Thanks to all his childhood experience being forced by Iruka to scrub Konoha clean after his pranks, Naruto easily finished the cleanup work in the Empty District.
What kind of pranks did he pull back then?
Splashing paint.
Dumping filth on the Hokage monument.
Those messes were way harder to clean up than this. Compared to that, this job was nothing.
Barely worth mentioning!
"Uh, I saw a lot of ninja cats here, so how about you learn Sage Mode too—"
"Get lost!"
Naruto barely started his pitch before Tamaki kicked him out.
Even after getting shoved out the door, Naruto kept shouting things like, "This is a way to gain the power to protect others!" and "It's essential for protecting the shinobi world and your family!" But Tamaki slammed the door and did not respond.
Helpless, Naruto could only leave the Empty District with Konohamaru and Kakashi, who stood by watching the show.
The three did not choose to return to Konoha.
Instead, they decided to find a nice quiet spot nearby and begin the lesson immediately.
...
Some time after Naruto and his crew left, Cat Granny wrote a letter and handed it to a ninja cat.
"Tamaki, you did well. We aren't Konoha ninja, and they don't see us as Konoha ninja either. In that case, there's no need for us to get involved with their messes." Cat Granny patted the little cat.
"Go. Deliver this letter to Sasuke."
"Meow." The ninja cat responded and darted away.
Objectively speaking, Cat Granny and Tamaki really were not Konoha shinobi.
They merely lived near Konoha, inside the borders of the Land of Fire. They did not even possess forehead protectors, something even fresh genin carried.
Ever since the Uchiha clan's massacre, Cat Granny became strictly "neutral."
There was no helping it.
When the Uchiha clan plotted to "rebel," a fair amount of the intelligence and weapons they stockpiled came straight from Cat Granny.
If she wanted to avoid getting dragged into the bloody aftermath, total neutrality was her only option.
Even trying to officially join Konoha wouldn't work.
That said, while she remained neutral on paper, Cat Granny still leaned toward the Uchiha in practice.
That was why, in the original timeline, when Sasuke came to her as a rogue ninja, Cat Granny still provided him with plenty of tactical support and supplies.
It was the same now.
Cat Granny had her ninja cat deliver the intel that Naruto showed up in her district trying to peddle some Sage Mode shortcut.
The current Sasuke was not a rogue ninja, nor was he consumed by endless resentment and hatred.
After reading this intel, he would only laugh it off.
..
Sure enough.
After receiving the scroll from the ninja cat, Sasuke cracked a smile.
"Dead last, are you trying to trick the entire shinobi world into helping you test your technique? Not a bad idea. I suppose this is the only way you have a chance of catching up to me."
Even while praising Naruto's hustle, Sasuke did not miss the opportunity to flex his own superiority.
But honestly... did Naruto actually think that far ahead? Hard to say.
...
Outside Konoha.
By a river, Naruto summoned a toad and began explaining Sage Mode to Kakashi and Konohamaru.
As Namikaze Minato's student and Konoha's elite Copy Ninja, Kakashi already understood the fundamental principles behind Sage Mode.
He simply didn't know how to physically execute it.
But since Naruto already started lecturing, Kakashi did not interrupt. After all, Konohamaru still needed the beginner's crash course.
And although Konohamaru acted like a mischievous brat in the past, his learning attitude and retention were honestly quite good.
He carefully wrote down every single word Naruto said.
"First, the first step of Lord Uzumaki Naruto's original Sage Mode shortcut is mastering the Shadow Clone Technique." Naruto stood on a rock and formed a hand seal, spawning two shadow clones.
"Wait, Naruto-niichan, is that really the 'first' step? You haven't even explained how to enter Sage Mode yet. Why are you skipping straight to the shortcut?" Konohamaru could not help interrupting him.
"Huh? I did?" Naruto scratched his head. "I can't explain that theory stuff clearly anyway. Let the Mount Myōboku toad explain it to you."
After saying that, Naruto jumped down from the rock and placed the summoned toad onto the pedestal instead.
Kakashi and Konohamaru stared in utter silence.
But there was nothing they could do.
They could only sit back and listen as the toad began the actual lesson.
To be fair, the toad's explanation sounded much more like coherent human speech than Naruto's rambling.
It explained the mechanics of absorbing natural energy and balancing it with physical stamina and spiritual chakra to form a perfectly stable triangle.
It explained that failure caused the natural energy to violently erode the host's body.
For example, failing to balance Mount Myōboku's senjutsu turned the trainee into a solid frog statue.
It even used Jiraiya's imperfect Sage Mode as a case study!
"Jiraiya's Sage Mode requires the assistance of Lord Shima and Lord Fukasaku to help regulate the ratio and balance the senjutsu chakra inside his body. Jiraiya possesses an unruly, chaotic temperament, and because he writes degenerate novels, his emotions and thoughts are constantly in flux. It is incredibly difficult for him to maintain a calm, perfectly still state of mind, so he can only rely on the fusion method.
But that was the old Jiraiya. The current Jiraiya has 'ascended.'
He adopted Naruto's shortcut method. Now, even without the assistance of the two sages, he can trigger Sage Mode on his own."
After finishing the lecture, the toad tactfully hopped aside.
Naruto naturally climbed back onto the rock, looking incredibly smug.
"See, Kakashi-sensei, Konohamaru? That's the genius of my shortcut! Even Pervy Sage had to learn it from me!"
"So, Naruto, you use this specific physical method to calm your mind and purge all distractions?" Kakashi could not help feeling a wave of genuine shock.
He, Hatake Kakashi, a man who spent years immersed in the darkest depths of strange romance novels, had actually been completely outclassed by Naruto in this specific field of degeneracy!
Jiraiya was the same.
Sure enough, hard work was absolutely worthless in the face of raw, unadulterated talent!
"Yeah. So first, you need to learn the Shadow Clone Technique. By using the sensory return effect of shadow clones, I can rapidly jump-start Sage Mode..."
As Naruto spoke, he spawned clones and resumed the 'physical demonstration' he got interrupted from finishing back in the Empty District.
When the active shadow clone vanished with a pop, the proud, smug expression on Naruto's face vanished with it.
He instantly became perfectly calm and still, as if he turned into a desireless, enlightened sage.
At the same time, the orange pigmentation of Sage Mode blossomed around his eyes.
"Whoa! Amazing! I want to learn it too!" Konohamaru shouted, his face full of pure admiration.
"Uh..."
Kakashi opened his mouth, torn on whether he needed to step in as a responsible adult and stop this madness.
Even if Konohamaru—as the Third Hokage's well-fed grandson—matured a little early, the kid was still only at the very beginning of puberty, right?
Abusing this kind of extreme physical shortcut so early... wouldn't it permanently damage his sperm?
Suddenly, the Third Hokage's face flashed in Kakashi's mind.
The Third Hokage served as one of his greatest guides in life.
Although compared to Jiraiya—who gifted Kakashi the sacred texts of Icha Icha Paradise—Hiruzen ranked slightly lower, the old man was still Kakashi's saviour.
As the Third Hokage's only grandson, Konohamaru was someone Kakashi could not simply ignore and let ruin his own life.
"Konohamaru, actually..."
Kakashi stepped up and patiently explained the severe, long-term biological side effects of this shortcut to the kid.
Kakashi did not make the decision for him.
Instead, he laid out the facts and gave Konohamaru the choice.
"Kakashi-sensei, are you looking down on my resolve? What future body?! If I don't secure strength now, I'll be easily slaughtered by the Ōtsutsuki, just like Grandpa and Uncle Asuma! If I'm dead, what do I need a future body for?!"
At this exact moment, Konohamaru's conviction was as firm and unshakeable as Picolo.
Even Kakashi could not help looking at the brat with a newfound sense of deep respect.
Was this the true Will of Fire?