Suddenly, a group of villagers with orange hair gathered around, eyeing Ryou with hostility while holding weapons.
The leader was a middle-aged man with a dignified face, standing at least two meters tall. He shouted at Ryou, "Stranger, where do you come from? Why have you intruded into the territory of the Snake Sage?"
"Snake Sage?"
Ryou rubbed his chin. If he wasn't mistaken, it must be the White Snake Sage. This was a Village that worshiped the White Snake Sage as their deity.
The middle-aged leader looked very familiar to Ryou. He then remembered that this man looked very much like Jugo.
No, it would be more accurate to say that this man was an elder of Jugo's.
This was Jugo's Village.
A skinny man beside the middle-aged man cast a greedy glance at the little catgirl next to Ryou, then said to the leader, "Yumiko, why are you wasting your breath on him?"
"Since Jugo was taken away by Lord Orochimaru, we haven't been able to find a child for this year's Sage Worship Ceremony. Let's just use this guy instead!"
"A youth in his late teens with such tender skin—the Snake Sage shouldn't be too disappointed!"
Yumiko had originally intended to ask more about Ryou's background to avoid escalating the conflict unnecessarily.
This was because Ryou could very well be one of Orochimaru's people; their Village was far from the Shinobi World, and only Orochimaru had ever visited this place.
However, Ryou's sudden laughter provoked him.
What was he laughing at? What was so funny about his name?
"Attack!"
Yumiko was the first to strike. Black Cursed Seal patterns covered his face, crawling frantically down his neck to his limbs. Wherever they passed, flesh bulged and veins popped.
In the blink of an eye, Yumiko's skin gradually faded into an eerie hue of intertwined gray-blue and dark purple. His nails grew long and sharp, and his teeth turned outward into pointed fangs.
Yumiko had turned into a monster.
Katsuyu said, "This is Sage Transformation. They were originally livestock raised by the snakes of Ryūchi Cave on the surface. Because they have absorbed the leaked Senjutsu energy from Ryūchi Cave for a long time, they eventually became capable of Sage Transformation."
Sage Transformation is also called Cursed Seal Transformation. The Cursed Seal was not invented by Orochimaru.
That man is simply cunning; he took the bodily fluids and cells from Jugo's body, layered them with his own chakra, and then claimed he developed the Cursed Seal himself.
Orochimaru is just taking advantage of Jugo because Jugo doesn't know how to publish research papers.
Katsuyu added, "However, Sage Transformation is ultimately just a shallow utilization of Senjutsu power. This force is not something their intellect can master."
After Yumiko underwent Sage Transformation, all rationality vanished from his body. His face was full of rage, and his eyes were filled with nothing but slaughter and destruction.
The others followed suit with their own Sage Transformations, each turning into a violent monster.
The skinny man from before still retained a sliver of consciousness. He pointed at Ryou and said, "Capture that man to sacrifice to the Snake Sage. As for the girl, we will keep her for some fun."
Ryou was surprised. "Why don't you capture the girl as a sacrifice and leave me here to have fun with you guys?"
"You guys are really favoring females over males!"
The skinny man was furious. "You're asking for death!"
With a single command, a group of brown-skinned monsters lunged toward Ryou's party.
Ryou folded his arms and called out to Satori, "Satori, seize them!"
"Yes!"
Satori immediately moved to meet them.
After the Jugo Clan underwent Sage Transformation, their muscles swelled and their fangs were exposed, granting them far greater physical capabilities than before.
But Satori was the true monster. Even without transforming into the Demon form, these Cursed Seal monsters were no match for it.
Satori's delicate-looking hands turned into extremely sharp weapons. As soon as it made contact with the skinny man, its palm easily pierced through the man's transformed body.
It directly crushed the man's heart.
Just before his breathing stopped, a moment of clarity returned to the skinny man's brain. He looked at the soft and cute Satori in shock.
In those eyes, the skinny man saw the figure of a Black-Winged Greater Demon that ruled over a world of blood.
"You... are the real monster..."
As soon as he finished speaking, the skinny man who had lusted after Satori's beauty was torn into bloody fragments by Satori.
The surrounding Cursed Seal monsters were drenched by the cold rain of blood and suddenly realized that this person was the true monster.
They immediately deactivated their Sage Transformations and, having regained their senses, fled in all directions.
Ryou performed Wood Release, extending vines to capture all of them.
Yumiko knelt before Ryou, kowtowing and shouting for his life to be spared.
Ryou had already started following a routine for interrogating people; he began the electric shocks before even deciding what to ask.
Yumiko twitched all over from Ryou's electricity, scream after scream escaping his throat.
"Good hero, good hero! I am one of Lord Orochimaru's men! Please spare my life!"
"One of that venomous snake Orochimaru's men? Then I definitely have to shock you more!"
Ryou sneered. After torturing Yumiko half to death, he used his Sharingan to lock eyes with him and began interrogating him for information.
Yumiko was Jugo's father. Jugo was the most perfect example of Sage Transformation in this clan.
The reason Yumiko and the others could absorb natural energy for Sage Transformation was that this place was on the outskirts of Ryūchi Cave, where natural energy was dense.
If they went to the outside world, they wouldn't be able to undergo Sage Transformation at all.
But Jugo was different; he could undergo Sage Transformation even in places where natural energy was not dense.
Orochimaru took an interest in Jugo's special constitution and took him away.
Furthermore, he promised Yumiko and the others that he would find a way to help them suppress the rampages caused by Sage Transformation.
It turned out that because the Jugo Clan could not freely control their Sage Transformation, they would often go into a frenzy and attack the companions around them.
Many people had already lost their lives due to these rampages. If Ryou had come a few years later, Jugo's clan would likely have gone extinct.
Ryou patted Yumiko's head and sneered, "To think you're still counting on Orochimaru to solve your rampage problem. How ridiculous!"
The Jugo Clan was a group that had not appeared in the original work.
This clan's connection to Orochimaru reminded Ryou of the Iburi Clan.
They were a secluded cave-dwelling community living deep in the mountains of the Land of Fire.
Members of the Iburi Clan could completely turn their bodies into gray smoke, allowing them to pass through cracks or enter an enemy's body to briefly control their actions.
This Kekkei Genkai could be named Smoke Release.
However, it had one weakness: they were afraid of the wind while in smoke form.
Strong winds would cause the smoke to dissipate, directly leading to the death of the Iburi Clan member.
When Orochimaru discovered this clan's miraculous bloodline, he deceived them.
He said he could help them stabilize their smoke transformation ability and even claimed he could get the Iburi Clan children Konoha residency permits and take them along for research.
As soon as the Iburi Clan people heard they could get residency permits, they sent their children to Orochimaru.
Orochimaru immediately turned around and experimented on the Iburi children, later returning to drain the blood of the rest of the clan.
In the story, there was a young girl named Yukimi whose younger brother was taken by Orochimaru for research; he was one of the children implanted with Hashirama cells during the Wood Release experiments.
Yukimi's brother had actually already passed away due to erosion from the Hashirama cells, and she mistakenly believed that Yamato, the only survivor, was her brother.
In the end, the once large Iburi Clan was reduced to just Yukimi because of Orochimaru's actions.
Orochimaru was no savior; he only ever cared about himself in everything he did.
In the original work, when he was resurrected during the Fourth Great Shinobi War, he seemed like a changed man. Instead of shouting about taking over bodies, he started doing good deeds and centered his actions around Sasuke.
This was likely because he had previously entered Sasuke's body and had been influenced by Indra's chakra.
Ryou admitted he was a beast, but Orochimaru wasn't much better than him!