Natsuro looked at Naruto, who had been marveling at his newfound power ever since entering this state, and couldn't help but smile.
Honestly? It would be a lie to say he wasn't a bit envious. He had worked hard for so long to reach this level, while Naruto merely reconciled with Kurama and then, boom, skipped countless steps and arrived at this power.
And yes, Natsuro could sense it clearly: Naruto was that strong now. Physically speaking, excluding jutsu, he wasn't even sure if he could beat Naruto in pure stats alone…
Still, one couldn't judge purely by sensing alone. Actual combat was needed to properly gauge Naruto's current strength.
At the same time, Naruto clenched his fists, feeling the explosive power coursing through him in awe.
Before making peace with Kurama, he had expected some boost in strength, but not this terrifying.
With power like this…
A flash of determination appeared in Naruto's eyes. Even that Susanoo of Sasuke's… he could probably shatter it now, right?
"Naruto, want to test just how strong you are now?" Natsuro suddenly asked.
"Huh? How do we test that?" Naruto replied.
Natsuro just smiled, his meaning was obvious.
Naruto's eyes widened. He suddenly had a hard time believing it.
Did Natsuro mean… testing his strength by fighting him?
At first, Naruto's goal had just been to surpass Sasuke. But now, was he strong enough to surpass Natsuro?
Had he really caught up to the person he thought was forever ahead of him?
The thought made his pupils shrink and his whole body tremble with excitement. He grinned and nodded firmly.
"Alright!"
Natsuro nodded back. He too was curious. Just how strong had Naruto become in this form? And how strong was he now in comparison?
This was the perfect opportunity to find out.
"When do we start?" Naruto asked eagerly.
"Let's change locations first," Natsuro rolled his eyes. "You trying to level the back mountain of Konoha?"
Seeing Naruto so fired up, he could guess what was going through his head.
But Natsuro also smiled, thinking: Surpassing me won't be that easy.
"Don't resist," Natsuro warned. Then, with a flicker of chakra, he teleported both of them to Shikkotsu Forest.
Normally, when Natsuro said "don't resist," it was just a formality, he could teleport someone regardless. But with Naruto's immense chakra now, he could possibly interfere with the teleportation unless Natsuro used more chakra.
Naruto looked around in confusion, then spotted the enormous form nearby and froze.
"Wait… is that Elder Slug? This is the home of the Slug Sage?" Naruto exclaimed.
Like Mount Myōboku?!
He glanced around again. The damp and dim environment wasn't quite his taste, he definitely preferred Mount Myōboku.
The Slug Sage opened its eyes, having sensed a familiar presence, alongside a second one that felt immensely strong and somewhat familiar.
Then it saw the golden-glowing Naruto.
"...Naruto?" it murmured, as if doubting its senses.
"Yep! It's me, Elder Slug!" Naruto grinned and scratched his head.
"...How long did I sleep?" the Slug Sage turned to Natsuro in disbelief.
The last time it saw Naruto, the boy hadn't been particularly strong.
And now? His chakra felt even stronger than Natsuro's, and beyond even the legendary First Hokage.
Natsuro chuckled. "A day or two, maybe."
"...…"
The Slug Sage fell into stunned silence.
Natsuro smiled and explained, "Naruto is now a perfect jinchūriki. He made peace with Kurama, and now that Kurama's absorbing natural energy for him, he can maintain Sage Mode indefinitely."
"I see…" The Slug Sage nodded, though its voice still carried a tone of shock, it was clearly struggling to digest what it just heard.
Finally, the Slug Sage murmured, "So the Nine-Tails… is really this powerful?"
Now it couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. As if one Natsuro weren't enough, now there was a Naruto too.
Both had surpassed the "God of Shinobi", Hashirama Senju.
What an absurd era this was turning into.
"The Nine-Tails alone isn't that strong," Natsuro clarified. "It's the perfect jinchūriki that's powerful. Though among tailed beasts, the Nine-Tails is definitely the strongest."
He thought back to how even half of Kurama tanked multiple tailed beasts, it was pretty ridiculous.
The Slug Sage nodded. That made sense. After all, when it was just Kurama alone, Hashirama handled him like a kitten.
"That said, Kurama's getting a bit annoyed right now," Naruto cut in, scratching his head.
"Ask him, was anything I said wrong?" Natsuro narrowed his eyes with a smirk.
Kurama fell silent. Not because it had no complaints, but because… Naruto's strength, using its power, truly shocked even it.
"Did the Sage of Six Paths create us so we'd bond with humans and unlock this kind of perfect jinchūriki?" Kurama couldn't help but wonder.
And if he'd had a perfect jinchūriki back then… maybe he wouldn't have gotten manhandled by Hashirama…
Pity that old guy was dead. Otherwise, Kurama would've had Naruto give him a beating for old times' sake.
"So why did you bring Naruto here?" the Slug Sage finally asked.
If Natsuro had come alone, the answer was obvious: training.
But since he brought Naruto, there had to be something else.
Natsuro explained: they were here to test Naruto's current strength, by fighting him.
The Slug Sage blinked in disbelief. "You… want to wreck my place?"
"Haha, just a spar. We won't go full power," Natsuro grinned.
Eventually, the Slug Sage agreed. It too wanted to see just how powerful the two had become.
Soon, Natsuro and Naruto stood apart, staring each other down.
Naruto was almost trembling with excitement. He had finally arrived at this moment, the day he might've caught up to Natsuro, the person he once thought was unreachable.
He couldn't help it. He lunged at Natsuro.
Of course, it wasn't a real fight, they were testing Naruto's physical prowess first.
"This speed… not bad," Natsuro thought as Naruto zipped toward him.
To outsiders, Naruto's dash might've seemed instantaneous.
But to Natsuro, it was still too slow.
Not by much, maybe a hair faster than Natsuro had been before mastering Swift Release. But now? Not even close.
Speed had always been Natsuro's forte, after all.
Naruto's fist came flying. Natsuro didn't hesitate, he punched back.
BOOM!
Natsuro's eyes widened slightly. The impact of Naruto's punch forced him backward a few steps before he stabilized.
That strength… It caught him off guard.
He hadn't used monster strength technique, but he had used Lightning Release as a stimulus and his full natural strength.
And Naruto still overpowered him?
Natsuro smiled.
Sage Fox Mode really is Naruto's strongest form without Six Paths power. Impressive.
What he didn't know, though, was that Naruto had one more hidden ace: Baryon Mode. But that was Kurama's final card, it would cost his life. So unless absolutely necessary, they would never use it.
Meanwhile, Naruto was thrilled. He pressed the attack.
This time, Natsuro added monster strength to his blows.
Before, he worried Naruto might not withstand it. Now? He realized he'd underestimated Sage Fox Mode.
This time, the collision tilted in Natsuro's favor. He closed in, and Naruto, startled, began engaging Natsuro in close-quarters combat.
From the sidelines, the Slug Sage watched their exchange.The thunderous shockwaves made it wonder: What if one of those fists hit me? Even with my size… I wouldn't walk away unscathed.
Thankfully, it could just split itself apart and evade.
The Slug Sage soon noticed something else: while Naruto had the edge in almost every stat except speed…He was still at a disadvantage.
Why?
Because Naruto's technique couldn't match Natsuro's.
And Natsuro's monster strength, it recognized that too. It had seen it plenty from Tsunade.
After all, battles aren't won on stats alone. There are mechanics, technique, and timing.
Unless the gap in power is so wide that it crushes all skill, brute strength alone won't win you a fight.
Like the saying goes, "Use four ounces to move a thousand pounds." But if it's ten thousand pounds, can four ounces of force still move it?
(TN: Its a saying meaning a small amount of forces can redirect a much larger amount forces rather than overpowering it)
In this case, although Naruto's attributes did surpass Natsuro's, they weren't at a level that could completely overwhelm him. On top of that, Naruto's technique was far inferior, so naturally, he wasn't Natsuro's match.
So, the outcome of this sparring match was already clear, at least in the eyes of the Slug Sage.
As for ninjutsu? The Slug Sage couldn't help but recall Natsuro's never-ending Exploding Truth-Seeking Orbs.
No matter how absurd Naruto's growth was, there was no way he could produce something stronger than that.
Still, since this was just a test and not a real fight, Natsuro likely wouldn't use his Exploding Truth-Seeking Orbs anyway.
As expected, the taijutsu portion of the match ended with Natsuro having a clear advantage.
Naruto was a bit frustrated, aside from the two initial exchanges of punches, Natsuro hadn't clashed head-on with him again. Even though Natsuro won the second exchange, he still avoided direct collisions afterward.
With his superior speed, Natsuro dodged almost all of Naruto's attacks. And the ones he couldn't dodge, he redirected with precise counterforce.
It wasn't that he couldn't trade blows directly, he could, and win. But it was too tiring. He just didn't feel like it.
After the first two exchanges, he had already analyzed Naruto's physical stats. There was no need to continue.
At this point, the two had separated. Natsuro looked at Naruto and said, "Seems like your combat technique doesn't quite match your current mode. If you get the chance, go train under Might Guy, learn some taijutsu basics."
As he said this, Natsuro was thinking about whether that was a viable path. After all, not everyone could excel at everything.
But Naruto? With the stat advantage he had now, it would be a complete waste not to learn some proper hand-to-hand combat.
"I got it," Naruto nodded. Then he stared at Natsuro with shining eyes and said excitedly,"As expected of you, Natsuro, you're really strong!"
Even though the fight had been frustrating, Naruto didn't feel angry or discouraged.
Because this was Natsuro, the one he had always looked up to but could never catch.Even though he still lost today, Naruto could tell he hadn't lost by much, and that already made him happy.
He had no reason to feel down.
"Next is ninjutsu testing," Natsuro said. "We don't need to fight for that."
"Alright," Naruto nodded, slightly disappointed, but didn't object.
Since Natsuro said so, he respected that.
Natsuro actually did want to try sparring that way. But if they went all out here, the Shikkotsu Forest would probably get obliterated. And that… would be far too disrespectful to the Slug Sage.
Plus, he didn't want to lose such a great place for training. So of course, they couldn't fight seriously here.
"What do we test first?" Naruto asked.
"Just show me everything," Natsuro replied. He vaguely remembered that Naruto could transform into a giant mecha fox, right?
"Okay."
Naruto didn't hesitate. In the next moment, golden chakra enveloped his body, and a giant chakra-constructed Nine-Tails appeared in the forest. Naruto stood atop the beast's head.
"That's… the Nine-Tails," the Slug Sage muttered as it looked down at the chakra beast.It was still smaller than the real thing, but already enormous.
Natsuro didn't hesitate either. With a flash of Flying Thunder God, he appeared beside Naruto, taking in the chakra around him.
The more he sensed, the more Natsuro marveled at the sheer quality of Naruto's chakra.Even the most basic jutsu, when powered by this chakra, would have a destructive power far beyond that of an average shinobi.
Even Natsuro's converted Sage chakra couldn't compare to this.
In terms of raw stats, if he hadn't learned Swift Release, he'd be completely outclassed by Naruto at this point.
"Freakin' terrifying…" Natsuro muttered with a wry smile.
Not long ago, Naruto was just a little noob he could pin down with one hand. Now, he'd turned into a full-grown tiger.
How is a regular person supposed to fight a tiger? Slide tackle? Yeah, right. But luckily, he had tools. So he wasn't really afraid.
He even felt a bit proud, the early emergence of this "Sage Fox Mode" was at least partly thanks to his influence.
Still, this mode seemed to be Naruto's current peak. Beyond this point, only the Six Paths Sage Mode remained.
That thought stirred Natsuro's heart a bit. He had long known how powerful the Sage of Six Paths was, but now he was really beginning to grasp it.
Because Sage Fox Mode Naruto was nothing compared to Six Paths Naruto. That power gap wasn't just large, it was a massacre.
If Naruto were in that state right now, even with his arsenal of jutsu, his only real option would be to teleport away with Flying Thunder God.
Even in terms of speed, only his Instantaneous Steps could match up.
And as for offense? Outside of the Exploding Truth-Seeking Orbs, most of his ninjutsu probably wouldn't even scratch the guy.
Natsuro rubbed his temples. The more he understood, the more he realized how bottomless those monsters' strength really was.
Back to Naruto, he began his demonstration.
Tailed Beast Bomb, multiple variations of Rasengan, Ultra-Big Rasenshuriken… all of it, performed with ease.
Natsuro nodded as he watched. The power was genuinely impressive.
Naruto's Rasenshuriken had already surpassed his own…
Natsuro sighed. No way to beat a chosen one with cheats, huh?
Thankfully, he had his own unique jutsu for backup. Otherwise, Naruto might just crush him outright.
Soon, the demonstration ended.
Naruto looked at Natsuro expectantly, clearly waiting for his evaluation.
"You're very strong. Even stronger than I expected," Natsuro said sincerely, not holding back his praise.
"Heheh," Naruto chuckled and scratched his head sheepishly, reverting to his usual silly self.
"But," Natsuro added, "you still lack combat technique."
"Yeah," Naruto nodded. "I'll go ask Guy-sensei to teach me."
"For ninjutsu, specializing in Rasengan and its variants is a good path.
But… what about your Wind Armor? You didn't use it during the demo," Natsuro asked.
Naruto frowned. "I wanted to. But I found I couldn't activate it."
"The chakra cloak that forms in this mode is automatically generated. It's stronger than Wind Armor."
Natsuro nodded. That contradicted his earlier theory. He had hoped Naruto could manually activate Wind Armor using the power of Sage Fox Mode.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have taught it to him.
It seemed that idea had failed.
He thought for a moment and said, "The chakra cloak you're using now is passive. Try to study how it forms. If you can understand the mechanism, maybe you can combine it with Wind Armor, or at least make better use of the cloak itself."
Naruto nodded seriously. "Got it!"
After chatting a bit more, Natsuro finally sent Naruto back to Konoha...
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Currently on Chapter 369 - Madara vs Natsuro Round 2