Chapter 302: The White Snake Sage's Calculation
"I... am so strong!"
As Kabuto achieved his breakthrough into Sage Mode, synthesizing it with the vast repository of forbidden knowledge Orochimaru had systematically drilled into him over the years, a terrifying transformation took root. His complexion faded into a deathly, chalky white, and beneath his robes, his legs had entirely fused and elongated into a powerful, scaly serpent's tail!
The absolute sacrifice of his human aesthetics had been traded for a monumental leap in raw, unadulterated combat power.
At this moment, an illusory wave of absolute confidence washed over Kabuto's mind. He felt that even if Lord Orochimaru were to stand alive before him right now, his former master would amount to nothing more than a peer!
However, Kabuto ultimately checked his racing hubris and dispelled those arrogant thoughts. He remained intensely aware that Orochimaru still possessed one final, apocalyptic trump card—the Yamata no Jutsu (Eight Branches Technique)!
That was a specialized forbidden kinjutsu Orochimaru had meticulously engineered for himself after personally witnessing the world-ending might of the Tailed Beasts. It allowed him to manifest as the legendary Eight-Headed Serpent, wielding a catastrophic tier of raw destructive force that could legitimately rival a Tailed Beast in open combat.
Though Kabuto had successfully crossed the threshold into Sage Mode, his foundational chakra capacity prior to the transformation was merely that of a standard Jonin. Even with the titanic multipliers of Ryūchi Cave's natural energy, his current threshold topped out right at the standard Kage-level tier occupied by the legendary Sannin.
"No, you are still far from strong enough!"
Just as Kabuto completely stabilized the volatile currents of his Ryūchi Cave Sage Mode, the massive, coiled form of the White Snake Sage manifested directly before him.
Gazing upon the "Sage Kabuto" her prophecies had foretold, a flicker of cold, venomous satisfaction danced within the depths of her ancient reptilian slit-pupils. Since Kabuto had successfully sustained the snake-based natural energy without turning into stone, it served as absolute validation that her foresight was flawless!
This specific human she had chosen and cultivated genuinely possessed the latent capacity to single-handedly engineer the outbreak of the Fourth Shinobi World War!
"In the fragments of the future I have glimpsed, you master a distinct, reality-warping kinjutsu known as the Impure World Reincarnation."
"You will take that discarded formula and completely revolutionize its core mechanics. Weaponizing the terrifying architecture of that single jutsu, you will possess the absolute capability to wage an open, unyielding war against the entire ninja world!"
The White Snake Sage's voice hissed softly against Kabuto's ears, sounding like a manipulative devil whispering from the deepest recesses of the underworld. The entire reason she had expended such vast, precious ancestral resources to accelerate Kabuto's evolution was for one solitary purpose—she needed a flawless weapon to execute her absolute vengeance!
For over a millennium, Ryūchi Cave had stood as an untouchable titan, sharing equal prestige alongside the other two Great Sage Regions. Yet now, Mount Myoboku remained entirely unscathed, Shikkotsu Forest continued to flourish in absolute serenity, while her Ryūchi Cave had been systematically battered, uprooted, and left in ruins by Uchiha Ikeizumi, forcing even an ancient progenitor like herself to flee into humiliating exile.
The White Snake Sage fiercely desired to command Kabuto to march directly to Konoha and slit Uchiha Ikeizumi's throat. However, the moment the sheer memory of Ikeizumi's reality-erasing combat metrics flashed through her mind, she silently and forcefully suppressed the impulse.
For no other reason than the fact that the White Snake Sage was intensely afraid of dying. She harbored a terrifying paranoia that if she deployed Kabuto to assassinate Uchiha Ikeizumi, the moment Kabuto collapsed in defeat, that monstrous Uchiha brat would effortlessly retrace the sensory trail and personally send her ancient soul straight to the Pure Land!
"The Impure World Reincarnation (Edo Tensei)..."
"The exact forbidden kinjutsu Lord Orochimaru was continuously refining before his demise..."
Kabuto was naturally intimately acquainted with the parameters of that specific kinjutsu. After all, when Orochimaru was systematically mapping out the initial upgrades to Tobirama's framework, Kabuto had served as the primary laboratory assistant handling the bio-data synchronization.
The primordial version engineered by Senju Tobirama was merely capable of summoning a deceased soul back to the mortal plane, allowing the thrall to utilize whatever Kekkei Genkai they possessed in life. However, in that early phase, the reincarnated shinobi's active combat capacity was strictly bottlenecked by the caster's personal chakra reservoirs.
Tobirama had never designed the Impure World Reincarnation to possess a theoretical state of infinite chakra; those early tactical deployments drew their fuel directly from the summoner's spiritual and physical stamina.
The secondary version初步 refined by Orochimaru, however, completely severed the caster's biological reservoir from the equation.
This second-generation framework allowed the reincarnated vessel to directly establish an open, continuous channel linked to the Pure Land itself, drawing the infinite spiritual essence of the dead to wage war—which served as the authentic origin of the fabled "infinite chakra" trait.
Nearly all of Orochimaru's subsequent research had been dedicated to stabilizing and streamlining this secondary version. From calculating what specific genetic material or cellular density was required for a viable sacrifice, to tentatively testing whether standard White Zetsu strains could serve as universal catalysts—these variables constituted the entirety of Orochimaru's ledger.
Yet, the definitive, flawless evolution of the Impure World Reincarnation was destined to be finalized by Yakushi Kabuto himself. The variant he would eventually unleash would not only retain every single cellular advantage engineered by Orochimaru, but would allow him to seamlessly map his own consciousness directly into the cognitive pathways of his reincarnated thralls.
Most critically of all, Yakushi Kabuto's refined framework possessed zero structural limitations!
Though the massive deployment of his Fourth Shinobi World War would eventually be mockingly dubbed the "Ninja World Wish-Fulfillment Conflict," the sheer, astronomical volume of historical powerhouses Kabuto would successfully manifest simultaneously proved that he had drastically minimized the entry barrier of the summoning ritual!
"Precisely. The absolute moment you achieve flawless, unrestricted mastery over that single forbidden kinjutsu, you will truly stand as an independent superpower capable of positioning yourself as an enemy to the entire world!"
"When that hour strikes, your solitary directive will be to help me completely erase those sanctimonious toads of Mount Myoboku from existence, followed by the systematic eradication of Shikkotsu Forest. Once those two nesting grounds turn to ash, our transactional ledger is completely settled!"
The White Snake Sage was a bizarre paradox of extreme cowardice and shocking audacity.
She lacked the spine to cross paths with Uchiha Ikeizumi, but her appetite for enacting bloody retribution against Mount Myoboku and Shikkotsu Forest was entirely boundless.
She had never forgotten how, during the exact window where she was being hunted and beaten into a state of absolute disgrace by Uchiha Ikeizumi, both Mount Myoboku and Shikkotsu Forest had actively chosen to turn a blind eye, treating her destruction like an irrelevant spectacle. This historic humiliation was a debt she intended to collect with interest!
Furthermore, since the Ryūchi Cave infrastructure had been shattered and defiled, on what logical basis did Mount Myoboku and Shikkotsu Forest deserve to remain pristine and unbothered?
They had been recognized as the Three Great Sage Regions for centuries; if one was broken, the remaining two had zero right to remain whole!
Deep within her ancient mind, the White Snake Sage was simultaneously running a secondary, unvoiced manipulation. If Yakushi Kabuto genuinely marshaled his immortal legions to tear down Mount Myoboku and Shikkotsu Forest, he would inevitably force a direct military collision with Uchiha Ikeizumi anyway.
She was well aware that Shikkotsu Forest maintained an active, binding summoning covenant with Uchiha Ikeizumi. When the forest burned, regardless of whether Kabuto desired the confrontation or not, he would find himself firmly locked in Ikeizumi's crosshairs.
As for the scenario where Kabuto was captured, broken, and ultimately interrogated into naming the White Snake Sage as the prime instigator?
The ancient snake felt entirely indifferent to the prospect. She had already finalized her operational protocols to descend into the deepest trench of the great oceans and enter a state of indefinite hibernation. She was entirely prepared to abandon the physical location of Ryūchi Cave forever!
Setting aside the reality that she wasn't technically instructing Kabuto to directly target Uchiha Ikeizumi, if she simply coiled herself away inside a forgotten, abyssal rift at the absolute bottom of the sea floor, she refused to believe that monstrous Uchiha brat possessed the capacity to literally boil and evaporate the entire world's oceans just to track down her hidden flesh!
"Erase Mount Myoboku and Shikkotsu Forest..."
Yakushi Kabuto's expression grew intensely heavy, the shadows contouring against his pale, serpent-like features. He had lived long enough in the underbelly of the world to know that there was no such thing as a free lunch.
However, given that a single Sage Region like Ryūchi Cave possessed the capacity to forge an anomaly like himself wielding perfect Sage Mode, it stood to reason that Mount Myoboku and Shikkotsu Forest—regions that stood as absolute equals to her domain—unquestionably harbored their own fanatical defenders who had entirely mastered their respective arts.
To wage a war of absolute extermination against two ancient bastions of natural energy left Kabuto feeling deeply uncertain regarding his actual prospects.
"Then why not align your interests with our syndicate?"
Just as the tense dialogue between the White Snake Sage and Yakushi Kabuto reached a critical plateau, a chilling, hollow voice suddenly resonated through the cavernous chamber.
Under the immediate, hyper-vigilant glares of both Sage and student, the stone floor began to ripple and swell. From the dark bedrock, a grotesque silhouette manifested—a creature whose left side burned with a continuous, low flicker of spiritual fire, while its right flank remained a pale, stark white.
Black Zetsu had ultimately deciphered the sensory coordinates of the hidden snake sanctuary, successfully zeroing in on the newly evolved Sage Kabuto!
As Black Zetsu finalized his materialization, the White Snake Sage leveled a deeply serious, hyper-focused gaze at the entity. Her prophetic glimpses of the future were fragmented and erratic, but within those disjointed visions of destiny, she had clearly and explicitly witnessed the terrifying, centuries-long patience this creature named Black Zetsu possessed, and how meticulously he had manipulated history just to resurrect Uchiha Madara!
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