Chapter 338: Namikaze Minato's Sage Mode; This Is Also a Form of Eternal Art [HN]

As Namikaze Minato formed hand seals and pressed both hands against the ground, a complex summoning formula instantly spread out, and white smoke exploded into the air.

A large box appeared before him.

“Against an absolute army of puppets, everything is nothing more than a target!”

Seeing the box, Sasori of the Red Sand sneered.

He coldly declared his judgment, and the assault of the hundred puppets became even more ferocious. Poison mist, senbon, and explosive clay surged forward like a wave of death.

But Minato’s tactics were far from that simple!

Once the box opened, it was filled with countless special kunai.

Minato activated the mechanism, and the kunai shot toward the surrounding area.

Namikaze Minato also disappeared from where he stood.

The next moment, he did not appear at any of the preset kunai coordinates.

Instead, he appeared as if he had teleported there.

“Summoning Jutsu!”

A shadow clone of Namikaze Minato appeared, then quickly disappeared with a bang.

Orange red eye shadow quietly appeared around his eyelids.

It was clearly the sign that he had entered Sage Mode!

Using the brief energy disturbance caused by the flying kunai as cover, he actually used himself as the coordinate.

He forcibly drew in and balanced the violent Natural Energy around him, completing the activation of Sage Mode!

“What?!”

For the first time, a violent fluctuation appeared in Sasori’s hollow eyes.

It was no longer the excitement of encountering something unusual, but genuine shock.

His opponent had not only absorbed Natural Energy right in front of him, but had also entered Sage Mode.

And that speed just now…

No, space time ninjutsu was the most precise of all!

It was truly astonishing.

“First target, clear the miscellaneous forces!”

Minato’s voice carried an ethereal resonance after entering Sage Mode, and his figure completely transformed into a golden flash that seemed to exist everywhere.

Relying on the preset kunai coordinates, Sage Chakra gave him an even sharper perception of space, allowing him to perform rapid short range teleportation!

“Sage Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!”

Countless specially made shuriken wrapped in Sage Chakra were thrown from his body once again.

They rapidly multiplied into countless shuriken.

They were thrown and ricocheted across every corner of the battlefield at a speed beyond the limits of vision.

Combined with the kunai he had summoned earlier, he had already established a Flying Thunder God network covering the entire battlefield!

“Splurt!”

The shuriken infused with Sage Chakra carried a natural suppressive and destructive effect.

At that moment, Namikaze Minato’s figure moved like a point of light, constantly flashing between the falling kunai and shuriken.

A Flying Thunder God mark had also been placed on the side of every shuriken.

The “dead” driven by Natural Energy and the hundred puppets were as fragile as paper in front of the shuriken.

They were almost instantly torn full of holes.

With every flash of golden light from Namikaze Minato, one or even several puppets were precisely struck at their cores and instantly shattered into pieces.

The poison mist was dispersed by the violent wind generated by his movement, while explosive devices were spatially transferred away before they could even detonate.

In just a few breaths, the seemingly hopeless tide of hundreds of puppets melted away like snow beneath the blazing sun.

The battlefield was cleared in an instant!

“Damn it!”

Sasori roared and fully controlled the Third Kazekage puppet.

“Magnet Release: Iron Sand World Method!”

The enormous amount of iron sand instantly formed a huge cubic barrier, attempting to trap the rapidly moving Minato inside.

The iron sand carried powerful magnetism that could interfere with and even capture rapidly moving objects.

However, Minato’s perception in Sage Mode was incredibly sharp.

The instant the iron sand barrier began taking shape, he had already seen through its structural weakness.

Just before the iron sand barrier closed, Minato’s figure seemed to transform into genuine light.

He did not break through in a straight line.

Instead, he followed a trajectory that violated common physical sense, like light refracting, continuously teleporting between several key points inside the barrier.

With every teleportation, the Sage Chakra in his hand precisely struck the chakra nodes maintaining the barrier’s stability.

“Crack… Boom!”

Before the enormous iron sand barrier could fully unleash its power, it collapsed from within.

“How is this possible?!”

Sasori finally felt uneasy.

His puppet techniques and his application of Natural Energy to these puppets appeared so clumsy and powerless before his opponent’s absolute speed, strength, and precise control of the battlefield.

“Second target, take away your fangs!”

Minato’s cold voice sounded beside Sasori’s ear.

At some point, he had already broken through the iron sand’s defenses and appeared directly above the Third Kazekage puppet!

“Sage Art: Sealing Jutsu!”

Minato moved both hands.

Instead of traditional chakra chains, he formed runes condensed from Sage Chakra and flashing with Natural Energy.

These streams of light seemed to possess life of their own as they instantly wrapped around the Third Kazekage puppet’s limbs and torso, as well as the chakra threads connecting Sasori to the puppet!

“Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!”

The sealing technique quickly formed absolute suppression against the dead and violent Natural Energy within Sasori.

The chakra threads were forcibly severed, and the Third Kazekage puppet’s movements instantly froze!

The sealing runes embedded themselves deeply into the puppet’s body like branding irons.

“No! My collection!”

Sasori let out a pained roar and tried to pull the puppet back, but it was already too late.

“Ha!”

Minato brought both hands together, and brilliant light erupted.

The Third Kazekage puppet was forcibly torn away from Sasori’s control.

Minato grabbed it and sealed it into a scroll in his hand.

Sasori managed to grab back only a piece of the Third Kazekage puppet’s sleeve.

“Now it’s your turn!”

Minato’s gaze locked onto Sasori, whose true body had been exposed while sitting on the shoulder of the shattered human puppet.

After losing his greatest support, a vicious expression finally appeared on Sasori’s face.

“Don’t underestimate me! I am eternal art itself!”

He abruptly tore open the clothing over his chest, revealing the core known as the “Regeneration Core” along with the countless mechanical weapons surrounding it.

An even greater amount of energy began gathering, a mixture of his own chakra and violent Natural Energy.

He was clearly preparing a technique that would take them both down.

“Red Secret Technique!”

Minato’s gaze remained cold.

Under the perception of Sage Mode, although the power of Sasori’s technique was enormous, its preparation time was slightly long, and the point where the energy gathered was completely concentrated around the “Regeneration Core.”

“The opening is too obvious!”

Minato flipped his hand and pulled seven or eight kunai from his waist.

The next moment, Namikaze Minato’s figure disappeared once again.

Sasori’s heart tightened as he looked around.

When Minato appeared again, he was already behind Sasori.

Just moments ago, while sealing the Third Kazekage puppet, he had also placed a mark on the sleeve Sasori had managed to recover.

Namikaze Minato raised his hand and scattered the kunai around Sasori.

Surrounding Sasori’s true body, he infused the specially made kunai with Sage Chakra and rapidly struck the key points of his body!

Every attack precisely landed on the joints, weapon launch ports, and energy transmission channels throughout Sasori’s body.

The kunai covered in Sage Chakra were like the sharpest surgical knives, instantly stripping away and destroying all the weapons and defensive mechanisms outside his body!

Sasori could only watch helplessly as his body rapidly disassembled in the golden light, yet he could not even catch a glimpse of his opponent’s shadow.

That despair was even deeper than what he had felt when he transformed himself into a puppet back then.

When Minato’s figure finally stopped flashing, he appeared directly in front of Sasori.

Sasori’s carefully constructed puppet body had already been reduced to nothing but the core, the ominously glowing “Regeneration Core,” floating in the air amid scattered puppet components.

“It’s over.”

Minato extended his hand.

“Seal!”

The characters of the sealing technique spread out like tadpoles and completely swallowed the “Regeneration Core.”

It was firmly sealed inside a specially prepared scroll.

With Sasori sealed away, the remaining “dead” in the forest seemed to lose their source of power.

The green light in their eyes went out, and they collapsed one after another, returning to cold corpses.

The disturbing, distorted Natural Energy gradually dissipated as well.

Namikaze Minato stood where he was.

He frowned slightly.

‘How could such a dense amount of Natural Energy suddenly appear in this place?’

However, the battlefield had finally returned to peace.

Only the devastated landscape and the heavy breathing of the surviving ANBU members remained.

Minato released Sage Mode, and his face became slightly pale.

The continuous use of Sage Jutsu and Flying Thunder God had consumed a tremendous amount of his strength.

He quickly checked the injuries of his teammates and provided emergency treatment to the wounded.

“Lord Minato… you’re incredible!”

One of the ANBU members could not help speaking excitedly, his eyes filled with admiration.

Minato smiled gently and patted him on the shoulder.

“This was the result of everyone’s efforts. The mission is not completely over yet. We must immediately bring Sasori and all of his puppet remains back to Konoha. In particular, the intelligence regarding the Natural Energy here is extremely important.”

“Everyone, start moving!”

Under his command, the ANBU members quickly got to work.

They began cleaning up the battlefield.

All the recoverable fragments of the hundred puppet cores, along with the “dead” samples that had been contaminated by Natural Energy, were carefully collected and sealed.

…

Konoha Scientific Academy, underground highest security and isolation area.

The atmosphere here was completely different from the orderly laboratories above.

The air was cold and carried the smell of disinfectant, along with a strange scent that seemed to be a mixture of metal and decaying vegetation.

Behind a huge observation window was a transparent isolation chamber completely covered in sealing formulas.

The “Regeneration Core” brought back by Namikaze Minato was placed at the center of a complex energy guidance device.

Several three dimensional projections floated around it, displaying in real time the Natural Energy inside it that had been suppressed to its limit yet remained distorted and violent.

Several puppet remains lay scattered across the workbench nearby.

They had been dismantled into pieces and still contained strange green energy.

Orochimaru stood before the observation window.

His golden snake eyes stared unblinkingly at the “Regeneration Core,” and his eyes flashed with undisguised, almost obsessive fascination.

He extended his pale fingers, almost touching the cold observation window.

“Perfect… a twisted life form filled with power. Using violent Natural Energy as nourishment to drive an immortal puppet body… Hehehe… This is also an art that approaches the realm of eternity…”

His whisper echoed through the empty underground chamber, carrying a chilling fanaticism.

“Dean, the preliminary energy analysis is complete.”

A researcher respectfully reported, his voice carrying a slight tremble.

It was unclear whether it came from fear or excitement.

“The Natural Energy structure inside the target is extremely unstable, but it is significantly different from the Ryūchi Cave lineage and the energy within Jugo. It is more primitive and… more corrosive.”

“Corrosive?”

Orochimaru turned around and ran his tongue across his lips.

“We cannot determine that yet, but its energy fluctuation pattern does indeed display a tendency toward non randomness. It seems… to be attempting to break through the restraints of the seal.”

“Excellent!”

A sharp light burst from Orochimaru’s eyes.

“This proves that it is not a dead object! It is still ‘alive’! If we only analyze these cold data and remains, we will never reach its core secret!”

He suddenly turned toward his assistant, his tone decisive.

“Prepare the ‘Consciousness Resonance Device’ immediately! I want to apply for a ‘Limited Consciousness Activation Experiment’!”

“Consciousness activation?”

The assistant’s face went pale.

“Dean, this… this is too dangerous! Moreover, Lord Hokage explicitly ordered that any operation that might endanger the stability of the seal is forbidden…”

“Dangerous? Hehehe. How can scientific progress exist without taking risks?”

Orochimaru’s voice was full of temptation.

“We would only pry open a tiny gap beneath multiple layers of sealing restraints, like applying a weak electrical stimulus to a sleeping patient and observing its instinctive reaction. What we can obtain will be the first hand, and most authentic, data regarding the ‘Spring of Life’ and this entirely new method of applying Natural Energy! Its strategic value to Konoha is immeasurable!”

The assistant beside him was filled with hesitation.

“But… Lord Hokage…”

Seeing this, Orochimaru’s expression restrained itself and returned to calm.

“I’ll go myself.”

After saying that, Orochimaru’s figure disappeared from sight.