You Can Think of It as a Double-Edged Sword

Orochimaru's spy.

Ling Xuan understood.

"Thank you for the offer." Ling Xuan stood and discreetly positioned himself between Kabuto and Sasuke. "His situation is rather special, so it wouldn't be appropriate to let an outsider treat him. We can handle it ourselves."

The smile on Kabuto Yakushi's face stiffened. Looking at the black-haired boy with his deep, unreadable eyes, he felt as though his disguise were completely transparent to him. Kabuto gave Ling Xuan a long look, then said nothing more. He simply smiled, nodded, and turned to leave.

Once the room held only the members of Team 7, Ling Xuan went over to Sasuke, who was still unconscious.

He didn't rest. Instead, he took out a new blank scroll and a pen.

Kakashi looked at him. "What are you going to do now?"

"Analyze it, and... design something." Ling Xuan's answer was simple and direct.

He studied the Cursed Seal on Sasuke's neck, which he had temporarily sealed. His eyes held neither sympathy nor pity, only the pure, icy curiosity of a scientist examining a rare specimen.

The first stage of isolation was complete. Next came the reverse engineering.

Orochimaru, you gave Sasuke a deadly curse, but you also handed me the perfect key to peer into the source of your power.

The days in the Central Tower were a rare calm before the storm during the Chunin Ninja Exams.

The teams that had passed the second exam had all gained some precious time to recover after enduring the brutal fighting in the Forest of Death.

But the invisible pressure of competition in the air only grew. Everyone knew that what awaited them next would be more direct, more brutal individual matches.

The atmosphere in Team 7's room was rather tense.

Because of Sasuke's serious injuries and his own helplessness in the face of Orochimaru, Naruto had grown unusually quiet. Most of the time, he sat cross-legged in a corner, desperately working to refine and control his chakra.

That battle had taught him that passion and perseverance alone weren't nearly enough.

Sakura stayed by Sasuke's bedside, caring for him attentively. She changed the damp towel on his forehead at regular intervals and checked his condition.

After witnessing Ling Xuan's astonishing Medical Ninjutsu, she had also begun poring over the introductory Medical Ninjutsu scroll Kakashi had given her, skipping meals and sleep in the hope that she could do her part.

As for Ling Xuan, he had turned the entire room into his temporary laboratory, devoting nearly all his attention to studying the "incomplete Cursed Seal" on Sasuke.

He needed no precise instruments. Ling Xuan's Eye of Truth was the finest microscope and analyzer in the world, capable of seeing straight to the heart of things.

The protective shell created by his Cage of Isolation sealing technique provided a perfect experimental environment, one that wouldn't cause Sasuke any further harm.

"So that's how it is... The Cursed Seal's essence is a transformation of a living being, based on an incomplete form of Senjutsu Chakra."

Ling Xuan's fingertips brushed lightly over the sealed area. In his field of vision, countless streams of information refreshed like a waterfall.

He saw the evil chakra Orochimaru had left behind continually trying to infect Sasuke's cells like a virus, forcibly altering the nature of the chakra within him.

This change brought an explosive surge of power, but at the cost of placing an immense strain on the body and gradually subjugating the mind.

"Orochimaru's ambition goes far beyond simply taking over a body. He's sowing seeds, scattering pieces of his will and power among the vessels he's chosen. Then he watches and sifts through them, waiting for the perfect fruit to ripen."

Ling Xuan knew the core of Orochimaru's plan, and the "flaw" he had discovered now stood out all the more clearly.

"Because the process was interrupted, the Cursed Seal's core circuit developed an irreparable break. That prevents Orochimaru's will from resonating perfectly with the seal. In other words..."

"Sasuke can draw on the power the Cursed Seal gives him, but it will be extremely difficult for Orochimaru to control him through it. What's more, that break also gives me a way to interfere with the technique, or even rewrite it entirely."

Ling Xuan spread out a new scroll and began sketching out his calculations. He wasn't figuring out how to remove the Cursed Seal, because he knew that, given Sasuke's current hunger for power, he would never agree to it.

Instead, he was designing a new kind of regulator: a supplementary seal that would let Sasuke use the Cursed Seal's power safely to a certain extent, while minimizing Orochimaru's influence.

Over the past few days, in addition to studying the Cursed Seal, Ling Xuan's Shadow Clones had also made initial contact with Zabuza and Haku in the distant Land of Waves through a newly established encrypted channel.

Intelligence from the Land of Waves kept pouring in.

Zabuza was swiftly consolidating the vast underground network left behind after Gato's death, while Haku had become his shadow, handling matters that were unsuitable for the Demon to deal with personally. They had established a foothold in the Land of Waves and begun extending their intelligence-gathering operations into neighboring countries.

Everything was going according to Ling Xuan's expectations.

Several days later, Sasuke finally stirred awake.

"Where... am I?" He struggled to sit up, and the first thing he felt was pain throughout his body.

"You're awake." Ling Xuan's calm voice reached him.

Only then did Sasuke see Naruto, Sakura, and Ling Xuan gathered around his bed. He remembered everything that had happened in the forest: the man who had seemed like a nightmare, and his humiliating defeat.

He abruptly covered his left shoulder, where the Cursed Seal was.

"That thing..." His voice brimmed with fear and resentment.

"I sealed it temporarily," Ling Xuan said calmly. "It won't flare up again, but it hasn't disappeared either."

Ling Xuan explained his analysis of the Cursed Seal and its incomplete nature in the simplest terms.

"You can think of it as a double-edged sword. It can give you power, but it will also keep eating away at you. Orochimaru wanted to control you through it, but my interference stopped him. Now, you're the one holding the hilt."

Sasuke fell silent. He touched his left shoulder, sensing the evil yet powerful force hidden beneath his skin. A complicated light flickered in his eyes.

"I understand," Sasuke said at last.

He didn't say yes or no. But Ling Xuan knew he had already made his choice.

Just then, the door to the room swung open.

The chief examiner, Mitaraishi Anko, walked in with several Konoha jonin.

"All right, brats, break time is over." Anko wore an excited grin. "Some people passed, which means others were eliminated. There are only seven teams left that passed the second exam, and that's still too many."