Opportunity Arrives

Land of Rice Fields, deep mountains.

Yunju followed behind Kimimaro, passing through a narrow gap in the canyon. The cliffs on both sides towered into the clouds, leaving only a sliver of sky visible overhead. The path beneath their feet grew narrower and narrower until it became a cave barely wide enough for one person to pass through.

The cave was dark, and the damp air was thick with the smell of earth and moss. Yunju's fingers brushed against indentations in the rock wall—not natural formations, but carvings. Patterns of snake scales, row after row, stretched along the inner walls toward the depths.

After walking for about ten minutes, light appeared ahead.

Not sunlight, but torchlight.

Yunju stepped out of the cave, and the sight before him made him pause.

Sheer cliffs surrounded them on all sides, forming a natural basin. Several rows of stone buildings were scattered across the valley floor. They were not tall, but they were heavy and solid, as though they had grown from the cliff walls themselves. At the center of the valley was a flat training ground, with ninja tools and shattered wooden posts strewn around it.

But the most eye-catching sight was the mountain directly opposite the cave exit.

The entire mountainside had been carved into a gigantic snake skull. Its hollow eye sockets were over ten meters tall, and the slightly parted jaws formed an entrance leading into the mountain. Torchlight shone from its eye sockets and mouth, making the skull seem alive.

The main base of Sound Village, the valley stronghold in the Land of Rice Fields.

Yunju glanced at the snake skull before looking away. He had seen too many of Orochimaru's things: snake bones, shed skins, snake eyes. This stronghold merely enlarged those elements to the scale of a mountain.

"Keep up." Kimimaro did not look back as he headed straight for the training ground.

Four people stood on the training ground.

Sakon and Ukon, Kidomaru, Tayuya, and Jirobo. Everyone from the Sound Five except Kimimaro was present.

Sakon leaned against a wooden post at the edge of the training ground, a blade of grass hanging from his mouth. When he saw Yunju approach, his eyes narrowed slightly.

"Yo, you're back?"

Tayuya sat on a nearby rock, spinning a flute in her hand without looking up. Kidomaru stood in the center of the training ground, his six arms folded across his chest as he studied Yunju with interest. Jirobo sat in a corner like a mountain of flesh, his expression dull.

Kimimaro walked to the center of the training ground and turned around.

"Yunju."

"Here."

"Perhaps they want to see how much you've improved over the past half month." Kimimaro's voice was calm. "Have a match. None of them will use their curse marks. One-on-one sparring."

Yunju looked at Sakon, then at Kidomaru, calculating rapidly. Without their curse marks, the Sound Five were probably somewhere between special jonin and elite jonin. Against four of them in succession, he could not possibly win. But this was not a battle he needed to win.

It was a test.

And a display.

"Fine." Yunju stepped onto the training ground.

Sakon was the first to step forward, spitting out the grass stem in his mouth.

"I'll go first."

Yunju did not waste words. He attacked immediately.

He opened with Lightning Release: Flash. In the instant Sakon was blinded, Yunju's Hidden Shadow Snake Hands had already coiled around his ankle and hurled him away. Sakon adjusted his posture in midair and landed. The moment his foot touched the ground, a wind blade sliced past his ear. He cursed and accelerated to full speed, but Yunju's defense was like water—not blocking his attacks head-on, but diverting them elsewhere.

They fought for around three minutes before Sakon voluntarily took a step back.

"Enough." Sakon rubbed his wrist. "You brat really are more troublesome than before."

Kidomaru was second. His multi-armed fighting style was unlike any opponent Yunju had faced before—fists and kicks struck from different angles at once, making him impossible to guard against. But Yunju raised an Earth Flow Wall before him, blocking Kidomaru's frontal assault, then cast Water Release: Water Prison Technique from the side. Kidomaru retreated and avoided being trapped.

"Slippery," Kidomaru commented, withdrawing.

Tayuya went third. The moment her flute began to play, Yunju's Sound Burst pressed down on it, high-frequency sound waves directly covering the frequency range of her music. Tayuya frowned, put away her flute, and chose close-quarters taijutsu instead. After several exchanges, she too withdrew.

Jirobo went last, but he stopped on his own after less than two minutes. It was not that he could not win, but that he could not be bothered. He specialized in Earth Release and chakra absorption, and without activating his curse mark, he was simply too slow to touch Yunju.

After four sparring matches, Yunju had neither won nor lost.

But he had gained something more important than victory or defeat.

Over the next few days, Yunju shut himself in the stronghold's training room and repeatedly reviewed every detail of each battle. Sakon's taijutsu rhythm, Kidomaru's multi-angle attack patterns, Tayuya's experience in sound-wave frequency clashes, Jirobo's use of strength—he broke them all down, absorbed them, and turned them into his own.

Then he began trying to fuse them.

He had long mastered Water Release and Earth Release simultaneously. But "using them at the same time" and "fusing them into a new technique" were entirely different concepts.

Water Prison Technique required him to maintain a stable sphere of water. Earth Prison Dome—he had learned that technique from Jirobo—was a B-rank Earth Release technique that used thick stone walls to create an enclosed space with chakra-absorbing properties. It took him three days to learn Earth Prison Dome, then another day to compare it with Water Prison Technique.

One used earth, while the other used water. One absorbed chakra, while the other restrained movement.

What if he combined them?

Yunju began to experiment. On his first attempt, the earth walls and water separated completely. The water soaked the walls, softening them until they collapsed. On the second attempt, the water seeped into the walls and created a muddy ruin. The third, fourth, fifth...

Until the seventh day, he succeeded. Yunju called the technique: "Mud Release: Sinking Domain."

Yunju stood in the center of the training ground, his hands forming seals.

The ground rose. Not an ordinary Earth Flow Wall, but four heavy walls of rock and earth rising from all directions at once, joining overhead to form a sealed cubic prison. Immediately afterward, murky mudwater seeped from gaps in the walls and rapidly filled half the cage's interior.

Chakra absorption, reduced movement, sealed space.

It was not a simple stacking of two techniques, but a completely new and complete technique.

Yunju maintained the technique's form and felt the flow of chakra—stable, controllable, with moderate consumption. He marked it in his mind: small-scale control, suitable for capturing and restraining targets, unsuitable for open terrain.

"Not bad."

Kimimaro's voice came from the edge of the training ground.

Yunju released the ninjutsu and turned to look at him. He did not know when Kimimaro had arrived. His white hair stood out sharply in the dim light. He walked to the center of the training ground, crouched down, and touched the mudwater left on the ground with a finger.

"Mud Release." Yunju smiled. "A fusion of Water Release and Earth Release. It isn't a bloodline limit. Anyone can learn it as long as they have talent and enough chakra control."

Kimimaro said nothing. Yunju's reflection appeared in his green eyes.

"Your ability to create and learn techniques is indeed very strong." Kimimaro's voice remained calm, but Yunju could tell it was not mere politeness. "Lord Orochimaru will definitely like someone like you."

He paused.

"Do not waste Lord Orochimaru's teachings."

"I won't."

Kimimaro said nothing more and turned to leave the training ground.

Over the following days, the atmosphere in the stronghold grew heavier by the day.

There had been no word from Orochimaru or Kabuto. One day, two days, three days.

Sakon began pacing frequently near the cave entrance. Kidomaru stopped training and sat every day in one of the snake skull's eye sockets, staring at the distant sky. Tayuya's flute music grew lower and more somber. Even Jirobo began eating less.

Kimimaro remained expressionless, but Yunju noticed that he used chakra threads more and more often—that was Kimimaro's habit whenever he was suppressing the illness in his body.

"I'm going out to look."

On the fourth day, Sakon was the first to lose patience. Kidomaru jumped down from the snake skull, Tayuya put away her flute, and Jirobo stood up. The four of them stood together and looked at Kimimaro.

Kimimaro was silent for a long time.

"Go."

The four did not waste words. They turned and vanished through the cave entrance. Only Kimimaro and Yunju remained in the stronghold.

The silence was terrifying.

Kimimaro did not speak, and neither did Yunju. They sat at opposite ends of the training ground, one with his eyes closed, the other looking up at the sky.

Another day passed.

At dusk, hurried footsteps came from the cave entrance.

Yunju stood up, and Kimimaro opened his eyes.

Sakon, Kidomaru, Tayuya, and Jirobo emerged one after another. Behind them was Kabuto, and behind him, two people were half-carrying, half-supporting Orochimaru.

Orochimaru wore a loose black robe, its hood concealing half his face. His arms hung at his sides in an unnatural posture—as though they were two things that did not belong to him, suspended from his shoulders. Every step he took was slow, not because he was weak, but because his balance was off.

Yunju stood where he was and watched Orochimaru be helped into the snake skull. Kimimaro followed after him without looking back. Kabuto remained on the training ground.

Yunju walked up to Kabuto.

"What happened to Lord Orochimaru?"

Kabuto pushed up his glasses, his expression so calm that it did not seem as if he were discussing a seriously injured man.

"He fought the Third Hokage."

Yunju's heart jolted.

"The Third... is dead."

Kabuto nodded.

"Lord Orochimaru's hands were sealed as well."

Yunju looked at Kabuto without speaking.

Kabuto raised a hand and gestured at the condition of Orochimaru's arms.

"Dead Demon Consuming Seal. The Third used it to seal the souls of Lord Orochimaru's hands." Kabuto spoke softly, as though describing a technical issue that required precision. "There are no external injuries on the arms themselves, but they are useless now. Blackened, heavy, in excruciating pain. They cannot be touched or moved. He cannot form hand seals."

Yunju's mind raced—unable to form hand seals meant Orochimaru could not even perform the most basic Three-Body Technique.

"Living Corpse Reincarnation still has a three-year cooldown," Kabuto continued. "During those three years, Lord Orochimaru cannot form hand seals himself. For complex ninjutsu—Impure World Reincarnation, large-scale Fire Release—I will have to form seals for him and assist with their release."

Yunju nodded without asking further questions.

He turned and walked toward his quarters, his steps steady and his expression unchanged.

But with his hands in his pockets, his fingertips trembled slightly. Not from fear.

But because he had finally seen it.

An opportunity.

Orochimaru's arms were sealed. He could not form hand seals and could not reincarnate for three years. Kabuto was strong, but Kabuto was only one person. Kimimaro's body would not last much longer. The other four members of the Sound Five had already judged Yunju's strength, but they did not know what his true trump card was. No one knew.

Yunju entered his room, closed the iron door, and slowly slid down the wall to sit on the floor.

He closed his eyes, and images of Leaf Village surfaced in his mind—the gates, the main road, Ichiraku Ramen, the training grounds, the stone faces of the Hokage.

He was going there.

Not now, but soon.

Yunju opened his eyes and looked at his hands in the darkness.

Wait for an opportunity.

An opportunity when no one was paying attention to him.

Then he would disappear.