Oddity by KKephemeral

Chapter 31 - Small Steps

My eyes narrowed as the kunai flew into the air. My muscles tightened in anticipation as I watched it perform an arc and head downwards. I took a deep breath as I watched it near the land.

The kunai thudded into the land.

I shot off like an arrow out of the bow, raising my speed to the max, as I knew well any kind of carelessness would result in an immediate loss against my opponent. I rushed towards him, pausing a moment to kick the kunai on the ground towards him.

Orochimaru parried the kunai I shot at him with ease, but the next moment I had closed in on him with a kunai in each hand. He dodged my swipes and blocked my kicks, before falling back. I closed in again knowing that giving him time to perform a jutsu was a stupid thing to do.

He caught my hand which was leading with a kunai to his eyes. I bent my arm and pushed trying to attack his throat with my elbow. Surprise flicked across his eyes as I saw his neck lean back as if there were no bones.

My surprise lasted for a moment before I brought my other hand to punch his guts. He dodged jerkily, his movements not smooth anymore. I didn't let up the pressure and my legs unleashed a whirlwind of kicks. He dodges most of them with his unusually flexible body, but I did manage to land a few solid blows making him retreat with a substitution that had no seals.

I grimaced and jumped up, only to see him rise from the ground with a sword shooting out of his mouth. The Kusanagi Sword – my mind supplied. I spun in midair releasing a bunch of shurikens which he batted across with his sword.

As I began my descent, my hands flew through seals. Meanwhile, I shot a couple of water bullets making him retreat. The moment I touched the land, four water dragons rose to pounce on him. I didn't stop, knowing full well that it wouldn't be enough to take care of him. As I moved to change my location, hand seals were rapidly formed.

Meanwhile, Orochimaru had summoned the Triple Rashomon gates to deal with my water dragons. When the three gates were taken care of, half of my water dragons' strength was gone. He followed it by Formation of Ten Thousand Snakes.

The snakes rushed to bind the water dragons and pull them down. I completed my hand seals for the Water Dragon Whip technique and unleashed it. Using the whip, I cleared away the snakes, but I had to immediately control them back into a wall-like structure so that I wasn't blown away by the Wall of Wind Orochimaru had created.

I barely managed to steady my footing when I saw Orochimaru rushing towards me with his lower body turned into a snake. I gritted my teeth and once more spat out a water bullet to buy me time. He dodged it effortlessly, but I gave me enough time to block his next attack. As it pushed me back, Orochimaru rushed towards me.

But, the next moment he flipped back narrowly escaping the mud pillars that were rising out of the ground. His eye narrowed taking in the seal I had made in the split second, a small smile formed on his face and he licked his lips. It was way too creepy but I managed to hold in the shudder. I gave him an innocent smile in return.

"Kukukuku, Hato kun your combat seals seem to have improved a lot," Orochimaru said.

"I still couldn't catch you off-guard, Orochimaru san" I said taking in an easy stance.

Something felt wrong. I knew I shouldn't be letting my guard now, but I couldn't help it. My mind rushed through possibilities as I maintained my guard inwardly. I couldn't help but sweat bullets as I saw my body relax more.

'A Genjutsu! But, how? How did he cast a fucking genjutsu? When did he cast it?'

I cursed mentally and disrupted my chakra flow. But I could still feel some more foreign chakra flowing through me.