He pointed out the root cause. "Because the training methods of the Three Great Sage Lands were originally created, refined, and passed down to suit the racial traits of toads, snakes, and slugs.
Although humans can learn them through intelligence and chakra adaptability, the differences in the nature of their energy create this risk of 'animalization.'"
"Each land has different aids to help human practitioners get started."
The Great Toad Sage continued his explanation:
"Mount Myōboku coats practitioners with specially prepared 'toad oil' to heighten their ability to sense and absorb the natural energy around them.
In Ryūchi Cave, the White Snake Sage personally injects a trace of pure senjutsu chakra into the practitioner's body to serve as a 'seed' and a 'guidepost.'
The Slug Sage uses a similar method, guiding practitioners to sense natural energy through some unusual means. But the Slug Sage stopped sharing that method with outsiders after little more than a century."
"These different methods of helping practitioners 'sense' natural energy, combined with the unique properties of each land's natural energy, are precisely what cause human practitioners to mutate toward different animal forms when something goes wrong."
Finally, he stressed the most terrifying ultimate risk shared by the training methods of all the sage lands:
"But they all share one devastating drawback-petrification.
When natural energy spirals completely out of control and severely erodes the body and mind, beyond any possibility of conversion or assimilation, the practitioner will gradually turn into lifeless stone, starting from within.
That is the most absolute form of failure in senjutsu training."
After clearly laying out every risk, principle, and limitation, the Great Toad Sage shifted the conversation and offered another choice.
"If you wish to be like your First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, mastering the purest Sage Mode, the one best suited