[This is exactly what I came to see!]
[That's the face I wanted to see!]
[Hahahaha, hahahahaha!]
[Stephen Chow: "He kinda looks like a dog to me"]
"Hmm..."
Sasuke fell silent.
This man was Orochimaru, one of the legendary Sannin—an S-rank wanted criminal.
He genuinely had to be strong.
But... that strength didn't seem like much, somehow.
Getting brutalized like a dog by Itachi—were the Sannin all just knockoffs or something?
Beaten by Itachi?
Pfft. I could lose to him myself, no problem.
It was just losing to Itachi, after all. Put me in, Sasuke figured, and I'd manage that much too.
Round it off, and he was basically standing on the same level as a Sannin.
"Ara ara, why so flustered and furious, Lord Orochimaru?" Hanabi's tone was the picture of innocence, as though she genuinely couldn't fathom why Orochimaru was so worked up.
Sannin or not, Orochimaru was a man who'd lost to Itachi Uchiha.
And judging by how flustered and furious he was getting... the loss must have been a rough one.
When Hanabi said "beaten like a dog," she'd meant it as a figure of speech—but surely he hadn't actually been beaten exactly like a dog... had he?
Orochimaru even considered going for the kill again. But the thought that this smug little brat was rather hard to kill drained the appeal right out of it.
The angrier he got, the happier she became.
He'd come here to lure Sasuke away—he hadn't expected to be sent into a full meltdown like this.
"Heh heh heh. You've certainly got a knack for provocation, brat. But flapping your gums won't stop me." Orochimaru had to admit—this smug little brat was extraordinarily good at taunting.
Even he, one of the Sannin, couldn't keep it together.
And she hadn't even cursed at him... she'd merely stated the facts.
"But you were beaten by Itachi Uchiha." Hanabi smiled.
"You're courting death!"
Orochimaru couldn't help himself—he killed Hanabi once more.
"But you really were beaten by Itachi Uchiha. Or—was it not Itachi who beat you at all, but some no-name nobody?"
This round sent Orochimaru even further over the edge.
As one of the Sannin, when had he ever been treated like this?
Had she been poking at any other sore spot, Orochimaru wouldn't have so much as flinched.
But the Sharingan—that one subject alone could shatter his composure completely.
And so Orochimaru resolved to ignore Hanabi.
He turned to Sasuke. Sasuke was the objective, no matter what—and he'd come here to brand Sasuke with the Cursed Seal.
"Or perhaps... your clumsy soul and that equally laughable body of yours?"
Orochimaru stopped short again.
"You even know about that?" Orochimaru radiated far more killing intent than before.
Were it not for the Third being right next door, Orochimaru might well have gone on a killing spree.
"Heh heh heh. Who's to say?"
[Didn't Hanabi get possessed by some evil god or something?]
[Someone said that evil god is, like, a death god or whatever]
[Maybe she sensed something off about this Orochimaru]
[The Ninja's Path just loves planting plot hooks—who even knows how many are buried by now]
Hanabi deliberately played the Riddler.
Partly because it was fun, and partly because "Hyuga Hanabi" had no business knowing about something like "Living Corpse Reincarnation."
Her earlier "doxxing weapon" had been nothing more than a reasonable deduction.
"Hyuga Hanabi" could investigate Kabuto Yakushi, but there was no way she could know the history of an Orochimaru who'd been away from the Leaf. Still—thanks to her own "evil-god possession," she could sense a thing or two about an Orochimaru who wore another's body.
"Let me think."
Hanabi went on doxxing Orochimaru.
"That sense of wrongness must come from the mismatch between your body and your soul. I see now."
Hanabi didn't underestimate an Orochimaru capable of "Cursed Seal rebirth."
In a sense, Orochimaru's Cursed Seal was even more useful than the "Kāma" of the future Otsutsuki.
"I can't let her keep talking."
Orochimaru clapped his hands together, used a binding ninjutsu, and made to leave his mark on Sasuke.
Both Hanabi and Sasuke were bound fast, so there was no problem.
"—!!!"
But as Orochimaru's head drew near Sasuke, his battle instincts shrieked a frantic warning.
In the end, he stopped.
"Ara ara, why'd you stop~" Hanabi smiled.
"At first, the moment Itachi Uchiha came up, Sasuke was beside himself. But from somewhere in the middle on, you kept bringing up Itachi—and Sasuke went quiet."
Orochimaru had sharply caught the discrepancy.
"Told you we'd get found out." "Sasuke" shrugged, then released the Transformation Technique and changed back into Hikari Uchiha.
—Somewhere along the way, Sasuke had been swapped out.
While Hanabi was darting around in a frenzy, Hikari had quietly taken his place.
In truth, Hikari had nearly stepped in the very moment Orochimaru killed Hanabi.
Fortunately, she'd held herself back.
Besides, watching this man come unglued was rather entertaining.
"Just had some breathing room to spare. If he hadn't taken the bait, then so be it." Hanabi shrugged.
Just as Orochimaru had meant to brand Sasuke with his mark, Hanabi had Hikari brand Orochimaru with a mark of her own while he closed in.
—The mark of Yachihoko.
Yachihoko.
This was Hikari's true dōjutsu. Anyone branded by it would have their chakra siphoned by Hikari—their very mind controlled.
Even the Naruto of later days couldn't withstand this technique, let alone Orochimaru.
Still, this was just an incidental bonus—a happy little extra.
"..." Orochimaru looked at Hikari Uchiha.
His battle instincts were screaming.
The feeling was much like the pressure Itachi had once put on him.
—Who was this girl who'd appeared out of nowhere?
She bore a faint resemblance to Sasuke, but the Uchiha clan was supposed to have been wiped out to the last.
"An unfamiliar face. And yet you put pressure even on me—you're no ordinary girl."
If it were merely an "immortal" Hanabi, Orochimaru had countless ways to deal with her.
But this woman, whose depths he couldn't gauge, was real trouble.
"Looks like this guy thinks I'm the real threat." Hikari was more than happy to have Orochimaru's eyes on her.
And yet it angered her too—didn't that mean he was underestimating Hanabi?!
"That's how it is, Lord Orochimaru." An ice sword formed in Hanabi's hand. "If you would, might I ask you to keep your nasty little schemes off my teammates?"
"Ice Release?"
Orochimaru hadn't expected her to be hiding this card too.
This woman's strength, it seemed, went well beyond Genjutsu.
"Kabuto's intel has some serious gaps." Orochimaru realized the information Kabuto had given him was likely deeply flawed.
Though when he thought about it, that was only to be expected.
After all, the man had ended up dragged into the whole thing himself...