20 The Fateful Meeting and a Clash
A/N: I wrote a new high-quality Bleach Fanfiction, go check it from my profile page if you are interested!
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"What is going on, Lord Orochimaru, who is there!?", Everyone suddenly stopped and Kabuto asked Orochimaru, with a serious face, while the other Sound Four also turned serious and apprehensive. They all stood in front of some kind of a small river inside the forest, prepared to fight, "Don't worry, it's nothing serious. Just some brat from the Hyuga clan.", Orochimaru licked his lips a little. He noticed Neji Hyuga approaching them quicker than the rest of them because of his senjutsu chakra.
"What!? Is he crazy?", Kabuto also remembered who Neji was from the Chunin Exams. He was especially strong and talented for his age, however, why was he following them all of a sudden, does he have a death wish? Sound Four on the side also snickered a little, preparing to murder. Even the rest of Konoha didn't have the guts to chase them now, not to mention just one little kid.
Just as Orochimaru predicted, they soon spotted a teenager in a white kimono, with scattered long black hair, and white eyes, slowly approaching them, from the nearby trees, with a smile on his face.
"You all protect Lord Orochimaru. I will deal with him alone!", Kabuto immediately drew out his scalpel weapon, while the Sound Four quickly engaged in a battle stance around Orochimaru.
Neji now stood twenty to thirty meters away from them all and slowly opened his mouth and spoke in a calm tone, "Stop that, I didn't come to fight, I have something to talk about with Orochimaru!"
Orochimaru smiled in response to Neji while Kabuto turned a little angry, "That's Lord Orochimaru for you kid! And what have you possibly to talk to him about? I'm worried that I have to inform you of your death now!", They certainly didn't have any time for conversations now, when Konoha's shinobi could come after them at any moment. However, before Kabuto could recklessly proceed to attack Neji, Orochimaru stopped him promptly, "Stop it, Kabuto, what are you doing? You're not his match.", "What do you desire Neji? Is it about that Curse Mark on your forehead? I can try and solve it for you, but only if you become my subordinate...", Orochimaru grinned as he analyzed Neji.
"Orochimaru, you're wrong. I don't need your help with the Curse Mark. I came for something else. I came in to propose a plan for equal cooperation between us.", Neji calmly answered in a confident tone. Now realizing that with Orochimaru's arrogant personality, they would indeed need to clash first in some form or another before they could negotiate on equal terms. But, he didn't care much.
"You new generation kids are indeed too cocky. You should know your limits. I gave you the chance to resolve your insolent behavior, of stopping us, peacefully, but you didn't cherish it.", Orochimaru's face turned a little displeased again and his whole entourage suddenly got angry as well. Not one of them was previously recruited in this way, Orochimaru was giving him surprisingly a lot of care.
"Kabuto, Kidomaru, Tayuya, you bring him down first, I'm going to plant him with my Curse Mark. You two, Sakon-Ukon, and Jirobo remain near me just in case.", Orochimaru licked his lips and ordered. Kimimaro was near the end of his life, and he needed a new subordinate of that caliber. He couldn't use Neji, as his next vessel, because of his Hyuga clan slave seal, just like he couldn't use Kimimaro as a vessel either due to his strange illness. But, as subordinates, they could still be of use. Moreover, he also always had a nagging feeling that Neji was hiding something really important. So, he still gave Neji a chance to live after this, however, his treatment would be much crueler one.
He was nearly out of chakra due to his previous difficult battle against Hiruzen, so he left those two near him, just in case a sudden sneak attack, of some sort, from other people of Konoha came at him. He still didn't rule out the that the boy in front of him also worked work on their orders. Moreover, felt like the team of those three could easily solve him, no matter how talented he was.
'Well, it's even better for me in this way to not come at me all at once. After I reduce their number this way, I'll even have more leverage in this conversation.', Neji's face remained calm and collected. He also quickly went over all the information he could remember inside his mind about the two Sound Four members and Kabuto. They could theoretically pose a challenge to him together, as Kabuto was an elite jonin level ninja, while the other two were at least low jonin. However, he knew a lot about their abilities while also possessing ace in-hole techniques they knew nothing about.
The Sound Four were originally prisoners of Orochimaru, forced to fight other prisoners to the death in battle royales. By surviving their respective matches, they proved themselves to be the strongest of Orochimaru's prisoners, and as such, they were given Curse Marks and made his bodyguards.
They all wore Otogakure's protectors in various places on their bodies and were dressed in similar attires as Orochimaru with thick rope belts and kimonos.
Both Sakon and Ukon had fair-skin and straight, dark blue hair with long bangs that covered each different eye. They both wore a green shade of lipstick, and had dark markings around their eyes, giving them an androgynous appearance. As Ukon usually slept inside Sakon's body, his head protruded from the back of Sakon's upper back and hung limply, making his hair cover his face.
Being the tallest member of Sound Four, Jirobo was a large and imposing young man, towering over the rest of his teammates. He had fair skin and narrowed slanted orange eyes. He had three tufts of orange hair on his head: a mohawk of sorts that ran down the middle and two similarly styled tufts of hair at the side. He was also considered to be the weakest out of the Sound Four.
Kidomaru was a dark-skinned shinobi with black, shaggy hair tied into a ponytail and black eyes. He was the second-tallest member of the team and with a confident grin on his face. Uniquely, Kidomaru also had six arms and an eye on his forehead that was usually closed and concealed.
And finally, Tayuya was a fair-skinned girl with a slender build and was the shortest member of the Sound Four. She had brown eyes that were accentuated by her eyelashes extending into the corners of her eyes and was usually sporting an impassive expression on her face. Tayuya's most distinctive feature was her long, untamed, dark pink hair that fell past her shoulders with long parted bangs framing either side of her face and one between her eyes. Her cursed seal is applied on the back of her neck, where it is in a circular pattern of three hooks, similar to a triskelion, concealed by her hair.
"Then come at me, Orochimaru's minions!", Neji opened his Byakugan and readied himself to battle. Kabuto smiled arrogantly as he took some kind of personal strength-boosting pill after whispering something quickly to Kidomaru and Tayuya. His hands also started glowing blue in a sharp way.
"Usually everyone should avoid close combat with you Hyugas, but not me! I'm a medical specialist and know everything about your clan!", Kabuto smiled all of a sudden while preparing to launch, 'Moreover I have Tayuya and Kidomaru to keep you busy, I just need one good sneak attack done!',
"Hehe, let's see your level brat, are you a small or a big fry?", Kidomaru already activated the first stage of his Curse Mark, his whole body now covered in black marks. He then bit his finger and immediately summoned a giant spider Kyodaigumo. It was a gigantic black spider with orange stripes going down the back of its abdomen. It greatly resembled a tarantula. It immediately climbed higher to the top of the nearby giant-sized trees and creepily came directly above Neji.
"You bastard, how dare you even think about talking with Lord Orochimaru!?", Tayuya also immediately entered her first stage of the Curse Mark, picking up her special flute next, and then called on her own summoning Doki. They were three eerie-looking large and muscular beings, their eyes and ears are covered and their mouths are sewn shut. By playing specific melodies on her Demonic Flute, Tayuya could control them, each melody causing them to perform different actions. Usually, those Sound Four ninja are way more playful and cocky, in their personalities, however with Orochimaru now beside them, they didn't dare to mess around. They turned serious from the start.
"This is really interesting. Are all of those three being created using your Yin Release? Are all products of your imagination?", Neji turned a little interested all of a sudden, first time seeing a jutsu like this one ever since he came into this world. And he was always deeply obsessed with all kinds of soul-related things, 'Her chakra is also really interesting, very mysterious and different.',
The other spider-guy was unique in his own right but not much interesting to Neji as Tayuya. Although he also probably used Yang Release for his various spider web and other bodily fluid creations. Tayuya also had a very powerful sound-based flute genjutsu that affected her opponents directly. Although Neji could expel all of the harmful chakra from his mind by releasing Tenketsu points. Both normal and sound-based genjutsu were pretty much useless to Neji due to his great chakra control. Genjutsu could work even on less skilled Hyuga, but not on him by any means.
A genjutsu is created when a ninja controls the chakra flow of a target's cerebral nervous system, thereby affecting their five senses; this is frequently used to create false images and/or trick the body into believing it has experienced physical pain. It was entirely Yin Release's field of study.
'How does he even know about Yin Release already? Interesting, this might be a really interesting meeting...', Orochimaru suddenly licked his lips a little curiously while Tayuya opened her eyes wide.
It was the first time someone guessed that her Doki were created using the Yin Release, not to mention realizing that right the moment he first saw them. Even her team currently doesn't know that information. Only Lord Orochimaru knew about it, having recommended her to venture onto that path himself. She was always very talented in the Yin Release from the moment of her birth.
Nonetheless, in the next moment, a hand signal came from Kabuto. So she immediately started performing her melody and directing her beasts to attack Neji, now having a bit more respect for him. Kidomaru also snickered and quickly started forming his special spider web from his mouth.
'Kabuto should have a pretty good body speed as he managed to keep up with Tsunade in the original. Moreover, since they respected me so much, it's just right to start with the Second Gate!',
'I have a limit of five minutes to end these three.', Everyone looked in surprise as Neji's body started oddly emitting chakra. After this, he promptly collided with one of the giants, 'Gentle Fist is useless against those mindless giants. Then Kabuto, you mentioned medical ninjutsu, so how do you like my enhanced chakra scalpel?', Right at that moment, Neji's big chakra scalpel swiftly cut down both the upcoming chakra webs from Kidomaru's direction and the head of one of Tayuya's humanoids.
"Hoho...", Orochimaru murmured a little, while Kabuto opened his eyes wide in shock, and even checked his glasses, 'This level of chakra control! It's simply unheard of! This Hyuga... What a freak!',
"Kabuto, you should realize now why I sent those two, especially alongside you. Yes, your chakra control is truly subpar in comparison to that boy. Only long-range opponents can trouble him. Come back now, this was to teach you not to be so overconfident in the future. Jirobo, you take his place, remember do only long-range attacks.", Orochimaru knew of Neji's chakra control ever since he saw him contain his Senjutsu chakra, without much effort, back at the Konoha's Chunin Exams Arena. Kabuto was simply of no use against him. And not only Kabuto, the strongest of the Sound Four Sakon was also useless as well. Their styles were simply countered by Neji comprehensively.
Kabuto was a war orphan who lost his memory from when he was a child during the Third Great Shinobi War, ending up getting rescued by Nono Yakushi who brought him to Konoha's orphanage, named him, giving him his favorite glasses and sight, and then becoming like his second mother.
They worked together for Root and Danzo, as Nono was previously also a professional spy for the Root, and they needed to gather enough money for the Orphanage since Danzo blackmailed them that he would cut out Konoha's funding. But, they were later betrayed by Danzo because he thought that they got to know too much sensitive information, about their operations at all of the big villages, from their missions, to be kept alive in the future, so he wanted to dispose of them.
Nono got killed, in Danzo's scheme by Kabuto, while Kabuto himself survived but without a purpose once again starting from a clean slate just like at that time he was a child who wondered about his purpose. And just then, Orochimaru appeared and recruited him to the Otogakure, giving him a new purpose in life and a sense of belonging, also explaining to him everything about Danzo's plot.
"Yes, Lord Orochimaru!", Kabuto gritted his teeth and dejectedly came beside Orochimaru to guard him instead of Jirobo. It was the first time today that he met someone with a more proficient chakra control, and by such a larger margin for that matter. He didn't even think it to be possible before. His mood turned grim all of a sudden, 'To be humiliated like that in front of Lord Orochimaru...',
However, in fact, he couldn't be blamed. He was just an ordinary person, while Neji's current soul was manifested by a fusion of two different souls while he was just three years old, and it grew ever since while Neji trained in Hyuga techniques, trained his Byakugan, and got more knowledge and will. It was not about pure chakra control anymore, Neji's whole spiritual power was way superior.
Jirobo immediately lifted a giant peace of earth and threw it toward Neji, after also releasing his stage of Curse Mark, while, at the same time, Tayuya's giant's head regenerated weirdly, 'So it's truly just a piece of her imagination? Then it's useless attacking them, I must attack and finish her first...'
"Hey Jiboro you idiot, you destroyed the trees my Kyodaigumo was latched onto, damn!", Kidomaru cursed a little, however, the giant spider quickly spew out a large amount of sticky web and stabilized itself again. Neji now had to worry about the giant rock coming ahead, the spider above, and the three humanoids behind him. Moreover, none of them even opened their second stages of Curske Marks until now. It was a challenge for even Kage-level shinobi to best them in combination.
"Rotation!", Neji quickly used his usual rotation, destroying the upcoming earth boulder and knocking those giants backward. However, right then he noticed a rain of small spiders above him.
Kidomaru smiled as he quickly cut the belly of the giant spider with his golden substance spear, "Rain of Spiders!", The many baby spiders rained down on Neji spinning out strings of chakra as they fell. Meanwhile, Tayuya started playing a different melody as her giants suddenly opened their mouths causing many-mouthed, worm-like spirits made of chakra to emerge from there. The chakra of the spirits is almost entirely spiritual energy, causing them to ravenously seek out physical energy in order to achieve balance. Tayuya's melody directed the spirits at Neji in so complicated a pattern as to resemble dancing. Because of their immaterial form, the spirits are impervious to direct attack.
'This attack is really dangerous. Even if I get hit by it, I would be in danger. Truly extraordinary!', Neji looked at those dancing worm-like spirits. He was again amazed by Tayuya's odd abilities today.
Neji turned back, and hit those two giants with many of his Vacuum Palms, forcing them backward and nearly destroying them, those strange attacks vanishing from their mouths, 'So until they regenerate again, she can't use her strange spiritual worms, it's good.', Once the three humanoids were knocked down, Neji then used his defensive Eight Trigrams: One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms on the spiders that fell from the above. He formed an imaginary area around himself and destroyed those spiders mercilessly like a machine gun all the while also cutting all of their sticky chakra webs that touched him. After ten seconds, all of them were destroyed, and Tayuya's beasts regenerated.
However, unlike in the original universe, this time Kidomaru didn't manage to find Byakugan's blind spot as Neji's both attack and movement speed of vision were much faster than during that time.
'Damn, this guy is on a different level!', Kidomaru thought as he directed his giant spider to fall onto Neji next. Jirobo launched a huge earth boulder at him again, but this time a much larger one than the previous time, and Tayuya's many spirits sought to feast on Neji's physical energy once again. Orochimaru watched all of this with interest, while Kabuto and Sakon, and Ukon turned unsettled.
'The giant spider and the three humanoids are now all in range, should I end this for good? Yes, after all, only in this way will I prove to be a worthy partner for Orochimaru!', 'Senjutsu: Rotation!',
'What, my senjutsu chakra is now being freed from his chakra control?', Orochimaru suddenly sensed something and opened his eyes wide in amazement, now carefully inspecting Neji's body. 'Yes, he's absorbing it now, but for what. I will finally find out! This is a fascinating moment, hiss...'
Kidomaru, Tayuya, Jirobo, Sakon, Ukon, Kabuto, and Orochimaru, looked thunderstruck as a giant sphere of dark purple rotational force suddenly emerged out of Neji's body, knocking out Kidomaru's giant spider, Tayuya's humanoid giants and Jirobo's boulder meters away from him at the same time. And not only that, they slowly looked in fright as they suddenly started turning into stone and crumbling, "I understand, haha!", Orochimaru suddenly began shouting in a revelation.
Kidomaru, Jirobo, and Tayuya immediately went back in an attempt to guard Orochimaru, who now had a nearly mad grin on his snake-like face, and spoke, "You're truly a genius, Neji Hyuga, who was the first Hyuga in history to think of this kind of attack! Yes, you don't need a method for storing and using that natural energy that you gather with the help of my senjustu chakra! You just need to rapidly expel it by merging it with your ordinary Hyuga Gentle Fist Rotation. It is a marvelous move! Great job!",
"Moreover you can open up to the Fourth Inner Gate and use another high-level move you created. You're a genius nearly on the level of Itachi Uchiha, and the most creative Hyuga in history...", Orochimaru continued praising Neji and licking his lips. He always had his channel of spies in Konoha, therefore obviously he also already knew about Neji's clash with those samurai bandits.
"Everyone, don't open your second forms, the fight is over!", Sound Four members who just now wanted to open their second stages of the Curse Mark suddenly opened their eyes wide in shock, 'Will Lord Orochimaru really treat this kid as his equal? But, he's kind of strong...', Tayuya thought.
Orochimaru presently realized that with the Sound Four and Kabuto, the chances of them winning were at most fifty-fifty. Moreover, Neji could escape whenever he wanted with his Fourth Gate so there was no point in engaging in a pointless battle as Konoha could still come at any moment.
However, the biggest reason he wanted to peacefully talk with Neji next was that he had a sudden throbbing in his heart, having a feeling that he would learn some truly earth-shattering information.
'Well, this is for the best!', Neji breathed in relief and turned off his Second Gate form promptly, he knew that both Tayuya and Kidomaru hadn't used their strongest attacks yet, and his primary objective today was not to fight with Orochimaru and his gang but to obtain those precious things!
