The Zero Tails Jinchuriki #31

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Land of Fire

–Kenta Senju–

Despite the absurdity of the situation, he recovered swiftly and kicked the tree on which he was standing, rocketing straight towards the monster, who was more akin to a human-sized spider. His eyes narrowed as he saw the spider jump away at the last moment, using its webs, with surprising speed.

That was not enough as he jumped once more and kicked the armour on its back, cracking it on impact as the spider flew further into the forest around them. He squinted as he spotted the razor thin lines of web that the spider used to redirect the momentum from that kick, to enter the denser part of the forest.

He breathed out, his hand shooting out to catch another Fire Nature laced arrow, which exploded on impact, the explosion fizzling out against his chakra cloak, but this just meant that he had not hit the spider hard enough, yet. 

Jirobo was likely gone by now, having been rescued by the spider in front of him but if he could capture this one at least, it would be well worth it. With that thought in his mind, he jumped into the forest, his senses homing in on the rapidly stabilising emotions of the spider, who was still peppering him with arrows laced with increasingly deadlier chakra but thanks to his cloak, he was fine. 

It made a commendable effort to use everything they had at their disposal to try and stop him but mere Elite Jounins, souped up as they were, would not be able to defeat him. Within minutes, he was onto the spider, his fist hitting the chitin-like exoskeleton the spider had around its body, cracking it further as the spider was sent flying to the ground.

He still noted the small webs that the spider used to minimise the impact, which meant he was still not hitting hard enough. 

That exoskeleton was really something, wasn’t it?

By now, Jirobo must either be taken away or awake to fight once more, with that Kinjutsu of theirs. He could feel it in the spider’s movements, they were getting desperate and yet, that desperation did not translate into the emotions of their mind. They were calm and focused, not flustered at all.

He landed another hit, the spider angling its body with webs to make sure the impact hit their armoured exoskeleton, reducing the impact on their body. Though, even then, the armour was broken, shattered in some places as the spider was, once more, blasted into the ground. Only this time, it visibly struggled to get back up, the Kinjutsu it was relying on for enhanced durability seemingly on the verge of its limits.

That thing was a game-changer, and if it fell into the wrong hands, it would spell doom for any invading army, if it could be used by everyone. The Eight Gates was another Kinjutsu that came to mind and he hoped that his one had the same high requirements as the Gates because otherwise they represented a threat far beyond anything he had thought of previously.

He landed lightly on the ground, kunai twirling in his hands as his fingers blurred, sending two that pinned two of their hands to the ground, drawing nothing but a pained grunt. He repeated the procedure until all eight of their hands were pinned to the ground, dark blood pooling underneath their body.

They were not in good shape right now, objectively speaking, and yet, why? Why was there no trace of that panic they were feeling earlier?

He could tell that—

His neck snapped to the side as a chakra signature entered the range of his emotion sensing, so full of negative emotion. He had never sensed a chakra so strong having so much rage, malevolence and glee wrapped up in a single person before. 

“Orochimaru,” he whispered, getting ready to fight a Sannin, and if his previous experience with Tsunade was any indication, it meant that he was in for a fight of his lifetime.

The spider seemed to sense that as well, as the Kinjutsu, indicated by the black and red markings on their body, seemed to fizzle out, chuckling as the sound of meat and bones being torn and broken apart filled the clearing, “You should have escaped when you had the chance.”

He narrowed his eyes at the now only six armed shinobi, who did not look anything like a spider, though their entire body seemed drained. He nodded at the confirmation that this technique had such deliberating side effects.

Soon enough, Orochimaru was in the clearing with him, having waltzed into it, on foot, without any care in the world, as if he had already won the fight. That seemed to stir the Zero Tails chakra within him, the urge to fight and defeat Orochimaru growing stronger the longer he looked at the smug, serpentine face. 

It was his first time coming face to face with Orochimaru after he had defected from the village, and judging by his face, it would seem that the Sannin had done something to his body.

Orochimaru took one look at the defeated spider on the ground before walking towards him, totally disregarding the spider, “Kukuku, how interesting.”

He stood in his place, calm as Orochimaru’s eyes roved over his current cloaked form, as if trying to dissect it piece by piece. It was quite…unnerving.

“You defeated both Kidomaru and Jirobo, at their best. How could I possibly not know of you? Another one of Sensei’s secrets, hmm?” Ah, so the spider was called Kidomaru. Not relevant right now but something to put into the files. Probably another bounty would be put for Orochimaru’s associates, on top of the already substantial bounty placed on Orochimaru’s head, not that anyone had been successful in that endeavour.

He remained silent, silently analysing his options. Despite looking calm, Orochimaru’s stance left no holes for him to exploit. From a Taijutsu standpoint, he knew he would not be able to overpower Orochimaru, neither in technique nor in experience.

His best bets were his chakra cloak, the corrosive chakra he could use to infect other people, for lack of a better word, and his ability to siphon off negative emotions from someone, giving him a split second opportunity as his opponent was distracted.

“Ah, a silent one. You don’t seem to be one of Danzo’s. For one, I would have known about you, and that cloak…” Orochimaru trailed off, looking at the skin tight layer of brown chakra all around him.

The greed and hunger in Orochimaru's voice was undeniable, “You are not a Jinchuriki that I know of and I know every one of them. Yet, you have that dense chakra cloak. Fascinating.” It was quite disturbing to see Orochimaru’s tongue flick out. It should not be as long as it was.

“Not much for talking, are you?” Orochimaru said and the next moment, he had to lean back as the Sannin had surged forward, a kunai thrust straight into his torso. Apparently, Orochimaru was content with having his corpse for experimentation.

Mid way, he punched Orochimaru’s face with all his might, creating a shockwave as Orochimaru’s face snapped up, even as he jumped back to gain some distance. A kunai grazed his chakra cloak, the wind chakra in the kunai much stronger than the one Kidomaru used, actually capable of slicing through this bare minimum chakra cloak.

He rushed back towards Orochimaru, seeing that he had already recovered, and was in the process of making hand seals. Knowing the exceptional prowess of Orochimaru’s Ninjutsu, he let the Zero Tails chakra ablaze, creating a large cloak around his body, drawing yet another wide-eyed look from Orochimaru.

Unfortunately, that surprise did not translate into even a momentary lapse in his hand seals as a large Wind Bullet was sent right in his face. It was very telegraphed, something that confused him as he jumped out of the way as Orochimaru came after him as well.

Taijutsu. Ninjutsu.

Both of them clashed dozens of times, finally separating as Orochimaru jumped back, stopping right in front of Kidomaru, the various little cuts and burns on his body because of his corrosive chakra sizzling as Orochimaru’s body healed itself.

His eyebrows rose as he spoke to Orochimaru for the first time, “You have modified your own body?”

Orochimaru’s smile widened, “Ah! So he speaks! And yes! Isn’t it fascinating? While you need pesky medics to heal, I can heal all on my own, mid combat.” With those last words, Orochimaru rushed forward as well.

So did he, having reasonable confidence about the fight now that he had a sense of what Orochimaru could do. Orochimaru was stronger than him in almost every quantifiable way, and pretty much the only thing he could do to defeat Orochimaru was use the innate abilities of the Zero Tails, an entity that was pretty much unknown to everyone.

The element of surprise, that would be Orochimaru’s undoing.

He just had to find the perfect opportunity, something that was harder to do since Orochimaru had decades of active war experience, something that he sorely lacked here.