The primeval forest.
Outside the cave.
“Hoo…”
Chiba exhaled a long puff of white mist.
The night wind grew colder.
Yet the blood in his veins was as hot as molten lava.
There were only two years left until the downfall of the Uchiha Clan in the 56th year of Konoha.
That was the watershed moment when the plot of the entire Ninja World went off the rails.
Once the Uchiha were wiped out.
The power of that old dog Danzo would reach its peak.
And that hypocritical old fox Sarutobi Hiruzen would firmly cement his persona as the kind grandfather.
The higher-ups of Konoha would go on leeching off the Village.
“Why should they?”
Chiba sneered.
He slowly clenched his fists, his knuckles popping with a sharp crack.
“Konoha is a land built by the Senju.”
“Yet now it has been usurped by a pack of thieves.”
“They enjoy the peace that the First Hokage bought with his life.”
“And they turn around to suppress the Senju, drive White Fang to his death, and wipe out the Uchiha.”
“Such a rotten place…”
“It should have been torn down and rebuilt long ago!”
Chiba’s ambition grew wildly in the wind and snow.
He didn’t want the empty title of Hokage.
What he wanted was absolute control!
He wanted to trample those high-and-mighty elders into the mud!
He wanted to make that rat Danzo, hiding in the gutter, witness what true Wood Release justice looked like!
But now, there was still one last step missing.
Ordinary Wood Release was certainly powerful.
But against those over-powered enemies—the Susanoo, or the future Akatsuki—relying on standard Wood Release alone still carried the risk of failure.
He still needed an absolutely invincible trump card.
An ace that would keep him unbeatable!
Chiba looked up.
His deep gaze pierced through the layers of wind and snow, toward the distant horizon.
The night was brewing in the deepest darkness.
It was the coldest moment before dawn.
“Dong!”
A few hours later.
A new day arrived.
New Year’s Day, 54th Year of Konoha!
At that very moment.
A crisp mechanical sound exploded in Chiba’s mind like the music of the heavens.
〔Ding!〕
〔A new year has arrived.〕
〔Detected that the host has an annual sign-in opportunity!〕
〔Do you want to sign in immediately?〕
Chiba stood up abruptly.
The strong wind sent his clothes flapping loudly.
His heartbeat spiked in that instant.
He had waited a whole year for this day!
“Sign in immediately!”
Chiba roared in his heart.
Hopefully this sign-in would grant him a real trump card!
〔Ding!〕
〔Sign-in successful!〕
〔Congratulations to the host for receiving the reward: Perfect Sage Mode!〕
Boom!
The notification in his mind had barely faded.
The space around Chiba seemed to have been hit with a pause button.
The snowflakes flying all over the sky hung suspended in mid-air.
An aura beyond words spread outward with Chiba at its center.
This was Natural Energy!
The most primal and violent power that existed between heaven and earth!
In the Ninja World, mastering this power was as hard as ascending to heaven.
Whether it was the toads of Mount Myōboku, the white snakes of Ryūchi Cave, or the slugs of Shikkotsu Forest.
Their Sage Modes all came with enormous risk.
And the ninja would suffer a backlash from Natural Energy, turning into a stone statue or a monster that had lost its sanity.
Even Sarutobi Hiruzen, known as the Professor of Ninjutsu, never touched the threshold of Sage Mode in his entire life.
And though Jiraiya had mastered Sage Mode.
He needed the aid of the toads from Mount Myōboku, and he would take on the ugly features of a frog-like transformation.
But Chiba was different!
Perfect Sage Body plus Perfect Sage Mode.
This was simply a heaven-defying cheat code the system had customized for Chiba!
No need to sense Natural Energy.
No need for any auxiliary tools.
All he needed was—a single thought!
“Activate!”
Chiba’s eyes flew wide open.
Hum!
The stagnant wind and snow around him spiraled backward in a frenzy!
The Natural Energy within a ten-mile radius seemed to answer an emperor’s summons, rushing toward Chiba all at once!
Not a hint of rejection!
No anomalies!
All of it merged instantly with the Chakra in Chiba’s body.
This was the high-level energy that surpassed Chakra—Sage Chakra!
At this moment.
The world in front of Chiba had completely changed.
Darkness was no longer an obstacle.
Fifty meters away, he could clearly see a beetle hibernating inside a dead tree.
He could hear the faint heartbeat of a field mouse under the snow a hundred meters away.
He could even feel the power of the earth’s veins flowing slowly beneath his feet!
This was the sensory domain of Sage Mode!
Chiba raised his hand.
He looked at his palm—no animal-like features; they were still the hands of a human.
But his eyes had changed.
Around his once pitch-black eye sockets, two deep red shadows had appeared.
And right in the center of his forehead, a diamond-shaped deep red mark had split open, giving off an aura of majesty and sanctity!
“Is this…”
“Perfect Sage Mode?”
Chiba muttered to himself.
Too strong.
Sage Chakra flowed through his meridians.
Whether it was strength, speed, perception, or the destructive power of his Ninjutsu.
Every one of them had just received a terrifying boost—tenfold, or even dozens of times over!
“I have to test it.”
A moment later.
Chiba suppressed the ecstasy in his heart.
Swish!
No hand seals.
He didn’t even draw on his Chakra.
Chiba simply tapped lightly on the boulder.
The next moment.
He turned into an afterimage and vanished into the vast night.
Fast!
Too fast!
Chiba shuttled through the dense forest.
The trees on either side fell away like phantoms.
He didn’t need his eyes to watch the path.
The sensing ability of Sage Mode was like a 360-degree, no-blind-spot super radar.
Even a thin strand of spider silk in his way—he could react within a thousandth of a second and avoid it with ease.
In less than ten breaths.
Chiba had already left the cave far behind and arrived before a huge canyon.
“Let’s do it here.”
Chiba stopped.
He drew a deep breath of the cold air, his lungs roaring dully like a bellows.
Immediately after.
Chiba clenched his right fist, mobilized the Sage Chakra in his body, and drove a punch toward the canyon cliff before him!
“Sage Art: Super Strength!”
No flashy lights or shadows.
Boom!!!
The deafening, earth-shattering sound tore through the silence of the entire winter night.
The force of the punch turned into a tangible air cannon, howling out like a transparent, raging dragon.
The moment it struck the rock wall.
The towering, solid cliff might as well have been made of tofu.
Tons of heavy boulders were ground to powder by the violent force.
A terrifying gully, dozens of meters deep and dozens of meters wide, was ripped open across the cliff!
The powerful shockwave became a Category 12 hurricane.
The snow and trees within a hundred meters were all uprooted and twisted into sky-filling debris!
“This punch…”
“Even a Susanoo would be smashed to pieces, right?”
“…”
Looking at the ruins he had made with a single punch.
Chiba stood where he was, his throat dry.
And this was just an ordinary Taijutsu attack.
What if he used Sage Chakra to trigger Wood Release?
Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands?
That was the ultimate move of Wood Release.
In the past, Chiba hadn’t mastered Sage Mode and couldn’t perform it at all!
But now it was different!
With this Perfect Sage Mode!
Chiba’s Wood Release would gain an epic boost!
“However.”
“Powerful as it is.”
“Endurance matters just as much!”
Chiba quickly calmed down.
He knew the drawbacks of Sage Mode all too well.
In the battle against Pain, Naruto’s Sage Mode could only last a short five minutes.
After firing off two Rasenshuriken, he would revert to his original form.
If his own Perfect Sage Mode could only last a few minutes.
Then at most it would count as a burst skill, not a truly invincible trump card.
“The system didn’t give a time limit.”
“In that case, I’ll test it myself!”
Chiba sat cross-legged on the spot.
He closed his eyes and began to consciously control the Sage Chakra.
He didn’t attack; he only held the Sage Mode state.
External Natural Energy flowed into Chiba’s body without pause, replenishing the tiny drain.
Time passed minute by minute.
One hour.
Two hours.
Five hours.
The horizon slowly turned pale.
The wind and snow finally stopped.
The first ray of morning sunlight fell on Chiba’s shoulders.
Swish!
Chiba’s eyes snapped open.
The deep red markings at the corners of his eyes were still as bright as blood.
The diamond-shaped mark on his forehead hadn’t dimmed at all; if anything, scoured by Natural Energy, it looked even deeper.
“No pressure at all.”
Chiba let out a long breath of turbid air.
If he didn’t get into high-intensity combat.
Just holding this state, or using some low-to-mid-level Ninjutsu.
Relying on the seamless bond between the Perfect Sage Body and Natural Energy.
He could even treat Sage Mode as a normal skill and keep it up for days without any problem!
“But if I go all out…”
“Continuously performing S-rank or higher Sage Art Wood Release.”
“I can probably only hold high-intensity combat for about an hour.”
Over an hour!
If this data ever got out, it would drive the entire Ninja World completely mad!
You have to understand.
Life-and-death battles between Kage-level powerhouses are often decided within a few minutes.
Over an hour of Sage Art bombardment?
Never mind the Five Kage joining forces.
Even if Uchiha Madara clawed his way out of his grave.
Chiba would point right in his face and tell him to lie back down!