Chapter 5: Departure

The first time Aoba sensed natural energy, his transmigration journey nearly came to an end.

For some reason, natural energy in this world was extremely unfriendly to humans. Ninety-nine percent of people who came into contact with it would turn into stone statues.

Aoba was originally part of that ninety-nine percent. However, whether it was due to his mental strength or his soul's power, he had some resistance to the erosion of natural energy.

This resistance was quite weak, but the amount of natural energy he initially encountered was also very limited.

At that time, his entire body was paralyzed, but he did not turn completely to stone. After struggling for a day, he eventually returned to normal.

This experience left him deeply shaken. For a long time, he dared not casually engage with natural energy. But he was ultimately unwilling to give up.

After a long period of training, although he had not found a method for training mental strength and the soul, his manipulation of the existing mental strength had reached a highly precise level.

Reluctant to give up, he prepared thoroughly and took the initiative to try contacting natural energy once more.

As expected, his body once again stiffened. After a day, he returned to normal.

The situation was still dangerous, but Aoba was overjoyed because the ability to repeat the process meant his hypothesis was correct.

He did not have the training methods for Sage Mode, nor the summoning contracts with the Three Great Sage Lands. Therefore, he had to find another way to achieve Sage Mode.

Every once in a while, he would actively absorb natural energy and then wait for his body to recover before repeating the process.

Time and again, he aimed to gradually adapt his body to natural energy through this repetitive process, eventually allowing him to absorb and utilize this power.

It was a real, tedious method, but for Aoba, it was a chance to participate in the main storyline of the world.

After all, this world was extremely dangerous. Even with the backup left by the Sage of Six Paths, the whole plan was akin to walking a tightrope. Most crucially, countless cannon fodder had perished during the salvation of the world by the two saviors.

He neither liked being cannon fodder nor having his fate controlled by others. Hence, he pursued the slow and painful training method described above.

At this point, it had been three years since Aoba began using this training method.

In three years, he had managed to absorb a significant portion of natural energy into his body, and his body no longer turned to stone.

However, he still could not avoid all effects.

After absorbing natural energy, he still experienced some numbness in his body.

Ninjas are high-agility assassins, and this numbness could be fatal in combat.

So far, he had not completed his own Sage Mode.

However, according to Aoba's calculations, it would be soon. At this pace, in about six months, he would be able to complete his Sage Mode training.

By then, he would have an additional trump card to stand firm in this world.

After the natural energy had circulated through his body and he began to feel slight numbness, Aoba immediately ceased his training.

In fact, his training could be faster. This world was just too dangerous. Even though it was Konoha, it seemed to Aoba that it was even more dangerous than the outside.

Thus, he never dared to let go of his training. He could only carefully control the pace to ensure he always maintained a certain level of combat readiness.

After finishing his training for the day, Aoba finally lay down to rest.

....

The next day, Aoba went to the ramen shop of the 'Otsutsuki' family (A/N: Ongoing theory/joke that Teuchi was a Otsutsuki member haha) and had a bowl of deluxe ramen. Then he headed towards the outskirts of the village where he had promised to meet Naruto.

Although it was called the outskirts, it was still within the barrier of Konoha. After all, the village couldn't let Naruto truly run away. Strictly speaking, this was just an area on the outskirts of the urban district.

After another half-day of training, the two of them ate grilled fish and talked.

"Big brother Aoba, this is my secret base. I come here to train secretly after school every day. When I get stronger, I'll definitely give that arrogant Sasuke a good beating."

At this time, Naruto was already at odds with Sasuke. After all, Naruto's crush, Sakura, was always fawning over Sasuke.

What's worse, Sasuke acted aloof. Naruto couldn't stand it anymore. However, since he couldn't beat Sasuke, he could only secretly train after school, hoping to defeat Sasuke one day.

"Has that Sasuke Uchiha bullied you?"

"Ah... not really."

"Then why do you want to beat him up?"

"Because he bullies Sakura. Sakura is so pretty, and he ignores her when she talks to him. That's really rude. Even if it's for Sakura, I must give him a good lesson."

Indeed, it was still a child's temper.

"Do you know why Sasuke doesn't like to talk to people?"

"Ah?"

The Uchiha Clan massacre was a huge event in Konoha. To be honest, most of the people in the village already knew about it. However, this topic was rarely discussed openly.

Naruto had no information sources in the village. The few people who could talk about it were Shikamaru, Choji, and the others.

And those guys were too lazy. They probably wouldn't give him a detailed explanation. So, Naruto was still confused, knowing something had happened to Sasuke's family but not the specifics.

As time went on, he would naturally find out more. But now, the incident had just happened recently, and he wasn't very clear about the details.

"It seems like something happened to his family. But no matter what happened, it shouldn't..."

"Everyone in his family died. All the Uchiha clan members are dead."

"...How could this...?" Naruto was immediately at a loss for words.

"How could this happen? Who did it? How could such a thing happen in the village?"

At this point, Aoba suddenly turned his head and looked at the forest not far away. He didn't continue answering Naruto's previous two questions but responded directly to the last one.

"This only means one thing: this village is not as safe as you think. Alright, Naruto, that's enough for today. I have a mission tomorrow, so I need to go back and prepare."

With that, Aoba didn't wait for Naruto to respond and disappeared from his sight.

"Eh... he's leaving. I wanted to thank big brother Aoba properly!"