Inside the dim underground room, a dark red totem surfaced on Yakushi Kabuto's face. Although he had trained in Sage Arts, his state seemed to be gradually infected by a special substance bit by bit.
The red fluid continuously dripping beneath his feet seemed to be an ability similar to the fluid used in Inorganic Reincarnation, yet its corrosiveness toward Kabuto's physical body was exceptionally powerful.
Blood spluttered from Kabuto's mouth: "Cough... As expected, to thoroughly master Ryuchi Cave's Sage Transformation, one must pay an unimaginable price."
Currently, this physical body of his was rapidly entering a state of collapse, but Kabuto did not care. He had prepared dozens of spare bodies, all of which were physical forms manufactured using cellular cloning technology—mere puppets without souls.
The cellular cloning technology left behind by Orochimaru was currently being extensively utilized inside Kabuto's laboratory. Among them, these spare bodies he cultured would age and decay at an extremely rapid velocity once they left the laboratory's nutrient solution, completely collapsing in less than ten days.
Fortunately, these physical bodies lacked souls and consciousness, so the damage to the soul when executing the Reincarnation Jutsu was very low. Furthermore, Kabuto had planted a special mark inside each physical body, making it convenient for him to switch bodies at any time.
These technologies were all experimental data and content discarded by Orochimaru and Shiraishi in the past. Now, they were picked up by Kabuto, who utilized the Reincarnation Jutsu to create a unique Sage Mode.
As for the red snake just now, it was the condensed symbol of Kabuto's external will. He wanted to utilize Uchiha Sasuke, nurturing him into a suitable container for himself.
However, right now, Kabuto needed to switch to a brand new physical body once again. Following the extraction of another physical body from the laboratory to conduct the Living Corpse Reincarnation, the eerie, viscous fluid on the brand new Kabuto began to vanish, and this specific body was somewhat different from those in the past.
In fact, Kabuto had always possessed a strange admiration for Orochimaru. Although Orochimaru died at the hands of the Fifth Kazekage, a person who could make the Kazekage pay a massive price to eradicate him must inevitably possess a power that could threaten the Kazekage.
The Impure World Reincarnation was one aspect, and on the other hand, Orochimaru's research into souls and biotechnology was similarly exceptionally powerful.
Regarding the data on Ryuchi Cave's Sage Mode, although Orochimaru only left behind a portion of the content, Kabuto, after years of exploration, found a unique talent during an unconscious research session.
This person was Juugo, the key individual from whom Orochimaru developed the Cursed Seals. He possessed orange hair and orange irises, and his build was exceptionally stalwart, standing as a giant, a full two meters tall.
Juugo possessed a dual personality; he was usually stable, but once enraged, he would even kill people, earning him the title of the Man of the Balance from the villagers. After being taken away by Orochimaru in the past, Juugo had always stayed inside Orochimaru's base.
He cursed his own fate and locked himself inside a mountain cave. This left Juugo very bewildered, and the person who saved him was Kimimaro of the Shikotsumyaku.
Kimimaro said he would become Juugo's cage, and also suggested that he rely on Orochimaru and give the power of the Cursed Seal to Orochimaru for research. From then on, Juugo and Kimimaro became close friends.
Juugo, in order to suppress his impulse to kill people when throwing a tantrum, followed Kimimaro's words and relied on Orochimaru, letting him research methods and medicines to suppress his beastly nature.
However, Kimimaro's whereabouts became unknown after Orochimaru's death, causing Juugo to lose his support. Therefore, he locked himself inside a prison room at the Northern Hideout to suppress his murderous impulses.
Although he did not want to kill people, he would always calculate when to kill people. Whenever someone opened the door to the room, Juugo would rush up and kill that person.
"Juugo, truly, thank you for resolving my current physical condition."
Amidst Kabuto's soft words, Juugo's face surfaced on the back of his head. However, beneath the face, Juugo's consciousness had long been occupied by blood-red energy, and both eyes had turned blood-red.
One head, two faces, giving off an exceptionally horrifying sensation. Accompanied by the masking energy of Inorganic Reincarnation, Juugo's face vanished from the back of Kabuto's head.
Juugo was the origin of the Cursed Seals, unlike the other duplicates. Once he was located in an area with strong natural energy, a frantic, out-of-control mental and physical transformation would manifest, and he was capable of partial partial-transformation.
According to Kabuto's observations, the Cursed Seal transformation was also a type of Sage Mode, except that one could not rely on one's own will to absorb natural energy and could not control it.
To improve the survival rate after implanting the Cursed Seal, Orochimaru divided it into the Cursed Seal of Heaven and the Cursed Seal of Earth to implant into others.
But right now, Kabuto adopted an even more extreme method, directly combining Juugo with his own perfect physical body. To be precise, this layer of skin possessed a uniquely active chakra.
Therefore, after this body was fitted with Juugo, it allowed Kabuto to perfectly resolve the problem of the physical body being unable to endure natural energy and collapsing.
Next was to seek an even better container for himself, which was Uchiha Sasuke...
Kabuto fell into a state of frenzy. However, unexpectedly, Juugo's face behind the back of his head appeared once again, and a unique mark gradually manifested within those blood-red eyes.
The Ketsuryugan!
Inside Ryuchi Cave, the White Snake Princess lay very lazily within the grand hall. Ever since Orochimaru was eliminated by Shiraishi, she had thoroughly controlled Ryuchi Cave, holding a massive amount of powerful summoned beasts in her hands.
This marked the total reunification of Ryuchi Cave since the split between the White Snake Sage and the White Snake Princess.
But facing a massive transformation unseen for a thousand years on the shinobi continent, the White Snake Princess was not satisfied with her current state of strength.
She must obtain even stronger power!
On this point, the White Snake Princess shared a similar view with Orochimaru and the others; all needed to seek an even stronger physical body to allow their strength to undergo a metamorphosis.
While Yakushi Kabuto was still slowly nurturing Uchiha Sasuke, a blood-red light erupted within the White Snake Princess's eyes.
That was a past even more ancient than when Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara faced each other with weapons. A daughter of the Chinoike clan married into the Daimyo's family of the Land of Lightning as a concubine.
That girl possessed a gentle temperament and beautiful features, but consequently suffered the jealousy of the official's wife. Shortly after the Daimyo married the girl, he passed away from illness.
She was slandered by the official wife as being related to the Daimyo's death. Therefore, the Chinoike clan was exiled to a place called the Valley of Hell, and the ones responsible for watching over the Chinoike clan at that time were the Uchiha clan.
The Ketsuryugan was actually a sub-branch of the Three Great Dojutsu bloodline limits, sharing a certain bloodline ancestry with the Sharingan.
The final bloodline successor of the current Ketsuryugan, Chino, had been devoured by the White Snake Princess a short while ago.
Compared to Orochimaru's Living Corpse Reincarnation, the White Snake Princess directly swallowed this girl in one gulp, fusing her flesh and blood together as a part of her own body, ultimately obtaining a perfect Ketsuryugan.
This was the powerful innate talent and capability of the organisms on this planet over thousands of years... As for Yakushi Kabuto, the current him had absolutely no idea that he was actually a chess piece manipulated by the White Snake Princess.
During the numerous times Orochimaru had cooperated with her in the past, the White Snake Princess had long secretly tampered with Juugo's body.
By relying on the genjutsu of the Ketsuryugan, the White Snake Princess had quietly and soundlessly controlled Yakushi Kabuto.
Although Kabuto thought he had broken free from anyone's control, he was ultimately still being controlled by these major figures, conducting various interferences and manipulations regarding the current situation of the shinobi world.
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