"No. They found a way to hide from my sensing abilities." I reach into another pocket and pull out the seal that I took off the last shinobi. "They were using this to hide from me. Any chance you know what this is?"
...
Orochimaru takes the seal from me. "These shinobi were resourceful. This is a chakra suppressing seal, as you know it forcibly suppresses someone's chakra but this one is tailored to a specific person and focuses more on suppressing lightning chakra than anything else. The only times that something like this is used is on very high level prisoners, the kind of prisoners that most villages simply kill because it is safer than keeping them alive. These seals are not easy to make, whoever was backing the shinobi is either a seal master or has one on hand."
"Is there a way to work around it?" I ask. "I don't want to be caught off guard again."
"No. Not for your specific kind of sensing." Orochimaru pockets the seal, no doubt to try and recreate it later. It isn't everyday someone gets access to someone else's high level sealing formula. "You'd have to learn how to sense in another way and these chakra suppression seals would rule out almost all that I can think of."
"But you do know of some ways?" I ask. I want this, I hate that someone knows how to get around me. The fact that said person has an army at his command makes it that much worse.
"They take decades to learn how to use properly." And like that my hopes were shattered.
Orochimaru studies me for a brief moment. "You seem eager to learn, to train."
"Yeah, I had a wake up call." I growl out. "Seeing a friend's head fall to the ground does that to anyone. I'm motivated now, I'm going to take every moment you have to spare and use you to better myself. I'm already working on a list of things I want to learn."
"Finally!" Orochimaru happily claps his hands together in joy. "Now your real training can begin once we're back in Sound."
"Real training?" What the hell is he talking about? "Then what were the past few months for? How was that not real training?"
"All we did was work on your basics. Speed. Strength. Pain tolerance. Chakra control and supply. We would have done stamina, but you didn't need to work on that." Orochimaru pauses for effect. "But when did I teach you something new? The answer is simple, I haven't."
"Why? I thought you were trying to make me into your 'second in command?'"
He shrugs. "You were unmotivated. You lacked the drive to push yourself far, you didn't have the desire to fully commit. Now you do, now you're ready."
"We have to get through the tournament first." Sasuke cuts in again. Orochimaru and I have the habit of excluding him in our conversations.
"Of course." Orochimaru graciously changes the subject. "I assume you both have plans for your next fights?"
"Unless they decide to mix things up, I'll be going against Kiba Inuzuka." Sasuke starts to talk. "I'll be perfectly fine using just genjutsu and kenjutsu. I have the advantage over him because I know what his skills are already, I can expect him to simply be better than I remember with maybe a new move or two. It won't be anything I can't handle."
"Mine... will not be that simple." I take over talking. "I'm fighting Hiro, who I am pretty sure has Taki's version of the Jiongu."
"Good, you did notice that." Orochimaru cuts in to praise me.
"Yep. Anyways, since his isn't like mine I know that he still has major organs and so on. I'm thinking about poisoning him, I'll see if any of my spiders are willing to bite him for me. If that fails, I'll cut off some limbs. I really doubt he's used to that and it should be enough to get him to want to surrender. As a last resort I'll knock some of his hearts out. I know he only has three." That should get him to surrender. "Oh, and I need to make some blood. A lot of blood, he has a wind heart. That means I might get cut and I can't not bleed. Sure everyone might think I'm a medic nin, but there should still be blood if I get hurt. I got lucky with Lee since all of his hits never broke skin, they were all blunt damage."
"You both seem sufficiently prepared." Orochimaru declares. "But, they're not the last fight of the tournament for either of you."
"Yeah, either Gaara or Leiko will advance to the final round too. Then we have the tree way brawl between us." I say. "Hey Sasuke, want to knock out the other one then duke it out between the two of us?"
He shrugs in indifference. "Why not. Doesn't mean I'm going easy on you."
"Same here. I'm in it to win it!"
"I believe you're both underestimating Gaara." Orochimaru interrupts us. "It could take both of you to maybe beat him while limited."
"That depends on if you're okay with an idea I have." I say. My words bring Orochimaru closer to me, he's leaning forward in anticipation. "It'll definitely paint us in a bad light, there's no way around that. It's deplorable, underhanded, and maybe a little bit cheaty. It's exactly what a shinobi would do in the real world. Like I say, if you aren't cheating you aren't trying."
"NO!" Sasuke yells. "No! We're not doing that! I haven't even heard it yet and I'm putting my foot down! Whenever you say those words it goes wrong!"
"Let's not rule it out yet, I haven't even heard the idea." Orochimaru stops Sasuke's rant. "So Alvarcus, what is your plan to defeat a jinchuriki?"
...
Later That Night
"Summoning Jutsu!" I slam my hand to the floor of Orochimaru's hotel.
Poof
"Sup Al?" Shirokumo cheerfully says as he give me a wave with one of his front legs. "How's things?"
"I won the first round." I brag. It isn't everyday I can say that.
"Yeah, you could say he turned some heads." Sasuke jokes.
"Really?" Shirokumo sounds glad for me. "Did he wow the crowd with a jutsu or something?"
"Nope!" Sasuke is enjoying this way too much. "He got kicked in the jaw so hard his head spun around in front of everyone."
"No way!" Shirokumo glances at me in disbelief. "You can do that? Pfft who am I kidding of course you can. Is there any kind of bodily harm you can't live through?" He asks rhetorically.
"It gets better!" Sasuke I hate you. I hate you so much right now. "The kick caused him to lose his mask, so guess what the idiot did!"
"Uh... no idea! Tell me!" Shirokumo is dying to know.
"He changed his appearance into a girl! Oh it was priceless!"
"BAHAHAHA!" Shirokumo breaks down laughing, he's a tangled mess of limbs rolling around on the floor. "Oh man please say that's true!"
They both look at me expectantly. "Yes."
"HAHAHAHA! Oh this is great! We'll have to call you Lady Summoner now!"
"Midori, Orochimaru-sama calls her Midori."
"Kukukuku, even if it is unorthodox my child is very resourceful." With the sound of that vile laugh alone, all of the fun in the room is instantly killed. Orochimaru is back from whatever it was he went to do. "I don't believe we've met."
"Orochimaru-sama." Shirokumo gracefully dips his body in a deep formal bow. "It is my pleasure to finally meet you. For the life of me I have no idea why Al didn't introduce us sooner."
Thank Kami, Shirokumo is playing Orochimaru. He's sucking up to him to get in his good graces and is obviously acknowledging him as a superior. That's the best reaction that he could have done.
"Aren't you well behaved." Orochimaru comments offhandedly.
"I do try. My actions reflect on my summoner -in this case Al- and his actions reflect on you. So you could say you're my boss's boss."
"Interesting viewpoint." Orochimaru considers his words for a fleeting moment before realizing that we're still looking at him. "Oh, do carry on. Just pretend I'm not here, I'd love to see how you two work."
"Well... alright then." I turn away from my temporary Kage and towards my summon. "Shirokumo I need a poison specialist, more specifically someone who can paralyze a human. It's how I'm going to beat my next opponent. Hopefully."
"Hopefully? Aren't you just brimming with confidence." Shirokumo scuttles over to a dark corner of the room. "Hm... there are a few spiders that come to mind. Depends on how you want to deliver the poison really."
"I'd prefer to keep the spiders out of harms way. Maybe I could coat a kunai or another weapon in poison?"
"That narrows it down a lot." Shirokumo idly scratches his underbelly with two legs. "Gonna have to be a big one to make that much venom. Since you want a paralytic that leaves us with three options. I'd recommend Dokuso. She's a bit reclusive, but her toxins are some of the best we have to offer."
"Cool." That went surprisingly well. "I'll summon her now."
"Wait!" Shirokumo barks out.
"Uh... okay?" I'm stopped halfway through the required hand seals for the summoning technique.
"Let me talk to her about it in the Nest first. When I said she's a bit reclusive I meant she is crazily reclusive. Randomly summoning her would be a bad idea."
"Well that's not good." Good thing he warned me about that.
"Yeah, I'll talk to her tonight. She'll be ready for a summon tomorrow morning. That work for you?"
"Yeah, fine by me."
"Cool. I'm off then."
Poof
"Now boys, go rest. I want you at your best for tomorrow."
"Of course, Orochimaru-sama." Sasuke and chant in unison.
"Dammit I thought we agreed to not do that again!" I shout.
...
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