Cursed Seal

Takuma was still standing where he was.

He had witnessed the fight between Tetsu and Yakumo—or rather than a fight, it had been Orochimaru crushing them single-handedly.

From Tetsu's Earth Flow to Orochimaru bursting through the wall, from Yakumo unleashing her genjutsu to it being violently broken, the entire thing had lasted less than a minute.

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

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

Orochimaru strolled toward Takuma and stopped less than a meter away from him.

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

"Your two teammates," Orochimaru said, tilting his head with a teasing curiosity in his voice. "One risked his life to hold me off, and the other came back to save them. But you've just stood here the whole time without running. Were you too afraid to run, or did you know it wouldn't help?"

"Both," Takuma said. His voice was a little hoarse, his throat dry as if the killing intent from earlier had pressed the moisture out of it, but he still forced himself to look Orochimaru in the eye.

"Good. It's been a long time since I've met a brat with such a clear sense of his own limits." Orochimaru licked the corner of his mouth, and the way his tongue slid across his lips made Takuma's scalp crawl. His gaze roamed over Takuma, as if a master chef were inspecting a rare ingredient he had just acquired. "I'm curious to see where your limits lie."

Takuma gritted his teeth. Chakra surged from his abdomen and flowed along his pathways to his limbs.

Water-natured chakra covered his left hand, while earth-natured chakra gathered in his right.

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

Every second he could buy was another second.

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

As long as he could keep Orochimaru there until he left or someone arrived, they might still be saved.

Takuma didn't think he could win, but he might be able to withstand a few attacks and hold out a little longer with his Healing Factor.

Orochimaru watched him brace himself, the curve of his lips widening a little more.

He didn't take a fighting stance. His hands even hung at his sides as he stood there casually. "Then let me see where your limits lie."

Before the last word had even left his mouth, Orochimaru vanished from where he stood.

Takuma's Spider-Sense sounded an alarm at the same moment, as if countless blades were stabbing at him from every direction.

His body reacted before his mind. He hurled himself to the left and swung his kunai upward in a backhand strike.

But he only got halfway through the motion.

Orochimaru's hand reached in from the right. It seemed unhurried, yet it precisely caught the opening in Takuma's defense.

His five fingers clamped around Takuma's neck like an iron vice, the web of his thumb locking above Takuma's Adam's apple while his thumb and index finger pressed down on either side of his carotid arteries.

Takuma hadn't even seen how he'd struck before he was already being lifted off the ground.

A suffocating pressure surged over him. His vision began to darken, and the roar of blood rushing through his ears drowned out everything else.

He swung his kunai at Orochimaru's arm on instinct, but the blade stopped three inches from his sleeve.

A transparent chakra barrier stood in the kunai's path. No matter how hard Takuma pushed, he couldn't cut through it.

Orochimaru held Takuma aloft with one hand, lifting him until their eyes were level.

He watched Takuma's face redden from lack of oxygen and the defiant light in his eyes. A trace of satisfaction flashed across his own.

"Your physical constitution is impressive." He repeated what he had said earlier, but this time there was more certainty in his voice. "Your chakra reserves are above average for your age, and your recovery ability is beyond the norm. You're well suited to bearing a Cursed Seal."

Takuma's pupils contracted sharply.

The biological enhancement Orochimaru had extracted from Jugo's bodily fluids could forcibly boost its host's chakra and physical abilities, but its survival rate was extremely low.

The rest would either become mindless monsters or die during the transformation.

Sasuke had survived in the original story thanks to his Uchiha bloodline and sheer willpower. Could Takuma do the same?

He didn't have time to think any further.

Pain flared through his neck, as if someone had driven a red-hot brand straight into his carotid artery.

Orochimaru bit down. His teeth pierced skin, muscle, and blood vessel, and a cold, savage, foreign chakra poured into Takuma's body through the wound.

It was completely unlike the chakra already within him—icy, frenzied, and filled with aggression. Like a starving python, it burrowed into his pathways and devoured every trace of energy it could find.

Takuma felt his body being torn in two.

On one side was a defense formed by his Senju Bloodline and Wolverine Healing Factor. His cells constantly regenerated, repairing the tissue damaged by the Cursed Seal. On the other was the Cursed Seal's frenzied encroachment, its cold chakra driving countless tiny needles into every cell in an attempt to reshape his body into a vessel capable of containing it.

The two forces waged a life-or-death battle inside him.

Every inch of his 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 his throat couldn't make a sound. Only a hoarse stream of air forced its way from his windpipe, like an animal pinned to a chopping block.

Orochimaru released him. Takuma hit the ground and curled into a ball, his entire body convulsing violently.

Black Cursed Seal markings appeared on his skin, spreading like flames from his neck to his cheeks, shoulders, and arms. Each new wave brought another surge of agony.

Wherever the markings spread, his skin turned an unnatural dark gray, only to return to its original color under the effects of his Healing Factor.

Then the Cursed Seal encroached again, and his Healing Factor repaired the damage again, over and over, as if his body were a battlefield caught in a tug-of-war.

"Interesting."

Orochimaru crouched down to observe Takuma's reaction up close.

His expression was that of someone watching a fascinating experiment, his eyes filled with amazement and feverish excitement. "Your healing ability can actually stand against the Cursed Seal head-on... At the rate the Cursed Seal is spreading, you should have been completely transformed in three seconds. But your cells are resisting on their own, slowing the spread dozens of times over. The Senju Bloodline can't do that. This is something else."

He reached out and pressed a fingertip to the Cursed Seal on Takuma's neck, sensing the fierce struggle between the two forces beneath it. The Healing Factor regenerated just a little faster than the Cursed Seal could spread, but the Cursed Seal's power was endless, while the Healing Factor relied on Takuma's own stamina. Eventually, that would run out.

For now, the two forces had reached a precarious balance. But the moment Takuma's stamina faltered, the Cursed Seal would gain the upper hand.

"Magnificent." Orochimaru's smile grew heated and dangerous, restrained excitement burning in his golden, vertical pupils. "The Senju Bloodline and some unknown healing ability coexist in your body, while forming a dynamic three-way balance with the Cursed Seal. There isn't another specimen like this in the entire Shinobi World. You're more valuable to study than Sasuke."

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

In the distance, several chakra signatures were rapidly approaching.

They weren't moving at an ordinary ninja's speed. They were moving at Anbu speed, and there was more than one of them.

One of the chakra signatures was familiar to Orochimaru: Mitaraishi Anko, his former student and one of the test subjects on whom he had personally placed a Cursed Seal.

They had arrived sooner than he'd expected.

Orochimaru straightened and glanced toward the source of the approaching chakra signatures, then looked down at Takuma, who was still writhing in pain on the ground.

"Looks like that's all the collecting I'll be doing today." He spoke softly, his tone tinged with regret, but without the slightest panic.

He drew an Explosive Tag from his sleeve and casually stuck it to the nearby tree trunk as a greeting for the Anbu, then took two steps back. His figure began to blur.

"Mori Takuma," Orochimaru's voice faded, like a whisper carried on the wind. "When we meet again, I hope you'll have more surprises in store for me."

His gray figure vanished completely into the shadows of the forest, leaving behind the unconscious Yakumo, the poisoned Tetsu, and Takuma, curled up among the dead leaves, locked in a desperate struggle against the Cursed Seal's power.