Chapter 19: Shikkotsu Forest
On the back mountain of the Tenbin clan, Masahiko was leading Hashirama, searching for something.
"Found it! The natural energy is most abundant in this spot!" Masahiko shouted. "Rasengan!"
Masahiko formed a Rasengan and slammed it into the mountainside, revealing a deep, dark cave.
The two exchanged a glance and walked into the cavern.
After advancing about fifty or sixty meters, the view suddenly opened up, revealing a massive underground palace.
Five colossal gates stood in the palace, their intricate patterns giving off an aura of death.
"This... is this Rashomon?" Masahiko muttered to himself. Sure enough, as the two searched the palace, they found a contract scroll in a corner.
"Great-Uncle, you should sign the contract," Hashirama said. He figured his Wood Release was good enough, and he didn't need this kind of defensive jutsu.
"Hashirama, look closer," Masahiko refused. "This isn't your average defensive jutsu. Feel the strength of these gates. We'd probably only be able to summon shadows of them. I doubt I could even summon all five. It's much more practical for you to be the one to sign."
Hashirama observed them closely and, hearing this, did not refuse again. He signed his name on the contract scroll.
A familiar line of text flashed in Masahiko's eyes: "Witnessed and participated in a Naruto world Side Story: The Five-Layered Rashomon. Received 2 Witness Points."
Despite this gain, Masahiko wasn't satisfied. This wasn't the destination he was looking for.
"We've searched the entire palace, Great-Uncle. There's nothing else here. We should..." Hashirama began.
"No. There's one more place we haven't looked," Masahiko interrupted. He fully released his sensory abilities and, just as he thought, he felt something strange about the central gate.
"Hashirama, use your summoning jutsu to move that middle gate."
Hashirama was confused for a second, but he gathered a large amount of his chakra and, with great effort, managed to move the physical gate a short distance.
'I didn't expect the physical Rashomon to be so hard to summon. I bet even a peak-form Hashirama would have trouble using all five of the real gates at once...' Masahiko thought, but he was immediately drawn to the passageway revealed behind the gate.
"There really is another world down here. Let's go, Hashirama," Masahiko said.
Hashirama nodded and took the lead. The tunnel was unremarkable, but it was several hundred meters long. When the two of them emerged, it was as if they had entered a different world.
"Such... dense natural energy," Masahiko took a deep breath and muttered, "If I'm not mistaken, this place... must be Shikkotsu Forest."
Shikkotsu Forest, along with Mount Myoboku and Ryuchi Cave, were known as the Three Great Sage Regions. Of Konoha's "Legendary Sannin," Jiraiya trained at Mount Myoboku under the Great Toad Sage; Orochimaru (and later, Kabuto) trained at Ryuchi Cave under the White Snake Sage; and Tsunade trained at Shikkotsu Forest.
In Masahiko's past life, the series had never explicitly stated who trained at Shikkotsu Forest. But, based on the available information, it was highly likely that the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, had learned his Sage Mode here. The healing abilities of the slugs were very similar to the Senju's "Sage Body," and Tsunade (his granddaughter) summoned slugs from here. Plus, Hashirama's Sage Mode transformation looked completely different from those of Mount Myoboku and Ryuchi Cave. The probability was high.
"So you really did learn Sage Mode here, Hashirama... I wonder if I'll get the chance to learn it," Masahiko mused, but he felt he was forgetting something.
The legendary Shikkotsu Forest wasn't some paradise of flowers and birds. Instead, it was damp, cold, and muddy everywhere.
"Well, it is a place where slugs live," Masahiko muttered. He looked up and found a gigantic slug staring at them.
Masahiko's face froze. 'Slugs... can't read minds, right...?'
But he was clearly overthinking it. The Slug Sage gave him a casual glance and then ignored him, focusing intently on Hashirama. She spoke.
"Ashura! What are you doing in my Shikkotsu Forest?"
Hashirama looked around, confused, thinking she must be talking to someone else.
"Are you... talking to me? My name is Senju Hashirama..." He couldn't find a third person, but he could tell from the Slug Sage's gaze that she was, in fact, talking to him.
"Whoa! What a giant slug! And it can talk!" Hashirama finally reacted. Masahiko felt two lines of sweat roll down his face; he was embarrassed for the Slug Sage.
"I see..." the Slug Sage muttered to herself. "That's right. Hundreds of years have passed. Ashura should be long gone... But that personality, and this chakra... a reincarnation?"
"In that case, outsiders, what is your purpose in coming to Shikkotsu Forest?" the Slug Sage asked.
"Where is this place?" Masahiko asked, even though he already knew.
"This is Shikkotsu Forest, one of the three legendary Sage Regions. I am the Slug Sage," she explained slowly.
"A Sage?! Then... can you teach us legendary 'sage jutsu'?" Hashirama's eyes lit up with excitement.
"Sage Mode?" The Slug Sage thought for a moment. "Teaching you is no problem. You two are the only visitors we've had in hundreds of years. But as for him..." The Slug Sage looked closely at Masahiko and shook her head slightly.
Masahiko's heart sank. "Why can't you teach me?"
"It's not that I won't. You can learn alongside Hashirama. But you do not possess Yang-attribute chakra," the Slug Sage explained. "It will be nearly impossible for you to learn Sage Mode, and even if you do, it will be very difficult to use."
"That's fine! I'll learn it, too!" Masahiko replied. He thought of the future Toad Sage, Jiraiya. If he could just master it to that level, he'd be satisfied.
'As for Yang-attribute chakra... I'll find a way, sooner or later,' he thought.
"Very well, then. I will teach you both Sage Mode," the Slug Sage said.
"The chakra in your body is a mix of your spiritual and physical energy. Sage Mode is created by adding natural energy to that foundation, blending all three energies together perfectly. The first step is to sense the natural energy..."
As the Slug Sage explained, Masahiko gradually came to understand the training process.
Just then, a familiar line of text flashed in his mind: "Witnessed and slightly changed a major event in the Naruto world: Hashirama's Acquisition of Sage Mode. Received 20 Witness Points."
Slightly changed? How?
Masahiko thought for a long time before it hit him. Hashirama was getting Sage Mode way too early...
"Madara won't even get his Eternal Mangekyo for at least another ten years... Doesn't this mean Hashirama can just hang Madara up and beat him?!"
Crap! Is he going to found Konoha early because of this?
Online, waiting for an answer. It's urgent...