Sasuke looked at Natsuro, thought for a moment, and spoke again.
"Natsuro, if you ever need to use my Mangekyō again, just come find me."
"Then I won't hold back," Natsuro replied with a smile, not rejecting the offer.
That said, he likely wouldn't need to use Sasuke's Mangekyō again, his gains this time were already more than enough.
"Mm." Sasuke also smiled. This time, I was finally able to help him, right?
"You need to keep pushing forward as well. Your path isn't just about revenge, there's still a long future ahead of you." Natsuro looked at Sasuke and continued, "And just like Itachi said, the enemies you'll face in the future will be incredibly powerful. You have to keep improving."
"I know. And besides, there's still that masked man who claims to be Madara Uchiha. I won't slack off," Sasuke said, his eyes gleaming with cold determination. "I've already told Kakashi about his involvement in the Nine-Tails incident. He and I will take revenge together!"
Hearing this, Natsuro's expression turned a bit strange.
Sasuke and Kakashi don't know the truth, but I do.
The masked man is Obito.
Obito, Kakashi's childhood teammate, the original owner of his Sharingan. In fact, many of Kakashi's actions to this day were deeply influenced by him.
So…
Kakashi wants revenge on Obito?
Natsuro hesitated, should he tell Kakashi the masked man's true identity?
He had to admit, there was a certain twisted amusement in the idea, imagine Kakashi's face when he realized that the very enemy he had vowed revenge against was none other than his most cherished friend.
But…
Kakashi was one of his own. Taking pleasure in something like that felt a bit too cruel.
Generally, Natsuro only indulged in harmless pranks, the kind where, even if the person realized they were being toyed with, they'd just laugh it off later.
But this… this was too heavy.
Besides, he hadn't expected Sasuke to tell Kakashi about the Nine-Tails incident.
Now, he was stuck with a dilemma.
If he said nothing, Kakashi would walk into a battle against Obito completely unprepared, which was kind of brutal.
If he told him, he'd have to explain how he knew Obito's identity.
Then again… did he really need to explain?
He was the Hokage.
Did a superior need to justify his intelligence sources to his subordinates?
Shaking his head, Natsuro decided to set the issue aside for now.
He'd give Kakashi a hint when the time was right.
After clearing his thoughts, he began transforming his natural energy into perfected Sage Chakra, activating Sage Mode.
"This is… the perfected Sage Mode?" Sasuke asked, staring at Natsuro's golden irises.
"Yes. This is Mount Myōboku's Sage Mode. By the way, Naruto has also mastered the perfected version," Natsuro said casually.
"That idiot already mastered it?" Sasuke was slightly surprised, but not overly so.
After all, he had already awakened the Mangekyō, so it made sense that Naruto wouldn't remain stagnant either.
Still, Sasuke hadn't expected Naruto to not only learn Sage Mode but perfect it.
"Yeah. Actually, I learned Mount Myōboku's Sage Mode through Naruto," Natsuro admitted, feeling a bit amused.
In reality, he had "cheated" his way through learning many things.
Of course, he could have learned them on his own, but that would have taken far more time.
So instead, he always found the fastest possible method to master what he needed: Yang Release, Sage Mode, and now Yin Release.
Shadow Clone, Spirit Transformation, and a Unique Fusion
By this time, Natsuro had completed his hand seals.
Now, he had reached the point where he could reduce almost all his jutsu to three or fewer seals.
Simple jutsu required one seal. Complex but familiar jutsu required two seals. Only the most complicated or unfamiliar techniques required three seals.
Although he was still a step away from Hashirama's "clap hands, jutsu done" level, it no longer affected his combat speed.
With his current seal speed, three hand seals took less than a second.
"Shadow Clone Technique."
A clone materialized beside him.
Then, with just two more hand seals, he activated the Spirit Transformation Technique.
Sasuke watched the entire process unfold before his eyes.
So this is how that special shadow clone works?
It combined Sage Mode, a technique similar to the Yamanaka Clan's soul-based jutsu, and the Shadow Clone Technique.
Sasuke had previously wondered if he could learn to make the same kind of clone.
Now, he knew, it was impossible for him.
With his Spirit Transformation clone created, Natsuro didn't hesitate.
Grabbing Sasuke, he used the Flying Thunder God Technique to leave Shikkotsu Forest.
The real Natsuro, meanwhile, remained behind, beginning to review his gains from this experience.
His greatest reward was his mastery of Yin Release.
Previously, he had only barely sensed the presence of Yin Release energy.
Now, it was as if an entire ocean of Yin Release power had been unveiled before him.
The reason for this was simple, his spiritual power was already immense, but he had never found the "key" to fully unlocking Yin Release.
Even though he had some Yin-based abilities, they were vague and incomplete.
But after using Sasuke's Mangekyō Sharingan, he had finally obtained that missing key.
Although there was still more to research, what he had gained was already enough to change everything.
Suddenly, a thought struck him...
"Could I create Susanoo purely through Yin Release, even without the Sharingan?"
Since the idea had occurred to him, he decided to test it immediately.
Following the exact same process he had used while controlling Sasuke's body, he began channeling his chakra and spiritual energy.
As he did, a golden chakra aura began flickering around him.
However… Even after a long time, nothing formed.
Natsuro opened his eyes.
As expected, it wasn't possible. Or rather, at his current level, it wasn't possible.
He realized something.
The Mangekyō Sharingan might essentially be a specialized mechanism for controlling Yin Release. With it, even the most complex Yin-based techniques became effortless. Without it, one had to control Yin Release manually, it was a far more difficult task.
That said… If he one day mastered Yin Release to its absolute peak, would the "Gundam" he created still count as a real Susanoo?
Or would it just be a giant, humanoid construct made purely from Yin chakra?
After pondering for a moment, he stopped overthinking it, he couldn't do it yet.
His second major gain was his progress in Ryūchi Cave's Sage Mode. Without hesitation, he converted his natural energy into the Ryūchi Cave Sage Mode.
However, the moment he did, he realized he had underestimated it.
There was a reason why Ryūchi Cave's Sage Mode had the greatest side effects among the three sacred lands. In exchange for power and virtually infinite duration, it had almost fully merged with nature itself.
If Mount Myōboku's Sage Mode aimed to balance natural energy with chakra, then Ryūchi Cave's Sage Mode was about fully embracing natural energy.
This was also why the closer one got to perfecting Ryūchi Cave's Sage Mode, the less human they became.
That said, for a power with such extreme side effects, the boost it provided was also significantly greater than Mount Myōboku's Sage Mode.
However, the difference in raw power wasn't overwhelming, the real advantage lay in its sustained duration.
As long as chakra remained, the user would never exit Sage Mode.
After some thought, he decided that he needed to modify Ryūchi Cave's Sage Mode.
Unlike Kabuto, he already had effectively unlimited Sage Mode duration.
Thus, Ryūchi Cave's biggest advantage, sustainability, was meaningless to him.
So, he had no reason to allow it to alter his body in such an extreme way.
As Natsuro examined Ryūchi Cave's abilities, his expression turned a little strange.
The first aspect, enhanced sensory perception, was useful but overlapped with his own sensory abilities.
Still, it could serve as a complementary tool, most notably, it allowed him to detect things that lacked chakra, something his usual sensory techniques couldn't do.
But what really caught him off guard was its ability to manipulate life energy.
That wasn't unusual on its own, but when combined with Shikkotsu Forest's Sage Mode, things became interesting.
Shikkotsu Forest Sage Mode enhanced life energy, essentially making healing a passive ability. Ryūchi Cave Sage Mode allowed direct manipulation of life energy, making healing an active ability.
Essentially, if Shikkotsu Forest turned healing into a passive buff, then Ryūchi Cave functioned like an active skill.
And now that he thought about it, the synergy between these two modes was near perfect.
Adding in Mount Myōboku's well-balanced Sage Mode, Natsuro suddenly realized something...
Could He Actually Merge All Three?
Although he hadn't started fusing the three Sage Modes yet, he could already sense their complementary nature.
This meant that the likelihood of a successful fusion had increased once again.
If he succeeded, his combat power would skyrocket.
Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Taijutsu, Sensory Perception and Life Energy, he would have no weaknesses left.
The only possible shortcoming might have been spiritual energy, but that was already Natsuro's greatest strength.
The more he thought about it, the more impatient he became.
He wanted to merge them immediately.
However, he forced himself to suppress his excitement.
Before merging them, he still needed to perfect both Shikkotsu Forest's and Ryūchi Cave's Sage Modes.
One step at a time. There was still work to be done...
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