"Naruto? What are you doing in Kumogakure? If this were a few years ago, we would have detained you the moment you stepped inside our borders."
The Raikage gave Naruto absolutely no professional courtesy the instant he laid eyes on him.
"But things are different now, aren't they? Uncle B and I are friends, and since you're Uncle B's brother, that makes us friends too. This is the benefit of mutual understanding!" Naruto replied with a shameless grin.
That chain of logic left the Raikage momentarily speechless.
By that definition, if indirect connections counted as friendship, then practically everyone in the shinobi world was best friends!
"What does that have to do with understanding?" The Raikage frowned. "The major ninja villages only made concessions because we're currently facing a common enemy. Don't be so naive!"
"No, that's—"
"Naruto, stop talking for a moment! Don't forget why we came here." Kakashi cut off Naruto's rebuttal.
He understood Naruto's personality and his infamous "Talk no Jutsu."
In the past, Naruto had admitted he wasn't naturally gifted at winning arguments.
That hadn't been false modesty.
Being capable of swaying hearts didn't mean he was actually good at debate.
Naruto couldn't grasp the Raikage's point, and the Raikage had an explosive temper. If this kept up, they'd settle the argument with their fists, and the fragile alliance would shatter all over again.
Kakashi felt like he was aging a decade from the stress of this mission.
"Lord Raikage, what you said is correct. The current peace in the shinobi world was indeed created by the looming threat of the Ōtsutsuki clan. However, that threat has also provided ninja from the different villages with a platform where they can finally begin understanding one another.
Take Naruto and Killer B, for example. Is the bond between them false?
Does it exist only because they share a common enemy?"
Kakashi's argument was clearly several levels above Naruto's shouting.
He acknowledged the Raikage's point first, then used it as the foundation for his rebuttal.
"What exactly did you come here for? Get to the point." After a brief silence, the Raikage changed the subject.
It was an unspoken admission that Kakashi had made a valid point.
"As you said, we face a common enemy, and defeating that enemy will require us to work together. For that reason, Naruto has decided to contribute the secret method he uses to train Sage Mode and share it with the entire shinobi world." Kakashi breathed a quiet sigh of relief and finally moved on to the main topic.
"What? Sage Mode?" The Raikage was stunned.
Sage Mode held an incredibly prestigious reputation.
The most famous—and almost the only universally acknowledged—user was the Sage of Six Paths.
Very few people knew that Senju Hashirama possessed Sage Mode.
After all, besides Uchiha Madara, who could possibly force Hashirama to enter it?
Most of the time, bringing out the Wood Golem was already overkill.
Even fewer people knew about Jiraiya's Sage Mode.
But these days, the "Sage of Six Paths" was no longer merely a legendary figure found in ancient stories.
He had practically walked into the lives of ordinary citizens.
According to the Limited Tsukuyomi novels, the "Six Paths" in his title meant that the Sage occupied some portion of the Six-Tails or something similar.
As for the word "Sage," the books claimed it represented how the Sage of Six Paths had betrayed his original beloved, Gamamaru.
"Yes, Lord Raikage. This is the manual. Kumogakure is only our first destination. After this, we'll visit the other ninja villages as well. However, I should warn you that some of the manual's contents are rather shocking. They are completely genuine, though, so I hope you won't question our sincerity."
Kakashi spoke with such formal composure that he almost gave the impression he was Konoha's next Hokage.
"Shocking? Hmph! What kind of scene haven't I witnessed? You think some training method can frighten me?" The Raikage scoffed, accepted the scroll, and ripped it open without hesitation.
"WHAT THE FUCK—!"
Halfway through reading, the Raikage suddenly cursed, slammed the scroll shut, and glared at Kakashi with a mixture of shock and fury.
Kakashi simply spread his hands.
When the Raikage saw that gesture, his sudden spike of anger faded, and he forced himself to calm down.
Kakashi had indeed warned him in advance.
Still...
"Lord Raikage, keep reading. We've summarized the underlying principles. You can judge for yourself whether it's genuine." Kakashi pointed at the scroll, remaining perfectly calm.
Doubtful, the Raikage reopened it and continued reading.
The manual explained that the method's principle was to make someone enter "sage mode"..... the other kind of sage mode.
In that state, a person could empty their mind and eliminate all distracting thoughts.
That was the most difficult mental state required for true Sage Mode.
When training at Mount Myōboku, a person had to hold a stone slab while sitting balanced atop a pointed stone spike, repeatedly practicing until they had a chance of reaching that state.
Naruto's shortcut, however, only required a sequence of hand movements similar to forming seals.
That allowed the user to reach the same state and greatly reduced the difficulty of entering Sage Mode.
"This..." The Raikage was completely dumbfounded now.
The reason Kakashi had managed to persuade him earlier was precisely because, despite looking like a reckless brute, the Raikage was someone who respected reason and logic.
Kakashi had convinced him because the argument made sense.
Likewise, what was written in this manual was also disturbingly logical.
He didn't know the true training process for Sage Mode, but the explanation on the scroll made it difficult for him not to believe it.
"Has anyone in Konoha actually trained using this method? I mean someone other than Naruto." The Raikage closed the scroll again and stared directly at Kakashi.
A little suspicion still remained.
He wondered whether someone had constructed an elaborate trap to humiliate him.
The logic checked out, and there were no obvious flaws.
But the Raikage still found it difficult to believe that the noble and sacred Sage Mode could be entered through such an... inappropriate method.
It was almost like that Ai character from the earliest Vigorous Paradise novel, going from an icy, aloof fairy to an "ohoho" fairy.
"Of course. The first person in Konoha to train with it was Inuzuka Kiba of the Inuzuka clan. After merging with his ninja dog, he created a new branch based on Naruto's shortcut.
Though perhaps it shouldn't be called new, since Lord Jiraiya once used a similar method.
The principle is to have summon beasts assist with controlling natural energy. Not only does that make the energy easier to manage, it also allows the user to refine a larger quantity of usable senjutsu chakra." Kakashi continued seriously.
"I anticipated that you would have doubts, Lord Raikage. Not only you—the Kage of the other villages will also question this method. That's why both Konohamaru and I used it to master Sage Mode quickly. If you don't have a summon beast, you can still use the original shortcut. It works the same way.... It's merely a little slower."
After finishing, Kakashi maintained a perfectly solemn expression.
He had already guessed what would happen next.
Sure enough, after remaining silent for a moment, the Raikage dismissed everyone around them and ordered the Kumogakure Anbu to leave.
"If you want me to believe you," the Raikage said, "then demonstrate it."