At night, Higashino Shin began his nightly Chakra-control training before bed.
He had now entered what he called the second stage: constantly adjusting the ratio of the two energies inside his Chakra, pushing them toward the extremes of Yin and Yang.
Each adjustment required re-fusing the new ratio into Chakra, learning that Chakra's characteristics, and then achieving precise control.
Extremely time-consuming.
Yet he enjoyed it; Higashino Shin desperately wanted to know what delightful result would appear once the ratio reached the absolute extremes.
To put it simply, ordinary Chakra is a 50-50 blend of physical and Mental Energy—the general-purpose type.
Taijutsu and Ninjutsu both work with it; as for elements, that's another training track. If you're born with one, keep strengthening its nature transformation.
If you're not, you can acquire it through training, but his focus isn't there yet—it also eats up huge amounts of time, and for now he has no need to master all five natures.
Currently, by shifting physical energy to 70 percent he can use Medical Ninjutsu; conversely, pushing Mental Energy to 70 percent makes learning and casting genjutsu twice as effective.
But the further you go the harder it gets. He's roughly marked each 10 percent as a stage, yet the closer you get to the ends the tougher the balancing becomes—only daily grinding works.
Is there a faster way?
Sure, pal, sure there is.
Pluck a pair of Uchiha three-tomoe eyeballs and pop them in—your Yin training will feel like a fish in water.
Let Snake Uncle jab you with a shot of Hashirama cells and your Yang attribute will explode in no time.
So what's the price?
You die.
Either the Hashirama cells rot you into a tree, or a mob of red-eyed maniacs hack you into mincemeat.
Power earned through your own grinding is safe and reliable.
He's dropped pre-sleep hand-seal practice; his seal speed is decent. Anyway, he never planned to be an orthodox Ninja—his fighting style wasn't Ninjutsu-centric to begin with, so it's enough for now.
In fact, once Chakra control is pushed to the extreme, mastering a jutsu's energy circuit lets you complete it inside the Chakra network with pure mental force—no seals required.
Clap your hands and anything appears; you don't even have to clap.
Seals were invented by Indra so humans could cast jutsu; his bloodline are born Chakra admins—they don't need hand signs.
In the end, Chakra belongs to the Ōtsutsuki Clan; it merely diffused into human bodies, fusing into cells generation after generation.
It not only cheapened supernatural power but also rewrote human physiology.
Humans are Chakra factories—temporary users, never the true owners.
——
After falling asleep, Higashino Shin's consciousness floated above his body as usual.
He was used to it now: every night he lured White Natural Energy into his body. The only change was that, with his growth, his conscious form had become far stronger, able to entice far more Natural Energy at once.
He assumed tonight would be another routine session of mingling with the white mist—until the unexpected happened.
Though absorbing Natural Energy had become second nature, he never stopped monitoring his body; he hadn't forgotten that Natural Energy is no docile lamb—it's lethal.
Halfway through tonight's training, his conscious form keenly noticed a flash on his body's forehead.
A circular pattern flickered there; as the White Natural Energy poured in, the mark finally stabilized.
On the forehead appeared a design slightly larger than a one-yuan coin: a circle nested in a ring, with a small dot atop the ring. Silver-toned, not stark against the skin but obvious—like a patch of diseased flesh.
"A Sage Mode pattern?" he wondered.
As the question crossed his mind the pattern looked oddly familiar. He racked his memory.
It resembled the battle crest of Hell's Martial God Yuan Hai—had he cultivated himself into a magnetic lunatic?
Impossible, absolutely impossible—Hell, this is the Ninja World!
He quickly spotted the difference: the Hell Martial God's crest was a single larger blue circle.
Good news: no need to become a lunatic.
Even better news: the design matched a certain naked guy's symbol.
Jonathan Osterman, a.k.a. Doctor Manhattan, a.k.a. Big Blue—he drew this hydrogen atom emblem on his forehead.
So instead of a magnetic madman, had he turned into a quantum god?
That would be omnipotent—awesome.
Sadly, impossible; Higashino Shin is still utterly Mortal, and he's already noticed the differences.
Doctor Manhattan's emblem was larger overall, yet the circle representing the nucleus in the center was smaller, while Higashino Shin's version was smaller overall, with a noticeably larger center circle.
Rather than the hydrogen atom symbol, it looked more like a moon orbiting a planet.
Or a planet circling the sun, if you prefer.
That made perfect sense—Natural Energy stood for this world, even this star system or the whole Universe.
Luckily the mark only showed on a small patch of his forehead, not like the sage mode face markings of the three great Holy Lands that left you looking ready for the opera stage.
He wondered whether it would fade once he stopped absorbing Natural Energy.
Even if it stayed, it was just a tattoo; plenty of Ninja liked to mess up their faces anyway.
Rin Nohara stuck two square grease-paint patches on her cheeks, every Inuzuka painted fangs, and Kankuro made his face a horror show.
So what if Higashino Shin added a tattoo?
Then it hit him—Konoha already had a similar Immortal pattern: the one on Senju Hashirama's forehead.
The difference was that Shin's mark was smaller than the First Hokage's, its inner circle larger, the outer ring thinner, and dotted with an extra circle.
Best of all, there were no eye markings; eye-liner just wasn't his style.
The problem was that almost no ordinary person had ever seen Hashirama in Sage Mode—it was classified.
How would he explain the resemblance on his forehead?
Explain nothing—he was an Immortal; who would dare demand answers?
Next morning Higashino Shin stood before the bathroom mirror, staring at his smooth, pale forehead, oddly disappointed.
Fear being branded a delinquent when you have the tattoo, then miss it when it's gone—how perverse.
Clearly his Natural Energy cultivation still had a way to go. If absorbing the energy was Stage One, then manifesting the Immortal pattern was Stage Two: preliminary Sage Mode.
Once the pattern stabilized and never faded, he would reach Stage Three—permanent Sage Mode.
The moment he had a new training goal, his mood lifted and he cheerfully headed out for daily practice.
---
Apart from Yin and Yang, the five elemental Chakra properties spawn countless techniques—what are they meant to do?
They imitate, mimicking the outward phenomena of nature; once mastered, they become the Ninja's Ninjutsu.
Training focuses on shape transformation and nature transformation.
Shape is simpler; being able to form the Rasengan meant Higashino Shin's Chakra control had reached superb levels.
After all, canon calls it the pinnacle of shape change: a simple sphere hiding a complex core of countless high-speed, high-density Chakra filaments spinning around a center.
nature transformation is far harder. First you must grasp a property's outward phenomenon, then push your Chakra in that direction.
In the practice field Shin formed the seals and cast Wind Release: Great Breakthrough; a gale roared forward, rattling the trees.
It's only a basic C-rank Wind Ninjutsu—Rank denotes learning difficulty, not power, which depends purely on Chakra volume.
An average Genin might topple a wooden hut, but pour all of Hashirama's Chakra in and he could blow Konoha clean off the map.
The jutsu merely uses the simplest Wind nature: rapid airflow.
Are there other Wind traits?
Of course—pressure, or cutting edges formed by ultra-dense Wind Chakra rubbing at high speed.
With enough imagination you could invent more, but life is short; Shin stuck to the most practical ones.
His innate affinities were Wind, Earth, and Water.
Earth natures? Plenty—inclusion, weight, gravity, decomposition, and more.
Water natures? flexibility, high-speed cutting, impact, and so on.
Too many for one lifetime; no wonder Snake Uncle chased eternal life.
He wanted to learn every jutsu in the world; a mere human span wouldn't suffice.
Shin's goal differed, so mastering a few useful natures would do.
The rest could wait until he had time.
With that, he cast Great Breakthrough again—this time downward; the blast rebounded off the ground and hurled his small body sky-high.
Floating there, he quietly felt the flow of Wind Chakra, deepening his grasp of its nature.
Moments later he produced several Clones, each pressing a leaf between their palms, trying to slice it in half with Chakra to sense the cutting property.
Lost in cultivation, utterly absorbed.