Orochimaru kept chasing the two fleeing figures without pause.
Soon, he witnessed a scene that seemed utterly absurd to him.
"Ahh, don't come over here!"
The Kumogakure Captain shouted loudly while stabbing himself with a kunai, leaving Orochimaru stunned in place.
"Puchi!"
The high-spraying blood continued to keep Orochimaru in shock.
For the first time ever, the opponent's speed was almost too fast for Orochimaru's eyes to follow—making him question his own senses.
"Peng!"
It wasn't until the captain collapsed onto the ground that Orochimaru finally snapped out of his daze.
"Huff... huff..."
Turning his head toward the sound of panting, Orochimaru saw Shen holding his bleeding wrist tightly.
"Rumble... rumble..."
A massive tremor coming through the ground caused Shen's legs to stagger slightly.
As he was about to fall, a pair of pale hands promptly steadied him.
"I did my best, Snake Uncle, but that guy's body is just too strong. He didn't die even after losing so much blood. You should hurry and finish him off," Shen said, clearly exhausted.
Looking at the weakened Shen before him, Orochimaru immediately showed a smile.
The fading Three-tomoe Sharingan made him swell with pride. "Leave it to me, Shen. Just take it easy and catch your breath!"
Unlike his usual calm tone, this time Orochimaru's voice had clearly risen by more than one pitch.
"Not yet. Nayou and Nawaki, and also Uzumaki village..."
Shen tried hard to stand up again, but quickly stumbled once more. Still, those pale hands reached out and supported him again.
Just recently awakened with the Three-tomoe Sharingan, he currently had no chakra left in his eyes at all.
If he hadn't forced his Sharingan to activate repeatedly and used Genjutsu nonstop on the Kumogakure Captain, he might have already been broken free.
"Then you should bandage your wounds first. With me here, Team One won't be in danger," Orochimaru said, gently leaning Shen against a wall before pulling out a kunai and approaching the dark figure lying on the ground to finish him off.
"Snake Uncle, catch." Shen stretched out his hand and threw a scroll to the other person.
Orochimaru caught the scroll, looked at him deeply for a moment, then departed.
Watching that slight, retreating figure disappear into the distance, Shen mused thoughtfully: "Snake Uncle seems… different somehow."
Not far from Uzumaki village, over thirty Konoha Anbu wearing black cloaks and various masks all felt the ground tremble and quickened their pace.
"Captain, as expected, Team One is indeed in Uzumaki village right now."
"The battle has already begun. Third Lord's prediction was indeed accurate," the leading ninja replied without any emotion.
"These Rain ninjas truly dare a lot—they clearly don't consider our Konoha worthy of respect!"
"Our target is to eliminate non-Uzumaki clan members and enemies of Team One. Is that understood?"
"Yes!"
Under the night sky, this group of Anbu from Konoha were drawing ever closer to Uzumaki village.
After destroying the sharp rock spikes emerging from the ground, Nawaki showed no signs of arrogance.
He could still tell the difference between these enemies and those deadly foes.
[Earth Release: Quaking Surge!]
The cracked earth instantly turned into countless grains of sand, surging toward him like a tsunami.
[Nawaki's Power Punch!]
Facing the tsunami-like cascade of sand mere inches away, Nawaki charged himself before throwing a right hook.
[Crack!]
The Iwagakure Captain's mighty attack instantly stopped dead in its tracks by Nawaki's punch.
Then the sandy sea reversed direction, returning even faster than it came.
"Phew! My chakra is completely drained now." Nawaki helplessly looked at his right hand as the markings from the Strength of a Hundred Technique slowly faded away.
"Kid! I'm a ninja from Iwagakure!"
Startled, Nawaki saw half of the Iwagakure Captain's body emerging toward him.
"When you reincarnate next life, don't be so careless!" The confident captain swung forward with a kunai in hand.
"Someone come save me!" A weakened Nawaki shouted desperately for help.
Perhaps his loud cry worked; the very next moment, he was launched straight into the air.
"Nawaki, you keep an eye on Shen. He's lost way too much blood and needs someone to look after him." Orochimaru briefly instructed before tossing his long serpent into the sky.
The little brown speck flying through the air yelped in protest: "Waaaahhh, Master Orochimaru, come onnn, be gentle!"
"Your opponent is me." Orochimaru unfurled a scroll and tightly gripped his Extendable Kusanagi Blade.
Instantly pointing the sword tip toward the Iwagakure Captain, whose gaze grew severe.
After finishing bandaging his arm wound, Shen suddenly sensed danger and rolled across the ground several times.
[Boom!]
A brown meteor crashed into the house behind him in the next moment.
Looking at the human-shaped hole punched through the wall made Shen's eyelid twitch involuntarily.
"Oh no! I'm gonna die!"
Hearing the moaning coming from inside the house instantly erased his previous thought: "Snake Uncle will always be Snake Uncle; he hasn't changed a bit."
Reaching this conclusion, Shen quickly opened the gate and entered the shaky old house in front of him.
In pitch darkness, he raised his foot to kick a certain little brown head.
"The great Master Orochimaru sent me here to rescue you, yet you DARED to dodge?!"
"Do you think I'm dumb? Or should I use my feet to catch you next time?"
Shen felt that if he hadn't already been so drained, the other guy would've been sent flying back where he came from.
"How about a real one-on-one fight already?!"
From shock transforming to rage, Nawaki immediately regained energy. However, before properly standing upright, he fell backward.
Shen caught the falling Nawaki just in time but still mercilessly remarked while holding onto his shoulders: "You were just saying how close to death you were, but acting like this now doesn't seem a bit like the goofy guy I know!"
The gratitude Nawaki initially felt toward his rival for helping vanished entirely.
Just as he intended to retort, though, he noticed the pair of black eyes filled with concern and decided to swallow back his words.
"Hmph. You won't see me go down before you do," he dryly muttered before shoving the other aside.
Shen showed no reaction to that.
He certainly wouldn't admit that seeing that familiar little brown speck actually made his chest feel a little lighter.
Thus, the two simply sat within that house side-by-side, resting quietly.
They simply exchanged glances with complex expressions on their faces.
Meanwhile, Nayou, who had been exchanging attacks with the Takigakure Captain for over a hundred rounds, was beginning to feel somewhat overwhelmed.
"Adults really do have incredible stamina—despite spending over half my chakra, I can barely keep up." Just after unleashing her Sixty-Four Palms technique, Nayou immediately dashed backward and raised her guard.
"Not bad at all—you actually forced me to use my full strength. It seems you must be the strongest of those three kids," the Takigakure Captain remarked without any hurry to attack.
Originally having slight interest in the Byakugan, his curiosity now grew stronger.
Nayou didn't relax her vigilance but coldly corrected him: "No, the strongest one is Shen."
"That Uchiha kid? True, his Lightning Release sliced that fool clean in half. But by now, he should've already been dealt with by my partner."
"That's impossible. Shen will definitely defeat your comrade," Nayou replied, her tone slightly urgent.
Seeing that she'd fallen into his trap, the Takigakure Captain continued provoking, "My ally possesses an incredibly terrifying physical constitution. Your teammate has probably already been cut in two by now!"
Clutching her fists tightly, Nayou was about to charge forward when she caught sight of a familiar black silhouette approaching from afar.
As the figure glanced back and smiled at her, she slowly relaxed her fists.
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