Kakashi asked, "Lord Hokage, what has happened, and why are ANBU forces being prepped like they are going for a war?"
Hiruzen, with a very serious expression, said, "Orochimaru has betrayed the village. I am planning to arrest him. I am going to need all the forces I can get if I want to corner him."
Kakshi was shocked to hear that.
Hiruzen told him, "There have been many cases of disappearing civilians. Kids, women, and even a few Genin Ninjas have disappeared without a trace. All of them have been last seen around Orochimaru. When I came to know about this, I planted someone to spy on him. This led to the discovery that he has been conducting illegal and inhumane experiments on humans by capturing them.
Hiruzen remembered when Ryu told him that Orochimaru had been working with Danzo behind the scenes.
Hiruzen thought, "So the fruit of those illegal experiments was shared and tasted by Danzo as well. But the spy didn't say anything about Danzo. True to his reputation, he has kept himself hidden pretty well. I doubt that the raid I have planned will find any evidence that suggests that Root has been involved. Danzo is too thorough."
"Orochimaru, how far will you go in search of immortality?" he thought, closing his eyes.
"Betrayal of Sannin is a huge loss for the village," Kakashi said.
Hiruzen opened his eyes and said while looking at Kakashi, "You also get your team ready and report to your commander. The raid will happen in an hour."
----
Later that day.
---
"Chidori!" Kakashi shouted as he ran towards Orochimaru. He knew he could not hope to hurt him with his current skills, but he could buy time for Hiruzen or other ANBU teams to arrive.
The chidori did nothing as Orochimaru dodged very swiftly and took a kunai and slashed it on his face. It did not hurt Kakashi, but his mask broke in two. Even with his Sharingan, he could not match the decades of experience Orochimaru had in hand-to-hand.
"I am going to die if backup doesn't arrive soon." Kakashi thought.
Kakashi realising that he is no match against the sannin. He then remembered a new defensive seal he had been gifted. He pulled a scroll and performed a single-hand hand seal with a scroll in his other hand. He then took a kunai and launched himself at Orochimaru.
Orochimaru then launched multiple snakes using Shadow Snake Jutsu.
He wasn't interested in him as he wanted an original bloodline holder for his experiments, but he also did not want to get noticed and hunted by the great clans. That's why he only captured the civilians for now, but now that the situation has presented itself, he wants to take his sharingan. Kakashi was the best source of obtaining a sharingan without an army of angry and prideful Uchiha on his back.
When the snakes are about to reach and bite chunks of Kakashi, to everyone's surprise, multiple hexagonal shields block all the shadow snakes in their tracks.
Orochimaru was stunned for a second. He has never seen such a barrier. The news had not reached him yet as he was busy with his experiments. As a grandmaster himself, he wanted to know more about this barrier.
"What is this barrier? I haven't seen this one before."
Kakashi didn't respond and executed his next move and charged at Orochimaru again.
Orochimaru spit multiple shuriken through his mouth, but all were blocked by the [ReflexGuard: Advanced Barrier]. Orochimaru again conjured his shadow snakes through his sleeves, but again they were also blocked by the shields. Kakashi threw a kunai from the gaps of the barriers.
Orochimaru dodged and thought, "This barrier seal is getting annoying."
Kakashi again went for close combat, and this time the shields kept appearing, suddenly blocking hits close to him and shifting to block others. The feedback to the seal through his sharingan was much superior to the normal eye, thus the efficiency of the seal was also increased.
Kakshi thought, "This seal is amazing. But the time limit for the seal is reaching. I need to at least injure him to some extent before the limit is reached."
But who was Orochimaru? A freaking Sannin. He did not make it easy for him to even slightly injure him. But then suddenly a kunai slashed his hand, and blood splattered everywhere.
Kakashi wasn't very happy with his small victory in injuring him. He knew it was all luck and not his ability that injured him. His new seal was also to thank.
Orochimaru looked surprised for a second but then smiled as the hole in his hand started emitting a bit of steam.
Kakashi looked at the bloody kunai in his hand and quickly guessed, "Poison." He quickly threw kunai.
Orochimaru said, "Too late. My blood poison jutsu takes only a second."
Just then, Kakashi felt the effects of the poison and was paralysed. Orochimaru smiled as he walked towards the paralysed Kakashi as he said, "Don't worry, Kakashi Hatake. its not enough to kill anyone. yet. but sure can paralyse anyone for a minute."
A snake appeared from his sleeve and slithered towards Kakashi slowly. It wrapped around the Kakashi and came face to face. It opened its mouth wide, about to bite his face off, but then slowly it closed its mouth as it reached for his back behind his back. It grabbed a scroll and went back to Orochimaru.
"You are lucky that I am more interested in this scroll at the moment." Orochimaru said.
Kakashi then twitched his hand and realised that he could move now. He suddenly jumped back.
Orochimaru ignored him and opened the scroll to take a peek.
When he opened the scroll, he was surprised, just like Dan, Hiruzen, and even Danzo had been by the complexity of the seal. And the version Ryu gave Kakashi was even more complex than what others have seen.
Orochimaru thought, "What the hell! How is this seal even working? Did he switch the scroll? No, its the only scroll he had in his bag."
He knew time was of the essence, so he closed the scroll, and his snake opened his mouth to lunge at Kakashi. But Orochimaru noticed a tag inside his mouth and tried to jump back, but the tag exploded, freeing and throwing Kakashi back a few feet away.
Kakashi tried to look around, but Orochimaru was gone. He thought, "He must have escaped. He was on the clock."
Kakashi fell on his knee and took deep breaths. The poison was not life-threatening but was taking a toll on him. In a minute, Hiruzen arrived with two ANBU and appeared near Kakashi.
Hiruzen saw the condition Kakashi was in and the bloody kunai on the ground and had guessed what had transpired earlier.
He asked, "Are you ok?"
Kakashi replied, "I am fine. He said it was not life-threatening. But to be sure, I will get it looked at."
Hiruzen looked at the two ANBU and said, "Issue a bounty on his head for 150 thousand Ryo and 30,000 for info on his whereabouts. Inform other elders, all councilmen, and the Uchiha Police Force as well."
The ANBU nodded and flickered away.
Kakashi then spoke, "He also took something from him."
Hiruzen was taken aback for a second and looked at Kakashi to confirm his Sharingan is safe, then relaxed when he noticed it was indeed safe.
"What did he take?" asked Hiruzen.
Kakashi spoke, "He took the new barrier seal Mr. Hamura had crafted. I was given one as a gift. That seal saved my life. Orochimaru had a chance to take my eye, but he chose the barrier instead after seeing it in action. If the time duration of the barrier had not ended and I had not been poisoned, I could have held him till you arrived."
Kakahsi then explained how he engaged in close combat with that barrier active.
Hiruzen thought, "I wasn't wrong in placing that buy order. If it can power Kakashi to the extent of holding a Sannin back for a minute, that just speaks to how good this barrier seal is. I didn't imagine it could be used offensively in this way in hand-to-hand combat. Too bad now Orochimaru has a hold on that barrier seal. I may have to apologise to Dan for that. It's not Kakashi's mistake but mine."
After a pause, he thought, "Everything is my mistake. I had a chance, but I hesitated."
Hiruzen said, "Get yourself checked for the poison and report back to me. As per the law, we have to report the stolen fuinjutsu by any enemy to the fuinjutsu council. Don't worry; I will take the blame and mention I gave you the seal for testing; that way, Hamura will not be involved in this. Before that, I may have to tell Dan that his work has fallen into the hands of the enemy. It would be better if he learnt it directly from me rather than from outside."
"You can leave now. I will meet Dan myself after I am done meeting with other elders and discuss my action plans for Orochimaru with them."
##PoWeR StOnEs##
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