"What chicken?" Logan asked.
"Tian Xin Shen Ji," Jiraiya replied, his face serious, a drop of cold sweat sliding down his temple.
"There are three known Sage Art inheritances in the ninja world—Mount Myōboku, the Wet Bone Forest, and Ryūchi Cave. The founder of Ryūchi Cave is the White Snake Sage. Tian Xin Shen Ji is one of the White Snake Sage's most trusted confidants. After hundreds of years of cultivation, she has amassed a massive reserve of Senjutsu chakra.
She is the one who oversees the training trials in Ryūchi Cave. Only those who pass her test are deemed worthy to learn Senjutsu there."
Logan stared at Tian Xin Shen Ji, floating gracefully above the battlefield. She was mesmerizing—reminiscent of the snake spirit from the old Calabash Brothers cartoons he watched as a child.
"She's that strong?"
"Powerful…" Jiraiya hesitated. "But it's not just about strength. Beings like her, who've cultivated for centuries, possess unique abilities—different from any traditional ninjutsu."
Logan tightened his grip on the Sword of Destruction.
Coincidentally, he too had powers outside the realm of conventional ninjutsu.
Jiraiya frowned in thought. "What puzzles me is that Orochimaru never succeeded in learning Senjutsu. How did he manage to convince someone like her to help him?"
As Logan and Jiraiya kept their eyes on her, Tian Xin Shen Ji seemed utterly unbothered by the tension in the air. She gently cradled Orochimaru, her pale hands caressing his cheek with a lover's tenderness.
"Poor little snake," she said in a melodic tone. "It hasn't been that long since we last met, and yet you've aged so quickly. You're no longer the pretty boy you once were… I should've devoured you when you were still beautiful."
"I never learned magic," Orochimaru said, a rare humility in his voice. "I'm just a mortal. But I've spent every moment trying to close the distance between us."
His body was healing rapidly. The wounds inflicted by Logan and Star Platinum were already closing up.
"Please help me," he added quietly.
Tian Xin Shen Ji chuckled, clearly amused by his flattery. She opened her arms and slowly floated upward, completely ignoring gravity.
Jiraiya clenched his fists and shouted toward her, "Tian Xin Shen Ji! This is a battle between us and Orochimaru. Are you sure you want to interfere?
If you get involved, I'll have no choice but to summon the Two Great Toad Elders—Fukasaku and Shima. If it comes to that, this won't just be a personal fight anymore… it'll be Ryūchi Cave versus Mount Myōboku!"
The warning was clear.
They might be fighting Orochimaru now, but both sides had powerful backers. Escalating this battle would turn it into an all-out war.
Tian Xin Shen Ji only smiled—softly, mockingly. Her laughter was gentle, yet it carried a divine arrogance, like a celestial being amused by the struggles of ants.
"Then why don't you… 'invite' them?" she asked, her tone light, but her words barbed.
Jiraiya's heart skipped a beat. He immediately bit his finger, formed seals, and slammed his palm to the ground.
Summoning Technique!
Normally, runes would spread across the ground, establishing a link between summoner and summoned. But this time—
Boom!
The moment the summoning glyph touched the earth, it exploded violently.
His summoning had failed.
Jiraiya couldn't connect to Mount Myōboku!
He turned his head sharply, tracing the source of interference.
The Lion Majesties—those grotesque snake-lion constructs Orochimaru had summoned—were still encircling the village. A thick, pitch-black mist spewed from their mouths, forming a dome of toxic fog that blanketed the sky. The venomous air flowed upward and into Tian Xin Shen Ji's hands, condensing into a glimmering, dark barrier that sealed the entire battlefield.
The Ten-Thousand Snake Formation.
"Relax," Tian Xin Shen Ji said, hovering high above. Her tone was as sweet as honey. "Little snakes like you aren't worthy of learning Sage Arts. Because of that, I won't attack you directly. I'll just give you a..."
"Test."
Test?
Everyone froze for a moment, confused.
Then she raised her arms.
An emerald orb shimmered between her hands. Her snow-white dress fluttered in the airless sky, and a thousand-foot-long radiant halo spread out behind her. Within the light, a massive spectral snake coiled in and out of view. A soft, seductive fragrance filled the air.
The villagers—those who hadn't yet died—were the first to respond.
Entranced, they stepped forward, breathing deeply. Some cried tears of joy.
They felt no more pain. Their wounds vanished. Their broken bones healed.
Then someone screamed.
"Ah! Wh-what's happening to me?!"
The man looked down in horror—his skin was hardening, turning scaly. Moments later, his clothes fell to the ground, and a large serpent slithered out from within.
Man turned into snake.
"Natural energy?" Logan muttered.
He activated the Ripple, tapping into the subtle pulse of nature's force. The barrier surrounding them was saturated with immense natural energy.
But it wasn't ordinary natural energy.
It was corrupted—transformed by Tian Xin Shen Ji. Unlike the neutral energy Logan had drawn from nature before, this variant was aggressive. It forcibly invaded human bodies, disrupting the balance between chakra and natural energy.
If that balance failed…
The result was grotesque transformation.
"This is how Ryūchi Cave trains its Sage students?" Sasuke gasped. "That's insane!"
Jiraiya narrowed his eyes. "No… even Ryūchi Cave shouldn't be this forceful. You can't just flood a body with natural energy like this. Not without a medium—unless..."
He looked again at the emerald orb in Tian Xin Shen Ji's hands.
Toad Sage had once told him about a fabled artifact—the Sage Art Orb—an ancient relic from Ryūchi Cave refined over thousands of years to manipulate natural energy.
Was this it?
Logan watched silently as the people below turned to snakes, one by one.
This… was the force of nature?
Mount Myōboku used toads.
Ryūchi Cave used snakes.
Did the Wet Bone Forest… turn people into slugs?
He shuddered.
Stone, snake, slug—they were just vessels. What natural energy truly altered was far deeper.
Genes.
Logan raised his left hand, his fingers trembling slightly.
"Come to me," he whispered.
Jiraiya opened his arms and drew natural energy into himself, creating a small purified radius of one meter.
This protected Sasuke—for now.
But it was a losing battle.
Cleansing this corrupted energy consumed too much chakra. Jiraiya wouldn't last long.
And this wasn't a matter of endurance.
This was life and death.
Orochimaru stood tall again. He took a deep breath, savoring the energy around him.
It felt good. Euphoric.
While he couldn't use Senjutsu himself, Orochimaru was an expert in understanding it. His curse mark—its true origin—was based on corrupted Senjutsu chakra.
For this moment, Orochimaru had updated the curse seal.
In Tian Xin Shen Ji's domain, the curse seal didn't just negate harm. It enhanced his ninjutsu, supercharged his regeneration, and made him stronger.
And his enemies?
Anyone not trained in Ryūchi Cave's ways would be crushed by the same energy.
As for Sharingan illusions?
Yes, Orochimaru's resistance to illusion was subpar.
But Tian Xin Shen Ji was the true illusionist here—capable of fighting off even the strongest genjutsu.
This—this—was Orochimaru's grand design.
From the moment he discovered Hope Village, everything was set in motion:
Visiting Ryūchi Cave. Recruiting Tian Xin Shen Ji. Upgrading the curse seal. Hiding Shigeo. Slaughtering civilians.
Every move had been calculated for this exact scenario.
Click.
A sharp crack echoed.
Shigeo—previously burned to a crisp—stood back up, his charred flesh reforming.
The overwhelming natural energy revived him.
Behind Orochimaru stood Jūgo, rotating his shoulders.
And Kimimaro, his body transformed by the second stage of the curse mark, pulled his spine free like a whip.
Orochimaru extended his tongue, licking the blood-stained earth where Logan had struck him earlier.
"Let the experiment begin," he whispered.
pàtreøn (Gk31)