Omake 2: The Panda Sage Mode

Reminder: This happened in the month of the Chunin Exam

Ishizu POV

I waited for my Sage Mode teacher to arrive. Po said that it will be a surprise who will be my teacher.

"I hope I am not late, Sage apprentice Ishizu."

I turned around and met a familiar panda. It was Tau, greeting me. "You? You are my teacher?" I asked.

Tau nodded. "From now on, during the training, call me master Tau. I will teach you the Panda Sage Mode. Now, listen up.

Every Sage Mode differs from each other. The usual thing that Sage Mode does is increasing all of you Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Taijutsu. Your other senses are heightened by a certain degree. You will get a third source of chakra in your body.

You have spiritual and physical, and now you will learn to gather nature energy. The difficulty lies in that with the first two you are born with them.

The other one you have to learn to gather from nature. If you gather too little, it will be useless. Too much, and you will turn into the animal where you train. With training, one can gather more and more energy."

"So what do I have to do, master? Stay completely still?" I asked.

Tau nodded. "Yes, patience is key. First, you will do it on the ground. After that, you will see the next step. I don't want you to be overexcited. You are not a child so you will have trouble at first gathering it, but as you have a natural condition for Sage Mode, you will quickly master it later. The first hurdle will be the hardest. Now, sit down and eat a dumpling."

I looked at Tau. "Why should I eat dumplings?"

Tau looked at me sighing: "Because we don't use toad oil. We use these dumplings. We fill them with nature energy. Eat one, sit down and don't move a muscle. Simple isn't it?"

"Sure, but can you tell me the special power one gets when he masters Panda Sage Mode.

I know that Toads can use the Sage Mode to make an invisible attack and Snake Sage mode allows its user to manipulate nature itself. If I think about it, Kabuto was super strong and was defeated by a deus ex machina Izanami. So what can I do?"

Tau smiled: "Our Sage Mode allowed us to surround our body with nature energy. Here, try to hit me," said Tau gesturing to me.

I shrugged and threw a punch at Tau.

The punch didn't connect as my hand started to hurt.

"This is what we call Panda Armor. The nature energy surrounds my body acting as a second shield of my body. It is not only good for defense but it helps to get rid of air friction, allowing me to reach speed as fast as teleportation. I can use it as an extension on my body to hit you with.

The toads later used the attack version for their frog kata. It improved our Taijutsu style to a whole new level." My eyes widened, hearing such a thing.

"I wouldn't think about it much. You have a long time to even feel the natural chakra alone without using the dumplings. Now eat and be quiet," said master Tau.

I took the dumpling and put it into my mouth, chewing it. I felt an unfamiliar energy invading my body. I felt pain in my head. I opened my eyes and saw that Tau hit me with a bamboo stick.

"Again. Close your eyes take a bite and if I see you're turning into a panda, I will hit you with the bamboo," said Tau smiling.

"Do you enjoy hitting me?" I asked.

Tau continued smiling: "No, but you will either enjoy it or not. And I told you to call me master."

This continued for the whole day. Taking a bite of the dumpling, feeling the nature energy and getting hit by bamboo.

As there was no night I didn't know how long I sat until Tau spoke up. "That's enough. I think you started to feel the difference between your chakra and my."

Afterward, I went back to Konoha and later came back to train. In that month, I could distinguish between nature and my own energy. I even could do an empowered Rasengan if Tau gave me a supporting hand by physical contact.

But this had a negative side effect.

When I first did it, I was unconscious for a day. The problem was that my control over nature energy was so horrible that when I used the Rasengan, the energy would drain together with my own chakra, leaving me with heavy chakra exhaustion.

The days went by and I did nothing but eat, feel nature energy and get hit by Tau, I mean master Tau. The panda was very strickt when it came to names. One day I decided to try out something new.

I walked to master Tau. "Master Tau, I want to see if I can do my new jutsu."

Tau looked at me as if I was crazy. "You do remember what happens last time when you used a Ninjutsu together with my sage energy?"

I nodded: "Yes, but this is something that has to do with pride, master." Tau sighed but agreed. "If you drop dead, I won't be the one who killed you."

I agreed and I made my normal Rasengan. I summoned two shadow clones who added wind into it and it grew larger. I put more into it and it looked like a Rasenshuriken.

"Come, master Tau, help me!" Tau pressed his paw on my shoulder and I felt the energy rushing into me.

From the outside one could see how Ishizu's features changes.

His face had the features of a panda. His left eyes orbit was white while his left was black. He was no Sage so he couldn't control the nature energy.

Only through master Tau, Ishizu didn't turn to stone.

'Let's do it. I will be the first to make this happen.'

I could feel that I had enough to throw it.

"Panda Senpo, Wind Style: Rasenshuriken," I shouted as I threw the massive wind blade into the air. It exploded midair. I started to laugh. "Take that Naruto, Sensei, and Jiraiya. I am the first to do it. See that master Tau."

Tau looked at me. "3...2...1... Good night my stupid apprentice."

I didn't know what happened but my vision went dark.