In his satisfaction, Kimimaro forgot one vital thing. Tayuya was a kunoichi and her specialty was genjutsu and sound manipulation.

While he heard “I give up.”, the audience and the proctor heard, “Fuck you, shithead.”.

Because of that, he relaxed his body, thinking she already surrendered and that was when Tayuya sprang into action, tackling Kimimaro’s body to the ground.

His back impacted the ground as Tayuya straddled his chest and stopped the pointy and sharpened end of her flute an inch from his left eye, prepared to ram it straight through his skull at moment’s notice.

Unfortunately for Kimimaro, his eyes were one of the very few weak spots on his body he couldn’t coat in his bone armor.

Kimimaro blankly stared in astonished shock at the smug and winning expression of the redhead as the realization suddenly clicked in his mind.

“You tricked me!” He exclaimed in disbelieving exasperation, still finding it hard to believe he fell for such a basic trick.

“Well, duh, genius! I am kunoichi.” Tayuya dryly deadpanned.

She was genjutsu mistress. Most of her Jutsu were based on tricking people. It was laughable how ninjas were always wary of high-level genjutsu, yet, they would fall for a few simple words simply because they expected her to say them.

After all, who would have thought the brash and crass girl with raging temper would be cunning, right?

“Do you give up?” Tayuya gleefully asked, enjoying the situation immensely, even letting the sharp point of her flute to near Kimimaro’s eye enough to make it extremely uncomfortable for him. He tried to back away but under his head was hard ground which prevented this course of action. He couldn’t even turn his head in fear of damaging his eye anymore.

Gulping down, Kimimaro realized he could easily skewer her boy. She was straddling his chest and he could eject his sharpened ribs. But this would definitely make her ram the flute through his skull.

Tayuya was an experienced kunoichi and knew he could do that. She angled her flute in a way that the shock from being skewered would jerk her hand down and… Kimimaro shuddered at the picture of what would be left of his brain after that.

Basically, he could either give up or suicide while hoping to kill her in the process.

‘What a scary bitch.’ He bitterly thought.

Inwardly sighing, he accepted that this was his loss. “I give up.” He emotionlessly said and a smirk appeared on Tayuya’s face for some reason, Kimimaro instantly knew she would not let him live it down for months on end.

His immediate future seemed very bleak indeed.

…

“Hmm, quite impressive, wouldn’t you say, Lord Otokage?” Pakura shrewdly looked at Orochimaru with the corner of her eyes while a teasing smirk was plastered on her lips.

“Yes. Very curious indeed.” Orochimaru spoke with unveiled interest, his eyes not leaving Tayuya.

Not giving Pakura his full attention was quite impolite in this situation but Orochimaru couldn’t bring himself to care about diplomacy. Not when he saw something interesting.

Pakura, however, took this as the green light to subtly retaliate.

“I heard the girl was once your kunoichi.” She uttered with a barely-veiled glee noticeable in her tone. This naturally made Hokage, Raikage, and Tsuchikage interested in the topic, causing them to try to subtly eavesdrop. Pakura did not care and just continued, “Who would have thought the girl would get so much stronger in such a little time after leaving your service, huh? Quite the coincidence, don’t you think?”

Hearing her, Orochimaru frowned.

He wanted to scowl, glare, and most definitely wittily threaten the impudent woman but he could not allow his emotions to slip. Not in front of the other Kages.

That’s why he had to be satisfied with a small frown.

He wasn’t about to answer Pakura’s question though. He only wordlessly stared at her, barely concealing his hostility in his unamused deadpan look while trying to play the part of the victim in this verbal ping-pong.

Of course, this role suited him well for the moment. He didn’t believe he would be able to keep himself from verbally lashing out if he opened his mouth now.

No matter how calm he tried to stay, the proof that he didn’t handle Tayuya’s training well was right in front of him. What really made him mad, though, was the fact he did not see her potential. He wrote her off far too quickly and thought he knew everything there was to know about her abilities.

Being proven wrong stung his ego as hell.

When Pakura realized Orochimaru was not going to answer, she clicked her tongue, “Cheh. You are no fun.”

It made her disappointed that the big bad snake kept his calm. She could understand why Tsunade came to cause trouble during the last break between the matches. These breaks were boring as heck.

The problem was… neither of the five Kages was in the mood for small talk. The tension between them was palpable even if they pretended it didn’t exist and acted as if nothing was wrong. Only a total moron would not notice the discontent, though.

Unfortunately, Ringo was seated on the other side of the Kage box so that was also not the solution to Pakura’s boredom.

Fortunately, Shikaku unknowingly came to her rescue.

“I thought the girl is genin from Uzushio. Do you say she worked for Orochimaru in the past? Isn’t Uzushio concerned about betrayal?” He curiously asked.

His voice betrayed nothing of his intentions. Neither was there accusation nor disapproval. Just pure curiosity.

“Oh! No. from what I know, Uzushio is fine with her past. They are fully certain her past loyalties are the thing of the past.” Pakura exclaimed, too happy to explain while ignoring Orochimaru’s stormy and disgruntled look.

He even had to incline his head downward to hide it under his hat.

Pakura revealed a slight smile at that and continued, “Honestly, Suna has some trade agreements with Uzushio so that’s how I know about the girl. She was apparently a diamond in the rough. Only an utterly brainless idiot would waste her potential.” She dismissively waved her hand left and right in front of her.

Ringo snorted at Pakura’s sunny disposition as she uttered those words. The look of anger flashing through Orochimaru’s eyes was simply far too amusing to ignore.

Raikage and Tsuchikage also seemed entertained even though they tried to hide it and pretended they heard nothing. They definitely would not be joining the conversation. The redheaded girl was strong but considering that her combat style depended on her flute, in their minds she was not as big of a threat as Kazekage was making her out to be.

Nor was she as impressive. They comforted themselves with the thought that they had someone more talented at home and that was the end of that matter for them.

Unfortunately for Pakura and Shikaku, their chat about Tayuya came to an abrupt end when Hayate announced the end of the break and started to announce the next match.

“The third match will be between….”