Capture Successful, Bone-Binding Princess, You Are Mine

Bone-Binding Princess glared irritably at the ninja who had woken her, her fury mounting even higher when she saw that Shuten-dōji Mask.

Last time, this ninja had brazenly and unreasonably occupied the cave where she was sleeping. She had intended to teach him a lesson and drive him away, but the man had actually tried to kill her.

How could she tolerate such a thing!

The outcome, however, had been quite poor.

She had accidentally let him escape, and her cave had been destroyed in the process.

"The Sage was right after all, ninjas are all bad guys! Hmph, someone tried to kill me a while ago, too. Luckily, I sensed it beforehand and ate them all in one gulp."

"When will I have finished enough training to return to Ryūchi Cave? There are so many bad snakes in there, and the few sisters can't manage them all on their own. The Sage is so merciful that she refuses to hurt any of them; she will end up spoiling those bad snakes even more sooner or later!"

Bone-Binding Princess slithered through the forest, not in a hurry to reveal herself.

"Sigh, it's my own fault. I brought this on myself. I could have trained just as well in Ryūchi Cave, but I had to come out to see what the ninja world was like. Now look at me, starving all day long, and I don't even have a place to sleep anymore."

The reason she had chosen this forest in the Land of Rivers was that it was sparsely populated, allowing her to return to Ryūchi Cave to help her sisters as soon as her training time in the ninja world was up.

Gulping down large amounts of Natural Energy, Bone-Binding Princess moved along the ground, circling Byakuya as he unleashed his ninjutsu.

She was waiting for an opportunity; if he showed a weakness, she would swallow him in one bite!

"I wasn't scared growing up! So many bad snakes in Ryūchi Cave couldn't kill me, and you won't be able to either!"

Her so-called training was simply for her, a single snake, to survive for a set period without the help of her sisters.

Compared to Ryūchi Cave, the ninja world was far more treacherous and unpredictable.

Then again, if Bone-Binding Princess hadn't heard her sisters talking about how beautiful and free the ninja world was, she never would have ignored the Sage's advice and insisted on coming here to train.

"Bad guy!"

Bone-Binding Princess recalled unpleasant memories, growing angrier by the second.

She hadn't appeared in the Land of Rivers directly; she had been hunted by many ninjas and had wandered here after being chased from place to place.

Those ninjas were particularly interested in her scales, and some even said that selling her organs to Orochimaru of Konoha would surely fetch a high price.

In short, not a single ninja was a good person; they were all bad guys!

Hm? Wait!

He seems to have discovered me!

How did he find me?

Bone-Binding Princess was shocked and hurriedly dodged the beam of light flying toward her. Although she didn't know what that thing was, seeing the power of the explosion, it would definitely hurt to get hit by one!

"Shiny, I'm not afraid of bright lights."

"So it's just a brat. Hiss, the scent on him—if you go by human age, he's not even eleven yet."

"Ouch!!! That hurts!! Why is this ninjutsu so fast! Stop hitting me, I'm not a bad snake! You were the one who destroyed my bedroom first, and then you came to the forest to ruin my home—you're the bad guy! My sisters say that good triumphs over evil; you should be eaten by me!"

"What do I do? I can't get close to him. As soon as I get even a little bit near, I get hit by those bright, long needles! Hiss! It hurts! It actually contains both Lightning Release and Water Release; it's a Kekkei Genkai."

"What do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do? I don't know Sage Art yet; the Sage only teaches it after the training mission is complete. Am I going to die? I don't want to die! Sister, someone, come save me!"

"Argh, you stinking ninja, you stinking brat, I'm really angry now! You're done for!"

Byakuya saw the Azure-Black Serpent suddenly dive into the ground.

The Natural Energy in the forest was no longer just fluctuating; it was boiling!

He immediately used the Storm Release: Body Flicker Technique to keep shifting positions, worried that the Azure-Black Serpent would burst from the ground and catch him off guard.

Byakuya was still mid-air.

He suddenly sensed the surrounding Natural Energy acting like a storm.

He looked down.

The ground cracked, and large trees were violently tossed aside.

A massive snake head with a blood-red maw was the first thing to enter his vision.

It was impossibly fast.

In the blink of an eye, it was right in front of him.

The snake's jaws snapped shut with a vicious force.

A flicker of confusion suddenly appeared in the eyes of the Bone-Binding Princess.

There was no firm sensation of human flesh; it was like biting into thin air.

Shadow Clone Technique?

"Storm Release: Torrential Lightning Flash."

Lightning as bright as a river submerged her.

The thunder felt like countless Kunai, stabbing repeatedly into her scales.

That brat actually dared to trick her with the Shadow Clone Technique!

Absurd!

Bone-Binding Princess slammed into the ground, tracking Byakuya's scent.

She was already slightly injured.

The brat had grown stronger in just a few short days.

How troublesome.

Byakuya stood on a tree trunk, watching the Azure-Black Serpent charging toward him like a bolt of lightning.

He formed hand seals.

"Storm Release: Thousand Blades."

He did not hold back, exhausting his chakra to unleash the maximum offensive potential of this ninjutsu.

The laser beams were shorter and thinner now.

They were roughly twenty centimeters long and half an index finger wide.

But their quantity, speed, and power had increased by an entire tier.

This was the true form of the Storm Release: Thousand Blades that Byakuya had developed.

The smaller the length and width, the greater the quantity, the faster the speed, and the stronger the power.

The Azure-Black Serpent seemed to crash into a dense "curtain of rain."

But this curtain of rain was extremely dangerous, tearing away her scales and wounding her flesh.

She hurriedly retreated, but the ninja refused to let the serpent off, pressing his advantage step by step.

Bone-Binding Princess began to feel despair.

It felt as if she were truly going to die.

"If I'm going to die, we're dying together!"

In Byakuya's eyes, the Azure-Black Serpent was battered beyond recognition by the Storm Release: Thousand Blades, yet this only ignited her ferocity; she actually braced against the thousand blades and lunged straight at him.

Flying Thunder God Technique!

The Azure-Black Serpent slammed into empty air.

She collapsed onto the forest floor, gasping for breath.

Byakuya's figure appeared a thousand meters away.

He was equally breathless.

Using the Storm Release: Thousand Blades as he just had naturally came with a price; his chakra was depleting at a rapid rate.

Adding in the chakra lost from using the Flying Thunder God Technique, he was already nearing his limit.

While waiting for Pakura to arrive, Byakuya hadn't been idle; he had snuck here during the day to leave behind a Flying Thunder God Formula, specifically for this moment, to evade the full-force, desperate strike of the Azure-Black Serpent.

He tossed a few Military Ration Pills into his mouth to restore his chakra.

There was no use in rushing, so he chewed them slowly.

"Thanks to my Fate Grid significantly improving the quality of my chakra, combined with all the other various enhancements, I was finally able to pull this off."

The slight improvement in his ninjutsu talent was also crucial; only with sufficient talent could he reference Senju Tobirama's ninjutsu to develop his own Storm Release.

To create a unique ninjutsu from scratch, however, Byakuya's ninjutsu talent couldn't just be slightly improved—it would need a massive boost.

The benefits of his increased stamina and vitality were clearly on display at this moment.

After half an hour, Byakuya's chakra had recovered to forty percent.

He cautiously crept toward the Azure-Black Serpent.

He stared at the massive creature before him.

"Can you speak human language?"

"Hmph! Evil ninja, do whatever you want—kill me or carve me up."

Byakuya was stunned for a moment.

Although he knew Bone-Binding Princess was a female serpent, this sweet, soft, and delicate woman's voice was just too...

It was just too jarring a shift in style.

Who would have thought that such a terrifying-looking Azure-Black Serpent would have such a pleasant voice?

"Die together!"

Catching the evil ninja off guard, Bone-Binding Princess gathered her remaining strength, opened her maw wide, and lunged.

"Water Release: Water Formation Wall."

"Ouch, it hurts! Why is there electricity in this too!"