The second stage of the cursed seal twisted the Sound Four's bodies, making them monstrous—but also stronger.
Their eyes gleamed with brutality, bloodlust spilling off them as they fixed their stares on Yuto.
"Oh?"
Feeling their killing intent, Yuto's brow lifted.
He tapped the ground lightly with his foot. His body blurred like a phantom, reappearing in front of the heavyset Jirobo before the man could react.
A single fingertip pressed against Jirobo's forehead.
It was as if an unimaginable force had struck him. Jirobo collapsed, knees shattering the earth beneath him, leaving a half-meter pit.
At once, the cursed seal faded from his body. Within a heartbeat, he returned to his normal state and slumped unconscious.
Yuto's figure flickered again, and the same scene repeated.
The Sound Four had no chance to resist. To them, that single finger was a barrier they could never cross.
When it ended, four pits marred the ground, and Yuto was back in his place as though he had never moved.
"I'm sensitive to killing intent. In my era, releasing it meant a fight to the death. But since it's you—" he looked at Orochimaru with a broad, almost elder-like smile—"I'll let it go."
Orochimaru's eyelid twitched. He forced a crooked smile, but then froze.
"…The signal… it's gone?" he muttered.
With a Body Flicker, he appeared beside the fallen Sound Four.
He rolled Jirobo's neck to expose the skin. The cursed mark was gone.
His body shifted frantically, checking the others. Each seal had vanished.
"The cursed seal…"
His eyes widened in disbelief. Until now, nothing could erase it. At best, it could be sealed. But even then, strong emotion could break that seal.
"The cursed seal? I absorbed it. Instead of that name, you could call it what it really is—Sage Transformation. This power is a fairly useful form of chakra."
At some point, Yuto stood behind him, voice soft.
Sage Transformation—different from Sage Mode, closer to Jugo's bodily mutations.
Orochimaru turned stiffly, unable to detect when Yuto had moved.
The man had devoured four people's worth of cursed power without the slightest ill effect. Impossible.
"The cursed seal is good," Yuto mused, "but it's still lacking compared to Sage Mode."
Suddenly, a sinister, evil aura welled up from him—exactly the same as what had just erupted from the Sound Four.
Mei stiffened, thinking something had gone wrong with him after absorbing it.
Orochimaru's eyes glimmered with hope. As expected—taking in so much cursed power had to backfire.
But when he looked closely, Yuto stood unchanged.
No—
His gaze narrowed. A tiny black rhombus had appeared at the center of Yuto's forehead, like the diamond mark Tsunade bore before releasing her Yin Seal.
Yuto clenched his fist. Compared to other forms, the cursed seal did boost raw strength significantly.
And Sage Mode?
He willed the cursed energy to fade.
Before Mei, Ao, and Orochimaru's astonished eyes, a calm yet overwhelming chakra surged from him.
The black diamond shifted into a round mark.
Unlike the cursed state, which spiked brute force, this Sage chakra enhanced everything at once. Power, perception, vitality. Not as overwhelming in raw strength, but broader, deeper.
This was Sage chakra he had once absorbed in battle with Hashirama. Even after being sealed, it had remained dormant inside him.
His eyes gleamed. This was what he had wanted to confirm.
Now his body contained three energies: his own chakra, the cursed seal's chakra, and Sage chakra.
His experiment proved his theory true.
The Black King's ability didn't just devour energy. It could refine it, transform it into what he needed. Something he had never paid much mind to before—absorbing ordinary chakra never required it.
Now, even though he had little Sage or cursed chakra left—enough for only a handful of techniques—he could replenish them by converting his own chakra.
That meant he now effectively held both Sage Mode and the cursed seal's form at his command.
Before, he fought relying only on the Black King's absorption and release. Now, with these forms, his strength would climb another level.
"To freely switch energy states inside myself… Black King Mode, perhaps?"
Yuto rubbed his chin, speaking to himself with a faint smile.
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