Chapter 165

Without warning, the half villain, half snake slithers around the tree branch toward a frozen Sasuke. Before Sakura can heave her kunai, before Sasuke can bring out his own to defend himself, three shurikens and a kunai dart deep into cracking wood. It isn't until a feral red-eyed Naruto lands next to her that they all notice the note-wrapped kunai smoke in front of the monstrous ninja.

"Sasuke!" Naruto calls as he grabs Sakura and they all leap away from the destructive explosion. Landing on the forest floor, Team 7 survey the area a moment before Naruto relays to his teammates, "I sent word about that guy. We just need to last until reinforcements gets-"

The forest floor vibrated horribly as the sound of rupturing tree roots interrupts him. The shaking earth they're standing on, sinks before exploding outward and Team 7 lands safely thirty yards away from the slowly rising long-haired genin. Their heads tilt back as Orochimaru continues to rise out of the whole on atop the extremely large head of a gigantic snake.

"I still want to know the full extent of your powers, Sasuke-kun," his scratchy voice humorously declares. The snake large tongue hisses their death sentence and Sakura is at a loss of what to do. In the presence of such a large summon, what are three genin to do. Feeling defeated, Sakura's mind reminds her, 'even Kakashi-sensei never made them run a mission scenario involving a summon.' Sakura simply can't tactically imagine their escape without sacrificing at least two members, an impossible choice for her.

The large snake bares its large fangs as Orochimaru spreads his stance in preparation to attack when the large beast hisses painfully loud, as if wounded. Naruto carries Sakura princess style and leaps away, calling out, "Sasuke!" as she witnesses dozens of Naruto's clones descending from the trees with a large version of his chakra ball technique, peppering the large snake's body with a barrage of scale drilling strikes.

"This way," Naruto yells to their teammate.

However, before the three can get far, their impossibly strong adversary lands in front of them. Naruto sets her down as the long-haired shinobi, chuckles, "ku ku ku, very amusing, Naruto-kun. I never expected you to have such an impressive technique."

"He's forcing us to make our stand," Sasuke quietly tells his teammates.

"Correct," Orochimaru agrees with a wide smile. "Fear not, younglings. I will grant you a moment to safely strategize, but I warn you. When you come at me, intend to kill me like predators… or you will die my prey," he finishes with his psychotic grin and chuckle.

"Naruto," Sasuke states, taking a step forward. "You cover my six. Sakura, stay behind."

"He's better than a one-on-one," Naruto tells his Sasuke. "We need to triple team him. I flank his left, you take his right and Sakura supports from the rear."

"It doesn't matter if he's better," Sasuke chimes. "You said we only need to hold him off. I can hold him off longer by myself-"

"Times up," Orochimaru sings much to close to them, splitting the team with a split kick to Naruto and Sasuke, and a third against the side of Sakura's head. The pinkette only manages to guard with her forearm, however, she's still sent flying as her brain dazes and ears ring from the heavy impact. Sakura hits the ground and only manages to roll onto her feet when the blur of Orochimaru appears before her, affirming, "the weakest first, I think." No time for any jutsu, Sakura can barely reach her kunai before his can attack is mercifully intercepted by a red-eyed Naruto and red-eyed Sasuke, striking at Orochimaru from either side.

Sakura leaps to a safe distance as Orochimaru confidently faces off against both Naruto and Sasuke in high-speed taijutsu. A quartet of air-cutting jabs from Naruto are parried by their enemy, who lands a kick, inviting Sasuke to lead his own combination of strikes from behind before Orochimaru effortlessly dodges, parries, and counters his attacks as well. The three shinobi trade quick combination attacks with amazing speed all the while always focusing on any blindspot. When Naruto goes low, Sasuke aims high, trying to take their elusive antagonist simultaneously from both back and front as Sakura covers her teammates as best she can from the rear.

However, Orochimaru keeps them moving through the dense forest, making it impossible for her teammates to tag him with a single or her to provide much cover. 'He's too powerful,' Sakura's mind yells as she tries to follow her team dynamic. They're in the treetops, and Sakura surfs the moss covered branches for any opening or cover when either Naruto or Sasuke need it. Analyzing the fight in her head, she tries as best she can to inconvenience Orochimaru with carefully intercepting shuriken, because as she painfully realizes, it's all she's capable of doing.

"Sasuke," Naruto yells as he lands on his feet from a kick he guarded against. "We- we need to go! Now!"

As Sasuke takes on their enemy with the same genius he always shows, Sakura can tell by looking at the villain's center of gravity while defending against two taijutsu attacks that this ninja is on a whole other level. She agrees with Naruto, her mind yelling as much, 'we need to run.' It's no surprise Orochimaru is laughing in joy, but it's incredibly demoralizing and inspires a feeling of defeat within her that's hard to shake off, as he calls out, "it would seem your brother inherited all the talent in the Uchiha clan, Sasuke."

Infuriated, Sasuke breaks the fragile balance between himself and Naruto to lead the attack. To Sakura's horror, the snake-nin exploits their lapse in combination attacks, landing a knee and kick against Naruto, rocketing him away as he and Sasuke fight. Naruto hits the scrapping bark of a tree with a loud thud and grunt, and before he free-falls, a perfectly aimed kunai is exactly where it needs to be for him to grip. Nodding to Sakura, they both rush to back up Sasuke as Orochimaru leads the fight where he wants.

"I can see," a red-eyed Sasuke excitedly calls out, happy to be able to track this powerfully fast ninja with his eyes before hitting him with a raging stream of fire. Sakura returns to witness Sasuke fight the powerful shinobi and despite Sasuke's Sharingan activated attacks, Orochimaru evades, blocks, or parries all his attacks, easily returning strikes of his own to his face, gut, or legs with a smile on his face.

A feral-haired, red-eyed Naruto quickly intervenes, but surprising him is a second Orochimaru, manifesting from the tree before attacking Naruto, separating both boys to an ever-expanding distance. The further apart her teammates are beaten, the more Sakura realizes she needs to make a choice. 'Who do I back up?'

She's hardly helped but one-on-one essentially means death against this enemy. Then Orochimaru hits Sasuke so far, she loses sight of him. The pinkette wants to follow but, she's also worried about Naruto who's losing just as bad.

"Sakura!" Naruto yells as he hops as far away as he can. "Back Sasuke up! Hurry!"

Instantly leaping away, her thoughts are a grateful, 'thank you, Naruto!'

Landing on a branch, the sight before her shocks her to see. Sasuke is on the ground, unmoving while that horrible Orochimaru is over him. Sakura is about to defend her teammate when both she and the monster are taken by surprise when a small explosion jolts Orochimaru's back.

Sasuke twists waist and quick feet spin to leap out of the snake nin's range before hurling three wire-guided Fūma Shuriken that quickly wraps Orochimaru tightly to the trunk of the tree.

"Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu," Sasuke yells through wire-bitten teeth and an explosion of fierce fire rides the metal wire like a missile, striking Orochimaru square in the chest and through the other end of the tree, roasting the screaming man alive. Landing beside the raven-haired avenger, Before a relieved Sakura can tend Sasuke's wounds, they both hear an evil sound from what should be a lifeless body.

"Kukukuku," Orochimaru cackles. "You really are brothers, Sasuke-kun." Sakura brings out her kunai but before either herself or Sasuke can do anything, he uses some form of jutsu that immobilizes them. "I sense power in your eyes that surpasses Itachi."

"Who the hell are you!" Sasuke yells. "What do you know about Itachi!?"

"Yes," Orochimarus sings. "I think I will have you."

Orochimaru turns toward the direction of Naruto's fight and chuckles evilly, muttering, "so that's the Kyūbi brat." 'Kyūbi?' Sakura mentally repeats and the monster returns his predatory attention to them, using a hand sign she's never seen before.

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