BOOM!
RUMBLE—!
Roars followed one after another.
At Mount Myōboku's sacred grounds, the waterfall howled madly—
Yet what echoed was not the sound of rushing water.
It was the shriek of violent natural energy being forcibly torn apart and devoured, forming a raging energy storm.
At this moment, valleys stretching hundreds of li around the sacred land trembled as one.
Puff—puff—
The ever-present sage mist churned violently, destabilized.
Dragged downward by an overwhelming pull, it was crushed into fragments and mixed straight into Uchiha Kai's body.
He sat cross-legged beneath the waterfall.
Though his body was still that of a boy barely in his teens, it now resembled a bottomless abyss.
Mouthful after mouthful, he swallowed the surrounding natural energy.
Boom—boom!
The normally invisible, colorless natural energy was forcibly drawn out—
Condensing into a torrent.
A cyan torrent.
Visible to the naked eye.
It surged wildly into his body.
Swish.
The eye shadow on Uchiha Kai's face deepened rapidly, growing darker and heavier.
Within a three-zhang radius around him, space itself warped slightly from the excess natural energy.
And it wasn't just the waterfall.
Every trace of senjutsu chakra and natural energy in the area was being dragged in and absorbed.
"Ah! My sage chakra!"
In a corner of Mount Myōboku, a small toad training alone screamed in terror.
It cultivated natural energy slowly and couldn't compete with the others, so it had deliberately come to a remote corner—
Just to absorb the faintly drifting remnants.
But who could have imagined—
The tiny bit of senjutsu chakra it had painstakingly gathered was ripped away in an instant!
Without the slightest pause, it was swept into the cyan torrent.
As if… all its hard work had merely prepared a dowry for someone else.
Thinking of this, the little toad's mouth puckered, tears welling up as it hopped toward the valley.
Yet when it arrived, it found toads of all sizes crying out in misery.
"Father… croak—croak—I've been sucked dry!"
"Croak! Me too!"
"Grandpa—grandpa—I'm completely burned out!"
Hearing this, Fukasaku's mustache trembled wildly, his toad eyes bulging wide.
But—
He didn't dare speak.
More precisely, he couldn't.
He had a terrifying premonition: the moment he opened his mouth, the senjutsu chakra in his body would be drained as well.
Mustering all his strength, he barely resisted the horrific external pull.
Staring at Uchiha Kai's frenzied state, he waved his hands desperately.
"Stop! Stop right now! Absorbing this much at once will turn you to stone!"
At this rate, even the Uzumaki clan's monstrous chakra reserves wouldn't hold out.
He absolutely did not want this reformer to suffer an accident at Mount Myōboku.
He tried to approach—
Only to be slammed back by the raging energy the moment he stepped forward.
On the other side.
Jiraiya had long since fled to a distant area.
His old face beneath the toad oil paint was pale as ash.
Watching Uchiha Kai from afar, a storm of terror churned in his heart.
"A monster… this kid is an absolute monster!"
"He's forcibly stealing natural energy?!"
"And from the looks of it… he's about to drain Mount Myōboku dry!"
Drain it dry.
Words he had once scoffed at—
Now manifested vividly before his eyes.
The sacred land he took the greatest pride in had become someone else's power bank.
"Where does this kid get so much mental energy and physical energy?"
"Even the Nine-Tails… might fall short by comparison."
To absorb such a terrifying amount of natural energy, the other two energies had to be equally monstrous.
Yet—
Jiraiya couldn't understand it.
He truly couldn't.
This ten-year-old boy—
Even if he started refining chakra in the womb, he shouldn't possess such a terrifying body.
How could Jiraiya know—
That over the past six years, Uchiha Kai had devoured countless Sharingan?
That he had fed himself endless common enhancement traits—
Agile Body, Enhanced Physique, and the like—
Stuffed down like livestock feed.
The reason Kai's status panel only showed a little over three million chakra was simple:
Most of it came from sunlight, not refinement.
He barely refined chakra at all.
But his body kept strengthening.
Which led to this scene—
Full throttle.
Gug—
Almost simultaneously, a dull sound echoed from deep within the valley.
From the dwelling of the Great Toad Sage.
The ancient toad, who slept through the ages, awakened once more.
Not from a dream—
But because this violent energy wave forced his eyelids open.
For the first time, confusion appeared in his murky, ancient eyes.
"This is… which reformer?"
He had foreseen change.
But he hadn't foreseen plunder this brutal.
Watching the sacred land being torn apart around him, a thought surfaced:
"Could it be… that the so-called reform begins with Mount Myōboku?"
"…Forget it."
"If it must be torn down, then let it be torn down."
"Perhaps—like a thousand years ago—it is simply time to begin anew."
With that, the Great Toad Sage closed his eyes once more.
The air around him was, unexpectedly, fresh.
Drip.
Drip.
Time passed.
Three days later—
Staring at the completely hollowed-out Mount Myōboku, Fukasaku's face turned green.
Bright, vivid green.
After a long silence, he slapped his thigh and wailed lifelessly:
"My Mount Myōboku…!"
"Little Jiraiya, can't you take him away already?!"
Nearby—
Jiraiya fell silent.
He looked at the natural energy storm surrounding Uchiha Kai—over ten zhang thick—
Then looked back at Fukasaku.
He raised a hand and pointed at himself.
"Huh? Me?"
With energy that dense, he'd turn to stone in seconds if he got close.
Humm—
Suddenly, the cyan torrent stalled.
The once-roaring natural energy slowed—
Then began to disperse.
It's over?
Seeing this, Fukasaku and the gathered toads finally breathed a sigh of relief.
But—
Looking at the drained waterfall basin left behind, Fukasaku still sucked in a breath of sage—no, cold air.
"Haah—so refreshing!"
Above them, a fully revitalized Uchiha Kai stretched hard.
Crackling sounds rang out across his body.
Clean. Crisp.
With a flicker, he appeared at the center of the valley.
Looking at Jiraiya, he said calmly,
"We should return to Konoha."
"…Huh?" Jiraiya blinked.
Just like that?
After draining the place dry?
No thanks at all?
"Konoha… has stepped onto the stage."
Uchiha Kai said no more.
He grabbed Jiraiya—
And in a flash, both vanished.
Flying Thunder God Technique.
Puff—puff—
Only after they had been gone for a long while did a small toad cry indignantly:
"Grandpa! Grandpa! You're just letting him leave?! All the sage energy on the mountain is gone!"
"Yeah, Grandpa…"
Fukasaku could only let out two deep sighs.
Gamabunta looked over, puzzled.
"Father… why indulge that human so much?"
Fukasaku gazed out toward the empty valley and spoke in a low voice:
"Because…"
"He's different."
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