"Then I'll take my leave now. See you at school the day after tomorrow, Ryufeng."
Ren, full and content, stood at the door, followed by Ryufeng and Shisui.
"Alright, I understand."
Uchiha Ryufeng nodded. Neither of them seemed too worried about the so-called graduation assessment. After all, it was just an assessment to become a Genin. With Ren and Ryufeng's current strength, they could easily suppress a Chunin, making becoming a Ninja more than enough.
"Then I'll also take my leave. Big Brother Ren, Brother Ryufeng, see you later."
Shisui stood at the intersection, waving to both of them.
"Be careful on the way."
"See you in a couple of days, Shisui."
After exchanging greetings, the three of them left.
Walking on the road, Ren had solved the problem of insufficient training time. Now, it was just a matter of systematically training and preparing for the upcoming Third Shinobi World War.
It was currently Konoha 44. The Third Shinobi World War was about two years away from breaking out. In Konoha 47, after recuperating from the Second Ninja World War, the major Villages' aggressive and hateful gazes once again turned towards the fertile and temperate Land of Fire.
The fuse of the Third Shinobi World War began with the disappearance of the Third Kazekage of Sunagakure, one of the Five Great Villages. Subsequently, the main authority of Sunagakure fell into the hands of Elder Chiyo. Coupled with the fact that her son and daughter-in-law were killed by Konoha White Fang, Chiyo had both personal and national grudges against Konoha. Therefore, after the Third Kazekage's disappearance, Chiyo immediately pointed the finger at Konoha. Furthermore, Konoha had lost the Kage-level expert, White Fang. With new and old scores to settle, a localised war between Sunagakure and Konoha immediately broke out. Later, other Ninja Villages gradually joined the war, and only when all of them were involved did the prelude to the Third Shinobi World War truly begin.
In this war, Minato Namikaze, relying on his elusive Flying Thunder God, was called the "Yellow Flash" by his enemies. The "A-B Brothers" of Hidden Cloud Village and "Scorching Release Ye Cang" of Sunagakure also made their formidable names.
However, things are unpredictable. Minato Namikaze, also a hero of his Village, married Kushina, became the Fourth Hokage, and reached the pinnacle of his life. But Ye Cang, the hero of Sunagakure, was betrayed by the Fourth Kazekage and the Village's higher-ups to Hidden Mist in exchange for peace. The demise of such a powerful Ninja in such a manner was truly regrettable.
Pulling back his thoughts, Ren raised his arm and looked at the coiled slinky, muttering to himself.
"There's only one last thing left. I hope everything goes smoothly…"
"Lead the way, slinky. We're going to find Orochimaru."
Ren stroked Slinky's snake head. Slinky flicked its tongue in response, then suddenly raised its head high, pointing in a direction.
That was… in the direction of Hokage Rock.
Ren's eyes narrowed slightly. The first time he met Orochimaru, he was wearing a sterile suit for experiments, meaning he was probably taking a break from an experiment. Orochimaru's laboratories were usually built underground, and since Orochimaru walked out of the forest behind Hokage Rock, his base should be somewhere in that forest.
Finding a rarely used path, Ren sprinted all the way to the place where they first met.
Before long, Ren, standing in front of Hokage Rock, looked at the dark and eerie forest before him and couldn't help but shiver. As expected of Orochimaru, he was indeed different from normal people.
Lowering his head, Ren noticed that Slinky, who was on his wrist, slid to the ground. After slithering a meter forward, it turned its head to look at Ren, signalling him to follow.
Ren nodded and followed Slinky deeper into the forest.
The trees here blocked out the sun, and unknown beasts could be heard from time to time. Ren felt that this place was probably not much worse than the Forest of Death during the Chunin Exams.
After following Slinky around twists and turns for several minutes, the wild grass nearby reached Ren's knees. At this point, he could only place Slinky on his shoulder to guide the way.
"Is this it?"
Ren half-crouched on a tree trunk, looking down at a sloping mound of earth in front of him. After careful observation, he concluded that it was a very ordinary dirt mound, with nothing unusual about it.
Jumping off the tree trunk, Ren walked to the slope. Slinky slid off Ren again, went to the slope, poked the mound in front of it with its tail, and then turned its head to look at Ren, flicking its tongue.
"Hmm?"
Ren half-crouched, placing his hands on the spot Slinky had just poked, and began to feel around. Suddenly, Ren felt as if he had touched something cold, and his finger instinctively pressed down.
"Boom!"
Ren seemed to have pressed something incredible. The "slope" in front of him slowly began to rise. Suddenly, a pair of eyes opened on the slope, and large chunks of soil began to fall off until they had all fallen off, revealing the true appearance of this thing. Ren gripped his Kunai, lifted Slinky onto his shoulder, and looked gravely at the huge creature before him.
With yellowish-brown scales, its body stretched out to nearly ten meters long and was as thick as a barrel. A pair of cold eyes stared at the two "intruders," one large and one small, flicking its tongue.
While Ren was on high alert, he also felt like cursing.
Good heavens, he had originally thought that the guardian and alert system would be people or traps. But you're directly using a snake as a doorman. This is indeed Orochimaru's style.
"Heh heh, I thought it was someone else. So it's you, Ren-kun."
A cold voice came from behind the giant snake. As the giant snake slowly moved aside, it revealed the figure behind it.
"Lord Orochimaru, please forgive my sudden intrusion."
Ren bowed slightly to show his respect to Orochimaru, while also breathing a sigh of relief. With the strength of that giant snake just now, Ren estimated that although the snake would die in a fight, he himself wouldn't fare well. Now that Orochimaru had come out, this battle could be avoided. He was here to "study science," not to fight.
"Don't worry about it, Ren-kun. You must have a problem to solve by coming to see me. Come in and talk."
He was still wearing the same white sterile suit as when they first met. It seemed he was in the middle of an experiment.
"Alright, Lord Orochimaru."
Ren carefully walked around the giant snake and followed Orochimaru behind it. There was actually a door in the middle of the giant snake's coils. Ren immediately understood. No wonder he hadn't found this place before; the entrance was covered by the coiled snake.
After the two entered, the giant snake coiled its body again, closed its eyes, and continued to rest.
...
The door closed. Ren followed Orochimaru, curiously observing the passage before him. The steps of this passage extended downwards, and lamps hung on both sides of the walls, bringing a glimmer of light to the dark passage.
"It seems you've taken good care of it."
Orochimaru turned to look at Ren, glanced at Slinky on his shoulder, and then smiled indifferently.
"Thanks to Lord Orochimaru, I get along very well with this little guy."
"Is that so? That's good."
As they talked, the two also finished walking through the underground passage.
Orochimaru turned around and smiled at Ren.
"Ren-kun, welcome to my laboratory."