To survive this near-certain death trap and continue the fight, Ren Uchiha did not have many options.
Facing multiple counts of Wind Style: Blade of Wind—an A-Rank technique that achieved such high-level shape transformation it almost ignored elemental weaknesses—Ren had only one card left to play. He unleashed his strongest Fire Style: Chakra Mode.
Using the same method as his Flame Fist form, he poured his entire chakra reserve into the Kusanagi Sword, compressing it tighter and tighter. Finally, he forged the brilliant, incandescent blade that shone like a miniature sun.
By highly concentrating fire-natured chakra and using the Kusanagi as a vessel for transformation, the sword gained the power to cleave through the wind blades.
But this move was pure madness.
Ren was currently in his Cursed Seal state. Inside him, his original chakra and the Ryuchi Cave natural energy—which was relentlessly reconstructing his body—were locked in a delicate, mutual restraint.
By draining every drop of his own chakra to gain this power, he was effectively surrendering his entire body to the natural energy of Ryuchi Cave.
Even when his chakra was present, this energy had already begun forcibly rewriting his genes, altering his eyes and legs. One by one, serpentine traits were manifesting: infrared sensing, scale armor, serpentine flexibility, and the lethal speed of a Black Mamba.
His original chakra was the final boundary preventing him from turning completely into a snake.
And now, Ren Uchiha had simply thrown that boundary away!
If Orochimaru were here, even he would have been left speechless by such a reckless gamble.
But to Ren, it didn't matter in the slightest. He wasn't even afraid of death; why should he fear becoming a snake?
Lying in the sand, his entire body was screaming in agony. Looking at the deluge of wind blades falling from the sky, his left hand gripped the sun-bright blade with a death grip.
He didn't even have the strength left to stand and swing. He had staked everything on this table.
Ren's vision trembled, his crimson snake-eyes staring at the incoming storm. With his last shred of strength, he ground his teeth and pulled the blade back.
He pressed the white-hot edge against his own throat, right over the Cursed Seal.
It looked as if he were about to commit suicide.
The searing heat of the blade instantly scorched his skin, revealing the fine white scales hidden just beneath the surface of his neck.
Then, Ren roared at himself in a voice filled with madness:
"NOW! RIGHT NOW!"
"CURSED SEAL OF HEAVEN!"
"GIVE ME POWER!!"
"Give me the power to slay my enemies, to break this deadlock, to carry the weight of my future and my dreams!"
"I don't care if it's good or evil! I don't care about the cost!"
"Even if I turn into a crawling reptile... I DON'T CARE!"
"DO YOU HEAR ME? IF IT'S POWER, HAND IT ALL OVER TO ME! HRAAAAAAAAGH!"
As Ren's manic voice faded, a spectral, eerie green light suddenly ignited from the source of the Cursed Seal!
The scales on his neck burst open, and a small white snake slithered out. The snake unhinged its jaw, and a pale, black-haired youth struggled to crawl out from within.
Then, Orochimaru's raspy voice—filled with shock and breathless disbelief—rang out:
"Ren Uchiha... what have you done?!"
At that same moment, deep within one of the legendary Three Great Sage Regions, Ryuchi Cave...
Perched upon a throne beneath a Buddha statue sat a colossal white snake that had lived for over a millennium. Her scales shimmered with an ancient light. She wore a green cat's eye stone on her chest and a purple silk ribbon as a forehead protector, adorned with green horn-like ornaments. She held a long pipe in her mouth, and her body was as long as a bridge spanning a great river.
This was the mistress of Ryuchi Cave, the one the world revered as a Sage: The White Snake Sage.
The Sage spent most of her time sleeping. Everything that happened in the ninja world eventually reached her ears, and the constant noise usually annoyed her.
But just now...
"GIVE ME POWER!"
"DO YOU HEAR ME? IF IT'S POWER, HAND IT ALL OVER TO ME! HRAAAAAAAAGH!"
The clear, furious roar of a youth pierced through her dreams and echoed in her mind. The White Snake Sage snapped her eyes open, revealing brilliant, golden serpentine pupils.
Her expression was one of pure shock.
"Hell... how is this possible?"
"Someone outside of Ryuchi Cave has mastered the Ryuchi Cave Sage Mode?!"
Only the voice of a human with the "Potential of a Sage" could break into her slumber. It was a threshold she had set for her own rest. Every human who mastered her Sage Mode was a fine pawn to be toyed with.
But this voice...
The Sage lifted her massive head, her gaze piercing through the mists between worlds to look upon the mortal realm. She saw Ren Uchiha, roaring in the desert of the Land of Wind.
When she saw the chaotic, mangled mess of his internal physical structure, she hissed.
"Hiss!!!"
A drop of sweat the size of a bus rolled down the Sage's forehead. What kind of freakish thing was she looking at?
She remembered a little brat who had come seeking immortality once saying that if you live long enough, you see interesting things. But this? This wasn't "interesting."
This was a "Child of God" the likes of which Ryuchi Cave had never seen in thousands of years!
So openly accepting natural energy! So calmly embracing the twisted evolution of his life form! So boldly reaching out to her for the path to ascend from snake to dragon!
He looked like a deity of myth stepping into reality.
The White Snake Sage's pupils constricted into needles. In her thousands of years, she had seen many madmen seeking power.
But she had never seen a human this insane.
The natural energy wasn't going berserk in his body; instead, it was being subjugated by his cells—cells that craved battle at every waking moment! It granted him one superhuman ability after another, forcibly propping up his body through this extreme combat.
At this rate, the boy was practically sacrificing himself to provide his own power.
However, the natural energy currently in him was too thin to support a complete transcendence. Yet the boy possessed such talent! A conviction that surpassed the will of anyone who had ever sought power in Ryuchi Cave!
The conviction of "I don't care if I'm not human anymore."
This was exactly the "Snake that becomes a Dragon" Ryuchi Cave had been searching for!
"Hiss... No, this child has the potential to truly 'ascend'—to reach the shore that no one in Ryuchi Cave has reached in millennia!"
"I CANNOT LET HIM DIE!"
The Sage watched as Ren was about to be pulverized. Her body trembled with such intensity that all of Ryuchi Cave began to shake. She lifted her head and violently tore the green cat's eye stone—the 'Jade'—from her neck.
She roared through the temple:
"Tagitsuhime! Tagiri! Ichikishima!"
"You three brats, where are you?!"
"Quickly! Deliver the 'Jade' to him immediately!"