"Ho ho, Kiyoshi-kun took quite a long time?" Orochimaru's lips curved into a smile.

"The opponents were Kusagakure Anbu, and there were quite a few of them, so it took a while." Kiyoshi reported truthfully.

One of the opponents was indeed a Kusagakure Anbu, and two people were quite a lot.

"The soup's getting cold, drink it quickly."

Orochimaru pointed to the bowl Kiyoshi had left before he had departed.

The soup inside had slightly congealed, no longer steaming hot as it was when it first came out of the pot.

"Okay." Kiyoshi nodded.

The ocular power in his eyes was gradually increasing, like a small stream flowing into a vast river. Not much, but it was increasing.

"Hey, Kiyoshi, what kind of Ninjutsu do Kusagakure Ninja use?"

Anko hadn't fought against Kusagakure Ninja before and was very curious.

Kiyoshi said indifferently, "Kusagakure Ninja are actually quite similar to us Konoha Ninja. Many of the Ninjutsu we have, they also have. The difference is in the quantity of high-rank Ninjutsu and secret techniques. The Ninja I encountered specialized in using Fire Release…"

Anko cupped her face, listening intently. She was very interested in these things.

From midnight to dawn, there were only two or three short hours.

The few of them tidied up and set off again.

According to Orochimaru, they were not far from Ryuchi Cave.

...

"What happened to me?"

Ryuzetsu suddenly stopped what she was doing. It was as if she had woken up from a dream.

She looked down at her hands and found them covered in blood.

Muku was leaning against a mushroom tree, and she had just been bandaging his arm.

"Ugh... It hurts."

Ryuzetsu clutched her head, her ripple-patterned eyes strangely flashing scarlet, as memories flooded into her brain.

She vaguely remembered encountering an enemy yesterday. Muku was severely injured. After she laboriously drove the enemy away, she dragged Muku under the mushroom tree, bandaged his wounds, and then guarded him.

"Ryuzetsu?" Muku finally woke up. His speech was very strange, like a broken radio.

Every time he opened his mouth, the bones beneath his cheek would ache terribly.

Along with the pain in his cheek, his arm also throbbed with intense pain.

Muku felt unwell. He struggled to stand up, using his good hand to support himself against the mushroom tree, and asked Ryuzetsu what had happened after he fainted.

"Damn it, he actually ran away."

Muku clutched his cheek. Every word he spoke caused him pain.

Ryuzetsu said, "This area is safe. Yesterday, it was probably Konoha Ninja passing through here to carry out a mission."

She watched Muku clutching his face in pain, and whether it was an illusion or not, she felt a sharp pain in her own mouth.

It felt as if she had been brutally beaten, leaving it sore and aching.

"Your face is swollen." Muku spoke.

It seemed Ryuzetsu, like him, had been punched in the face by that unknown Uchiha.

"Mm... yes."

Ryuzetsu was initially hesitant, but then a memory instantly confirmed it.

The ocular power within her was subtly changing her.

If someone were to examine her with a Byakugan, they would see a mass of dark Chakra entrenched in her brain's neural pathways.

"Alright, let's go back."

Ryuzetsu was a woman of few words.

She didn't want to say a single word right now. Her throat was burning, and there was a strange taste in her mouth.

"That's fine." Muku nodded.

His and Ryuzetsu's injuries indeed required treatment back at the village, so the two of them quickly returned to the village together.

...

Several more days passed.

Kiyoshi and his companions traveled from a place filled with towering mushroom trees to a dense forest.

These were the tallest trees Kiyoshi had ever seen.

Unfortunately, the thick mist obscured much of the view, preventing Kiyoshi from seeing clearly.

The Sharingan could only perceive the flow of Chakra, and its "Farsight" ability only allowed him to see distant objects.

To see through obstacles, that would require "X-ray vision."

"This is Ryuchi Cave."

Orochimaru stopped.

Kiyoshi and Anko followed suit.

Following Orochimaru's gaze, they saw a magnificent building with the large characters "Ryuchi Cave" written above its entrance.

Numerous yellow lanterns hung around, each inscribed with the character "Dragon."

"It's not quite what I imagined." Anko muttered softly.

Ryuchi Cave is a place for learning Senjutsu. Shouldn't it be a place filled with an ethereal aura, solemn and majestic?

Why did it feel like a bustling marketplace?

Creak...

The large gate of Ryuchi Cave pushed open, revealing a resplendent interior.

A beautiful maiden, elegant in posture, with green hair and a golden crown adorned with a golden orb on top, walked out.

"I have been awaiting your arrival for some time."

"Ho ho, it's been a while, Tagorihime, it's me." Orochimaru spoke to the woman.

Tagorihime said, "Why is it you again, Orochimaru? Aren't you afraid of being eaten by the White Snake Sage?"

Tagorihime's skin was as pale as Orochimaru's, with golden vertical pupils and red eyeshadow extending to her nostrils.

As she spoke, her elegant face suddenly grew fangs, her mouth split open, and her face elongated like a snake's, as she extended a blue tongue to threaten Orochimaru.

"The one who came to learn Senjutsu this time is not me, but this young man behind me." Orochimaru stepped aside.

Tagorihime looked over.

Anko was directly ignored by her. She stared intently at Kiyoshi .

Kiyoshi felt a bit bewildered by her gaze.

He secretly thought that he had never interacted with anyone from Ryuchi Cave before, nor had he learned any other Sage Mode.

The only contact he had was with Katsuyu, who had only infused ordinary Chakra into him.

So... why was Tagorihime staring at him?

Without a change in expression, Kiyoshi was already prepared to use the Flying Thunder God Technique to escape if the situation turned sour.

"Who is the person you brought?"

Tagorihime stared at Kiyoshi for a long time before finally uttering a sentence.

Her face returned to its elegant and beautiful appearance.

"He is a young man from the Uchiha Clan, is there a problem?"

This behavior piqued Orochimaru's curiosity.

When he had painstakingly found this place with members of the Jūgo's clan, Tagorihime had maintained a haughty demeanor.

To pass through Ryuchi Cave, one had to undergo three trials to meet the esteemed White Snake Sage.

Each trial involved an elder-rank trusted subordinate of the White Snake Sage testing travelers seeking Sage power. If they failed, they would be immediately devoured.

At that time, he had barely passed the three trials, only to fail at the final stage of enduring natural energy.

He did not have the aptitude to learn Sage Mode or use Sage power.