Chapter 63. Orochimaru

Naruto and his team advanced through the forest. With Sasuke using his Sharingan to survey the surroundings, they were able to move without disruptions.

Naruto " Sasuke, we have a heaven scroll, so we need to find a team with earth scroll, right?"

Sasuke " Right, and gather at the tower."

All of them acknowledged. Sasuke suddenly threw a kunai towards Sakura's side. She was startled but didn't dodge. The kunai brushed past her and struck a tree.

Naruto " Wind style: Vaccum bullets"

Naruto spat out air bullets towards the same location where Sasuke threw a kunai. A shadow dodged before Naruto's attack made contact.

Sakura clearly saw the appearance of the man, he was a rain village Genin. The rain ninja was surprised at their teamwork. If not for his fast reaction, he would be critically injured.

Naruto didn't give him a chance and rushed to him. He made five clones of him and attacked from all sides. Sasuke used a fire Jutsu

" Fire style: Phoenix fire"

Several balls of fire was spat from his mouth and blocked the Rain Genins retreat. Seeing the situation was not good, the rain Genin retreated. Sasuke was not gonna let that happen. He used several shurikens as a distraction and got behind him.

Sasuke" Lightning style : Lightning blast"

He punched the Rain ninja, right before his attack made contact a blast of lightning emerged from his fist. Combined with the power from the punch, the lightning hit him and blasted him towards the ground.

The rain ninja was defeated, they were still alert as they don't know if this guy had companions. Even after some time no one attacked, only then did they relax.

The team was sitting together, Sasuke explained the need to identify each other if they ever got separated. He said a password for all of them to remember,

Sasuke " No matter what, attack with all your strength if the password is incorrect."

Sakura and Naruto acknowledged. They were about to leave when a huge explosion was heard. An air blast came towards their direction. All of them got out of the way.

Sasuke saw three people standing from the attacks origin. The two to the side wore same clothes but it was the man in the center that was weird. He sneaked away and grouped with the others. They were about to leave....

" Ara.... it looks like my luck isn't bad."

Naruto and the others were startled, they jumped back. Infront of them was a man wearing weird clothes with a knot made of ropes at his waist. This was Orochimaru, he was using the face skin of another shinobi as a mask.

Orochimaru licked his lips " You all seem like strong prey."

With them watching, he took out a scroll " You need this earth scroll, right?" Saying that he swallowed the scroll. Naruto and the rest were disgusted seeing that.

Orochimaru " Now.... shall we start the battle for scrolls? With our lives on the line."

He released a tremendous amount of bloodlust after saying that. Naruto and the rest were paralysed. They saw themselves being killed. Sakura fell on her knees due to fear.

Naruto and Sasuke was faring a bit better than Sakura. Naruto struggled to put his hands together. Each second seemed like hours to him. Sasuke was the same as he tried to take out a kunai.

Naruto was trembling, he placed his hands together like praying " Wood style: Wood thorn "

Several huge wood shaped as thorns launched from the ground towards Orochimaru. Sasuke used this instance to cut his arms, he was also freed from fear. He took Sakura and retreated.

Sasuke yelled " Naruto!! Don't engage, retreat!!"

Orochimaru was shocked when he saw the yellow haired brat use wood style. His face showed excitement afterwards, " Haha... a pure wood style user, not an experiment but a pure wood style user. Hahaha "

He was ecstatic. He tried many methods to recreate Hashirama Senju's wood style but to this day there was only one successful test subject. And here in front of him was a genuine wood style user.

Naruto was really scared, he was sweating all over. He retreated without even looking back.

Orochimaru " Brat, where do you think you are going?!"

Snakes came out of his hand and tried to bind Naruto. Sasuke panicked when he saw this " Naruto!!! dodge!!"

Orochimaru was over moon. He was smiling creepily when he saw his attack reach the boy but his smile didn't last longer. He saw to his astonishment his attack turn to dust.

" So you are Orochimaru, one of the Sannins."

A voice drifted to his ears. Orochimaru was scared when he heard someone speaking, he didn't sense anyone near him. He turned towards the origin of the voice. There, sitting leisurely on a tree branch was a boy with deep red hair, eyes with pupils so black and mesmerizing. A truly handsome, dashing boy. This was none other than Ryu.

Orochimaru saw the boy but he didn't feel that the person in front of him was handsome. Every fibre in his body were screaming ' Danger ' when he saw Ryu.

Naruto/Sasuke " Big brother!! Senior !!"

Ryu looked at them " Well done you two. Both of you were able to overcome your fear and push on, Well done. Now take Sakura and continue your test, I will take care of him."

Naruto and Sasuke knew of Ryu's strength, they nodded and left with Sakura. Seeing them leave Ryu turned to Orochimaru.

Orochimaru calmed himself, he already guessed Ryu's identity from his features " How did you know my true identity?"

Ryu " Does it matter? well now... Orochimaru, one of the three Sannins, what's your plan? Fight or run?"

Orochimaru didn't reply. He obviously wanted to go after the two boys, The Uchiha and the Wood style user. But the moment he was about to follow them, it was like something locked on him.... something truly horrifying. He understood that he may die today, so he decided to go all out.

Ryu saw his intention and showed a smile as he said " Shall we Dance?!!"