Chapter 228: Shikkotsu Forest
Before they set out.
"The place we're going to is called Shikkotsu Forest. It's where the Slug Sage's main body is. It's an extremely dangerous place," Tsunade reminded them one last time.
She said with a grave expression, "Didn't you develop an Ice Style armor? Put one on me too. The kind that completely seals the body, leaving only breathing holes, and then use medical ninjutsu to filter the air... Don't be stingy with your chakra. Push the Ice Style's nature transformation to its extreme!"
Her solemn tone indicated that Tsunade was not joking.
Haruno Sakura looked at Tsunade with some surprise and said, "Is the Shikkotsu Forest we're going to really that dangerous?"
"Shikkotsu Forest is the place where my main body has lived for many years. Because my breath carries an acidic mist, after so many years of accumulation, Shikkotsu Forest has already become a place where even the air is filled with highly corrosive droplets," the slug on the side explained.
"An ordinary human will be corroded into a skeleton in just a few minutes after walking into Shikkotsu Forest. Even I can't last too long there," Tsunade said, recalling the scene from the only time she had gone to Shikkotsu Forest. The acidic liquid that seemed to be able to corrode even ninjutsu still made her heart palpitate. The woman patted her chest, causing waves of white to ripple.
She continued, "So if you don't want your pretty little face to be disfigured, then don't be careless!"
Here, under Tsunade's strict requirements, the two made ample preparations. After a careful inspection from top to bottom, they finally nodded at the slug.
Poof—
A swirl of chakra smoke rose up, and the two of them disappeared from the training ground at the same time.
It was the first time Sakura had experienced a long-distance space-time teleportation.
She was no stranger to space-time ninjutsu: the most basic Substitution Jutsu was a ninjutsu that involved space-time.
And the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals was a high-level Body Flicker jutsu that could be ranked among the many space-time ninjutsu.
Especially the latter, the Ice Body Flicker. Recently, she had used it a few times in every battle. This ninjutsu, which could cross space and instantly appear in another position on the battlefield, was of great use. After using it a few times, one would come to like this powerful Ice Style.
It was just that the space-time teleportation of the Ice Body Flicker was different from that of the Summoning Jutsu.
The teleportation process of the former was just an instant. One moment she was here, and the next, after activating the Body Flicker, she would appear on the Body Flicker medium. The teleportation process of the latter, however, could almost be called "long." It took nearly a second to complete the teleportation process—this was also the time required for the summoning formula to expand from the hand and summon the summoning beast.
For a long second, she seemed to be in a channel without light, without sound, without taste, and without shape, dark and oppressive. And then in the next moment, her vision brightened, and everything became clear.
She had appeared in a new world.
"This summoning jutsu must have moved us at least a thousand kilometers away, right?" Sakura asked, turning her head. Beside her, Tsunade's figure appeared in a puff of white smoke.
"More than that, maybe several thousand kilometers... Look, this is Shikkotsu Forest," Tsunade said, pointing at the scene before them.
After the large amount of smoke produced by the summoning jutsu had dispersed, the scenery of Shikkotsu Forest was revealed to Haruno Sakura.
"Wow...!"
The girl couldn't help but let out a cry of surprise.
In front of her was a scene so magnificent it was hard to describe...
Countless towering ancient trees, stretching as far as the eye could see, from right in front of her to the edge of her vision. It was truly a grand sight!
What was even more amazing was that the trunks of these ancient trees were not the usual deep brown of giant trees.
These thousand-foot-tall trees had strange-colored trunks, their shapes gnarled and twisted, not straight and tall, extremely bizarre, as if they had been gnawed on. From a distance at a glance, they were pale and slender, with a creepy, bone-like feeling.
However, the so-called slender, bone-like trunks were actually extremely thick. By sight, a diameter of several meters or even dozens of meters was just common, and it would take several people's arms to encircle one! If one were to walk close enough to touch them, what they would see would probably be a wooden wall.
The reason they appeared so slender was because their height was even more exaggerated than their thickness—raising her field of vision, Haruno Sakura looked up and saw that these ancient trees were so tall they reached into the clouds, right up to the sky. They were probably several hundred meters high. Their canopies were lush and verdant, forming a dense shade that blotted out the sun and sky.
"Is this the 'bone' meaning of Shikkotsu Forest?" she murmured. These ancient trees in front of her really did give one the illusion of a bone forest.
"These are the remaining trunks after I've gnawed on them," the slug answered. After returning to its main body, the clone's voice had become exceptionally thick and powerful. "This forest is my granary."
"Then what does 'shikko' (wet) refer to?" she asked again.
"Please look under your feet," the slug answered briefly. "This is a huge lake and swamp."
This forest was actually growing in the water.
The girl lowered her head, which was a little sore from looking up. Under her feet was a vast expanse of shimmering water. The pale and slender, bone-like tree trunks emerged from the boundless lake surface. The misty waves on the vast water, the shimmering lake light—it was a breathtaking sight.
"Be careful not to fall in," Tsunade said solemnly. "This is the lake where the Slug Sage lives. Because of the acidic liquid it spits out all year round, the acidity of this water is a billion times higher than that of concentrated sulfuric acid... It's the strongest superacid among all acids! If you fall in for just one second, you'll be completely gone..."
Haruno Sakura's scalp immediately went numb. She had never thought that such a terrifying killing intent was hidden in the beautiful scenery before her!
Then again, the ancient trees that could grow in this kind of acidic liquid, and the main body of the slug that had created this acidic domain, how powerful must they be! As expected, when it comes to chakra and the like, you can't describe it with common sense... They themselves are probably providers of natural energy, right?
Was the so-called savage wilderness actually such a terrifying world?
No wonder the five great nations didn't expand into the wilderness, but instead focused on internal strife, on being bullies in their own backyard...
She shook her head vigorously, shaking off the goosebumps, and only then did she remember the main point. "So where is the Slug Sage's main body?"
She looked around. There were no other living creatures.
She had thought she would see a giant sticky worm several hundred meters long.
"The place you are standing on now is my back..." the several-dozen-meter-long slug clone said, twisting its body to Sakura.
As it spoke, the "ground" under Sakura's feet suddenly shook. The Slug Sage's body, which had been hidden under the water, rose up, revealing its entire body to Sakura.
"Hello there, little Tsunade, little Sakura. Welcome to Shikkotsu Forest," the Slug Sage said, turning its head and swaying its hundred-meter-long feelers, its voice like a roaring thunder.
Haruno Sakura struggled to lift her head. Appearing before her was the Slug Sage's head, which was a full two to three hundred meters in diameter, almost blocking half the sky.
Looking up from Sakura's angle, she saw that the side of the Slug Sage that had lifted its head was completely blocked by a meat wall with no end in sight. The shadow cast by the slug on top completely enveloped her. When she looked up, she saw that the entire sky had darkened.
It just spoke softly, and the sound wave made the girl's chest feel tight, a feeling of deep gloom, as if a huge rock were pressing on her chest.
She subconsciously took two steps back, held her head, and felt a little dizzy. Her gaze followed the Slug Sage's head downwards, until its tail, which disappeared in the distance. She estimated in her heart.
It's probably three or four thousand meters long.
After estimating this result, Haruno Sakura only felt her mouth go dry. For a moment, she was speechless.
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