NOVEL NEXT Chapter 401 Natural Energy
"Kakashi-sensei!"
Haruno Sakura stepped out from behind the counter with a smile, "What kind of mushrooms would you like to eat? Just tell me, and I'll pick them for you."
"No need to call me sensei, being a teacher is too troublesome," Kakashi scratched his head. He had planned to take on a mission outside the village, but given that the village's relationship with the Uchiha clan had eased, he no longer planned to leave.
After all, he was rather lazy and could complete missions near the village to earn enough money to survive. Why would he want to leave home?
"So, should I call you uncle?" Sakura said playfully, sticking out her tongue.
"Ah? Uncle? Am I that old?" Kakashi stopped scratching his head and looked at the golden enoki mushrooms, asking, "Are these mushrooms a new variety?"
"Yes, they are." Sakura helped Kakashi cut the enoki mushrooms and placed them in a bag. By injecting chakra into the cut, the mushrooms quickly regrew from the cut area.
The speed was visible to the naked eye.
"I discovered that chakra could affect fungi, so while I was working at Mushroom Grandpa's, I did a lot of research. I managed to get many fungus species and, through my own cultivation, selected those suitable for eating and for decoration."
Sakura handed a bag to Kakashi, "This will be one thousand ryo."
"That expensive?" Kakashi was surprised. "The lowest reward in D-rank missions is five hundred ryo, and your bag of enoki mushrooms equals two of the lowest D-rank missions."
"These are cultivated using chakra, which makes them taste much better than ordinary enoki mushrooms and they are also good for your health," Sakura refused to accept Kakashi's haggling.
"Alright then." Kakashi took out his wallet, paid the money, and then asked, "Are all the mushrooms here cultivated with your chakra? You're so young; is your chakra sufficient?"
"I have plenty of chakra," Sakura said proudly.
"I shouldn't have asked." Kakashi felt he had embarrassed himself, as among all the elite ninja in Konoha, perhaps he was the only one with a low amount of chakra.
Obito, the eye you left me, although it has established my fame, it also constantly consumes my chakra since I can't close it!
"Take care, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura waved her hand, pondering whether she should hire someone to help—
Her father, a mid-level ninja, had not yet retired and couldn't possibly come.
Her mother, however, was an option.
And while her mother could also extract chakra, she was unable to perform ninjutsu, not even the basic Three-Body Skill. But as long as she could refine chakra, that would be enough.
When Sakura's mother learned that her daughter had rented a shop on Konoha's Tea Street and had started selling mushrooms, she was extremely surprised.
"Sakura, you didn't take out a loan, did you?"
Sakura's mother worried that her daughter had taken a huge loan and that it would be troublesome if she ended up losing money.
"I rented it with my own earned money!" Sakura would certainly not take out a loan, and she decided that once she became the Hokage, she would abolish the outrageously high-interest private loans, "Moreover, I made nearly a hundred thousand ryo in one day!"
"A hundred thousand ryo!" Her mother covered her small mouth, incredulous, but the money in the counter made her believe it, "That's more than your father earns in a day."
In one day, Haruno Cho earned only fifty to sixty thousand ryo.
But Sakura made a hundred thousand ryo in a day!
Incredible.
Haruno Sakura smiled, "I've calculated, after removing the cost, it will take only half a month to completely buy this shop."
Her mother said, "Sakura, you are truly amazing."
"Oh, Mom, I called you here because I hope you could help. Just injecting chakra into the cut mushroom parts is fine. They're all new varieties that I've cultivated, and they can grow quickly," Sakura demonstrated to her mother, "A little chakra is enough, and next, you just need to fill the tank with nutrient solution."
Sakura's mother asked, "Where does this nutrient solution come from?"
"It's made by soaking coniferous soil and then adding some nitrogen and ammonia fertilizers," Sakura detailed the nutrient solution recipe to her mother.
"And where do these mushroom-growing woods come from?" Sakura's mother continued to ask.
"Not just wood... there are deer bones, flower stems, and the like," Sakura explained to her mother, "I bought them from the Yamanaka Clan and the Nara Clan. Both families deal with a large amount of fresh flowers and deer bones daily. I initially wanted to buy everything, but since the shop is still too small and understaffed, I only bought a portion... But later when the shop grows, even enough to start branches, I can go into business with those two families."
"The Nara Clan and Yamanaka Clan?" Sakura's mother marveled, not expecting her daughter to actually form ties with these two prestigious families.
By evening, Haruno Cho, drained from a day's tasks, came home only to find nobody there.
His daughter not being home was one thing, since he knew his daughter was very opinionated and had every day packed with activities, but his wife was gone too?
After asking around with the neighbors, he found that his own wife had gone to Tea Street...
...
"Sakura, I didn't expect you to already have a business of your own, that's really impressive," Haruno Cho gave Sakura a thumbs up and laughed heartily.
"You're still in the mood to laugh?" Sakura's mother, hands on her hips, spoke irritably, "Look at you, you didn't even earn as much as Sakura today."
"Haha, no need for that, mom," Haruno Cho was surprised but still put on a broadly smiling face, after all, which father wouldn't be proud of his child's achievements?
Let alone, his daughter was only six years old!
Six years old?
Haruno Cho suddenly remembered, his daughter was only six years old.
He really wasn't much of a father.
"Mom, Dad, let's not argue anymore, let's eat, I've already prepared everything," Sakura's call woke the bewildered Haruno Cho, "Tonight, we're having a mushroom feast!" Thе full sеriеs livеs оn Мy Virtuаl Librаry Еmpirе (М|V|L0ЕМРYR).
A mushroom feast, as the name implied, meant all dishes for dinner were made of mushrooms.
Gold needle mushroom fried rice, oyster mushroom stew, grilled chicken leg mushrooms, red mushroom miso soup, and so on, made Haruno Cho realize that, for the foreseeable future, they might be living off mushrooms...
...
At three in the morning, Sakura woke up from bed, as usual, practiced the Interface of the Ultimate Nullifier, meditated to enhance her body and spirit, then took out a Zetsu spore, letting it continuously change in the palm of her hand until it turned into a substance similar to a non-Newtonian fluid.
The white liquid covered Sakura's entire body and eventually formed a set of white tights with a draped skirt around the waist.
At the chest, black patterns converged to form three circles similar to the Sharingan, which under the influence of Sakura's chakra, flickered with a golden halo.
"After a semester, I finally made this spore integrate with my cells, and now I can fully control it," Sakura said, standing in front of the mirror, looking at her current appearance, and nodded in satisfaction, "With this, I won't need to change clothes every day."
The set of white tights on her was a bioproduct produced by Sakura's chakra permeating the Zetsu spores—similar to Zetsu, but more malleable, capable of changing according to Sakura's wishes.
Of course, the changing process required chakra, but Sakura never lacked chakra, and with her control, the Zetsu spore could actively absorb natural energy from the air, essentially acting like a training cheat device, allowing Sakura to absorb natural energy faster and accelerate her transformation.
"Master, I'm impressive, right?" Sakura bragged to Sun Wukong.
"Not bad," Sun Wukong replied indifferently, "In the ninja world, there's a type of ninja who can merge natural energy with their own chakra to wield even greater power, known as Immortal mode, and that chakra is called 'Immortal Technique Chakra.'"
"My chakra started by devouring natural training, so it must be Immortal Technique Chakra, right?" Sakura asked.
"Not exactly," Sun Wukong shook his head, "Natural energy is hard to control; what you absorbed was just transformed into your own chakra."
As for the history of the ninja world, Sun Wukong could know it all through electromagnetic fields.
Originally, the ninja world had plenty of natural energy, but because of the arrival of the Divine Tree, the energy was transformed into chakra fruit, consumed by Otsutsuki Kaguya ... Then, after Kaguya was sealed, her son, Otsutsuki Hamura, distributed the chakra to everyone in the ninja world, giving them the power of chakra.
So-called Immortal Technique Chakra is when natural energy is not just transformed but is directly merged with one's own chakra, making the chakra more active.
The more active the energy, the greater the power.
Accordingly, it also becomes harder to control.
As for Sakura ... with Sun Wukong's help, her chakra seed was replaced with her own will, and she learned the Interface of the Ultimate Nullifier, essentially turning her into something akin to a divine tree.
Of course, that's just a metaphor.
Sakura herself was evolving towards a life level different from that of the Otsutsuki, she wouldn't become a divine tree or a Ten-Tails.
Sun Wukong was something of a perfectionist; he would never let Sakura become a 'tree planter' like the Otsutsuki, whose complex life form, despite surpassing humans, lacked the knack for deep thinking.
The greatest advantage of sentient beings is the imagination based on the will of the soul.
And the Otsutsuki clan?
Though they could traverse the vacuum of space with their physical bodies, they lacked imagination.
"So that's how it is," Sakura realized with sudden clarity, "I thought all my chakra was Immortal Technique Chakra; I didn't realize it just could convert natural energy into my own power."
However, with those spores tinted by her chakra will, her speed of absorbing natural energy was greatly increased!