Obito was worried now. If the method that Orochimaru and the others developed becomes publicly available and allows them to solve the mystery of Uchiha Yue's eyes, his vaunted invincibility will turn to dust.
He hoped that the technology would have a high entry threshold, ideally accessible only to him. Otherwise, as soon as they dealt with Yue, they would have to transplant his eyes immediately, and then, without wasting a second, they would quickly kidnap the tailed beasts from all the great villages and activate the ultimate weapon.
There will be no time to rejoice at Yue's death — you will have to immediately take his place and attack the others.
"The body will need to be modified," he concluded gloomily. "It would be foolish to pluck out Uchiha Yue's eyes and not find a place to transplant them."
"If you resurrect Senju Tobirama, you'll regret it, Nagato!"
Hearing this, Obito's expression darkened. The mask hid his face, but the air around him seemed to freeze. He realized that he had completely lost control of Nagato. An outburst of anger mixed with impotence. He abruptly turned around, intending to leave.
"Don't forget, Madara! Nagato hissed at his back. "I'm the leader of the Akatsuki here!"
But the masked figure had already disappeared into the vortex of space.
R-R-RO-A-AR!
A mad, chilling roar shook Ryti's cave. The natural energy raging in her bowels began to subside. Eight heads, eight tails; a body covered with white scales as hard as steel—a huge, mountain-like monster coiled up, no longer fitting into the vaults of the cave.
— Here it is, my power! Yamata no Orochi!
All eight heads shot out forked tongues at the same time, and a bloodthirsty and cruel gleam flashed in their eyes.
This was the result of the forcible fusion of the Sage of the White Snake with all the snakes and hermits of her cave. The art of the hermit has its limits. The so—called senjutsu chakra is not a force that can be built up indefinitely by simply absorbing natural energy. It is the most delicate balance in a one-to-one ratio between the energy of nature, spirit and body. Destroy it, and you will die.
Sage White Snake took a monstrous step. She didn't just absorb chakra—she used the flesh and souls of other snakes as fuel. In this infernal flame, the natural energy did not upset the balance, but, on the contrary, accelerated gorenje, raising its power to an unimaginable height in a matter of moments. The price for such blasphemy is a quick death, a mutilated body and a burnt—out soul.
But even that would not be enough. The sage understood that if they burned themselves to the ground, they would still not be able to defeat Uchiha Yue. Such a power shouldn't exist in this world.
The strength of a loner has a limit. Therefore, she did not consume them like food, but merged with them, uniting souls and bodies into a single monstrous organism. It was the only way to touch the transcendent power.
Now she felt overwhelming. Perhaps she is still far from the progenitor of the Kaguya chakra, but she can certainly cope with a young, not fully revealed deity.
"Ha ha ha, you old toad, what a fool you are! Today you will see how I will go against the will of heaven! I will crush Uchiha Yue, and then... then it will be my turn! It's my turn to destroy this world!
If an insignificant dog like Danzo could single-handedly defy fate and give birth to a monster like Uchiha Yue, then why couldn't she, the Great Sage, sacrifice everything and devour this monster while it was still weak?
This is not going to happen! The monster hissed and laughed. I will become a true dragon! Ha ha ha!
Overcome by a mad belief in her own power, Yamata no Orochi left the deserted Ryuchi cave.
On Mount Myoboku, the Great Hermit Toad, who was dozing while waiting for the prophecy, abruptly opened his eyes. He did not see a new future. Instead, he felt—not with his eyes, but with his entire connection to natural energy—a colossal, monstrous senjutsu chakra capable of crushing his own.
Sage White Snake!
"What have you done, old friend? Where... where does this terrifying power come from?"
The Great Hermit Toad didn't understand anything. He immediately gave the order to investigate what had happened in Ryuti Cave.
Soon the messengers returned with a report: the Ryti cave was plunged into dead silence. Not a single snake. There were only traces of destruction, as if a monstrous hurricane had swept through the valley.
The Great Hermit Toad could not even imagine that the White Snake had gone so mad that it had merged with all the inhabitants of the cave into a single whole. He suggested that she had found a way to use them as "batteries" by sealing them inside herself and drawing on their combined power. He could not even imagine that the merger was absolute and irreversible, and that only the name on the map remained of the Ryti cave.
Meanwhile, at the edge of the Area of Dead Silence, Senju Tobirama and Orochimaru struggled to unravel the strange absorbing ability.
But all their efforts were in vain.
Ninjutsu. No, fuinjutsu. Tobirama felt his brain melting. During this time, he surpassed himself by creating several kinjutsu-level sealing techniques, and tried to apply them to objects to isolate them from the anomalous zone.
But the Area of Dead Silence remained a curse for any form of energy. No matter how sophisticated fuinjutsu he used, as soon as the seal touched its border, the chakra from which it consisted was absorbed without a trace, and the technique turned into nothing.
It was like…