Time passed in the blink of an eye—more than ten days had gone by.
On Kirigakure's side, it indeed seemed that they no longer wanted to continue fighting Konohagakure. There was little movement from them; instead, they devoted themselves wholeheartedly to clashing with Sunagakure.
On Konohagakure's side, forces on the eastern front began withdrawing in batches.
Because the squad led by Gekkō Kumomi, a jōnin, included an advanced sensory-type shinobi, they were arranged to withdraw last.
In their daily routine, they mainly carried out patrol missions, roaming along the coastline, responsible for keeping a close watch on the direction of the Land of Water to prevent Kirigakure from making a comeback.
Watching others return home one after another in high spirits, Makoto could not understand it. Everyone was doing work for Konohagakure—so why was it always that the more capable someone was, the greater the grievances they had to bear? Konohagakure had so many sensory-type shinobi; why did they always keep singling out one child like him?
Fortunately, the missions were light. They only needed to make a round along the coastal areas between the Land of Waves and the Land of Whirlpools at intervals. At other times, he could train quietly.
On this day, the squad had no mission. Kumomi went to visit other jōnin to maintain relationships, while Makoto and the other two trained for the entire morning. In the afternoon, they agreed to relax a bit for themselves—going to the riverside to clear their minds and put together a small wild-game meal.
Life was not only about war and training; there was also enjoyment. The scenery of the Land of Fire was quite good—treat it as a bit of sightseeing.
Only a life that knows how to enjoy itself can truly be fulfilling.
Hayate habitually started acting like an angler. Shinobi generally carry basic survival tools on their bodies—things like fishing line and fishhooks.
Not only can these be used to find food in rivers and lakes in an emergency, they are also useful for setting traps.
As for the fishing rod, just find a stick.
Yūgao had always had no interest in fishing. By the river, she carefully distinguished some wildflowers and uniquely shaped plants she had not seen around Konohagakure before, and recorded them in the notebook she carried with her.
Makoto, meanwhile, was nowhere to be seen. After a while, when he came back, he was carrying two gray-furred wild rabbits in his hand, leading two wild boar piglets with a straw rope, and in his other hand he was also carrying a small cage woven from steel wire and tree branches, with quite a few insects confined inside.
When Hayate and Yūgao saw this, neither of them asked about it. They assumed it was simply the dinner he had gotten—only the amount was a bit too much, and those insects… were they for eating?
After Makoto came to the riverside, he sat down on the grass. Without even needing to clap his hands, he silently entered Sage Mode.
At present, he had two ways of utilizing white natural energy.
The first was to absorb it into his body; after it was filtered by his own special consciousness entity, it would merge into his cells and consciousness, becoming nourishment that strengthened him.
In theory, any ninjutsu he used was actually senjutsu.
As for the second way, it was like in the previous battle: he would temporarily absorb white natural energy, without passing it through the consciousness entity for filtering, letting it enter his meridians directly and fuse together with his own chakra, using it only to increase the power of ninjutsu.
With his current level of compatibility between his body and white natural energy, there was no need to pay excessive attention to the proportion between the two. If too much was absorbed, the consciousness entity would filter out the excess and return it to the body to be absorbed.
The only thing that required caution was that he could not absorb several other colors of natural energy; otherwise, there was a risk of rampaging or being assimilated into a non-humanoid form.
Today, he wanted to test what effect white natural energy would have on other living beings.
He grabbed an insect resembling a cicada. The little thing struggled with all its might in his hand, flapping its transparent wings forcefully, looking full of vitality.
Higashino Makoto infused a trace of white natural energy into its body. The insect's body shuddered once, and then it went still.
Any living organism in the shinobi world contains chakra—even a cicada.
Although the total amount was extremely weak, when Makoto focused his sensory perception on it, he was still able to detect it.
But now, there was no reaction at all.
The cicada was dead. It had not turned into a stone toad, had not become a monster, and had not transformed into a snake or a slug.
The other insects that followed met the same result. Once pure white natural energy entered their bodies, the insects died on the spot.
After that, he extended his sinful hand toward the rabbits and the wild boar piglets. These creatures, like humans, were placental mammals, and the amount of chakra in their bodies was not something insects could compare to.
Yet after accepting white natural energy, they only struggled two seconds longer than the insects before kicking their legs and dying where they stood, their passing far from peaceful.
By comparing the results and then recalling the sensation he felt when he first came into contact with white natural energy, it seemed that the consciousness of those animals had been broken down—or rather, annihilated.
Once consciousness was annihilated, the remaining energy became part of natural energy.
Born from nature, returning to nature; after the body left behind decayed, it too would be decomposed by nature.
He did not know what would happen if a human came into contact with it. In future missions, he could make use of some expendable targets and run experiments to find out.
...
They dug into the soil and took out the prepared charcoal. After lighting it, they set up an iron plate they had brought with them on top. Tonight's dinner was iron-plate grilled meat.
Makoto brought over the sliced meat. Half of the rabbits and wild boar piglets had been freshly slaughtered, while the other half had been killed by white natural energy; he carefully kept them separated.
Uzuki Yūgao had also gathered some wild vegetables—mushrooms, non-poisonous ones. She was no longer the little girl who once wished everyone dead.
No fish! No fish! No fish!
Important things had to be said three times—Hayate was a shameless "empty-handed" fisherman, unable to catch even a finger-length fry.
The two of them ate the freshly slaughtered meat. The slices sizzled on the oil-coated iron plate, and once seasoning was sprinkled on, the aroma rushed up.
Makoto grilled two slices of wild boar meat that had been killed by white natural energy. After it was done, he put them into his mouth to taste—and then spat them out.
There was only the taste of seasoning, none of the savory aroma of meat. The mouthfeel was hard to describe; he wanted to say it tasted like eating shit, but he had never actually eaten shit, so he could not make a proper comparison.
In short, it did not resemble food at all. It seemed that after absorbing white natural energy, the wild boar piglet's body remained, but certain substances within the flesh had been annihilated along with its consciousness.
Hayate cast him a puzzled glance and began to think it over.
After happily eating a piece of grilled wild boar meat, Yūgao asked, "Eh? Makoto, doesn't it suit your taste? I think it's really good!"
"No. There's something wrong with this meat."
"That can't be right. It tastes great to me!"
"It's the meat on my side."
"Really? I don't believe it!"
Makoto sensed the piece of meat he had just eaten. There was indeed no trace of white natural energy remaining in it, so he grilled two slices.
After the girl put one into her mouth and chewed it, she spat it out as well. "Peh, peh, peh—what is this? Isn't it all wild boar meat? How can there be such a huge difference?"
Hayate ate the other slice. After spitting it out as well, he said, "If I remember correctly, that boar was the one you killed at the very beginning, right? You didn't use a blade to let it bleed—it just died suddenly. Is that the reason?"
"Yes. It's an issue with the method used to kill them."
Yūgao did not believe it. "Even if you didn't let the blood out, it wouldn't taste this bad. Do you think I've never eaten meat with blood in it?"
After thinking for a moment, Makoto said, "It has to do with my training method."
He did not mention natural energy. It was not that he was keeping secrets; rather, they were still too young. Knowing about it might not be a good thing and could even harm the two of them.
The little girl's interest was immediately piqued. "That powerful? Can I learn it too?"
Hayate's eyes were also shining. He wanted to become as strong as his teammate as well. Yet they trained together every day, and he had never noticed anything different about Makoto.
Now it seemed it was simply that they had not known. Aside from truly being a genius, their teammate's training method also appeared to have something special about it.
Makoto pointed at the wild boar meat. "You're sure you want to learn? Didn't you see what happened to the rabbits and the boar?"
The two of them immediately wilted. They had seen the experiments as well. Whether they could learn it or not was one thing, but they definitely did not want to ascend to the afterlife on the spot.
Yūgao sighed and said, "So it's really that dangerous? Makoto-nii, are you all right? Do you feel anything wrong with your body?"
"Don't worry. I'm fine."
Judging from today's simple experiments, white natural energy was indeed a training method that belonged to him alone. Other people simply could not touch it.
As for what the consequences would be if someone did touch it, that would require further experiments in the future—but most likely, it would not end much better than the wild boar.
It was not only white natural energy. Any kind of natural energy was extremely dangerous. Living in this environment posed no problem, but rashly absorbing it into the body would certainly lead to a miserable end.
It seemed that if he wanted the people around him to train in senjutsu, he would still have to keep searching for a solution.
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