Standing atop a tree, Uchiha Shinichi stood with hands folded around his chest and snorted, "Yare-yare, Kakuzu, you can't even clean up such a low-level guy?"

At this moment Kakuzu appeared out of the ground as if he wasn't exhausted in the slightest and said with an irritated tone of voice, "You think this guy is that easy to deal with, then why don't you try?" ​​

Biwa Juzo, carrying his loyal Kobikiribocho on his shoulder commented after observing the battlefield, "I would say that not even many Shinobi of Kirigakure would have such high-level mastery of Water Release!"

Listening to Kakuzu and Juzu's words, Sasori said eagerly, "You think? In that case, I will deal with him, I am very interested in him, I want to examine if he a good puppet material!"

While the last person, Orochimaru lazily leaned against a tree, observed Suijin for a while then lost his interest, and his gaze shifted towards Uchiha Shinichi, as he licked his lips in fascination!

Ordinary ninjas, even if they are a bit stronger don't interest Orochimaru anymore, what he cares more about are those precious Mangekyou Sharingan inside Uchiha Shinichi's eye sockets.

'As I thought, it's Orochimaru, Shinichi, Sasori, and finally Biwa Juzo…' – thought Suijin. Aside from Biwa Juzo, Suijin was already aware of Orochimaru, Shinichi, and Sasori because he recognized their Chakra signature.

And Suijin standing in the center being surrounded by five Akatsuki members felt a little helpless.

All of them were looking down on him, which was something he didn't like, so he jumped on a tree and stood at the same height, still being surrounded by the five sides.

Looking at each of them one-by-one, he finally spoke, "I have to say, you have a lot of people in your organization!"

Shinichi said at this time, "It would be best that you don't resist and come with us willingly so as not to die accidentally."

Glaring daggers at him, Suijin cursed Shinichi under his breath, 'This IDIOT!'

Juzo pointed his Kobikiribocho towards Suijin and questioned, "What organization are you in, and who is 'Yama'?"

Suijin pondered a little and said, "You tell me the name of your organization and I will tell you the name of the organization I am in!"

Suijin needs some time to refine some Ryuumyaku chakra, therefore he decided to humor the Gokatsuki.

Otherwise, he is sure that escaping from here is an almost impossible task, that is only unless he chooses to blow his cover…

Hearing Suijin's response, Juzo nodded as he seemed to have the idea of recruiting the other party in the Akatsuki, so he said, "Our organization is called Akatsuki, and our goal is to bring peace to the Shinobi World, for that reason we are collecting individuals with good strength to help us achieve it, I see that your strength is good, join us, we could use someone like you!"

"Akatsuki! That's such a Cliché name don't you think?" – with a pause, Suijin continued, "Ah, but I am not the one to judge, and although I am honored to be invited to join such a high-level organization that seems to hide such monsters from so many villages at once, which makes me wonder the identity of your leader who could rein in you guys? But you'll have to forgive me as I have already sworn my loyalty to the organization I am part of, it's called 'Amatsukami,' and I too think that some of you have good strength and potential, why not join the organization that I am part of?"

"Amatsukami!?" – Sasori muttered while taking out a scroll from his ninja bag, "And you say that Akatsuki is a cliché name!?"

At this time, even Orochimaru was slightly intrigued and paid some attention to Suijin and the clothing that Suijin wore.

It wasn't difficult for him to judge the various seals sewn all around that cloak with the golden thread.

But what surprised him more was the unfazed temperament the other party displayed when put in such a situation, in Orochimaru's eyes, even those powerful ninjas bearing the title of Kage of the five great shinobi villages would sweat heavily and panic when surrounded by the five sides, even Orochimaru dare not say that he would be any different from those Kages.

After all, there are five near Kage tier ninjas that are surrounding Suijin from the five sides, there is no possible escape route, and still, the other party has the gall to be so casual?

This shows that either he is plain stupid, maybe over extremely cunning or that he just has enough confidence to make it out alive!

If it's the first and second possibility then it wouldn't be too troublesome, but Orochimaru is unwilling to believe that it's the third option, because he doesn't believe that anyone other than the God of Shinobi or his rival could have such strength.

And now there is the mention of 'Amatsukami,' it seems there are more of such guys!

His guess is that 'Yama' is also part of the 'Amatsukami.'

If this doesn't make Orochimaru interested then what will?

The term 'Amatsukami' itself implies something!

Therefore, his attention was now focused on Suijin as his tongue hung out.

Suijin observed the five Akatsuki members and their different reactions and finally figured out the countermeasure he is going to use.

As for the reason he didn't panic?

It was simple, the Suijin body is just a Clone body, although of extremely good quality, but still a clone body, so even if the clone is destroyed, it wouldn't have any effect on Suijin himself, in the worst-case scenario he will lose the clone, but that's not something to be very worried about as there is still another Clone body in the secret laboratory.

The only thing that would have been normally troublesome is the cyan gourd carrying the Ryuumyaku, but Suijin was still not much worried as he has already engraved a Summoning Seal on it so that he can summon it anywhere.

And since his life wasn't in any danger, therefore he wanted to see if he could retreat by still managing to keep the Clone body.

Even though he can discard this body if need be, but if it is possible where he doesn't have to discard it, then he would rather not, after all, his soul already has a certain degree of resonance with the clone body after the battle with Kakuzu.

And that resonance between soul and body is the direct sign of soul-body adaptation.

This is why he would try to escape with the clone body if possible.

With that decided, Suijin's eyes fixed on Uchiha Shinichi and he decided to carry out his plan of escape.

If this plan works then the percentage of a successful retreat would increase.

While Suijin was beginning to start his escape plan, Sasori on the opposite tree unrolled the scroll in his hand with the term 'Ice' written on it,

Poof…

And out came a corpse puppet before everyone with a burst of white smoke.

Suijin observed the puppet dressed in the Kirigakure's shinobi vest and forehead protector, implying that the poor ninja belonged to Kirigakure before Sasori laid his hands on the other's body.

Moreover, what surprised Suijin was the cold Chakra that he could sense from the Kiri puppet, and he thought to himself, 'Could it be that the puppet was a user of Ice Release Kekkei Genkai?'

Ice Release has a natural restrain on Water Release, so without delaying anymore, Suijin took a deep breath to initiate his plan, 'Escape from Gokatsuki' and shouted after printing a series of hand signs, "Water Release: Water Colliding Wave!"

Instantly, a large amount of water rose up like a massive tornado forming a giant waterspout, the moment this waterspout reached its extreme point, it burst explosively and the water rushed in all directions like a high wave with Suijin as the center.

In the face of such a huge wave, the five Akatsuki members didn't resist from the front as that would only waste their Chakra but dispersed in different directions.

The moment siege was broken and when no one expected it, Suijin took advantage of the cover provided by the water wave and rushed towards Orochimaru.

Tiger – Rat – Horse – Snake – Dragon – Hand Clap – "Water Release: Water Severing Wave!"

The Chakra kneaded in his stomach was released as a high-pressure water jet from Suijin's mouth, which slashed towards Orochimaru cutting everything in its path.

Orochimaru squinted slightly and avoided the Water Severing Wave by twisting his head strangely, and while still in the air, he stretched out his right hand towards Suijin. At the moment the Snake Hand was close to the other party, he used Several Shadow Snake Hand to fire poisonous snakes towards him with the added Lightning Chakra that further increased the final speed by several folds!

Suijin has long expected this attack and dodged them one after another with short body flickers, and used a Rising Water Slash to cut off the Lightning Shadow Snake Hand.

The lightning imbued snakes were cut off and squirted hot blood that soon evaporated.

With that out of the way, Suijin stepped over the Water wave and leaped towards Orochimaru as he spoke, "Rule - 1 of a battle, Take out the weakest guy first!"

"Weakest!?"

"The weakest?"

"THE weakest?"

"The WEAKEST?"

"THE WEAKEST!?"

Orochimaru smiled lightly as the sound of 'The Weakest' was again and again heard throughout the battlefield and in his mind like an echo!

Anyone familiar with Orochimaru's character can realize that although there is a slight smile on his face, those golden and vicious snake pupils were clearly reflecting the murderous intent in his heart, and since Suijin was familiar with Orochimaru, he knew that the first step of his plan was a success!

The other four saw that Orochimaru and Suijin have started a fight, so Sasori didn't rush to use the Ice Puppet, but stood aside and watched the show.

Kakuzu, Juzo, and Shinichi also listened to Suijin mocking Orochimaru but didn't rush to intervene and watched the two of them fight each other.

After having a short bout with Orochimaru, Suijin suddenly turned around and ran in Uchiha Shinichi's direction.

Orochimaru naturally wouldn't let him go so easily and followed after him.

Shinichi saw that Suijin was running in his direction and his smirk widened as he said, "Hey, are you trying to run away? Hahaha… if that's what you are trying to do, then coming towards me was the wrong decision you made!"

Orochimaru who was chasing Suijin noticed that Shinichi's entire attention was focused on Suijin coming towards him, and seeing that Orochimaru suddenly had an extremely crazy idea…

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Read up to Chapter - 344 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: p-atreon.com/Milta_translations