Whispers Beneath the Serpent's Shadow

The safehouse lights were dim, stretching the shadows of the two across the walls.

Anko curled up on the bed in the corner, cold sweat already soaking the tips of her hair. She bit down hard on her lip, her nails digging deep into her palms as she tried to use pain to fight the restless sensation of erosion inside her.

Hyuga Xiao sat cross-legged across from her, his hands forming seals while his Byakugan remained activated.

Those bulging-veined eyes scanned Anko's chakra pathways dozens of times per second—the black Curse Mark patterns writhed through her blood vessels like living creatures, each pulse making her body twitch faintly.

"How much longer?" Anko's voice was hoarse.

"Forty-one hours." Xiao's voice was frighteningly calm. "The dormant command inside you is weakening. At this rate, the Curse Mark will reactivate in thirty hours at most."

Anko closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Then she opened them, a certain resolve flashing through her gaze. "Orochimaru... When the Curse Mark's erosion was at its worst, I heard his voice."

Xiao's pupils narrowed slightly.

"What did he say?"

"He said..." Anko's voice turned distant, as though she were recalling a nightmare. "If one day I was about to be consumed by the Curse Mark, or... about to die, I should go to Snakebone Gorge in the northern Land of Rice Paddies. There was a way to completely remove the Curse Mark there."

She paused, pulling a bitter smile. "But he said there would be a price. A very heavy price."

The safehouse fell into a brief silence.

Only the faint sound of rain outside the wall remained, pattering against the window lattice.

Xiao's mind raced.

The Land of Rice Paddies—the location of the Hidden Sound Village Orochimaru had established after defecting. Snakebone Gorge—a place not marked on any map. A method to completely remove the Curse Mark—it sounded like bait.

But...

"Do you believe it?" Xiao asked.

Anko shook her head, then nodded, finally giving a bitter smile. "I don't know. But that is the only... the only possible way to escape him. Even if it's only a possibility."

Xiao rose to his feet and walked to the window.

Through a gap in the curtains, he could see the streets of the Leaf Village blurred into gray patches beneath the rain. The outline of Hokage Rock appeared and disappeared behind the curtain of rain in the distance.

Orochimaru would not have left behind such information without reason.

Either it was a trap—meant to lure Anko into walking into his hands and becoming a new test subject.

Or...

It was real.

But what was the price?

Xiao turned around and looked at Anko again. His Byakugan activated once more. This time, he was no longer merely observing the Curse Mark's activity. He concentrated his chakra to the utmost, trying to pierce through the Curse Mark's surface and glimpse its internal structure.

The black patterns formed a complex three-dimensional network within the Byakugan's field of vision.

Like tree roots, they were embedded in Anko's chakra pathways, tightly entwined with her vitality. Tearing them out by force would be equivalent to shredding her entire chakra network—certain death.

But Xiao noticed one detail.

At certain nodes within the Curse Mark network, there were tiny "gaps."

As though...

Interfaces had been left behind.

"Anko," Xiao's voice suddenly lowered, "what state were you in when Orochimaru said those things?"

"What?" Anko froze for a moment.

"Did you hear him while conscious or unconscious? Was it during a Curse Mark episode, or under normal circumstances?"

Anko frowned as she recalled it. "It was... three years ago. During a border patrol mission, I was ambushed by Hidden Mist. I was critically wounded and close to death. The Curse Mark activated on its own and saved my life, but it also left me half-conscious. That was when I heard his voice."

A sharp gleam flashed through Xiao's eyes.

A near-death state.

Curse Mark activation.

Clouded consciousness.

—The perfect time to plant something.

"I understand." Xiao returned to the bedside and took a small metal case from his ninja tool pouch.

When he opened it, twelve silver needles lay neatly arranged inside—finer than the ones he had used before, their tips glowing with a faint blue fluorescence.

"What are you going to do?" Anko asked warily.

"The information Orochimaru left behind is most likely not a lie." Xiao withdrew a silver needle and carefully inspected its tip beneath the light. "But his so-called 'complete removal' is probably not the kind of removal you think it is."

Anko's face turned pale.

Xiao continued, "The essence of the Curse Mark is Orochimaru implanting fragments of his own chakra and will into the recipient's body. It is like a seed, taking root and sprouting within the host's body. There are two possibilities for this so-called 'removal'—"

He raised one finger.

"First, forcefully extract it. But that would tear apart your chakra pathways. You would certainly die."

He raised a second finger.

"Second, let the seed 'mature.'"

Anko's breathing quickened. "What does that mean?"

"Let the Curse Mark completely erode your body, turning you entirely into Orochimaru's 'vessel.'" Xiao's voice was cold and clear. "At that point, the Curse Mark will naturally cease to exist—because you and the Curse Mark will have become one. You will be the Curse Mark itself."

The air in the safehouse seemed to freeze.

Anko's pupils contracted violently, and her body began trembling uncontrollably.

"So... Snakebone Gorge..." Her voice shook.

"Most likely a 'conversion site' Orochimaru prepared." Xiao rolled the silver needle between his fingers. "He has set up some ritual or device there that can accelerate the Curse Mark's maturation. If you go, you will become his perfect spare body."

"Then why..." Anko gritted her teeth. "Why tell me at all?"

Xiao was silent for several seconds.

"Because this is also an opportunity."

He raised his hand, the needle tip aimed at the Curse Mark patterns on the side of Anko's neck.

"A fragment of Orochimaru's consciousness is hidden within the Curse Mark network inside you. It usually remains dormant and only awakens when you are near death or when the Curse Mark is fully activated. And now—"

Xiao's Byakugan locked onto a node within the Curse Mark network.

"—I have a way to force it out."

Anko's eyes widened.

"Force it out? And then?"

"Then," Xiao said, the faintest curve appearing at the corner of his lips, "we can ask it some questions. Such as the exact location of Snakebone Gorge. Such as Orochimaru's true objective. Such as..."

He paused.

"How to separate the Curse Mark without killing you."

Anko stared at Xiao for a long time.

This Branch House boy was clearly only thirteen, yet his eyes were as calm as those of an old ninja who had witnessed countless life-and-death battles. His plan was mad and dangerous—deliberately provoking a fragment of Orochimaru's consciousness? That was no different from waking a sleeping venomous snake.

But...

"How sure are you?" Anko asked.

"Thirty percent." Xiao told the truth. "If it fails, Orochimaru's consciousness will take over your body instantly. I will kill you immediately."

"And if it succeeds?"

"If it succeeds, we will obtain vital information about the Curse Mark. And—" Xiao's gaze deepened. "Orochimaru's consciousness fragment itself is a valuable 'sample.' By studying it, we might be able to work backward and derive a way to break the Caged Bird Seal."

Anko froze.

Only then did she remember—the boy before her also bore a Curse Mark on his neck. The Hyuga Clan's Caged Bird Seal.

So that was it.

Saving her was also saving himself.

"Begin." Anko lay flat on the bed and closed her eyes. "Either way, I'm dead. I might as well gamble."

Xiao did not act immediately.

First, he placed four sealing talismans around the room—soundproofing, chakra isolation, confinement, and alarm. Then he took a small glass vial from his ninja tool pouch, filled with pale green liquid.

"What is that?" Anko opened one eye.

"A sample of the Vitality Seed extracted from Kimimaro." Xiao dripped the liquid onto a silver needle. "It can temporarily enhance vitality, creating a 'false near-death state' inside your body to lure the Curse Mark into activating. At the same time—"

He looked at Anko.

"—it will protect your core consciousness from being completely eroded. But it will only last ten minutes. I have to complete the extraction within those ten minutes."

Anko took a deep breath and nodded.

Xiao thrust the silver needle into the center of the Curse Mark on the side of her neck.

The instant the needle pierced her flesh, Anko's body suddenly arched!

Agony.

Not physical pain, but something deeper—as though countless needles were piercing her soul. She opened her mouth, yet no sound came out. All she could see was her vision beginning to distort and change color.

Black patterns spread frantically from the side of her neck.

Like venomous snakes come to life, they crawled through her blood vessels toward her entire body. Anko could feel something cold and slick awakening within her.

"Hold on." Xiao's voice seemed to come from somewhere far away.

His hands had already formed a complex sequence of seals—the Curse Mark Resonance Art he had derived from the data in Orochimaru's laboratory. By simulating the Curse Mark's chakra frequency, it established a temporary connection with the Curse Mark inside Anko.

The Byakugan opened fully.

Within his vision, the blackness rapidly devoured Anko's chakra pathways.

But amid that black tide, Xiao saw a glimmer of light—a pale green radiance belonging to the Vitality Seed. Like an island, it firmly protected the core pathways near Anko's heart.

Now.

Xiao plunged the second silver needle into Anko's forehead.

This time, what he injected was not the Vitality Seed, but his own chakra—precisely regulated chakra simulating the frequency of the Caged Bird Seal.

A mutation occurred.

The black Curse Mark inside Anko suddenly trembled violently!

As though it had encountered its natural enemy, it began shrinking and condensing frantically. The black patterns flowed back from her entire body toward the side of her neck, forming a writhing mass of black matter beneath her skin.

And at the center of that mass—

A scarlet glow lit up.

"Found you," Xiao said softly.

His third, fourth, and fifth silver needles pierced different acupoints across Anko's body at the same time. Together, those needles formed a temporary sealing array, firmly locking the mass of black matter at the side of her neck.

Anko's body stopped convulsing.

She opened her eyes—but those eyes were no longer hers.

Her pupils had become the vertical slits of a snake, her gaze cold, mocking, and carrying a kind of inhuman intelligence.

"A brat from the Hyuga Clan?" A low, hoarse male voice emerged from Anko's throat. "Interesting. You actually managed to force me out."

Xiao's expression did not change in the slightest.

"Orochimaru. Or rather, a fragment of Orochimaru's consciousness."

"Anko's" mouth split into an exaggerated grin. "Clever. So, after going to all this trouble to awaken me, what do you wish to ask? How to remove the Curse Mark? How to gain power? Or—"

Those snake eyes stared at the Caged Bird Seal on Xiao's neck.

"—how to escape that?"

"Where is Snakebone Gorge?" Xiao asked directly.

"Anko" paused, then let out a low laugh. "You want to go? That is a 'hatching ground' prepared for the girl beside you. If you go, you will die."

"The exact location." Xiao's voice was icy.

"There is no harm in telling you." "Anko" tilted her head. "Deep within the Forest of Death in the northern Land of Rice Paddies. There is an ancient shrine ruin there. The entrance is in the third chamber beneath the shrine—one must use the blood of a Curse Mark bearer as the key."

Xiao committed the information to memory.

"Is there truly a way to completely remove the Curse Mark?"

"Of course there is." "Anko's" smile became strange. "As long as the conversion ritual is completed, the Curse Mark will fully merge with the host. At that point, the Curse Mark will naturally cease to exist—because the host will have become the Curse Mark itself. Perfect, isn't it?"

Just as expected.

Exactly as Xiao had deduced.

"One last question." Xiao stared into those snake eyes. "Other than surveillance and providing a spare vessel, what was your purpose in leaving something inside Anko?"

This time, "Anko" fell silent.

An extremely complicated emotion flashed through those snake eyes—wariness, calculation, and a trace of... curiosity?

"You are more interesting than I imagined, brat of the Hyuga Clan." Orochimaru's consciousness fragment spoke slowly. "The fragments I left within every Curse Mark bearer share one task: gathering data. Data on the host's growth, data on Curse Mark adaptability, data on..."

It paused.

"Data on the possibility of 'soul transfer.'"

Xiao's pupils narrowed slightly.

Soul transfer.

Orochimaru had always been researching immortality. The Curse Mark was likely not merely a method of control, but also a "springboard" for his soul transfer experiments.

"Time's up," Xiao suddenly said.

"What?"

"The Vitality Seed's protective effect has thirty seconds left." Xiao's hands began forming a new sequence of seals. "And I have already gotten the information I wanted."

"Anko's" expression changed.

"What are you planning to do? Kill me? Then this girl will also—"

"No." Xiao completed the final seal. "I am going to 'separate' you."

The sealing array on the silver needles suddenly erupted with a blinding white light!

"Anko" let out a shrill scream—not Anko's voice, but a bizarre sound mingling a human cry with a serpent's hiss. The black matter within her body began struggling frantically, trying to burrow back into Anko's body.

But Xiao would not give it the chance.

He bit his fingertip and used blood as ink, rapidly drawing a complex sealing formula on the side of Anko's neck.

Modified Evil-Sealing Method!

This was a variation he had derived from the Uchiha Clan's sealing techniques—an extraction art designed specifically for "consciousness fragments."

The black matter was forcibly pulled out of Anko's body!

It coalesced in midair into a mass of constantly twisting black mist. A face could vaguely be seen within—pale, effeminate, with snake-like golden vertical pupils.

Orochimaru Consciousness Fragment.

"You... you actually did it..." An incredulous voice came from the black mist. "Hyuga Clan brat, what's your name?"

Xiao did not answer.

He took out a specially made sealing scroll and drew the black mist into it. Dense sealing runes automatically appeared across the scroll's surface, completely imprisoning the Orochimaru Consciousness Fragment.

Only after finishing all this did Xiao look at Anko.

The girl had already fainted, her breathing steady. The Curse Mark patterns on the side of her neck had clearly faded—though they remained, their activity had greatly diminished. With the Orochimaru Consciousness Fragment stripped away, the Curse Mark had lost its "core." Now, it was merely an ownerless chakra mark.

Xiao wiped the sweat from his forehead.

He had succeeded.

But the price was that, once the Vitality Seed's effects wore off, Anko would enter a three-day period of weakness. And although the Curse Mark had been weakened, it had not disappeared. It remained rooted inside Anko's body, only temporarily unable to flare up.

More importantly...

Xiao looked at the sealing scroll in his hand.

Orochimaru had definitely noticed by now.

The consciousness fragment he had left inside Anko had been stripped away, meaning an unexpected variable had appeared in his plans. Given that viper's nature, he would never let this go.

"Looks like I'll have to speed things up," Xiao murmured.

He walked to the window and looked out at the Leaf Village beneath the curtain of rain.

Tsunade would arrive tomorrow.

Before then, he had to deal with Anko's condition while preparing for the Main House's next move—the "Level-Two Caged Bird Seal" Ko Hyuga had mentioned was probably no empty threat.

And Kimimaro.

And Shisui Uchiha's Sharingan.

And...

Xiao touched the Curse Mark on his neck.

Time was running out.

But at least tonight, he had obtained two crucial things: intelligence on Snakebone Gorge, and a sample of the Orochimaru Consciousness Fragment.

The former was a trap, but also an opportunity.

The latter was dangerous, but also a key.

"System," Xiao silently called in his mind.

[Fate-Breaking System activated]

[Detected that the host has successfully stripped away the "Orochimaru Consciousness Fragment"]

[Interception progress updated: Anko Mitarashi's fate alteration rate +15%]

[Calculating rewards...]

Xiao closed his eyes and waited for the system's response.

The rain was still falling.

The safehouse's lights were like an isolated island in the rainy night.