Naruto: I start with one door, and I can open it infinitely.

The 333rd time traveled, to Kusagakure, your master Kawa is back again...

"Damn it, still no good, just a little short again," Lin Chuan cursed as he crashed into the black hole inside the door and disappeared into it, leaving him no choice but to start over.

This time travel wasn't wasted at all. In the years he spent traveling, he learned Naruto's Rasengan technique. It has to be said that learning A-rank ninjutsu without hand seals is indeed quite difficult, and it took him several years to master it.

Furthermore, the Cursed Seal is essentially a pseudo-Sage Mode developed by Orochimaru based on Jugo's "Sage Transformation" ability. Its core mechanism is consistent with Sage Mode, which is to enhance power by fusing three types of energy.

As a pseudo-Sage Mode, Jugo went berserk without a switch. Orochimaru installed a switch on the pseudo-Sage Mode, but this switch is not in the hands of the container. The cursed seal can absorb as much natural energy as possible until the body reaches its limit.

The instability of the pseudo-immortal mode and the overly forceful injection of natural energy can easily lead to the vessel going berserk or the body collapsing and dying.

The pseudo-immortal mode of the cursed seal has no gradual adaptation process. The vessel needs to adapt to the large amount of natural energy injected into the body as soon as possible, find a suitable fusion ratio, and control this natural energy before it can be considered to have adapted to the cursed seal.

This is practically the same as the Sage Mode learning process at Ryuchi Cave. Orochimaru actually stole the technology from Ryuchi Cave in order to develop the Cursed Seal. Combined with Jugo's special physique, they came up with a Cursed Seal that could be used for possession and reincarnation. He's a real genius.

This was his second time visiting Orochimaru's base, where Orochimaru placed a cursed seal on him. Whether it was due to his physical condition or an incorrect fusion ratio, he failed again.

Unexpectedly, the cursed seal was not even half the amount of natural energy. He had already reduced the fusion ratio to 0.5, but it still didn't work.

It seems that natural energy is more domineering than he thought, and the cursed seal is even more trashy than he thought. It's a low-end version of the pseudo-immortal mode, and it's unbelievably bad.

No wonder the Sound Four were only able to barely injure two Konoha Special Jonin, Genma Shiranui and Raido Namiashi, by activating their Cursed Seal 2 state.

The anime clearly states that these two special jonin were not at their peak, but rather special jonin returning from a mission. Faced with special jonin in this state, the Sound Four's performance was indeed rather poor.

Logically, the Sound Four, having activated their Cursed Seal 2 state, should all possess the strength of a Special Jonin. However, in a four-on-two fight, they only managed to severely injure two of them, and escaped without killing them.

Comparing the states of both sides, their conditions before the encounter were as follows:

The Sound Four used a sealing technique to seal Sasuke.

Two special Jonin from Konoha have just returned from a mission.

The result of the battle was...

The Sound Four used their Cursed Seal in its second state to severely injure two Konoha Special Jonin, but they didn't have time to kill them.

Two special Jonin from Konoha forced the Sound Four to use their Cursed Seal 2 state, but they did not harm the four.

Judging from the outcome of this battle, the four of them do indeed possess the strength of Special Jonin, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to quickly defeat two Konoha Special Jonin. However, these four are at most Special Jonin level.

Whether they were too weak or too strong, their battle record wouldn't have been like this. The fact that the four of them could retreat unscathed from two special Jonin of Konoha speaks volumes about their strength and also demonstrates the inadequacy of the Cursed Seal.

No wonder he was later defeated by a Konoha genin; his poor condition after consecutive battles was one of the reasons.

Although the Konoha genin were all on the verge of death in the end, they were still alive, and as long as they were alive, they hadn't lost. The Sound Four, those clowns, actually died twice.

After the Sound Four were resurrected by Edo Tensei, they were repeatedly defeated by Shikamaru and his group of four. At this time, Shikamaru and Neji were both Jonin, while the Sound Four were still Special Jonin, the weakest of the Special Jonin. They were truly clowns.

Perhaps he misunderstood. Besides the Heaven and Earth Curse Seal, there is also a regular curse seal. The curse seal that Sasuke displayed was indeed strong, but that was the strength of the Heaven Curse Seal, not the trash curse seal of the Sound Four.

The Sound Four didn't even have the Earth Curse Seal; they used ordinary curse seals. Kimimaro was the one who had the Earth Curse Seal implanted.

It's also possible that the Sound Four had a very poor foundation, initially only at the level of Chunin, and even after being fully strengthened by the Cursed Seal, they could only reach the level of Special Jonin at best, and even then, the weakest Special Jonin.

He was also at the Chunin level. Although his strength was at the Special Upper level, even after being strengthened by the Cursed Seal, it was still just a normal Cursed Seal enhancement. Even if his chakra increased to Special Upper, he was still not a Jonin.

His strength was already exceptional, but he was limited by his insufficient chakra. Couldn't the physical enhancement from the cursed seal have helped him reach the Jonin level? He was somewhat unwilling to accept this!

……

The 368th crossing...

Before the Konoha Collapse Plan in the third round of the Chunin Exams, Lin Chuan knocked out Karin and took her away. He didn't have any contact with Karin this time; they were just from the same village, Kusagakure, and had only met once.

He took Karin to a small town near the Valley of the End, and after Karin woke up, he began to negotiate with her: "Karin, I've already helped you defect, you can't go back to Kusagakure..."

"Defected?" Karin was initially panicked upon hearing "defected," but after thinking about it, she realized there wasn't much to miss about Kusagakure, so she said nonchalantly, "If I can't go back, I can't go back. I don't want to go back anyway..."

"Very good, I can take you to find Sasuke. You have to cooperate with me to do something..." Lin Chuan had no contact with Karin this time, so Karin had no good feelings towards him at all. Because of the Grass Ninja headband on her forehead, she actually had a negative impression of him.

Indeed, Karin mistook Rin for the same kind of annoying Grass Ninja who would bully her, just like the Grass Ninja Village. She hated those Grass Ninja who bit her mother to death and bit her.

"Sasuke? Really?" Karin couldn't believe it. Happiness had come so suddenly. She had just been saved by the handsome Sasuke during the Chunin Exams. Could she go find Sasuke now?!

"Of course it's true. I need your cooperation. You mustn't say or do anything, or we'll both die. This is dangerous, but you'll get to see Sasuke. Are you willing to do it...?"

"I'm willing. How can I cooperate with you?" Karin nodded repeatedly. She was willing to do anything as long as she could see Sasuke.

"Disguise your hair. Here's some money. Stay in this town for now and wait for me to come find you. I'll be back in a week." Lin Chuan still needed to deal with the old man at the pet shop and get the caged bird from the old spy.

That was a key item that could make Orochimaru think, and only with that item in hand could one successfully join Orochimaru.

"Okay, I'll wait for you here," Karin took the money bag. She had thought about running away, after all, she hated the Grass Ninja and didn't believe what he said.

"You can escape, but I can't guarantee whether you'll see Sasuke again," Lin Chuan saw through Karin's little scheme. This time, Karin wasn't as cute as the first time.

However, it's all about using relationships. Being cute can't put food on the table; the goal is more important. He needs stronger power.

"Hehe, no way," Karin knew her little scheme had been seen through, but in order to see Sasuke, she suppressed her thoughts of running away and decided to wait and see how things went. What if she really could see the handsome Sasuke? She couldn't wait any longer!

……

Afterwards, Lin Chuan returned to Kusagakure to deal with the pet shop owner. After getting the little bird, he rushed to the town near the Valley of the End. He was relieved to see that Karin was still there.

The time he had to wait for Sasuke to defect passed quickly. During this period, he did not contact Karin at all, as long as Karin did not run away.

It wasn't until the battle at the Valley of the End broke out that he took Karin to Orochimaru the next day, repeating the same story he had told Orochimaru without changing a single word of the path he had successfully cleared.

He was finally successfully imprinted with the cursed seal by Orochimaru. He then adapted to the cursed seal alone in his room. With the experience from the previous two times, he adapted to the cursed seal quickly this time.

"Hahaha, hahaha, I succeeded!" Lin Chuan laughed loudly in the room. After three painful trials, he finally succeeded in testing the fusion ratio of the cursed seal and chakra.

Actually, he was wrong from the very beginning. The idea of ​​a one-to-one fusion of natural energy and chakra is nonsense.

The truth is, Naruto's chakra and natural energy fused in a 1:1 ratio. Not everyone's chakra can fuse with natural energy in a 1:1 ratio, let alone a low-end version of the Cursed Seal's natural energy.

For example, when the Sound Four adapted to the Cursed Seal, the chakra fusion ratio of each person might be 0.4, 0.3, or even 0.5. The fusion ratio of each person is different, which also explains the difference in strength among the Sound Four.

Everyone needs to experiment with their own fusion ratio little by little. If you're lucky, you might succeed on the first try. Without the monitoring of sophisticated instruments, people might say that this person is lucky and has a strong ability to adapt.

This is ridiculous. Those who had bad luck, like him, tried three times before finding the fusion ratio of the cursed seal and chakra. Does that mean he died three times?

There was no chance to restart. Everyone else only had one life and could only gamble on luck. But he could restart. He couldn't gamble on luck, so he chose to restart and rely on experience. On his third attempt, he finally adapted to the curse mark and survived.

His chakra fusion ratio with the cursed seal is 0.4, and he can utilize four layers of natural energy through the cursed seal. He feels that his physical talent is already quite good. In the future, he can further increase the concentration and fusion ratio of natural energy through Orochimaru's secret medicine and the second state of the cursed seal.

He couldn't possibly achieve a perfect Sage Mode fusion like Naruto; he felt he could only increase the concentration of natural energy by a maximum of two levels.

As for Jiraiya's Sage Mode, which has some frog-like characteristics, he estimated that the fusion ratio should be around 0.8 to 9.

He also estimated that the fusion ratio of Sasuke's Heavenly Curse Seal was at least 0.7, or even higher, possibly 0.8.

Someone like Jugo, who is close to natural energy, is blessed by God with a natural physique that allows him to absorb natural energy on his own. He's practically a vacuum cleaner.

It looks good, but Jugo can't control that much natural energy at all. It's like his body and brain aren't his own, like a vegetable lying paralyzed in bed.

There is a difference between active and passive absorption of natural energy. Jugo actively absorbs energy without a switch, while Naruto and Jiraiya actively absorb energy with a switch.

The cursed seal also has a switch for active absorption, but the control of the switch is not in the user's hands, but in the hands of the cursed seal. The cursed seal is controlled by Orochimaru, which may be why Orochimaru can control the container.

He can currently only adapt to the four layers of natural energy absorbed by the cursed seal, and with further training, he can only increase by two more layers. Jugo, on the other hand, started with ten layers, having ten passive layers without any training, which is even more exaggerated than Naruto's one-to-one fusion ratio.

That's why Jugo went out of control. After Orochimaru trained him, he suppressed the excessive absorption of natural energy and installed a switch on Jugo to absorb natural energy, which made him much more normal.

Sometimes you don't really know what natural energy is until you experience it for yourself. After experiencing it firsthand, you realize how damn awesome it is.

He could feel the surging power within the cursed seal. He had underestimated it before; even the fourth level of natural energy was enough for him to become a special Jonin. Once he fully mastered the second level of the cursed seal, becoming a Jonin would no longer be a dream.

crunch--

After successfully adapting to the cursed seal, he opened the door and saw that Karin was sleeping right outside. Was she afraid he would run away?

Hearing Lin Chuan open the door, Kabuto Yakushi also came out of the room. Seeing that Lin Chuan had adapted to the cursed seal, he couldn't help but congratulate him, saying, "Congratulations! You survived. From now on, you can serve Lord Orochimaru even better..."

"Senior, from now on I will be Orochimaru's subordinate. Please take care of me." Lin Chuan bowed slightly, a barely perceptible smile appearing on his lips, while inwardly he was frantically complaining about how hellish this was!

He recently killed Kabuto Yakushi, and now he's working with him again. He wonders if he'll have another chance to kill Kabuto this time. He's really looking forward to it!

"It's good that you're alive. Get used to the power of the cursed seal as soon as possible. There's still a lot to do. Help me transfer the test subjects tomorrow," Kabuto Yakushi waved his hand gently, then closed the door and went back to sleep.

At this moment, Karin was awakened by the two people's voices. She saw that Lin Chuan had survived and excitedly went up to him to fulfill his promise and take her to Sasuke.

crunch--

Suddenly, the door on the other side opened, and Sasuke came out of the room. He had also been awakened by the talking, and even more annoying was Lin Chuan's loud laughter.

Since arriving at Orochimaru's base, he had been sleeping soundly until now, unaware of the time or where to get food. He felt incredibly hungry.

"Look behind you," Lin Chuan reminded Karin, knowing what she was thinking, as Sasuke was right behind her.

"What?" Karin turned around and saw Sasuke staggering into the toilet. She rushed over, but before she could even speak to him, she was locked out of the toilet.

But she was not discouraged. As long as Sasuke was here, she would have plenty of time to see him and spend time with him in the future.

"We're even now, this matter must remain a secret," Lin Chuan whispered, watching Karin return with blushing cheeks and light steps.

"I'll watch my mouth," Karin gently licked her lips. She was in a good mood and would agree to anything Lin Chuan said.

She had no choice but to agree. If she revealed their deal, she would never see Sasuke again, and she felt she would regret it for the rest of her life.

She felt that none of her previous experiences had brought her such happiness. As long as Sasuke remained by her side, she would keep this secret forever...