Chiba wielded the power of the Ice Fruit and the Mangekyō Sharingan in perfect coordination, striking from both sides at once. First, he froze and sealed the White Snake Sage's movements completely, locking his immense body in an unyielding prison of ice. Then, without hesitation, the Kagutsuchi Arrow roared forth, piercing straight through the White Snake Sage's body as the flames of Amaterasu ignited and spread, burning fiercely without mercy.
At last, the White Snake Sage could no longer endure it.
The agony overwhelmed him, and he finally broke, crying out in desperation.
"Mercy! Mizukage-sama!"
"I,I am willing to submit!!!"
Chiba smiled faintly at his plea.
"You say you're willing to submit," he replied calmly. "On what grounds should I believe you?"
As he spoke, the black flames of Amaterasu continued to gnaw at the White Snake Sage's body. Chiba deliberately controlled the rate of the burn, ensuring it did not consume him too quickly. He had no intention of killing him outright,at least, not yet.
After all, the White Snake Sage was no ordinary being. With his millennia of existence and profound senjutsu foundation, he could still endure wounds of this level.
That did not mean the pain was bearable.
The White Snake Sage screamed continuously, his voice hoarse with torment. "I,I can sign a summoning contract with you, Mizukage-sama! I will become your summoning beast!!!"
Chiba's eyes flickered with interest.
A summoning contract?
It was certainly an appealing proposal,but still, it was not enough.
"A summoning contract doesn't seem capable of fully binding your will," Chiba said slowly. "Even Manda and Orochimaru could summon each other, yet Manda was never truly loyal to him."
The White Snake Sage hurriedly shook his head. "No, no, no!"
"I can sign a one-sided contract of submission," he said frantically. "Mizukage-sama would be able to summon me at will, and I would be absolutely unable to disobey any of your commands!"
Chiba was well aware that such contracts did, in fact, exist.
However, summoning beasts willing to sign a one-sided contract of submission had become exceedingly rare. Most summoning creatures possessed formidable strength and pride of their own. Some would rather die than accept such humiliation.
Under normal circumstances, the relationship between a summoner and a summoned beast was one of cooperation. Orochimaru and Manda, Jiraiya and the toads of Mount Myōboku, Tsunade and Katsuyu,these were all partnerships built on mutual benefit. Since it was cooperation, the two sides stood as equals, with no absolute hierarchy or blind obedience.
But there were exceptions.
For instance, Uchiha Madara had once subdued the Nine-Tails by sheer force, compelling it to submit completely. That was no partnership,it was unilateral domination and suppression.
What the White Snake Sage now proposed was precisely such a contract.
"Very well," Chiba said calmly. "Then swear the contract."
He added flatly, "The moment our contract is complete is when the flames on your body will be extinguished."
The White Snake Sage froze.
This young man was ruthless to the extreme.
He was expected to endure the black flames while signing the contract?
Yet at this point, he had no room to resist. Gritting his teeth through the excruciating pain, he summoned a summoning scroll, carefully inscribed the contract of submission, and signed his own name on the subordinate side.
Chiba took the scroll and examined it thoroughly, running it through the system's analytical deduction. After confirming there were no hidden clauses or traps, he calmly signed his own name.
In an instant,
Buzz!!!
An invisible force surged forth. Chiba immediately felt a strange yet undeniable connection form between himself and the White Snake Sage. It was as though with a single thought, he could summon the other at any time, command him to fight, or order him to perform any task whatsoever.
And the White Snake Sage would be utterly incapable of resisting.
Chiba nodded in satisfaction and stored the scroll within the system space.
"Good. You've proven your loyalty."
The power of the Mangekyō Sharingan flared once more as Chiba used Kagutsuchi to extinguish the black flames of Amaterasu entirely.
Only then did the White Snake Sage finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Most of his white scales were shattered, his flesh and even internal organs severely injured. But to a being of his level, these were wounds that could still recover.
What could not recover was the fear.
That terror had already been carved deep into his soul.
Of course, it wasn't just fear that bound him now.
The contract of submission itself was absolute. Should he ever disobey, the chakra within his body would collapse inward and annihilate him from the inside,no different from self-destruction.
Though unwilling at heart, the White Snake Sage understood the iron law of the shinobi world: the strong ruled all.
And Chiba knew as well,there would be no more resistance.
Because no one feared death more than those who had lived the longest.
That was why ancient monsters, on the brink of death, would go mad in their pursuit of immortality.
A being like the White Snake Sage, who had survived for over a thousand years, would never relinquish even the faintest chance to continue living.
And that weakness granted Chiba perfect control over him.
"Enough," Chiba said. "Hand over all the secrets of Ryūchi Cave's Sage Arts."
The White Snake Sage immediately lowered his head. "Yes, Lord Chiba."
He then retrieved the Ryūchi Cave Sage Art scrolls hidden within his own body and presented them one by one.
Chiba accepted them all without hesitation.
Remaining within Ryūchi Cave, he immediately began reading through the scrolls. There was no place better suited for cultivating Sage Arts than one of the Three Great Sacred Lands, where natural energy was at its densest and most abundant.
Training Sage Arts here was far more efficient than anywhere else.
The White Snake Sage stood off to the side, stiff and silent, not daring to utter a single word.
Mei Terumi smiled faintly and stepped closer, joining Chiba as she skimmed through the scrolls with him.
At that moment, the other snakes of Ryūchi Cave cautiously gathered nearby.
When they witnessed the White Snake Sage,whom they revered above all,standing respectfully at Chiba's side, shock rippled through the crowd.
The three elders, Tagitsuhime, Ichikishimahime, and Tagurihime, went pale, utterly flustered and at a loss.
The White Snake Sage sneered coldly. "If even I have submitted to Lord Chiba, do you think any of you can escape?"
"Your lives are in my hands,and now, they belong entirely to Lord Chiba!"
The snakes trembled as one.
In truth, whether they were controlled by the White Snake Sage or by Chiba made little difference. To them, it was merely a change of allegiance.
Mei couldn't help but sigh inwardly. The older the White Snake Sage grew, the more extreme and twisted his temperament became. Now that he had been forced into submission, he naturally had no intention of letting his subordinates retain their dignity.
If everyone lost face together, it hurt less than being the only one humiliated.
Chiba left these matters to Mei and focused fully on studying the Sage Arts of Ryūchi Cave.
Mei nodded and swiftly handled the situation, forging contracts between herself, Chiba, and the snakes of Ryūchi Cave. From that moment onward, both of them could summon these snakes at will for battle.
The White Snake Sage, however, pledged loyalty to Chiba alone.
He still possessed a shred of pride.
Very little,but not none.
Among them, even Manda,Orochimaru's former summoning beast,was forced to dissolve his contract and become a summoning beast of Chiba and Mei instead.
Mei smiled faintly, wondering whether Orochimaru would completely collapse if he ever learned of this.
After finishing everything, Mei noticed one remaining summoning scroll.
"And whose is this?" she asked.
The three elders answered truthfully. "It belongs to Shin'ya. He has an extremely violent temperament. Even after signing summoning contracts, he often devours his summoner. That's why… no one is willing to contract with him anymore."
Mei smiled. "Is that so?"
"I'd like to meet him."
Ichikishimahime quickly warned, "Lady Mei, Shin'ya is extremely unruly. Sometimes even the White Snake Sage cannot control him. If you intend to subdue him, please be very careful."
Mei nodded. "Understood."
Tagitsuhime added, "Shin'ya has a reverse scale. That may be the source of his violent nature. If you can remove it, you may be able to tame him."
Mei's interest was immediately piqued.
She glanced at Chiba, who was fully immersed in studying the Sage Arts and had no time to spare.
Thus, accompanied by the three elders, she set off to find the defiant Shin'ya.
Meanwhile, Chiba continued his cultivation of Ryūchi Cave's Sage Arts.
Throughout this period, the White Snake Sage remained respectfully at his side, showing no trace of rebellion.
Ordinarily, Ryūchi Cave's Sage Arts were imparted by having the White Snake Sage bite the visitor, leaving them to survive,or perish,on their own.
Most died.
Only the rare survivors earned the right to cultivate Sage Arts.
But with Chiba, the White Snake Sage dared not attempt such a method.
Instead, he obediently handed over all the cultivation scrolls.
Chiba wasted no time, immediately beginning his research and experimentation directly within Ryūchi Cave.
He soon discovered that his progress in cultivating Sage Arts far surpassed that of any ninjutsu he had ever learned.
There were two reasons.
First, his chakra reserves were immense,further enhanced by the perfect integration of Hashirama's cells. This was the foundation required to cultivate Sage Mode, as the sages of Mount Myōboku had once explained to Jiraiya and Uzumaki Naruto.
Only shinobi with vast chakra reserves could endure Sage training without losing control.
Jiraiya, Namikaze Minato, and Uzumaki Naruto all met this requirement.
Yakushi Kabuto had originally lacked sufficient chakra, but by fusing Orochimaru's power, his subordinates, and Hashirama's cells, he too qualified.
As for Senju Hashirama himself,there was no need to elaborate.
Second, Chiba was an Ice Fruit user.
Naturally attuned to elemental forces, he was intimately familiar with the world's natural energies. Sage Arts were, at their core, simply a more refined way of sensing, controlling, and wielding that natural energy.
Chiba grasped the basics almost immediately, quickly reaching a preliminary level of mastery.
The White Snake Sage was stunned.
Even he had never progressed this quickly.
What kind of monstrous talent was this?
From that moment on, he no longer dared harbor even the slightest rebellious thought.
As Chiba's Sage Arts grew more refined, he began experimenting with fusing senjutsu chakra with the power of the Ice Fruit.
In the past, he had attempted to imbue his ice constructs with vitality, but had never achieved true success.
Now,
With the integration of senjutsu chakra, the creations born from his Ice Fruit began to emit faint traces of life.
This was only natural.
Within Ryūchi Cave's Sage Arts, Sage Art: Inorganic Reincarnation was precisely a technique that granted life to inanimate matter.
When wielded by the White Snake Sage, it could turn vast swathes of earth, stone, and cavern into living entities under his control,used to annihilate his enemies.
Chiba immediately formed an ice bird in midair.
This was an ability he had possessed for a long time. In the past, however, he could only manipulate its movements through the power of the Ice Fruit, controlling it as one would control an object. It had never been capable of acting on its own.
This time, Chiba cautiously injected the Sage Chakra he had just acquired into the construct.
In that instant,
The ice bird seemed to come alive.
It let out a sharp cry, suddenly spreading its wings as they beat powerfully through the air. Its crystal-clear body, like a sculpture carved from flawless ice, moved with unmistakable vitality, as though true life had been breathed into it.
The White Snake Sage and the surrounding serpents were struck dumb with shock.
Even for them, this was something they had never witnessed before.
Although the White Snake Sage could use Sage Art: Inorganic Reincarnation, causing earth, stone, and caverns to move at his command, that power was ultimately only an imitation. The land did not truly live; it merely responded.
But the ice bird Chiba had created,under the dual reinforcement of the Ice Fruit and Ryūchi Cave's Sage Art,felt as though it genuinely possessed life.
Of course, Chiba understood clearly that this was still far from enough.
At present, the ice bird only seemed alive. It did not truly possess life in its entirety.
To put it simply, if ordinary ninjutsu constructs were like lifeless stones, then the White Snake Sage's Sage Art creations were akin to puppets,appearing alive, yet fundamentally empty.
Chiba's creations, on the other hand, were more like human puppets.
They were far more vivid, agile, and brimming with vitality, yet they were still, at their core, dead,much like the Third Kazekage puppet controlled by Sasori of the Red Sand.
Even so, this was an enormous leap forward.
If he could push the Ice Fruit's power and Ryūchi Cave's Sage Art to their absolute limits, perhaps one day he truly could create constructs endowed with genuine life.
By the time Mei Terumi finally subdued Gurenmaru and returned to the Ryūchi Cave temple, Chiba had already cultivated Ryūchi Cave's Sage Art to the level of major completion.
He stood only a single step away from true perfection.
By fusing the power of the Ice Fruit with Ryūchi Cave's Sage Art, he had achieved something astonishing,
He had created an army.
Dozens of figures stood in formation, their bodies like ice sculptures,yet incomparably hard, wielding terrifying strength. Beneath them were warhorses forged entirely of ice, cold steel cavalry given form, exuding overwhelming might and an awe-inspiring presence.
More importantly, this army of ice possessed a certain degree of vitality and vigor. Their movements were fluid, their combat capability unmatched.
"Th-this is…" Mei Terumi and the White Snake Sage stared in disbelief.
Chiba smiled faintly. "This is the first batch of warriors I've created,my Ice Release Ninja Army."
He paused, then continued calmly,
"I call them…"
"The Ice Snow Dragon Knights."
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