Orochimaru knew of Ebizo mostly because of Danzō Shimura.
As two people who centered their work on village intelligence, they naturally had crossed paths.
According to Danzō, this was a man not weaker than himself.
"Orochimaru-kun, could I ask you to turn back?"
Ebizo wore loose-fitting clothes, his head wrapped in bandages, hands tucked into his wide sleeves.
Orochimaru didn't answer immediately. He scanned the number of opponents. There were only a dozen or so visible, but he didn't know how many were hidden in the forest.
On his side, there were several hundred people.
Although they had the advantage in numbers, the opponents who could come here must be elites.
However, they also had the advantage in the number of elites.
But if the opponent targeted the weaker ninjas, their numbers would be reduced by at least thirty percent.
This would likely have a significant impact on the war in the Land of Rain.
However.
"What if I insist on passing?"
Orochimaru took out a shuriken, ready to attack at any time.
"Then I can only let you leave with a portion of your people."
Ebizo stretched out his hands and took out two scrolls. As the scrolls opened...
Smoke puffed out.
Ten black puppets appeared around Ebizo.
Black Pine Ten Puppets (Kuromatsu Jūninshū).
An imitation of the puppet master ancestor Monzaemon's work.
The opponent's intention was already obvious. They wanted to weaken Konoha's investment of effective strength in the Land of Rain.
Konoha was currently retreating in defeat there.
Then there was no need for more words.
Orochimaru threw the shuriken immediately.
His hands formed seals.
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique."
A dense rain of shuriken rushed towards the Sand ninjas, blotting out the sky.
Many Sand ninjas took out puppets to block, while more relied on trees and ninjutsu to block the overwhelming shuriken.
Followed by a roar from among the Konoha ninjas.
"Kill!"
The battle started instantly.
Ebizo didn't engage in the slaughter with everyone immediately. The eyeballs in his sunken sockets looked towards the ground.
Orochimaru drilled out of the ground, opening his mouth to spit out the Kusanagi Sword.
A bull-headed puppet quickly blocked Ebizo, crossing its arms to deflect the sword's trajectory.
Orochimaru's head bent slightly, and his hand reached out.
"Hidden Shadow Many Snakes Hands!"
His hand turned into countless snake shadows, bypassing the bull-headed puppet and rushing towards Ebizo.
Ebizo quickly leaped to another tree, distancing himself from Orochimaru and dodging the Hidden Shadow Snake Hands attack.
Using chakra threads dexterously with both hands, the ten puppets began to attack like a violent storm.
Orochimaru moved like a spirit snake, flexibly avoiding the puppets' attacks, turning into a snake shadow, shuttling between the puppets.
Whenever Orochimaru got close, Ebizo would quickly pull away.
As time passed.
Soon, Ebizo realized something was wrong.
He quickly looked at the battlefield. A green figure was beating the Sand ninjas into retreat.
Powerful taijutsu. Puppets fell apart upon contact.
Other ninjas were kicked away before they could even release ninjutsu when facing this person.
At the same time, there was another Orochimaru there, attacking the Sand ninjas.
"Clone?"
He quickly turned his head to look at the Orochimaru in front of him.
"Take a guess."
Orochimaru had a mysterious smile on his face. He tried to get close to Ebizo again, but was distanced once more.
Countless shuriken from a puppet quickly pierced Orochimaru's body, revealing snake shadows inside his clothes.
However, this confirmed to Ebizo that the Orochimaru in front of him wasn't a clone.
But he looked into the distance where Orochimaru had already used the Summoning Technique to summon a giant purple snake (Manda), wreaking havoc among the Sand ninjas.
That one was also a real body!
For a moment, he couldn't distinguish which one was the main body.
Seeing things going south, a puppet body suddenly emitted a violent sound.
"Genjutsu: Mirage Phantom Sound!"
Instantly, all Konoha ninjas fell into the genjutsu, attacking trees as enemies. Only a few elites remained clear-headed.
Orochimaru and Might Duy were included among the clear-headed.
The other Sand ninjas quickly retreated deep into the jungle, disappearing into the forest extremely fast.
Might Duy didn't have the idea of exterminating them all. The other ninjas already knew who the key was.
Instantly, he and Orochimaru surrounded Ebizo in a circular formation.
The other Orochimaru and Manda also turned into smoke and disappeared simultaneously.
This let Ebizo know that the Orochimaru in front of him was the main body.
"A new clone technique."
Ebizo's face became grave. It could actually display the full strength of the main body.
This kind of clone was too tricky.
"Now it's just you left."
Orochimaru looked at Ebizo with a smile, having no intention of explaining.
He just sighed in his heart that the ninjutsu Uchiha Jin gave him was really useful.
Immortal Seal Method (Bùsǐ Yìnfǎ).
Converting chakra into Yin and Yang attributes, circulating back and forth in the manner of establishing and releasing seal formulas, it could absorb the chakra dissipated by the opponent's ninjutsu.
If used by a clone, it could maintain sufficient chakra based on the frequency of the enemy's ninjutsu.
If used by the main body, it could even achieve the effect of never running out of chakra. As the number of enemies increased, this effect would also become stronger.
It could be said to be an extremely strong group battle ninjutsu.
At the same time, it had more than just this one effect. It also had two other effects: sensing enemies and confusing enemies with genjutsu.
One ninjutsu, three abilities.
It was something Orochimaru would never have thought of.
He really wanted to pry open Jin-kun's head and see what was inside.
In front of him, Ebizo sighed and took a deep look at Orochimaru.
Seeing that the number of ninjas behind him hadn't decreased much.
The mission had failed.
He didn't expect Orochimaru to have this kind of clone technique.
Even more unexpected...
He looked at the bearded man in the green jumpsuit.
This man was also extremely tricky.
It wasn't a fruitless trip. At least he obtained two pieces of crucial intelligence.
Only then did he say slowly to Orochimaru.
"We will meet again."
Poof.
White smoke puffed out, and Ebizo had disappeared.
"Lord Orochimaru."
The others were waiting for Orochimaru's orders.
How to act now? Those Sand ninjas hadn't run far yet.
"Go to the Rain battlefield first."
Orochimaru's face darkened slightly.
The Rain battlefield was currently focusing on defense, mainly gathering information on the movements of ninjas from other villages.
Although many ninjas were exposed, they were eliminated by Konoha's Root.
The surroundings there were mainly guarded by Root ninjas. It was impossible for these elite ninjas to slip through.
The only place he didn't have precise intelligence on was the Land of Rivers where Sakumo Hatake was, and the battlefield Jiraiya was guarding.
These people probably came from the Land of Rivers.
He was now a bit worried about what had happened there.
Although Sakumo Hatake was strong.
Orochimaru didn't think he was a very good commander.
The defense line definitely hadn't collapsed, otherwise he would have known the news long ago.
But something that affected the war situation must have happened.