The hills that lay friendly in the daylight, like the pillows of the land, were darkly ominous by nightfall. The paths that were illuminated just hours before became lost in a blackness that even moonlight couldn't help. The trees were once magnificent in sunshine towered over Akira as she stepped across the border to the Land of Fire once again. And then suddenly, freezing fog wrapped around Akira like a blanket, the familiar sights of the forest lay mysterious, hiding, looming out at her in their whitened haze at the last minute like images from some half forgotten dream. She held out her hand in front of her and watched it become partially obscured, which made her walking pace slow to a full stop. Akira looked ahead into the mist, a little weary. Choosing not to go in was no choice at all, but she couldn't help but feel uneasy as she steeled herself to creep into the fog. The air was several degrees cooler; Akira would be shivering if not for her thick kimono. Her eyes and ears were on high alert, listening and looking for signs of life around her, but there was none. Back home such a silence would be tranquil, but out here it was more like the quiet of a graveyard.

The sound of her feet hitting a puddle of water brought Akira to a sudden stop. She brought her hands together at her chest and took a deep breath, then spread her arms apart at the same time she parted the mist in front of her. The light water particles suddenly condensed and moved to either side of Akira to form a sort of passage which she walked through carefully. It seemed that the lush forest of the Land of Fire had rapidly turned into a marsh of tall reeds, the soil submersed in water. The moonlight fell directly onto a tree trunk, likely felled for just this purpose, a bridge. Akira eyed it suspiciously. There was nothing to steady oneself. The drop wasn't dangerous, just a messy landing. With one careful foot she tested the bark. It was damp with a smattering of moss. Carefully, Akira crossed the makeshift bridge and once she reached the other side all the fog was gone, but she still couldn't see more than a few feet ahead. It was like something was keeping her vision clouded.

"Welcome to the Ryūchi Cave."

Akira nearly jumped, but remembered what this place was and kept her composure. She calmly turned to the voice that had greeted her. It was a woman with fair skin and dark hair that was tied into three buns. She wore a complex layered white kimono, with a single green tomoe adorning the neckline. Akira thought she looked kind, though she knew that her appearance was deceiving.

"I am Tagorihime. You must be tired after all your wandering. Please, let me take someplace to rest."

It was tempting, but Akira had her own dried foods packed up and it wasn't as if she needed the rest - she'd gone longer without any. Besides, Akira had remembered what Orochimaru had told her about the cave, about the trials. Wasn't accepting the wrong kind of hospitality a classic trial?

"Thank you for the offer, but I'm not looking for refreshments. My destination is the White Snake Sage. Unless you are him, I have no business with you."

The woman bowed respectfully and then she suddenly vanished into thin air, leaving Akira behind in the ominous quiet once again. She heaved a sigh and moved forward for a little while until she was completely engulfed in the darkness she was seeing before her earlier. Then all of a sudden the room she was in illuminated. She was inside a cave with an unknown light source, the only exit was sealed and the ground was covered in what looked like jewels. On the door there was a single arbitrarily shaped slot, and Akira stared at it, thinking, until, at the other end of the room, another woman in the same outfit as the first appeared.

"Hello!" she said cheerfully. "My name is Ichikishimahime. Do you want to play with me?"

"Not particularly, no," Akira said, deadpan.

"Too bad! That's the only way you're going to get out of here."

The Uchiha sighed and looked back at the girl.

"What's the game?"

"Find the stone that matches the slot... and you win!"

"Well, that's a pain..."

There were thousands of stones and jewels on the ground, and none of them had the same shape or size. It would be a long and tedious task, but still... Akira found it too simple. The stone would be found by process of elimination in any case, so why was this a task? Was it to waste time, or was it about something else completely? Akira frowned and looked back to the woman. She smiled.

"It's the stone around your neck, isn't it?"

The girl chuckled.

"How'd you know?"

"It's opal," Akira said with a smile. "It symbolises regeneration and good luck... like the skin of a white snake."

"Hm, very well..."

The girl disappeared like the last and soon after the walls dissolved into the forest she was in earlier. Akira resumed her walk. Within a few minutes, Akira could see a cave up ahead, with a large arched entrance. The limestone caves that Orochimaru spoke of were within her reach. However... wasn't there supposed to be a third trial? As the Uchiha girl passed through the arch and into the cave, another woman appeared, but Akira didn't like the look this one was giving her.

"Who're you?" Akira asked, slightly annoyed.

"I am Tagitsuhime, and I am here to test your heart."

"My heart?"

"You are determined, yes? You've passed all the challenges without batting those long eyelashes of yours," the woman crooned. "But are you prepared to sacrifice everything?"

"I've already sacrificed lots of things in my life... what else have I got to lose?" Akira said with a shrug.

"I told you, I am here to test your heart."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I will only allow you to pass... If you give me that necklace."

Akira's eyes widened and her hand shot up to the camellia necklace around her neck. Tagitsuhime smiled malevolently. Her features became snake-like, her eyes as golden as Orochimaru's, and she slithered up to Akira's face. She eyed her carefully, then looked down at the necklace.

"You cherish it, yes?" the snake-woman hissed. "Then sacrifice it. You were told that you'd need to sacrifice anything in order to obtain the Power of the White Snake! Then do it! Give me that necklace!"

"This necklace?" Akira asked, voice cracking.

"Yes, that necklace!"

"Done."

Akira pulled it off her neck and tossed it to the woman, whose features returned to normal immediately. Tagitsuhime put the necklace in her pocket and moved aside, letting the young Uchiha pass, but Akira stopped right in front of her and smiled. Suddenly, she disappeared into a puff of smoke, which made Tagitsuhime screech and frantically search her pockets. Akira reappeared from behind a nearby tree and smiled.

"You cheated! You didn't pass the test!"

"Of course I did," Akira said with a smile. "You told me to you give you that specific necklace. So I did. You never mentioned the real one."

Tagitsuhime screamed and launched herself at Akira, baring her fangs and her snake-like appearance. In one swift movement, Akira pulled out her Katana and held them at her attacker's throat, which prompted her to stop immediately. The girl gazed coldly at Tagitsuhime.

"I passed your test. You and I have no quarrel with each other."

"She is correct, Tagitsuhime," a voice sounded from afar.

Akira narrowed her eyes at the woman and walked past her, sheathing her Katana as she went. Soon, her surroundings faded and a large limestone cliff appeared before her eyes. Encrusted inside it was a beautiful temple. It looked deserted, a diffuse blue light shining over it which made an eerie contrast with the vibrant colours of the pagoda. When Akira entered the temple, the fragrance of incense was heavy and the sound of chimes could be heard in the distance. This was not a world of fantasy, though it looked like it. Everything Akira could see around her was so real, so material, so substantial and yet so impenetrable. The atmosphere was now becoming dense and heavy and she had to move on to the next chamber and get out of the cloud of thick incense. There was a short and very old man waiting for her there, sitting comfortably on a large throne-like chair.

"I see you have come to me unharmed," the man said. His snake-like eyes narrowed at Akira. "Do I know you?"

Akira took a deep breath and knelt before the small old man, bowing her head in respect.

"No, you do not. I am a... student of someone who once came to you."

"Hm... Orochimaru's student, yes?"

The Uchiha looked up at the Sage, eyes shining with curiosity.

"How did I know? I can feel his Chakra running inside you... but it is calm, dormant. You have managed to suppress it, I see." The man straightened. "You have come to me to learn?"

"My name is Akira Uchiha, and yes, I have come to learn from you," Akira said honestly. "Orochimaru asked me many years ago to pursue this when I was ready. He wanted me to succeed in his place."

"He asked a student to succeed in his place? Hm, he's gotten soft..."

Akira almost laughed. Orochimaru, soft? There was no way that man could be described as soft. Then again, maybe he was even more ruthless than now when he sought out the Snake Sage's power.

"Filled with greed that is man. Crawling in the darkness... that is man's true form. All those who have come to see me have abandoned everything out of sheer greed. And yet..." The Snake Sage looked down to the necklace gleaming around Akira's neck, and then he stared back at her face, almost as if examining her. "Yet you come to me to fulfill someone else's wish, and accomplished my tasks without abandoning what you love. What is it you seek from me, my dear?"

"I seek what my master could not accomplish," Akira said. She sighed and stood up, looking almost pleadingly at the Sage. "There is a war coming. I can feel it in my bones, in my soul. I've had visions of war and death and suffering, and I've already lived through enough of it to know that I don't want to lose any more than I already have. I've come to you seeking power, yes, but not for the selfish reasons my master did and those before him. I come seeking power for protection - to protect others to the best of my ability. However, I also come to you seeking power as a final request from Orochimaru, to honor him for personal reasons I don't even understand myself. But mostly, I come to you seeking power to gain the ability to bring my family home... To bring my brother home."

The Snake Sage sighed and stood, his small stature even more apparent than before. Akira straightened herself as the man circled her, looking deep in thought, until he finally stopped before her and his body shifted like the womens' bodies had before. Within seconds, the small man had become an immense snow white snake with slit, vibrant green eyes that seemed to gaze directly into Akira's soul.

"You've brought months worth of supplies for nothing, my dear," the snake hissed. "This is does not happen the same way as it does with the Toad Sages of Mount Myōboku."

"What do you mean?" Akira asked, eyes narrowing.

"I will immediately imbue you with the power of the White Snake, and it is up to your body to decide whether you acquire it permanently or not. Should your body refuse the Senjutsu Chakra... you will die."