“You should have expected this, Sarutobi-sensei.”

“Orochimaru, you-!” Hiruzen gritted his teeth as the guilt flared inside of him. If he hadn’t shown Orochimaru his back during his evasion, Hayate would have still been alive.

He knew it was an unreasonable thought. The attack came out of nowhere. He could never have predicted that Rasa and Suna would betray him. He thought the Kazekage was here to negotiate and fix the tensions between their villages. Clearly, he had thought wrong.

But Hiruzen was an experienced ninja and quickly pushed the gnawing guilt away from his heart, focusing on what was more important at the moment.

It was good that he did that because not a split second later, Rasa unsealed more of his golden dust and flooded most of the Kage booth with it in a matter of seconds. Hiruzen and his guards found themselves besieged by the golden waves on almost all sides. Jumping back to evade them, they had to scatter because of the way Rasa made the waves of golden dust follow them.

After several jumps, Hiruzen found himself on a massive rooftop behind the Kage booth, and frowned as he noticed that the tendrils of the golden dust managed to isolate him from his guards. Nonetheless, this was a good location. He didn’t want to start a fight between S-rank ninjas too close to the civilians of his village. Hence why he let himself be herded over here.

Preparing for the inevitable, Hiruzen’s hand grabbed his robes, and with one fluid motion, he took them off, throwing them to the side and showing the armor underneath them.

“Oh, I see you were prepared, Sensei.”

Orochimaru’s slick voice entered Hiruzen’s ears as the man appeared in front of him with a body flicker, his two bodyguards dutifully standing behind him. Hiruzen could feel that the woman was definitely very dangerous. Probably a weaker S-class kunoichi or an elite Jonin. He honestly hoped she was an elite Jonin.

And the sickly-looking boy? Hiruzen hoped to meet a member of the famous but supposedly extinct Kaguya clan without having to fight him to the death. But unfortunately, that turned out to be just wishful thinking.

“‘Prepared’ is a strong word. Ever since you showed up at the gates of my village, I had a bad feeling this is how your short stay would end, Orochimaru.” Hiruzen spoke, a wave of disappointment obvious in his tone as he raised his eyebrow. “Rasa is not joining us?”

He frowned. He expected the Kazekage to press his advantage, and yet, there was not even a speck of golden dust nearby.

That was… not good.

Hiruzen’s expression turned grave at the implications. Fighting alone against four ninjas, two of whom are definitely S-rank ninjas, was a very unpleasant outcome. But Hiruzen would have taken it rather than have an S-rank ninja focused on wide-area destruction roaming free in his village, doing who knows what.

Now, he could only hope somebody from his ninjas would stop Rasa before he caused too much damage.

“I am afraid this little reunion is only between the two of us, Sensei. Kazekage-dono is too preoccupied with your guards and ninja.” Orochimaru answered in a sly tone, a smirk plastered on his face as he enjoyed Hiruzen’s grave expression.

Heh. Orochimaru inwardly scoffed. As if he would give Rasa a chance to interrupt his revenge.

Hearing his words, Hiruzen looked at Guren and Kimimaro for a brief moment before giving Orochimaru a deadpan look.

He was stalling. Hoping that his guards would come and reinforce him. Because even without Rasa here, the odds of 1 versus 3 were still not very good.

Orochimaru smirked. “Guren and Kimimaro are just my moral support. I am sure you understand.”

As he finished saying that, a massive purple barrier rose around them, encasing the rooftop and trapping them inside. Startled, Hiruzen cautiously looked around, his heart sinking as he recognized the technique.

He realized that his desired reinforcements would not be coming anymore. There was no way they could get through the barrier.

The heavy atmosphere intensified as Hiruzen and Orochimaru stared at each other. Hiruzen put his hand on the hem of his hat and covered his eyes with it as he released a heavy sigh.

“Why are you doing this, Orochimaru?”

“Revenge, why else?” Orochimaru mockingly answered, “But let me tell you, Sensei, stalling won’t do you much good. If you are waiting for Jiraiya to come and save you, then that is not happening. I made sure the little toady is preoccupied.” He chuckled with a wide grin, taunting Hiruzen.

The feeling of having the Professor trapped and helpless… Orochimaru could not get enough of it. Finally, after all these years, he was about to prevail.

With these odds and his meticulous preparation, the victory was practically assured. Hiruzen Sarutobi was going to die here today.

“What have you done to Jiraiya?” Hiruzen gritted out, his tone growing dark as he still hesitated to attack first.

The most logical thing in this situation for him would be to rush them and try to surprise-kill one or both of Orochimaru’s bodyguards before they could react. The problem was, Orochimaru knew that. He was surely prepared for it. He wanted it to happen. Hiruzen would know. He trained the boy.

All these theatrics? That was Orochimaru enjoying the situation. It was his style. A way to make his enemy make mistakes.

But it suited Hiruzen just fine to let him talk. Especially so, when he noticed something peculiar. The purple barrier… it was slowly but surely getting subverted by somebody.

A small seed of hope bloomed in Hiruzen’s chest.

“Don’t worry, Sensei. I just gave the pervert a big snake to play with.” Orochimaru spoke with a smirk.

“But enough of this nonsense. It is time for you to die.” Ever so slowly and deliberately, Orochimaru made several hand seals right in front of Hiruzen before he slammed his hand on the rooftop. Suddenly, as if the switch was flipped, his killing intent poured out with a massive momentum. “I want to see your despair, Sensei! SUMMONING JUTSU!”

He shouted, and the surroundings were engulfed in white smoke, causing Hiruzen’s eyes to narrow as he prepared for the attack, lowering his stance and adjusting his posture while a kunai appeared in his hand as if out of nowhere.

The pointing and middle fingers of his right hand were already outstretched, and his lungs were prepared to send a fireball at anything Orochimaru cooked up for him!

Only for the smoke to clear out a second later, revealing… nothing.

The flummoxed Orochimaru awkwardly stared at the ground, blinking in incomprehension when his technique didn’t do what it was supposed to. There were supposed to be three coffins rising from the rooftops in front of him, and yet, they were not there.

His sly smile freezing on his face, Orochimaru’s eye twitched as he slowly and woodenly looked back at Hiruzen, who was slowly realizing that his student’s technique had failed.

He truly could not help the small, honest chuckle that came out of his throat.

Orochimaru’s expression darkened as he straightened up, trying to appear nonchalant, but his annoyance was obvious to Hiruzen, who had spent years teaching him.

Right there, in the corner of his right eye. That small twitch. It told Hiruzen everything he needed to know about Orochimaru’s state of mind.

And boy was he furious!

If the situation were not so dire for him, Hiruzen would be inclined to burst into joyful laughter.

“I should have expected that you would be prepared for this technique.” Orochimaru loudly whispered with a menacing tone.

He was very unhappy. This was supposed to be his grand finale. Summoning the Hokages of the past to deal with his Sensei. A very poetic end for the man who gave his entire life to the Hokage seat and Konoha.

But he didn’t think… Well, it made sense, now that he considered it. Why would Konoha have something like Edo Tensei and not develop a way to prevent it from being used against them?

Orochimaru suspected that Sarutobi had done something that made it unusable.

Hiruzen, however, was utterly clueless about what Orochimaru was talking about. He had no idea what technique his wayward student was attempting. Alas, it didn’t matter. He needed to take the initiative, and for that, it was better to look as if he knew exactly what was going on.

“Naturally.” Hiruzen sagely nodded with a small smile, covering his eyes with the hem of his hat once again to add a mysterious feeling to his bluffing. “Do you think I would face you without being prepared for your worst?” He spoke as if lecturing a little kid. “You are underestimating me and Konoha too much.”

Orochimaru took a deep breath to calm his nerves. “Never mind.” He muttered, “I wanted this to be something the history books would never forget. But since you can block Edo Tensei…”

Hiruzen almost experienced a very violent flinch, and his back was suddenly drenched in cold sweat as he heard what technique his student tried to use.

Only his years of experience allowed him to suppress the flare of searing hot fear that flushed through him. He knew Orochimaru’s flair for dramatics, and he could imagine just who his student wanted to temporarily bring back from the dead under his control.

As sweat poured down his brow and his throat suddenly became dry, Hiruzen realized he had somehow dodged a lethal kunai. He couldn’t thank the Sage enough for that.

“We will just have to kill you the normal way!” Orochimaru finished with a half-shout as his arms sprang up, his palms aimed toward Hiruzen, “Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!”

Only for the expected dozens of snakes with swords coming from their mouth to… not burst out of his sleeves. Nothing had happened. The technique had failed.

Guren, next to Orochimaru, released an awkward cough as she averted her eyes from her master while Kimimaro looked at him in concern.

Orochimaru furrowed his brows as his hands fell down next to his sides. He was slowly starting to realize what was going on. Opening his mouth to ask Hiruzen, he realized they were enemies and promptly closed it.

Quickly, his hand blurred through several seals, and as expected, his summoning technique had failed once more. Somehow. This was infuriating!

But also, oh, so very brilliant!

Orochimaru was angry. But he was also excited and very, very curious about how somebody could accomplish this.

But he had his priorities straight. Giving the amused Hiruzen a withering glare, Orochimaru spoke, “It does not matter. If I can not use the summoning, I can still use ninjutsu and kenjutsu.”

He was about to summon his Kusanagi sword, only to awkwardly stop in his tracks when he realized… he could not summon.

His snake techniques, his sword, his Rashomon. It was all unusable.

Orochimaru’s eye twitched. “Kimimaro…” He hesitantly turned to the right, his eyes landing on the bony spine sword in his subordinate’s hands. Falling silent, Orochimaru gave it a contemplative look for a moment, but then he abruptly turned toward Guren. “Never mind.”

Kimimaro instantly looked as if somebody had kicked his puppy.

“Guren, please make me a crystal sword.” He asked, almost politely and with a lot of awkwardness, in his driest tone possible, taking a very deep breath in the process to not lash out as Guren involuntarily chuckled.

“Orochimaru-sama!” Sakon suddenly shouted in alarm from the nearest corner of the purple barrier.

“WHAT NOW?” Orochimaru exclaimed, his frustration finally showing on his face as he half-turned toward his subordinate while still keeping a wary eye on Sarutobi.

“We… We can’t move! The barrier is no longer under our control! The others can’t even speak!” Sakon shouted in panic. Only his special situation of being co-joined with Ukon, who was in control of their part of the barrier, allowed him some leeway under the paralysis.

He could not move either. But he could at least speak and warn his master!

“Can at least something go right today?” Orochimaru murmured as his eyes darkened and narrowed while he scanned the barrier. He noticed a very small and barely visible seal script symbols merging and spreading across the whole barrier. They were even covering the four casters.

“Can you drop the barrier?” Orochimaru asked with a hint of worry seeping into his voice for the first time.

“… No.” Sakon admitted in clear frustration. “Our chakra. We can’t control it. It’s being funneled into the barrier, and we can’t stop it.”

“I see.” Orochimaru whispered and turned back toward Hiruzen as his mind assumed who the most likely culprit was and he cursed under his nose, “Fucking Jiraiya.”

His expression turned solemn. The advantage was still on his side. This was still an isolated one versus three. He could still kill Hiruzen Sarutobi.

But who knows what other surprises his enemies had in store for him? Orochimaru started feeling a bit concerned.

Hiruzen had no idea what exactly was going on, but clearly, somebody majorly messed up Orochimaru’s plans. His student was already frustrated and angry. And an angry opponent makes mistakes.

Hiruzen decided to pour some oil into the fire and gave him a smug, mocking smile, “You should have expected this, Orochimaru.”

—

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep