Takitsuhime struggled to prop herself up, clutching her chest in pain. Weakly, she said, "You've passed the trial."
The surrounding white mist slowly dissipated, and a flight of steps several meters high materialized.
Naruto bent his knees slightly and, with a light leap, jumped onto the steps.
At the top of the steps was a wide, open platform. On the wall directly opposite Naruto was a dragon-shaped stone statue. The dragon's head faced him, holding a massive scroll in its mouth. Three large black characters on a red background were written on the scroll's surface:
Ryuchi Cave!
Directly beneath the dragon's head was a large stone bed, upon which a great white-scaled serpent met his gaze.
What surprised Naruto was that the white snake also had a thick mane of orange hair, bound by a purple silk ribbon worn like a forehead protector. In the center of the ribbon was embedded a military-green, horn-like ornament.
The most striking feature was the enormous smoking pipe clenched in the white snake's mouth.
The White Snake Sage's coiled body shifted slightly, and she spoke from her pipe-clenching mouth, "Human, your name?"
"Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto walked to the front of the stone bed, looking up at the great white-scaled serpent.
He had seen a true dragon before; these pseudo-dragons of Ryuchi Cave were an entirely different concept. Whether in terms of majesty or magnificent physique, the Divine Dragon was far more in line with his understanding of what a dragon should be.
"I will give you a chance to reconsider. It's not too late to give up on learning Sage Arts."
"The risk of petrification?" Naruto asked. His father had mentioned the risks of training in Sage Arts in the memories he'd left behind.
"Correct." The White Snake Sage nodded her serpentine head.
Normally, she wouldn't explain the risks to those who undertook the trials. Humans are inherently driven by desire, destined to slowly fall into darkness. Everyone who sought her out did so to satisfy their desires, abandoning everything else. Even if she explained the risks to such individuals, it was unlikely any of them would listen.
But this one was different. Even with Ryuchi Cave's considerable power and influence, she didn't want to offend Ashura—or rather, the one behind Ashura. Gamamaru and that fellow from the Pure Land had been scheming for so many years. If she were to ruin the game they had so painstakingly set up... She wouldn't be surprised by any outrageous actions those two might take in their fury. Her Ryuchi Cave had existed for countless years; she had no desire for it to be erased from the river of history.
"Let's begin," Naruto said. Since he dared to come here, he was naturally prepared.
The White Snake Sage's coiled body suddenly shot forward. She opened her cavernous mouth, revealing two sharp fangs.
Boom!
A sense of crisis washed over him. Naruto instinctively entered Kurama Chakra Mode, his immense chakra instantly cracking the ground beneath him.
Feeling his sudden burst of chakra, the White Snake Sage was inwardly startled. Has Ashura's chakra begun to awaken already...?
"This is a necessary step in training for Sage Arts. I need to inject natural energy into your body through my fangs so that you can sense it."
Naruto paused at her words. "Don't you have any auxiliary items, like the Toad Oil?" he asked. In his father's memories, the toads of Mount Myoboku used something called Toad Oil to gradually help one sense natural energy.
"Well... the Toad Oil isn't as efficient as my fangs," the White Snake Sage explained.
Naruto wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but he thought he detected a hint of embarrassment on her serpentine face.
"Biting is fine, just don't bite my neck. Otherwise, I can't control my instincts," Naruto said, deactivating Kurama Chakra Mode and holding out his right arm.
"..." The White Snake Sage was speechless. 'Can't control his instincts,' my tail! He clearly just doesn't trust me.
But she didn't insist. Fixing her gaze on his rolled-up sleeve and the arm beneath, she gently bit down with her two sharp fangs.
Naruto's expression flickered. In that instant, he felt as if his body were a submarine sinking to the ocean floor, and a window had suddenly burst open, allowing a massive torrent of seawater to flood into him. The moment the natural energy entered his body, it began to intertwine and merge with the chakra already within him.
"Use your will to sense and guide this energy," the White Snake Sage's voice echoed in his ear.
Following her guidance, Naruto began to use his consciousness to connect with the natural energy flooding his system. But this natural energy was like a herd of untamed wild horses; no matter how he tried to control it, it continued to rampage wildly within him.
"Guide it, don't control it." Seemingly sensing his difficulty, the White Snake Sage's voice sounded again. "The more you try to control natural energy, the more it will resist you. Nature cannot be manipulated by man."
Taking her advice, Naruto stopped trying to forcefully control the natural energy. Instead, he calmed his will, approaching it in a meditative state.
Sure enough, the natural energy no longer shied away from his consciousness. Some of it even began to entwine around his consciousness... As more and more energy twined around it, Naruto's consciousness became like a 'lead horse,' guiding the vast flow of natural energy smoothly through the pathways in his body.
"Now, break down your chakra into physical and spiritual energy. Then, following the principle of three equal parts, infuse the natural energy and recombine them into senjutsu chakra," the White Snake Sage advised again, apparently noticing his progress.
Naruto split his focus. One part of his consciousness continued to guide the natural energy flowing within him, while the other began to decompose and then synthesize chakra.
Several minutes later.
A ring of faint purple pigmentation slowly appeared around his eyes.
Naruto slowly opened his eyes. A completely new world unfolded before his senses. The flowing wind, the drifting dust, and countless active streams of natural energy... Even without looking, images of these things sprang vividly into his mind.
"Your Sage Mode is perfect." Seeing that only his eyes had changed to snake pupils and the purple pigmentation had appeared around them, the White Snake Sage couldn't help but comment. "Have you practiced meditation before?"
"Yes." Naruto nodded slightly. Meditation was a habit from his previous life.
"No wonder you could guide natural energy so quickly," the White Snake Sage said with sudden understanding.
"Takitsu."
"Matriarch." Takitsuhime appeared behind her.
"Teach him how to apply natural energy," the White Snake Sage instructed.
Naruto clenched his right fist slightly and suddenly swung it to his side. A visible ripple of air appeared beside him.
Witnessing this, Takitsuhime's eyelids twitched uncontrollably.
It was just as Tagorihime had said; this guy is a prodigy, a monster. In just a few short minutes, he had already figured out how to use natural energy.
"So this is natural energy?" Naruto murmured, looking at his palm, his expression thoughtful. He retracted his earlier doubts; natural energy was indeed powerful.
Those three were weak simply because they were weak. Even with the enhancement of Sage Mode, they were still laughably feeble.
This generation's Ashura is... somewhat strange...
The White Snake Sage witnessed this, and her heart skipped a beat as well.