I Have a Bunch of Relatives Who Want to Be Hokage Chapter 35

"Black." A voice came from beside her.

Manda's eyes widened.

[Dammit! This guy actually had his eye on my wife!?]

"Then I'll call you Little Black." Uchiha Shingen was quite satisfied. Though she was female, this giant serpent was stronger than Manda.

And Manda was a bootlicking snake.

Orochimaru had not yet defected. What if he decided to clash with the Uchiha before defecting? It was not an impossible scenario.

You summoned Manda, so I'll summon Manda's wife.

Uchiha Obito's move against the Nine-Tails was probably imminent. He would definitely make a move. Shingen absolutely would not allow a repeat of the Nine-Tails wrecking the village while the Uchiha Clan was assigned by the Hokage Building to the rear to resettle civilians.

The Uchiha had to be present on the front lines. Let the Hokage Building make all the arrangements it wanted—he would not listen anyway.

Previously, he had acted to keep others from learning his secrets, but circumstances changed. Now was the time to display his strength.

"Understood, Lord Shingen." The female giant serpent named Black Snake remained very calm.

"Black Snake stays. The rest of you, disperse." The White Snake Sage spoke.

The giant serpents obediently dispersed one by one, Manda included.

In Dragon Cave, no snake dared disobey the White Snake Sage's orders.

"Then, Uchiha Shingen, this old one shall teach you Dragon Cave Sage Arts." The White Snake Sage swayed her head.

"Please enlighten me, Sage." Uchiha Shingen asked sincerely.

"Sage Arts share common principles, but they also differ. Dragon Cave represents all physical forms." The White Snake Sage entered teaching mode. "All things in this world can exist in the form of life. Drawing upon the power of the earth and integrating sage arts into oneself is the method of cultivating Dragon Cave Sage Arts..."

Uchiha Shingen sat down where he was, while Black Snake coiled herself nearby.

Under the White Snake Sage's personal instruction, Uchiha Shingen began learning Dragon Cave Sage Arts.

The White Snake Sage's teaching was comprehensive, yet concise.

Using one's mental energy, physical energy, and the natural energy of the outside world to create chakra, then using it to perform techniques or moves—this was called sage arts.

Sage Arts had common principles, and Dragon Cave had its own Sage Mode.

Ninjutsu, taijutsu, and even genjutsu used in Sage Mode would be greatly enhanced. On the surface, the only differences among the sage art inheritances of the three great sacred lands were the physiological changes after entering Sage Mode. Yet they also shared common traits, such as greatly heightened sensory abilities.

The first time anyone entered Sage Mode, they would find it difficult to adapt.

For example, it was like Superman in DC when he had first awakened his powers—nothing felt right.

"So this was how Clark Kent felt..." By the time Uchiha Shingen stood again, he had already entered Sage Mode.

"Clark Kent? Who is that?" The White Snake Sage searched her memories but did not know the man.

She was not as old as the Great Toad Sage, so she was rather confident in her memory. She would not forget anyone she had seen through her crystal ball.

"A saint," Uchiha Shingen answered. "A rather miserable one."

"Oh..." The White Snake Sage immediately lost interest. "This old one knows nothing of saints. I only know the benefits of being a sage."

Without continuing the subject, Uchiha Shingen drew his short sword and used its blade to inspect his reflection.

Eyeshadow had appeared at the corners of his eyes. Its shape was similar to Orochimaru's, but covered a far smaller area—more like simple outlining.

His skin had not turned deathly pale, either.

He opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue. Good, it was still the same as before.

Very good. No disfigurement, and no licking freak look either.

In the original timeline, Kabuto should have been the only person in recent decades to successfully master Dragon Cave Sage Mode. However, because he had transplanted Orochimaru's cells, he had turned himself into something like a bioengineered human from the very beginning.

Otherwise, normal Dragon Cave Sage Mode would not look like that.

Because once someone displayed snake-like physiological traits, the White Snake Sage would consider them a failure and swallow them whole with a single bite.

Uchiha Shingen had originally thought he would end up with heavy eyeshadow, pale skin, and an absurdly long tongue. If that happened, he could grow his hair out and pretend to be Orochimaru without even needing a Transformation Technique.

That would not do.

"By the way, Sage." Uchiha Shingen suddenly thought of something and voiced his doubt. "Did Orochimaru also cultivate Sage Mode here?"

He had never once seen Orochimaru use it.

"Oh... Orochimaru." The White Snake Sage first coiled herself into a different position before speaking. "Because of issues with his body, although he can integrate sage arts into himself, he cannot use Sage Mode. That still counts as success, I suppose."

"I see." Uchiha Shingen understood at once.

No wonder Orochimaru's physique was so absurdly powerful. He had likely strengthened his body with sage arts over many years, and combined with his own research, that was how he had created his later immortal body.

Thinking of how he would place cursed seals on people in the future with one bite after another, along with his deft skin-shedding skills, he was the very image of Dragon Cave.

The only thing Orochimaru currently showed others was the Snake Style Substitution Technique.

In truth, calling it a sacrificial substitute technique would be more fitting. Its ability to gather intelligence on enemy ninjutsu during battle was unmatched.

As the saying went, what one learned from books always remained shallow; to truly understand something, one had to experience it firsthand. Only Orochimaru had achieved that.

Killing someone outright worked better than talking. Die once, and you'd understand everything.

"Did you learn that Snake Style Substitution Technique from the Sage?" Uchiha Shingen asked.

"Uchiha Shingen, do you take this place for Mount Myoboku?" the White Snake Sage said unhappily.

Mount Myoboku was far more renowned than Dragon Cave, and the White Snake Sage did have some opinions about that.

Without so much takeout, life became boring.

"Very well, then this old woman shall tell you about the differences between Dragon Cave, Mount Myoboku, and Wet Bone Forest," said the White Snake Sage.

The three Great Sages knew each other inside out. Naturally, they would not casually tell outsiders about such things, but it was different for a successor of Dragon Cave.

Just as chakra had nature transformations.

Senjutsu also had its own "nature."

It could be divided into three types: form, spirit, and essence.

Dragon Cave senjutsu corresponded to the physical form of life. Externally, it could make all matter move as though alive—for example, making stones writhe and grow like living creatures. Internally, it granted one's body extraordinary vitality. Its more common effects included certain physiological abilities unique to great snakes, but Dragon Cave senjutsu had to be performed based on the user's original ninjutsu system.

Its advantage was that senjutsu could be integrated into one's body, strengthening physical energy over long periods and bringing out its greatest effect. Its fatal weakness was insufficient resistance to genjutsu: form without spirit. For an Uchiha cultivating Dragon Cave Sage Mode, however, that weakness did not matter much.

Mount Myoboku senjutsu was diverse and came in countless techniques. Its weakness was that the senjutsu itself could not be integrated into the body, and could only be used as an on-the-spot enhancement. The preparation time was somewhat long, but Sage Mode itself had no fatal flaws and possessed extremely strong resistance to genjutsu.

The strengths and weaknesses of those two happened to correspond perfectly.

The most mysterious Wet Bone Forest corresponded to force and quantity, enormity and infinity. From that perspective, Senju Hashirama's Sage Mode was probably from Wet Bone Forest, rather than the fourth party Uchiha Shingen had assumed.

Still, the Snake Style Substitution Technique could now be confirmed as Orochimaru's own invention.

The greatest inventor in the ninja world truly lived up to his name.

Uchiha Shingen felt regretful. He really did covet that life-substitution technique.

But then again, life needed regrets to feel real.

"Now that you've explained it, I understand." Uchiha Shingen continued experiencing the sensation of activating Sage Mode. "But why does it feel like the consumption is a little high?"

He had to continuously gather chakra to maintain Sage Mode, all while steadily consuming the natural energy the White Snake Sage had previously injected into him.

"This is the last thing this old woman will teach you: how to obtain natural energy from the earth." The White Snake Sage exhaled a puff of smoke. This student encountered no obstacles in learning, which was terribly boring. She could only pass the time with stories.

"Once you can obtain natural energy from the earth by yourself, Dragon Cave will have nothing more to teach you." The White Snake Sage paused, seeming somewhat dissatisfied. "Have you truly undergone no other changes?"

No other changes at all? This old woman did not believe it. Better let this old woman take a bite—without swallowing him, of course.

"Right, I haven't tried using my Sharingan yet." Uchiha Shingen remembered.

As his ocular power circulated, both his eyes transformed in an instant.

Uchiha Shingen stared at his reflection on the blade and sank into thought.

Reflected on the blade was a pair of Sharingan whose colors had changed.

What the hell, why did my eyes turn such a tacky color?

He had thought he could escape it, but his looks had ultimately fallen victim to Sage Mode.

Fortunately, they were not the shit-yellow color of the great snakes. They were in the same color family as Little Black.

So should they be called golden?

Why did Sharingan have to be red? And such an especially discordant scarlet at that?

The Uchiha throughout history might have considered that question, but now, only outsiders would take an interest in it.

The more common explanation was that the Uchiha Clan had been cursed.

Whenever there was no answer, just blame a curse and be done with it.

Meanwhile, the rivals who did not get along with the Uchiha Clan preferred to say that the Uchiha Clan was inherently evil.

Gradually, everyone overlooked the fact that most members of the Uchiha Clan would never awaken their eyes in their entire lives, and those people were no different from anyone else. If you did not see their clothes, you would not even notice that their surname was Uchiha.

Yet ninjas still formed fixed impressions of the Uchiha Clan because of that tiny group of Uchiha who had awakened the Sharingan.

And the Sharingan users did not care in the slightest. Their immense pride in their bloodline, combined with their inherited lack of expressive ability, easily came across to outsiders as "looking down on people" or "what's so great about you?" and the like.

But one thing was undeniable: the Sharingan's color was definitely related to the Uchiha Clan's unusual chakra, and senjutsu chakra was still chakra in essence.

And Uchiha Shingen's first Sage Mode had, in principle, used the White Snake Sage's power.

So it seemed perfectly normal that his eyes had been colored by it.

Thus, Uchiha Shingen quickly stopped caring. What the version he developed himself would look like could only be known after he developed it himself.

That would be the final version.

His deduction was correct.

Under the White Snake Sage's guidance, Uchiha Shingen spent a little over a week learning. He mastered how to draw natural energy from the earth and use his own power to activate Sage Mode.

When he entered Sage Mode using the natural energy he had gathered himself, his Sharingan indeed did not turn into that hideous state. However, the eyeshadow had expanded—by quite a lot.

But that was not important. What mattered was that his Sharingan had finally returned to normal. That was how it should be; otherwise, it looked as though his eyes were full of shit.

Strictly speaking, not all of the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan was scarlet. The pupil and tomoe were black; only the ring of the iris was scarlet.

His greatest gain was that Uchiha Shingen had finally gotten a foothold in the principles behind Dragon Cave's Sage Art of giving form to inanimate matter.

He now understood how Sage Art: Inorganic Reincarnation had come about.

This technique had been developed by the future Orochimaru or Kabuto Yakushi themselves, but without Dragon Cave's sage art principles, it could not be used.

That was why it was called "Sage Art: Inorganic Reincarnation," rather than "Ninja Art: Inorganic Reincarnation."

Uchiha Shingen, meanwhile, applied that principle to Ice Release.

It solved Ice Release's lack of mobility.

Sage arts really were useful.

The only issue was that his eyeshadow had turned into Kankuro's style, leaving his face covered in bizarre markings.

Still, that was far better than growing scales all over his body.

Looks mattered. Appearance might not be the deciding factor in whether a business negotiation succeeded, but if your image was bad enough, people would not even bother negotiating with you.

You could wear heavy makeup to a negotiation, and at most people would say you had put on too much powder.

But if people thought of shit the moment they saw your eyes, they would throw up.

He, Uchiha Shingen, was best at making clients willingly pay more. His image and bearing had to be kept under absolute control.

When weighing two evils, choose the lesser one. That was basic ninja practice.

Having learned what he needed to learn, Uchiha Shingen did not waste any more time in Dragon Cave.

After letting Black Snake familiarize herself with his chakra, Uchiha Shingen bid the White Snake Sage farewell, picked up the Hannya Group jonin, and left Dragon Cave.

The guy had not starved to death purely because Uchiha Shingen had brought plenty of soldier pills.