It was mid-October, and Naruto had just celebrated his sixth birthday.
The temperature had dropped; the night carried a faint chill.
In his sleep, Makoto suddenly felt a surge of heat rising from within his body.
At sixteen or seventeen, a young man is at the age when vitality begins to stir—curiosity and desire toward the opposite sex come naturally.
A so-called boy in his prime—what blooms within him is not fragrance, but a flood of hormones.
But Makoto was only a pseudo-youth. In his previous life, he'd had plenty of experience with women while he was young. He understood the pleasures between the sexes and could appreciate them—but there was no curiosity left in him.
Curiosity only exists before one has ever known beauty.
The heat he felt wasn't coming from his kidneys—it was coming from every cell in his body.
Makoto sat up on the bed, quietly sensing the condition of his body. He discovered that all 130 trillion cells within him seemed to be radiating heat, each undergoing some kind of transformation.
A moment later, the heat subsided. Rare for him, Makoto had broken into a full sweat, as if he had just stepped out of a sauna.
He immediately went to the bathroom and took a shower. Standing before the mirror, he suddenly noticed that the silver sage markings on his forehead had disappeared. His skin had returned to normal, with no difference in color from the surrounding area.
Makoto examined his body and felt an unprecedented sense of ease—as if invisible shackles that had long restrained him had finally been removed.
'This is… has the Constant Sage Mode already reached its limit, and natural energy training entered the fourth stage?'
That was the only explanation.
He suddenly felt a bit emotional. Ever since the night of the Nine-Tails incident, when he entered the third stage of natural energy training, a full six years had passed. Only now had he finally broken through again and stepped into the next stage.
After getting dressed, he used his mind to connect to a certain Flying Thunder God Technique mark outside the training ground. Makoto vanished from the bathroom and reappeared in a forest farther away from Konohagakure.
Soon after, his body left the ground and rapidly ascended, quickly coming to a stop high in the sky.
Looking down, although the land lay under the night, it wasn't dim. It was clearly reflected in his pupils—scattered points of light like motionless fireflies in a dark forest.
Those lights weren't from individual households, but from Konoha and the surrounding towns.
When you stand at a high place, everything you see appears small.
The high-altitude winds were fierce and cold, yet they had no effect on him.
Makoto carefully experienced the changes of the fourth stage.
First, his control over chakra had deepened further. His understanding of the various nature transformations had also become more thorough. It felt as though he had stepped into a higher dimension.
Things that had once been obstacles—when viewed from another perspective—became clearly and intuitively understandable.
It was like a two-dimensional lifeform that could never see what lay inside a circle, while from a three-dimensional perspective, everything was obvious at a glance.
Second, he felt completely in sync with his surroundings.
No matter what type of natural energy it was, he could easily absorb it into his body. But unlike before, it no longer fused with him. Instead, it underwent microscopic reactions beyond his perception.
This wasn't some vague intuition. Makoto could actually see it—after passing through his body, all natural energy turned into its original white form.
He saw it—not sensed it. His eyes seemed to have undergone a change. In his vision, natural energy was no different from any other tangible substance in the world.
And he himself had become a humanoid inverse station of natural energy, opposite in function to the God Tree of the Ōtsutsuki Clan.
Its function was similar to the tree within his training ground—but far more efficient and faster.
At this thought, Makoto spread his arms in the high sky, drawing in large amounts of heterogeneous natural energy and rapidly converting it into its original form.
The speed was fast—but compared to the total amount on the entire planet, it was still extremely slow.
Makoto quickly stopped. This conversion was an active ability, not a passive one—he could decide whether to use it or not.
Rather than working this slowly for the world, it was better to continue strengthening himself and wait for an opportunity to solve the problem once and for all.
And that opportunity would depend on how hard that "filial son" Black Zetsu worked.
After all, he had been a corporate slave in his previous life. If after reincarnating and becoming this strong he was still working like one, then what the hell was the point of being reborn?
Calming himself, Makoto began to consider what to call the fourth stage.
Based on how it felt, he simply decided to name it: Naturalization Mode.
First stage: Natural Energy Training;
Second stage: Standard Sage Mode;
Third stage: Constant Sage Mode;
Fourth stage: Naturalization Mode;
Fifth stage: ???.
Was there a next stage? Makoto felt that there was—and he was greatly looking forward to it.
With this summary, his senjutsu training system became clear and well-defined.
Unfortunately, it was only because of the special nature of his soul that he could reach the fourth stage so quickly. For others, it would likely be very difficult.
Training in his senjutsu system didn't require innate talent checks or luck like the three great sage regions—but it required a very long time to show results.
The advantage was that once training began, the enhancement to the body was permanent.
Unlike other Sage Modes, which were essentially reusable "experience cards." After use, the residual natural energy did strengthen the body—but only slightly.
...
The next day, at breakfast.
Yūgao stared fixedly at Makoto.
"Can you get full just by looking at me? Or did I get more handsome again?"
"You do look a bit better… no, that's not important. Makoto, where did the sage markings on your forehead go?"
Makoto put on a sad expression. "Ah, that… sigh, something went wrong with my body and my strength regressed. I can't maintain Constant Sage Mode anymore."
Honoka asked worriedly, "Is it serious? Are you okay?"
Yūgao looked speechless. "Don't fall for it so easily. You don't understand him at all—he's lying."
Yamato nodded. "Yeah, his old habit's acting up again."
Hayate added, "From what I know of him, if it were really like he said, he wouldn't tell us at all. Relax—he's definitely fine."
"Don't be like that, Hayate. Can't you at least pretend to care a little?"
Hayate: "Alright then. Do you need me to take you to the hospital? Oh right—I forgot, you're a medical ninja yourself."
Yūgao: "You'd better just come clean."
"Alright, the real situation is that my training has entered a new stage. The sage markings… just disappeared on their own. Pretty amazing, right?"
"It is amazing." Yūgao looked a bit depressed. "Damn it… you got stronger again. How are we supposed to keep up with you like this?"
"Yūgao… instead of thinking about that, you should think carefully about why you became a ninja in the first place. Was it a childhood dream? If so, you've already achieved it."
"Or was it to train and become stronger? Then shouldn't you be spending more time on training? So, it's about time you seriously think about the road ahead."
Yūgao: "Makoto, are you trying to get us all to retire together?"
"Not quite. I'm just giving you some advice. After all, training in my senjutsu system requires one thing above all else—long-term persistence."
Honoka: "Good thing I didn't continue being a ninja. Now I have plenty of time."
Yūgao: "Alright, I get it."
Yamato: "But Makoto, if we all do that, then who's going to handle the missions?"
"My foolish little brother… I really feel like throwing you into some ordinary factory outside Konoha to experience life. Then you'd hear what those unscrupulous bosses always say—that's your answer."
Yamato: "What do they say?"
Makoto: "If you won't do it, someone else will."
Yamato: "…"
For some reason, he suddenly felt that if Makoto ever became a boss, his employees would definitely have a miserable life.
Hayate: "Makoto, I understand what you mean. But everyone is quite satisfied with their current work, and we don't go on missions that often. We haven't relaxed our training."
"Speaking of which, I wanted to ask—about your Ice Release training method… are you sure there's nothing wrong with it? Why does it feel like I've developed something strange?"
Makoto said in surprise, "You still haven't given up on Ice Release? What do you mean by something strange?"
"I'll show you."
Hayate formed several hand seals, then mobilized chakra across his body. Soon, his entire figure began to turn transparent.
Makoto sensed it—although it was a fusion of Wind and Water, it wasn't Ice Release. Instead, it had produced a mutated effect dominated by Water Release, with Wind Release as a supplement.
Could this be… the legendary peeping god-tech—Transparent Release?
Yamato: "Why do I feel like this jutsu could easily go down a very questionable path…"
Yūgao & Honoka: "We'll need to be more careful when bathing from now on—especially at hot springs."
Makoto: "This is indeed a kind of Kekkei Genkai, but it's not Ice Release. Based on its effect, it can be called Transparent Release. Hayate, are you sure this isn't some inherited trait from the Gekkō clan?"
Hayate thought for a moment. "Our Gekkō clan isn't a bloodline clan. If it's inheritance, then it might be from my mother."
"My father once said that her ancestors seemed to have had a Kekkei Genkai. And I remember, when I was little, my mother's health was always poor… she passed away not long after."
Yūgao: "That must be it. Hayate-niisan also had poor health growing up—only after training at the dojo did it improve."
Hayate grew excited. "So, Makoto—even if it's not Ice Release, it's still a Kekkei Genkai, right? It should be pretty strong, shouldn't it? Does that mean I can infiltrate anywhere I want in the future?"
At present, Hayate already looked almost identical to how Makoto remembered him—after all, he was about to turn seventeen, nearly an adult.
However, thanks to his training and the enhancement from the natural energy within the dojo, he had basically shed that frail, sickly appearance.
To make him stay alert—and avoid getting killed in a single move again—Makoto had no choice but to pour cold water on him: "How should I put it… the effect is very interesting, but it's not particularly powerful. I wouldn't recommend treating it as a core infiltration method."
"Because this bloodline only distorts light to make you invisible—it doesn't eliminate scent, sound, or other factors. Forget sensory-type ninja—even fairly skilled ordinary ninja could detect you through subtle details. And once that happens, you'll be in danger."
Hayate: "…"
Damn it… I thought it was some god-tier ability, but it's useless against experts. Does that mean it's only good for peeping in bathhouses?
He, Gekkō Hayate, wasn't some kind of pervert!
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