Double-transformation: I, Sakura Haruno! Will crush the pirates!

Despite his disheveled appearance, he unleashed his Observation Haki and ran towards the girl's scent within the Wet Bone Forest.

Before long, he arrived at the shore of a vast lake.

He saw a girl wearing the same defeated swimsuit as himself... being lectured by a slug.

"Ok?"

Sakura, who had her head down, noticed someone approaching as a glint of light flashed in her eyes.

So he looked up at the man standing in the distance, covered in wounds, and a look of surprise appeared in his eyes.

"Jiraiya-sensei?!" Sakura stood up, carrying her swimsuit, which was a size too big for her, and ran towards him.

"Hey, Sakura... It's been a while, and you've gotten younger and younger." Jiraiya, who looked quite haggard, raised his hand and greeted her.

Then he could no longer hold on and collapsed to the ground unconscious. His scarlet blood spread among the mud and sand, startling Sakura and Slug who had walked up to him.

"!!!"

Sakura, regaining her senses, turned around and shouted at the slug with reddened eyes.

"Quick! Save people!"

Chapter 282 News from the Outside World

Inside a brand-new wooden cabin on the shore of the lake in Shikub Forest.

The slug used Sage Technique in conjunction with the ice power of Sakura's Fruit to create a makeshift operating room.

In the center of the operating room was an operating table made using earth-style techniques. Jiraiya, covered in injuries, lay unconscious on it, passively receiving treatment from Sakura.

"Water Release, Fire Release, Explosion, Kunai, Senbon..."

With the slug's help, Sakura records the type of wound after treating each one.

When her hand touched the empty sleeve, she couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness.

“He is just an ordinary person. Using ninjutsu or sage techniques to help him regenerate severed limbs would shorten his lifespan.”

The little slug covering Jiraiya's wound raised its head and touched Sakura with its tiny tentacles.

While offering comfort to her contractor, she also reminded her not to do anything foolish.

"It seems we'll have to find a suitable prosthetic body later." Sakura's emerald eyes hardened as she bandaged Jiraiya's severed arm.

However, for a ninja, no matter how well a prosthetic arm is implanted, it can never compare to a naturally grown arm.

It is foreseeable that Jiraiya's strength will inevitably decline after he recovers from his injuries.

"You idiot teacher, what happened that made you pay with an arm..."

Sakura sighed softly and helped Jiraiya tidy his messy hair.

He then took a blanket from his storage scroll, covered him with it, and led the slug out of the cabin.

Back in the place where she used to practice her magic, Sakura, feeling frustrated, rolled up her sleeves and once again immersed her arm in the slug's slime.

An afternoon passed quickly, and the pale moon, with its dark markings, climbed into the sky.

A small bonfire burned in front of the cabin, its dim light casting long shadows of the girl and the slug, as if veiled by a light gauze.

Sakura sat by the fire, warming her hands against the slug. The firelight pierced through her open palms, making the blood vessels and bones beneath her skin clearly visible.

"Slug, shouldn't you explain this to me?"

Sakura rested her head on the slug's body, its flesh beginning to turn transparent, and stretched her palm out in front of it.

"What's there to explain? Sakura's training has been very successful, hasn't it?"

The slug raised its two antennae and tilted its head to the side.

"Don't lie to me, the appearance of a beast-like body is a sign of failed cultivation!"

Sakura glanced at the slug, who was trying to hide, and asked, "Is the reason that I ate your flesh and blood?"

"Hehe, you found out~" The slug touched its antennae and let out a playful laugh.

Laughing in exasperation at its shamelessness, Sakura asked, "So what will happen to me? Will I turn into a slug too?"

"How could that be? That would be too boring!" A sly glint flashed in the slug's eyes.

The flesh and blood of the slug sage that Sakura ingested were all carefully inactivated by its cells.

The remaining cells and natural energy can at most affect Sakura's Sage Mode, making her a little closer to the Slug Sage.

Moreover, this was all because she was eager to master Sage Mode; the Slug Sage was just kindly helping Sakura speed up her training.

Besides, turning a favorite child into one of the same kind... cough cough.

"I did all this for the sake of the Two Lives Technique, but Sakura doesn't appreciate my good intentions at all, hmph!"

The slug's antennae drooped listlessly toward the ground, glistening tears gathering at their tips.

"is it?"

Sakura was suspicious. Had she really wronged the slug?

"Don't bully my disciple too much, Great Immortal Slug!" A hoarse and weak voice sounded from behind the two.

A white-haired man covered in bandages leaned against the doorframe of the wooden house, staring sharply at Sakura and Slug.

Seeing him tormenting himself like this, Sakura and Slug, the two doctors, gave him cold, indifferent looks, silently counting down in their minds...

Three, two, one!

"Ouch, ouch, ouch! Sakura, help...help...help!"

Jiraiya, whose cool demeanor lasted only three seconds, revealed his true nature and loudly begged his disciples for help.

"Ugh."

Sakura and the slug reluctantly stepped forward and tormented Jiraiya once again.

A few minutes later, Jiraiya was bound with wooden boards to immobilize his body and was carried by Sakura to the fire.

"Jiraiya-sensei, who beat you up like this?"

Sakura threw the used bandages into the flames and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

Even though the best medical ninjas are in Konoha, Jiraiya still went to Shikkotsu Forest to find Sakura.

It seems he must have done something that Tsunade explicitly forbade, which is why he dared not return to Konoha with his injuries.

"I, um, that..."

Sure enough, upon hearing her question, Jiraiya looked away, his gaze wandering around.

He stammered for a long time but still couldn't come up with a coherent explanation.

"You went to Amegakure to find Pain, right?" Sakura asked with certainty, though her tone was questioning.

"How could you... Never mind, just don't tell Tsunade about this!"

Jiraiya trembled with excitement, like a mouse whose tail had been stepped on.

"But with your hand in this state, you can't possibly hide outside forever, can you?"

Sakura raised her hand in annoyance and tapped Jiraiya's severed arm.

"There's nothing you can do?"

Jiraiya winced in pain, the hope in his eyes fading considerably.

"There may be opportunities in the future, but as for now, I'm afraid I can't help you."

Sakura shrugged at him. "Let's not talk about that. What exactly made you defy Tsunade's orders and force your way into Amegakure?"

"You don't know?" Jiraiya asked in surprise.

Sakura reached out and patted the slug leaning against her back. "I've been training here all this time, how would I know?"

"That's true." Jiraiya looked enlightened.

He then stopped laughing and his expression became serious. "It's Akatsuki up and running again. This time they've entered the Land of Lightning to capture the Eight-Tails and also severely injure the Hidden Cloud Village."

The Cloud Hidden Incident caught everyone off guard.

Tsuchida, a courtier of the successive Raikages and a Jonin from Kumogakure trusted by the Third Raikage, inexplicably betrayed them.

He let the Akatsuki group into his territory, and the ensuing battle decimated nearly half of the Hidden Cloud Village.

With the Land of Lightning weakened, the Land of Earth, their neighbor, naturally chose to generously provide aid—stationing tens of thousands of ninja near the Land of Waterfall, ready to set out at any time and invade the Land of Lightning!

"Akatsuki already has the ability to directly confront a major ninja village?" Sakura's eyes widened in disbelief. "Was it Pain who did it?"

Logically speaking, several members of the Akatsuki organization who frequently traveled outside were successively killed by Sakura.

At this point, Akatsuki should have been severely weakened and wouldn't have had the manpower to capture the last two tailed beasts.

But now, with the Eight-Tails captured and the Cloud Village severely injured, Sakura suspects that Pain was behind it.

"No, it was a newcomer named Yakushi Kabuto who made the move this time."

Jiraiya raised his hand to cover his severed arm, recalling the perilous situation with lingering fear.

"The wounds on my body were inflicted when he blocked our retreat, and then I was cut in half by the Hell Path, and..."

Before Jiraiya could finish speaking, the slug that crawled over picked up where he left off, "And the other party can also use Sage Mode, and is a contractor of Ryuchi Cave, right?"

Jiraiya nodded, "Yes, you can't hide it from me."

To be honest, he sensed the shadow and aura of an old friend in that young man named Kabuto. The moment he saw him, he almost thought Orochimaru had been resurrected.

"Is that so...? I understand the situation roughly."

Having gathered all the information, Sakura stepped forward, picked up Jiraiya, and tossed him back onto the bed in the cabin.

"Then you should stay here and recuperate for the time being. I will take you back to Konoha after I finish my training."

Chapter 283 Jiraiya's Terrible Idea

Jiraiya settled down in Shikkotsu Forest, but this did not affect Sakura's training.

For some time now, she has continued to go to the lake every day as usual to practice adapting her cells to natural energy.

Sakura activated the Hundred Healings Technique to heal herself with all her might, and then immersed herself in the lake.

Allow the violent natural energy to destroy the body, and then repair the body with a technique.

Constant destruction followed by regeneration.

This cycle continues until one day all the cells in her body transform into special cells capable of containing natural energy.

"Hiss, how can the Sage Techniques of Shikkotsu Forest be cultivated like this?" Jiraiya, who came to observe the disciples' cultivation, gasped in astonishment.

He had just witnessed Sakura's body dissolve in the lake water, revealing her tender muscles and blood vessels, but then she was rapidly restored under the effect of the vibrant S-rank medical ninjutsu.

If Jiraiya hadn't known that the Slug Sage wouldn't harm Sakura, he would have almost thought he had stumbled upon a crime scene where someone was covering up a murder.

"Is the training at Mount Myōboku different?"

Just then, the slug sage, who had crawled over to deliver lunch to Sakura, heard Jiraiya's mutterings and turned to ask him a question.

"If the Sage Mode of Mount Myōboku is like this, then I probably won't live to this age..."

Jiraiya's eyes twitched a few times, and he took a small step back.

"Interesting. Can you tell me how the toads do it?"

The Slug Sage stopped beside Jiraiya, looking at him with great interest.

"By introducing natural energy into the body, and finally maintaining the ratio of the three energies at 1:1:1 to form the power of immortals."

Faced with the question from the great sage before him, Jiraiya sat down cross-legged and revealed the entire training method of Mount Myōboku.

“This kind of Sage Art deviates from the original intention we created it for,” the slug said gently. “You are only using Sage Chakra, and you have not truly achieved Sage Transformation!”

Therefore, your Sage Mode cannot be perfected; it will have drawbacks such as depleting Sage Chakra and being unable to extend lifespan.

"That's true. Boss Fukasaku also said that this is a shortcut to evil."

Jiraiya scratched his head. "But the complete Sage Mode of Mount Myōboku requires hundreds of years of training, which is impossible for a human to achieve in terms of lifespan. It is already very difficult to use Sage Chakra to enhance combat power and survive."

As he spoke, he touched the spot on his severed arm with a touch of emotion.