Chapter 230: Target... Surpassing Hashirama
"So that's at least seven or eight years away?" Tsunade asked, her brow slightly furrowed. "That's too long. By then, Sakura herself might have developed some jutsu that even Senjutsu would be useless for..."
Tsunade's exaggeration had unintentionally hit upon the truth. Once the planned Yang God Mode was completed, what would Sage Mode even be?
"It's not necessarily that she has to wait until she's fully developed..." The small slug stopped swaying and pondered for a moment. "Hn, if the Ice Style has only been modifying her for a year... may I ask, Lady Sakura, has your first period started yet?"
"Uh... this... not yet, I think?" This direct question made Haruno Sakura a little embarrassed.
This thing, she had been carefully waiting for it for some time, and she also carried emergency supplies with her. After all, ninja were very sensitive to the smell of blood... Fortunately, as a medical ninja, they had ways to deal with this, so that it wouldn't affect their usual battles or missions.
"Then..." The small slug swayed its head slightly, as if talking to its main body. "Hn, the main body told me that your menarche might have been delayed by the Ice Style Kekkei Genkai, because it is readjusting your body's development plan to make your body grow more adapted to Ice Style. This is a good thing. Hn, how should I put it?"
"It's just that your original body's talent was too terrible. According to the original genetic development plan, even if your body were fully mature, your chakra amount wouldn't be very much, and your physical fitness, speed, and reactions would be quite average..." Tsunade said, mercilessly complaining about the girl, as if complaining about how she had accepted a disciple with such poor talent. "Except for her talent for monstrous strength, which is not bad."
Sakura's face darkened, and she immediately rolled her eyes, feeling very speechless. Is this a case of complaining about the quality of the goods after they've already been inspected and used for a period of time?
"It's clear that without Ice Style, Lady Sakura's original physical talent was not very ideal. If that were the case, I would have unhesitatingly refused Lady Sakura's learning of Senjutsu," the small slug said, adding another blow to Tsunade. "But the situation is much better now. Lady Sakura, have you recently discovered that the speed of your chakra growth is much faster than before, so you thought you had entered your puberty? Actually, not yet. This is just the normal chakra growth speed of a youth with a Kekkei Genkai..."
It's like a truly good book. Even without any recommendations, the number of daily collections it receives is higher than a certain flop of a Water Style book on the Sanjiang recommendation list... and when it gets on Sanjiang, it will be even more amazing!
But according to the slug, didn't that mean that if she didn't have a Kekkei Genkai, her growth rate during puberty would still be slower than Sasuke's growth rate in his childhood?
This world was truly full of malice towards non-Kekkei Genkai ninja.
However, Haruno Sakura had never felt that her Kekkei Genkai was anything to be proud of... Her strongest point was still her self-created ninjutsu. Ice Style was just the icing on the cake.
This was the place where she truly did not fit in with this world: when everyone thought that the Kekkei Genkai was her greatest asset, Sakura in her heart only regarded the Kekkei Genkai as a part of her strength—even without Ice Style, she could still grow into a strong person.
The philosophy that Haruno Sakura believed in was not to judge a person's nobility by their birth, yet the power of the Kekkei Genkai, which was passed down through bloodline, was a naked promotion of the theory of noble blood...
So now she also had some regrets about having developed the Ice Style Kekkei Genkai!
"The biggest mistake of my life was mastering Ice Style," Haruno Sakura said shamelessly in her heart.
At this moment, the main body of the Slug Sage suddenly raised its head from the acid lake, revealing a corner of its head and said, "I can feel that your Ice Style chakra is already very pure. The power of the Kekkei Genkai has been completely activated by you. Have you recently felt that using Ice Style has become more and more effortless? This is just the beginning... You were born with an amazing affinity for chakra, and your spiritual power is also extremely high. It is not strange that you can bring the Kekkei Genkai to this level. If you can integrate Yang Release into your bloodline in the future, your power will be even more astonishing!"
Tsunade couldn't help but interject, "Like my grandfather, Hashirama Senju?"
"Little Hashirama? He also completed his Sage Mode on my back back then..." The Slug Sage fell into a brief contemplation, silent for a moment. Fortunately, it quickly realized that there were still two guests here and continued, "Little Hashirama's talent is something that might not appear even in a few hundred years. Little Sakura is still far from it. But if little Sakura can also complete the training of Yin-Yang Release and Sage Mode, perhaps she won't be far from little Hashirama. At that time, I'm afraid we will see a female version of Hashirama Senju...!"
"..." Tsunade looked at her disciple with a complicated expression and was silent for a moment.
In her eyes, there was expectation, and also the sentiment of the new wave pushing the old.
Hashirama Senju? Haruno Sakura bit her lower lip, savoring this name.
In the ninja world, this name had long since become a symbol, so much so that even having fought against Hashirama Senju—even if it was just throwing a kunai at him from eight hundred miles away—could become a great honor.
To be able to become a second "Hashirama Senju" was probably a good thing that an ordinary ninja would not even dare to imagine!
It was just that she didn't like to be compared like this.
On the contrary, Haruno Sakura didn't feel that obtaining a title like the female version of "Hashirama Senju" was a very glorious thing for her...
To become the second someone, it seemed as if it had wiped out all her years of hard work.
Doesn't she have her own name?
At a moment when both Tsunade and the Slug Sage had fallen silent.
The girl suddenly spoke.
"I'm sorry, Master Tsunade, Slug Sage," she said faintly. "I do not intend to be a second Hashirama Senju, a second God of Shinobi."
Her voice was clear, cold, and tranquil, almost indifferent.
Hashirama Senju... that is not a goal she looks up to, but a goal she wants to surpass!
This was not arrogance. It was born from a certain confidence.
Because what supported her forward was another world, the crystallization of the wisdom of 6 billion people!
Tsunade turned her head in some surprise and looked at her disciple.
Haruno Sakura.
Her eyes were clear and bright.
"I do not intend to become the shadow of any strong person," Haruno Sakura said calmly. "I will eventually surpass them... My name, 'Haruno Sakura,' and not 'the second Hashirama Senju,' will be sung down through the ages."
What an impertinent boast.
Tsunade subconsciously wanted to refute, but seeing the girl's determined gaze, that criticism of being overly ambitious ultimately did not come out.
On that face, which still retained a trace of childishness, Tsunade saw confidence, and the spirit of a newborn calf that does not fear the tiger.
Yes, Haruno Sakura firmly believed that she could surpass these predecessors.
Surpass my grandfather? Tsunade was stunned for a moment.
Even if it's unrealistic, having a lofty goal is a good thing, right?
Her heart was slightly moved. She lowered her eyelids and stood on the side, silently not speaking.
After a moment.
"Haha! What ambition!" the Slug Sage said with a big laugh. "Little Tsunade, look. When all of you are looking up to the hero of a generation, Hashirama Senju, there can still be a little girl who declares that she will look down on little Hashirama! Although her stature is small, her magnanimity is greater than all of you."
"However, to have lofty ambitions, you must also be down-to-earth. Otherwise, it's just being overly ambitious. Little Sakura, before you surpass little Hashirama, what you must do first is to catch up to his figure. So the training of Senjutsu is still necessary."
"Hn... the adjustment of your body by your Ice Style Kekkei Genkai will be over soon. In a few months, you will enter your true puberty... The year after next, at this time, come to my place again! By that time, you should be about qualified to learn Senjutsu!"
"That's all I have to say."
This was an order to see the guests out.
Tsunade and Sakura exchanged a look. The latter actually still had a belly full of questions she wanted to ask, but she had no choice but to suppress them and wait for another opportunity to ask.
She then said, "Then, Slug Sage, we will take our leave!"
"Go, go," the Slug Sage said, waving its feelers, and sent the two of them back to Konoha with a reverse summon.
It absorbed the clone on its back into its body and leisurely dived into the acid lake.
"Humans... are truly strange!"
With a gurgling sound, the Slug Sage blew bubbles and said to itself.
"That girl, her soul is actually composed of two cores. No, it seems to be three? The most amazing thing is that one of the cores gives me an indescribable, strange feeling..."
"Forget it. Humans are strange to begin with. It's better not to say it out loud... That girl should still be a human in her infancy. I hear their skin is rather thin. If I rashly reveal someone's secret, she might not be able to take it and might not come back in the future."
"Ever since little Hashirama, it's been a long time since a human has been able to come here to play... and it's also very difficult for the main body to be summoned out. It's so lonely!"
"Sigh, humans are too complicated! Forget it, let's not think about these things. I'll eat lunch first..."
The huge Slug Sage swam to the base of an equally huge ancient tree—their sizes were a good match—and began to gnaw on the trunk and bark.
"Hn... the bark of this tree is crispy and fragrant. I won't eat it all at once. I'll save some for later!"
Very quickly, the Slug Sage's thoughts turned to food. After all, human affairs, to its long life, were just a small interlude. At the very least, only an event at the level of the Nine-Tails or even the Ten-Tails would have an impact on it...
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