Chapter 17

"Tamaza Ryojin!"

Shimizu suppressed the urge to strike, while Hyozuo, standing nearby, picked up Madara and pulled him out of the room. Tamaza Ryojin raised his hands above his head, a smile on his face, and spoke to Shimizu in a calm, unhurried tone.

"Don't be so anxious. They have gone to Ryuchi Cave! Isn't this the outcome you all wanted?"

"If he dies, your entire clan will pay the price for it!" Shimizu walked up to Tamaza Ryojin and issued an ultimatum.

"To show my sincerity, I will stay in your clan for a few more days!" Tamaza Ryojin nodded, knowing full well he could not leave the Uchiha compound right now, and spoke to Shimizu first.

"You are most welcome!"

"Ah...!"

A sharp pain struck from Uchiha Mingye Hozuki Gengetsu's fingertips. Then, Mingye felt the floorboards vanish beneath his feet; his body began to plummet, and after a startled cry, he crashed onto the ground.

"So young, yet so steady. You didn't even flinch when you saw me!"

Just as Mingye scrambled to his feet, a cold, sinister voice echoed in his ears. The hissing of a tongue and the constant reverberation told Mingye that he was likely not in an open space; the echoes proved the area was either enclosed or a valley. Because Mingye could not see his surroundings and could not even sense chakra here, he had no idea where the speaker was.

"Don't kill him! If this brat dies, those children of the Wind-Thunder Clan will be in big trouble!"

A massive python with pure black scales coiled before Mingye. Its head, seven or eight meters in size, inched closer to Mingye as if to swallow him whole. The small snake that had reverse-summoned Mingye to this place appeared at Mingye's neck, poking its head out to warn the giant python. The black python made a remarkably human-like frowning expression, rolled its eyes, and then leaned in toward Mingye.

"So it's Ara! Where did you find such a strange specimen? He didn't even move when he saw me, it's as if...!"

"He's blind, and you have no chakra fluctuations. How could he possibly sense your presence here?" the small snake called Ara mocked the black python with a light chuckle.

The giant python known as Manda leaned in close to Mingye, its massive head completely enveloping him. It flicked its tongue out, lightly touching Mingye's cheek. Finding that Ara had not lied, it asked impatiently:

"A blind man! Ara, I'm not saying this to be mean, but why do you bring such trash here lately? You know this is Ryuchi Cave; those without the qualifications to be here are nothing more than my meal!"

"Your name is Manda!?"

Hearing the small snake address the cold voice as Manda, Mingye grew curious. Orochimaru's summoning beast was Manda, a giant python over fifty meters long. But since he could only hear the voice and could not sense the other's chakra, he had no way to determine if this creature was the same size as the legendary Manda.

"Have you heard of me?" Manda retorted, its eyes filled with arrogance and disdain for Mingye, as if weighing whether the cost of eating this person was worth the effort.

"Come with me. I still need to take him to the Matriarch. You should know this guy is a brat from the Uchiha clan!"

Seeing Manda's eyes darting back and forth, Ara knew what the python was planning. It quickly tapped Mingye with its tail to guide him, then glared at Manda with a warning.

"Those ninjutsu fanatics—why did you bring him here? He can't even cultivate Sage Mode. Are you planning to bestow the inheritance upon this person?"

Hearing the word "Uchiha," Manda clearly felt a headache. They were a pack of mad dogs who not only bit others but often turned on their own. They were incredibly united when they were, but once a disagreement arose, it was a fight to the death; not even the bonds of brothers or father and son could stop their will to kill. Thinking of this, it abandoned the idea of swallowing Mingye whole and questioned Ara again.

"The Matriarch decides!"

"Hmph, call me when you're done. I'm going to sharpen my fangs."

Ara's words were ambiguous, though they served as a warning to Manda not to mess with the boy. It then raised its body high and slowly slithered toward a cave dwelling nearby. The movement of its massive body caused the ground to shake as if from a minor earthquake. Mingye stood beside Manda, his sensitive nerves shocked by the sudden, violent tremors. The creature's body was clearly immense, enough to cause seismic waves just by walking. Thinking back to the classic battle between Gamabunta and Shukaku in the manga, if Manda were to fight it, the battle might have been even more spectacular.

Without dwelling on the fantasy, Ara tapped Mingye's neck with its tail again. A faint trace of chakra appeared in Mingye's perception. Knowing that one must bow when under another's roof, Mingye quickly walked in the direction Ara indicated toward the place where the so-called Snake Sage resided.

"Yo!"

As Mingye walked, a scent of tobacco hit him. The pungent, fishy odor made his whole body sting, and he couldn't even take another step. Ara vanished from Mingye's body at that moment. Just as Mingye was struggling, a voice entered his ears, and his body was suppressed by a wave of pressure, forcing him to his knees.

A giant dragon head held a scroll in its mouth, upon which three characters were written: Ryuchi Cave. On the stone throne below, a giant python with protruding white scales wore a woman's floral knot, dressed like a lady, puffing on a pipe and looking at Mingye with an amused expression.

"This brat isn't one of the idiots from the Wind-Thunder Clan. Where did you kidnap such talent from?"

"Matriarch, this is the person I found in the Uchiha clan. He has awakened his eyes! And he is blind," the small snake Ara slithered to the White Snake Sage's side and replied.

"Blind?!"

The White Snake Sage flicked its pipe, and a cloud of white smoke enveloped Mingye, lifting him into the air and pulling him forward. Mingye, his body controlled, suddenly felt a sharp pain in his wrist and felt his blood rapidly draining away. Pale-faced, he struggled to speak to the White Snake Sage: "If our clan has offended you, then I apologize. But if you truly kill me, perhaps the Wind-Thunder Clan will have no choice but to become your blood-food in the future!" "I have never lacked for blood-food. Being afraid of death is just being afraid of death; threatening me is a joke. What could you possibly threaten me with?"

Mingye's words were nothing but a joke in the eyes of the White Snake Sage. As it spoke with disdain, the blood drawn from Mingye's body turned black, swallowing everything around it and rapidly expanding. Milky-white sage energy sprayed from the White Snake Sage's mouth, merging into the black sphere, which then seemed purified, turning white.

The White Snake Sage did not feel joy; instead, its brow furrowed. After a deep breath, it put Mingye down and stanched his wounds. "Not a reincarnated soul. I didn't expect someone with such good aptitude not to be a reincarnated soul. Then how did you awaken those so-called unique eyes? Tell me! Perhaps if I'm in a good mood after you finish, I'll take you as my disciple!"

Mingye was cursing himself eighty thousand times over in his heart. He had thought that even if he wasn't treated as well as Jiraiya was at Mount Myoboku, he wouldn't be in any mortal danger. But now he realized he had overestimated himself. The various snakes of Ryuchi Cave—the two he had seen so far—clearly didn't care about the Uchiha clan at all. They just wanted to treat him as blood-food; perhaps in their eyes, he was just a braised pork dish, only slightly tastier than an ordinary person.

He helplessly recounted the entire process of his eye-awakening and subsequent blindness. The White Snake Sage nodded slightly and looked at Ara. "Take him to the Dragon Transformation Pool. If he cannot sense the existence of 'Qi' within three days, feed him to Manda!"

"What about the Wind-Thunder Clan!"

"If they die, they die. At worst, I'll just throw the scroll back into the forest; whoever finds it gets the inheritance. It doesn't matter who gets it anyway! Kid, don't blame others. This world is inherently fickle; following the natural order or defying the heavens are both just ways of surviving. But there are those who act as they please, moving with their hearts, unbound by any law. If you can sense the 'Qi' within three days, I will teach you the sage arts of my Ryuchi Cave. If you cannot, you would die upon returning anyway, so you might as well die here early. An early death is an early rebirth; consider it a karmic connection between us!"