Cavern of the Dragons

[RIKU]

Just Days ago…

In a poof of smoke he now stood in the den of the Dragon Sage. There were building like structures inside of the cavern, but that didn’t matter. A tiny Dragon took several steps forward and looked back to hiss, “Follow.” Ryo followed deeper into the cave as they approached a shrine in the very back. It was a large statue of a Dragon with an amulet in his hands. The amulet was the basic symbol for Ying and yang. The dragon began to explain it’s significance to Ryo, “This amulet is what will be used in your training it will help you feel the natural chakra around your body. Unlike the Toad Oil used to train for Toad Sages the amulet is the object that will keep you from turning into a dragon statue and it will allow you to gain natural chakra while moving. This amulet will let you enter sage mode, but it will restrict you from using its benefits. Thus you will need to learn how to do it without the amulet eventually. Go ahead and don the amulet, it will glow when you have the natural chakra completely balanced in your system.”

Ryo stood unaware of what the true power of the Sage was, but he was ready to learn. It was only a second after the dragon explained and Ryo had reached for the Amulet. He already knew how this was going to work, but he didn’t understand how hard it was going to be without the amulet. After putting on the amulet the natural chakra around him made his skin tingle. It was easy enough to feel this new chakra, but his skin blocked its entrance. He pulled the chakra into his body and the amulet began to glow before it fell dark. The dragon immediately responded and said that he had taken in too much natural chakra. He slowly let the chakra seep out of his body and the amulet glowed again before dimming. “Now you have too little, you have to balance all three aspect,” the sage hissed at Ryo for his failure.

This was natural to fail, but Ryo was catching onto this natural chakra thing quickly. He pulled a little natural chakra in, which caused the amulet to glow. It started to dim but he pushed natural chakra out allowing it to glow bright. He had found his balance, but now it was going to get a lot harder. “Great, Great! That was easy enough,” the dragon sage said in glee,“ now you have to take it off. You will need to learn how to gather chakra without the amulet.” Ryo slid off the amulet but he could still feel the natural chakra in him.

He stood still and attempted to gather sage chakra, but the dragon kept mentioning small ways he was moving. He needed to find his zen, or his ability to stay completely still. The dragon finally sighed and pulled a slab of wood out of nowhere, “I’d hate to mimic those damned toads, but it seems you need this.” The dragon threw the slab on top of the stalagmite and it settled balancing on the middle and continued his explanation. “This method is generally used by the toads for their Sages, but to be honest you are the first sage here in a long time. Now sit on the slab…”

Ryo did what he was told and he jumped up onto the piece of wood and the wood began to shake. He was unsettled, almost nervous. As the wood shifted so did he. Ryo shifted his weight with the wood, but the Dragon sighed at his attempts to settle the board. “Stop shaking, once you find you’re center the board will steady,” the dragon seemed so sure of what he was saying Ryo stopped moving and closed his eyes. The board slowly settled and he sat in place awaiting approval from the dragon. After the Dragon sage grunted with approval Ryo began to try to pull in the energy that was called natural chakra. He knew what it felt like his attempt caused his skin to tingle and then a burning sensation over his skin which made him feel a lot different. He opened his eyes… there were claws on his hands and there were fangs in his mouth. There wasn’t a tail sprouting from his ass. He had reached Sage mode, but the Dragon Sage grunted with disapproval, “You are close, but you haven’t utilized the true power of Senjutsu. We have time and you will get it right eventually. Until then we will continue to train…”



Now…

The white snowflakes drifted through the air making definite paths through the air down to the ground. Ryo was wearing a cloak in an attempt to block off the cold, which wasn’t really working. He was freezing cold and he was shivering. There were a few pine trees off in the distance, though the appeared to be a grayish color behind all of the falling snow. The cold air dulled his senses as he walked over the white ground, crunching snow with every step that he took. Ryo had not obtained the results he wanted with normal training when he had visited the Lune dojo in Amegakure. Now was a lot different, he had been walking for several hours through what seemed to be a blizzard. He had no real idea on where he was in conjunction to the village, but he was sure he had veered off the correct path since he was now wandering the frozen wastelands of the dragons. If only people knew how he had got here…

The dragons promised him a power that he could never achieve with normal Chakra. After training for several days he needed to get away from the normal encampment. He had already achieved Sage mode using the Dragon’s amulet of ying and yang. The amulet like many things had its downsides While it was being worn it was impossible to use the natural energy. Ryo figured that complete solitude would give him an advantage to balance the chakra, stamina, and natural chakra in his body.

Now he crossed his arms trying to capture the heat in his cloak as if it were a tangible thing he could grasp. Ryo continued towards the pine trees hoping to start a fire with his chakra. Slowly, but surely, he approached the small grouping of pine trees. As he got closer he got this anxious feeling in the pit of his stomach, he’d be able to get out of the snowdrift and he’d be able to start a fire and warm up. He moved with haste as he began to jog within a couple feet of the tree. He was rather exhausted, having walked through these snowy barren wastelands for several hours. Pulling his arms away from his own body heat he began grabbing braches with his mitten-covered hands. Crack, snap. The branches broke with very little effort, which was quite a relief from the arduous task of actually walking all the way to this tree.

He kept pulling branches off of the Pine tree letting them fall to the ground after they weren’t connected to the tree anymore. After the ground around him was littered with a large amount of branches he finally stopped tugging at the tree’s branches. Taking a small moment to breath he pulled all the branches into a pile about 4 feet from the base of the tree. After the branches were conglomerated into the pile he pulled his hands and made the symbols slowly to make sure he was correct the first time. It wasn’t that the jutsu was hard; more or less it was because he was beginning to lose the feeling in his hands. After hitting the last symbol he let breathed out three large balls of fire from his mouth that made a much larger splash of flames than he expected. The sticks caught on fire rather quickly; however, instead of just letting it grow normally he pumped a B rank of chakra into the fire to make it grow to full size instantly. He paused and put his hands up towards the fire to warm them.

The warmth spread through his limbs faster than expected. Even the numbness was beginning to melt away. His eyes scanned the outlaying environment but he couldn’t make out any significant landmarks. Not only that, but the snow was falling so quickly it was creating a white out. He couldn’t see anything outside of a five-foot radius. The conditions made it very important that he remain in one spot. There was no way he could maneuver through this weather, especially since he was traveling without a map. He had used up quite a bit of chakra to walk on the snow. It was worth the amount of physical effort it had saved him, but now his chakra was dwindling much like a candle that was about to run out of wick.

He had been training in the frozen wastelands with the dragons. This was there territory and their snow. He pulled his arms close to his body and stopped shivering. Ryo needed complete stillness. Immediately the natural chakra began to seep into his body and he quickly began to balance all three aspects of Sage mode inside of him. He had become so accustomed to this balance that it was almost instinct to react to the natural chakra. His chakra and stamina was now balanced with the natural chakra.

He stood up and looked at his limbs and rubbed his tongue against his teeth, there was nothing different with him. The dragons had mentioned claws, fangs and possibly a tail. WAIT! His hands ran across his ass very quickly. If anyone were watching he’d look like an idiot. This was unheard of. The dragons said normally he would mutate… They did mention that a true master could access the Sage Chakra without such mutations.

He had achieved enlightenment… True Sage Mode.



He pushed his hands together and he used Shunshin to go back to the dragon village in the Frozen wastelands. Ryo would have gone straight back to Amegakure if he could, but that would require him to know where it was in relation to his position. The dragons immediately noticed his eyes and the chakra emanating from his body. They didn’t act surprised, they didn’t even congratulate him. It was time for him to go home… Even the Dragon sage knew he wanted to go back. It only took a moment for the Dragon Sage and he was back in the Amegakure. The pitter-patter of rain against his skin made him realize where he was. He was one with nature; he was one with the Amegakure. More importantly, he was one with the entire world.