Currently, Motomu had only one solution that couldn't quite be called a proper plan.
That was to farm victories from the two remaining members of the Three Snake Himes.
Since the experience from losing was decreasing, he would have to make up for it by winning battles against opponents of the same level.
He would have to keep Ichikishimahime and Tagorihime as his primary sources of experience for the time being.
He hadn't seen their true forms last time, so he wasn't sure what level those two snakes were compared to Tagitsu Hime.
If he learned Senjutsu, he should be able to deal with them in an instant, right?
Motomu stopped his train of thought and stood up to leave the room.
"Snake Sage, we have a signal!"
"Oh! Great! Anko-chan, you're the best! I'm coming down right now!"
Thump, thump, thump!
A series of footsteps echoed from the roof.
Cobra landed on the ground with a heavy jump.
Adjusting her glasses, the black-haired girl tried to rush past Motomu in a frantic hurry.
Gah!
Grabbing Cobra by the neck, Motomu dragged her toward the exit.
"Let's go. You can watch TV when we get back."
"Nooooo!"
Ignoring the cobra's struggling will, the two humans and one snake set off for the depths of the forest.
A clearing in the woods.
A bit reluctant, and seeing no one else around, Cobra simply transformed back into a snake coiled like a pile of dung.
She watched as Motomu and Anko sat down cross-legged with their eyes closed according to her instructions.
The black-scaled cobra opened her pink mouth and gave each of them a light nip on the neck.
With his eyes closed, Motomu only felt a sharp sting at his neck, followed by waves of burning heat.
"This is Senjutsu Chakra."
"Yeah, I heard the White Snake Sage does the same thing for those who pass the trials."
"I don't know how you guys feel."
Cobra seemed to realize that what she was saying sounded a bit unreliable.
After thinking for a moment, she flicked her tongue and added another sentence.
"But don't worry."
"If anything goes wrong, I'll suck it back out for you."
Motomu heard the cobra's voice beside his ear getting slower and more blurred.
He immediately focused with all his might.
Senjutsu was not something easily mastered. As a late-game skill in the ninja world, even Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, only managed a half-finished version after half a lifetime of practice.
Kabuto Yakushi had to turn himself into a literal snake-man hybrid before he could learn it.
He had to maintain a calm mindset. It was normal for it to be difficult; after all, his talent wasn't exactly in the academic department.
"Feel the breath of nature, feel..."
"Inhale, exhale..."
The cobra's words continued to ring in his ears.
Motomu slowly immersed himself following the breathing rhythm she described.
"Awoooo!"
Motomu's eyes snapped open as stone debris fell from his hair!
The warm sensation of the cobra's mouth on his neck transmitted to his brain.
Motomu was about to say something when his head spun, and he almost fell over.
A feeling of oxygen deprivation hit him.
Without even realizing it, he had actually stopped breathing!
Glancing at Anko, who was still sitting quietly, Motomu carefully exhaled the stale air he had been holding in his lungs for over ten minutes.
Stone dust, which had formed from the petrifying cilia in his windpipe, was exhaled from his mouth.
Motomu felt his whole body go numb, like the static on a TV screen.
He had likely failed the training.
After confirming with the cobra's gaze, Motomu waited for her to finish sucking out the residual culprit from his body.
Half a minute passed.
Motomu's oxygen-starved purple lips regained their color. The snake pupils in his eyes gradually returned to human form as the natural energy and Senjutsu Chakra were absorbed.
That was close.
If Cobra hadn't acted in time, he would have turned into a snake stone statue due to the excess natural energy.
Practicing Senjutsu was simply too dangerous.
However, fortunately, he had Cobra's help, just like Naruto had the assistance of the Great Toad Sages of Mount Myoboku.
The danger of learning Senjutsu had been significantly reduced.
It wasn't like those predecessors in Ryuchi Cave who were bitten by the White Snake Sage and then left to fend for themselves.
As Cobra released her bite.
Motomu, still feeling a bit of lingering fear, recalled the sensation of the training just now.
Dizzy, groggy, very warm—it felt a bit like wanting to fall asleep.
Nothing magical had happened at all.
In Motomu's original imagination.
Senjutsu would feel like immortal cultivation.
The kind of effect where you close your eyes and sense the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
He didn't expect it to be like this.
Well, or maybe it's just that I have absolutely no talent.
No, that's not right.
The fact that he could absorb natural energy proved that he could definitely practice Sage Mode.
It was just that he didn't know where he had gone wrong.
As a failure, he hadn't summarized any experience that could allow him to take the first step.
Thus, he turned his gaze toward Anko, who had persisted until now.
Golden sunlight fell on the girl's purple hair and shoulders.
Little Anko, with her eyes closed, looked quite cute with her round cheeks.
A withered yellow leaf swirled and drifted down from the treetop, landing on top of Anko's head.
But little Anko didn't move an inch.
If it weren't for the way her chest rose and fell with her breath under her mesh armor, Motomu would have thought she was in the same danger of over-absorbing natural energy as he was.
Time passed minute by minute.
By the time lunch arrived and seeing that Anko still hadn't woken up.
Motomu quietly got up and went home first.
He opened the refrigerator and prepared the ingredients.
Because Cobra was around, the amount of food the three of them consumed was ridiculously large.
Motomu and Anko had bought a lot of meat—chicken, duck, fish, and beef stuffed the double-door refrigerator to the brim.
Excluding Kakashi, a normal child of this age would be absolutely helpless in the face of all this.
However, as a transmigrator, Motomu had experience living alone in other cities in his previous life.
Cooking was simply too easy for him.
Pots and pans were arranged on the kitchen hooks.
Motomu turned the gas stove, and a ghostly blue flame ignited under the frying pan.
He remembered that Itachi used his Sharingan to fry eggs for Sasuke.
Would eggs cooked that way taste better?
Having been fed by his grandmother and never having cooked for himself since coming to this world, Motomu was a bit curious. So, he also activated his Sharingan, slowing down the movements in his vision.
An eggshell tapped against the corner of the white marble table, and the crystal-clear egg liquid rolled into the pan.
...
While Motomu was playing the role of the Uchiha Master Chef.
On the other side.
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, a faint circle of purple eyeshadow flickered around Anko's tightly closed eyes.
Cobra, somewhat unable to believe it, opened her snake mouth so wide she didn't even notice her tongue dragging on the ground.
This human's talent was just too good.
If she were at the White Snake Sage's place, she would probably succeed as well!
By comparison, Motomu is really useless!
Just as this irreverent thought popped into Cobra's mind.
Suddenly, an accident occurred.
Anko's eyeshadow vanished instantly, and the tips of her purple hair began to petrify at a rate visible to the naked eye.
"I just said she was doing great, and now something happens!"
Cobra complained, and with quick eyes and a faster mouth, she bit into the girl's fair neck.
Slurp, slurp!
A large amount of Senjutsu Chakra and natural energy was consumed by Cobra.
The changes in Anko's body gradually slowed down.
The parts that had already petrified, such as her fingers, quietly recovered.
A moment later.
Little Anko gasped for breath, her snake-like pupils meeting the gaze of the cobra biting her neck.
"Snake Sage, did I... succeed?"
Anko's voice was a bit raspy, but she couldn't suppress the excitement hidden within.