Chapter 115: It's Gotta Be Orochimaru
Whether the Lord God Space was really everything Imiao Ichirō had described—or whether the man had been lying—Ryū couldn't say. But he wasn't going to overthink it. Kill the Rogue Reincarnators, recover their Watches, collect Points. Done. Everything else was noise he couldn't untangle anyway.
He shook the mental clutter loose—then went still.
Inside the radius of his Observation Haki, two signatures were approaching.
One from the east, roughly five or six hundred meters out. Another from the southeast, maybe a kilometer away.
Ryū's Haki was multi-vectored, so its range was enormous. Even at Intermediate tier, it was essentially a human radar.
So those two are already on their way. I really should send Imiao a thank-you. By the way, why did his parents name him that? It's practically the same naming template as Melzargard.
Ryū silently complained, then leaped up and settled himself on a high branch. He sat there, perfectly still, and waited.
* * *
Roughly five or six hundred meters from Ryū's position, a man dressed like any ordinary Konoha civilian was moving at a brisk clip, brow furrowed tight.
Something felt wrong. An unshakeable premonition of danger sat in the pit of his stomach, formless but persistent.
This was An Zhaoxie—one of the three Rogue Reincarnators, and the squad leader.
He muttered to himself as he moved: "Why would Ichirō suddenly send a rally signal? Did that idiot get himself into trouble?"
Damn it… I knew this Japanese guy was unreliable. But Konoha's powerhouses should all be tied up with the Nine-Tails. Even if there is a problem, the three of us together can handle anything.
And yet… this nagging feeling won't go away.
An Zhaoxie's pace slowed slightly. Doubt was creeping in.
Why would Ichirō send a rally signal out of nowhere? How did he manage to attract trouble? Could this be a trap?
Am I walking to my death?
But that doesn't make sense. We're disguised as civilians. The village is in total chaos—nobody's going to investigate three strangers. The shinobi are all evacuating people, the civilians are all running for their lives.
In a situation like this, what kind of trouble could Ichirō possibly have gotten into?
Then again… nobody should even know we're Reincarnators. Our cover is intact. Who would target us?
"Forget it," he said aloud. "I'm almost there anyway. Might as well check. Ichirō can't die here—he's still useful. And we've been through too many worlds together."
He pushed aside his doubts and picked up speed.
The other Rogue Reincarnator—Jin Sheng-lü—was having almost identical misgivings. Something felt off. But he couldn't articulate what.
* * *
Minutes ticked by. Ryū, perched on his branch, raised an eyebrow and looked in one direction.
One's arrived. The other is still two or three hundred meters out.
Down below, An Zhaoxie had just emerged through a thin screen of brush—and frozen in his tracks.
Through the sparse foliage, he could make out a blood-soaked body lying motionless on the ground.
A breeze carried the scent of iron into his nostrils—thick, coppery, unmistakable. His expression twisted.
No. Don't tell me Imiao Ichirō is… dead?
He couldn't see the face. But the silhouette of the corpse was achingly familiar.
Eighty percent certainty. That was Imiao Ichirō.
Who killed him? Why? Did this idiot provoke some local? But which local could kill him? Ichirō was only slightly weaker than me—and he had plenty of escape options.
No jōnin could have done this so easily. But Konoha's Kage-levels should all be at the Nine-Tails site.
Wait. Besides the two Hokage…
There's Orochimaru. The hidden final boss.
Oh no. Did this idiot run afoul of OROCHIMARU?!
* * *
"You've been standing there a while. Seems like you recognize the dead guy?"
A voice. From directly behind him.
An Zhaoxie's pupils shrank to pinpoints. Every alarm in his body detonated at once. Without thinking, he spun and lashed out with a vicious roundhouse kick.
His hands were already moving—forming seals at combat speed.
He was, after all, a Naruto-build Reincarnator. Uzumaki sealing techniques, Fire Release, Lightning Release, a pair of one-tomoe Sharingan, and a foundation of taijutsu. A full ninja toolkit.
Rat—Tiger—Dog—Ox—Hare—Tiger!
Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!
A barrage of grinding-wheel-sized fireballs erupted from An Zhaoxie's mouth. The flames lit up Ryū's face and brought with them a lick of heat.
Under An Zhaoxie's chakra manipulation, the Phoenix Sage fireballs fanned out from every angle—a near-360-degree kill zone converging on Ryū.
Ryū sidestepped the roundhouse kick as if it weren't there. The incoming fireballs, in his perception, were almost comically slow. From this one panicked exchange alone, he could measure the man's combat ceiling precisely.
This "veteran Reincarnator" couldn't even beat Kakashi.
The fire engulfed him. The ground beneath flash-charred to black.
Before An Zhaoxie could even begin to smile, a burst of air pressure scattered the flames in every direction.
Standing in the scorched circle, completely untouched, was Ryū.
An Zhaoxie's eyelid twitched.
He didn't say a word.
He turned and ran.
It's GOTTA be Orochimaru! Besides the two Hokage, Orochimaru is the only one in Konoha this strong! Damn it—nobody said Orochimaru would be in the village right now! What kind of garbage intel was that?! Screw this!
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