Shikkotsu Forest
Before setting off.
"The place we're going to is called Shikkotsu Forest, the location of the Sage Katsuyu's true form. It's an extremely dangerous place," Tsunade warned as a final reminder.
She said solemnly, "Didn't you develop an Ice Release armor? Put one on me too, the kind that completely seals me off, leaving only breathing holes, and then uses Medical Ninjutsu to filter the air... Don't be stingy with Chakra, push the Nature Transformation of Ice Release to its limit!"
The serious tone indicated that Tsunade was not joking.
Sakura Haruno looked at Tsunade with some surprise and asked, "Is the Shikkotsu Forest we're going to really that dangerous?"
"The Shikkotsu Forest is where my true form lives year-round. Because my breath carries acidic mist, after so many years of accumulation, the Shikkotsu Forest has become a place where even the air is filled with highly corrosive droplets," the Katsuyu beside him explained.
"Any ordinary human would be corroded into a skeleton within minutes of entering the Shikkotsu Forest. Even I couldn't survive there for long." Tsunade recalled the only time she went to the Shikkotsu Forest. The acidic liquid, which seemed capable of corroding even Ninjutsu, still terrified her. The woman patted her chest, causing ripples of white blood to spread.
She continued, "So if you don't want your pretty face to be ruined, don't be careless!"
Under Tsunade's strict instructions, the two made thorough preparations, carefully inspecting the Katsuyu from head to toe before nodding in approval.
Thud--
Chakra smoke rose, the two disappeared simultaneously from the training ground.
This was the first time Sakura had ever experienced such long-distance time-space teleportation.
She was no stranger to Space-Time Ninjutsu: the most basic Substitution Technique was Ninjutsu involving space and time.
The Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals is a high-level Body Flicker Technique that ranks among the best in the Space-Time Ninjutsu.
Especially the latter Ice Body Flicker Technique, which she has been using several times in battle lately. This kind of Ninjutsu, which can traverse space and instantly appear in other locations on the battlefield, is incredibly useful. Once you use it a few times, you'll come to love this powerful Ice Release.
However, the spacetime teleportation of Ice Body Flicker Technique is different from the spacetime teleportation of Summoning Technique.
The former's teleportation process is instantaneous; one foot is still here, and the next moment after activating the Body Flicker Technique, the other appears on the Body Flicker Technique medium. The latter's teleportation process, however, can be described as "long," taking almost a second to complete—which is also the time required for the Summoning Technique to unfold from the hand to summon the summoned beast.
For a long second, she felt as if she had entered a dark, silent, odorless, and invisible passage, cramped and gloomy, and then the next moment, her eyes were suddenly filled with light, and she felt enlightened.
She appeared in a new place.
"This Summoning Technique must have moved us at least a thousand kilometers away, right?" Sakura asked, turning her head. Beside her, Tsunade's figure appeared instantly in a cloud of white mist.
"More than that, it might be several thousand kilometers... Look, this is the Shikkotsu Forest." Tsunade to the scene before him.
After the smoke from the Summoning Technique dissipated, the scenery of Shikkotsu Forest was revealed to Sakura Haruno.
Wow...!
The girl couldn't help but gasp in surprise.
Before her lay a magnificent, indescribable sight...
Countless ancient trees, stretching from the mountains to the sea, grow and extend to the horizon before her eyes, a truly magnificent sight!
What's truly remarkable is that the trunks of these ancient trees are not the dark brown color of ordinary giant trees.
These towering trees, with their strangely colored trunks and gnarled, twisted shapes, appear extremely bizarre, as if they had been gnawed on. From a distance, they appear pale and thin, with a bone-like, eerie and terrifying quality.
However, the so-called slender and bony tree trunk is actually extremely thick. It is common to see a diameter of several meters or even tens of meters, and it would take several people to encircle it! If you get close enough to touch it, you will probably only see a wooden wall.
The reason it appears slender and tall is because its height is even more exaggerated than its thickness—raising the field of vision, Sakura Haruno looked up and saw that the ancient tree towered into the clouds, reaching the sky, perhaps hundreds of meters high, with a lush and verdant canopy that provided ample shade and blocked out the sun.
"Is this the meaning of 'bone' in Shikkotsu Forest?" she murmured. The ancient trees in front of her really gave people the illusion of a forest of bones.
"These are the remnants of the tree trunk after I've gnawed on them," the Katsuyu replied. Once back beside its main body, even its clone's voice became exceptionally strong and powerful. "This forest is my granary."
"Then what does 'wet' refer to?" she asked again.
"Look at your feet," the Katsuyu replied curtly. "This is a vast lake and swamp."
This forest actually grows in water.
The girl lowered her head, which had been a little sore from holding it up. Beneath her feet lay a vast expanse of shimmering water, with slender, pale tree trunks rising from the boundless lake. The water was misty and sparkling, a breathtaking sight.
"Don't let your heart fall in," Tsunade said solemnly. "This is the lake where the Sage Katsuyu lives. Because it constantly spews acid, the acidity of this water is a billion times stronger than concentrated sulfuric acid... It's the strongest acid of all! If you fall in for even a second, you're gone forever..."
Sakura Haruno felt a chill run down her spine; she never expected that such a beautiful scene would conceal such a terrifying danger!
Then again, just how powerful must the ancient tree that can grow in this acidic environment, and the Katsuyu that created this acidic zone, be? It seems that when it comes to Chakra and such, ordinary methods no longer apply... Aren't they already providers of Natural Energy themselves?
Is this so-called wild and untamed world really such a terrifying place?
No wonder the Five Great Nations don't pursue expansion in the wild, but instead focus on internal strife and fighting amongst themselves...
She shook her head vigorously to get rid of the goosebumps before remembering the main point. "So, what about the Sage Katsuyu's true form?"
Looking around, there were no other living creatures.
She had thought she would see a giant sticky worm that was hundreds of meters long.
"Where you're standing now is on my back..." the Katsuyu clone, several tens of meters long, twisted its body and said to Sakura.
Suddenly, the "land" beneath Sakura's feet shook violently, Sage Katsuyu, which had been hidden underwater, rose to the surface, revealing its entire body to Sakura.
"Hello, Tsunade, Sakura, welcome to Shikkotsu Forest." The Sage Katsuyu turned its head, shaking its hundreds-of-meters-long tentacles, and said in a voice as loud as thunder.
Sakura Haruno struggled to lift her head, and what appeared before her was the head of the Sage Katsuyu, which was two or three hundred meters in diameter and almost blocked out half the sky.
From Sakura's perspective, the view of the Sage Katsuyu looking up was completely blocked by an endless wall of flesh. The shadow cast by the Katsuyu above her head enveloped her entirely, and when she looked up, she saw that the entire sky had darkened.
It was just a soft whisper, yet the sound waves made the girl's chest feel tight and heavy, as if a huge rock was pressing down on her chest.
She instinctively took two steps back, rubbed her head, and felt a little dizzy. Her gaze followed the Sage Katsuyu's head down to its disappearing tail in the distance, and she made a mental estimate.
It's about three or four kilometers long.
Upon seeing this result, Sakura Haruno felt her mouth go dry and was speechless for a moment.
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