Ch416. A chance

While A's and Onoki's attempt at taking out Pakura and Ringo right off the bat was failing hard, Orochimaru was about to use the distraction to deal Konoha a heavy blow.

Namely, he was about to use Shikaku's surprise from the sudden attack at two Kages inside of his home, to assassinate the man quickly.

It was really just a trivial task to him. Orochimaru doubted it would have been hard to do so even if Shikaku paid full attention to him.

Killing the reigning Hokage would have been a huge blow to Konoha. Maybe it was not on the same level as if he killed Third Hokage while he was still in the office, considering Tsunade would be there to mitigate the worst of the consequences, but it would be felt and that was honestly all Orochimaru cared about.

He simply wanted to make Konoha in general suffer.

And besides... nobody said he was leaving without killing the Third Hokage anyway!

But just as he was about to move in Shikaku's direction, a voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Heh, you don't really learn no matter what, do you, Orochi?" Tsunade's voice resounded from behind him, causing him to freeze.

He didn't know she was there until she spoke!

It had to be said, he knew the woman for decades and Tsunade was never very good at the sneaky approach. Even Jiraiya was better than her in that and the toad face was one of the loudest morons Orochimaru had the displeasure of knowing!

To be sneaked upon by Tsunade like this... especially when he was always on alert against sudden sneak attacks... it blew Orochimaru's mind.

Though, a major part of his utter bewilderment might have been the fact his lower legs were suddenly entangled by vines sprouting through the floor.

"Maa~, maa~, how naughty Tsunade-chan. I heard you were capable of the Wood Release but I dismissed it as baseless rumors." Orochimaru gleefully smiled, full of giddiness at discovering Tsunade really had Wood Release.

His spies from Konoha indeed informed him that the Last Senju learned the Wood Release but when he first heard it he just scoffed at the notion. The information in the ninja world was always full of diversion, subterfuge, and flat-out lies to manipulate, cheat, or disorient the enemy. Hence, nobody could really trust every piece of rumor they came by.

Something like the Last Senju having the Wood Release was a pathetically old way of garnering interest. Orochimaru would know... He was one of the guys who were covertly spreading such rumors for Konoha during the second world war, trying to make other nations send their strong ninjas after Tsunade's life with the aim of turning the tables on them during their ambush.

It worked pretty well at that time, to be honest.

Tsunade did use Wood Release in the past in front of an audience but despite everything, Konoha was still a ninja village and people were at least semi-capable of keeping secrets. Unless she used Wood Release on a regular basis in front of other people, there was no way to confirm with any level of certainty if she really could or could not use it.

Seeing that he was wrong and Tsunade really had the power of her bloodline did not make Orochimaru mad. In fact, it made him extremely happy.

"After all, despite being a medic, you never liked experimenting with people, did you? You never joined me on any of my projects for the village..." Orochimaru said in a mock hurt tone. "A medic of your caliber would have been extremely convenient to have back then." A wistful sigh escaped his lips, "Just thinking about all the dismembered lab rats you could have put together for further testing for me... I have wasted so many of Konoha's prisoners to get some results because of not having your expertise at hand."

He totally knew that talking about using humans as lab rats was one of the things that could rile Tsunade up. It also didn't hurt to remind her he was doing pretty much a very similar kind of research for Konoha with Konoha's blessing as the research because of which he had to defect. The only difference was in the test subjects. One used Konoha's prisoners... basically ninjas from other nations, and the other used Konoha citizens.

Orochimaru didn't see a difference. They were both human and bled the same but apparently, Konoha's higher-ups disagreed and he had to pack his things and flee.

The best thing that ever happened to him, really...

While Orochimaru was trying to provoke her, Tsunade noticed she piqued his interest and smirked. The man, for all his good qualities when it came to ninja-style combat, had one massive weakness. He was easily sidetracked and prone to losing sight of his objective if something interesting in his opinion happened.

That's why she showed him this minor Wood Release. With just that, Orochimaru forgot that Shikaku even existed.

All the while, the man in question, used the distraction to slink into the shadows and leave. Shikaku knew full well there was not much he could do in the upcoming conflict between six Kage level ninjas so he did the smart thing and hightailed it out of there.

"Experiments?" Tsunade mirthfully scoffed at him, "Your lack of faith in me hurts, Orochi. I did not acquire my Wood Release by experimenting on others or with my genes. I'll have you know, it is wholly natural."

Hearing such blatant bullshit, made Orochimaru's smirt twitch, "I heard about late bloomers but the sixties is a bit too late for the awakening of a bloodline, Tsuna-chan. If you want to speak nonsense to me, at least make it a bit more believable."

In Orochimaru's opinion, there was no way Tsunade did not experiment with her genes. Her Wood Release was supposed to be too dormant to naturally awaken. He would know. He did many tests on her blood and flesh under the orders of both Sarutobi and Danzo and later with his own initiative.

Tsunade ignored the second part of Orochimaru's sentence because her focus was fully held by the first part. "Nobody ever told you mentioning a lady's age is a sure way to piss her off?" She frowned at him.

"You mean 'old' lady's age?" Orochimaru smugly raised an eyebrow at her.

Contrary to his expectations, however, Tsunade did not instantly swing her fist at his face. Much to his shock, she actually chuckled. "I'll let you know that while you were cutting people apart, trying to find immortality in the bodies of below-average criminals or unlucky farmers, I have managed to reverse my aging, making my body physically in its prime while also slowing my aging to a near halt." Her tone was not full of bragging. Instead, she was speaking in a measured and light tone that showed she didn't put much importance on the matter. For her, it was not something to be proud of. It was just a normal everyday thing.

Before Orochimaru could do more than to slightly widen his eyes at the admission, Tsunade continued, her tone flipping into a condescending one, "Funny that I only needed medical ninjutsu for that, huh? I guess I reached your goal of agelessness before you could even get a workable Jutsu prototype that would not have a literal mountain of repercussions. It's your fixation on little boys, Orochi. That's clouding your judgment, you know?"

Before Orochimaru could react... and he was visibly really starting to get annoyed at her... Tsunade decided to cut the talking short and reveal why she was here, "But enough banter. I am not here to flatten you into the ground under my heel like I would a worm. I came to give you a chance."

"A chance, she says." Orochimaru scoffed at her in distaste. He didn't like to be likened to a pedophile. Not at all. "As if I would belie-"

"A chance to fight Sarutobi." Tsunade increased the volume of her voice to interrupt the attempted interruption.

When Orochimaru's mind registered what he just heard, he stopped in his tracks and searched Tsunade's face for deception but...

'She is serious?'

He couldn't help but be stupefied. She really meant it.