Primeval forest.
Outside the cave.
“Phoo…” Chiba exhaled a long trail of white vapor.
The night wind grew even colder, yet the blood within his body burned like boiling magma.
Only a little over two years remained until the Uchiha clan massacre night in Konoha Year 56.
That was the watershed moment where the plot of the entire shinobi world went completely off the rails.
Once the Uchiha were wiped out, that old dog Danzo’s power would reach its absolute peak.
And Hiruzen Sarutobi, that hypocritical old fox, would fully solidify his image as a kindly grandfather.
The Konoha Leadership would continue leeching blood off the village.
“On what grounds?” Chiba sneered.
He slowly clenched his fists, his knuckles emitting crisp cracks.
“Konoha is the domain forged by the Senju.”
“Yet now, a gang of thieves occupies the nest.”
“They enjoy the peace paid for with the First Hokage’s life…”
“…yet turn around to suppress the Senju, drive the White Fang to suicide, and eradicate the Uchiha.”
“A foul place like this… should have been thoroughly reshuffled long ago!”
Chiba’s ambition grew wildly amid the snowstorm.
What he wanted was no empty title of Hokage.
He wanted absolute control!
He wanted to trample that high-and-mighty council of elders straight into the mud!
He would make that rat Danzo, hiding in the gutters, witness what true Mokuton judgment looked like!
But for now, one final step remained.
Ordinary Mokuton was certainly powerful, but when facing beyond-tier enemies—such as Susanoo or the future Akatsuki—relying solely on base-form Mokuton still carried the risk of failure.
He still needed an absolutely invincible hidden card—a trump card sufficient to place him in an unassailable position!
Chiba raised his head.
His deep gaze pierced through layers of howling snow, looking toward the distant horizon.
The night was brewing in ultimate darkness—the coldest, most ruthless moment before dawn.
Dong!
Several hours later, a new day arrived.
Konoha Year 54, New Year’s Day!
In that exact instant, a crisp mechanical voice exploded in Chiba’s mind like heavenly music.
[Ding!]
[A new year has arrived.]
[Detected that the host possesses an annual sign-in opportunity!]
[Sign in immediately?]
Chiba stood up abruptly.
The violent wind made his clothes rustle loudly.
His heart rate surged violently in this moment.
He had waited a full year for this day!
Sign in immediately!
Chiba roared in his heart.
May this sign-in grant him a true trump card!
[Ding!]
[Sign-in successful!]
[Congratulations to the host for obtaining reward: Perfect Sage Mode!]
Boom!
Just as the prompt finished echoing in his mind, the space surrounding Chiba seemed to have been forcefully paused.
The fluttering snowflakes suspended directly mid-air.
An indescribable aura expanded outward with Chiba at its center.
This was natural energy—the most primitive, violent power existing among all things in heaven and earth!
In the shinobi world, mastering this power was as difficult as ascending to the heavens.
Whether it was the toads of Mount Myoboku, the white snakes of Ryuchi Cave, or the slugs of Shikkotsu Woods—their Sage Modes all came with immense risks.
With the slightest misstep, a ninja would be consumed by natural energy, turning into a stone frog or a mindless monster.
Even Hiruzen Sarutobi, hailed as the Professor of Ninjutsu, failed to touch the threshold of Sage Mode in his entire life.
Although Jiraiya mastered Sage Mode, he required the assistance of Mount Myoboku’s toads, and even exhibited ugly frog-like features.
But Chiba was different!
Perfect Sage Body + Perfect Sage Mode.
This was a heaven-defying cheat tailor-made for Chiba by the system!
No need to sense natural energy.
Even less need for auxiliary tools.
All he needed was…
a single thought!
“Activate!” Chiba snapped his eyes open.
Buzz!
The paused snow and wind violently surged backward!
Natural energy within a radius of ten li rushed frantically toward Chiba as if summoned by an emperor!
Zero rejection!
Zero mutation!
All the natural energy fused instantly with the chakra inside Chiba’s body.
This was the high-tier energy standing above chakra—Senjutsu chakra!
In this instant, the world before Chiba’s eyes transformed completely.
Darkness was no longer an obstacle.
He could clearly see a beetle hibernating inside a withered tree fifty meters away.
He could hear the faint heartbeat of a vole beneath a layer of snow a hundred meters away.
He could even feel the slow-flowing power of the ley lines deep within the earth beneath his feet!
This was the sensory domain of Sage Mode!
Chiba raised his hand.
Looking at his palm, there were no animalistic traits whatsoever—it remained a human hand.
But his eyes had changed.
Around his naturally dark eye sockets, two deep red markings emerged.
And dead center on his forehead, a diamond-shaped deep red mark opened up, radiating a majestic and divine aura!
“Is this… Perfect Sage Mode?” Chiba muttered to himself.
Formidable beyond measure.
Senjutsu chakra flowed through his meridians.
Whether it was power, speed, perception, or the destructive force of his ninjutsu—at this moment, everything received a terrifying boost of ten times, even tens of times over!
“Need to test it out.” A moment later, Chiba suppressed the wild joy in his heart.
Swish!
No hand seals.
He didn’t even tap into his standard chakra reserves.
Chiba merely pushed off lightly from the boulder.
In the next instant, he turned directly into an afterimage, vanishing into the vast night.
Fast!
Unbelievably fast!
Chiba darted through the dense forest.
Trees on both sides receded frantically like illusions.
He didn’t need to use his eyes to see the path.
Sage Mode’s sensory perception acted like a 360-degree all-around super radar.
Even if there was a microscopic spider silk ahead, he could react in a thousandth of a second and easily dodge it.
In less than ten breaths of time, Chiba was already far away from the cave, arriving before a massive canyon.
“Here will do.” Chiba stopped.
He took a deep breath of frigid air, his lungs roaring like bellows.
Immediately after, Chiba clenched his right fist, channeling the Senjutsu chakra within his body toward the canyon cliff face ahead.
One punch blasted out!
“Sage Art: Monstrous Strength!”
No flashy lights or shadows.
Only pure violence carried to the extreme!
BOOM!
An ear-splitting, earth-shattering roar tore apart the dead silence of the winter night.
The shockwave of his fist transformed into a physical air cannon, howling forth like a transparent dragon.
The moment it contacted the rock face, the towering, rock-solid cliff acted as if made of tofu.
Tons of massive boulders were crushed into fine powder by the violent force.
A terrifying trench dozens of meters deep and wide was forcefully torn open on the cliff!
The intense shockwave turned into a Category 12 hurricane.
Snow and trees within a hundred-meter radius were uprooted entirely, shredded into drifting debris!
“This punch… even Susanoo would be shattered to pieces, wouldn’t it?”
Looking at the ruins created by his single punch, Chiba stood in place, feeling a dry throat.
This was merely a basic taijutsu attack.
What if he used Senjutsu chakra to power Mokuton?
Sage Art: Mokuton: True Thousand Hands?
That was the ultimate finisher of Mokuton.
Previously, Chiba had not mastered Sage Mode, making it impossible to unleash!
But now it was different!
With this Perfect Sage Mode, Chiba’s Mokuton would receive an epic enhancement!
“However, while power is supreme, stamina and endurance are equally crucial!”
Chiba quickly calmed down.
He knew the flaws of Sage Mode all too well.
Back during the battle against Pain, Naruto could only maintain Sage Mode for a brief five minutes.
After firing off two Rasenshuriken, he would revert to his base form.
If his Perfect Sage Mode could only last a few minutes, it would be nothing more than a burst skill—hardly an 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.
Closing his eyes, he began consciously controlling his Senjutsu chakra.
He didn’t attack; he merely maintained the state of Sage Mode.
Natural energy from the outside world flowed continuously into Chiba’s body, replenishing the minute consumption.
Time passed minute by minute.
One hour.
Two hours.
Five hours.
The horizon gradually paled with the first light of dawn.
The snowstorm finally ceased.
The first ray of morning sunlight fell upon Chiba’s shoulders.
Swish!
Chiba snapped his eyes open.
The deep red markings around his eyes remained as vivid as blood.
The diamond mark on his forehead had not dimmed at all; instead, washed by natural energy, it looked even more profound.
“Zero pressure.” Chiba exhaled a long breath of turbid air.
Without engaging in high-intensity combat, simply maintaining this form or using low-to-mid-tier ninjutsu—thanks to the seamless synergy between his Perfect Sage Body and natural energy—he could even treat Sage Mode as a passive state, maintaining it for days on end without issue!
“However, if I go all out… unleashing continuous S-rank or higher Sage Art Mokuton…”
“…it can probably only sustain about an hour of high-intensity battle.”
Over an hour!
If this data got out, it would drive the entire shinobi world completely insane!
One must realize that life-and-death fights between Kage-level powerhouses were often decided within minutes.
Over an hour of continuous Senjutsu bombardment?
Forget the Five Kage joining forces—even if Madara Uchiha crawled back out of his grave, Chiba would dare point right at his nose and tell him to lie right back down!