Natural Energy and the Meditation Method

The scroll recorded a powerful Sealing Jutsu called the Gate of the Great God, a Sage Art sealing technique capable of suppressing Tailed Beasts.

The name noted beside it was Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage.

For the first time, Shiraha learned of the concept of "Sage Arts."

"Sage Arts are Sage Arts, a very magical kind of power." Kushina tried to explain, but with her not-so-sharp mind, she was clearly not suited to teaching. Besides, she had only heard of Sage Arts herself.

Shiraha could only search for relevant scrolls himself. After consulting every scroll that contained records on Sage Arts,

he finally obtained some useful information—

By absorbing a certain amount of Natural Energy and then fusing it with Mental Energy and Physical Energy in a specific ratio, the human body could refine a kind of "Sage Chakra" whose quality completely surpassed ordinary Chakra.

This state of being able to use Natural Energy was known as "Sage Mode."

In Sage Mode, techniques released using Sage Chakra were called "Sage Arts."

This state could draw upon Natural Energy to enhance offense and defense.

Sage Chakra could increase the power of one's Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu severalfold, tenfold, or even dozens of times over.

The same Ninjutsu, when used in this state, possessed vastly different power. To distinguish it from ordinary Ninjutsu, it was called a Sage Art.

In the current Shinobi World, the only places with complete Sage Art inheritances were the Three Great Sage Lands of Summoning Beasts: Mount Myōboku, Ryūchi Cave, and Shikkotsu Forest.

Hashirama Senju had learned his Sage Arts from Shikkotsu Forest.

"Sage Mode. Absorbing Natural Energy... I never expected the Naruto World to have a cultivation method that could use external power. It seems I underestimated this world's power system."

Shiraha set down the scroll, his mind sinking into deep thought.

The reason he had instinctively believed the ninja Chakra system to be inferior to the Wizard Magic Power system was, most crucially, the difference in quality between the two.

Chakra was the product of combining Mental Energy and Physical Energy.

At least, that was what Shiraha had always believed.

Records in the Shinobi World concerning Chakra involved Mythological Stories. Legend had it that the Rabbit Goddess brought Chakra to the Shinobi World, and from then on, people possessed Chakra within their bodies.

Others said that the Sage of Six Paths, the ancestor of shinobi, had founded Ninshu and truly spread Chakra throughout the world.

Now, it seemed that those myths and legends did hold some reference value.

Whether Wizards or Warlocks, all had to absorb Energy Particles dispersed through space to strengthen their Mental Power, reinforce their Will runes, and improve their physiques in the process.

Ninjas squeezed the potential out of their cells, while Wizards slowly transformed their level of life.

That was why Shiraha had always believed Wizards possessed far greater potential for development than ninjas. At the very least, there was an overwhelming gap in lifespan.

The existence of Sage Arts made Shiraha understand why the First Hokage was called the God of Shinobi.

"The Nine-Tails Chakra I sensed alone was already unimaginably powerful. The First Hokage managed to capture Kurama. Even setting aside the Wood Release suppression factor Kurama mentioned, his Chakra reserves probably weren't much less than Kurama's."

The power of Ninjutsu was directly related to the amount of Chakra output.

For example, the Dragon Fire Technique Shiraha had learned from Nawaki would probably be ten times more powerful if Kushina used it.

Thinking of this, Shiraha came up with a startling possibility:

"With the power boost Sage Arts give to Ninjutsu, the First Hokage must have been even stronger than I expected! He might have been stronger than a Second-Level Wizard. He may even have reached Third Level."

After all, Shiraha had not advanced to become even a First-Level Wizard in his previous life. The strongest people he had encountered were only First-Level Wizards. His knowledge of higher-level Wizards came entirely from books, so he could only make a rough comparison.

"What a pity." Shiraha finished consulting every scroll that recorded Sage Arts, but he still found no specific method for practicing them.

The scrolls stated that practicing Sage Arts placed extremely harsh demands on one's talent. The first requirement was Chakra reserves far beyond those of ordinary people.

It was not simply a matter of having more Chakra being better. After all, too much Chakra made precise control difficult.

But one still had to meet a certain baseline.

According to the descriptions, one's Chakra reserves had to at least reach the level of Orochimaru, the Third Hokage, or Tsunade.

Clearly, it was not merely talent. There had to be other secret techniques that could increase Chakra reserves.

Otherwise, how could Orochimaru, who came from a civilian family and possessed no special bloodline, have increased his Chakra reserves to the point where they were only slightly below Tsunade's?

After fulfilling the basic requirement for Chakra reserves, one first had to clear one's mind of distracting thoughts.

People with overly complicated thoughts would find it much harder to learn Sage Arts.

Furthermore, the ratios between Natural Energy, Mental Energy, and Physical Energy were Top Secret within the Three Great Sage Lands and would not be passed on lightly.

The scrolls also emphasized that practicing Sage Arts was extremely dangerous. Failure could easily result in crippling injuries or even death.

That was probably why the First Hokage had not left behind a detailed method for practicing Sage Arts.

"I remember that Tsunade's Summoning Beast came from Shikkotsu Forest, which means the Senju Clan possesses Shikkotsu Forest's inheritance. Orochimaru's and Jiraiya's Summoning Beasts come from Ryūchi Cave and Mount Myōboku respectively. The Three Ninja have directly gathered all Three Great Sage Lands."

Shiraha developed a strong interest in Sage Arts.

The greatest difficulty in practicing Sage Arts was absorbing Natural Energy from space, then fusing it with Mental Energy and Physical Energy in a specific ratio to refine Sage Chakra.

Since Natural Energy existed in space, it was evidently also some kind of Energy Particle.

The practice of a Wizard's Meditation Method involved selectively absorbing Energy Particles from space.

He could absorb any kind of Energy Particle in space into his body. For Shiraha, that posed no difficulty at all.

Originally, Shiraha had believed that ninjas practiced martial arts while Wizards practiced "immortality cultivation," so he felt that ninjas' potential for development could not compare to that of Wizards.

But if Sage Arts were truly this powerful and could grant ninjas all-around enhancement, then they too had gone from practicing martial arts to "immortality cultivation."

Moreover, ninjas were inherently a fast-track profession. With a special cultivation method like Sage Arts, which existed specifically to enhance combat power, their early-stage strength could be pushed to the extreme.

The First Hokage had only been in his forties when he earned the title God of Shinobi.

For a Wizard in his forties, reaching First Level was already quite impressive. Reaching Second Level meant being a genius among geniuses.

"Since Sage Arts use Natural Energy, this kind of Energy Particle, to enhance combat, they can obviously also be used like a Wizard's methods—to strengthen vitality and extend one's lifespan at the same time."

Shiraha let his thoughts wander and arrived at that possibility.

If someone could truly achieve that, they could greatly extend a ninja's peak years, and their lifespan would no longer be limited to a few decades like an ordinary person's.

"Shiraha, what's wrong?" Seeing Shiraha's expression constantly change, Kushina could not help asking.

"Nothing. I found something very interesting," Shiraha said with a smile.

Wizards naturally enjoyed exploring the unknown, especially when combining Natural Energy with the human body could produce such tremendous power.

The greatest difficulty at present was not knowing the exact Chakra ratio. Obtaining the cultivation methods from the Three Great Sage Lands would not be easy.

And even if he obtained specific cultivation methods from the Three Great Sage Lands, it remained unknown whether those methods were perfectly suited to humans, or whether they would transform humans toward the three great species instead.

Of course, Shiraha could accept that.

After all, he had already planned to stop being human.

But the prerequisite for him giving up his humanity was that he hoped to evolve his body in a higher direction.

If the cultivation methods of the Three Great Sage Lands carried hidden dangers, he still had to be careful.

The First Hokage had died before reaching fifty. It was impossible to rule out the possibility that Sage Art cultivation had hidden drawbacks.

Furthermore, Shiraha currently faced an awkward problem: his Chakra reserves were somewhat low, and he did not even meet the basic Chakra requirement.

Simply increasing his Mental Power and physique could raise his Chakra reserves, but far less than Shiraha had expected. In this world, the power of one's bloodline had a great influence on a ninja's development.

That was somewhat similar to Bloodline Warlocks.

Since transmigrating here, Shiraha had been able to slowly resolve every difficulty he encountered, so he was not worried at all.

Every time he advanced, it had not been through casually meditating at home. Simply collecting cells had taken an unknown amount of effort.

If anything had gone smoothly, it was only after meeting Kushina, when many difficulties had become easier.

"Money power" could solve most troubles!

"The most direct way is to obtain the inheritance of Shikkotsu Forest or Ryūchi Cave. I'll have to start with Tsunade and Orochimaru. To research Natural Energy, human experimentation will inevitably be unavoidable. The current conditions simply do not allow it."

The Shinobi World did not prohibit human experimentation, at least not in secret.

The antidote Tsunade developed to counter Chiyo's poison had also been researched through human experimentation.

That was not considered too sinister, after all. Those poisoned ninjas had voluntarily cooperated with Tsunade.

Sunagakure's Chakra toxin rendered even the Delicate Illness Extraction Technique, a Medical Ninjutsu specifically designed for detoxification, ineffective. One had to slowly grind it away with the Mystical Palm Technique. Without detoxification, even if one did not die, their Chakra would be contaminated and their strength would plummet.

Every nation had examples of using death-row prisoners and prisoners of war for human experimentation. Shiraha had seen such things at Konoha Hospital as well, though they could not be openly acknowledged.

In his previous life, it was said that at the height of the Wizarding World, even the "gods" of other civilizations were placed upon operating tables all the same.

Given Shiraha's current circumstances, he had no way to acquire experimental subjects himself. There were plenty of death-row prisoners and captives, but they would never be handed over for him to use.

He had previously promised Nawaki that he would research Limb Regeneration technology. Without a large quantity of experimental subjects, progress would surely be painfully slow.

It seemed he would have to wait until the war ended and Orochimaru and Tsunade returned to the village before he had a chance to participate in human experimentation.

In a world with extraordinary power, Shiraha would not use innocent people for experiments. But if others volunteered, or if they were death-row prisoners or enemies, then he had no reservations.

This world did not care about laws anyway. The weak would be trampled upon without restraint.

The village Orphanage had nearly run out of room for war orphans over the past few years.

The world outside was probably not beautiful at all.