Whatever, you are here to seek power from Master White Snake Sage, right? Follow me!" - Tagitsuhime turned around and guided Eiji into the temple, with the words "Ryuchi Cave" inscribed on a plate.
When Eiji entered the temple, it didn't take him long to see a huge white snake sitting on a sacred seat smoking out of a long thin cigarette holder.
Tagitsuhime stopped at the entrance and signaled Eiji to go upstairs towards the huge white snake.
He didn't say his usual sarcastic remarks, instead, he felt nervous and went solemnly upstairs, when the huge white snake spoke to him: "You are here to learn senjutsu? Are you sure you want to risk it? If your body is unable to withstand my power, I will eat you."
'That's really more dangerous compared to learning sage mode under the toads...' - Eiji smiled wryly while thinking to himself.
He contemplated for a second before sighing and saying: "Nothing is free in this world, how can you get power without risking something?"
White Snake Sage looked at him amused, before taking the cigarette holder with her tail from her mouth.
Suddenly without a word she jumped at an incredible speed and bit Eiji in his shoulder.
"ARGHH!!!" - Eiji was overwhelmed by the pain and instantly lost consciousness.
Eiji found himself to be in an endless space, where everything was red except for the ground.
He looked at the white ground and saw that it was scaly, but after looking for a few seconds, to his shook, he saw the ground moving like it's the body of a large animal.
'This place is creepy. Even worse is that I can't stand anywhere else than this creepy ground...'
Instinctively he wanted to draw his sword, but he realized that it was missing: 'How is it missing? Didn't I carry it the whole time with me even when I was naked?'
While he was confused, the ground started to shake and move at a tremendous speed.
'Shit!' - Eiji didn't want to lose his balance, so he retreated backward as far as he could.
The ground started to finally stop moving and when Eiji looked up, he saw a giant snake, which had his face, looking down at him.
"That's even more creepy, I gotta say. I never knew I had an ugly twin brother like you..." - Eiji tried his best to appear calm.
"HAHAHAHA!!!!! You are still trying to hide your fear and nervousness behind tough words?? I know you like no one else, so this won't work on me."
"Knowing me like no one else? Who or what are you?" - Eiji had a serious expression and didn't dare to be careless.
"I'm your inner voice, the one you neglected until now...that's why I ask you: Why don't you give up already?"
"What?"
"I said, why don't you give up already...isn't it enough? You are only a mob. You couldn't even save Hayate-sensei. Why don't you accept that you are only a mob and can't do anything? Still, even as a mob, didn't you do enough? You reincarnated into a world with your previous life's memories and could experience this world you loved so much in your previous life. You had your fun, isn't it now time to stop bringing chaos to this world through your sheer existence? Why are you so selfish?"
Eiji heard all that and was silent.
Emotions ran wildly in his heart: he knew that it was selfish of him to get involved with important events to try to get the outcomes he wanted. He could hear an inner voice whispering to him, that it's better to just disappear since he is only a mob anyway...
While this was going on, surrounding parts of the ground transformed into small white snakes that started to cover him.
Funnily enough, he didn't sense or feel it, and after some time only his head wasn't covered.
"Are you not responding? Of course not. I know you and know your decision anyway, so let me help you!"
The huge snake charged with an open mouth athim about to devour him.
At the hall, the White Snake Sage looked at Eiji's body.
His body couldn't handle the natural energy she injected into him and he started to transform into a snake.
'Looks like that's it. I have never seen someone failing faster than him. Most would struggle for some time before transforming...well I will just eat him, so I won't complain...' - the White Snake Sage licked her mouth and moved joyfully towards Eiji's body with her head.
Hey wake up! This isn't your real inner voice, you are influenced! Listen to me! I'm your true innermost self. So what if you are a mob? Who said mobs can't do anything? Mob's are even more important than anyone else! Society wouldn't work without mobs! Even important characters wouldn't exist without their mob ancestors! Everyone looks down on mobs, even though they are the unspoken heroes! Go and show the world the true power of a mob!'
The giant snake with Eiji's face was about to devour him when all the covering snakes were blown away and Eiji stopped the just snake with just one hand.
"YOUUU!!!"
"Yeah, me. Who else could it be, other than the magnificent and virtuous super mob? You know, you said you know me, but then proceeded to talk about emotions and stuff. Emotions are just emotions. If certain emotions are harmful or disadvantage to me, I just ignore them!" - Eiji felt his willpower spinning in his body.
His willpower then engulfed him and transformed him into an even bigger white snake
Suddenly he felt the urge to devour the fake him, so with just one bite, he ate the whole head.
Power he never felt before started to appear in his body.
The White Snake Sage was about to move when Eiji's snake transformation was stopped.
Then he slowly transformed back.
He looked at her and said with a mocking smile: "Sorry if you want a taste of me, you should be a few years younger and agree to a date with me first."
'How interesting, just with sheer willpower he forced his body to accept the natural energy I injected...'
"Looks like your body accepted the natural energy. This means now two things. First: you acquired my personal power, which gives you the ability to heal any injuries and transform yourself into a giant snake. Secondly: with that, you are worthy of learning sage mode. So prepare yourself, the training will start right now!"
It was the day, where the chunin finals would start.
In the end, Eiji only had enough time to learn to enter sage mode without being able to properly balance his own chakra with natural energy.
That meant that on top of the usual snake-like appearance for sages of Ryuchi Cave, he looked even more snake-like
Speaking of snake-like: he looked quite different now since his body had some problems handling the injected natural energy.
His hair turned white, and his eyes looked more snake-like with his eye-color changing to yellow.
At first, when he saw his reflection, he was shocked and quite upset, but after some time he cheered himself up: 'At least I don't look as ugly as transformed Kabuto...'
Anyway, he was about to leave even though he didn't fully master sage mode, so before leaving he wanted to ask the White Snake Sage something.
"Before I leave I have a question..."
"A question? I won't answer, you only passed the trial for learning sage mode, nothing else!"
"Come one, just one question..."
"I won't answer. Since you insisted on leaving today, go now!"
"Why do you have to be so petty? It's not like you have any hobbies or anything other to do than just sitting here and smoking. So come one, if you don't want to answer me, it's fine, but at least hear the question first!"
"..."
He took her silence as a yes and asked: "I'm wondering, why is it called Ryuvhi Cave (Dragon ground cave) when there are only snakes here and no dragons? Isn't that some kind of scam?"
When she heard that she took a puff out of the cigarette holder before saying: "Scam? Well, for someone who doesn't know it might seem that way. Dragons don't exist in this world, but it is said that we snakes have some sort of connection with dragons. A long time ago, there was an ancient group of humans who worshiped a dragon god. They don't exist anymore for a long time now, but if you wish to learn about dragons you should try to look for the remains of their temple."
Eiji asked halfheartedly and didn't expect to get such an answer: 'Dragon god? This is the first time I'm hearing something like that. But now that I think about it...isn't it weird that even though humans didn't have chakra until Hagoromo started doing his thing, there are jutsus with which you can as an example summon the Shinigami? When it comes to gods in this world, many things were left unanswered...maybe if I can find this dragon temple, I might learn more...'
After noting it in his mind, he said his goodbye to the White Snake Sage and decided to leave.
'Wait how do I return?'
Anko wasn't happy.
She wanted to get ready to go to the arena for the chunin finals when a snake transmitted her something: a guy called Eiji wanted her to summon her contracted animal so that her contracted animal can use the Reverse Summoning Technique.
Eiji already found her contracted snake in Ryuchi Cave and made a temporal contract, only for that.
Anko had a sour expression and decided she absolutely didn't want to meet Eiji!
But she also couldn't just let him miss the chunin finals, or else she might make a lifelong enemy out of him.
So she summoned her snake and ordered it to go far away and summon him there, so she doesn't have to meet him!
'Huh?' - Eiji looked at the snake who after summoning him disappeared.
'Why was I summoned at the front gate? Was there no better place? And isn't Anko way too cold?'
Hey you there, stop! I haven't seen you around! Identify yourself!" - one of the two shinobis guarding the front gate stopped Eiji when he wanted to enter.
"What are you talking about? Can't you see my headband?"
"I see it, but as I said, I haven't seen you around. And more importantly, you look really suspicious!"
"Are you for real? Listen, I don't have time to argue with you here, or else I will be late for the chunin finals."
"Many people come here to watch, but you don't look like a civilian so I can't let you just pass..."
"I'm not here to watch, I'm one of the participants."
"Ha! Who would believe such an obvious lie!"
"You are really starting to piss me off..."
"Well, what you gonna do about it? Hey, Satoshi stop daydreaming and help me with this suspicious brat!"
"Come one, don't be so loud. Let a man survive his hangover peacef-..." "- Jo, Dad. How have you been?"
"...who the hell are you?" - Satoshi
"Sasuke's not here yet, so what's gonna happen?" - Naruto
"If he doesn't arrive by the start of his own match, he'll lose by forfeit!" - Genma
'Sasuke isn't the only one who's missing...' - Shikamaru
'This is weird...knowing Sasuke, I figured he'd be here even if he had to crawl...' - while Naruto was lost in thoughts, someone suddenly appeared where all participants stood.
"Whew, looks like I made it in time..."
"I thought for a second it was Sasuke...by the way who are you?" - Naruto
"Ehm, are you one of the participants? If so, what's your name?" - Genma
"Nakamura Eiji."
Genma looked at him suspiciously before deciding to take some documents out.
There were the details of all the participating Genin, so he looked at Eiji's profile.
Next, he looked at his photo and then at Eiji standing there.
"Are you sure? You look quite...different..." - Genma
"That's because of my training."
"What kind of training would change you so much?" - Genma was in a predicament and was unsure what to do.
Meanwhile, at the Hokage seat, Orochimaru was hiding his shock: 'This kid, I sense some traces of the White Snake Sage in him...how can this be?...HAHAHA!!! Interesting. I'm really looking forward to his performance!'
Orochimaru wasn't present when Eiji fought Dosu, so he didn't know how strong he was.
As Orochimaru was thinking about Orochimaru stuff, Hiruzen recalled how not long ago, a worried Jiraiya told him about a giant snake being summoned by Eiji.
After some investigation, Anko confessed that she taught him the Snake Summoning Jutsu.
And after Eiji disappearing for quite some time and Jiraiya describing the way he disappeared, Hiruzen was sure that Eiji was in Ryuchi Cave.
Of course, Hiruzen only thought that it was an accident that he landed there with his summon.
But this made him worry even more so about Eiji's safety.
Unfortunately, there was nothing which he could do to help him, so seeing that he was still alive, Hiruzen was glad.
'It looks like he is fine...except for his appearance...well, there is no doubt that it's him.' - he signaled Genma who was looking at him to proceed.
'If Lord Hokage means so, I guess it's fine...' - Genma
"Alright, your identity was confirmed, so let's continue." - next Genma started to explain that the rules are pretty much the same as in the preliminaries.
Then he signaled the start of the first match: Naruto vs Neji!
There wasn't much of a difference compared to the original timeline.
The only one was that Neji didn't underestimate Naruto as much, which funnily enough was more advantageous for Naruto, since losing by such a lame move with Naruto jumping out of the ground with his fist, was even more surprising for Neji.
After the applause for Naruto subsided, the crowd's anticipation for the next fight grew stronger.
Most people came here to see Sasuke Uchiha!
But the problem was, he wasn't here yet...
"What could he be doing?! Is he not coming at all?" - Shikamaru
Meanwhile, Choji ate his potato chips more aggressively than usual: 'Please don't come! Please don't come...'
The next fight is supposed to be Sasuke vs Choji!