472-True Control

'Maybe I'm overthinking it,' he told himself, narrowing his eyes at the pale light breaking through the cloud canopy. 'Paranoia is a shinobi's constant companion… but if I let it control me now, I'll never reach the level I need to.' His fists tightened as he exhaled, slow and deliberate. This wasn't just another mission. This wasn't even about the war anymore.

It was about power.

Renjiro's eyes sharpened with resolve. 'If Orochimaru really is here… if I'm going to watch a Sannin fight… this is the perfect opportunity. Not just to observe. To learn.'

With that, he flickered.

A silent whisper of chakra snapped through the air—fwsh!—and he vanished from the spot in a blur, the air behind him shimmering from the sudden displacement. His feet touched down lightly on a branch overlooking the far side of the battlefield. The stench of molten rock and sulfur grew heavier. He didn't need to look far.

What greeted him was a sight he'd never forget.

Orochimaru stood calmly atop a collapsed stone pillar, his long black hair swaying gently with the heat rising from the earth. His face was untouched by urgency, his golden serpent-like eyes gleaming with something between curiosity and disdain.

Across from him, breathing heavily, was Shibuki—the Kumo jonin who had taken down multiple Uchiha earlier that day and turned squads into slag with his Lava Release.

The battlefield beneath them was scorched and fractured, pools of bubbling lava hissing against blackened stone. Shibuki's cloak was half-burnt, his face streaked with soot and sweat. He snarled, bringing his hands together. "Yōton: Sekkaigyo no Jutsu!" he roared, hurling a wave of molten stone toward Orochimaru with explosive force.

"Boooom!"

Renjiro winced as the molten wave surged forward like a tsunami. But Orochimaru didn't move.

At the last moment, the Sannin's body split—his form unravelling like discarded skin—revealing a new, unharmed body slithering free from his old one. "Tsk, tsk," Orochimaru drawled, licking his lips. "Such brute force. Do you think you're the only one with a unique Kekkei Genkai?"

Shibuki's eyes widened. "What the hell are you—?!"

"Zzt!"

In the blink of an eye, Orochimaru was gone. A whisper of wind was the only warning before his hand erupted from beneath the ground, grabbing Shibuki's ankle with an iron grip. The earth shattered as Orochimaru emerged like a serpent, flinging the Lava shinobi into the air.

Renjiro's Sharingan spun, tracking every moment. 'His speed... I couldn't even sense the chakra movement beforehand. His signature vanished completely. He tunnelled beneath the battlefield in seconds.'

As Shibuki flew backwards, he twisted mid-air and unleashed another jutsu, spitting a dense glob of superheated lava toward Orochimaru. The projectile roared like a comet, but Orochimaru extended his right hand… and it unhinged.

Bones cracked, muscles shifted, and dozens of white snakes exploded from his arm, devouring the molten blast mid-air with a grotesque hiss. The snakes coiled and slammed into Shibuki like a whip, throwing him across the field.

"Crack!"

Shibuki's body hit a charred boulder and dented it, coughing blood. "Damn you…"

Orochimaru's tongue flicked out, tasting the air. "You're strong," he said casually, "but you burn too brightly. All fire, no finesse. Let me show you what true control looks like."

With a flash of hand signs—Tiger. Snake. Ram. Dragon.—the temperature dropped abruptly. A sickly green mist began to seep from Orochimaru's body. Renjiro recognized it immediately.

'Poison mist… but not standard. It's modified.'

Shibuki tried to retreat, but Orochimaru was already behind him, a kunai in each hand.

Clink! Clink!

Sparks flew as Shibuki barely blocked with a kunai of his own. But Orochimaru twisted unnaturally, his limbs stretching just enough to drive a kick into Shibuki's ribs, sending him crashing into a nearby outcrop.

Renjiro was stunned.

'This isn't even a fight. This is… a performance.'

Shibuki roared and let out his chakra in one last gambit—his body began to glow red, steam erupting from his skin.

Yōton: Hakaigun!

A ring of lava erupted around him and spiralled outward in a deadly arc.

But Orochimaru simply opened his mouth.

And a sword emerged from his throat.

The Kusanagi blade shimmered with unnatural sharpness, and with one swipe, the entire wave of lava was split clean in two. It cooled instantly, the severed halves crashing to the ground as harmless rock.

Orochimaru stood at the centre, his blade gleaming, his lips curling into a satisfied smirk. "Lava is nice… but I prefer dissection."

Shibuki didn't have time to react. Orochimaru teleported forward, not with a jutsu but with such speed it felt like space itself bent around him. The sword flashed.

Renjiro's breath caught in his throat.

"Shink!"

A clean slash across Shibuki's torso, followed by a surge of blood and silence. The Kumo jonin staggered backwards, eyes wide with disbelief, before he collapsed onto his knees, then forward, face-first into the earth.

Orochimaru stood still, not even breathing heavily. The air around him shimmered with residual chakra, like an aura of dominance that suffocated everything nearby.

Renjiro stared, unmoving.

'That was a high-level jonin… someone who took on a dozen Uchiha and left them burning. Orochimaru just dismantled him. Effortlessly. No injuries. No wasted movement. That wasn't a battle. That was a dissection.'

His mind reeled. 'The Power, the finesse, the control. Is this what a Sannin is? No. This is what a monster is.'

Orochimaru sheathed his sword back into his throat with a sickening slither and turned slightly—just enough for Renjiro to know he had been aware of him the whole time.

A voice, silky and mocking, slithered out. "Enjoying the view, little one?"

Renjiro swallowed his pride, forcing a calm expression as he dropped from the tree line. "Just appreciating the art," he said dryly.

Orochimaru smiled, golden eyes narrowing. "You've got potential, Renjiro-kun. I look forward to seeing how you grow… or break." The last part was barely a whisper but Renjiro still caught it.

With that, his form shimmered—and vanished into the wind.

Renjiro stood in silence for several moments. The heat from the battlefield lingered on his skin, and the acrid scent of lava and blood still choked the air. But none of that weighed on him more than what he'd just seen.

He stared at the place Shibuki had fallen, then at the fading trail left by Orochimaru.

'I thought I was strong. No… I am strong. But this… this is another tier entirely. These are the kinds of enemies I'll eventually have to face. And I'm nowhere near ready.'

He exhaled, slow and controlled, even as his heart pounded in his chest.

'If I want to survive what's coming… I need to grow faster. I need to get stronger than this. Stronger than them all.'

A few meters away, hidden beneath a patch of scorched and crumbling earth, a pair of pale, lifeless eyes watched the scene with quiet scrutiny. From the shadows of the ground, Zetsu began to sink further into the earth, only his upper body still visible beneath the camouflage of dirt and ash.

The black half of his body blended almost perfectly with the charred remains of the battlefield, while the white half squinted slightly as he muttered softly to himself.

"Tch... Orochimaru is as strange as ever," White Zetsu whispered, his voice oddly amused, even with the lingering heat from the earlier battle still rising in hazy waves around him. "Always slithering around, always testing people… but even I didn't expect that much from the Uchiha boy."

He sank a little deeper, only his face now visible. A low chuckle rumbled in his throat, tinged with curiosity.

"We underestimated him." His tone shifted, becoming more analytical. "He's dangerous."

White Zetsu grinned. "Yes, yes, very dangerous. But interesting. And that chakra… hmmm… it's not just Uchiha. There's something else underneath. Something old."

He tilted his head, letting his gaze linger on the now-quiet battlefield, where Renjiro stood alone in the golden shaft of light, unmoving.

"We'll have to keep watching him… carefully."

And with that, Zetsu sank completely beneath the earth—vanishing without a sound, like a ghost swallowed by the land, leaving no trace of his presence behind.

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