Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

In an instant, the Rasengan's size increased at a visible rate, rapidly growing from the size of a ping-pong ball to the size of a volleyball, and emanating a terrifying and unique chakra fluctuation.

This special chakra is Sage Chakra.

If it weren't for the sealing barrier in place, this terrifying fluctuation of Sage Chakra would have surely alarmed many people.

Immortal method·Rasengan!

"It's still too slow."

Kirito looked at the Rasengan formed from Sage Chakra in his hand and sighed.

He possessed the physique of a sage, so naturally he set his sights on Sage Mode very early on. After learning the method of chakra condensation, he had been secretly trying to cultivate Sage Mode, but unfortunately, due to his insufficient chakra reserves, he was unable to achieve it for a long time.

Things only began to change when his Sage attribute was raised to 5 and he successfully unleashed the Rasengan.

Natural energy seems to be of a much higher quality than chakra; a little bit of natural energy requires many times more chakra to mix with before Sage Chakra can be created.

The creation of Sage Mode is actually the perfect fusion of the chakra within the human body with the natural energy of the outside world, thereby covering the entire body with Sage Chakra. In order to maintain Sage Mode, one needs to have a sufficiently large amount of chakra.

Kirito's current situation is that he doesn't have enough chakra to generate enough Sage Chakra to cover his entire body.

The danger of Sage Mode training lies in the fact that once a ninja begins to fuse chakra with natural energy to form Sage Chakra, this process is difficult to reverse. External natural energy will continuously flow in, rapidly depleting the ninja's chakra.

Once a ninja's chakra is insufficient, the constant influx of natural energy from the outside world will pose a fatal threat to the ninja, causing severe side effects such as petrification and death by explosion.

Kirito's Sage Mode ability allows him to interrupt the flow of natural energy at any time, so he doesn't have to worry about the side effects of natural energy. However, due to his insufficient chakra, he cannot enter Sage Mode and can only generate a certain amount of Sage Chakra.

If a ninja cannot enter Sage Mode, the stability of Sage Chakra will be severely insufficient, and it will easily decompose back into Chakra and natural energy, and may even explode.

This unstable Sage Chakra is obviously unusable for releasing ninjutsu; it's basically useless except for allowing him to create the Nightfall Seal.

Later, he discovered that he could use the Rasengan to form stable Sage Chakra outside his body, which allowed him to successfully use Sage Chakra in ninjutsu. However, this only allowed the Rasengan to evolve into Sage Art: Rasengan; other ninjutsu still could not evolve into Sage Art.

However, the release speed of Sage Art: Rasengan is still too slow. Kirito believes that it has not yet reached the basic requirements for being usable in battle.

"Take your time, it's time for breakfast."

Kirito quickly composed himself, then removed the sealing barrier and headed towards the living room.

When he arrived in the living room, the maids had already prepared breakfast.

However, there was an extra person at the table today, a hot blonde beauty, none other than Tsunade, Nawaki's older sister.

She was wearing a loose white bathrobe, with a large expanse of white skin showing at the neckline. She had no makeup on, her eyes were still a little dazed, and her hair was somewhat messy, suggesting that she had just woken up.

"Kirito, let me introduce you. This is my older sister, Tsunade. She's a hero of Konoha."

When Nawaki saw Kirito, he immediately introduced his older sister to him excitedly, with a proud expression on his face.

"Lady Tsunade, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Kirito Tohsaka, currently working as a medical intern at the hospital. I hope you'll take good care of me in the future."

Kirito bowed respectfully to Tsunade, looking at her with a hint of admiration, and said...

Tsunade returned late last night. She sensed the other party's soul aura as soon as they approached within eleven kilometers of Konoha Village, but pretended not to notice.

Upon hearing Kirito's words, Tsunade's slightly dazed brown eyes immediately cleared.

She turned her head to look at Kirito, a smile immediately appearing on her face. She waved to Kirito with a smile and said, "Come here for a moment, kid."

Kirito didn't understand why, but he did as he was told.

No sooner had he gotten close to Tsunade than she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled him into her embrace, and then ruffled his hair with her other hand, laughing, "Oh~, why are you calling me Lady Tsunade? That's too formal. You're Grandma's prized disciple and Nawaki's good brother. Thank you for taking such good care of this idiot Nawaki all these years. From now on, just call me 'older sister' like Nawaki does, understand?"

She has been fighting on the front lines of the Land of Rain for years. Although she has never returned to Konoha, she has maintained correspondence with Mito and Nawaki. Naturally, she knows a lot about Kirito and that Mito and Nawaki like him very much, treating him like family.

Kirito also helped Nawaki a lot; it was because of Kirito that Nawaki grew so quickly.

In fact, when she returned, she was truly astonished to find that Nawaki had already reached a level of strength comparable to a special Jonin.

She was someone who had experienced war, and she knew very well how important strength was in this chaotic world, and she also knew how dangerous Rope Tree was in this chaotic world.

Therefore, she learned from Nawaki that Kirito often accompanied him during training, guided him in his training, and taught him his self-created ninjutsu. She realized that she was able to become so strong without Kirito's help, and she was grateful to Kirito from the bottom of her heart.

"Waaaaah~"

Tsunade was incredibly strong, and Kirito was powerless to resist. He was being suffocated and couldn't breathe properly, so he couldn't fully appreciate the wonderful attack.

"Sister, stop! Kirito is about to suffocate!"

Nawaki knew how terrifying his sister's face wash attack was. Seeing Kirito being treated like this, he deliberately paused for a moment, and only when Kirito was about to collapse did he quickly try to persuade him.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I got a little too excited."

"It's alright, Lady Tsunade, I'm fine."

Kirito gasped for breath, looking at Tsunade's chest with lingering fear. He felt that if Nawaki had slowed down any further, he would have suffocated.

But he regretted it as soon as he said it. He suddenly realized that Tsunade was smiling at him.

Kirito had seen that kind of benevolent expression before, at Mito's place.

He quickly changed his tune, saying, "Tsunade-neechan, let's eat. I'm hungry."

"Okay, Kirito, let's eat together."

The moment Kirito called out "Tsunade-neechan," Tsunade immediately dropped her kind expression. She gently patted Kirito's head and smiled with satisfaction.

Suddenly having an older sister who turned out to be Tsunade made Kirito feel strange at first.

However, he could sense Tsunade's pure goodwill. Like many members of the Senju clan, she gave him a sunny and friendly feeling.

To be honest, having such a beautiful and powerful older sister is actually quite nice. At least he can openly and legitimately get all sorts of advanced medical knowledge from Tsunade for free.

He believed that with the personal guidance of Tsunade, a top-tier medical ninja, his medical knowledge would surely take another leap forward, and perhaps the cell fusion technology that had been troubling him would soon see a new breakthrough.

With this thought in mind, Kirito unconsciously smiled as he ate.

Chapter 96: Nine Tails

Kirito's good mood didn't last long, ending only after breakfast.

The reason was that Tsunade said to him and Nawaki, "Nawaki, Kirito, come with me to visit Grandma later."

Upon hearing this, Kirito and Nawaki's smiles quickly faded, replaced by a somber expression.

Mito's health has been deteriorating rapidly over the past year.

Because of concerns that Mito might not be able to control the Nine-Tails, she has been secretly moved to a secret villa outside the village, where she is protected by a large number of ANBU ninjas and frequently moves to different residences. This situation has been going on for quite some time.

Kirito is finding it very difficult to see his teacher, Mito, now. He needs to apply to the Third Hokage in advance. A while ago, he could see her once a week if he applied to the Third Hokage, but in the last two months, his applications have been rejected. Nawaki's situation is similar.

Among the Senju clan, only Momoka, the Hokage's advisor, can see Mito regularly.

Nawaki is already nine years old, and because of the incident two years ago when he wanted to graduate early, he was subjected to strict family head training ahead of schedule. He is more mature than many of his peers and understands what death is all about.

Lately, he seems to have grown after each meeting with Mito.

Nawaki no longer skips classes. Although he still finds it difficult to understand the theoretical lessons taught by the teacher, he patiently listens to them. He does the same in his daily sealing technique studies, no longer showing any impatience. His grades in theoretical lessons and sealing techniques have both improved significantly, which is Nawaki's biggest source of pride when he visits Mito.

As for the training in ninjutsu and taijutsu, it was even more intense than before, with more than thirty shadow clones being created every day to assist in the training.

Even if Rope Tree is a fool, his crazy training, his down-to-earth approach and steady progress will eventually bring him rich rewards.

Like Rock Lee, Rope Tree is also a hard-working genius.

In the past year, Rope Tree's strength has grown very rapidly.

In terms of chakra control, although it is still just average, by constantly using ninjutsu with a large number of shadow clones, he has improved his proficiency and become skilled through practice. He can now simplify the hand seals for many ninjutsu.

For example, the most frequently used Multiple Shadow Clone Technique can now be released by Nawaki without hand seals.

But just by completing this one ninjutsu without hand seals, Nawaki's strength increased by at least 20-30%.

Because many of Nawaki's tactics and ninjutsu, which he possessed, relied on this ninjutsu, the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique was definitely one of Nawaki's core ninjutsu.

In terms of ninjutsu, Nawaki has mastered ten decent water-style and earth-style ninjutsu, and can use them skillfully. Under Kirito's tutelage, he also learned to use shadow clones to complement the Rasengan, just like Naruto.

Finally, he recently mastered the Yang Release chakra nature and began practicing the modified Akimichi Secret Technique that Kirito taught him.

In terms of physical skills, Nawaki possesses exceptional talent.

Two years ago, he became a disciple of Chen Baojun, a famous taijutsu master in Konoha, and learned powerful kicking techniques. Recently, he has begun to practice Chen's ultimate taijutsu technique, Konoha Dragon God.

If Nawaki weren't still so young, Kirito would have wanted him to learn the Eight Gates technique.

In terms of illusion magic, Rope Tree is not worth mentioning.

In terms of overall strength, Kirito believes that Nawaki already has the strength of a special Jonin. As long as he doesn't encounter a genjutsu-type Jonin, Nawaki has the ability to fight back. If he has teammates to cooperate with him, he might be able to win.

……

"What, don't you two want to visit Grandma? You don't have to go if you don't want to."

Seeing the expressions on Kirito and Nawaki's faces, Tsunade deliberately put on a stern face and said...

"No, of course I'm going!"

Rope Tree immediately retorted loudly.

"I haven't been able to see my teacher in a long time, I definitely have to go."

Kirito shook his head.

"Let's go together then, you guys wait for me a moment."

Tsunade smiled with satisfaction upon hearing their answers.

After saying that, she quickly went back to her room and carefully washed and dressed herself.

Half an hour later, the three of them finally set off from home.

At this moment, an ANBU ninja was already waiting at the door.

"Lady Tsunade, please come with me."

The ANBU ninja spoke respectfully to Tsunade.

"Then I'll have to trouble you to lead the way."

Tsunade nodded.

Where is Mito now? This information is top secret in Konoha right now, and even Tsunade doesn't know. The only way she can find her grandmother is to have the ANBU ninja sent by the Third Hokage lead the way.

Kirito was able to pinpoint Mito's location using his soul perception, but infiltrating the area would be extremely difficult.

I don't know if it was Mito's doing, but a special barrier was added outside Mito's residence to prevent spirits from entering.