Chapter 29 - 29 (1/2)
The thing is that Jiraya was happily laughing, as Minato was shaking his head while forcing himself to smile.
Soon, he'll get back to his old habits, and what have been just promised will be thrown out of the window.
”Kid! Did you just use the Yuki Clan Ice?” When he was over with the mess that happened, Ryo's Ice was the 1st thing he asked about!
”Well, it's ice, but it's not Yuki's, it's mine.”
”Yours?”
”Yes! Since you know them Jiraya san, can Yuki clan members make Ice Dragons?”
”Kid, is your Ice Release also a Kekkei Genkai?”
Ryo nodded. He wasn't really sure whether it was a Kekkei Genkai. Yet it was true anyway that this world recognizes non learnable abilities as blood limited ones.
”The let me see you use Ice release!”
Ryo had Chakra flow through his body, making his cells shift their structure towards that of ice molecules. Then he used water trumpet and froze the water.
Like Ice dragon, it wasn't fully reliant on natural energy, just partially.
”Kid, show me the Ice Dragon!”
Ryo did not know what Jiraya was doing, but it looked to him like he was on to something. Ryo was also curious about his Ice Release and wanted to know more about it. So Jiraya's discovery might help him in studying it.
For this reason, he used again the large amount of chakra needed to form the dragon. It was finally understood by Jiraya: Ryo fused the water and wind releases in Natural Energy to form Ice!
Jiraya also saw Ryo's eyes change. This was a natural effect of using Natural energy. He could recognize that easily after year of practicing Senjutsu.
Natural energy is the energy gathered from the world itself. It is not a variant of Chakra. It has a strong phagocytic nature. When practicing, a trainee might get overwhelmed by the overflow of energy causing him to become a part of nature: A solid rock.
As Jiraya was himself adapt to natural energy, he could actually perceive it. And to his surprise, Ryo was a user of it.
”Kid, your Ice Release is different from that of the Yuki clan.”
”Jiraya san, did you find something out?”
”The Yuki's blend their Wind Chakra with their Water Chakra to release Ice. It belongs to the kind of Ninjutsu that's released from the inside. Your body absorbs the natural energy from your surroundings, fusing its wind and water properties to create an Ice release originated from the outside.”
”Natural energy?” Jiraya understood from this question that Ryo didn't know what natural energy was, so he went on to explain it.
However, Ryo was just really surprised!
In the Manga, Natural energy was one of the strongest power sources in the Narutoverse. Mastering it was key to use Sage mode.
Sage mode uses natural energy to enhance agility, attack, defense, and give a wide variety of sensory abilities.
In short, Sage Mode boosted Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Taijutsu altogether to a much higher level, granting its master a ticket to Kage level.
”Sensei, if you say that sage mode is the combination and balancing of one's own Chakra with natural energy. Isn't that something a bit out of reach?”