Shimizu slowly opened his eyes.
A wave of dizziness surged through him, the world tilting and spinning as though he had been dragged back from the edge of oblivion. It was the unmistakable sensation of complete chakra exhaustion—the hollow, debilitating weakness that followed when every last drop had been wrung dry.
"Well, well… Uzuki-kun. You're finally awake."
That voice—low, amused, and eerily familiar.
Orochimaru?!
Shimizu blinked, his thoughts sluggish, as though his mind itself had yet to fully awaken. "You…" he managed, only to realize that his brain simply refused to process what was happening.
In his last memory, he had been swallowed whole by a colossal snake. Then came the detonation—nearly a million explosive tags igniting at once—followed by a cataclysm that tore the mountain apart. After that… nothing. Darkness had claimed him.
"You were quite fortunate, Uzuki-kun," Orochimaru continued lightly. "To survive even such a desperate situation."
"…You pulled me out of there?" Shimizu asked, disbelief threading through his voice. Orochimaru—risking his life to save him? The very idea felt absurd.
He glanced around. The light here was dim, the air heavy with a muted gloom. It reminded him vaguely of the cavern where Madara had once resided, though this place was far more expansive, its shadows stretching endlessly into the distance.
"Hehe… strictly speaking, it was this one who saved you."
Without warning, a figure materialized before him.
An invisibility technique?!
And—she was floating.
"Allow me to introduce myself," the girl said, her voice carrying a faint, imperious lilt. "My name is Ichikishima-hime."
She appeared to be no more than fourteen or fifteen, clad in a flowing white robe. Her long, deep-blue hair shimmered with an almost otherworldly brilliance, cascading down her back like a midnight tide. Her pale skin was accented by striking red eye shadow that extended toward the sides of her nose, framing a pair of golden, vertically slit pupils that gleamed with an unsettling, serpentine allure.
Those were snake eyes!
Shimizu instinctively looked toward Orochimaru... Was this Orochimaru's daughter?!
"You may address me as Princess."
Princess…?
Was this some kind of cosplay?
Shimizu's gaze drifted back to her. Upon her head rested a golden crown, topped with a small orb. Blue-green magatama-shaped earrings swayed gently at her ears, and a single green magatama ornament adorned her chest. There was, undeniably, an air of nobility about her attire—strange, archaic, yet unmistakably regal.
He glanced once more at Orochimaru, who gave a faint nod in confirmation.
So she really was… some kind of princess?
And she continued to hover there, suspended effortlessly in midair, radiating an inscrutable, almost mystical presence. According to Orochimaru, she had been the one to save him.
"P-Princess…" Shimizu began, hesitating slightly.
"This one is at least sensible," Ichikishima-hime remarked, clapping her hands lightly in apparent satisfaction. "Not a waste of my chakra."
"Hehe… Your Highness jests," Orochimaru replied with a deferential chuckle.
Even Orochimaru—proud, unyielding as he was—lowered his head before her.
Shimizu, thoroughly out of his depth, decided that silence was the wisest course.
"You are Shimizu Uzuki. There is no need for introductions—I already know. I hear you wish to learn senjutsu?"
"Yes," he answered without hesitation.
Ichikishima-hime drifted slowly around him in a languid circle, as though inspecting some curious specimen. Then she extended a slender finger and lightly tapped his forehead. A moment later, she shook her head, a trace of regret in her expression.
"You cannot learn the senjutsu of Ryūchi Cave."
Ryūchi Cave?
This place… was Ryūchi Cave?!
Wait—what did she just say?
He couldn't learn senjutsu?
"Why not?" Shimizu blurted, panic creeping into his voice. "You can use senjutsu, can't you? As long as you're willing to teach me, I can learn it!"
This was the power he had longed for—dreamed of. And now he was being told, just like that, that it was beyond his reach?
How could that be?
"I said you cannot, and I do not make mistakes," Ichikishima-hime replied flatly, already turning as though to leave.
"Then at least tell me why!" In his urgency, Shimizu reached out and caught the edge of her sleeve.
Her expression darkened instantly.
"Mortal, remove your filthy hand."
"Sorry—sorry," he said at once, letting go and bowing his head in genuine apology. "I just… need to know why. This is important to me."
"If it pleases Your Highness, perhaps you could explain," Orochimaru interjected smoothly. "I, too, have once pursued senjutsu, only to be told I lacked the capacity to obtain it. The disappointment… lingers still. If he is left without an answer, I fear…"
"He already possesses senjutsu chakra—"
Ichikishima-hime's voice cut cleanly through the air.
"—the senjutsu chakra of the Sage of Six Paths."
What…?
Shimizu's mind reeled.
He already had senjutsu chakra?
Not just any—but that of the Sage of Six Paths?
So I really am the protagonist…
"…But I've never felt anything like that," he said, bewildered.
"That is likely because it is merely a seed of power," she replied calmly.
"A seed of power…" Shimizu murmured, the words rolling slowly off his tongue.
It sounded less like an answer and more like the beginning of something—an unfulfilled condition, a dormant potential waiting to awaken.
"Don't get carried away, boy," Ichikishima-hime snapped, dousing his rising excitement with a bucket of cold reality.
"When I call it a seed of power," Ichikishima-hime said, her tone cool and matter-of-fact, "it is only because the level of that power surpasses my own. I cannot perceive it clearly, nor can I remove it. And I have already told you—it is merely a possibility."
She paused, then added lightly, as though discussing something trivial, "It could just as easily be a mark… or perhaps a vessel prepared for when the Sage of Six Paths chooses to return, in need of a mortal body."
Return?
Possession?
A chill shot up from the soles of Shimizu's feet straight to his scalp, cold and immediate, as though some unseen hand had brushed against his very soul.
"In any case," she continued, her voice flattening, "the existence of that power prevents you from cultivating the senjutsu of Ryūchi Cave."
"As for what it truly is… who can say?"
She clicked her tongue softly, a note of regret coloring her expression. "With your talent, you might have already mastered senjutsu by now—perhaps even gone on a rampage across the world."
With that, she drifted away at an unhurried pace, her figure gradually receding into the dimness of the cavern.
"…," Shimizu said nothing, his emotions tangled into an indistinct knot.
"Who would have thought, Uzuki-kun," Orochimaru murmured, a faint gleam in his eyes as his tongue flicked lightly across his lips—a habitual gesture that made Shimizu's scalp prickle, "that you carried such secrets. To have come into contact with even the Sage of Six Paths…"
"…I've never met any Sage of Six Paths," Shimizu replied quickly, a trace of unease creeping into his voice.
If anything, the only connection he could recall was that bolt of heavenly lightning Madara had spoken of…
And that lightning had been the very thing that killed him.
So the Sage of Six Paths had tried to kill him?
But failed—and left behind some kind of contingency instead?
As that thought took shape, a deep, hollow desolation spread through Shimizu's chest.
Wasn't the Sage of Six Paths supposed to be the most exalted, almost mythic figure among the righteous in this world?
Why would such a being fix his gaze on someone like him?
Why would he seek to erase him?
Because he was a transmigrator—an existence that did not belong?
What kind of absurd reason was that?
"And you've seen it yourself," Shimizu went on, forcing a bitter smile. "Because of this so-called Sage of Six Paths, I can't even learn senjutsu now."
"That is only the case for now," Orochimaru replied calmly.
"I'd rather never have been noticed by something like that at all…" Shimizu exhaled slowly, the weight of it pressing on him. "Orochimaru… he wants me dead."
"Uzuki-kun, on what basis do you say that?" Orochimaru's tone remained light, almost amused. "Even Her Highness cannot ascertain the true intent of that power."
"I'm certain," Shimizu said quietly. "No one understands my body better than I do."
Orochimaru let out a soft chuckle. "If that were truly the case, then why fear a dead man?"
Easy for you to say.
Shimizu couldn't help but scoff inwardly. Orochimaru stood at the pinnacle of power in this world—crushing him would be no more difficult than stepping on an ant. And worse still, he always operated from the shadows, calculating, patient, and impossibly cunning.
"If he truly posed a threat to you, you would already be dead," Orochimaru continued.
In truth, Shimizu had already died once. If not for Madara's Hashirama cells, and the life force of the Uzumaki clan that had sustained him, he would have long since become nothing more than a pile of bones.
"Since you are alive, it means he cannot act against you—for now."
"And if it is merely a matter of timing," Orochimaru added, his golden eyes narrowing slightly, "then all you need do is grow stronger before that day arrives."
Simple words.
Too simple.
And yet… not without reason.
Gradually, Shimizu calmed himself. The cycle of gaining hope only to lose it again—of nearly grasping senjutsu, only to have it slip through his fingers—had unsettled him more than he cared to admit.
After all, this was the power he had long yearned for, the stepping stone to a higher realm.
But at the very least, one truth had become clear.
The senjutsu of Ryūchi Cave was not meant for him.
Not now.
Not as long as that so-called power of the Sage of Six Paths remained within him.
Until it was removed… senjutsu would remain forever out of reach.