Although Haseo had previously given Uzumaki Shikou an overly heavy mission, he was still a "great leader of Konoha"—the kind who could even be considered one of the most outstanding leaders across the entire village that year. Therefore, as compensation afterward, Haseo approved a month-long vacation for Shikou. Forget about recovery; theoretically speaking, such a long period would even be enough for someone to regenerate after losing a limb.
Yes, it was nothing more than a symbolic gesture meant to show concern, encouraging Shikou to rest well—rest so thoroughly that she wouldn't leave the hospital until she'd gained up to eighty kilograms.
During the time when Shikou was hospitalized for injury recovery, Haseo accompanied Mito Uzumaki to attend the funerals of several Uzumaki Shinobi who had sacrificed their lives earlier.
To express gratitude for their sacrifices, the Third Hokage also personally showed up at the event to offer his condolences.
Mito bounced back pretty quickly. Clearly visible was the reason—she no longer needed to spend significant effort suppressing the Nine-Tails, so her current state was far better than it had been before the Nine-Tails Plan was implemented.
After this incident, with Shikou's hospitalization, the progress on improving the Four Symbols Seal by Kagenami slowed down significantly. Since there wasn't much Haseo could do around here, he ended up having some free time again.
So he withdrew to the Shikkotsu Forest to continue studying Sage Art… Well, to put it bluntly and without sparing any of his dignity—he hadn't even reached the "studying" stage yet. At present, he was still barely at the initial phase of trying hard to adapt to natural energy.
...
Following yet another attempt at direct contact, Haseo once again regained consciousness from suffocation. He gasped heavily for air, and only after quite a while did his five senses gradually return to him.
"Lord Haseo, after multiple attempts at connecting with natural energy, your sole improvement has been that you regain awareness about thirty seconds faster compared to your first attempt."
Later on, Katsuyu summarized Haseo's 'progress report' regarding this training phase.
"Katsuyu… So… like, is that actually a big deal?" Haseo asked.
"Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like it. In terms of the entire process of learning Sage Art, this is barely a step forward—perhaps not even worth calling progress at all."
Haseo: "..."
Fine, he already expected something like this.
"Katsuyu, I think we should take it slower with this natural energy training. After all, I'm just at the beginner stage now. If it's too hard, it'll just throw me off completely.
I can start by exposing myself to small amounts of natural energy, then slowly increase the difficulty level of my training."
After thinking it over, Haseo finally spoke up with this suggestion. Because he suspected the training method currently used was tailored specifically for powerhouses like the First Hokage.
However, compared to genuine prodigies, Haseo was just a total amateur. Thus, applying methods designed for prodigies on an ordinary person would likely result in killing the poor guy during training.
Upon hearing Haseo's suggestion, Katsuyu seemed to sigh slightly before continuing, "Lord Haseo... It seems indeed that you possess no talent for Sage Art whatsoever."
"Cough… cough, cough."
Haseo needed a moment to fully grasp what Katsuyu had said. Huh, he thought, somewhat incredulous.
He rubbed his face hard with both hands. Not long ago, he had bragged about becoming invincible, yet now his own summoned beast and the cold, harsh reality had quickly slapped him back down.
What's more, this remark made Haseo wonder if Katsuyu was doing a complete character rewrite... Thinking himself weak was one thing, but having someone else bluntly label him as such—especially a summoned beast with Katsuyu's personality—stung far worse than expected.
Because Katsuyu doesn't lie; it tells the truth.
Am I really this weak? Maybe I should just find a medical ninja I like and throw myself into her arms, dying happily...
Even though Katsuyu's words caught him off guard, Haseo still believed that slow progress wasn't entirely due to his lack of talent. It must also be related to Katsuyu's training method... If Shikkotsu Forest's methods were as gradual as Mount Myoboku's toads', then Haseo had no reason not to improve.
You don't get fat overnight... Actually, let me rephrase that: You can't lose weight overnight either.
In that moment, Haseo actually found himself missing those toads from Mount Myoboku that he'd never even met... At least snow frog oil smells better than slug meat.
Seeing that Haseo still had doubts about the training approach, Katsuyu continued explaining, "Lord Haseo, whether it's ninjutsu or senjutsu, for a ninja, any technique must prove useful in battle when instantly deployed. Otherwise, no matter how powerful it may be, what good is it?
One key point must be clear: although natural energy and Sage Chakra—the chakra formed by combining it—are extremely powerful, they are also highly unstable and dangerous. So the idea of pre-storing large amounts of Sage Chakra for instant battlefield use is completely unrealistic...
Just as Lord Haseo currently uses Nine-Tails' chakra, applying the same method to senjutsu is impossible.
While senjutsu far surpasses regular ninjutsu in strength, using it effectively in combat requires rapidly gathering vast amounts of natural energy. If you take your time collecting energy, the battle might end before you finish focusing... That's why instantly concentrating massive natural energy is crucial to making senjutsu practical.
And this aspect must be emphasized right from the beginning of training.
Though Lord Haseo's current method raises the initial difficulty of learning senjutsu, it prevents future usage issues, ensuring that any senjutsu you learn will actually be usable in battle.
If you followed your suggested gradual training method... yes, entry would be faster, but your first step determines your entire path forward. Once that happens, later problems become difficult to fix.
From my experience, if a ninja cannot initially adapt to handling large amounts of natural energy, they'll struggle to absorb massive quantities all at once later on."
Katsuyu's explanation wasn't particularly difficult to grasp, per se. Someone who had adapted to the "trickle" of energy from the beginning would probably only get used to this approach. Although eventually he might accumulate massive natural energy within his body, this accumulation could only come at the expense of time.
The Sage Art practice method at Mount Myoboku was indeed much easier compared to what Haseo had been exposed to recently. Yet… he also felt it was unreasonable to force someone to stand still for five minutes before entering Sage Mode.
Convinced by Katsuyu, Haseo took a deep breath and muttered, "Great Teacher Katsuyu, you're right."
You should always aim for the best method—even if it seemed impossibly difficult.
Only when this approach proved completely unworkable would he consider settling for something less demanding.
At this point, however, overwhelmed by the vast natural energy and Katsuyu's words, Haseo had mixed up an extremely important issue—he hadn't come to learn Sage Art primarily for applying it in combat, but rather to use Sage Chakra to strengthen his physical body and seek ways to resist self-inflicted Chakra corrosion.
So regarding this main objective, would there really be much difference between entering Sage Mode five minutes earlier or five minutes later?
But by then Haseo had already said "yes," and even if he realized this later, he could only continue down this most challenging path for now.
"Very good, Lord Haseo. Then we can proceed to the next stage of training."
A Ninja might abandon anything else, but never the resolute heart or the spirit of advancement. Therefore, Haseo fell into a sea of hardship.
...
More than half a year later, Haseo finally achieved some preliminary success. Whenever his body instantaneously contacted that immense natural energy, he was now able to remain conscious.
It was only then that Haseo finally got a real sense of what Natural Energy truly was—it was vastly different from Chakra, immense, extraordinarily powerful, yet highly unstable.
Yet when it came to the entire process of learning [Sage Art], even such an achievement was barely worth mentioning. It was like someone trying to learn swimming spending over half a year just to finally dunk his head underwater.
Haseo… truly had it rough.
The struggle was real—so bad that he seriously considered digging up the First Hokage's grave.
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