Facing Furina hyping up his glorious past, Kakashi felt nothing in particular. Instead, Naruto's face was full of astonishment.
"What? Teacher Kakashi was already a jōnin at 12 years old? How come I didn't know about this?"
"Quite a few people know about it. If you'd paid even a little attention before, you would've found out. The fact that you didn't just proves you never cared about this kind of thing."
"Oh, I see. So Teacher Kakashi was that amazing back then—already a jōnin at my age. No wonder you said that, Furina. So Teacher Kakashi, you definitely can't slack off from now on either."
"Okay, okay."
After Furina and Naruto casually scheduled his future training for him without asking, Kakashi felt a bit speechless but didn't resist it either.
Thinking carefully, what Furina had just said was indeed correct. After Obito's death, he had been constantly running away from himself, and his demands on himself were far less strict than when he was young. He had slacked off for too long.
In the past, his strength might have been sufficient, but now, without anyone else saying it, he himself already felt his own powerlessness.
Against those famously powerful members of the Akatsuki one by one, he had no confidence in winning against any of them.
And even putting that aside, at least when inevitably facing the Akatsuki in the future, he couldn't drag Furina and the others down, right? He had heard that she had easily defeated one Akatsuki member before.
"Alright then, let this guy who's been dormant for so long burn brightly again for once."
As the words fell, Kakashi's usual dead-fish eyes disappeared, replaced by a very serious expression. This time he wasn't just saying it for fun.
.....
One month later
On the training field, after watching several of Naruto's clones cooperate to gradually create the prototype of a Rasenshuriken, Furina, who was observing from the side, flashed a trace of surprise in her eyes.
"Whoa, not bad. I didn't expect you to master wind-nature chakra transformation to this level so quickly. Although you're still far behind me, combining nature transformation into the Rasengan is probably just a matter of time now."
"Hahahaha, I told you I'd surprise you! It won't take much longer—I'll fully perfect this technique. When that time comes, Teacher Kakashi and the Pervy Sage will definitely be stunned!"
Hearing Furina's affirmation, the smile on Naruto's face couldn't be contained. A month ago he had been thoroughly beaten, making his big talk seem like empty words. Now he had finally won back a little ground.
Furina didn't pay much attention to Naruto's joy. What she cared about was that this move was something Naruto had only mastered after three years of training away and then additional time practicing. Approaching mastery this quickly—was the timing too early? Was it because of her influence?
Although a bit surprised, Furina didn't dwell on it. With her own demonstration of incorporating nature transformation into the Rasengan already out there, it wasn't impossible for others to learn by example and master it ahead of schedule.
And compared to that, what came after the Rasenshuriken was far more important. The technique was indeed very strong, but it also caused great harm to the user. Without Sage Mode to support it, it was absolutely impossible.
"I believe they'll be stunned. But there's one thing I need to remind you about: wind nature focuses on cutting and slicing, very different from water nature.
If used on a large scale, it could even harm your own body. You should be able to feel that yourself."
Looking at the many small cuts on Naruto's palm after the Rasenshuriken prototype disappeared, Furina spoke with certainty. This also saved her from having to make up another reason to warn him.
"Yeah, that's true. So how can I avoid it? Do you have a way, Furina?"
Following Furina's words, Naruto naturally asked the question. For some reason, he always felt this problem was trivial to her—as if she definitely had a solution.
"Of course. There's something called Sage Mode that can greatly enhance all aspects of yourself, thereby reducing the backlash this technique has on your body. On top of that, it can also elevate the power of your technique to another level, like this."
After a rough explanation, a faint blue eyeshadow appeared around Furina's eyes, giving her a mysterious and beautiful look. She was about to let him witness the effect of Sage Mode.
However, under Naruto's expectant gaze, before Furina could show off, a figure of an Anbu suddenly appeared in the distance. Seeing the arrival, the small blue orb condensing at Furina's fingertip also vanished.
"Looks like it's time. We'll stop here for today. I need to go with Tsunade-sensei to meet the Kage from the other villages. As for Sage Mode,
go find Lord Jiraiya. He can use this technique too, and it's probably much more suitable for you than mine."
After giving the instructions, Furina set off with the Anbu.
After the two figures completely disappeared, Naruto withdrew his gazing eyes, then stretched out one hand and began imitating Furina's earlier motion to condense a Rasengan at his fingertip.
However, for Naruto—who still needed clones to assist even when using the regular Rasengan—condensing one at his fingertip was simply too far-fetched. Infusing nature transformation chakra afterward was even more of a pipe dream.
"Heh, idiot..."
For some reason, after the attempt failed, Naruto felt as though someone was cursing him somewhere. But no matter how he looked, he couldn't find who was cursing him—it was as if the words had appeared out of nowhere in his mind.
Suddenly, Naruto's eyes flashed as if he remembered something.
"Right, Kurama! It was definitely you cursing me just now, wasn't it?"
Accompanied by the question in his heart, Naruto's vision suddenly went black. When he regained awareness, he looked up to see a massive iron gate and, behind the iron gate, a colossal figure.
"So what if it was me? The way you looked just now—calling you an idiot would be an insult to idiots."
"Hey hey, Kurama, I was just trying! It's not as bad as you make it sound. And do you know there are a lot of bad guys in the ninja world right now who want to capture you? I'm protecting your safety right now, so no matter what, you can't talk to me like that."
"Protecting my safety? You mean sealing me inside your body to 'protect' me? If you really want to protect me, then open this seal. Otherwise, shut up with that nonsense."