Konoha, Third Training Ground.
This place was tucked away in a remote forest. Its scenery was beautiful, and few people ever came here, making it an excellent training ground that many ninjas coveted.
As long as you submitted an application in advance, you could train all day without anyone disturbing you.
But by now, Qing Xuan was starting to regret choosing this lousy place.
"Uchiha Qing Xuan."
The hoarse voice slithered through the air like a malicious snake, whispering its darkest secrets.
The single tomoe in Qing Xuan's eyes spun rapidly as he watched the man approaching one step at a time.
He had never imagined he'd meet Uncle Snake under these circumstances.
After all, he'd just been talking behind the man's back, and now the person himself had shown up. It was... pretty awkward.
"I didn't expect to meet you like this..."
Qing Xuan gave him an awkward smile.
I didn't expect this either! By the way, Uncle Snake, can you read minds?
"No."
A playful smile touched Orochimaru's pale face. He watched Qing Xuan's expression gradually stiffen, his gaze teasing. "Your face is just easy to read."
At that moment, Qing Xuan felt somehow insulted.
Even Danzo and the Third Hokage had praised him as clever and ambitious, but now Orochimaru was making him out to be some idiot who wore his heart on his sleeve?
His competitive streak compelled him to pull a face at Uncle Snake. Let's see you guess this!
Uncle Snake shook his head. "Can't guess."
Qing Xuan was instantly aghast. "You really can read minds!"
Asuma slapped a hand over his face. He figured he must be sick, or else why had he so easily believed the nonsense this guy was spouting?
He really shouldn't have done that.
"Orochimaru-sama, what brings you here?"
Looking at the Hokage's silly son made Uncle Snake smile even more. "I happened to have some free time today, so the Third Hokage asked me to look after our new... junior disciple."
As he spoke, his smiling eyes turned to Qing Xuan again. The sight of those openly resistant eyes seemed to make him even happier.
"Asuma, you can go back now," he said mildly.
Qing Xuan panicked.
No! Don't go! Don't leave me alone with this freak!
He looked pleadingly at Asuma, only to find he was already gone.
What the hell? He ran that fast? Even an honest guy can't be trusted!
"Heh heh heh..."
A cold laugh rang through the empty woods, raising the hairs on the back of Qing Xuan's neck.
"Now we're all alone."
The line sounded like the opening of a textbook crime scene, and Qing Xuan found it deeply unsettling.
"Mister, are you the legendary Sannin Orochimaru-sama?"
He rubbed his face, and his stiff expression instantly turned lively.
At that moment, his survival instinct kicked in at full force.
"It's no use, Uchiha Qing Xuan."
The playful look never left Uncle Snake's face. He stared at Qing Xuan without seeing him as a person, speaking as if he were stating a fact.
"I know everything about you."
A sudden gust swept across the ground.
It sent grass blades flying, and its mournful howl through the forest sounded almost like a cry of despair.
Amid the gale, the innocent look on Qing Xuan's face never changed.
"Then do you know what color underwear I'm wearing today?"
The sudden vulgarity made the smile on Uncle Snake's face freeze for a moment.
He fell silent, his snake-like eyes studying Qing Xuan intently as if trying to figure something out.
The two of them stared at each other, each seemingly trying to read the other's thoughts.
After a while, Uncle Snake's gaze suddenly changed. The delight of seeing an old acquaintance was gone, replaced by something increasingly unfamiliar.
"You're not Uchiha Ryuu..."
He spoke slowly, his smile fading as his expression turned cold.
"Who are you, really?"
Qing Xuan suddenly felt genuine killing intent in that coldness.
All the questions he'd had since arriving in this world abruptly surfaced in his mind.
Uchiha Fugaku's younger brother, Nawaki still being alive, so many altered plot points, and Orochimaru never defecting...
No wonder the cave where he'd first appeared looked so much like a laboratory.
Having read countless Naruto fanfics, Qing Xuan slowly narrowed his eyes.
This plot... feels familiar!
At that moment, he suddenly understood something.
Who had the other man mistaken him for at first?
Someone who'd been dead for many years?
Or maybe...
A glint flashed in Qing Xuan's eyes.
Another transmigrator?
That would explain so many things that otherwise made no sense.
Then what was his own identity?
A clone? Or a vessel someone had created to serve some purpose?
Watching Qing Xuan frown in thought, the killing intent in Uncle Snake's eyes slowly faded. His playful smile returned.
He'd thought of an intriguing possibility.
"Odd changes, even stays the same."
At the sudden words, Qing Xuan jerked his head up and blurted out, "The symbol is in the first quadrant?"
Seeing his stunned expression, Uncle Snake could no longer hold back his smile. A hint of fervor even appeared in those snake-like eyes.
"I knew it!"
His hoarse voice trembled with excitement.
"You really are from the same world as him!"
Damn, Uncle Snake really is something!
As the greatest scientist in Naruto, always ready to challenge conventional wisdom, his ability to accept the unbelievable was truly beyond ordinary people's.
While Qing Xuan had been trying to make sense of everything, the other man had been trying to figure him out, too.
"Where did you hear that phrase?"
He looked up and asked Uncle Snake.
Uncle Snake made no attempt to hide the truth. He studied Qing Xuan again, as if looking at another one-of-a-kind creation.
"From your father, naturally. He was always saying strange, novel things."
The tense atmosphere began to ease.
"Is he really my father?"
Qing Xuan met the other man's snake-like eyes and asked, "I mean, in the literal sense."
Uncle Snake's lips curled upward as he gave an unexpected answer. "I don't know."
At that moment, he seemed remarkably patient.
"We worked together for a long time. He knew a great deal about me, and I knew him well too..."
"Maybe I didn't know him as well as I thought, but..."
A sly smile appeared, as if he were trying to see into the depths of Qing Xuan's heart. "I can tell you that six years ago, Tsunade really did give birth to a child!"
As if indulging his own perverse sense of humor, Uncle Snake began dumping bits and pieces of information on Qing Xuan.
"He named the child Uchiha Qing Xuan, saying he'd be his only one. But not long after the child was born, he disappeared without a trace. Very few people knew about it..."
"Tsunade argued with him, and after that, she left the village. Ryuu went to the front lines and died there. Before that, though, he gave me a set of materials on cloning. They weren't complete, and too many key details were missing. Even now, I haven't fully figured them out..."
This rambling mess of information was simply awful. It threw Qing Xuan's newly assembled theory into disarray, shrouding in mist the few things that had just begun to make sense.
He clutched his head and glared at the man grinning so smugly.
Are you some kind of chaos agent?
Before you continue