Chapter 137: Fierce Battle with Orochimaru

Chapter 137: Chapter 137: Fierce Battle with Orochimaru

Inside the secret chamber, Orochimaru sat in a chair, an unfurled scroll held in his hands.

Seeing Hyuga Kagami enter, he spoke in his signature hoarse voice.

"Kagami, there’s something I’ve been wondering about."

Kagami stood quietly at the doorway.

"What is it?"

Orochimaru did not answer immediately.

Instead, he slowly rolled up the scroll in his hands. Under the flickering candlelight beside him, his face alternated between light and shadow, making his expression difficult to discern.

After finishing, Orochimaru tossed the scroll toward Kagami.

Kagami caught it and opened it for a look, only to discover that everything recorded inside was information concerning himself.

The most recent intelligence even included details about Team Eleven’s clash with the defected Uchiha Shinichi.

Kagami smiled.

"Looks like you’ve been keeping a close eye on me."

Orochimaru extended his tongue like a snake and slowly ran it around his lips before speaking in a sinister tone.

"You’ve become so outstanding that even if I wanted to ignore you... I simply couldn’t."

Kagami remained perfectly calm.

"I’m honored by the praise."

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes.

Kagami’s composure made him feel a trace of wariness.

Compared to everyone else, Orochimaru’s understanding of Hyuga Kagami ran far deeper. At the very least, Orochimaru knew that Kagami currently possessed the Dragon Vein and had become its jinchūriki.

After pondering for a moment, Orochimaru said, "I heard you fought Uchiha Shinichi... and defeated him?"

The corner of Kagami’s mouth curled upward.

"We only exchanged a few moves. I’m no match for him."

Orochimaru bringing up Uchiha Shinichi was entirely within Kagami’s expectations.

In fact, Kagami even suspected that Orochimaru was already plotting how to seize Shinichi’s Mangekyō Sharingan.

After all, in the original timeline, not long after Itachi joined the Akatsuki, Orochimaru had been unable to resist making a move against him.

Sure enough, Orochimaru immediately asked, "What is the ability of his Mangekyō Sharingan?"

Kagami first shook his head, then deliberately exaggerated.

"I’m not sure either. All I know is that he’s extremely powerful. There’s no one in the village who can stop him. Even Danzo has to hide from him!"

"Hmph!"

Orochimaru let out a cold snort, his expression carrying a hint of disdain.

Though whether that disdain was directed at Uchiha Shinichi...

or at Danzo...

was anyone’s guess.

Kagami continued, "Lord Orochimaru, if you’re planning to make a move against Uchiha Shinichi, I’d advise you to be a little more cautious."

Kagami still needed Orochimaru to gather intelligence on Hiruko—or, if possible, go one step further and obtain Hiruko’s secret technique.

Because of that, he didn’t want Orochimaru leaving the Akatsuki too soon.

Orochimaru’s gaze sharpened, and a strange smile crept across his face.

"How did you know I was planning to make a move against him?"

Kagami shrugged.

"The same way I know you’re planning to make a move against me. It’s really not that hard to guess."

Orochimaru lightly raised a hand.

In an instant, countless snake shadows shot out from his sleeve and lunged toward Kagami!

Swish! Swish!

Kagami neither dodged nor retreated.

He drew Kusanagimaru from his waist and casually flourished the blade.

Under the cold flash of sword light, every venomous snake that had shot from Orochimaru’s sleeve was sliced into several pieces. Chunks of flesh scattered across the floor, twitching chaotically.

Orochimaru said, "It seems you’ve broken the Caged Bird Seal!"

From Orochimaru’s perspective, Kagami was the spy he had left behind in the village. If Kagami hadn’t found a way to break the Caged Bird Seal, there was absolutely no way he would dare lay his cards on the table like this.

After all, all Orochimaru had to do was expose Kagami’s identity as his spy.

He wouldn’t even need to lift a finger himself.

If Kagami had not broken the Caged Bird Seal, the Hyuga Main Family would kill him themselves.

Kusanagimaru in hand, Kagami neither confirmed nor denied Orochimaru’s assumption.

Orochimaru once again extended his tongue and licked his lips.

"You truly become more fascinating by the day...

"Now, let me see just how many secrets you’re hiding!"

With that, Orochimaru rapidly formed a series of hand seals and shouted in a low voice,

"Secret Technique: Sealed Formation of Ten Thousand Snakes!"

Poof!

In an instant, the entire secret chamber was flooded with poisonous smoke.

At the same time, the incessant hissing of snakes flicking their tongues reached Kagami’s ears from every direction!

Kagami put on a gas mask, then, using the mask to conceal his eyes, quietly activated his Tenseigan.

He had specifically prepared this gas mask before setting out.

After all, nearly everything Kagami knew about using poison had been personally taught to him by Orochimaru. Facing the man himself, there was naturally no way Kagami would fail to guard against Orochimaru’s poisons.

Once the Tenseigan was activated, mere poisonous smoke could no longer obstruct his vision.

Everything within the secret chamber became perfectly clear before his eyes.

After briefly scanning his surroundings, Kagami immediately located Orochimaru.

Then, Kusanagimaru in hand, he slowly walked toward him.

Swish!

Swish!

Swish!

With nearly every step Kagami took, more than a dozen venomous snakes lunged at him from different directions.

And without exception, every last one of them met the same fate.

They were sliced apart into several pieces, their heads severed from their bodies.

In the past, when faced with such a dense and unpredictable barrage of attacks, the inexperienced Kagami might have chosen to defend himself with the Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven.

But after one fierce battle after another, regardless of whether he won or lost, Kagami had constantly reflected on his experiences and learned from his mistakes.

As a result, the once-mediocre battle instincts he possessed were now improving at an astonishing rate.

Seeing Kagami approaching him step by step, Orochimaru sneered and opened his mouth.

From deep within his stomach, he spat out a Kusanagi Sword!

Accompanied by a sharp gust of wind, a streak of sword light slashed toward Kagami.

Kagami did not dare underestimate it and immediately raised Kusanagimaru to meet the strike.

Clang!

A sharp, ear-piercing metallic crash reverberated throughout the nearly sealed chamber.

Orochimaru’s gaze shifted toward Kusanagimaru in Kagami’s hand.

"A Kusanagi Sword?"

Taking advantage of that brief opening, Kagami also examined the Kusanagi Sword in Orochimaru’s hand.

"This should be the Kusanagi Sword that killed the Third Hokage in the original timeline..."

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Neither man exchanged another word.

Neither gave an inch.

Within the confines of the sealed chamber, the two immediately plunged into close-quarters combat.

For a time, flashes of sword light continuously tore through the room.

Every chair and furnishing in the chamber suffered under their clash. Even the candle stands were sliced into several pieces, while candles as thick as a man’s forearm were severed cleanly in half straight through their wicks.

As the last candlelight was extinguished, the secret chamber fell into complete darkness.

And yet—

within that darkness, the battle continued unabated.

BOOM!

After quite some time, the secret chamber finally reached its limit. Unable to withstand the devastation caused by two razor-sharp Kusanagi blades any longer, it collapsed with a thunderous crash.

Amid the dust and debris of the collapsing chamber, two figures flashed out.

Glancing at Orochimaru, Kagami smiled.

"I landed fifteen strikes on you."

Orochimaru did not seem to care. He smiled as well.

"As expected of a genius of the Hyuga Clan. Your taijutsu is indeed worthy of praise. But... it should be about time."

Kagami asked, "About time for what?"

Holding his sword in one hand and resting the other on his hip, Orochimaru smiled.

"Did you really think wearing a gas mask would be enough to protect you from my poisonous smoke?"

"Oh, you mean that?"

Kagami paused before continuing,

"Then I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you. If the poison is only entering through my pores, such a tiny dosage isn’t enough to do anything to me!"