Boar → Dog → Bird → Monkey → Ram
He had just returned to the ninja world.
Completing the five seals at the fastest speed of his life, Motomu bit his finger and pressed both palms to the ground.
Circular, layered summoning formulas covered the small courtyard.
In the thick smoke, the Cobra, which had nearly been bitten through, lay limp and motionless as if dead.
Its body, over ten meters long and as thick as two thighs, twitched occasionally like overcooked rye noodles.
"Remember, summoned beasts share no foolish bonds. As daily combat consumables, those with poor fighting strength are culled early."
He looked at Little Black's miserable, half-crippled appearance.
Orochimaru's past words echoed in Motomu's mind.
"Can you hold on? I'll go find a doctor right now."
Hearing this, the Cobra tremblingly raised its head.
"It's no use... this is Lady Snake Princess's senjutsu chakra."
"You ninjas... it's useless."
"Motomu, find a quiet place... I want to rest for a bit..."
Before the words could fully leave its mouth.
The Cobra completely lost consciousness.
Motomu's heart tightened as he reached out to check its faint breathing.
Good.
At least it wasn't dead.
If the Cobra had been found and killed by the Snake Princess because of his misjudgment and negligence...
It wouldn't be easy to find such a useful summoned beast again.
Besides, this black snake was like the dog he had raised in his previous life.
If it died...
He didn't let the thought continue. After padding the floor with spare quilts, Motomu carefully lifted the snake's body bit by bit and placed it onto them.
Grabbing a corner of the quilt, he dragged the dead-heavy Cobra into the house.
Glancing at the living room where Obito often visited, Motomu felt it wasn't secure enough, so he dragged the snake into his own bedroom.
Without the lights on, the dark bedroom wasn't large, but it could accommodate both him and the Cobra.
Moving the useless bookshelves and desk to both sides of the door, Motomu laid the Cobra's broken body in the corner opposite the bed.
Once everything was finished.
In the dim silence, the snake's faint breathing echoed clearly in his ears.
Motomu stood beside the Cobra, looking at its blood-drenched, mangled body.
The once-glossy black scales had been torn apart by brute force, revealing the red and white flesh and scabs beneath.
Dark blood gurgled out, mixed with wisps of lingering senjutsu chakra.
In this moment.
Motomu realized that the bridge between him and the higher-ups of Ryuchi Cave was completely burned; it was now a fight to the death.
From the beginning, he hadn't actually considered killing the Snake Princess or any of these somewhat intelligent snakes.
But he hadn't expected them to be so cruel.
If they fought him, even if they wanted to kill him, Motomu could accept it; after all, he was the one looking for a fight.
But above all else, they shouldn't have nearly killed his pet.
According to the logic of the novels he used to read.
Tagitsu Hime was already on a path to her own death.
No!
It was all Three Snake Himes, plus the White Snake Sage.
The escalation of 'hitting the small and having the elder arrive' was perfectly normal when he thought about it.
If he encountered them, there was only one solution.
Kill!
Kill them all!
Only by wiping them out completely would something like today never happen again.
Killing intent welled up from the depths of Motomu's heart.
Along with this killing intent, the Sharingan in his eyes activated automatically.
In the pitch-black silent room, a crimson light flickered.
A moment later.
Suppressing the naturally intense emotions of an Uchiha, Motomu's state of mind gradually calmed down.
He took a long, deep breath.
With his thoughts turning, Motomu considered his next course of action.
First, because of today's events, he would have to keep the Cobra's summoning active continuously.
His chakra shortage became even more severe.
He had to divert a third of his already meager chakra just to maintain the Cobra's presence.
This problem couldn't be solved in the short term.
It would only improve after he killed Tagitsu Hime and retrieved the Cobra's scales.
Second was the issue of increasing his strength.
Currently, the Cobra was unconscious and recovering from its injuries.
He didn't know when it would wake up.
The Ryuchi Cave dungeon required a reverse summoning to enter, so he couldn't go there for now.
To level up, he had to find high-level Pokémon—at least around level 33—to duel with to gain experience effectively.
Even the Forest of Death might not have Pokémon of that level.
The Turtle Island of the Cloud Ninja might count as one.
But the main targets were still within the Three Great Sage Regions.
The Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku.
Katsuyu in her combined state.
Obtaining their summoning contracts was one thing, but keeping his secret was another.
These two Sage Regions didn't have as strained a relationship with ninjas as Ryuchi Cave did.
To challenge them...
Either he'd have to wipe out an entire Sage Region in one go...
Or prevent Jiraiya, Namikaze Minato, Tsunade, and the others from connecting with them.
The difficulty was quite high.
The key issue was still his lack of strength.
The more Motomu thought, the tighter his brow furrowed.
His thoughts had hit a dead end.
Although the strength gained through training was unstable...
And wasn't as solid as the stat points assigned by the system...
Normal training was his only option at the moment.
"We'll see."
The Cobra had mentioned before.
She had just learned senjutsu.
If that were true, her recovery should be fast.
Thinking of this, Motomu bent down and pulled out ninjutsu scrolls from a wooden box under the bed.
Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes
Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu
These two were the jutsu he had borrowed from Obito and inherited from his parents, respectively.
Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu was relatively easy to learn; Motomu memorized its contents after flipping through it twice.
Meanwhile, Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes was an advanced Sharingan visual jutsu.
Its main principle.
It involved bursting forth visual power while making direct eye contact with the opponent.
The opponent would be pulled into a mental world constructed by the caster.
In that genjutsu world, rusted iron stakes would pierce through the opponent's limbs and body, rendering them completely immobile.
At the same time, it was accompanied by the illusion of physical pain, making it as effective as torture.
In the original story, during the Akatsuki era.
Itachi had cast this jutsu with a single glance from his three-tomoe Sharingan, causing Orochimaru to freeze up instantly, unable to move.
Its effect was powerful, but its requirements were strict; it required the Sharingan to reach three tomoe to unlock the Genjutsu Eye.
Whether his parents had hoped for his success or it was left behind by his grandfather's generation...
Regardless, this was one of the visual jutsu that made the Uchiha famous throughout the ninja world.
It led to the tactic of 'if it's one-on-one, run; if it's two-on-one, strike from behind.' Now, it had passed into Motomu's hands.
He browsed through it for a while.
The content was very straightforward.
It matched the power-scaling habits the Uchiha ancestors had for using visual jutsu.
The difference in visual power between a three-tomoe Uchiha and an ordinary ninja was like comparing a pebble to an egg.
Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes.
The hardest part was the visual power threshold; constructing the genjutsu scene itself was simple.
As Motomu practiced, the night passed quietly.
The chirping of Pidgey outside the window woke Motomu, who had fallen asleep slumped over the desk.
After washing up.
He put on his ninja tool pouch.
After glancing back at the still-unconscious Cobra, Motomu closed the door and left.
When the time came.
Motomu's three-man team met in front of the board where the exam results were posted.
Two Konoha exam proctors pulled up the corners of the list and hung it on the board.
Beside Motomu.
Pushing up his goggles to check his ranking, Obito's face grew increasingly grim.
As usual, he started looking from the bottom up, but he still couldn't find his name.
"It's not here... Why is it still not here!?"
"This shouldn't be happening! I even double-checked some of the answers; they're definitely right."
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