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―White Cursed Seal, Stage Two!
The transformation was instantaneous. Silver-white, pristine as polished bone, erupted across Sasuke's skin. His hair turned the same stark white, sharpening, stiffening like quills.
Outside Tianmen Gorge, the crystal ball projected his new form.
Kabuto Yakushi adjusted his glasses. "That's Stage Two of the White Cursed Seal? It seems… simpler than the previous version. No wings for flight…"
Orochimaru smiled thinly. "This Seal was modified from Sasuke's original 'Heaven Cursed Seal.' A comprehensive evolution, you could say. Kabuto, do you think evolution discards advantageous traits?"
"Ah! Could it be the transformation isn't complete?"
"No," Orochimaru's smile widened. "One doesn't need wings underwater, after all. Just watch."
Zzzt!
On the crystal ball, Sasuke's facial features shifted. White, fish-gill-like cursed markings appeared along his jaw and neck—a shade lighter than the rest, creating a visible contrast.
Gloop… gloop…
They weren't just markings. They pulsed, flaring open and shut like actual gills, filtering water, exchanging air.
Kabuto stared, dumbstruck, at the stream of bubbles rising from the gill-markings. "How… Did you anticipate an underwater battle? Did you design Stage Two with this specific ability?!"
"Of course not." Orochimaru chuckled. "The battlefield is chaos. Fixating on one or two variables solves nothing. Better to adapt. Like a chameleon." His golden eyes gleamed. "―The 'White Cursed Jutsu: Adaptive Modification.' It incorporates my own body modification research, allowing near-total environmental adaptation. A silent, integrated system."
Gloop gloop gloop…!
The suffocation vanished. Clarity returned.
Rip! Sasuke tore away the upper half of his white robe. A blade-like dorsal fin, sharp and white, sprouted from his spine. Now, he could move through the water sphere with the same predatory grace as Kisame fused with Samehada.
Kabuto breathed out, awed. "This… this exceeds the scope of Hashirama Senju's power alone."
"His power is the Seal's core," Orochimaru corrected. "Immutable. The extensions… well, that's where my creativity comes in, isn't it?"
Kisame, sensing everything through the water, immediately registered the change.
Huh!? His chakra was almost drained! How is it surging back? And not just back—it's stronger. Way stronger. But more importantly…
He felt the water shift, the currents part.
That brat… he's cutting through the water like a goddamn torpedo!!!
Whoosh!
A streak of white. A flash of pale lightning gathering in a palm, banishing the gloom.
Kisame's eyes widened. "The hell?!"
SCREEE—!
"Idiot!" Kisame roared, his right arm morphing into a massive, shark-fin blade. He swung it forward, meeting the charge head-on. "You know I can absorb it!!"
Schlick!
They passed each other.
Kisame felt a strange lightness in his arm. A second passed. Two. Then—agony. A geyser of blood erupted from his shoulder.
His bladed arm… was gone. Severed at the joint.
Didn't I absorb it?! he thought, mind reeling.
No…
He had absorbed the chakra. The pale lightning was gone.
"He was just… faster. The cutting speed of that Lightning Release… it outpaced my absorption rate!!"
Back at the observation point, Kabuto pushed his glasses up. "A question, Orochimaru-sama. When Sasuke-kun fully absorbs the White Cursed Seal in the future, will these adaptive abilities—the extensions beyond Hashirama's power—remain?"
Orochimaru laughed. "Kabuto. Do I strike you as a man who makes bad investments? Absorb the core, and the extensions become part of the user's own arsenal. The White Cursed Jutsu derived from the Seal… it will remain."
Kabuto bowed deeply, genuinely impressed. "Orochimaru-sama, my admiration for you is boundless."
"Don't." Orochimaru's gaze was fixed on the crystal ball, serious. "My research exists for Sasuke-kun. Only he can bring it to its ultimate perfection. I don't just shape him. He shapes my legacy. So, don't admire me. Admire him. He is the true vessel of hope."
Kabuto straightened. "Yes, Orochimaru-sama!"
"…" Throughout their exchange, Karin had been silent, her attention locked not on the crystal ball, but on the battlefield through her sensory perception.
She'd sensed the dormant power within Sasuke from the start. That's why she hadn't panicked earlier.
But her unique senses had picked up on something even Orochimaru and Kabuto had missed.
That Kisame Hoshigaki… there's another chakra inside him, too. I'm sure it's not a Tailed Beast's. And that chakra he absorbed from Sasuke before… what was that…?
Swish! Underwater, Sasuke turned, cold and focused. The vanished lightning flickered back to life in his palm.
In the blood-diffused water, Kisame clutched his stump, retreating fast. As he moved, flesh bubbled and writhed at his shoulder. A new arm regrew in seconds.
He was using the massive chunk of chakra he'd absorbed from Sasuke before Stage Two. More than enough to regrow a limb.
But what infuriated Kisame, what sent a chill down his spine, was the realization.
"If he'd used this from the start… I never would've gotten that hit in. He only activated it when he was cornered. Was he… saving it for Itachi?" A grim, bloody smile split his shark-like face. "Heh. Looks like I've been looked down upon, Kisame Hoshigaki. Fine. If you won't end this… I will."
His new arm fully formed, Kisame brought his bloody left hand and his right together in a seal.
―Summoning Jutsu: One Thousand Feeding Sharks!
BOOM!
The water erupted. Not with explosions, but with gnashing teeth and thrashing tails. A thousand sharks, summoned instantly, filled the sphere, a living, ravenous tidal wave surging toward the lone figure of Sasuke.
"A summoning technique that produces a thousand sharks instantly," Sasuke observed, voice flat even in his mind. "This really is his domain."
He let the lightning in his hand die.
"Time for that one, then."
Fwoom!
His eyes blazed. The skeletal Susano'o erupted, then fleshed out, donning heavy armor in a heartbeat―the complete form, the Crow Tengu Susano'o!
Clench.
The Susano'o raised its right fist. In its palm, a sphere of black flames condensed, then levitated toward the helmeted face of the giant.
Crack. The Susano'o's faceplate opened. A torrent of violent wind, generated within the construct, blasted into the black fire sphere.
And it expanded.
Not just grew. It inflated with terrifying speed and pressure, pushing against the confines of the water sphere.
Kabuto gasped. "That's…!"
"Ah, he's using it." Orochimaru's voice held a note of clinical appreciation. "Inspired by Kaguya's 'Expansion Truth-Seeking Ball.' Using Kagutsuchi to shape Amaterasu, then employing the Susano'o's powerful wind release to force the expansion. Combining the traits of both jutsu to maximize effect. Sasuke-kun's original secret technique… finally viable in White Cursed Seal Stage Two."
His vertical pupils softened momentarily. But he originally conceived it as a cooperative jutsu with Naruto. To use it alone now… his heart must be troubled.
Within the Susano'o, for a fleeting second, the ghostly image of a smiling, blond boy appeared beside Sasuke.
"…"
Sasuke shook his head hard, banishing the phantom, focusing every ounce of his will into the technique.
―Scorch Release: Flare Expansion!
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