23 Chapter 23: Mount Myoboku, Sage Mode Training

## Unknown Location ##

When Senshi opened his eyes, he saw a rich and beautiful place stretching all around him, and he gaped in wonder as Fukasaku watched his expression with a smile on his face. Senshi then turned to him and asked, with awe still in his voice, "Wh-where are we? What.. what is this place?", and Fukasaku replied, "This.. is Mount Myoboku, land and home of the toads, and one of the three places where you can learn Sage Mode.", to which Senshi replied, "Woah.. Awesome!", and Fukasaku said, "Alright, let's go start your Sage training." They both walked over to the Sacred Oil Fountain, surrounded by statues of giant toads, and Senshi asked, "What's the oil for?", to which Fukasaku replied, "It helps you channel natural energy, which is a different type of chakra that only Sages have access to. Dip your hand into the oil and see what happens." Senshi did so, and to his astonishment, when he pulled it out, it looked like the hand of a toad, all webbed, leathery and covered with toad warts, and his forearm also had warts and leathery toad-like skin. He immediately asked, "What is this, Fukasaku-san?!", and Fukasaku replied, "That's what happens if you can't control nature energy. You turn into a statue of the animal you're learning Sage Mode from. But the damage it did to you is less than most others.." Senshi exclaimed, "JUST GET IT OFF!", and Fukasaku pulled out his staff and hit Senshi on the head. After Senshi looked up while rubbing the spot where Fukasaku hit him, Senshi shouted, "OW! Fukasaku-san, what was that for!?", and Fukasaku just pointed at Senshi's hand. Senshi looked at his hand to find that it was normal again, and he asked, "What did you do to make it normal again?" Fukasaku held up his staff and said, "My staff drains the natural energy from others. This will be useful for training. Let's get started.", and they began. Senshi took off his samurai armor, jacket and shirt, sealed them in a storage scroll, and lathered himself with toad oil before sitting down in lotus position. As he felt the nature energy rush into him, he heard Fukasaku say, "Stay still, you must not disturb the nature energy if you want to connect with it." As Senshi felt the nature energy start to flow through him, he remained still, but he began to turn into a toad again, so Fukasaku quickly pulled out his staff and whacked Senshi in the head, turning Senshi back to normal. Senshi remarked while rubbing the bruised spot, "It's hard to manipulate natural energy. How do you do it?", and Fukasaku replied, "You have to let the right amount of nature energy in. Too little, nothing happens and too much, you become a statue." Using this advice and the toad oil, Senshi remained still and began slowly letting nature energy in. Once he reached the right amount, he abruptly closed off his nature chakra absorption. Suddenly, Senshi felt stronger than he ever had before. As Senshi opened his eyes, Fukasaku gasped as he saw black pigment form around Senshi's eyes and forming lines in Senshi's tear troughs, and that Senshi's eyes had black toad-like irides also. Senshi clenched and unclenched his fists, feeling the power flowing through him as he murmured, "So this is Sage Mode.." Fukasaku smiled and said, "Good job, Senshi. Try lifting one of these statues." Senshi, not questioning Fukasaku's orders, lifted one of the large stone toad statues over his head without much, if not any difficulty. Fukasaku then said, "Put it down carefully. We'll move on to the next stage of your training." Senshi carefully put the statue down before turning to Fukasaku and asking, "What's the next stage?", and Fukasaku replied, "Accessing Sage Mode without Toad Oil.", before leading Senshi to a place where there was a rock formation with multiple stalagmites and multiple rock boards stacked on each other. Fukasaku turned to Senshi and said, "Use these rock boards and try to balance on these stalagmites.", so Senshi grabbed a board and started trying to balance, mostly failing, falling off and hitting the hard rock ground. After a couple hours, Senshi stopped and said to Fukasaku, "I don't think I can do it, Fukasaku-san..", but Fukasaku replied, "I believe in ya, kid! Don't give up!" Determined and fueled by Fukasaku's encouragement this time, Senshi was finally able to balance perfectly. The black pigment of Sage Mode appeared around Senshi's eyes like before, but Senshi felt that there was still a strange power locked in him that he felt the impulse to unlock. In his mind's eye, he saw a sphere of light. A Sun. Senshi reached out toward it, and as he soon as he touched it, everything around him turned black as he felt himself dragged into his mindscape.