Chapter 8

"Great snake sage ma'am, I am happy for whatever is happening, but I don't know what is happening." I said and she smiled, inhaling the smoke from the cigarette.

She said "It might help you if I explain the whole things from the time you left your house. You found Shion, who was kidnapped by the Uchiha clan to demand the Land of Demons for money, as they need money for their rebellion.

She had a vision of you saving her, so she knew when to ask for help and whom to ask. After you helped her, you managed to leave Konoha with various factors involved. At the same time, the Land of the Demons sent spies to the village to learn about their defenses. That's when they learnt that the east side guarded by the Uchiha clan has less securit at some time in the night, probably when they go for a meeting.

The priestess' men thought of using this to enter the Uchiha clan and freeing you, as they can't offer the money the Uchiha demanded. Shion had another vision of you fighting with those priests, so she asked you to run away, but it instead made you look like a villain in the eyes of those priests.

Your fight was close to this Ryuchi Cave and I had seen you injured. I then had another vision and I knew that I you are someone who are meant to be here. That's why I let you in and let them heal your wounds. So Hatsuo, is there something else you don't understand?" she asked at the end and I was still takin in all that information.

I knew the reason why they kidnapped Shion, but I had forgotten about this character named Shion. Now that I have heard about her abilities from her, I guess there was a character like that in some movie.

What is scary is that, this sage knows all this, even the ones that didn't happen near the cave. I was slowly starting to see the reality of this world. It isn't ball peaches and roses like the life I had in Konoha.

I then asked "Great snake sage, I am thankful for healing me and if possible I would like to ask you a favor."

"What is it?" she asked with the same smile, probably already knowing what I would ask. I still asked "Is it possible for you to teach me Senjutsu?"

"Why do you want to learn Senjutsu though? If I am correct, you don't have chakra and Senjutsu is usually used by combining both the user's chakra and the Nature energy. Without your chakra, you can't control the Nature energy. It is as good as not having the Nature energy inside you." she explained and although I didn't know about this, I didn't care. That's because my purpose for learning Senjutsu is to follow the first step of the scroll.

The first step is to prepare the body to be able to use Haki, and for this method, I need a large amounts of energy, of any form.

So, even without the threat of Itachi, I would have still left the village looking for chakra sources. I did have this Ryuchi Cave in my mind, which is rumoured to be close to Konoha, but I didn't have the confidence that I could master Senjutsu.

But now that I am here, might as well go with it. I replied to her "I have my reasons and I can't tell you now, but you might learn about it yourself in the future."

"Ok, it's not the first time someone has come to me to learn Senjutsu but remember, if you loose to the Nature energy and turn into a snake, I will eat you. Usually, only people with a lot of chakra succeed, as without much chakra, the Nature energy will easily dominate and turn you into a snake." she explained and I thought about it for a while before saying "I have a plan and would like you to help me with that. If it works, I don't have to worry about turning into a snake."

It looks like she had already seen the future and knows what will happen. She just smiled and nodded her head. It was really weird to interact with people who already know what is going to happen.

She then said "Tell me when you are ready to start your training, or ready to do what you want to do. Until then, you can stay here and, Tagori and Tagitsu will take care of you during your stay here." and I left the place.

Although nothing happened between me and those snakes, it was a pretty traumatising experience even as I imagine it. They do look good, but they are actual snakes that can turn into humans, or look like humans.

As I walked out of the huge shine, the two woman from before approached me. The one with black hair, who had tied them in three buns, said "The safe has explained everything to us. We will take care of you during your stay here."

"Yes...yes..thank you..can you show me the way to my room. I would like to heal as soon as possible." I asked in a weak voice and the woman with brown hair clicked her tongue and said "Tch...look how he is scared. I can't believe the sage agreed to teach such a man." then turned to me and said "Listen here human, you are lucky that you got to reach here without going through any trials, or else I would have eaten you immediately."

"Thanks for telling me that. Can you please tell he how to get to my room, I will walk there myself." I said and the woman with black hair pushed the other woman to the side and said "Don't mind her. Let me show you the way."

She led me to a wide place in the cave. It wasn't anything special. Just an open room like hole underground and it had a bed in the centre. It was also not rectangular. It was round and big enough to fit around five to six people like me.

The woman who brought me here said "This is the only room in the Ryuchi Cave. We usually don't get much visitors. Everyone who comes here to learn Senjutsu don't stay in the cave and live in the town nearby." and I thanked her for the room.

"If there is nothing else, I have other matters to attend to." she said and was about to leave. I asked "Umm...I don't even know your name." and she replied "I am Tagori, and everyone calls me Tagorihime. You can call me Tagori."

"Cool. I am Hatsuo. Nice to meet you." I said and she smiled and left, saying "Nice to meet you too." before she left.

I looked around and due to lack of sunlight, I couldn't tell of it was day or night, but I didn't care. I immediately jumped into the bed and slept. I don't know how long I slept before waking up today, but I wanted to sleep more.

It has been years since I slept without too much fatigue. The only pain I had was from my wounds. I had the best sleep in a while and after another unknown period of time, I woke up again.

And the same thing happened like last time, my body was tightly wrapped by something and someone was above me. The only surprising and new thing was that I couldn't feel my wounds. They had healed and although I don't know how long it took, I have a feeling it was pretty quick.

I tried to wake them up kindly and it didn't work. So, I tried getting up, but I couldn't lift them up in the state I was. Mustering up all the energy I had, I managed to raise my torso, which was enough to wake up the person above me.

I then felt the weight lift and I got up. It was Tagori who was above me and just like before, she was naked. She stretched as she yawned and said "Oh Hatsuo, good morning" and I didn't reply, as I was busy admiring her body.

I have to accept though, that although she is a snake, her human form is very beautiful. And since I am slowly approaching my teenage, hormones were just introduced to my body.

I got the stupid stuff out of my head and looked at the others around me. Tagitsu, the woman with brown hair, was still sleeping, but there was another person with blue hair beside her.

I sighed and turned to Tagori for answers. She said "We can't help it. This is the only room in this cave and it belongs to us sisters. By the way, you haven't met her did you." pointing at the woman with blue hair.

"She is Ichikishima, the youngest one amongst us." she said and that's when I heard her move. She slowly got up and looked at me.

She asked "Hey, good morning. So, when are you going to start your Senjutsu training." which was weird, as she acted like she knew me.

I still asked "Why do you want to know about that?" and she replied "I requested the sage to let me eat you of you failed the test. You have a weak chakra, that is on the verge of disappearing and I love to eat people with this condition. So, I can't wait for you to start your training."

What the hell is up with these snakes and eating all the time? Don't they get enough food? Anyway, I have to move out of here to that nearby town Tagori mentioned earlier.

After a few minutes, Tagitsu also woke up and she immediately clicked her tongue when she saw me. She really hated me, but I didn't know why?

I said to her "Look, I don't know why you are angry, but I didn't do anything to make you mad. You look like a very beautiful woman, but your behaviour is making me hate you. If it is about me not going through your trial, then you can test me." and she said "Remember, you asked for this. Although the sage has agreed to train you, we are allowed to eat anyone who fails in our trials."

She them moved towards me and I was startled. I moved back a little, but she wrapped her tail around me to keep me from moving and got closer.

As I saw her face come closer to me, I said "Isn't this a little too soon?" but she then moved down a little and bit my neck.

She then let me go and said with a laugh "Now.... show me your true colors..." and I was waiting for her to do something.

Her laugh slowly died down when I didn't react and except for the pain, I didn't feel anything. So, I asked "Is something supposed to happen?" and she said with a confused face "Why isn't it working? You should be under my genjutsu by now."

I explained "I don't have that much chakra and the chakra in my brain is immediately used, so genjutsu, that messes with the chakra in the head, doesn't work on me."

She grunted and angrily left the room. I then turned to Tagori and asked "Is she always angry on people?" and she asked in return "Do you really not remember what you did?"

I shook my head and she smiled as she said "The first time you woke up, you grabbed something to wake her up. Well, it was her chest and seeing you not even remember that, pissed her off even more."

Ooohhh....so the soft thing I grabbed back then was her bust. No wonder she is pissed. I have to apologise later. Slowly the other two also left the room and I finally had it all to myself.

I then reached out to my bag and brought out the scroll to start the first phase of the Haki training.

I opened it and started reading the first part, which read "The first phase of your training with Haki would be to train your body, because even though Haki is the manifestation of your spiritual energy, you need a body able to channel and use that energy.

Now, if you have read Wuxia novels, it is same as the body reforming they do and you will have to arrange some materials, which is one of the difficult things in this phase.

The body reforming process can be repeated several times to increase your strength even further, but the amount of energy needed will increase exponentially every time.

The items needed for the body reforming are: Any ink that can channel chakra, blood of 5 different species, any container that can fit you and your sperms."

After reading the last part, I was starting to doubt the genuinity of the scroll.

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That's the end of the chapter. Now, I would like to explain my end of the story to all the comments I received. First, about the Ichraku ramen thing. I forgot when it opened and didn't remember much about it, so I made it up without searching on the internet. I know it is my fault, but it is a fanfiction. If a reasonable logic is all you want, then there was a multiverse traveller in the past. He could have done something that changed the future. Don't worry, I won't be using this anywhere in the story.

Next, about Shion and the Land of Demons. Shion is a character who was completely locked up in her house all the time and she is 10. At that age, history and geography is boring. I also wrote that she just remembers her mom saying something about the Land of rivers. It was completely logical thing.

The rest, some I purposefully wrote for future references and some I felt are too minor details to care about.