Ch 16 The Snake and The Priest

"Finally coming out of your retirement, little thief? Even the Buddha has forsaken you?"

"Oh, not quite yet. His patience is enormous, unlike mine." Egoro said, banging his shakujo on his summon's head. "You sinned near my shrine, committed murder and barbarity on the weak and dead."

"You want to attack me, little Egoro? Mighty commitment for a thief." Orochimaru said, getting ready for violence, noticing shadows of Egoro's other summons closing in.

"Rinmaru, assist me till others join you." Egoro said to his summoned Vita.

"As you command, lord Egoro." Rinmaru said, blasting a water jet towards Orochimaru.

Orochimaru avoided the needle-thin jet of water, which cut a few trees behind him. He smeared blood on the seals on his arms, summoning a brown earth snake larger than many trees of the forest.

Egoro jumped towards Orochimaru, performing transformation jutsu and turning himself into a four armed man. He jabbed his shakujo staff towards Orochimaru, trying to pierce the slithering man with the sharp end.

Orochimaru blocked the strike with his kunai, wrapping his snake-like hands around the staff, locking them in place. Egoro raised his censer, blowing in it and releasing ash on Orochimaru's face.

Orochimaru backed away, knowing full well that the censer was the primary threat in the priest's arsenal.

"Still with the genjutsu?" Orochimaru said, launching snakes from his arms towards the priest.

"That is all that I know." Egoro replied, appearing behind Orochimaru from a grey smoke. He used his two transformed arms to strike Orochimaru, while using his original arms to cast a jutsu.

"KATON: Engulfing Soot [Fire Style]" Egoro cried, breathing fire in his censer.

Through the censer, black soot came writhing out, taking the form of some deep sea wickedness, using octopus-like hands to hold down Orochimaru. The soot burned Orochimaru where it touched him, and as it was about to engulf the man-snake, he vanished in a puff of smoke.

"You've given up your devious ways?" Orochimaru said, emerging from the mouth of a small snake near Anko.

"Must you use snakes for everything, lord Orochimaru?" Egoro said, sitting on his summon Vita. Now all his other summons had gathered together, joining to form an intimidating beast.

This Vita, which was the combination of over forty smaller ones, had a wide triangular head. Though it was not as flat as before, it had dimensions. So did its snake-like body, which now had four paws and several fins sticking out of it. Floating in the air above the brown snake's corpse eerily.

The vita growled, swinging his tail fin, creating a gust of cold air.

"This is the way of life, lord Orochimaru. Dharma demands the death of the likes of you." Egoro said, clapping his two transformed hands and making Shuni and Gyan mudra with his other.

"The sign of patience(Shuni) and knowledge(Gyan). How ironic. Do you even understand those words?"

"I don't have to." Egoro said, pointing his Shuni mudra to the sky and Gyan mudra to earth while raising his one leg up, as if doing yoga. "Right, Yu?"

His Vita lord Yu replied with a bellow, shaking the forest around him ready to perform the combination jutsu.

"Forbidden Art: Deprived Heat!"

Vita lord Yu fired a jet of water at Orochimaru, a jet that was as wide as a geyser and as cold as the arctic. The jet travelled through the air, robbing the surrounding of its warmth, cooling it down.

Before Orochimaru could even blink, the geyser of chilling death was on him, dowsing him in ice cold water and blasting him off his perch. In mid air, the geyser froze Orochimaru in an ice cage.

Egoro threw his shakujo staff at the frozen snake-man, shattering it to pieces before collapsing on his hips on his summons head.

"Another snake clone."

Egoro's summon Yu growled in response, floating down to grab Anko by his tail. Egoro undid his priest's robe, as he felt the consequences of his jutsu on his back. With pain and sensation of itching and irritation travelled down the length of his back, spreading like cracked soil on his wide back.

The forbidden art deprived heat, worked by stealing heat from anything water from Vita lord Yu's mouth touched. That stolen heat was returned to Egoro, which often caused him burns.

"At least I drove that snake away." Egoro muttered to himself. "Yu, did you see what he was after?"

Yu replied with a soft mew, twisting his several metre long gigantic body.

"I know, I know. I'll take you to a nice doctor after I get paid. And there will be a bonus after this." Egoro said, feeling the severe burns on his back. It felt like it would be hard to treat them this time. "Hey Yu, do I smell like bacon?"

Yu growled, taking the priest and Anko to the central tower.

"I think these pillars have something to do with the scroll."

"You sure Shino? We've tried everything and still this thing remains unresponsive."

"Kiba is right, Shino. We have to move… what if others get here?"

Shino sighed in agreement, observing the pillar last time. Maybe the stupid thing was here as a red herring… maybe it… Shino channelled chakra on his feet, climbing the pole, then in one hole he inserted the white scroll.

Nothing happened. The scroll remained as white as they'd found it in the Genjutsu barrier.

"Kiba, do you have a scroll of similar size?"

"I think I have one. Let me… check." Hinata said, checking her pouch for scrolls. "Here, try this one. They are the same size."

Shino, with held breath, inserted the two scrolls together. Still nothing. The scroll, the pillar, and everything else remained the same.

"Shino, let's go out and hunt down another scroll first. Maybe by then we can figure out-"

"That's it Kiba. That is the puzzle."

"It is?"

"Yes, I think we need to insert both scrolls into the pole together to make it work."

"What do you think it would do?" Hinata asked.

"Maybe it will mark the scroll with Heaven and Earth names, just like the pictures proctors had shown us." Kiba said, filled with excitement. "Maybe it will also-"

A sharp bugle went off somewhere in the forest, distracting and disturbing Kiba.

"Is that some sort of warning?" Sino said.

"I think it is much worse… look at this." Hinata said, waving the card proctors had given them.

"These words, they're different from before." Kiba said, studying the card. "What do you think, Akamaru?"

"I think they are coordinates. Why you ask? Because we write coordinates of bee hives in similar fashion."

"You are right Shino… these coordinates match on the map." Hinata said, pointing at a section of the map that was way too far away from them.

"I wonder which team solved the puzzle first."

"Let's see if they would even keep their scroll." Shino said, looking towards where the sharp bugle noise had come.

Gara's sand made a temporary roof over the heads of Temari and Kankuro as they rested near the pillar. For both of the older genins, the smell and sight of the dripping blood in Gara's sand was less than ideal.

Still, the heavy rain over their head meant they had little other options for a better shelter.

"What is up with this place? Beats, insects, poisonous plants, and then this rain?" Temari said, cleaning her battle fan and oiling its joints. "I can swear I saw a clear blue sky just minutes ago."

"It's driving me nuts how even their artificial rain has more water than our monsoons-"

"-Kankuro"

"Yes, Gara?"

"Shut up. Your complaints are annoying." Gara said, continuing to observe the two white scrolls in his hands. "Both of them are heaven scrolls. We need to find the earth one fast."

"Maybe the sound would attract someone." Temari said, taking out the mandatory card. "Though we now have another condition to fulfil if we want to pass the phase."

Kankuro took the card from Temari, reading the card again.

Wife of your Daimyo has fallen ill. Medics request the liver of the emerald eel. Make sure to bring it back alive, so we can save our lord and secure more funding for the ongoing war. Details of its last sightings are attached to your mission scroll.

"Honestly, I would let our Daimyo's wife kick the bucket. Fat lot of good they do us, releasing mission to other nations, treating us as-"

"-Kankuro."

"Yes…Gara?"

"Shut up."

In the central control tower, the chunin proctors were feeling the heat of pressure as they moved about in the room, delivering reports and changing feed on the monitors.

Their officer in charge, Anko Mitarashi, was nowhere to be seen, but that did not mean they could slack off. Quite the contrary, they were under more pressure. The command room was filled with high-ranking officials and Jonin elites, all keeping an eye on the feeds. Looking out for Orochimaru.

"You've trained quite a team Kurenai, they might be the first Konoha genin to activate the tower."

"It would've been better if they were the first genin team out of the entire bunch." Kurenai said, passing a smile to the ANBU op with a parrot mask.

"Yeah, but to think Hidden Sand would send such capable genins." Owl said, writing something on a piece of paper as she watched the feed.

"Indeed, quite the blood lust on the short one." Beetle said, observing Owl's reports hanging upside down from the ceiling.

"Where is the Hawk?" Kakashi asked, observing the three ANBU division heads present in the room.

He knew a few of them, some even before his days in ANBU. Parrot used to be their junior in the academy and joined the ANBU even before Kakashi, serving the Diplomacy and Foreign Policy department.

Beetle had led Assassinations corps since the third great shinobi war, making her one of the oldest division heads.

Owl, head of Internal security and Anti-Terrorist unit, was perhaps the most tensed one in the room. Orochimaru in the village was all kinds of nightmare for her, especially at a time like this.

"He's been out on the field." Owl said, playing with her lighter as she continued to write reports. "If he's not back in a couple of minutes, one of you kids-."

"I'll do it." Asuma said, throwing his cigarette out of the window. "I don't believe he has any reasons to snoop around the kids."

"Exactly." Might Guy said. "Ah, who are we talking about again, Kakashi?"

"Hawk, the one from the foundation."

"I thought they dissolved the foundation." Kurenai said.

"They did… on the paper." Asuma said. "It is hard to limit power like that."

"Welcome to the club of Elites, Lady Kurenai." Parrot said, bowing to the latest elite jonin of the Konoha. "Now you get to learn more of our nasty little secrets."

"Uhm, I don't mean to disturb you sirs…"

"Go on Izumo." Owl said.

"The thei-Priest, he's in the position. If you could send the men…"

Owl gave a nod, throwing her lighter out of the room's window, and weaving through quick hand-signs. The lighter exploded, turning into a ball of flame that divided itself into many small birds, each flying in a different direction.

"And they call me flamboyant." Parrot said. "Why not just use the communication tags?"

"Gone."

"Huh?"

"Egoro stole them."

"What-" Parrot said, searching his hostlers and pockets, finding a piece of paper in place of his trusted kunai.

"Does your read 'Thanks for your alms, Benefactor!' too?" Kakashi asked the ANBU op.

"Yes." Kurenai said.

"Mine reads, grow up," Guy said.

"What are you blushing about, Sarutobi?" Owl asked.

"Huh… nah… nothing, really."

Egoro was resting on the eastern fence of training ground forty-four, lazily counting his loot. His torso was heavily bandaged and one nervous medic was sitting near him, praying for the priest to take it easy.

"Lord-"

"Enough with the Lord crap, kids." Egoro said, interrupting the ANBU op, and observing the ANBU ops gathered around him. "I'm a man of religion now."

"As you say, sir."

"You know the barrier-seals?"

"Sir!"

"Good, scatter. About time we started this exam in its entirety."