Meeting her old Sensei

Meanwhile, a small group of shinobi was traveling through a forest at high speed. The person leading this group was Anko Mitarashi, who had had a two-meter-long crimson snake hanging on her body like a shawl.

This group was assigned a rather critical mission: They were to capture a random reanimated person and then slap a special seal on them that would trace back the connection to the caster, revealing their position.

Although that would very likely alert the caster, it was still better than having no clue at all.

"Hiss~"

"Geez, we will be there soon, Akane. What are you so antsy for?"

"Hiss~"

"Yes, I know I answered you the same way the last time you asked that question. That is because the last time you asked me was like five minutes ago."

"Hiss~"

"Yeah, I'm also hoping this will be an interesting fight. I wonder who the summoner is."

"Hiss~"

"No, it can't be Kabuto since he is still imprisoned inside Konoha."

"Hiss~"

While Anko was talking with Akane, the rest of her squad looked at her like she was crazy. Naturally, they knew that shinobi could communicate with their summoned animals to some degree. However, Anko wasn't simply communicating; she was straight up chatting.

Obviously, holding a proper conversation with a summoned animal was also possible; however, that usually involved the animal being capable of human speech. The snake wound around Anko clearly wasn't.

Actually, when they saw their group leader for the first time, quite a few of them were a little dissatisfied. Not only was Anko the youngest person in the group, but she was also a woman.

During the Warring States period, women had no place on the battlefield simply because they were supposed to stay at home and churn out more children to be tossed into the meat grinder that was the Warring States Period. Although that sentiment was slowly vanishing, quite a lot of the older generation were still taught like that and firmly believed it to be true.

However, their dissatisfaction with Anko vanished rather quickly when they encountered their first objective: A reanimated person from Kumo. The person was quickly identified as an S-Rank missing-nin, causing the group to sweat. In their opinion, they didn't have the firepower to take out such a high-level threat.

However, they were quickly proven wrong when Anko's speed suddenly tripled. She appeared in front of the enemy shinobi, and before anyone else could react, she had slapped a seal on them, knocking them out instantly. Only then did they realize why Anko was leading this team.

Although they still weren't sure what they were supposed to do with the crazy woman that was talking with a snake, they decided to simply not bother her.

A few minutes of traveling longer, the small group arrived in front of a small cave, and after spreading her senses, a deep frown appeared on Anko's face.

"Good news, our target either didn't notice us detecting their position or didn't bother running away. Bad news, this is not a fight either of you should participate in."

Naturally, Anko's small team was confused by her words.

"What do you mean, Mitara..."

Before any questions could be asked, intense pressure started radiating out of the cave, almost causing the weaker member of the group to collapse.

"Kufufufu..."

Creepy laughter echoed out of the cave, giving Anko's team the chills, while she could only shake her head with a wry smile on her face.

"I was not expecting to ever see you again. It's been a while, Orochimaru."

Moments later, a tall man with pale skin exited the cave. He had pale skin and long black hair. Two horns grew out of his forehead while a purple pigmentation surrounded his eyes. Additionally, his left eye was completely black, the typical color of someone who was reanimated with the Edo Tensei, but his other eye was actually yellow and snake-like. He appeared to be in a weird state between being reanimated and being alive simultaneously.

"Indeed, I wasn't expecting that I would have a chance to avenge my death either. It's so naughty of you to kill your beloved sensei, Anko-chan."

The people behind Anko couldn't help but be surprised when they heard AOrochimaru's words.

"Wasn't Orochimaru killed by Uchiha-sama?"

"Yeah, I also heard about that."

"Weird; why does he claim that Mitarashi-sama killed him?"

Orochimaru frowned when he heard the words of the fodder behind Anko.

'Sasuke killed me? Or maybe they mean Itachi? Where did that weird rumor come from? Whatever, it does not matter.'

"Anyway, now that I have obtained the same power as you, I will enjoy killing you, Anko-chan. Or rather than killing you, I will keep you alive and make you my test subject. I can't wait to find out how you absorb Natural Energy."

Anko chuckled in amusement at Orochimaru's words and prepared herself for combat.

"You lot, fall back. This is not a fight you should participate in."

As she finished giving her order and saw that her little squad was retreating, Anko continued speaking with a teasing smile on her face. Anyway, will you be fine, Orochimaru? As far as I know, Sage mode has a time limit of five minutes. Are you fine with chatting like this? Just so you know, I won't be going limp after a mere five minutes, so I hope you have this planned out."

"Hiss~"

"That clearly wasn't a sexual innuendo, Akane. You just have a dirty mind."

"Hiss~! Hiss~! HISS~!!!"

"Language."

Although Orochimaru was slightly dumbfounded by the weird scene before him, he nonetheless continued talking. He simply couldn't help himself but brag about how much of a genius he was.

"Kufufu, you don't need to worry about that. Naturally, I made some improvements to prevent that from happening."

Anko's eyes widened in surprise when she heard that. After probably scanning Orochimaru's body, she noticed that he had complex patterns all over his skin.

"Oh! You managed to incorporate Jugo's condition into your curse seal properly. Guess this will be fun after all."

Although Orochimaru was surprised that Anko seemed to be familiar with Jugo, he couldn't care less. Finally, he could get revenge on the humiliation he received from Anko. And after he was done with her, he would do the same to Yuna.

He couldn't help but chuckle a little when he imagined all the secrets he would be able to unveil after getting his hands on Yuna's body.

'Yes, today will be a good day.'