Matsutani Shinya's Discovery

When Yichen arrived at the Rainbow Ice Wall, he only saw Matsutani Shinya sleeping soundly with the Fat Orange cat as a pillow. What shocked Yichen even more was that there was a complete Anbu Squad near the Rainbow Ice Wall.

In other words, Matsutani Shinya's sleeping here was approved by Ōnoki, and Ōnoki even arranged for people to protect him.

Yichen, who had just come from the branch office, knew that Ōnoki's side was severely understaffed. Under these circumstances, why would Ōnoki not only allow Matsutani Shinya to sleep here, but also specifically assign people to protect him? What was going on?

Driven by curiosity, Yichen made a set of hand gestures to summon one of the Anbu to come over and question him.

"What's going on with Matsutani Shinya?"

"Lord Tsuchikage, Lord Shinya is practicing immortal Senjutsu. We are ordered to protect Lord Shinya's safety," the Anbu Yichen said.

Yichen nodded in agreement, then gestured for him to continue working, while he himself used the Light-Weight Rock Technique to slowly fly towards where Matsutani Shinya was.

As Yichen gets closer to Matsutani Shinya and ninja cat Little Flower, his perception with his Mind's Eye's Eye gradually becomes clearer.

According to Yichen's perception, with each breath of Matsutani Shinya and Little Flower, Natural Energy continuously surged from the ground and was absorbed by them.

Of course, the absorption efficiency is not high. As they exhale, most of that Natural Energy leaves their bodies and is released into the air. Then this Natural Energy immediately dissipates without causing any change.

Yichen blinked. "That guy, Matsutani Shinya, I asked him to research methods for slowly releasing underground energy, but he's turned himself into a living filter."

The Anbu just said that Matsutani Shinya practicing Senjutsu, and now it seems that he wasn't wrong. Absorbing Natural Energy is naturally related to Sage Mode.

With such low efficiency, perhaps only Matsutani Shinya and Hana, who was led Little Flower by him since childhood, can persevere.

Yichen moved even closer, stopping only a few meters away from the person and the cat.

"They're really lax; they didn't even notice anyone approaching?" Yichen frowned slightly.

However, considering the difference in strength between the two sides, it makes sense; when facing Kage-level experts, whether or not one notices a difference is negligible.

As they got closer, Yichen's senses became clearer.

Yichen discovered that the special Natural Energy they absorbed would spread to every corner of the human and cat's bodies. It was obvious that this could subtly change their bodies, making them stronger and more suitable for cultivating immortal Senjutsu.

Matsutani Shinya has always been close to nature, and with his body slowly improving every day, Yichen believes that his compatibility with the Natural Energy will definitely increase.

Once he reaches the level of Elite Jonin, he'll probably be able to start practicing Senjutsu.

Yichen was somewhat envious. He guessed that the Toad of Mount Myōboku probably cultivated in the same way, perhaps with even more advanced methods. By slowly absorbing Natural Energy, they continuously improved their physique and ultimately achieved the goal of increasing their lifespan.

The longer you live, the more benefits you receive; the more benefits you receive, the longer you live.

Therefore, Gama-Maru of Mount Myōboku has lived for a thousand years and has also gained the ability to foresee the future.

Yichen observed for a while longer, and after confirming that he could not discern anything else, he released a slight trace of killing intent.

Then the person and the cat immediately jumped up, and Little Flower turned towards Yichen with a speed completely disproportionate to its size, ready to launch an attack at any moment.

Matsutani Shinya was a bit slower. Yichen could clearly see that he wasn't very accurate in judging the location of danger after getting up. He only confirmed Yichen's direction through his special connection with Little Flower before turning around.

Both the person and the cat were stunned when they saw that the person who came was Yichen.

Matsutani Shinya reacted quickly, saying, "Teacher Yichen, what brings you here?"

Yichen said, "I didn't see you at the construction site, and I heard from the Anbu that you were here, so I came to check."

"Are you absorbing some special Natural Energy from underground? I feel like the efficiency is a bit low."

Matsutani Shinya said with a wry smile, "Teacher Yichen, this efficiency is already very high. Back in the village, our absorption efficiency wasn't even half as high as here."

Yichen nodded and said, "Why not set up Natural Energy Barrier? If you could collect that dissipated Natural Energy, your efficiency would probably be much higher."

Matsutani Shinya and said, "It's no use. After setting up the Natural Energy Barrier, for some reason, the energy underground can't be released."

Yichen nodded.

"Hehe, Teacher Yichen, I have a guess, and it's related to the relationship between Natural Energy and Kekkei Genkai that we talked about last time," Matsutani Shinya said mysteriously.

"I suspect that the Natural Energy underground is likely something similar to Senjutsu Chakra, fused with Yang Release."

"Yang Release Senjutsu?" Yichen was taken aback. Then he immediately thought of Obito Mangekyō Sharingan! Obito's Mangekyō Sharingan was able to be used continuously without the risk of blindness because of Hashirama's Yang Release power.

The Mangekyō Sharingan has a limitation that the more it is used, the faster it causes blindness, which Yichen used to think was a good thing, a great thing.

If the Mangekyō Sharingan had no limitations, the Uchiha Clan would be terrifying.

However, Fugaku Uchiha has now sown the seeds in Iwa ninja, Yichen has come to regard the Uchiha Clan as vassals of Iwagakure.

At this point, solving the problem of blindness Mangekyō Sharingan naturally became his responsibility as the Tsuchikage.

If one day the Uchiha clan in the village awakens the Mangekyō Sharingan, we could let them come here and give it a try. It would be great if we could help them restore their ocular power.

Seeing Yichen's surprise, Matsutani Shinya was pleased and continued, "Teacher Yichen, I understand why you and the Third Lord, despite having mastered Sage Mode, are unable to use Senjutsu Chakra to enhance your Kekkei Genkai."

"Your process of fusing Senjutsu Chakra directly combines physical strength, spiritual power, and Natural Energy into one."

"You can use synthesized Senjutsu Chakra to perform Ninjutsu similar to attribute transformation. But this is actually different from how we perform Ninjutsu under normal conditions."

"Under normal circumstances, when we perform Ninjutsu, we are actually performing Ninjutsu while simultaneously undergoing Nature Transformation. For example, Water Style: Water Wave is Ninjutsu where we use Water Release Nature Transformation."

"But in Sage Mode, you're not actually undergoing Nature Transformation, but rather you're displaying a certain property of Senjutsu Chakra."

"Senjutsu Chakra originally possesses five natures: wind, earth, lightning, water, and fire. For those of us accustomed to Nature Transformation, manifesting these characteristics of Senjutsu is not difficult; it can be learned with just a little practice."

"For example, Sage Art: Water Release: Water Style: Water Wave. I guess you don't need to Water Release Transformation when you use it; you just need to show the Water Release within the Senjutsu Chakra."

"It was all a misunderstanding on our part. We mistakenly believed that Senjutsu Chakra was the same as normal Chakra, and that Senjutsu underwent Nature Transformation before they could be used."

Yichen frowned; he had never considered this idea before. Yichen had never valued his actual combat skills, and knowing the Kekkei Mōra, he didn't want to spend too much time improving his combat strength.

Although Yichen knew that combat power was also important— Kaguya was sealed by Naruto and Sasuke precisely because she lacked this ability—his energy and talent were limited, and Yichen couldn't afford to take too many detours.

However, Matsutani Shinya's theory does seem to make some sense.

Moreover, Yichen thought about things much more than Matsutani Shinya.

Developing Yichen's first Kekkei Genkai, Porcelain Release, was extremely difficult. However, developing his second Kekkei Genkai, Storm Release, was much easier.

This is actually quite illogical. Porcelain Release has both water and earth attributes, which are Yichen's primary attributes. However, Lightning Release is Yichen's fourth attribute in Storm Release.

Yichen his fourth attribute much faster than he had expected. He even gave up the Fire Release because of this. At the time, Yichen had assumed it was because his strength level had increased, making it easier to master new attributes.

Now that Matsutani Shinya had said that, Yichen suddenly realized that the reason his Lightning Release training had gone so smoothly might be related to Senjutsu.

Perhaps it is because Senjutsu Chakra can inherently contain all five elements that Yichen was able to learn Lightning Release so quickly with the help of Sage Mode.

That's true. There are actually quite a few Kage Level Ninjutsu in the Ninja World, and there are more than just one or two Kage -Kage Level ninjutsu users. So why is it that only Hiruzen Sarutobi can use all five elemental Ninjutsu so skillfully?

Think about Ikura; he already possessed Five-Attribute, but the improvement of new attributes was extremely slow.

After thinking for a moment, Yichen asked again, "Is there any way to verify this?"

Matsutani Shinya said, "There is a way, which I just thought of. You, Teacher Yichen, possess all Five-Attribute, so you don't have the ability to refer to this, but the Third Lord does not possess all Five-Attribute."

"If the Third Lord can use Ninjutsu of a type he has never mastered in Sage Mode, then I'm right."

Yichen nodded. This was indeed the most direct method, but there was no rush.

Yichen then asked, "Have you found a way to use Senjutsu Chakra to perform Bloodline Ninjutsu Techniques?"

Matsutani Shinya and said, "Not yet."

Yichen wasn't disappointed. It was already quite remarkable that Matsutani Shinya his lazy nature, could think so much. How could he ask for too much?

Since Matsutani Shinya was indeed practicing Senjutsu, Yichen didn't say anything more. He said to Matsutani Shinya, "You can continue sleeping. The Sunagakure Village's Scorching Style User Pakura, has come to the Land of Snow. I need to go and meet her."

"Yes," Matsutani Shinya answered readily, then called to the still-standing Little Flower before going back to sleep.

Yichen returned to the branch that was under construction and then told Ōnoki about the experiment with the Senjutsu.

Upon hearing this, Ōnoki was also filled with anticipation for Matsutani Shinya's words, as he had never before imagined being able to use Ninjutsu of all five elements.

After obtaining Ōnoki's consent, Yichen found an open space near the branch and began setting up Natural Energy Seal.