Reaching Immortality (book two)

Chapter 22. 'Invasion fails 101'

I was good at being patient.

I was not good with being patient in awkward situations.

Naruto won his battle by setting up seal traps with hundreds of clones and making it impossible for Nigel to avoid them even though he could see them. This was after he'd basically managed to exhaust Nigels reserves by getting him to use his kaiten over and over again.

That Nara boys fight was where things started to get awkward. I could sense my hiraishin seals all over the stadium, moving and getting into prearranged spots.

The enemy nin had been slowly gathering for days into the village and hiding away, and I'd killed off a couple dozen already during my off times and fed them to my snakes for a snack.

There were about three hundred now, and although they were severely outnumbered, I could still feel more shinobi gathering outside the east gates waiting for the signal to invade.

They wouldn't be able to get in with all the seals I'd placed but I was still tempted to go over there and let Manda have a feast.

The awkward thing about it, was the moment any one of those nin spotted me. Their reactions were textbook copies of the next one.

They'd be shocked, look to me and send a subtle hand sign about plan changes, and go back to pretending to be civilians or whatever it was they were disguised as.

I just shook my head at each one and shrunk into myself a little more each time. I was kinda starting to feel bad that I was planning to kill them all.

Should I just fight to capture instead?

But I promised Manda more sacrifices..

I was in a bit of a dilemma.

The fight ended hours later, and my nerves were a little frayed and my counterpart was still staring at me from across the stadium. Didn't he have something better to do? Like mock Sarutobi while pretending to be Rasa? Or.. actually he might just be really confused at my presence.

I have to say it truly is odd to feel an alternate version of myself within my chakra range. I could tell he was me, and yet I could feel the minor differences in our chakra. It was similar to how I imagine a paradox in time would feel, but the differences happened to be just enough for the both of us to stay separate.

"Orochimaru-sama, are you here to stop yourself?" Kabuto whispered hesitantly. I looked at him as the fight between Sasuke and Gaara began, and wondered if I could get him to assist me. This kid was kinda sweet, in an evil minion kinda way.

I should probably not kill him. My counterpart did seem to be quite fond of him too if the memories were anything to go by. I also still needed him to knock out the civilians, since I didn't want any of them running around and panicking while I'm going on my killing spree. That would ruin all my work into getting them to trust me.

"Mm..I suppose," I murmured distractedly. I could worry about being in the vicinity of my counterpart later, for now I still had another dilemma to solve.

Should I feed Manda and make him happy? Or should I tell my summons I couldn't get him his sacrifices and bear the consequences?

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Genma Shiranui was a Tokubetsu jonin in charge of proctoring the chunin exams tournament.

His skills included shooting senbon from his mouth at high speeds, mastering the few ninjitsu he knew, and being a part of a group of three shinobi that knew a half baked version of the hiraishin. He supposed he was also decent under pressure and could plan a few steps ahead in a fight.