At first glance, it seemed that the sealing techniques were completely powerless against Uchiha Yue's power. But only at first glance. Senju Tobirama's sharp, analytical mind caught something that would have eluded anyone else: fuinjutsu worked.
Yes, the seals designed and applied by him could not withstand even a moment in the Realm of dead silence, crumbling to dust. They did not create a visible barrier to energy leakage, and any other Shinobi, faced with such a result, would consider the idea a failure and would abandon it.
But Tobirama Senju was not "anyone else." His genius was meticulousness. After conducting a series of meticulous experiments, he recorded an almost imperceptible deviation: the test subject, on whom the seals were inscribed, lasted longer in the Kingdom. The difference was subtle fractions of a second, but it was enough. This meant that Uchiha Yue's power was not absolute. There was a crack in her indestructible armor.
That's it! Eureka! There was no "territory", no force field that could be isolated. They coined the term themselves. Everything was much simpler and more complicated at the same time.
It was breathing. A primal, all-consuming breath. The kingdom of deathly silence did not attack — it breathed in life. And his sealing techniques were nothing more than a fragile barrier, a paper wall in the path of a hurricane. And even though this wall was no thicker than a spider's web, it still stood, slowing down the onslaught of the sinister force for the briefest moment.
This insight inspired Tobirama with new strength. The path to victory, though incredibly narrow, was found. He immediately plunged into work, creating increasingly complex and multi-layered fuinjutsu in the hope of weaving them into a cocoon that could completely isolate them from the all-consuming vacuum.
However, he was disappointed. Wall after wall, seal after seal, everything was crumbling. At best, his most sophisticated techniques would give him a one-second delay, after which they would collapse, unable to withstand the pressure. They only slowed down the disappearance of internal energy, but they did not stop it.
"What's the matter?".. He muttered into the emptiness of the laboratory. "My formulas are flawless, their complexity and power should have held him back."… Why so…
"Is there a flaw in the very foundations of my fuinjutsu? Or does it take something else to resist such a force, something that I didn't take into account?"
Senju Tobirama turned away from the cursed experiment area. Nearby, in his part of the laboratory, Orochimaru was working. Unlike the Second Hokage, he almost immediately abandoned energy methods of counteraction, considering them unpromising, and focused on other approaches.
For example, he was currently testing the so-called "chakrobattery" plan.
The idea was simple and cynical in his style: the dead, summoned with the help of Edo Tensei, served as a source of energy. Orochimaru extracted chakra from them and tried to pump it through special tubes to the experimental subject in the Kingdom. On paper, it looked like an effective way to compensate for losses. Since the Realm only passively absorbs energy, then an inexhaustible source of nourishment would allow it to withstand its onslaught.
Theory crashed into practice. The tube connecting the source to the target crumbled to dust as soon as it touched the boundary of the zone, and all the chakra that flowed through it was absorbed before reaching the body. The plan failed. It required a material capable of blocking the absorbing power of the Realm. But if such a material existed, wouldn't it be easier to create armor from it?
At the moment, Orochimaru has not found a single substance capable of resisting this anomaly.
—Rinnegan, so...— Tobirama said thoughtfully, looking at Orochimaru's back. He already knew from the snake sannin who this technology was intended for. If their enemy really has a Rinnegan, then the chances of victory are slim unless they find a way to neutralize Yue's main weapon.
"But what kind of seal can block it?"..
Tobirama couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing some fundamental detail, a missing element in his grand formula. If he finds it, Uchiha Yue's indestructible power will fall.
What could it be? He turned around to return to his scrolls and calculations, but at that moment, the ground shook.
A distant rumble, as if a mountain range had moved, turned into a powerful vibration. And with it came the feeling of a monstrous, primal chakra. It broke into their sensory perception not as a wave, but as the sunrise of a new, sinister sun — domineering, ancient and hitherto unseen.
—What... what is this?" Tobirama whirled around, his face rigid. He was looking into the distance, where this incredible surge of power was coming from.
Not only he, but all the Shinobi who watched the Kingdom of deathly Silence felt this tectonic shift in the universe.
"This aura is... terribly familiar,— Orochimaru hissed, frozen in place. He was looking in the same direction as Tobirama. "This overwhelming power... from a master of masters…
He couldn't have been mistaken. This aura belonged to a being that he considered a myth, a legend. The creature hadn't appeared yet, but its mere awakening shook the earth. He had never felt such power even from his mysterious leader from Akatsuki. Who is it? Who could it be?!
And then it appeared on the horizon. A creature with eight heads and eight tails, colossal as a moving mountain range. His appearance was like the fall of a celestial body, and his breathing was like thunder. Waves of monstrous energy swept over everything, proclaiming the coming of the supreme predator.
"This is... the Sage of the White Snake!" Orochimaru gasped, his eyes widening in horror and... recognition. "No... not exactly him... but then what…
He remembered. That tremblingly familiar aura belonged to the same Sage he had once met in the Ryuchi Cave. But when he looked closer, he realized that the energy was just like a distorted, polluted echo. This giant serpent might be a Sage, but at the same time it was not.
Orochimaru was sure of only one thing: this monster came from the Ryuchi Cave, the only place in the world where such creatures could live.
And in front of such a monster, he, Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Sannin, was nothing more than prey.