Tell Me, What Did You See?

Ling Xuan held neither Kunai nor any other weapon; he simply held his fingers together like a blade, a layer of nearly invisible, pale cyan chakra airflow swirling around his fingertips.

"Puchi."

A faint sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh rang out.

The Rain Ninja captain's body stiffened abruptly. He looked down in disbelief at the hole precisely bored through his chest, the luster in his eyes rapidly fading.

Having succeeded with a single strike, Ling Xuan did not even spare him a second glance, his figure vanishing once more.

He was like a phantom on the battlefield; every time he appeared, it was accompanied by the fall of a Rain Ninja. His attacks were crisp, clean, and lethal, devoid of any wasted movement, each one striking the enemy's most vulnerable vital point with pinpoint accuracy.

In less than thirty seconds, the battle was over.

All three Rain Ninja were killed on the spot, and Ling Xuan retrieved their target for this mission—the Book of Heaven—from the captain's robes.

"Let's go."

Without a moment's hesitation, Ling Xuan immediately led his still-shocked teammates away from this place of trouble.

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

They realized then that what Ling Xuan had shown in the Land of Waves might not have been his full strength. This teammate, who was usually as quiet as a scholar, became more like a pure assassin than any enemy once he started fighting.

Successfully obtaining the Heaven and Earth Scrolls brought a sense of relief to Naruto and Sakura, but Ling Xuan's expression grew even more solemn than before.

Because just a moment ago, he had felt a gaze.

A cold, aggressive gaze that seemed to pierce through one's very soul flashed and vanished from some unknown depth of the forest.

This was definitely not something an ordinary genin could possess, which left only one possibility.

"Something has been drawn to us by our fight just now," Ling Xuan said, stopping in his tracks with a low voice.

The surrounding forest had become deathly silent at some point.

The wind had stopped, and the chirping of insects and birds had vanished entirely. A nauseating pressure, filled with evil and ominous intent, descended like a mountain, making it impossible for the others to catch their breath.

Naruto and Sakura's bodies began to tremble uncontrollably, and Sasuke's face turned deathly pale. He activated his Sharingan, but he could only see a chaotic, tangled mass of chakra rapidly closing in on them!

It was here!

A gust of wind blew without warning, and a snake-like figure appeared on a tree branch in front of them.

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

He simply stood there, doing nothing, yet the pressure radiating from his very existence—as if he were a natural predator—plunged the three genin of Team 7 into absolute terror.

The moment Ling Xuan's Eye of Truth saw this person, it issued a shrill, unprecedented alarm!

What he saw was no longer mere chakra, but a blasphemy against the very concept of "life" itself—a being stitched together from countless suffering souls, complex genes, and forbidden techniques!

Inside this person's body, it was as if a black hole made of hatred and desire resided, greedily devouring everything around it.

Orochimaru!

"Hehehehe... found you, found you..." Orochimaru's raspy voice sounded like the hissing of a viper. He extended his long tongue to lick his lips, his golden slit pupils locked firmly onto Sasuke Uchiha.

"What a wonderful body... pure Uchiha bloodline, the perfect vessel... you are mine."

"Who... who are you?" Sasuke asked, his voice trembling as he fought against the fear that had seeped into his very marrow.

"I am one who longs to witness the truth of all techniques and master them," Orochimaru said with a smile, his figure suddenly vanishing from the tree.

The next moment, he had already appeared right in front of Sasuke!

Too fast! So fast that even Sasuke's Sharingan could not track his movements!

"Let me see your capacity, Sasuke-kun."

Orochimaru threw a punch. Sasuke tried his best to block it, but it felt as if he had been struck by a giant elephant; he was sent flying backward, slamming hard into a tree and spitting out a mouthful of blood.

"Sasuke!" Seeing this, Naruto overcame his fear and roared as he charged forward.

"In the way." Orochimaru didn't even look, merely waving a hand, and an invisible, immense force sent Naruto flying away.

The gap in strength was despairing.

Just as Orochimaru prepared to walk toward Sasuke to leave the "Cursed Seal of Heaven"—a mark representing both curse and power—on his neck, Ling Xuan moved.

He knew he could not face Orochimaru head-on right now; any attack in such a contest would be meaningless.

But he had to stop this, not for Sasuke's sake, but to maintain the balance of the chessboard. Sasuke, this chess piece, could not be contaminated by an external variable like Orochimaru this early.

He did not rush forward; instead, he took out from his robes the Domain of Silence sealing scroll he had prepared for Zabuza but never ended up using!

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

"Although it's incomplete... it should buy some time."

Ling Xuan threw the scroll violently between Orochimaru and Sasuke, his hands forming seals in a blur!

"Seal!"

The scroll exploded in mid-air, and countless complex runes instantly spread out, forming a distorted, invisible force field that enveloped a ten-meter radius!

Orochimaru, who was walking toward Sasuke, suddenly felt a faint, abnormal stagnation in the flow of chakra within his body!

The massive amount of chakra he had mobilized to cast the Cursed Seal technique was unexpectedly and forcibly disrupted by this invisible force!

"Hmm?" For the first time, Orochimaru wore an expression of genuine surprise. He halted his steps, his golden snake-like pupils turning toward the black-haired youth who had remained unusually calm from the very beginning.

"Interesting... truly, how very interesting..." He stared at Ling Xuan, his eyes filled with a morbid ecstasy and a desire for experimentation. "Not only a descendant of the Uchiha, but to think there is also a brat who has touched this level within the realm of rules."

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

The Domain of Silence lasted for less than a second before collapsing due to energy depletion.

But that one second was enough.

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

Orochimaru laughed, unbothered. He extended his long neck, moving like a serpent, and arrived instantly before Ling Xuan to scrutinize him at close range.

"Your eyes... are very special. Tell me, what do you see?"

Looking into those golden snake-like pupils, Ling Xuan felt for the first time as if his own being were about to be tainted by the other's filthy soul.

Orochimaru's oppressive aura did not make Ling Xuan flinch; he simply opened his mouth slowly.