149 Obito and Orochimaru

“This kind of attempt is utterly foolish.”
“To so easily put their lives on the line just to prove an obvious truth—surely you are taking human life far too lightly.”

Orochimaru’s sharp and direct critique caused Obito to furrow his brows deeply. The Sharingan visible beneath his mask flickered with a crimson glow.

He spoke slowly, “Orochimaru, are you really qualified to criticize me?”

Desecrating corpses, toying with life, conducting live experiments...

Obito didn’t know much about Orochimaru, but from what little he did know, he could already regard him as a villainous fiend.

“Heh heh heh... You think we’re cut from the same cloth?”

Orochimaru licked his lips and smiled.

“But in the same kind of experiment, I gained knowledge from their lives. I spared no effort, and dared not waste even the slightest bit.”

“And you? After all you’ve done, have you gained anything truly valuable?”

Obito was momentarily taken aback, then sneered coldly, “Is that all you wanted to say?”

“Of course not.” Orochimaru’s gaze turned cold, his smile unchanged but now tinged with a sinister chill.

“Waste your own life as you please, I don’t care, but Konoha is not your laboratory.”

“You’ve crossed the line!”

“Crossed the line?”

Upon hearing that phrase, Obito immediately understood Orochimaru’s meaning, amusement flickering clearly in his red eyes.

He had wondered about Orochimaru’s motives before, but it now seemed that, like this latest experiment, it was all simply for personal gain.

A beast’s territorial instinct...

Obito looked at Orochimaru with disdain and sneered, “You really think you can drive me away?”

Though he disliked the Mangekyō Sharingan awakened by Rin’s death, with Kamui at his disposal, he could fight or flee at will. Even the Fourth Hokage, renowned for his mastery of the Flying Thunder God Technique, had failed to stop him. A mere Orochimaru was hardly a threat.

As this thought flashed through his mind, Obito suddenly felt his pupils contract sharply, his entire body tensing as a ghostly figure pierced straight through his chest.

Orochimaru’s foot landed lightly on the Fourth Hokage’s stone monument, halting his movement. He glanced back at Obito with a smile.

“An intangible body—that’s your trump card?”

Obito ignored him, staring at the fading afterimage in the distance, filled with astonishment.

“Even my Mangekyō Sharingan failed to detect him. How could his speed be this fast?”

Minato Namikaze’s speed relied on the space-time ninjutsu “Flying Thunder God,” which achieved instantaneous teleportation. Orochimaru’s speed, however, was purely physical, much like that of the Fourth Raikage.

Watching Orochimaru still smiling, Obito’s heart filled with deep caution.

“Kamui” could pull enemies into another dimension, an overwhelmingly advantageous technique against ordinary shinobi. Even an elite jonin could unwittingly fall into it.

But facing these powerful, experienced Kage-level opponents made it far more difficult to maintain the upper hand.

Obito’s former teacher, Minato Namikaze, had already given him a harsh lesson on this.

Though he despised Orochimaru’s character, Obito dared not underestimate his strength and immediately felt the urge to retreat.

His objective for the night had been achieved; continuing would only risk exposing Kamui’s secrets, which would be detrimental.

With this in mind, the air twisted into a vortex that slowly swallowed Obito. Before vanishing, he spoke coldly,

“Orochimaru, you shouldn’t have provoked me. I never intended to make you a target...”

His anger was evident, and it was clear that if allowed to escape, Orochimaru would face the vengeance of an assassin who comes and goes without a trace.

Though Orochimaru himself might not be a major barrier, the pawns he cared about were fragile indeed.

Orochimaru just smiled and looked toward the upper right.

“So it’s just as you said—at the first sign of trouble, this guy immediately flees. Well then, can you track him down?”

“The CEO’s All-Around Soldier”

“It’s a bit difficult.” The Lamp Spirit frowned, sending a misty thread into the void that flickered intermittently.

Compared to surveillance within the same space, detection across different dimensions was exponentially harder. Even though the Lamp Spirit’s form was shapeless and could be manipulated at will, the task was still quite taxing.

After all, he was merely a wish-granting spirit, not a real radar. This was well beyond his usual duties.

“I’ve found Obito. He has already exited the other dimension.”

After a few breaths, the Lamp Spirit raised a hand and pointed, causing a slender thread to glow blue.

Orochimaru vanished from where he stood in a flash.

Accompanying him were over a dozen shadow clones, which from a bird’s-eye view in the high sky looked like a massive spiderweb slowly closing in on Obito’s position.

...

In the forest behind the Hokage Rock, Obito stepped out of the vortex and onto a treetop. He gazed toward the Hokage Rock, a red glow flashing in his Sharingan.

“Orochimaru is truly excessively powerful. It seems the rumors of him severely injuring the Fourth Raikage with taijutsu are not false.”

After a moment of contemplation, Obito decisively abandoned any thoughts of retaliating against Orochimaru personally.

To battle a strong opponent head-on without cause was both thankless and potentially disastrous—failure would expose his own secrets.

If Kamui were guarded against, its effectiveness would be greatly diminished.

But to give up entirely was impossible; he had to teach Orochimaru a lesson.

A cold smile curled on Obito’s lips. “I don’t even need to make a move. Just find a way to leak his Konoha laboratory’s location, and he’ll be forced to scramble.”

“Is that so?”

A light laugh accompanied a sudden rush of wind. Obito’s expression shifted as his body instantly became intangible, evading the sneak attack.

“Heh heh... If the old men find out the lab’s location, it will indeed be troublesome.”

Orochimaru glanced at the blood on his fingertip and smiled.

“Don’t force me into a fight to the death. Today, I just want to teach you a lesson.”

Obito’s face darkened as three blood streaks appeared across his chest.

Though far from serious, they sounded an alarm in his mind.

With Orochimaru’s speed, injuring him was possible, but how did he find his location so quickly?

Obito suddenly recalled that Orochimaru had also appeared suddenly on the Hokage Rock, seemingly very certain of his position.

He guessed Orochimaru possessed a large-range detection ability similar to the Byakugan. This time, Obito didn’t even utter a harsh word. He vanished into a vortex and reappeared a kilometer away in an instant.

However, just as he returned to the real world and was about to mark his coordinates anew, a ghostly figure darted between the treetops and pounced, as before.

Obito stood firm, neither dodging nor evading, allowing Orochimaru to pass through his chest. In a deep voice, he asked,

“Is this your shadow clone?”

Orochimaru smiled but did not respond. He was not fond of explaining his abilities to enemies.

Instead, he tested the waters, his voice laced with amusement, intending to pressure his opponent.

“Putting aside the space-time ninjutsu for now, how long can you maintain this intangible state?”

The Lamp Spirit guessed it was less than five minutes, but the exact duration would need to be tested firsthand.