Zabuza in the Bloody Mist Pt.1

Orochimaru's Body Flicker was interrupted as he was surrounded by red mist, he quickly gathered the Chakra and used a simple Wind Release: Great Breakthrough to clear the surrounding area.

It did not work, his Jutsu disappeared into the mist, the space cleared being filled in by red mist instantly, and most interestingly enough, he could not hear any of the surrounding battle taking place.

There was dead silence, he instantly tried every method of dispelling Genjutsu, ending in a burst of Chakra that stirred the surrounding mist, but he was still within the unknown Jutsu.

For the first time since the fight started, Orochimaru felt genuine worry, either this was a Genjutsu on par with Itachi's, or he was actually moved somewhere different, which would make it an unknown Space-Time Jutsu.

"Did you think I would just let you leave?" A voice asked from behind him.

Orochimaru jumped and turned around in a split second, only to see nothing behind him.

The mist lightened, and he saw Zabuza standing in the distance, sword resting on his shoulder.

Around Zabuza figures emerged from the red mist, humanoid in shape, but made from the same mist they walked out of, only visible due to the mist surrounding them being lighter than their bodies.

Each one raised their arms, copies of Kubikiribōchō suddenly materializing within their hands.

Orochimaru instantly understood the implications, assuming Zabuza voluntarily thinned the mist to intimidate him, he could thicken it again, making these clones invisible, only detectable due to their weapons, if their swords were as sharp as the original, then this could be trouble.

"Every single misty reflection you see here is someone I killed in my life." Zabuza explained. "We both stand on a mountain of corpses, as all good Shinobi do."

That was an interesting ability if Zabuza was being literal, Orochimaru thought, but still not useful for figuring out how to escape.

"I always wondered how big mine was, I knew I had killed a lot, but I never bothered to keep count." Zabuza mused to himself, the mist thickened again, rising from the ground.

"Do you know how many people I've killed?" Zabuza asked casually.

The bloody mist thickened even further, obscuring anything farther than a meter away.

"Eight hundred and thirteen." Zabuza's voice echoed around him. "Survive them all."

A blade swung out from the red fog, Orochimaru ducked beneath it, another swing came from behind him, he rolled forward, avoiding it.

Orochimaru extended Kusanagi and slashed behind him, his blade passing through the faint humanoid outline without effect.

Just like the Hōzuki clan then, small attacks simply passed through them, Orochimaru analyzed the situation calmly.

He breathed in and spat out a simple Water Bullet at another mist clone, it managed to block the attack with its sword but was pushed back a few meters, water was effective then, or it would not have blocked it.

That was good information, but he still had more elements to test.

The fight descended into a dance of dodges and quick tests, each element only giving him a better understanding of the technique Zabuza was using, Orochimaru was dissecting the ability apart, piece by piece.

Every wound sustained by Orochimaru was healed, every Mist Clone he managed to destroy was replaced with another, after a while, it was clear that he would not be winning this battle. At least, not like this.

Technically any element was effective, but Fire, Wind and Water were the most cost efficient. The least Chakra for the most range.

His inability to use large scale Jutsu was severely limiting his effectiveness, but he was a Sannin, and he was the strongest out of them for a reason.

He didn't need seals to fight.

He needed a few seconds to prepare, so he jumped upwards, unsurprisingly, there was more mist above him.

Breathing in deeply, his lungs expanded beyond a normal human's capacity.

Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation.

A massive stream of flame poured out from his mouth, instantly evaporating the mist around him, he spun around to try and burn as much of the clones away as possible.

But he only heard the clatter of 7 swords hitting the ground, if he had less control over his body, he would have frowned.

Was the show Zabuza put on a bluff? Or had the rest held back just in case Orochimaru used something like this?

But he did not let any of his doubts show on his face, instead smiling pleasantly.

"That's 7 more, Zabuza-kun, only 775 left to go." He said sweetly. "What does this achieve? Are you just wasting time?"

Zabuza was silent, another blade emerging from the mist, almost cutting Orochimaru in half vertically, he barely twisted out of the way, losing his arm instead.

Orochimaru almost hissed, this was... annoying, he quickly grabbed his arm out of the air and attached it to himself again.

He used the Body Flicker to throw himself forwards, dodging every silent attack he could, healing any wound he took, when he had the chance, he used Jutsu to thin the ranks.

But one Body Flicker after another lead him nowhere, the only thing surrounding him was red mist, endless and unchanging.

No matter how far he ran or jumped, he was always surrounded by misty reflections trying to cut him down.

It was a fruitless effort.

After running for what must have been half a kilometer, Orochimaru stopped. He had to change plans.

Zabuza was hiding too well, not a single clue of where he was, as expected from a master of Silent Killing.

So he had to trust the little information he had got and kill the rest of the misty reflections as efficiently as possible.

Another sword lashed out, this time from above, Orochimaru parried the strike and spat out a Great Fireball, as big as the attacker, evaporating him, before the now ownerless sword hit the ground, another struck at Orochimaru's side, which he jumped over, two more came in from behind, he dodged one by jumping over it but the second sliced his leg off, causing him to stumble.

It took 1.2 seconds for him to regenerate his leg.

Orochimaru lost himself in the fight, now a contest of who would break first, Zabuza's strange Jutsu or Orochimaru's stamina and Chakra.