The beast moved.
Too fast.
The world blurred—
—and then hands seized her collar and yanked her back so hard the air tore from her lungs.
A hiss brushed her ear.
"Tsk... how careless."
She slammed into a hard chest, breath choking in her throat, as a massive pale serpent burst from the sand in front of them. Its body coiled, scales shrieking as acid splashed across it instead of Hana's face.
Orochimaru.
His arms were iron around her for a single second—then he shoved her behind him without ceremony.
"Stay down," he said calmly, as if the arena wasn't collapsing around them. "And listen carefully."
Hana's heart was hammering so violently she could barely hear him.
Something was pressed into her palm.
A seal tag.
Her breath hitched when she recognized the ink—her work. The restriction formula she had lost in the fight.
"In the right moment," Orochimaru continued, eyes never leaving the monster ahead, "and not a moment sooner, you apply it ."
"If you hesitate, you die. If you rush, you die."
A thin smile curved his lips. "Choose well, Hana Uzumaki."
Another roar shook the ground. Sand erupted as the beast tore free of what remained of its restraints, acid dripping from malformed limbs, eyes burning through the mist.
Hana's hands were shaking.
"I—" Her voice cracked. "Sensei, I—"
Orochimaru straightened.
"That panic," he said softly, almost fondly, "is why you will survive. Now crawl. Hide. Watch."
Before she could answer, he was gone.
The serpent beneath him surged forward, its colossal body smashing through the fog as Orochimaru rose atop its head like a specter. Five figures emerged from the mist ahead—Kirigakure jōnin, their chakra signatures sharp, predatory, confident.
They didn't stay confident for long.
Orochimaru moved.
The serpent struck first, jaws snapping shut around one shinobi mid-hand-sign, crushing him with a sound like breaking stone. Another was impaled by a sudden forest of pale fangs erupting from the ground beneath his feet.
Water jutsu flared—only to be split apart by a blade of wind Orochimaru exhaled casually, slicing its caster cleanly in half.
The remaining two attacked together.
They didn't last three seconds.
Blood steamed on the sand. The mist swallowed the bodies.
Hana watched from where she'd dragged herself behind a shattered pillar, her back pressed to stone, fingers clenched around the seal so tightly it cut into her skin.
The arena was a battlefield now.
Suna shinobi clashing with Kiri infiltrators. Summons rampaging unchecked. Rasa fighting somewhere beyond the fog. Screams, roars, chakra flares—too many to count.
And at the center of it all—
The beast turned again.
Its gaze locked onto Hana.
YOU ARE READING
The Uzumaki Legacy
Fiksi Penggemar"When the villain and victim are in the same body , a human is created ." Hana Uzumaki is a sensor with power she was never meant to possess-and a past the village never meant her to remember. Trained under Orochimaru and bound by blood to sealing t...
