Breakthrough

The moment Anko yelled out those words, a small crimson snake slithered out of her right sleeve and gave her an accusing look, causing her to chuckle. Anko lifted her left hand and started patting the small snake with her index finger, resulting in it squinting its eyes in pleasure.

"Of course, I wasn't talking about you, Akane. My target is Orochimaru."

The small snake, Akane, scoffed when she heard Orochimaru's name, resulting in a small flame shooting out of her nose.

"Hahaha, yes, yes, I know you are really great and can easily beat him up for me. My little Akane is a strong girl after all."

Akane seemed to be satisfied with Anko's praise, and moments later, she returned to Anko's sleeve.

Anko always liked to use snakes during battle, but she never dared to summon the smarter, more powerful ones, simply because she couldn't trust them. Anko might have signed the summoning contract just like Orochimaru did, but she had no doubts that most, if not all, of the stronger snakes, were under Orochimaru's control. Summoning a creature that would give away information about you without a moment of hesitation was obviously not a good idea.

Like it was the case most of the time, Yuna had a solution for Anko's problem. In Yuna's previous life, there were people who cultivated together with a beast of their choice. Although that method would decrease the cultivation speed a little, it had the advantage of always having a powerful companion that could help you out during fights.

Akane started out as a regular snake, but after cultivating with Anko for a while, her scales became crimson, her body became stronger, and she gained a high affinity to fire while becoming significantly more intelligent.

Anko happily stretched her body, and moments later, she closed her eyes and attempted to get a feel for her surroundings. Unlike before her breakthrough just now, she could easily sense everything around her that was within a radius of about 50 meters.

"So this is the [Spirit Sense] Yuna claimed I would get after forming a core. With this, it should be pretty much impossible for Orochimaru to get away from me. This time, he won't be getting away."

This time, Anko scanned her own body, and she couldn't help but smile when her senses washed over the dense ball of Natural Energy that was sitting close to her chakra center.

"Time to find Yuna so that she can teleport me to Orochimaru. Well, to Sasuke, but that doesn't really matter."

Anko used her newly acquired [Spirit Sense] again, but this time instead of attempting to sense everything around her, she sent it into a specific direction, which increased the range significantly.

After a short while of searching, she found Yuna, and as soon as she did, Yuna's head snapped towards Anko's current position. After a brief moment of pondering, Yuna smiled, disappeared from her current position, and appeared next to Anko.

"Congratulation on your breakthrough, Anko."

Before Anko could say anything, Yuna hugged her and gave her a kiss, which Anko quickly reciprocated.

"Hehe, no big deal. Now let's go kill Orochimaru already; I have waited long enough."

Yuna, however, wagged her finger at Anko.

"I don't think so. There is no way I'm allowing you to fight him in your current condition."

"What do you mean by that? My condition is perfect."

A smirk appeared on Yuna's face that immediately made Anko take a step back.

'Claiming that my condition is perfect might have been a mistake.'

"Oh? So your condition is perfect, huh? You really are a genius, Anko. You acquired [Spirit Sense] only a few minutes ago and can already control it perfectly, huh?"

"*Cough* I-I might have said a little too much, haha. T-That just slipped out by accident."

"Nono, it's okay, Anko. Since you already mastered it, I'm sure the exercise I have prepared for you will be easy peasy for you."

Before Anko could say anything else, the whole room froze over while dozens of ice projectiles formed in midair.

Despite the temperature dropping significantly, sweat was flowing down Anko's back like a river.

"Err, can't we talk about this?"

Yuna's smirk became even bigger before she answered Anko's question.

"No."

All the ice projectiles shot at Anko, who quickly jumped out of the way without a moment of hesitation. When she noticed that she dodged all the projectiles, a smug smile appeared on her face just to vanish again when a snowball hit the back of her head.

"Hahaha, stop slacking and use your [Spirit Sense] properly. The next hit won't be with a soft snowball."

Anko gritted her teeth and prepared herself for the next barrage. Yuna easily pulling off a sneak attack despite Anko being supposed to sense everything around her, which made her realize that there were still some flaws she would have to fix before she could confront Orochimaru with the certainty that he wouldn't be able to get away.

Anko dodged another onslaught just to have the back of her head hit by another, a little harder, snowball.

"Damnit, this is bullying!"

"Stop whining; Hinata went through the same exercise after her breakthrough."

"But unlike Hinata, I don't enjoy getting bulli...*Ouch*... Damnit! Can't you make those projectiles a little softer!?"

"I could, yes."

"Then do it!"

"The Dao is endless; Only through hardship can we get a glimpse at its peak."

"Damnit, take your Dao nonsense, and shove it up your a...*Ouch* Damnit! WAIT A MOMENT!!! WASN'T THAT A CONTRADICTION JUST NOW!!!"

"*Cough* T-The Dao is very profound and can not be understood by words alone."

"SO IT REALLY WAS!!!"

After around a week of training, Yuna was finally satisfied with Anko's [Spirit Sense] proficiency, and it was time for their departure. A vicious smirk appeared on Anko's face when she realized that it was finally time to get her revenge. Although it didn't bother her that much anymore, she was still relatively happy that she could finally kill Orochimaru.

"Hahaha, I have been waiting for this moment for a long time now. Let's go, Yuna."

Without further comments, Yuna gripped Anko's right shoulder, and moments later, both of them vanished