42. The Reason

Talent was the clearest measure of a person's value. Clearly, in Danzo's eyes, Ye Zi had already begun to demonstrate his worth. Thus, at this moment, he had started to feel satisfied with Ye Zi—and with his decision to force Ye Zi to join Root. He silently watched Ye Zi with those ruthless, merciless eyes. In eyes steeped in the passage of time and the flames of war, a faint trace of anticipation flickered.

Inside the room, Ye Zi's expression was slightly solemn. If possible... he did not want to undergo such a dangerous test. But just as with the situation he had faced several nights ago, he had no choice.

A long time ago, he had discovered that he possessed many extraordinary abilities. For example, eating to replenish his energy would dispel his physical fatigue. For example, he could keenly sense the movements around him. For example, he could easily see and memorize the hand seals others formed when casting ninjutsu. And at this very moment, as he looked around at the countless Shuriken suspended over the mechanisms, innumerable lines intertwined in his eyes, like a dense spiderweb enveloping the entire room. The gaps between the lines were too narrow for even a head to pass through.

Ye Zi was not confident he could completely evade the Shuriken covering the space above him from every direction. Precisely because he lacked absolute confidence—and precisely because he could see everything clearly—he seriously considered the matter before raising his hand. Then he put the Kunai in his grip into his ninja pouch and slowly drew Raiya from his waist.

Since he lacked the confidence to evade so many Shuriken completely, he would knock them all down.

When Jiang Ye saw Ye Zi abandon the Kunai and draw his sword, he immediately looked at Danzo. After a moment of silence, Danzo gave a slight nod, so Jiang Ye let Ye Zi continue.

Sizzle...

A strand of lightning suddenly sprang from the surface of Ye Zi's body. Immediately afterward, more arcs of lightning flashed out, emitting sizzle after sizzle like the cries of birds.

After activating Lightning Release: Lightning Cloak, Ye Zi slowly raised his right hand.

Without even giving advance warning, Jiang Ye suddenly pressed the activation switch.

Boom...

Countless faint sounds, too soft to hear, rang out in the darkness. Bright light shone over Ye Zi's face, body, and eyes like the mercy of Jesus.

Those pitch-black eyes filled with light. Then a vast shadow arrived as promised, like a flock of geese returning south in tight formation and flying into his eyes. Replacing the divine radiance were countless Shuriken loosed from their strings. The Kunai and Shuriken fell like a torrential rain in a drought-stricken spring, pouring down with nowhere to hide.

His eyes were, as Danzo had said, very useful, but they were still not as useful as the Sharingan. Thus, he could not evade everything perfectly like the Uchiha elites. However, he could knock down some of the Shuriken, creating room to dodge.

Perfect or imperfect did not matter. Whether he could evade them all did not matter. What mattered was not getting hurt. That was enough.

Lightning glimmered in his eyes. Raiya suddenly tore through the air with a trembling hum, drawing a bright arc. The Shuriken that flew into the arc rang out sharply before spinning backward at even greater speed.

Ye Zi's gaze was focused as if he had entered a state of meditation. After sweeping down some of the incoming Shuriken with one strike, he immediately leaped into the air. Turning around, he swung another bright arc like a crescent moon, knocking down the Shuriken shooting toward his back. Finally, he twisted his waist and swung another arcing slash toward the top of his head.

Clink, clink, clink...

The countless Shuriken were powerless before the three arcs he had unleashed. One after another, they fell feebly toward the ground, and Ye Zi used the opening to slip past the remaining incoming Shuriken like an eel.

With only three strikes as swift as thunder, he had shattered most of the Shuriken coming from every direction—simple and brutal.

After landing, Ye Zi quickly sheathed Raiya.

In the monitoring room, Jiang Ye watched Ye Zi's figure and the Shuriken scattered across the floor. After a moment of silence, he looked at Danzo and said, "I feel as if I just saw Dance of the Crescent Moon."

Dance of the Crescent Moon was a Konoha-style sword technique, one of the few sword techniques that could be combined with ninjutsu. When charging an enemy, the user formed hand seals with one hand and instantly created three confusing clones. The three clones each swung an arcing slash at the enemy from a different direction, while the original waited for an opportunity to deliver a fatal blow.

The arcing slashes Ye Zi had swung toward three directions in that instant were naturally not Dance of the Crescent Moon. Jiang Ye had said that because Ye Zi's sword strikes had been too fast, immediately reminding him of the sword technique that best matched the scene. However, the first three strikes of Dance of the Crescent Moon were meant to confuse the enemy. The slashes delivered by the clones had no offensive power. But Ye Zi's three strikes...

The three arcs that had existed together remained etched in his mind, impossible to dispel. Jiang Ye first looked at Danzo and fell silent for a moment, then turned his gaze toward Ye Zi in the training room without saying anything.

When Jiang Ye turned his head, he failed to see the sharp glint that flashed through Danzo's eyes. This middle-aged man he respected had not displayed the keen edge of youth in a very long time.

"Have him continue with the remaining two tests." The terrifying man spoke calmly, then turned and left.

Jiang Ye drew a deep breath. He thought that reckless behavior during training would no longer be a privilege exclusive to the Uchiha. Then he pressed the button and said to Ye Zi in the training room, "Well done. I'll wait for you outside the room. Continue with the second test."

Under the lights, Ye Zi gently exhaled. The tremors in his chest continued for a while longer.

Afterward, Ye Zi spent half a day completing the remaining two tests. The assessment of his abilities was formally entered into Root's classified files, and he officially became a member of Root under the codename Raiya.

That night.

Orochimaru rarely took the initiative to seek out Ye Zi.

"Joining Root might be a good thing for you." Sitting in the corridor leading to the courtyard, Orochimaru calmly gazed at the plants and flowers giving off a faint silver glow.

Ye Zi was silent for a moment before nodding. "I think so too."

Orochimaru looked at him in surprise. "I thought you would resist it."

"I did resist at first. But then I suddenly felt that the environment there was exactly what I needed." Ye Zi slowly tilted his head toward the moon in the night sky. Thinking about the day's test, he seemed to see a heaven-reaching staircase descending from the surface of the moon.

A different world, but the same moon.

Only when looking at the moon did he feel that the path he was exploring was not so distant that it could never be reached. He had to become strong—strong enough to step onto that staircase.

"I want to become stronger. Very strong. Stronger than you."

Orochimaru said nothing more. He carefully recalled the first time he had met Ye Zi, and the things Ye Zi had said during the time they had spent together. Without exception, he had never heard Ye Zi mention his family, nor had he ever seen the unconscious dependence on relatives that Ye Zi might reveal.

That day, the rain had been heavy. The child in his eyes had raised a stone and, without hesitation, smashed it toward the Yellow Dog. Before the stone could break through the rain and strike the Yellow Dog, Orochimaru had felt a faint, almost imperceptible pang in that instant. At the same moment, he had understood Ye Zi's nature. Like himself, Ye Zi could only be a carnivore.

Sometimes, however, he also thought about a question that seemed insignificant to him yet was somewhat important: Ye Zi's family.

Clearly, Orochimaru did not believe Ye Zi's family was still alive in this world. Yet he had never seen Ye Zi mourn his deceased family either. At times, this even made him wonder whether Ye Zi had ever had a family at all, as though he had sprung from a stone, without kin or ties.

Then, what did Ye Zi want to become strong for?

Present-day Konoha was the place any orphan of war would yearn for. Ye Zi already had that. So why did he still want to become strong with such urgency?

Countless questions would slowly surface whenever he pondered them, only to vanish again because of the report from the Interrogation Department. But at this moment...

"Those who pursue strength always have a fundamental reason. So, what is the reason you want to become strong?"

Ye Zi was stunned. Of course, he wanted to become strong so he could return to his own world. However, faced with Orochimaru's question, he could not answer and could only remain silent.

Orochimaru did not mind Ye Zi's silence in response to the question. He, too, raised his head to gaze at the moon radiating silver light. Suddenly, he thought of the faint pang he had felt the first time he saw Ye Zi. Then he revealed a cold smile.

He was a cold-blooded snake. He should never fear anything. From now on, only others should fear him.

Yet he could never have imagined that, on that rainy day, Tsunade had also felt a brief, inexplicable unease when she watched him approach Ye Zi. Nor could he have imagined how much influence this child he had brought back to Konoha from the rain would have on this world in the future.