The silence in Konoha's Central Library was nearly absolute, broken only by the occasional creak of old wood and the whisper of wind against the thick windowpanes. Naruto Uzumaki stood up, having finished meticulously stacking the thick tomes of history and geopolitics. He had obtained what he needed: a mental map of the mortal forces that governed this plane.
He was about to turn and walk toward the exit when his instincts—a keenness forged over centuries of survival in realms where a single misstep meant soul annihilation—stopped him dead.
It wasn't a sound. It wasn't a chakra signature. It was a resonance.
In the Immortal World, ancient artifacts and texts written by true masters emitted a faint vibration in the laws of the universe, a kind of echo that only those with a dense enough soul could perceive. Naruto slowly turned his head toward the back of the archives section, where the light from the oil lamps barely reached.
There, on the lowest shelf, covered in a thick layer of gray dust, lay a pitiful-looking volume. Its leather cover was cracked and bore no visible title.
Naruto approached with soundless steps. He crouched and picked up the book. Blowing off the dust revealed worn, ancient symbols stamped in dull gold. It wasn't a tactical record or a jutsu manual. It was an anthology of myths from the Age of Origin.
He opened the yellowed pages. Most contained children's fables about forest spirits and minor demons—stories designed to scare children before sleep. However, toward the end of the book, a rough ink illustration captured his complete attention.
It showed the figure of a man floating in the sky. He had horns, a staff adorned with metal rings, and behind him, nine black spheres levitated in perfect formation. Below the figure, the text read: The Sage of Six Paths: The God of the Shinobi and the creator of Ninshū.
Naruto read the following pages with absolute speed and concentration. His blue eyes, cold as glaciers, narrowed as he absorbed the words.
The text spoke of a man named Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, a divine being who had descended to pacify a world ravaged by war. It spoke of how he had defeated a ten-tailed demon of incomprehensible power, sealing the beast within his own body and then using its power to create the very moon in the sky to contain its empty shell. It spoke of how he tried to teach humanity to connect their spiritual energies through something called Ninshū, which mortals, in their infinite ignorance, corrupted to create armed Ninjutsu.
Naruto slowly closed the book, keeping a finger between the pages to mark his place.
Create a celestial body. Manipulate gravity on a planetary scale. Seal a demonic beast representing the sum of the world's elements, Naruto listed within the vastness of his mental landscape, his martial respect awakening for the first time since he reincarnated.
This world... is not as simple as a puddle of mud after all. This "Sage of Six Paths" was no mere shinobi. He was a Cultivator. And by the magnitude of his feats, he must have reached at least the Spirit Transformation stage, or perhaps even the Nascent Soul Realm.
The discovery completely changed his perspective. This world's limitations were not inherent to the universe; they were the result of degradation. Humanity here had inherited an energy system—chakra—and fossilized it, forgetting the path to the heavens that their ancestor had tried to show them.
Naruto opened the book again and reread a passage that had caught his attention almost as a marginal note. It spoke of the original source of power before internal chakra. It spoke of an energy that resided not in the stomach or the blood, but in the earth, the air, the water, and the sunlight.
The text called it Senjutsu. The Sage Arts.
"It is said that the Sage not only shaped his own spirit, but breathed the very energy of nature, becoming one with the world he trod. A feat considered unattainable for mortal man, reserved only for animal spirits in unexplored realms..."
Naruto stared at that last line until the letters seemed to burn on his retina.
A low, deep laugh, devoid of any childish joy, vibrated in his throat. The sound made the shadows in the library seem to lengthen.
Ignorant fools! Naruto thought, closing the volume with a dull snap. They call nature's energy mythical. They believe absorbing the world's energy is a lost or impossible art. In the Immortal World, absorbing the energy of heaven and earth is the most basic step—the first breath a cultivator takes at the Qi Refinement stage. The ambient Qi of this world isn't thin... it's that their mortal bodies are genetically blocked from sensing it, forced to use their own limited vitality as fuel.
If he could understand how this world codified Qi—how "Senjutsu" worked—he could bypass his useless, fragile internal chakra system. He could absorb the world's energy directly to fuel Chaos Refinement, heal his ravaged muscles, and advance to the mid-stage of Body Tempering in months, not years.
But the book offered no methods. No meridian diagrams, no breathing techniques. It was merely a historical record written by a blind scholar. He needed practical information, and there was only one man in his immediate circle with enough tactical experience and historical knowledge to give him a lead.
Naruto returned the book to its place. His objective for the next day was set.
The Dawn of Shadows
The next morning, at seven o'clock sharp, Team 7 was gathered on one of the wooden bridges that crossed a river near the Academy.
Sasuke Uchiha leaned against the railing, arms crossed and brow furrowed, staring into space. His pride was still bruised, bleeding internally from the humiliation of the previous day. A few meters away, Sakura yawned, trying to fix her hair to look presentable, though her eyes reflected deep insecurity after being scolded for her uselessness.
Naruto sat on the wooden railing, legs crossed in a perfect lotus position, suspended over the current of water running several meters below. His breathing followed that same unnatural cycle, slowly tuning itself to the murmur of the river. Sasuke glanced at him out of the corner of his eye every few seconds, his fists clenching involuntarily.
To everyone's surprise, especially Sasuke and Sakura's, they didn't have to wait three hours.
At seven-ten in the morning, a subtle swirl of leaves announced Kakashi Hatake's arrival. The Jōnin appeared standing on the opposite railing, reading his usual orange book, though his posture was noticeably less relaxed than the day before.
"Good morning," Kakashi greeted without looking up from his book. "Yesterday was a long day. Today we'll start with something simple. D-rank missions. We'll help the village with—"
"Kakashi."
Naruto's voice cut through the Jōnin's explanation with the clarity of a steel blade. He didn't use the honorific "Sensei." There was no hesitation.
Sakura's eyes widened in shock. "Naruto! Show some respect to Sensei! You can't just interrupt him like that!"
Naruto didn't even turn his head to look at her. He kept his eyes closed, listening to the flow of the water beneath him.
Kakashi stopped reading. He slowly closed his book and tucked it into his vest, feeling that familiar, uncomfortable chill at the nape of his neck. The Third Hokage had ordered him to observe and analyze the boy, so he had to measure every interaction with extreme care.
"Do you have some question about the missions, Naruto?" Kakashi asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"This village's mundane chores are irrelevant to me," Naruto replied, slowly opening his blue eyes to fix them on Kakashi's visible eye. "I have an academic question. Yesterday you mentioned that my chakra was a frozen lake, different from the normal flow of shinobi. I assume you have encyclopedic knowledge of the different ways energy manifests in this continent."
Sasuke tensed, paying absolute attention. Anything related to Naruto's anomalous power was vital information.
"I've seen many things, yes," Kakashi admitted cautiously. "Where are you going with this?"
Naruto uncrossed his legs and stood up on the thin wooden railing with absolute balance, using no chakra to adhere himself, defying the morning wind.
"Yesterday, in the dusty archives of your library, I read stories about an ancient era. About a Sage who walked like a god among mortals," Naruto began, his voice dropping to a deep, almost reverential tone, which was unsettling coming from him. "An art was mentioned. A method of gathering energy that doesn't depend on squeezing one's own life force, but on drawing out the very will of the world. The energy of nature."
Kakashi dropped his arms. The Jōnin's eye widened imperceptibly, a flash of genuine surprise breaking through his apathetic facade.
"Senjutsu," Naruto pronounced, making sure the word resonated against the bridge's wood. "What do you know of it, hunter? Where is the energy of nature found in this world?"
The wind seemed to stop on the bridge. Sakura looked back and forth, completely lost, not recognizing the term. Sasuke frowned, memorizing the word immediately. Senjutsu... is that the secret to his monstrous strength?
Kakashi Hatake remained silent for long seconds. His mind processed the request. Of all the things he had expected the blond boy to ask about—fire jutsus, advanced chakra control, swords—the concept of Senjutsu was light-years beyond a genin's capabilities or knowledge. Even most Jōnin believed it was just a myth.
"Senjutsu..." Kakashi repeated, his tone turning grave and somber. He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "You actually went to the library to read ancient texts from the Sage of Six Paths' era? Naruto, you're searching the depths of an ocean when you still don't know how to swim on the surface."
"Answer the question, Kakashi," Naruto demanded, his aura beginning to condense again, heavy and expectant.
"Senjutsu isn't a jutsu. It's a forbidden and nearly extinct art," Kakashi finally explained, knowing that lying to such a perceptive individual would be useless. "It uses the natural energy that exists in the atmosphere and the earth, combining it with the user's physical and spiritual energy to create Senjutsu Chakra. But it's not something you can learn by reading a book."
Naruto tilted his head, urging the Jōnin to continue. Combine it with his own energy... how primitive, the Immortal thought. They still haven't learned to purify natural Qi and have to dilute it so it doesn't kill them.
"No one in Konoha teaches it," Kakashi stated, his voice sharp. "Natural energy is too vast, too wild. If a human tries to absorb it without proper training and a perfectly balanced body, nature's energy devours them. Turns them to stone, or transforms them into a monster devoid of reason. There are only legendary places, unexplored lands inhabited by centuries-old summons, where it's said true Senjutsu is taught."
Kakashi looked directly at Naruto, trying to impose the authority of fear. "Forget it, Naruto. Trying to absorb natural energy without guidance is a guaranteed form of suicide."
A thin, cold smile, laden with millennia-old arrogance, appeared on the blond's face.
"Suicide for a mortal, perhaps," Naruto whispered.
He asked no more questions. He didn't need to know more. Natural energy was there—in the air, in the river flowing beneath his feet, in the trees surrounding the village. It was wild, yes. It was lethal to the fragile bodies trying to channel it through their primitive chakra system.
But Naruto was not a shinobi. He was a disciple of the Dao. He had refined the chaotic energy of celestial storms in his past life. If the nature of this world wanted to turn him to stone, it would have to prove it was harder than his own spirit.
"Enough history," Kakashi said, trying to regain control of his team, though he felt as if he were trying to tame a dragon with dental floss. "We have to pull weeds at Mrs. Shijimi's house. Let's go."
Naruto jumped off the railing gracefully, landing silently on the bridge's wooden planks. As he walked behind his teacher and his bewildered teammates, an absolute decision forged itself in his mind.
Tonight, he would begin trying to devour nature's energy. And if the heavens of this world tried to crush him, he would tear them apart from within.