Initial Test of the Earth Curse Mark

Although the village has decided on a strategy focused on peace talks, it has not rushed into initiating this action.

Now, Konoha holds the initiative, and no other country can fight against Konoha alone anymore.

The Land of Fire remained calm and silent, but the Land of Water couldn't hold back any longer. They were the invaders at the start of the war, and if a peace treaty wasn't signed, what would happen if Konoha continued its infiltration and ship-bombing operations?

Therefore, not long after, Kirigakure, which was riddled with internal conflicts, decided not to delay any longer and took the lead in sending envoys to the Land of Fire. The two sides agreed to discuss the peace treaty in the Land of Whirlpools.

The Konoha High Command had been preparing for this for a long time, and having seized control of Kirigakure's weakness, they naturally wanted to maximize their gains.

Since the Land of Water is an island nation, even if they wanted to cede land, Konoha wouldn't accept it. Therefore, the key point lies in the war reparations.

The two sides repeatedly argued over the amount of compensation. The Kirigakure Village demanded the return of the seven Ninja Blade belonging to their village, Konoha stated that they only had six. In any case, they had never seen the Thunder Swords, so how could it be forcibly conjured up?

Regarding the Thunder Swords) incident, the Third Hokage spoke with Shuichi times. At the time, Shuichi reported that Raiga Kurosuki had been severely injured and escaped, but the village didn't think much of it.

The recent battle is still fresh in our minds, where two powerful Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist and many other skilled fighters were swiftly defeated by Shuichi.

Faced with this comparison, Sarutobi Hiruzen naturally realized something was amiss. To escape from the Purple Aurora in a one-on-one fight— Raiga Kurosuki was simply too amazing!

"Did you embezzle the Thunder Swords?" The Third Hokage felt he had seen through the truth. This wicked boy didn't even blink when lying, his tricks coming one after another. "Now is a crucial time for peace talks. At worst, the village will compensate you with some materials later."

Shuichi around and realized that the news about Thunder Swords was about to be exposed. The effect of Flash was too powerful; he wouldn't have used it if it weren't to protect his teammates.

Under normal circumstances, although he is not afraid of those Kirigakure, it will definitely not be an easy fight for him. The Hozuki Clan, with Samehada and the Water Transformation Secret Technique, will be very troublesome unless he reveals his trump card of Twin Pistols.

But he can't just show off his Twin Pistols now, so even if he admits it, he'll have to find a different way to say it.

"Look, this is the Thunder Swords." Shuichi didn't hide anything, taking a Shuriken from his person and handing it to the Third Hokage.

This is Shuriken made of Chakra Metal. I originally planned to use it for Wind Release: Vacuum Blade, but I haven't used it even once. "I melted it down and turned it into all sorts of ninja tools. Anyway, it can't be turned back. What do you want to do with it?"

The Third Hokage accepted it with a sigh, discovering that it was indeed Chakra Metal with excellent conductivity. He hadn't expected that the Thunder Swords had been destroyed by Shuichi. Could he possibly piece together the scattered ninja tools and return them to Kirigakure?

Ultimately, they could only deny the matter of the Thunder Swords, and the Kirigakure Village didn't pursue it for too long afterward, as it seemed unnecessary for Konoha to deliberately hide the Thunder Swords.

If he really wanted to keep something for himself, Samehada and Hiramekarei would obviously be much more precious, so we can only guess that Raiga Kurosuki became missing-nin and went into hiding.

Half a month later, the non-aggression pact between the Land of Fire and the Land of Water was finally signed. The Kirigakure Village would spend a lot of money every year to buy back one or two Ninja Blades, which was a disguised form of war reparations, but it looked much better on the surface.

Having secured the Land of Water, Konoha and Iwagakure have more leverage in their negotiations and are fully capable of demanding the other party's complete withdrawal from the Land of Grass. However, these matters are not of much concern to Shuichi for the time being.

In an underground laboratory not far from Konoha, Mitarashi Anko looked around excitedly, fascinated by the mysterious experimental materials, completely unaware of the dangers involved.

Not long after, footsteps came from outside the door. The person opened the door skillfully and stood waiting at the doorway.

"Teacher, I'm ready, we can leave right away," Shuichi said.

Before Orochimaru could respond, Anko couldn't hold back any longer and shouted angrily, "That wretched Senior Brother! It's one thing that you didn't take me on the mission, but now you're taking Master away too! The war is over, yet you lied to me and said there wasn't time!"

Anko has been spending a lot of time with Orochimaru lately. Besides doing D-rank mission Genin training missions, she spends her free time in the lab.

"Hehe, Shuichi-kun and I have some things to take care of, so you can have fun on your own for now," Orochimaru replied with a smile.

Shuichi and Anko have completely different personalities and styles. He has been precocious, intelligent, and calm since childhood, and Orochimaru talks to him more like a partner.

Anko is an innocent and naive girl who lacks a father's love and seems to rely on Orochimaru as a source of emotional support to fill the void in her heart.

If Shuichi were to comment, he would immediately sense the silliness and sweetness of the two, but as for how sweet they are, only Orochimaru has "tasted" them yet.

After leaving the lab together, the two disappeared into the woods in an instant, under Anko's sullen gaze.

Arriving at a secluded spot, Orochimaru summoned a giant python. The two calmly entered its mouth, and the python vanished from its spot, instantly traversing a vast distance to reach Ryūchi Cave.

Walking on the road leading to Jugo's imprisonment, Shuichi asked curiously, "Sensei, Danzo actually gave you such a long vacation. Isn't he after the power of Wood Release?"

Orochimaru said, "Wood Release isn't easy to master. Research is progressing slowly right now. The balance issue alone is difficult to resolve, so there's no rush. Also, he seems to be planning something recently."

"Arrive!"

This was the second time Shuichi had seen Jugo, and the orange-haired boy had grown up quite a bit.

Correspondingly, his Cursed Seal power will also be enhanced. During the previous war, he was too busy, and even Orochimaru only managed to come once or twice.

After taking samples from him again from all angles, the two set up a temporary laboratory nearby and used this rare free time to conduct research.

Several years have passed since they discovered Jugo. Although Orochimaru has been busy with various missions due to the approaching Third Shinobi War, he has still made some progress in his research on the Cursed Seal Orochimaru. Enemies captured alive during the war can be used for experiments.

"The essence of Jugo's Sage Transformation lies in this." Orochimaru skillfully extracted a certain substance from his flesh and blood, and used the research results to create a vial of liquid. "He possesses a special enzyme within his body that unconsciously absorbs Natural Energy to enhance cellular activity, thereby catalyzing the transformation of his physical body."

Shuichi moment. According to his understanding, the Cursed Seal was a degraded version of the Ryūchi Cave Senjutsu. It forced the body's constitution to allow Natural Energy to enter the body, and was a passive Sage Mode.

Sage Mode demands an incredibly high level of skill from the user, requiring both a massive amount of chakra and exceptional control. The difficulty can be inferred from Jiraiya's training results; even after more than 30 years of practice, he still had so many shortcomings. Ordinary ninjas should probably forget about even trying.

After obtaining the source of the Cursed Seal, Shuichi and Orochimaru studied the characteristics of Sage Mode in detail.

The process involves absorbing Natural Energy into the body and creating Senjutsu Chakra in a fixed ratio.

According to Shuichi's own understanding, the first step at the beginning is somewhat like opening the Heaven and Earth Gate in a fantasy novel, which greatly increases the speed at which the human body absorbs energy.

Ninjas who can use chakra are actually Natural Energy converters. However, the normal human body has a self-protection mechanism that breaks this process down into several steps. They increase physical and Mental Energy through eating, breathing, and sleeping, and then use Chakra Extraction Technique to create chakra.

In Sage Mode, these processes are skipped entirely, allowing the body to directly absorb Natural Energy.

The human body needs a certain amount of time to transform Natural Energy into Life Energy and Mental Energy. The amount of Life Energy can be seen as the size of the "stomach," while Mental Energy can control the speed of digestion, and so on.

Therefore, for someone with a small amount of chakra, being able to easily sense Natural Energy is actually a bad thing; they could easily overindulge and die if they're not careful.

Jugo's Cursed Seal transformation is somewhat different from the orthodox Sage Mode. His body automatically absorbs a fixed amount of Natural Energy, acting as both an absorber and a filter. Currently, he only transforms into a Sage Mode in areas with abundant Natural Energy.

"Have you thought it through? Do you really want to try it?" Orochimaru asked, looking at him.

"Of course, let's go try it out!" Shuichi said casually.

If we were to name Orochimaru's research findings now, we could say it's Earth Curse Mark 1.0. They plan to personally test its effectiveness, as they've never been able to find a test subject as good as Shuichi before.

Talents like Anko's are practically impossible to find in war; most people are of average ability, let alone someone as strong as Shuichi.

Of course, Shuichi's confidence also stemmed from his extensive understanding of the Cursed Seal.

The Sound Four using the Cursed Seal for too long would cause them to lose themselves, because they were far from qualified to train in the proper Sage Mode. Their potential was at most that of Special Jonin, so using the degraded version of Ryūchi Cave Sage Mode (Cursed Seal) would have side effects.

Shuichi had a clear assessment of his own situation. The original owner's physical attributes were probably slightly inferior to Kakashi's, but after training in Explosion Release and Magnet Release, he surpassed him by a large margin.

With the system's passive ability and first skill multiplying it by 3, his Life Energy is at least 6 to 7 times that of Kakashi. Adding his recovery ability and massive Mental Energy, his total chakra is likely close to 10 chakras, which is at least 6 chakras in adult form.

His foundation is simply too good, and his chakra control is even more abnormal. Even if he directly trains Sage Mode now, his potential will far surpass Jiraiya's. This kind of low-level Cursed Seal is just a piece of cake for him.

After agreeing on their plan, the two left the laboratory and found a spot in the forest far from the Libra Clan's village. Orochimaru had been studying the Cursed Seal for a long time, so he was sure he could sense where there was more Natural Energy.

"Be careful, you might feel uncomfortable at first." Orochimaru filled a syringe with a special research solution and then injected it directly into Shuichi's left deltoid muscle.

When Shuichi received the Earth Curse Mark, he felt intense pain in that area, and even with his strong will, he frowned slightly.

Having been Orochimaru and disciple for so many years, they knew each other's backgrounds quite well.

Orochimaru's Ryūchi Cave Scroll is a family heirloom. His ancestors were experts in using snakes in battle during the Warring States Period. In order to control various snakes at will, his father and his ancestors had a tradition of injecting snake blood into themselves, usually choosing snake kings.

Orochimaru chose a noble White Snake, which was explained in his past life memories as a snake with albinism, but that's definitely not the case in the Naruto World. Shuichi knows that the leader of Ryūchi Cave is the White Snake Sage.

Therefore, Orochimaru's advanced Snake Ninjutsu is unusable by others. Generally, contractors can only summon a small number of snakes to control them, and cannot use large-scale techniques.

Perhaps those Little White Snake have a special relationship with the boss of Ryūchi Cave, and their serum will have a special effect on the Cursed Seal. Shuichi doesn't know the details, but he guesses that it may help control or regulate Natural Energy, just like Gamkichi in the original work can spit out oil containing Natural Energy.

Shuichi quickly felt a large amount of energy surging into his left hand. The concentration of Natural Energy here was quite high. Jugo come, he would probably have gone berserk. Therefore, the Earth Curse Mark immediately took effect.

"Wow, I've gotten darker!"

His arms were instantly covered in black spots, and he felt a strange sensation on half of his body. He even took out a mirror he had prepared to look at his face.

"As expected, this is too easy for me." Given the environment here, the efficiency of absorbing Natural Energy is at its maximum. Shuichi found that a third of his face was covered by the Cursed Seal, but his eyes had not changed.

This indicates that he hasn't even reached the state of the first Cursed Seal in the original story. Compared to those test subjects, his strength is far too great, allowing him to withstand such a level of power with ease.

"Let's test the effect!" Seeing that he was alright, Orochimaru immediately proceeded with the next step of the experiment according to the plan. The two intended to test how much Sage Mode would enhance their strength.

"OK!" Shuichi's hands Hand Seals. "Wind Release: Vacuum Wave!"

Several Wind Blade, each ten meters long, shot out from his mouth, slicing through the thick trees around him like tofu. The area directly in front of him was cleared out, and after the rumbling subsided, the view became bright again without the shade of the trees.

Shuichi lowered his head in thought, and after comparing the results with previous uses, gave his answer, "The improvement is less than 30%."

Orochimaru was somewhat surprised upon hearing this, "So low?"

Although it looks incredibly powerful, it's actually because Shuichi himself is very strong. Without using the Cursed Seal, he can achieve the same effect by simply increasing his chakra output.

"I'll try some others."

Shuichi controlled the Senjutsu Chakra created by the Cursed Seal with all his might. It was very easy for him. He quickly kneaded out two ordinary lumps of clay, which looked a little darker than usual.

He casually tossed it a distance away, then detonated it with a single hand Hand Seals, "Boom!"

The smoke and dust from the explosion rushed towards the two of them, clearly demonstrating its formidable power. Shuichi spoke up, saying, "The Explosion Release technique is more effective, increasing the power by over 40%, and..."

After releasing the Explosive Clay, the black markings on his body immediately faded. He was somewhat speechless. "The Senjutsu Chakra created by the Cursed Seal just now was exhausted; I need some time to replenish it."

After a while, the Natural Energy entered his body again, and the patterns of the Cursed Seal covered half of his body once more. He began to experiment with other escape techniques, while Orochimaru took notes.

After several tests, Shuichi used all his chakra to push the Cursed Seal outwards. Orochimaru then produced a White Snake from his sleeve, which bit his arm and quickly absorbed the Earth Curse Mark.