Uchiha Jin narrowed his eyes slightly.
Although his expression was very gentle, caution was hidden deep within his heart.
To put it bluntly!
It would be great if he could get some information from Katsuyu today, but even if he couldn't, he could still test the Three Great Sage Regions, especially whether Shikkotsu Forest had certain plans for the future of the Ninja World.
Mount Myōboku and Ryūchi Cave were relatively easy to guess, but Shikkotsu Forest appeared to be more subtle.
Since Senju Hashirama was here and the opportunity had presented itself, he naturally wanted to test the waters.
As for—danger?
He didn't care!
Although he hadn't awakened the Rinnegan yet and his strength was only at the peak of the Super Kage Level, he still had some ability to protect himself.
At the very least...
Shikkotsu Forest wouldn't be able to keep him there!
"This—is a bit difficult."
"If you want to be reverse summoned, Lord Uchiha, then you first need to sign a summoning contract with Shikkotsu Forest."
Katsuyu's tone remained gentle as she immediately explained in a soft voice.
Uchiha Jin's brow furrowed slightly.
A summoning contract?
Aside from the Uchiha Clan's Ninja Cats, he had indeed never signed any other summoning contracts.
In the beginning, he wasn't qualified.
The summoning contracts of the Three Great Sage Regions were not things ordinary people could obtain.
And later on...
As his strength gradually became formidable, he no longer needed the help of summoning beasts.
This logic applied throughout the entire Ninja World!
Just like Senju Hashirama before him, although he had signed with Shikkotsu Forest, he had actually never summoned Katsuyu.
"Fine!"
Following Uchiha Jin's nod, since the Senju family's summoning scroll was with Tsunade, Katsuyu personally returned to Shikkotsu Forest to bring back a new summoning contract scroll.
Uchiha Jin cut his finger and, without any hesitation, wrote his name and pressed his bloody thumbprint onto it.
"Lord Jin."
"You will be the one to keep this summoning scroll from now on."
"I will return to Shikkotsu Forest now. Both of you should be prepared to be summoned at any time."
After speaking.
Katsuyu didn't hesitate either, disappearing instantly with a 'poof'.
Uchiha Jin pondered for a moment before he couldn't help but ask, "Why do I have a faint feeling that this Slug Sage really wanted me to sign with Shikkotsu Forest? Or is my self-perception just too high?"
Senju Hashirama, in response, had a forehead full of question marks.
Clearly.
He wouldn't be of any help to Uchiha Jin with matters that required using one's brain.
Uchiha Jin knew this very well, so he didn't expect an answer from Senju Hashirama and instead began to think for himself.
Yes!
Although signing with Shikkotsu Forest just now seemed perfectly normal, mainly because he wanted to test the Slug Sage, for some reason he still had that lingering feeling.
Two minutes later.
Uchiha Jin suddenly felt a connection established between himself and a colossal entity in the ethereal distance.
Is this—the Reverse Summoning Jutsu?
He did not block this link and completely opened up his mind.
Then, in the next second.
Everything in Konoha before him shattered like a mirror, and he couldn't help but narrow his eyes. When he opened them again, he saw an ancient forest shrouded in mist.
What amazed him even more was that the Natural Energy here was extremely dense, at least twenty times denser than in the Ninja World.
And that wasn't the most surprising part. What truly caused him a hint of shock and confusion was that he couldn't sense even a single trace of Chakra within this Natural Energy.
How is that possible?
At this moment, Uchiha Jin was a bit puzzled, yet he also seemed to faintly understand something.
"Lord Hashirama, Lord Jin!"
"Please follow me. I will take you to find the main body."
While Uchiha Jin was silently thinking, a large slug appeared before the two of them.
Its tone was as gentle as ever.
Uchiha Jin and Senju Hashirama silently followed behind the slug, and before long, they arrived in front of a towering mountain.
In the next second.
The towering mountain suddenly collapsed, revealing an ultra-large slug comparable to a prehistoric behemoth.
"Lord Hashirama, long time no see."
"Slug Sage, hello!"
Katsuyu and Senju Hashirama exchanged brief greetings, and then Katsuyu turned her gaze toward Jin: "Lord Jin, what is it you wish to know?"
Uchiha Jin was slightly shocked.
He truly hadn't expected that the mountain before him was the Slug Sage's main body.
There was no other way!
This Slug Sage didn't have any Chakra aura on her body; in his perception, she was almost entirely composed of Natural Energy.
"Official business can wait until later!"
"What I want to know most right now is why there is no Chakra aura on your body?"
"How did you do it?"
Uchiha Jin spoke immediately, his eyes filled with a thirst for knowledge.
This point was very important!
Why had he lived so cautiously every day since he transmigrated, despite already being a powerhouse? Why had he unhesitatingly abandoned the shortcut of using Hashirama cells to awaken the Rinnegan?
It was because as a transmigrator, he was very clear about the core weakness of the Chakra system...
Being subject to others!
A superior can easily devour an inferior.
No matter how high your cultivation is, as long as a pure-blooded Ōtsutsuki descends, they can easily harvest everything you have.
Even a high-ranking Ōtsutsuki can treat a lower-ranking Ōtsutsuki as food.
What was the Ninja World in the eyes of the Ōtsutsuki? In their words, it was a nursery, a place where a crop could be harvested every so often.
In order to survive, in order to become stronger...
Even though he knew the flaws of Chakra, Uchiha Jin could only follow the Chakra system, but he was always wary of this fact.
This was why he so desperately hoped for the Small Tower to officially open, and why he was unwilling to use Hashirama cells to awaken the Rinnegan.
Being powerful was useless!
Unless one could become an Ōtsutsuki God, it was all meaningless.
The reason he planned the war to unify the Ninja World so carefully was because he was afraid of attracting the attention of a certain Ōtsutsuki.
Uchiha Jin was afraid that if he stood out too much, the people behind the scenes would realize he was ruining their plans and would end up treating him like a 'meat bun' to be eaten directly.
In other worlds, this might be a metaphor.
But in the Ninja World, this was a hard fact!
Currently, he might seem the strongest in the Surface World of the Ninja World, but in the eyes of the Ōtsutsuki, he was still just a 'meat bun'!
Now, however, things were different.
Upon sensing the pure Natural Energy in Shikkotsu Forest, especially the lack of any Chakra aura on Katsuyu, he felt a sudden surge of excitement in his heart.
Could he follow Katsuyu's path? Could he completely abandon the Chakra system?
If there really was such a possibility, he wouldn't even mind postponing the war of unification!
After all, to put it bluntly.
Unifying the Ninja World was just a means to achieve his goals. Fundamentally, he didn't care about the lives of the Civilians in the Ninja World; after all, this wasn't the world he originally came from.
He had no feelings for the current Ninja World!
On the other side.
After hearing Uchiha Jin's question, Katsuyu couldn't help but fall silent.