Someone like Orochimaru who doesn't even care about the position of the Hokage naturally doesn't give a damn about the Akatsuki, his entire purpose of joining the organization was to gather more knowledge from the group and his interest in the Rinnegan eyes of Pain.

However, the cruel reality soon made him understand that with his current strength, he wouldn't be able to seize the Rinnegan from Pain, which is known as the eyes of the Sage of Six Path. ​​

With that realization, all he could is to look at the next best Dojutsu which just happens to be the Sharingan, at least in his knowledge.

When he heard of the news that Shinichi of the Uchiha Clan awakened the legendary Mangekyou Sharingan, he was really ecstatic and felt that the Mangekyou Sharingan was already in his pockets.

But during his follow up investigation, he soon found out that Uchiha Shinichi with just the powers of his Mangekyou Sharingan stirred up Konoha upside down, this does have a lot to do with the lack of strong combat power in Konoha, but the main reason was because of the unusually powerful abilities he awakened with the Mangekyou Sharingan.

The basic information that it is very difficult to kill Shinichi was obviously passed to him, and this made Orochimaru more eager to obtain those eyes, but at the same time, it also made him understand that obtaining Uchiha Shinichi's Mangekyou Sharingan wouldn't be so easy!

Due to this, Orochimaru has been waiting for a perfect opportunity to make the shot and take away both the eyes in one fell swoop, but it's a pity that the Akatsuki members operate in a two-man team, and unfortunately, Uchiha Shinichi is not his partner, therefore, Orochimaru could only covet those eyes from a distance while waiting for the opportunity to come.

And now that such a golden opportunity has appeared before Orochimaru, how could he not take the chance?

Suijin didn't turn his head to observe Orochimaru, he didn't need to turn his head to know how restless and eager Orochimaru's heart would be at this moment to take Shinichi eyes, after all, no one knows Orochimaru better than him, Orochimaru's desire to Obtain the Mangekyou Sharingan is much deeper than one might imagine.

And this greed of Orochimaru is the most important key to Suijin's escape plan.

He knows that if presented with the opportunity, Orochimaru wouldn't hesitate to attack Shinichi, and the moment he does so, the current five members that are present here will fall into a chaotic state which will give Suijin the best chance to make an escape out of this predicament.

Looking at Uchiha Shinichi who was very eager and planning an attack to attack him, Suijin cursed under his breath, 'Idiot, don't be so eager to kill me that you really end up having your eyes gouged out by Orochimaru!'

Not even a second later, Suijin and Orochimaru quickly approached Uchiha Shinichi.

Just before he was a few meters away, Suijin quickly used hand seal and spoke,

"Water Clone Technique!"

Instantly, Suijin used the Water Clone technique to create a water clone and changed the course, one body went to the left side and the other went to the right side separately.

"What!?" – Shinichi frowned slightly, and even with his Mangekyou Sharingan, he couldn't exactly distinguish between the real Suijin and the Water Clone.

Similar was the case with Juzo, Kakuzu, and Sasori, as they too couldn't tell which one was real and which one was the water clone.

While Orochimaru who was running just a few steps behind Suijin didn't respond to the sudden change as his entire attention was focused on Uchiha Shinichi.

At this point, he was less than eight meters away from Uchiha Shinichi, such a short distance is close to nothing for a ninja of his level.

Shinichi also noticed that Orochimaru didn't continue to chase Suijin, who changed his direction of escape but was rushing straight towards him, so he immediately asked, "What do you want to do…?"

But before Shinichi could complete the sentence, Orochimaru jumped straight towards Shinichi like a cannonball and stretched out his right hand to take away the Mangekyou Sharingan off Shinichi's sockets.

In the short span of time from the moment Orochimaru jumped, Shinichi didn't panic as expected by Orochimaru, instead, he printed the hand seals instantly and opened his mouth to fire a large fireball at Orochimaru.

The heat emanating from the fireball evaporated all the nearby water giving a red glow to the forest.

Orochimaru who was very just a step away from the fireball didn't dodge it and dived right into the fireball technique. Even if this body is melted and burned by the high-temperature flame, he didn't care at all. Passing right through the fireball while resisting the burning pain, Orochimaru's right hand reached Shinichi's eye sockets and touched his eyeballs!

"Now your Mangekyou Sharingan is min-… 'Bang'…!" – But before he could celebrate for taking out those eyes… Shinichi's body disappeared by turning into white smoke.

The sudden disappearance of Shinichi left Orochimaru stunned and he muttered in a daze, "A… a s-shadow Clone!?"

How could it be a Shadow Clone? Orochimaru has been paying close attention to Uchiha Shinichi from the moment they arrived here. He can be sure that Shinichi didn't use the Shadow Clone Technique, so the only possibility that remains is that Uchiha Shinichi in front of him was a Shadow Clone from the very beginning!

The first person to react to the sudden change was Shinichi's partner Biwa Juzo, before Orochimaru could come out of his stupor, Juzo had already rushed towards him with the Kubikiribocho, "Orochimaru, how dare you betray the Akatsuki!"

Finally regaining his self, Orochimaru spits out the Kusanagi Blade to meet Juzo's slash with a sly smirk on his lips.

And for some reason, Juzo was increasingly annoyed by that sly smirk…

Kakuzo glanced at Orochimaru and Juzo duking it out, then turned to look at two Suijin escaping in the opposite directions and finally said, "Your matter, solve it yourself, I am going to chase after that guy!"

With that said, Kakuzu along with the four-thread monsters randomly choose one Suijin and chased after him.

On the other hand, Sasori deeply stared at Orochimaru, and without saying much, he manipulated the Ice puppet and chased after the other Suijin.

Since they can't distinguish between the real Suijin and the Water Clone, so Kakuzu and Sasori separated to chase after each of them individually.

Suijin who maned to break out of that siege also noticed everything that happened with his Byakugan and smirked while thinking of what would Orochimaru be thinking at this moment.

He was also happy to see that Shinichi hadn't forgotten the instructions Suijin gave him, and never dropped his guard against the other Akatsuki members, so he was sort of prepared for Orochimaru's sudden attack.

And finally, he was extremely happy that his plan to induce infighting went unexpectedly well. The original 1 vs 5 has now become 1 vs 1.

After turning to look at Sasori who was chasing after him, Suijin started to think of the next step to take, in fact, he is a little sad, if only he had the Tenseigan in this clone body then he would be able to again take away that Ice Release puppet, but alas, luck won't always be by your side.

Shaking his head, Suijin began to analyze the situation while still continuing the 'Naruto Run.'

Currently, he literally didn't have much chakra left as the Natural Energy from Ryuumyaku has started to slowly invade his body the more Ryuuumyaku Chakra he uses, so urging the Ryuumyaku to borrow chakra is not an option. Now it's not that he can't continue to fight Sasori with the amount he has left, but it would still be better not to engage because Kakuzu would soon figure out that he is chasing after the Water Clone. Therefore, escaping is the best course of action.

What's more, Sasori's strength should also be close to the level of Kakuzu, even though he no longer has the Sandaime Kazekage puppet, but Suijin still wouldn't underestimate Sasori. Not to mention, the Ice Release has a natural restraint over Water Release, therefore, escaping would be the most prudent option.

While Suijin turned his head to look back, Sasori spoke in a mocking tone, "You can't escape!"

Suijin ignored Sasori's comment and increased his speed.

At this time, Sasori flicked his fingers following which the Ice Puppet suddenly performed an Ice Release ninjutsu.

Instantly, a smooth and clear ice track appeared on the ground and extended towards Suijin at an extremely fast pace.

Sasori and the ice puppet slid on the Ice track that increased their chasing speed, thus the relative distance between Sasori and Suijin kept decreasing.

Seeing such a method being used, Suijin's eyes widened in surprise, "Ice Release can also be used like this!?"

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Read up to Chapter - 346 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: p-atreon.com/Milta_translations