Naruto, Sarada, Hinata and Yakumo were staring down Orochimaru; Orochimaru for his part was feeling a little off put by the 4 genin. Orochimaru was confident in his skills, he was a sanin for a reason; however these 4 knew things about him only a select few people ever had the privilege of knowing, he knew better than to underestimate someone so he stayed on his toes.
Sarada decided to kick off the battle by launching a fireball at Orochimaru; Orochimaru dodged the attack only to be charged by Naruto. Naruto creating 4 clones rushed Orochimaru from all sides; Orochimaru blocked and countered all punches and kicks from Naruto and his clones, he then produced a kunai and stabbed Naruto. Naruto however smiled and Orochimaru sensing something wrong threw Naruto who exploded damaging a nearby tree.
"Damn" Naruto said coming out of the ground a few feet away "I thought I for sure had you with that exploding clone; oh well I guess I'll have to try again" Naruto said.
'A genjutsu and an exploding clone' Orochimaru thought 'Kabuto's reports told me he was at the below average genin; how can someone progress so much in just 6 months.' Orochimaru was brought out of his thoughts when he dodged a strike from Hinata; Hinata began using her own variation of the gentle fist trying to strike Orochimaru. Orochimaru dodged another strike from Hinata as her open palm attack hit a tree; the tree then began to crack and fragment as the pulse of chakra that was exerted from Hinata all but destroyed the tree.
'That was not a normal gentle fist strike' Orochimaru thought 'if I got hit by that strike it could've damaged me very badly; that type of strength I have only seen in Tsunade. Could this Hyuga brat have been taught by Tsunade?' Orochimaru then brought out his Kusanagi blade and charged Hinata; he ppinted the sword forward and stabbed Hinata through the chest making the young Hyuga girl cough up blood.
Orochimaru smiled as he saw the horror on the girls face; but his smile soon vanished as the Hyuga girl turned to blood and spilled onto the ground. The world then began to shift around and he was soon in a dimension of mirrors "welcome to my world lord Orochimaru" the disembodied voice of Yakumo said coming from everywhere and nowhere. "I do hope you enjoy your stay" she said; Orochimaru's feet began to sink into the ground as blades of grass began to pierce his flesh.
'What is this, what is this' Orochimaru thought as he fought through the pain he was in 'genjutsu' Orochimaru realized 'kai' Orochimaru thought and expelled a large wave of chakra destroying the genjutsu placed on him. He was then faced with Sarada who was a mere few feet away with a Chidori in her hand aimed right at the snake substituted himself at the last minute with a log; Sarada punched through the log burning a hole through it blackening the wood.
"I'm sorry Sarada" Yakumo said appearing out of thin air "I couldn't hold him that long in my genjutsu" she said a little disappointed. Sarada put her hand on her shoulder and smiled.
"It's ok remember this is just practice so just try better next time ok" Sarada said cheering the Yakumo up.
"Practice" Orochimaru yelled "you are fighting me a sanin, a S-class criminal as practice! Are you insane" he shouted to which Naruto, Sarada, Hinata and Yakumo looked at him completely calm and collected.
"Well yeah why else do you think we decided to fight you" Naruto said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"We need to test our skills against someone of a higher caliber" Sarada said cleaning her classes with a soft cloth "I mean how else are we going to kill Pein, Konan, Kakuzu, Hidan and 'Madara'" she said making Orochimaru freeze. "I mean from what we know you were the weakest among the Akatsuki except for that Zetsu guy; so if we can fight you on pretty even terms then we should have a good frame of reference on the others" Sarada said while putting her glasses back on.
