Tianyi stood rooted to the spot, staring up at the creature that was hundreds, thousands of times larger than he had imagined. His entire body froze.
He had seen many enormous things—One-Tail Shukaku, the complete form of Eight-Tails Gyūki, even Hashirama Senju's nearly thousand-meter-tall Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands from the original work.
But compared to the slug before him, all of them seemed tiny.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
He dropped onto the ground on his backside, craning his head back with his mouth hanging open, unable to say a word for a long while.
It was not because he was afraid. The sheer scale of it, beyond the limits of his understanding, had overloaded his brain's ability to process it.
He needed time to digest this fact. At that moment, the little slug crawled down from his shoulder and spoke gently before him, her tone carrying a hint of apology.
"Sorry, I scared you. My main body is truly inconvenient for communication, so I usually use split bodies to speak with you."
Tianyi's mouth twitched. He tried to force out a smile, but it looked worse than crying.
He climbed to his feet, took a deep breath, and tried to steady his racing heart.
The little slug spoke again. "It has been many years... The last one to come here was little Tsunade."
Tianyi's brow twitched slightly. "Master Tsunade!"
"Yes, little Tsunade." Katsuyu's voice carried a trace of nostalgia, a trace of emotion, and an indescribable hint of regret.
"She came here to learn Sage Mode, but unfortunately... she was unable to complete the second stage. Little Tsunade was very talented. She completed the first stage in less than a month.
"But the second stage..." She paused and did not continue.
Tianyi's heart sank slightly. He knew