Naruto: Tango with Death

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After the death of Hirahisa, Sendai seemed to become much more active than before. The people finally understood they had someone having their back, and so they gave their all.

With the healthcare system put in place, the hospital was in over their heads for a while, but the support from Konoha came in the right time.

Through the following weeks, as virtually all the nobles still free left the capital for their countryside estate, a large area of the city suddenly became available.

And so I decided to raze down most of the expensive mansions within the first circle of the city, moving houses there. I had made public my plan for the city, and it was to destroy the notion of rings.

I didn't see a point in placing all the industries within one place, and separate the people within different, segregation areas. Instead, I wanted a much more normal disposition, with people all over the city, and industries spread among them.

But most of the factories were going to be moved outside of the city, of course that was going to take time, but everything does.

Moreover, I also got to see Jotaro, and used him as well as a good bunch of Earth Benders to help with all the renovations and moving, so that would drastically lower the time needed.

However, on the personal plan, I hit a wall I did not expect.

Back when I killed Yagura, the Mizukage, I absorbed a ton of Blood Essence from him, but mostly from Isobu. The amount had been such that I even had more Blood Essence than Yin and Yang Chakra.

But I hadn't killed anyone personally ever since, and my chakra had grown. And today, it had finally grown up to my Blood Essence's level.

In other words, I could theoretically make my own Sage Mode. Yet, I was sporting a deep frown.

That is because I came across two problems. First, I hesitated even trying to activate Sage Mode. I knew everything I needed to know to activate it, but there was also a level of uncertainty that scared me a little.

My Sage Mode was different from other people's Sage Mode. I was not getting energy from a Sage, I was emulating the state of being of a Sage. That meant that I would turn all the energy within me into Senjutsu Chakra, making for a much more powerful Sage Mode.

That's why I didn't know whether I would be able to turn it off. Why would I want to do that?

Well, despite having reached the Chakra and Blood Essence to activate Sage Chakra, I hadn't reached the peak for any of them. Hence, even if I activated Sage Mode, I wouldn't reach my strongest state.

But then, what if I was not able to turn back to normal? Would I be able to increase my energy while in Sage Mode?

So I was afraid I wouldn't be able to reach my full potential if I activated it too early, and knowing the dangers that awaited this world, I couldn't have that.

Yet, my curiosity eventually won, and I started the process.

With Jashin by my side, carefully examining my internal condition, I manipulated the three energies within me.

It actually wasn't that hard to me, I was used to consciously merge my Yin and Yang Chakra to create Chakra, so adding one more energy wasn't that hard.

Yin Chakra in the head, Yang Chakra in my tummy, and Blood Essence in my back. However, for Sage Mode, I needed yet another energy, a fourth one. Natural Energy, the energy of the World.

And for this step, I was on my own. After all, Sages were born with Senjutsu Chakra, and human users only borrowed the energy from a Sage, who would do most of the work for them.

But I had thought of this for a long time, and I had come to the realization that all I needed was a place in my body strong enough to resist the merge of all four energies.

Coincidentally, I had a certain set of points in my body that was used to accommodating much stronger bursts of chakra compared to the rest, and were made for it.

They numbered eight, and they were the Gates.

And so I turned all three of my energies into streams, and sent them towards the First Gate, the Gate of Opening, on my brain's left hemisphere.

As the three energies entered the Gate, I turned them into a swirl as they started exerting a powerful pulling force. I felt my body hurt, but I kept going as I felt something new.

Something surrounding me, that I had never seen or felt before this day. Natural Energy.

As more Yin, Yang Chakra and Blood Essence entered the Gate, the pulling force increased, as if turning into a black hole as the Natural Energy started getting attracted into the Gate of Opening.

But as the Natural Energy started flooding in and mixing with my other energies, I felt the world turning red.

At first I thought it was my vision, that the energy had caused enough damage to make me bleed, and some of it got into my eyes, but as I lifted my eyes from the ground, I realized it wasn't.

The sky was blue, but a red aura was rapidly spreading. The air itself seemed to quake, and as I looked down, I was horrified to see that the garden I had been attending to was rapidly rotting. The grass was wilting, the dirt was turning into sand, and even a nearby tree was dying.

Horrified with this, and thinking it could also affect my body, I hurriedly tried to stop what was happening.

However, the pull from the swirl of energies was getting stronger with every moment, and from it's center, the terrifying red aura was spreading.

Ignoring the damage I was doing to my body, I forced my three energies back where they came from, but as I did I realized a part of them was changed.

I would say it was rotten, but that wouldn't be right. It was powerful, and linked together. It was turning into Senjutsu Chakra.

Thinking fast, I did not hesitate in severing those strands from my pools of energies, dropping it back into the Gate of Opening.

A small pulling force was still there, but because the energy was too weak, it quickly started dying out as the four energies finished their transformation within my Gate of Opening.

And there, laid a small, red bead. Unfortunately, I couldn't care less about it as I had much worse problems.

Because of the sudden pull out of energy, I had suffered grave injuries, both from the inside and the outside. My skin had ruptured, my muscles were torn, my bones were shaken, and even my organs were showing signs of failure.

Was it anyone else, they would already be dead. But even my healing factor was not keeping up. As for opening the Gate of Healing, I did not even consider that, as there was still that red bead within my Gate of Opening, and to reach the Gate of Healing, my chakra would need to pass by that red bead.

So instead, I mustered some of my chakra to teleport myself to Yami Mountain. Feeling the damage increasing, and my vitality decreasing, I, who stood on top of the mountain, did not even think of walking to the Sacred Water Pool, and instead literally clawed through the hard rock making the mountain.

Finally, I reached the heart of the mountain, where there was the Sacred Water Pool. I fell in it, and lost consciousness.