Orochimaru!
14: Chapter 14: Aoba vs.
Orochimaru!
Three consecutive gacha notifications caused Aoba’s expression to change.
It finally paid out!
I finally got something good!
Of all the rewards, the best was undoubtedly the Sharingan.
It was said that once a shinobi of the Uchiha clan awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, their strength would reach the jonin level.
Thus, the Three-Tomoe Sharingan could be considered a symbol of a true powerhouse.
Aoba could feel that the amount of chakra within his body had increased.
His personal panel now showed his chakra capacity as C+.
Compared to an ordinary Uchiha who had awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, his increase in chakra was much smaller.
Aoba guessed that this was because the method by which he had awakened his eyes was different from that of ordinary Uchiha.
Others needed intense emotional stimulation to awaken and evolve their Sharingan.
He had simply started with three tomoe.
It was only natural that there would be some differences.
However, the Sharingan was unique to the Uchiha clan.
Until Aoba reached Kage-level strength, he couldn’t recklessly use it.
He was afraid that if Danzo found out, the old bastard would drag him away for human experimentation.
As for the A-Rank ninjutsu he had drawn, Evil Sealing Method, Aoba felt that it wasn’t particularly useful.
Although the sealing technique wasn’t easy to master, its actual effect could only be described as mediocre.
Without hesitation, he dismantled Evil Sealing Method and received 500 skill points.
Next came the upgrades.
He currently had a total of 620 skill points.
Upgrading either his taijutsu ability or chakra capacity to jonin level required 1,000 skill points each.
Since he couldn’t raise his basic attributes, he could only upgrade his ninjutsu.
He spent 200 points to upgrade the proficiency of B-Rank Earth Release: Earth Spear from proficient to mastered.
He spent 5 points to raise the D-Rank Body Flicker Technique to proficient, then another 50 points to raise it to mastered.
He also spent 100 skill points to raise his genjutsu ability to intermediate.
His personal information now looked like this, ━━━━━ STATUS ━━━━━ Name: Natsume Aoba Balance: 24,000 ryo Skill Points: 265 Chakra: C+ Rank (Chunin) Kekkei Genkai: Three-Tomoe Sharingan Taijutsu: Intermediate Genjutsu: Intermediate ━━━━ Ninjutsu: ✧ Flying Thunder God Technique (Proficient) ✧ Shadow Clone Jutsu (Proficient) ✧ Earth Release: Earth Spear (Mastered) ✧ Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique (Beginner) ✧ Body Flicker Technique (Mastered) ✧ Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique (Beginner) ✧ Three Basic Technique (Mastered) ✧ Escape Technique (Beginner) ✧ Hiding Technique (Beginner) [Collapse] ━━━━ Items: ⚔︎ Chakra Blade ×1 ⚔︎ Special Marked Kunai ×3 ⚔︎ Standard Kunai ×2 ⚔︎ Shuriken ×4 ⚔︎ Explosive Tags ×5 ⚔︎ Smoke Bombs ×3 ⚔︎ Medical Kits ×3 ⚔︎ Soldier Pills ×65 [Collapse] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Aoba noticed that his personal panel now had an additional attribute: “Kekkei Genkai.” He also noticed that the words “[Collapse]” had appeared at the end of both the “Ninjutsu” and “Items” attributes.
With a thought, he clicked “[Collapse].” The panel instantly became much more concise.
Although it seemed as if he had spent a long time operating the system, in reality, only a few breaths had passed.
During that time, Orochimaru hadn’t attacked.
Aoba knew the reason.
His opponent simply hadn’t taken him seriously.
And that was exactly the opportunity Aoba wanted!
“Here I go!” Aoba formed the necessary hand seals and quickly created two Shadow Clones.
Shadow Clones were tangible.
No one could see through them, making them extremely useful for creating an opportunity to escape.
With his mastered Body Flicker Technique, the speed of both his real body and his clones reached a level that was difficult for the naked eye to follow, leaving afterimages in the air.
Seeing this, Orochimaru was slightly surprised.
In his hoarse voice, he said, “A Body Flicker speed at the jonin level.
No wonder you were able to kill my subordinate.” He had already investigated Kidomaru’s death and discovered who the culprit was.
Back when Aoba had only possessed genin-level strength, his methods of destroying the evidence had been far too crude.
Orochimaru’s primary purpose in disguising himself and entering the Forest of Death was to test Sasuke, his intended transmigration vessel.
While he was here, he might as well meet the little fellow who had killed Kidomaru.
It was difficult to imagine that a dark horse like this could appear during the Chunin Exams, especially when there wasn’t the slightest trace of him in the shinobi world’s records.
Orochimaru had always been rather patient with geniuses.
That was why he’d given Aoba the chance to make the first move.
Of course, if the genius proved to have insufficient talent, he wouldn’t show any mercy.
At the same time, Aoba’s two Shadow Clones rapidly approached Orochimaru, searching for an opportunity to attack.
“Fast, but not fast enough!” Orochimaru casually chopped out with his hand.
Thud!
Thud!
Both Shadow Clones were instantly destroyed.
While the clones were being attacked, Aoba himself hadn’t been idle.
He took a Smoke Bomb from his system inventory and hurled it forcefully between them, blocking both sides’ vision.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Amid the white smoke, four kunai tore through the air at high speed.
Orochimaru initially intended to evade them with his movement technique.
But after noticing the Explosive Tags attached to each kunai, he naturally chose to counter with ninjutsu instead.
“Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!” Four giant snakes were summoned from the sleeve of his right arm.
They bared their fangs and lunged toward the incoming kunai.
Then, one after another, they bit down on the kunai, catching every single one!
After the snakes had crawled a considerable distance away, they simultaneously erupted into deafening explosions.
In an instant, flames scattered throughout the Forest of Death.
Seeing that his attack had failed, Aoba was about to launch another attack.
But this time, Orochimaru gave him no opportunity.
Compared to Aoba’s Body Flicker Technique, Orochimaru’s movement speed was practically flawless.
He was already so fast that an ordinary shinobi couldn’t see him clearly with the naked eye.
The two clashed in a flash.
Aoba’s taijutsu was only at the chunin level, and he was struck by Orochimaru after just one exchange.
After enduring a merciless barrage of attacks, he was kicked more than ten meters away before crashing heavily into a large tree.
“Urgh!” Aoba violently spat out a mouthful of blood and wiped the traces from the corner of his mouth.
He had no choice but to admit it.
The difference between them was simply too great!
Orochimaru was so fast that Aoba couldn’t even react in time to defend himself.
It might seem that when Sasuke was only a chunin, he could fight Orochimaru back and forth, making their difference in strength appear insignificant.
But that was because Orochimaru hadn’t been serious.
Even now, during his fight with Aoba, Orochimaru still hadn’t gone all out.
But Aoba wasn’t Sasuke.
He wasn’t going to receive even the slightest preferential treatment.
Forcing down the lingering sweetness of blood in his throat, Aoba immediately entered a state of high alert.
The reason was simple.
Orochimaru’s killing move was coming.
“Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!” Orochimaru threw a single shuriken from his hand.
Then, with a sequence of hand seals, it instantly multiplied into dozens of shuriken!
With enough time to react, Aoba didn’t panic.
He formed hand seals and used a ninjutsu to counter it.
“Earth Release: Earth Spear!” His skin rapidly transformed, forming a solid gray-black defense.
At the same time, he threw out another Smoke Bomb, perfectly concealing his position.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Amid the sounds of shuriken being deflected, Aoba emerged completely unharmed.
After personally experiencing the strength of Earth Spear, a delighted expression appeared on his face.
Although it was a B-Rank ninjutsu, it didn’t consume a particularly large amount of chakra.
When using it defensively, the amount of chakra injected into the technique could be adjusted freely.
Against a relatively low-damage attack like shuriken, using Earth Spear consumed even less chakra than many C-Rank ninjutsu.
“It actually blocked even my Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique.” Orochimaru’s hoarse voice was filled with curiosity.
“Are you really just a genin participating in the Chunin Exams?” Unfortunately, the young man before him wasn’t an Uchiha.
He didn’t possess the distinctive eyes of that clan.
Otherwise, Orochimaru would genuinely have liked to use him as his next transmigration vessel.
“What a pity.
Without the Sharingan, your potential was doomed from the beginning.” While Orochimaru couldn’t help voicing his thoughts, Aoba had no interest in chatting.
Taking advantage of the smoke that hadn’t yet dispersed, he rapidly created several clones before using the Body Flicker Technique to scatter in every direction.
He’d had enough fun.
It was time to retreat!