Chapter 202: Progress in Sage Mode
The next day, Ishiro took Matsutani Shinya to meet the giant panda. Matsutani Shinya's affinity with animals also had some effect on this giant panda, though clearly not as much as with ordinary small animals.
The difference in the giant panda's attitude towards Matsutani Shinya was merely that it wasn't averse to him, but it also didn't feel Matsutani Shinya particularly suited its preferences.
However, seeing this, Ishiro had another idea. He asked Matsutani Shinya to chat with the giant panda and see if it knew the training method for Sage Mode or, say, a method for absorbing natural energy.
The giant panda was quite surprised by Matsutani Shinya's question about Sage Mode. It lowered its body and carefully sniffed Matsutani Shinya, finding nothing. Then it looked at Ishiro standing behind Matsutani Shinya, came closer, and sniffed Ishiro as well.
This time, the giant panda's expression was somewhat puzzled. It asked Ishiro, "Little fellow, have you absorbed natural energy before? How come you didn't petrify, nor did you fuse with natural energy?"
Ishiro was taken aback and said, "Senior, I unintentionally absorbed natural energy once. I nearly petrified at that time. Later, I used the natural energy in my body to train a ninjutsu, and that's how I avoided petrification."
The giant panda seemed unable to understand how Ishiro could cultivate ninjutsu using natural energy.
Seeing this, Ishiro pressed further, "Senior, do you know how to absorb natural energy?"
The giant panda said, "There is a method to absorb natural energy, but it's very difficult to achieve. Even I only know of this method and have never tried it."
"Little fellow, natural energy isn't that easy to absorb. If you can't control natural energy, you will petrify."
Upon hearing this, Ishiro took out the black rod he had obtained from Nagato and asked, "Senior, at Mount Myōboku, one of the three great sage regions, it's said there's a type of black rod that can disperse uncontrolled natural energy absorbed into the body. I wonder if it's this kind of thing."
The giant panda looked at the black rod and shook its head, "I am not clear about matters concerning Mount Myōboku. Natural energy is a top secret; Mount Myōboku would not reveal it."
Ishiro thought for a moment and said, "Since Senior knows the method for absorbing natural energy, could you inform us? We also want to try the power of natural energy."
The giant panda thought for a moment and said, "Alright. If you use this place as an exchange, I agree."
"Uh." Ishiro was stunned, not expecting the giant panda to make such a request. Originally, this giant panda wasn't very willing to exert itself for Iwagakure, only agreeing to become a summoning beast and fight for Iwagakure due to the natural energy seal.
Although the village hadn't yet found a suitable summoning ninja, once found, this would be a long-term deal. Now, this giant panda wanted to complete this long-term deal for Iwagakure in one go.
Ishiro turned to look at Ōnoki. Ōnoki was also somewhat conflicted and couldn't make a decision for a moment. He said, "Let's go back and gather the advisors to discuss it."
Ishiro nodded in agreement.
A giant summoning beast versus Sage Mode – this was a difficult choice. If, after obtaining the method for absorbing natural energy, they could guarantee successful cultivation of Sage Mode, then Ōnoki would still be willing to make the exchange.
Firstly, Sage Mode could significantly enhance a Kage's combat power, while the boost from a giant summoning beast was quite limited. Secondly, Sage Mode could be popularized, allowing many people to learn it together. Unlike a giant summoning beast, of which there was only one, it could only help one person, or at least only one person at any given time.
But unfortunately, Ishiro also couldn't be certain whether they could master Sage Mode even after obtaining the method for absorbing natural energy that the giant panda spoke of.
At the high-level meeting, opinions were not unanimous. Mei was an opponent. Her reason wasn't that she felt it wasn't a good deal, but that she felt it was too dangerous. Sage Mode was uncontrollable, but a summoning beast was controllable. Although this giant panda had many demands and wasn't willing to suffer losses, at least it could be communicated with, which was already very valuable.
However, practicing Sage Mode carried the risk of petrification, and those qualified to practice Sage Mode were all elites of the village. Iwagakure was not Konoha; Konoha could afford losses, but Iwagakure could not.
Especially Ishiro; Mei could see at a glance that Ishiro was someone who particularly wanted to learn Sage Mode. A quasi-Kage like Ishiro, and also a village advisor, his importance to the village needed no further explanation. Mei didn't want a genius like Ishiro to take such a risk.
Saka, however, held a supportive attitude. His reason was simple: "A giant summoning beast, at best, can allow a ninja to reach the level of Konoha's Sannin. But the previous user of Sage Mode was Hashirama Senju."
It was this sentence from Saka that directly moved Ōnoki. Ōnoki could never forget the humiliation of being threatened by Madara Uchiha back then. If Sage Mode could allow one to reach the level of the First Hokage, then Ōnoki himself would be willing to take this risk.
Ikura, however, said, "Lord Tsuchikage, could this giant panda be a spy sent by Konoha? After all, that summoning scroll was also obtained from Konoha ninjas."
Ishiro was taken aback, not expecting Ikura's train of thought to have become so bizarre. Ishiro hadn't considered this aspect at all because he knew that although Sage Mode was an ability of the First Hokage, Konoha didn't have the relevant legacy. Sage Mode had always been something from the three great sage regions and was distinct from Konoha.
For example, Kabuto Yakushi, the Konoha rogue ninja from the original story, learned Sage Mode from Ryūchi Cave.
In other words, as long as the three great sage regions approved, regardless of that person's identity or whether they were related to Konoha, they could potentially learn Sage Mode.
After hearing Ikura's words, Ōnoki gritted his teeth and said, "We still have to exchange. It's just that for us high-level officials to practice Sage Mode, we can only do it one by one. Before the previous person successfully masters Sage Mode, others cannot attempt to practice it."
"Yes," everyone responded. Ōnoki's words were not directed at Saka and Mei; their strength was insufficient, and they hadn't entertained the thought of practicing Sage Mode.
Among the higher-ups, those qualified to practice Sage Mode should originally have been Ōnoki and Ikura, both Kage-level. But Ishiro's desire was even stronger than theirs.
After the high-level meeting reached a conclusion, Ōnoki brought Ikura and Ishiro to the natural energy seal where the giant panda was located.
"We choose to exchange for the method of absorbing natural energy," Ōnoki said to the giant panda.
The giant panda accepted this exchange and then described the method it knew for absorbing natural energy.
After listening to the giant panda's explanation, Ōnoki and Ikura looked at each other in dismay.
Originally, they thought the giant panda would teach them a method similar to meditation. Unexpectedly, the giant panda said that absorbing natural energy required an external medium.
This external medium was highly concentrated natural energy – natural energy so dense that it had liquified.
Ōnoki and Ikura were baffled, but Ishiro thought of Mount Myōboku's toad oil. Could toad oil be natural energy concentrated to a liquid state?
Ishiro said to the perplexed Ōnoki and Ikura, "How about we adjust the seal and try increasing the concentration of natural energy?"
Ōnoki nodded and said, "We can try, but we must control the range. Don't forget, natural energy is uncontrollable, and the danger is not insignificant."
Ishiro nodded in understanding.
As an advisor skilled in sealing jutsus, this matter naturally fell to Ishiro.
Increasing the concentration of natural energy was not difficult. With Iwagakure's level of sealing jutsu mastery, they could have done it long ago. Previously, it was only out of fear that natural energy was too dangerous that the concentration was controlled within a suitable range.
Now, what Ishiro needed to do was to find a method through experimentation that could increase the concentration of natural energy without causing it to go berserk.
Ishiro found a relatively secluded spot outside the village and notified the Barrier Team to set up shielding and defensive barriers. Then he asked Ōnoki to arrange for Anbu guards.
Ishiro knew his own limitations; he knew this matter certainly wouldn't succeed in a day or two. This research might very well be another long-term project.
He just hoped it wouldn't be like researching the Fire Realm seal fragments back then, where progress was measured in years. Ishiro didn't have that much time to waste.
The basis of the experiment was still the original natural energy seal. They just needed to cancel the part of the original seal that restricted natural energy and prevented it from increasing excessively.
In fact, when the natural energy seal was first researched, incidents where the natural energy became too concentrated, ultimately causing the seal to collapse, had occurred.
The cost of setting up a natural energy seal wasn't low. The village had no need for this kind of research at the time, so they hadn't delved deeper into it.
Now, Ishiro would lead the experiments in this direction.
He hadn't engaged in sealing jutsu development and research for many years; Ishiro was quite excited.
Firstly, what Ishiro needed to do was not direct experimentation. The current seal was too large, and the cost was too high. Even without trying, Ishiro knew that this research process wouldn't succeed in one or two attempts. Although Iwagakure had developed well in recent years, it couldn't afford such extravagance.
Ishiro first had to shrink that original massive seal. Reducing its volume would inevitably lead to a decrease in cost.
This point wasn't difficult. Ishiro and Mizuhara, the head of the Barrier Team, along with others, completed the simplification in less than three days of research.
The seal was largely still the same seal, just with much of the repetitive content intended to increase its area removed. So this process went very smoothly.
Three days later, Ishiro and his team constructed a new natural energy seal in the selected experimental area.
The size of this seal was about that of a room. Ishiro and the others calculated the cost and found it barely acceptable.
Thus, the research quickly entered the second step: canceling the parts of the original seal used to maintain balance. This seemed simple but was actually very troublesome because Ishiro and his team's goal was not to completely cancel the balance but to ultimately achieve control over the natural energy.
Therefore, while canceling the original balance settings, they also had to add a lot of content for guidance.
Because Ishiro and his team had shrunk the original large seal, this also led to a significant weakening of the new seal's tolerance for natural energy, so this process did not go smoothly.
In more than a dozen successive experimental results, the seal was battered to pieces by the rampaging natural energy. Fortunately, the seal was relatively small, and not much natural energy had gathered, so the ninjas participating in the research were not injured.
♧♧♧
-> SUPPORT ME WITH POWER STONE
-> FOR EVERY 200 PS = BOUNS CHAPTER
♧♧♧
-> 30 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.patreon.com/c/Segais
(Just remove the hyphen to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you