The Reason

Talent is the greatest indicator of a person's worth. Clearly, in Danzō's eyes, Ye Zi had already begun to demonstrate his value. Therefore, at this very moment, he was starting to feel satisfied with Ye Zi, and satisfied with his decision to force Ye Zi into Root. He gazed silently at Ye Zi's figure with his ruthless, sharp eyes, a hint of anticipation subtly emerging from eyes steeped in years of battle and hardship.

Inside the room, Ye Zi's expression was slightly solemn. If he had a choice… he wouldn't want to undergo this extremely dangerous test. But just as he had faced a few nights ago, he had no choice.

A long time ago, he had discovered he possessed many extraordinary talents. For instance, after consuming food to replenish energy, his fatigue would disappear. He could keenly sense movement around him. He could easily see the hand seals others formed when performing ninjutsu and memorize them. And right now, as he surveyed the numerous shuriken suspended above the mechanism, countless lines intertwined in his vision, like a dense spiderweb covering the entire room. The gaps between the lines were too small for even a head to pass through.

Ye Zi wasn't confident he could completely dodge the shuriken covering him from all directions. Precisely because he lacked absolute confidence, and precisely because he could see so clearly, he thought carefully before acting. He then put the kunai in his hand back into his ninja tool pouch and slowly drew Raiya from his waist.

Since he wasn't confident he could completely dodge so many shuriken, he would knock them all down.

Seeing Ye Zi discard his kunai and draw his blade, Jiang Ye, who was in charge of the test, looked towards Danzō. After a moment of silence, Danzō nodded slightly, and Jiang Ye allowed Ye Zi to proceed.

Screech…

A faint arc of lightning suddenly shot out from Ye Zi's body, followed by more flashing arcs, emitting a screech like bird calls.

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

Without any prior warning, Jiang Ye abruptly pressed the activation switch.

Bang…

Countless barely audible sounds echoed in the darkness. Bright light, like Jesus's mercy, shone upon Ye Zi's face, body, and eyes.

His dark eyes were filled with light, and then, a large shadow arrived as expected, like flocks of migrating geese flying into his vision in a tight formation. The divine light was replaced by a barrage of shuriken launched from their strings. Those kunai, those shuriken, rained down like a spring drought, inescapable.

His eyes, as Danzō had said, were very useful, but still not as useful as the Sharingan. Therefore, he couldn't perfectly dodge like an Uchiha elite. However, he could knock down some of the shuriken, creating space to evade.

Perfection wasn't important, nor was whether he could dodge. What mattered was not getting injured, and that was enough.

Lightning flashed in his eyes. Raiya suddenly tore through space, emitting a vibrating hum. It drew an arc in mid-air, and the shuriken that flew into the arc shattered with crisp sounds, tumbling backward at even greater speed.

Ye Zi's gaze was focused as if in meditation. After sweeping away a portion of the incoming shuriken with one strike, he immediately leaped into the air. Turning, he swung again, releasing a bright arc like a crescent moon, knocking down shuriken aimed at his back. Finally, he twisted his waist and swung another arc slash upwards.

Clink, clink, clink…

A large number of shuriken were rendered useless before these three arcs, falling powerlessly to the ground. Ye Zi used this brief interval to slip past the remaining flying shuriken like an eel.

Just three swift, lightning-fast strikes had shattered most of the shuriken coming from all directions. Simple and brutal.

Upon landing, Ye Zi quickly sheathed Raiya.

In the monitoring room, Jiang Ye looked at Ye Zi's figure and the shuriken scattered on the ground. After a moment of silence, he looked at Danzō and said, "I felt like I was seeing the Dance of the Crescent Moon."

The Dance of the Crescent Moon was a Konoha-style sword technique, one of the few that could be combined with ninjutsu. When charging at an enemy, one would form a hand seal and instantly create three illusory clones. These three clones would strike the enemy with arc slashes from three directions, while the main body would wait for an opportunity to deliver a fatal blow.

The arc slashes Ye Zi had unleashed in three directions at that moment were naturally not the Dance of the Crescent Moon. Jiang Ye said so because Ye Zi's sword speed was too fast, immediately reminding him of a sword technique that fit the scene. However, the initial three strikes of the Dance of the Crescent Moon were for distraction, and the slashes from the clones had no offensive power. But Ye Zi's three strikes…

The three arcs that had simultaneously existed burned in his mind, refusing to fade. Jiang Ye first looked at Danzō in silence for a while, then turned his gaze to Ye Zi in the training room, saying nothing.

Jiang Ye, turning his head, didn't see the fleeting sharpness in Danzō's eyes. This middle-aged man, whom he respected, hadn't shown the sharpness of a young man in a long time.

"Let him continue with the remaining two tests," the terrifying man said calmly, then turned to leave.

Jiang Ye took a deep breath, thinking that in the future, reckless behavior during training would no longer be the exclusive privilege of the Uchiha clan. He then pressed a 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 let out a soft breath, the vibration in his chest still ongoing.

Later, after spending half a day, Ye Zi completed the remaining two tests. The assessment of his strength was officially recorded in the top-secret files of 'Root.' Under the codename Raiya, he officially became a member of 'Root.'

That night.

Orochimaru, uncharacteristically, sought out Ye Zi.

"Joining 'Root' might be a good thing for you," Orochimaru said calmly, sitting on the corridor leading to the courtyard and looking at the faintly glowing silver flowers and grass.

Ye Zi was silent for a moment, then nodded and said, "I think so too."

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

"I did resist at first, but I suddenly felt that the environment there is exactly what I need." Ye Zi slowly tilted his head back to look at the moon in the night sky, thinking about the day's test. It was as if he could see a majestic staircase descending from the surface of the moon.

A different world, the same moon.

Only by looking at the moon did he feel that the path he was exploring was not so distant as to be unreachable. He wanted to become very strong, strong enough to ascend that staircase.

"I want to become strong, very strong, stronger than you."

Orochimaru said nothing more. He thought carefully about the first time he met Ye Zi, and about the words Ye Zi had spoken during their time together. Without exception, he had never heard Ye Zi mention family, nor had he seen Ye Zi display any casual reliance on relatives.

That day, it was raining heavily. The child in his eyes raised a stone and unhesitatingly threw it at a small yellow dog. Before the stone, which had knocked away the raindrops, could hit the dog, Orochimaru felt a fleeting tremor of unease. In that instant, he understood Ye Zi's nature: like himself, he could only be a predator.

Yet, sometimes, he pondered a question that, while seemingly insignificant to him, held some importance: Ye Zi's family.

Clearly, Orochimaru didn't believe Ye Zi's family was still alive. But he had never seen Ye Zi mourn for his deceased family, leading him to sometimes wonder if Ye Zi had ever had a family, as if he were a being who had sprung from a stone, with no parents or relatives.

Then, what was Ye Zi's reason for wanting to become strong?

Konoha today was a place any survivor of war would yearn for. He already possessed it, so why did he still desire to become so desperately strong?

Numerous questions surfaced when he thought deeply, only to be dispelled by a report from the interrogation department. But at this moment…

"Those who seek strength always have a fundamental reason. So, what is your reason for wanting to become strong?"

Ye Zi froze. His reason for wanting to become strong was, of course, to return to his own world. However, faced with Orochimaru's question, he couldn't answer and could only remain silent.

Orochimaru didn't mind Ye Zi's silence on this question. He also tilted his head up to gaze at the moon emitting its silver glow. Suddenly, he recalled the faint tremor of unease he had felt the first time he saw Ye Zi, and then, he let out a cold smile.

He was a cold-blooded snake and should never fear anything. In the future, others should fear him.

However, he could never have imagined that on that rainy day, Tsunade, watching him approach Ye Zi, had also experienced a brief, inexplicable unease. He couldn't imagine the impact this child, whom he had brought back to Konoha from the rain, would have on this world in the future.