The thing is that Jiraya was happily laughing, as Minato was shaking his head while forcing himself to smile.
Soon, he’ll get back to his old habits, and what have been just promised will be thrown out of the window.
“Kid! Did you just use the Yuki Clan Ice?” When he was over with the mess that happened, Ryo’s Ice was the 1st thing he asked about!
“Well, it’s ice, but it’s not Yuki’s, it’s mine.”
“Yours?”
“Yes! Since you know them Jiraya san, can Yuki clan members make Ice Dragons?”
Saying that, Ryo made Jiraya recognize the difference between the two.
“Kid, is your Ice Release also a Kekkei Genkai?”
Ryo nodded. He wasn’t really sure whether it was a Kekkei Genkai. Yet it was true anyway that this world recognizes non learnable abilities as blood limited ones.
“The let me see you use Ice release!”
Ryo had Chakra flow through his body, making his cells shift their structure towards that of ice molecules. Then he used water trumpet and froze the water.
Jiraya carefully observed him performing those techniques. The instant Ryo froze the water, Jiraya was able to feel those fluctuation in natural energy again.
Like Ice dragon, it wasn’t fully reliant on natural energy, just partially.
“Kid, show me the Ice Dragon!”
Ryo did not know what Jiraya was doing, but it looked to him like he was on to something. Ryo was also curious about his Ice Release and wanted to know more about it. So Jiraya’s discovery might help him in studying it.
For this reason, he used again the large amount of chakra needed to form the dragon. It was finally understood by Jiraya: Ryo fused the water and wind releases in Natural Energy to form Ice!
This meant that the condensation of an Ice Dragon used up a lot of natural energy.
Jiraya also saw Ryo’s eyes change. This was a natural effect of using Natural energy. He could recognize that easily after year of practicing Senjutsu.
Natural energy is the energy gathered from the world itself. It is not a variant of Chakra. It has a strong phagocytic nature. When practicing, a trainee might get overwhelmed by the overflow of energy causing him to become a part of nature: A solid rock.
As Jiraya was himself adapt to natural energy, he could actually perceive it. And to his surprise, Ryo was a user of it.
“Kid, your Ice Release is different from that of the Yuki clan.”
“Jiraya san, did you find something out?”
“The Yuki’s blend their Wind Chakra with their Water Chakra to release Ice. It belongs to the kind of Ninjutsu that’s released from the inside. Your body absorbs the natural energy from your surroundings, fusing its wind and water properties to create an Ice release originated from the outside.”
“Natural energy?” Jiraya understood from this question that Ryo didn’t know what natural energy was, so he went on to explain it.
However, Ryo was just really surprised!
In the Manga, Natural energy was one of the strongest power sources in the Narutoverse. Mastering it was key to use Sage mode.
Sage mode uses natural energy to enhance agility, attack, defense, and give a wide variety of sensory abilities.
In short, Sage Mode boosted Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Taijutsu altogether to a much higher level, granting its master a ticket to Kage level.
“Sensei, if you say that sage mode is the combination and balancing of one’s own Chakra with natural energy. Isn’t that something a bit out of reach?”
Minato had a contract with the toads of Mount Myoboku, so he knew about Sage mode, but he was still at the beginning of his practice.
“Well it isn’t impossible to get though. This kid’s technique has natural energy! Kushina, use Fireball to burn out this dragon, go all out with the Kyubi’s Chakra!”
Fueled by Kurama’s Chakra, the C-grade Jutsu was unleached on the Ice dragon.
“Oh yeah sorry about that! The Ice dragon won’t melt that easily, as it’s infused with natural energy!” Kushina spent more than a full minute launching Fireballs before the dragon even started to melt.
The toad attack Jiraya used had Natural energy within it, thus enabling the melting the Ice dragon that much quicker.
“Wait a minute, Jiraya San! You just said that I’m absorbing the wind and water properties of natural energy. But I don’t have wind affinity! How is that possible?”
“No wind affinity? That is impossible. Even if you’re relying on an external source, you need wind affinity to be able to make Ice Release happen.”
As he was speaking, Jiraya was checking out his clothes and pockets looking for something. It looked like he couldn’t find it. He finally looked at Minato and said: “Do you happen to carry around some Chakra Induction Paper strips?”
Minato pulled out some and handed them to him.
“Kid, enter you Chakra!”
As Ryo did, the test paper got wet, then wrinkled, and finally cut down the middle!
Water, Thunder, and Wind! At the age of 4 when he 1st had this test, Ryo remembers that his only affinities were only the 1st two.
Ryo knows that affinities can be acquired through practice. But never did practice for wind attributes. The only explanation is that when he was trying to get his Ice affinity, this affinity came along with it.
“Seeing this kid’s strong Ice affinity, I would say that his wind affinity should be very strong! Minato, teach him how to use: [Futon: Daitoppa]”
“Okey, Ryo, you should start with...”
After Minato’s demonstration, Ryo tried to do it and it was pretty easy for him.
“This little devil is very suitable to be a contractor of the Mount Myoboku toads, don’t you think Minato?”
“Sensei, I agree.”
Mount Myoboku toads are really powerful, both offensively and defensively. They intelligence transfer is also top-notch. This shouldn’t be a small boost to Ryo’s arsenal.
Seeing how Minato agreed, Jiraya didn’t hesitate to pull out the contract scroll.
“Little devil, this is the summoning contract of the Mount Myoboku toads. After you sign in your name with blood, you will be able to summon them to help you in need!”
Signing such a contract would give him the chance to learn Senjutsu. When he learned he had been using natural energy, he decided to find a way to study it. This couldn’t be any more fitting.
Ryo returned his flesh to normal, cut his finger, and wrote his name on the contract scroll.
“Kid, use the summoning seal, you probably learned that already with your academy teacher. Use it and try to summon one of the toads!”
Ryo nodded, and then entered his Ice mode! He wanted to try out and see what using natural energy actively while summoning would bring out.
Boar → Dog → Bird → Monkey → Ram [Summoning Jutsu]!