Sage Mode and Nature Cultivation (New Book Investment Required)

Every night before sleep, Higashino Makoto began his usual Chakra Control training.

He had now entered what he defined as the Second Stage: constantly adjusting the ratio of the two energies within chakra, pushing them toward the extremes of Yin and Yang.

Each adjustment required not only fusing the new ratio into chakra but also familiarizing himself with that chakra's characteristics and achieving precise control.

It was extremely time-consuming.

But he enjoyed it. Higashino Makoto was very curious about what surprising results would appear when the ratio was pushed to the very ends of the spectrum.

To put it simply, ordinary chakra was a 50/50 blend of Body Energy and Mental Energy—a general-purpose type.

It could be used for Taijutsu and Ninjutsu. As for affinities, that was another training entirely; if you were born with them, you kept strengthening Nature Transformation.

If you weren't born with them, you could slowly acquire them through training. But for now, Higashino Makoto's focus wasn't there, because that also required a lot of time. For the moment, he didn't need all five affinities.

Now, by adjusting Body Energy to 70%, he could use Medical Ninjutsu. Conversely, adjusting Mental Energy to 70% made learning and casting Genjuttwice as effective.

But the further he went, the harder it got. He vaguely defined 10% as one stage. The problem was that the further he pushed, the harder it became to balance, forcing him to rely on day-after-day grinding.

Was there a good way to speed this up?

Yes, there was, brother. Yes, there was.

Just gouge out a pair of Three Tomoe eyes from the Uchiha Clan and install them in yourself—that would guarantee Yin Release training went swimmingly.

Or get Orochimaru to inject you with Hashirama Cells, and Yang Release would explode in no time.

So, what was the price?

You'd die.

Either killed by Hashirama Cells turning you into a Big Tree, or chopped into paste by a bunch of Red Eyes chasing you down.

The power gained through hard training was still the safest and most reliable.

He had canceled his pre-sleep Hand Seal practice. His current Hand Seal speed was decent enough anyway. Since he never planned to be a proper Ninja, and the Combat Style he'd set for himself wasn't Ninjutsu-focused, it was sufficient for now.

In fact, if you mastered Chakra Control to the extreme, once you understood the energy circulation circuit of a certain technique, you could complete it directly with Mental Energy within the Meridians, without needing seals to activate it.

Clap your Hands together, and you'd have whatever you wanted. You didn't even need to clap.

Seals were originally developed by Indra so humans could use techniques. His family were born as chakra's privileged admins—they didn't need to make any seals.

At the end of the day, chakra belonged to the Otsutsuki Clan. It had only spread into human bodies and, through generations of reproduction and interbreeding, fused into their cells.

It not only cheapened Supernatural Power but also changed the structure of the human body.

Humans were like chakra production factories—they could use it temporarily, but they didn't own the ultimate rights to it.

After falling asleep, Higashino Makoto's consciousness floated above his body as usual.

He was used to it now. Every Night, he routinely lured White Natural Energy into his body. The only difference was that, as his training progressed, his consciousness had grown much stronger than before, and now he could lure in more Natural Energy at once.

He thought tonight would be another ordinary day of merging with the White Mist, no different from before. But soon, an unexpected change occurred.

Although he was already familiar with absorbing Natural Energy, Higashino Makoto never relaxed his monitoring of his body. He never forgot that Natural Energy was no gentle Sheep—it was a deadly thing.

Today, halfway through his training, Higashino Makoto's consciousness keenly observed something flickering on his body's forehead.

It was a circular pattern, appearing and disappearing on the forehead. As the White Natural Energy surged into his body, the circular pattern finally revealed itself clearly.

On the forehead of his body appeared a pattern slightly larger than a one-yuan coin from his Previous Life: a circle with an outer ring, and a small dot embedded above the ring. The whole thing was silver, not too contrasting with the skin color, but still quite noticeable—like a patch of skin had changed.

"Could this be some kind of pattern from Sage Mode?"

As Higashino Makoto pondered this question, he found the pattern increasingly familiar, as if he'd seen it somewhere. He immediately began to recall carefully.

It looked a bit like the War Tattoo of Hell Martial God—Genkai. Had he trained himself into a Magnetic Field Maniac?

Impossible. Absolutely impossible. Yah! This was the fucking Shinobi World!

Higashino Makoto was definitely not crazy. He quickly figured out the difference. Hell Martial God's War Tattoo was just a single circle, much larger than his, and blue.

Good news: he didn't have to be a maniac.

Better news: this pattern used the same mold as some naked guy's.

Jonathan Osterman, known in the underworld as Doctor Manhattan, nickname Blue Big Dick, had this symbol drawn on his forehead—the symbol of a Hydrogen Atom.

Had he not become a Magnetic Field Maniac but instead cultivated into a Quantum God?

That would be amazing—omnipotent.

Unfortunately, thinking about it made it impossible. Higashino Makoto was still a complete mortal, and he also noticed the difference between the two.

Doctor Manhattan's pattern was larger overall, but the central circle representing the atomic nucleus was smaller. Higashino Makoto's pattern was smaller overall, but the central circle was larger.

Rather than a Hydrogen Atom symbol, it looked more like a Natural Satellite orbiting a planet.

Or a planet orbiting a sun, for that matter.

Understood that way, it made much more sense. Natural Energy, after all, represented this planet, or even this star system or universe.

At least it only appeared on this small patch of forehead, unlike the Sage Face Paint from the Three Sacred Lands of the Shinobi World, which painted the face like a stage performer.

He wondered if it would disappear after he stopped absorbing Natural Energy.

Even if it didn't disappear, it wouldn't matter—it'd just be an extra tattoo. Plenty of people in the shinobi world liked messing with their faces anyway.

Nohara Rin stuck two square patches of face paint on her cheeks. The Inuzuka clan all drew dog teeth on their faces. Kankuro painted his face like a ghost.

So what if Higashino Makoto got a tattoo?

In the end, he realized the shinobi world already had a Sage Face Paint pattern similar to this—Hashirama Senju's.

The difference was that Higashino Makoto's pattern was smaller than the First Generation's forehead mark, with a larger inner circle, a thinner outer ring, and an extra dot on that ring.

Most importantly, he didn't have the eye wrinkles. That was great, honestly—the eye wrinkles didn't really fit his aesthetic.

The problem now was that Hashirama Senju's Sage Transformation probably hadn't been seen by many commoners; it was classified.

So how would he explain the forehead pattern similar to Hashirama's later on?

Explain nothing. He was a damn sage now. Who dared ask for an explanation?

The next morning, Higashino Makoto stood in front of the bathroom mirror, staring at his smooth, fair forehead. For some reason, he felt a little disappointed.

Having the tattoo made him worry about being mistaken for a delinquent youth. Losing it made him miss it. Damn, what a pathetic mindset.

It seemed his Natural Energy training wasn't up to par yet. Higashino Makoto decided: if absorbing Natural Energy was the First Stage, then the appearance of the Sage Tattoo was the Second Stage: Preliminary Sage Mode.

When the day came that the Sage Tattoo stabilized and stopped disappearing, that would be the Third Stage—probably... Normal Sage Mode.

Just thinking about having another training goal ahead immediately lifted his spirits. He cheerfully headed out for his daily practice.

Aside from Yin and Yang, the Five Elemental Chakra gave rise to all sorts of techniques. What was the original intent of these techniques?

Mimicry. Simulating the outward phenomena of all things in nature. Mastering those phenomena became the ninjutsu in a ninja's hands.

Ninjutsu training mainly involved Shape Transformation and Nature Transformation.

Shape Transformation was relatively simple. Higashino Makoto could form a Rasengan, which meant his chakra control had reached an extremely high level.

After all, this was the technique famously called the pinnacle of shape transformation in the original work. On the surface, it looked like a Chakra Ball, but internally it was incredibly complex—formed by countless high-speed, high-density chakra streams revolving around a central point.

Nature Transformation was far more complicated. First, you had to understand the nature of a given chakra attribute and what its outward phenomena were. Only then could you delve deeper in that direction.

At the Training Ground, Higashino Makoto formed Hand Seals and released a Wind Release: Great Breakthrough. A fierce gale blasted forward, rustling the Big Tree loudly.

This was a simple C-rank Wind Release Ninjutsu. The rank referred to learning difficulty, not power—power only depended on how much Chakra Amount was used.

An ordinary Genin could only blow down a wooden house. But if you let Hashirama Senju pour all his chakra into it at once, he could send all of Konoha flying into the sky.

At the same time, this technique only used the most basic Nature Transformation of Wind Release: the rapid flow of air.

Did Wind Release have other properties?

Yes, friends, yes. For example, air pressure. Or the High-Speed Cutting formed by the extreme friction of dense Wind Release Chakra.

If you let your imagination run wild, you could figure out even more Nature Transformations. But human energy was limited, and Higashino Makoto didn't plan to chase endless possibilities. He'd just train the most commonly used ones.

His innate chakra attributes were Wind, Earth, and Water.

What Nature Transformations did Earth Release have? Way too many: containment, heaviness, gravity, decomposition, and so on.

What about Water Release? Flexibility, High-Speed Cutting, impact, and more.

There were so many. No one could grasp them all in a finite lifetime. No wonder Orochimaru wanted to pursue eternal life.

His dream was to learn every technique in the world. A human's short decades weren't nearly enough.

Luckily, Higashino Makoto's dream was different, so he only needed to train a few Nature Transformations useful to him.

As for the rest, he could study them slowly when he had time.

With that thought, he performed Great Breakthrough again—but this time aimed at his feet. The powerful air current slammed into the ground, propelling his small body high into the air.

In that process, Higashino Makoto quietly sensed the flow of Wind Release Chakra, deepening his understanding of this nature.

Soon after, he split into several clones, each pressing a leaf between their palms, trying to split it in half with chakra to comprehend the property of cutting.

Lost in training, unable to pull himself away.