The lair was deep underground, beneath the roots of the Forest of Death. It was a safehouse Orochimaru had prepared years ago, lined with chakra-suppressing seals and reinforced with earth jutsu.
It was supposed to be impregnable.
Orochimaru sat in a high-backed chair, nursing a cup of tea that he wasn't drinking. His hand—the one that had held the Kusanagi blade earlier—was trembling slightly. Just a tremor. A micro-spasm of the nerve endings.
But to a perfectionist like Orochimaru, it was a scream.
"Lord Orochimaru."
Kabuto Yakushi stepped into the room. He looked pristine as always, but his eyes betrayed a flicker of concern. Behind him, three figures huddled in the doorway—Dosu, Zaku, and Kin.
They looked like they had been through a meat grinder.
Zaku's arms were shattered, his air tubes crushed. Kin was still unconscious, twitching intermittently. Dosu nursed a mangled arm, his face pale beneath his bandages.
"Report," Orochimaru hissed. He didn't look at them. He stared into his tea, watching the reflection of his snake-like eyes.
"We... we failed, Lord Orochimaru," Dosu rasped. "We engaged the target, but..."
"Sasuke Uchiha defeated you?" Orochimaru asked, a dangerous edge to his voice. "Did the curse mark activate?"
"No," Dosu swallowed hard. "We never reached Sasuke. We were intercepted."
Orochimaru finally looked up. "Intercepted? By Kakashi?"
"No, my Lord. By... the Red-Haired Man."
The temperature in the room dropped. The candles flickered as Orochimaru's chakra flared involuntarily.
"Shanks," Orochimaru whispered the name.
"He... he destroyed us," Dosu continued, his voice trembling with the memory. "Zaku fired a Decapitating Airwave. The man... he slapped it away. He physically slapped the sound wave back down Zaku's throat."
Kabuto pushed his glasses up his nose. "Slapped a sound wave? That implies movement faster than the speed of sound, combined with sufficient mass displacement to create a counter-pressure wave. Without chakra enhancement... that is physically impossible."
"He crushed my amplifier with one hand," Dosu said, holding up his ruined gauntlet. "Like it was paper. And then... he looked at Kin."
"And?" Kabuto pressed.
"She just fell over. She fainted. He didn't touch her. He just... glared."
Orochimaru stood up. He walked over to Dosu. He didn't comfort his subordinate. He placed a hand on Dosu's forehead, invading his mind with a genjutsu to replay the memory.
He saw it.
The black cloak. The empty sleeve. The eyes—those terrifying eyes that held the weight of an ocean.
Tell Orochimaru... I'll tear his village down brick by brick.
Orochimaru withdrew his hand. He walked back to his chair and sat down heavily.
"Lord Orochimaru?" Kabuto asked cautiously. "Shall I mobilize the Sound Four? Or perhaps Kimimaro?"
Orochimaru laughed.
It started as a chuckle, then grew into a high, manic cackle that bounced off the stone walls.
"Send the Sound Four?" Orochimaru wiped a tear from his eye. "Against him? Kabuto, you are usually intelligent. Do not be a fool. Sending them would be like feeding mice to a dragon."
Orochimaru looked at his trembling hand again.
"I have spent my life seeking the ultimate truth of this world," Orochimaru mused. "I believed that truth lay in Ninjutsu. In the mastery of chakra. In the accumulation of bloodlines."
He clenched his fist.
"But this man... Shanks... he mocks my life's work. He stands outside the rules. He has no chakra, yet he overwhelmed my Killing Intent with ease. He has no Kekkei Genkai, yet his body is harder than diamond."
Orochimaru leaned back, staring at the ceiling.
"I miscalculated," he admitted softly. "I thought he was a variable. An anomaly to be studied. But he is not a variable."
His eyes narrowed.
"He is a wall."
Kabuto frowned. "Are you saying we should abandon the plan? Abandon Sasuke?"
"No," Orochimaru hissed. "I never abandon my desires. But... the strategy must change. Direct confrontation with Shanks is suicide. He possesses a power—this 'Haki'—that counters my intangibility, my regeneration, and my fear tactics."
Orochimaru stood up again, regaining his composure. The tremor in his hand was gone.
"We cannot fight him head-on. Not yet. Not until I understand the mechanism of his strength."
He looked at Dosu.
"Heal them, Kabuto. Then send them back to the exam. Let them be fodder for the Uchiha boy. Sasuke needs to be pushed, but not by me. Let the leaf ninja do it."
"And Shanks?" Kabuto asked.
"We avoid him," Orochimaru commanded. "If he is in the East, we go West. If he is in the North, we go South. We operate in his shadow."
Orochimaru walked toward his laboratory door.
"He threatened to destroy Otogakure," Orochimaru murmured. "And the terrifying part, Kabuto... is that I believe he could do it before lunch."
He paused at the door, looking back with a gleaming, hungry eye.
"But every wall has a crack. And I am a snake. I will find a way to slither through eventually."
Orochimaru exited the room.
Kabuto stood in silence, looking at the terrified Sound Genin.
"Well," Kabuto smirked, adjusting his glasses. "It seems the game just got significantly more difficult. A shame. I was hoping to meet this pirate."
Kabuto turned to his medical supplies.
But if Lord Orochimaru is afraid... Kabuto thought, a chill running down his spine. Then this Shanks is truly a god amongst men.