"White Snake Sage, I'm not joking. This is the fact I observed."
Orochimaru shook his head, his golden eyes serious.
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
Tagorihime stomped her foot, the stone floor cracking slightly.
"He just grabbed my hand earlier, and I couldn't move at all! My bones nearly shattered! Orochimaru, are you saying he's actually weak? Are you mocking me?!"
Upon hearing Orochimaru's clinical assessment, Tagorihime could hardly stand still.
It felt like a direct insult to her pride as a guardian of Ryuchi Cave.
While questioning the authenticity of Orochimaru's statement, she couldn't help but walk up to Makoto and grab at him aggressively.
It seemed she wanted revenge for being intimidated by Makoto earlier and losing face in front of her sisters.
She needed to prove he was strong, or else she's gonna look weak!
SWISH.
"What are you doing? Offering me something?"
Just like before, Makoto caught Tagorihime's outstretched hand in mid-air.
"Let go!"
After struggling fruitlessly for a moment Tagorihime glared fiercely at Orochimaru.
She had indeed been tricked by this bastard!
"I only said his cells are weak," Orochimaru innocently spread his hands, a smirk playing on his pale lips.
"I never said Makoto-kun was weak."
Makoto looked at the struggling snake princess and said. "I heard snake molts can be used to make high-quality medicinal wine or tea. They say it's good for vitality."
Makoto's gaze drifted downward.
"Take off your socks. I'll brew some tea with them later and give it to Jiraiya. He has a thing for... textures."
"..."
Tagorihime's face went pale.
Socks? Tea? Jiraiya?
The illustrations from the book flashed through her mind.
"...Help. White Snake Sage." Tagorihime's body stiffened.
She slowly turned her head to seek help from the Great White Snake Sage, her eyes pleading for salvation from this degenerate.
"Young man," the White Snake Sage sighed, puffing on her pipe. "Let her go. If you want snake molts for tea or wine, I can give you some from the shedding pile before you leave."
"But brewing them with her socks is too perverted. Even for a human."
The Sage looked at Makoto earnestly. "I advise you to have less contact with Mount Myoboku in the future. Don't get corrupted by those slimy toads. Their bad taste is contagious."
"Alright." Makoto released Tagorihime.
"Orochimaru, continue," the Sage waved her hand, dismissing the traumatized Tagorihime. "What exactly is going on with his body?"
"Well," Orochimaru stepped forward, adopting his lecturer persona. "According to my observations, the cell density of Makoto-kun is far lower than that of ordinary people. It is statistically impossible."
"Not to mention the Uzumaki or Senju clans, who are vitality monsters... even ordinary civilians without bloodlines have about 30 to 40 trillion cells in their bodies."
"But Makoto-kun's cells?" Orochimaru paused for dramatic effect. "Estimated at the absolute most... he only numbers around 500,000."
"500,000?" The Sage frowned. "That's it? He should be a blob of jelly, not a human."
"Exactly. His quantity is negligible. And their biological activity is also very low."
"Originally, I just wanted to confirm why Makoto-kun can't refine Chakra. Chakra requires mixing physical energy and spiritual energy. But with so few cells, he physically cannot produce enough energy to mix. According to his condition, his physical constitution should be worse than that of a bedridden cripple."
"So?" The White Snake Sage narrowed her eyes. "Have you figured out how he mastered Senjutsu then? If his body is that weak, Nature Energy should have turned him into stone instantly."
"That brings us to the anomaly," Orochimaru's eyes gleamed with scientific fervor.
"Based on my preliminary observations, Makoto-kun's cells are indeed pitifully few in number. But the sub-cellular components..... are completely different from any biological entities in the Shinobi World."
"Those elements... I ran a simulation. Roughly estimated, they would require at least billions of degrees of heat to form naturally."
Orochimaru lowered his voice.
"One could say... Makoto-kun's body wasn't born. It was forged inside the core of a Sun."
"Beyond that, there are things I cannot observe."
Orochimaru paused here and stated the purpose of this visit.
"White Snake Sage, I brought Makoto-kun to Ryuchi Cave to find a more suitable training method for him."
As for what Orochimaru called "unobservable things," they referred to the illogical aspects in his research.
These illogical aspects were of the same nature as Makoto's "Future Alteration" and "Time Erasure."
But now, Orochimaru no longer questioned these phenomena.
Makoto's earlier lecture on dimensional concepts (2D vs 3D vs 4D) made Orochimaru realize something profound: This might not be illogical.
'I am just too low-dimensional to comprehend the logic.'
'If Makoto possessed power from higher-dimensional beings with inherent causality severance, everything could be explained.'
'The Otsutsuki God?'
Orochimaru felt that this legendary ruler who dominated the cosmos might have spent his entire life killing countless beings and eating planets, yet never reached Makoto's starting point.
"...Is that so?"
The White Snake Sage sat up straight.
She never expected the usually rational, cynical Orochimaru to say something so outrageous.
After brief consideration, she decided to trust Orochimaru's words for now.
The White Snake Sage tapped her pipe against the side of her stone bed.
Clack. Clack.
"I understand," she rasped. "In that case, I'll tell you this."
"A thousand years ago, before the Villages, before the wars... I witnessed an entity containing the most immense Natural Energy I've ever seen. It was nature itself given form."
"The Jubi."
"If he truly is as you describe then perhaps the Ten-Tails' way of existence could be his training path."
"The Jūbi?"
Orochimaru stroked his chin thoughtfully before looking up.
"Does the White Snake Sage mean Makoto-kun should collect the Tailed Beasts and seal them within himself to become a Jinchūriki? To compensate for his lack of Chakra?"
"I don't know," the Sage shrugged casually.
"..."
Orochimaru twitched. "You brought it up."
"Look, that battle with The Sage of Six Paths shook the world," the Sage grumbled defensively. "It darkened the sun and moon. It was far beyond what us three Sages could approach. We hid in our holes and sensed fragments from afar. What did you expect? That I took notes?"
The White Snake Sage glanced faintly at Orochimaru.
'I value my life, thank you very much.'
"Well," Orochimaru sighed. "White Snake Sage, if there's nothing else, we'll take our leave."
Orochimaru, always efficient and pragmatic, prepared to depart with Makoto since no further concrete information was available.
"Wait."
The White Snake Sage stopped them.
She tilted her head, searching her memory.
"The epicenter of the Sage of Six Paths' great battle caused extreme environmental damage. It scarred the planet."
"That was also where the Ten-Tails once took root to drain the planet's energy."
"The wounds inflicted upon the earth formed massive fissures of chakra. Locals call them the Dragon Veins."
"Hmph... Dragons," she muttered quietly, clearly annoyed that mere earth veins were named after her kind.
"If you find no other methods, you could investigate there. The energy density in the Dragon vein is the closest thing to the Ten-Tails itself."
"Thank you, White Snake Sage."
Orochimaru committed this to memory.
'Dragon vein?'
It sounded familiar.
'Wasn't this something Makoto-kun had briefly mentioned before? Something existing in the ancient ruins of Roran in the Wind Country?'
"Makoto-kun, come closer," Orochimaru said, placing a hand on Makoto's shoulder. "We're preparing to leave."
"Since I'm already here," Makoto looked at the Three Princesses hiding in the corner. "Why not sign a contract with me before i leave? Having three beautiful snake girls as personal assistants is quite nice... I have plenty of socks."
"NO! PLEASE!" Tagorihime screamed.
"LEAVE QUICKLY!!" Tagitsuhime yelled.
"HELP! HE'S GOING TO PENETRATE US!" Ichikishimahime shrieked.
The moment the Three Princesses heard Makoto wanted to contract them, the vivid, high-definition scenes from "Pale Iris" instantly flashed through their minds.
The ropes.
The candles.
The experiments.
The three of them hurriedly rushed forward, forgetting their fear, and physically pushed Makoto toward Orochimaru.
"Orochimaru! Hurry up and take him away! Or we'll kill you!"
"..."
POOF.
Smoke engulfed them.
Only when the two disappeared did the Three Princesses sigh in relief and collapse onto the ground, panting like they had run a marathon.
"You peeked too just now?"
Ichikishimahime and Tagitsuhime looked at each other and spoke simultaneously.
"..."
Silence.
If they hadn't peeked at the book, they wouldn't have known how dangerous "human" hearts could be, and wouldn't have reacted this way.
"Perverts," Tagorihime muttered, wiping sweat from her brow.
"All of you."
Ignoring the Three Princesses' disheveled state, the White Snake Sage walked to the table.
She picked up the two books she had discarded earlier with trembling fingers.
She opened "The Legend of the White Snake: Tama's Love Story."
She wanted to see just how bad the slander was.
She read the first page.
"DAMN FUCKING TOADS!"
The White Snake Sage roared, shaking the entire cave.
"It was definitely you who did this! Gamamaru! You senile old frog!"
Seeing that the protagonist was a White Snake spirit named Tamayo, and the "love story" involved phrases like "I'll fuck your ancestors" and detailed diagrams of snake anatomy being used for... reproduction...
The White Snake Sage became even more convinced that this was definitely the Old Toad Sage creating slanderous propaganda to ruin her reputation!
"I will dry out your pond and I will turn your tadpoles into soup!"