Chapter 204: S-Rank Secret Scroll
When a ninja refines chakra, it is produced by combining physical energy and spiritual energy. Cultivating Sage Mode, however, involves combining physical energy, spiritual energy, and natural energy.
After Ishiro failed twice, Ōnoki took him to the secret chamber where ninjutsu scrolls were stored and allowed Ishiro to read the S-rank secret scroll used for cultivating Dust Release.
Ishiro had long known the main theme of this S-rank secret scroll: it was about how to fuse three types of chakra.
Now, as Ishiro was cultivating Sage Mode, although it wasn't a fusion of three chakra natures, it was still a fusion of three energies. Ōnoki didn't know if this secret scroll would be helpful to Ishiro, but there was no harm in trying.
In Ishiro's own plans, developing a Kekkei Tōta was included, so he had coveted this secret scroll for a long time. He hadn't exchanged it from Ōnoki before, firstly because he didn't need it temporarily, and secondly, because S-rank secret scrolls, unlike ninjutsu, were not clearly priced. They were only imparted when the Tsuchikage felt you needed it and were qualified.
Ishiro had never imagined that cultivating Sage Mode would bring such an unexpected delight.
If not for this Sage Mode cultivation making Ōnoki feel it was related to cultivating Dust Release, heaven knows when he would have given this S-rank secret scroll to him. Perhaps he never would have.
Therefore, Ishiro cherished this opportunity very much and read it very carefully.
An hour later, after Ishiro confirmed he had completely memorized this S-rank secret scroll, he finally closed the scroll.
Ōnoki applied another sealing jutsu to Ishiro's mind, and then the two left the secret chamber.
Ōnoki had to go to the Tsuchikage's office to deal with those never-ending documents, while Ishiro had to go back and contemplate how to fuse natural energy.
Ishiro arrived at the training ground. While watching his three disciples train, he pondered the matter of fusing natural energy.
After half a year of growth, Ishiro's three disciples had all made significant progress.
Ogura Saki, that ninjutsu cultivation prodigy, had now completely grasped the two B-rank ninjutsu Ishiro had given her. It was only due to insufficient chakra that she couldn't cast them yet.
Besides these two B-rank ninjutsu, Ogura Saki was already planning an upgraded version of her Wind Tornado.
The little girl was very smart. She knew that even if she developed a B-rank ninjutsu, she wouldn't be able to use it for the time being, so she created a transitional version.
Apart from Wind Release, which was the attribute she first cultivated, Ogura Saki had recently been developing her Fire attribute as well. However, the development of this second attribute was not yet complete.
As for Matsutani Shinya, after experiencing a change in mentality, he appeared much more mature. Following Ishiro's advice, he was treading a path of broad learning. He had now learned at least six C-rank ninjutsu for each of his three attributes.
Not following Ogura Saki's path of developing ninjutsu, Matsutani Shinya chose a fighting style that leveraged the advantages of his multiple attributes. And because Water was among his three attributes, he had inherited the Water Pressure Line type Water Release ninjutsu that Ishiro had developed himself.
The one who had progressed the fastest was, surprisingly, Takumi. Ishiro's help to Takumi was actually the least. Takumi, like Kawakita from Ishiro's previous batch of disciples, was a taijutsu ninja and not the same type as Ishiro, so Ishiro couldn't offer much assistance.
However, perhaps stimulated by the near-death experience when facing Konoha Anbu last time, Takumi's training became even more diligent. Furthermore, the experience between life and death allowed his efforts to yield greater returns.
Now, Takumi's physical foundation was already very good. With all his stats up to par, Takumi was no longer the severely specialized student he once was. And his specialty in speed had also seen rapid progress with the improvement of his physical constitution.
The only regret was the continued lack of significant progress in his Shunshin no Jutsu. This gave Ishiro a major headache.
Today, the three youngsters were practicing teamwork because, in a while, the joint Chūnin Exams hosted by Iwagakure would begin.
The number of ninja villages participating in this joint Chūnin Exam hosted by Iwagakure was considerable. Besides Iwagakure itself, there was Sunagakure, a major power, and also several medium-sized countries like Amegakure, Kawa no Kuni Ninja Village (River Ninja Village), Kusagakure, and Takigakure.
The scale was already quite impressive. The only regret was that Kumogakure did not participate.
At Ishiro's suggestion, Iwagakure had also promised to offer a powerful offensive B-rank ninjutsu as the prize for first place this time. Any from Iwagakure's arsenal would do; the winner could choose from any of the five attributes.
This could be considered a grand gesture. One must know that last time, during the peace talks with Konoha, Iwagakure hadn't obtained many ninjutsu. Moreover, those ninjutsu paid by Konoha were mostly what Konoha had picked out as the least useful after sifting through their collection.
The preciousness of ninjutsu was evident from this.
As Ishiro's disciples, Ogura Saki and the other two naturally weren't coveting the B-rank ninjutsu; they just didn't want to lose face for their teacher, Ishiro. Because they remembered very clearly how Chiko Tomoe had gained everyone's recognition under the watchful eyes of all back then.
At that time, some among the three had been in the audience watching Chiko Tomoe's performance.
Especially Ogura Saki, who had always strived with Chiko Tomoe as her goal. She also wanted to become a qualified Chūnin like Chiko Tomoe under everyone's gaze, adding another glorious stroke to Ishiro's halo as a renowned teacher.
Ishiro knew his three disciples' thoughts, but he didn't hold much hope for them. The three's strength was already quite good, and it wouldn't be difficult for them to become Chūnin. However, distinguishing themselves in this Chūnin Exam would not be easy. After all, it had only been a little over a year since the three of them graduated. Although they had made great progress in this past year, they were still quite a bit behind compared to the geniuses of the same period.
Back then, Chiko Tomoe indeed gained recognition while everyone watched. But everyone recognized Chiko Tomoe not because her strength was particularly outstanding among the candidates at that time, but because, given her talent, her ability to reach Chūnin level so quickly gave everyone hope.
If Chiko Tomoe and her two companions had also participated in round after round of matches at that time, the possibility of any of them making it to the end was actually not high.
Therefore, Ishiro's requirements for Ogura Saki and the other two were actually not high; it was enough for them to simply pass the assessment.
So, although the three had been training exceptionally hard recently, Ishiro hadn't intervened much. Ishiro chose to let them develop naturally.
While the three disciples practiced their coordination, Ishiro cultivated on his own to the side. After a while, Natsuki, after finishing school, also came to this training ground. Of course, Natsuki didn't come willingly. This girl, when it came to training, would slack off whenever possible, lacking any ambition.
Ishiro glanced at Natsuki, who was pouting. The little girl had no choice but to obediently go to the side and practice taijutsu.
Natsuki's physical constitution was not outstanding; it should be said it was very average. However, she had some peculiar talent in terms of spiritual energy. It was just that Ishiro didn't know how to develop this talent, so Natsuki's strength was at the bottom of her class.
Initially, Ishiro had thought about making changes, but later he gave up. Let the little girl do whatever she wanted, as long as she completed her routine training every day. Anyway, there was still a lot of time before the little girl graduated.
Seeing everyone training seriously, Ishiro closed his eyes and began to recall the contents of the S-rank secret scroll.
Most of the content in the S-rank secret scroll was not directly related to this Sage Mode cultivation, but it contained many insights on how to handle three types of energy.
Ishiro carefully analyzed this aspect of the content.
After finishing his analysis, Ishiro felt: perhaps Ōnoki should be the one to try first.
Ōnoki, who could use Dust Release, was adept at fusing three attributes of chakra. After absorbing natural energy, fusing it would definitely be easier for him than for Ishiro.
The Dust Release cultivation method introduced in the S-rank secret scroll was, as a rule, progressive. It included methods on how to simultaneously control three types of chakra.
Most importantly, the S-rank secret scroll also considered that a ninja's mastery over the three attributes required for cultivating Dust Release would not be uniform. So, it proposed a method: to focus the main effort on the least familiar attribute. This way, although the proficiency in the three attributes would vary, because the allocated effort was different, the ninja could achieve a good balance.
This method was very important to Ishiro. In his many years as a ninja, Ishiro's mastery over his own physical and spiritual energies definitely far surpassed his control over natural energy, this "outsider."
After obtaining this method, Ishiro felt an urgent desire to try it.
However, Ishiro still held back. The cost of each cultivation attempt was not low. Before cultivating, all possible situations had to be considered.
Every time he thought of this, Ishiro greatly envied Naruto. The energy oil that Iwagakure needed to spend a fortune to produce a single drop of was almost inexhaustible at Mount Myōboku.
Naruto could perform countless Sage Mode practice sessions in a single day, but Ishiro had to prepare thoroughly to practice only once every few days. Just counting the number of attempts, Ishiro didn't know how many years he would have to practice to match Naruto's one day.
Fortunately, Ishiro's preparatory work was sufficiently thorough. Whether it was balance exercises or energy fusion, Ishiro was ahead of Naruto. Coupled with Ishiro's far superior ninjutsu training experience compared to Naruto's, and his thorough analytical preparation before each training session.
Therefore, the effect of each of Ishiro's training sessions far surpassed Naruto's.
For example, when Ishiro began his third practice session three days later, his thorough preparations came into play. Ishiro, following the method in the S-rank secret scroll, focused the vast majority of his mental energy on controlling natural energy.
He began by separating a small portion of natural energy from the main bulk, then used his own two energies to envelop it.
Then, Ishiro, disregarding the natural energy still frantically pouring in from the outside, began to fuse the three according to a certain ratio.
The ratio of the three was a simple one-to-one-to-one; there was no problem with this. The difficulty lay in how to achieve precise control.
At this point, Ishiro discovered Naruto's advantage: Naruto had a massive amount of chakra; he didn't need precise control. If he found something lacking, he just needed to add more of it. But Ishiro couldn't do that. If he followed Naruto's method, Ishiro's chakra would be depleted before he could achieve balance.
After all, the number of times Ishiro could afford trial and error was too few.
That was why Ishiro chose to select a small portion from the vast amount of natural energy and first find that accurate ratio.
Ishiro knew the miraculous nature of chakra. Ishiro believed that as long as he succeeded once, thereafter, his chakra would slowly form a memory of it.
However, by doing this, apart from the portion of natural energy intercepted by Ishiro, the rest of the natural energy no longer had sufficient restraint. Ishiro's remaining chakra was relying entirely on instinct to suppress it, so Ishiro's petrification process also accelerated significantly.
As a result, this time, in less than two minutes, Ikura had no choice but to interrupt Ishiro's cultivation.
Subsequently, before the Chūnin Exams arrived, Ishiro made three more attempts. Although they all failed, Ishiro still slowly figured out some knack to it.
Although Ishiro didn't know how much time was still needed to completely master Sage Mode, Ishiro had a feeling that he was already close to completing the fusion for just that small portion of natural energy he controlled.
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