After regrouping in the mist, Sarutobi Enjun and Uzuki Ruri instinctively fell into formation around Uchiha Gen. No one needed to say it aloud anymore. When danger appeared, Gen saw it first. When the team had to choose a direction, his judgment came first. Without anyone announcing it, he had already become the core of Team Orochimaru.
Sharingan and sensory ninjutsu made him the natural spearpoint. Enjun and Ruri, slightly weaker in pure detection and reaction, took up the rear and the flanks, supporting him as they advanced step by step into the deeper fog.
The three moved slowly, every footfall measured. In a place Orochimaru had specifically warned them about, recklessness was simply another way to die.
Then, ahead of them, lights began to bloom in the white haze.
At first it was only a vague glow. A few breaths later, it had become the outline of a magnificent palace, grand enough to make any wandering traveler stop where they stood. The plaque above the hall shone black and gold, and three bold characters were carved across it: Ryuchi Cave.
Gen lifted his head and looked at the sign, then at the building, then at the fog surrounding it. The tomoe in his Sharingan rotated slowly.
No visible flaw did not mean there was no illusion.
His Sharingan had only one tomoe. It gave him an advantage against ordinary genjutsu, yes, but it was nowhere near enough to let him suddenly see through techniques cast by beings vastly stronger than himself. If Orochimaru had specifically warned him not to trust what he saw in this place, then trusting his eyes blindly - even Sharingan eyes - would be stupidity, not confidence.
That alone was enough to make him wary.
If it were another Uchiha, they might already have snorted and decided they had seen through everything. The clan had never lacked people who believed the Sharingan could solve every problem in the world. History had dealt those people enough slaps that even Gen, a transmigrator, had heard echoes of them.
Because of Orochimaru's warning, he forced himself to keep doubting. That doubt did help. He could sense that something in front of him was wrong. He just could not yet point to exactly where the wrongness lay.
***
The palace doors opened with a deep, elegant sound.
A woman with green hair stepped out from within. She wore formal palace robes, her bearing graceful and noble, her beauty cool and refined. A gentle smile rested on her lips, the sort of smile that naturally lowered a person's guard.
"This humble one is Princess Tagorihime," she said. "Welcome, all three of you. Please, come in."
She turned and gestured toward the hall behind her, inviting them forward with flawless etiquette.
Inside, a lavish table had already been laid out. Meat, fruit, wine, desserts, steaming dishes whose fragrance drifted through the air in rich, irresistible layers. It was not merely appetizing. The scent carried a seductive pull, as though it were whispering directly to hunger, coaxing cravings awake even in people who had not felt hungry a moment earlier.
"Please rest here for a while," the snake princess said with a gentle smile. "The White Snake Sage has already been informed. As long as you pass the trial, you will soon be able to form a contract with Ryuchi Cave and obtain great power, just like your teacher, Orochimaru."
Sarutobi Enjun's throat bobbed. He turned slightly and glanced at Gen, seeking his judgment without even realizing he had done so.
"Don't eat," Gen said softly.
He did not explain. He simply kept scanning the hall, Sharingan glowing red in the dimness.
Sight could be deceived. Smell could be deceived. Taste could be deceived. But deception itself still had to leave a trace somewhere. The snake arts of Ryuchi Cave clearly had their own unique strengths, and the things in front of him were convincing enough that even he could not immediately find the crack in them.
Enjun and Ruri, however, trusted him without hesitation. Both stepped back from the table. That alone told Gen how thoroughly his command had already sunk into the team.
Princess Tagorihime's brows lifted in visible surprise. "At your current level, your Sharingan should not have this kind of discernment," she said.
The splendid palace vanished in an instant.
Gold, silk, and fragrance were swallowed by the cave's true face. The banquet table became a heap of bones. The gleaming hall became a cavern strewn with skeletons from creatures large and small, some human-shaped, some very much not. The damp smell of earth and old death replaced the feast's rich perfume.
Tagorihime clicked her tongue, sounding more annoyed than angry. "Fine. I can't eat this one. What a waste. I'll hand him over to Princess Ichikishimahime."
She waved a sleeve and disappeared.
***
Another woman drifted out of the fog.
This one had long violet hair and robes no less elegant than the first, but there was something colder in her face, something crueler around the eyes. As she arrived, the surrounding mist thickened instantly, rolling in so heavily that even the space beside Gen seemed to dissolve.
Sarutobi Enjun vanished. Uzuki Ruri vanished. The cave vanished.
And from within that white void, a man stepped forward.
Tall. Handsome in a severe sort of way. A scar on his forehead, enough to ruin the softness of his features and leave behind something sharper, fiercer.
Uchiha Taki.
The original body's father.
"Gen," the man said gently. "It's me. Come here."
Gen did not move.
He simply looked at the figure for a long moment, then rested a hand against his chin and began to think.
The snakes here probably did not know who Uchiha Taki was in any real, personal sense. Yet this image had still appeared. That meant the genjutsu was not built from the caster's knowledge. It was being generated directly from his own memories, reaching in and pulling out the image most suited to shake his heart.
In that sense, the technique was somewhat similar to the Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique. That jutsu made a target see what they feared or hated most. This one was subtler. It did not merely force terror onto a person. It tested their emotional core, probing for attachment, reason, longing, hesitation - any weakness that could be pressed open.
Gen lowered his gaze and watched the chakra flowing through his own body.
Fortunately, this was not an impossible illusion for him to break.
More importantly, he understood its purpose now. The first test had been temptation. The second was will and judgment. Since Orochimaru had prepared Jiraiya to train Enjun and Ruri specifically in genjutsu resistance before sending them here, this meant the current development was almost certainly within his expectations.
That realization helped him relax.
If Orochimaru had predicted this much, then Sarutobi Enjun and Uzuki Ruri were not in immediate mortal danger. They were likely trapped in their own illusions, struggling to break free, but not about to be devoured in the next breath.
Perhaps that ridiculous toad-based torment Jiraiya had forced on them had even been designed for exactly this moment. The three sacred lands restrained one another in strange ways. If the toads of Mount Myoboku were naturally wary of the snakes of Ryuchi Cave, then the methods used by the former to resist or disrupt the latter's illusions would naturally be valuable.
Once he reached that conclusion, Gen stopped hesitating.
He formed hand seals at once, using the Sharingan's vision to observe his own chakra flow with precise control. Then he violently disrupted it, forcing the illusion to collapse from within.
The world in front of him shattered.
When he opened his eyes again, the fog had returned. The cave had returned. Sarutobi Enjun and Uzuki Ruri stood a short distance behind him, both still caught in the illusion, their expressions taut and their chakra fluctuating as they struggled to break free.
They had already realized it was genjutsu. That was enough. On a battlefield, the delay would have been fatal. Here, in a trial, it was still within the line of safety.
***
The purple-haired snake princess floated above the ground, staring at him with open dissatisfaction.
"Tch. So you woke up after all," she muttered. "What a shame. I was wondering what an Uchiha with the Sharingan would taste like compared to other ninjas."
Gen lifted his head and met her gaze calmly.
"Is there another test?" he asked.
The question seemed to amuse her.
"Of course," she said. "Princess Tagorihime tests greed and temptation. I test willpower and reason. Princess Ichikishimahime tests thought and wisdom. Fail, and you become our meal. Pass, and maybe you get to keep walking."
She tilted her head, studying him as if she were looking at an unusual little animal.
"You don't seem too stupid, so I doubt Princess Ichikishimahime will get to eat you. Whether your two little friends are another matter... well, that depends on whether they manage to wake up in time."
Gen nodded slowly, absorbing every word.
Greed and temptation. Will and reason. Thought and wisdom.
The structure of the trials was becoming clear now. Ryuchi Cave was not merely testing strength. It was peeling at a person's inner framework, checking whether they could hold themselves together when fed lies, fear, longing, and doubt. That alone told him how dangerous this place truly was. A ninja with weak judgment could easily mistake these tests for hospitality until it was far too late.
But judged purely by what he had seen so far, the difficulty was still within an acceptable range.
That did not mean he relaxed. It only meant he adjusted.
If the first two princesses could not directly kill him with what they had shown, then the real danger now lay in the next stage - the one that would test how fast he could think, how accurately he could distinguish falsehood from truth, and whether he could keep command of himself while the trial tried to dismantle the very ideas he relied on.
Behind him, Sarutobi Enjun's chakra suddenly spiked, then destabilized, then began to settle. Uzuki Ruri's breathing changed a heartbeat later. Both of them were close.
Good, Gen thought. That meant the team would not be split apart before the next stage began.
The violet-haired snake princess gave him one last lingering look, half hungry, half curious.
"Try not to die too quickly, little Uchiha," she said lazily. "If Princess Ichikishimahime can't eat you, I might still get another chance later."
Then the fog moved again.
Something in the cave shifted, as though the place itself were breathing around them. The next trial was about to begin.