Bang bang bang...
Low and dull muffled sounds echoed densely like drumbeats in the central training ground. In the training ground, two figures dragging afterimages intertwined and collided with each other!
The ones fighting were none other than Haku, who had just learned 'Sage Arts', and Sasuke, who had recently opened the 'Rinnegan'.
By the field, Shion, Karin, Hikari, Yakumo, Neji, Kimimaro, Ryūzetsu, and Chino lined up, all staring quietly at the fierce battle on the field, with different expressions.
Shion blinked, her face full of curiosity.
Even at a level close to 'Six Paths Level', taijutsu confrontation was still her weakness. Fortunately, as a priestess, she excelled in sealing jutsu. Plus Shinji let her learn 'Magic Ring', further strengthening her offensive and defensive capabilities, so she wouldn't suffer losses against opponents of the same level.
But this also made her understanding of taijutsu relatively superficial. Among the crowd, only she was purely watching the fun!
If not for everyone around her being silent, she would probably have started shouting long ago.
Karin beside her looked serious.
As the chakra level became stronger and stronger, Karin realized that unless it involved 'Space-Time' or 'Fate' type jutsu, general ninjutsu and genjutsu could hardly harm enemies of the same level.
This invisibly greatly increased the importance of taijutsu.
So during this period after obtaining the 'Six Tomoe Rinnegan', she had been tempering her taijutsu, for example, learning 'Zodiac' from Hikari.
Fortunately, she was a dojutsu Kekkei Genkai ninja and mastered the perception secret jutsu 'Mind's Eye of the Kagura'. Under the dual cheats of insight and perception, her taijutsu progress was very fast, almost like cheating.
And just at this time, Haku's return broke this state.
The weird ability of shielding insight and perception under Haku's 'Sage Mode' made her very uncomfortable. Although she wasn't the one fighting on the field at this moment, she could feel Haku's trickiness!
Hikari's expression was similar to Karin's.
Just compared to Karin's seriousness, there was an imperceptible eagerness in her eyes.
Further down, Yakumo, Neji, Kimimaro, Ryūzetsu, and Chino had more shock than seriousness in their eyes.
Before mastering Sage Arts, Haku didn't open a gap with them.
But after mastering Sage Arts and activating 'Sage Mode', they were horrified to find Haku's strength suddenly soared ahead of them.
Fighting alone, even Yakumo wasn't confident in beating Haku.
At this time, there was a change on the field.
Haku suddenly turned his palm into a knife, hitting the acupoint on Sasuke's right shoulder precisely with one strike, making half of Sasuke's body numb. Although Sasuke quickly got rid of this numbness, in the fierce taijutsu confrontation, a miss is as good as a mile. One careless move led to him being hit continuously afterwards. In a round of rapid attacks from Haku, he lost.
"How is it possible!?"
Sasuke, panting heavily, was full of astonishment.
Haku said: "I took advantage of purely competing in taijutsu. If dojutsu could be used, I certainly wouldn't be your opponent!"
"No!"
Sasuke shook his head.
Losing is losing, he wouldn't be a sore loser.
Haku smiled, then said to everyone by the field: "Anyone else want to spar?"
Instantly, Karin, Hikari, Ryūzetsu, and Chino all stood out.
Haku said helplessly: "How about one by one?"
Karin and Hikari looked at each other, taking a step back together.
Leaving Ryūzetsu and Chino, who said: "Can we two go together?"
"Hmm!" Nodding, Haku said: "Please advise!"
Soon, the three fought into a ball on the field.
Compared to Sasuke, Ryūzetsu and Chino, who cooperated tacitly and studied 'Zodiac' intensively, put much greater pressure on Haku.
The fierce battle of the three was more intense than just now. Even watching from the side made people sweat!
And while everyone was scrambling to spar with Haku and experience the 'Sage Mode' Haku just learned, Shinji was studying the 'Senjutsu Chakra' Haku gave him in the laboratory.
Reaching Shinji's realm, cultivating 'Sage Arts' no longer required sensing natural energy in the so-called holy lands like Naruto, improving the efficiency of absorbing natural energy through aids like toad oil, and then slowly trying to fuse natural energy into chakra.
'Six Paths Level' powerhouses inherently possessed the ability to edit chakra. So as long as Shinji analyzed the Senjutsu Chakra refined by Haku, figured out the ratio within, and tried a few times following the example, he could roughly master it.
This was the advantage from top to bottom. If Shinji were still in the state of only having Mangekyo Sharingan or Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan back then, wanting to learn Sage Arts, the difficulty would not be just a little bit.
After all, only a handful of people mastered Sage Arts in the entire Ninja World.
Not long after, Shinji cracked Haku's Senjutsu Chakra, thinking: "Sure enough, not simple fusion!"
Wanting to refine Senjutsu Chakra, obviously, couldn't be achieved by simply fusing natural energy dispersed in the environment into chakra. Besides involving the fusion ratio, this also involved the absorption and taming of natural energy.
In other words, absorbing and taming natural energy was the key to cultivating Sage Arts. Refining Senjutsu Chakra later would just come naturally.
Shinji raised his right palm and began to attempt.
In an instant, large patches of hard lumps appeared on the skin of his right palm. These hard lumps looked like stones, yet somewhat like the keratin of crustaceans.
As time passed, the area of hard lumps became larger and larger, gradually covering the entire palm. Moreover, there were undulations under the hard lumps, as if something was wriggling under the skin.
"Heh..."
Shinji chuckled lightly, then flipped his palm. All keratin-like hard lumps fell off, dropping onto the ground.
He tried absorbing natural energy just now. As expected, once natural energy entered the body, it began to backlash his body.
Such backlash was a life-and-death hurdle for others.
Unknown number of ninjas attempting to cultivate Sage Arts fell at this hurdle, either turning into stone or animals.
But for Shinji, it was a trivial ailment, removable with a flip of the hand!
Not successful once, Shinji immediately started the second attempt, then the third, fourth, fifth...
Attempts that ordinary ninjas needed to gamble with their lives only cost Shinji time and energy. So after a dozen attempts, Shinji gradually mastered the knack of taming natural energy and began taming natural energy.
Not long after, a large amount of natural energy was sucked into the body by Shinji, as if a black hole absorbing natural energy appeared in the environment.
Inside the central training ground.
Haku, who was fighting fiercely with Ryūzetsu and Chino, suddenly paused, then pulled away.
Ryūzetsu stopped and asked: "What's wrong?"
Haku looked in the direction of the laboratory, smiling bitterly: "The natural energy nearby has been sucked away by Leader!"