"Sage Art: White Rage Technique!"
A small red dragon condensed purely from Natural Energy, its sharp claws tightly gripping a ball of meticulously prepared Sage Chakra, shot out from Amane's mouth!
After flying a certain distance, the small dragon suddenly released the ball of Sage Chakra, instantly spinning around it at high speed as its core before vanishing without a trace.
The stability inside the Sage Chakra sphere collapsed as the caster's maintenance ended. At the same time, the dissipating small dragon transformed into energy, continuously replenishing the parts consumed by the intense light and explosive sound, maintaining the continuity of the attack.
This was the White Rage Technique!
Ichikishima Hime smiled; this technique was her graduation exam here.
Its successful execution marked that the learner was already able to perfectly master the Shape Transformation and internal proportions of Sage Chakra.
More importantly, they could simultaneously control multiple complex formulas.
"Not bad," the White Snake Sage's voice rang out. "Now, show me what you learned from Tamazu-hime."
For these three months, she built her foundation under Tagorihime and deeply studied Ryūchi Cave Sage Arts at Ichikishima Hime's place.
But Tamazu-hime's requirement was "unique."
She wanted Amane to rely on what she learned from the first two places to create an original Sage Art that was presentable.
It was truly a disgusting stage, as always.
Setting aside that building the foundation took a month—which was very important—during that time, Amane was also looking for snakes willing to respond to her.
At Ichikishima Hime's place, Amane passed in less than a week.
But here at Tamazu-hime's, Amane spent a solid month and a half!
It wasn't until last night that she finally produced a technique that Tamazu-hime found acceptable.
Three Golden Chains flew out from behind her, pinned into the surrounding ground, and expanded a Barrier.
Then Amane closed her eyes, and her entire body instantly entered a state of stillness as a large amount of Natural Energy began to gather with her body as the center.
"Oh? That's interesting," the White Snake Sage's eyes lit up, showing a look of expectation.
Logically, for combat value, a technique should be activated as quickly as possible. But if the caster can compensate through certain means, it naturally wouldn't be considered a flashy but impractical move.
Obviously, Barrier Ninjutsu counts as one of those means.
And when Amane began her next move, the White Snake Sage made an estimation.
A conventional enemy—one with strength similar to or slightly higher than Amane's current level—should only have enough of an opening to launch a single strike.
"Sage Art: Heavenly Chains!"
In an instant! An indescribable intense light completely dyed the entire space golden!
The light vanished in a flash.
What appeared were countless massive Golden Chains with diameters comparable to houses, erupting not from her back, but out of thin air and from the earth!
In the blink of an eye, the entire trial ground was completely filled with these countless Golden Chains, leaving only narrow gaps between them for those trapped inside to peer at the outside world.
"I see. Sage Chakra is primarily composed of Natural Energy and Physical Energy, linking one's own bloodline outward. The richer the Natural Energy previously absorbed in an area, the stronger the power of the Sealing chains. Truly, a cunning brat."
The White Snake Sage looked at the sharp ends of the chains that were approaching him closely but simply didn't fall, and gave an appreciative evaluation.
Aside from the initial preparation, this technique had almost no obvious weaknesses.
Once used, the golden light would deprive others of their vision, the attack speed could be described as a blink of an eye, and the range and size were more than enough to pierce a Tailed Beast.
Even more commendable was that it could be precisely controlled.
But why call Amane cunning?
"Freeloading off the practitioners' creativity—if you had just said you wanted techniques as tuition, perhaps I wouldn't have created something in the direction of Bloodline Power."
The Golden Chains vanished in another instant, as if they had never appeared.
Hearing Amane see through their purpose once again, the White Snake Sage laughed without any annoyance:
"Hahaha, alright. Then Tamazu-hime, open a Sage Art Shop for Amane; you decide the [price]."
Seeing Amane's somewhat uncomfortable expression, Tamazu-hime replied in the affirmative while feeling secretly pleased.
Now Ryūchi Cave's Sage Art inventory is going to increase.
She still had to admit that this long-awaited practitioner possessed quite high talent and a thirst for knowledge.
"Alright," the White Snake Sage said seriously, "the foundation, Sage Art study, and creation after mastery. You have already mastered the cornerstone and advanced path of the Ryūchi Cave Sage Art system."
"Now, you are qualified to learn the true secret techniques of this cave from me."
This was good news, but Amane could only secretly feel it was a pity.
Including the first month, the scheduled three months have now been exhausted. It seems that she is destined not to learn the so-called Sage Art secret technique, Inorganic Reincarnation.
But it didn't matter; Amane estimated that her current Sage Art attainment already exceeded Naruto's when he fought Pain.
At that time, Naruto could only actively enter Sage Mode and had only learned the initial practical application of Mount Myōboku Sage Arts, the Frog Strike.
"Don't feel it's a pity; I know that the time you can stay here is running out."
The White Snake Sage exposed Amane's current situation in one word.
However, it was no longer enough to be surprising. Over these months, Amane had already learned that just as the Mount Myōboku Toad Sage can foresee the future, the White Snake Sage also has its own extraordinary Sage Art ability.
And that is to see everything happening in the current world.
Amane, whose curiosity was piqued back then, had even asked the White Snake Sage what Naruto was doing now.
She got the answer that he was painting the Hokage Rock.
Hmm! It seems the ability is the real deal.
"Amane, show me your right arm."
Amane did as told.
The slender arm was as smooth as jade, without a single wound or scar, as tender as if it were newborn.
"Hehe, you are a girl after all; you must have already used Ryūchi Cave Sage Arts to quietly 'refine' it."
"..."
That's right. Smooth as jade, without a single flaw, was abnormal.
Her right arm had originally been transplanted with Hashirama cells; there should have been a white patch that would reappear even if the flesh there was dug out, due to high-speed recovery.
However, since she gained control over Natural Energy and learned to enter Sage Mode, that white patch had vanished without a trace.
But! The transplanted ability still remained, and even seemed... slightly stronger!
"Sage Body."
The White Snake Sage's voice carried a hint of lament.
"This is a rare destiny. What ordinary people must undergo arduous and long cultivation to reach, you have thoroughly activated the dormant potential deep within your flesh because of a thin Sage bloodline and the later integration of someone else's natural Sage Body."
The White Snake Sage continued leisurely:
"Tagorihime taught you the basics, Ichikishima Hime taught you the application of Sage Arts, and Tamazu-hime helped you master them."
"What I can guide you in is the secret technique of Ryūchi Cave Sage Arts... and the cultivation path of this Ryūchi Cave Sage Body of mine."
Then the White Snake Sage explained in detail the differences in the Sage Bodies after reaching the peak of cultivation in each of the Three Great Sage Regions.
First is Mount Myōboku. It focuses on balance, cultivating both internally and externally. Once achieved, the spirit and flesh nearly merge into one, and every aspect will be comprehensively strengthened; its attack power and various resistances are said to be the best among the Three Great Sage Regions.
The Sage Body of Shikkotsu Forest has ultra-high recovery power. Cultivated to mastery, one can even casually cut off a part of one's own body to create an identical clone and can also merge with the detached clone.
And finally, the Ryūchi Cave Sage Body.
The White Snake Sage paused and looked at Amane with a strange smile.
"Transforming all things for one's own use. Once achieved, you can devour and merge others' bodies or energy into your own; theoretically, you could consume the two aforementioned Sage Bodies and merge them into yourself."
In Amane's mind, she instantly thought of one of Dragon Kabuto's Sage Arts.
Sage Art: Transmission Distant Shadow.
As long as you absorb others' cells into your body, you can use that person's techniques and can even activate Bloodline Limits.
Her gaze immediately fell back to her right arm, recalling the scene of devouring and digesting that 'white mass' at that time.
I see! I've already reached the entry level.
Then even if only one week remains, it is enough to achieve fruitful results.
It's worth putting in effort during this final stretch of time.
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