Journey to Ryūchi Cave

"I was hunted down by Hanzo and nearly didn't make it back."

Mito Uzumaki wore a lingering expression of fear.

"Didn't that person help you?"

Orochimaru did not mention Kakuzu's name. It was inconvenient for Minato to know that he had dealings with a rogue ninja from another village.

"He wanted more money, but I didn't bring enough."

Mito Uzumaki grumbled. That was indeed the sort of thing Kakuzu would do.

Mito Uzumaki added, "Fortunately, Lord Jiraiya saw the signal I left behind and followed me. Otherwise, I really would have died at Hanzo's hands this time."

Against powerful, incredibly fast ninja such as Hanzo, White Fang, and the future Fourth Raikage, some of the advantages provided by the Flying Thunder God would be erased.

All they needed to do was learn the coordinates of the Flying Thunder God's landing point and attack during the gap before its next activation.

With their speed, that was entirely possible.

Minato Namikaze's battle against the AB Combination had actually been extremely dangerous. He had been dancing on the edge of a blade, but it was precisely because of that that he earned Fourth A's respect.

Minato and Kushina did not interrupt. Matters involving someone like Hanzo of the Salamander—and even fighting him—were certainly part of an S-Rank Mission. Such missions often involved some of the village's secrets.

After saying goodbye to Minato and Kushina, Orochimaru took Mito Uzumaki away for treatment.

After receiving Tsunade's instruction, his Medical Ninjutsu was considered second only to Tsunade's in Konoha.

Whenever Konoha Hospital encountered difficult cases that remained hard to treat even with Tsunade's guidance, Orochimaru would occasionally step in to resolve them.

Mito Uzumaki's injuries were not particularly serious. Treating them was effortless for someone of Orochimaru's skill.

Just as the Three Ninja had all improved considerably after their battle against Hanzo, Mito Uzumaki had also made substantial progress during this life-and-death crisis.

After all, he was already an Elite Jonin. Further improvement was extraordinarily difficult.

Even without counting the Flying Thunder God, Mito Uzumaki stood among the very best of the Elite Jonin.

If the Flying Thunder God was included, he could be considered Kage-level. However, he would be at a severe disadvantage against speed-oriented ninja.

He also lacked sufficiently powerful methods for breaking through defenses. Unlike Orochimaru, he did not possess an immense Chakra reserve that allowed him to bombard enemies with ninjutsu and indirectly raise his offensive output. Against heavily defended opponents, or peak Kage-level figures like the Third Hokage of each village, he would likely have an even harder time.

For someone at roughly the same level of strength, Fourth Kazekage Rasa was a suitable comparison.

Do not underestimate Rasa. Although his death was among the more humiliating ones for a Kage, that level of strength still made him a strategic-class ninja for a village.

Orochimaru was quite pleased that his subordinate's strength had improved so much.

Ryūchi Cave was damp and dark. Every few steps, several snakes would slither past nearby.

"Orochimaru! Where are my sacrifices?!"

Manda's clamorous voice carried far into the distance.

"Manda, don't you want your eye healed?"

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes at Manda, who had been blinded in one eye by One-Tails Shukaku during their last encounter.

"If you can heal my eye, it doesn't matter if you don't give me sacrifices that one time."

Manda's words were shameless, and his tone was exceedingly punchable.

At least, if not for the White Snake Sage, Orochimaru might already have started boiling water to make snake stew.

In truth, what Orochimaru really wanted was to modify Manda. Treating his eye was merely an excuse.

Orochimaru very much wanted to remove Manda's prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex was related to cognition, pain, and behavioral control. That way, the modified Manda would become a living Puppet with memories and a certain degree of intelligence.

Orochimaru had had enough of this stupid snake. It was useless at everything, yet always first in line when it came to demanding sacrifices for food.

As for whether it would have too great an effect on Manda's brain or make him even stupider, Orochimaru said it would—but the impact would not be significant.

After all, Manda was not particularly intelligent to begin with. Becoming a little dumber would make no difference.

Besides, Manda had a violent temperament and flaws in every respect. Whenever he encountered a troublesome enemy or sustained even a certain amount of injury, he would decisively retreat to Ryūchi Cave.

After the modification, Manda's strength would inevitably increase. He would also become more fearless of death, making him extremely useful.

Orochimaru was considering how to fool Manda into agreeing to the modification. After all, modifying one eye and modifying his entire body were vastly different matters.

He planned to use the excuse that the eye's nerves had suffered catastrophic damage, and that treatment would require reconnecting the nerves between the eye and brain.

That might give him an opportunity to tamper with Manda's brain. However, he was troubled over how to explain the relationship between the eye and brain in a way Manda could understand. After all, this thing's intelligence really was not very high.

As for the White Snake Sage's attitude, Manda would be agreeing to the modification himself. What did that have to do with him, Orochimaru?

As Orochimaru was busily making his calculations, the air suddenly rippled. A beautiful young woman appeared before him, dressed in white, wearing a golden crown, and adorned with dangling green jewelry.

Tagorihime? What was she doing here? Orochimaru was somewhat puzzled.

Tagorihime looked curiously at Orochimaru and asked, "Orochimaru, what did you do? You actually caused the White Snake Sage to summon you?"

The White Snake Sage wants to see me?

Orochimaru was puzzled. If he had already modified Manda and incurred the White Snake Sage's displeasure, then being summoned would have been perfectly normal. But for her to seek him out for no apparent reason left Orochimaru confused.

Before Tagorihime, Manda did not dare make a fuss. He silently watched Orochimaru and Tagorihime leave his lair.

"White Snake Sage, Orochimaru has been brought here."

After bowing to the White Snake Sage, Tagorihime stepped aside. Around her stood Ichikishimahime and Tagitsuhime, two Ryūchi Cave higher-ups who had taken human form.

Orochimaru looked at the White Snake Sage seated high above him but said nothing. Whoever spoke first would be at a disadvantage.

At present, he had nothing he particularly desired from the White Snake Sage. As for Sage Art, he believed he might not be unable to research it on his own. He was already secretly planning research into the Cursed Seal in his mind.

After a long while, the Three Snake Sisters had already transformed their faces into half-human, half-snake visages to intimidate Orochimaru, yet he remained unmoved.

Even if the inscrutable White Snake Sage truly made a move, even if she possessed strength on par with the First Hokage and Madara, Orochimaru was confident he could still escape alive.

Besides the Flying Thunder God, Orochimaru had countless other means of preserving his life.

Watching Orochimaru below, calm-faced and utterly silent, the White Snake Sage finally could not hold back any longer:

"Orochimaru, tell me... where did the aura of a True Dragon on your body come from? Have you seen a True Dragon?"

What the hell? The aura of a True Dragon?

There were no True Dragons in the Shinobi World. It must have been the aura of the Dragon Yuan on Orochimaru's body that had drawn the White Snake Sage's attention.

All of Ryūchi Cave lay within the White Snake Sage's sensory range. From the moment Orochimaru entered Ryūchi Cave, the aura of the Dragon Yuan on him had already caught her attention, prompting her to send Tagorihime to lead him here.

There might not be any True Dragons in the current Shinobi World, but what about ancient times?

The White Snake Sage had lived for a thousand years. She was an existence even more ancient than the Sage of Six Paths. Perhaps she had seen a True Dragon.

It was not difficult to tell from ninjutsu such as the Water Dragon Bullet that dragons had once existed in the Shinobi World. Otherwise, there was no way to explain how the image of dragons had been passed down.

Orochimaru guessed that True Dragons had once existed on this planet. Perhaps they had vanished after the Otsutsuki descended upon it, or perhaps even earlier.

It was not hard to see the White Snake Sage's ambition from the name Ryūchi Cave. She wanted to transform into a dragon.

"Lord Divine Dragon is no longer in this world."

Orochimaru's words carried a double meaning.

By "no longer in this world," he meant two things. One was that the Divine Dragon belonged to another world—the Feng Yun World. The other was that the Divine Dragon was already dead; the Dragon Yuan had only appeared after its death.

The White Snake Sage's pupils contracted.

Not in the Shinobi World?

Had it crossed the cosmos like the Otsutsuki and gone to other planets?

As expected of a True Dragon with such immense power!

The White Snake Sage filled in the gaps on her own, then fixed her gaze on Orochimaru again. Since he had earned the favor of a True Dragon, could she perhaps use him to establish a connection with it?

"Orochimaru, do you wish to learn Sage Art? If you do, I can guarantee that your life will not be in danger while learning it. But whether you can master it, and how far you can go, will depend on you."

Orochimaru was somewhat suspicious. Back when I wanted to learn Sage Art, you barely gave me the time of day. You practically wanted to bite me to death and swallow me. Now you're actually taking the initiative to teach me Sage Art?

This treatment felt oddly familiar. Hadn't Mount Myōboku proactively taught Jiraiya and Uzumaki Naruto as well? The Great Toad Sage's foresight allowed him to know how greatly they would affect this world, so naturally, he had taken the initiative to befriend them and turn them into his own people.

Then what about the White Snake Sage?

What did she want?

It probably came down to this so-called True Dragon.