Bell-stealing, huh…"
Akira rubbed his chin while looking at the bell in Orochimaru's hand.
What an old cliché.
He wondered who had originally come up with this tradition.
"Sensei Orochimaru, why are there only two bells?" Nawaki asked.
Orochimaru smiled and gently shook the bells in his hand.
"Of course, because one of you will fail."
"The one who fails… will be punished."
Both Nawaki and Aburame Mushi-hime immediately grew serious. Neither of them wanted to be punished.
"If you want to succeed," Orochimaru continued calmly, tying the bells to his waist,
"you must fight with the intent to kill me."
"Begin."
Nawaki and Mushi-hime vanished from sight at the same time.
Only Akira remained standing there casually, completely relaxed.
Orochimaru glanced around.
Nawaki and Mushi-hime had hidden themselves to observe first—a very reasonable choice.
But…
He looked curiously at Akira.
"Planning to face me head-on? For someone who came back from the battlefield, Akira-kun, isn't that a bit reckless?"
Akira stood there openly, showing no intention of scouting or hiding.
So his file had already reached Orochimaru.
Akira wasn't surprised. His information was hardly a secret among Konoha's higher-ups.
He didn't really care.
"Not exactly," Akira said while rolling his neck.
"It's just confidence."
Byakugan!
Veins bulged around his eyes.
"Sensei Orochimaru… have you ever been defeated?"
Orochimaru's eyes lit up with surprise.
Akira's aura had completely changed.
Several kunai shot upward into the air.
In the next instant—
Whoosh!
Akira's body blurred into a black shadow and appeared directly in front of Orochimaru.
Orochimaru kicked forward—
But his leg passed straight through Akira's body.
A feint.
"Pure taijutsu, huh… Akira-kun…" Orochimaru's neck suddenly rotated a full 360 degrees, locking onto Akira behind him. "You really are a genius."
Akira had heard titles like genius, shameless bastard, and reckless maniac countless times before.
They no longer affected him.
His fingers struck rapidly at Orochimaru's back, aiming to seal the chakra flow in his body.
But the spot he struck felt strangely soft.
The chakra he injected had no effect at all.
"My body isn't so easy to shut down," Orochimaru chuckled.
Soft Physique Modification.
"Oh really?" Akira smiled.
A phantom finger overlapped his own.
"Boom!"
The explosive force sent Orochimaru flying.
"So it wasn't a phantom… another technique?" Orochimaru said with curiosity as he was blown backward.
His eyeballs suddenly slid to the corner of his eyes.
Akira had appeared behind him again.
Just like the intel said—
a substitution technique similar to the Flying Thunder God.
Akira watched Orochimaru flying toward him.
Suddenly his body expanded.
His clothes tore apart, revealing rock-like muscles. The muscles on his back formed the shape of a demonic face.
Demon Back.
At the same time, a phantom overlapped with his body.
Clone Technique.
"Eight Trigrams—Thirty-Six Palms!"
Akira stepped forward with explosive speed.
Palm after palm struck toward Orochimaru.
One palm.
Two palms.
Sixteen palms—
"Bang!"
Orochimaru's body exploded apart after the sixteenth strike.
Countless snakes burst out of the shattered body.
Among them emerged Orochimaru's real body, soaked in slime.
Great Snake Replacement Technique.
At the same time, his arms transformed into two massive snakes that wrapped around Akira.
Hidden Shadow Snake Hands.
Whoosh!
Akira disappeared instantly.
A kunai appeared between the two snakes, wrapped with steel wire.
"Fire Release: Dragon Flame Jutsu!"
From the distance, Akira clenched the other end of the wire between his teeth.
Flames shot along the wire like a blazing line, igniting the two snakes.
The fire began spreading toward Orochimaru.
Orochimaru vanished with a Body Flicker.
He reappeared elsewhere, the smile on his face growing wider.
"It seems that if I don't take this seriously… you might actually defeat me, Akira-kun."
"Testing's over," Akira said, gripping a kunai.
Since this was just a sparring match, he decided not to use the Dark Battle Blade.
After all—
He might genuinely kill Orochimaru if he did.
"Then be careful, Akira-kun."
Orochimaru threw several shuriken.
His hands immediately formed seals.
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
The few shuriken instantly multiplied into tens of thousands.
They sealed off every possible escape route.
They even covered every area where Akira's kunai had landed—blocking his substitution technique.
"Rotation!"
A dome of blue chakra burst outward.
All the descending shuriken were blasted away.
At the same moment, Orochimaru rolled up his sleeve and slammed his hand onto the ground.
The instant Akira finished his Rotation—
A giant snake erupted from beneath his feet and swallowed him whole.
The snake crawled out of the hole in the ground.
Before it could do anything else—
Blue flames suddenly ignited across its body.
"Oh my… what astonishing power," Orochimaru murmured with a smile while forming hand seals again.
Boom!
The blue flames incinerated the snake into ashes.
Akira flipped out of the flames and landed on the ground.
Blue fire surged behind him.
Two massive blue fire dragons roared into the sky.
"Roar—!"
"Roar—!"
"A new bloodline limit? Blue flames… I've never seen anything like it," Orochimaru said thoughtfully.
Akira continued to surprise him.
The boy felt like a treasure chest with endless secrets.
Orochimaru finished his seals.
His hands slammed onto the ground.
"Earth Release: Earth Prison Dome!"
Stone walls rose rapidly around Akira, forming a sealed cage.
But the two fire dragons flew into the sky, escaping the enclosure.
"This prison absorbs chakra," Orochimaru said calmly.
The Earth Prison Dome was a confinement technique.
Anyone trapped inside would have their chakra continuously drained.
Even their ninjutsu would lose power as their chakra was absorbed.
"Is that so?"
Akira's voice suddenly came from the sky.
One of the fire dragons had vanished.
"ROAR!"
A dragon's roar echoed from inside the stone prison.
"Using chakra alone to cross space… that's practically cheating," Orochimaru said while looking upward.
High in the air, Akira inhaled deeply—
Then spat downward.
"Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A massive fireball shot from his mouth.
It fell toward the ground like a descending sun.
"That's… Great Fireball?" Orochimaru was genuinely surprised.
This might be the largest fireball ever produced in Konoha.
He vanished instantly, appearing outside the fireball's blast range.
But the fireball Akira launched was still under his control.
It changed direction midair—
And chased Orochimaru down.
"BOOM!"
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews. comment
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on P@treon if you're interested:
patreon.com/KuroTL