For a brief moment, everyone thought it was finally over.
After everything they had just seen, surely there couldn't be another twist.
Tōma didn't relax.
He knew better.
The Chidori Spear he'd used was optimized for speed and penetration, not for clean dismemberment. Unless Orochimaru's neck was completely severed, Tōma wouldn't consider him neutralized.
And then the impossible happened.
Despite having his neck pierced clean through, Orochimaru's severed head twitched.
It kept moving.
In Sasuke's wide-eyed stare, the grotesque mouth opened, and from within it slithered out another snake.
Just one.
Sasuke had recovered enough in that brief window. He slashed with his kunai, cleanly cutting the snake in half.
That should be it.
Breathing hard, Sasuke stared at the writhing remains. His nerves felt dulled after one shock too many.
"NARUTO!"
The shout hit him like a hammer.
Again?
Sasuke didn't even have time to turn. Pain flared at his neck.
The snake he hadn't fully cleared had climbed the nearby tree and struck, sinking its fangs into him. Sasuke reacted instantly, cutting it down, but it was already too late.
Tōma arrived beside him in a blur, Naruto and Sakura pulled along with him. His gaze locked onto the dark pattern spreading across Sasuke's neck.
…Unbelievable.
Orochimaru wasn't just hard to kill. His tricks were endless.
Even after losing his head, he'd still managed to plant the curse mark.
It looked like Tōma had dominated the exchange, but in truth, Orochimaru's attention had never been on him. From start to finish, his focus had been Sasuke. That was the only reason Tōma had been able to press him at all.
A Sannin, unrestrained, was still beyond what Tōma could deal with directly.
"Is he… finally dead?" Sasuke asked hoarsely, clutching his neck.
"Not necessarily," Tōma replied grimly.
Sakura immediately began treating the bite with basic medical ninjutsu.
The four of them looked toward the impact crater.
What they saw made their scalps crawl.
A headless body knelt in the pit.
Then, from the torn neck, two pale hands emerged. The skin was unnaturally smooth, almost delicate. Those hands gripped the corpse and tore it open, forcing their way out as if shedding a shell.
A new body pulled itself free.
Identical. Unharmed. Even the clothes were the same.
Covered in slime.
"What… is that thing?" Naruto swallowed, fear creeping into his eyes.
A distorted chuckle echoed through the clearing.
The androgynous figure looked at Tōma, tongue flicking out lazily.
"So you're the one they call Konoha's Little White Fang," Orochimaru said. "It seems the rumors were inaccurate."
Sasuke and Sakura stiffened.
"Little White Fang?" they echoed, staring at Tōma's back.
Naruto blinked. "Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"
"Coming from a Sannin who hunts Genin for fun," Tōma said flatly, stepping in front of Team Seven, "I'm deeply honored."
He'd sensed the Nine-Tails' chakra surging and used Flying Thunder God the instant it spiked. If he'd arrived any earlier, Sasuke might not have been marked.
Not that the curse mark was entirely bad for Sasuke's growth.
But after feeling that instinctive revulsion, Tōma had wanted to stop it.
He'd been too late.
"More than Little White Fang," Orochimaru continued, eyes gleaming. "You should be called the successor of the Fourth Hokage. Rasengan. Flying Thunder God. Those were Minato Namikaze's signature techniques."
Naruto froze.
The Fourth Hokage?
Even he understood what that meant.
Tōma nodded calmly. "Sharp eyes."
"Tch. So you're Jiraiya's student," Orochimaru mused. "That man lacked talent, but his students… each one is better than the last."
His gaze slid over Tōma's body, hungry.
"A pity. No bloodline. Your ceiling is already fixed. Otherwise, I might have wanted you too."
"I don't believe my limits are that low," Tōma replied evenly.
Orochimaru laughed. Loud. Unhinged.
The forest seemed colder for it.
"I once thought the same," he said softly, eyes drifting to Sasuke. "Until I met that man."
He straightened.
"My objective is complete. With the Yellow Flash's successor here, I won't be taking him today. But he'll come to me eventually."
"I doubt it," Tōma said, smiling thinly. "You lost once to someone with a bloodline and didn't even die. Now you act like the world ended. Hardly worthy of the Sannin title."
Orochimaru didn't rise to it.
"When you reach a dead end, you'll understand," he said, already retreating. Facing Flying Thunder God without a guaranteed kill method was simply inefficient.
And then he was gone.
Only then did Team Seven truly breathe again.
Sasuke collapsed to the ground. Sakura kept healing him, hands trembling.
"Who… was that?" Sasuke asked.
"Orochimaru," Tōma said. "The Third Hokage's former student. A traitor. One of the strongest missing-nin alive. He's not much weaker than the Hokage himself."
That stunned them into silence.
"So," Tōma continued, "you did well. All of you."
He looked at Sakura. "Your judgment was correct. You just relaxed at the very end."
"That's because…" Sakura smiled weakly. "Seeing you made me feel safe."
"Well, I'll try not to be so reassuring next time," Tōma joked.
She laughed, tension easing.
Tōma finished healing the bite wounds with the Mystical Palm. The punctures vanished, but the three black marks remained.
As expected.
"It's serious?" Naruto asked anxiously.
"It's manageable," Tōma said, lifting Sasuke onto his back. "But I need to prepare."
"I can walk—" Sasuke protested, then failed to move.
"Rely on your teammates when you're injured," Tōma said. "With me here, you can sleep if you want."
Sasuke went quiet.
He trusted him.