Mysterious Cave

They never knew for how long they fought but they were stuck in a deadlock the whole time. It was just that Hashirama was indeed powerful for his age, it wasn't for no reason that he would be called the god of shinobi in the future. Whenever he would slightly pressure Tobirama, Hashirama would be there backing him up or forcing Mukuro to retreat from his attacks. It wasn't until Mukuro backed out did the three stop. He silently looked at the two brothers as his sharingan bored down into their very souls. While Tobirama was unnerved, Hashirama just glossed over it as he shouted,

"Do you really want to do this, Mukuro?! Can't you try explaining to your brother, I'll do the same with my clansmen."

Tobirama chose to stay quiet and let his brother shout. He could tell that the Uchiha in front of him shared the ideals his brother and him had. During the fight he sensed no killing intent originating from him. Hearing Hashirama, Mukuro just shook his head and left, ignoring Hashirama's shouts. Before he left, his voice drifted into the two brother's ears,

"Remember what I told you, Hashirama. Strength is everything."

The two felt his presence disappear as they looked at each other. A group of Senju clansmen found them and looked at the direction of destruction. Time passed as Mukuro slowly made his name throughout the battlefield. Mukuro was currently standing in the middle of a small clearing surrounded b Senju. Seeing the ever so familiar scenery, Mukuro shook his head and gave a small smirk. A hidden blood thirst emerged while his activated sharingan glowed. The surrounding Senju looked at each other and attacked their comrades, all except one, a young kid who had obviously entered the battlefield for the first time.

By the time it ended, one more Senju was left remaining when a kunai dug itself in his head. The kid looked on in horror as he saw the body fall. Time seemed to slow as he looked at the perpetrator and saw the pair of Sharingans look back at him. Leaving a lasting impression on the Senju kid, Mukuro left the kid shivering and trembling. That was when the name of Mukuro resounded throughout the ranks of the Senju clansmen.

Right now, the Uchiha that the Senju were wary off was looking around with a finger on his chin. Seeing the unfamiliar surroundings, Mukuro realised that he had gotten lost. The teenager had felt a sudden urge to walk in this direction, and that he did for whatever reason. Before he knew it, he was standing next to a crevice that had a weird cave within it. The cave was well concealed, and it wasn't until Mukuro got near and reached its entrance did he make out the cave.

The cave was surrounded by bushes and vines that grew on the cliff face with falling leaves covering the entrance. Pushing them aside, Mukuro carefully made his way into the cave while he activated his sharingan. Despite the cave getting darker and darker the more he walked, he was barely able to make things out using his sharingan.

Mukuro could feel the cold air creep onto his skin as the cave walls smoothened out. Each step he took was met with silence as he readied his naginata and crouched slightly, vigilantly looking around. Mukuro could hear his heartbeat alongside the faint rushing of blood within his vessels.

The time training for sage mode had strengthened his mind otherwise he didn't know how long he would fare in this silence. Droplets of sweat made their appearance on his face as his fist grasped his naginata tighter.

Mukuro could swear that each step he took made the place quieter and quieter. Being in complete darkness and the deafening silence started to play out Mukuro's mind. No matter what he had seen, or how strong was his mental fortitude, he was human in the end. It wasn't long until even his sharingan was blinded and now Mukuro didn't know what to do. One voice was telling him to turn back round, give it up, it's not worth it. Another voice was his curiosity, his adventurous spirit, a slight adrenaline accompanied voice, telling him to carry on, what was on the other end?

Mukuro, being this book's mc…ahem…himself, chose the latter, but immediately regretted this decision. The walk started to play with his senses, he was seeing hallucinations, some were just white dots while others were more funky. He was pretty sure one time he saw a clown giving him the finger.

Still Mukuro didn't back down and carried on walking. He didn't know how long it had been, minutes? hours? days? weeks? Hope started to disappear from his body as his vigilant walk disappeared and turned into a normal one. Mukuro didn't even know if he was walking, was he going up? Down? Left? Right?

As soon as his hope completely disappeared and all that was left was despair, he saw a small speck in front of him, it was first a small white dot and he just thought it was just an illusion. Still it was more than enough for someone like Mukuro as his vanished hope reignited. His walk turned into a jog and his jog turned into an all-out sprint.

It wasn't long until Mukuro reached the light which turned out to be a small flaming torch. He didn't know why the torch was lit or even how, the first thing he did when he was slightly touched by the light was immediately collapse. The walk had drained his mental energy the most. Turning his body to lie on his back he started taking deep breaths to calm himself down.

Once he regulated his breathing, he got back up and approached the torch. The torch was just a stick lit on fire standing on top of stand. Mukuro got closer, wanting to pick it up, he touched the torch and tried to lift it. But before he could lift it, suddenly, a row or torches lit up in front of him. These torches were attached to walls on either side.

They were normal torches, just like the one in front of him, but they were able to light up the whole cave. What entered Mukuro's vision was a large hallway with various illustrations on the walls. On the right wall, a moon was depicted with countless beings surrounding it pointing their spears at it. It was a pure crimson moon with a figure clad in front of it. The next scene shows the figure making a move with his hand spread out and something stretching out of his body, reaching for the men with spears. It looked like a cloak, but it contained countless eyes within it and the next scene saw the cloak gaining mouth and gobbling up the men around them until no one was left.

The opposite wall depicted a different type of illusion. It was also of a figure but this time it was a female. The figure was also in front of a crimson moon but this time instead of something reaching out from the figure, the figure went towards the people with spears and initiated hand to hand combat. Killing all of them. What caught Mukuro's attention was the fact that the blood of the dead started rising and joined the figure in combat, while the figure seemed to receive power from the crimson moon.

Examining the walls and the various illustrations, Mukuro started venturing deeper into the cave. There were some normal depictions, and some of them changed depending where he was standing. Some seemed to pop out from the wall while some seemed to be dug into the walls. The illustration on the left wall though had the same illustration over and over again. The only difference was what the figure was using to combat, one changed the earth, another used fire, one changed the reality surrounding them. The more he walked the more illustration he saw until he came to a halt. In front of him was a large metal door with countless runes and images littering it. All in all though, they were all encircling a large crimson moon in the middle.

The celestial body had rays reaching out from it and had a slight glow that Mukuro found weird. Curiosity kicking in, Mukuro placed both his hands on the door and gave it a push. Contrary to the boy's expectations, the door opened easily despite its size being five metres long and three metres wide. Knowing that such a large door would also be thick, Mukuro was surprised by how easy it felt.

Mukuro carefully entered a relatively dark hall with a table in the middle that had white halo surrounding it. Looking up, Mukuro noticed that the moon was out and was bathing its light into the hall and onto the table. It seemed that he did indeed walk for quite a while. With the concept of time slowly returning to Mukuro he looked at the table, and the things that laid there on top. There were three cups, two of them which were half full with a red liquid while the one in the middle was empty.

While Mukuro was looking at them the door behind him shut with a loud thud scaring the latter in the process. Humans were naturally scared of loud noises; it was one thing that everyone had.

Regaining his bearings from the scare, Mukuro vigilantly crouched and waited for anything to attack him. Waiting for quite a while and sensing no other presence, he turned back around and tried to push the door. There was no way to pull the door or even to pry due to the gap in between being really small. Turning towards the table, Mukuro started walking towards it with each step lighting torched on the walls. This was the first time Mukuro got a clear look on the structure he was in. It had a dome like shape with a plane white wall and a hole at the top. The hole was situated within a crimson moon. The halo from the moon didn't diminish at all with the sudden light from the torches but rather seemed to shine brighter.

Mukuro then tried to channel his chakra but realised that he couldn't. He also tried activating his sharingan but to no avail. The feeling of his chakra begin inexistent was foreign yet familiar to him. Knowing that he had no way out, he looked at the table and saw three scrolls in front of the glasses. Opening the right one, it read,

- Path of the Dracula -

Opening the middle one, it read

- Path of the unknown -

And the last one read,

- Path of the Ancestor -

Putting the scrolls down, Mukuro looked at the three glasses with his feelings in turmoil. It was pretty clear to him that he had only three choices and nothing else. Each time he looked at a glass he would get an impulse to drink accompanied with a feeling of danger. When he looked at the one in the middle, the danger accompanying it was immense yet no thirst for blood was felt.

Now any normal person would make a choice with the least danger. Having already gone through the process of rebirth, there was a certain something missing within Mukuro. Well more like a reduced version of a person's will to live. This allowed him to make a split-second decision. Knowing that he had no other choice Mukuro poured both glasses into the middle cup, and immediately drank it in case he got second thoughts.

At that very moment, he wished he had second thoughts because as soon as the blood red liquid touched his throat, it felt like he was drinking lave. He felt his vocal cords burn up and a silent scream left his mouth. This was the first time he felt this much pain, even more than when he first transmigrated.

As the liquid reached his chest, he could feel it destroying whatever it passed as it started to branch out like a tree's roots. It was as if his inside was being eaten by fire ants, every cell at a time. It all started from his chest and went through every single part of his body. Within the room, Mukuro was there collapsed in front of the table, writhing in pain. His clenched fists drew blood as his nails dug into his palm, yet he couldn't care, it was too much pain. An open mouth and the expression of pain on his face suggested a wail but nothing could be heard. Slowly the fire on the torches died out one by one, plunging the room into darkness.

Nothing was left alone, his whole body felt indescribable pain, yet the worst part was that he wasn't able to fall unconscious. He didn't even feel like he was about to lose it just that he could keep going and going and going. The pain then bore down to his very soul increasing to many times greater. Red snake like veins, had appeared surrounding his eyes while his Sharingan was active. Slowly they started revolving, first it was slow but continued to get faster and faster until only a line was seen. However, this did not last long, and the spinning slowed revealing the absence of the original three tomoes. What had replaced was a pattern unlike before. Within the red eye was a black circle around his red pupil with three thin scythe-like designs emerging from it. The end of the scythe would end before touching the one ahead of it.

By the time it had ended, the pain disappeared like a phantom and Mukuro immediately fell unconscious.