She

If someone had asked me what I thought the Sage training would involve, I would've answered something along the lines of "Tons of meditation, feeling nature around yourself and being in touch with your spirit". That was the reason why I felt like shit currently. I had been cheated to no ends by that damn old wolf.

"Come on! Keep dodging! Or do you want to die?!"

Shirohada was throwing thorns that he took from the trees at me, and by throwing I meant trying to turn me into Ninja mush. I didn't understand what part of me having to dodge something as sharp as a kunai -but ten times its size- would help me enter Sage Mode but I still did it. As much as I wanted to complain, being on edge and constant movement had at least sharpened my senses a lot, to the point that I could feel the thorns coming as soon as I felt Shirohada throwing them.

At some point I decided to close my eyes and leave everything to feeling and instinct and, to my surprise, I could still see Shirohada clearly. Not his body, but his presence. I was as if I could perfectly see where he was and how he was moving just by feeling, as if I had a sort of receptor in my body that fed my brain an image in black and white of everything around me.

Focusing on that feeling, I could almost feel everything around me slow down a bit. I lost track of where Shirohada was and everything around me felt clearer. It was a fleeting millisecond, but I could swear I had felt the life around me. I could feel how the plants grew, how the small critters moved and even how the earth below me shifted ever so slightly. I could even hear the soft whisper of the wind. All in a such a short time that I wasn't really sure it was even a millisecond.

"Finally, I was beginning to think you'd have me here all day, Ryota"

"Was that... what you wanted to happen?"

"By making you rely on your instinct, your more animalistic nature is released. That helps in you harmonizing with nature and becoming a part of it, instead of your Chakra being a mediator between you and Her"

"Her?"

Shirohada sighed at my obvious question. I admitted that I had been asking many through the time he was making me dodge for my life, but I was never one to be really spiritual or religious, so I didn't really understand the works of spiritualism.

"She, Ryota, is Nature. She is living and breathing, just like you. The only difference is that She is so massive that She is part of everything while we are part of Her. Not the other way around. Nature is not one to bow to the will of others, She only aids them"

Those words struck something inside of me. I had never thought of Nature as a sentient being that could chose who to aid and who not to, but it became clear once I though about it a bit more. Of course Orochimaru wouldn't be able to achieve a Sage Mode but Jiraiya could. It was also the reason why Hashirama could achieve a Sage Mode without learning from any Sage, being a Sage himself. They respected Nature and seeked Her aid, not control over Her.

With newfound inspiration, almost on instinct, I sat down crosslegged and began regulating my breathing. It was something I was used to do, since it had become a sort of habit when I was doing nothing during the ten days I spent learning Fuinjutsu. But this time it was different. This time I was focusing on one single thing. I was pushing, trying to make myself become a part of that feeling I had just a mere moment ago. It was then that I felt a call.

"You should answer, kid. When She calls you, its because She likes you"

Standing up with my eyes still closed and regulating my breathing, I began walking towards the place the whispers of the wind were guiding me to. It didn't take long for me and Shirohada to reach a small pond with no redeaming characteristics, besides having a water so clear that it looked like a fairy's pond.

*whispering*

Without thinking about it much. I entered the pond and allowed Nature to guide me however she wanted. I was to become part of her, not control her. It was supposed to be a symbiotic relationship, not a parasitic one. I dived into the pond and upon, reaching its bottom, I sat down there. I felt like I didn't need air, so I breathed in and, to my surprise, I was perfectly fine.

*whispering*

*Shirohada's POV*

I knew Ryota was talented, but this wasn't what I expected. It took nothing but a few hours for him to connect with Her and be able to talk with Her. The first was understandable, but the latter...

'Being able to hear and talk to Her took me most of my long, long life'

The kid would become someone incredibly amazing. The Sage of the Six Paths was Her friend and, right now, Ryota reminded me of him a lot. She just seemed to be so happy to talk to him. It was as if She had been waiting for him to contact her. As if She had been longing for him.

He never needed my help... he would've figured it out on his own sooner or later. All I did was hasten the process. I felt a weird sense of pride, seeing the human that was now a part of our pack being a friend of Nature.

"Things will get very interesting in the years to come... I wonder what paper you will play at that moment, Ryota"

*Ryota's POV*

It was borderline intoxicating. I could feel her dancing around me, hugging me. I could feel her happiness. She... wanted me to be her friend. It wasn't a contract, it wasn't a deal. It was friendship. That was what she was longing for.

"Why me?" was the question plaguing my mind at the moment, but it didn't matter. It didn't matter because She was happy, and for some reason, I also felt happy.

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I just realized that the only two POVs I have done are from old men talking about Ryota's potential. LMAO