Chapter 633

"Going to Mount Myōboku? Muyue, are you hoping to learn Sage Mode?" Minato Namikaze asked.

He knew Muyue wanted to learn Sage Mode; Muyue had previously asked Jiraiya and him about it.

"Mm, sorry for the trouble, Minato." Muyue nodded.

He definitely had to learn Sage Mode—it was one of the few ways left to boost his strength besides the system's reward drops.

Muyue didn't just want to learn Sage Mode; he wanted to understand the Sage Modes of all three sacred lands.

The ideal scenario was for Muyue to synthesize the best of each and develop a new Sage Mode.

After all, these Sage Modes all originated from beasts; perhaps they weren't the most suitable for humans.

Even if he failed, it wouldn't be a big deal—mastering any one Sage Mode would still be a gain.

"It's no trouble at all. But since you want to learn senjutsu, Muyue, why not sign a contract with Mount Myōboku first?" Minato Namikaze asked, a little puzzled.

For ordinary people to sign a contract with Mount Myōboku, they first had to find its location and then undergo a training trial to qualify.

But it was different for people like Minato Namikaze, who were already recognized by Mount Myōboku—they could directly let others sign a blood contract with the mountain.

Given how Fukasaku and Shima treated Muyue, Minato felt that after signing the contract, Muyue would be taken to Mount Myōboku to learn Sage Mode immediately.

"Various reasons. But it's fine now." Muyue thought for a moment before replying.

The Great Toad Sage was far too mysterious, and his prophecy ability was unique in all of Naruto. That made Muyue unwilling to have any connection with him until he had the power to protect himself.

Now that he could protect himself, it didn't matter.

So what if the Great Toad Sage could prophesy? His Celebi could travel through time and space.

"I see. Then sign the summoning blood contract first, Muyue. That way, coming and going will be more convenient." Minato Namikaze didn't pry and went to get the contract scroll.

Besides summoning contracted animals, the Summoning Technique had other useful applications.

For example, using the Reverse Summoning Technique, under the right conditions, a ninja could be teleported to the animal's location.

Mount Myōboku was far from Konoha, hidden in a secret place in the ninja world. If Muyue had to travel on foot, just going back and forth between Mount Myōboku and Konoha would waste a lot of time, so the Reverse Summoning Technique was crucial.

When Muyue went to Mount Myōboku, he could use the Reverse Summoning Technique to get there. When he wanted to return, he just needed to notify Minato, who would summon a Mount Myōboku toad, and that toad would use the Summoning Technique to directly summon Muyue back.

Then Minato Namikaze quickly brought the summoning scroll and unrolled it in front of Muyue.

Muyue thanked Minato, then lightly ran his left hand over the fingers of his right hand, creating a line of blood on his right fingers.

He swiftly wrote his name on the contract scroll and pressed his handprint.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

Immediately, Muyue gathered a large amount of chakra and performed his first summoning from Mount Myōboku.

Poof!

White smoke cleared, and a green old toad with thick, long white eyebrows appeared before them, lying on its back.

"Eh, it's little Minato and little Muyue. Little Minato, what's the matter that you suddenly summoned me?" Fukasaku sprang up with a koi leap and asked.

He had just been sunbathing on Mount Myōboku when he was suddenly summoned.

"It wasn't me who summoned you. It was Muyue." Minato Namikaze explained.

"Oh, little Muyue has signed the contract with us!" Fukasaku showed a delighted smile.

"As expected of little Muyue—you summoned me on your first try. Come visit Mount Myōboku often from now on. My wife has been wanting to learn cooking from you."

Fukasaku had always hoped Muyue would come to Mount Myōboku and play.

If Muyue could make such delicious food with ingredients humans liked—which the toads didn't—then using ingredients they liked, it would be absolutely heavenly.

"Learning cooking is no problem. I happen to want to learn senjutsu at Mount Myōboku too. We can exchange ideas then." Muyue replied with a warm smile.

Though it was just a life skill, the value of the cooking skill exceeded that of an ordinary perfect-level skill; it was just too convenient for building goodwill.

"Learning senjutsu? Sure. I'm pretty free lately. Little Muyue, when do you plan to start?" Fukasaku asked directly.

"I can go over later."

Ever since coming to the Naruto world, Muyue had become very proactive.

"Little Muyue, let me know when you're ready to set out, and I'll have them prepare things over there." Fukasaku Sage said cheerfully.

Then Fukasaku Sage turned to Minato Namikaze and said, "Little Minato, want to come along? You're ready to learn Sage Mode now."

"I'll pass. Let me wait until Muyue finishes learning." Minato Namikaze shook his head.

Muyue's training in Sage Mode would take up some of his energy, and this was exactly the time for him, as the Hokage Advisor, to step up. If he also went to learn Sage Mode, who would develop Konoha?

"I see. Well, goodbye for now." Fukasaku Sage nodded, canceled the Summoning Jutsu, and returned to Mount Myoboku.

Learning Sage Mode was not an easy or simple matter; they never forced anyone to learn it, at most only recommending it to contract holders they favored.

After taking care of business, Muyue packed a few things, summoned Fukasaku Sage, and went with him to Mount Myoboku.

Using Summoning Jutsu to traverse space felt almost the same as the Flying Thunder God, so as soon as Muyue arrived at Mount Myoboku, he immediately snapped to his senses and looked around.

The first thing he saw was a vast expanse of unknown, enormous plants.

Muyue didn't recognize these plants; he had never seen them in either his previous life or the Land of Fire. He guessed they might be special plants unique to Mount Myoboku.

Although he wasn't familiar with plants, if there were such special giant plants, he should have at least some impression of them.

Besides the giant plants, the ground of Mount Myoboku was covered in many large, colorful mushrooms.

They looked quite nice, but whether people could eat them was hard to say.

"Let's go see the kids' mother first. She's been missing little Muyue."

With that, Fukasaku Sage led Muyue to his home.

"Oh my, little Muyue has come to visit! Welcome, welcome!" Shima Sage, who had been preparing ingredients, saw Muyue and greeted him with a joyful face.

"It's just about mealtime. Later, little Muyue, see if my cooking has improved."

"Only with a full stomach can one train well. Little Muyue, let's wait for the kids' mother to finish lunch." Fukasaku Sage nodded.

Although he was a bit eager to taste Muyue's cooking, Muyue was a guest after all, and they couldn't let the guest into the kitchen to cook on the first meal—that wasn't their way of hospitality.

"Let me do it. I happen to have never used this ingredient for cooking." Muyue smiled slightly and offered proactively.

Muyue was wary of the Great Toad Sage's abilities, but he wouldn't ignore the goodwill of the two Sages toward him.

Moreover, this was better for Muyue himself—eating insect cuisine made with his Chef skill was far better than eating Shima Sage's insect cuisine.

"How can that be? You've only just arrived at Mount Myoboku." Shima Sage felt it was inappropriate.

But under Muyue's strong insistence, Shima Sage reluctantly agreed.

"Such delicious food actually exists in the Shinobi World!"

After taking a light taste of Muyue's insect cuisine, Fukasaku Sage was utterly shocked. In over eight hundred years, he had never eaten such delicious insects.

"The Great Elder must have never tasted this either." Fukasaku Sage thought of the Great Toad Sage.

But Fukasaku Sage quickly noticed that Shima Sage was already eating ecstatically, wolfing down the food at a furious pace.

Fukasaku Sage immediately put the Great Toad Sage out of his mind and began eating voraciously as well.

After all, Muyue wouldn't come only once, and the Great Toad Sage probably wasn't awake at the moment anyway.

After eating and drinking their fill, formal training began.

Fukasaku Sage took Muyue to a place with many enormous toad stone statues, and first explained to Muyue the principles of Sage Mode and the precautions for using it.

Although Muyue had already learned quite a bit from the original Naruto story, the content presented in the real world was richer than manga and anime, so Muyue listened very attentively.

The essence of chakra is the evenly mixed product of two types of energy: spiritual energy and physical energy.

And the essence of Sage Chakra is actually adding Natural Energy into that mixing process, while maintaining a 1:1:1 balance of the three energies.

Therefore, the first practice in Sage Mode is to sense Natural Energy.

If one can't even sense Natural Energy, there's naturally no talk of absorbing it into the body and controlling it.

This is also why training in Sage techniques must be done in a sacred land.

Muyue didn't know about the situation at Ryuchi Cave or Shikkotsu Forest, but Mount Myoboku has Toad Oil that helps practitioners gather Natural Energy.

With the help of Toad Oil, a practitioner can skip the step of sensing Natural Energy; the Toad Oil will automatically attract Natural Energy into the practitioner's body.

In this way, by sensing the natural energy within their body, a cultivator can control it, and while proceeding with subsequent training, they can also reverse-engineer the first step, achieving the effect of rapidly mastering Sage Mode.

"Do you want to use oil? It would be much faster, but the risk is greater." Fukasaku Sage asked.

Generally, he would not recommend using Toad Oil to those learning senjutsu.

Because training in Sage Mode with Toad Oil requires Fukasaku Sage to watch intently the entire time, using a special rod to disperse natural energy in a timely manner; otherwise, the risk is extreme.

Fukasaku Sage got no reward for shinobi learning senjutsu, so of course he wouldn't bother with such thankless work.

Muyue was different—he who accepts a favor owes a debt. Fukasaku Sage had just eaten Muyue's cooking and wanted to eat it again, so naturally he couldn't treat Muyue the same as an ordinary trainee.

"Not for now. I want to start with the training to sense natural energy." Muyue declined.

Using Toad Oil would essentially place his safety in Fukasaku Sage's hands, and Muyue didn't like that feeling.

Moreover, unlike Naruto, he wasn't in a rush to fight Pain, so he didn't need to learn in a short time; he could take it slow.

After all, he didn't just want to master Sage Mode; his ultimate goal was to develop a new Sage Mode, and thoroughly understanding and perfecting Mount Myoboku's Sage Mode was what Muyue ought to do.

"The first step and the most crucial key is stillness. This stillness doesn't just mean your body must stand still without moving—you must enter a state of unity between heaven and man, merge with nature, feel the earth and sky, and sense the flow of natural energy in the earth and sky…"

Fukasaku Sage nodded and began explaining the core points of sensing natural energy.

After explaining for about two hours, Fukasaku Sage let Muyue try sensing natural energy and absorbing and controlling it on his own.

"Although it's the first step, it's the most important step. It usually takes a long time. Muyue, don't rush." Fukasaku Sage offered consolation in advance.

The next moment, Fukasaku Sage was dumbfounded. In his perception, natural energy was slowly gathering toward Muyue and being absorbed by him.

Fukasaku Sage's eyes widened as he stared at Muyue in disbelief.

To sense and absorb natural energy on the very first attempt—what a once-in-eight-hundred-years senjutsu genius!

Muyue was also somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected to have such unexpected talent in Sage Mode.

Ten seconds later, Muyue frowned, actively stopped the Mount Myoboku guidance method, halted his absorption of natural energy, and dispersed the natural energy inside his body.

For some reason, the natural energy inside his body was actually repelling itself, not only interfering with his synthesis of senjutsu chakra but even disturbing his own chakra.

When he stopped, Muyue revealed a surprised expression.

There was still a small amount of natural energy continuously entering his body, even though he had stopped using Mount Myoboku's secret technique to absorb natural energy.

Muyue, in the state of the Transparent World, quickly figured out the reason.

It was the breathing technique!

His continuously operating Lightning Breathing was absorbing natural energy into his body in a way different from Mount Myoboku's secret technique.

"Could it be that the breathing technique always had this effect, but before, I couldn't sense natural energy and didn't grasp a method to draw natural energy into my body?" Muyue's mind raced.

If the breathing technique had the ability to absorb natural energy, then developing a new Sage Mode might be simpler than he had imagined.

To verify his idea, Muyue stopped the breathing technique, exited the Transparent World state, and used only Mount Myoboku's secret technique to absorb natural energy.

When he withdrew this, not only did the absorption of natural energy stop, but even Muyue's ability to sense natural energy dropped drastically.

Originally, sensing natural energy was like watching in 2K definition; after exiting the Transparent World, it instantly dropped to 480p.

Although it had decreased, he could still sense it and could absorb and control it.

This time, Muyue absorbed natural energy without any issues and smoothly succeeded in condensing senjutsu chakra.

"Amazing, little Muyue!" Fukasaku Sage couldn't help praising upon seeing this.

To successfully condense senjutsu chakra on the first day—having taught senjutsu to so many people, he had never encountered such a situation. And remember, Muyue had not used Toad Oil.

At this rate, perhaps in three days Muyue would truly master Sage Mode.

"Little Muyue, did you run into some difficulty just now? You suddenly stopped once in the middle before starting again." Fukasaku Sage inquired.

As an external energy, natural energy differs from the internal spiritual energy and physical energy; while it brings high rewards, it also represents high risks, so every issue in Sage Mode training must be treated with caution.

PS: Second chapter.