Chương 97

The scream echoed for several seconds before his eyes rolled backward. His massive Sage Transformation dissolved rapidly as his body collapsed onto the broken ground, smoke rising from every inch of him.

"Now that was a fight where I always wanted to test myself." Rei for the first time felt a tired and bruised in several places and even cuts here and there. Jugo's hands and his body were filled with scales to enhance his brutality and ferocity in the battle, and let's not look over the fact that this dude was enhanced by senjutsu. Rei deliberately had to use Thor's physique as he knew that like Nagato, Jugo could suck chakra out of other people's bodies too.

So he had to be careful and thus only used ninjutsu when he was far away and since his mind was out of it, he didn't even notice the hiraishin mark he had put on Jugo. When he had arrived here, his first criteria was to get Jugo. That had been the main motive and not Orochimaru himself. Given that the man himself was unstable and if he did bring him under control, it would be bunch of forbidden jutsus. He would prefer other things for the moment.

Even Kimimaro was interesting with his Kekkei genkai, but Jugo was the prize. He had expected to first have a talk with Orochimaru and then maybe follow by a fight because he knew how they were. But Zetsu's presence and Jirobo destroyed all plans of talking. Though it didn't go against his plans it still didn't go as he wished it would have. He wanted to traumatize Orochimaru, in fact Rei was sure that he was able to land a very lasting impression on him.

But it still wasn't the way he wanted the whole thing to go, but he got the man he wanted. Rei found a relatively flat rock nearby and quietly sat down, keeping one eye on the unconscious red-haired youth. There was no hurry anymore. His objective had already been achieved. As the minutes slowly passed, he noticed something rather fascinating. The black Curse Mark patterns that had spread across Jugo's body gradually began fading away while the grotesque transformations receded.

The torn muscles, deep burns from Chidori, bruises from Rasengan and countless cuts he had accumulated throughout the battle slowly knitted themselves back together before Rei's very eyes. The regeneration wasn't instantaneous, but it was still astonishingly fast. It wasn't difficult to see why Orochimaru had valued this man so much. This wasn't merely someone blessed with natural energy. He was practically a walking treasure chest of senjutsu research.

About an hour later Jugo suddenly inhaled sharply and sat upright with a start.

"...!" His crimson eyes darted around instinctively before stopping on Rei, who remained seated several meters away with his arms resting casually on his knees.

"You finally woke up." Jugo didn't answer immediately. Fragments of the battle flashed through his mind one after another. The exchange of fists. The overwhelming physical strength. The yellow flashes. The Rasengan. Then the Chidori that had shut his entire body down. His eyes slowly widened.

"I... lost."

"No shit Sherlock." Rei replied.

"What?" Jugo was confused. Who was Sherlock?

"Nothing... You did lose though." Jugo lowered his head and remained silent for several long moments.

"I went all out..." he finally muttered.

"Even after entering full Sage Transformation... I still couldn't overpower you." His gaze rose toward Rei once again.

"How?" If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"How what?"

"Your body." Jugo said.

"I barely sensed you reinforcing yourself with chakra during our taijutsu exchanges. Yet every punch... every kick... it was as though I was fighting some ancient beast. How is your body that strong?" Rei smiled faintly.

"I'll tell you."

"But first I need your answer." Jugo became stiff when he heard that. When this absurd exchange started, of him being brokered over for the safety of Orochimaru and the fact that he was asked to fight the boy himself, it had all been a weird thing going on, one after the other. But he had remembered why the fight started. it was the promise of him being under him. Jugo took it as a joke was there was no way a boy like him would be able to overpower him. But he did.

Jugo stared at the ground, thinking far more seriously than before. Earlier he had only planned on escaping with Kimimaro, now that whole notion was out of the window. And he knew that if he tried to flee, it would be a stupid move since he had seen how fast he moved.

"... I'll agree." Jugo finally said.

"But only under one condition."

"I'm listening."

"If I ever lose myself again... if that thing takes control of me..." He clenched his fists tightly.

"... then you stop me. No matter what it takes. And if you ever go back on that promise... I'll leave." Rei chuckled.

"I was planning on doing that anyway." And then with a wave of his hand, he summoned the full contract and forwarded it to Jugo for him to read. Jugo didn't understand what it was but after reading, he looked at Rei as if to see if this boy here was joking but after a brief moment, he got to realize that Rei was serious.

"It is a funinjutsu?" Jugo asked.

"Something like that." Rei replied. He allowed Jugo to think as this was a huge deal and Jugo didn't know anything about Rei, apart from the name and also if the seal was real, then he would be under Rei for the rest of his life. Jugo lowered the contract and remained silent for a long time, his crimson eyes repeatedly moving between the strange seal written across the paper and Rei's calm expression. He had never seen a contract like this before. It wasn't merely an agreement.

His mouth would be sealed forever about this contract, he would have to follow the wished of Rei and his biddings. His instincts screamed at him to be cautious. He had followed Orochimaru once because the snake sannin had promised to free him from the monster inside. That promise had failed. He wasn't eager to place his life into someone else's hands again, especially not someone he had only met a few hours ago.

"You want me to sign this..." Jugo finally said.

"But I know almost nothing about you. Your name is Rei. That is all. You held down Orochimaru, defeated me and now you are asking me to hand over my freedom for the rest of my life." He looked directly into Rei's eyes.

"Would you sign something like this for a stranger?"

"No." The honest reply made Jugo blink.

"But you don't really have another choice either." Rei continued calmly.

"You already know you can't outrun me. You can't overpower me. If you leave, I'll simply drag you back. So whether you sign today or tomorrow doesn't really change the outcome." There wasn't the slightest hostility in his voice, as though he was merely stating a fact rather than issuing a threat.

"The only difference is whether you walk beside me willingly or after I've knocked you unconscious again." Jugo quietly stared at him. He clearly understood the hidden meaning behind those words, yet strangely enough he didn't feel anger. Rei wasn't pretending to be kind. He wasn't making empty promises or disguising force behind pretty speeches.

"... You're threatening me."

"I am."

"And you don't even deny it."

"There isn't much point in lying." Jugo slowly folded the contract and placed it on the rock beside him instead of signing it immediately.

"I followed Orochimaru because he said he could save me." His voice became quieter.

"Before him... there were countless others. Villages hunted me. People feared me. Every place I stayed eventually became stained with blood because I lost control. Orochimaru wasn't a good man... but at least he gave me a place where I wasn't immediately treated like a monster."

"How do I know you aren't worse?" Rei leaned back slightly.

"You don't."

"..."

"You'll have to judge me yourself." Jugo frowned.

"I won't serve someone who enjoys slaughter. If your goal is to wage war, kill innocent people or spread suffering... then you're no different from the curse inside me. I'd rather keep living with my own curse than become someone else's."

"That's a fair condition."

"So answer me." Jugo asked.

"What kind of person are you?" Rei looked toward the distant sky for a brief moment before answering.

"I don't mind killing people." Jugo's eyes narrowed.

"The world isn't clean enough for someone to keep spotless hands forever. Some people can be saved. Others can't. I don't kill because I enjoy it. I kill because sometimes leaving someone alive only creates more graves."

"If one day you think I've crossed that line... then tell me. If I refuse to listen, you can hate me all you want." Rei said. This made Jugo look deeply into the block void like eyes of Rei and tried to find if there were any lies hidden beneath it.