[First Strike] was a talent that only triggered its follow-up effects after Rei Kaguya dealt damage first to an enemy possessing chakra.
If Rei was hit first before he could attack, [First Strike] would enter a rather long cooldown. If he was attacked again during that cooldown, the cooldown timer would reset. And so on.
If he successfully landed the first strike, he could deal a large amount of additional damage and obtain skill proficiency from the target. But if the enemy landed the first blow instead, the rune's effect would vanish entirely.
It was a Keystone Rune with extremely obvious strengths and weaknesses.
After Minato Namikaze successfully ambushed him, Rei Kaguya had been trying to break away from him and buy enough time for [First Strike] to reset.
Unfortunately, Minato Namikaze's speed was simply too fast. His attacks came one after another without pause, causing [First Strike]'s cooldown to be recalculated again and again.
In order to farm a rare skill from Minato, who had an entire body full of good abilities, Rei had no choice but to forcefully suppress his desire to counterattack and use his own body to take every single one of Minato Namikaze's attacks.
Fortunately, Minato's chakra reserves were not particularly monstrous.
After Rei forcibly endured more than ten minutes of attacks with the help of two special [Biscuits], Minato finally had no choice but to stop his offensive due to his dwindling chakra.
Taking advantage of that opportunity, Rei used words to stall Minato, who was hesitating over whether to leave, and successfully waited until [First Strike] finished its cooldown.
Then, using the Dead Bone Pulse's thornmail-like nature, he successfully baited Minato, who had tried to mark him with the Flying Thunder God, triggered [First Strike], and gained the chance to draw one skill proficiency from him.
"Although the damage wasn't much, it should still be enough to draw a skill seed, right? Please, please, please. Flying Thunder God. Flying Thunder God. Flying Thunder God. It has to be Flying Thunder God…"
Watching the remaining duration of [First Strike] continue to decrease on the system panel, Rei clenched his fists in excitement. His breathing grew heavy as he silently chanted the ability he desired most.
Ding.
[First Strike] ended.
[Skill obtained: Sage Mode—Mount Myoboku LV1]
[Sage Mode—Mount Myoboku LV1: By absorbing a certain amount of natural energy, you can create senjutsu chakra, strengthening your offensive and defensive abilities. You can also use natural energy to increase the attack range of taijutsu and improve sensory perception.
When Sage Mode is successfully activated, special facial markings will appear on the face, and you will gain the ability to damage certain special physiques capable of absorbing ninjutsu.
This skill can only be leveled up through self-training or by converting proficiency from other Sage Mode skills.]
[Note: Current skill level is low. At a relatively low cost, it can be converted into the Sage Mode of another sacred land.]
"Uh…"
Looking at this result, which could not be called bad yet somehow felt completely mismatched with Minato Namikaze, as if the draw had gone off-rate, Rei Kaguya did not know what expression he should make.
Sage Mode was definitely good.
It combined offense and defense, came with large-range sensory ability, and could inflict hard-to-heal damage on targets that were immune to ninjutsu. It was basically a necessary ability for fighting those late-game bosses who could absorb ninjutsu.
But it was Mount Myoboku's Sage Mode.
That was rather unfriendly to Rei Kaguya.
As everyone knew, Mount Myoboku was practically Konoha's backyard. Leaving aside the question of how a Kirigakure shinobi like him was supposed to find Mount Myoboku in the first place, even if he somehow managed to find it, would the toads there really teach him Mount Myoboku's senjutsu wholeheartedly?
Rei felt that possibility was very low.
Furthermore, going to Mount Myoboku to train also came with the risk of directly encountering Jiraiya, one of Konoha's Sannin. The chance of conflict between the two sides was not low.
But if he tried to figure out Mount Myoboku Sage Mode by himself, it would take too much time and carry great risk. Overall, continuing to train Mount Myoboku Sage Mode was not very feasible for Rei.
Then should he follow the system's suggestion and convert to the Sage Mode of another sacred land while the skill level was still low?
…
Wasn't this basically telling him outright to look for Ryuchi Cave, the only one of the three great sacred lands that did not have such a good relationship with Konoha?
In his memory, there were two people connected to Ryuchi Cave's Sage Mode.
One was Jugo, the source of Orochimaru's cursed seals.
The other was Kabuto Yakushi, who had absorbed all of Orochimaru's research results.
"Hmm. Thinking about it that way, Ryuchi Cave's Sage Mode does seem more suitable for me than Mount Myoboku's?"
Rei seriously recalled the plot related to those two.
Leaving aside Jugo, whose performance was not even as impressive as his nephew Kimimaro, several abilities Kabuto displayed after activating Ryuchi Cave's Sage Mode were actually quite suitable for Rei.
Inorganic Reincarnation was clearly very compatible with Dance of the Seedling Fern.
The ability to sense nearby chakra and living beings through natural energy could greatly make up for his weak sensory ability.
Although he could not liquefy his body to ignore the vibration of White Rage Technique, with his vitality, the side effects of enduring it head-on should still remain within a tolerable range.
More importantly, Ryuchi Cave's Sage Mode seemed to last much longer than Mount Myoboku's Sage Mode. It was closer to a permanent buff.
For Rei, whose combat style was already very endurance-oriented, that might be more practical than Mount Myoboku's burst mode.
"The only problem is that I can't remember whether growing a snake on your stomach is an irreversible change Kabuto caused through his own reckless modifications, or if it's an inevitable side effect after training Ryuchi Cave's Sage Mode… Sigh. It's been too long. I can't remember a lot of things clearly. I hope it's the former."
Rubbing the space between his brows, Rei took a deep breath and calmed the excitement in his heart after obtaining an excellent skill like Sage Mode.
Slowly, he brought his mind and body into a subtle balance. Within that balance, he began sensing the natural energy around him.
Perhaps because he lacked Mount Myoboku's toad oil as an aid, Rei's attempt to sense natural energy was not very successful.
Although he could barely perceive the special energy existing in all things, trying to absorb it into his body and combine it with his own chakra was something he could not succeed at no matter how he tried.
In fact, when Rei had the thought of increasing the intensity and forcefully absorbing a little natural energy to try creating senjutsu chakra, the natural energy that felt rather lazy in his perception suddenly showed signs of gathering in large amounts.
It was as if it wanted to form an unstoppable torrent and rush into his body all at once.
That forced Rei to give up on the idea of directly activating Sage Mode to see how much of a boost the current LV1 version could give him.
"Sigh. As expected, I still need professional guidance."
"But before searching for Ryuchi Cave, should I try to raise the stacks of [Dark Harvest] as much as possible and strengthen my soul first?
That failed attempt just now felt like it had something to do with my [Dark Harvest] stacks being too low while my [Grasp of the Undying] stacks are too high. My spirit and my massive vitality can't match each other properly yet…"
"Mm. Then while completing the optional mission to find the Uzumaki clan descendant, I'll farm [Dark Harvest] stacks in the Land of Whirlpools."
Rei Kaguya took out another windbreaker he had sealed in a scroll in advance and put it on.
Then, together with the dense mist he had created, he disappeared from the badly ravaged forest.