The Dark Side of Akatsuki. Chapter 22

Title: Inappropriate Challenge Ratings

As the Akatsuki member called out his challenge, Naruto couldn't help but feel a certain trepidation. When he had trained with Jiraiya, he had had years to try his luck at fighting the legendary Toad Sage, and he knew that if his master were ever to fight him seriously then Naruto would swiftly become a corpse. He knew it in his bones, no matter how hard he egged the man on.

From everything he had heard, this Orochimaru was as good as, or better than, Jiraiya, with none of the redeeming character traits. This was a fight no sane person wanted a piece of.

Luffy dashed to the ship's railing, shouting, "You wanna take our ship?! Hell if I'm gonna let you do that, you snake bastard!" Then, with no further warm-up, he leapt some fifty feet into the air, heading straight towards the man, fists raised.

Whatever he was planning, Luffy didn't get the chance to do it. From the shadows of the dock, a second voice spoke.

[FUUTON: DAITOPPA] - [WIND RELEASE: GREAT BREAKTHROUGH]

Silhouetted by the moon, Luffy felt rather than saw the disrupted air coming at him. A strong headwind struck him head-on as if he had been impacted by a boulder, pushing him backwards as his grunts of effort turned into a shout of rage. Somehow, the wind itself began to cut at his skin. A second after impact he saw a glint and thrust his hand into the swirling vortex of air to a tiny patch of calm, snatching a thrown kunai that had been directly on course to hit his face.

"Argh! You jerk!" he screamed.

Then the explosive tag attached to the kunai ignited, the blast catching Luffy directly in the face, sending him sailing out into the dark waters of the open ocean.

Sanji was the first to react. "Shit!" he cursed, tossing his cigarette over the edge as he dashed to the other side of the ship, "Why does the guy who can't swim keep getting knocked into the ocean!" With that, he leapt overboard. Naruto wasn't sure whether his being able to swim or not was his biggest problem, though. Taking an explosion like that at a single arm's length wasn't an experience people generally survived.

The man who had cast the powerful wind element jutsu emerged from the shadows of the dock warehouses, moving and speaking calmly.

"Orochimaru," he said in a deep, well-practiced voice that wasn't even trying to hide his disdain, "Don't fool around. There are only a few of these visitors in port. You can kill them after taking care of the mission."

The man was old, with short black hair that was late in going to gray and a thoroughly scarred face with a heavy black eyepatch over his right eye. Other than that, his standard Akatsuki cloud-print robes hid most of his body. Regardless, he moved out of the shadows like he owned the darkness, and there was no hint of infirmity in his calm stride.

Zoro had seen enough. Two swords drawn, he gripped the third between his teeth and then he moved, dashing straight for the snake-man who had interrupted the initial clash. One of the good things about dealing with assassins, Zoro considered, was that once they showed themselves everything got nice and simple. There was no need to worry about going easy on idiots who bluffed or postured as they threatened murder, because a real killer showed their true intentions in every line of their body.

Zoro ate up the distance between him and his target, feeling the intense aura of the monster before him like a mist of acid prickling at his skin. He would be striking to kill immediately.

Orochimaru chuckled again, horrible and raspy, before slicing the nail of one hand across the palm of the other, and bringing the bloody hand straight down to the ground.

[NINPO: KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU] - [SUMMONING TECHNIQUE]

Zoro was only fifty feet away when there was a sound like a polite thunderclap and Orochimaru disappeared in a cloud of sudden smoke. Not to be deterred, Zoro dashed right in, swiping his swords to clear a path as if physically cutting through the air. Charging like a stampeding bull, Zoro crossed his arms and raised two of his blades to form two impaling horns.

[SANTOURYU: USHI-BARI] [BULL NEEDLES]

It was over in a flash. Orochimaru staggered backwards, a wet noise coming from his gaping mouth as both swords impaled him where he stood, unable to even fall over without being torn apart and trampled underneath. Zoro scowled. That had been almost too easy. Orochimaru's mouth opened wide in pain, then wider and wider, a sickening popping noise signaling the moment when his jaw detached from its natural location. Zoro's scowl turned into a disbelieving grimace.

Then he heard the hissing.

Zoro had heard of a school of fencing that specialized in quick stabs directed at your opponent's face. By necessity an opponent could not advance or extend their reach while keeping their head back, and such attacks were almost impossible to ignore, which made this strategy difficult to deal with. Attacks coming at your face were unnerving, no matter who you were.

The glint of saliva-drenched scales in the moonlight was the only hint he had that the attack was coming. With the same speed as a lunging fencer, another damned serpent erupted from Orochimaru's gaping maw. From the snake's mouth, as if it were just a horrifying sheath, the point of a sword shot toward his face. Grunting with surprise, Zoro lifted his chin, barely catching the attack on the hilt of the sword he held between his teeth, then kicked out with a foot to push Orochimaru backwards, pulling his blades out of the snake-man's body.

Zoro took stock, controlling his breathing as the smoke around him began to clear. A thick cloud of it obscured his vision of the snake-man for a single moment and then Orochimaru was standing there, apparently in perfect health, now holding the straight-bladed sword that had just been unsheathed from its snake. Despite a life of strange encounters, Zoro had never seen anything like it.

"You a devil-fruit user?" He asked. Orochimaru just smirked in response, cocking his head slightly to the side.

As the smoke passed, something else became clear, as well.

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