Kaede Kitahara had no idea how deeply the latest video had shaken everyone.
To him, it had been nothing more than another ordinary diary entry.
As his strength continued to grow and he gradually absorbed the System's rewards into his own abilities, Kaede could feel himself becoming noticeably calmer.
With his current power, even if Deva Path Pain attacked Konoha right now, Kaede wouldn't be completely helpless against him.
At the very least, he could take his mother, Fangko Kitahara, and escape.
At that moment, Kaede stared at the translucent wheel floating in front of him.
The wheel spun rapidly, displaying reward after reward.
"Stop!"
The moment he shouted, the pointer came to an immediate halt.
"Sage Mode: From Beginner to Master!"
A ball of light flew out from the wheel and shot directly into Kaede's mind.
Only after a long moment did Kaede finally open his eyes.
Countless details about Sage Mode had appeared in his head.
"It's not even the Sage Mode of one of the three great sage regions."
Kaede broke into a grin.
Naturally, he had coveted Sage Mode for a long time.
Before now, the only forms of Sage Mode he knew about came from the three great sage regions. Orochimaru's Cursed Seal could probably be considered an inferior version of Sage Mode as well.
However, every form of Sage Mode from the three great sage regions had the same problem.
They might never have been designed for humans in the first place.
Not only did training carry the risk of petrification, but the practitioner might also turn into a toad, a snake, or even a slug.
No matter which path someone chose, the result was some strange, inhuman transformation.
Training also required various special resources found only within the respective sage regions.
The Sage Mode method now inside Kaede's mind seemed to have stripped away all those unnecessary elements.
It was a purer form of Sage Mode.
It contained everything from sensing Natural Energy to absorbing and refining it, then combining it with Chakra to create Senjutsu Chakra.
Compared to what Kaede had watched Uzumaki Naruto endure while learning Senjutsu in the anime, this method was clearly much simpler.
Perhaps that was because Mount Myoboku's Senjutsu training system had originally been created for toads, not humans.
For a human to practice Mount Myoboku's Senjutsu, they had to go through all kinds of tedious steps.
That was probably also one of the main reasons Jiraiya needed so much preparation time before entering Sage Mode.
Kaede wouldn't need any of that.
Once he became proficient enough, he would be able to enter Sage Mode instantly.
And he wouldn't have to worry about turning into a toad or a snake.
Of course, one problem with Sage Mode still remained.
Natural Energy could overwhelm the practitioner and turn them to stone.
Even one of the Six Paths of Pain had been petrified after absorbing more Natural Energy than it could handle.
Still, with such a detailed training guide, the danger had undoubtedly been reduced to the lowest possible level.
Even Kaede could safely begin practicing.
He had just completed an S-Rank mission and been promoted to Tokubetsu Jonin, so the village had granted him an extended vacation.
A ninja at his level already possessed a considerable amount of independence.
Aside from certain missions assigned directly by the village, he no longer needed to accept many missions.
Kaede immediately sat down cross-legged.
To prevent anyone from disturbing him, he set up a barrier around the entire house.
Training Sage Mode was no joke.
A single mistake could leave him petrified.
The first step was sensing the Natural Energy that existed throughout the world.
Following the training method's instructions, Kaede remained there until dawn the next morning before he finally sensed the faint presence of Natural Energy.
That wasn't slow.
In fact, it was already remarkably fast.
Kaede had nothing to complain about.
After all, he was training inside the Hidden Leaf Village, not one of the three great sage regions where Natural Energy was abundant.
Naturally, his progress would be slower here.
"Natural Energy… Wasn't there a place called the Rainbow Ice Wall in the Land of Snow? Could that be an area rich in Natural Energy?"
Kaede suddenly remembered the mission involving Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow.
While he had been in the Land of Snow, he had sensed an unusual energy around the Rainbow Ice Wall.
At the time, he hadn't possessed any method for training Sage Mode.
He had only been able to tell that the area contained an enormous concentration of energy. He hadn't known what kind of energy it was.
Even then, he had suspected it might be some form of Natural Energy.
But that had only been a guess.
Kaede knew the Shinobi World had possessed its own cultivation systems long before Chakra appeared.
Senjutsu was one of the most prominent examples.
It was only considered prominent because more than one person in the original story had successfully learned Sage Mode.
Even so, practicing Sage Mode was vastly more difficult than following the Chakra system.
Otherwise, everyone in the Shinobi World would have trained in Sage Mode instead of embracing Chakra, a foreign energy system introduced from outside their world.
The Chakra system could produce hundreds of thousands of ninja.
Meanwhile, Sage Mode produced only one or two inheritors in each generation.
The difference was obvious.
The tradition had avoided dying out only because the masters of the three great sage regions were still alive.
Still, Sage Mode had its own undeniable advantage.
It was incredibly powerful.
The increase it provided to combat strength was beyond question.
Ordinary people had few effective ways of dealing with the Six Paths of Pain.
Against Uzumaki Naruto in Sage Mode, however, most of them went down with a single punch.
Only Deva Path Pain had proven especially troublesome.
The others had been no match for Uzumaki Naruto once he entered Sage Mode.
With that thought, Kaede immediately decided to travel to the Land of Snow and train there.
He had plenty of time.
After completing the S-Rank mission, he had been granted an entire month of leave.
At his current rank, extending that vacation would also be easy if he needed more time.
A Tokubetsu Jonin already had one foot inside the village's upper ranks and enjoyed a few minor privileges.
Kaede simply announced that he would be entering seclusion to train for a while and refused all visitors.
Then he used the Flying Thunder God.
By following the Flying Thunder God marks he had left along the route during his earlier travels, Kaede reached the Land of Snow at astonishing speed.
The Shinobi World's continent was simply too vast.
Even with Kaede's current strength, he couldn't teleport directly from the center of the continent all the way to the Land of Snow in the far north.
When Kaede suddenly appeared inside the Daimyo's residence, Kazahana Koyuki nearly jumped out of her skin.
His arrival had been so sudden that not even the snow ninja stationed outside had noticed him.
After Kazahana Koyuki ascended the throne, Yukigakure had assigned several ninja to serve as Guardian Ninja.
Their leader possessed the strength of an ordinary Jonin.
That level of power wasn't particularly impressive in the Hidden Leaf Village.
But in an impoverished and remote place like Yukigakure, he was already considered one of the village's strongest ninja.