Go Ask Gamamaru

Don't rush to absorb energy, especially high-heat energy. If you don't exercise much, it's easy to gain weight.

Beiyuan's physique rapidly expanded due to the imbalance between natural energy and Yin Yang Release, making it look round and festive…

Soon, its height surpassed Jiraiya's. Uchiha Itachi, feeling flustered, stroked the crow's feathers, and with a slight exertion, felt a fleshy sensation…

"Beiyuan…" The little boy felt the rolling ball of flesh under his hand and looked at the two toads in panic. "Can you two take a look and see what's going on?"

The old toads had never seen such a situation either and could only speculate based on their years of experience: "...Perhaps it absorbed too much natural energy..."

"There's another possibility…" Sage Shima suddenly interjected. "Yin Yang chakra is the easiest to fuse with natural energy. Perhaps because Beiyuan the Great Sage absorbed too little natural energy, it caused a massive disturbance in its internal chakra..."

Uchiha Itachi looked completely bewildered. He didn't understand.

Jiraiya understood, but the problem was that Beiyuan had almost instantly extracted and absorbed a vast amount of natural energy. He felt that what Sage Shima said wasn't quite right either…

"Caw…"

A Tailed Beast Bomb shot out from Beiyuan's mouth…

Boom!

Yellow sand filled the sky in the distance…

Beiyuan simply condensed the natural energy within its body and the Tailed Beast Bomb together and expelled them. Its expanding body finally shrank back to its original size.

"What a simple and crude way of using it…" Sage Fukasaku saw the crow's crimson eyes and quickly corrected himself, "No, it should be the fastest and most correct way to handle it…"

Natural energy was already very volatile and prone to causing internal abnormalities. He hadn't expected this crow to resolve the problem so easily…

The Great Toad Sage's prophecies had never been wrong. Fukasaku and Shima, the two toads, believed that this so-called future sage still needed to grow or be guided…

They hadn't expected it to already possess such immense power! The individuals who would stir up the ninja world from their caves in the future were truly terrifying!

"It seems Lord Beiyuan doesn't need our guidance at all…" Sage Fukasaku sensed the Sage Chakra within Beiyuan and bowed. "May all your endeavors be successful!"

"...Caw?"

Beiyuan looked at the two elderly toads in confusion as they dispelled the summoning and vanished. It actually had many more questions!

Uchiha Itachi also had a head full of questions. "Teacher Jiraiya! Are they… your summoning beasts?"

"...No… you can't really say that, can you?" Jiraiya stammered and shook his head. Although he could summon every toad from Mount Myōboku except the Great Toad Sage…

That was because he had a summoning contract with Mount Myōboku.

"They belong to the Sage Realm, Mount Myōboku…" Jiraiya thought for a moment and decided he could tell Itachi more about these unknown lands.

He had originally planned to find an opportunity to ask Mount Myōboku if Uchiha Itachi could learn Sage Mode or sign a summoning contract…

The problem was that this disciple was deeply fond of his own crow. There was no fault in that. Beiyuan couldn't sign a summoning contract, nor did it possess the innate ninjutsu talent for summoning beasts…

Jiraiya thought Itachi was raising a pet…

Who knew this brat was raising a Great Sage!

"Itachi, it seems you truly have no connection with Mount Myōboku…" Jiraiya looked at his bewildered disciple and couldn't help but sigh. "...Let me tell you about the Sage Realm!"

"The Sage Realm?"

"That's right!" Jiraiya nodded and glanced at the crow on his disciple's shoulder. "It's refining Sage Chakra and is about to become the fourth Great Sage in the ninja world!"

The little boy remained ignorant. "Sage Chakra? Great Sage? The fourth one?"

"You…" Jiraiya realized his disciple seemed to know almost nothing about this. He rubbed his forehead. "Never mind, let me tell you about the Sage Realms of the ninja world first! Well… I doubt this crow… Crow Sage can tell you these secrets…"

Uchiha Itachi looked at Beiyuan, who was transforming Sage Chakra on his shoulder. He didn't quite understand what Beiyuan was doing, but he could sense that it was cultivating…

What rare diligence! As a ninja crow, it usually just ate, slept, and bickered with Sasuke. This was the first time he had seen Beiyuan so serious!

After they found an open space, Jiraiya closed his eyes and began to recall. "A long, long time ago, I was training the Summoning Technique in the village…"

"Teacher Jiraiya, I remember you should be less than forty years old this year…" Uchiha Itachi suddenly interrupted him.

"...You found me out. Actually, I'm not even twenty…" After a moment of silence, Jiraiya nodded seriously and started to talk nonsense. "It should be eighteen…"

"...That's too unbelievable. Father said you were his senior…"

"Then listen to me seriously, Itachi!" The irritable old man wanted to hit someone… If he hadn't been worried that his disciple would miss an opportunity due to his lack of understanding about sages, he wouldn't have brought up those things!

After briefly explaining the three great unknown Sage Realms of the ninja world, Uchiha Itachi finally recalled and said softly, "The summoning beast that Orochimaru summoned that day…"

"That's right, it's called Giant Snake, and it's from Ryuchi Cave!" Jiraiya said with a solemn expression. "The White Snake Sage is the most mysterious sage in the ninja world, and Ryuchi Cave is the hardest to find among the unknown lands…"

"...It seems that besides Teacher Jiraiya, no one else has found Mount Myōboku, right?" Uchiha Itachi suddenly said. "According to this logic, Lady Tsunade…"

"That's a bit more complicated."

Jiraiya looked up. "I accidentally entered Mount Myōboku due to a mistake in the Summoning Technique. Orochimaru learned the location of Ryuchi Cave by signing a blood contract with snakes…"

"Because Tsunade likes me very much, she told me some things about the Great Slug Sage… Shikkotsu Forest. In the beginning, there was also a contractor, the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, who founded the village."

"First Hokage?" Uchiha Itachi showed surprise at the right moment. Senju Hashirama, who beat up the Uchiha… The God of Shinobi…

Jiraiya also felt a sense of admiration as he spoke, not really considering that he was speaking to an Uchiha. "That's right! As far as I know, the First Hokage was also the first human to master Sage Mode!"

"Caw!" The crow, which had finished cultivating at some point, looked at Jiraiya bragging… It simply retorted that Senju Hashirama wasn't the first to contact a sage.

Of course, he wasn't the first to master Sage Mode either.

"Teacher Jiraiya..." Uchiha Itachi dryly translated the crow's words, correcting Jiraiya's mistake, "Beiyuan says the First Hokage wasn't the first..."

"Then who was?"

Of course, it was Uchiha Itachi's kinsman and ancestor, the ninja world's first sibling-complex wielder, the Sage of Six Paths!

"..."

But this time, it was the crow's turn to fall silent. As far as it knew, the Sage of Six Paths' chakra hadn't dissipated after his death, and perhaps he was watching him... This was something that might not be said, but it wasn't impossible to say...

"Caw!"

Beiyuan secretly gave itself a thumbs-up. It hadn't lied, it wouldn't be targeted for something like this, and it could even take a jab at Jiraiya, teaching him a small lesson...

Uchiha Itachi could sense Beiyuan's ill intentions in providing the information, so he could only weakly say, "Teacher Jiraiya, Beiyuan wants you to ask someone named Gamamaru... I don't think you should ask..."

"Hahahahaha! Itachi! Don't worry!" Jiraiya patted his disciple's shoulder, "Judging by the name's format, he's a junior from Mount Myōboku. I'll ask Bunta when I get the chance!"

"..."

Ten thousand characters will be released tomorrow! Time flies... How about some votes to celebrate?