Senjutsu Training (3)

Will I merge with the Sage Katsuyu and forever lose myself?

In the girl's mind, this kind of death was even more chilling than simply dying.

Sakura Haruno fell silent.

"Perhaps calling it death isn't quite right," the Katsuyu's voice became mournful and ethereal, it murmured, "Because the losers are absorbed by the Sage Katsuyu, becoming part of this immortal and great being called the Sage Katsuyu, in a sense..."

"Even the losers gain immortality."

Sakura felt a chill run down her spine. "Immortality? This kind of immortality is worse than death!"

"Hehe."

The Katsuyu didn't speak, but just smiled meaningfully.

"Wait a minute," Sakura Haruno suddenly realized something, her expression turning strange, her eyes flickering as she looked at the Katsuyu, "So, you wouldn't happen to be... one of the losers too, would you?"

She examined the Katsuyu closely, and the more she looked, the more reasonable her guess seemed.

Sakura Haruno had long harbored doubts. The Katsuyu's clones always addressed her and Tsunade as "Lady Tsunade" and "Lady Sakura Haruno," but the Sage Katsuyu's true form called them "Tsunade" and "Sakura." Given the sage's status and power, the latter's address was more appropriate; it wouldn't address someone of a higher generation as "sama." The Katsuyu's clones held themselves in a very low position, clearly indicating that subconsciously, they were different from the original. Tsunade seemed to have long been accustomed to this, and Sakura Haruno, rarely summoning the Katsuyu, had never asked about it.

So it was only then that she suddenly realized that the thought process used by the Katsuyu split was different from that of the Sage Katsuyu; it likely originated from those who failed in their attempts to merge with the immortal...

No wonder the Tsunade clones Katsuyu summons are always so polite and respectful to Tsunade, while the one in front of her has a rather wicked sense of humor. Perhaps they were different ninjas in the past?

No wonder it was able to see through Sakura Haruno's soul secret at a glance when it first met the Sage Katsuyu; because this giant Katsuyu itself is an aggregate of multiple souls, with probably dozens or even hundreds of spiritual cores fused together. Compared to it, Sakura's mere three cores are nothing!

"I am but a tiny avatar of the great entity beneath our feet. If it weren't inconvenient for my true form, I wouldn't even exist in this world," the Katsuyu said, shaking its tentacles. "Perhaps I was once an excellent ninja, but that was in my past life."

"Don't you remember?"

"Remember? Why should I remember?" the Katsuyu chuckled, "I am part of the Sage Katsuyu, not some ninja from the past. Whether I have those memories or not is irrelevant to the Katsuyu."

The Katsuyu's answer sounded very open-minded.

Sakura Haruno, however, felt very uncomfortable listening to this.

The thought of becoming one of those Katsuyu if she failed sent chills down her spine.

It's worse than death!

If I were to die, at least I might be able to be resurrected through Impure World Reincarnation; but if I fail here, my soul and body will be absorbed into the Katsuyu's body, and I will truly vanish into nothingness, losing even my memories, not even knowing who I am, and forever leaving no trace of myself in this world...

Seeing that Sakura Haruno's expression was unpleasant and she remained silent, the Katsuyu urged, "Alright, let's end this idle chatter about the relationship between my main body and my clone, Lady Sakura Haruno! Let's hurry up and continue our training!"

"Hmm." Sakura Haruno took a deep breath, shook her head, and cleared her mind of the jumbled thoughts.

They refocused their attention on cultivating Senjutsu.

"Don't rush, Katsuyu Teacher. As the saying goes, 'Learning without thinking is futile.' Before we begin the second round of Senjutsu training," the girl's eyes quickly calmed, gazing at Katsuyu like a clear pool, "Let's discuss the reasons for my failure just now."

"So where do you think you went wrong?" it asked in return.

"There are various factors involved..." Ying frowned slightly, carefully recalling the cultivation process just now, and replied, "But the most fundamental point is that Natural Energy is too difficult to control, and its quantity is extremely large."

"Senjutsu Chakra requires me to harmonize Natural Energy with physical and spiritual energy in equal proportions. I can precisely control the latter two, but this is my first time dealing with Natural Energy. I have no experience in manipulating or using it, so I can only let it circulate in my meridians. Harmonizing it with physical and spiritual energy to form Senjutsu Chakra is extremely difficult! Moreover, even if I manage to harmonize the three energies in the right proportions, new Natural Energy immediately flows in, breaking the newly established balance, and then I have to start all over again. This is the most troublesome part."

The Katsuyu chuckled, "Indeed. I wonder if Lady Sakura Haruno still remembers when you came to Shikkotsu Forest last year? My true form accompanied you, saying that you would only be qualified to learn Senjutsu when your Chakra reserves increased significantly."

"The reason is that during the cultivation of Senjutsu, the cycle of establishing balance, the continuous influx of Natural Energy, the breaking of balance, and then the re-establishment of balance requires a large amount of Chakra. For a ninja with an average amount of Chakra, this cycle would only be repeated two or three times before the Chakra is exhausted, forcing the cultivation to stop. The progress of cultivation would be extremely slow, and it might even take decades to succeed!"

Sakura Haruno nodded.

"Refining Senjutsu Chakra involves two steps," the Katsuyu continued, "The first step is to sense Natural Energy. The second step is to harmonize Natural Energy. During training, we'll start with the second step. I'll help you infuse Natural Energy into your body; you just need to focus on harmonizing Natural Energy and generating Senjutsu Chakra."

"Throughout this process, I will keep a close eye on your condition. So you can try and practice with peace of mind, without worrying about the Natural Energy going out of control, because before that happens, I will expel you and remove any excess Natural Energy from your body."

"Of course, this process might be a little uncomfortable..."

Sakura Haruno couldn't help but roll her eyes at it. "It's more than just a little uncomfortable!"

The Katsuyu seemed nonchalant, but Sakura Haruno, who was vomiting up from her cramped esophagus, was quite uncomfortable. The emptiness caused by the draining of her energy only exacerbated her nausea.

Compared to the nausea of wanting to vomit but being unable to, getting a good beating might be more satisfying!

"Is there anything in this world that allows you to easily gain power without going through arduous training? There are no special tricks to cultivating immortal Senjutsu; it's all about practicing a lot, a lot, a lot of it to develop your ability to manipulate Natural Energy. So, hang in there, Lady Sakura Haruno!" the Katsuyu said, shaking its head.

Sakura Haruno shrugged, indicating her understanding.

Before she gained unparalleled Chakra control, she spent seven or eight years practicing the tedious basic skills, so she knew better than anyone that there was no shortcut to this kind of fundamental training.

The Katsuyu added, "When you practice harmonizing Natural Energy, you'll gradually gain some understanding of it as you try to control it. This will make the first step of perception training much more effective. When you reach the point where you can practice perceiving Natural Energy, you won't need to be swallowed by me to train. Training will become much easier then!"

"Anyway, let's begin, Lady Sakura!"

Sakura Haruno's cultivation of Senjutsu quickly got on track.

Of course, the so-called "right track" didn't mean that Sakura Haruno quickly mastered the secrets of training and was no longer as embarrassed as she was after her first failure; it simply meant—

I've just gotten used to it.

I've grown accustomed to the uncontrollability of Natural Energy, accustomed to being roughly spat out by Katsuyu after failing in my cultivation, accustomed to weakly gagging on the back of an immortal, and accustomed to my disheveled state.

Similar to the first cultivation session, the second, third, and so on, up to dozens or even hundreds of times, all ended with the same result: the naked girl was vomited out in a disheveled state.

The biggest difference is that Sakura Haruno can persist for a longer time each time she trains than the last.

When the girl was spat out, her appearance changed from being eroded beyond recognition by Natural Energy to eventually showing almost no trace of being eroded by Natural Energy, except for her gorgeous purple eyeshadow.

Time passed by, and Sakura Haruno steadily and step by step approached the end of her training.

[As pure as I am, I don't quite understand what you mean by pill swallowing!]