The forest was already a mess. Orochimaru and the ninja opposite him, who looked to be in his forties, were standing face to face.
Orochimaru said in a hoarse voice, "A ninja of your caliber should not be an unknown. Why haven't I ever heard of you?"
The ninja's hair was messy, and he had a scar under his left eye.
His face was stern, and he didn't answer Orochimaru's words.
His years of hard work had been destroyed, and he was in a terrible mood.
But fortunately, killing this kid in front of him would be enough to make up for the loss.
After all, this person is the Third Hokage's beloved disciple.
He quickly made a hand seal, "Water Release: Water Torrent Wave."
With a bang, the water rushed over.
Orochimaru made a hand seal with both hands, "Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall."
The dense water flow poured down like crazy and crashed into the earthen wall.
A few seconds later, there was a bang from the wall behind Orochimaru, and a circular hole with a diameter of one meter was now visible.
The next moment, Orochimaru suddenly turned around.
He pointed his arm at the cracked wall, waiting for the other party to break it directly.
Then, everything fell silent.
The wind whistled softly through the air.
Orochimaru's heart sank slightly.
A moment later, a small wind blade cut in. The wall exploded with a bang, and the stones flew out with great force.
Orochimaru jumped to the side.
"Ninja Art: Ash Pile Burning!"
Suddenly, a large cloud of dust poured out of the ninja's mouth.
In an instant, the entire field of vision was blocked, and even breathing was affected.
Orochimaru closed his eyes; the snake's infrared vision allowed him to easily capture the opponent's movements.
But the other party didn't know this, and he thought Orochimaru couldn't see anything around him at all.
Then he rushed over immediately, "Die!"
Bang—Bang—In the dust, Orochimaru dodged the opponent's fist.
The ninja kicked Orochimaru with a fierce side sweep.
Orochimaru leaned to the side, blocking with his arms, and both sides took two steps back.
Subsequently, dust swept in from all directions, again obscuring vision, and the wind disturbed hearing.
In a short period of time, after more than a dozen consecutive attacks, the opponent's attacks were all blocked by Orochimaru.
Suddenly, Orochimaru waved his hand, and the ninja's collar was grabbed by him.
The next moment, the ninja's eyes spun.
With a bang, the wall that had already been broken was almost completely shattered at this time.
Orochimaru dragged the opponent's body and slammed it hard against the wall.
His leg whip was as fast as lightning, and with Orochimaru's flying kick, it slammed hard into the opponent's abdomen.
"Ugh…"
With a plop, he spat out a mouthful of blood, and then his body was kicked away by Orochimaru.
"Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bite!"
Orochimaru immediately made a hand seal. A huge earth dragon rushed out.
The man pressed his hands on the ground. Immediately, dozens of explosive tags stood up on the ground, sticking to the earth dragon.
Then a huge explosion sounded. The earth dragon was blown to pieces.
When the smoke cleared, Orochimaru looked again, but the man had disappeared.
Orochimaru stood there for a while and didn't chase after him. The explosive tags on the ground were obviously placed in advance by the other party.
He didn't know how many traps like this were on the road. He didn't want to be blown to death by explosive tags for no reason.
So he immediately turned back.
When he returned to Rogue Town, his earth clone and Tatsumi and the others were already waiting for him.
"Orochimaru-sensei, did you catch the other party?" Tatsumi asked.
Orochimaru's golden eyes looked at Tatsumi and then shook his head, "He got away."
Nawaki put his arms around his chest and comforted Orochimaru, "It's okay, everyone makes mistakes. Even I have times when I fail, don't be discouraged."
"..."
Orochimaru ignored him and led the few of them to a cellar.
"This is where the leader hid the stolen loot. Let's go in and count it."
Walking into the cellar, Tatsumi rubbed his eyes.
Looking at the glittering gold bars, silver bars, and various other valuable porcelain antiques in front of him, Tatsumi swallowed hard.
He had never seen so much money before.
"Am I dreaming?" Then, he slapped Nawaki's face hard.
"..."
Looking at Nawaki's painful expression, Tatsumi nodded.
"Looks like it's not a dream."
"Tatsumi, why did you hit me!" Nawaki pointed at Tatsumi.
"I feel too much pressure seeing these things, and I can't control my hands. I need to calm down."
Then Tatsumi turned around and hugged Mikoto, "Great, Mikoto. These are all the spoils of our mission this time, we are rich now. We are about to enter high society!"
"…It seems necessary to let you know who is the highest authority in Konoha." Orochimaru's hoarse voice came from behind.
"Orochimaru-sensei, there's a whole room full of stolen goods, aren't you going to take a closer look?" Tatsumi rubbed up to Orochimaru, revealing a shy smile.
"It will be transported to Konoha in two days, what a pity!" Tatsumi showed a toothache expression.
"Well, I know. I am responsible for transporting these things," Orochimaru said lightly.
"Sen~sei, you still don't understand what I mean," Tatsumi wagged his butt.
"These things are all turned over to Konoha. Konoha builds buildings and hospitals, but what does that have to do with us! This is equivalent to the Third Hokage using the spoils of our mission to buy off the ninjas of Konoha."
Looking at Orochimaru's expressionless face, Tatsumi said anxiously, "Hey! You still don't understand what I mean."
"Look, Konoha is now the richest of the five great nations. But we are still penniless. Shouldn't we solve some personal problems before considering the village!"
"These precious things should be collected by suitable people!" Tatsumi said.
Orochimaru was still expressionless.
"Also, sensei, you see I have already visited. There are really a lot of good things here. Especially the scroll that has a forbidden technique on it."
Orochimaru's eyes lit up.
Tatsumi continued, "I have already taken it out, and no one else will know about it. Look, how about I hand it over to you personally?"
Orochimaru hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
"Tatsumi, recently I have been considering applying for you to become a Jonin. But you are just a student at the ninja school."
"So, I can compensate you in other ways. You also go and see if there are any things you particularly want to collect, go ahead," Orochimaru patted Tatsumi on the shoulder.
Tatsumi immediately said seriously, "Thank you for your guidance, sensei."
Tatsumi immediately turned around to look for some precious spoils.
Orochimaru also began to search around for scrolls. By the way, he also needed to replenish his research funds.
He suddenly saw a scroll on the table. Then he picked it up and took a look.
Then his face became serious.
For a time, the surrounding air pressure suddenly became a little low.
"What's wrong, sensei?"
"Something happened."
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