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

The slug nodded, offering no further response to Jiraiya's words.

After all, everyone has the freedom to choose how they want to live, and even as the ruler of the holy land, it has no right to interfere with other people's choices.

At the edge of the lake, a naked pink-haired girl stood up from the water. Her loose pink hair cascaded down like a waterfall with her movements, covering her slightly heaving chest.

"Sakura-chan, take a rest first, I've prepared something delicious for you!"

The slug came to the shore with a small basket and waved to Sakura in the water.

"Hey...it's here!"

Sakura, who had just undergone vocal cord regeneration, still spoke with a slight lisp and her voice was hoarse as she answered.

Then, enduring the terrifying dissolving power of the natural energy, she walked back to the shore step by step, picked up the bathrobe that was lying on the ground, and put it on.

"Ta-da! I've got some special grilled slugs for you all today~ Come and have a taste!"

Sitting on the open ground, because there were new guests today, the Slug Sage was innovating and making bold breakthroughs in his slug dishes.

After removing most of the slime and moisture, she still retained some of the slug's original flavor.

"Well...."

Even Jiraiya, who was used to eating insects at Mount Myōboku, couldn't help but feel a tingling sensation in his throat when he saw this sea of ​​slugs.

While the Slug Sage was excitedly plating the food, he quietly leaned close to Sakura and whispered, "Is this what you usually eat?"

"To be honest, I've almost forgotten what food outside tastes like."

The girl turned to Jiraiya expressionlessly, and it seemed as if two lines of clear tears were flowing down her usually calm face.

"Thanks a lot."

Jiraiya's eyelids twitched wildly, and he patted his disciple's shoulder with his remaining arm.

"What are you talking about? Come and eat!"

The slug took out the utensils and began urging the two of them, "By the way, Little Jiraiya can't eat too much. Your body hasn't fully recovered yet and can't withstand this kind of energy surge."

"It's alright, it's alright!"

Upon hearing this, Jiraiya could no longer suppress the smile on his face and nodded repeatedly.

After finishing lunch, Sakura sat cross-legged on the ground, using her life force to return the large amount of nutrients consumed from the slug dish. Jiraiya then went to the lakeside and tentatively touched the lake water with his little finger.

Suddenly, a heart-wrenching pain erupted from his fingertips and spread throughout his body.

"Well...."

Jiraiya clenched his teeth tightly to avoid making a sound.

He was in so much pain from just a tiny touch, while his disciple was able to endure the pain of his entire body dissolving without batting an eye. If he were to cry out now, wouldn't he be embarrassing himself in front of his disciple?

"Go ahead and scream if you want. I'm not just relying on willpower to endure it; I'm just using medical ninjutsu to temporarily sever my pain receptors." Sakura opened her eyes and explained to Jiraiya, having sensed his thoughts through her Observation Haki.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch! Help me heal!" Jiraiya immediately cried out, raising his hand and running to Sakura.

Sakura grabbed his fingers, and the patterns of the Hundred Healings Seal spread directly from her arm to Jiraiya's body, with Yang Release chakra slowly repairing his dissolved flesh.

"!!!"

Seeing her use of this S-rank ninjutsu, Jiraiya's pupils contracted. "You didn't activate the Yin Seal?"

“Yes, this technique is a pseudo-sage technique. After fusing the flesh and blood of the slug and transforming some of its cells into sage form, I no longer need to rely on the chakra within the Yin Seal to use it.” Sakura nodded.

All those slug dishes and slime soaks weren't for nothing; her cultivation of immortal arts ultimately pushed her further down the path of the inhuman.

However, Sakura's own body already contained a lot of messy components, so much so that she was no longer surprised by it.

"So, you can already use some of the abilities of Sage Mode." Jiraiya withdrew his hand and stroked his chin. "Well then, I have an idea about your Sage Mode. Would you like to give it a try?"

Jiraiya had seen many practitioners of Sage Arts, but he was also curious about his disciple's Sage Arts, as she was the closest to success among practitioners of Shikkotsu Forest Sage Arts in thousands of years.

So, by some strange twist of fate, Jiraiya wanted Sakura to try using the method from Mount Myōboku to enter Sage Mode ahead of time, and thus made the suggestion to Sakura.

Sensing Jiraiya's eagerness, Sakura's interest was piqued as well, "Let's do it!"

The master and disciple hit it off immediately and tiptoed to the inner side of the Wet Bone Forest, carrying the Slug Immortal on their backs.

As the night grew deeper, the Slug Sage, fast asleep, was dreaming of making a whole new kind of slug dish for Sakura. Sticky liquid dripped from the corner of his mouth as he chuckled and mumbled in his sleep, "Sakura, don't run away."

However, in the next instant, a sudden burst of lightning filled the entire Damp Bone Forest, and a high-pitched thunderclap echoed endlessly!

boom--!

Chapter 284 The Incomplete Immortal Mode

Sakura shattered, literally shattered.

The Slug Sage arrived at the scene with his soft body and extinguished the lightning imbued with Sage Chakra.

In the center of the scorched earth, they found Sakura, who had split into hundreds of pieces and was still jumping around.

Slug: "..."

With a meaningful glance at Jiraiya beside him, the Slug Sage roughly guessed what the two had done.

You bunch of toads from Mount Myoboku, you always manage to come up with something new and interesting.

Look at Sakura, what a good child she used to be, diligently and conscientiously training every day.

Why does everything change the moment you toads arrive?! It must be a problem with the feng shui of Mount Myoboku!

Jiraiya obediently hid to the side, not daring to make any eye contact with the Slug Sage.

"You two!!! How dare you do such a dangerous thing in secret!" The slug's gentle voice was unusually stern.

She opened her mouth and, like a vacuum cleaner, swallowed the cherry blossom fragments from the ground piece by piece.

"Sakura is one thing, she's a beginner and doesn't know the risks involved, but you, Jiraiya, are a senior in Sage Mode training, how can you drag her along like this!"

"I'm sorry..., Slug Master." Jiraiya apologized readily.

He recalled the girl's appearance just now, draped in a bright green chakra robe and with lightning raging around her.

I took several deep breaths to calm my wildly beating heart.

That was a thunderstorm imbued with Sage Chakra!

If he hadn't used his spiritual power to summon the stomach wall of the Rock Toad at the crucial moment to block it...

Furthermore, Sakura herself disintegrated for unknown reasons, and she has probably already gone to the Pure Land to reunite with Hiruzen Sarutobi.

However, to be fair, it was indeed because he did not treat natural energy with caution in this incident, so Jiraiya did not deny his apology or remorse.

"Sigh!" The slug sighed and stopped scolding Jiraiya.

It wriggled forward, picked up the small cherry blossom pieces that still retained traces of magical lightning, and put them in its mouth to chew.

With the fusion of Sage Chakra, the slug's clone directly merged into the girl's body.

Help her heal the rejection reaction caused by the conflict between Sage Chakra and Sage Cells.

Then, the excess natural energy was extracted from her body before finally piecing together Sakura's body.

"Whoa!" Sakura's fragmented perspective and will finally reunite, allowing her to begin controlling her body. "What just happened?"

"You entered pseudo-O-Sage Mode and unconsciously used Slug Great Split."

Sakura's arm twitched, and a large amount of natural energy seeped out from under her skin, eventually condensing into the head of the Slug Sage.

"No wonder, just now I felt like my consciousness split into hundreds of parts..." Sakura raised her arm, spread her fingers and then clenched them, finally letting out a sigh of relief.

"However, you have also benefited from this misfortune. You have successfully opened up a pseudo-Sage Mode for Shikkotsu Forest that is between the perfect Sage Mode and the normal state. On behalf of the successors of Shikkotsu Forest, I thank you for this."

More and more natural energy overflowed from Sakura's body, slowly condensing into the shape of a slug on the ground. With a solemn voice, she bowed to Sakura.

During the brief fusion of the two, the Slug Sage used its Evolution Technique to back up Sakura's data onto itself.

If any sage practitioners in Shikkotsu Forest are unwilling to face the test of the lake's dissolution and undergo the perfect sage transformation, they can enter the pseudo-sage mode created by Sakura by merging with a slug.

"Hehe, as expected of me." Sakura proudly put her hands on her hips.

"But!" the slug's tone shifted abruptly, "I'll give you a good talking to about your misuse of magic later, so be prepared!"

"Huh?" The girl's smug expression froze on her face, and she visibly slumped down.

The slug ignored the silly girl and turned its gaze to Jiraiya. "Hey, from Mount Myōboku!"

"Yes, what are your orders?" Jiraiya immediately stood up straight.

"This time, Shikkotsu Forest took your secret techniques. Will there be any problems?" Slug's voice was gentle and her tone was calm.

However, this gentle voice was filled with an air of undeniable authority.

Jiraiya, sweating profusely, patted his chest and assured them, "Don't worry, I also bear responsibility for this. I'll go and explain to Fukasaku and the Great Toad Sage."

"Okay, that's good." The slug turned around and crawled to Sakura's side. "Stop pretending, hurry up and try out the new Sage Mode!"

Upon hearing the slug's words, Sakura immediately perked up.

He clumsily got up from the ground and slipped out of the pit.

As it ran, it kept turning back to urge, "Come on, slug!"

The slug shook its head helplessly and followed.

As Sakura clasped her hands together and closed her eyes to sense the energy of nature, the slug straightened up and merged into her body.

In the instant that natural energy and chakra merged, a miracle of life transformation and evolution was born in Sakura's body.

Countless emerald sage chakra intertwined, weaving a burning, rising emerald feather robe.

Crystal-clear emerald particles fluttered around the girl along with the two ribbons on her robe.

As the turbulent natural energy gradually calmed down, the purple rhombus between Sakura's eyebrows began to bloom, and a green cherry blossom pattern replaced it.

A long, silvery-white horn grew from her forehead, and a slightly ferocious silver mask hung on the horn, half-concealing the girl's increasingly ethereal face.

"This is... Sage Mode..."

With one step, Sakura was already high in the sky.

Slugs helped her connect with and purify natural energy, giving her a feeling of being connected to the whole world.

"Perfect timing! Use your Wood Release to help me repair the environment of Shikkotsu Forest!"

The pilot of the Haruno Sakura, the Slug Sage, was tapping on the girl's soul within her consciousness, reminding her.

"Easy to say!"

The girl raised her slender fingers and held the rose that had suddenly appeared in her hand.

She parted her red lips slightly, took a deep breath of the flower stem into her mouth, and then exhaled white mist as if swallowing clouds and exhaling fog.

A thin line of silvery white liquid fell from her mouth to the ground, bursting into a dazzling light upon impact with the earth.

Clumps of pure white roses bloomed from the scorched earth, and the endless pale sea of ​​flowers suddenly surged, with dreamlike petals fluttering and instantly healing the scorching marks left by the thunder on the earth.

A gentle breeze blows, the sea of ​​flowers sways, and they release a refreshing fragrance.

A vibrant green leaf from the surrounding forest was blown by the wind into the sea of ​​flowers, its remaining vitality instantly robbed and buried in the earth.

The leaves also turned yellow and withered in an instant, eventually crumbling into mud.

"Wow, this kind of technique is terrifying!"

Jiraiya sensed the decaying power lurking within, and his face turned pale.

They immediately covered their noses and retreated, keeping their distance from the sea of ​​flowers.

"Hmm, not bad, so this is your magic."

The slug inside Sakura's body looked at the restored Shikkotsu Forest and said with satisfaction, "Let's give it a name, as the first derivative technique of the Evolution Technique."

The girl stroked her chin and chuckled softly:

"Then let's call it—The Art of Evolution: Decay!"

Chapter 285 Akatsuki's Full-Scale Invasion

The year-end wind carried rain and snow, and a thick layer of snow accumulated on the ground.

The low temperatures and snow have made the once bustling Konoha less noisy and more tranquil.