"Uzumaki Naruto, get your ass out here!"
While Naruto was still struggling with his blank scroll, an angry shout echoed from the street.
Naruto got up, rubbed his eyes in confusion, and walked out to find a complete stranger glaring at him.
"You are?"
"You jerk! A few days ago, you transformed into the Nine-Tails and bombed the place where I live! Look what my home turned into! And look at these poor little cats!"
Tamaki angrily pulled a stack of photos from her jacket and slapped them right against Naruto's face.
Naruto peeled the photos off and stared at the collapsed rubble and the little kittens covered in filthy water.
A wave of deep embarrassment hit him.
"I didn't know people and cats lived out there... Fine. I'll go help you clean it up."
Naruto chewed on the idea.
Since he couldn't write a single sentence of this manual anyway, he might as well go out and touch some grass.
Maybe inspiration would hit him on the road.
"Wait."
Kiba's voice suddenly called out from inside the house.
The next second, Kiba materialized beside Naruto.
He leaned casually against the doorframe, brushed a hand through his wild hair, and struck a pose he clearly thought looked cool.
Kiba had fallen in love at first sight.
Or, more accurately, lust at first sight!
"I'll go help too. I'm the most helpful guy around. And you're a ninja cat user, right? After we finish cleaning, I can teach you a little about a 'special Sage Mode' that works with ninja cats..."
Smack!
Before Kiba could finish his pickup line, Tamaki slapped him clean across the face.
After slapping him, she pulled a handkerchief from her pocket, wiped her hand in sheer disgust, and tossed the handkerchief onto the dirt.
"You are not allowed to follow us! Otherwise, the cats will tear you to shreds!" Tamaki glared at him.
She turned on her heel, leaving Kiba alone, messy and broken in the wind.
His youth ended before it even began!
Kiba had no clue Tamaki was present in the crowd yesterday.
She personally witnessed the cursed "good deed" between him and Naruto.
Not only that, but while Naruto technically launched the Tailed Beast Bomb at her house, Kiba was the true catalyst behind the blast.
Tamaki wasn't exaggerating the threat.
Cats excel at holding grudges, and they memorized Kiba's scent.
If Kiba dared step foot in that district, the strays would instantly shred the evil human who ruined their naps and their dinner!
...
"Naruto, where are you going?"
"Naruto-niichan, where are you headed?"
Naruto barely hit the main road when two voices flanked him from the left and right.
Kakashi and Konohamaru.
The two of them happened to bump into him at the exact same time.
Kakashi originally served as 'Tool Number Two' under Tsunade, second only to Shizune.
But yesterday, Tsunade summoned Kakashi on his rare day off.
She informed him that Kiba of the Inuzuka clan somehow mastered a Sage Mode that merged his chakra with his ninja dog.
Tsunade pitched the idea: if Kakashi wanted a power boost, he could track down Naruto or Kiba to learn it.
After all, Kakashi's summons were also ninja dogs and Kakashi was a certified genius
Maybe he wouldn't even need the dogs and could trigger Sage Mode solo.
Every ninja in the shinobi world chased power. What mattered was why they chased it.
Kakashi wanted power to protect the people he cared about and stop Obito from diving deeper down the wrong path.
Whether facing a potential Six Paths Obito or the Ōtsutsuki clan waiting in the shadows, he needed senjutsu.
Even with Kamui offering lethal damage, it wasn't enough.
There was no such thing as having too many tools in the arsenal. He was the Copy Ninja of Konoha!
So Kakashi came looking.
Konohamaru came looking too, also redirected here by Tsunade.
After losing his grandfather, Sarutobi Hiruzen, and his uncle, Sarutobi Asuma, Konohamaru finally joined the ranks of the strongest demographic in the shinobi world: a tragic, whole-family-dead orphan.
Sure, Konohamaru still had distant relatives in the Sarutobi compound.
But as far as he was concerned, his core family was gone.
Because of that trauma, Konohamaru started maturing. He trained harder, desperate for the strength to protect others.
Ebisu could not satisfy Konohamaru's thirst for rapid improvement.
Konohamaru wanted to track down Naruto, but Ebisu blocked him.
Ebisu argued Naruto was way too unserious and that Konohamaru required proper, orthodox instruction.
If the kid followed Naruto, he would definitely turn into a degenerate!
Case in point: Konohamaru had already abandoned his core studies to master Naruto's Sexy Jutsu.
Although Ebisu himself was a massive pervert, when teaching children, he maintained the pristine facade of a respectable beast in human clothing.
So he had the moral high ground to argue.
Thus, Ebisu dragged Konohamaru straight to Tsunade.
In the end, Tsunade didn't care who the brat trained with. She dumped Konohamaru on Naruto's lap.
Ebisu sank into total despair.
He never expected the Hokage to endorse this madness!
"Naruto, I came for that Sage Mode of yours," Kakashi said, skipping the small talk.
"Shh—Kakashi-sensei, keep your voice down! Kiba's mom said it's best to keep this off the radar. Everyone should just silently understand the vibe, or whatever that phrase is." Naruto waved his hands frantically.
"Naruto-niichan, I signed a contract with Grandpa's Enma clan. I want to learn Sage Mode too," Konohamaru whispered, catching onto the secretive tone.
"Great! Kakashi-sensei, Konohamaru, I'll definitely teach you! But can you hold on a bit? I need to help her clean up a place I accidentally wrecked a few days ago."
Naruto was thrilled Kakashi and Konohamaru joined the squad.
Finally, he didn't have to brain-storm the manual with that idiot Kiba anymore.
The facts spoke for themselves.
Who knew if Tsunade heard about Naruto's writer's block and sent these two over to carry him?
Kakashi's talent was undeniable.
Konohamaru was no slouch either.
Anyone who could decipher the Rasengan from Naruto's "pop, squish, bam" teaching method was basically a genius who invented the jutsu from scratch.
With these two translating his nonsense, Naruto felt like a tiger with wings!
"..."
Tamaki watched the three of them whispering and grinning like a bunch of creeps.
She silently took two steps back, increasing the distance between them.
'Sage Mode.'
'It sounded nice.'
'It sounded grand and serious.'
Only the people who witnessed the truth knew those two words were completely polluted, representing something cursed beyond repair.
Just like that, Naruto, Kakashi, and Konohamaru followed Tamaki to the Empty District and met Cat Granny, who stood waiting in the ruins.
"Huh? Why does this granny look kind of familiar?" Naruto scratched his head.
"You're the boy who used to follow Sasuke around when you were young, aren't you?" Cat Granny smiled.
Cat Granny watched Itachi and Sasuke grow up.
She served as the Uchiha clan's primary supplier for weapons and intel.
When Naruto was little, he frequently stalked Sasuke to see what the cool kid did outside the ninja academy. Sasuke noticed, but never bothered chasing him away.
That was why Naruto spotted Cat Granny once or twice from the shadows.
"I don't remember." Naruto shrugged it off. "Forget it. I'll hurry up and help you clean, Granny! This is what I do best!"
Naruto slapped his hands together and triggered the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
He wasn't bragging.
Naruto excelled at cleaning filth since childhood.
He mastered scrubbing graffiti and washing away garbage years before he ever learned actual ninjutsu.
And now, backed by an army of shadow clones, the cleanup was—
"Kyahh!"
Tamaki suddenly shrieked, punching one of the shadow clones square in the jaw and shattering it into smoke.
"Sorry! I've gotten used to that specific hand motion from using Sage Mode!" Naruto's main body yelled, hurriedly apologizing for the highly indecent gesture his clone just made on instinct!