Completing Senjutsu Training

How can one achieve complete stillness?

Try to lower your heart rate to its lowest possible level, slow your blood flow to its slowest possible pace, and bring your metabolism to a near standstill.

Or perhaps we should just hibernate like the Toad?

No, these are not Sakura Haruno's answers.

With her mastery of Water Release, even if she reduces her life activities to a minimum, her Chakra, spirit, and physical strength will still continuously and rapidly transform and circulate, endlessly.

Therefore, no matter how hard Sakura Haruno tries to remain "still," her body and mind are still operating rapidly subconsciously.

Unless... she's dead.

So Sakura Haruno brought back a dead person, a corpse.

Or to be more precise, a lifeless body.

Sakura Haruno's clone.

"What a brilliant idea..." the Katsuyu couldn't help but exclaim.

The moment it saw Sakura Haruno's Clone Duplicate, it understood Sakura's thoughts.

"Is this your clone, Lady Sakura?" Katsuyu asked, stroking the clone's flawless face with some uncertainty.

Although her appearance and physique were exactly the same as Sakura Haruno's, the Katsuyu keenly sensed a strange and distinct aura near the split face.

This puzzled the Katsuyu.

"It is indeed my clone," Sakura Haruno said with a smile, then clasped her hands together in a gesture of respect. "Please keep this body a secret for me, even from my master, for the time being, okay?"

"No problem, I'll keep it a secret for you." A loud rumble suddenly came from beneath their feet, Sage Katsuyu's true form suddenly poked its head out, speaking in a deep, muffled voice.

Even the most upright person has their own secrets, and the Sage Katsuyu always manages to keep them safe: for example, when Tsunade first signed a contract with it and summoned its clone, she was a girl even less dramatic than Sakura Haruno, Jiraiya as a "steel plate"... In just two short years, she underwent a complete transformation.

What exactly did Tsunade do? The Sage Katsuyu has kept this secret from everyone, not even the girl in front of it, who would kneel before it in tears and beg for a hint, and it would not utter a single word!

"Enough with the small talk, let's see if your approach, Sakura, is effective."

The Sage Katsuyu was also curious. Using a lifeless clone for Senjutsu cultivation had indeed achieved the ultimate in "immobility," something even the sage himself couldn't have done better. So, what would the results be?

Sakura Haruno nodded.

"Secret Technique: Clone Duplicate Technique!"

Unlike when she used this technique before, Sakura Haruno did not activate the Clone Duplicate's physical body this time, but instead directly projected her spirit onto the clone.

Then, she woke up from her split body.

The feeling of possessing a lifeless body is not much different from that of a regular Ice Clone —after all, Ice Clone is just a lifeless block of ice.

The intriguing thing is that she had, after all, possessed a fully functional and well-functioning body. Although the original body did not activate the clone's heartbeat, the clone's various powers, senses, and organs still existed; thus, this Clone Duplicate was much stronger than ordinary Ice Clone or Shadow Clone.

The split Sakura Haruno sat up and briefly sensed her current state of being.

There was no heartbeat or pulse, no blood flow, and even Chakra was frozen in the clone, no longer circulating vibrantly; life activity had completely dropped to zero: she had truly achieved utter "immobility."

"It seems... to be this feeling?"

Sakura Haruno closed her eyes.

Naturally, she sensed the existence of the so-called natural aura, an immense and immeasurable energy, the so-called Natural Energy, permeating the air and drifting throughout the world: from the sky to the earth to lakes and oceans, it was everywhere.

And so she changed.

The purple eyeshadow, even richer and more vibrant than when Sakura Haruno used the Katsuyu to cultivate Sage Mode, subtly appeared around her split eyes.

Intricate and gorgeous fairy patterns emerged from her smooth forehead, extending down her cheeks to her neck, and finally climbing up her delicate collarbones.

Sakura Haruno opened her eyes.

The Sharingan's color, amplified by the Senjutsu Chakra, seemed to grow even more eerie!

"It worked!" the Katsuyu murmured in praise, almost in a whisper.

"I didn't expect you to have even obtained the Mangekyō Sharingan..." The Sage Katsuyu was also somewhat surprised. "What new changes will occur when the Mangekyō Sharingan is combined with Senjutsu?"

The split-body frowned as it sensed the surroundings. It seemed that apart from the color becoming more alluring and the power of its Dōjutsu possibly increasing, there weren't many changes.

"Perhaps only higher-level Sharingan can react to Senjutsu?" the sage mused.

"But that's beside the point... Sakura, let's do the final step now!"

"Yes!"

"I replied with a sense of excitement."

Sakura Haruno undoes her Clone Technique.

The clone collapsed to the ground, and at the same time, a massive amount of Senjutsu Chakra returned to the original body along with the dissipation of the Clone Technique.

"Call!"

A massive amount of Senjutsu Chakra surged into Sakura's body. Fortunately, Sakura Haruno had trained diligently and seriously during the first stage, otherwise she would have almost been burst by the excessive Natural Energy and then corroded into a soft-bodied creature!

After some effort, Sakura Haruno finally tamed this energy.

Thus, without the aid of external forces, she finally succeeded in unleashing Sage Mode.

In other words... the second stage of Sage Mode training has been successfully completed!

Of course, this is only an initial success.

Next, Sakura Haruno will have to practice repeatedly until she has mastered Sage Mode —at least until she can no longer be as flustered as she was just now.

Those are just simple, painstaking processes.

With the completion of the second stage, the basic training of Senjutsu also came to an end. Of course, this does not mean that the training of Sage Mode is over; in fact, mastering the condensation of Senjutsu Chakra is only the beginning of Sage Mode.

This is just like mastering the condensation of ordinary Chakra; it's merely the beginning of the Road to Ninja.

"Next, you'll need to master some special Ninjutsu that can only be performed using Senjutsu Chakra." Katsuyu, watching Sakura Haruno gradually become more familiar with activating Sage Mode, tossed her a few scrolls and reminded her, "Also, I need to remind you of a few things."

The cultivation of Sage Art is the third and final stage of this cultivation process.

Sakura Haruno took the scroll, not in a hurry to open it, but simply nodded. "I understand... However, I've been in Shikkotsu Forest for over a month now. Now that the first two stages are complete, it's probably time for me to return to Konoha."

"Can the cultivation of Sage Art be carried out without staying in the Shikkotsu Forest?"

Sasuke had written her a letter before, indicating that something had happened in the village. Although Sasuke and Tsunade were both alright afterward, Sakura Haruno was still eager to return home and wanted to go back to the village as soon as possible.

"You can go back and cultivate later..." the Katsuyu sighed, "But there's one technique you'd better master now, otherwise your Sage Mode won't be complete."

"Um?"

The young girl's delicate brows furrowed slightly.

The Katsuyu didn't rush to answer, but instead uttered a seemingly unrelated question, "Lady Sakura, have you considered this? Sage Mode requires a certain preparation time. During that time, your clones need to remain stationary, making them easy targets for the enemy..."

"Even with the original body's protection, it's still too troublesome to do this," the Katsuyu continued. "Besides, in many situations, you wouldn't want to expose your Clone Duplicate, right?"

"So what?"

Sakura Haruno remained noncommittal about the Katsuyu's question; instead, she frowned and asked in return.

"You just need to merge with me," the Katsuyu said.

Fusion with Katsuyu?

Suddenly, Sakura Haruno's mind conjured up an image of herself Combination Transformation with the Katsuyu.

Her expression suddenly became extremely interesting.

Wait... do I really have to fight with such an ugly appearance?

"Haha," the Katsuyu chuckled, "It's not what you think! It just means I need to shrink myself down and fit against your body."

"I'll stay attached to you, my job is to absorb Natural Energy 'immovably,' and you're responsible for converting it into Senjutsu Chakra, and then using it in battle."

"I can hang it on your shoulder, waist, back, hand, or... anywhere else."

The Katsuyu's gaze subtly swept over a certain spot.

When he said the last sentence, his tone suddenly became sly.

Sakura Haruno's face twitched, she rolled her eyes at it fiercely, and said nothing more.

The following day, Sakura Haruno left Shikkotsu Forest and returned to Konoha.

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