Konoha's Genius is a bit Ordinary?

Natsuro's recently completed mission was a commission from the Land of Rivers, not particularly challenging.

Although A-rank and S-rank missions might seem daunting, especially with the impression left by Kakashi's fight against Zabuza, such missions are often free of unnecessary burdens. For instance, if the mission intelligence during the Wave Country arc had been accurate and Kakashi hadn't needed to protect anyone, his limitations wouldn't have been so severe.

For ninjas, intelligence is of paramount importance, at least until those overpowered individuals show up. Kakashi's predicament at the time was simply being caught off guard.

For Natsuro, the mission in the Land of Rivers was not critical. He completed it with ease.

What truly mattered was that during his time there, he sensed a massive source of natural energy!

At the time, because he had to complete his mission and report back, Natsuro couldn't stay and investigate. Now, with the mission done and a potentially long vacation granted by Tsunade, it was time to look into it.

Natural energy was of great importance to him. The progress of his body's transformation was painfully slow and getting slower.

At this rate, he doubted he could complete his transformation before the arrival of the Ōtsutsuki clan.

He understood the reason behind the sluggish progress, it was due to the low concentration of natural energy in this world.

If the natural energy density were higher, the process would still be slow but not to this extent.

Natsuro felt somewhat out of place in this era. If he had been born before the arrival of the God Tree, this wouldn't have been an issue. Unfortunately...

In this current world, most natural energy had been sucked up by that damned God Tree, leaving only scattered remnants, which were far from sufficient!

Thus, the massive natural energy source he sensed in the Land of Rivers was of significant interest.

Perhaps Naruto's Sage Mode being limited to five minutes and requiring a lengthy time to absorb natural energy also stemmed from this scarcity?

This thought crossed his mind but was quickly dismissed—it was unverifiable.

With that, Natsuro disappeared from his spot. He had, of course, left a Flying Thunder God mark in the Land of Rivers during his mission.

....

In a coastal area of the Land of Rivers, he reappeared.

Using his Flying Thunder God, he returned to the country and followed the energy trail to this location. As the natural energy became increasingly distinct, a smile appeared on his face.

He hadn't been mistaken—the energy was indeed massive. While he didn't know how the natural energy here was preserved, there was no need to understand it. It was simply good news for him.

With this in mind, he continued in the direction of the energy he sensed.

Soon, he stopped in front of a dead end. The patterns on the stone door indicated the presence of a mechanism.

As expected, the preservation of such natural energy had a specific reason.

As for how to unlock the mechanism? Natsuro wasn't interested in following conventional methods or finding someone who knew how to solve it.

Without hesitation, he drew his 'Ink' Sword. Breaking it open was faster. He doubted any mechanism could stop him at this point.

With a swift slash, the 'Ink' Sword, now sharper than ever, sliced through the stone as effortlessly as cutting tofu.

In no time, Natsuro made his way through the mechanism and entered the space beyond.

What he saw inside surprised him.

The underground space was far larger than he had anticipated. It appeared to be a ruin, and the bottom was so deep it was invisible.

Searching his memory for any mention of such a ruin in the original story, Natsuro came up blank.

Could this be an area never introduced in the original plot?

Frowning, Natsuro considered the ruin's scale. Either he had completely missed it in the story, or it genuinely hadn't been featured.

Ultimately, he decided it didn't matter. What mattered most now was the natural energy.

Following the energy trail, he advanced further. He completely ignored the various mechanisms.

Blocking objects were destroyed, and floating platforms over gaps were bypassed with magnetic levitation. He brute-forced his way through everything.

Finally, Natsuro arrived in what appeared to be a large hall. The natural energy he had been sensing was above this hall.

Having found the source, he was in no rush. He began examining his surroundings. There seemed to be a seal in place.

Additionally, he noticed an island-like structure etched with complex patterns resembling a magic array. Natsuro frowned.

He couldn't decipher what these patterns represented—they didn't look like traditional sealing techniques.

Looking at the enormous natural energy above and the ancient ruins, Natsuro formed a hypothesis:

This site was likely from a time before the existence of ninjas. The patterns were not related to ninjutsu but rather an ancient ability akin to sealing techniques.

Regardless, this was a significant discovery. Perhaps once his transformation was complete, he could uncover the secrets here—and even make use of them.

Summoning paper and ink, he quickly recorded the patterns in detail.

He also discovered a switch that seemed to control access to the natural energy. However, the switch appeared incomplete and unusable.

Other than that, there were no traps or additional mechanisms.

Natsuro wasn't going to waste time searching for the missing piece. With so little information about this ruin, careful experimentation was the only option.

The natural energy was too valuable to risk destroying the seal with brute force. If it were lost, he would be devastated.

He soon realized that since the seal predated the ninja system, it likely wouldn't be resistant to ninjutsu.

Deciding to test this theory, he began forming hand seals slowly and clumsily—it was evident he wasn't familiar with the jutsu.

It was a Doton (Earth Release) technique, which Natsuro had rarely practiced due to lacking the earth affinity. For him, training such jutsu was a waste of time.

Despite his lack of proficiency, he succeeded in using the technique.

His body merged with the ground, and he awkwardly "swam" toward the natural energy.

As expected, there was no resistance. he successfully reached the source of the energy.

When he arrived, his eyes widened in shock. Before him was a shimmering green lake—yes, a lake!

The natural energy he had been searching for was so concentrated it had formed into a liquid state.

Realizing this, he understood: these weren't just natural energy pools—they were part of a natural energy vein!

This explained everything. The God Tree had drained the ambient natural energy in the air but hadn't absorbed the energy contained in mineral veins.

Or perhaps it simply hadn't gotten around to it before Kaguya consumed the chakra fruit…

Thus, these veins had been preserved.

These reasons were unimportant. What truly mattered was that he now knew he had a reliable source of the natural energy needed for his body's transformation!

Looking at the rich concentration of natural energy before him, Natsuro's eyes gleamed with excitement. This might just be enough to complete his body's transformation.

With that thought in mind, he sat down by the lakeside, closed his eyes, and entered a meditative state. Soon, streams of glowing green energy began emanating from the emerald lake, flowing steadily toward him.

In an instant, he felt a long-lost sensation of tingling and soreness coursing through his body—the feeling of rapid transformation!

The last time he had experienced this was during the initial phase of his transformation. Since then, the natural energy he absorbed during training had been too sparse to produce any significant effect, so he hadn't felt this sensation again—until now.

Unexpectedly, he now felt the tingling and, along with it, a soothing pleasure. It was incredibly refreshing!

He didn't know how much time had passed before he finally opened his eyes. This single session had accomplished what would have taken him several days of training in the past, leaving him exhilarated.

Moreover, he noticed that the lake's natural energy had hardly diminished. His eyes burned with excitement—this was an unprecedented opportunity!

For now, though, it was time to stop.

He could sense that his body had reached its current limit. Overloading the transformation process wouldn't be wise. In the past, he hadn't encountered this issue simply because the natural energy he absorbed had been too insignificant.

This made it clear that even with access to this lake, completing his transformation would not happen overnight.

Additionally, Natsuro had a growing suspicion that his transformation process might not be entirely normal.

A typical body transformation likely wouldn't require this much natural energy. He resolved to investigate this anomaly once his transformation was complete.

What he didn't realize was that during this training session, the mark that had only appeared on his soul had started to faintly manifest on his forehead.

Standing up, Natsuro drove a Flying Thunder God kunai into the ground beside the lake.

After some thought, he also laid down a few sealing techniques across the ruins. While they weren't particularly powerful, they would alert him if someone intruded.

After all, if someone tampered with the natural energy while he was away, it would be disastrous. Right now, his hopes of progressing depended entirely on this natural energy!

Satisfied with his preparations, he returned to Konoha.

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Currently on Chapter 227 - The Results of the Investigation on Danzo