Dont forget to comment and vote, its makes me happy ...
read full story in patreon : belamy20 (9$)
"Taiichi-sama, did you call for me?"
The white smoke hadn't even fully cleared when Katsuyu's gentle voice rang out.
"Oh, Tsunade-sama is here too. What a rare sight—both of you together!"
Tsunade was never one to wait around. Before Taiichi could even open his mouth, she jumped in first.
"Katsuyu, I want to ask you about Sage Art."
"Sage Art, huh!" Katsuyu's two antennae turned toward Tsunade and moved up and down like she was sizing her up. "Little Tsunade hasn't been putting in the work. You still don't meet the requirements to train in Sage Art, you know."
In that moment, even though she was just a small slug, Katsuyu somehow felt like the head of the family. Her words left Tsunade completely speechless, her face turning bright red.
Taiichi, standing beside her, couldn't hold it in. He let out a snort of laughter.
He quickly clapped a hand over his mouth, but it was too late. Tsunade's merciless iron fist was already coming for him.
Katsuyu looked a little confused by their back-and-forth, but she didn't dwell on it. After finishing with Tsunade, she turned her attention to Taiichi. After studying him for a long moment, she dropped another line that made Tsunade want to crawl into a hole and die.
"Little Taiichi, on the other hand, does meet the requirements for training in Sage Art. Little Tsunade, you should learn from him. A teacher can't afford to fall behind her student in every single area."
"Ah~ haha!"
This time Taiichi really couldn't hold back. Ignoring the dull throb still lingering on his head, he burst out laughing.
Tsunade's fists clenched so tight her knuckles cracked. Her teeth ground together, but for once she didn't punch Taiichi. Instead, she actually started reflecting on herself. Had she really been slacking off for so long that even Katsuyu couldn't stand it anymore and was giving her this rare pep talk?
Seeing Tsunade actually reflecting for once, Taiichi quickly swallowed his laughter. He didn't want to ruin whatever moment she was having.
A long silence passed before Tsunade finally came back to herself. When she did, she found one human and one slug staring at her—one with eyes, the other with a pair of antennae.
"Haha, why are you both looking at me like that? You're making me self-conscious."
Tsunade laughed it off, but Taiichi could tell her mental state had shifted. She seemed more alive than before.
He didn't call her out on it. She'd been reflecting earlier and hadn't hit him. If he gave her another opening now, another punch to the head was guaranteed.
He quickly changed the subject. "Katsuyu, I wanted to ask—do the Sage Arts from the three great summoning realms have any harmful effects on the people who train in them?"
"Harmful effects?" Katsuyu's two antennae swayed back and forth like she was thinking it over. "If we're talking harmful effects, the training is extremely difficult. One wrong move and you get assimilated by natural energy. Does that count?"
Tsunade and Taiichi exchanged a glance. Clearly, that answer wasn't enough for them.
Taiichi pressed on. "What about after you've mastered Sage Mode? Are there any long-term downsides for humans? I noticed that Mount Myoboku has plenty of long-lived toads, but none of the humans who learned Sage Art seem to have extended lifespans."
"Well, of course not," Katsuyu let out a long sigh. "The Sage Arts from Mount Myoboku and Ryuchi Cave—I don't know if they have other negative effects on practitioners—but the lack of longevity is something all three of us share.
After all, these are Sage Arts that belong to our respective races. The fact that we were even able to modify them enough for humans to use is already difficult. Wanting them to also extend human lifespan would be no different from creating an entirely new Sage Art from scratch. Hashirama actually had a real chance at it back then, but unfortunately he died too early and never finished that great work."
The truth was that simple. Thinking about it, it made sense. Humans could drink coffee, but it was poison to cats and dogs. Plenty of things were good for you but not for someone else.
These Sage Arts that belonged exclusively to the three great summoning realms had no harmful effects on humans—that was already rare enough. Expecting them to also grant longevity? That was pure fantasy.
"Taiichi, are you thinking of training in Sage Art? You already meet the requirements now."
Katsuyu's gentle voice pulled Taiichi out of his thoughts.
"Ah, not exactly. I accidentally entered Sage Mode by chance, so I wanted to ask about the specifics of Sage Art."
This time it was Katsuyu who went still. Taiichi watched as her entire body froze after hearing his words. Those two upright antennae didn't move an inch. If someone didn't know better, they might've thought time itself had stopped.
A long moment passed. Taiichi glanced helplessly at Tsunade, completely lost. Was the signal lagging? But each of Katsuyu's clones had independent consciousness. Something like that shouldn't happen.
Tsunade just shook her head. She'd never seen anything like this either.
In the end, it was Tsunade who stepped in. She reached out carefully and touched Katsuyu's soft body.
Katsuyu jolted violently and finally snapped out of it.
Her two antennae shot out to full length, and her body half-rose upright. It was the first time Taiichi had ever seen Katsuyu's antennae extend that far.
Those antennae swept down from the top of Taiichi's head, inch by inch, examining him until he started feeling a little uncomfortable.
"It really is the scent of Sage Chakra… and it's a scent I've never encountered before."
Katsuyu pulled her long antennae back in and lowered her body flat again.
As a slug who had lived for over a thousand years, she had seen more strange and wondrous things than most could imagine. After the initial shock, she quickly calmed herself.
"Little Taiichi, your luck is really something. To complete Sage Mode by accident like that, when it's such a dangerous path…"
Katsuyu's personality was calm and steady. She didn't press Taiichi on whether he was telling the full truth. All she knew was that a brand-new method of training Sage Art had appeared in the shinobi world.
Ever since the three of them had created the Sage Art system that combined natural energy with chakra over a thousand years ago, no new form of Sage Art had been born. She had even started to believe that the creation of Sage Art had been a one-time miracle of fate, and that after the era passed, there would never be fertile ground for new Sage Arts again.
But what she had witnessed today shattered that curse. And in the future, there might even be more practitioners of Sage Art.
Thinking back on the countless different training methods that once existed in this world—onmyoji, samurai, monks, shrine maidens, and even gods above them all—most of them had vanished or fallen after that great calamity. All that remained were the three of them and a few others barely clinging to life.
Taiichi scratched his head, glancing awkwardly at Tsunade. Katsuyu's generosity made him feel genuinely embarrassed. It was like lying to someone close to you. Even someone with a little shame would feel uncomfortable.
But Tsunade wasn't paying attention to any of that right now. She was focused on something else.
"Katsuyu, is Taiichi's version of Sage Mode dangerous? Will there be any risk of mutation later on?"
"No. Once Sage Chakra is successfully formed, the body automatically remembers the pattern. That's the Sage Mode that suits you best. When the three of us originally created Sage Art, most of us went through something similar. There's always an element of chance involved."
Tsunade let out a breath of relief. Even though she had never trained in Sage Art herself, she knew how dangerous it was. She had genuinely been afraid that Taiichi's self-created method might be unreliable and end up killing him by accident.
"Little Taiichi, could you demonstrate your Sage Art for me? I'd like to confirm it again and see if it matches what we had back then."
Katsuyu's antennae turned back toward Taiichi. Her gentle words carried a clear note of curiosity. A Sage Art different from the three of theirs was the most remarkable thing she had encountered in a thousand years.
Taiichi looked at the way her antennae were trembling slightly and didn't hesitate. He simply nodded.
This time he didn't sit down. He stayed standing as he began absorbing natural energy.
Tsunade couldn't feel it, but Katsuyu could see it clearly. A large area of natural energy around them was being drawn toward Taiichi and flowing into his body.
Her two antennae trembled even harder. The efficiency with which he absorbed natural energy was far higher than what they had achieved back then.
Three minutes later, Katsuyu's trembling antennae suddenly stopped. She could already sense the change in Taiichi's chakra. It was definitely Sage Chakra.
The next moment, Taiichi opened his eyes. His pupils were once again tinted with golden light.
A much smaller slug split off from the larger one. It quickly crawled up Taiichi's pant leg, made its way to his neck, and stuck there.
It felt cool, soft, and slightly slippery, but not unpleasant. Maybe it was a case of loving the house and everything in it.
Through the smaller slug, the larger Katsuyu carefully examined Taiichi's Sage Chakra.
Her antennae also moved up and down as she looked him over again. Aside from the pair of golden eyes, there didn't seem to be any other noticeable changes.
The antennae nodded in a very human way. Both Taiichi and Tsunade could tell it meant she was quite satisfied.
After a long while, the smaller slug merged back into the larger one. Only then did Katsuyu speak again.
"Balanced and stable. The Sage Chakra is very steady with no signs of scattering at all. Just like what we had back then. This is truly a brand-new method of training Sage Art."
"But I've seen my grandfather and Jiraiya both have sage facial markings when they use Sage Mode. Taiichi doesn't have any changes at all."
"Sage facial markings?" Katsuyu tilted her head like a confused child, searching through her memories to figure out what these so-called sage facial markings even were.
Tsunade quickly explained before Katsuyu could take too long to remember. "It's the patterns that appear on the face after entering Sage Mode. My grandfather had them around his eyes and forehead. Jiraiya had a lot more—they covered most of his face."
Katsuyu's head bobbed up and down twice, as if she had finally understood what Tsunade was talking about.
"Oh, you mean those! White Snake and Gamamaru—you've never seen them, Tsunade, but you have seen my true body. Did you see any such patterns on my true body?"
Katsuyu didn't answer directly. Instead, she asked a question in return.
Tsunade paused, then thought back to the time she had seen Katsuyu's true body—the massive form hundreds of meters long, the most imposing and powerful creature she had ever laid eyes on. From what she remembered seeing, there really hadn't been any sage facial markings.
"Looks like you noticed it too. My true body doesn't have those markings. White Snake and Gamamaru don't either.
These so-called sage facial markings are probably unique patterns that appear when humans train in our Sage Arts. The more markings there are, the less compatible the person is with the Sage Art."
Tsunade thought it over. So that was it. Her grandfather had been someone who almost created an entirely new Sage Art training method on his own. His compatibility was naturally very high, so he had very few markings.
Jiraiya was different. When he used Sage Mode, even his human form changed. His compatibility was obviously much lower, so the markings covered most of his face.
"Katsuyu, are there really no other Sage Arts in the shinobi world besides the ones from the three great summoning realms?"
Taiichi was genuinely curious. His memories from his previous life had given him some understanding of this world, but there were still plenty of details he didn't know. Since he had a living fossil right in front of him, he wasn't about to waste the chance to learn more.
"No!" Katsuyu answered firmly, without the slightest hesitation.
"Ever since that great calamity, chakra became the new form of energy. That was over a thousand years ago. And the Sage Arts that developed from it have existed for even less time.
Besides, for a Sage Art race to be born, it's not enough to simply understand Sage Art. You also need an environment suitable for training. Ordinary places can't support a large number of Sage Art practitioners training at the same time."
"You mentioned a 'great calamity.' Did something happen in the past?"
Taiichi had caught the key shift in Katsuyu's words and deliberately steered the conversation in that direction.
"A great calamity…" Katsuyu fell into a long silence. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking.
Taiichi and Tsunade looked at each other. This time was clearly different from before. Both of them could tell Katsuyu was lost in memories of the past.
"That really was an era when gods and demons coexisted. It was chaotic, but also brilliant. Unfortunately, a single disaster changed the entire world."
Katsuyu's voice sounded almost like she was talking in her sleep. Taiichi and Tsunade listened carefully, hoping to learn more about the ancient secrets.
Unfortunately, Katsuyu seemed to remember some kind of taboo. She jolted and snapped out of it.
"I can't say any more. The three great summoning realms made an agreement with the Sage of Six Paths not to reveal anything about the ancient era to outsiders. This is all I can tell you."
Taiichi felt a pang of disappointment. He hadn't expected these old-timers to have made such an agreement. Were they worried that the truth would cause panic in the modern world?
Tsunade, on the other hand, didn't seem bothered at all. If anything, she looked even more interested.
"The Sage of Six Paths… so he really existed. I thought he was just a legend."
"Of course he was a real person. All the bloodline clans in the shinobi world today are connected to him in one way or another."
Tsunade looked like she had just been handed the juiciest piece of gossip she had ever heard. These were secrets she had never known before.
Suddenly, something occurred to her. Her whole body stiffened.
"Then the Senju and the Uchiha…?"
Katsuyu's two antennae nodded very deliberately. Even Taiichi could read a hint of amusement in the gesture.
"You're thinking correctly. The Senju and Uchiha both descend from the Sage of Six Paths' bloodline. They're the two most direct and legitimate branches."
At that moment, Tsunade looked like her entire worldview had been flipped upside down. The Senju and Uchiha had been locked in a blood feud that stretched back hundreds of years to the Warring States period, and even after the founding of the villages, the tension between them had never fully disappeared.
And now it turned out these two clans shared the same ancestor. It was… absurd.
Just as Tsunade was about to ask something else, Katsuyu cut her off.
"That's enough. I can't say any more about the ancient era. If you still want to know, you can look through old texts yourselves. There should still be some clues left behind."
Tsunade looked like she had just swallowed a fly. She wanted to keep asking, but Katsuyu had made it clear she wouldn't say more. It wasn't like she could threaten a slug with a kunai. Especially not this slug.