In only a few seconds, the black-scaled serpent finally reached the limit of what it could endure.
The flames clinging to the steel wires had burned too deep, too viciously. With a violent hiss, the summon broke the technique on its own and was sent back to Ryuchi Cave, leaving behind nothing but a few lengths of burning wire and scorched earth.
The instant it disappeared, Uchiha Gen cut off his chakra output as well.
The flames crawling over the wires guttered out almost at once.
He did not waste even a breath admiring the result. Ignoring the red-hot metal and the fire still licking at the ground, Gen turned and sprinted straight for the river.
The black-scaled serpent had gone down quickly, but even that short exchange had still cost him one or two precious minutes. In a chase against Orochimaru, that was already too long.
He had to change position immediately.
He had to wash off his scent again.
***
At the same time, Orochimaru stood balanced on the head of a giant brown snake, one hand lightly tossing a bell up and down as the summon slid through the forest.
Beside him sat Uzuki Ruri.
She had already lost her bell, which meant she had been eliminated, but at this moment she was more distracted than frustrated. Riding atop a giant summoned snake was an experience no academy drill could ever provide, and curiosity kept leaking through her otherwise composed expression.
Then Orochimaru's eyes narrowed.
"Oh?" he murmured. "It was actually driven back to Ryuchi Cave?"
Real surprise flickered across his pale face.
He formed a quick series of hand seals and attempted to summon the black-scaled serpent again. The chakra was sent out, the connection made—and then the summoning failed.
"The summoning was rejected," Orochimaru said softly, a trace of amusement curling his lips. "Too badly injured, perhaps. Interesting."
Now he was genuinely curious.
He knew exactly how strong that black-scaled serpent was. Against an ordinary newly graduated genin, it was overwhelming. Its defense, its raw power, the crushing force of that giant body—none of those things were supposed to be manageable for a child fresh out of the academy.
Escaping from it would already have been an impressive result.
Yet Uchiha Gen had not merely escaped. He had forced the creature to cancel the summon and flee back to Ryuchi Cave on its own initiative. Worse still, the injuries were severe enough that even Orochimaru's follow-up summoning had been refused.
Orochimaru lowered his hand and patted the head of the giant brown snake beneath his feet.
The summon understood immediately and surged forward faster, carrying him and Ruri toward the battlefield.
Soon enough, they arrived.
The traces were impossible to miss.
Flames still burned in patches across the forest floor. Scattered shuriken lay among torn-up earth and broken branches. Elastic wires stretched across tree trunks or drooped in warped, half-melted lengths, some still darkened by soot.
Ruri's eyes moved across the battlefield. "This should have been Gen."
Sarutobi Enjun was not the sort to fight with that level of precise wire manipulation. Fire Release paired with steel wire and shuriken was a classic Uchiha method. Orochimaru had recognized that much before he even stepped off the snake.
He crouched slightly, studying the ground, the trees, the air itself.
Based on years of experience, he reconstructed the fight almost at a glance.
"It was fast," he said. "The exchange didn't last long. The tactics were still a little rough, but in an encounter battle, deploying them that quickly is already good. His reaction speed wasn't bad."
Ruri spoke in a low voice. "Gen always ranked first in theoretical studies at the academy. After entering the elite class, he was practically full marks every time. His tactical theory has always been excellent."
"Excellent theory and excellent battlefield execution are not the same thing," Orochimaru replied.
Even so, there was obvious satisfaction in his tone.
Theory could be memorized. Real application under pressure was something else entirely. And yet that Uchiha brat had managed it.
Very much like him.
"Let's continue," Orochimaru said.
He tapped the giant brown snake again. The summon lowered its head, tasted the air with its tongue, and began following the scent Uchiha Gen had left behind.
Two minutes later, the trail led them to the river that cut through the Forest of Death.
There, the scent vanished.
Ruri immediately understood. "He escaped into the water."
Orochimaru gave a faint hum of acknowledgment.
The flowing river had washed the scent away. By now, Gen had almost certainly surfaced elsewhere and resumed his escape from another point. In other words, this particular trail was finished.
But Orochimaru did not look the least bit disappointed.
He had come here to confirm one thing, and he already had his answer.
If Uchiha Gen had only possessed clever talk and not the actual ability to back it up, then Orochimaru would have found him boring. Instead, the boy had proven something important.
With Uchiha Gen in the team, this squad would not be as easy to wipe out as most genin teams if their instructor was absent from a mission.
That was enough.
Alive first. Everything else second.
That was the most valuable lesson Orochimaru had learned after Nawaki's death.
Only the living had the right to talk about ideals, heritage, status, or future plans. The dead had nothing.
So what he intended to teach these three children was simple.
How to survive.
And how to become strong enough that survival was not left to luck.
Orochimaru gazed at the river for a moment longer, then seemed to sense something. With another quick seal, he summoned a small white phosphorescent snake. Amid a soft chorus of hisses, the little snake relayed what it had found.
Orochimaru raised his head and looked deeper into the forest.
"Since we've lost this one," he said lightly, "we'll go find another. That one has already been discovered."
***
Elsewhere in the Forest of Death, Sarutobi Enjun had finally managed to shake off the two-headed snake that had been hounding him.
He landed on a thick branch, breathing hard, one hand already reaching for a soldier pill to restore his chakra.
Then he froze.
Snakes.
They were everywhere.
Some coiled around tree trunks. Some slithered over the ground in rustling waves. Some were thick as a man's thigh; some were thin as vines; some wore bright poisonous colors while others blended almost perfectly into bark and leaves.
At a glance, the whole area seemed to be alive.
Enjun let out a long breath. "Great. So my position's exposed."
He pulled a bottle from his ninja pouch and poured a mouthful of oil into his mouth.
This time, unlike his graduation match with Gen, the wide open terrain of the forest had given him far more chances to use the special oil to enhance his Fire Release. The reason he had escaped the two-headed snake in the first place was because he had scorched a wide stretch of forest, using flame and smoke to interfere with the snake's heat sensing and smell.
But that escape had cost him too much time.
And time was exactly what Orochimaru needed.
If he could not break out of the encirclement now, then the two-headed snake—and probably several larger snakes as well—would close in again. And once Orochimaru himself arrived, elimination would be all but guaranteed.
"There's no point saving chakra anymore," Enjun muttered to himself.
He could feel the soldier pill beginning to work, chakra slowly stabilizing inside him.
"If I break through, I might still be able to recover and drag this out for the full hour. If I can't break through... then I'm done."
He puffed out his cheeks.
"Fire Release: Flame Bullet!"
The technique exploded outward.
Ten minutes later, Sarutobi Enjun was still standing—but only barely.
He was panting hard, blood staining parts of his clothes and skin where snake bites and cuts had torn into him. Dead snakes littered the ground around his feet. The air stank of scorched flesh and blood.
In front of him stood three giant serpents.
One of them was the same two-headed beast that had chased him before.
The endless ordinary snakes of Ryuchi Cave were expendable. Orochimaru would never care how many of those died. Even the loss of larger snakes was not enough to truly concern him.
But for Enjun, that distinction meant nothing at all.
What mattered was that he was surrounded, injured, and running low.
Far away, Gen was still moving.
He had already used the river once to break the scent trail, and after resurfacing elsewhere, he had kept going without pause. Even while running, he had a second thread of focus reserved for the ninja crows and the small-range chakra sensing he had only recently learned.
It was not enough to map the entire forest.
It was enough to keep him alive a little longer.
Then one of the crows returned, circling down in a rush of black feathers.
Gen recognized the urgency at once.
"Enjun's in trouble?" he asked.
The crow cried sharply, once, then again, hopping in agitation.
Gen's expression tightened.
He had already guessed that Ruri being eliminated meant Orochimaru's search net was tightening around the entire forest. But if Enjun had also been cornered, then the situation had become much worse than he had hoped.
He stopped on a high branch and looked out over the green sea of trees.
The Forest of Death was enormous for ordinary people, but for shinobi—especially someone like Orochimaru—it was not nearly large enough. Given enough time, there would be nowhere left to hide.
Which meant the problem was changing.
This was no longer just about escaping.
It was about enduring until the end without being the last one broken.
Gen exhaled slowly and forced his thoughts back into order.
Panic was useless.
Distance, movement, misdirection, information. Those were still the key points.
But now there was another factor layered on top of all of it.
Assessment.
Orochimaru was not merely hunting them. He was observing them. Forcing them into a corner. Dragging out the methods they would instinctively use once escape stopped being easy.
That meant every decision mattered.
Every bit of cunning.
Every flaw.
Even so, understanding that did not make the situation any less dangerous.
Gen narrowed his eyes and adjusted his direction again.
If Enjun lasted long enough, then Orochimaru's attention would remain fixed there for a while. That would buy him a sliver of breathing room. If Enjun fell too fast, then the whole forest would collapse inward around him next.
Either way, there was only one thing to do.
Keep moving.
Keep thinking.
And do not get caught.