"Welcome to the Shikkotsu Forest, Sarutobi san." The giant Katsuyu said in her sweet voice.

 

"Thank you for having me, Lady Katsuyu. I hope I am not being a trouble for you." Sarutobi replied in a respectful manner.

 

"Don't worry, you are not troubling me at all. I heard that you want to learn the sage art from me?" Lady Katsuyu asked.

 

"Yes, I do. But I must confess to you something. Even though I want to learn the sage art from you, I have plans for learning the other two sage arts from the mount myoboku and Ryuchi cave as well. I just wanted to get that out in order to avoid any future misunderstandings.  I wonder if you have any problem with that?" Sarutobi asked with some concern.

 

"You are really ambitious, Sarutobi san. Even though I don't restrict my contractors from learning from other sage regions, the other two sages would never allow to do such a thing specially the snake sage from Ryuchi cave. He might even kill you directly if you mention something like that. But if you can accomplish that, then I have no problem." Lady Katsuyu replied in a calm tone.

 

"As long as you agree to teach me sage art, I have my ways to make the other two sages teach me their sage art." Sarutobi said.

 

"Since you said that, I will not pry into that anymore. Sign this Summoning Contract. After you do that, I will check your body condition to determine whether you have the qualification to learn the sage art or not." Lady Katsuyu said with her usual sweet voice..

 

"Okay." As Sarutobi said that, he quickly bit off his index finger and wrote his name using the blood in the contract scroll provided to him.

 

"Now let me see whether you manage to pass the minimum requirements to learn the sage art. In order to learn the sage art of Shikkotsu forest, you would need a strong body. The stronger your body is, the easier it will be for you to learn our sage art." Lady Katsuyu said.

 

"Come near me." She added.

 

As Sarutobi got near her, she stretched out one of her legs to check his body thoroughly. After finishing the checking, she said in a shocked voice, "This is my first time seeing such a strong body. Even the body of Hashirama is nothing compared to yours. I am now very optimistic about your future prospect. As long as you work hard, you should be able to learn my sage art within a month or so."

 

"Is it that easy? I heard from others that it takes years to learn sage art. How come the time is so little for me?" Sarutobi asked with some confusion.

 

"Every sage art has its own requirements and mine is to have a strong body. Even Hashirama barely managed to cross that requirement when he first started learning sage art. If not for his talent, he would have never managed to master the sage art to the extent that he has." Lady Katsuyu said.

 

"As for you, you have overfulfilled the criteria. You have such a strong body that you would need just a little bit of talent to successfully learn the sage art. But learning is different from mastering it." Lady katsuyu added.

 

"Only when you will be able passively keep your sage mode all the time without any change of your facial features, only then you could be considered successfully mastering it. And that would take years depending on your talent. You might not manage to master it in your whole life if you don't put enough efforts in it." Lady Katsuyu patiently explained.

 

"Thank you for your explanation, Lady Katsuyu. If you don't mind me asking, can you tell me the requirements for learning the other sage arts from the other two sacred lands?"

 

"Since you are interested, then I will tell you. The sage art from Ryuchi cave has high requirement for the spiritual energy inside a person. Unlike my sage art, which makes your body very resilient to attacks and heals it instantly, their sage art makes a person's brain perform at a very high speed."

 

"If you learn the sage art from Ryuchi cave, your calculation speed during the battles will increase by dozens of times. Inventing new jutsus or improving your existing ones will become dozens of times easier for you. There are other benefits as well like seeing the world in slow motion, memorizing something instantly after seeing once etc."

 

"As for the sage art from the Mount Myoboku, they have the lowest requirement for learning it. As long as you have the talent to feel the natural energy in the air and have some talent to control this energy, you will be able to learn it."

 

"After learning it, your body and reflexes will become stronger." Lady Katsuyu explained patiently as Sarutobi attentively listened to the information.

 

'The sage art from the Mount Myoboku seems most useless from Lady Katsuyu's description. Since the one-piece world is within my reach now, I don't have to worry much about my physical body. But even then, I am going to learn all three sage arts anyway since there is a chance, I might get some huge surprise if I manage to accomplish that.'

 

Sarutobi decided to learn the sage arts from Shikkotsu forest and Ryuchi cave first. Only after mastering these two sage arts, he will go to learn the sage art from Mount Myoboku.

 

"Do you have any other questions, Sarutobi san?" Lady Katsuyu asked.

 

"No, Lady Katsuyu. I have already got all my answers for now." Sarutobi replied with a respectful tone.

 

"Then we can start our training. Sit down cross legged first."

 

Sarutobi did as instructed. After he sat down, two special slugs came by his side and climbed up to his shoulders.

 

"Sarutobi sama, I will channel natural energy energy into your body. Try your best to feel and control it. But the moment you feel any kind of discomfort, tell us. My counterpart will suck the natural energy out of your body in order to avoid any kind of harm." One of the special Katsuyu sitting on Sarutobi's shoulder said.

 

"Ok, I understand." Sarutobi replied as he closed his eyes and started to feel the energy that is slowly entering his body.

 

'This is much more convenient than the training method of the Mount Myoboku. Thankfully, I don't have to get beaten every time I lose control of the natural energy here.' Sarutobi sighed in relief as he gave his total concentration into the training.

 

 

…..

 

 

---Three Weeks Later---

 

'Finally! Even though it takes me ten minutes just to enter the sage mode, I now at least don't have any problem with controlling the natural energy. If I want to use this in battle, then I can just summon these special Katsuyu and enter the sage mode with their help.' Sarutobi thought in a happy mode.

 

"Thank you for you care these three weeks, Lady Katsuyu. Goodbye for now. I will have to bother one your clones to sent me back to the village through the reverse summoning technique." Sarutobi said as he gave her a slight bow.

 

"You don't have to be so polite, Sarutobi san. It is my honour to teach such a talented ninja like you." The giant Lady Katsuyu replied in a cheerful voice before saying her goodbyes and asking one of the clones to send Sarutobi back to Konoha.