A dark silhouette stood motionless at the stairwell entrance, strikingly conspicuous beneath the flickering light on the first floor.
As Orochimaru turned his gaze toward it, two pairs of scarlet eyes slowly opened.
The eerie sight made Orochimaru's hair stand on end, but his curiosity about the unknown kept him from looking away. He suppressed his fear, wanting to see exactly what that thing was.
But before he could get a clear look, the silhouette vanished in the blink of an eye, disappearing completely.
The sudden appearance and disappearance of such an uncanny sight filled Orochimaru with dread. "Something's wrong..."
He muttered those words a few times, staring at the stairwell entrance, but unfortunately, the silhouette never appeared again.
Orochimaru rubbed his eyes. That eerie scene had been like an illusion, vanishing without a trace after a single blink. Yet he could clearly sense that the strange silhouette was far more than a mere illusion.
As he pondered it, several calls rang out in his ears, snapping him back to his senses.
"Hey, hey, Orochimaru, what's wrong? Why did you suddenly space out?" Nai Hyuga frowned and looked in the direction of his gaze.
It was the staircase leading to the second floor, with nothing particularly unusual about it.
"Uh... nothing..." Orochimaru shook his head slightly. He acted as though nothing had happened, but he could not hide the trace of worry in his expression.
Nai Hyuga could not make sense of it, so she reminded him again. "We're heading out, Orochimaru. Be ready in a moment, and don't die."
Orochimaru froze. Having only just come back to his senses, he found Nai Hyuga's words rather strange. Die? But I already have the Invisibility Cloak. That shouldn't be possible. He did not dwell on it and nodded lightly to show