Orochimaru did not stop Sasuke from leaving. The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki in front of him was far more interesting than what was written in the files.
"Do you think that as a mere Genin, you can defeat me?" Orochimaru sized Naruto up with an appreciative look.
"Who knows?"
As soon as Naruto finished speaking, five Kunai were thrown simultaneously in a fan-shaped spread, locked onto Orochimaru's head, chest, and waist, as well as his retreat paths on both sides.
Orochimaru easily dodged the five Kunai, his body swaying side to side in a snake-like fashion. Two of them grazed his clothes and embedded themselves in the tree trunk behind him.
But in the next instant, Naruto's figure suddenly appeared in front of him. His right fist, wrapped in Chakra, blasted straight at Orochimaru's face, while his left leg swept toward the back of Orochimaru's knee.
Orochimaru didn't have enought time to dodge, leaving him with no choice but to raise his arms to block.
The moment his forearms collided with Naruto's fist, a harsh grinding sound rang out.
After blocking the punch, Orochimaru pulled back his knee to avoid Naruto's sweeping kick on the ground. He was surprised that a mere Genin could actually force him into active defense.
"So fast." Orochimaru murmured.
Naruto gave him no room to breathe. The moment his feet touched the ground, he used the rebound force to twist his body and punch again.
In an instant, the two traded blows at an extremely rapid pace. The sounds of fists colliding with flesh echoed continuously through the forest.
Every punch Naruto threw pushed his body to its absolute limit. Under the regulation of Absolute Control, his stamina consumption was compressed to the optimal level. After a dozen exchanges, Naruto knew his current limit.
"Is this all?"
Orochimaru parried another of Naruto's elbow strikes and backhanded away an incoming shuriken.
He had already figured out the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki's limit.
Extremely fast but not enough to pose a fatal threat to an opponent of his caliber. It was time for a brief intermission.
Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!
Orochimaru thrust his right hand forward, and his entire arm suddenly split into four snakes, lunging from four directions at Naruto, who had not yet landed. Their jaws were wide open, and their fangs gleamed with a faint green light in the dimness.
A single bite could inject a cocktail of toxins potent enough to paralyze a bull. Currently in mid-air with no point of leverage, Naruto had no way to dodge.
Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!
Several clouds of white smoke exploded in mid-air simultaneously, and over twenty Narutos appeared at various positions in the air.
The snakes bit empty air, their fangs colliding with a sharp, grating sound.
Orochimaru withdrew his snake hands.
In close-quarters speed battles, very few people could dodge by creating clones in mid-air. To be able to use Shadow Clones at the exact moment his body was about to be enveloped by fangs required either mind-boggling talent or absurd reflexes.
"As expected of Minato's son." Orochimaru muttered to himself.
Naruto flipped and landed from mid-air, standing amidst rows of his Shadow Clones.
He quietly swept his Negative Emotions Sensing backward, sensing that Sasuke and Sakura's Chakra had already moved a safe distance away.
"That should do it. No more holding back."
"Let's go, everyone!"
Over twenty Shadow Clones threw Kunai at Orochimaru from all directions at the same time.
Orochimaru moved at high speed amidst the storm of Kunai. After dodging and deflecting them numerous times, all the Kunai were either embedded in the tree trunks or blocked by him.
Amidst the sky full of Kunai, Orochimaru did not notice a single Kunai, its hilt engraved with a peculiar pattern, flying past him and pinning itself into the tree trunk behind him. Or perhaps, he hadn't even thought about that possibility at all.
Rasengan!
The next moment, Naruto's figure instantly appeared behind Orochimaru. At the same time, a blue sphere of Chakra condensed in his right palm.
"What?!"
Orochimaru's slitted pupils dilated, his face filled with shock.
'At this speed and distance, there's no time to shed my skin!'
In the next instant, the Rasengan slammed into Orochimaru's lower back.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
The Rasengan tore and spun inside Orochimaru's body before exploding.
Orochimaru's lower body was shredded by the indiscriminate rotational force, while his upper body was flung high into the air, crashing into a tree and collapsing it, leaving his body wedged between the broken tree stumps.
The booming explosion startled the entire Forest of Death area. In the distance, the teams that were currently testing each other stopped what they were doing and looked over.
Sasuke, who was dragging Sakura along as they retreated through the woods, suddenly looked back.
"Just what kind of battle is that loser fighting?"
...
At the scene,
As the white smoke cleared, a hemispherical crater nearly three meters in diameter had been blasted by the Rasengan where Orochimaru had just been standing.
His lower body had vanished completely, and his upper body lay beside a low tree stump.
Seeing this, Naruto did not let his guard down. He knew that Orochimaru wouldn't be dealt with so easily.
Negative Emotions Sensing!
He sensed that a surge of Chakra inside the wreckage before him was rising in a bizarre, reverse manner.
"Don't hold back, continuous attacks!"
Rasengan! x23
Naruto raised his hand to command all his clones. More than twenty Narutos each condensed a Rasengan in their palms. Locked onto their target by Negative Emotions Sensing, they lunged simultaneously at the severed torso and the ground beneath it.
Rumble... Rumble...
One Rasengan after another blanketed the area where Orochimaru had fallen in a crushing close-quarters barrage.