"The first step in training for Sage Mode is to sense the existence of natural energy."
At Mount Myoboku, in front of the Toad Oil Waterfall, Fukasaku Sage held the Sage Toad Stick and drew a simple diagram on the ground. The diagram depicted a small sitting figure surrounded by a circle of wavy lines representing "natural energy."
"To achieve this step, one must reach the realm of remaining perfectly 'still.' I know this is very difficult for ordinary people, but... Little Hyuga, wait, what are you doing? What... what are all these things?"
Just as Fukasaku was about to continue his speech to encourage Hyuga Yu and advise him not to be impatient, he saw Hyuga Yu unfurl a scroll from his hands. Large objects were continuously summoned from it, setting off massive clouds of white smoke.
When the white smoke cleared, what appeared in their place were various pieces of machinery that looked incredibly expensive.
Magnetic field survey equipment, infrasound detectors, infrared thermal imagers, large computers, EEG brainwave equipment, various high-sensitivity sensors, electrocardiogram equipment... There was even a six-meter-long lab bench upon which all kinds of test tubes and experimental glassware were placed askew.
Looking at the pile of equipment summoned by Hyuga Yu, Fukasaku felt as if a lump were caught in his throat. A look of utter bewilderment washed over his face, leaving him completely unable to comprehend what Hyuga Yu intended to do.
Tennin, is he... trying to conduct an experiment, or is he cultivating Sage Mode?
Hyuga Yu looked at the pile of equipment he had plundered from Orochimaru's laboratory and nodded in satisfaction. "As expected of Orochimaru... everything he uses is high-end gear. He must have embezzled quite a lot over the years~"
Indeed, what Hyuga Yu had obtained from Orochimaru was far more than just a single dose of the Sage Transformation enzyme agent.
The Wind Style: Shinra Tensei he unleashed upon leaving Orochimaru's laboratory served on one hand to help Orochimaru destroy all the evidence that could potentially ruin him, and on the other hand, it was because Hyuga Yu had taken a liking to the various cutting-edge equipment inside that laboratory—which was specifically dedicated to researching Sage Jutsu-related Cursed Seals. He had directly uprooted everything and swept it all away.
After all, as half a scientific researcher himself, Hyuga Yu naturally understood the principle that it is better to teach a man to fish than to simply give him a fish.
At this moment, Hyuga Yu summoned the various devices from the large, specially-made storage scroll of the Foundation. He arranged them one by one according to his memory of Orochimaru's laboratory layout. Finally, looking at the electrical interfaces of the various machines, Hyuga Yu frowned slightly. He looked up at Fukasaku and asked, "Fukasaku Sage, does Mount Myoboku have electricity?"
"No... we don't."
"I figured as much." Hyuga Yu nodded calmly. Then, from a prepared scroll, he summoned a large generator and a pile of steel materials.
He raised his palm slightly, spreading his five fingers. In the next instant, the various steel pieces floated up according to Hyuga Yu's will. Under the precise application of repulsive force, they deformed, reorganized, and were squeezed inch by inch into a drum-style, ultra-gigantic... "hamster" generator.
He then manipulated the copper wires of the generator to connect with the treadmills of the drum. Following that, Hyuga Yu used repulsive force to push the drum, making it spin frantically.
Beep—Beep—Beep—
As the various instruments connected to the drum generator received power, their screens lit up one after another.
"Hmm, the wattage is a bit low, but it's barely usable." Hyuga Yu nodded and exhaled a soft breath. Then, turning his head slightly, his gaze instantly crossed a distance of ten kilometers, landing on a massive figure lounging comfortably in a mountain hollow in southern Mount Myoboku, soaking up the sun.
"Hmm, it's going to be you."
Having identified his target, Hyuga Yu turned back to face Fukasaku Sage and said to him, "Fukasaku Sage, please wait a moment. The preparations are almost complete."
With that said, the tips of Hyuga Yu's toes lightly tapped the ground, and his entire body instantly transformed into a beam of green light that soared into the sky, shooting rapidly toward the south of Mount Myoboku.
In less than three minutes, Fukasaku suddenly sensed something and abruptly looked up. He saw a black dot in mid-air growing larger and larger, and a shadow like a small mountain blanketed the sky from above!
That was actually—
Hyuga Yu was holding up the mountain-like Gamabunta, suddenly throwing him down from mid-air!
"—BOOM!"
A roar far exceeding the Food Cart Destroyer Technique erupted beside the Toad Oil Waterfall. Strangely, however, the massive dust cloud kicked up by the giant object hitting the ground was bizarrely restricted within a twenty-meter radius. A somewhat dazed Gamabunta had been sunbathing just a second ago, only to discover to his horror that he had flown into the air uncontrollably. Then, he crashed here from the sky. He raised his completely bewildered head and saw Fukasaku Sage standing in front of him, sweat pouring profusely from his forehead. "Elder Fukasaku... mis—wait, how did I get here?"
However, before Fukasaku could even reply, Gamabunta heard a calm, indifferent, yet unquestionable command: "Go, generate some electricity for me."
"Who do you think you are? You dare command me? Have you lost your mind—"
Hearing these words spoken so naturally, as if saying "go whip up a couple of dishes for me," Gamabunta was instantly flying into a rage. No one had ever dared to command him like this—not even Jiraiya or Minato Namikaze could, let alone here at Mount Myoboku, the gathering place of the Toad Clan!
He abruptly snapped his head around, looking toward the source of the voice. There, he saw a figure floating in mid-air, clad in a tight-fitting black combat suit, with waist-length black hair drifting without any wind, and a pair of eyes shimmering with a magnificent, gem-like brilliance.
Then, from the person before him, Gamabunta felt a terrifying wave of chakra fluctuations that made him shudder uncontrollably!
Most crucially, upon hearing Gamabunta's boastful words, the man's eyebrows suddenly furrowed slightly.
And with just that single frown, eighteen different ways to cook frog legs instantly flashed through Gamabunta's mind. He subconsciously swallowed his saliva, turning his head to look at Fukasaku Sage on the other side. Seeing Fukasaku frantically winking at him, Gamabunta switched his expression in a split second. He split his massive mouth open and let out a foolish chuckle like an idiot. "Elder, you... I... haha, I was just joking just now! Hello there, you must be that distinguished guest of Mount Myoboku, right?"
"Generating electricity, right? Okay, no problem!"
Hyuga Yu didn't say a single word, nor did he offer any explanation. Gamabunta immediately took the initiative to trot over with his blade into the cage of the oversized "hamster" generator, starting to run with thumping steps.
"Thud! Thud! Thud!"
Amidst the footsteps that were enough to shake the earth, the flickering screens of the various instruments on the ground stabilized one after another.
With the assistance of such an ultra-large summoned beast, the efficiency of electricity generation shot up by more than a notch. Hyuga Yu slowly floated back down to the ground. Seeing that the voltage displayed on the screens had gradually reached his requirements, he finally nodded in satisfaction.
Next, he looked at Fukasaku Sage and nodded to him, gesturing for him to continue his explanation. Meanwhile, Hyuga Yu observed the parameters displayed on each machine, manually attaching the sensors for the EEG, ECG, and magnetic field detection equipment onto his own body.
Fukasaku Sage looked at Hyuga Yu, his mouth twitching slightly. Amidst the thundering footsteps of Toad Gamabunta and the buzzing roar of the generator units, he shouted at Hyuga Yu at the top of his lungs in a posture that was practically screaming: "In short! If you don't use the Toad Oil, to sense natural energy, you must reach a state where man and nature blend seamlessly! You have to make your mind as calm as a windless lake!"
"But, Little Hyuga!"
"Isn't it a bit too noisy over here?! In this kind of environment, can you really pull it off?"
"What did you say?"
Because the noise was too loud, Hyuga Yu failed to hear clearly what Fukasaku was saying. However, he had already figured out the basic principles; it was nothing more than skipping the Toad Oil step and proceeding with the kind of Sage Mode training Naruto underwent.
He simply sat cross-legged in the center of the open-air laboratory and closed his eyes, letting his mind quiet down just like any other ordinary moment.
Around his eyes, veins bulged out violently. The embryonic form of the Tenseigan beneath his closed eyelids looked down upon his own cross-legged body from a God's-eye perspective, as well as the parameters displayed on the screens of the various instruments connected to him. It was as if another version of himself were standing overhead, with seven different screens cutting in simultaneously, coldly scrutinizing the fluctuations of every single data point and Hyuga Yu's own condition with a level of calm that bordered on apathy.
Under these circumstances, Hyuga Yu quickly discovered that the parameters measured by the various instruments at Mount Myoboku were slightly different from those measured in Konoha on the other side of the ninja world. For instance, in Mount Myoboku where there was little human activity, the measured magnetic field strength was far lower than in Konoha, but the electromagnetic resonance phenomena that appeared were equivalent. In other words, Mount Myoboku was indeed located within the ninja world.
Beyond that, Hyuga Yu began to record data such as the Schumann resonance coupling, geomagnetic vector stability, micro-airflow sensing, and thermal radiation symmetry under the current environment.
At the same time, he recorded his own EEG synchronization, neural efficiency, autonomic nervous balance, metabolism, energy consumption, and muscle stillness during quiet sitting, combining them with the environmental data to serve as the first baseline sample.
Once the recording of these data points was complete, Hyuga Yu stood up, found Fukasaku Sage, and requested that the Sage enter the so-called "still state" capable of sensing natural energy. He connected all the instruments to Fukasaku Sage to measure a sample of the ideal state.
Fukasaku Sage couldn't comprehend Hyuga Yu's operations, but he was profoundly shocked. However, since it was merely a request to look at the data of the "still state," there was naturally no reason for Fukasaku Sage to refuse.
He immediately sat cross-legged. After Hyuga Yu connected a bunch of instruments to him, he closed his eyes and sat quietly, entering the "still" state and absorbing natural energy.
Very quickly, Hyuga Yu measured the data from Fukasaku Sage, comparing the data from his ordinary sitting state to his "still" state. He soon discovered anomalies. For example, in the ordinary sitting state, the Schumann resonance coupling data of Fukasaku Sage's surroundings was completely drowned out by the electromagnetic noise caused by the generator and Gamabunta's running, making it impossible to measure a specific value. However, once Fukasaku Sage entered the "still" state, the magnetic field around his body shifted, and the noise was isolated by something invisible. The displaying instruments actually measured a visible, concrete value—specifically, in the spectrums of the EEG and HRV, a weak phase-locking or energy peak phenomenon appeared at 7.83Hz.
Similarly, in this state, the standard deviation of the geomagnetic vector stability was <0.1°, and the intensity reading stabilized to three decimal places. In contrast to the data from Hyuga Yu's ordinary sitting state, this directional vector would continuously fluctuate up to plus or minus 5° due to slight body swaying. In short, the comparison revealed that the fluctuations in every single data point measured by Hyuga Yu between ordinary sitting and the "still" state were exceptionally pronounced.
In the still state, Fukasaku's EEG synchronization, neural efficiency, autonomic nervous balance, metabolism, and energy consumption data almost reached or surpassed the absolute limits of his frog body.
This immediately gave Hyuga Yu a direction, letting him know which areas required fine-tuning.
Quickly, Hyuga Yu connected himself back to the instruments and sat cross-legged once more. Scrutinizing his own sitting body below from his God's-eye perspective, he began to targetedly fine-tune his various bodily functions using the Wind Style: Chakra Scalpel.
Under this artificial interference, Hyuga Yu quickly transitioned from a state of mind that was madly "calm" into another layer—namely, a state of near-frenzied "tranquility."
Through the Wind Style: Chakra Scalpel and meridian reconstruction techniques, he fine-tuned his prefrontal-occipital lobes, allowing him to more clearly perceive the changes in the intracranial alpha frequency band.
He optimized the neural efficiency within his brain and throughout his body, excised the redundant elements within his body's metabolic system, and used his terrifyingly precise chakra control to make his chakra actively intervene in the electrical amplitude of his surface muscles, reducing it from 2–5μV to <0.5μV, approaching the baseline noise level of the instruments...
Consequently, in this state, the different regions of Hyuga Yu's brain began to sing in unison like a choir. His brain activity became extremely orderly and energy-efficient, entering an ultra-low power consumption mode akin to a supercomputer solving a specific problem.
The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems were evenly matched. His body's oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide emissions dropped significantly, and his skeletal muscles entered a state of complete relaxation. Under his active intervention, Hyuga Yu's body quickly reached a state that only top athletes and meditators could attain—a state of entering light hibernation or deep relaxation while remaining fully conscious.
Right at that moment, Hyuga Yu keenly perceived that in this state, his chakra underwent a significant change. Some chakra—no, it wasn't chakra, but rather the more fundamental physical energy and spiritual energy—began to overflow from his body's surface and cerebral cortex. The overflow of these energies further disturbed the surrounding environment.
The environment, magnetic field, and even the wind direction and temperature around Hyuga Yu began to undergo some unseen, mystical transformation. Among these, the most prominent characteristic was—
The thundering of the generator and the massive noise exceeding 80 decibels generated by the mountain-like Gamabunta running began to gradually fade. Slowly, the sounds grew smaller and smaller, until Hyuga Yu began to hear the beating of his own heart and the sound of blood flowing through his vessels.
This sound, which normally should not be heard, grew louder and louder in Hyuga Yu's ears, pulsing fiercely as if a great river of life were surging, roaring, and crashing in highly rhythmic waves inside his body.
As this abnormal phenomenon persisted, right at the very instant the sound belonging to his own body reached its absolute peak in Hyuga Yu's ears—
It was as if a massive bronze bell had been struck right beside him!
"—BOOM!"
Fukasaku's suddenly anxious shouts, the sizzling electrical noise of the generator suddenly grinding to a halt, and Gamabunta stopping his generation out of sheer exhaustion, panting like a bull with his chest whistling like a bellows—all of these sounds were completely shut out!
Hyuga Yu could no longer hear any external sounds whatsoever!
At this moment, sitting cross-legged in the center of the vast array of instruments with his body connected to various lines, Hyuga Yu snapped his eyes open!
In the center of his pupils, the pattern resembling a white sun became increasingly clear and visible!
A faint golden, blurred mark manifested in the center of his forehead, and a light platinum eyeshadow appeared around the edges of his eyes.
And in the eyes of Hyuga Yu under such a state, a peculiar thing that he had never been able to see before, no matter what, quietly emerged into view.
————
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