Naruto: Boruto Returns to Shippuden

Chapter 161 Natural Energy

After Sasuke successfully withstood the injection of the White Snake Sage's fangs, he transformed the power of the cursed seal within his body into the natural energy of Ryuchi Cave.

Meanwhile, at this very moment, Orochimaru, far away in his secret base, was intently studying the two Akatsuki member samples brought by Boruto when suddenly, he felt a strong sense of disorientation deep within his soul. The impact was so great that his movements paused briefly.

Immediately afterwards, Orochimaru realized that part of his soul hidden in the cursed seal within Sasuke's body had been devoured by some kind of power, but he did not show any surprise. Instead, he smiled faintly and continued his research.

The cursed seal Orochimaru injected into Sasuke's body is called the Heavenly Cursed Seal. Within the Heavenly Cursed Seal lies a small portion of Orochimaru's soul, which allows Orochimaru to strengthen his control over the injected person's cursed seal through this portion of his soul, and to use the soul to revive himself when necessary.

During Orochimaru's process of transplanting cursed seals into human bodies, the survival rate was generally low. Those who could not only successfully withstand but also adapt to the Heavenly Cursed Seal were extremely rare. In known cases, only Mitarashi Anko and Uchiha Sasuke successfully transplanted Orochimaru's Heavenly Cursed Seal.

Since Orochimaru learned that Sasuke and Boruto were planning to explore Ryuchi Cave together, he had already anticipated that Sasuke might be interested in learning the true Sage Mode from the White Snake Sage of Ryuchi Cave.

However, Orochimaru's attention is no longer entirely focused on Sasuke; his focus has shifted.

......

Sasuke sensed the surging natural energy within his body. Although he had not yet mastered how to mobilize this power, he could clearly feel the abundance and purity of the natural energy. It was purer and more powerful than the energy in the cursed seal that Orochimaru had planted on him.

Since Sasuke has transformed the power of the cursed seal into the natural energy of Ryuchi Cave, he no longer worries about being controlled by Orochimaru because of the cursed seal.

Moreover, once he mastered the "Sage Art: White Rage Technique" that Kabuto used on him in their previous duel, he would be able to use it to have enough power to suppress Itachi Uchiha and defeat this guy who was once out of his reach, thus avenging the blood debt of the Uchiha clan.

As Sasuke's thoughts drifted to this point, he rested his forehead on his palm, and a smile involuntarily crept onto his lips.

The White Snake Sage watched as Sasuke, who had gradually adapted to the natural energy of Ryuchi Cave and was no longer as weak as before, flicked his forked tongue, and then looked down at Princess Tanshin below the steps.

The White Snake Immortal calmly instructed Princess Tianxin, "Take that boy away and have him train."

Then, Princess Tashin slowly walked up the steps, turned her gaze to Boruto, and said calmly, "Now, let's leave him to us. We will guide him on how to master the natural energy within his body and convert it into Sage Chakra."

After hearing the White Snake Sage's words, Boruto nodded slightly and then released his arm from Sasuke's.

Tashin-hime then stepped forward and gestured to Sasuke, saying, "Then please follow me." With that, Tashin-hime walked ahead and began to lead the way for Sasuke, who followed closely behind, heading together towards the training grounds.

Boruto watched as Tashin Shinhime led Sasuke away from the Ryuchi Cave temple, their figures gradually disappearing into the distance.

At that moment, the White Snake Sage smiled and looked at Boruto with a beaming smile, and suggested, "Kid, how about it? Why don't you try out the natural energy of our Ryuchi Cave with that brat, and then practice our Ryuchi Cave's Sage Techniques to transform from a frog in a well into a dragon?"

"After you persuaded Shinya, you saw Kabuto when you came here, right? By then, he had almost mastered the Sage Mode of our Ryuchi Cave and had grown dragon horns. His strength is not to be underestimated by you."

The White Snake Sage continued, his tone revealing his satisfaction with Yakushi Kabuto's training in the Ryuchi Cave Sage Techniques.

It had been a long time since it had encountered a ninja like Kabuto Yakushi who was so compatible with the natural energy of Ryuchi Cave.

As the White Snake Sage spoke, it opened its mouth towards Boruto, revealing its sharp, slender teeth, which contained a rich amount of natural energy.

Boruto stared at the White Snake Sage's exposed fangs, firmly believing that if he simply nodded, the White Snake Sage would bite his neck without hesitation and inject the natural energy of Ryuchi Cave into his body.

However, Boruto raised his own question about the White Snake Sage's actions: "If I already have the natural energy of Mount Myōboku in my body, and then inject the natural energy of Ryūchi Cave, will it cause the two different natural energies in my body to devour each other, like what Sasuke did just now?"

Boruto already knew from his training at Mount Myōboku that practicing Sage Mode required combining the absorbed natural energy with the energy within his body and his spiritual energy to achieve a perfect 1:1:1 balance. Only in this way could he successfully condense Sage Chakra.

If another natural energy is forcibly introduced at this moment, the original balance will be broken. This requires relying on one's own stronger spiritual energy and chakra to suppress the newly added natural energy, or for the newly invading energy to devour the original natural energy in order to regain a state of balance.

After all, Boruto's conjecture is that the natural energy of Ryuchi Cave is very likely to suppress the natural energy of Mount Myoboku, or even completely devour it, because there is a natural restraint relationship between snakes and frogs.

If he truly wants to simultaneously cultivate the Sage Chakra inherited from both Ryuchi Cave and Mount Myōboku, then he must find a third natural force, outside of the two, that can balance and suppress the natural energy of Ryuchi Cave, thus forming a stable three-way balance.

Boruto doesn't want his Sage Mode chakra, which he's cultivated for so long, to be completely devoured, especially given the risks involved. Doing so would be unwise.

After hearing Boruto's question, the White Snake Master put away his fangs, pondered for a moment, and then gave a vague answer: "As for your question, I really don't know the answer."

"Because usually speaking, as long as a ninja can master the Sage Techniques of one Sage Realm, it is enough to benefit him greatly and he will not think about the Sage Techniques of another Sage Realm. Moreover, I have never heard of anyone in the ninja world who can master the Sage Techniques of two Sage Realms at the same time."

"Although this is unprecedented, it doesn't mean it will never happen again. Perhaps you are the one who can break the rules and become the only ninja to successfully master two Sage Mode chakra techniques?"

The White Snake Sage continued to patiently persuade Boruto.

"The reason why that kid was in such a state was because the energy inside him was, after all, a replica. It wasn't strong enough to counterbalance the natural energy of Ryuchi Cave, so it was swallowed up by the real natural energy."

Boruto waved his hand slightly and said to the White Snake Sage, "Let's put this issue aside for now. Maybe I'll have such thoughts in the future."

A hint of regret flashed in the white snake's eyes. It had originally hoped to see something unusual. After all, as a being that had lived for thousands of years, it had lost interest in many things. So it could only say, "Come find me again when you've figured things out. After all, you've passed the Dragon Cave trial."

Since Boruto was unwilling to try, the White Snake Sage couldn't force him any further. After all, the three great immortal realms maintained a neutral stance, and none of them wanted to stir up too much trouble.

Moreover, Ryuchi Cave has its own unique rules. Except for those cultivators who fail the trials and cannot withstand the natural energy and turn into snakes, they will be devoured by them.

Other cultivators who pass the trials are generally lenient, as long as they don't go too far. Moreover, the White Snake Sage remembers that Boruto just successfully suppressed Shinja, who was giving him a headache.

......

Boruto had achieved his goal at Ryuchi Cave, and Sasuke was now also staying there to train. So he bid farewell to everyone at Ryuchi Cave and left, embarking on a journey to a distant place. This time, he did not choose to return to Orochimaru's base.

There's no need to go over to Orochimaru's place now, because even Orochimaru, who focuses on studying the human body, can't possibly understand those two things in such a short time.

Instead, he chose to throw Flying Thunder God Shuriken in the general direction of Jiraiya and Naruto's training and teleport using the technique, wanting to confirm whether his father was now able to suppress the Nine-Tails' chakra within him.

When he left Naruto and Jiraiya to search for Orochimaru on his own, he had already placed a shuriken engraved with the Flying Thunder God mark in Jiraiya's backpack.

Now, by using that shuriken engraved with the Flying Thunder God mark, Boruto can instantly return to Jiraiya's side whenever he enters the range of Jiraiya's Flying Thunder God technique.

After using the Flying Thunder God Technique continuously for a short period of time, Boruto was able to clearly sense the special chakra emitted by the Flying Thunder God Shuriken that he had stored in Jiraiya's backpack.

Using the Flying Thunder God Technique, Boruto successfully teleported to the location of the Flying Thunder God Shuriken. Upon arriving at his destination, Boruto looked around and discovered that he was not in a hotel room, but in a mountain forest.

Clearly, Jiraiya and Naruto chose to camp here, and since it was already late when Boruto left Ryuchi Cave, it was assumed that the two of them were probably already asleep.

However, apart from Jiraiya and Naruto's backpacks scattered on the grass, there was no sign of the two of them anywhere else.

Soon after, Boruto used his sensory abilities to detect the chakra aura emanating from Naruto in the distance.

When Boruto approached, he frowned, because Naruto was tightly bound to a large tree with a thick rope.

They wondered if they had been attacked by some ninja, and even Jiraiya was nowhere to be seen. However, Naruto had no injuries and was not affected by the ropes binding him. He was still sleeping peacefully as usual.

Just as Boruto was about to go forward to untie Naruto, he noticed Jiraiya leaning against a tree, looking somewhat tense, before he could even take a few steps.

Jiraiya, who was in the tree, noticed Boruto's arrival at that moment. He reached out and waved to Boruto, signaling him to come over. When Boruto got closer, Jiraiya jumped down from the tree and pulled Boruto to squat down beside him.

Boruto, seeing Jiraiya's mysterious demeanor, was puzzled and asked, "What happened? Why is Naruto tied to a tree?"

"It's a long story..." Jiraiya told Boruto what had just happened, explaining that Naruto had suddenly started sleepwalking tonight for some reason, and while he was sound asleep and having a sweet dream, several kunai were shot at his bedding.

If I hadn't reacted quickly enough, I might already have several bloody holes in my body.

Jiraiya continued, saying that he tried various methods to wake Naruto, but Naruto just couldn't wake up from his sleepwalking state. With no other options, Jiraiya had no choice but to tie him to a tree to ensure his own safety.

After hearing Jiraiya's description, Boruto's lips twitched involuntarily. He thought to himself that this scene felt so familiar. It seemed that Naruto's old habit of sleepwalking had relapsed. He used to spend his nights in such fear.

While Boruto and Jiraiya were talking, Boruto suddenly noticed that their figures were suddenly illuminated by a strong light, and their shadows were stretched very long.

Naruto had unknowingly broken free from the ropes that Jiraiya had tied him to the tree, leaving only a mess of ropes scattered on the ground.

"Huh? What's going on? Is it dawn yet?... "

Jiraiya mumbled incoherently, then noticed that Boruto, who had been squatting beside him, had vanished. All he could hear in the air was Boruto's urgent warning: "Get out of the way!"

After hearing Boruto's words, Jiraiya paused for a moment, then turned around to look behind him, only to find that Naruto, who was fast asleep, was already standing behind him, holding a Rasengan in his hand.

The instant Jiraiya turned his head, Naruto's Rasengan was already fully formed. The shadow clones around him turned into smoke and dissipated on the spot, while Naruto's main body raised the Rasengan in his hand and slammed it down towards the spot where Jiraiya was standing.

Seeing the Rasengan that Naruto was holding so close to him, Jiraiya was taken aback and blurted out.

"......I*......"