Chapter 481: Konohamaru and Kakashi's Joint Effort!
Kakashi stared at Konohamaru's back, his vision blurring.
Even though Kakashi had already absorbed a considerable amount of Hashirama cells provided by Obito, his "Mangekyō old-eye syndrome" was still acting up.
This wasn't a vision problem—it was emotional resonance!
When Kakashi looked at Naruto, he could see the backs of his sensei, Namikaze Minato, and Jiraiya.
And now, looking at Konohamaru, he could also see the silhouettes of Sarutobi Hiruzen and Sarutobi Asuma.
On top of that, Kakashi suddenly thought of Obito's classic line: "Those who don't follow the rules are trash. Those who don't cherish their comrades are worse than trash."
And then its absurd derivative version surfaced in his mind: "Those without the Sharingan are called eunuchs, but those who can't protect their comrades are even worse than eunuchs!"
'Huh? Why does it feel like I'm insulting myself?'
Kakashi shook his head hard and forcefully erased that thought from his brain.
"Konohamaru, let's work hard together."
"Alright!"
"..."
After the burst of enthusiasm faded, Kakashi began analyzing the actual situation.
Neither he nor Konohamaru had anywhere near Naruto's chakra reserves.
Relying on the Shadow Clone technique's feedback loop to rapidly enter Sage Mode was almost impossible.
What they needed now was a method that could shorten the time as much as possible.
While Kakashi was racking his brains, Konohamaru suddenly poked him.
"Kakashi-sensei, I have an idea."
"What is it?"
Kakashi replied casually, subconsciously assuming Konohamaru couldn't possibly come up with a solution so quickly.
However…
He had underestimated Konohamaru.
Everyone in the ninja world tended to focus on Naruto, the Child of Prophecy, the protagonist, believing he was the most unpredictable ninja.
But Konohamaru was by no means inferior.
"Kakashi-sensei, look. Our chakra is indeed not as much as Naruto-nii-san's, but Grandpa once told me that Shadow Clones divide chakra evenly, it doesn't actually require that much chakra overall."
"So we can split it into multiple rounds. First create a few Shadow Clones, then after dispelling them, create another batch. Although this is slower than Naruto-nii-san's method, it's definitely faster than doing it normally."
Konohamaru explained his idea seriously.
"Hmm—sounds plausible."
Kakashi stroked his chin thoughtfully and didn't find anything wrong with it.
When he looked back at Konohamaru, he was slightly surprised.
As expected of the grandson of The Professor Sarutobi Hiruzen, his ideas really were flexible.
And this idea was based directly on the fundamental mechanics of Shadow Clones.
The effect of the Shadow Clone technique was that the user's chakra is evenly divided among however many clones are created.
That's why visual techniques alone cannot see through Shadow Clones.
Every clone carries the same amount of chakra.
In other words, the amount of chakra directly determines how many clones can be made.
If a person has a basic survival chakra threshold of 5 and a combat requirement of 10…
Someone with 100 chakra could create 10 Shadow Clones for combat.
But if they tried to push it further and create 100 clones, it would fail.
And if they forcibly tried, their chakra might drop below the survival threshold, causing them to lose all combat ability.
But if they followed Konohamaru's batch-based method, it would work.
True, each use of Shadow Clones still consumes some chakra, but as long as they aren't fighting or using jutsu, just maintaining existence or performing minor actions, the consumption is extremely low.
Using this cycle of clone creation, release, and re-creation, a person with 100 chakra could eventually create a total of 100 clones.
Or even more.
After all, these clones weren't meant for combat.
…Wait.
Something felt off.
Kakashi suddenly noticed a flaw in the idea.
"Konohamaru, have you considered this? Naruto isn't having each Shadow Clone fully enter Sage Mode and then feeding it back to the main body. He only lets each clone partially enter Sage Mode and then immediately dispels it—it's a form of 'stacking'."
"So in your method, dispelling clones is completely pointless. Why not just let the first batch continue working? What's the point of switching to a second batch?"
Kakashi's question instantly stunned Konohamaru, who had been excited moments before.
"Of course… compared to Naruto-niisan, I'm still too far behind…"
Konohamaru collapsed to the ground in frustration.
"..."
Kakashi felt bad seeing that, but there was nothing he could do.
Right was right, wrong was wrong.
If Konohamaru wanted to stand on his own, he couldn't rely solely on praise from Ebisu.
"Hm?"
Kakashi glanced at Naruto, who was leisurely swimming in the river with a toad.
Suddenly, inspiration struck.
When looking at Naruto, Kakashi thought of how Tsunade had assigned him a mission—to travel across the major hidden villages and spread Naruto's shortcut method throughout the ninja world.
Kakashi then subconsciously thought of his teacher Namikaze Minato's former battlefield opponent—the Fourth Raikage.
He imagined Naruto going to that tall, muscular Raikage and promoting the Sage Mode method. What kind of expression would the Fourth Raikage make? What choice would he make?
As he placed himself in the Raikage's perspective, Kakashi suddenly saw a solution.
The Lightning Chakra Mode of Kumogakure, also known as the Lightning Armor, is a technique that uses lightning to stimulate and activate the muscles, greatly increasing strength, speed, and defense.
So could this lightning activation method be applied to Sage Mode?
After all, he was also highly skilled in Lightning Release.
Kakashi imagined it in his mind, and immediately shivered.
Why does it feel like I'm preparing my own torture session?
However, the method he just came up with actually could be combined with Konohamaru's previously rejected, seemingly useless Shadow Clone technique.
After all, if Shadow Clones got struck by lightning, they would indeed dispel.
The only problem was the increased chakra consumption.
And the clones would need to carefully control the Lightning Release intensity.
"Konohamaru, don't underestimate yourself. Your idea actually works, it just needs to be combined with mine."
Kakashi patted Konohamaru's shoulder.
"R-really? Kakashi-sensei?"
"Really."
Kakashi didn't bother being cryptic and explained his idea directly.
Konohamaru, unlike Naruto, immediately understood the synergy between the two techniques and broke into a smile.
"I knew it! Great, let's start right away!"
"Wait!"
Kakashi quickly grabbed Konohamaru's arm.
"Before we begin, we need to set some rules. No matter what happens, the main body must not be used."
Kakashi said seriously.
Although Konohamaru had previously declared passionately that he would rather give up his future body to master Sage Mode, that was still very different from getting himself electrocuted into a crisp.
The first scenario might just cause some issues—at worst, a slight weakening of his attributes.
But the latter… one mistake could mean total disappearance.
(End of this chapter)