Hakuja smiled as she spoke. -Nothing, I'm just going to bite you. You'll receive some of my genes and a lot of natural energy. Unlike your transformed state, this energy won't just stay in your flesh, so you need to work to absorb the natural energy into your chakra and balance it. Of course, your body will probably fight you for it, so you'll have even more work than usual.
-Although I don't think you'll die because of this body, I have no idea what kind of reaction it will cause. Are you sure you want to continue?- Hakuja asked curiously.
Jugo found it interesting that natural energy remained in his flesh. He wondered why his chakra was constantly replenished if that were the case, but thinking about it, he could extract chakra from his body. So what was happening now was that his body was absorbing natural energy and recovering while he extracted chakra from his body, thus becoming an infinite chakra battery.
But while some of his chakra mixed with the body's natural energy as he used it, making it stronger, it was still far from true sage chakra.
Shaking his head, he moved closer to the snake, gazing at it silently, pulling his shirt over his shoulder and exposing his strong, bare chest.
Hakuja didn't need further confirmation from Manda, who expected Jugo to die, but without daring to attack, Jugo was bitten on the neck.
The next moment, Jugo felt a slight pain, then natural energy stirred within his body, what had previously nourished his body now flowed directly to his chakra. Jugo fell to his knees, sweating profusely.
His body quickly entered a state of complete curse, but it didn't stop there. The next moment, Jugo's brown skin began to turn white and scaly while his pupils sharpened in a reptilian way.
On his back, a thin tail began to grow from his spine.
Jugo didn't care about the external changes, but used Bind with all his might, containing this foreign energy, his chakra mixing with natural energy, but at the same time his own body was fighting with him for control of the energy.
It was like trying to catch sand with a sieve, he had to catch the right amount while the sand continued to trickle down. He needed to balance the inflow and outflow instead of just adjusting the quantity.
The difficulty increased exponentially.
If he didn't have the Bind and his soul wasn't enhanced to the level of a Saint, he would have already turned into a complete snake.
From his neck, the white, scaly flesh continued to spread rapidly, Jugo felt his whole body ache, his chakra rebelling.
But at that moment, his calmness only increased, searching for solutions, he made a choice. The next moment, Jugo's body began to change as he transformed into a Wraith.
His body became incorporeal, before the astonished eyes of the two snakes, but not invisible.
At that moment, his body stopped fighting against him, Jugo transformed into a spiritual form, natural energy continued to flow in, but there was no longer the physical factor to compete with it.
He not only transformed into Wraith, but applied the puppet effect to increase control over his spiritual body. In this form, Jugo hadn't truly lost his physical aspect, but had merged both body and soul, making it even easier to mix his physical and spiritual energy, as if they had been one from the beginning, now only natural energy remained.
Taking a deep breath, he began to blend his chakra with natural energy.
The perfect proportion, he needed to feel it, but now his body couldn't turn into a snake, he managed to work with it slowly.
Half an hour, one hour, two hours... three days, five days... ten days, twelve days...
Manda had left a long time ago, but Hakuja Sennin did not, watching Jugo for several days with evident curiosity.
It was only on the twelfth day that a change occurred.
Jugo's incorporeal body slowly returned to normal, his physical form still half-transformed into a snake in its cursed state. For a moment, the propagation returned, but the next moment, the white scales began to retract as Jugo's skin slowly faded from its brownish-gray color to its normal skin tone.
With his eyes still closed, Jugo seemed serene, the changes in his body slowly reverting to his normal physical form, but the impulse emanating from his body did not diminish, but rather increased.
His skin grew paler, but around his eyes, a purple tattoo like Orochimaru's appeared. When Jugo opened his eyes, the black sclera had vanished, only a pair of vertical pupils above orange irises remained.
Furthermore, on its forehead, two pairs of white horns had formed, pointing backward.
Jugo looked at his own body with a satisfied smile, the curse that had plagued him since he arrived in this world no longer existed. Everything had culminated in this current form. Jugo could remain in this form indefinitely, something Yamaru had failed to achieve. His body had completely merged with Hakuja's poison and assimilated it.
He appears to have weakened, but he still possesses all the powers of his previous form. The only difference is that there are no more mood swings, no more strong or weak modes, his current chakra doesn't even need to be balanced by him.
Just as a ninja learn to transforms spiritual and physical energy into chakra automatically, his body now produces sage chakra on its own, as if he were born to do so.
His previous form was flawed, his current state was what Yamaru should have achieved.
It is very likely that his Otsutsuki lineage merged with the senjutsu chakra of the Snake Sage, what he currently possesses is something entirely new.
The next moment, his narrow eyes returned to normal, the purple tattoo vanished from his face and the horns on his head slowly diminished until they disappeared. It wasn't that he had switched off Sage Mode, but now his control over his body was tremendous, changing his appearance was very simple.
The current Jugo doesn't seem any different from when he arrived, but in terms of strength, even if he loses the way of the Chained One now, he dares to face Hashirama at his peak head-on.
Hakuja sensed the change in Jugo and his eyes widened in shock. He couldn't believe what she was seeing. Jugo was now the same as her. Something that had taken her hundreds of years to achieve had been quickly attained by Jugo, perhaps even more perfect than her own.
Jugo took a deep breath and turned to Hakuja Sennin. - Now teach me the sage arts of the Ryuchi Cave.
//-//
In Ryuchi Cave, two days later, Jugo was only wearing pants as he faced Manda head-on. Several white snakes emerged from Jugo's body, hissing and looking around, while Jugo's eyes were sealed, covered by a dark film completely obscuring his vision. At that moment, the giant snake lunged at him.
Jugo threw himself to the side, despite its size, the snake's speed was tremendous. Jugo sensed Manda's chakra without even using his eyes, and besides, the sense of the snakes emanating from him was shared with him.
Sliding along the side, Jugo placed his hand on the ground, the earth moved as if it were alive, giant earth spikes surged towards Manda, the snake roared in pain as it was hurled away.
The next moment, one of the snakes connected to Jugo began to grow rapidly as it lunged toward Manda. The snake detached itself from Jugo and became as large as Manda in the blink of an eye.
Manda roared as it adjusted itself to bite the snake's neck. Jugo sped toward the ceiling, placing his hands on the rocky ceiling. A large spike formed right above Manda, separating from the wall. Jugo stood on the spike, then kicked it with both feet, directly into Manda's head.
With a nauseating sound, Manda's open mouth was impaled against the ground, the spike tearing a large hole in its jaw, pinning the snake to the ground.
Manda's body convulsed in pain, thrashing about.
Jugo smiled as he calmly fell onto the spike, the snakes around him were sucked back into his body, the giant snake that had detached itself also shrunk before being sucked back into him.
Jugo placed his hand on the spike and the stone was quickly pulled away like a liquid. Jugo threw it aside and looked at the large hole in the snake's mouth. Manda was extremely unhappy, but he didn't dare move or fight.
Looking at Jugo with eyes pleading for mercy.
Jugo placed his hand on the snake's grotesque wound, and his chakra quickly took on a deep green glow, visible to the naked eye. The wound shrank until, within half a minute, the snake's mouth was perfectly normal.
Manda moved her jaw slightly, relieved, feeling that serving Jugo wasn't so bad after all.
From the shadows, Hakuja Sennin spoke. - You have learned what you needed to, you can leave now.
Jugo smiled, unconcerned by the snake's clear desire to get rid of its guests.
Patting the snake on the head, he looked at Hakuja Sennin and said. -Thank you for your help.
The next moment, his body transformed into Wraith as he teleported away.
Manda stood up slightly, pressing her mouth harder this time, saw that it was perfectly fine, glanced at Hakuja and quickly slid away.
Hakuja didn't care about Manda's disrespect, snakes were like that. She let out a deep sigh before returning to her "bed", one last sentence escaping her old snake mouth. - It's not my problem.