Ren Uchiha had always harbored a question: Are the Sage Arts passed down by the Three Great Sage Regions truly suitable for humans?
Setting aside the Shikkotsu Forest Sage Art, which never explicitly appeared in the original story, the remaining arts from Ryuchi Cave and Mount Myoboku share a common side effect: you either turn into a snake or a toad. The petrified statues littering the back mountains of Myoboku and the lightless depths of Ryuchi Cave serve as a grim testament to the countless seekers who perished on the path to immortality.
Furthermore, these arts carry the distinct traits of the animals themselves. Before reaching "perfection"—or perhaps, upon reaching a certain kind of perfection—the practitioner's body begins to warp. Jiraiya's toad-like features and Kabuto's horns and snake tail were all physical manifestations of these arts. To the naked eye, these Sage Arts felt less like transcendence and more like a forced genetic mutation into a different species.
However, through a series of coincidences—first the mutation of his eyes by Ryuchi Cave's energy, then the absorption of pure natural energy during the battle for Unming City—Ren had obtained a Sage Transformation constitution similar to Jugo's. Crucially, he had developed a Sage Form that suppressed and eliminated the usual berserk side effects.
This was a power entirely distinct from the Heaven-Cursed Seal's second stage. In his brief experience using it, Ren felt that, unlike the Snake Sage Mode, this posture of using pure natural energy was far more compatible with his human biology.
If Snake Sage Mode was about modifying human genes to gain serpentine traits, then this pure natural energy usage was about excavating the hidden treasures within the human body without altering its structure, unleashing a terrifying, raw power.
The ability to swing weapons weighing dozens of tons with ease...
Speeds exceeding Mach 8.8, reaching the hypersonic threshold...
Explosive physical coordination and a massive boost to the five senses of his "Mind's Eye"...
With a human body, he had suppressed two Tailed Beast Jinchuriki in thirty seconds. This level of power was bordering on the absurd. After all, when Hashirama Senju dealt with the Majestic Attire: Susanoo, he had to summon the True Several Thousand Hands and the Veritable 1000-Armed Kan'on. Ren, on the other hand, had just used two heavy-handed punches to make the Tailed Beasts behave.
Perhaps this was the Sage Art humans were meant to practice!
But the threshold for this "Human Sage Art" was so high it even startled Ren. To achieve this power, one needed a body durable enough to withstand the erosion of natural energy—something only Ren, with his "Immortality," "Tailed Beast Physique," and "Body Reconstruction," could manage. He could let it flow through him like chakra and, with his mutated dōjutsu, see and actively absorb it. Without any one of these links, the feat was impossible.
In his clumsy stumbling, Ren had touched upon the realm of true ancient sages—a domain perhaps untrodden since time immemorial.
In the desolate, ruined park, Orochimaru looked slightly surprised. "You want to go to Turtle Island?"
"Yes," Ren replied. "I have a feeling that something there might be useful to me. In five days, I have to break into the Five-Kage Summit and face the Third Raikage head-on."
Ren's expression was solemn. "Even with this new power, overall, I'm weaker than I was before losing the Zero-Tails. My last fight leaked too much intel. The Raikage is fully prepared now; taking him down the same way twice is impossible."
Ren glanced down at the half-eaten apple in his palm. His Sharingan flickered to life, the three tomoe spinning slowly. The world around him slowed to a crawl—0.5x, 0.25x, 0.125x speed. Everything became crystal clear.
Motes of natural energy merged into his hand, passing through the gaps in his muscles, sinking into the fascia and bone, and finally fusing with his bone marrow cells. Through this repetitive process, the strength in his hand was gradually increasing, and his exhaustion was fading.
If I can enhance this ability on Turtle Island, even if it only extends the Sage Form by ten seconds, I could do so much more, Ren thought.
Assassinating the Daimyo wouldn't just mean facing the Raikage. The other nations would surely bring their own elites. The scene would be chaotic—potentially more dangerous than Sasuke's future raid on the Five Kage Summit. And Ren didn't want the Akatsuki or En Oyashiro to die for him.
If possible, he wanted to break through the Five Nations alone.
"Ho ho..." Orochimaru watched Ren with intense interest. "As I thought, you've gained a new power."
While Orochimaru had been busy seizing Turtle Island, he was aware of the events in Unming City—specifically Ren's new abilities: the burning skeletal frame, the giant Susanoo, and the violent form that broke two Jinchuriki.
"The former should be the unique power of the Mangekyō Sharingan, though those eyes don't quite look the part. And the latter..." Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, then gave a confident, raspy smile. "I thought you were troubled by something serious. I see."
Orochimaru turned and began walking away from Unming City toward the outskirts. "Then allow me to give you a gift. Ren, follow me."
"A gift?" Ren was taken aback. Orochimaru giving him a gift? The intel on the White Snake Sage and the Zero-Tails was already a massive surprise. He hadn't expected more.
Following Orochimaru through the abandoned park and toward the residential areas, they both donned traditional bamboo hats to hide their faces. They moved through the complex streets, crossing suspension bridges between mountain peaks, and soon leaped down from a low section of the outer wall.
They arrived at a hidden cave in the mountains. Walking inside, Ren found himself in a place that felt out of time. The walls were lined with smooth, cold steel; sensor lights were embedded in the ceiling, and massive pipes of unknown purpose ran along the floors. It was as if they had stepped from the antiquity of the Showa era straight into a high-tech Reiwa laboratory.
This was a secret research facility.
The two stood before a massive steel door.
Clang!
The laboratory door slid open. Ren looked up curiously at the interior of the lab. His pupils suddenly shrank to pinpricks.
Floating there, immersed in a gargantuan vat of formaldehyde, was a colossal entity.
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