Chapter 77: 76 Understanding

"The first thing you should know is that we have never trained a Sage before, only the Snakes and the Toads have ever successfully done so. Only a small number of our summoners have tried and you can visit them all over there."

Cho points deeper into the forest with his tail as we are in the same clearing as before, only cleaned. However the grass still sparkles occasionally, glitter is really difficult to get rid of after all.

Right now I'm sitting on a bean bag that I brought with me, facing Cho on his rock and with Chu at our side.

"Now, since the threat of death doesn't seem to dissuade you, I shall explain how this will work. Pay attention as this is all important.

"A normal person draws chakra from two sources, physical energy and spiritual energy. But there is a third source, natural energy. To be a Sage is to be able to perfectly mix these three energies and have them exist in balance inside off you. Too much natural energy and you will turn into a chameleon statue, too little and nothing will happen at all, so I suggest you take it slowly."

I nod along with his words, paying full attention, I don't really want to become a piece of modern art thank you very much.

"Doesn't sound so bad, I mean I survived your little poisoning, I think I should be fine."

Apparently Cho doesn't share my confidence.

"Ah yes, your little trick with your chakra. I'm afraid that won't help you this time, the point in that test was for you to find a balance in yourself to neutralise the natural energy, I had not anticipated that you would have such a unique chakra system that you could simply shed away the infected area. If you wish to become a Sage then you must bring your chakra together to do this, it isn't about surviving after all, it's about finding balance."

Ok then, I guess I see where his lack of confidence comes from, also does this mean I basically cheated for two of the three tests? Awesome.

So, I can't use my River technique for this, that sucks. But I do want to be a Sage so I reach inside of myself again.

My chakra is truly beautiful now, the river flows like a rapid, tearing a path through my body, and my whirlpool is spinning so fast that when I look down the hole in the middle I can't see it's bottom.

Reluctantly, I take control of my river and slowly funnel it into my whirlpool, not disturbing the latter as they hold the same velocity. It kind of looks like those things where you put in a coin and watch it spin around in defiance of gravity.

When the last drop of my river joins my whirlpool multiple things happen at once. The first thing that happens is that I feel incredibly uncomfortable, I'm used to having my river permanently putting a cap on my chakra, for it to be gone feels weird.

The second thing that happens is that I open my eyes and see Cho and Chu flinch backwards slightly. The last thing that happens is the ground underneath me cracking slightly, even if only a foot in every direction.

Chu breaks the ensuing silence first.

"You were sure hiding a lot of chakra in there Hanabira."

Oh yeah, this has got to be the first time I have ever shown anyone my full chakra reserves since I was like, two. I'm no Jinchuriki, but I could certainly be mistaken for an Uzumaki, especially if you were to assume one of my parents had naturally white hair.

Now that I think about it, with the amount of time I have spent in the Senju compound, where the Uzumaki's set up in Konoha, maybe there are some people who think I am a bastard Uzumaki. That would be funny.

"Eh, what can I say? I drink my milk."

That's true by the way, milk has good protein and is good for your bones, no reason not to drink it.

We quickly move on, it's not like I'm a monster of chakra reserves after all, they were just shocked because they thought less of me. I'm a little insulted now that I think about it.

"So, what now? How do we start?"

There's no point in asking when we start, that would be redundant, but I do want to get to it already so I prompt Cho to get back on track.

"Right, you need to get a feel for natural energy, and then you will increase the amount you are taking into yourself until you either die or become able to reach a balance."

I wait for him to continue explaining but he just keeps looking silently at me.

"Uh, I still don't know how to do any of that?"

Seriously, if I knew how to do this then I wouldn't be here in the first place.

"Ah! yes, I forgot about that. Ahem, to absorb natural energy, you must become one with nature itself!"

...Is that it?

"And, uh, how does one do that?"

Now he's looking at me like I'm stupid. This isn't exactly common knowledge, how am I supposed to know if you don't tell me first?

Thankfully Chu takes the reins of the conversation for my sake and properly explains the situation for me.

"To become one with nature, you must.. Do nothing!"

I take back all of the gratefulness that I just felt. They are both useless, I want a new teacher or a refund. Where are all the other chameleons?

"Do.. nothing?" I don't bother to even try and keep the scepticism from my voice as I voice my confusion.

But to my great aggravation the both of them just nod their heads at my words as if I just understood some great truth.

Are they trying to be annoying? Because they are just making me glad that I rarely ever bothered to actually use the Summoning Jutsu.

Heaving a great sigh of only slightly exaggerated annoyance, I once again seek for clarification.

"What do you mean, I must do nothing?"

The both of them exchange a glance of exasperation.

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Oi. Stop acting like I'm the idiot here, I'm asking perfectly reasonable questions here.

"To absorb natural energy you yourself must become one with nature, to do so you must do nothing, do not move a single muscle and the natural energy will come to you, just don't let it all in at once."

Ok then, fine. I think I get the gist of it.

I lean back into my beanbag and close my eyes as I enter a meditative state.

I make sure to keep a tight lock on my chakra, turning the edges of my whirlpool into a tightly locked wall, halting my natural chakra regeneration and hopefully stopping the natural energy if it does start getting absorbed.

As I relax I fall deeper and deeper into my meditative state and my senses become focused only inside of myself, the world falling away as all that exists in my mind is my chakra and myself, the feeling is hard to explain to anyone who hasn't experienced it.

It's like feeling a galaxy, only I am the galaxy an empty galaxy of energy and nothing else, a veritable well of pure power.

Suddenly, my galaxy is under attack. The feeling itself is so ???????????????????????????? that it takes me a moment to react to the new sensation, and by then I am already surrounded, the edges of my galaxy falling from my control, turning to stone.

Something about that strikes a feeling of recognition in my mind, like it should mean something, but I am too focused on not losing my galaxy to pay attention to it.

My galaxy is getting smaller at the edges start closing in, I try to fight back, to push away the scourge of stone, but nothing works.

Time passes but I remain unaware of how much time, my galaxy hasn't stopped being consumed, however even after what felt like years, eons, it is still only a portion of my galaxy that I have lost so far.

Time has lost all meaning to me as I try to solve this problem. Using force clearly won't work, so I have taken to studying it. I don't dare to look too closely, fearful that it will consume me whole should I do so.

Another eon passes in my mind and more than a quarter of my galaxy is no longer my own. But I think I am starting to understand.

It is not a virus, not an infection. If anything, I would say it's alive. It doesn't seem to be malicious for all the harm it's causing me.

As it takes more of me to turn to stone, I start feeling like a strange sort of harmony is possible. I focus on the feeling but it is just out of reach.

It takes me a few more years in my mind to think of a course of action. The stone is not a part of me, it is it's own thing, intruding on my galaxy. But who says it has to be that way?

I don't hesitate any longer and grab my space into tendrils that drill into the stone assaulting me, only instead of destroying it, like I originally attempted to do, I bring the broken stone deeper into myself, so that it can become a part of me.

I keep doing this, and as more and more of the stone becomes a part of me, the feeling of harmony increases, all until it reaches a breaking point, and in a blinding flash of light, my galaxy is no longer so empty.

Planets, rocks, giant stone spheres now populate my galaxy, and it looks beautiful.

I spend a moment just admiring what I am witnessing. A whole galaxy. It is breath taking.

My eyes open and I am awake once more.

It takes me a moment to shake off the feeling of vastness I just experienced, but when I do I can focus back on the world around me.

I'm still in the last place I remember, sitting in front of Cho, who is still in the same position as I saw him last on his rock, the midday sun is shining overhead, the only hint that any time has passed at all is that the trees are all red-orange and the field is covered in fallen leaves.

As I'm looking around, Cho reveals himself to me from his invisibility and it's only after he does that I even realise that he was invisible at all.

"I see you're finally awake, young Sage." Cho says, breaking me from my stupor with a voice of admiration.

"How long has it been?" I voice my first question but my mind is still on what he just said.

Young Sage?

Does that mean...?

"It has been four years and six months." He reveals with nonchalance.

Four and a half years? So long? I didn't think this was how Sage training is supposed to work.

"Come, young Sage, the old man will want to see you."

Saying so, Cho does something I didn't think was possible for him, he stands up and leaves his rock!

Amazing right? I'm so shocked I have to scramble to catch up with him after he walks off.

If I remember right, we are walking in the direction he pointed when he said I could meet the other humans they have attempted to teach to become a Sage.

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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

I've been checking up on how sage mode works so before anyone says anything, the abilities of sage mode change based on who teaches you, for me, how that works is that when you sign a summoning contract, which is done in blood, it affects your nature somehow, making your sage mode like theirs, which is why hashirama didn't have any animal traits, because he taught himself and didn't have a summoning contract.

If he did then this is an au and he didn't.

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