Naruto: I Became Orochimaru's Apprentice-Chapter 44: Ryuichi Cave

"..."

Teriyaki's silence led to more weeks of torture. He could no longer tell time through seconds, everything became a source of pain.

His body's aching. Orochimaru's existence. The rotten air he breathed.

Everything was pain.

Teriyaki hung limply from his chains, his body a ruined mess. His skin was marred with deep scars, his muscles torn and barely healed before being ripped apart again. His eyes, once filled with fire, now stared ahead dully.

Orochimaru stood before him, a cruel smile twisting his lips.

"You've survived longer than I expected, Teriyaki. That in itself is impressive."

Teriyaki didn't answer. He barely even blinked.

Orochimaru crouched slightly, tilting his head. "Still silent? Hah... You used to seem eager, you used to smirk so much."

Kabuto, standing nearby, adjusted his glasses. "He's been broken, Lord Orochimaru. His will has deteriorated significantly. We may not get an answer for weeks. Should we throw him away?"

Orochimaru's grin widened. "Not completely. Not yet."

A long silence stretched between them. Then Orochimaru's voice dropped, smooth and venomous.

"You are no longer a man, Teriyaki. You are a shell I have carved into something useful. But there's one final step... one last lesson before I decide whether to keep you."

At this, Teriyaki's fingers twitched. Some distant part of him still clung to survival, still understood what was happening.

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Orochimaru's golden, slitted eyes gleamed as he whispered,

"I am sending you to Ryuichi Cave."

Teriyaki's breath hitched.

Orochimaru chuckled. "If you survive, you will gain Sage Mode... and become my strongest pawn. Now for the more likely outcome, If you fail—"

His grin stretched.

"Then you'll rot there like the others before you."

Teriyaki's lips parted, his voice raspy from disuse.

"...And if I refuse?"

A flicker of amusement passed through Orochimaru's gaze. "You don't have that option."

With a single hand sign, the curse mark burned.

Agony tore through Teriyaki's body. His nerves ignited, his blood boiled, his muscles twisted. His entire being convulsed under Orochimaru's control.

His scream never even left his throat.

Darkness consumed him.

When Teriyaki awoke, he was somewhere else.

The air was damp, thick with the scent of stone and something ancient. Shadows coiled around him, stretching in ways that felt unnatural.

Hissing.

Everywhere.

The sound of scales dragging against rock. The slithering of countless massive bodies moving just beyond his vision.

He was not alone.

Teriyaki sat up slowly, his limbs stiff. His body still ached from months of torture, but something was different.

This place... it was alive.

A deep voice, ancient and mocking, rumbled from the darkness.

"Another one... Orochimaru sends us broken things."

A second voice, lighter but filled with malice, hissed.

"Shall we devour him?"

From the shadows, golden eyes blinked open. Dozens. Hundreds.

The serpents of Ryuichi Cave.

Teriyaki's breathing slowed. He knew the truth of this place. The snakes were not merciful.

He would either adapt—or die.

For the first time in months, he found himself laughing.

Laughing into the darkness, because he knew what was up.

"He wants me to attain sage mode... Or I die?"

He continued to laugh, ready to accept death.

"It takes a genius among the best to learn sage mode, and that's clearly not me."

He stared at the rows of golden eyes ahead of him.

"Take me."

His body gave in, it's bloodied and lashed state a sight of pure horror.

"Orochimaru really did a number on me..." Teriyaki's mind burned when he said the name.

I have to get my revenge... 

Teriyaki collapsed onto the cold, damp floor of Ryūchi Cave, his body weak, his mind shattered from months of relentless torture. The air reeked of decay, and the walls pulsed with something unnatural. All around him, thousands of eyes stared from the darkness—serpents of every size, their forked tongues flickering, their hollow hunger endless.

Then, from the blackness, came the colossal white serpent. Its scales gleamed like polished bone, its golden eyes pierced through him with the weight of something ancient, something merciless.

It did not slither toward him—it descended, curling its massive form around his broken body.

"Pathetic."

Its voice was a slow, creeping thing, sinking into his ears like venom.

"Orochimaru sent you here, but you will not survive this place. You will crumble, like the rest. Your corpse will rot in these caves, and your bones will be forgotten beneath the scales of my kin."

Teriyaki gritted his teeth, forcing himself up to his knees. Every inch of his body screamed in agony.

"I don't want to die. Not here at least..."

The serpent laughed. A deep, hissing sound that slithered through the cavern like a whisper of death.

"Won't you? You will break long before you learn our ways. This is no power freely given—only the strong live to wield it. And you? You are already dead."

Suddenly, Teriyaki felt it.

A crushing force.

An invisible weight pressing down on him from all sides.

His breath hitched as something ancient, something monstrous seeped into his body—Nature Energy. It did not flow into him gently. It invaded, twisted, devoured.

His veins bulged, his skin burned as if his very existence was being ripped apart. His heartbeat hammered erratically, his muscles convulsed as his body fought the foreign power.

He let out a ragged gasp.

"Do you feel it?" The serpent's voice was mocking. "That is nature rejecting you. Even after being modified your body is worthless."

Teriyaki's fingers dug into the dirt.

"You must balance it," the serpent continued, but its voice carried no encouragement, only certainty of his failure. "If you cannot, you will rot into stone, a lifeless husk to be swallowed by the cave."

The vision of petrified corpses flashed through Teriyaki's mind. He had seen them when he arrived—former failures, frozen in eternal screams.

His breathing grew ragged. He could feel the chakra consuming him, warping him, trying to erase him.

"Yes... I see it now," the serpent hissed, lowering its head beside his ear. "You are already losing."

Teriyaki's body trembled. The power was too much.

He was drowning in it.

"Become stone."

The serpent's words coiled around him like a curse.

"Let your suffering end."

Teriyaki's vision blurred. His mind screamed for relief, for escape.

And yet—he refused.

Through the suffocating agony, he focused. He forced himself to breathe, to endure.

He reached out—not to fight the energy, but to accept it.

The crushing pressure did not lessen, but suddenly, for the briefest moment—he felt something else.

A whisper of control.

A spark of understanding.

The serpent's golden eyes flickered with mild surprise.

"Hmph. You survived... for now."

Teriyaki collapsed, gasping, drenched in sweat.

The serpent coiled back, its voice still dripping with malice.

"Do not mistake this for progress. You are still nothing but prey. And soon enough..."

"This cave will consume you."