For what feels like an eternity, Ayanami finds herself sitting atop a board placed on a stone spire; she is learning to channel nature energy without the use of toad oil. Naruto sits on another board and spire with two shadow clones next to him. The elder toad, Fukasaku oversees their training.

Through rain, sleet, and snow, they continue to tune in with nature, only stopping to eat or sleep. When one fell, Fukasaku would catch them with his long prehensile tongue, when one began to mutate, the toad sage would beat them with a stick; they would continue this for some time until…

They’re rapidly amassing nature energy… Fukasaku’s eyes widen for a moment and then he smiles.

The toad sage can sense the natural energy flowing into the bodies and mixing with their own chakra. Orange pigmentation appears around each of their eyes, forming rings; Ayanami and Naruto’s eyes open revealing that they both have yellow irises and toad-like pupils.

Unbelievable! They’re both on their way to surpassing Jiraiya-boy--and that Ayanami-girl… She doesn’t possess the same massive chakra reserves as Naruto, but was still able to keep up purely due to her level of chakra control.

So this is the power of a sage? Amazing… An astonished Ayanami assesses her body. I feel like I can do all sorts of things!

As she makes a fist, she feels that her body is different, stronger. She can’t help but smile.

“Wow, this is insane!” Naruto shouts in victory.

“Now that you’ve both mastered sage mode and nature energy, it’s time for the final step.”

“There’s one final step? We’re not done yet?” Naruto asks.

Ayanami raises her hand. “I can handle anything you throw at me, Lord Fukasaku. Just tell me the details of this final step already.”

“It’s a type of sparring sages perform, using sage chakra.” The toad sage punches the air. “Now I shall teach you to use frog kumite to spar with frogs.”

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As the sun begins to set, Ayanami finds herself on one knee, exhausted and sweaty; all of her muscles burn and she loses her sage mode. It takes everything she has just to stand up straight.

Naruto has been embedded into a spire due to one last punch from Fukasaku.

“Let’s call it a day. I can go on, however you two are starting to get the hang of it I’m glad to say.”

“Yes, sir!” Naruto gives a salute.

I wonder… If sage mode enhances everything I already have, how much stronger would my Byakugan and the lightning jutsu I learned from Kakashi become? Or even my gentle fist?! The Hyuga kunoichi ponders as she helps Naruto out of the spire.

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Later that very same night, Ayanami snuck out for some secret late night training. She stands on a lake; lightning chakra is being channeled through both of her hands.

“It’s getting better, but it’s still not at the level I want it to be.” The young Hyuga evaluates her progress.

In the aftermath of Ayanami’s jutsu, the lake is left in a state of boiling; the bubbling water emits steam with an electrical discharge in the form of flickering sparks. The steam begins to turn into fog and blankets the whole lake.

A determined Ayanami infuses more chakra. Shoot for the moon. Even if I miss, I’ll land among the stars…

Ayanami’s focus is interrupted as an intense, bright light and the sound of an explosion goes off in the distance. The explosion of chakra reminds her of the jutsu Naruto used on the late Akatsuki member, Kakuzu. However, the explosion is different, stronger, it’s brimming with sage chakra. Ayanami detects sage chakra coming from Naruto’s new jutsu.

With renewed vigor, the kunoichi resumes her own training, she builds up chakra with lightning being emitted from her hands. The images of Naruto, Sasuke, and Jin appear in her mind, but Ayanami quickly puts these thoughts to rest, shaking her head.

Remember what Roshi taught Goku. There’ll always be someone stronger than you, focus on improving yourself… The leaf kunoichi builds up more and more lightning chakra. “Sage Art Lightning Style…!”

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Sometime later, the sky is covered in clouds and the village that these clouds blanket has been attacked with smoke and fire coming from multiple buildings. Many shinobi and civilians are either dead or severely injured; most of the able-bodied ninja are engaged in a desperate struggle to protect their village.

Multiple giant animals rampage through the village, destroying any building they run through and crush any resistance under foot. All the animals have a number of large piercings all over their bodies and they have purple eyes with concentric circles covering the eyeballs.

Watching the chaos unfold from the sky, a man hovers in the air with his arms outstretched. The man has short, spiky, orange hair and the same eyes as the giant animals on a rampage. His face has six piercings, a metal bar through each ear, three studs through the side side of his upper nose, and one spike stud on each end of the bottom lip. The man wears a black cloak with a red cloud pattern.

The man stares down at the village with no telling expression while infusing massive amounts of chakra, all the giant animals disappear in a puff of smoke. The Fifth Hokage, Tsunade and her anbu bodyguards watch the man float ever higher with a mix of tense anxiety and curiosity from the Hokage’s mansion.

“Now this world shall know pain. Almighty Push!”