The bar for contracting with Ryuchi Cave was neither absurdly low nor impossibly high.It was not some place where any passing ninja could stroll in and sign a pact, yet it also did not demand the strength of a legendary monster before it would even acknowledge your existence.Anyone who possessed the most basic qualities needed to become strong—or who had already begun walking that path—had a decent chance of passing the trial.
In the original timeline Uchiha Gen remembered, only a handful of people ever truly became contractors of Ryuchi Cave.Orochimaru was one. Yakushi Kabuto was one. Uchiha Sasuke was one. Even the weakest among those who came close, Mitarashi Anko, had still reached the level of a tokubetsu jonin. Her problem had never been talent. It was that she had encountered Orochimaru at the most critical stage of her growth.After she refused to follow him, and because she carried the stigma of once being his disciple, she was never truly nurtured by Konoha again. In the end, a capable shinobi had been worn down into someone painfully ordinary—neither weak enough to be pitied nor strong enough to matter.
The three holy lands were actually similar in this regard.The difference was that Ryuchi Cave was far more brutal, far more direct, and far less interested in disguising its intentions.If you passed, you lived and gained power.If you failed, you became food.
A dozen seconds later, Uzuki Ruri was the first to open her eyes.Her pupils were still a little unfocused, as if her mind had only just clawed its way back out of a nightmare."Gen...? Was that really genjutsu?" she asked, her voice hoarse."Yes," Uchiha Gen said calmly. "Now we wait for Flame Falcon."He had barely finished speaking when Sarutobi Enjun jolted awake as well, only a few seconds slower than Ruri. He sucked in a sharp breath, then looked wildly around before realizing where he was.Compared to Ruri, his resistance to genjutsu was a little weaker. Still, all things considered, it was good enough. More importantly, it meant Orochimaru's arrangements with Jiraiya had not been wasted after all.
"So this should be the last test, right?" Gen asked, lifting his eyes to Tsuruhime."Tch. Boring," the snake princess said, folding her arms. "Then again, your test probably won't be worth much either. You might as well let the puzzle-loving brat have her turn."She raised her voice and shouted into the mist.A moment later, another figure drifted out of the fog.She was small, childish in appearance, and almost doll-like—a loli snake princess floating lazily through the air as though swimming on her back. This was Ichikishima-hime, the last of the three great snake princesses of Ryuchi Cave."There is a maze I've prepared for you," she said, pointing deeper into the mist. "As long as you can find your way out, you'll meet the White Snake Sage and complete the final test!"
A maze?Sarutobi Enjun's face lit up immediately."That's easy! I know this one! If you keep following the right wall, you can get out of any maze!"He sounded absurdly pleased with himself, as though he had already solved the problem."Hmph. I've heard that too. Go ahead and try it," Ichikishima-hime said, giggling with obvious malice.Uchiha Gen, however, had already pulled a compass from his ninja pouch.The needle spun erratically the moment he looked at it.So the local magnetic field was disturbed. As expected.He raised his head, observed the surroundings carefully, and then said in a low voice, "Go in. Follow my instructions."Neither teammate hesitated. They had already learned enough by now to trust him when it mattered.
The three of them entered the maze.Less than two minutes later, they walked out.Ichikishima-hime's smug little face instantly froze.Tsuruhime snorted from the side. "See? I told you. That trick of yours was useless. At that point you might as well let them solve a jigsaw puzzle. At least you've actually stumped people with that before.""How is that possible?" the little snake princess cried, clearly aggrieved.Though she could freely alter inorganic matter using the senjutsu of Ryuchi Cave and turn the landscape into a labyrinth with ease, having her precious test broken so quickly still stung badly.
"Gen, how did you do that?" Sarutobi Enjun asked, eyes wide with admiration. "You got us out so fast!""It's simple," Gen said, closing the rough map he had sketched while moving. "It's basically an improved version of your wall-following trick."First, choose a direction and try to keep moving in that direction as much as possible. If you hit a dead end, then use the wall-following method until you find a point where you can continue moving in the original direction. Then you repeat the process."He explained it plainly, but the principle behind it was not trivial at all.In his previous life, he had seen this algorithm before. It was called the Pledge algorithm, and it could solve most mazes—as long as the user had decent spatial awareness and a clear sense of orientation.The latter was no problem for him. He had perception techniques. The former could be supplemented with quick sketches and disciplined thinking.For this kind of test, that was more than enough.
At the end of the maze stood a pavilion.Ancient. Quiet. Subtle in its grandeur.The three snake princesses had all gathered there by the time the team arrived.Compared to the ostentatious brilliance of the illusionary palace from before, this structure was much simpler. Yet that very simplicity gave it a deeper pressure, the kind old things carried when they had existed for too long and seen too much.The door creaked open.The three princesses lined up wordlessly and ushered them inside.They climbed to the second floor.There, coiled upon a stone platform at the center of the room, lay an enormous white snake. Its body was thick and ancient, its scales pale as bone. It rested with leisurely indifference, flicking its tongue now and then as if everything in the world amused it only faintly.When the three stepped in, it slowly raised its upper body.In the next instant, the great serpent transformed into a frail old woman.
"So. You are Orochimaru's students?" the White Snake Sage said lazily. "Come closer and let this old thing get a look at you."The three exchanged glances, then stepped forward together."I greet the White Snake Sage," they said in unison.The old sage slithered—no, shuffled—down from the stone bed and circled them one by one, sniffing as she went."This girl's skin is tender," she muttered while eyeing Ruri. "She'd probably taste quite good."This little monkey..." She flicked Enjun a glance. "Not much to look at, but he'd be chewy enough."And you..."She stopped in front of Uchiha Gen.Her snake-like eyes narrowed.The air in the room changed.
"You..." she murmured. "This generation's Indra... no. That's not right. I think I misjudged you."Uchiha Gen's gaze sharpened slightly.He had expected many things from this place.He had expected danger, hostility, trickery, hunger, and ancient malice.But that reaction still caught him off guard.The White Snake Sage circled him once. Then again. Her tongue flicked out repeatedly as though tasting something invisible in the air around him.Gen did not move. His right hand remained near the hilt of his sword, but he did nothing to provoke her.He also understood, very clearly, that if this ancient being truly meant to kill them, there was nothing the three of them could do about it here.After a few moments, the White Snake Sage seemed to lose interest."Forget it," she muttered, turning away. "I'm too lazy to meddle in your business. Do whatever you want. If you're not afraid of death, you can come learn sage arts from me someday."Now get out."Her tone was casual, almost dismissive, but the meaning behind it was anything but light.
The three students had no time to react.A violent gust of force struck them all at once—not enough to injure, but more than enough to send them flying backward.The next second, they were blasted straight out of the pavilion.Bang.The door slammed shut behind them.
Uchiha Gen twisted his body in midair and landed in a half-crouch, light on his feet.Sarutobi Enjun, meanwhile, nearly sat down hard on the ground before scrambling back up in embarrassment. Ruri landed with more grace, though her expression remained dazed."Gen," she asked, still trying to process what had just happened, "why did the White Snake Sage suddenly change her attitude? And... who is Indra?"Her voice held more curiosity than fear now. If anything, the abrupt ending of the trial had made everything feel even stranger.Gen dusted off his sleeve before answering."Maybe it's because I'm from the Uchiha clan," he said evenly. "Orochimaru-sensei mentioned that the White Snake Sage has lived for over a thousand years. Indra is the ancestor recorded in our clan's legends from around a thousand years ago. It's possible the sage has some old grudge connected to that figure in the myths."It was a reasonable explanation.Reasonable enough, at least.Not that Gen himself believed it was so simple.
Because he understood exactly what had happened.Or rather, he understood enough to be uneasy.The White Snake Sage had not mistaken him for just any Uchiha.She had reacted to something deeper—to the presence produced by the card he carried, to that young Madara card hidden within the system and currently equipped upon him. She had sensed something in him that belonged to Indra's line far more directly than it should have.But then she had corrected herself.No. That's not right. I think I misjudged you.That meant she had sensed two overlapping truths.He was not truly Madara.Yet there was enough of Madara—and enough of that old chakra line—within him to confuse even an ancient immortal beast for a moment.The thought made his spine go slightly cold.The system had once again revealed a depth he could not yet fully understand.
Sarutobi Enjun, of course, was thinking about something far more immediate."So that's it?" he said, blinking in disbelief. "We really passed? Just like that?""Would you rather go back in and ask them to eat you, just to be sure?" Ruri said dryly.Enjun immediately shut his mouth.Then, after a beat, he muttered, "No need to be that certain, Liuli."Uchiha Gen almost smiled.Almost.Because despite the apparent absurdity of the ending, he knew this visit had not been simple at all.Ryuchi Cave had tested greed and temptation. It had tested will and reason. It had tested thought and wisdom.And at the very end, it had done something even more dangerous than any of that.It had seen him.
The three of them looked back once toward the shut pavilion door.The mist of Ryuchi Cave drifted slowly around the ancient structure, concealing it little by little, until it seemed less like a building and more like some relic sinking back into a dream.For a moment, nobody spoke.Even Sarutobi Enjun, who usually could not keep quiet for more than a few breaths, remained unusually silent.Eventually, Ruri broke the stillness."Then what now?" she asked."We return," Gen said. "We report to Orochimaru-sensei. And after that, we prepare for the battlefield."The mention of the battlefield immediately grounded the mood again.Their visit to Ryuchi Cave had been dangerous, yes. Strange, yes. But it had also been a step in one clear direction.Power.Survival.The road ahead was only going to get bloodier.And now, they had one more card to play.
Somewhere deep within the pavilion, beyond the closed doors, the White Snake Sage lay back down on her stone platform and shut her eyes.The three snake princesses lingered nearby in silence for a time before Tsuruhime finally spoke."Was that really fine?" she asked. "That boy clearly isn't ordinary.""None of Orochimaru's brats are ordinary," the White Snake Sage said lazily."That's not what I meant." Tsuruhime's eyes narrowed. "You called him Indra."The old sage flicked her tongue once, slow and thoughtful."I said I misjudged him.""Then what did you see?" Ichikishima-hime asked, having long since lost her earlier frustration. She floated closer, childlike face full of curiosity. "Because for a moment even I felt the atmosphere change."The White Snake Sage was quiet for a long while.Finally, she said, "I saw someone who should not be there."That answer only made the three princesses more confused.But the White Snake Sage offered nothing further.She simply closed her eyes again, as though the matter no longer interested her.Yet within the depths of that ancient stillness, one thought lingered.If that child continued walking this path, then one day, Ryuchi Cave might have to look at him very differently.Not as food.Not as a passing contractor.But as something far more troublesome.
Outside, the reverse summoning finally took hold.The world twisted.The mist vanished.The oppressive atmosphere of Ryuchi Cave dissolved in an instant, and the three students were flung back to the familiar world of men and war.But even as the land beneath his feet became ordinary ground once more, Uchiha Gen's thoughts remained in that ancient cave.The White Snake Sage's words echoed in his mind.This generation's Indra... no. That's not right.He exhaled slowly.There were some things he could tell Orochimaru.There were some things he definitely could not.Not yet.Not until he understood the system more clearly.Not until he was strong enough that knowledge like this would not become a death sentence the moment it slipped out.For now, one thing was certain.Ryuchi Cave had accepted them.And whatever the White Snake Sage had truly seen in him, it had not been enough to reject him.That alone was already dangerous enough.And useful enough.Which, in the ninja world, often meant the same thing.