Orochimaru had created a Sage Art that belonged to humans.
It was a shocking thing, and they knew exactly what it represented.
The key reason Sage Art was so difficult to cultivate, and so risky, was that Sage Art was not a human method!
Because of that, even if someone succeeded in practicing it, it came with many flaws, such as difficulty activating it, a short duration, and so on.
The proof of the opposite was the Sage Art of the toads of Mount Myoboku. The concept of Sage Mode did not exist for them. They could use Sage Art at any time, and the amount depended on the Chakra they possessed.
That was worlds apart from humans. It was not that no one had ever thought of researching a Sage Art that belonged to humans themselves, but all of them had ended in failure.
Before Orochimaru, the ones who had come closest were the Iburi Clan. However, they could not control the violent Natural Energy. After them came Hashirama, who was extremely perfect.
Unfortunately, Hashirama's was still Sage Mode, not Sage Art, and it was based on the high-purity sage body he possessed. It held no value as a reference.
But what Orochimaru was using right now was not Sage Mode, but Sage Art!
The purple eyeshadow was only a feature that appeared when he activated Sage Art. This could only mean that Orochimaru had not yet mastered his Sage Art perfectly. Once he perfected it in the future, the eyeshadow would fade away as well.
Elsewhere, just as everyone was shocked by Orochimaru's Sage Art, the Uchiha and Hyuga also took action.
Boom!
Controlling his Susanoo to smash apart the mountain wall on one side, making falling rocks block the road, Taichi glanced back at the clansmen passing