Goppu Sarutobi didn't return until nearly noon. He had clearly done more than just see Kushina home; he had likely delivered a full report on the morning's events.
When he finally reappeared, Orochimaru turned to the two boys and said, "It seems your break is over."
By now, their chakra had recovered, but their physical stamina was still lagging. Minato was in better shape, while Tatsuma felt a deep, lingering fatigue. However, Orochimaru was clearly not the kind of "kind soul" who would let them go back for a nap before resuming the assessment.
The boys stood up and put some distance between themselves and the Sannin. They didn't know the specifics of the test yet, but in a world of ninjas, more distance meant more reaction time—and more reaction time was never a bad thing.
Seeing their response, Orochimaru obliged them. He raised his hands and began to weave seals. Watching his somewhat languid pace, Tatsuma's eyes brightened. It seemed Orochimaru intended to go easy on them.
"Wind Style: Wind Cutter Technique!"
Tatsuma was wrong.
The moment the seals were completed, the space around Orochimaru seemed to ripple and distort. Sensing danger, Tatsuma instinctively pushed his chakra outward. While he hadn't undergone formal sensory training, his innate Sensing Talent was high enough to allow him to detect fluctuations in the surrounding chakra.
In Tatsuma's mind's eye, several invisible blades of wind were screaming toward them. Minato, still on guard but lacking sensory perception, hadn't noticed the silent threat.
Tatsuma instantly formed the Ram Seal, flooding his legs with chakra. He triggered the Body Flicker Technique, lunging toward Minato and taking him down with a heavy Uchiha Tackle.
Thud!C-shhh—!
The moment they hit the dirt, the ground where they had been standing—along with the tree stumps and boulders behind them—was sliced clean through as if by a giant, invisible razor.
"I wasn't mistaken. You truly do possess a talent for sensing," Orochimaru said, his grin widening. He had suspected as much during the fight with Kushina; now, his suspicions were confirmed.
"Lord Orochimaru, that was a bit much, don't you think?!"
Seeing the sheer destruction, Goppu Sarutobi could no longer remain silent. But halfway through his protest, Orochimaru fixed him with a cold, piercing gaze that choked the words in his throat. The Sannin's smile vanished, replaced by an icy indifference.
"Goppu Sarutobi, you are a witness. I am the proctor."
"...Understood, Lord Orochimaru," Goppu replied helplessly. He looked toward his students, praying they could endure whatever was coming next.
Minato scrambled up, his voice low. "Thanks, Tatsuma. You okay?"
Tatsuma shook his head, his focus entirely on the man ahead. "Use your chakra to feel the changes in the air. Wind Style isn't like other elements; you can't always see it. You have to observe with your senses, not just your eyes."
Minato nodded. "Got it."
The exchange was brief, but for someone like Orochimaru, it was enough time to launch a dozen more attacks. He didn't, however. He simply watched them with an air of amused curiosity.
As the boys stood their ground, Orochimaru noticed that Minato was now mimicking Tatsuma's technique, letting his own chakra bleed out into the surroundings.
Orochimaru raised an eyebrow. Could Minato also have sensory talent? Sensing wasn't a universal skill; simply bleeding chakra didn't mean a ninja could actually interpret the feedback. He decided to test them again. Once more, his hands moved with deliberate slowness through the seals for the Wind Cutter.
Recognizing the sequence, both boys tensed. The moment Orochimaru finished, they both triggered the Seal of Confrontation. Since they were both monitoring the environment, they didn't need the speed of a Ram Seal to time their escape.
Boom! Boom!
They rolled away, somewhat ungracefully, but both successfully avoided the invisible blades. Orochimaru's eyelids flickered. For Minato to adapt that quickly... these two were truly something else.
"Now, let's discuss the passing conditions," Orochimaru said, his smile returning.
Only then did Tatsuma and Minato realize that Orochimaru hadn't actually explained how to win yet. Orochimaru's grin deepened; he enjoyed being unpredictable, even if the truth was that he'd simply forgotten to mention the rules earlier.
"Touch me. If either of you manages to touch me, you pass. It doesn't matter if it's your hand, a jutsu, or a ninja tool."
As he spoke, his hands began to weave a new set of seals—ones entirely unfamiliar to the boys. Instinctively, they funneled chakra to their legs, prepared to bolt at a moment's notice.
"Earth Style: Earth Shore Return!" "Wind Style: Gale Palm!"
Tatsuma had barely registered the massive stone slab rising in front of Orochimaru before it shattered under a sudden, violent concussive force. The Gale Palm acted like a cannon, sending the jagged fragments of the stone wall screaming toward them like a storm of shrapnel.
This is bad. We can't outrun this, Tatsuma thought. The area of effect was too wide. He glanced at Minato, who was looking back at him. They shared a sharp, silent nod.
"Wild Lion's Mane Technique!" "Ninja Art: Needle Jizo!"
They performed their seals in unison. Minato's golden hair surged forward, wrapping around them in a protective cocoon. Meanwhile, Tatsuma's blue-white hair shot backward, lashing onto several tree stumps that had been severed by the earlier Wind Cutter.
Clack-clack-clack!
Tatsuma snapped his neck forward with a violent jerk. Just as the stone shards reached within two meters of them, the massive stumps were yanked into their path, acting as heavy wooden shields that absorbed the brunt of the shrapnel.
But they weren't finished. As soon as the wooden barricade took the hit, Tatsuma dove into the earth, disappearing as if through a trapdoor. Simultaneously, Minato completed a seal, leaving a Transformation-disguised Clone standing where Tatsuma had just been.
As the dust cleared, Orochimaru looked at the "two" unharmed boys. Suddenly, his gaze flicked downward. He raised a foot and slammed it into the ground with bone-shaking force.
Boom!
Tatsuma, who had been trying to close in with the Headhunter Jutsu, was violently jarred from the earth by the shockwave.
Even while airborne, Tatsuma didn't give up. He lashed his hair out toward the Sannin.
"One of Jiraiya's tricks? Far too slow," Orochimaru remarked. He drew a kunai and exhaled a stream of Wind Style chakra along the blade, extending it into a shimmering sword of air. With a single sweep, he sheared through every strand of hair that came near him.
But in that exact moment, two thick locks of golden hair burst from the ground, cinching tightly around Orochimaru's ankles.
"Consecutive cover-fire? A remarkable tactic."
Orochimaru looked down at his bound feet, then back at the two boys who were starting to allow smiles of victory to touch their faces. Orochimaru's smile, however, was far more brilliant.
Poof!
A cloud of smoke erupted. Orochimaru vanished.
The smiles on Tatsuma and Minato's faces froze. They hadn't seen him weave the seals for a Shadow Clone.
"That last jutsu blocked my line of sight," Orochimaru's voice drifted from behind Goppu Sarutobi. "But it also blocked yours."
He had used Goppu's larger frame as a perfect blind spot to swap with a clone.
Tatsuma and Minato stood there, breathing heavily, their faces etched with frustration. To pull off that last gambit, they had burned through the very last of their chakra. Orochimaru looked at the two boys, who were now truly at the end of their ropes, and chuckled.
"Is that all? If you have nothing left—"
Before he could finish, a sudden gust of wind swept through the training ground. Several of Tatsuma's severed hair strands, which had been floating in the air after being cut by the chakra blade, danced on the breeze.
One single strand of blue-white hair drifted downward and landed softly on Orochimaru's shoulder.
Orochimaru looked at the curled, chakra-less hair sitting on his flak jacket. He let out a soft sigh and shook his head. "It seems... fate has a sense of humor."