"Cough—khh… urgh… hngh—"
Mount Myōboku.
The Sacred Toad Lands.
Two figures appeared silently.
The next instant, violent retching echoed through the stone terraces.
Uchiha Kai braced one hand against a rock, bending over as he gagged harshly.
From his mouth poured viscous black chakra mixed with unknown residue. It splattered onto the stone, sizzling as it ate away pale pits across the surface.
His face was deathly pale—white as paper.
Inside his eyes, the Mangekyō marked by the ominous "666" had already vanished, leaving behind pitch-black pupils.
But above all—
The pain.
A splitting, skull-crushing headache.
So intense it forced his body to convulse.
Beside him, Jiraiya stiffened at the sight. Even the toad oil markings on his face creased together in panic.
"Hey—hey! Kid! Are you alright?!"
"You know Reverse Summoning—how did you end up like this?!"
"And those chains earlier… and the chakra leaking out of your eyes… that stuff looked seriously wrong!"
"I—I'm fine…" Uchiha Kai gasped, forcibly suppressing the turmoil in his body as he wiped the filth from the corner of his mouth.
Fusing fragments of reincarnation-level rules had unexpectedly triggered Yin Release.
Even he hadn't anticipated the price.
Right now, his entire body felt hollowed out. His mental energy was dangerously overdrawn.
He had burned through the last drop.
Seeing Jiraiya's disbelief, he forced an ugly smile.
"Just… riding shotgun instead of driving. Makes you carsick."
Jiraiya: ...
He fell silent, staring at Kai's paper-white face and the bizarre black fluid still dripping from the rock.
His mouth twitched.
Carsick?
Who did this brat think he was fooling—this was obviously some kind of backlash!
"Little Jiraiya, what are you—eh?!"
A deep voice suddenly sounded from behind them.
The toad sage Fukasaku, sporting his explosive white beard, rode over atop a yellow toad nearly as tall as a man.
He had been about to speak—
But the moment his eyes landed on Uchiha Kai, they froze.
The easygoing expression drained from his face, replaced by something heavy.
"What is it, Lord Fukasaku?" Jiraiya asked quickly, sensing something wrong.
"N-no, nothing. You two just came back from a hard fight. I'll have the old lady prepare something for you."
He dropped those words hastily, then leapt away in a flash.
Leaving Jiraiya scratching his head.
Uchiha Kai's eyes narrowed slightly in thought.
"So he saw the Yin chakra… or did he think it was Indra's?"
That the toad sages could perceive Yin Release—or more precisely, chakra related to Indra—was something he had already anticipated.
He hadn't bothered hiding it.
After all, the Great Toad Sage's lineage could be considered one of the hidden architects behind a thousand years of shinobi upheaval.
Splash—
As his mind steadied, the familiar roar of the waterfall returned to his ears.
Slowly, light returned to his eyes.
"Jiraiya," he said calmly, "want to train Sage Mode?"
"…Huh?"
Jiraiya paused, his jaw dropping in disbelief.
"You're injured and you still want to train Sage Mode?!"
"Do you even have that under proper control?"
He prided himself on having seen it all—but people like Uchiha Kai were rare.
This wasn't recklessness.
It was—
Lawlessness.
With mental damage this severe, the correct move was to recover quietly.
Otherwise, training would only worsen the injury.
"No. I don't have Sage Mode under good control," Kai shook his head.
"That's why I usually don't use it."
"Then you—" Jiraiya's frown deepened.
Didn't have good control, yet he still dared absorb natural energy?
Before he could say more, Kai had already sprinted straight beneath the waterfall.
BOOM!
CRASH!
In an instant, overwhelming natural energy slammed down like a tidal hammer.
It poured over his head, roaring downward.
Hummmm—
The natural energy in the area began surging toward Uchiha Kai, wrapping around his body in endless streams.
Unbroken. Relentless.
Like a blue whale gulping down the sea itself.
Devouring everything.
Dark eye shadow spread from the corners of his eyes.
"…What the hell?! Instant activation?!"
Jiraiya's mouth twitched as his brain short-circuited again.
You call this "not good control"?
Earlier, during battle, he had noticed strange natural energy around Kai—but dismissed it.
No warts. No frog transformation.
How could that be Sage Mode?
But now—
Seeing the eye markings form so cleanly—
It clicked.
This wasn't just mastery.
This was refinement.
Perfect Sage Mode.
"Haah…"
Jiraiya sighed, shaking his head.
"Looks like I need to work harder too. Otherwise even my strongest skill's going to be outdone by this brat."
He stepped closer and clasped his hands, preparing to draw in natural energy.
Then—
Something felt wrong.
The natural energy around him had changed.
It was no longer gentle or welcoming.
Instead, it felt—
Violent. Scorching. Hostile.
"What the hell is this?!"
"Why does the natural energy waterfall feel like it's gone berserk?!"
"That kid… he's not poisonous, is he?!"
Jiraiya bolted back like he'd seen a ghost, scrambling away in utter embarrassment.
This time, when he looked at Uchiha Kai, there was no trace of arrogance or dismissal left in his eyes.
Only naked shock.
Absorbing natural energy—and affecting an entire waterfall?
This was Mount Myōboku's accumulated natural energy, refined over a thousand years!
And now—
It was being polluted?
Mount Myōboku.
The Great Toad Sage's dwelling.
After hearing the report, the Great Toad Sage's massive eyes rolled lazily before he cracked one eyelid open.
"My dream told me this child's Yin Release has nothing to do with Indra."
Fukasaku's jaw dropped. "Huh?!"
"No need to worry yourselves," the Great Toad Sage murmured.
"A reformer has his own path to walk. You all—carry on as usual."
After speaking an unprecedented fifty-seven words, he let out an enormous yawn.
Fukasaku nodded and withdrew, confusion thickening in his heart.
"An Uchiha… yet Yin Release unrelated to Indra?"
"Could it be… this kid isn't actually an Uchiha?"
The thought made his expression shift slightly.
BOOM—!
Suddenly, violent winds tore through Mount Myōboku.
Fukasaku staggered as the gust nearly knocked him over.
"Tch—where did that wind come from?!"
"Don't tell me… that child's causing trouble again?"
A sense of dread welled up inside him.
He rushed outside.
Memories surfaced unbidden—of Uchiha Kai's last visit.
How the entire sacred land had descended into utter chaos.
One minute later.
Staring at the raging waterfall and the wildly surging natural energy above it, Fukasaku slumped against Gamaken's massive leg.
His little mustache drooped in resignation.
"…As expected. It's that kid again."
"Stay away from him!"
He waved his hand sharply, calling back all the toads training near the waterfall.
One small toad protested, "But Father, we need to train too!"
Fukasaku shook his head, soothingly. "Don't rush. Once he's absorbed enough, it should be soon."
The little toad pouted, just about to relent—
Then froze.
The sage energy inside his body was leaving.
No.
Not leaving—
Being taken.
Stripped away.
The source—
Was the tiny figure beneath the waterfall.
Read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon -> patreon.com/SorenSwiftTL