Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

He could feel every cell in his body rejoicing.

It was the joy of rain after a long drought.

Meanwhile, in the room where Sakumo Hatake was.

Sakumo Hatake was sitting cross-legged on the ground with his beloved White Fang short sword on his lap.

As usual, he was practicing sword meditation, using this method to form a closer connection with the White Fang Short Sword.

He suddenly opened his eyes and looked in the direction where Kirito was. A look of doubt appeared in his eyes, and he whispered, "Natural energy is rapidly converging towards Kirito. The natural energy is so dense that even I can clearly sense its presence now."

When a ninja's strength reaches a certain level, many ninjas are able to sense natural energy, which is different from chakra, to varying degrees. Some lucky ones even come into contact with the power of Sage Mode.

As a Kage-level shinobi in Konoha, Hatake Sakumo had naturally heard of and discovered natural energy, but he had never been able to absorb and utilize it.

As far as he knew, Jiraiya was the only ninja in Konoha who had successfully absorbed natural energy, and Jiraiya was able to do so with the help of the sage at Mount Myōboku, a sacred place for summoning beasts.

"If I'm not mistaken, Kirito is absorbing natural energy, isn't he? I remember natural energy is a very dangerous kind of energy. I hope he won't get into trouble absorbing natural energy so frantically."

Having read some of Konoha's top-secret documents, Hatake Sakumo had a certain understanding of natural energy and was aware of its power and danger, which made him worried.

Without hesitation, he immediately got up and quickly arrived at the door of Kirito's room.

But someone got here before him.

"Teacher Hatake, you and I will stay here. That idiot has set up a very strong sealing barrier inside. We can't go in for the time being without his permission."

Chizuru glanced at Hatake Sakumo with surprise and said coldly.

The abnormality in the natural energy of the surrounding environment was something she, who had perfectly integrated with Kirito's cursed seal, could not possibly be unaware of. She immediately realized that it was caused by Kirito, and then came over to check the situation. However, she was blocked by the sealing barrier set up by Kirito and had no choice but to wait at the door.

She just didn't expect that Sakumo Hatake would also notice something was wrong.

"Okay, then let's do it this way."

Upon hearing this, Hatake Sakumo suppressed his shock, nodded, and then leaned against the wall, looking directly at the door of Kirito's room.

"The younger generation these days is really scary."

Sakumo Hatake was filled with emotion.

He truly hadn't expected that even Chizuru could sense natural energy, and that Chizuru's ability to sense natural energy was clearly superior to his.

For a moment, he quietly began to observe this genius of the Uchiha clan.

Because Kirito was so dazzling, he had previously overlooked this genius of the Uchiha clan.

Looking back now, Chizuru was no ordinary person either; she also harbored many astonishing secrets.

For example, when Chizuru fought against that Ice Release ninja from Kirigakure, she used that strange amplification ninjutsu. When she activated it, her whole body underwent strange changes, and her strength instantly surged. With this, she directly overwhelmed the Ice Release ninja. Later, she easily controlled him with Sharingan genjutsu and killed him easily.

At the age of ten, she was already capable of killing elite Jonin-level bloodline limit ninjas. Not to mention Kirito, Chizuru's potential should not be underestimated. With her in the Uchiha clan, they will surely be able to continue the Uchiha clan's glory in Konoha.

On the other hand, Nawaki's side is not so good for the time being. Compared with Kirito and Chizuru, he is somewhat mediocre.

However, Sakumo Hatake was not disappointed in Nawaki because he knew that Nawaki's talent was actually very good, and the fact that his chakra level far exceeded his own was the best proof of that.

Of the three, Nawaki has the most chakra, which means that as long as Nawaki makes up for his weaknesses, he may be able to surpass the others. If Nawaki awakens the Wood Release bloodline limit in the future, he may be able to recreate some of the First Hokage's glory.

"Even Hatake-sensei noticed the abnormality in the natural energy. It seems that this commotion has been quite significant. Fortunately, apart from Chizuru and Hatake-sensei, there are no other ninjas nearby who can sense the natural energy."

Meanwhile, Kirito, inside the room, had already noticed Sakumo Hatake's arrival and sensed the natural energy in the room, which was many times stronger than outside, and thought to himself.

Now, his body is like a black hole, absorbing a large amount of natural energy from the outside world, causing the concentration of natural energy in his room and even the surrounding environment to rise rapidly.

Because of this, he estimated that ninjas with strength reaching the level of elite Jonin or with extremely strong sensory abilities could sense natural energy here.

This situation undoubtedly increases the risk of his body undergoing a transformation.

Fortunately, he has two reliable teammates by his side now, otherwise he would have had to call over the White Zetsu clone as an outside help.

After the cells in Tong's body absorbed a large amount of natural energy, the intensity of his life force continued to increase, and he gradually exuded a special kind of pressure.

Kirito knew that this meant his cells were being strengthened or even evolving, his life level was being further elevated, and he was getting closer to becoming a true immortal.

The process of cells absorbing natural energy in the body takes about three minutes.

The moment this process ended, Kirito's range of natural energy perception began to expand rapidly, from nearly six kilometers to ten kilometers.

In an instant, he could sense all the creatures within a ten-kilometer radius that possessed chakra, and the amount of chakra within them was also completely within his perception.

At the same time, through this powerful perception of natural energy, he also vaguely sensed three different directions, with three huge energy vortexes formed by natural energy, and at the center of the vortexes, there seemed to be some powerful beast constantly devouring the natural energy from the outside world.

"Those three natural energy vortexes must be the three sacred sites of the spirit beasts. They truly are three treasure lands."

Kirito turned his head three times, looking in three different directions, and guessed.

……

In the enormous toad temple on Mount Myoboku, the sleeping toad sage suddenly opened his eyes slightly.

"Sir, you're awake. Did you dream about something?"

At that moment, Fukasaku, the toad sage standing in front of him, immediately asked.

The toad sage is very old. He has just woken up and is still a little confused, so he reacts slowly.

After a short while, he slowly said, "I did have a dream. I dreamt of a golden immortal."

"A golden immortal? Is he a ninja? Or has a new immortal appeared in another holy land?"

Upon hearing this, Shima the Immortal asked loudly.

The toad sage paused for a moment, then slowly replied, "Hmm~, I can't see very clearly, but the world behind this golden sage is blood-red."

"The world has turned blood red. It seems that the golden immortal you dreamed of this time is no benevolent person. Could he be an immortal who will bring great disaster to the world? My lord, did you see anything else?"

When Fukasaku heard the Toad Sage describe the Golden Sage in this way, he was startled and asked anxiously.

The Toad Sage's dream is actually a kind of ability to foresee the future, that is, his prophetic ability.

This miraculous prophetic ability has come true more than once, helping Mount Myoboku avoid many crises and prosper to this day.

Therefore, the hermit Fukasaku firmly believed in the prophecy of the toad hermit.

Now, the golden sage that the toad sage dreamed of is clearly an extremely dangerous person, and it's hard to say whether he's friend or foe. If he's an enemy, he might bring a heavy disaster to Mount Myōboku.

As the true leader of Mount Myōboku, he must find out the origin of this golden sage and his attitude towards Mount Myōboku as soon as possible.

The toad sage was still slow to react, and this time he didn't react for a long time.

"Hey, you old codger, are you asleep? Hurry up and talk to me."

The impatient Shima-sensei was getting a little impatient and spoke rudely to the listless Toad-sensei.

Seeing this, the hermit Fukasaku was startled and quickly stopped Shima's disrespectful behavior, scolding, "Mother of the child, how can you speak to the master like that? Apologize at once!"

Unfortunately, Shima-sensei didn't give him any face at all, turning his head away without apologizing, which made Fukasaku-sensei a little angry.

"Whoo~"

Just as Fukasaku was about to have an outburst, a snoring sound entered his ears.

He looked helplessly at the toad sage who had fallen asleep again.

"See? He's fallen asleep."

"Shima the Immortal complained."

"..."

Fukasaku the Hermit fell silent; his head suddenly began to ache.

Finally, he sighed, "As expected, the kind of sages who bring disaster are usually human ninjas. It seems I'll have to ask Jiraiya for help again. He knows a lot about the human world, so he should be able to find out as soon as this golden sage appears."

"Hmph, if it's a human sage, the best way for Mount Myōboku to deal with it is to not interfere in human affairs and continue to remain neutral. I don't think this matter needs to be bothered by Jiraiya at all."

Master Shima expressed a different opinion.

Ever since the old master uttered the prophecy of the savior of the ninja world, Mount Myōboku has been interfering in the human world more and more frequently.

She felt this was wrong. As a sacred place for summoning beasts, Mount Myōboku should remain neutral and stay away from the human world. It shouldn't interfere too much in the human world, at most assisting the contractors in battle according to the contract.

"What do you know? If that golden sage really brings disaster to the world, our Mount Myōboku will not escape it either. Right now, the outside world is the domain of ninjas. Although our Mount Myōboku is located in a remote corner and can live and work in peace, we must be prepared for danger in times of peace. If Mount Myōboku completely distances itself from the world, that will be the beginning of our disaster. Never underestimate the greed of humankind."

When the immortal Fukasaku heard his wife contradicting him again, he sternly rebuked her loudly.

"Hmph, whatever, I'm going to sleep."

Seeing that she couldn't persuade her husband, Shima snorted coldly and said defiantly before leaving immediately.

She decided not to let the old man sleep in her bed tonight.

……

While Fukasaku and Shima were arguing, Kirito's Sage Mode level-up process was finally coming to an end.

Through the attribute panel, Kirito discovered that both his Strength and Speed ​​attributes had increased by 1 level, reaching level 8.

In addition, the spirit attribute, which represents chakra, has increased from 6 to 7.

After his chakra level reached 7, the amount of chakra in his body increased rapidly, eventually reaching the level of an elite Jonin.

"After the cells in my body were strengthened, my chakra level also increased. The path of the Sage is indeed extraordinary."

Kirito felt the amount of chakra within his body and smiled with satisfaction.

His biggest weakness right now is actually his insufficient chakra. Although he has the Yin Seal and stores up tailed beast-level chakra, when he actually activates Sage Mode to fight, the chakra in the Yin Seal can't last very long.

Even if we include the Sage Chakra stored in the much smaller pool of chakra he created using the Yin Seal, the result is still the same.

Now that his chakra level has reached that of an elite Jonin, as long as he uses it sparingly, he should be able to last two or three times even if he controls a puppet to release five ninjutsu at the same time.

Unlike before, when he only had the chakra of a regular Jonin, he could only use all five ninjutsu at once.

In the future, the pressure on him to charge the Yin Seal with chakra will be much less.

Kirito had been dealing with the problem of low chakra levels for quite some time, but he quickly put it aside and thought expectantly, "Let's put that aside for now and see what kind of Sage Chakra I can condense right now."

The next moment, he began to simultaneously mobilize chakra and natural energy, combining the two perfectly to form Sage Chakra.

The process of condensation is incredibly fast.

Kirito held chakra in one hand and natural energy in the other. Under his control, the two different energies docilely converged and merged in the middle, and a wisp of pale golden Sage Chakra quickly formed, emitting an astonishing chakra fluctuation.

"Pale golden Sage Chakra."

Kirito noticed the newly formed Sage Chakra, and his eyes widened in surprise.