A ferocious grey wolf leapt from the darkness. It stood even taller than Habu Sora.
Drool dripped steadily from its bared fangs.
To the beast, Sora was like a skewer of roasted meat seasoned with cumin, irresistible to a starving carnivore.
"Awoooo, !"
With a howl, the wolf lunged, its claws slashing toward Sora like knives.
Sora rolled across the ground, narrowly evading the attack. As he moved, he snatched a kunai from his waistband and spun into a fighting stance.
The wolf growled. A mere insect dared to resist?
With a snarl that carried a hint of human-like rage, it pounced again.
Clang!
Sora raised his kunai just in time, blocking the wolf's strike.
But the brute strength behind it was too much, Sora's small frame was flung backward like a rag doll, crashing hard against the ground.
"Gh, !"
His left arm scraped along the dirt and stones, now covered in deep cuts. But the wolf was still close, and Sora had no time to rest. Gritting his teeth, he scrambled to his feet.
Fragments of knowledge from the scrolls flashed through his mind,
Three Basic Techniques, Foundational Taijutsu, Body Flicker…
He'd learned all these back at the Academy, but the old Sora, with mediocre talent, had never grasped them fully.
But the scrolls Orochimaru gave him were something else, refined insights from the Sannin's own experience. Each section broke down the techniques with clarity and precision far beyond the Academy's standard.
Step by step, the principles took shape in his mind.
With renewed focus, he gripped his kunai. When he looked up again, something had changed, his aura now crackled with tension and resolve.
"AWOOOO!"
The wolf charged once more, jaws wide, gleaming teeth aimed to tear him apart.
Sora didn't move. He stood there, frozen.
He didn't raise his blade.
He didn't dodge.
He let the wolf close in, and then,
Poof!
The moment the wolf's jaws clamped down, Sora vanished in a puff of smoke.
What the wolf bit into instead was a chunk of dry wood.
"Yah!"
From the trees above, the real Sora dropped like a hawk, kunai in both hands.
With pinpoint precision, he drove the blades into the wolf's neck.
Then, spinning midair, he kicked the beast's skull with all his weight, sending it crashing to the ground.
"Haha… looks like I really am a clutch player."
The wolf collapsed, bleeding from its torn throat.
Sora stood above it, chest heaving, this was his first real kill using proper ninja techniques.
But before he could even savor the moment,
More predators emerged from the shadows.
A bear the size of a small house.
A python thicker than his torso.
A black-eyed mantis with blades for arms.
A thousand-legged giant centipede that hissed like steam.
Compared to these monsters, the grey wolf looked downright adorable.
"Damn you, Orochimaru! Are you trying to get me killed?!"
Whatever fighting spirit he'd just gained evaporated instantly. Killing that wolf had taken everything he had, how could he possibly fight this whole zoo?
He remembered the Body Flicker movement scroll, and quickly channeled chakra to the soles of his feet.
Flick!
His figure blurred, then reappeared five meters away, balanced on a tree branch.
He flickered again. And again.
Dodging through trees like a leaf on the wind, Sora made his escape.
But Body Flicker took a heavy toll on the body. After a few bursts, Sora was already at his limit. There was no way he could use it for long-distance travel.
ROAAAR, !
Despite his efforts, the beasts were still on his tail.
The purple scent cloud was too strong, acting like a beacon for every hungry predator in the forest. More and more of them joined the chase, their footsteps crashing like thunder behind him. It felt like an earthquake.
I can't keep this up… I need to find water. I have to wash off this scent, otherwise, I'll collapse before they ever reach me.
His mind raced as he searched for a solution.
Suddenly, he tore off his outer shirt and threw it onto a nearby branch.
Then he darted in the opposite direction.
The scent-laden garment drew away nearly half the pursuing beasts, but many still kept after him.
It worked, but not enough. The rest of them will still catch up… I don't stand a chance in a fight!
"Whatever! Time to use it,
Air Door: Open!"
Behind a tree trunk, Sora extended his hand and formed a portal in thin air.
With a swift dive, he disappeared into the shimmering green subspace.
The moment he vanished, the beasts froze.
The scent was gone.
Confused and bloodthirsty, the pack circled the spot, sniffing and clawing.
But without a target, they could only thrash around like headless flies.
Flick!
On a high branch, a slim figure appeared, black-haired, snake-eyed, and draped in a jonin's vest.
Orochimaru.
"To disappear from my sensory field in an instant… a time-space ninjutsu? Kekkei Genkai?"
He licked his lips with delight.
"Harano-kun… it seems your son is far more interesting than you ever were."
Inside the emerald-hued subspace, Sora sprinted desperately.
His chakra ticked down with every second. He had to reach a safe zone before it ran out.
Thanks to experiments back home, he already understood the cost of using the Gate-Gate Fruit:
> Opening a portal cost roughly one-fifth of his total chakra.
> Every minute spent in the subspace drained another tenth.
After two minutes of running, and with no more beasts in sight, he opened another door and exited.
By now, his chakra reserves were less than half.
Water, I hear water up ahead!
Sora picked up speed, following the faint sound of rushing stream.
But before long,
ROAR!
The sound of beasts approaching thundered behind him once again.
This purple smoke is insane! Even from this far away, they can smell me?!
He pushed his legs harder, heart pounding in his chest.
"Finally!"
Up ahead, a wide river sparkled in the moonlight.
Without hesitation, he leapt into the water before the beasts could close the distance.
Submerged in the river, he scrubbed at his skin and clothes, rinsing away every trace of that cursed powder.
Fortunately, he had already confirmed back home, he didn't suffer the same weakness to water as typical Devil Fruit users.
He wasn't sure why.
Maybe the "curse of the sea" from the One Piece world didn't exist here. Maybe chakra and Devil Fruits interacted differently in this world. Who knew?
He turned back to the riverbank, where a crowd of enraged beasts roared at him from the shore.
A glint of cold determination flashed in his eyes.
"Just wait till I'm clean… then we'll see who's really the predator."
Two weeks later.
Time passed in a blur.
Since scrubbing away the purple scent, Sora was no longer hunted en masse.
He began picking off isolated prey, one by one.
"Haah!"
A massive bear swiped at Sora, but his claws passed through thin air, he had struck a clone.
"Clone Technique!"
Sora reappeared behind the beast and drove his kunai straight into its eye socket. With a brutal twist, he destroyed the brainstem.
The bear collapsed with a thunderous crash.
"Twenty-one."
Blood dripped from his torn uniform.
Sora bit a strip of cloth, tied off the deep wound on his arm. His body was riddled with dozens of such injuries, some fresh, some healing.
Clap clap clap.
Orochimaru had appeared again, clapping slowly.
"Splendid, Sora-kun. Your foundation was far worse than I expected… but your progress has been far more impressive than I hoped."
In just two weeks, Sora had gone from panic-stricken and powerless to calmly executing core techniques in live combat.
Clone Technique. Substitution. Body Flicker. Basic Taijutsu.
His grasp of the fundamentals had grown tremendously.
More importantly, two weeks of life-and-death survival had forged something even more valuable:
a sharpened mindset,
a will to survive,
and the potential to become a truly powerful ninja.
<150 P.S = 1 Extra Chapter>