177. Fighting Orochimaru

They were currently going back to Konoha after exiting the Land of Rice and had already entered the Land of Fire. 

"Heh, from where did Hanabi learn such a complicated word?" Tenten asked back. 

"She said something along the lines of getting still tutored due to her 'quick graduation', also saying something along the lines of how it's normal for the Hyuga clan to make their children more "noble" or something along those lines" Sora shrugged. 

Both of their gazes went to the present hyuga on the scene. 

"I don't think "anti-climatic" is a complicated word and Hanabi was probably exaggerating our clan's motto" Neji decided to defend his clan. 

"Hehe," Tenten giggled but didn't say anything. 

"She does seem annoyed by that" Sora said and he was going to say something, but stopped. 

'Right, I even beat Neji like she wanted, but saying that would lead to something interesting, but I don't want to get involved in the drama' Sora wisely plucked out that idea before it could take root. 

He generally likes to prank people and cause trouble, however, if he tried to cause trouble using a different identity or just creating a rumour about this matter, Hanabi would definitely know that it was him who caused this in the first place. 

Suddenly, Sora's eyes widened, and so did Guy's. 

Latter had already dashed back while pulling Lee and Tenten. 

Sora did the same and flickered backwards while pulling Neji with him. 

In the next instant, in the area where they were standing previously, a giant snake came out of the ground with his mouth open. 

Neji was shocked that he hadn't detected this with his byakugan previously. 

"Some seals were used, which were carefully hidden, such that they won't appear in sight if I don't actively focus on sensing them, It's an ambush!" Sora said while activating his shape-shifting Jutsu. 

"You didn't think that I would let you guys go after you poked at me on the doorstep, hmm?" A chilling voice was heard from behind Sora. 

He felt hundreds of snakes rushing at him from behind. 

'I still can't sense him properly just like last time' Sora frowned while stomping his leg on the ground. 

Water materialised from his storage scroll and instantly took the form of a mirror. 

The same number of snakes came out of the mirror and neutralized the original ones. 

"I wasn't expecting you to show your cowardly self" Sora taunted while spewing out dozens of water senbons which got converted into hundreds after Sora used Multiplying Shuriken Jutsu on it, which was just a different version of Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu. 

Orochimaru weaved hand seals and released an Earth Dragon which was mostly unharmed while clashing with the barrage of water senbons. 

'Tch, he supercharged it, I wonder how much his chakra reserves are' Before Sora could intercept it, Guy crushed the mud dragon with a strong kick. 

BAM

Due to being a seal master, Sora could sense multiple seals on Orochimaru's clothes and bodies, which have the sole purpose of hiding whatever else seals are present, so he naturally couldn't sense the chakra reserves of Orochimaru. 

Supercharging refers to putting more amount of chakra into a jutsu than usual to increase the capabilities of that jutsu. 

A C-ranked supercharged jutsu could become a B or even A-rank. 

"What else I could say, you guys forced my hand, do you know how annoying it would be to get back the prisoners into their cells?" Orochimaru shook his head and weaved hand seals. 

Meanwhile, Team Guy minus Guy had taken on fighting the large snake which was proving to be a tough enemy for them. 

Especially with his poisoned spit and parts of his body, the former being indiscriminately thrown by the evil snake. 

It wouldn't be a problem if Lee opened his gates or Neji used some of his more powerful attacks, but Guy had deliberately warned them to not do it and preserve chakra. 

So, they were just stalling it. 

Orochimaru spat out a wind dragon at them soon followed by a fire jutsu, making it a large-scale Firestorm. 

Everyone on the battlefield did an evasive manoeuvre and even the big bad snake went into the ground to dodge it. 

Guy and Sora had evaded in opposite directions, so they were separated. 

"How about we have a chat? Blue Beast of Konoha" Orochimaru suddenly appeared near Guy and slashed at him with his Kusanagi sword. 

Guy being aware of how dangerously sharp the sword is chose to dodge the slashes at him while taking the openings to do some kicks at him, which were deflected by Orochimaru.

Meanwhile, Sora was ambushed by another Orochimaru.

"You really have grown into a remarkable ninja in these last 1.5 years, It's a shame that I didn't give you a gift last time, but I guess need to give you one before you become grown up further, don't you think?" Orochimaru licked his lips while spatting multiple lightning pythons rushing at Sora at blinding speed. 

Sora weaved hand seals with one hand and jumped back while putting his hands on the ground. 

A squirrel made of rocks came out of the ground and chomped on the lightning pythons neutralizing them. 

"Baa-chan said to not take gifts from strangers, especially creepy snake-like bastards who are into kids" Sora replied back while making 5 shadow clones. 

"Hey now, I am not into kids, I am just a generous old uncle" Orochimaru weaved hand seals and summoned the same number of earth clones which rushed at Sora's shadow clones with a sword of their own. 

'I don't see any openings' Sora frowned as he weaved hand seals. 

In this timeline, Orochimaru's hands weren't sealed by Old Man Third, due to the latter not getting the chance to resort to using the Death Reaper Seal. 

Sora spatted out multiple water bullets 'I really want to shoot a Flying Dama, but from the intel I have on him, he has a technique which helps him recover from any damage instantly, it does take a toll on his chakra reserves, but I don't really want to risk it as I can't sense his chakra reserves' 

Orochimaru had deliberately made his appearance in such a way that the other party couldn't sense how much chakra he had, and fight in a battle of chakra with him. 

To Sora's surprise, Orochimaru used the same jutsu as him and spat out same number of small water balls at his water balls. 

His surprise turned into horror as his spherical water bullets were overpowered by his and were rushing at him. 

'Yang chakra? Did he infuse that into it to make it stronger? His Yin-Yang infusion in his jutsus is said to be high too, I guess that's what it meant Sora spat out a water dragon which took the brunt of all the water bullets. 

Due to getting their momentum reduced by conflicting with water bullets previously, the water dragon was able to withstand that and rush at Orochimaru, who was out of Sora's sight. 

'Fuck, where did he go?' Sora urgently looked around. 

Meanwhile, Guy ducked and kicked Orochimaru on the pelvic region shooting him away. 

"You are a clone, aren't you?" Guy realized as he saw Orochimaru who changed his orientation on the ground while spatting a purple liquid, preventing Guy from taking advantage of the opening created by him due to being airborne. 

At Orochimaru's pelvic region, a missing chunk could be seen, with rocks there. 

"Indeed, but don't worry, this clone has enough chakra to entertain you," Orochimaru said while weaving hand seals. 

"You leave me with no choice" Green aura could be seen excluded by Guy. 

"Sixth Gate: Gate of Joy Open!" Just as Guy shouted that, he was already near Orochimaru and punching him in his mouth where he had almost released a fire jutsu. 

Before Orochimaru was sent hurling back like a cannonball, he had modified his hand seals a bit, such that another Orochimaru materialized and attacked him with a Kusanagi sword. 

"I didn't know that there was a thing called "fire clone", it seems you learn new things every day, such is Youth!" Guy commented while already having his legs making a hole in Orochimaru's abdomen, where he could see the clone dispelling in a fire in an attempt to stop him. 

However, Guy had already rushed at the earth clone of Orochimaru, whose destroyed face had already reformed. 

"Hehe, My task is only to stall you, I think I did it for enough time for my main body to do the task" Orochimaru's words made Guy frown just as he destroyed the earth clone completely. 

Sora could still see some of his shadow clones fighting the earth clones. 

Some of Orochimaru's clones were destroyed previously and some of Sora's shadow clones were dispelled too. 

Sora couldn't sense him, so that was the reason for his eyes suddenly as he felt something biting him in the neck.

***

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