"What's going on here?"
Standing on the armrest of the enormous, empty throne, Karin looked around and joked to Wu Yu and the others below, "Did she just happen to go on vacation?"
Unfortunately, neither Jugo nor Kimimaro was the sort to indulge her jokes. Wu Yu, meanwhile, was busy examining the enormous throne. After looking for quite a while, he finally spotted a raised switch in a gap in the third section of its backrest, which towered like a city gate.
Before coming to Ryūchi Cave, Wu Yu had found an opportunity to ask Right Mysterious Orochimaru about the cave and the White Snake Sage, particularly the details of Orochimaru's first visit.
At the top of the White Snake Sage's throne, the stone dragon's mouth held an enormous scroll bearing the words "Ryūchi Cave." That was Ryūchi Cave's Blood Summoning Contract.
Wu Yu pressed the switch—
Rumble! The enormous stone chair trembled and rumbled. Karin looked up as the dragon's mouth at its top opened. The enormous Ryūchi Cave scroll rolled outward slightly, then unfurled downward like a waterfall with a great rustle, revealing name after name recorded in dark red blood—
Wu Yu grabbed the enormous roster and flung it outward.
"Hey!" Karin leaped out, grabbed the scroll, and ran farther away, continuing to unroll it.
Soon, Kimimaro and Jugo saw Orochimaru's name listed right at the end of the bloody roster of contractors.
Wu Yu leaped down and stood at the end of the Ryūchi Cave scroll, studying Orochimaru's blood-written signature. Beneath it were the bloody prints of his five fingers.
He had already learned that Ryūchi Cave occasionally distributed summoning scrolls throughout the Shinobi World, waiting for someone with the right destiny—or for "meat" to follow the clues right to its doorstep. Those were merely copies