13 White Snake

The white snake avoided touching the red wall of the pyramid-like array that appeared around it. Losing its prey didn't seem to bother it very much. The whole affair was like a game to the snake. It looked closely at all the Uchiha with their sharingan activated but stopped when it spotted Natsume. It hissed at her and seemed to have marked his next prey.

The snake spat out a mouthful of venom and it instantly began to corrode the formation. The Uchiha attempted to keep it going but were unable to keep up with the speed of corrosion. As the hole was growing larger, the large snake slipped through and homed in on Natsume. She looked the snake in the eyes and was calm. Despite facing death, she oddly felt like it wasn't that scary.

The snake stopped and simply flicked its tongue at Natsume a few times. Although the others tried to attack the snake from the side, the venom corroded chakra turned into hundreds of snakes that kept them away. "Natsume!" Saki shouted out in panic. She attacked the ball of snakes repeatedly and tried to get past, but they seemed to be infinite in number.

The others weren't faring well either. Seiji and Reiji unleashed several large area destruction Jutsu but their reserves were quickly dwindling. As for Ryunosuke, he was not suited for large scale destruction but tried to get away from the snakes with speed and nimbleness. He managed to get behind the large snake but was flicked away into a tree by a simple wave of the tail.

Thunk!

"Ryu-san!"

Meanwhile, the snake stared into Natsume's eyes and didn't seem to make any movements toward her. Natsume just stared back and waited for her death. However, something strange happened. The world around her began to change. She realized she had been forced into a genjutsu. The large snake sat in the center curled up.

"Why do you not fear death?" He asked curiously.

Natsume realized now that this snake was more than it seemed. "Why should I be afraid?"

"You should be a hatchling amongst humans, but why is your spiritual energy so high?" The snake uncurled its body and slithered around her, inspecting her.

Natsume didn't understand what the snake was talking about. The snake was able to see through her expression and seemed to understand something. It shrank down to the size of a normal snake and bit her leg. "You are now marked as my prey. When you are more delicious, I will come and eat you." The world faded and all she heard was the echo of a hiss.

"Natsume, are you okay?" She blinked and looked around confused as to what happened.

A few moments earlier.

"Ryu-san!" Reiji shouted and ran to help him. The snakes had retreated to surround Natsume, blocking everyone's line of sight. They didn't know what was happening, but a dense chakra was preventing them from perceiving anything inside the cocoon of snakes.

Ryunosuke wiped the blood at the edge of his mouth and looked over at the snakes "I'm fine, Reiji. What's going on with Natsume? I can't see anything beyond those snakes even with my sharingan."

"I don't know." He shook his head. The large snake had completely curled its body around the area and the group was wary of engaging again with one of their teammates trapped and the other injured. Saki had an impatient expression and threw down the man like a sack of potatoes. He was already unconscious and out of harm's way so carrying him was pointless.

"Wait something is happening." As they waited at the side, unsure of what to do, the snakes started to turn to puffs of smoke as they were dismissed. Natsume was still standing there unharmed. Saki let out a sigh of relief. She had promised Kono to keep her safe. However, the big snake was still staring at her.

It suddenly turned its head to the group and flicked its tongue as if mocking them. Then, it slithered away as if bored. The four of them ran over to Natsume when they noticed she was in a genjutsu trance. They attempted to release her by injecting their chakra, but it was ineffective.

"The same chakra that was blocking my perception was used to make this genjutsu. I can't break it. The good news is the chakra is slowly dissipating on its own. She should break out on her own… Ah, she's back."

After explaining to her what happened, she nodded. Natsume said that the snake brought her into a genjutsu to speak to her. After stating that she was not an interesting prey, it left her alone. Although she hid some details, she didn't think they were important and didn't understand them completely. As for the bite on her leg, she didn't sense anything different, so she assumed it was just part of the genjutsu.

The commotion of the group discussing plans seemed to wake up the unconscious man and the first thing he did was continue screaming. However, when Saki threatened to shut him up, he realized that he was rescued.

"Thank you so much! You are a lot more reliable than those damnable fellows from the Land of Water. See if I'll ever do business with the Hozuki again! Anyway, if you could escort me to my research camp, I can pay you—"

"Enough speaking, what of the Uchiha." Saki couldn't take it anymore and cut him off. Her patience was already worn thin.

"Of course, she is there too. Here, this is the map…" The man dug through his belongings and pulled out a map. It led deep into the danger zone and even contained various areas with degree of danger. After looking it over, she handed it to Ryunosuke. He read it over, folded it, then put the map into his pocket. The man was about to say something, but the atmosphere wasn't appropriate.

"Let's go. Seiji, carry him."

"Yes, Ryunosuke-san!" Regardless of his consent, Seiji threw the flustered man over his shoulder.