Ryūchi Cave

In the darkness, a single eye was staring straight at her through the crack in the door.

On such a grim and terrifying night, this scene would be enough to make the vast majority of people let out a high-pitched scream.

Uzumaki Mito was also very frightened, even subconsciously holding her breath for a few seconds.

Fortunately, she wasn't an ordinary person; her first reaction upon being startled was to directly attack.

Golden chains howled forth, easily shattering the door panel and violently sending the monster peeping from outside flying away.

The vertical pupil outside the door crack clearly didn't belong to a human; she realized this fact the moment their eyes met.

So when she struck, naturally, there were no reservations.

Facing the formidable Adamantine Sealing Chains, the monster was completely bound within two exchanges.

Forget fighting back—even escape had become a luxury for it.

Seeing the peeper easily subdued, Mito slowly let out a sigh of relief. With a thought, the cloak draped over it was flipped open by the chains.

"This is..." The girl couldn't help but widen her eyes.

Beneath the cloak was only a humanoid monster, or rather, a deformed creature half-human, half-beast.

Its left eye was a vertical pupil, currently glaring viciously at her; its right side was human, the only constant being the trace of malice revealed in its gaze.

Mito's memory was astonishing; she quickly recognized him from the half of his face. This man was the villager who had warmly welcomed her earlier that day.

A monster hiding among the villagers?

Or was the entire mountain village a nest composed of monsters?!

No sooner had the unpleasant thought crossed her mind than a chorus of howls suddenly pierced the dead silent night.

In Mito's perception, the previously normal villagers began a collective mutation. The most direct feedback was the sudden emergence of a strange Chakra within their bodies.

"What in the world is going on?!" Feeling the monster horde closing in on her, the Ponytail Princess gritted her teeth hard, and her chains swept rapidly around her like a long whip.

With that single strike, nearly half the village was destroyed in her hands, and the monsters sent flying by the chains were countless.

"They're not ninja, just a group of monsters driven by the instinct to kill."

At this point, Uzumaki Mito could only maintain the Adamantine Sealing Chains for less than half a minute; the moment the time was up, she would immediately fall into a state of exhaustion.

Fortunately, the enemies had no combat skills, only brute force to charge and bite. That was enough to deal with ordinary people, but in front of her, they were somewhat lacking.

In less than ten seconds, Mito successfully took down all the living creatures.

Using a Sealing Technique to restrict their movements, the Ponytail Princess clapped her hands and decided to wait for her companion's return.

Sosuke had voluntarily gone to the back mountain; he must have discovered something. Once they figured out the truth about the mountain village, the two could decide how to handle these mutated villagers.

As for her companion's safety, Mito felt it shouldn't be a big problem. Having learned Space-time Ninjutsu, if he wanted to leave, no one in the world could stop him.

"Ah, if only I could do it too." It was clear the Ponytail Princess was genuinely envious from the bottom of her heart.

The Flying Thunder God, which allowed free movement, seemed far more practical than her chains no matter how she looked at it.

Sosuke had once said she hadn't yet found the true joy of using her chains. To this day, she still didn't understand the meaning behind those words.

"No matter how I look at it, it's just boring." Mito tried hard to think.

Boom!

A violent tremor suddenly startled the lost-in-thought girl.

Mito hurriedly looked up to see where it came from, finding the source was the back mountain her companion had gone to.

Though she kept comforting herself in her heart, seeing that he hadn't returned for so long, the girl was already growing restless.

Glancing at the bound villagers around her, she hesitated briefly before deciding to go investigate alone.

She said she wasn't worried, but since he hadn't come back for so long, Mito felt it was necessary to confirm his safety.

The Flying Thunder God was indeed convenient, but what if that guy Sosuke didn't have time to use it?

Besides, the source of that boom just now needed investigation too; she couldn't rest easy without taking a look.

"Right, I'm not worried about him at all."

Finding a lame excuse for herself, Mito ventured alone into the pitch-black forest.

Perhaps she hadn't noticed it herself, but the moment she heard the explosion from the back mountain, the panic that had just lingered in her heart suddenly vanished.

In the back mountain, Sosuke, who had been gone for a long time, was nimbly flipping and dodging through the trees.

Not far behind him, a giant white serpent dozens of meters long coiled among the mountains, its vertical pupils coldly fixed on that human.

"You can't run."

The snake's mouth opened, and a hurricane-like shockwave surged forth, tearing through trees along the way as if they were as fragile as weeds.

Faced with such a terrifying attack, blocking it was certainly impossible. Fortunately, Sosuke had already set up Flying Thunder God Kunai while moving; otherwise, he would have had to activate Stage Two to endure it head-on.

Boom!

Another explosion rang out; the Great White Snake's Wind Release attack was truly fearsome in power.

"What a terrifying fellow." Sosuke's voice came from another side, sounding as if he had no intention of hiding his position.

Slowly turning its massive head, the white snake's golden vertical pupils locked onto him, its gaze carrying an extremely human-like confusion.

This was already the second time.

Every time it thought it could finish him off, that human would instantly appear in another direction.

After silently pondering for a moment, the white snake suddenly spoke in human tongue: "Was that Space-time Ninjutsu you just used?"

"Yes." Sosuke nodded, still making no move to attack.

Seeing him admit it without hesitation, the white snake fell silent, as if losing the will to continue fighting.

Space-time Ninjutsu—an ability that only existed in legends. The white snake had never seen it before, and it had no idea how to counter it.

As time slowly passed, Sosuke's smile gradually began to build.

Just now, he had come alone to the back mountain and unexpectedly discovered a cave emitting a strange aura.

The reason he had come here was because he sensed that the Nature Energy within a ten-kilometer radius was abnormally active.

Those seemingly warm-hearted villagers actually had considerable amounts of Nature Energy stored in their bodies.

As could be seen from the Cursed Seal, Nature Energy had immense destructive power over the human body, and prolonged exposure could even affect one's sanity.

Arriving at the back mountain, Sosuke intended to find the source of the Nature Energy.

Relying on the insight of his Sharingan, he eventually located the culprit behind it all inside the cave.

A white serpent over seventy meters long, capable of easily speaking human tongue.

From that moment, Sosuke finally understood who he was facing.

Ryūchi Cave—a heritage site independent of the Ninja World, home to countless snakes and a White Snake Sage who had lived for thousands of years.

It was said that everything happening in the Ninja World reached the ears of the White Snake Sage, who had personally witnessed the rise and fall of the "Ninja Sect."