Chapter 47: If You Don't Claim the Cherry Blossom Tree's Reward
Konoha's Snake Surveillance Team obviously wasn't made up of just three people. However, in practice, only three were capable of fighting; the rest were sensory-type ninja tasked solely with monitoring Orochimaru.
"I just sensed chakra moving toward our direction."
A Konoha ninja with the Byakugan—clearly from the Hyuga clan—spoke. The moment his voice fell, the three green giants and Gray Wolf had already arrived.
Aside from a few Konoha ninja who managed to flee, the three green giants effortlessly took down the remaining sensory-type members of the surveillance team. However, the commotion inevitably alerted Orochimaru's laboratory.
In reality, there were only three people in Orochimaru's lab: Orochimaru himself, Suigetsu, and Jugo.
Orochimaru was the researcher, Suigetsu the assistant, and Jugo the lab's security.
While conducting experiments, Suigetsu was the first to notice the disturbance outside. Wondering what kind of nonsense the Konoha surveillance team was up to, he opened the lab door—only to run right into the hastily approaching Jugo.
"Jugo, what's going on?"
Seeing Jugo's grim expression, Suigetsu dropped his usual goofy demeanor. Something was clearly wrong.
"The Konoha ninja monitoring us have been attacked," Jugo replied.
Suigetsu froze. He had considered many scenarios—but never that someone would dare attack Konoha's ninja.
After the Fourth Great Ninja War, Konoha had become universally acknowledged as the strongest ninja village. There were even sayings like, "A Chūnin from Konoha equals a Jōnin from another village," or "A Jōnin from Konoha is on par with a Kage elsewhere."
For someone to cause trouble for Konoha in times like these was almost unthinkable.
"It must be S.H.I.E.L.D., the group that visited the lab last time," Orochimaru said as he walked over, utterly calm and unbothered.
This was merely a reasonable assumption based on the intel Orochimaru currently possessed. After all, the only group he could think of that dared to defy Konoha wasn't another ninja village, but the mysterious S.H.I.E.L.D.
"It's quite deserted in here, but I've finally found you—Orochimaru. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Gray Wolf from S.H.I.E.L.D."
A wolf—standing upright and with a somewhat goofy appearance—suddenly appeared. Behind him were the three green giants.
Though the green giants bore some wounds, they were clearly still in fighting shape.
Orochimaru's eyes skipped past Gray Wolf, focusing instead on the three green giants standing behind him.
Having already encountered a talking shark, Orochimaru wasn't all that surprised to see a talking wolf. What intrigued him were those green giants, clearly the products of human experimentation.
Gray Wolf wasn't offended by Orochimaru's disregard. In fact, he found it completely understandable. If their roles were reversed, he'd have done the same. Besides, getting angry over being ignored? How childish would that be?
"Someone from S.H.I.E.L.D., what business do you have with me?" Orochimaru asked, extending his tongue. Gray Wolf felt a pang of envy at the sight of it—but it didn't matter. That tongue would soon be his.
"Of course, I'm here to invite you to join a S.H.I.E.L.D. subsidiary: the Umbrella Organization's Bio-Ghost Project."
Gray Wolf didn't seem the least bit bothered as Suigetsu and Jugo gradually surrounded him and the green giants.
"What a joke. I don't even know what the Bio-Ghost Project is. Why would I join you?"
Though Orochimaru maintained a smile as he stared at Gray Wolf, the latter knew this look well—it was Orochimaru's prelude to an attack.
"You're interested in those three green giants behind me, right? They're a product of the Bio-Ghost Project," Gray Wolf explained.
"I could just kill you and study them myself," Orochimaru replied.
"Looks like I arrived just in time. Now the numbers are fair." Yamato appeared on the scene and spoke to Orochimaru. "Two more green giants are behind me, but they're slow. We'll need to wrap this up quickly."
On his way there, Yamato had already seen the corpses of Konoha ninja. Though grief-stricken, he had no time to mourn and pushed forward.
"Green giants—attack!"
Yamato, Suigetsu, and Jugo each took on one green giant, leaving Orochimaru to face Gray Wolf.
"Water Style: Water Gun Technique!"
Suigetsu formed his fingers into the shape of a gun, shooting out high-pressure jets of water from his index finger like bullets at the green giant.
"Suigetsu, now's not the time to play with your squirt gun."
After clashing with one of the green giants, Jugo commented in his usual straightforward manner. Only now did he understand why the Konoha surveillance team was annihilated—the green giants were no joke.
If they didn't finish the fight quickly, and the other two giants caught up, they'd be in serious trouble.
"Jugo, how many times do I have to tell you—stop picking up bad habits from that Karin woman! This is the Water Gun Technique, not a squirt gun!"
Every time Suigetsu used this technique, Karin would mock him by calling it the "Squirt Gun Technique."
While Suigetsu's jutsu had little effect on the green giant, the latter couldn't land a hit on him either. Every one of the giant's attacks was effortlessly nullified by Suigetsu's Hydrification Technique.
"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands."
"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands."
"Striking Shadow Snakes."
"Striking Shadow Snakes."
"Many Hidden Shadow Snake Hands."
"Many Hidden Shadow Snake Hands."
…
The fight between Orochimaru and Gray Wolf quickly turned monotonous, as they kept using the exact same jutsu.
"Few people can even use snake-related jutsu—yet you know every single one that I do. How interesting. So, who are you really?"
After another clash, Orochimaru and Gray Wolf pulled apart again. Orochimaru's question received no verbal answer. Instead, Gray Wolf began forming hand seals.
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu."
This technique, created by the Third Hokage using inspiration from the Shadow Clone Jutsu developed by the Second Hokage, was a fusion of weaponry and ninjutsu.
By infusing chakra, it multiplied the number of thrown shuriken into a net-like formation. The more chakra used, the more clones formed. Every single shuriken clone was tangible and capable of inflicting damage.
It was one of the most difficult A-rank techniques to master. Among the Third Hokage's students—Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade—only Orochimaru had managed to learn it.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough."
A C-rank jutsu that required no hand seals, it released a powerful gust of wind. The more chakra infused, the stronger the resulting wind.
To blow away all the shadow clone shuriken coming at him with a jutsu like this would cost at least an entire Chūnin's worth of chakra.
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