Tell Me, What Did You See?

Ling Xuan had no kunai or any other weapon in his hand. He simply held two fingers together like a blade, their tips wreathed in a nearly invisible stream of pale blue chakra.

"Pfft."

A faint sound of a blade piercing flesh.

The Rain Ninja captain's body stiffened. He lowered his head in disbelief, staring at the precise hole through his chest as the light in his eyes quickly faded.

Ling Xuan had struck his target. Without even sparing him another glance, he vanished again.

He was like a ghost on the battlefield. Each time he appeared, another Rain Ninja fell. His attacks were decisive, swift, and deadly, without a single wasted movement. Every strike found the weakest point in the enemy's defenses.

The battle was over in less than thirty seconds.

All three Rain Ninja lay dead. Ling Xuan searched the captain's clothes and retrieved the item they had come for: the Book of Heaven.

"Let's go."

Without a moment's delay, Ling Xuan led his still-shocked teammates away from the scene.

Watching Ling Xuan's clean, efficient killing technique, Sasuke and Naruto both felt a chill creep through them.

Only then did they realize that what Ling Xuan had shown in the Land of Waves might not have been all he could do. Their teammate, usually as quiet as a scholar, became more like a pure-blooded killer than any enemy when he fought.

Securing the Heaven and Earth Scrolls allowed Naruto and Sakura to breathe a sigh of relief, but Ling Xuan's expression grew even graver.

Because just moments ago, he had sensed a gaze.

A cold, invasive gaze that seemed to see straight through a person's soul had flashed from somewhere deep in the forest.

No ordinary Genin could possess a gaze like that. There was only one possibility.

"Something was drawn here by our fight," Ling Xuan said in a low voice, stopping in his tracks.

At some point, the forest around them had fallen deathly silent.

The wind had stopped. The chirping of insects and birds had vanished. A nauseating pressure, steeped in evil and ill omen, descended like a mountain, leaving the others struggling to breathe.

Naruto and Sakura began to tremble uncontrollably. Sasuke had gone pale, too. He activated his Sharingan, but all he could see was a chaotic mass of chakra rushing toward them at incredible speed!

It was here!

A sudden gust of wind swept through, and a snake-like figure appeared on a branch in front of them.

The newcomer had long black hair, golden, snake-like vertical pupils, skin as pale as death, and a revolting tongue that could stretch several meters.

He merely stood there, doing nothing, yet the pressure radiating from him—like that of a natural predator—drove the three Genin of Team 7 into utter terror.

The instant Ling Xuan's Eye of Truth saw the man, it let out an ear-splitting alarm unlike any before!

What he saw was no longer mere chakra. It was the ultimate desecration of life itself: countless tormented souls, a jumble of genes, and forbidden techniques forcefully stitched together!

It was as if a black hole made of hatred and desire dwelled within the man, greedily devouring everything around him.

Orochimaru!

"Hehehehe... I've found you. I've found you..." Orochimaru's hoarse voice hissed like a venomous snake. He stuck out his long tongue to lick his lips, his golden vertical pupils fixed on Sasuke Uchiha.

"What a fine body... pure Uchiha blood, a perfect vessel... You're mine."

"Y-You... Who are you?" Sasuke asked, forcing the words out through his deep-rooted fear.

"I'm someone who longs to witness the truth behind every technique and master them all," Orochimaru said with a smile. His figure suddenly vanished from the tree.

In the next instant, he was right in front of Sasuke!

He was too fast! Even Sasuke's Sharingan couldn't follow his movements!

"Let's see what you're made of, Sasuke-kun."

Orochimaru threw a punch. Sasuke fought with all his might to block it, but it was like being struck by a giant elephant. He went flying and slammed into a tree, spitting out blood.

"Sasuke!" Seeing this, Naruto overcame his fear and charged forward with a roar.

"You're in the way." Orochimaru didn't even look at him. He merely waved a hand, and an invisible force sent Naruto flying.

The gap in their strength was despairing.

Just as Orochimaru was about to approach Sasuke and leave the "Cursed Seal of Heaven," a mark of both power and curse, on his neck—

Ling Xuan moved.

He knew he couldn't face Orochimaru head-on yet. Any attack would be meaningless in a clash like this.

But he had to stop this—not for Sasuke, but to preserve the balance of the game board. Sasuke was still a piece that couldn't be tainted too soon by Orochimaru, an outside variable.

He didn't charge forward. Instead, he pulled from his clothes the sealing scroll for the Domain of Silence that he had prepared for Zabuza but never used!

It was an incomplete prototype that could only be activated once, but Ling Xuan had no other choice.

"It's incomplete, but... it should buy us a little time."

Ling Xuan hurled the scroll between Orochimaru and Sasuke, then swiftly formed Hand Seals!

"Seal!"

The scroll burst open midair. Countless complex runes spread out in an instant, forming an invisible, distorted field that covered a radius of ten meters!

As Orochimaru approached Sasuke, he suddenly felt the chakra within his body falter, ever so slightly.

The massive amount of chakra he had gathered to use the Cursed Seal Technique had been forcibly disrupted by this invisible force!

"Hm?" For the first time, Orochimaru looked genuinely surprised. He stopped and turned his golden, snake-like eyes toward the black-haired boy who had remained unusually calm from the very beginning.

"Interesting... How very interesting..." Orochimaru gazed at Ling Xuan, his eyes filled with feverish delight and a morbid curiosity. "Not only is there a descendant of the Uchiha, but there's also a brat who has touched this level in the realm of rules."

"You... interest me more than Sasuke-kun."

The Domain of Silence lasted less than a second before collapsing as its energy ran out.

But that second was enough.

"The signal Kakashi-sensei left has already been activated," Ling Xuan said calmly, looking at Orochimaru.

Orochimaru smiled, unconcerned. He stretched his long neck like a snake, reaching Ling Xuan in an instant to inspect him at close range.

"Your eyes... They're quite special. Tell me, what did you see?"

Looking into those golden, snake-like pupils, Ling Xuan felt for the first time as if his own being might be tainted by Orochimaru's foul soul.

Orochimaru's pressure did not make Ling Xuan retreat. He simply began to speak slowly.