June 4, 1 bNb
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Izuma let his Sharingan-filled eyes wander unabashedly, and yet, even with enhanced perception, the true scale of the cave eluded his understanding.
It was endless.
To his left and right stretched rows upon rows of caves—thousands, maybe tens of thousands—ranging from slits barely wide enough for a child to squeeze through to yawning black holes large enough to house palaces.
From some, snakes slithered in and out. From others, silence.
A very select few would occasionally tremble as if some great being was letting out massive huffs. Perhaps they were the ones that housed Manda, or snakes of similar sizes?
He tilted his head back and allowed his gaze to search upward.
There was no ceiling. Or rather, it would be more correct to say, there must've been, but it sat far beyond what even his eyes could reach. The space just kept going.
Above, jagged stalactites the size of skyscrapers hung down. And yet, despite the unbelievable size of the stalactites, they were still well above his head, and as such, there was no feeling of being cramped.
It was the opposite, in fact. Ryūchi Cave felt far too spacious.
Izuma was forced to blink at the presence of something that should have been impossible to find this far below ground level: natural light.
The light streamed down through cracks in the dark, filtering down in broken rays.
"…Is this even part of the same world?" he muttered.
Orochimaru glanced sideways, amused, but as par for the course, remained tight-lipped.
Izuma didn't bother pressing the question. Orochimaru would remain silent unless an incentive were given to be otherwise. An incentive, Izuma had no plans of giving—he could always learn more about this cave from his summons after all.
Besides, he had some theories of his own, ones that would quench his curiosity for the moment.
Ryūchi Cave could be reached on foot. So could Mount Myōboku, as well as Shikkotsu Forest. They were known as the three great sage regions, areas tucked away from the general human population.
But, putting aside the illogical size of the three regions—albeit, it was more like two, considering there was no known information of Shikkotsu Forest amongst the general populace—the ecosystem itself was something Izuma failed to wrap his head around.
Hence, the only outlook he considered rational was that they existed in different dimensions or, perhaps, they resided in the same dimension and warped space to create ecosystems that should have been impossible otherwise.
Even the thought seemed absurd, and yet that was his most rational theory. The irony was truly not lost on Izuma.
But Izuma didn't mind.
It was what it was.
This world had a tree that could give birth to gods, so a flaw here and there with physics wasn't something to lose his mind over. Besides, he was focusing on irrelevant matters.
He was here for power, and, hopefully, Sage Mode in the not-so-distant future.
Still, even focusing on more pressing matters did nothing to alleviate the unsettling feeling from walking beside Orochimaru for this long.
They hadn't spoken in at least ten minutes, which he was equally grateful for and annoyed by.
His gratitude, he felt, was obvious. When Orochimaru did speak, it was in probes, constantly testing Izuma's patience by bringing up seemingly irrelevant, but actually important matters that pertained greatly to him.
His annoyance, on the other hand, he felt was very easy to deal with. The mild irritation he felt was due to the sheer boredom he felt from walking for so long, whilst the man beside him would occasionally glance over with clear schadenfreude. But long stake-outs had tempered his will to deal with such small matters.
Not to mention, despite being in a cave, the sights were nothing shy of breathtaking.
Izuma watched Orochimaru out of the corner of his eye, and not even a moment later, the Snake Sannin's ever-present grin grew as he raised his hand in a wave.
Izuma snorted and turned his gaze firmly on what was in front of him, no longer bothering with the legendary shinobi beside him.
He had fought alongside Orchimaru in Konoha's many bouts against Suna, but even during wartime, the Sannin had never felt this…evil. He had always felt off, but never quite to this extent.
And the catalyst for most of it, aside from the death of his parents, was seeing Nawaki Senju die from paper bombs.
He and Orochimaru continued in silence for a few minutes longer before Izuma decided to break the silence.
"So where exactly are you taking me?"
Orochimaru didn't stop walking.
"The outer caverns are… mundane," he said lightly. "Tourist paths, if you will. The ones who come here to seek contracts wander those for weeks before they die or get lucky. You and I are not here for luck."
He glanced back, golden eyes glinting with derision.
"We are going to the heart."
If those words were spoken by Minato, Izuma would have admittedly felt quite good about himself, believing he was being shown a path to greater strength.
However, those same words felt very different when the speaker was Orochimaru.
They failed to make Izuma feel better.
Still, he pressed on. He had already given up too much to back off.
They walked another twenty minutes in silence—stone crunching underfoot, the walls slowly beginning to slope inward. The hissing had faded entirely now, replaced by the slow drip… drip… drip of water echoing through the dark.
Then, without warning, a low rumble rolled through the stone.
Izuma stopped; his senses were screaming.
A long, dragging shift. A gust of displaced air. Then a deep scrape, like claws dragging across bedrock.
He turned toward Orochimaru.
"You're not afraid, right, Izuma-kun?"
His question was accompanied by a small smile.
Pretentious bastard, Izuma cursed inwardly, but followed suit all the same.
They stepped forward, and the tunnel widened and then opened completely.
Izuma found himself standing at the edge of a massive hollow. It was the largest open space he'd ever seen. A chasm in every direction, glowing dimly from below.
His eyes wandered quickly, rapidly taking in the sight as his senses flared constantly. He tried to find a threat, but even his Sharingan failed to pinpoint anything amiss.
The room in front of him was made of red stone. It was a deep crimson, almost scale-like in texture, like the cave itself had been carved from snake hide.
The air shimmered faintly, flickering from veins of light embedded in the ground.
Far below, near the lowest edge of the hollow, something stirred.
Then, without any warning, a ferocious commotion akin to the sound of rumbling thunder ran out.
Izuma's red eyes narrowed at the equally red landscape.
Something was moving.
Fast.
His eyes snapped from place to place, desperately trying to find the cause of his erratic senses. A second later, they settled on a red blur tearing through the space at breakneck speeds.
It was a beyond massive coil of muscle breaking from the shadows like a thunderclap. One instant, the lair was eerily still. The next, a streak of motion carved a line through the glowing floor, rupturing light and stone as it launched upward.
A shockwave kicked out as a terrible hiss of rage cracked across the cavern.
Be it dust, gravel, dirt, or stone, all were kicked up in a furious storm as if they weighed nothing, unable to impede the frantic forward motion of the red blur.
Another guttural hiss rang out, and no words were needed to convey the emotion behind it; the sound was enough for all listeners to feel the visceral rage.
In an instant, Izuma knew he would have to dodge. His foot slid back as he quickly centered his stance, arm lifting slightly as chakra flooded his being.
Mere moments before impact, his Sharingan slowed time enough to catch a glimpse.
It was a snake, one whose size was terrifyingly large. His current perspective was no different than an ant gazing up at a human being, and in that moment, Izuma truly felt as if the being before him could wrap around Konoha itself.
It was a deep crimson—the same as the stone in the cavern, and only then did it dawn on Izuma how the snake had managed to evade his Sharingan—with black rings running down its body.
It was somewhat similar to Izuma's favourite animal in his past life: a cobra.
He cursed to himself. If he had been given slightly more time or if he hadn't been so distracted by focusing on his blaring senses, his Sharingan should've been able to see through the camouflage.
Still, he had no time to watch in awe if he wished to preserve his life from the gargantuan snake.
The snake was barreling toward Orochimaru and, by proximity, himself.
"YOU DISGUSTING HUMAN!"
Izuma shot the Snake Sannin a look.
Orochimaru ignored it and, in tandem with Izuma, leapt backward instantly, landing onto a raised outcrop just as the massive jaws snapped through the space where they'd been a second earlier.
As the snake's jaws met air, Izuma was given time to truly marvel at its form.
One eye was missing, replaced by scarred-over flesh and jagged, torn scales. The other was a glowing slit of molten gold, locked with absolute hatred onto the face beside Izuma.
Orochimaru.
Izuma, for the nth time today, cursed to himself. No wonder Orochimaru was so eager to help out—his plan had always been to bring Izuma to the lair of an ire-filled being comparable in size to tailed beasts.
He had laid his eyes upon Gamabunta once, but the snake in front of him made the seemingly humongous toad look positively small in comparison.
"What the fuck is that?" he hissed.
Orochimaru only smiled, his eyes glinting with perpetual amusement.
"That, young Izuma-kun, is Garaga," he laughed. "Since you put forth such a generous offer, I knew I had to reciprocate the favor. So, I brought you to one of the strongest snakes in this cave. Garaga's might rivals even Manda."
[Garaga Image]
Their conversation was forcibly silenced when Garaga spun. A grating, whizzing noise was present for less than a second as Garaga's massive tail cut through the air and smashed into the ground with unbelievable force, sending cracks splintering through the red stone.
Garaga's tail thwacking the ground was accompanied by a deafening boom, as Izuma's ears rang for a moment.
"I SHOULD HAVE KILLED YOU THE FIRST TIME," the serpent roared, voice booming across the hollow like rolling thunder.
He lunged again, fangs bared.
The serpent did not so much strike as it did advance, its colossal body unfurling in a rolling surge that devoured distance by sheer volume alone. The stone beneath it buckled as its weight pressed forward unhesitatingly.
Entire slabs of red rock shattered as the cavern practically groaned, not unlike a living being forced into place due to a heavy boulder pressed onto its body.
Orochimaru ducked. His body had always moved with unnatural suppleness, and as if to prove the truth of the notion even further, he flipped backward in a manner that seemingly ignored gravity altogether.
He arced away from the oncoming mass, boots never quite touching the ground, until—somehow—he landed lightly behind Izuma.
Of course he did.
He straightened, robes barely disturbed, golden eyes alight with thinly veiled amusement.
Izuma knew the snake was zeroing in on his position. If the sight didn't give it away, the noise did. And if the noise didn't give it away, then the pressure certainly did.
Garaga's presence alone crushed the air, turning it thick and resistant, like moving through deep water. The serpent's shadow swallowed the ledge entirely, eclipsing the glow of the veins beneath the stone.
"You son of a—"
He never got the chance to finish his thought.
Garaga had surged over.
The snake's sheer length meant that even retreating wasn't enough. Its body didn't need to align with him; it merely needed to exist in the same space. A tidal swell of crimson scale and muscle swept across the hollow, the displacement alone ripping loose boulders the size of houses and flinging them aside like pebbles.
Izuma didn't sidestep. No. Sidestepping would have meant death.
He threw himself sideways, chakra detonating beneath his feet as he launched a full-body dive across the stone, abandoning his footing entirely. The moment he left the ground, Garaga's body slammed into the ridge where he'd been standing…
And the world exploded.
The impact was cataclysmic.
The red stone ridge instantly collapsed, pulverized under Garaga's momentum. A thunderous concussion ripped through the cavern, shockwaves tearing outward in concentric rings that sent Izuma spinning midair, his vision blurring as chunks of shattered rock the size of wagons were hurled past him.
He hit the ground hard, and despite finally being on solid earth, he was still unable to arrest his own backward momentum, and the soles of his boots were quickly worn smooth as they screeched over the ground, skidding dozens of meters before finally managing to twist and dig his fingers into a stone.
The entirety of where he had once stood was simply no more.
Garaga's body continued forward long after the initial strike, its coils smashing through the terrain with unstoppable inertia. Entire sections of the cavern wall were erased, reduced to dust and glowing fragments as the serpent—in a manner Izuma could only describe as somehow, irrespective of the sheer bulk it possessed—reoriented, its massive eye, which was no smaller than a miniature house, locking onto Orochimaru's own.
The Snake Sannin looked almost amused as his voice drifted through the chaos, utterly unconcerned at the totality of Garaga's hate.
"My, my, how rude. Is this how you greet a new summoner, Garaga?"
Garaga didn't even pause.
Orochimaru went on, tone light and awfully mocking.
"This new summoner said he had heard of you and thought you wouldn't be a challenge. That he'd make you submit like any other paltry snake. He seemed so confident, I had to let him try."
Izuma, at this moment, felt that Orochimaru had well and truly been added to his ever-growing list of people he had come to genuinely loathe.
He turned sharply.
"I didn't say any of that bullshit!"
Garaga's head whipped toward him.
"You think I'm weak?" the crimson snake sneered.
"No—wait—"
The snake's tail came sweeping fast. Orochimaru leapt effortlessly over it, and Izuma mirrored him, albeit whilst slightly lacking in the department of grace.
Garaga lowered his head slowly.
"You want a summon?"
His coils tightened, muscles bulging to the size of mountains.
"THEN DIE!"
Every inch that Garaga pressed forward came with the dreadful noise of a landslide that perpetually built momentum.
Again, the cavern shuddered as the crimson titan surged forward, coils forcefully grinding the rocky red stone smooth.
Izuma's Sharingan caught the microbeats—minute contractions along Garaga's musculature, the subtle shifting of weight before the strike—but it didn't make the scale any less obscene.
When something that large had committed to motion, prediction only bought you the privilege of understanding exactly how you were about to be flattened.
Izuma launched himself as, again, Chakra detonated beneath his soles, flinging him into a low, scything sprint that angled up the nearest jagged rise. The stone was textured roughly, which was all the better for Izuma, allowing him to find footholds, which, much more easily, enabled him to use it like a ramp.
Garaga's head smashed through the space he'd just vacated, maw yawning wide enough that the darkness inside it looked like a second cavern. The fangs clapped the air into a shockwave. The concussive gust hammered Izuma's back and nearly tore him off-balance mid-run.
He didn't stop. That would mean becoming mere debris.
His fingers flashed through seals with a brisk cadence. He had survived against S-rank ninjas—not alone, but the point still stood—as such, he was practically a veteran at fighting beings that seemed larger than life.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
An incandescent, furious sphere of flame blossomed from his mouth, swelling toward Garaga's face with enough fire to light the snake's visage completely.
For about half a heartbeat, Izuma felt a sliver of satisfaction. He'd always liked Fire Release, and even whilst he was in a cave, he still chose to fall back on his ol' reliable.
Not to mention, Ryūchi Cave wasn't a cave so much as a subterranean continent. The ceiling might as well have been the sun, considering how high up it was, and daylight bled through fissures high above.
Evidently, there existed pockets of air in this world, and that instilled enough confidence within Izuma that he wouldn't choke.
His happiness, however, existed for not even a few seconds.
The inferno hit Garaga's scales and broke, licking across armored hide, whilst doing no damage.
The serpent's molten eye narrowed, unimpressed, and Garaga simply exhaled—a contemptuous hiss that carried enough force to shear the fireball's shape apart, scattering the flames into a ragged corona that died against the stone.
Izuma's jaw set.
Of course.
Garaga's tail swept.
The movement began far away, a distance that would take even a relatively skilled shinobi a second or so to cross, and yet, Garaga was upon him the very same instant. An enormous red arc carving across the cavern came whizzing toward him, not unlike a guillotine promising death.
The tail would easily pulverize everything at his elevation, and if Izuma happened to be caught somewhere inside that general area, that was his problem.
He sprinted up.
A stalagmite, whose size easily eclipsed even the tallest buildings in Konoha, jutted up from the ground, its peak supremely narrow despite the sheer size of the actual construct. Izuma hit it in two steps, chakra clinging his feet to the incline. He used it like a springboard, launching himself higher—up, up, up; that was the only area he could go.
The lateral space belonged to Garaga, and competing with the behemoth of a snake for it was suicidal.
The tail passed beneath him.
The passing tail whipped up enough air that it seemingly resembled a small hurricane that yanked at his clothes, and the tail's wake kicked up a storm of grit so fine it felt like being sandblasted. The stone the tail struck promptly ceased to exist, reduced to a blooming cloud of red particulate that glittered in the cavern's light.
He landed on another stalagmite, knees slightly bent as his chakra held him in place.
Garaga coiled, turning toward him with a glacial gaze. The snake's body reoriented in segments, each shift accompanied by groaning stone.
The brief ordeal had cemented one idea firmly within Izuma's mind: Garaga was the king of this place, and the cavern, with each sweep of the snake's tail, was slowly grinding down, accommodating the form of the hegemon of this place.
That spawned another thought: he wanted this snake, perhaps more than he'd wanted anything else save for a Mangekyo.
Izuma felt a grin threatening to creep up his face; he'd make this overgrown lizard his summoning one way or another.
Out of the corner of his eye, Izuma caught Orochimaru watching from a distance, acting as nothing more than a spectator who cared little for whatever the outcome may be.
Izuma's hatred for the Snake Sannin grew severalfold.
He forced it down.
Later.
Focus.
He brought his hands together again, flying through hand seals at a pace even some seasoned jonin would marvel at.
"Earth Style: Earth Flow Rampart!"
[Image of Earth Flow Rampart]
The ground in front of Garaga surged upward, a thick wall of compacted stone rising to serve two purposes. For but a brief moment, it surprised Garaga and held his movement, allowing Izuma to fly through another set of hand seals.
"Fire Style: Flame Bullet!"
He spat a barrage of smaller, yet still dense, firebursts into the newly raised wall. The stone drank the heat, glowing a fiery orange with flickers of white from within. Then the entire rampart erupted outward—molten shrapnel and blistering fragments spraying into Garaga's path.
Mixing Earth Style with Fire Style, it was something Izuma had learned from Hiruzen.
And yet, Garaga… continued unperturbed.
The serpent's head angled slightly, and the wall's explosion peppered its scales in a bright lightshow, which looked nothing short of incredible. But the sight Izuma was greeted with when the smoke cleared was certainly not so incredible.
Garaga's advance hadn't slowed.
The wall had been turned into gravel under the snake's forward mass, and the molten stone clung for a moment before sliding off in rivulets.
Izuma stared for a fraction of a second too long, primarily with disbelief. If the snake had been mildly injured and yet still pressed forward, he wouldn't have cared. But Garaga seemed practically untouched.
Garaga capitalized.
The snake lunged, and the front third of Garaga's length rose, not unlike a crimson cliff lifting into the air, and then slammed down toward Izuma's perch.
He jumped.
A long leap which cleared a distance that would've been unreasonable in any normal battlefield. He hit the next pillar, immediately pushed off again, making himself a moving target in three dimensions.
Below, Garaga's impact obliterated the stalagmite entirely.
Izuma felt the vibration in his teeth.
"Stop moving," Garaga hissed, venomous contempt in every syllable. "Humans are all the same. Filthy maggots who run at the slightest hint of a skirmish."
Garaga's eye followed him, one molten slit flicking from his past locations to his current with unnerving precision. "Just like you're running now."
Izuma landed on a higher outcrop, Sharingan spinning as he assessed angles and distances that no normal eyes could have deciphered. "You want me to stand still?" he snapped. "Sure. Shrink yourself down a size or two."
Garaga sneered, but made no retort. Rather, its response was in the form of its tail raising.
Not toward him.
Up.
The serpent slammed its tail into the cavern wall above, into the forest of enormous hanging stalactites, which looked akin to inverted skyscrapers.
The stalactites sheared off, and they began to fall.
Izuma's eyes widened.
What the fuck is wrong with this snake? He cursed inwardly.
The first stalactite hit the ground where he'd been standing, turning the stone into a crater with a terribly irritating sound.
The impact shot splinters of rock outward like shrapnel, and another stalactite followed, then another—an avalanche of stone spears plunging down, each one tall enough to qualify as nothing shy of edifices.
Izuma moved on instinct, launching himself across pillars and ledges, the falling stalactites dictating his path, controlling where he could go, and perhaps more importantly, where he could not.
He threw a jutsu mid-air.
"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"
Flame darts arced upward, striking the descending stalactites. Small, at least in comparison to the other jutsu he was capable of, sized fire alone wouldn't shatter stone at this scale, but it did possess the ability to create miniature fractures.
He chained it immediately.
"Earth Style: Stone Spear!"
A column of rock shot upward like a lance and met a falling stalactite mid-descent, cracking it in half. The upper portion tumbled away; the lower chunk still came down, but at least it wasn't aimed at his skull.
The cave was now marred with falling ruin.
Garaga watched him scramble with relish.
Izuma landed on a narrow pillar, feet sticking by chakra. Above him, another stalactite fell.
He didn't dodge. If the crimson snake wanted him to face it head-on, then he would just have to acquiesce; after all, soon it would be his summon.
Lightning screamed into existence in his palm.
Chidori.
The sound was a thousand birds promising death. Izuma thrust upward, and the spear of lightning punched into the descending stone, shattering it into a spray of glowing fragments. The pieces rained around him like grit.
He exhaled sharply.
Garaga lunged again.
Izuma shoved off the pillar, twisting in mid-air to avoid the serpent's rising head. The sheer proximity of Garaga's movement yanked him sideways.
He landed hard, rolled, and came up running.
His lungs burned, but he ignored it. Fighting Garaga was distinctly different from fighting any of the other S-rank threats he'd seen before. They outclassed him at the moment; Garaga did not.
Rather, the difficulty with fighting Garaga was that every dodge had to be a relocation.
Heck, every feint the snake made practically required leaving the county.
He skidded to a stop on a wider ledge and turned, hands already moving.
If raw force wouldn't do it, then he'd make force relevant.
"Wind Style: Gale Palm!"
A tornado of wind slammed into his own flames as he exhaled again.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!"
The fire was elongated by the wind into a roaring stream that spanned many meters. It drilled toward Garaga, not unlike a lance of superheated air aimed squarely at Garaga's eye, mainly because that was the only part of this monster that looked remotely vulnerable.
Garaga's head tilted, almost curious.
Then the serpent closed its eye.
The flame struck the lid and dispersed.
Garaga reopened the eye, unbothered.
"You're kidding."
Garaga hissed, the sound reverberating through the cavern's ribs. "Pathetic."
The snake surged, and Izuma felt the ledge beneath him tip as Garaga's mass pushed air and stone and pressure into a new arrangement.
Izuma threw another combination. Earth rose into jagged spikes, fire detonating along the edges, wind sharpening the explosion. It was a meticulous weave of chakra affinities, the kind of layered technique that would've ended most battles outright.
Garaga plowed through it.
Certainly not because the jutsu was lacking in might. That the ruin of countless squadrons of ninja could attest to. Rather, the snake was simply too big for it to matter.
Garaga's scales endured and endured.
Izuma felt endless frustration. Saying he had done no damage was incorrect; there were marks and large swaths of skin where scales had broken off and given way to blood. Yet, Garaga was far too large for that to matter.
It was not dissimilar to having a small part of your body bleeding during a fight; you could simply ignore it and continue fighting. For Garaga, however, his gargantuan size made it so that the same principle was multiplied a hundredfold.
Izuma grumbled, but continued fighting. He refused to bring out any of his jutsus, which could potentially harm the snake severely, because soon it would be his summon.
He formed a clone, made from cave mud. It darted wide.
Garaga turned. Spat.
The venom caught the clone across the chest, and in the very same moment, the clone was now stone.
A second later, it cracked and shattered.
"Of course you can do that," he muttered. "Now I definitely want you."
He turned his eyes forward, and to his surprise, Garaga had vanished.
Camouflage.
The snake had blended into the crimson stone, seamless to the naked eye. But not to him. Not to these eyes.
Now that he knew what to look for, his eyes darted, and a moment later—there.
He moved fast.
Boar, Ox, Dog, Snake, Dragon.
"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet!"
A stone dragon roared from the cave wall and launched a flurry of hardened projectiles toward the shimmer.
Garaga burst back into view, snarling as it was struck across the head. And yet, the damage barely registered.
"I'll bury you here," he growled, voice filled with indescribable levels of hatred.
Garaga surged through the smoke like a missile.
Izuma dove between boulders, chakra coursing through his limbs as he slid against the broken floor. Another spray of venom sliced past his shoulder.
He deftly jumped to his left and…
Poof!
Shadow Clone Technique.
He split right. His clones went wide, flanking in opposite directions.
Garaga's head snapped toward the left one, and with a furious roar, the serpent lunged.
The clone vanished.
Izuma smirked from his crouched position, slamming his hands down hard.
Earth Style: Earth and Stone Bamboo Shoot.
[Image of Earth and Stone Bamboo Shoot]
The ground a few meters away from Garaga cracked and then erupted upward.
Four incredibly massive stone spears launched out in perfect formation. One came in from each side, with lethal intent. They twisted mid-air like drills, condensing the entire weight of the lair's walls into their sharpened tips.
Garaga turned, avoiding two, but it wasn't enough to dodge them all. Two of the spikes pierced his lower coil.
He roared.
The sound blew out a section of the cavern wall.
He thrashed violently, breaking two of the pillars, but blood was already hitting the floor.
Izuma forced himself not to pant—he couldn't show how much chakra that took out of him.
Dust clouded the air, and the lair—once vast and untouched—was nearly in ruins. Whole slabs of the cave ceiling had collapsed. The stalagmites looked like forests of humongous broken swords.
Orochimaru still stood far above, opting to do nothing but smile in enjoyment.
Below, Garaga snarled and shook the blood from his coils. His golden eye narrowed.
"You're clever. I'll give you that."
Izuma stood again.
"Listen!" Izuma shouted between movements, breath steady through sheer force of will. "You're built for war."
Garaga's head swung, teeth bared in a mocking grin. "And you're built for running."
Izuma snapped, "What's wrong with being summoned by me?"
Garaga's laugh was a grinding sound. "Humans are filth. You all talk big, then flee the moment blood is in the air. You run, then you beg, and at the end, you crawl back to your villages with your tail tucked between your legs."
Garaga's tail rose again, this time not to smash stone but to herd him, forcing Izuma's path, narrowing his options.
Izuma darted up onto a tall stalagmite and perched near its peak, only to be met with an eyeball, the size of Izuma many times over.
"I will give you some praise. Your Lightning Style justsu, whatever it was, is certainly better than the vermin I graced as my summoner."
Izuma grinned. Truthfully, even at such a proximity, he felt no fear. "I don't know who you've dealt with before, but I'm no bum."
Garaga's eye narrowed.
Izuma's grin was feral. "You hate running, right? Me too."
He spread his arms slightly.
"I'm about to go fight a jinchūriki," he said. "And I want someone to humble the beasts with me."
For the first time since this began, Garaga paused.
Garaga's eye sharpened, the molten gold narrowing.
"A jinchūriki," Garaga repeated, slower now. "A tailed beast."
Izuma held the serpent's gaze. "Yes."
Garaga's tongue flicked out, tasting the air. "I would like to fight a jinchūriki."
The admission made Izuma's grin split his face.
Then Garaga's voice hardened again, suspicious and old. "But how do I know you're not lying?"
As Izuma went to respond, Orochimaru chose that moment to speak.
"If Izuma-kun does not live up to his word," Orochimaru said smoothly, "then within the next month, you may reverse summon him back here."
Both Garaga and Izuma turned their heads toward Orochimaru in perfect synchronization.
Garaga's gaze was molten resentment.
Izuma's was pure, concentrated hatred.
Orochimaru smiled wider, delighted. "And you can…what was the term you used, Izuma-kun? Ah, yes. Duke it out."
Garaga's tail twitched, the stone beneath it cracking. "You think you can give me terms, human?"
Orochimaru's smile didn't falter. "My, my. You're welcome to eat me if you'd like."
Garaga's eye narrowed further, clearly remembering past attempts and their outcomes.
Orochimaru continued, almost cheerfully, "But I do think it's a fair arrangement. You want a fight. Izuma-kun wants power. And if either of you disappoints…" he tilted his head, mock-thoughtful, "…how exciting."
Izuma's lip curled as did Garaga's.
Then Orochimaru, after a moment, added. "You two are so in sync already."
Izuma snorted, feeling his hatred grow. Someday, he would erase him.
But now wasn't the time.
He turned back to Garaga, wiping the blood and grime from his cheek with the back of his sleeve.
"Fine," he said tightly. "If I don't fight a jinchūriki within a month, you can reverse summon me back here."
Garaga stared at him.
The serpent's rage didn't vanish—Izuma doubted it ever would—but the fury seemingly shifted from blind hatred to something more evaluative.
Garaga's massive head lowered, bringing that enormous eye closer.
"…You were strong enough to withstand my assault," Garaga said finally, voice a low rumble that vibrated in Izuma's ribs. "Barely."
Izuma had to force down laughter, partly from joy, partly from absurdity. He had finally gotten the beast to agree to become his summon, at least temporarily.
The absurd part, however, was that he'd managed to do it without showing Orochimaru his hand.
He had no doubt the Sannin had brought him to the snake most violent and most prone to lashing out to gauge his abilities.
Orochimaru was indeed slimy like that. But, well, now it didn't matter. He'd completed his objective without needing to reveal any of his truly cherished jutsus.
Garaga's tongue flicked once, and then the snake shifted its coils, the motion heavy and filled with reluctance.
"Very well," Garaga said. "Let's see if you're worth anything."
Izuma exhaled.
He had finally reached a temporary ceasefire with the monster.
Garaga began to withdraw, coiling back into the red-stone hollow. The cavern seemed to decompress with every inch of the serpent's retreat, air becoming breathable again, pressure lifting from Izuma's skin.
Izuma dropped from the stalagmite, landing with a thud.
Orochimaru stepped closer, hands still tucked away, posture lazy.
Izuma didn't look at him. If he did, he was fairly sure he'd commit a felony.
As they began to leave, Orochimaru's voice drifted after them.
"How fitting," he murmured, amused to the marrow. "The Red Fang summoning the Red Snake of Ryūchi Cave."
.
A/N:
Happy New Year, Everyone!!! 🎊🎉🎊🎉
Hopefully, we all have a great year in 2026!
First chapter of 2026, lol. I'm not sure when I'll post this chapter, but at least it was completed on January 1st.
The first part of this chapter is admittedly similar to the first part of the last chapter; that's just because chapter 12 was showcasing the sight of the initial half of the cave, where prospective summoners would traverse. This chapter is the latter half, where those who seek stronger snakes traverse.
Super long chapter, so I hope you guys enjoyed reading it!
Also, quick note, every true S-rank ninja beats most summons imo, including Garaga. Izuma is the very peak of A-tier, maybe even hovering at low S-rank. Therefore, he does beat Garaga if he chooses to use his strongest jutsu.
Thanks for reading, and join the Discord for all the images and chapter updates.
Discord link: https://discord.gg/s2DVMbqSf4
And a quick update as I see this story has gained some following.
One chapter per week. But some folks did want me to get a Pa-atreon so there are more chapters on the site.
Link: Sinbad_
You can just search that up or look up the story's name.