The Nature of Natural Energy

Nearby, White Zetsu watched the strange scene with curiosity in his eyes. Unable to hold back, he asked Nagato, "Leader, what's going on?"

Because of the constant rain, the air in the Land of Rain was excessively damp. To keep their food fresh, wealthy families there never bought too much at once.

Konan and Nagato usually did the same. Now, though, they were buying enough provisions for three months in one go. Were they planning some kind of Akatsuki event?

Clearly, this toothpaste-white fellow was getting ahead of himself.

"Nothing. Have you found out anything about the information I asked you to investigate?" Nagato asked, turning his gaze from the Amegakure ninja to White Zetsu.

"My clone found Orochimaru's ring, still attached to his hand. It's on its way back," White Zetsu replied. "The supplies the Land of Fire's Daimyo plans to send to Konoha are ready. They're expected to set out in two days. Everything is under control. As for the ninja you asked me to find, the one called Anko, she's not in Konoha at the moment. My clones are still searching."

"What about Hidan?"

"We found Hidan. He's alive, but his condition... isn't very good."

As he said this, White Zetsu couldn't help grinning with glee, drawing a sidelong glance from Nagato. Nagato knew Hidan's condition had to be worse than merely "not very good." He was probably in a terrible state. One look at the bastard in front of him said it all—he was practically bursting with joy...

Nagato tilted his head, indicating with a glance that White Zetsu should continue.

White Zetsu handed him a scroll. "This contains the internal information on the various nations that I gathered from the Five Great Nations for the upcoming Five Kage Summit."

It was an ordinary information scroll, without even a Sealing Jutsu applied to it.

Nagato took the scroll and opened it at once. He scanned the densely packed contents and offered his praise without hesitation. "Well done."

In just one day, White Zetsu had gathered nearly all the information. His ability to collect intelligence was impeccable.

Nagato was very pleased.

"Next, we just need to wait for Kisame and Sasuke to return. Then we can go to the Land of Iron and deal with the Five Kage Summit," Nagato said, gazing out at the rain beyond the window, looking relaxed.

White Zetsu watched Nagato's expression the whole time, showing no interest in the rain of the Land of Rain.

"Leader, do you need information on Taka?" he asked.

"Go ahead."

Nagato already knew about Taka, but he figured it couldn't hurt to hear more.

Konan came over then, seemingly having noticed what White Zetsu and Nagato were discussing.

White Zetsu began telling Nagato everything he knew about the members of Taka.

Their abilities, appearances, personalities, fighting habits, weaknesses, reasons for following Sasuke, and so on.

Of course, that included their names: Hozuki Suigetsu, Jugo, and Karin Uzumaki.

Nagato compared the information White Zetsu gave him with his memories and found no inconsistencies. It was even more detailed, which meant that, at least in this regard, White Zetsu wasn't trying to deceive him.

"Are these people good enough to become official Akatsuki members?" Konan asked after she and Nagato had quietly listened to White Zetsu's report.

White Zetsu glanced at Konan, then looked to Nagato.

Nagato shook his head without hesitation. Even if Akatsuki were short on members, he couldn't drag these half-baked rookies into the organization and embarrass himself.

Karin wasn't qualified at all; she relied on shouting whenever a fight broke out. Suigetsu was too green—he couldn't even carry Kubikiribōchō. As for Jugo, he'd probably become much stronger if he could control the Natural Energy in his body.

Natural Energy...

At the thought, Nagato paused. He blinked, suppressing the strange feelings that stirred in him.

He had originally planned to recruit Jugo and teach him how to control the Natural Energy in his body. But when he considered the abilities and weaknesses Jugo displayed while using Natural Energy, Nagato suddenly felt as though everything had become clear.

So that's how it is.

No wonder Katsuyu said Natural Energy itself poses no risk. Just look at Jugo. He's the purest example of senjutsu transformation, having never studied at any of the Three Great Sage Regions. Even when he completely loses control of the Natural Energy in his body, all that happens is that he loses his mind after absorbing too much. It's nothing like the bizarre senjutsu taught at Mount Myoboku and Ryūchi Cave, with the risk of turning into a toad or a snake.

Before, he'd thought learning the senjutsu of Shikkotsu Forest was a stroke of luck. Now he saw that it wasn't that simple at all.

Just as with the Sage of Six Paths, changing his perspective and looking at the matter from Jugo's point of view revealed an entirely different picture. Maybe people like Jugo, who could absorb Natural Energy from birth, simply couldn't understand why the senjutsu of Mount Myoboku and Ryūchi Cave was so strange.

So whose fault is it? Nagato thought, considering the matter from every angle. According to Sage Katsuyu, Natural Energy is simply the energy of nature. No matter the world, there's only one nature. It's not as if Mount Myoboku has one nature while Ryūchi Cave has another. Nature is one and the same, so Natural Energy should also be the same everywhere. Otherwise, how could Naruto absorb Natural Energy from the outside world after learning senjutsu at Mount Myoboku? That proves the Natural Energy at Mount Myoboku is no different from the Natural Energy outside it.

But if it's the same Natural Energy, why does it only drive Jugo mad, while putting Jiraiya and Naruto at risk of turning into toads? And that's not all. After Naruto absorbs this Natural Energy, it puts not only him at risk, but other people too. In other words, Natural Energy, which would normally only drive Jugo mad, becomes a terrifying force that can turn Jugo into a toad statue after Naruto absorbs it and converts it into Senjutsu Chakra. Isn't that just bizarre?

At that, Nagato couldn't help scratching his head. He gestured for White Zetsu and Konan to ignore him; he wanted to think through some things on his own.

Right now, he really wanted to know what would happen if Naruto and Kabuto entered Sage Mode at the same time, then mixed their Senjutsu Chakra together and lost control of it. What would they turn into? Stone-toad-snake monsters?

Mount Myoboku and Ryūchi Cave—those two places really knew how to have fun.

The question was, when those two sage regions transformed Natural Energy into something like this and taught it to others, were they deliberately harming people, or were they left with no choice?

In Sage Katsuyu's words, the methods of Mount Myoboku and Ryūchi Cave were simply half-baked.

That statement had no real meaning. Nobody could tell from it whether Mount Myoboku and Ryūchi Cave acted with malicious intent.

After all, the people who learned senjutsu in those two places were, in fact, half-baked.

Just look at how long it took Jiraiya to learn Sage Mode. Ten years, supposedly? And even after mastering it, he was still half-baked. He could barely enter Sage Mode on his own. Naruto studied for half a month, and Fukasaku pounded him until his head was covered in bumps. Compared with Jiraiya, he'd learned pretty well. But all you had to do was look at how he acted while studying senjutsu: the moment he came into contact with Natural Energy, he immediately began to lose control. Honestly, he might have done even worse than Jugo. And Kabuto was even more hopeless. After using Sage Mode, he became something that was neither human nor ghost. How was that anything like a sage? More like some kind of hanging corpse.

Now look at what truly powerful people were like when they learned senjutsu. Madara Uchiha mastered it in five seconds. Hashirama didn't need to learn it at all; he knew it naturally.

That was what learning senjutsu was really supposed to look like. If you could learn it, you could; if you couldn't, you couldn't. Those who weren't qualified to learn it would naturally end up half-baked if they insisted on trying. Nagato didn't have Madara's sheer audacity. It had taken him several hours to learn senjutsu, so he could only say he'd just barely avoided bringing shame upon his Sage Body.

From that perspective, he still couldn't tell whether Mount Myoboku and Ryūchi Cave had acted out of goodwill. After all, the people who went to train at the sage regions were all so hopelessly weak. Maybe the senjutsu Jiraiya and Naruto learned had been developed by Mount Myoboku specifically for weaklings.

By comparison, Sage Katsuyu's method wasn't half-baked. It was just that nearly everyone who went to learn senjutsu from her had died. Only Nagato was still alive and kicking.