Staring at the sage that was baring its fang at him, Bakorio remained unmoved "Meeting an immortal huh? well I guess I would run for my life if that day ever comes"

The sage's yellow eyes flickered slightly as he asked again with his pressure increasing even further "Why is that?"

Bakorio yawned slightly completely uncaring for the increasing pressure and said "How could you keep your sanity for that long of a time, boredom and emptiness are a dangerous poison, and the longer you live, the longer they would eat you from the inside… And I don't want to imagine meeting someone like that"

The black tortoise sage closed his eyes and remained silent for a while and said "You pass the trial, you shall start learning sag-" however before the sage could finish… Bakorio's eyes suddenly transformed into that of his Mangekyo Sharingan and he stared at him coldly

"But if that immortal tries to threaten me just like you are doing right now, I don't mind erasing him from existence…" a terrifying killing intent gushed out from Bakorio and a huge shadowy humanoid figure wearing a dark robe immerged above him and matched the black tortoise sage in size… although it only appeared to be an upper half…

In its hand, it held a scythe that reeked of the aura of death as its eyes shined from under its hood with an eerie light that threatened to swallow the soul of anyone that stared directly at them.

"What are you doing?" Asked Otohime alarmed by the sudden turn of events but Bakorio completely ignored her as the shadowy figure behind him immediately raised the scythe with both hands and they can even feel a chilling smile on its face as it slashed horizontally at the black tortoise sage!

"STOP!" Yelled Otohime before she jumped in front of the attack to block it, but the black tortoise sage was faster to react than her as a few pieces of his dark shell ignited with nature's chakra causing them to enlarge and shine with a dark light as they blocked Bakorio's attack creating a terrifying shockwave.

However, the result wasn't as Otohime expected, the scythe easily cut through the sage's almost impenetrable defense and was soon about to connect with her and split her in half as well!

'Am I going to die?' she thought, but at that time, the sage's yellow eyes ignited slightly causing time to come to a standstill, then he easily grabbed Otohime from harm's way before time moved on once more and Bakorio's slash passed through Otohime's previous location…

Seeing this, Bakorio's eyes flashed slightly 'There's no denying it, this sage has a certain mastery over controlling time even if it's only on a small range! He's dangerous' thought Bakorio who felt a weird fluctuation in the air before Otohime vanished and reappeared beside the black tortoise sage…

"It seems like I will have to get even more serious" said Bakorio with a grin while staring at the sage right in the eyes and failing multiple times to put him under a Genjutsu… He felt as if they were separated by a weird veil...

"What do you think you are doing? How dare you attack the sage!" Yelled Otohime and Bakorio felt many presences approaching the palace quickly creating some tremors from their huge sizes…

"Enough Otohime, young man, I apologize, but that test was necessary" hearing this, Bakorio's killing intent finally retreated… 'And here I thought I would be forced to test out my level 100 Susanoo' thought Bakorio in disappointment, but he quickly regained his composure and said with a smile as if he wasn't trying to kill them a second ago "So, when can I begin learning sage arts"

Otohime was about to refuse but the black tortoise sage held her back and said "you can start right away after passing the trial of the eternal chamber"

"Mmm okay" said Bakorio as he watched the sage communicate something with Otohime who then led him reluctantly through the palace towards the eternal chamber…

Meanwhile, after Bakorio had left, the black tortoise sage suddenly muttered "What do you think old friend?"

Suddenly out of nowhere, the space near the black tortoise sage rippled slightly and from it came out a huge muscular monkey that was wearing a gold and orange armor and holding a silver staff with red ends behind his back… This was the Wisdom sage, the ancestor of the stone monkey tribe that Enma's currently ruling over…

And right now, this sage had a calm look in his eyes as he said "We've been waiting for this darkness for a long time, that kid is only a catalyst and hastened the fated fight, you don't have to antagonize him too much"

Surprisingly, even Bakorio didn't detect this sage's presence!

"I know, I was just testing him to see if he would truly dare react the way I saw in my vision… Unfortunately, this means that he's going to fail as well against that darkness"

The wisdom sage shook his head "It doesn't matter if he fails or not, he's an anomaly, he wasn't in our calculations in the first place so his success or failure are irrelevant to us"

The black tortoise sage nodded its head slightly before it said "We need to hasten our preparations" and the wisdom sage nodded his head before disappearing again without a trace just like he appeared in the first place…

"How disappointing" echoed the ancient voice in the lonely room…

Meanwhile, Bakorio who was following after Otohime didn't know that the sage thought of him as a lost cause and that his future appeared grim and there was no saving him…

"We have arrived, from here on out, it's all up to you" said Otohime with a slightly irritated voice after leading Bakorio all the way to the entrance of the eternal chamber and explained to him about the test…

'So, this is it huh?' thought Bakorio before he asked "Does this place have chakra inside of it?"

Otohime was reluctant to reply to him but she did it anyway as it was her duty "No, this is an empty dimension where time moves slower compared to the outside world, the only thing you will find in there is the food and water we will provide you with once a month so that you can survive"

"I see, too bad I can't train chakra-related things inside" muttered Bakorio before he stepped into the chamber leaving Otohime alone in the corridor…

"Hopefully he will fail… This test can only be over if the person's heart can overcome their loneliness and the emptiness and find peace within themselves" she muttered before she took her leave to prepare provisions for Bakorio…

….

Inside the dimension, Bakorio found himself in an empty cube-like room that was completely white, and after the door closed behind him, it completely disappeared as if it never existed before

"It seems I'm stuck now" muttered Bakorio who was staring all around him as he sat on the ground and began contemplating what to do

"Can I really find peace within myself and overcome my emptiness? Even in my previous life, I didn't succeed in doing it… And in this life, I at most was able to fill in some of the huge void inside my heart, but I never was able to deal with it…"

Bakorio contemplated for days on what to do, but no solution came to mind so he ended up deciding to find something to do to fill in his time, since using chakra wasn't possible because he couldn't refill it inside this dimension, he decided to turn his attention towards learning about medicine, seals, and curses…

He had countless books in his inventory after using some points to expand it not to mention that there's also the option to put books of the same category in the same slot, but he can't put more than 100 books…

This went on for a whole year until he finished all the books in his inventory and ended up feeling bored again… " What should I do now?" he thought and felt like this was probably going to be one of his toughest tests… and he might even not be able to solve it just like in his past life…