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Volume six of the Naruto manga began with a chapter bearing a title that immediately commanded attention.
Chapter 47: Predator!!
In Konoha, after purchasing the new volume along with his favorite drink, Orochimaru settled into his preferred spot away from the noise.
"Interesting..." He licked his lips as he read the title of the first chapter of the volume.
The first thing he saw on the opening pages was Naruto, as the manga revealed his current situation.
In the next moment, Orochimaru froze, his eyes widening, not with shock, but with intense excitement.
'A giant brown snake…!'
On the manga page, Naruto was facing a huge snake. Orochimaru recognized it instantly as a summoned snake from Ryūchi Cave.
If Orochimaru could identify the "summoned" snake immediately, what would stop the Hokage and the others from doing the same?
…
[— Manga Scene —]
'I… I've never seen a snake so big…!'
Naruto froze, staring at the massive serpent before him. 'What's up with this forest…?'
But in the next instant, the huge snake coiled its tail around him and swallowed him whole.
'He ate me…'
"Let me out!!! Damn you!!"
…
"You want my Earth Scroll, right?"
"Since you guys have the Heaven Scroll…" The "supposed" Kusagakure shinobi placed the scroll on his long tongue and swallowed it, leaving Sasuke and Sakura stunned.
"Now, let's begin the battle for each other's scroll…" he said.
He pressed a finger against his eye, nearly gouging it as he stared at Sasuke with a terrifying expression.
"With our lives on the line." The horrifying killing intent made both Sasuke and Sakura feel as if they were experiencing death in that very moment, as if they were mere carcasses being butchered.
'… Genjutsu…?' That was Sasuke's first thought as he began to retch.
'No… This is just fear… The killing intent in his eyes is causing us to see an image of death… Who is this guy?'... Sasuke collapsed to the ground.
"Sakura…" He called out to Sakura only to find her trembling and weeping, unable to make a sound.
'This is bad… We must run… Otherwise… There is only death!!'
"Hehe… You can no longer move…"
[— End Scene —]
…
The atmosphere had been buzzing with excitement just moments ago.
The Art Store in Konoha was gradually filling with enthusiastic readers, familiar laughter, everyone enjoying their favorite drinks, and people finding the perfect spots to sit with loved ones and friends to share these "recurring" monthly moments.
But in this instant, most of the laughing voices ceased, as if someone had pressed a pause button.
The enthusiasm froze; even as more readers continued to pour in, they were affected by the heavy silence inside the store and fell quiet themselves.
The silence of the "majority," who had already begun reading, forced the "minority," who had just entered and didn't yet understand what was happening, into a hushed state.
…
At this moment, Orochimaru was trembling with excitement.
'This is me, without a doubt! This is my counterpart, no question about it…!'
As for Jiraiya, who had just sat down not far from Orochimaru, his eyes twitched, and he wore a disgusted expression.
"That bastard... what does he want with a group of rookies?"
"Heh, I didn't know you had such a sadistic side. Bullying children? Man... what could your counterpart possibly want from Sasuke?"
Jiraiya's voice grew louder as he questioned Orochimaru directly.
"Naturally, I'd be called the 'Predator' in this chapter... Well, how should I know what my future self is planning to do?"
"I am a reader just like you..."
"I'm extremely curious to see what my future counterpart hopes to achieve with these moves that even I don't understand yet..." Orochimaru replied to Jiraiya with genuine sincerity.
He truly wanted to know what was going on.
"It seems your counterpart has become a rogue ninja, Orochimaru..." However, Tsunade, sitting nearby, had a different take.
"Rogue ninja? That's impossible! How did you come to that conclusion, sister?" Beside her, the first to object was her brother, Nawaki.
He couldn't wrap his head around the fact that one of the Legendary Sannin would become an enemy of Konoha, especially since their teacher was still the Hokage in the manga's timeline.
"It seems your younger brother is smarter than you, Tsunade." Orochimaru chuckled after hearing Tsunade's hypothesis.
But internally, he didn't rule it out at all, but accepting it was one thing, admitting it was another.
Jiraiya's eyes narrowed as he glared at Orochimaru. He, too, struggled to accept Tsunade's assumption. 'I hope that doesn't happen…'
Even if it was just in the world of the manga they were slowly discovering, if such a thing were officially declared, it might accelerate its occurrence in the real world.
One could observe that the manga and its events affected the readers' emotions in unexpected ways, linking the characters to their counterparts... In a sense, if you were a villain in the manga, but not yet in the real world, you became a villain in the eyes of the readers automatically. It didn't even matter if you proved your innocence.
Evidence of this was seen with Gatou, whom ordinary civilians had reported to the Mist shinobi. They arrested him simply because those civilians had read the manga, been influenced by it, and formed a preconceived notion that Gatou was scum, even though this Gatou was twenty years younger than his counterpart.
The red lines established by Rob, forbidding the harassment of people in real life for the actions of their manga counterparts, were meant to limit this issue.
But there was no helping it; the karma of future villains was returning to hunt their past selves before they had even begun their follies. It was a strange, inverted equation, manifest in a world where Rob had become a prophet, drawing the future and presenting it to the world on paper.
In that moment, Orochimaru's expression shifted as he felt sharp gazes boring into his back.
…
Both Hiruzen and Danzo were staring coldly at Orochimaru. After a brief silence, Hiruzen spoke with a sigh.
"Sigh... Danzo, let's not blame Orochimaru without knowing the full story."
Danzo looked at Hiruzen coldly. "Am I to understand you're taking his side? What if he is planning to do all of this in the future?"
"But we don't even know what his counterpart is planning yet. Although I feel something bad is inevitably coming, I will not take action against my student based on a feeling, whether it comes true or not..."
"If you won't, it doesn't mean I won't... My instincts have always told me something wasn't right with that boy. Now, it seems the manga, and I agree."
Saying this, Danzo averted his cold gaze from Orochimaru's back and continued turning the pages.
…
The readers never expected the Chunin Exams, which they thought were just a standard test, to become such terrifying events because of outside interference.
A huge snake had swallowed Naruto, and a Kusa shinobi was emitting a killing intent so foul it didn't just freeze Sasuke and Sakura; it froze the readers in shock.
Among those readers, Minato and Kushina were extremely worried about Naruto's safety as he struggled inside the stomach of the great snake.
But in the next moment, they both slapped their foreheads, not out of stress, but because of Naruto's sheer brilliance. He killed the snake in a way no one, but him, would have thought of.
"Well, only he has that illogical amount of chakra to create that many shadow clones and survive such an ordeal..." Minato smiled wryly, looking at how Naruto managed to explode the snake's stomach from the inside by summoning hundreds of Shadow Clones.
...
..
[— Manga Scene —]
"You guys shouldn't relax for a moment."
"Prey should always be trying their best to run away…"
The "supposed" Kusa shinobi emerged from the head of the snake Sasuke had just killed. He looked more like a snake than a human, with his long tongue and pale skin.
"In the presence of a predator, that is-" At that moment, he dodged several shuriken and kunai aimed at his head.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke!!"
Naruto stood on a nearby tree branch.
"I forgot the codeword!!"
[— End Scene —]
Minato and Kushina cheered at the sight of Naruto's heroic intervention at the end of the chapter.
A sense of warmth and pride they had never felt before made their hearts race, as if they were the ones who had made the save.
…
Inside the Seal Space:
BOOM!
A massive claw struck the watery floor, splashing the giant iron bars.
"Hohoho! What a terrible entrance you have there, Naruto... Of course, you'd forget the codeword!"
"Because you're an idiot! Hahahaha!!!"
The laughter of the Demon Fox echoed, thoroughly enjoying the manga events.
Without a doubt, he was the number one fan; no one gave more Art Coins than him!
…
Outside the seal, however, Kushina's smile turned to worry.
"That man isn't just a shinobi from Kusa, is he, Minato?" she asked.
"That's for sure. Summoning snakes, a physical flexibility like a snake... this isn't a level a Genin can harm... not even a Chunin. I can only think of one person capable of these things."
Minato looked quietly in a certain direction. It was the spot where Orochimaru was sitting.
In that moment, Minato wasn't the only one looking at Orochimaru, who had become the center of attention before the manga had even officially announced his name!
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Upcoming chapter titles (spoilers):
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Chapter 135: I Must Survive in Order to Kill My Brother.
Chapter 136: The Terrified Orochimaru!
Chapter 137: The Beautiful Green Beast of Konohagakure!
Chapter 138: Reactions of the Konoha Clans… One Against Three.
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