[♪ a little tune of conspiracy ♪]
[Sure, it's the boss confronting the hero squad, but our side doesn't look the least bit rattled]
[You rarely see a female lead this dominant]
[To the commenter above: Fairy Tail's Erza Scarlet]
[Lmao, now even Erza's a lapdog by comparison!]
[Nah, my Lady Hyuga Hanabi is still the best—hasn't lost an ounce of swagger to this day]
[Honestly I still kinda wanna see the smug brat crash and burn, pounding the floor in tears]
[Wasn't it supposed to be Hanabi clinging to Hinata's leg going "I'll do anything"?]
[Pretty sure it'd be Hikari's leg]
[One on each side]
[Double the fun—"you're all my wings," huh?]
[This Orochimaru versus that Madara Uchiha from before—who's actually stronger?]
[Honestly Hanabi's been hiding her hand the whole time—nobody knows how strong she really is]
[Acting. It can all be an act]
The audience let their minds wander.
Hanabi, meanwhile, still stood there with perfect grace. Behind her, Sasuke was trembling.
"Remarkable," Orochimaru marveled. "My killing intent is more than even Kakashi could withstand, and yet here you are, utterly unaffected. Could it be some special constitution?"
To be unmoved by his killing intent, one had to be either strong enough—or special enough.
"Or perhaps it's because I've felt killing intent far stronger than this?"
Hanabi didn't follow his lead.
"So—one of the great Sannin, Lord Orochimaru himself, sneaks back into Konoha for what, exactly? Surely not something as dull as destroying the Hidden Leaf?"
Hanabi tilted her head.
"Heh heh heh. Such a sharp-tongued little brat. Don't you know that running your mouth can get you killed?" Orochimaru's tongue snaked out.
But Hanabi only giggled, as though she'd heard something delightful.
"Kill me? Mm... you're welcome to try."
Orochimaru: ???
For some reason, he had the distinct feeling his own line had just been stolen.
And the look on her face was downright infuriating.
Yet Orochimaru could tell—she truly didn't seem to fear death.
"A Shadow Clone? No... that's not it either. Or do you have some special technique?"
A mere Shadow Clone wouldn't be able to protect Sasuke.
Orochimaru suddenly thought of Kabuto Yakushi.
During his fight, Kabuto had most certainly severed the heart of that "Nonō Yakushi."
The smell of blood didn't lie.
And yet here Hanabi stood, as though nothing had happened to her at all.
"Let me think. You prize Sasuke this highly because of the Sharingan, yes?"
Hanabi decided to start doxxing him.
The doxxing weapon was unbeatable.
Orochimaru said nothing—he wanted to see what this insolent brat was getting at.
In any case, no one would be coming out here now.
"The Sharingan of the Uchiha clan wields tremendous power. Take, for instance... Genjutsu."
"The power of the Sharingan...?"
Sasuke could barely move under the killing intent, could barely think—but the instant he heard "Uchiha," he fought to claw back control of his body and his mind.
Hanabi tilted her head and went on. "Why are you so fixated on it? Simple... you've likely experienced it yourself. Experienced the humiliation of being defeated by an Uchiha's Sharingan..."
"Silence!"
Orochimaru's composure cracked.
A serpent shot from Orochimaru's tongue and shattered Hanabi's heart.
Orochimaru had, beyond any doubt, killed Hyuga Hanabi.
"Hanabi!" Sasuke screamed.
"For instance... like that...?"
Smiling, Hanabi flickered back to Sasuke's side with a Body Flicker.
"...A Substitution Jutsu? No—this brat... what is going on? Could it be?!" Orochimaru's expression had turned grim. "Genjutsu?!"
Orochimaru may have been brutalized by Uchiha Genjutsu time and again, but he was, in fact, a Genjutsu master himself... at least on paper.
Hanabi's little act was, without question, mocking Orochimaru with "Genjutsu."
—The great Sannin himself, unable to see through the Genjutsu of one lowly little Genin?
Hanabi hadn't said a word of it, yet Orochimaru could hear the taunt loud and clear.
"Looks like I guessed right. And I'd wager... mm, they didn't even go all out. The kind of effortless, casual little Genjutsu that sent you... scrambling off with your tail between your legs?"
It had been a very long time since Orochimaru had been this angry.
All the more so because she was a twelve-year-old brat!
"You loose-lipped little brat."
More serpents lunged from the shadows and killed Hanabi again.
"So—is this the same impotent rage you flew into back then?" The voice came again, from another direction entirely.
If you can't block it, then don't block it.
That was Neji's wisdom.
As long as she could come back, none of it mattered.
[The smug brat's gonna die sooner or later]
[I'm pretty sure the smug brat's already died a whole bunch of times]
[A resurrection ability? That can't be that broken, surely]
[Probably some kind of corpse-clone thing, like a Shadow Clone?]
[corpse clone → solid clone]
[@above, no need to fix it. "Corpse clone" feels exactly right to me]
[Lady Hanabi is once again playing the role of Lady Hanabi's corpse today]
[Even the behind-the-scenes boss is rattled now, lmao]
[Whoever shows up in the midgame is definitely not the real mastermind. Maybe that Madara Uchiha is the one]
[I figure that Madara was just a passing badass]
[The enemy was inside the clan all along!]
[Grass (a type of exclamation), stop dropping iconic catchphrases at the drop of a hat. Though honestly, the real mastermind might actually be inside the Leaf]
[The Third Hokage can spy through his crystal ball, so for this Orochimaru to sneak in, someone's gotta be working with him from the inside]
Hanabi pressed on with her doxxing. "Before you left the Leaf, you didn't seem especially fixated on the Uchiha—at least nothing I've heard of, no notable dealings between you and the clan, not openly. And if you'd had your chance back then, you wouldn't have waited until now to come looking for Sasuke."
Realization dawned on Hanabi. "Mm... I see. So it's because of him."
"Silence!"
"...Itachi Uchiha, wasn't it? He beat you without so much as breaking a sweat—like a stray dog by the roadside, brought to its knees by a single passing glance?"
"...Itachi Uchiha?!"
Sasuke's eyes went wide.
He'd finally wrested back control of his body—both because he'd heard Itachi Uchiha's name, and because Orochimaru's composure had come undone.
"Orochimaru—you know Itachi Uchiha!"
At the sound of Sasuke's voice, Orochimaru finally calmed down. "Heh heh heh heh. That's right, Sasuke-kun. Follow me, and I can lead you to Itachi Uchiha—I can let you complete your revenge!"
Then Hanabi's voice cut in out of nowhere. "And then, just like him, get beaten by Itachi Uchiha like a dog?"
Orochimaru saw red.