"I didn't expect to encounter someone with Shikotsumyaku…"
Orochimaru extended his long, serpentine tongue, slowly licking his lips with dark delight.
A cold sweat trickled down Takuma's temple. He gripped the bone blade in his palm tightly, his knuckles whitening.
"Damn… this presence…"
His limbs felt paralyzed.
It was as if he were prey frozen before a predator. In Orochimaru's presence, even standing was a struggle. It wasn't merely a difference in strength—it was a fundamental difference in existence. Takuma had consumed the blood of his clan to awaken his kekkei genkai, but Orochimaru had bathed in the blood of thousands. His aura alone was enough to crush the will of most.
Behind him, Hei Fang was already forming hand seals in silence, his mind racing for escape routes.
"Captain," he whispered tightly. "We have to retreat."
To face someone like Orochimaru—a Sannin, a war criminal with knowledge of forbidden techniques, who once threatened Konoha itself—was suicide. Even if they'd hidden their true abilities, this was not a battle they could win.
Bai Shui stood still, her normally soft face steeled by tension.
"Take Youmu and retreat. I'll stay."
"What?! Captain!" Hei Fang's voice cracked with disbelief. "He's a monster! Why—?"
Orochimaru lazily turned his eyes toward Hei Fang.
!!!
The sheer killing intent in that glance caused Hei Fang to freeze, his muscles locking involuntarily.
But he didn't argue further. He wordlessly grabbed the unconscious Youmu, and with a flicker of Body Flicker Technique, vanished into the trees.
"Come with me, child," Orochimaru said, his voice low and seductive. "I can keep you safe… no more running from Kirigakure's shadows."
Takuma bit his lower lip, heart pounding.
Following Orochimaru would indeed offer survival—protection, even power. But this man was a living embodiment of treachery. One wrong move, and Takuma would be no more than another corpse on an operating table.
Behind him, Bai Shui's voice rang out. It was calm, but layered with an unfamiliar authority.
"I won't let you take him."
Orochimaru's eyebrows lifted in amusement.
"Oh?"
His gaze drifted back to her—curious now, not dismissive.
"You're a mere Chūnin, aren't you?" he asked softly.
"You're not even here in person," Bai Shui responded, voice unwavering. "Just a remote clone—a snake construct, to be exact."
Orochimaru's slit pupils narrowed in interest. The corner of his mouth lifted.
"Well well… you saw through my jutsu."
Indeed, this was not his real body. This was a snake clone—constructed using Orochimaru's unique variant of the Shadow Clone Technique, augmented with senjutsu cells and laced with residual chakra. Normally, only a sensor-type of elite caliber could detect the difference.
That a mere Kirigakure Chūnin could expose the deception was intriguing.
"Such rare perception…" he muttered. "You must possess a unique dojutsu. Or perhaps… a kekkei genkai?"
His tongue flicked out again as he licked his lips with perverse fascination.
"Sadly, I've exhausted too much chakra maintaining this clone."
"So," he asked, tilting his head, "how exactly did you see through it?"
Bai Shui didn't respond verbally. Instead, her right eye shimmered faintly—an ethereal blue glow forming at the iris.
Water Style: Blue Wave Slash!
A crescent-shaped wave of highly pressurized water chakra exploded from her blade, surging forward with the force of a scythe.
Orochimaru's eyes sparkled with interest, his clone body remaining still—almost waiting.
Takuma, watching from the side, made a split-second decision.
As the slicing wave neared, he stepped forward without hesitation.
Wham!
He raised his arm and absorbed the full brunt of the water jutsu. The impact forced him backward several steps, his feet dragging across the forest floor.
"Don't hurt him…"
Takuma's words were quiet, but determined.
Bai Shui's expression twisted. Watching Takuma shield Orochimaru, even if it was just a clone, felt like a gut punch. An invisible pressure formed at her brow.
"That idiot…"
She cursed under her breath.
Why was he protecting Orochimaru?
Her thoughts swirled. Had he already decided to go with the Sannin? Was he just a desperate child caught in the allure of power?
She had to stop this, but the opening was gone.
Orochimaru sneered, his golden slit eyes glinting with sinister amusement. Without giving Bai Shui a chance to react or delay, he swiftly activated the Reverse Summoning Technique—his snake-like body elongating unnaturally as his mouth unhinged.
In one grotesque motion, he swallowed Takuma whole into a summoning space connected to one of his hidden bases.
Bang!
With a poof of smoke, Orochimaru's snake clone dissipated.
"Takuma!"
Bai Shui lunged forward instinctively, but the boy had already vanished.
Her fingers closed around empty air. She stood still, blankly staring at the spot where Takuma had been just seconds before, her brows slightly furrowed.
A few moments passed in silence before the gentle warmth returned to her expression. She calmly turned around and began walking back to the village without uttering a word—quiet as the mist itself.
Bang!
Takuma suddenly reappeared in a dimly lit clearing, disoriented but alive. His back hit the cold ground, and he instinctively rolled over, looking around in alarm.
Two figures stood in front of him.
One was Orochimaru, wearing his usual pale, loose-fitting robe and exuding that same suffocating aura. The other was a white-haired boy with pale skin and crimson dots on his forehead—his emotionless face barely blinking.
Despite the youthful features, the boy carried a strange calm… and a terrifying stillness.
Takuma's eyes widened.
Kimimaro.
"Hehe… seems you won't be alone, Kimimaro," Orochimaru said in a hoarse murmur, his voice slithering like his chakra. "You have a new companion."
Kimimaro stared blankly at the unfamiliar boy, his pale hand lifting halfway in hesitation. "I'm Kimimaro of the Kaguya clan."
Takuma felt a bit tense standing between these two figures, but forced a light smile as he extended his own hand. "I'm Takuma. Also… of the Kaguya."
Their hands met—a quiet moment between two survivors of a cursed bloodline.
Takuma knew of Kimimaro.
Though he had been almost invisible within the clan, whispers existed. Kimimaro had awakened the Shikotsumyaku—Dead Bone Pulse—at a very young age. His power was extraordinary, but uncontrollable. After he fatally injured fellow clansmen by accident, the elders deemed him dangerous and confined him to a sealed chamber, using him only as a living weapon during critical missions.
Takuma realized: they were both tools, cast aside when convenient.
If Orochimaru hadn't taken him in, Kimimaro would likely have died nameless, buried beneath Kirigakure's bloody history.
Thinking of this, Takuma couldn't help but feel the cruel indifference of the ninja world.
Even Bai Shui—his childhood companion—had stood in his way. She had become a hardened ninja. And despite Orochimaru's appearance, she had refused to retreat. Her determination had shaken him, and it was part of the reason he chose to leave with Orochimaru.
Because if even she, someone he trusted, had turned against him for the sake of duty… what refuge remained?
"Alright then," Orochimaru said, smiling with eerie satisfaction. "Let's go."
He gestured for the two to follow.
Kimimaro silently walked ahead with mechanical discipline. Takuma hesitated a moment, then followed, dragging his tired feet.
"You need help?" Kimimaro suddenly asked without turning, his voice flat, yet tinged with hesitation.
"Ah… could you?"
Takuma's body was nearing its limit. His limbs trembled slightly—residual fatigue from overusing chakra and forcing Shikotsumyaku techniques that his body wasn't ready for.
After all, his strength had come too quickly—gained not through training, but through desperate survival and blood ingestion. His foundation was weak.
"…I can."
Kimimaro's pale cheeks colored faintly. Without another word, he stepped to Takuma's side, placed a thin but firm arm under his shoulder, and helped support him forward.
The pair walked on, side by side.
"Takuma… needs me."
Kimimaro glanced at him from the corner of his eye.
The boy's cheek was pale, his breath shallow, but he didn't complain. In that moment, something flickered in Kimimaro's gaze.
A quiet recognition.
A kindred spirit.