Reporting the Situation

Saturday, 3:00 p.m.

It was precisely the time the Main House elders had designated for the centralized handling of affairs.

Hyuga Qingchuan changed his clothes and headed out, preparing to report the Caged Bird bounty incident to the Main House.

The Hyuga Clan compound was clearly divided into two major areas: the Main House and the Branch House.

The Branch House area was crowded and cramped, packed tightly with low buildings and small courtyards. Every household was squeezed together, leaving barely any room to breathe.

Meanwhile, although the Main House area was roughly the same size as the Branch House, its sparse population and abundant land allowed for broad, luxurious estates to rise one after another, imposing and grand.

Only a single road separated the two areas, yet at a glance, they seemed like two different worlds.

He arrived at the Main House elders' estate and submitted the scroll containing information about the Caged Bird bounty incident.

Information regarding such a major event was self-evidently important to the Hyuga Clan.

By convention, submitting intelligence of this level counted as a service to the clan.

He could choose to learn either the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms or Palm Rotation.

After careful consideration, Hyuga Qingchuan chose Palm Rotation.

However, the prerequisite for learning this secret technique was fully mastering the Branch House's Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms.

Hyuga Qingchuan had not yet met that requirement, so he could only return for the time being.

Once home, he began following his plan and analyzing the possibility of cultivating Sage Mode.

Sage Chakra was formed by mixing spiritual energy, physical energy, and Natural Energy.

The three had to remain balanced. If there was too much Natural Energy, one could easily turn to stone.

If there was too little Natural Energy, it could not be successfully mixed into Sage Chakra.

According to what Sage Fukasaku had said when Hokage cultivated senjutsu, the three had to remain in a 1:1:1 ratio.

In other words, two parts ordinary chakra and one part Natural Energy could be mixed into Sage Chakra.

Following Hokage's training process, one first applied toad oil to sense Natural Energy.

After the body adapted, one would control the absorption of Natural Energy without applying toad oil.

During this process, the body had to remain motionless, and the ratio of Natural Energy had to be strictly controlled.

He had already completed the step of sensing Natural Energy through Spirit Particle Gathering, so he could skip the toad oil stage.

But absorbing Natural Energy afterward would not be so simple.

In the original story, at Mount Myoboku, Sage Fukasaku had stood beside the trainee holding a stick throughout this step. The moment someone began to petrify, he would disperse the Natural Energy.

Even so, aside from the Sage of Six Paths, only Jiraiya, Minato, and Hokage had ever been mentioned as successfully cultivating it over the past thousand years.

The others had basically turned into statues, becoming part of Mount Myoboku's scenery.

It was clear that this step was far from simple.

One careless mistake, and he might die here.

But to simply give up exploring it, Hyuga Qingchuan was unwilling to do that.

The original story mentioned that cultivating Sage Mode required an enormous amount of chakra to avoid being swallowed by Natural Energy.

But if the problem of Natural Energy devouring chakra could be solved, then compared to those with abundant chakra, those with little chakra needed Sage Mode even more.

Adding one-third Natural Energy to chakra could increase the power of ninjutsu twofold or even severalfold, while also granting Natural Energy sensing and improving physical reactions.

That meant using only two-thirds of the original amount of chakra while gaining greater results. For every three ninjutsu techniques cast, one technique's worth of chakra could be saved. For someone with little chakra, that was an enormous improvement.

The difficulty of Natural Energy lay in keeping it at one-third.

He did not have the Uzumaki Clan's vast chakra reserves to serve as a buffer.

But if he used the Byakugan in conjunction with Acupoint Sealing, could he limit the absorbed Natural Energy to a fixed amount within a certain area of his body?

Then, based on that measured amount of Natural Energy, he could refine a corresponding amount of chakra, ensuring that the ratio of the three components remained balanced.

Even if his own low chakra reserves meant he could not maintain Sage Mode for long or use ninjutsu as freely as Hokage could,

the improvement would still be tremendous even if he used that small amount of Sage Chakra only in Taijutsu combat.

Hyuga Qingchuan sorted through his ideas one by one, preparing to gradually test their feasibility.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A sudden series of knocks interrupted Hyuga Qingchuan's thoughts.

Who is it?

He got up and opened the door, and a fat man appeared in his field of view.

The moment the fat man saw Hyuga Qingchuan, he grinned and leaned closer.

"I heard you were injured, so I came to check on you."

Though the fat man spoke words of concern, his round head kept peering into the doorway while his nose twitched, sniffing for something.

"What did your grandma cook for you this time? It smells so good!"

As he spoke, he unceremoniously squeezed past Hyuga Qingchuan with his bulky body and strode inside as if he knew the place by heart.

"Hyuga Ryosuke, you're here to mooch food and drinks again."

Hyuga Qingchuan sighed helplessly, shut the door, and followed him inside.

The fat man's name was Hyuga Ryosuke. He had been the previous owner's neighbor, and the two had grown up together.

But his aptitude had been better than the previous owner's. He had graduated at the age of nine, and three years had passed since then.

When they were children, his parents were away from home year-round, so whenever he came over to play, he often stayed for meals.

Over time, they became familiar with each other.

"What do you mean, mooching food and drinks? That makes it sound so bad."

Hyuga Ryosuke retorted righteously, but his feet never slowed as he headed straight for the kitchen. "I came to see you, and our grandma too..."

"Hey, Grandma, I'm here to help..."