Hiss-
Smack!
A pure-white giant snake with four limbs and bristling scales flicked its tongue at the White Snake Sage. A moment later... one blow from her cane knocked it back into its "original form"-Orochimaru!
Orochimaru: ...
Orochimaru rubbed his chest.
That made seven times...
In that short span of time, Orochimaru had already "failed" seven times.
Never before had Orochimaru felt that anything could be this easy to fail at.
But...
"Manda's little partner, are you feeling a bit disgruntled? I can stop helping you, you know!" the White Snake Granny said matter-of-factly.
"No. Thank you for your assistance," Orochimaru said earnestly... if somewhat helplessly.
The White Snake Granny pursed her lips in displeasure before saying, "Actually... I do think you have no chance of succeeding with my help, but there's nothing to be done about that. If you need me to judge your condition, I had to wake you up just now. Otherwise... it would be no different from having no help at all." The White Snake Sage's words were rather convoluted, but Orochimaru understood what she meant.
Every time Orochimaru was "knocked awake"-in other words, when the nature energy was forcibly expelled from his body-he felt he hadn't reached the point of failure at all!
The first two times, Orochimaru had assumed Sage Mode was simply that difficult. Its difficulty had shocked him-had he really been about to lose control without noticing a thing?
At first, the White Snake Granny had also started losing patience with this "pretty boy who'd gotten in through the back door"...
How could you be this inept?
Ryūchi Cave's Sage Mode was indeed difficult, but this was the first time the White Snake Sage had seen someone so utterly untalented. She couldn't help lamenting to herself that bypassing the trials really wouldn't