Sage Mode

"Ryosuke's here? Then stay and eat with us. No need to help, just sit over there."

"Thanks, Grandma..." Hyuga Ryosuke grinned as his scheme succeeded and returned to the living room.

Hyuga Qingchuan rolled his eyes at him. "How many times have you used that trick already?"

"Come on, we're all so familiar with each other. Don't be so picky."

Hyuga Ryosuke sat seiza beside the table and casually poured himself a cup of water.

Watching his carefree manner, Hyuga Qingchuan slowly spoke.

"Lend me thirty thousand."

"Pfft!"

The fat man sprayed out the water he had just swallowed before he could even get it down.

Hyuga Qingchuan hurriedly dodged aside.

"Hey! I'm just here for a meal. Are you robbing me?" Hyuga Ryosuke wiped the water from the corner of his mouth and snapped.

"I got injured. It's for treatment." Hyuga Qingchuan's face remained calm.

"What kind of injury costs thirty thousand? You went along on a D-rank mission and still got stabbed or something?"

"Yeah, I got stabbed..."

Hyuga Qingchuan flung the hospital bill at him. "It cost me eighty thousand."

"Eighty thousand?" Hyuga Ryosuke stared at him with wide eyes.

"Was there really any need to go this hard for a mission?"

He lowered his head and glanced over the bill. "Good lord, they really went for it. Don't tell me you cuckolded someone."

"Cut the crap. Are you lending it or not?"

Hyuga Ryosuke stared at him for a while, then sighed.

Pursing his lips, he reluctantly took out his wallet.

"It wasn't easy for me to save up even this much money."

He slowly pulled out the bills, making thirty thousand ryo feel like three million as he counted them.

After counting for quite a while, he finally handed them over to Hyuga Qingchuan with great reluctance.

Just as Qingchuan was about to take them, Hyuga Ryosuke suddenly pulled his hand back.

"Wait, I get to eat a few extra bites tonight."

"Fine!"

"You have to pay me back. I saved this money to get married."

Hyuga Qingchuan snatched away the bills Ryosuke had been clutching for so long.

"How much can marrying a wife possibly cost?"

"Hey, hey, hey, that's too much." Hyuga Ryosuke pointed at Hyuga Qingchuan.

"Girls practically throw themselves at you, but I don't have that. Swear you'll pay me back."

"Don't worry. I'll pay you back once I finish the next mission."

"With the way you do missions by throwing money at them, that'll take until the year of the monkey. How am I supposed to find a wife then?"

Hyuga Qingchuan raised a hand at that.

"Finding a wife isn't hard. If I can't pay you back, I'll introduce you to one."

"You said it. It's a deal."

Only after watching Hyuga Qingchuan tuck all the money into his pocket did he look away. Then, turning serious, he asked,

"What exactly happened?"

"There was an accident."

Hyuga Qingchuan leaned closer and lowered his voice, recounting in full the part he had reported to Yuhi Shinku.

He likewise did not tell Hyuga Ryosuke about the Quincy.

It was not because he did not trust him, but because there was no need.

The village was filled with surveillance. Once he said it out loud, it would no longer be within his control.

In this world, even the dead could not keep secrets, much less the living.

If he said it today, Danzo would have him shipped off to Root tomorrow. After all, long-range attacks were uniquely suited to assassination, exactly Danzo's kind of weapon.

Upon hearing that someone had put a bounty on members of the Hyuga Branch House, Hyuga Ryosuke's expression turned serious as well.

"No wonder I vaguely felt like the enemy was after me during my last mission. Good thing there was a Jonin on the team."

Thinking back on it, Hyuga Ryosuke still felt a lingering fear.

"They can't get the Main House's Byakugan, so they're planning to use the Branch House to try and crack the Caged Bird." Hyuga Qingchuan said.

"We need to be more careful on missions lately."

Hyuga Ryosuke nodded.

"Dinner's ready!"

"Little Qingchuan, little Ryosuke, come help carry the dishes."

"Coming, Grandma..."

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, night had arrived.

His plan to try Sage Mode had been delayed as well.

Early the next morning.

Hyuga Qingchuan sat on his bed and continued his attempts at Sage Mode.

Too much Natural Energy would cause petrification, so Hyuga Qingchuan did not intend to absorb Natural Energy throughout his entire body from the start.

Furthermore, his understanding of Sage Mode came entirely from scattered details in the original work and his own deductions. He still did not know what would actually happen when he absorbed Natural Energy.

So he planned to start with his palm, keeping the risk within a manageable range.

He would first get a feel for the sensation and speed of absorbing Natural Energy, then gradually expand once he became familiar with it.

"Byakugan!"

Veins bulged around Hyuga Qingchuan's eyes, and his entire field of vision turned black and white.

At his wrist, he found several chakra acupoints connecting his forearm and palm, then sealed them one by one with Acupoint Sealing.

This created a relatively isolated area.

He then controlled his palm, opening a chakra acupoint that connected it to the outside and drawing the Natural Energy he sensed into his hand.

Through the Byakugan's vision, the Natural Energy floating around him began to stir, strands of it slowly slipping into his palm through the chakra acupoint.

Since it was his first time absorbing it, Hyuga Qingchuan did not dare rush ahead. He absorbed it slowly, so that any changes would remain within a controllable range.

When the Natural Energy first entered his body, it felt cool and comfortable.

But after a little time passed, that Natural Energy began to surge.