"Hm?"
Naruto wiped the corner of his mouth and weakly walked over to Kiba's side, staring down at Akamaru.
The dog lay sprawled on the dirt, howling in agony while all four of his legs twitched violently.
Naruto narrowed his eyes.
Akamaru's face was swollen, his skin burned a bright red, and his teeth seemed to lengthen and sharpen by the second.
"I heard from Pervy Sage that there's a disease called rabies..."
Naruto trailed off as a terrifying realization hit him.
The paper scraps he swallowed contained pure, undiluted senjutsu chakra.
That was the only reason he woke up from his coma.
If that was true, then Akamaru just swallowed a massive dose of raw natural energy.
Naruto's face drained of color.
He suddenly remembered the dire warning he received during his training at Mount Myōboku.
Anyone who failed to balance natural energy turned into a solid stone frog!
"Kiba, this is bad. Akamaru, he's..."
Naruto was about to explain the horror, but another piece of lore clicked into place.
Shima said that people who failed turned into stone. The toads of Mount Myōboku soaked in raw toad oil every day without issue.
And it wasn't just toads.
He never saw any stone insects or stone tadpoles littering the mountain.
When Shima lectured him on the Three Great Sage Regions, she mentioned the habitats of other summon beasts.
Naruto gathered that only humans suffered catastrophic petrification from natural energy.
In that case, since Akamaru was an animal, the side effects would hit differently.
He still couldn't handle the raw senjutsu chakra, but the risk of turning to stone was much lower.
Now Naruto knew exactly what to do.
"Naruto, what the hell are you doing?!" Kiba panicked.
He watched in pure horror as Naruto crouched down, grabbed Akamaru, and started performing the 'degenerate' Sage Mode shortcut on the dog.
Kiba was so shocked he stumbled back two steps!
Off to the side, Hinata had just woken up from her previous fainting spell.
She opened her eyes, saw what Naruto was doing to the dog, gasped, rolled her Byakugan to the back of her skull, and passed out again.
This time, no one could blame her.
The scene was absolutely horrifying!
Passersby on the street instinctively crossed to the other side to avoid the cursed sight.
Even Kiba, who loved Akamaru more than anything, backed away in terror.
'Did the charm mess up Naruto's brain?!' Kiba wondered frantically. Akamaru swallowed the paper and started having seizures.
Naruto woke up, but maybe the chakra fried his brain circuits and made him go completely insane.
Otherwise, why the hell would he do that?!
"Naruto, you bastard! What are you doing?!"
Sakura, who had beaten Naruto half to death earlier, rushed onto the scene.
Furious, she rolled up her sleeves, fully prepared to punch his skull into paste.
Tsunade and Ino trailed right behind her, equally stunned by the spectacle.
At first, Tsunade suspected someone like Jiraiya put Naruto up to giving the girls those toys.
But looking at this exact scene... maybe the kid really had lost his damn mind!
Seriously, what the hell was he doing to that dog?
"Sakura-chan, don't come closer! I'm saving Akamaru!" Naruto shouted with a dead-serious expression.
That firm, unshakeable response instantly short-circuited Sakura's anger meter.
Was he really Naruto?
But Sakura quickly shook it off.
Was he just pretending to act serious so she wouldn't punch him?
"Naruto, what happened to Akamaru? If he's injured, I can treat him. And if I can't, Lady Tsunade is right here!" Sakura frowned.
But halfway through her sentence, she saw Naruto was still doing the deed to Akamaru.
Her vision almost went black.
"Forget everything else! Stop doing that right now!" Sakura screamed.
"Granny Tsuna... Lady Tsunade?"
Hearing Tsunade's name, Naruto remembered Shima mentioned Tsunade signed a contract with Shikkotsu Forest, one of the Three Great Sage Regions.
That meant she understood natural energy.
"Exactly, Naruto. Back away and stop doing... whatever it is you're doing. I'll examine Akamaru," Tsunade ordered, stepping forward.
She cast a weary glance at the dog.
Honestly, it didn't look like Naruto was treating Akamaru.
It looked like Naruto was torturing the poor animal half to death!
"Akamaru ate the Mount Myōboku senjutsu... uh, charm that Pervy Sage gave us to save my life," Naruto explained, deciding to skip the part where he ate dog puke.
"What? Akamaru swallowed raw senjutsu? That's terrible. That paper is way stronger than any secret soldier pill your clan produces," Tsunade said, shocked.
"Then Lady Tsunade, can you save him?!" Kiba asked anxiously.
"Ordinary medical ninjutsu won't work. Strictly speaking, this isn't an injury or an illness." Tsunade shook her head.
"Nooo—Akamaru—!" Kiba dropped to his knees and howled at the sky as if the dog was already dead.
"Kiba, don't panic yet! I know a way to save him!" Naruto seized the crisis to finally pitch Jiraiya's Sage Mode shortcut.
While he had their attention, he also quickly explained why he gave the girls those specific "ninja tools" earlier, hoping it would spare him another beating.
"There's a shortcut like that?! Naruto, what kind of sick nonsense are you spouting?!" Sakura's face flushed bright red with fury.
She clenched her fist tight, but she didn't dare to approach him.
It wasn't because Naruto's explanation convinced her.
It was because Naruto had never stopped "treating" Akamaru this whole time.
Sakura was terrified that if she stepped in and punched him, the dog would accidentally 'finish' entering Sage Mode in the crossfire.
Then it would truly be over.
"No, Sakura. The brat's logic actually holds up." Tsunade rubbed her chin, her face grave and serious.
Tsunade couldn't perform senjutsu herself, but as the heir to Shikkotsu Forest, she understood the theory.
And after Makoto mastered natural energy through alternative methods, she had done her own homework on the subject.
"So Naruto really is saving Akamaru... I've got it!" Tsunade snapped her fingers and locked eyes with Kiba.
"Kiba, do you want to become a legendary ninja like Jiraiya? How far are you willing to go to save Akamaru?"
"Huh?" The completely unrelated questions left Kiba utterly confused.
But he answered the important part. "Lady Tsunade, I'm willing to sacrifice anything for Akamaru! Please, save him!"
Kiba and Akamaru shared a bond far deeper than man and dog.
They were loyal partners in battle!
"Good. Kiba, your clan's secret jutsu allows you to merge your chakra with your ninja dog, right? Right now, you need to share Akamaru's burden. By using Naruto's shortcut method, there's a chance you can help Akamaru bleed off the massive spike in natural energy.
As long as you dissolve the excess energy, you two won't just survive—you might actually trigger Sage Mode in the process!" Tsunade explained the grim reality of the situation.
"I understand, Lady Tsunade."
"There's no time to waste! Akamaru, I'm coming!"
"Ninja Art: Inuzuka-Style Man-Beast Combination Transformation: Two-Headed Wolf!" Kiba dropped to all fours and slammed his hands together, launching the jutsu at his dying partner.
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