Chapter 65: Instant Defeat

Orochimaru and his team gained their fame during the Second Shinobi World War. But before that, they were relatively unknown, even to most of the ninjas within Konoha. Back then, few people knew them or that they were the disciples of the Third Hokage.

It was similar to how, during the original series, Namikaze Minato became known only after his exploits against the Iwa ninjas, despite being extremely powerful. In large clans like the Uchiha and Hyuga, many members didn't even know their own relatives, so it wasn't surprising that Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya were also relatively unknown at the time.

As Orochimaru's team faced off against their opponents, many of the onlookers thought the match was uninteresting. In their minds, civilian ninjas, especially ones as young as Orochimaru and his teammates, couldn't possibly put on an exciting fight.

"These three kids are way too young, aren't they?" one spectator murmured.

"They look like they just graduated," another added.

"Ugh, this match is going to be boring. It's gonna be a complete mismatch," a third person complained.

"Yeah, probably a complete crush."

Inside the training ground, Orochimaru's team and Saosuke's team were already in position, ready to fight.

"Get into position! Ready… begin!" shouted the examiner.

Boom!

*Bang, bang, bang!*

In an instant, it was over.

The examiner blinked in confusion, as did most of the spectators. No one could comprehend what had just happened.

"What the… what just happened?"

"I blinked and missed it… can someone tell me what happened?"

The truth was, the crowd was right about one thing this match was indeed a crushing defeat. But it wasn't Orochimaru's team that was defeated. It was Saosuke's.

Tsunade had knocked out one of her opponents with a single punch, Jiraiya had subdued another with his bare hands, and Orochimaru stood behind the last one, calmly holding a kunai to the young man's neck. The entire match had lasted less than ten seconds.

The crowd was stunned.

"Amazing!"

"How did they move so fast?"

All the spectators had heard was the examiner shouting "Begin!" and within moments, Orochimaru and his team had decimated their opponents. The only thing Saosuke's team managed to do was throw a couple of shuriken in a panic. But those were meaningless against the speed and power of Orochimaru's team.

Even among genin, most couldn't perform the Body Flicker Technique as efficiently as Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya. The three of them had already mastered it to a degree that far outpaced their peers. In fact, even the slowest of the trio, Jiraiya, was faster than an average genin.

There had been no contest in the battle from the start.

"These brats are much stronger than I thought," one of the spectators said in amazement.

"Yeah, did you see that? Their Body Flicker Technique was way faster than Saosuke's team."

"Wait… do you recognize that girl? The one who knocked out her opponent with a single punch?"

"Huh? Who is she?"

"She's from the Senju Clan."

"What? The Senju Clan? No wonder… Wait, how do you know this?"

"I heard it from my dad once."

"Ah, that explains it…"

With the crushing victory, Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya had caught the attention of some of the more experienced ninjas in the crowd, especially the teams from the large clans. It was clear to everyone that Orochimaru's team was not to be underestimated.

The next day, the matches continued. This time, their opponents managed to last for about thirty seconds. But it was still a decisive victory for Orochimaru's team.

By the third day, the team battle portion of the exam had concluded. Out of the initial one to two thousand participants, only around two hundred remained. That left about eighty teams moving on to the next stage of the exam.

The remaining teams were taken to Konoha's infamous Forest of Death. The forest spanned a radius of ten kilometers, with forty-four locked entrances. A river bisected the area, and in the center stood a tower. The rules for this round were similar to the ones described in the original series. Each team was given either a Heaven or Earth scroll, and their goal was to survive for five days while collecting a matching scroll from another team. Once they had both scrolls, they had to reach the central tower safely.

This portion of the exam was designed to test not just the teams' combat abilities but also their survival skills and strategic thinking.

As Orochimaru stared at the Heaven scroll his team had been assigned, a smirk crept onto his face. In the original timeline, he had been the main antagonist of this very exam. How ironic that he was now just a participant.

"Orochimaru, what's the plan?" Jiraiya asked, eager to jump into action.

"We'll just head straight in," Orochimaru replied calmly.

"What? You're just going to rush in? Isn't that going to lead to a lot of unnecessary fights?" Jiraiya questioned, a little baffled by the strategy.

"It doesn't matter," Orochimaru answered, completely unfazed. "The level of opponents here isn't worth wasting tactics on."

Tsunade and Jiraiya exchanged glances, speechless. While Orochimaru's assessment was brutally honest, wasn't it a bit arrogant to disregard tactics altogether? Still, they had no time to argue, as the gates to the Forest of Death had already been opened.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

The ninjas dashed into the forest in groups. The eighty teams were split between the forty-four gates, with a ten-minute interval between each team entering. Orochimaru's group was part of the second wave.

Less than five minutes after entering the forest, they encountered another Konoha team that had entered earlier.

The three male ninjas, likely close to twenty years old, stepped forward with smug expressions.

"We noticed you kids earlier," one of them said. "Let's avoid any unnecessary fighting. Just hand over your scroll."

Orochimaru chuckled darkly. "You seem confident… confident enough to show yourselves without any caution."

"If we weren't confident in beating some brats like you, we wouldn't be here competing, now would we?" one of the older ninjas sneered.

"I see."

As soon as he finished speaking, Orochimaru's hands moved in a blur, forming seals.

Boom!

With a loud crash, the ground beneath one of the Konoha ninjas erupted, and a massive khaki-colored python shot out from the earth, swallowing the man whole before he even had time to react.