Chapter 34 - 34 (1/2)

That natural energy in Ryo's body was activated by Chakra. What he didn't expect was that natural energy didn't have to be deliberately guided to be able to merge with Chakra.

Whenever the Chakra merged with that energy goes through a part of his body, that part will turn into ice, and the natural energy within that Chakra will be reabsorbed.

So after full ice elementization, all the natural energy within Ryo's body will be integrated into his Ice body and it can be mobilized at anytime.

Ryo tried an Ice release Jutsu while in that elementization state. It was as Fukasaku described.

The natural energy within his body is 1st to fluctuate. Then a part of it enters the water that he's about to freeze. What happens then is that the Natural energy in the air would be attracted by Ryo's own natural energy. This pushes the external wind natural energy into the water, freezing it.

Whenever the natural energy within him is fully consumed (as freezing requires a lot of natural energy), Ryo's body can't supplement it by external energy, so Chakra is used as a self-regulatory mechanism.

After some experiments, Ryo became certain that the key to his Ice Elementization was this internal natural energy. It was activated by Chakra, and is attracted to external natural energy. But it didn't have the other effects of its regular counterpart.

So he called Fukasaku, and told him about the progress he made. However, he concealed the part concerning this internal natural energy.

”Ryo chan, you have already understood natural energy. Now you need to feel it around you. By feeling it flow into you using the oil, you must grasp that feeling and translate it into making it flow into you without the oil.”

Because he didn't have to worry that Ryo would be overwhelmed by natural energy, Fukasaku only came to help him when he needed guidance. He spent his times training Jiraya elsewhere.

In the Manga, the time that took Jiraya to master Sage mode wasn't really precised. Ryo also didn't know when he was there to study it.

Today, since they are both disciples in Mount Myoboku, so Jiraya was actually in a way, Ryo's senpai!

Jiraya's 1st step, meaning entering Sage mode with the help of the toad oil, was a success. Without using it, he could also sense and use natural energy. It's just that he wasn't able to balance it it properly with his own chakra.

Ryo, who understood well natural energy now, was actually pretty familiar with it. After all he's been using it for ice mode for over 3 years. So it only took him a few days to sense the world's natural energy without the oil.

Through all these days of practice, and especially after discovering the natural energy within his own body, Ryo has been thinking about finding a way to combine the 3 energy sources he has to enter sage mode.

His only concern was his attempt will consume his natural energy. If he's willing to use sage mode, he'll have to find a way to supplement it.

Ryo didn't want to experiment too much before solving this problem. He once again called Fukasaku who was really impressed with his progress on arrival.

For the next step in his training, Pa didn't give Ryo a precise method. But he suggested that he should sit down and get a feel for his ice mode.

Ryo tried to use what he learned about the attraction of external Natural Chakra to his own, by exposing his natural energy to the outside world. The wind and water parts of the external natural energy were drawn to his own like moths into a flame.

Using that gathered energy; he tried using Ice release, and what happened was that none of his Chakra was used except for what he needed for water release.