"Awooo~"
With a loud pop and a cloud of smoke, Kiba and Akamaru fused into a massive two-headed wolf.
Since Kiba initiated the fusion one-sidedly without Akamaru's coordination, the resulting beast wasn't its usual monstrous size.
It was roughly the size of an ordinary bear.
After merging their chakra networks, Kiba absorbed half the burden of the raw natural energy corroding the dog's body.
Both wolf heads let out agonizing, gut-wrenching howls.
Just like Akamaru, Kiba instantly lost his grip on reality, slipping into a berserk frenzy.
But compared to the dog tanking the lethal dose alone, this was a massive improvement.
At the very least, the skin on the two snarling heads was no longer burning red.
"Naruto, under my authority as Hokage, I'm dumping this mess in your lap. Since that damn stray dog Jiraiya—no, that bastard—assigned you this mission, Akamaru and Kiba are yours to save!"
Tsunade patted Naruto's shoulder.
She grabbed Sakura and Ino by the collars, dragging them back toward the unconscious Hinata to check her vitals.
"Yes!"
Hearing Tsunade issue a direct order under the title of Hokage acted like a sleeper agent activation code.
Naruto instantly fired up.
"Kiba! Akamaru! I'll definitely save you and draft you as my Sage Mode comrades!"
Naruto's current hype mirrored his energy during the original Fourth Shinobi World War when he distributed the Nine-Tails' chakra to the entire Allied Shinobi Forces.
The difference was, this time, Naruto wasn't passing out Tailed Beast chakra.
He was passing out senjutsu chakra.
He was going to force the entire shinobi world to learn his degenerate Sage Mode shortcut!
And patient number 1 would be Kiba and Akamaru.
"Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!"
Naruto slapped his hands together, spawning over a hundred shadow clones.
At a command from the original body, the mob lunged toward the thrashing two-headed wolf.
"Awooo—!"
The beast howled, violently shaking its massive frame and blasting the shadow clones away.
The clones smashed through nearby walls and fences, vanishing into smoke with a rapid-fire series of pops.
"So strong! That raw power already rivals the giant toads from Mount Myōboku," Naruto muttered, processing the tactile feedback sent back by his dying clones.
Was this the stat boost Kiba and Akamaru received just by touching senjutsu chakra?
Before today, the duo peaked at average chūnin level.
Now, even though they were berserk and hadn't successfully balanced the natural energy to trigger true Sage Mode, they possessed terrifying raw strength.
Once they actually mastered the technique, wouldn't they skyrocket into the elite tiers?
"Kiba, once this is over, you'd better thank me properly. At the absolute minimum, you owe me half a month of Ichiraku ramen." Naruto cracked his knuckles, preparing for round two.
Earlier, Naruto spammed his standard shadow clone mob tactic, which the wolf easily shredded.
Now, however...
Naruto wanted to try absorbing the trace senjutsu chakra from the vomit-covered scrap he swallowed earlier to see if he could trigger Sage Mode the traditional way.
Naruto's main body sat cross-legged in the dirt, closed his eyes, and began gathering energy.
...
Inside the mental space.
Kurama's expression shifted from smugness to pure horror.
"Oh no! The idiot isn't using the shortcut! He's trying to meditate the traditional way!"
"NANIII?!" The other Tailed Beasts panicked.
Making Naruto abuse the shortcut to burn through his physical durability was the core of their survival plan.
How the hell had the operation gone sideways this fast?
"Ah! Leave it to me!" Shukaku lunged at Kurama, jaws snapping wide open, and bit down hard on the fox's body.
Kurama thrashed, trying to shake the raccoon off, but Matatabi and Gyūki immediately pinned the fox down from the left and right.
With Kurama's god-tier strength, breaking free of the grapple shouldn't have been a problem.
The issue was that the fox hesitated to use lethal force right out of the gate, and by the time it actually tried to struggle, the ambush succeeded.
Under Kurama's horrified gaze, Shukaku clamped its teeth down right where it hurt.
"ARGGHHHHH—!"
....
"ARGHHHH—!"
In the real world, Naruto suddenly felt a horrific burst of phantom pain and screamed.
His concentration snapped.
The traditional gathering of senjutsu chakra shattered instantly.
"What happened? It suddenly hurt like hell." Naruto scrambled to his feet, totally confused.
He shoved a hand down his pants, checking for damage.
Finding no physical injury, he frowned.
"Could this senjutsu chakra have a toxic side effect?"
Naruto glanced at the two-headed wolf still thrashing against the remnants of his shadow clones.
Akamaru and Kiba were currently going absolutely feral, suffering immense agony from the natural energy.
In that case, it made perfect sense that Naruto suddenly felt a phantom spike of pain too.
Naruto didn't overthink it.
Since the traditional meditation method failed, he fell back on his trusty Uzumaki Naruto Secret Technique: Beating his meat.
And recently, he actually optimized the jutsu.
Compared to the original version, this specially upgraded patch ran much faster.
So even if he taught the beta version to the rest of the village, he still maintained an absolute tactical advantage.
The optimized version drew inspiration from the Rasengan.
Even after Naruto mastered the Rasengan one-handed, he still preferred spawning two shadow clones to help him grind the chakra into a sphere.
It wasn't because he couldn't form the jutsu alone.
It was just more comfortable and efficient.
It was the difference between drawing a perfect circle freehand versus using a compass.
As for why shinobi screamed the names of their jutsu mid-combat? It forced their brains to focus.
They could cast silently, but screaming made the chakra flow smoother.
Naruto's new Sage Mode entry method operated on the exact same logic.
Two shadow clones physically assisted one shadow clone in jump-starting the process.
The technique was extremely aggressive.
By the climax, the clones genuinely formed a friction-based chakra sphere similar to a Rasengan.
But once that specific "Rasengan" formed, the active shadow clone detonated, vanishing in a puff of smoke.
That conveniently transferred the sensory feedback and the balanced senjutsu chakra straight back to the main body.
Just like that, Naruto's main body successfully flashed into Sage Mode! (wtf)
This patched method offered another massive advantage.
During the climax of the process, a blinding aura of chakra light covered the clones, protecting Naruto's physical privacy from onlookers.
Although, given the context, everyone still knew exactly what the degenerate was doing behind the censorship glow.
After entering Sage Mode, Naruto's perception, raw strength, and speed multiplied drastically.
This time, even without a mob of clones acting as meat shields, Naruto easily bypassed the wolf's defenses and closed the distance.
"Akamaru! Kiba! I'm here to help you!"
Naruto realized the two-headed wolf was deceptively fast.
More importantly, it thrashed violently, making it impossible to pin down unless he spawned a massive wave of clones to physically bury the beast under a mountain of bodies.
But Naruto refused to take that route.
He firmly believed his Sage Mode shortcut required the user to purge distracting thoughts through physical release.
If he chained Akamaru and Kiba down against their will, they would psychologically resist the process.
The energy flow had to be natural.
Then how the hell was he supposed to maintain control of a giant, berserk wolf?
'Got it!'
"Frog Kata!"
Naruto shifted into his senjutsu-enhanced combat stance.
Even if he couldn't directly touch the flailing two-headed beast, he could use the invisible, extended reach of Frog Kata's natural energy aura to manually 'assist' them into Sage Mode.
The biggest hurdle now was stamina.
Kiba and Akamaru were both in their physical prime—well, their teenage prime.
They also lacked Naruto's shadow clones to speed-run the process, meaning entering Sage Mode wasn't something they could achieve in sixty seconds.
More and more onlookers gathered around the shattered Hokage Building, drawn by the commotion.
You couldn't really blame the Konoha villagers for acting like bloodthirsty gawkers unafraid of getting caught in the crossfire.
After all, a scene this historically unhinged was something you only witnessed once in a century!