Confrontation

We dashed into the Forest of Death as soon as the gate opened.

As we traveled farther into the forest, I glanced over at Ayame. Our plan was simple; I would constantly activate my heat sensing and Ayame would activate her sharingan to pick up tracks left behind by the other genin.

It was still a bit early for us to find tracks, but I was desperate to get us out of the forest as fast as possible for one reason: Orochimaru.

I couldn't take the risk that he would target Ayame as well. I'm confident that I could stall against him with my current strength and maybe even injure him. He can't use his full strength because that would alert the village to his presence. I, on the other hand, have no such restrictions.

It would be ideal if he gets distracted by Anko when she finds the bodies of the grass genin, but I can't rely on that alone.

A couple of hours later, I got a hit about 75 meters to our right.

I signaled to Ayame and Isamu to get ready for combat. They nodded as I took the lead toward the area I sensed them at. As we approached, I sighed in relief; it was just a team from Ame.

I didn't even bother sneaking up on them, just flash-stepping into the center of their group.

"Wha-!?" He didn't get enough time to finish before I knocked him out. The other genin tried to start a jutsu, but he was too slow. I knocked him out with a punch to the stomach.

The last genin realized that it was hopeless to fight after I knocked out two of his teammates in less than three seconds and put his hands up in surrender,

"Stop! You can have our scroll!"

As he said this, he reached into his bag and pulled out another… earth scroll.

"Damn," I remarked, "Okay, toss it over, and then you can leave."

I was feeling quite generous up until the point he chucked it at my face.

"Stupid Konoha-nin! Water relea-!" That was as far as he got before Isamu jumped in and kicked him in the head.

"You gotta leave some for the rest of us, man," He whined.

I just smirked.

"Get faster then, slowpoke."

He just sighed. "What scroll did they have?"

"Another earth scroll."

"Damn, unlucky."

"Eh, it's not that big of a deal. We just need to find another team now."

I still held on to the earth scroll, though. The more scrolls we have, the fewer teams pass.

We started moving again, but we didn't find anyone for the rest of the day and had to set up camp.

"I'll take the first watch," I said.

"Okay, I'll take second, then."

"Hm."

And with that, they went to sleep. I had no plans of waking them up though. I was getting progressively more paranoid the longer we stayed in the forest. I knew I could take Orochimaru on, but that doesn't say anything about my teammates.

It's just not worth the risk of Ayame getting a curse seal.

Thankfully, the night passed uneventfully. When they woke up in the morning, both of them grumbled at not being woken up.

I just laughed them off.

"I'm built different."

"Ugh, you always say that when you can't explain your reasoning."

"Hm," Ayame nodded.

Ouch. They're not wrong, but it's not like telling them about Orochimaru would help. If they knew, they would just try to help me if we got into a fight. It's better that they think I'm just stalling an enemy so that they'll actually leave when I tell them to.

"Alright, guys. Let's head out," I said.

Right as we were getting ready to leave, another person made their presence known.

"We're from the same village, so no hard feelings, ok? Just hand over your scroll and take the exam next year." He said.

It was an older genin from Konoha that I didn't recognize.

Isamu stepped up, "Let me and Ayame take care of these guys."

I glanced over at Ayame, who just nodded in affirmation.

I sighed, "Ok. Just make it quick."

The genin looked annoyed at my blatant dismissal of his skill.

He scowled, "Don't blame me for what happens, then."

He signaled to his teammates to attack and started forming hand signs that I recognized. Ayame, too, as she started making her own hand signs at a much faster pace.

"Isamu! Hold off his teammates!" She said.

"Got it!"

Yeah, Ayame gets louder during combat. She's still soft-spoken, but she doesn't let that stop her in a serious situation.

Luckily, she finished her hand signs first and jumped up above them.

"Katon: Kaen Hisame no Jutsu (Fire Release: Incinerating Hail Technique)!"

She rained down fiery hell on the leaf genin, causing him to abandon his jutsu.

Isamu wasn't sitting idly by either.

"Doton: Bunshin no Jutsu (Earth Release: Earth Clone Technique)!"

He created one earth clone to deal with the other shinobi, before engaging the one in front of him in taijutsu.

After trading blows for a few seconds, Isamu knocked his opponent out easily. He moved to help Ayame out, but she had already finished off the leading shinobi, having caught him in a genjutsu when he dodged. The last enemy was hit by Ayame's fire release, which left him injured and easy pickings for Isamu's earth clone.

I nodded in approval, 'They're definitely chunin-level.'

Ayame, who still had the leader in a genjutsu, compelled him to hand over his scroll. Luckily, it was a heaven scroll.

I sighed in relief. Finally, we could leave this stupid forest. We were only about an hour away from the tower, so we started heading over.

It was 30 minutes later that I felt a chill down my spine. My instincts screamed at me to dodge.

'Shit, we were so close, too.'

"Jump!" I yelled at my teammates. Hearing the seriousness in my voice, they both jumped up into the trees with me, narrowly avoiding a hail of kunai and shuriken.

"You guys go on ahead, this guy is out of your league," I said. They looked like they wanted to protest, but I just smirked.

"You hogged all the fun with those leaf genin earlier; let me have some fun."

They just sighed.

"You better not get beaten up. If we get disqualified because of you, I'll kick your ass." Isamu said while Ayame nodded in agreement.

"Kukuku, you think you can escape? How cute…" Said the 'grass genin.'

"Go!" I yelled. They both nodded and started to leave when I saw Orochimaru start making hand signs.

"Oh no, you don't!"

'Hado #31: Shakkaho' I thought and shot a ball of red fire at him.

Now, you might think I'm stupid for showing Orochimaru something unique, but I did it to purposely draw his interest toward me so he wouldn't go after my teammates.

It worked, as Orochimaru had to abandon his jutsu and dodge. The tree he was standing on got blasted into cinders.

"That's quite some power you've got there…"

But I wasn't done yet. I started chanting,

"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! On the wall of blue flame, inscribe a twin lotus. In the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens."

Orochimaru watched on curiously, never having seen a technique with that chant.

Both my hands lit up with pale blue fire.

"Hado #73: Soren Sokatsui!" I yelled as I blasted a torrent of fire toward him. Obviously, he substituted with some nearby branches, dodging my attack that continued through multiple trees before running out of juice.

Now, it would usually be dumb to chant out and yell my attack, but I didn't just do that. While I was busy 'impressing' Orochimaru, I had been building up Ember Clones in the foliage without hand signs. I had made about 50 already, waiting to be detonated. I knew he could probably sense the ember clones, but I wasn't here to win; I just had to stall until someone noticed the fight.

He clapped his hands and smiled creepily, "Impressive! That's quite an interesting technique. And while I would love to play with you some more, I have another Uchiha to catch."

Ah, I guess he already got to Sasuke then.

I signaled to my Ember Clones and they jumped out of their hiding places and charged towards Orochimaru. He just smirked.

"You think these clones will stop me?" He made two hand signs, "Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!" Which blew away most of my Ember Clones. Two still made it through and latched onto Orochimaru.

I willed them to explode just as they made contact with him.

"BOOOM!"

The surrounding area went up in flames as a combustion equivalent to an A-rank fire jutsu went off at point-blank range. Orochimaru wasn't expecting so much power from just two Ember Clones, which is probably the only reason they even got close enough to touch him.

And as his charred body hit the ground, I got a front-row seat to the most disgusting regeneration technique in Naruto.

Orochimaru's mouth opened impossibly wide, and a fresh Orochimaru climbed out, looking furious.

"You damn brat!" He spat, "I don't have time to play with you!"

"That's too bad, then; 'cause I'm just getting started," I replied. He was done playing around, and so was I.

I unsheathed my sword, "Ryujin Jakka!"

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes as the surroundings took on an orange hue as intense flames appeared around me.

I only have a couple of minutes, so I better make them count.

"Ennetsu Jigoku."

Powerful geysers of flame shot up around us, effectively trapping us inside. Orochimaru shot another Wind Release: Great Breakthrough to try and get out, but the flames reformed before he could get out.

He glared at me, "Fine. If you want me to kill you so badly, I'll grant your wish!"

He bit his thumb and slammed his hand on the ground, summoning multiple large snakes.

He sent them toward me, but I was unphased. I gathered some of my fire on the tip of my sword and swung it towards the snakes, "Taimatsu."

A wave of flames erupted from my sword and incinerated the snakes, not even giving them a chance to unsummon themselves. While I was doing this, he sent his own wave of fire back at me.

I scoffed and batted away the flames with ease before rushing him, forcing him to engage me in close-quarters combat.

He scowled at me, "You're decades too young to fight me in kenjutsu, brat!" He then pointed his mouth toward me and out came the legendary Kusanagi Blade. I coated my blade with flames and parried his attack.

He spit the blade out of his mouth fully and we engaged in a furious clash of swords.

The adrenaline rushing through my veins allowed me to analyze every slash, parry, stab, and block in almost slow motion. I could literally feel myself getting better, wasting less movement with every slash.

I was losing horribly, as my kenjutsu was only mid-jonin level, but that didn't stop me from developing a crazed smile.

'This is what I've been needing to progress! This feeling, being one mistake away from certain death… It's so exciting!'

But I could only hold my Shikai for so long. Just as I was about to deflect his next attack, my Shikai dispersed and my strength dropped dramatically, causing me to take a diagonal slash to the chest. The pain caused me to loosen my grip on the sword, and it slipped out of my hand.

He hovered over me, looking to finish the job. But before he could,

"Damnit!" Orochimaru hissed.

Heh, Anko and the anbu have arrived.

"I won't forget this, brat." He spat venomously as he disappeared into the ground.

I flopped onto my back, my vision darkening just as my fellow shinobi made it to the scene. They immediately started checking up on me, but I couldn't hear what they were saying.

"It's… About time… You guys showed up…" I coughed out.

And with that, I blacked out.

////// A/N //////

Hey everybody. Forest of Death and a fight with Orochimaru. Kaen saved his teammates and gained a cool new scar, but also gained an enemy in Orochimaru. Let me know how the fight was. I was having trouble incorporating Orochimaru's move set since he does so many things, so let me know how I did. Next chapter will be the preliminaries, maybe. I might just skip those tbh. Also, I'll be trying my hand at some different POVs as well. And I might start referring to hand signs as hand seals instead, because it kinda sounds better in my head. Please leave a review!