Growing Your Fangs

I stood alone atop one of the tallest peaks of the Anghor Mountains, looking out onto the long valley at the distant world below. The mountain air choked my lungs, and made it difficult to breathe, which I had grown accustomed to as this was my usual spot. I would come out here once or twice a week to just sit here and stare out at the world, feeling as though this mountain peak, so high above the rest of the plains and oceans, stood apart from the war-stricken world beneath my feet. I began to perform handseals.

I quickly finished up the handseals, and bit my thumb. I knelt down onto to the surface beneath my feet, and drug the blood from my wound across the ground, and summoned him. The snake before me was massive, and he barely fit onto the round surface that I stood of on top of the great mountain near Chikagakure. He leaned in closely to me, and looked me in the eyes with his giant, menacing yellow eyes. I could smell the venom dripping from his fangs. He hissed at me, "Why have you sssummoned me, Kama? I sssee no fight here." He was well-accustomed to fighting, and in fact looked forward to it every time he was called by one of the holders of the Snake Scroll.

"I have not brought you here to fight in one of my battles, friend," I said as I placed one of my palms onto the huge girth of his snake body. "I wish to be taught. With your permission, I would like to be taken to your homeland to train in the art of the snake. Will you teach me, Prince of the Snakes?" I asked with a nobility in my voice. I wanted the snake to know exactly how serious I was in this case.

"I sssee. Kama, you truly wish to master the Sssnake Art? I am not my father, Lord of the Ssserpents, but I am the Prince, and I will grant you permission. Place your other hand on me asss well, and we will return to Lake Laogai."

I grinned and did as the snake asked me, and before I knew it, we were poofed away backwards through the summoning jutsu. Lake Laogai was truly a beautiful place.

I was summoned to a place a little bit North of the major lake which made up most of the area called Lake Laogai. All around me were huge mountains, so I guessed we were somewhere near (or actually in) the Anghor Mountains. The valley that I was standing in with the Prince of the Snakes was, to my estimate, maybe a 10 miles across, give or take a few miles. I activated my byakugan in order to try to see the area round me more clearly, so a tour would not be necessary, as I didn’t have time for such frivolous things. The veins on my temples bulged as they pulsated chakra in huge heaps into my eyes, and my vision began to expand. I could see behind trees and rocks, over hills and under water. It was beautiful, as I expected, but that was not what had initially shocked me. What shocked me was that there were not only snakes here... but toads as well. I decided to bring up my curiosity to the Prince, “Why are there toads here too? I thought that each summon family had a different home, away from all others?” That’s what I had grown to learn through the many books I had read on the matter, but it turns out that it is not always true. “No, youngling, the sssnakes and the frogs have lived together in peace for decades. We are friends, and worthy sssparring opponents. Although our governments are completely different.” As the Prince explained to me the relationship between the toads’ family and the snakes’ family, we made our way to the lake to meet the Lord of the Serpents. For it was from him that I would need final approval.

We reached him soon enough, and on the way over, he had briefed me on the entire history of the Snake Family, as well as how the Hierarchy of the government works and functions. We reached the Lord Serpent, and I was itching to begin training. It had been too long that I had undergone brutal training. Even the air here was difficult to breathe in, which was odd for me because I thought I would be set in that department after living in the mountains my whole life. The Lord of the Serpents was huge, stretching to near a mile long I guessed, but he was coiled up with his head propped up, looking intently at me. I didn’t even know how to go about addressing him, so I just waited for him and bowed my head.

“I know already why you sought me out, mortal,” he began with a thundering voice that seemed to shake my insides, “And I approve already. You have proven yourself time and time again that you deem the worthiness necessary of wielding the power of the Sssnake, and I grant you permission to try to learn it. My ssson will be your teacher. Good luck.” And with that, he slunk his head back down as if to fall asleep.

That was it. My training to become the first Snake Sage has officially begun.

910/700 words

Admission is done, training will begin in a separate topic.