Mayuri Kurotsuchi Card Game, starting from Naruto

Chapter 10 Spirit Contract

"You have passed the test."

Orochimaru dispersed the snakes he had summoned, freeing the struggling Anko, and announced that the two had passed his test.

Snatching the bell was a method used by the Third Hokage to test them. In the Third Hokage's words, they had also undergone this test when they were students of the Second Hokage.

This assessment method has become an unspoken rule among the Hokage clan.

Although it all involves grabbing a bell, the essence of this assessment is actually to observe whether students have met the requirements through the act of grabbing the bell.

The strongest person present at this Hokage-affiliated examination was the Kage of a village, and the weakest was an elite Jonin.

And those who participated in the assessment? Most of them were genin who had just graduated from the Konoha Ninja Academy and received genin headbands, at most becoming chunin.

Given this disparity in strength, if the examiners don't go easy on them, virtually no team will be able to pass the test. Consider the future Kakashi Hatake.

Therefore, those who pass this bell-grabbing test are basically those whose traits meet one's expectations, and only then are they allowed to succeed.

Therefore, each examiner has different requirements, which leads to different ways of passing even with the same examination method.

Some people like those who are ruthless, some like those who have a sense of camaraderie, some like those who are intelligent and resourceful, and so on.

Orochimaru never believed that the two of them could actually snatch the so-called bell from him; he simply wanted to see their abilities in the process. Once he saw it, even if they didn't manage to snatch the bell in the end, he would still declare it passed.

The two, Lu Nie and Lu Nie, clearly gave him quite a pleasant surprise.

"Did it pass?" Hongdou, who had gotten up from the ground, didn't care about her disheveled appearance; her joy was overflowing.

"Passed!" Orochimaru patted Anko's head and led the two to the tree where the Ryuchi Cave scroll was placed. He unfolded it in front of them and stopped at the last blank space.

"Before signing the contract, I need to give you some advice." Orochimaru looked at the two with a threatening gaze. The pressure in his eyes made Anko, who was immersed in joy, shudder and her rosy face turned pale instantly.

"Don't summon the giant snakes of Ryuchi Cave when you're not strong enough. They won't obey you just because you're a contractor. They're also a source of danger," Orochimaru warned.

Lu Nie and Hong Dou nodded.

Orochimaru was merely offering a reminder; with their current chakra levels, they couldn't possibly summon any large summoning beasts. At most, they could only summon some ordinary snakes from Ryuchi Cave.

In Ryuchi Cave, snakes are merely cannon fodder; there are countless of them. Ordinary ninjas, unless facing swarms of snakes, can handle them with ease.

"Do you still have the strength?" Orochimaru asked, looking at the two of them.

"Yes, Orochimaru-sensei!" Anko raised her hand, but anyone could tell she wasn't feeling well.

Lu Nie, standing to the side, looked even paler. The moment he forcibly restrained Orochimaru with the Shadow Binding Technique, and the subsequent somewhat strained Shadow Coffin and Shadow Stitching Techniques, almost completely drained Orochimaru's chakra.

"That's enough for today." Orochimaru could tell the two weren't feeling well. "We'll meet here again tomorrow, and I'll teach you some ninjutsu."

"So what should we do next? How about we go out for barbecue and have a celebratory feast, Orochimaru-sensei!" Anko nodded repeatedly and then suggested the next step in the plan.

It's clear that her admiration for Orochimaru is overflowing and undisguisedly fanatical.

Orochimaru glanced at Anko, who was looking on expectantly, and Shika, who was now finally showing some of the listlessness typical of the Nara clan. After a moment of contemplation, he nodded in agreement, seemingly having thought of something.

"Then let's go."

……

Orochimaru, leading Shikaguchi and the other two, lifted the curtain of the barbecue restaurant and headed towards an empty, semi-enclosed private room. However, halfway there, as if sensing something, Orochimaru paused and then stepped forward to lift the curtain of another private room.

Inside the curtain, a trio of women—one with blond hair, one with red hair, and one with white hair—stopped what they were doing and looked at the person who had lifted the curtain and entered.

"Orochimaru?" Jiraiya, with his long white hair flowing freely, stood up in surprise when he saw the newcomer.

"Lord Orochimaru." The blond-haired guy in the private room also pulled the red-haired girl next to him to greet Orochimaru.

"It's Minato and Kushina." Orochimaru glanced at the atmosphere in the private room and realized it was a long-awaited reunion between master and disciple. Just as he was considering whether he should leave, a small head peeked out from behind him.

"Teacher?" Hongdou was just asking a question, but when she saw the person in the private room, her face first looked blank, then as if she had discovered something but was not sure, she looked up at Orochimaru.

"Teacher?" Jiraiya, noticing Anko's address to Orochimaru, looked at him with some surprise: "You've become the team leader again?"

"Mitarashi Anko, this is Nara Shikaku." Orochimaru reached out and pulled Shikaku out from behind him, pushed him in front, and placed one on each of their heads: "They just became my disciples today."

"This is Jiraiya, you should stay away from him! This is Minato Namikaze, Jiraiya's student."

Orochimaru introduced the two of them one by one, but skipped over Kushina Uzumaki.

Kushina, who was being ignored, didn't show any unusual reaction; she was already used to being ignored. In the past, when she had a fiery temper, she would have certainly exploded, but now that Minato was by her side, her emotions were exceptionally stable.

Anyway, she wasn't fond of Orochimaru, who always exuded a cold and sinister aura.

"Hello, buddy." Minato Namikaze waved to Shinobu and Anko, and under their gaze, he casually pulled out two oddly shaped, forked kunai from his person and handed them to the two.

"I don't have anything to give you right now, so please take these two kunai," Minato Namikaze said amiably, stroking his hair.

Lu Nie toyed with the specially made kunai in his hand, which had some strange, scribbled runes on its surface. Currently, aside from his clan's shadow techniques, Lu Nie hadn't yet learned about sealing techniques or other ninjutsu, so he couldn't discern what the runes on the kunai represented.

He still liked the gift. At least the runes on it would have some research value when he studied sealing techniques later.

He glanced at Minato Namikaze and could sense a reassuring and trustworthy power emanating from him. Those extremely sensitive to chakra can discern a person's character through their chakra.

For example, Karin, the future member of the Uzumaki clan, can judge a person's emotional state by the warmth or coldness of their chakra.

"Minato-senpai is so gentle!" A somewhat jarring voice from the side interrupted Shikane's thoughts. He twitched his lips and looked at Anko, whose eyes were shining, speechless.

Is Hongdou still a serious fangirl at this stage?

"Want to eat together? Let's treat it as a get-together for our two classes," Jiraiya chuckled, extending the invitation.

Orochimaru didn't answer immediately, but instead looked at Shika and Anko. Sensing her teacher's question, Anko quickly nodded and gave Shika a slightly dangerous look.

Lu Nie nodded, finding it troublesome.

The atmosphere in the private room immediately became lively again. While grilling meat, Jiraiya chattered on and on, boasting to Shika and the others about his experiences and stories over the past few years, as well as the local customs and culture of various places.

It's no wonder that Jiraiya, a novelist and a traveler who gathers information from all over the world, quickly captivated the two women present.

Kushina Uzumaki was unable to leave Konoha because she was being monitored, while Anko was simply young and curious about everything. Jiraiya's vivid and engaging storytelling immediately captured their attention.

Even Lu Nie, while trying his best to replenish his strength with food, was also listening attentively.

After a satisfying meal, one side spoke eloquently, the other listened with pleasure, and both left happily.

After being sent back home, Lu Nie went to his research lab to feed the hungry blue-white worms, and then experimented with the spirit communication technique he had just learned in the open space of the yard.

He bit his finger and smeared his own blood—the medium for the contractual communication—on his palm.

Hai-Xu-You-Shen-Wei!

Summoning from the ground.

After a cloud of smoke exploded, a snake as thick as a baby's arm was summoned from the distant Ryuchi Cave.

Lu Nie felt his restored chakra begin to drain away again, and at the same time, he felt a mysterious connection with the summoned snakes.

The summoned snakes coiled and writhed on the ground, quickly twisting their bodies into a mosquito coil shape under Lu Nie's gaze. Their heads were raised, their forked tongues constantly protruding from their mouths, hissing. A pair of golden eyes swayed before meeting Lu Nie's gaze.

Lu Nie felt he could control the summoned, spirit-connected snake before him; its meager intelligence was simply insufficient to make it think or object.

This should be the most common, and also the lowest, venomous snake in Ryuchi Cave.

After testing his control over it, Lu Nie was somewhat disappointed. Although the snake was obedient enough, its brain wasn't capable of understanding the slightly more complex commands Lu Nie gave it.

To attack a target.

Go and look for living creatures around you.

The simpler the command, the faster it executes. On the contrary, if the command is slightly more complex, such as adding a ninja or wild beast label when searching for living creatures, it will be confused for a long time.

Conclusion: Summoning them is a waste of chakra and serves no other purpose. To create any destructive power, a massive amount of chakra must be consumed at once to summon a sea of ​​snakes, resulting in an indiscriminate scourge of venomous snakes.

Shika Nie then experimented many more times until he had completely depleted his chakra. Only then did he gain a deeper, more realistic understanding of Ryuchi Cave's summoning jutsu.

The more chakra consumed, the more powerful the Ryuchi Cave snakes can be summoned. These include enormous, destructive serpents! Among these snakes, there are higher-ranking snakes with intelligence.

They understand human language and can communicate with humans. However, they also have the right to resist contractual communication. During the experiment, Lu Nie summoned one, but was refused the communication.

When Orochimaru's team gathered at the assessment site on the second day, the first thing Shikano did upon seeing Orochimaru was to raise his questions and deductions, wanting to confirm them with Orochimaru.

Orochimaru glanced at him and agreed, "The truly powerful creatures of Ryuchi Cave are the intelligent snakes that can communicate with humans. But these snakes mostly have their own tempers and personalities. If you want to summon them to fight, you must first satisfy their desires."

"In other words, signing a summoning contract is just a threshold. To summon those powerful intelligent snakes, you also need to reach a certain contract with them. Is that correct, Orochimaru-sensei?" Shikagure asked for confirmation.

"Yes! For example, the condition I agreed upon with the summoned Manda was that it would respond to my summons and fight for me when needed. In return, I would have to offer it a sufficient sacrifice after the battle." Orochimaru confirmed Shikagure's inquiry and gave an example.

"Offerings?" Hongdou asked, somewhat bewildered.

"It's a human!" Orochimaru stated the offering without any emotion, his hoarse, magnetic voice sending chills down Anko's spine. "Manda's pleasure is eating people. But there are no humans in Ryuchi Cave."

Hongdou shuddered again.

"If you want a giant serpent with the fighting power of Manda, you must go to Ryuchi Cave and negotiate with one of them in person. During this negotiation, you must have the strength to ensure your own safety! Otherwise, even if you are a contractor, there is a considerable chance that you will become food for the serpents there."

Orochimaru said meaningfully, "Equal strength is the basis for negotiation."

"Is psychic magic really this dangerous? Then..." Red Bean was conflicted for a moment.

"It's just that Ryuchi Cave is a bit special. If you had a contract with Mt. Myoboku and Shikkotsu Forest, you generally wouldn't encounter too much danger there."

Those toads are much more docile than snakes. And Tsunade's slugs are the most gentle of them all.

At this point, Orochimaru went on to explain a few more points to Shikagure. He even compared it to the sacred sites of the other two summoning beasts among the Legendary Sannin. Finally, his eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at Shikagure, a sinister smile playing on his lips as he added a comment.

"Although Ryuchi Cave adheres to the cruel law of natural selection, if you have the ability, you can conduct any kind of research and experimentation on the snakes of Ryuchi Cave! Don't worry about the accusations and retaliations from the Ryuchi Cave hermits."

(End of this chapter)