Aoba noticed that Kimimaro had raised a shield formed entirely from bone in front of himself.
Combined with the calcification covering the surface of his body, it had completely blocked the damage from the Fire Style jutsu.
“Your ninjutsu is pretty weak,” Kimimaro remarked with complete seriousness.
During their earlier exchange, Samehada’s advantage had made him assume Aoba was extremely strong.
But after seeing a Fire Style jutsu with only chunin-level power behind it, Kimimaro could no longer get a clear read on his opponent’s actual strength.
Of course, he had no way of knowing that Fire Style simply wasn’t Aoba’s specialty.
Or rather, after being influenced by the original series’ apparent rule that Fire Style never seemed to burn anyone to death, Aoba hadn’t wanted to waste too many Skill Points on the Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu.
Today was his first time actually testing it in battle, and the result was exactly what he’d expected.
One blast of Fire Style later, and the enemy didn’t have so much as a scratch.
“Those 10 Skill Points really were a waste!” After casually grumbling to himself, Aoba advanced instead of retreating.
With a sudden Body Flicker, he shot straight in front of Kimimaro so unexpectedly that the latter didn’t even have time to react.
Aoba put Samehada away and activated Earth Style: Earth Spear, hardening his entire body.
Then he went straight into close combat, trading punches with Kimimaro head-on.
Unlike before, when he had fought while constantly giving ground, Aoba’s threat in taijutsu rose dramatically once his entire body had been hardened.
Even with only chunin-level taijutsu, he was still able to push Kimimaro back.
After all, only the parts of Kimimaro’s body covered in bone possessed such extreme hardness.
Aoba, on the other hand, currently had no weak points anywhere on his body.
After sending Kimimaro flying with a punch, Aoba said, “Your bones aren’t as hard as I thought.” The bone Kimimaro had been using as a weapon had already snapped in half.
Climbing back to his feet, Kimimaro couldn’t hide his shock.
“Your body is actually harder than my bones!” Compared to Aoba, whose chakra was rapidly draining from maintaining Earth Style: Earth Spear, Kimimaro was still in relatively good condition.
Their recent taijutsu exchange hadn’t inflicted much damage on him.
Instead, it was his bloodline illness flaring up that made him cough up several mouthfuls of blood in succession.
“Cough, cough…
I can’t keep wasting time.
I have to finish this enemy as quickly as possible.” Kimimaro weakly wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, then immediately entered Cursed Seal Level Two.
His body transformed once again.
His entire body turned a dark grayish-black, and even a long tail grew from behind him.
Once Kimimaro entered Cursed Seal Level Two, his overall strength rose another level.
Both his speed and explosive power far surpassed what they had been before.
Seeing this, Aoba’s expression became much more serious.
If the previous Kimimaro had merely possessed elite jonin-level strength, then after entering Cursed Seal Level Two, his combat power was already bordering on Kage-level.
One careless mistake really could cost Aoba the fight.
Even so, Aoba remained completely calm.
He had already crossed hands with Orochimaru in the Forest of Death.
His mentality was nothing like that of the inexperienced rookie he’d once been.
Orochimaru might not have been serious back then, but Aoba had gained far more trump cards since.
He hadn’t even used the Flying Thunder God Jutsu in combat yet, much less his Sharingan.
The main reason he refused to use the Flying Thunder God Jutsu was that he was afraid Orochimaru might recognize it.
Orochimaru had been a student of the Third Hokage and had even colluded with Danzo in the past.
He had probably gone through every jutsu recorded in Konoha’s Scroll of Seals.
If Aoba carelessly used the Flying Thunder God Jutsu and Orochimaru recognized it, what if he immediately relocated the entire base?
How was Aoba supposed to come back to Otogakure tomorrow and “restock” then?
As for why he wasn’t using his Sharingan…
That was because he was preparing a surprise for Orochimaru tomorrow.
Aoba had no intention of simply forgetting what had happened in the Forest of Death.
Once the Konoha Crush failed, Orochimaru’s strength would be weakened even further.
More importantly, the souls in both his arms would be sealed away by the Reaper Death Seal, which would inevitably weaken his spiritual power as well.
Aoba figured that if he encountered Orochimaru tomorrow, he would absolutely use his Sharingan genjutsu to give him a nasty surprise.
His ocular power might not compare to Uchiha Itachi’s, but tomorrow’s Orochimaru would also be one of the most severely nerfed versions of himself in history.
Once the genjutsu landed, Aoba was confident he could lock Orochimaru in place.
Fighting Kimimaro in Cursed Seal Level Two put Aoba at a severe disadvantage.
Fortunately, Earth Style: Earth Spear provided excellent defense, allowing him to withstand several consecutive taijutsu combos without suffering any real injury.
The downside was that his chakra was being consumed at an alarming rate.
After the two remained locked in battle for several minutes, reinforcements from Otogakure finally arrived.
“That’s the intruder!” “Everyone, support Kimimaro-sama immediately!” “Damn intruder!
Die!” A group of small-fry Oto shinobi erupted into action at once, hurling countless shuriken and kunai toward Aoba.
There were even explosive tags mixed in among them.
Aoba had no intention of taking that barrage head-on.
He darted into a concealed position and vanished from the spot in an instant.
Kimimaro followed closely behind, only to find no trace of him.
His expression filled with bewilderment.
“His presence was clearly right here.
How could he suddenly disappear?” Kimimaro searched the area several times.
Only after confirming that there was truly no trace of the enemy did he finally give up.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Not long afterward, Kimimaro returned to his quarters and opened a scroll.
With a puff of white smoke, a small white snake crawled out.
Immediately afterward, the little snake began to grow.
Larger and larger, its body gradually transformed into a humanoid shape.
The figure was none other than Orochimaru!
Orochimaru spoke in his characteristic raspy voice.
“You actually activated one of my clones, Kimimaro.
Did something interesting happen?” “Yes, Orochimaru-sama.
An intruder appeared inside the village just now.
I was incompetent and allowed him to escape!” Kimimaro lowered his head as he admitted his failure.
Orochimaru was genuinely surprised.
He knew Kimimaro’s strength better than almost anyone.
Kimimaro might not quite have reached Kage-level, but he wasn’t far from it.
For someone to escape while fighting him meant that the intruder was certainly no ordinary jonin.
“Oh?
You said the enemy carried a ninja sword and claimed it was Samehada, one of the blades wielded by the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist?” As he continued listening to Kimimaro’s report, Orochimaru seemed to remember something.
According to the intelligence he possessed, there was indeed a member of the Akatsuki who wielded Samehada.
It was someone recruited after Orochimaru himself had defected from the organization, Kirigakure missing nin Hoshigaki Kisame.
If only one Samehada existed in the world, then the intruder’s identity was obvious.
Of course, Orochimaru could never have imagined that while there had originally been only one Samehada in the shinobi world, Aoba had somehow drawn an entirely new one from the system.
This was one accusation Kisame simply had no hope of escaping.
“If it was a member of that organization, then it’s hardly surprising that he managed to get away from you.” Orochimaru understood the Akatsuki extremely well.
The organization was filled with powerful shinobi.
Together, they possessed enough strength to threaten virtually any hidden village in the shinobi world.
Even the Akatsuki’s cannon fodder possessed elite jonin-level strength.
“It seems the Akatsuki has discovered this base.
We’ll need to relocate in a few days,” Orochimaru said.
“Why don’t we relocate immediately?” Kimimaro asked.
“That?
I have my own arrangements.
For the next few days, I’ll leave the village’s security to you.” Normally, once an enemy discovered one of his bases, Orochimaru would have relocated immediately.
Unfortunately, tomorrow was the day of the Konoha Crush he had spent so long preparing for.
I still had quite a performance waiting to be played out with my dear Sarutobi-sensei.
That was what truly mattered.
Compared to it, even Otogakure’s security could only come second.
“Yes, Orochimaru-sama!” Kimimaro nodded solemnly.
“If I encounter today’s enemy again, I will definitely bring his corpse back to you!” Orochimaru smiled upon hearing that.
“Very good.
But you are the person I value most, Kimimaro, the most precious asset in all of Otogakure.
You must take care of your health.” Those were the words he spoke.
But in his heart, Orochimaru had already given up on Kimimaro.