Chapter 441: Completion of the First Stage
"Hang in there, get through this hurdle!" The slug chanted silently in its heart. The massive natural energy in the girl's body was approaching the brink of losing control, and signs of slugification of her flesh began to appear.
"Is it going to fail?" It secretly gathered strength in its body, ready to accept failure and spit Sakura out in time.
In the slug's perception, the restless natural energy was continuously surging and rioting restlessly, repeatedly approaching the limit of breaking Haruno Sakura's control. The dam built by spiritual power was tottering under its impact; however, just when the slug thought this time would also fail like the previous dozens of times, the long-term cultivation finally bore fruit—
She held on.
The slug tried hard to bend down, watching the girl in its stomach with veins popping out on her forehead, gritting her teeth and persisting all the time. This time, she finally successfully grasped the natural energy in her palms.
Natural energy, spiritual energy, and physical energy aggregated perfectly and harmoniously, forming a new, more powerful chakra.
Senjutsu Chakra.
"Success."
The slug breathed a sigh of relief and carefully released Haruno Sakura from its body.
This time, Haruno Sakura was finally not spat out wretchedly.
She jumped out of the slug's mouth agilely and landed steadily on the ground; her whole body was filled with a strange chakra, more powerful and energetic than the chakra Sakura was used to, making the girl feel full of strength.
"Is this Senjutsu Chakra?"
Haruno Sakura stretched out her hand. The natural energy was controlled perfectly by her. The hands, which were most prone to slugification, showed no signs of softening, and the five slender fingers were still well-defined.
Open palm.
Move fingers.
Make a fist. Throw a punch.
Haruno Sakura moved her right hand delicately, experiencing the different feeling brought by Senjutsu Chakra.
"That's right, this is Senjutsu Chakra." The slug walked forward and smiled.
It carefully scrutinized the girl in front of it.
The result of high-difficulty cultivation was a high degree of completion of Sage Mode. Haruno Sakura's first condensation of Senjutsu Chakra was done quite perfectly. There were almost no traces of erosion by natural energy on her body, and the fluctuation of Senjutsu Chakra was controlled quite steadily. The huge energy was perfectly confined within the slender body, occasionally leaking a trace of aura, actually adding a bit of profound and imposing temperament to the girl.
"Congratulations on completing the first stage of cultivation! By the way, the completion degree of your Sage Mode is quite high. Even Sage Markings have appeared on your face, reminding me of Hashirama-sama back then." The slug said enviously.
"Sage Markings on the face?"
Haruno Sakura was slightly stunned, then condensed an ice mirror.
In the mirror, her facial features hadn't changed much, but there was a layer of light purple eyeshadow around her eyes, adding a bit of mysterious charm to that exquisite face. There was also a layer of almost invisible markings, with a pattern somewhat like the Haruno clan's emblem, printed on her forehead.
"Sage Markings are unique patterns of the Slug Senjutsu cultivation method, which will only appear when Sage Mode is mastered perfectly." The slug saw Sakura's doubt and explained, "Hashirama-sama also had Sage Markings back then. His patterns were even more complete and clear."
"Of course, with your chakra manipulation ability, Haruno Sakura-sama, you will sooner or later reach the level of Sage Mode like Hashirama-sama, or even surpass him." The slug smiled, "Speaking of which, it's quite unexpected to be so amazing upon completing Sage Mode for the first time. I was also startled by you!"
As long as she didn't become a faceless person without facial features like a slug, it was fine. Haruno Sakura breathed a sigh of relief.
As for Sage Markings or whatever, she didn't care much. It was just an identifier of the completion degree of Sage Mode, and it didn't seem to have any special effects—except for saving the effort of applying eyeshadow and makeup.
However, our Lord Sakura never wears makeup.
"Surpass the First Hokage?" Haruno Sakura shook her head and smiled, talking to herself without any modesty, "No way."
"What I want to surpass is Sage Mode itself!"
Haruno Sakura didn't care too much about Senjutsu because she wouldn't stay at the level of Sage Mode for her whole life. The higher-level Star God Mode and even Yang God Mode were already conceived by Haruno Sakura, and no matter how difficult it was, she would not stop moving forward.
However, although she said she didn't care, it was a secret technique cultivated with hard work after all, and Haruno Sakura was filled with a sense of achievement at this moment.
The girl moved her body, sensing the new power, and her mood suddenly became joyful.
She suddenly threw a punch.
Not using Monstrous Strength, but using all the techniques contained in the "Ordinary Punch" explained by Hinata at the hot spring that day.
Force originates from the root. The extensor digitorum brevis and extensor hallucis brevis exerted force, toes gripped the ground, heels sat firmly, soles exerted force, and the force from the ground passed through the delicate ankles, transmitted up from the tense and slender calf tendons. The entire slender thigh also exerted force at the same time. The layered force was extracted to the waist, sent out through the shoulders and arms, gathered into a majestic force on the fist face, and smashed onto the tough trunk of the ancient tree with a bang.
A loud noise boomed.
The little slug only felt the branch of the ancient tree, over ten meters in diameter under its feet, vibrate violently several times under this punch. It looked intently and saw the tough bark on the trunk of the ancient tree, which only the Slug Sage could bite, actually burst open layer by layer under this blow, blooming a huge cracked pattern!
And in the center of the pattern was a small but deeply embedded fist print in the heart of the tree.
Haruno Sakura's entire arm punched through the bark and blasted into the inside of the trunk.
"This is the power of Sage Mode." The slug waved its tentacles with satisfaction and said, "How about it, very powerful, right? Haruno Sakura-sama?"
The girl shook her arm and shook her head.
"It's okay, still a bit worse than the effect of Monstrous Strength."
Slug: "..."
It was choked speechless for a long time by the disapproval in Sakura's tone.
After a long time, it murmured: "Using Monstrous Strength in Sage Mode, the effect will be many times stronger than usual..."
However, Haruno Sakura had long run off somewhere, excitedly experimenting with the feeling of using Water Style in Sage Mode, not noticing what it said at all.
"Sage Art: Wind Blade Torrent!"
"Sage Art: Great Waterfall Jutsu!" "Sage Art: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!" "Sage Art: Water Dragon Bite!" "Sage Art: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!" "Sage Art: Phantom Sound Rare Sound!"
"Sage Art: Mutually Multiplying Ice Clone Explosive Jutsu!"
The first few small-scale ninjutsu were fine, and even Wind Blade Torrent was not used on a solid object; but when it came to the big move Mutually Multiplying Ice Clone Explosive Jutsu, Haruno Sakura acted on impulse, wanting to see the power of this move after enhancement, and tried using this ninjutsu on a giant tree.
Then—
Boom boom boom!
Earth-shattering roars resounded through the entire sky instantly!
Even from hundreds of meters away, Haruno Sakura's ears were ringing from the sound of her own ninjutsu; the turbulent air waves set off by the explosion turned into gusts of wild wind, whistling shrilly and sharply, rushing towards her face carrying rapidly flying ice debris!
The calm lake surface set off shocking waves under the influence of the ninjutsu. Towering waves hit the trunks of the giant trees in the lake, breaking into countless splashes. The tranquil Shikkotsu Forest seemed to boil instantly!
The exaggerated power surprised even the owner of the jutsu, Haruno Sakura.
Ninjutsu performed by consuming Senjutsu Chakra was obviously more than a notch higher in power than ordinary ninjutsu.
"If the self-destruction power of ordinary Ice Clones is comparable to a 155mm howitzer, then the Ice Clone explosion in Sage Mode is a bombardment from a naval gun of over 300mm." She sighed with emotion while maintaining the frenzied unrestricted bombing, "Moreover, it mainly consumes natural energy, so the burden on myself has decreased a lot..."
The towering giant tree began to sway unsteadily in such continuous violent explosions, its bark blown off, flesh torn open.
"Alright, stop messing around, Sakura."
The Slug Sage couldn't stand it anymore. Waving its tentacles gently, it set up a large amount of lake water. Giant waves hundreds of meters high turned into a water wall covering the sky and earth, pouncing on the Ice Clones in the chain explosion with momentum that could swallow mountains and rivers, boldly destroying the gorgeous fireworks.
"That's my ration for the month after next, don't waste it."
"..." Haruno Sakura's face stiffened, and she quickly smiled apologetically, "Sorry, Slug Sage."
"It doesn't matter, it looks like it can still be eaten... By the way, you have completed the first stage of Senjutsu cultivation so quickly and preliminarily mastered Sage Mode. As expected of Little Tsunade's disciple, this ability to manipulate chakra is indeed quite outstanding, and the completed Sage Mode is also very excellent."
"Actually, Little Tsunade also has the talent to cultivate Senjutsu. After all, she is Little Hashirama's granddaughter... It's just that the girl likes to make excuses. In the past, she didn't want to learn, saying the acidity of Shikkotsu Forest was too high for people to live in, or disliking Sage Mode for being too ugly. Now she says she became Hokage and has no time to learn... In short, many excuses. So, the Senjutsu of our Slug family now relies on you to carry forward, Sakura."
"Go for it, Sakura!"
The Slug Sage chattered a long paragraph.
"Yes, Slug Sage!"
The little slug nested aside aggrievedly, watching Haruno Sakura experimenting with various ninjutsu, playing non-stop like a big boy who got a new toy. It waited patiently for her excitement to pass before slowly clapping its hands and jumping back onto the platform.
"I suddenly have an inspiration. With the help of massive Senjutsu Chakra, I can complete a giant ninjutsu..." As soon as the girl landed, she said to the slug, obviously her interest in Senjutsu had not diminished.
Although she kept saying she didn't care much about Senjutsu, after truly cultivating Sage Mode, she was excited for a long time.
Sage Mode...
Really fun.
"Let's talk about that later..." The little slug said helplessly, "Our time is limited. Let's finish Senjutsu cultivation first. The next training is to sense and absorb natural energy without the help of my body, thereby completing the training of Sage Mode independently..."
"Sounds quite easy."
"Hehe..." The slug smiled meaningfully, "At this step, the danger won't be too dangerous, just the difficulty..."
"You'll know when you try."
"Very difficult?" The girl tilted her head slightly, looking disbelieving.
"Absolutely more difficult than you imagine." The slug said decisively.
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