Chapter 437: Cultivation of Senjutsu (Part 1)
When Haruno Sakura first arrived at Shikkotsu Forest a month ago, she couldn't have imagined that such events would unfold for Sasuke back in Konoha.
At that time, as soon as she landed, she was almost startled by the Slug Sage's loud voice.
"Is it Haruno Sakura... I have been waiting for you for a long time."
Haruno Sakura strained to lift her head, stretching her slender neck high, before she found the speaking head of the Slug Sage from the towering clouds.
It was a bright sunny day, the sky was as blue as a wash, with a few clouds floating high, and the July sunshine was brilliantly dazzling.
Haruno Sakura narrowed her eyes and looked over. Half of the Slug Sage's body was lying on a giant tree, gnawing on the bark. It held its semi-transparent body, thousands of meters long, leaning on the tree like a skyscraper piercing the clouds, the dark green wall of flesh almost obstructing her view; looking further up, until the zenith of the sky, Haruno Sakura finally saw the midday sun and the two tentacles swaying on the slug's head.
Even though she had seen it once before, Sakura couldn't help but hold her breath in front of the Slug Sage's extremely thick, long, and majestic body.
As far as the eye could see, she could only see the dark green semi-transparent soft flesh on the slug. The Slug Sage needed nothing else; just its physical ability grown to the limit was enough to dispel any thought of confronting it...
In front of it, the slender Haruno Sakura felt as small as an ant in front of a big tree.
Even as proud as she was, she maintained awe in front of the Slug Sage.
Haruno Sakura couldn't help but swallow, her raised neck moved slightly up and down, and it took a while for her to calm down.
"Did you wait for a long time? Sorry, Slug Sage." Sakura smiled apologetically, but secretly thought in her heart that for a super-conventional long-lived life form like the Slug Sage, one or two years shouldn't be considered very long...
"I wanted to invite you to lunch." The slug didn't lift its head, continuing to gnaw while speaking, "But you didn't come after waiting for a long time, so I started eating first."
So it only waited for a few tens of minutes...
Haruno Sakura's face twitched, realizing she had expressed the wrong emotion.
Thinking that an existence like the Slug Sage would specifically wait for her for a year or a half was really overthinking... Was it because she had been easily getting compliments and admiration from others recently that she habitually had illusions?
Awkward.
"Sorry, I was saying goodbye to my students just now," Haruno Sakura touched her hair and explained with an awkward smile, "You know, children are always a bit sentimental, and I also—"
"But fortunately, I saved a small bite for you," The Slug Sage didn't pay attention to what Haruno Sakura said at all, speaking to itself, "Although not much, with your human appetite, it should be enough for you to eat."
A huge white object suddenly smashed down from a height, landing in front of the girl, narrowly missing her.
That was a piece of white bark stripped from the giant tree, wider than Haruno Sakura spreading her arms and legs, and thick enough to equal three of her—if compared with Hinata, that would be two.
The bunch of words Haruno Sakura wanted to say were instantly smashed back into her stomach.
"That... Slug Sage," she raised her hand weakly and said, "We humans generally don't gnaw on bark..."
—Unless chopped hands and whaling again at the beginning of the month. (Note: Reference to spending money on gacha games/shopping).
"Eat quickly." However, the eating Slug Sage didn't listen to others at all, completely ignoring the little one jumping on its body trying hard to attract its attention.
Well, we can't expect a mollusk whose main body has only seen three living people in the last hundred years to understand what socializing and emotional intelligence are.
The Slug Sage only ate once a month, eating half the bark of a giant tree at a time, ingesting hundreds of tons of organic matter. Although Shikkotsu Forest was large, it was still not vast enough in front of the Slug Sage with an amazing appetite. If it ate freely, the speed of eating would soon surpass the growth speed of giant trees in Shikkotsu Forest, so the Slug Sage deliberately suppressed its appetite. Therefore, the monthly gourmet time became particularly precious. Even if something huge happened, it was not as important as the Sage's lunch.
So after it finished gorging, the Sage realized belatedly that there was a guest in Shikkotsu Forest today.
Haruno Sakura sitting on that piece of bark bored to death.
If it were a tsundere girl, being neglected for most of the day like this, she would probably be making a huge fuss by now, right?
—Then you are wrong. Haruno Sakura was certain that not to mention her who could always stabilize her emotions, even the most willful and tsundere little girl would absolutely not dare to be presumptuous in front of the Slug Sage.
"Ah, sorry... I easily get carried away when eating." The Slug Sage said softly, "Aren't you eating?"
Wait, softly...?
Okay, one could tell it tried very hard to appear gentle...
But the thunderous roar, with lingering echoes, made the girl's ears ring continuously. No matter what, she couldn't feel where the gentleness was.
"Humans don't eat bark, Sage." Haruno Sakura looked up and explained, while opening her scroll, "You don't need to worry about me, I brought food."
Because she heard that Shikkotsu Forest didn't have normal food, Mama Sakura bought various delicacies and stuffed them onto her, squeezing out a considerable part of the compressed dry food; actually, gnawing on dry food was already pretty good, at least easier to swallow and digest than gnawing on bark. Humans don't have the ability to digest cellulose. It was said that Mount Myoboku served an all-insect feast when entertaining guests. Really looking forward to the days of Naruto cultivating Senjutsu...
"Anyway, let's start training as soon as possible!" She urged.
"I originally wanted to chat with you first..." The Sage smacked its lips regretfully. The main body couldn't leave Shikkotsu Forest, and it was rare to have the opportunity to chat with people.
"Then let's start Senjutsu training first."
It thought for a moment and separated a small slug clone from its body.
"Then, next, I will guide you in cultivating Senjutsu!" The clone said, "First, before training, let me introduce the knowledge about Senjutsu completely. Please listen carefully..."
Of course, Haruno Sakura had already understood the concept of Senjutsu before coming to Shikkotsu Forest.
But she still assumed the posture of a good student listening attentively.
The so-called Senjutsu is a system of jutsu completely different from ordinary chakra ninjutsu: the chakra consumed by ninja when using Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu is a mixture of spiritual energy and physical energy; while Senjutsu consumes Senjutsu Chakra—a high-level chakra formed by mixing ordinary chakra with natural energy.
As for natural energy, as the name suggests, it is the free energy existing in the entire biosphere and the thriving nature. in Haruno Sakura's previous life world, the so-called "natural energy" was probably resources like oil and coal that supported the operation of human society; while in the Naruto world, after the sun's energy is absorbed by the biosphere, it seems more inclined to transform into this ethereal but ubiquitous natural energy with amazing reserves...
Except that the chakra used is a bit higher level than ordinary chakra and more powerful, Senjutsu is generally not much different from ordinary ninjutsu.
"...So, the key point of Senjutsu cultivation is to learn to combine ordinary chakra and natural energy. To do this, you need to mix natural energy, physical energy, and spiritual energy in equal proportions and blend them harmoniously into one."
The small slug, only about ten meters long, explained.
"Doesn't sound very difficult." The girl thought for a moment and smiled.
"Don't be careless! Senjutsu cultivation is very dangerous!" The small slug shook the tentacles on its head, "Although Sakura-sama, your control over ordinary chakra is very strong, when encountering brand new Senjutsu chakra, past experience might not work well... By the way, has Sakura-sama ever tried controlling the ratio of physical energy and spiritual energy in chakra?"
"Of course!" The girl nodded as a matter of course, "When using medical ninjutsu, usually chakra needs to undergo Yang Release nature transformation. At this time, fusing about 70% physical energy and 30% spiritual energy into chakra can improve the degree of Yang Release nature transformation."
"Or when using genjutsu, usually chakra mixed with physical and spiritual power in a 20-80 ratio is needed. Spirit plays a crucial role in genjutsu, so chakra with a high proportion of spiritual power has the best hallucinogenic effect. For Water Style, a 50-50 chakra split would be more suitable, but some special ninjutsu are different."
"In short, controlling the ratio of the two energies is just a basic operation for a ninja like me who is accustomed to precise manipulation. So I think Senjutsu chakra shouldn't be difficult for me."
The slug chuckled.
"Having confidence is a good thing, but Sakura-sama, Senjutsu cultivation is not as simple as you imagine! Both body and spirit come from yourself, so they are easy to manipulate. But the natural energy Senjutsu needs to absorb comes from the external nature, which is not so easy to control!"
It glanced at Haruno Sakura and continued: "Moreover, before controlling natural energy, the first thing we need to do is to learn to sense natural energy!"
"So, how do we do that?" Sakura asked.
Although natural energy is everywhere, humans cannot sense it; just as people breathe every moment, yet no one can sense the nitrogen that occupies nearly 80% of the air volume... In fact, after Haruno Sakura learned about the existence of Senjutsu, she also researched whether she could sense natural energy on her own; last year in the Land of Snow, she secretly trained for a month, but apart from drinking her fill of the northwest wind, there was no effect at all.
"Without guidance, with human quality, it would probably take a hundred years to sense natural energy." The small slug used the word "take" quite excellently, "Hm... a hundred years might be too long for you humans. However, the three major Senjutsu cultivation holy lands all have their own training methods, which can shorten the training time to a few days! The toads use Toad Oil to help absorb natural energy. The snakes are secretive and unclear. As for me—"
"My main body is absorbing natural energy all the time. I am very familiar with it..." The small slug smiled mysteriously, "So if you want to learn Senjutsu quickly, I have a method more direct and effective than Toad Oil—"
"Merge with me!"
"...What?!"
Haruno Sakura was stunned abruptly.
"Mer... merge?"
The small slug nodded: "Yes, merge. To be precise..."
"I eat you."
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