Looking at the beautiful girl across from him, now full of wariness, Orochimaru felt his previously faded interest surging back up again. Well then, let her provide him with a bit more entertainment.
"I never expected a small village like Sound to have such a strong ninja, and one who's only a genin at that. Truly surprising."
When Furina said this, her expression didn't change in the slightest, making it impossible to tell whether she was genuinely surprised or just being sarcastic. Orochimaru felt it was the latter.
"How arrogant. A ninja from one of the great ninja villages, huh? Then allow this ninja from a small village to have a taste of your skills."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Furina felt an endless wave of killing intent sweeping toward her. If Maki's killing intent was like a cool evening breeze, then Orochimaru's felt as though she had been plunged into a world of ice and snow. The bone-chilling cold caused even her breathing to slow by half a beat.
Even Furina felt this way, so Sasuke, who was caught in the crossfire beside her, was naturally affected far worse. His eyes widened, his Sharingan spinning frantically, yet even so, he could only stand rigidly in place, his body trembling nonstop. Clearly, just resisting the pressure had already taken every ounce of his strength.
"Hmph hmph hmph. Is this all you've got?"
Watching Orochimaru pull out a kunai, lick it, and slowly approach, Furina secretly began preparing a sneak-attack ninjutsu. She naturally wouldn't lose her will to fight just because the opponent released some killing intent.
After all, if killing intent alone could do that, it wouldn't be killing intent anymore; it would be Conqueror's Haki. In the future, ninja village wars wouldn't need cannon fodder to clash; each village could just send a top expert to release killing intent and be done with it.
But reality, of course, could never work that way.
Once Orochimaru drew close, Furina reused her old trick and launched another Water Cutting Wave for a surprise attack. It had to be said that most Water Release ninjutsu lacked in raw power. After thinking it over, she still felt Water Cutting Wave was the most suitable.
Whether in terms of power or speed, it ranked among the very best in Water Release.
Facing the high-pressure water pillar rushing toward him, Orochimaru remained calm and unhurried. His body twisted in an extremely bizarre posture, dodging the strike.
After evading, Orochimaru's body suddenly turned into an afterimage and vanished instantly. The next moment, he reappeared behind Furina, followed immediately by a fierce horizontal kick.
Just hearing the sound of rushing wind by her ear, Furina knew this strike carried tremendous force. Fortunately, due to the height difference, she easily ducked under Orochimaru's surprise attack by bending at the waist. Then, pushing off with her feet, she spun her body and thrust the kunai in her hand toward him in one smooth motion.
As the kunai stabbed toward Orochimaru, perhaps worried its damage might be insufficient, high-speed rotating water currents wrapped around the blade, ultimately forming a drill-like shape. Noticing the change in the kunai, Orochimaru realized the threat with just one glance.
"Clang"
At some point, a long sword had appeared in Orochimaru's hand. He used it to block Furina's kunai at the very last second. After a brief struggle, both sides retreated, returning to their standoff.
Looking at Furina opposite him, whose expression remained grave yet showed no trace of panic, the amusement in Orochimaru's eyes grew even stronger. But then, as if remembering something, he let out a soft sigh.
"What a pity. Without those eyes, no matter how great your talent is, what use is it?"
In Furina, Orochimaru seemed to see a reflection of himself: equally brilliant talent, equally skilled in ninjutsu, yet both shackled by ordinary bloodlines...
"Beautiful lady, shall we have a little chat?"
Although she didn't know why Orochimaru had stopped attacking, Furina was happy to go along with it. Fighting him still placed considerable pressure on her current self. While she did have some trump cards if the fight continued, those had been hidden since childhood. If she could avoid using them, it was best not to.
From a very young age, she had discovered she could summon Mr. Krabs, Squidward, and that seahorse to fight alongside her. They were growth-type summons too; as her own strength increased, they would grow stronger along with her.
Since these three seafood creatures were originally part of Furina herself, she had easily accepted this ability. After all, a free ability was definitely better than none.
And because these three rather special "summoned beasts" had never been shown outside Konoha before, Furina naturally couldn't explain their origins. So she had kept them hidden all this time. In Konoha, things were safe anyway, and there had never been a need for the three little ones.
On the contrary, if she really revealed them, she would have to worry about certain threats from the darkness of the ninja world. When it came to "for the good of Konoha," that person would stop at nothing.
"Chat? What would you like to talk about, little girl?"
Hearing this, Orochimaru didn't bother correcting Furina's way of addressing him. Instead, he directly threw the question back at her. He wanted to see what she would say and hoped she wouldn't disappoint him.
"This. You should recognize it, right?"
"Of course I do. The Earth Scroll."
Seeing what Furina took out, Orochimaru couldn't help but feel a slight disappointment in his heart. He had already guessed what she was about to say next.
"Then we'll hand it over to you, and we can call it quits here. How about it?"
Sasuke, standing to the side, felt some confusion at first. But after thinking it over, he agreed with Furina's approach. If it were him, he would do the same. Even without this scroll, they could just intercept other teams later. He believed no team besides this Sound ninja would be their match.
In that case, dying on the vine here over one Earth Scroll would be rather irrational.
Just as Sasuke was about to voice his support and Orochimaru was preparing to shatter Furina's unrealistic "fantasy," a sudden voice from the distance caused both of them to swallow their words again.
"No way, Furina! How can you hand over the scroll? I just got here, but even I can tell that a guy like this won't stop even if he gets the scroll. You're always called smart by Kakashi-sensei; didn't you see that?"
Looking at Naruto who had jumped in front of her to stop the exchange, Furina gave a helpless smile in her heart. Of course she knew Orochimaru wouldn't give up even after getting the scroll. After all, the other party hadn't come here to take the exam in the first place.
But conversations needed to progress step by step. Just like how she knew he was Orochimaru but couldn't just blurt it out directly; she had to lay some groundwork first, more or less.
"Hmph hmph. He's right. Even if you hand the scroll over to me, I won't let you go. I have no intention of giving up the pleasure of the hunt itself."
Before Sasuke could open his mouth to refute Naruto, Orochimaru's confirmation made him swallow the words that had already reached his lips again. Looking at his gloomy expression, it was as miserable as eating instant ramen without the seasoning packet.