"Amane, your hand."
White Snake didn't need to explain with a worried tone.
Feeling the stiffness and numbness spreading from her fingers, Amane knew she had been hit.
While recalling the chains used for restraint, she set up this layer of Barrier to block the poisonous mist. Although Amane thought she was fast enough, it seemed she was still a little slow.
But these were minor issues.
Taking advantage of the fact that her fingers, although petrified, hadn't yet reached the point where she couldn't use Ninjutsu.
Amane quickly performed Hand Seals and used Wind Release, blowing away all the surrounding poison gas.
What appeared before the person and the snake was that Shin Ya's figure had disappeared, leaving behind two stone statues.
One was a statue of Kimimaro reaching out to lift something, and the other was a statue of the Great White Snake with a look of horror in its eyes.
They were truly lifelike, masterpieces worthy of a master craftsman.
But Amane and White Snake were in no mood to appreciate them; one was a companion they had lived with for years, and the other was White Snake's mother.
[I shouldn't have watched that arc back then; I got completely screwed over. It would have been better to just stick to the manga.]
After a brief moment of helplessness and regret, Amane understood. Even if she had no information about Shin Ya, Kimimaro or she herself would likely have been hit in this battle.
Seeing that black mist for the first time, who would have thought its effect wasn't poison, but petrification? The key issue was the misleading intelligence regarding the Reverse Scale.
Looking at her completely petrified right hand and watching the spreading trend, Amane had no doubt that it would cover her entire body.
A solution... existed.
But Amane had always been reluctant to use this move, finding it a bit disgusting.
[But there's no other way.]
"Sigh... I'll use it."
Having prepared herself, Amane opened her mouth wide. Then, under White Snake's shocked gaze, another Amane crawled out of Amane's mouth.
Looking at her right hand again, it was now completely restored.
"Amane... are you a snake too?"
This technique strongly resembled a snake shedding its skin, but why didn't White Snake smell the scent of a fellow creature on Amane?
"Shouldn't your focus be on your mother?"
Although her right hand had recovered, she was covered in mucus, making Amane extremely uncomfortable and nauseous.
But she had to admit that the Orochimaru Style Substitution Jutsu was simply a divine skill, the kind that was completely worth learning.
Although it had drawbacks—it consumed a lot of Chakra unless the body underwent certain modifications.
But Amane could usually ignore this drawback.
It was fortunate that Amane knew this technique today; otherwise, she would have had to chop off her right hand. It truly was a mechanism kill—no amount of recovery power was useful.
"Oh! That's right! Mama!"
White Snake scurried over and started crying next to the stone statue.
[This silly snake, what good is crying now? Anyway, I should use Kagura Minds Eye first to check.]
In the anime, Akimichi Chocho was hit by the technique, but she survived completely unharmed in the end, which was one reason Amane remained relatively calm now.
In the dark space, the statues indeed still possessed Chakra inside, and they were in a completely static state.
But upon closer inspection, it wasn't that the Chakra wasn't draining, but that it was doing so extremely, extremely slowly.
This discovery allowed Amane to breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that for the short term, she didn't have to worry about the safety of the two lives.
[A very powerful Sage Art, quite similar to the principles of Sealing. Perhaps, unexpectedly, Shin Ya and I have good compatibility.]
Of course, this was just a thought, meant to soothe her mood after messing things up this time.
So, it was time to act immediately.
Amane came to White Snake's side, gently stroked its head, and said, "They aren't dead yet, but that might change if too much time passes. We must hurry to Ryūchi Cave now."
"Ryūchi Cave... right! There must be a way there to save Mama!"
The crying White Snake reacted and immediately darted in one direction, but Amane quickly pulled it back.
"Wait! Are you just going to leave like that? If Shin Ya comes back and your mother's statue breaks, it might be irreversible!"
"Then what should we do! We finally made it back to our homeland, why did this have to happen!"
With the mentality of a child, White Snake seemed completely unable to communicate at this moment.
But White Snake couldn't be blamed; even an adult facing an attack on their home and an uncertain fate for their mother would normally lose their composure.
"I will Seal your mother and my companion's bodies into sealing scrolls, and we'll take them to Ryūchi Cave that way."
At a time like this, she needed to speak with a firm tone, stating a feasible plan and the next step, overriding the other party's anxiety.
Amane came to Kimimaro's side, untied a scroll from her backpack, dumped out all the Ninja Tool inside, and began modifying the Sealing Jutsu Formula on it.
[I really don't know what you were thinking, why did you just jump into the fight?]
She could only say that Kimimaro acted too decisively and swiftly. Amane's original intention was just to find it and use it as a deterrent.
"Seal!"
The character "Jun" appeared in the center of the sealing scroll.
[This is partly my fault. Although I really don't like you after actually spending time together, first, I don't want a rift to appear between Uncle Snake and me, and second, we have spent years together after all. I will do my best to save your life.]
After retrieving the scroll and placing it in her backpack, Amane turned and approached the Great White Snake.
This one would be a bit tricky.
The two biggest factors to consider when Sealing an object into a scroll were size and self-resistance, with internal energy capacity being secondary.
Due to the petrification, the Great White Snake's resistance was nonexistent. And because of the previous battle, its internal Chakra energy was also severely depleted.
It was just that the size seemed a bit too large.
But this wouldn't stump Amane.
She immediately pulled out the largest sealing scroll from her bag and completely redrew all the Sealing Jutsu Formula on it.
The density of the completed formula was roughly ten times the original.
[Given the size of this paper, this is the limit. If I can't succeed, I'll have to settle for the next best thing and create a Barrier to protect this area.]
Fortunately, Amane's anxious feelings vanished after the character "Bai" appeared on the scroll.
"Now, let's go to Ryūchi Cave."
Her worries were resolved, but after Amane spoke, she suddenly remembered that when they first arrived, there were many petrified snake statues nearby.
Should they take all those along too?
Amane asked White Snake, and received an affirmative answer.
However, if they added that many units, the scrolls Amane carried would be far from enough.
Ultimately, through the efforts of Amane and White Snake, they moved the stone statues to a hidden location and protected them with a defensive Barrier.
"Amane, you are so kind."
On the way to Ryūchi Cave, White Snake stopped crying. Reflecting on this journey, after it was injured while training in the wild, various hardships followed one after another.
First, it was Sealed by the Hidden Grass Village, then its power was forcibly extracted, until it met Amane, this human child.
Initially, White Snake thought Amane was only helping it to get the location of Ryūchi Cave.
So, while it was somewhat grateful to Amane, it wasn't overly so, until now, when they returned home and encountered this sudden situation.
First, Amane helped it get away from the battlefield, and then she cast a Barrier to protect it.
Finally, after White Snake lost its composure due to repeated blows, Amane acted as the backbone, solving all their worries and allowing them to proceed to Ryūchi Cave with peace of mind to seek a solution.
If Amane asked to sign a contract now, White Snake would immediately agree.
"I share responsibility for what happened here, and I will do my best to see it through. Besides, I can't let Kimimaro die like this."
Uncle Snake really likes Kimimaro.
The person and the snake continued walking, and gradually, a strange, dense fog enveloped them. The surrounding earth, rocks, and trees slowly became indistinct, and at some unknown point, the environment changed to something completely incompatible with the original surroundings.
"Looks like we've arrived."
Amane muttered, looking at the surrounding environment.
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