Orochimaru moved at an unhurried pace through the underground laboratory.
For him, getting up around noon was actually a rather unusual thing.
Ever since he had lost the Hokage election, he had rarely chosen to show himself in public.
That was not because he still could not accept the failure, though admittedly, the result had annoyed him.
It just was not something he cared enough about to dwell on.
In his view, failing to become Hokage merely meant that his dream as a Konoha shinobi had shattered.
And now, he had already found another dream.
What he truly desired now was the pursuit of power, the exploration of hidden truths, and the study of the mysterious domain of life itself.
If that were not the case, he never would have chosen to work with a man like Danzō.
Truth be told, Orochimaru had never thought highly of him.
That man was nothing more than his teacher's shadow—someone who carried all of Konoha's darkness on his back, yet was not worthy of respect in the slightest.
He had never truly understood his own place, nor had he ever seen clearly what sort of being he himself really was.
Still, Orochimaru did not particularly care.
Even if Danzō had created a huge mess this time, it made little difference to him.
After all, their partnership had been very effective.
Danzō provided materials, facilities, and a quiet environment.
Under those conditions, Orochimaru had been free to focus entirely on what he wanted to do.
"Still, Danzō really has no sense of his own limits," Orochimaru mused inwardly as he walked. "He actually tried to assassinate Sensei. Worse, he sent that test subject out. Not only did that cost me a useful observation sample, it also risks inviting some very troublesome attention."
Orochimaru's mind was perfectly clear.
Danzō's assassination attempt had never stood a real chance of succeeding.
Even if his teacher had grown old, he was still not someone a few rats in the dark could deal with.
And beyond that, ANBU certainly was not for show.
Especially now that ANBU had a new commander.
For the sake of ANBU's development—and to better oppose his own teacher—that new commander would never allow Sensei to go unprotected.
Reality had proven Orochimaru's guess correct.
What he had not expected, however, was that the ANBU commander had personally gone out.
"Senju Hikaru… what an interesting and dangerous little brat."
Thinking back to the night of the Nine-Tails attack—the enormous lizard, and that suffocating Wood Release—Orochimaru could not help but feel a shiver of excitement.
Wood Release.
That was something he had been trying to conquer for a very long time.
Yet even now, his progress remained mediocre.
Yes, he had managed to produce one test subject with passable results.
But he knew very well that the gap between that specimen and Hikaru was not merely large—it was absurd.
What Orochimaru had never told Danzō was that on the night of the Nine-Tails attack, he had personally gone to the front lines.
He had personally felt Hikaru's Wood Release.
And within that Wood Release, he had sensed a strange, natural quality.
Perhaps that was the true difference between the genuine power of the Senju bloodline and the imitation acquired through artificial means.
"But what exactly is that natural power?" Orochimaru wondered silently. "Why does it feel a little similar to that fool Jiraiya?"
Then he suddenly stopped.
Because he had sensed an unfamiliar chakra presence inside the underground laboratory.
It felt vaguely familiar, yet also completely alien.
For a moment, he could not determine who it was.
Still, he did not particularly mind.
Whoever had come, he could deal with them.
After all, it had been a while since he had properly stretched his limbs.
"And besides, this laboratory is hardly a place where just anyone can come and go as they please."
In the next instant, Orochimaru's chakra exploded outward.
A terrifying pressure burst from his body and shook the underground chamber violently.
Several walls cracked apart on the spot.
Then Orochimaru lowered himself slightly, like a hunting leopard.
The next second, he vanished and shot toward the intruder at high speed.
As he moved, his chakra surged again.
Almost the instant he arrived in front of the mysterious figure, several venomous snakes burst from the ground and lunged for him.
At the same time, Orochimaru's own hand reached straight for the stranger's throat, as though he intended to finish everything in a single move.
Bang!
But at that exact moment, a layer of pale golden chakra suddenly appeared around the intruder's body.
The snakes that were about to bite him turned to dust the instant they touched it.
At the same time, the figure twisted aside, narrowly avoiding Orochimaru's grab, then drove a fist straight into Orochimaru's back.
Boom!
With a violent crash, Orochimaru was smashed into the ground.
The stone floor caved in under the impact, and shattered debris flew in every direction.
But the intruder clearly knew that such a blow would never be enough to truly finish Orochimaru.
So after throwing several kunai toward him, the masked man flashed backward and widened the distance at once.
Naturally, this intruder was Hikaru—sneaking in to steal again.
The moment he had felt the little lizard's chakra signal, he had used Flying Thunder God to enter the underground facility directly.
The lizard had done its job well.
Although this time it still had not found any files or experimental records, Hikaru had once again managed to obtain some flesh samples from Hashirama.
That said, this time the security was clearly much tighter than before.
Not only were the cabinets protected by seals, but guards were also patrolling the area constantly.
Still, perhaps because Danzō had already been removed from office, the number of patrols was limited, and the overall security pressure was not nearly as intense as it could have been.
Hikaru had been able to quietly break the seals and take what he wanted without much difficulty.
The only disappointment was that the amount was much smaller this time.
Even the pieces of flesh were nowhere near as large as the ones he had obtained the first time.
Naturally, Hikaru was not satisfied with that.
So after avoiding the patrol routes, he had started searching the laboratory personally with the lizard, trying to find documents.
What he had not expected was that the moment he entered one room to investigate, a powerful chakra signature would immediately lock onto him.
To be fair, Hikaru had always known there was a chance of running into trouble.
He would not even have been surprised if that trouble turned out to be Orochimaru.
But colliding with him this suddenly—and having the fight begin immediately—really was a little awkward.
Fortunately, Hikaru had prepared in advance.
So no matter who he encountered, he could deal with it calmly.
Now, looking at Orochimaru embedded in the ground below, Hikaru remained fully alert.
After all, this man might well be one of the hardest people in the entire shinobi world to kill.
And sure enough, Orochimaru's body slowly turned to mud.
Then, from another patch of earth nearby, he reemerged completely intact.
This time, however, those snake-like eyes of his were filled with visible shock.
…
"Nine-Tails chakra?"
Orochimaru stared at Hikaru in utter disbelief.
The pale golden chakra surrounding this mysterious figure was unmistakably the chakra of the Nine-Tails.
The Nine-Tails had caused an enormous disaster in Konoha, and the chakra that had filled the sky that night was something no capable shinobi could fail to recognize.
But the Nine-Tails had already been sealed, hadn't it?
Orochimaru had not personally intervened that night, but he knew the aftermath very well.
Hikaru and Minato had split the Nine-Tails and sealed it away.
Strictly speaking, there were now two Nine-Tails jinchūriki—Minato Namikaze and Uzumaki Kushina.
Could this brat be Minato?
The thought crossed Orochimaru's mind, only to be dismissed almost immediately.
He had already seen Minato's condition.
Though he still did not understand why Minato's body was in such terrible shape while containing such astonishing life force, he knew perfectly well that state could not have been faked.
And besides, Minato was currently recovering on Mount Myōboku.
Even if he somehow left there, Orochimaru did not believe he could have mastered the Nine-Tails' power to this degree.
Orochimaru had dealt with Nine-Tails chakra before.
That chakra was notoriously difficult to control.
Yet the person before him was wielding it as though it were his own.
Such a thing was unheard of.
"Correct. Nine-Tails chakra."
Hikaru replied calmly and indifferently.
He did not bother disguising his voice.
For shinobi, mimicking someone else's tone was not difficult—but reproducing the emotional texture in their voice was another matter entirely.
Even if Hikaru used his normal voice here, Orochimaru was unlikely to connect him to Senju Hikaru.
After all, the two of them had never truly met face to face.
Beneath the mask, Hikaru lifted his head slightly. His voice was cold and carried a faint, arrogant disdain.
"Or rather…"
He paused.
"One Nine-Tails."
"One Nine-Tails?" Orochimaru's pupils shifted, and then he slowly ran his tongue over his lips. "So your meaning is… there is more than one tailed beast?"
"Even the Ten-Tails is not singular," Hikaru said with a dismissive shake of his head. "Who told you there can only be one Nine-Tails?"
Then he gave a small snort.
"But ignorance remains ignorance. It was foolish of me to expect you to show even a little intelligence."
"Is that so?" Orochimaru's eyes turned dangerous. "You're certainly arrogant. It's rather irritating."
"But since you possess such fascinating power—and such extensive knowledge—perhaps defeating you will yield quite a bit of valuable information."
As he spoke, Orochimaru's chakra surged violently again.
He had clearly entered a true combat posture now.
Hikaru watched him quietly.
If Orochimaru wanted to fight, Hikaru naturally would not stand idle.
Looking at the tense, poised Orochimaru, Hikaru let out a soft, almost bored sigh.
At this point, Root guards had already begun surrounding the area from deeper inside the laboratory.
But to Hikaru, they were no trouble at all.
"Do you know," Hikaru said suddenly, "how difficult it is to walk over ants without crushing them?"
The next second, a suffocating pressure burst outward from him.
In an instant, the walls of the underground laboratory began shaking violently.
Several sections collapsed outright.
Orochimaru felt a wave of death crash over him.
The sensation was unmistakable.
A direct confrontation with death itself.
"So," Hikaru continued in that same calm, contemptuous tone, "you should consider this an honor."
In that same instant, Orochimaru realized Hikaru was about to strike.
He reacted at once, hands flying through seals.
"Ninja Art: Triple Rashōmon!"
Boom!
Three demonic-faced gates rose up immediately in front of him—
and were shattered almost as quickly as they appeared.
Orochimaru watched, stunned, as a pale golden figure appeared before him almost like teleportation itself.
In Hikaru's hand was a pitch-black sphere, something vaguely resembling a Rasengan.
At once, Orochimaru rolled backward.
But by the time he landed and brought himself into a defensive stance, the golden figure had already vanished.
A moment later, screams erupted all around them.
Hikaru had begun slaughtering the Root guards.
And in that instant, Orochimaru also realized something else:
this underground laboratory could not hold much longer.
Yet despite that, his dominant emotion was still excitement.
He had glimpsed an utterly unbelievable power.
And perhaps even more importantly, he had glimpsed people—or perhaps an entire faction—that he had never known existed.
This masked figure had appeared from nowhere.
He wielded the Nine-Tails' power, and not only wielded it—he controlled it perfectly.
Someone like that should have left stories across the world.
If no such stories existed, then…
"Weak. Very weak."
Hikaru slowly walked back into view, shaking his head lightly.
"I've read the records. Rashōmon was the First Hokage's technique."
"And I know there are five gates."
"I can only manage three," Orochimaru replied, his body trembling slightly. But that trembling was not fear.
It was excitement.
He was becoming more and more convinced of his guess.
"Then it seems your organization possesses quite a bit of information on the First Hokage," he said slowly. "Or perhaps… your organization has much more than that."
Organization?
Hikaru looked at Orochimaru with mild amusement.
What organization did he have?
If one had to name something, wasn't ANBU itself an organization?
And if not ANBU, then perhaps the Internal Affairs Office he was already preparing to build?
Still, he was not about to answer that.
And by now, he had no intention of dragging this out any longer.
His current state, because of little Nine-Tails, could not be maintained indefinitely.
Not that it was as short as five or ten minutes—but it certainly was not something he wanted to waste.
"More or less," Hikaru said lightly, deciding to play along with Orochimaru's assumption. "After all, Hashirama Senju's cells are tempting even to me."
"And now that Konoha has produced a brat capable of using Wood Release…"
He laughed faintly.
"That only makes us more interested."
"As for why no one knows who I am…"
He tilted his head slightly.
"Didn't you already guess that part yourself?"
"I see…" Orochimaru murmured.
He had heard the word us clearly.
That one word alone contained a great deal of information.
It really might be an unknown but terrifyingly strong organization.
And if he were to expand the thought further—
was it possible that its members all wielded tailed beast power?
If that were the case, then Orochimaru could understand why they had not gone after Senju Hikaru directly.
After all, Wood Release was a hard counter to tailed beasts.
As for why they remained unknown—
that too had a simple explanation.
Anyone who had encountered them had likely died.
…
"All right. The small talk is over."
Hikaru lifted his head slightly and looked at Orochimaru through the mask, his gaze full of distant contempt.
"Have you prepared yourself to say farewell to this world?"
"You know," Orochimaru replied, licking his lips, "you really are an infuriating man."
Then his chakra surged even more violently.
"Don't act as though you've already eaten me alive."
"You might not be able to swallow me after all."
Bang!
The instant his words ended, a violent pain exploded in his abdomen.
Orochimaru's face twisted.
His mouth opened wide, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.
He had not even seen Hikaru move.
He had simply already been hit.
And with that one punch, he could feel that several of his internal organs had taken serious damage.
In the next instant, his body shot backward like a projectile.
Even so, Orochimaru was still Orochimaru.
Though he had failed to react in the very first moment, he had not forgotten to defend himself.
But Hikaru was simply too fast.
Even without Flying Thunder God, his physical speed alone was absurd.
Before Orochimaru could fully hunch over and raise both arms in front of his chest, Hikaru had already reached him.
Then another punch drove into his face.
Orochimaru's body changed direction in midair and was blasted away again.
This time Hikaru finally stopped moving, glancing briefly at the ground.
"As expected of one of the Sannin. Even in that kind of situation, you still managed to react."
His voice remained flat.
"But unfortunately, in front of me, every effort you make is meaningless."
Boom!
Orochimaru crashed into a wall, shattering straight through it.
Yet the moment he landed, his body again turned to mud.
Mud Clone—and then a Substitution layered on top of it.
Smooth.
Very smooth.
Even under that kind of pressure, he had still managed to make such a clean decision.
Even before revealing any other techniques, that alone already put him far above the vast majority of shinobi.
"Earth Release: Earth Dragon!"
At that moment, a dragon of earth rose up beside Hikaru, roaring as it lunged for him.
Hikaru looked at it indifferently, drew a kunai, and leaped.
Golden chakra wrapped itself around the blade.
With one clean slash, he split the earth dragon in half.
But the moment he landed, his eyes narrowed slightly.
Because the ground under his feet had already turned to mire.
"Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!"
Orochimaru finally reappeared through the haze of dust and smoke, looking completely unharmed.
But he was covered in viscous fluid, and in Hikaru's perception, his chakra had clearly dropped.
Hikaru immediately understood what had happened.
"I've got you now," Orochimaru said, licking his lips. He paid no mind to the slime coating his body. "The more you struggle, the deeper you'll sink."
"Don't you understand?" Hikaru replied with an almost mocking calm. "Every technique has limits. Something like this can't possibly hold me."
Then he added, almost conversationally:
"And your method is interesting. Exchanging chakra to restore your wounds?"
"I have to admit—your secret arts are disgusting."
"But effective."
"Secret Technique: Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"
Orochimaru did not bother continuing the conversation. He thrust out his hand, and countless venomous snakes shot toward Hikaru.
Hikaru merely shook his head.
Then his chakra erupted outward.
A gigantic Nine-Tails head formed in front of him.
The snakes never even got close.
They were pulverized by the chakra pressure itself, turning into bloody fragments that splattered across the floor.
At the moment, Orochimaru's attacks were simply incapable of threatening Hikaru at all.
Still—
Hikaru's brow lifted slightly.
Because he had sensed someone behind him.
"Die!"
In that same instant, another Orochimaru burst up from the swamp behind Hikaru, holding a longsword glowing with blue chakra.
Orochimaru had been waiting for this opening for quite some time.
This battle had placed him at an overwhelming disadvantage from the very start.
He knew almost nothing about the masked enemy before him.
All he knew was that this person possessed the power of the Nine-Tails—and used it flawlessly.
That was all.
By contrast, his own abilities probably did not need to be fully known at all.
Someone at this level could break him through raw fundamentals alone.
And reality had already proven that.
This man's speed and strength, displayed over only a few short minutes, had already carved themselves into Orochimaru's mind.
More importantly, Orochimaru had not forgotten that special attack—
the one that had blown through his strongest defense, Triple Rashōmon, as if it were made of paper.
If he wanted any chance of victory, he had to resort to a special measure.
And this—
this was that chance.
Slash!
The Kusanagi Sword pierced straight through Hikaru's back and emerged from his chest.
The enormous Nine-Tails head dissolved instantly.
The pale golden chakra shroud around Hikaru's body also began to fade.
Orochimaru stared at the scene—
and then frowned.
Because there was no blood.
"I told you," Hikaru's voice sounded right beside Orochimaru's ear, "everything has limits."
Orochimaru's body went cold.
The Hikaru in front of him burst into smoke.
At the same time, Orochimaru sensed his own shadow clone had just been destroyed.
He immediately manipulated the Kusanagi Sword to fly back toward him and stabbed forward—
but Hikaru had already appeared directly in front of him.
With a simple flick of his kunai, he knocked the sword aside.
Orochimaru was an excellent close-range fighter in his own right.
Even if he could not match Hikaru's speed, he did not stop attacking.
The sword was deflected, so he drove his left fist forward—
but Hikaru blocked it with one hand and kicked him square in the stomach.
"You think just because I can't see it, I won't know what little tricks you're playing?"
Hikaru spoke in the same cold, disdainful tone as he fought.
Then, as Orochimaru staggered, Hikaru knocked the Kusanagi aside once more and drove another punch forward.
Bang!
Orochimaru was sent flying again.
This time he crashed through several more walls.
"And it seems you've misunderstood something else too," Hikaru continued calmly.
"The moment you cast your technique and turned the ground into a swamp, I already knew."
"You used the swamp to limit my movement while your clone hid inside it, waiting to ambush me with the sword from behind."
"That was your plan, wasn't it?"
Orochimaru raised his Kusanagi just in time to block Hikaru's next strike—
but Hikaru's fist hit him anyway a heartbeat later.
A twisted groan escaped Orochimaru as another mouthful of blood burst from his lips.
"But you overlooked one thing."
Hikaru's eyes were utterly indifferent.
"Every movement you make is within my perception."
"You can use clones. So can I."
"And to me, none of your actions are hidden."
Hikaru drove another kick into him, sending him skidding away across the floor.
Even so, Orochimaru remained disturbingly calm.
By now, he had gathered enough intelligence.
Not all he wanted—but enough.
His body was already close to its limit.
If he did not switch tactics soon, he would be in real danger.
"His speed is absurd. His power is overwhelming. And with Nine-Tails chakra, he can even enter a partial transformed state.
"So his strength is clearly enhanced by that chakra.
"I just don't know how long he can maintain it.
"On top of that, he possesses terrifying sensory ability—enough to monitor every move I make.
"He really has no obvious weakness at all.
"But his personality is incredibly arrogant. Even if he has the strength to justify it, that kind of absolute contempt is still a flaw."
With that thought, Orochimaru slammed his hands onto the ground.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
A huge wall of earth rose instantly before him.
And without hesitation, he activated the Great Snake-Style Substitution once again.
His mouth opened grotesquely wide, and a fresh body crawled out of it.
Boom!
The earth wall exploded apart in the next second.
But Orochimaru had already finished another technique.
"Earth Release: Hiding in Rock Collapse!"
His chakra surged, and the underground laboratory began to tremble violently.
He intended to bring the whole place down.
At the same time, he had already prepared his escape.
A giant snake emerged behind him.
Orochimaru leaped straight into its mouth—
and then vanished in a puff of smoke.
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