As the Akatsuki member called out his challenge, Naruto couldn't help but feel a certain trepidation. When he had trained with Jiraiya, he had had years to try his luck at fighting the legendary Toad Sage, and he knew that if his master were ever to fight him seriously then Naruto would swiftly become a corpse. He knew it in his bones, no matter how hard he egged the man on.

From everything he had heard, this Orochimaru was as good as, or better than, Jiraiya, with none of the redeeming character traits. This was a fight no sane person wanted a piece of.

Luffy dashed to the ship's railing, shouting, "You wanna take our ship?! Hell if I'm gonna let you do that, you snake bastard!" Then, with no further warm-up, he leapt some fifty feet into the air, heading straight towards the man, fists raised.

Whatever he was planning, Luffy didn't get the chance to do it. From the shadows of the dock, a second voice spoke.

[FUUTON: DAITOPPA] - [WIND RELEASE: GREAT BREAKTHROUGH]

Silhouetted by the moon, Luffy felt rather than saw the disrupted air coming at him. A strong headwind struck him head-on as if he had been impacted by a boulder, pushing him backwards as his grunts of effort turned into a shout of rage. Somehow, the wind itself began to cut at his skin. A second after impact he saw a glint and thrust his hand into the swirling vortex of air to a tiny patch of calm, snatching a thrown kunai that had been directly on course to hit his face.

"Argh! You jerk!" he screamed.

Then the explosive tag attached to the kunai ignited, the blast catching Luffy directly in the face, sending him sailing out into the dark waters of the open ocean.

Sanji was the first to react. "Shit!" he cursed, tossing his cigarette over the edge as he dashed to the other side of the ship, "Why does the guy who can't swim keep getting knocked into the ocean!" With that, he leapt overboard. Naruto wasn't sure whether his being able to swim or not was his biggest problem, though. Taking an explosion like that at a single arm's length wasn't an experience people generally survived.

The man who had cast the powerful wind element jutsu emerged from the shadows of the dock warehouses, moving and speaking calmly.

"Orochimaru," he said in a deep, well-practiced voice that wasn't even trying to hide his disdain, "Don't fool around. There are only a few of these visitors in port. You can kill them after taking care of the mission."

The man was old, with short black hair that was late in going to gray and a thoroughly scarred face with a heavy black eyepatch over his right eye. Other than that, his standard Akatsuki cloud-print robes hid most of his body. Regardless, he moved out of the shadows like he owned the darkness, and there was no hint of infirmity in his calm stride.

Zoro had seen enough. Two swords drawn, he gripped the third between his teeth and then he moved, dashing straight for the snake-man who had interrupted the initial clash. One of the good things about dealing with assassins, Zoro considered, was that once they showed themselves everything got nice and simple. There was no need to worry about going easy on idiots who bluffed or postured as they threatened murder, because a real killer showed their true intentions in every line of their body.

Zoro ate up the distance between him and his target, feeling the intense aura of the monster before him like a mist of acid prickling at his skin. He would be striking to kill immediately.

Orochimaru chuckled again, horrible and raspy, before slicing the nail of one hand across the palm of the other, and bringing the bloody hand straight down to the ground.

[NINPO: KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU] - [SUMMONING TECHNIQUE]

Zoro was only fifty feet away when there was a sound like a polite thunderclap and Orochimaru disappeared in a cloud of sudden smoke. Not to be deterred, Zoro dashed right in, swiping his swords to clear a path as if physically cutting through the air. Charging like a stampeding bull, Zoro crossed his arms and raised two of his blades to form two impaling horns.

[SANTOURYU: USHI-BARI] [BULL NEEDLES]

It was over in a flash. Orochimaru staggered backwards, a wet noise coming from his gaping mouth as both swords impaled him where he stood, unable to even fall over without being torn apart and trampled underneath. Zoro scowled. That had been almost too easy. Orochimaru's mouth opened wide in pain, then wider and wider, a sickening popping noise signaling the moment when his jaw detached from its natural location. Zoro's scowl turned into a disbelieving grimace.

Then he heard the hissing.

Zoro had heard of a school of fencing that specialized in quick stabs directed at your opponent's face. By necessity an opponent could not advance or extend their reach while keeping their head back, and such attacks were almost impossible to ignore, which made this strategy difficult to deal with. Attacks coming at your face were unnerving, no matter who you were.

The glint of saliva-drenched scales in the moonlight was the only hint he had that the attack was coming. With the same speed as a lunging fencer, another damned serpent erupted from Orochimaru's gaping maw. From the snake's mouth, as if it were just a horrifying sheath, the point of a sword shot toward his face. Grunting with surprise, Zoro lifted his chin, barely catching the attack on the hilt of the sword he held between his teeth, then kicked out with a foot to push Orochimaru backwards, pulling his blades out of the snake-man's body.

Zoro took stock, controlling his breathing as the smoke around him began to clear. A thick cloud of it obscured his vision of the snake-man for a single moment and then Orochimaru was standing there, apparently in perfect health, now holding the straight-bladed sword that had just been unsheathed from its snake. Despite a life of strange encounters, Zoro had never seen anything like it.

"You a devil-fruit user?" He asked. Orochimaru just smirked in response, cocking his head slightly to the side.

As the smoke passed, something else became clear, as well.

The ocean heaved, a shape disturbing the waves, and with no further warning an immense serpent erupted from beneath the water beside the Merry, quickly coiling itself around it. Its diamond-patterned grey and aquamarine scales made it difficult to see in the failing light, but the ship's hull began creaking as it gained purchase. As soon as it got a grip, it began to move. Orochimaru turned to his partner further down the docks.

"As you can see, Danzou, I have the situation well in hand. Feel free to take care of the ones on the ship while I sample the entertainment here."

An opportunity. Zoro didn't often see foes who would take their eyes off of him in a fight, but he would gladly take advantage of any openings he was given. Driving inwards once more he sliced, swords biting deep into the man. No defense, no parry, just the resistance of steel cutting through muscle and bone.

No. Something was different.

Orochimaru turned that smirk back towards him, and then everything went wrong. Zoro was an expert, able to read volumes from instantaneous glimmers of movement, and he could still barely see the flicker that marked the point when the smirking monster of a man in front of him turned into a pile of angry snakes. The instant it happened, each serpent was already lunging. Zoro jumped back, cutting rapidly to behead several of the thick serpents before they could bite.

"Shit! Yeah, definitely a fruit-user. This guy's nothing but snakes!" he bit out around the hilt of the sword. Then, he cursed to himself. With no further word, Orochimaru's partner leapt onto the moving ship. Nami, Usopp, Chopper, and Robin were still on there. That dumbass cook was busy fishing their captain out of the ocean, and the only people on the docks were himself, the two kids that had attacked them, and this ridiculous snake monster.

This was not his lucky day.

Sasuke had been beside himself with shock and fury from the instant the second attacker appeared. This hardly even seemed real. It had only been this morning that Itachi had warned him about Danzou, and now here he was. This was the man who had ordered his family slaughtered. The man that Itachi had warned him above all else to stay hidden from.

He should be grabbing Naruto and leaving immediately. He shouldn't fight this man.

Danzou turned toward him and smiled, his eyes lidded.

Well screw that then. There were only a hundred feet between them, and Sasuke was determined to cover the distance in a flash. Danzou, however, moved first. With a dash and a leap he boarded the ensnared ship that was now leaving the dock.

Zoro cursed. "Damn it, you shitty cook, get your ass back here already!" With that, Zoro dove back into the fray, attacking the Orochimaru with renewed fervor.

Sasuke took quick stock of his surroundings. Orochimaru had raised his sword and was now dueling the other swordsman. The blond pirate who had jumped into the ocean was just now hauling his friend back towards the dock. Naruto, meanwhile, was looking towards Sasuke with concerned eyes.

"Naruto, I'm going after him!" Sasuke called out.

"What? Why?"

"He's the one that killed my brother." To his own ears that sentence sounded somehow flat; like he didn't even care. He tried it again. "He killed my whole family." Sasuke couldn't understand how he could feel so angry and yet sound so half-hearted. Funny how that works. Naruto looked as if he wanted to say something, but Sasuke didn't want to hear anything more. He began running.

He needed to get on that ship before it got too far away, since there was no telling how fast that snake might go once it got out of the harbor. Dashing toward the sea, he leapt toward the water's edge, but he didn't get far. Two long snakes shot out from Orochimaru's loose sleeve, covering nearly forty feet in moments. Sasuke was so focused that they encircled him easily as he jumped, knocking his breath from him as they whipped him violently into the ground.

"You're not getting away from me so easily, child," called Orochimaru, still locked in combat. "We still have lots of time to play."

Sasuke groaned from the impact. Suddenly forced to grapple with the hissing snakes, untangling himself was a problem. Of all the times to stop paying attention!

Then, both snakes died instantaneously. Naruto had arrived, severing their bodies and allowing Sasuke to escape. Helping him to his feet, Naruto locked eyes with him.

"Sasuke, do what you gotta do. I'll kick this scaly bastard's ass and follow after you." Naruto punctuated his words with a confident thump of his chest, then turned to charge into the melee, adding a barrage of clones to the mix.

Sasuke grinned; Naruto always made for an amazing distraction.

The ship was already moving faster than he could swim, which was clearly a problem for the two pirates that had just pulled themselves from the water. Not a problem for him, though. He resumed his dash toward the ocean. On the way, he saw the blond pirate delivering a series of brutal axe-kicks to his waterlogged companion. While screaming. This crew must be less cohesive than he had thought.

Sasuke leapt into the night and landed, still running, on the surface of the water.

Sanji had finally pulled their dumbass of a captain out of the ocean when he realized the ship was already leaving. It was, in fact, moving too fast and too far away to catch up with by swimming, even for him. So now he was stuck on land, 'helping' Luffy get the water out of his lungs by means of his heel, each kick forcing out more and more.

"You asshole!" Kick. "The Ladies are on that ship with one of those crazies!" Kick. "-and you have to get your rubber ass-" Kick. "-knocked out to sea like an idiot," Kick. "You sorry excuse for a waterlogged whoopee cushion!" Kick. "Hell, it's not even fun to kick you!"

Kick.

"Shit. How the hell are we supposed to catch up with a sea serpent?"

That was when one of the two kids who had come out to fight them earlier ran past him, eyes focused on their ship like he was possessed.

"Hey, it's no good, kid," he growled, "It's moving too fast for you to catch by-"

The black-haired kid leapt off the dock and landed, running, on the surface of the water. He didn't even slow down.

"-swimming." Sanji finished thoughtfully. Well that was odd.

There would be time to consider that afterward. Seconds later, Luffy finished coughing up the water, and Sanji left him to rush into the melee. Luffy would follow soon enough.