Another few minutes later, there was a puff of smoke, and Orochimaru appeared.
His gaze flickered over all three of them.
"Good, you are all present."
"Orochimaru-sama, I was wondering, since I'm already a chunin, there is no need for me to participate, right? Hum, ha ha… ha… ha…"
He laughed awkwardly.
"Tsk," Shintoki said, annoyed. "Are you already giving up, Ebisu-senpai?"
Orochimaru: "Indeed, but this test isn't limited to genin. Just show me your best," and with that, he killed Ebisu's hope.
Without wasting any time, he summoned a snake that carried a sword in its mouth, which Orochimaru took and did a few swings with.
Watching him summon the sword first, Shintoki tensed.
"What, is he really going to fight us with his weapon? None of us would survive that madman."
Instead, Orochimaru told them to look at the sword before giving it back to the snake, who opened his mouth and swallowed the sword back, then ran to another part of the forest at a fast pace, at least mid-chunin in speed.
Orochimaru then told them the purpose of the test: they had to retrieve the sword from the snake to pass his test, and for that, they had to get past him.
They had forty minutes to fulfill this, or they would fail.
Shintoki, hearing the test, cursed. This test was obviously beyond their capacity — even if they worked together, what hope did they have against a Sannin? Of course, if he used his Ketsuryugan, they could have a slim chance since Orochimaru wasn't aware of his dōjutsu.
But actually using it? Like hell.
The moment he did, he would have Orochimaru on his trail from that point forward, and even that crazy shadow of the Hokage who used a cane would know. His life would be in danger, and with his current strength, there would be nothing he could do.
He released a sigh. There was no need for him to do that. Also, this was simply a test, not a serious fight — no way would Orochimaru go too far. Him not using his sword was already a good sign.
Orochimaru then gave the signal for the exam to begin.
"Begin!"
Then they vanished to prepare, but instead of moving separately, they remained together, vanishing into the woods — they all moved with purpose…
…
After studying the area and making sure there were no traps, they considered dodging Orochimaru altogether and searching for the sword, but the latter lost his patience and chose to go for them instead.
Seeing Orochimaru suddenly appear before them, Shintoki released a sign.
Anko launched a direct attack at Orochimaru, her hand taking the form of the Hebi Style, trying to hit Orochimaru, but he easily parried her strike and kicked her away. Having sensed shuriken flying toward his position, he quickly took a kunai from his pouch and deflected them, a hint of disappointment in his eyes.
But it quickly changed into surprise when he noticed some sparks under his feet — paper tags showing signs of being ignited, left behind by Anko before being kicked away. With a quick body flicker, he vanished from his former spot.
"Boom!"
The ground shook from the explosion, and flames erupted in Orochimaru's previous spot.
Anko noticed a movement behind her, but she couldn't move in time and was about to get hit by Orochimaru's punch — that is when a shadow also appeared in front of her.
To be precise, that person was Shintoki, having used his own shunshin to reappear before Orochimaru to block the attack.
Orochimaru found himself actually excited. These three kids aren't bad. The cooperation, and even their combo, is great. Even a jōnin would struggle to handle it.
But unfortunately, Orochimaru was anything but an ordinary jōnin. He was a true elite.
They exchanged some moves, with Orochimaru easily blocking every punch from Shintoki.
Growing tired of blocking these predictable moves, Orochimaru chose to attack a little.
His hand erupted with chakra, and he suddenly vanished, reappearing in front of Shintoki and hitting him in the stomach, making him grit his teeth in pain as he was launched away.
"Damn, that hurt like hell," said Shintoki in shock, his eyes wide in disbelief. One thing is to know these Sannin are monsters; another is to actually get beaten by them.
And so effortlessly? Shintoki couldn't help but fall down. The only thing giving him comfort was the fact that he had awakened a bloodline and that he would eventually reach the level of the elite — but how far, only time would tell.
While Orochimaru is no Tsunade, all the Sannin still possess strong taijutsu and are capable of enhancing their strength with chakra in a way that a single punch possesses overwhelming force — even a person possessing a chakra cloak defense mode would feel the strength of their attack.
Ebisu, seeing his teammate being easily overwhelmed and his own shuriken easily deflected, took out a smoke bomb and launched it at Orochimaru's feet.
By the time it cleared, all three had already vanished, leaving Orochimaru alone there.
In another part of the forest, Shintoki and his friends were making their plan. They ruled out the option of fighting Orochimaru unless absolutely necessary.
For now, they should capture the serpent instead and divert Orochimaru's attention. Their expressions grew grim; time was at work, and Orochimaru would be looking for them again soon unless they found a way to keep him distracted.
Ebisu opted to cause the diversion, but Shintoki declined — if they split up, they would have a harder time dealing with Orochimaru. And not to insult them, but neither Anko nor Ebisu possessed the aptitude to keep Orochimaru away.
Even Shintoki alone wouldn't truly pull it off.
"We can't beat him, but I have a plan that should keep him away, even if temporarily."
He then looked at Anko. "I will need your assistance."
…
Orochimaru was preparing to follow them when suddenly Shintoki reappeared before him and completed several hand signs before projectiles flew from a river near the forest toward Orochimaru, closing in from all directions.
Orochimaru suddenly vanished from his spot, resulting in the shuriken flying through his image.
Shintoki, seeing this, pulled out an explosive smoke bomb and detonated it in front of himself.
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes. He was genuinely puzzled. "What is he trying to do? This will only hide him. Such mere tricks can't work on a Sannin."
But once inside, Orochimaru didn't find Shintoki — no matter how much he pushed his senses, Shintoki remained imperceptible.
Suddenly, a puff of smoke appeared — a stone on the ground before Orochimaru turned into Shintoki, who instantly launched a kunai to attack him. But Orochimaru quickly dodged and pushed Shintoki aside.
Shintoki, after all, decided to take a page out of the future savior's book and change himself into stone to fool the Sannin.
Clever, thought the Sannin.
Orochimaru complimented Shintoki for his clever move and moved to strike him, but Shintoki had already completed his hand signs before water started to gather around him.
"Water Release — Water Dragon Jutsu!"
Shielding Shintoki from the attack and attempting to blast Orochimaru away — but a chakra pressure from Orochimaru shattered the waves and blasted Shintoki away.
"Such weak moves can't threaten me. To think you would come alone. I will teach you a lesson."
That is when two shadows appeared before Shintoki and counterattacked. Ebisu and Anko pulled the threads left on the ground when Shintoki turned into stone earlier, making them wrap around the Sannin.
But before the threat could fully restrain Orochimaru, they felt some spike in chakra.
Orochimaru then moved through hand signs and summoned a huge snake.
The snake launched itself at the two and hit them, but instead of being sent flying into something, they dispersed.
"Kage Bunshin? So they were clones. Of course, he knew Anko could use shadow clones — he taught her himself — but what about Ebisu? Unless…"
"Ha… haha…" Shintoki laughed while winded. "Indeed, it was our plan. I had Anko create two clones and then henge one into Ebisu."
Of course, Shintoki wasn't foolish enough to think he could handle Orochimaru by himself, so he came up with a plan with Anko and Ebisu.
"I see, you three are full of surprises. But it ends here for you."
The snake shot directly at Shintoki, but the latter, being low on chakra, was still able to avoid it for some time. However, through the relentless assault, Shintoki was hit and dissolved into water.
At that, Orochimaru's eye finally twitched.