In the next instant, the wild natural energy around him fell quiet.
When Senya opened his eyes again, crimson eye shadow traced his corners.
A red line circled beneath each eye and flowed along the nasolabial crease.
A scarlet mark bloomed at the center of his brow.
His ceremonial robe snapped in the wind of Sage Mode, and his Sharingan had already arranged itself into four sharp windmill blades.
For a heartbeat, his very presence transformed.
"Sage Mode, success."
Seeing his altered visage and feeling nature roar through his core, Senya could not hold back his thrill.
The shackle pressing across his path shattered in that moment.
Within Sage Mode, he had stepped into super Kage class.
With Mangekyo layered over Sage Mode, he stood among the stronger of that tier.
Super Kage sits at the summit of the shinobi world.
Wherever you go, such power commands respect.
Even the Five Great Villages struggle to raise one.
Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara stood at the peak of their era, their strength at the apex of super Kage.
Later Madara grafted Hashirama's cells, awakened the Rinnegan, and rose to the Sage tier.
...
Once he grew familiar with Sage Mode, Senya began testing every art under its blessing.
"Fire Style, Majestic Destroyer Flame."
"..."
"Raikiri."
"Wind Style, Vacuum Orb."
"..."
With Sage Mode, each nature change leapt in force.
When the trials ended, his pupils blazed.
Susanoo, fourth stage.
In the next breath, a golden giant appeared from empty air, Totsuka flashing bright beneath the sun.
Senya rose and steadied within the brow.
Before, driving fourth stage had meant pushing his eyes to full output.
Now, inside Sage Mode, he still had power in reserve.
He knew what stood above this form.
The complete Susanoo.
Only the complete body could draw out everything.
Its mass and defense surged, wings unfurled behind it, and mobility soared.
It could also carry the caster's ninjutsu, the most fearsome gain.
Kakashi's Kamui shuriken was one such feat, possible only with the complete body.
"Ha."
Unsatisfied with the fourth stage, Senya let out a shout.
Totsuka swept upward and parted the clouds.
His ocular power surged again. This time he used everything.
Sage chakra braided with Mangekyo might, and Susanoo's light swelled. The frame stood taller and straighter.
A terrible momentum burst within the armor.
CRACK CRACK...
A brittle breaking rose from the back of the titan.
A narrow seam split the golden Tengu plating.
Vast and noble wings unfurled behind it.
In the next instant, golden light blew apart into a storm of chakra motes that rushed in every direction, too bright to face.
When it faded, the complete Susanoo hovered over Shikkotsu Forest like a god in gold.
It felt like a deity had stepped down, accepting the reverence of all things.
Savoring that might, Senya tried weaving it with his own arts.
"Summon Flash."
At the shout, both chakra and ocular power plunged.
In the next beat, the golden giant broke space itself and flashed to the opposite ridge.
Its bulk was so great that landing came with a stagger.
"As expected. Without Eternal Mangekyo, I can fight in the complete body, but layering other abilities is still forced."
Steadying the massive frame, Senya dismissed Susanoo at once.
The sting behind his eyes drew a sigh.
Still not enough. Keep climbing.
He had to reach Eternal Mangekyo soon.
The Sage Body could soothe Mangekyo's backlash, but growth of ocular power still wanted evolution.
Without the double lift of Sage Body and Sage Mode, opening the complete body on Mangekyo alone would be a fool's dream.
For now, his task was simple. Push the Sage Body higher.
After smoothing the storming chakra within, he plunged into the deep green, bathing in the sea of nature once more.
...
Across the valley, a colossal shape melded so perfectly with stone that it seemed to be the mountain itself.
At the quake of power from the far slope, the Slug Sage's feelers stretched long.
"This force. How nostalgic."
"When did Konoha bring forth another prodigy like this."
"And of the Uchiha, no less."
It had felt Senya the moment the little slug arrived.
Even so, it had not planned a meeting.
Tsunade had brought him, true.
But the sage was mild and indolent. So long as the forest's life was unharmed, it did not care to meddle.
In that recent wave it had tasted a once familiar union.
"My my. It seems the future will change."
It knew well that when those two powers touched, something wondrous awakened.
Power that could overturn the shinobi world.
As a peer of the toad sage of Myoboku and the white snake of Ryuchi, the Slug Sage also bore a sight for what lay ahead.
The toad dreamed the future.
The white snake saw it awake.
The slug could do the same, though it rarely chose to.
Knowing tomorrow is not easy.
It carried many bindings.
"Such trouble. I will not bother."
"Little one, do not let him disturb me."
As the ripples from Senya's training ebbed, the Slug Sage rolled to a more comfortable place and drifted back to sleep.
...