Chapter 210: The Search Team's Battle

Anko followed the pull of the cursed seal through the Forest of Death.

Tessen moved behind her without revealing that he had recovered. After half an hour, Anko stopped in a hollow where the canopy smothered most of the light.

He was close.

"Anko," Orochimaru said behind her. "It has been a long time."

She turned with a kunai already moving. Orochimaru deflected it through taijutsu and slipped away from the two large snakes that emerged from her sleeves.

"Why are you in Konoha?" Anko demanded, one hand over the cursed seal. "Have you come to harm another junior?"

Orochimaru chuckled. "Is that how you remember me? I came to give someone the power he requires. You have not neglected your training, but using my techniques against me is painful to see."

"You will not leave Konoha again."

Anko attacked without another word. Shuriken closed from both sides while she formed seals.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique."

Orange fire flooded the hollow. Orochimaru escaped the crossing weapons with Body Flicker, stepped against a tree to change direction, and appeared before her. Snakes burst from his hands and wrapped around Anko.

"You are not my target, dear student. Live your life in Konoha. I have no use for your body."

The word made Anko think of the mark at her neck and of the person Orochimaru had chosen instead.

She became a log before the coils tightened. When she reappeared, Hidden Shadow Snake Hands seized Orochimaru's arm and bound their wrists together.

"Ninja Art: Twin Snakes Mutual Death."

"Look carefully before you fight," Orochimaru said behind her. "Otherwise people may think I taught you badly."

The body in Anko's grasp melted into mud.

An Earth Clone.

Orochimaru had allowed her to bind the imitation because he remembered the sequence he taught her. Every movement in the attack belonged to him before it belonged to Anko. Her willingness to die had not changed the fact that he could recognize the technique from its first seal.

Before Anko could turn, a deep hum filled the forest.

"Wind Release: Wind Demon Shuriken."

Orochimaru looked toward Tessen. A Fūma shuriken wrapped in Wind Release spun toward him like a cutting wheel. Trees more than thirty meters tall fell one after another along its path, their trunks divided before the steel reached them.

The attack carried enough power to kill even Orochimaru if it struck cleanly.

He slammed one hand to the earth.

"Rashōmon."

A giant demonic gate rose between him and the shuriken. Wind screamed against the summoned defense. The blade continued to turn, biting deeper while the gate held it for less than three seconds.

The impact shook soil from the roots around them. Cracks spread over the face carved into the gate, and the compressed current widened each one as the steel advanced. Tessen fed more chakra into the rotation through the patterns stored in his plate, forcing the technique beyond the level his ordinary experience could sustain.

Rashōmon vanished in smoke.

The shuriken burst through and continued across the forest. Three seconds had given Orochimaru enough time to leave its direct path, and the weapon only grazed the space he abandoned before felling more trees behind him.

"Impressive," Orochimaru said. "You broke my Rashōmon."

The collision could be seen from far beyond the hollow.

An ANBU squad halted on the treetops as the demonic gate appeared above the forest and the wind technique carved a straight scar through the canopy.

"That was Rashōmon," the captain said. "Orochimaru is there. Anko and Tessen must have reached him first. Move."

Candidates throughout the examination heard the crash. Those who saw the fallen trees wondered whether any genin could possess such strength.

The scar through the forest looked like the path of a siege weapon. Whole trunks lay in the same direction, and loose branches continued falling after the attack passed. From a distance, no candidate could see the uniforms clearly enough to know whether the examination had transformed into a battle among monsters.

Team Eight stopped on a high branch. Veins rose around Hinata's Byakugan as she looked through the trunks.

"It is not a battle between candidates," she said. "The proctor and another Konoha shinobi are fighting a terrible enemy."

To her eyes, Orochimaru's chakra resembled a great pale snake waiting to swallow anyone who approached.

Akamaru whined upon Kiba's head.

"He smells something terrifying. We stay away."

Shino adjusted their direction toward the central tower. If other teams moved toward the commotion, the route ahead might be clear.

Team Sand observed from another part of the canopy.

Kankurō swallowed. "That cannot be a genin. Even Gaara's Absolute Defense might fail against that attack."

Temari watched the wind around the spinning weapon. "A powerful Wind Release user. Konoha must be fighting an intruder."

Gaara's Sand Eye reached the battlefield. He saw Anko and Tessen facing the man beneath the stolen Grass identity.

"Konoha shinobi are fighting Orochimaru," he said.

Kankurō cursed. Their ally had created a great disturbance before the invasion plan even began. A higher alert level could ruin everything.

Temari understood the same danger. Orochimaru was supposed to preserve the disguise until the plan placed Konoha at a disadvantage. Now shinobi throughout the village would know a force capable of fighting its jōnin had entered the forest, even if they had not yet learned his name.

Back in the hollow, Anko no longer questioned why Tessen had followed her. She joined his attack.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough," Tessen said.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique."

Wind fed flame. A raging crossfire swallowed Orochimaru and spread orange light through the trees.

Anko aimed the fire through the current Tessen created. The wind increased its heat and drove it faster, while her flame gave the invisible blast a killing surface Orochimaru could not ignore. For a moment, the entire hollow became the mouth of a furnace.

He sensed the approaching ANBU before the combined techniques closed.

"You found a good partner, Anko. His strength is respectable. That is enough for today. We will speak again."

Fire covered him.

Anko and Tessen ended their techniques. The path before them had been burned black, but Orochimaru had escaped the killing force.

The transferred combat experience inside Tessen's plate began to fade. Only the hollow shell of the tag remained against his chest.

The plate had supplied patterns faster than Tessen's own training could produce them: the angle of the first throw, the pressure needed to sustain the cutting wind, and the timing that allowed Anko's fire to join it. When the stored experience ended, his body still carried every cost of performing those movements.

His head tilted. Then his whole body fell toward the base of the tree.

Anko caught him and forced her own weakness aside long enough to inspect his chakra.

"Exhaustion," she said. "Severe enough to drop you, but not dangerous."

Relief softened her face.

The ANBU arrived moments later, too late to prevent Orochimaru's escape but in time to find the route his battle had torn through the examination forest.