No daylight reached the Snake Den.
Darkness lay all around, with countless great snakes slithering through it.
The rustle of scales scraping rock overlapped in layers, gathering from every direction before slowly fading away.
The air was cold and damp. Drawing it into his lungs felt like swallowing icy water from a deep well.
Hayashi wanted to move, but he couldn't.
He wanted to speak, but couldn't make a sound.
All he could do was watch those thick serpentine bodies slide past him, one after another...
He had no idea how much time had passed when a voice, ancient and crone-like, drifted faintly across a vast distance:
"Oh? When did a new human join Ryūchi Cave's contract? How strange."
The voice paused, then added languidly, as though speaking through a thick curtain of water:
"Still, how interesting. Come... pay us a visit sometime."
Pay them a visit?
Where?
Hayashi's mind was a muddle. Before he could puzzle it out, someone kicked him hard in the back, sending him flying backward out of the Snake Den-
Hayashi slowly opened his eyes.
His consciousness was still hazy, but his bodily senses returned first.
He was moving, steadily moving forward, and his whole body was suspended in the air.
Suspended in the air?
Was this some new ninjutsu? Since when could ninja fly...
Then a mass of white hair swayed gently before his eyes, blurring his vision.
...Ah.
He remembered.
Jiraiya had arrived at the last moment.
"Hey, when did you wake up?" Jiraiya turned his head and greeted him. "Don't worry. We'll be back in the village soon."
Hayashi moved his lips, intending to answer and say something more, only to suddenly realize something was wrong-
He couldn't lift his hand.
And it wasn't just his hand.
His entire arm, even