"Orochimaru!"
Faced with Orochimaru's sudden brain fart, Jiraiya and Tsunade immediately spoke up to stop him. Was he really attacking a fellow villager out of nowhere? One who had brought back vital intel, no less?
Even if he wanted to test or spar with Yuzuru, this wasn't the place. They were still within the Land of Grass, and for Konoha Ninja, this was a battlefield where they could run into enemies at any moment.
Whatever the reason, Orochimaru's behavior was too bizarre. His two teammates couldn't accept it either.
Did Orochimaru think Yuzuru was a spy?
They were all Konoha Ninja. They had to abide by the principle of not harming one another.
Jiraiya tried to stop Orochimaru, but at the same time, he kept his eyes fixed on Yuzuru, who was bound by Shadow Snake Hand. His instincts told him that the Natural Energy inside Yuzuru was nearing its limit.
Yuzuru, however, didn't let the Natural Energy inside him reach saturation. If he did, he would "transform." For now, there was no need to reveal one of his most important secrets, so after absorbing some Natural Energy, he began letting it leak out again.
The snakes coiled around him sensed the Natural Energy and immediately slipped out of Orochimaru's control. As if they had touched something they shouldn't, they released Yuzuru at once.
Hm? He broke free just like that?
Jiraiya had a rough idea of what Yuzuru had done, but Tsunade was at a loss. A flicker of disbelief passed through Orochimaru's eyes. He'd never seen anyone break the technique that way.
"Lord Jiraiya, Lady Tsunade, I understand what Lord Orochimaru meant. He wanted to ask why I can summon the same messenger snakes as he can... We can talk as we walk." Yuzuru remained calm, with no intention of striking back. He even reminded the team that they should get moving.
Orochimaru kept a blank expression, but his slight frown made his dangerous snake-like eyes seem even longer.
Perhaps it was Yuzuru's reaction, or perhaps it was because Jiraiya had already grabbed one of his arms. Either way, Orochimaru made no further unnecessary moves.
"This isn't safe. Let's talk as we walk," Jiraiya said.
With Jiraiya's little Mount Myōboku story as an example, Yuzuru knew exactly how to make up his own.
But before he got to the point, the "story" needed a little groundwork.
"You three, some strange things really have happened to me... I was just an ordinary Genin, and my chakra was nothing special. But after I came to the battlefield, I don't know why my abilities suddenly started growing at a strange rate."
"I can't compare to a true powerhouse, but compared to who I was before, there's something abnormal about me now."
"These inexplicable changes have left me a little uneasy. I suspect something has changed in my body."
The team moved southeast at a normal pace. The three listened quietly to Yuzuru's story without urging him on.
Jiraiya kindly reassured him. "War makes a ninja grow. You don't need to worry too much about it. There are plenty of cases like yours... It's simply what people call a ninja's talent."
What he was really thinking was that Yuzuru's growth might be related to Natural Energy. The way Yuzuru used Natural Energy was clearly different from the Mount Myōboku school.
He began to suspect that Yuzuru had a Sage Body from birth.
Toads had to stay still to absorb Natural Energy, but Yuzuru absorbed it as naturally as breathing... Of course, neither method was better or worse; they simply had different strengths.
When it came to combining Senjutsu Chakra and the subsequent steps of entering Sage Mode, Mount Myōboku's method of absorbing energy while still made it easier to control Natural Energy precisely. In other words, as a teaching method, the toads of Mount Myōboku had the more practical approach.
"Back to the summoning. Earlier, I joined Captain Akimichi on a mission in the Land of Grass. But during the fighting that followed, I was unfortunately separated from my squad. Surrounded by Iwagakure Ninja, I was forced into the Land of Rain."
"Isolated and outnumbered, I couldn't win. To escape, I took a chance and tried the only Space-Time Ninjutsu I knew... the Summoning Technique. In that situation, I would've accepted either being summoned or summoning something."
Hearing this, Jiraiya suddenly laughed a few times. To anyone who didn't know the details, his emotional shift seemed pretty unhinged. When Jiraiya was a child, he had recklessly used the Summoning Technique and ended up at Mount Myōboku. That changed the course of his life as a ninja.
"So, were you summoned away?" Jiraiya asked.
"Obviously not. I was still in the Land of Rain. Fortunately, the Summoning Technique worked. Without a contract, I summoned a white snake... It was powerful, and I survived the enemy's assault thanks to it."
Yuzuru's story differed from Jiraiya's experience, but apart from the parts he'd left out, everything he said was true.
The only difference was that he'd summoned the snake when he was fairly sure it would work, rather than by chance, and the snake had fought Amegakure Ninja instead of Iwagakure Ninja.
"After seeing the summoned snake, I immediately guessed I might have used the same technique as Lord Orochimaru. That's why I thought of using the summoned snake to deliver messages."
"After a few tries, I think I got it to work."
That was about as far as Yuzuru could take his story. Now it was up to the others to fill in the blanks themselves.
"I see... It does make sense."
Jiraiya sounded full of emotion, which made Tsunade and Orochimaru look at him askance. Make sense? How? Did he think everyone was like him, lucky enough to stumble into Mount Myōboku when using the Summoning Technique?
"What about the contract?" asked Orochimaru, who had been quiet until now.
"What?"
"Did you sign a Summoning Contract with Ryūchi Cave... with that white snake?"
"I didn't sign a contract, but I really can summon a snake. I can do it even now."
"..."
That was far too strange.
"Summoning without a contract is impossible. The only reasonable explanation is that you signed one, but the contract was in some unusual form and you didn't realize it."
As expected of Jiraiya. He'd guessed correctly.
Jiraiya knew more about certain things than Orochimaru and Tsunade did, so he was the one most likely to fill in the blanks.
"Jiraiya, what exactly do you mean? Explain it in detail." Tsunade was starting to get agitated. If Jiraiya kept dragging things out, he was going to get a taste of her iron fist.
"Orochimaru, Tsunade, you should both know a little about Natural Energy and Senjutsu, right?"
Because of her grandfather, Tsunade knew a little about this, but Orochimaru was different. He looked rather bewildered.
"Sensing and using Natural Energy is the basis of Senjutsu. The Three Great Sage Lands all have traditions related to it. Those of us who have Summoning Contracts were chosen by the Sage Lands because we had the aptitude to learn Senjutsu... Yuzuru, in that respect, you're just like us."
"Weren't you puzzled by how quickly you were growing? It might be because you can use Natural Energy," Jiraiya revealed.
Yuzuru looked even more bewildered than Orochimaru, as he had to act like he knew nothing about Natural Energy.
Jiraiya sensed the Natural Energy inside Yuzuru shifting. Now, its concentration seemed to be slowly decreasing...
"Like the tides... Natural Energy drawn out unconsciously by emotion? It began gathering when he sensed Orochimaru's hostility, then gradually faded once the danger passed?" Jiraiya wondered silently.
What an enviable talent.
Jiraiya thought back to the process of learning to sense Natural Energy and suddenly felt as if he'd wasted his whole life.
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