Chapter 203: Who First?
The research into the natural energy seal brought Ishiro back to those busy yet fulfilling days of his childhood.
Every day, Ishiro had to dedicate about half his time to researching the natural energy seal; the remaining time was for teaching his three disciples and his own training.
And the training projects Ishiro needed to undertake were surprisingly numerous. Besides the original content, another item had been added: the S-rank ninjutsu, Shinra Tensei.
Originally, Ishiro had worried that Ōnoki would ground him after he returned to the village this time. But events proved Ishiro had overthought it; without Ōnoki even needing to say anything, he simply had no time to go out and roam.
Although several minor and major incidents had occurred in the ninja world during this period, making Ishiro very eager to participate, he unfortunately had no time.
The research into the natural energy seal was too dangerous. However, among the researchers, apart from Ishiro, no one else could sense the presence of natural energy. Therefore, while anyone could be absent from the research process, Ishiro absolutely could not.
The research process lasted for about half a year. This duration had actually far exceeded Ishiro's expectations. During this process, Ōnoki convened high-level meetings three times regarding this matter. The content of the discussions was always whether to continue the research – for no other reason than the research process was simply too expensive.
In the first two meetings, it was Mei, the advisor in charge of finances, who proposed stopping. At that time, Ishiro and Ōnoki both supported continuing the research. Ikura and Saka did not express an opinion.
By the third time, which was a month ago, when Mei once again convened a high-level meeting, even Ōnoki hesitated. If not for Ishiro's repeated insistence and his repeated explanations that the research had already made breakthrough progress, perhaps the funding for this research would have been cut off by Mei.
Fortunately, today there was finally a result.
Still in the original experimental area, Ishiro called all the high-level officials for a test.
If one paid slight attention, they would discover that the terrain of this experimental area was already completely different from before, because about three months ago, when the experiment reached a critical stage, an explosion occurred.
If not for Ishiro having made some progress in these past few months and timely casting a large-scale circular Water Formation Wall to protect all the researchers, perhaps in that instant, Iwagakure's sealing jutsu expertise would have regressed by ten years.
It was also that research incident that incurred the greatest losses, ultimately summoning Mei, that "God of Wealth Grandmother."
Besides such major and minor accidents, the research process also encountered many unforeseen difficulties, such as how to determine if the concentration of natural energy had reached the standard. This problem troubled Ishiro and his team for a long time. In the end, the giant panda came over and assessed it. The giant panda wasn't very certain either and gave a rough standard.
However, although the process was fraught with stumbles, the final result was good. Because just over ten days ago, during an experiment, they accidentally obtained a drop of suspected liquified natural energy. It was just that that drop of natural energy couldn't be preserved and quickly dissipated on its own.
But that undoubtedly gave everyone hope. Then, after these dozen or so days of research, Ishiro and the others finally found some knack to it. This led to the current experiment being demonstrated to all the village's high-level officials.
As the lead researcher, Ishiro did not directly participate in this experimental process but explained it to Ōnoki and the others from the side.
The one actually performing the operation was none other than Mizuhara, the head of the Barrier Team. The seal deployment went very smoothly, completed in less than ten minutes. Then came the waiting. This process wasn't too long either; after about an hour, the newly arranged seal began to fluctuate.
Then the fluctuations became more and more intense. Finally, just as the seal was about to fail, a drop of golden-yellow, oil-like liquid formed in the very center of the seal. The liquid fell, landing in a bottle placed precisely underneath.
Almost simultaneously, the natural energy within the seal was instantly depleted. And the seal, which had been fluctuating constantly, seemed unable to withstand the sudden change in pressure at this moment and collapsed.
However, at this point, no one was paying attention to the collapsing seal; instead, all eyes were fixed on the drop of natural energy in the bottle.
Ōnoki sensed it carefully but didn't find anything special, so he looked at Ishiro with some doubt.
Ishiro also said with some uncertainty, "I can't guarantee this is the liquified natural energy the giant panda spoke of, but the possibility is extremely high. Moreover, this thing will disappear quickly."
Sure enough, in less than a minute, this oily drop of liquid vanished.
Ōnoki thought for a moment and said, "No matter what, we spent so much to create this thing; we have to test it."
Ishiro quickly raised his hand, "Let me, let me! I'll test it!"
Mei glared at Ishiro and said, "You are an advisor now too. Mind your image."
Ishiro quickly looked around guiltily. Mei, this advisor, had been very dissatisfied with Ishiro for the past six months; Ishiro's experiments had consumed an truly exaggerated amount of funds.
Ikura said, "Ishiro, when do you plan to try?"
Ishiro said, "In a few more days. My current state isn't right. I'll try after my mindset has calmed down in a few days."
Ōnoki said, "Then Ishiro will conduct the experiment first. However, when you conduct the experiment, at least I or Ikura must be by your side guarding."
Ishiro nodded repeatedly like a chick pecking at rice.
Four days later, Ishiro finally completely calmed down from the tense and excited state of being able to cultivate Sage Mode, and then he began his first attempt.
The location Ishiro chose for the attempt was beside the original experimental area, in a newly arranged large-scale natural energy barrier. Mizuhara and the others would create the liquified natural energy in the experimental area and then bring it to Ishiro. What Ishiro needed to do was to adjust his state and wait inside the barrier.
Ishiro wore a set of loose casual clothes and sat cross-legged on the ground. Beside Ishiro, Ikura held a black rod, ready to act at any moment. In the distance were Ōnoki and other high-level officials, as well as other support personnel Ishiro had prepared, including ninjas to record various data and medical ninjas.
Everyone waited for a while. Mizuhara quickly rushed in and handed the bottle containing the liquified natural energy to Ikura.
Ikura didn't act immediately but carefully sensed it. Only after Ishiro's rapidly beating heart, which had started racing upon hearing Mizuhara's footsteps, had calmed down somewhat, did he place a drop of the energy oil on the back of Ishiro's hand.
At this moment, Ishiro, sitting with his eyes closed, only felt a cool sensation spread from the back of his hand, and then he felt as if his entire being had merged with nature.
Fortunately, this wasn't Ishiro's first time absorbing natural energy. The slow petrification process last time had given Ishiro a lot of experience.
Ishiro quickly pulled his attention back to his own body.
At this time, there was indeed a lot of energy in his body that didn't belong to him, and this energy was still increasing. Without Ishiro needing to search carefully, he could find that this energy was all surging in from the back of his hand.
Compared to the previous accidental absorption of natural energy, Ishiro's current strength had improved significantly, especially his chakra amount, which was on a completely different level.
So, initially, Ishiro did put up some resistance. But this process didn't last long because Ishiro discovered that simply resisting was not feasible.
Ishiro began to try fusion again. Ishiro had no experience with fusing three types of chakra, but thanks to the extensive preparatory work Ishiro had done before, such as balance exercises, Ishiro could now avoid falling even at an altitude of one hundred meters.
Therefore, Ishiro's ability to control natural energy exceeded his own imagination. The process was smoother than Ishiro had anticipated.
Ishiro, using Ogura Saki's analytical method, had already conducted detailed analysis beforehand. Combining various insights from the original story and his current life, Ishiro had envisioned dozens of different accidents, thought them through, and formulated what he believed were reasonable countermeasures.
So, although Ishiro didn't have Naruto's talent, he possessed wisdom far exceeding Naruto's and had already fully utilized this wisdom.
However, Sage Mode cultivation was too difficult. After a while longer, Ishiro frustratingly discovered that the fusion had failed. Ishiro, whose fusion had failed, immediately felt himself being quickly overwhelmed by the surging natural energy.
Just as Ishiro felt his life force was about to be submerged by natural energy, an intense pain came from behind him. Then, that ocean of energy that was about to drown him instantly vanished.
Subconsciously opening his eyes, Ishiro, while grimacing in pain, looked around, and then his gaze fell on the black rod in Ikura's hand.
Needless to say, it was definitely this black rod that had taken effect.
"Thank you, Nagato. Otherwise, I would have been in deep trouble today."
This petrification was different from the previous one. Previously, without the energy oil, Ishiro hadn't absorbed much natural energy. This time, with the enhancement of the energy oil, the amount of natural energy Ishiro absorbed was far beyond what the previous attempt could compare to.
After the first failure, Ishiro didn't rush into a second attempt but began to analyze it with everyone else.
First was an examination of Ishiro's various physical attributes. The results of the examination showed no abnormalities; Ishiro's body hadn't suddenly become stronger, nor were there any lingering ill effects.
Then, Ishiro described his various sensations from before. These sensations were also recorded by dedicated personnel.
After finishing his description, Ishiro asked, "How long did I last just now?"
Ikura said, "Five minutes."
Ishiro was very surprised; he hadn't expected the training session he thought was brief to have actually lasted five minutes. This was followed by pleasant surprise. Ishiro was very certain that Naruto, at the beginning, definitely couldn't have persisted for that long.
This showed that Ishiro, with sufficient preparation, had a better foundation than Naruto in the original story when he first started practicing Sage Mode.
Of course, Naruto was full of "cheats"; his training speed definitely couldn't be compared to that of a normal person. But this was, in any case, a good thing.
Moreover, Ishiro felt that with Ogura Saki's systematic training method, his own training speed wouldn't be slow.
After a round of summarization, Ishiro, with Ōnoki's permission, began his second attempt.
This attempt was slightly more effective than the first, and he persisted for a longer time. But essentially, nothing changed; Ishiro still failed to fuse the natural energy.
However, with the experience from the previous time, Ishiro didn't waste time on initial confusion this time, so he gained more sensations.
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