"Old man, stop eating for a moment. Haven't you noticed? Naruto is absorbing natural energy while moving!"
Shima nudged Fukasaku, who was completely absorbed in his meal, and whispered urgently.
Annoyed at being interrupted, Fukasaku grumbled, "What nonsense are you talking about? I haven't even started teaching him senjutsu yet!"
He finished the last fried insect in his bowl before finally looking up at Naruto, who was calmly drinking his high-protein insect juice.
Fukasaku's expression immediately changed.
"His body really is absorbing natural energy on its own!"
He stared at Naruto in disbelief.
"But how? I haven't taught him anything yet!"
Shima was equally astonished.
"That shouldn't be possible…"
Bang!
Fukasaku slammed his bowl onto the table and hurried toward the door.
"Where are you going, old man?" Shima called after him.
"To see the Great Toad Sage!"
Fukasaku didn't look back. He quickly disappeared into the distance.
Shima gave Naruto a long, thoughtful look before following him.
Naruto remained at the dining table, calmly sipping his insect juice.
The corners of his mouth curved upward.
—
Inside the Great Toad Sage's cavern, the enormous and ancient Gamamaru was sleeping peacefully.
The moment Fukasaku and Shima entered, however, he slowly opened his eyes.
His aged voice carried a trace of helplessness.
"I know why you've come. I sensed what was happening to Naruto as well."
Fukasaku immediately stepped forward.
"Great Lord Elder, why is Naruto's body absorbing natural energy on its own?"
Gamamaru slowly shook his head.
"I don't know. I have never encountered such a situation before."
"What...?"
Fukasaku frowned.
"Could it be a special trait possessed by the Child of Prophecy?"
"That is difficult to say."
Gamamaru's ancient eyes narrowed slightly.
"Even the Sage of Six Paths was unable to absorb natural energy in this manner."
"The Sage of Six Paths…"
Fukasaku lowered his voice.
Despite his own long life, Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki was still a legendary figure even to him.
"The Sage of Six Paths learned senjutsu through the conventional method," Gamamaru continued. "He merely mastered it at an extraordinary speed."
The Great Toad Sage fell silent for a moment, seemingly recalling the distant past.
"Perhaps Naruto possesses an unusual constitution."
He released a weary sigh.
"For the past several months, I have repeatedly experienced troubling dreams involving the Child of Prophecy."
Fukasaku and Shima exchanged solemn looks.
"Continue observing Naruto," Gamamaru instructed.
After saying those words, he closed his eyes and returned to sleep.
—
Fifteen minutes later, Naruto finally finished his meal.
Fukasaku and Shima had also returned.
"Naruto, come with me."
Fukasaku gestured for him to follow.
"It's time for me to teach you senjutsu."
Naruto followed Fukasaku to a training ground filled with enormous stone toad statues.
Nearby stood a small waterfall and a pool filled with Mount Myōboku's special toad oil.
Fukasaku turned toward Naruto with a serious expression.
"Ordinary chakra is created by combining physical energy from the body's cells with spiritual energy produced by the mind."
He raised one finger.
"Senjutsu adds a third element: natural energy gathered from the world around you."
"When physical energy, spiritual energy, and natural energy are perfectly balanced, they create senjutsu chakra."
Fukasaku continued explaining.
"By using senjutsu chakra, your ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu can all become vastly more powerful."
Naruto nodded attentively.
"Natural energy exists throughout the world," Fukasaku added. "But sensing and drawing it into your body is extremely difficult."
He turned toward one of the enormous stone toads.
"Let me demonstrate the difference."
Fukasaku leaped in front of the statue, placed both hands against it, and pushed with all his strength.
Rumble!
The enormous stone statue, nearly thirty meters tall, slowly shifted from its original position.
After lowering it again, Fukasaku turned back toward Naruto while breathing heavily.
"Now you try."
"Me?"
Naruto looked slightly surprised before stepping forward.
In the half hour since arriving at Mount Myōboku, approximately half the chakra within his body had already fused with natural energy and transformed into senjutsu chakra.
Strangely, the orange pigmentation normally associated with Mount Myōboku's Sage Mode had not appeared around his eyes.
It was most likely another effect of the [Senjutsu Body].
Naruto placed both hands beneath the stone statue and circulated his senjutsu chakra.
Then he lifted.
Boom!
The enormous statue was thrown off balance and toppled backward.
Fukasaku's mouth fell open.
For several seconds, he could only stare.
Eventually, he drew a deep breath and asked cautiously, "Naruto… can you already sense natural energy?"
"Yes."
Naruto turned toward him with an innocent smile.
"Ever since I arrived here, my body has felt strange. After hearing your explanation, I finally realized that I've already started using senjutsu chakra."
He placed a hand against his stomach.
"About half the chakra in my body has already been converted."
Naruto grinned.
"Learning senjutsu doesn't seem that difficult."
The corner of Fukasaku's mouth twitched.
Not difficult? Who told this brat that?
He looked around at the countless stone toads surrounding them.
Every one of those statues had once been a living practitioner who failed to control natural energy and transformed into stone.
Countless predecessors had died while attempting to master senjutsu.
Yet Naruto had learned to absorb natural energy without receiving a single lesson.
Fukasaku had no idea how to teach someone like him.
For now, he could only follow the Great Toad Sage's instructions and continue observing.
"Since you can already use senjutsu chakra, I'll teach you two ways to apply it in close combat."
Fukasaku raised his hands.
"Frog Kata and Frog Strike."
He then began explaining and demonstrating both techniques.
Naruto was already familiar with them from the original story.
Frog Kata used the natural energy surrounding the practitioner as an extension of their body.
By gathering natural energy around the hands and feet, the user could expand the effective range of their taijutsu. Even if a physical strike missed, the invisible natural energy surrounding it could still hit the opponent.
An enemy might successfully evade the fist itself, only to be struck by the natural energy extending beyond it.
In the original story, Naruto had used this ability to defeat the Preta Path of Pain with a single blow.
Frog Strike worked differently.
The user gathered natural energy into the palm and released it as a powerful shock upon impact.
The force could penetrate an opponent's external defenses and damage them from within, making it especially effective against heavily armored enemies.
Both were extremely powerful taijutsu techniques.
Naruto studied them with complete focus.
Jiraiya's Sage Art: Hair Needle Senbon was also included in Naruto's future training plans.
However, senjutsu chakra was not limited to a handful of specialized techniques.
Any ninjutsu infused with senjutsu chakra would become far stronger.
Naruto began imagining what would happen if he poured the greatest possible amount of senjutsu chakra into his Wind Release.
Could he produce a typhoon capable of sweeping across several kilometers?
Perhaps even dozens of kilometers?
The thought of unleashing such a devastating Wind Release technique made Naruto smile.
There were also the Big Ball Rasengan and Wind Release: Rasenshuriken.
Since he was already at Mount Myōboku, he might as well master both of them here.
However, another problem soon occurred to him.
All of those plans required an enormous chakra reserve.
After fusing the [Uzumaki Clan Sage Body] and [Senju Clan Sage Body] into the [Senjutsu Body], Naruto had lost the massive chakra increases separately granted by those two physiques.
His current chakra reserves had returned to roughly the same level as Naruto's in the original story.
Was that still a lot?
Of course.
But it might not be enough to cast a large-scale typhoon technique repeatedly.