Deep inside the cave.
A great snake was curled up, sleeping.
It had red scales, a triangular head, and a scar over its right eye. Even in a state of peaceful sleep, its body was still filled with a malevolent aura. This was Shinya, the most volatile great snake of Ryūchi Cave.
The soundly sleeping Shinya suddenly opened his eyes.
He sensed that some creatures were walking towards him, and they were very large.
"Swoosh swoosh swoosh..."
Scales scraping against the ground made a sound. Shinya listened to the noise and looked up, seeing a purple-and-black great snake slowly slithering out of the darkness.
Shinya recognized the newcomer at a glance. His eyes were cold as he glared at him angrily: "Manda! What are you doing here? Don't you know this is my territory?"
Manda teased: "Don't be so angry. I'm not here to cause you trouble."
Shinya scoffed: "Hmph, I wouldn't think you'd dare."
Manda also had a bad temper. Such a mockery was unbearable, and his fiery temper flared up in an instant. Just as he was about to lash out, he remembered something, let out a cold snort, and reined in his temper: "It's your turn now."
Hearing this, Shinya was slightly stunned. Only then did he notice the small figure next to Manda, two creatures walking on two legs.
"A human?"
Seeing a human, Shinya was a bit bewildered. He knew Manda's temper, so when did this guy become a guide?
Shinya had a terrible impression of humans, so he took the opportunity to mock: "Manda, when did you become a human's lapdog? You've fallen, haven't you?"
Manda scoffed in response, sneering in his heart. Go ahead and laugh all you want now. Just wait until this guy pulls your reverse scale. Let's see if you can still laugh then.
"My name is Uchiha Tōshirō." Tōshirō gave a simple introduction and explained his purpose: "I've been entrusted by the White Snake Sage to take your reverse scale."
Hearing that he wanted his reverse scale, Shinya immediately went berserk, his roar like thunder.
Tōshirō remained unfazed, his expression composed as he continued to speak to himself: "Then, you'll sign a contract with me. In return, I can find a way to heal your eye, and I can give you even greater power in the future if the opportunity arises."
It was a simple conversation with a reason, a benefit, and a threat.
Tōshirō made it very clear.
Shinya didn't get angry; instead, he laughed. This was a symptom of extreme rage: "What arrogance! I'll turn you into stone!"
With that, he held venom in his mouth and spat it out.
Manda saw this and quickly dodged to avoid being affected.
This was Shinya's unique Sage Art. If hit, one would unfortunately be turned into a stone statue. Even someone as strong as Manda couldn't escape it.
Tōshirō slammed his palm down, summoning a wall of ice to defend against the venom's attack, but it was also petrified into a stone wall.
Tōshirō smiled faintly and praised: "Not bad..."
Before he finished speaking, a red figure crashed through the stone wall and lunged at him: "Die!"
Amidst the roar, Shinya opened his bloody maw, vowing to devour him.
"BOOM!"
A fist came down from above, smashing hard onto Shinya's head.
Shinya's head made intimate contact with the ground, making him dizzy with pain.
He came to his senses and was about to counterattack, but the Soul Flame was faster. It backhanded and pressed his head against the ground, furiously grinding it.
Only now did Shinya understand why Manda brought Tōshirō here.
This bastard was here to see him get beaten.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but curse out loud in his mind: You animal!
Shinya's single eye, wide with rage, was filled with intense hatred.
At that moment, his remaining eye met a pair of blood-red eyes, and he instantly fell into a daze. The pupil pattern of the Mangekyō Sharingan appeared in his eye.
Manda, who was watching from the side, was very surprised. He knew Tōshirō was strong, but he didn't expect him to be this strong.
He had subdued Shinya, who was his equal, in a single move. A hint of fear couldn't help but appear in his eyes as he looked at Tōshirō.
Tōshirō slowly walked towards Shinya. His gaze swept over him, finding a reverse scale, and he reached out to touch it.
Suddenly, it was as if something was triggered.
He saw Shinya's past, his most deeply hidden memory.
In the scene, Shinya was about to break through an encirclement with his master, but unexpectedly, he was betrayed by the master he trusted most. He was blinded in one eye and even fainted. When he woke up, both his master and the enemies were gone. Every time he remembered his master's betrayal, his blinded eye would ache. This was the true reason why Shinya hated humans so much.
In the mental world, on a lake, it was as if a single drop of water had fallen, creating ripples.
Tōshirō, standing in the center of the ripples, looked at the red great snake in front of him. Connecting it with the previous memory fragments, he suddenly realized: "So this is the reason you hate humans so much."
Shinya cursed loudly: "So what? You despicable humans."
This was the reason he didn't want his reverse scale to be touched.
Tōshirō raised his eyes and said, with a look of someone viewing a simpleton: "I'm telling you, you're not a fool, are you?"
The sudden insult left Shinya a bit bewildered: "What?"
Tōshirō tilted his head, his face full of confusion: "Is there something wrong with what I said?"
Shinya thought the other person was mocking him. A man can be killed, but not humiliated: "Bastard, don't think that just because you're stronger than me, I'll obediently submit. I would rather die on the side of the road than become your summoning animal."
Tōshirō shook his head with pity, as if a teacher was sighing that a student just couldn't grasp the main point: "Have you ever seriously considered that your master hurt you to save you?"
Shinya was stunned.
"To save me."
He said it with doubt, then loudly denied it: "What kind of joke is that? Do you believe I'll kill you right now?"
Tōshirō sighed: "To be honest, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but you're no match for me at all."
"...Bastard, what do you know? He attacked me when I wasn't prepared, causing me to lose an eye. He's a despicable and shameless human."
Tōshirō asked in return: "Then why are you still alive?"
"Wh-what..."
Tōshirō said contemptuously: "Come on, please use your head and think about it. At that time, your master had clearly given you an order to retreat with him."
"But you, as stubborn as an idiot, kept charging forward, and he couldn't stop you."
"If you both stayed there, your lives would be in danger. To prevent you from being sacrificed, your master staged a self-inflicted ruse."
"He deliberately injured you to create a sense of internal conflict, so the enemies would see it and shift their focus to him. He calculated that their target was him, so they wouldn't make things difficult for you, his summoning animal."
"Do you know? In your master's heart, your life was even more important than his own."
"At that time, you were furious, so I can understand you hating humans. But after all these years, you still can't wrap your head around it. What else would you call yourself but an idiot?"
After Tōshirō finished, he quietly looked at the other party.
He had explained it so clearly. He believed that with Shinya's brain, he should be able to understand.
Uh, maybe...
To be honest, Tōshirō was genuinely worried about Shinya's intelligence.
"I..."
Shinya was so flabbergasted he had no words.
He understood. He understood everything.
So his master hadn't betrayed him; he had done it to save him.
If he hadn't been so reckless and impulsive, his master wouldn't have had to sacrifice himself.
The hatred of so many years now seemed like a gigantic joke, and he himself was even more of a clown!!!
Back in the real world, Tōshirō lifted the genjutsu he had placed on Shinya and also deactivated the Soul Flame.
Even without the suppression of the Soul Flame, Shinya didn't resist much. He lay on the ground, motionless, as quiet as a salted fish.
At this moment, Manda, who loved drama, was confused.
Huh?
Why aren't they fighting anymore?
He still wanted to see the sight of Tōshirō thoroughly teaching Shinya a lesson.
After waiting for a few seconds, Manda, out of curiosity, slowly slithered over. Seeing Shinya's dejected face, he was very confused: "What's wrong with you?"
Shinya lay on the ground, responding with a look of despair: "I'm an idiot."
"???" Manda: "An idiot?"
What's going on? Did the genjutsu turn Shinya into an idiot?
Shinya: "I'm a big idiot."
Temple, inside.
Tōshirō returned to the White Snake Sage, holding the reverse scale to report the mission: "I've handled it."
The White Snake Sage hadn't said anything yet, but the three women next to her were the first to show surprise: "That fast?"
How long had Tōshirō been gone? He was back so soon.
The White Snake Sage didn't mind. With Tōshirō's strength, getting Shinya's reverse scale was a simple matter as long as he wanted to. She was concerned about something else: "How is Shinya?"
Tōshirō put his hands on his hips, looked up at the ceiling, and thought for a moment: "I guess he's not doing too well."
"Not doing too well?"
Hearing him say that, Tagorihime and the other two guessed that Shinya had refused to submit and was then beaten to a pulp by Tōshirō, and was now recovering.
The White Snake Sage heard the implied meaning in Tōshirō's words: "Is the contract signed?"
Tōshirō bit his finger and pressed his palm down, responding with action. A puff of white smoke appeared, and a red great snake emerged—it was Shinya.
He was seen lying on the ground, as quiet as a salted fish, while also muttering something under his breath.
"Uh..."
Seeing this sight, not to mention Tagorihime and the others, even the White Snake Sage was a bit baffled.
Was this still the lawless Shinya of the past?
Why does he look so mentally defeated now?
But the thing is, there weren't any wounds on him.
"Shinya, what's wrong?" Tagorihime couldn't help but ask, voicing the thoughts of every snake present except Tōshirō.
"I'm an idiot, and even more so, a clown."
Shinya's eyes were dull, and his spirit was very dejected.
The snakes: "..."
The White Snake Sage looked at Tōshirō: "What did you do to him?"
Tōshirō said easily: "Nothing much. I just gave him a little psychological counseling."
The White Snake Sage's usually calm face almost cracked for a moment.
What kind of psychological counseling would turn the once arrogant Shinya into such a depressed state?
Tōshirō glanced at the depressed Shinya, thinking that he probably wouldn't recover for a while.
He shook his head and sighed, then asked: "I've completed the mission, haven't I?"
The White Snake Sage extended her hand, and the scroll in the mouth of the dragon head statue behind her flew into her hand: "This is the Ryūchi Cave contract. Write your name on it."
Tōshirō took it and unrolled it. There was a list of names, and Tōshirō even found Orochimaru's name among them.
Tōshirō took a brush and wrote his name on the scroll with flourish, then handed it back to the White Snake Sage. With this, he had officially signed a contract with Ryūchi Cave.
With the matter handled, Tōshirō prepared to leave: "Then I'll take my leave."
(End of Chapter)
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