Awakening of the Primary Sage Body, the Secret Expansion of the Senju Shadow Network

Deep within his mind, the dormant system panel erupted with brilliant golden light.

A series of cold yet blood-stirring mechanical notifications rang through Sosuke's consciousness like a raging storm.

[ Ding! Detected that the host has completed their first high-level Yin-Yang union. Target: Senju Tsunade (S-rank). ]

[ Rampaging Yang Release divinity successfully guided! Woodification reversal complete! ]

[ Congratulations, host, for obtaining the ultimate stage reward: Basic Sage Body! ]

[ Life essence greatly enhanced. Chakra reserves have surpassed the Kage-level threshold. Super regeneration ability acquired! ]

[ Congratulations, host, for obtaining the passive skill: All Creation (can perfectly conceal the aura of Wood Release and the vitality of the Sage Body, ignoring all conventional sensory ninjutsu). ]

As the notifications ended, Sosuke felt an unprecedented, surging heat erupt from deep within his heart. Unlike before, it was no longer violent and filled with destructive urges. Instead, it was like the gentlest warmth of the spring sun, flowing through his eight extraordinary meridians and into every limb and bone.

The dark brown bark that had once covered the left half of his body withered and peeled away at a visible rate. In the end, it turned into tiny green motes of light and melted back into his skin. His complexion, once somewhat pale from years of illness, now carried the healthy luster of polished jade.

Sosuke lightly clenched his fist, and his knuckles let out a crisp crack.

Power.

Terrifying power capable of shattering mountain rock with a single punch lay dormant beneath this seemingly frail body. He could even clearly hear his powerful heartbeat, beating like war drums. What the Basic Sage Body brought was not merely a qualitative leap in chakra, but an elevation of life itself.

He lowered his head and looked at the woman nestled in his arms.

Tsunade had fallen completely asleep. Her signature golden hair lay scattered messily across the tatami, and fine beads of sweat still clung to her smooth forehead. The tear tracks at the corners of her eyes had yet to dry, while a trace of lingering exhaustion and softness remained between her brows. To suppress the divinity within Sosuke, she had nearly drained more than half of her Yin Release chakra. Combined with the emotional shock of crossing her own limits, the Hidden Leaf Princess renowned throughout the ninja world had been utterly exhausted.

Sosuke raised his hand and gently brushed Tsunade's soft cheek with his fingertips, tucking a lock of golden hair behind her ear.

There was not the slightest hint of guilt or awkwardness in his gaze, only the absolute possessiveness and cold ruthlessness of an ambitious tyrant.

"Good big sister, from now on, you are my woman, Senju Sosuke's," Sosuke sneered inwardly.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, Shimura Danzō, you went to such lengths to suppress the Senju clan, to split apart and exploit this last remaining bloodline. But you never imagined that your relentless pressure would personally push this lioness, so fiercely protective of her cub, onto my bed and bind her to my chariot for good.

Sosuke lifted the thin blanket and silently rose to his feet.

With a thought, [All Creation] activated instantly.

The vast, unfathomable vitality of his Sage Body was locked deep within his bones in an instant. His straight back hunched slightly, the sharpness in his eyes vanished completely, and his breathing became short and weak once more.

In just one second, he had turned back into that useless sole survivor of the Senju clan who could be blown over by the wind and had to rely on Tsunade's protection.

After putting on his pure white fox-fur cloak, Sosuke pushed open the bedroom door.

The night wind, carrying the chill of late autumn, struck him head-on, yet it could not cause the slightest fluctuation in his body temperature. Without alerting anyone, he moved like a ghost and disappeared into the desolate darkness along the outskirts of the Senju Clan Grounds.

Deep within the Senju Clan Grounds lay an abandoned underground ancestral hall.

The air was thick with mold and the rot of old wood. Torches on the walls burned with an eerie blue flame, stretching the shadows of over a dozen kneeling figures into long, slanted shapes.

All twelve wore tattered black clothing without Hidden Leaf insignias. Each bore horrific scars to varying degrees. Some had lost arms, while others had lost eyes.

They were the final loyalists of the Senju clan's branch families. They had survived the meat grinder of the Second Shinobi War, only to be cast out of the regular ranks by the Hidden Leaf higher-ups under various pretexts and abandoned without medical resources.

Kneeling at the very front was a one-armed man blind in his left eye. His name was Senju Toka. He had once been a famous elite jonin, but now, due to damaged chakra pathways, even refining chakra had become extremely difficult.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Steady footsteps came from above the stone stairs.

Toka suddenly raised his head, a flash of vigilance appearing in his remaining right eye. But when he saw the thin youth in a white fox-fur cloak slowly descending the steps, that vigilance instantly became shock and deep sorrow.

"Young Master Sosuke..." Toka's voice was as hoarse as sandpaper scraping together. "Why have you come here? It's damp here, and your body..."

"My body is fine."

Sosuke interrupted Toka. He walked to the stone statue of Senju Hashirama, covered in dust at the center of the ancestral hall, then turned and looked down at the twelve broken clan members beneath him.

At that moment, Sosuke no longer concealed himself.

He removed a trace of All Creation's disguise.

Boom!

An incomparably pure and suffocatingly immense life chakra swept through the entire underground chamber like a hurricane. The vines in the corners, long dead for years, miraculously sprouted a touch of emerald green beneath the impact of that vitality.

Toka and the others looked as though they had been struck by lightning. Their eyes flew open as they stared fixedly at the youth before them.

That pressure originating from deep within their bloodline, that familiar chakra fluctuation that brought tears to their eyes...

"Wood Release... This is the vitality of the First Hokage's Wood Release!" Toka's entire body trembled violently, and his eyes instantly reddened.

Sosuke remained expressionless. He raised his right hand and lightly sliced across his left palm with a fingernail.

Blood seeped out, but it was not a glaring crimson. It was emerald green with a hint of dark gold. With a flick of his fingers, twelve drops of blood containing the life essence of the Basic Sage Body shot precisely into the foreheads of the twelve people.

"Ugh!"

Toka let out a muffled groan of pain and wild joy. He clearly felt that the moment the drop of blood entered his body, it transformed into the most overbearing medicine. His clogged and withered chakra pathways, dead for three full years, began to madly reconstruct and reopen beneath the cleansing force of that vitality.

It was not just him. The remaining eleven survivors also erupted with intense chakra fluctuations. Their hidden injuries healed, and their necrotic muscles regained vitality. In just a few minutes, these twelve crippled men, once weaker than even genin, saw their auras steadily rise until all of them had recovered to the peak of chunin or even special jonin level!

A miracle!

This was a miracle only the true master of the Senju clan could perform!

"The Hidden Leaf higher-ups told you that the era of the Senju clan is over." Sosuke's voice was not loud, yet every word struck like a blade through the heart, echoing through the dark chamber. "They used the Will of Fire to brainwash the village, but treated you as stepping stones. They drained every last drop of your blood, then threw you into this sunless corner like trash."

Sosuke walked up to Toka and bent down, his gaze icy and piercing.

"But today, I am telling you that the Senju clan has not perished."

"From today onward, you are no longer ninjas of the Hidden Leaf. Your lives and your blades belong only to me, Senju Sosuke. I grant you new life, and you will become the fangs with which I tear apart all enemies in the darkness."

Toka raised his head and looked at the domineering youth before him, who seemed to hold everything in the palm of his hand. The fire in his heart was completely ignited. This was the king they were willing to follow unto death!

"Senju Shadow Guard swears loyalty unto death to Lord Sosuke! Wherever your blade points, we will not shrink from death!"

All twelve slammed their heads heavily against the cold stone floor in perfect unison, their fanatical voices shaking dust from the ancestral hall.

Sosuke straightened, a satisfied curve appearing on his lips. The era of being alone was over. From this moment on, an underground shadow network belonging solely to Senju Sosuke officially spread through the deepest reaches of the Hidden Leaf.

"Very good." Sosuke turned around and looked toward the chamber's exit. "Toka, tell me. What is the situation outside now?"

Toka quickly rose to his feet. The fervor in his eyes had yet to fade as he carefully pulled a bloodstained miniature scroll from his robes and presented it to Sosuke with both hands.

"My lord, this was sent back at the cost of their lives by our informant stationed outside the Hokage Building." Toka lowered his voice, and a chilling killing intent seeped through it. "That old dog Danzo has started biting again."

Sosuke took the scroll, wiped away the sealing formula with his fingertips, and unfurled it.

His eyes swept across the few lines of highly confidential code on the scroll. The curve of his lips grew ever colder, like an ice blade in the depths of winter.

"Using the excuse of 'protecting the Wood Release bloodline,' he wants to join forces with the council of elders to pressure the Third Hokage into forcibly assigning me to Root? He even plans to bypass Tsunade and issue a direct Hokage order?"

Sosuke's fingers tightened slightly, and the scroll instantly turned into fine wood shavings that drifted down through the gaps between his fingers.

"Danzo, Danzo, you really are in a hurry to be reborn." Sosuke raised his head, dangerous gloom glinting in his deep black eyes. "Since you have reached out so far, I'll chop off your bones along with that hand."