I, Uchiha, will not be whitewashed!

Chapter 111 Dragon Cave.

The Chunin Exams were suspended midway through, and the Hokage's office released the final results a week later.

Only one person passed.

Nara Shikamaru!

Shikamaru demonstrated excellent tactical acumen and command ability in the preliminaries. Although he gave up the match against Temari in the main tournament, his overall performance in the Forest of Death and the preliminaries was unanimously recognized by the examiners.

Naruto, Sasuke, Gaara, Te, Kankuro, Shino, Neji, and others failed to pass.

Shikamaru stood in the Hokage's office, hands in his pockets, watching Minato hand him his Chunin vest, and sighed.

"This is so troublesome."

Shikamaru took the vest and walked out of the office, where Ino and Choji were waiting for him in the corridor.

Choji handed him a bag of potato chips. "Congratulations."

Shikamaru took it, took a bite, and chewed it a couple of times. "There's nothing to congratulate you on."

The Chunin Exams are over.

Konoha Village is still being rebuilt; the ruins are decreasing every day, and a new house is being built every day.

Naruto, with bandages wrapped around his legs, squatted by the roadside eating ramen. Sakura Haruno sat next to him, rubbing her wrists. Sasuke stood against the wall, gazing at the distant sky.

Three days after the Konoha Crush plan ended, while the village was still clearing the ruins, Sakugo had already left.

He did not participate in the reconstruction, did not visit the wounded in the hospital, and did not report to the Hokage's office.

He took the summoning scroll from Ryuchi Cave out of the safe, rolled it up, stuffed it into his ninja tool bag, told Minato he was going away for a few days, and left.

Minato trusted Sakugo's abilities.

As for what Sakugo does, as long as it doesn't harm Konoha, Minato won't ask any questions.

The entrance to Ryuchi Cave in the Land of Fields is located hundreds of meters below a cliff.

It wasn't a cave, nor a crack; it was a dead old tree with its trunk split in the middle, revealing a dark, hollow cavity.

The wind blew through the tree hole, making a whooshing sound, like a snake flicking its tongue.

Shuoge stood in front of the tree hole, his three-tomoe Sharingan slowly rotating.

There was no chakra fluctuation, no sealing technique, nothing at all. Just a withered tree. He reached his hand into the tree hollow, his fingertips touching the cool, damp air.

The next second, the scene before my eyes distorted.

It's not an illusion, it's a spatial displacement.

The ground beneath our feet changed from gravel to stone slabs, and the sky above us changed from gray-blue to dark green.

He stood in a long corridor, with luminous pearls embedded in the walls on both sides, their glow pale and eerie.

At the end of the corridor was a huge stone door, with a relief carving of two snakes intertwined on the lintel. The snakes' eyes were inlaid with rubies, which looked like two drops of blood in the pale light.

He pushed open the stone door.

Behind the door was a huge cave, with stalactites hanging upside down from the ceiling. Water droplets dripped from the tips of the stalactites and hit the puddles on the ground, making a crisp sound.

Deep within the cave, a giant white snake coiled up, its scales shimmering like pearls in the light of the luminous pearl. Its eyes were golden, with vertical pupils, and it was staring at him.

White Snake Immortal.

"These eyes—the descendants of Indra—the brat of the Uchiha clan." The White Snake Sage's voice was old, unhurried, like a stone rolling on a riverbed.

"I didn't expect Orochimaru to give you the contract for Ryuchi Cave."

Shuoge didn't speak, but instead stared at the giant snake in front of him without any attempt to hide his gaze.

The White Snake Immortal tilted his head. "What do you want?"

Summoning beast?

The Kaleidoscope can directly control the Tailed Beasts.

The White Snake Immortal was naturally not afraid of those brainless idiots.

However, ordinary summoning beasts are no match for tailed beasts in a head-on confrontation. Even the weakest tailed beasts, the One-Tail and the Two-Tail, can be easily crushed.

"Celestial arts," Shuoge replied directly.

The White Snake Immortal flicked his tongue.

"That's true, only immortal techniques could attract someone like you."

"But why should I teach you?"

"Conditions." Shuoge could tell that the White Snake Immortal wasn't really refusing, but rather wanted to know what he could offer in exchange.

The White Snake Immortal smiled.

The snake grinned, its lips curving upwards to reveal two venomous fangs. "Ryuchi Cave is no amusement park. Nine out of ten people who come here go mad, and the remaining one dies."

It paused. "But you're an Uchiha, and the Sharingan naturally has a stronger resistance to genjutsu than others. Maybe you can last a little longer."

It raised its tail and pointed to a fork in the road deep inside the cave. "Go in. If you can come out, come see me again."

Conditions? Money, power, fame, and profit.

The White Snake Immortal, who had lived for over a thousand years, had absolutely no interest in such mundane things. A fascinating story—a snake—was far more captivating than such commonplace objects.

"Kid, magic isn't something you can master so easily."

Even Orochimaru couldn't learn the Sage Techniques of Ryuchi Cave.

The White Snake Immortal closed his eyes, seemingly falling asleep.

Shuoge walked into the fork in the road.

The road grew narrower and darker.

The luminous pearl is gone; the light spots on the wall are coming through the cracks in the stones.

The air was damp and chilly, carrying a strong, putrid odor.

His Sharingan had been awakened, and the three tomoe slowly rotated in the darkness.

But he discovered that the Sharingan was useless here. What he saw was distorted. The walls were breathing, the ground was writhing, and the stalactites overhead were dripping blood—not water.

Genjutsu. The genjutsu of Ryuchi Cave is not Uchiha genjutsu; it is an illusion created by natural energy.

Or perhaps this is an illusion created using Sage Chakra!

The Sharingan can break man-made illusions, but illusions created from natural energy are indistinguishable from those created from air, water, and stone.

He closed his eyes, slowed his breathing, and listened. Something was crawling; the sound of scales rubbing against the stone slabs hissed from all directions.

He didn't move; he stood still.

"It seems that one of the Sage Techniques in Ryuchi Cave is the one that blocks vision."

"Moreover, snakes don't move by sight."

Shuoge pricked up his ears and even used the touch of his skin to sense it.

The snakes crawled past his feet, some coiling around his ankles, some crawling over his shoulders, and some hanging down from above his head, flicking their tongues and licking his face.

He didn't open his eyes, he didn't move. The snakes slithered away. The sound faded into the distance and disappeared. He opened his eyes.

There is a dead end ahead.

The wall blocked the way; there were no side roads, no doors.

He reached out, his fingers touching the wall—cold and rough.

There were words carved on the wall, crooked and illegible—"Turning back is the shore." He stared at it for a few seconds, clenched his fist, and slammed it against the wall. The wall shattered.

It didn't break; it tore open like paper, revealing the passage behind it.

"Turning back is the shore? Turning back is the shore." His voice echoed in the empty passageway.

At the end of the passage was another stone door, smaller than the first, with no carvings on the lintel. He pushed the door open, and the White Snake Immortal was still in the same spot, coiled up, watching him.

"It's faster than I expected."

—This level of illusion is still too easy for the Uchiha clan.

It's a book specifically for ordinary people who accidentally wander into Ryuchi Cave.

—What's more, this kid has already activated his kaleidoscope...

The White Snake Sage flicked his tongue. "Your resistance to illusion magic is quite good. But magic is not illusion magic."

"You need to immerse yourself in natural energy every day for at least three months, allowing your body to adapt and your mind to integrate. You cannot leave Ryuchi Cave during these three months."

Shuoge was silent for a moment. "Three months? Then I need to go back and take care of some things."

"You have already signed the contract with Ryuchi Cave. You can find a compatible partner and use the Reverse Summoning Technique to go directly to Ryuchi Cave next time."

The White Snake Immortal's voice was devoid of emotion. "I don't object to you cultivating immortal arts. But the immortal arts of Ryuchi Cave can kill people, so I hope you won't give up."

The White Snake Immortal revealed a strange smile.

It seemed to have some ill intentions, or rather, the gloating of an old rascal.

Shuoge nodded, turned and left.

He walked out of the cave, out of the corridor, and out of the withered old tree. The sunlight was blinding, and he squinted. He glanced back at the tree hollow; it was pitch black, and he couldn't see anything.

The reason he didn't use reverse spirit communication wasn't because Shuoge hadn't thought of it, nor because he couldn't do it.

Instead, since it was his first visit, he wanted to greet people in person.

He wasn't able to reach Ryuchi Cave because of Orochimaru's summoning contract scroll, just like a locksmith can't unlock a lock without having the key.

He was able to find Dragon Cave on his own, enter Dragon Cave, and meet the White Snake Immortal.

Next time, I'll just come whichever is most convenient.