Returning to the Village Soon

He spent another half a month or so in Ryūchi Cave, during which Tagorihime appeared three times. Seeing that Kakashi was mastering the speed within expectations, she stopped showing up.

During this period of learning the unique Senjutsu of Ryūchi Cave, Kakashi found that the formation speed of the senjutsu energy inside his body was getting faster and faster. Although it still fell short of his original chakra recovery speed, it was not all that much slower.

Assuming that the original chakra recovery efficiency required six to eight hours of meditative absorption after depletion to fully recover, now that the senjutsu energy was exhausted, Kakashi needed around ten hours to fill the energy inside his body back to maximum once again.

This was also one of the main factors restricting his practice of Ryūchi Cave Senjutsu.

Kakashi worried a lot whether his recovery speed would be suppressed once again once he left Ryūchi Cave and the natural energy was no longer this dense. Inside Ryūchi Cave, the primary constraint on recovery was that Kakashi's own spiritual energy recovery speed was not fast enough. However, the continued enhancement of spiritual power would definitely accelerate the recovery speed of spiritual energy; he was just afraid that natural energy would drag him down by then.

Still, no amount of worry could alter the path forward that Kakashi had already set in stone. He would just have to think of a way to solve it when the time came.

Time flew by, and with a month about to pass, having mastered it, Kakashi also prepared for his return journey to the village.

During this time, whenever he had free time, Kakashi would wander around Ryūchi Cave, getting to know more snakes so that he could use them for summoning in the future.

He had run into Manda, but the man and the snake merely crossed paths from a distance a few times. Given Manda's temperament, Kakashi definitely would not use him as his main summoning animal, while Manda, knowing that Kakashi was a summoner regarded highly by the White Snake Sage, would not invite humiliation upon himself to annoy Kakashi either. Meanwhile, Kōsei was the summoning animal that had the most contact with Kakashi during this period. As they were already old acquaintances, Kōsei frequently came to look for him upon learning that Kakashi had arrived.

When Kakashi studied senjutsu, Kōsei was not allowed to watch from the sidelines, so they could only meet when Kakashi was free.

Previously, since he had not mastered senjutsu, Kakashi could not discern the significance of the two bumps on Kōsei's body. After skillfully mastering senjutsu energy and natural energy, Kakashi could clearly sense that the natural energy absorbed inside Kōsei's body was all stored within them. However, due to limited natural talent, while the amount of natural energy in Kōsei's body was small, it also drained away particularly fast.

Kakashi had discussed this issue with Kōsei, but after much deliberation, they still could not think of a better way to solve it. Unlike himself, Kōsei had spent years upon years using physical energy, repeatedly tempering its body with chakra and recovering from physical exertion, soothing its muscles and meridians, and had long since settled into a fixed state.

An individual who had mastered the energy known as chakra would use chakra to fill the corresponding limbs or organs every time they fought or performed rapid movement. Afterward, the long-term circulation of chakra through those corresponding limbs and organs would leave behind corresponding residues. Especially when an individual was exhausted, the remaining chakra inside the body would circulate slowly on its own, continuously easing the fatigue of the living tissues within. This was the benefit of chakra as an advanced energy—it nourished the body, yet it was also an overbearing nature. Once it made the body adapt to chakra, a dependency would be created, preventing any new energy from occupying it.

This was also why, ever since the advent of chakra, all living entities that mastered senjutsu were forced into a mixture of multiple energies rather than true fusion.

During this time, Kōsei led Kakashi to meet quite a few large snakes and promising juniors in Ryūchi Cave, among which was Sasuke's future main summoning animal, Aoda.

At this time, Aoda was still in its juvenile stage and not very large. As the smallest individual among the large snake species, Aoda was less than a third of Kōsei's size. It was incapable of fighting at this stage, but what Kakashi valued was its future potential and the advantages of youth.

After careful observation, Kakashi channeled the domesticated natural energy inside his own body bit by bit into Aoda's body. Driven by the desire to grow stronger, Aoda endured the initial pain and torment. Fortunately, ever since birth, it had been nourished by natural energy in Ryūchi Cave without ever venturing outside, and being still young, with Kakashi's help, it crossed a step that other large snakes could only look at with despair throughout their lives. Its snake head also successfully grew two small bumps—the symbol of the Sage Mode in Ryūchi Cave, and where the hope of transforming into a dragon lay.

After Aoda met with this fortuitous opportunity, Kakashi instructed Kōsei to protect it as much as possible in the future and let it grow up quickly. Cannibalism among large snakes was forbidden in Ryūchi Cave, but higher-ranking individuals eating subordinates was not. The rules of the colosseum stimulated the snakes in Ryūchi Cave to constantly evolve and contend.

With a month about to end, Kakashi needed to hurry back to the village to participate in the graduation exam. He found the little white snake that knew the Summoning Technique and asked it to help deliver a letter to Orochimaru. This little white snake could reverse-locate the summoner who signed the contract scroll. It found Orochimaru, who was in the outside world, and brought him Kakashi's letter.

At that moment, Orochimaru had just emerged from the Hokage's office along with Jiraiya. Receiving the scroll from the little white snake's end, he opened it up and could not help but curl his lips into a smile.

The scroll only contained a single sentence, "Thank you, teacher. Everything went smoothly, and I can return."

Without peeking at the scroll in Orochimaru's hand, Jiraiya inevitably stared at him with curiosity.

"You haven't stopped wanting to know how Kakashi's trip to Ryūchi Cave went. I can tell you now. He passed the trial and has already mastered the senjutsu of Ryūchi Cave. Hehe, should I say he truly lives up to being that man's son?"

Orochimaru wore an evil, alluring smile, thinking of how before he left, Kakashi had hinted to him that there was something unusual about those villages above Ryūchi Cave. Having initially noticed nothing, he investigated in secret and discovered that there were a few monster-like humans in the village, looking just like Jugo in his berserk state in the original work.

Orochimaru quietly knocked out and imprisoned two people with sealing techniques, subsequently bringing them back to a research facility outside the village to lock them up. During this time, aside from carrying out missions, he devoted himself entirely to studying those two monsters.

Orochimaru himself did not possess the talent to master senjutsu, but he discovered traces of natural energy inside the bodies of these two monsters, which greatly astonished him.

Konoha's original records stated that if natural energy entered the body and one failed to master senjutsu, it was a dead end. Yet the two living, breathing monsters before his eyes slapped Konoha's laboratory in the face. Orochimaru's acute scientific research intuition made him certain that there was a huge secret within this. If he could lift this veil, perhaps he too could master natural energy and subsequently master Sage Mode.

"No way! How is that possible! That brat is only five years old!! Even... a genius like Minato wasn't able to at this age... Hey, hey, Orochimaru, you aren't joking with me, are you?" With an incredulous look on his face, Jiraiya grabbed his head with both hands. He hadn't even had the nerve to tell Orochimaru how long he had practiced before barely entering Sage Mode, and even currently, it still worked only intermittently. What he had originally wanted to say in his speech was, Even I only just mastered it not long ago, but he lacked the nerve to say it, passing the blame to Minato as the words reached his lips. Weren't disciples meant to take the blame?

Ignoring Jiraiya further, Orochimaru walked back into the Hokage's office and asked the Third Hokage for a village-exit permit. Although his identity meant that leaving Konoha temporarily for a moment did not require a permit, and the ninjas guarding the gates would turn a blind eye, since he was right there in the Hokage Building, it was merely a matter of walking a few steps, and having a permit issued was fine too.

"Hmm? Orochimaru, is something the matter? You just went out and now you're back in." Hiruzen Sarutobi asked, raising his head with a puzzled expression.

"I'm prepared to apply for a village-exit permit from the teacher. I need to make a trip to Ryūchi Cave to bring Kakashi back."

"Oh right, come to think of it, it's about time for him to return. Graduation exams are almost here. Here, take the permit. Go quickly and return quickly." Pulling a formatted village-exit permit from the drawer, he filled in five days and handed it to Orochimaru. The Third Hokage asked another seemingly casual question.

"Has little Kakashi successfully mastered Sage Mode?"

Orochimaru's hand accepting the slip of paper paused, then he took the paper and put it away.

"Unexpectedly, he actually passed the White Snake Sage's test." With that, the corners of his mouth lifted into an unfathomable smile.

"Well, he truly lives up to being... a young genius of Konoha. Hahaha." The Third Hokage laughed heartily.

"Then I shall set off first, teacher." Paying close attention to Hiruzen Sarutobi's expression, Orochimaru silently muttered in his heart, Have you come to hate the son for the sake of the father to this extent, teacher? It seems your capacity is truly limited to this much. Bowing in salute, Orochimaru departed with a Body Flicker Technique, feeling slightly disappointed inside.

Inside the Hokage's office, only a lonely figure remained.

"At this age..."