Chapter 16: Yuto's Guess
In the second stage of the Cursed Seal, the Sound Four's appearances transformed completely. Though their looks became hideous, their strength grew far greater.
Perhaps due to the seal's influence combined with the sudden surge in power, violent intent flickered in their eyes as they stared at Yuto.
Killing intent poured out from all four of them, spreading heavily into the air.
"Oh?"
Sensing their hostility, Yuto arched an eyebrow.
He lightly tapped his foot against the ground, and in the next instant, his body flashed forward like teleportation, appearing right in front of the fat one, Jirōbō.
Before Jirōbō could react, Yuto's finger had already pressed against his forehead.
It was as if Jirōbō had been struck by an unimaginable force. His entire body collapsed to his knees, smashing the ground beneath him into a pit half a meter deep.
At the same time, the cursed seal on his body rapidly receded. In just a blink, Jirōbō reverted to his normal form and collapsed unconscious.
Yuto's figure blurred again. Using the same method, he subdued the remaining three in turn.
They had no power to resist. Though it was only a single finger, in their eyes it seemed like an insurmountable wall of fate.
When it was over, four craters scarred the earth. Yuto was once more standing in the spot where he had begun.
"I'm sensitive to killing intent. In my era, revealing it meant a fight to the death. But, for your sake, I'll let it slide."
Yuto spoke with a hearty tone as he looked at Orochimaru, almost like an elder indulging a junior, as though he held high expectations for him.
Orochimaru's eyelids twitched fiercely. He forced a stiff smile onto his face, but in the next instant his expression froze. He muttered under his breath:
"The signal… it's gone?"
With a Body Flicker, he appeared beside the unconscious Sound Four.
He crouched down, grabbing Jirōbō's neck and turning it to check. Orochimaru's eyes widened when he saw that the cursed seal once engraved there had vanished completely.
He quickly moved, checking the other three in turn. Each of their necks showed the same result—their seals were gone.
"Cursed Seals…"
His eyes were filled with disbelief. Until now, nothing had ever been able to erase the seals. At most, they could only be suppressed by sealing techniques.
And even then, if the host's emotions spiked, the seal's power could easily break free.
"The seal you're talking about? I absorbed it. Rather than calling it a cursed seal, there's another name for that power—Sage Transformation. This kind of energy is indeed a rather fine type of chakra."
At some point, Yuto was already standing behind Orochimaru, his voice quiet as he spoke.
Sage Transformation and Sage Mode were two entirely different powers. Sage Transformation leaned more toward physical augmentation, like the ability possessed by Jūgo.
Orochimaru stiffly turned his head toward Yuto. He still had not realized when Yuto had appeared behind him.
A flicker of deep dread crossed Orochimaru's eyes. This man had devoured the curse mark chakra of four people, yet nothing had happened to him.
For an ordinary person, such a thing was simply impossible.
"The cursed seal is indeed not bad, but compared to Sage Mode, it still falls far short."
Yuto spoke softly to himself.
In the next moment, a cold, sinister aura rose from his body.
This aura was identical to the violent chakra that the Sound Four had unleashed earlier.
Terumi Mei's expression changed, thinking Yuto had suffered some problem after consuming that chakra.
But in Orochimaru's eyes, a trace of delight appeared. As expected—recklessly swallowing four people's worth of curse mark chakra should have caused issues.
Yet when he looked closer at Yuto, he realized Yuto's body showed no signs of change at all.
No—
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes slightly. He noticed a small black rhombus mark had appeared at the center of Yuto's forehead, resembling the mark Tsunade bore before releasing her Yin Seal.
Yuto clenched his fists. Compared to other aspects, the curse mark state did grant a greater boost to raw power.
Then what about Sage Mode?
With a thought, Yuto let the cursed seal chakra recede.
Before the stunned gazes of Terumi Mei, Ao, and Orochimaru, a calm yet overwhelmingly dominant chakra surged from his body.
The black rhombus mark on his forehead shifted into a circular shape.
Unlike the curse mark, which mainly magnified physical strength, the chakra of Sage Mode elevated Yuto's overall abilities. Yet in terms of raw power, it was less potent than the cursed seal.
This Sage chakra was what Yuto had absorbed during his battle with Hashirama.
Even up to the time he had been sealed, that chakra had remained stored within him, unused.
Yuto's eyes gleamed. This was the very thing he had wanted to confirm.
At present, three types of chakra existed within his body: his own, the newly acquired cursed seal chakra, and the Sage Mode chakra.
From this experiment, Yuto had verified his suspicion.
The Black King's ability not only allowed him to absorb others' energy but also to convert it into whatever form of energy he required. This was something he had not given much thought to before.
In earlier battles, the chakra he absorbed had been nothing but ordinary chakra, which needed no conversion.
Now, though his reserves of Sage and cursed seal chakra were small—just a few jutsu would exhaust them—he could simply convert his own chakra into these forms.
If successful, Yuto would effectively gain mastery of both Sage Mode and the cursed seal state.
In the past, he had relied mostly on the Black King's energy absorption and release. But now, with these two modes in hand, his strength could be pushed to yet another level.
"To be able to switch my body's energy form at will… how about calling it Black King Mode?"
Yuto touched his chin and murmured to himself.
(End of Chapter)
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