Deep within his hidden cavern, Mū's true body suddenly stiffened.
Through the link with his clone, he sensed something strange, something dangerous.
'Two possibilities,' he thought grimly. 'Either this is Sage Chakra… or some unknown force I've never encountered.'
The memories he had inherited spoke of Sage Chakra, but they hadn't explained what it actually felt like. Right now, he couldn't be sure.
"Do I abandon the clone?"
If he let the clone disperse, the damage would recoil on his main body, draining his chakra reserves heavily. Recovery would take days. But walking away from this… he would also be abandoning a possible Sage inheritance.
And if this really was Sage Chakra, then missing it would be an unforgivable loss.
Grinding his teeth, Mū made his choice. 'No. I'll take it. Even if it kills this body, I'll tame it.'
---
At the crow's shrine, the clone's body twisted grotesquely. Feathers sprouted across his flesh, then vanished, then sprouted again, again and again, as though he were caught between man and bird.
A chilling realization struck him.
'If I lose control, I might become a crow myself.'
Channeling his chakra with precision, he forced it to clash with the invading energy, trying to establish equilibrium. Two forces collided within him, fighting for dominance. Then, slowly, painstakingly, they began to merge.
Mū's breathing calmed. His eyes opened.
And at that moment, a sinister aura surged outward.
"…This feeling…"
He looked down at his own hands in awe.
His entire body throbbed with new vitality.
His strength, speed, and perception had leapt to terrifying heights. It was as though the world itself had slowed down around him.
'Could this be… Sage Mode?'
His gaze fell to his palms. He gathered chakra on instinct.
A cube of Dust Release, darker than ink and sharper than any blade, materialized instantly between his hands.
His eyes widened. "Wait. I'm just a clone…! I shouldn't even be able to use Dust Release!"
A laugh nearly escaped him. 'So that's what this is. I've accidentally trained myself into a Sage Mode clone.'
Pulling a mirror from his pouch, he studied his reflection.
Though his body was still bound in bandages, his eyes had transformed, no longer normal, but pitch-black, like pools of ink that swallowed light.
A Sage's markings.
At Ryūchi Cave, the eyes became vertical reptilian slits. At Mount Myōboku, horizontal toad-like pupils.
But for him, a crow's abyssal void.
"How fascinating…" He clenched his fist, marveling at the raw energy coursing through him. His perception stretched farther, his control sharper, his body harder, faster, stronger.
'No wonder Naruto could rely on Sage Mode to fight gods. No wonder even Madara sought Hashirama's Sage chakra. This power… it's intoxicating.'
But Mū didn't crave more raw force. Dust Release already stood at the pinnacle of killing arts. What he needed wasn't power, it was speed.
And Sage Mode had just given him exactly that.
He spread his palms, voice low and steady.
"Sage Arts: Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique"
The air itself screamed.
What had once required a long, vulnerable charge-up now snapped into existence within a single breath.
A cube of annihilation flared to life, black light flooding the clearing.
With a roar, it detonated. The earth split apart, stone vaporized, the ground collapsing under its own erasure.
Mū stood at the center of the storm, eyes glimmering black, the new power thrumming in every fiber of his being.
When the dust finally cleared, what remained before Mū was a perfectly carved, cube-shaped crater. Its walls were smooth like polished glass.
"The destructive force is stronger than before… What about at long range?"
He clasped his hands together once more.
"Sage Art: Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique!"
Mū's Dust Release could adapt depending on his will: close-range annihilation forming a compact cube, or long-range as a sweeping cylindrical beam.
The problem was accuracy, against agile shinobi like the Raikage, a strike rarely landed unless the target was massive or trapped.
This time, he forged a black cylindrical column of Dust Release and swept it forward.
The ground split like butter under a hot knife. Rock shattered into atoms, entire ridges reduced to nothing but drifting ash.
Mū floated above, holding the luminous black beam aloft. He couldn't help the quiet laugh that escaped him.
"...Hah… hahahaha…"
The sheer power thrilled him.
But then, his eyes flickered, the darkened sclera fading back to normal. The unnatural sage markings vanished.
The energy bled away.
"So it only lasts a few minutes…"
He landed, considering the problem. "Still, I can extend it by using clones or my own split bodies to gather natural energy, the way Naruto did. That way the transformation can be sustained far longer."
Even as he muttered to himself, the same three-legged crow descended from the sky and perched upon his shoulder. Its crimson eyes glowed with intelligence.
Mū tilted his head, studying the bird. "So it was you. You brought me here to gain this power… but why me?"
The crow didn't answer with words. It opened its beak.
"Caw!"
A black summoning scroll dropped from its mouth.
Mū blinked. "…You want to become my summoning beast?"
He stared, momentarily stunned. 'Who said fortune never fell from the sky?'
Unrolling the parchment, he confirmed the contract's authenticity.
Without hesitation, he signed his name in blood.
The moment the pact sealed, knowledge surged into his mind, an instinctive link. This crow wasn't ordinary.
It was the legendary Yatagarasu.
The Three-Legged Crow.
In myth, the boundary-keeper of life and death. As long as death existed, Yatagarasu would never vanish.
Mū's breath caught. 'Not just any summoning beast… a god-beast.'
The crow flapped its wings. Three glowing relics floated into existence above the scroll.
"...The Yata Mirror, the Totsuka Blade, and the Yasakani Magatama!"
Mū's eyes gleamed.
'So even the treasures tied to Susanoo… come from this crow?'
He thought of Itachi, whose Susanoo wielded exactly those sacred artifacts.
"Don't tell me… I've just stolen Itachi's destiny?"
A smirk tugged at his lips beneath the bandages.
If so, then so be it. What use would Itachi have had for such relics, when his frail body could barely contain itself?
"Sorry, Itachi," Mū murmured inwardly, eyes glinting. "The Yata Mirror and Totsuka Blade… they're wasted on you. But in my hands?"
He clenched a fist. Power thrummed at his command.
"They'll shape the fate of nations."