A month later, the last of the dry rations Senmei Asahi had brought were gone. Hunger had forced him to adapt. Now, his daily meals consisted of roasted rats, roasted frogs, and the occasional unlucky toad.
It was unclear whether Ryūchi Cave and Mount Myōboku were naturally opposed, but the number of toads here was absurd. They seemed to be everywhere, forming the primary food source for the serpents that dominated this world.
And though countless snakes lived here, few could leave. Without the White Snake Sage's explicit permission, any serpent that ventured beyond the cave risked being devoured by the colossal pythons that lurked in the depths.
Life here followed only one rule — survival through power.
In his previous life, Asahi had never studied Buddhism or Taoism. He had no spiritual training to calm his mind, no meditative discipline to fall back on. All he could do was forcibly suppress his memories — the faces of his past, the echoes of another world. But the harder he tried not to think, the louder those memories became.
Each attempt to clear his mind ended in failure.
Finally, drawing inspiration from Uzumaki Naruto's training methods in the original chronicles, Asahi devised a new approach: force tranquility through danger.
If he couldn't silence his mind willingly, he would use the body to suppress it.
He climbed to the top of a towering stone pillar and placed a narrow plank at its peak. Then, sitting cross-legged on that plank — swaying gently hundreds of meters above the ground — he began to meditate.
Up there, even a slight twitch could break his balance. A moment's distraction would send him plummeting into the abyss.
It was terrifying, but that terror had purpose.
In order to remain still, his body had to be perfectly controlled. And for the body to stay still, the mind had to focus solely on balance. This external compulsion forced his thoughts into alignment, driving away stray emotions and chaotic memories.
In time, that edge of fear became the perfect blade for sharpening concentration.
After days of this training, Asahi could finally maintain stillness without conscious effort. His mind, once fractured by constant thought, began to settle like water returning to calm.
Another month passed.
High above the cavern floor, Asahi sat unmoving upon the stone peak. The purple pigmentation around his eyes deepened; the small fleshy horns on his forehead lengthened and curved; the translucent, snake-shaped aura coiling around him grew thicker and brighter.
The air itself trembled with power.
Natural energy poured into him, flowing through every cell like a divine river. His consciousness drifted between human and nature — until, at last, through sheer willpower, Senmei Asahi transcended the final barrier and entered Sage Mode.
*Fwoosh—*
The sound of wind rippled outward as he released the transformation. Returning to his normal state, Asahi leaped gracefully down from the pillar and landed beside the little white snake, exhaling softly.
"Thank you for everything these past months." he said sincerely.
The snake tilted its head, flicking its tongue. "Judging by that look, you can already enter Sage Mode on your own, can't you?"
Asahi nodded. "It's still not perfect, but I can manage it. I just need time — more practice to make it instinctive."
"Mm. But remember this." the white snake warned. "The natural energy outside Ryūchi Cave is far thinner. You'd best stay here a while longer. Otherwise, once you leave, you may lose the ability to perceive it."
"I understand. Thank you."
For the next several weeks, Asahi continued his training in silence.
When the white snake was away, he began experimenting — channeling Sage Chakra into his Yin Seal. He had been pondering it for months: if the seal could store ordinary chakra, could it also store Sage Chakra?
The moment the Sage Chakra entered the seal on his forehead, he felt a distinct reaction — a strain, like a skin of taut glass being filled past its limit.
It was as though he were injecting water into a balloon already full of air.
Ordinary chakra was light and flexible, like air; the Yin Seal could hold vast amounts of it without trouble. But Sage Chakra was dense — heavy and fluid. The seal could still contain it, but only in smaller quantities.
Even so, Asahi smiled faintly.
'That's enough,' he thought. 'Even a fraction of Sage Chakra is priceless.'
In the stories of the canon, Tsunade once released the entirety of her stored chakra to heal every wounded shinobi in Konoha simultaneously. Later, Haruno Sakura surpassed even that, declaring that she had no need to maintain her youthful appearance and therefore stored more chakra than Tsunade ever had.
Asahi had no use for appearance preservation. Every ounce of chakra he stored would be for battle.
And this was Sage Chakra — not ordinary chakra.
If he could accumulate it over the course of a year, filling the seal completely, the sustained combat potential would be terrifying.
Even more impressive was Sage Chakra's amplifying effect — magnifying the power of ordinary ninjutsu severalfold. That alone could make a special-jōnin fight on par with an elite.
In his base state, without using the Flying Thunder God Technique, Asahi's strength barely matched that of a special-jōnin. Against a swift and agile elite like Hatake Kakashi, even his Chakra Enhanced Strength would be useless.
'If even Tsunade could be pressured by Yakushi Kabuto,' he thought dryly, 'what chance would I have now?'
But Sage Mode changed everything.
With natural perception and the raw amplification of Chakra Enhanced Strength, Asahi estimated that even against an elite like Kakashi, he could now fight evenly — perhaps even win.
Furthermore, by merging Sage perception with his teleportation markers, he could push the Flying Thunder God Technique to new tactical limits. In the right conditions, he could face a Kage-level opponent and still stand a chance.
It was a transformation unlike any other — a confluence of intellect, chakra mastery, and natural evolution.
But power alone wasn't his end goal.
Senmei Asahi had plans — long, careful, and deliberate.
His next phase would focus on Konoha's shadow politics.
He knew from the original historical records that before the Uchiha massacre, Shimura Danzo had stolen one of Uchiha Shisui's eyes — the one bearing the divine genjutsu Kotoamatsukami. The other, Shisui had entrusted to Uchiha Itachi.
Asahi's intention was clear: when Danzo made his move, he would intercept him.
The power of Kotoamatsukami — to rewrite a person's will completely without their awareness — was beyond any genjutsu ever devised. Its only limitation was the cooldown period of over a decade between uses, unless its wielder possessed the chakra of Senju Hashirama.
'Which I do.' Asahi thought, a faint smirk touching his lips.
His plan was simple yet bold: to use Kotoamatsukami on Iwagakure's Kitsuchi — the son of the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki.
Kitsuchi was not just a respected jōnin but also a likely inheritor of Iwagakure's most secret Earth-style techniques. If Asahi could seize control of his will, he could gain access to Onoki's personal ninjutsu archives.
Through Kitsuchi, he could obtain the forbidden techniques of the Iwagakure.
However, there was one obstacle — Shisui himself was still too young. It would take time before the boy awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan.
So for now, Asahi would wait — and watch.
With Sage Mode perfected, his next task was to return to the world above, to continue cooperating with Shimura Danzo, waiting patiently for the day the Root leader made his move against Shisui.
*****
Support me on my Ko-fi page to keep me motivated to continue uploading chapters.
https://ko fi.com/rroy28 (put a "-" between "ko" and "fi")
I have added Uncensored NSFW Illustrations in my Discord server, available only to paid members.
I am working on the following projects:
✓ Killed For 100 Years in Hueco Mundo, Aizen Invited Me To Soul Society!
✓ Naruto: Senmei Asahi
✓ Naruto: Uchiha's Intelligence Dealer
✓ Naruto: The Fifth Hokage Is Naruto's Uncle
✓ Naruto: Who Made Him a Ninja?
✓ Bleach: In My Second Reincarnation, I Became The Ninth Kenpachi
✓ To Love-Ru: Spoiler Route [R-18]
✓ Naruto: The Accidental Incubus [R-18]
✓ The Academy's Saint Is Too Popular, But He's Not the Protagonist [R-18]