Cursed Seal

Takuma remained where he stood.

He had witnessed the battle between Tetsu and Yakumo—or rather, it was less of a battle and more of a one-sided crushing by Orochimaru.

From Tetsu's earth prison to Orochimaru bursting through the wall, and from Yakumo unleashing her genjutsu to it being violently shattered, the entire process took less than a minute.

Tetsu lay on the ground unconscious, his right arm swollen and purple, with bloody marks on his neck where a snake had constricted him.

Yakumo had lost consciousness, the fragments of her scroll scattered across the ground.

Orochimaru strolled slowly toward Takuma. He stopped in front of him, the distance between them less than a meter.

At this proximity, Takuma could clearly see the fine snake-scale patterns on Orochimaru's face, as well as his own reflection in those vertical pupils.

"Your two teammates," Orochimaru tilted his head, his tone carrying a hint of inquisitive amusement, "one risked his life to hold me back, and the other turned back to save him. You, however, have just stood here without running. Is it that you don't dare to run, or do you know that running is useless?"

"Both," Takuma said. His voice was raspy, his throat feeling parched as if suppressed by the killing intent, but he forced himself to look Orochimaru in the eye.

"Excellent. It has been a long time since I've seen a brat with such self-awareness." Orochimaru licked the corner of his mouth, the arc of his tongue sliding past his lips making Takuma's scalp tingle. His gaze swept over Takuma, appraising him like a top-tier chef examining a rare ingredient that had just come into his possession. "I am very curious to see where your limits lie."

Takuma gritted his teeth, Chakra surging from his Dantian and flowing through his meridians toward his limbs.

Water-style Chakra coated his left hand, while Earth-style Chakra condensed in his right.

Even if he couldn't win, he had to fight.

Every second he stalled was a second gained.

Although Tetsu and Yakumo were unconscious, they were at least still breathing.

As long as he could hold out until Orochimaru left, or until someone arrived, they still had a chance.

Takuma didn't think he could win, but perhaps he could withstand a few moves and rely on his Healing Factor to hold on a little longer.

Watching him prepare for battle, the arc of Orochimaru's mouth widened slightly.

He didn't adopt any fighting stance, his hands even hanging at his sides, standing there casually. "Then let me see where your limits lie."

Before the last word had even landed, Orochimaru's figure vanished from where he stood.

Takuma's Spider-Sense triggered a warning at the same instant, as if countless blades were stabbing at him from all directions simultaneously.

His body reacted faster than his brain, lunging hard to the left while he swung his kunai in a backhand upward strike.

But the movement was only half-finished.

Orochimaru's palm reached out from the right, seemingly slow, yet it precisely seized the gap in Takuma's defense.

Five fingers clamped onto his throat like iron pincers, the web of his hand locking above the Adam's apple, with his thumb and index finger pressing against the carotid arteries on either side.

Takuma hadn't even seen how he moved before his body was lifted off the ground.

A sense of suffocation surged instantly, Takuma's vision began to blacken, and his ears were filled with the roaring sound of his own blood rushing in reverse.

He instinctively swung his kunai to slash at Orochimaru's arm, but the blade stopped three inches from the other man's sleeve.

A transparent barrier of Chakra blocked the kunai, and no matter how much force he applied, he couldn't cut through.

Orochimaru held Takuma with one hand, raising him to eye level.

He looked at Takuma's face, flushed red from lack of oxygen, and at the unyielding light in those eyes, a flash of satisfaction crossing his own.

"Good physical constitution." He repeated what he had said before, but this time, there was a hint of certainty in his tone. "Your Chakra reserves are top-tier among your peers, and your recovery ability is even more extraordinary. You are very suitable for bearing the Cursed Seal."

Takuma's pupils contracted violently.

The biochemical enhancement Orochimaru refined from Jugo's bodily fluids could forcibly increase a host's Chakra and physical functions, but the survival rate was extremely low.

The rest would either turn into mindless monsters or die directly during the transformation process.

Sasuke in the original story had survived, relying on the Uchiha bloodline and willpower. Could he do it?

He didn't have time to think further.

The pain in his neck arrived instantly, as if someone had driven a red-hot branding iron directly into his carotid artery.

Orochimaru bit down, his teeth piercing skin, muscle, and blood vessels, as a cold, tyrannical, and alien Chakra poured into his body through the wound.

That power was completely different from the Chakra originally in his body—cold, manic, and aggressive, like a hungry python that, once inside his meridians, began to frantically devour every bit of energy it could find.

Takuma felt his body being torn in two.

One half was the defensive line composed of the Senju bloodline and the Wolverine Healing Factor, with cells constantly regenerating to repair the tissues destroyed by the Cursed Seal's power; the other half was the Cursed Seal's crazed, encroaching erosion, its cold Chakra like countless fine needles stabbing into every cell, attempting to reshape his body into a vessel suitable for housing the seal.

The two forces engaged in a life-or-death tug-of-war within him.

Every inch of skin burned, every muscle tore and healed, and his blood surged through his veins as if it were boiling.

Takuma opened his mouth to scream, but no sound could escape his throat; only hoarse gasps squeezed out of his windpipe, like a beast pinned to a chopping block.

Orochimaru released his grip, and Takuma fell to the ground, his body curling into a ball, convulsing violently.

Black Cursed Seal patterns emerged on the surface of his skin, spreading like flames from his neck to his cheeks, shoulders, and arms, each expansion accompanied by a new wave of excruciating pain.

Wherever the Cursed Seal patterns passed, his skin turned an unnatural dark gray, only to return to its original color under the influence of the Healing Factor.

Then the Cursed Seal eroded again, and the healing repaired it again, over and over, as if his body were a battlefield being fought over back and forth.

"Interesting."

Orochimaru crouched down, observing Takuma's reaction at close range.

His expression was as if he were watching a fascinating experiment, his eyes filled with wonder and fanaticism. "The healing ability is actually able to go head-to-head with the Cursed Seal... According to the speed of the Cursed Seal's erosion, you should have fully transformed within three seconds. But your cells are resisting spontaneously, slowing the erosion speed by dozens of times. This isn't something the Senju bloodline could do; this is something else entirely."

He reached out, his fingertips pressing against the Cursed Seal on Takuma's neck, feeling the intense confrontation between the two forces beneath. The regeneration speed of the Healing Factor was just a fraction faster than the erosion of the Cursed Seal, but the power of the Cursed Seal was inexhaustible, while the Healing Factor relied on Takuma's own stamina, which would eventually run out.

For now, the two sides had barely reached a fragile balance, but as soon as Takuma's physical strength waned, the Cursed Seal would gain the upper hand.

"How wonderful." Orochimaru's smile became scorching and dangerous, his golden vertical pupils burning with irrepressible excitement. "The Senju bloodline and some unknown healing ability coexist in your body, while simultaneously forming a three-way dynamic balance with the Cursed Seal. A specimen like this cannot be found anywhere else in the ninja world. You are more valuable for research than Sasuke."

He licked his lips, his gaze unable to move away from Takuma, as if considering whether to take him away right then and there.

In the distance, several Chakra fluctuations were approaching rapidly.

It wasn't the speed of ordinary ninjas; it was the movement speed of the Anbu, and there was more than one.

Orochimaru was very familiar with the texture of one of those Chakra signatures—Mitarashi Anko, his former student, and one of the test subjects on whom he had personally planted a Cursed Seal.

They had arrived faster than he anticipated.

Orochimaru straightened up, turned his head to glance in the direction of the incoming Chakra fluctuations, and then looked down at Takuma, who was still struggling in agony on the ground.

"It seems the collection for today must end here," he said softly, his tone carrying a hint of regret, yet devoid of any panic.

He pulled an Explosive Tag from his sleeve and casually stuck it onto a nearby tree trunk as a greeting gift for the Anbu, then stepped back twice, his figure beginning to blur.

"Mori Takuma," Orochimaru's voice faded, like a whisper in the wind, "when we meet again, I hope you can bring me more surprises."

The gray figure vanished completely into the shadows of the dense forest, leaving behind only the unconscious Yakumo, the poisoned Tetsu, and a Takuma curled up in a pile of dead leaves, locked in a life-or-death struggle against the power of the Cursed Seal.