrown kunai when they had an opportunity. Orochimaru had no difficulty fighting the clones and dodging their attacks, but their purpose wasn't to damage him. While he was occupied with the clones, team 7 was able to get far away from him. He noticed this of course, but the clones defensive maneuvers were able to keep him in place. It helped that these weren't normal shadow clones either.
Most shadow clones go down when they receive a hit because when they are hit it messes with the structure of the clone causing it to fall apart. Naruto was able to work around this problem with the help of Enhancement Nen. This improves the structure of a clone to make it have more stability at the cost of more Chakra. He's improved the clones to the point that they can take three hits now. This improved the uses of shadow clones drastically for Naruto because now it's even harder for a person to determine if they're fighting the real one and the clones can take more risk then they could before.
It took a bit of time, but Orochimaru eventually took out the five clones that were fighting him close range. The clones that were attacking at a range dispersed themselves and sent their remaining Chakra to Naruto. Orochimaru started rolling one of his sleeves up.
'Fascinating, the Kyuubi jinchuriki is able to make shadow clones that are able to take multiple hits without dispersing; a feat not many share. The Hyuga girl is impressive as well. I was sure that my first attack wouldn't have been seen in time for her to warn them. Not to mention that they all withstood my killing intent. No normal Genin should've been able to do that. If I had the time I would consider marking the other two as well, but the sharingan comes first.'
He bit into his thumb and smeared his blood on the markings under his sleeve. A large plume of smoke appeared, and when it cleared it revealed Orochimaru standing on top of a massive boa snake. Its head alone was ginormous in comparison to his entire body.
'Let's see what else these children can do.'
He licked his lips in anticipation. The boa snake charged through the forest towards the group's scent.
Back when team 7 left Orochimaru
With Naruto's clones keeping Orochimaru occupied, team 7 decided to get a far distance away from him so that they could come up with a plan. They were currently hiding while Hinata kept an eye on Orochimaru from afar.
"That lady isn't normal. That killing intent was even stronger than that Zabuza guy. Also the way she swallowed her scroll, it's like she's not even human." Said Naruto.
"She's pretty strong too. She's practically toying with your clones." Said Hinata.
Naruto received one of the memories from the clones.
"Yeah, I noticed."
"You think we need to use the combination attack on her? Sasuke asked.
"It's the only thing that I see being able to hit her effectively. Naruto, do you still have them set up?"
Naruto gave a thumbs up.
"Yep, they're ready to set it up."
"Alright,"
Hinata's eyes went wide open when saw Orochimaru summon a giant snake.
"She just summoned a massive snake and it's heading right for us! I need you two to distract her for us to be able to take it down."
The two nod and the three of them jump up into the trees to wait for Orochimaru. When he reached their location a swarm of Naruto clones jumped out of the trees landing on the snake and heading towards Orochimaru. Hundreds of clones were attacking and holding down the snake. Orochimaru sent a fireball at a few of the clones taking them out, but there were still dozens heading towards him. While was dealing with the clones, a raging stream of fire was launched at him from Sasuke. He was forced to move off the head of the snake. Right after he jumped off the head Hinata landed on top of it taking his place. With her byakugan activated she launched a juken strike at a specific part of the snake's head. The snake hissed loudly then fell lifelessly to the ground. Orochimaru narrowed his eyes in suspension at Hinata.
'Those clones shouldn't be strong enough to damage it, much less kill it, so it had to be the girl. But, how is that possible? It had no Chakra network for her damage. Wait! The place she struck was right above its brain!' Thought Orochimaru.
The Gentle Fist of the Hyuga allows them to surgically inject their Chakra into an object. However, the Chakra that they are able to inject normally is unable to seriously damage anything. This is why they target tenketsu and structural weak points of jutsu with juken strikes. Just a small amount of chakra is needed to close tenketsu and disrupt a jutsu if targeted in the right place. Thanks to Hinata's experience with Nen and her being a natural born Emitter type, she is able to improve the power behind the Chakra she is able to inject with her strikes. This allows her to do internal damage without having to attack the Chakra network to do so. She sent her Chakra into the snake's brain with enough power to deal fatal damage to vital parts of it.
Hinata jumped off the snake while the clones dispersed themselves. Sasuke and Naruto jumped down landing next to Hinata. Orochimaru was on top of a branch looking down on the group while smiling with a predatory gleam in his eyes.
"Well I wasn't expecting this. You children have been exceeding all of my expectations so far, but you have yet to do any damage to me. What will you do now? I won't be as easy to hit as my pet was."
Sasuke looked over to Hinata.
"Hinata?"
She shook her head in response.
'Hmmm, what could they be planning now?'
Naruto sent a few dozen clones after Orochimaru while him and his team jumped away.
"This again?" He said, sounding disappointed.
He sent a powerful wave of air pressure at the clones. Only five were dispersed from the attack due to them not being bunched up together. The clones were running up the trees. Some were going straight towards him while the others spread out around him. The area around Orochimaru was filled with clones. From the ground to the trees.
While Orochimaru was dealing with the clones that were fighting him at close range the other ones were throwing projectiles at him from every angle. He had to get a little bit more serious to make sure that he wouldn't be hit.
During the fight with the clones Orochimaru had to suddenly duck to avoid some wire strings that were attached to kunai. He had to dodge again from another group of wire string coming from his side. During the time they had got away from him the first time, team 7 set up wire traps around the whole area with the help of Naruto's clones. With the multitude of clones, projectiles, and now wires, Orochimaru was starting to get overwhelmed. He was about to bring out more firepower when two shuriken that he dodged poofed into smoke.
The shuriken were naruto clones in disguise. They grabbed on to his legs to keep him pinned in place. Before he could retaliate wire dragged him towards a tree and strapped him to it. At one of the ends of the wire Sasuke, with his sharingan activated, had one of his hands grabbing it.
'Lightning-release: Electric wire Jutsu.'
Sasuke's hand produced sparks of electricity causing an electric current to travel through the wire shocking Orochimaru. He screamed in agony then eventually went limp. Team 7 landed on a branch together looking at Orochimaru. The remaining shadow clones dispersed themselves. Orochimaru's body turned brown and shortly after turned into mud. The real Orochimaru phased through the tree next to the clone. He coiled his body around the tree like a snake.
"Setting traps around the entire area, very clever of you. It seems that I need to take you three a little bit more seriously."
"Hinata?" Said Sasuke.
"Run for now." Said Hinata.
Team 7 jumped away out of sight of Orochimaru.
"You won't get away that easy."
He darted towards the Genin with a sinister smile. Team 7 were jumping through the forest in a straight line with Orochimaru gaining on them quickly. Right before he could reach them, Hinata and Naruto suddenly turned around and tackled Orochimaru in the air. Due to him having no solid footing and it happening so quickly he was unable to dodge them tackling him. Sasuke started going through a very familiar set of hand seals ending in the tiger seal.
'Fire-release: Great Fireball Jutsu.'
A giant orb of fire was shot from Sasuke's mouth towards Orochimaru. Hinata and Naruto puffed into a smoke revealing that they were Naruto clones in disguise. His eyes widened in disbelief.
'When did they replace themselves with clones!? I never sensed them do it!'
This was all a part of team 7's plan to land the combination attack on him. After taking down the snake Hinata used her byakugan that was enhanced with her aura to inspect Orochimaru. Due to her enhancing her dojutsu she was able to tell that they were fighting a clone. Dojutsu and even a Nen user adding aura to their eyes can't tell if someone is a clone without comparing the Chakra levels between the real body and the clone, but Hinata doesn't need to see the real body to tell if someone is a clone.
Clones are structurally unstable; it's the reason why most can't take a hit. With her aura enhanced byakugan not only is she able to see the unstable structure of a clone, she's able to see if something is made from Chakra. It only took her a glance to tell that they were fighting a clone after taking down the snake. After taking down the clone and realizing that the real one was after them now she gave her team the signal to lead him to the spot where they would use their combination attack.
While they were out of sight of Orochimaru, Naruto replaced him and Hinata with clones using the Henge jutsu. The real ones used the Zetsu technique to hide their presence. Orochimaru never noticed the switch because Naruto and Hinata were able to see where he was using his Chakra to sense for them and made sure to make the clones outside of it. The clones were there to tackle him when he least expected it. However, they didn't do all this work just land a fireball.
Sasuke put a large amount of his chakra into the fireball then ran as fast as he could away from the area. Orochimaru elongated his arm so that he could pull himself away from the attack. Before he could do that the 10 clones that Naruto made before this fight even began revealed themselves. They had him surrounded from all sides while all of them were making the snake hand seal. They took a massive breath in usion.
'Wind release: Great Breakthrough!'
The clones all shot a powerful wind attack from their mouths towards Orochimaru. This kept him airborne and when the fireball came in contact with him it became larger than before due to being fueled by the wind jutsu. He was engulfed in a bright ball of fire. As the clones kept fanning the flames the light kept getting brighter and brighter to point the point that it was blinding. The force of the flames became too hard to contain and it exploded into a massive inferno. It left behind a smoldering house size crater with Orochimaru's charred body in the center of it. Team 7 stood on the edge of the crater.
"Did we get her?" Sasuke asked.
"Of course we got her. There's no way she could have escaped that blast." Said Naruto
Hinata used her byakugan to survey the crater and what she saw caused her heart to sink.
"I-impossible…"
The charred body started spasming violently, then it abruptly stopped. The mouth shot open with two hands coming out. The hands grabbed the mouth and stretched it even further with the body seemingly elastic now. Orochimaru slithered out of the body leaving it deflated. He was on the ground drenched in light green liquid. He stood up now without his disguise and more importantly, he was completely unharmed. Team 7 could only stare in disbelief and growing fear.
"I must say you three have put on an excellent performance. I was originally planning on just testing Sasuke, but you two have caught my interest. And for that I shall give you a gift before I go. Sadly I only have one on me today, but if you search me out I promise you that you'll receive more power than you could ever dream of."
Orochimaru shot his head forward towards Sasuke at speeds faster than the group could react to. Before he could mark Sasuke, a red blur moved right in front of Orochimaru's body and hit it with enough force to send the body flying backwards crashing through the ground while creating a trench along his path. He was sent so far that the group was unable to see him. At the place of impact Asahi stood with one of his legs outstretched in a kicking motion. He jumps up and lands in front of team 7. His usual chill and cocky attitude was gone. He was now serious with hints of anger in his expression.
"I need you three to go to the tower as fast as you can and alert one of the officials that Orochimaru has infiltrated the exam."
He tossed a heaven scroll to Hinata.
"That will allow you to enter. Now go!"
"Hold on! What are you talking about!? Who's Orochimaru!?" Said Naruto.
"The person you three have been fighting was Orochimaru in disguise. He's a notorious traitor to the village. His presence here is a threat to the whole village. I'll hold him off while you alert the officials monitoring the exams."
"But-" Naruto was about to protest before Asahi sensed an incoming attack.
Asahi stretched out his right hand. A purple seven petaled wall sized flower made from light formed in front of the four in the blink of an eye. It foremed three light purple solid semi-transparent barriers layered on top of each other with a small gap between each one. This was a partial formation of the shield Rho Aias: The Seven Rings that Cover the Fiery Heavens. From the distance a sword was extending at blinding speeds towards the group. It collided with the shield and the impact created a shockwave that bent the tree around them. It broke the first layer before being stopped.
"He was only toying with you before. I won't be able to fight seriously if you're anywhere near this fight, now go!"
Naruto clenched his fists in frustration.
"Fine, but you better not die!"
"I don't plan to."
The three run off towards the tower. The sword retracted through the dust cloud that was created from the shockwave. The shield dematerialized in a blue light. Orochimaru walked through the cloud with his lips pressed into a thin line and his eyes narrowed at Asahi.
"It's not polite to interrupt someone else's fight."
"I wouldn't call that fight, more like someone playing with their food. You also shouldn't be here, Orochimaru."
"Oh, you know who I am? I'm surprised. The village usually doesn't teach the younger generation about the traitors, and 'someone playing with their food'? Were you watching us?"
"Had to make sure it was you. You were in disguise so I could only tell by your Chakra signature."
"And how do you know my Chakra signature?"
"From a mark you left behind, and I'm here to make you tell me how to remove it."
In a flash of blue light a basic katana materialized in Asahi's right hand. He pointed the tip of the sword at Orochimaru.
"You're going to tell me how to remove the mark you placed on Anko."
Orochimaru's lips curved into a wicked smile.
"I recognize you now, you're Anko's little student. Do you plan on fighting me to protect your sensei? How adorable."
Asahi's plan was just to make sure that team 7 wasn't harmed by him, but he needed an excuse as to why he didn't alert anyone to Orochimaru's presence. He already knows that he shouldn't trust any information he would give on removing the curse mark anyway.
"You can either you can tell me or I'll get the information I need out of you by force. Though I'm sure you won't just tell me without a fight."
"Sorry, but I'm in a bit of a hurry you see. Like you said I'm not supposed to be here and I have a gift I need to give to Sasuke. If they get to that tower I won't be able to do that. My subordinates would be able to delay them, but they're stronger than I expected so I don't think they would be effective."
"If you're talking about those two guys that were with you I already killed them before I got here."
"Well I guess I better hurry after them then."
Asahi covered his eyes with his forehead protector and placed both hands on his sword.
"You won't get a chance."
He dashed forward towards the snake Sannin and cut off his left arm with a downward slash. Orochimaru was unfazed by the sudden amputation. Snakes launched out of his right sleeve towards Asahi forcing him to jump back while slicing off the heads of the snakes. Orochimaru took that time to reattach his severed arm with snakes. Once attached he wiggled his fingers to show that it was still functional.
"You're pretty quick, but it's going to take more than that for you to beat me."
Asahi cut off his legs only for his body to turn into mud. Orochimaru bursted out of the mud with the sword of Kusanagi in hand. The two clashed swords. Asahi launched him back into the forest with the force of his swing. While Asahi was running towards him he extended his sword to pierce Asahi. Asahi jumped upwards towards a tree then kicked off the tree sending himself towards Orochimaru.
Asahi went for a slash when he got in range, but Orochimaru evaded the attack by swiftly slithering away on the ground like a snake. When Asahi landed he immediately dematerialized his sword, went on one knee with his back straight, then formed a matte black, western-style straight bow in his left hand. He drew back the bow the string and materialized a simple arrow. He fired the arrow at Orochimaru with pinpoint accuracy thanks to his air sense allowing him to constantly see the trajectory of where the arrow would go when fired. Since he would be able to control where the arrows go due to them being constructs of air he only aims to save on energy and improve their power.
Orochimaru dodged out of the way of the arrow only to have to dodge another one. Asahi's rate of fire and the speed of his arrows forced Orochimaru into constant evasion. The force behind the arrows were able to tear apart the trees around as if they were sticks. While slithering across the ground he suddenly went underground. Shortly after that Asahi had to jump up and land on a tree branch to avoid a large mass of snakes popping out of the ground. The snakes ejected blades out of their mouths with them undoubtedly being coated in some kind of poison.
'Going to need some more firepower for this.'
"I'm the bone of my sword." Asahi started the Unlimited Blade Works incantation.
Out of the mass of snakes the blade of Kusanagi shot forward towards Asahi. He jumped through the trees to avoid the blade's pursuit of him and the snakes that covered the ground below.
"Steel is my body and fire is my blood."
Asahi sent away the bow and jumped up high above the forest with the blade of the sword still coming after him. He put his right hand next to the left side of his waist as if he was about to draw a sword.
"Go forward, Zangetsu (Slaying Moon)!"
A sword appeared in Asahi's hand. It looked like an oversized khyber knife with the grip being wrapped in a long white cloth with a long piece of the cloth coming off of it and no proper hilt. The blade was slightly taller than himself. A blue aura appeared around him then it gathered around the blade. He swung the sword at the blade of Kusanagi and released a bright blue crescent shaped energy blast at it. The blast forced the blade down to the ground. When it reached the ground it turned into a massive blast and destroyed all of the snakes and the area that they were in.
Asahi landed inside the crater. The ground began to rumble around him. An enormous snake bursted out of the ground. The snake had its mouth wide open as it went for him and before it could eat him whole, he flash stepped out of the way of its path. He appeared at the side of the snake's head.
"Getsuga Tenshō (Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer)!"
He swung his sword in the air and sent another crescent shaped blast of energy from the blade. The blast went towards the head of the snake and blew it apart. The rest of the body fell to the ground. Orochimaru came out of the corpse from the wound. Even with none of his plans working out as he hoped, his face didn't show a hint of stress. In fact, it seemed as if he was enjoying him.
"That's quite the amount of power you have. As expected from a person that was able to take down two Akatsuki members by themself." He had a knowing grin on his face as he said the last part.
"You know about the Akatsuki?"
"Yes, you can say that I'm quite knowledgeable about them. I also know that this level of power wouldn't be enough to put down one of their teams. Why are you holding back?"
Asahi didn't show that he was worried about him knowing that, but in his mind it was a different story.
'Damn it Kabuto! I knew he could find out that I took down Hidan and Kakuzu, but I thought that maybe he wouldn't care enough to look into it. Looks like I'm going with plan B…'
"I wouldn't say that I'm holding back, I'm just not using everything I could possibly do. What I used against them is still a work in progress."
Asahi used Zetsu to start collecting Natural energy. His hair started to gradually go white.
'All I need is a burst of power to send him out of the forest. That should give enough time for the village to be alerted to his presence. '
"I'm not doing any lasting damage as I am now, so I'm going to have to step it up."
His hair was fully white signifying that he was now in Sage Mode.
"I have created over a thousand blades. Unknown to death nor known to life." Asahi continued the incantation for Unlimited Blade Works.
While Asahi was setting up for his move, Orochimaru was stunned at what he was sensing. He thought that Orochimaru wouldn't know that he was using Sage mode due to him not being a sage, but he forgot that even though he wasn't a sage he was still able to sense it due to his research on Ryūchi Cave and senjutsu.
'How is he absorbing natural energy without standing still!? He's absorbing it the same way as Jūgo, but he's not going berserk and he's controlling when he does it. He could be the key to improving the curse mark!'
Orochimaru snapped out of his inner dialogue when saw Asahi point his sword at him. The extra wrapping around the handle wrapped around Asahi's outstretched right arm. He placed his left hand on his right arm.
"Bankai (Final Release)!"
A nearly black red energy came off of Asahi's body covering him from sight. When it cleared the khyber knife sword was gone and replaced with a daitō, a long sword, with a black blade and a black chain attached to the hilt.
"Tensa Zangetsu (Heaven Chain Slaying Moon)."
Orochimaru had a confused look on his face while looking at the new blade.
"Is this what you used against Kakuzu and Hidan? It's smaller than the sword you had before."
Without saying a word Asahi flash stepped next to Orochimaru and had the blade of the sword right next to his neck. It would only take a simple tug on his sword for him to cut open Orochimaru's throat in this position. For the first time in this fight Orochimaru started to feel worried.
'How was he able to next me so fast!? I wasn't able to see him move!'
"In this state my speed and power have increased tremendously. I have no doubt I can kill you as I am now, but I still need you alive to remove your mark. Lucky for you I'm still trying to get this state under control, so unless I was fighting to kill you I would lose. You'll be getting away today, but I have just the move to make sure that you won't be able to fight anymore today either. If you value your life, put up the strongest defense you have. Wouldn't want to accidentally kill you with what I'm about to do."
Asahi flash stepped out of Orochimaru's sight. The area around him was illuminated with a dark red light coming from behind him. He turned around and saw Asahi charging up an attack. The red energy from before was coalescing around the blade. Orochimaru shot the blade of Kusanagi from his mouth towards Asahi, but he moved out of the way before the blade could even get far from his mouth. He finished charging the attack and a ton of air pressure started coming from the energy around the blade. The trees far away from them were bending from the force. The winds were felt by everyone in the forest. Orochimaru bit into his two thumbs and threw blood.
"Get ready, Getsuga Tenshō!"
Asahi swung the sword in a downward slash and released a black red crescent shaped energy blast straight at Orochimaru. The blast carved through earth along its path. Orochimaru placed his hand down onto the ground and formed two summoning formulas on the ground.
'Summoning: Triple Rashōmon!'
The ground broke apart in front of Orochimaru and three humongous gates that towered over the trees with a demon face and spikes on their edges came out of the ground. The Getsuga hit the first gate and tore right through it along with the second gate. The third gate slowed it down but it was cut through as well. The blast slammed right into Orochimaru and it dragged him along its path of destruction. The blast went through the forest, broke through the gate surrounding the forest, and continued going forward away from the village for dozens of kilometers. Asahi made sure that the attack would only leave him massively injured and that no one else was in the path of the attack. A trench was made along the entire path of the attack. Orochimaru was left in a random forest with his body smoking and crushed from the attack.
Asahi dropped out of Sage mode and dematerialized the sword.
'Well I wasn't planning on showing that much power against him. Hopefully he thinks that I was bluffing about being able to kill him. If he doesn't it's probably going to be a lot tougher to take him down with him now on guard. He'll probably send someone or multiple people to at least hold me off during the invasion. Need to plan on how to handle that.'
Asahi uncovered his eyes and looked down the path of the Getsuga. He let out a nervous laugh.
'Also have to figure out what reason I'm going to give for using an attack like this.'