Chapter 487: The Bet Between Guy and Kakashi
"..."
Kurama sensed that several of the Tailed Beasts' expressions were a bit off.
Although it wasn't clear how Kurama could even "see" Tailed Beast expressions, maybe they just had some kind of encrypted group communication channel between them, it just somehow knew.
"In any case, don't even think about letting your jinchūriki learn this method. It's dangerous for them, and if they end up using Tailed Beast Sage Mode and Naruto sees it, all our previous efforts will go to waste", Kurama said earnestly, reminding the other Tailed Beasts again.
The other Tailed Beasts could only temporarily abandon their thoughts.
But that didn't mean they were going to obediently listen.
Tailed Beasts were not little pets.
And even if they were pets, only the owner could give commands to a pet—there was no such thing as pets ordering each other around.
Why should they?
Were you somehow superior to Tailed Beasts?
That was the subconscious thought shared by all of them.
So what they were thinking was: at worst, they would remind their jinchūriki later and make sure they absolutely did not reveal it in front of Naruto.
"By the way, where are the Four-Tails and Five-Tails? Why haven't they been sent in yet?"
"Yeah, Two-Tails, have you acknowledged your owner yet?"
"One-Tail, why hasn't your jinchūriki Gaara come looking for Naruto?"
The Tailed Beasts chuckled awkwardly and quickly tried to change the subject in a stiff way.
Meanwhile, Naruto's consciousness returned to reality. Just as he was about to continue developing the interrupted Rasenshuriken, he suddenly heard the sound of fighting from a distance.
"Is that coming from Kakashi-sensei's side? Strange."
Naruto scratched his head.
If it were enemies, his shadow clone would have been destroyed and the memory would've come back to him.
But his shadow clone hadn't reacted at all.
Could it be that Konohamaru and Kakashi-sensei had both completed Sage Mode and were sparring?
Thinking of this, Naruto no longer cared about jutsu development. His curiosity drove him to rush back immediately.
When he arrived, he saw that Konohamaru was still sitting motionless in place, while the ones sparring were Kakashi and Might Guy, who had somehow arrived.
"So Kakashi-sensei can actually keep up with that bushy-browed teacher in taijutsu like this… He really has mastered Sage Mode."
Naruto watched Kakashi in the fight, still with eight dogs hanging on his body, yet his speed showed no decline—in fact, it seemed even faster than before.
Still, Naruto felt a bit surprised—and also a bit disappointed.
He had originally thought Kakashi would be like Kiba, merging with Akamaru into some furry transformation.
But Naruto had forgotten that while Kakashi also had ninken, he was not from the Inuzuka clan and did not use beast fusion techniques.
So Kakashi's situation was more like Jiraiya with two toads sitting on his shoulders.
"Kakashi, what kind of insane training did you do to improve your taijutsu so much in such a short time? Is this what genius looks like?"
After exchanging a kick and jumping apart, Might Guy landed in a crouch, clearly shocked.
He had come here originally while telling Rock Lee stories from the past.
Rock Lee had been trying to prove himself that hard work could surpass genius, but kept failing again and again.
So Guy told him about his own past.
Guy had always thought he trained hard enough, but once discovered that Kakashi, despite his cold and aloof appearance, was secretly training like crazy behind the scenes.
So he used this to encourage Lee: it wasn't that hard work couldn't beat genius—it was that you weren't working hard enough yet. Even geniuses worked hard.
To prove it, Guy decided to rely on facts. He brought Rock Lee around searching for Kakashi, finally learned his location, and arrived here.
And when they arrived, they saw Kakashi standing still with eight dogs hanging all over him.
Guy was extremely embarrassed.
He could only force himself to claim that "carrying dogs is also a form of weighted training."
That Kakashi was practicing endurance and stillness.
And then Kakashi woke up, successfully refined senjutsu chakra, entered Sage Mode, and the two began sparring.
Up to now.
"Guy, this isn't just taijutsu training. This is a leap in power brought by Sage Mode", Kakashi explained.
He glanced down at his current condition and felt that he really needed a custom outfit in the future, something with pockets, otherwise having dogs hanging all over him was just too strange and would interfere with combat.
"Sage Mode…?"
Guy turned around and, crying dramatically, began lecturing the Rock Lee he had brought along.
"Did you see that, Lee?! Kakashi has already become this strong! As the Konoha Technician who masters over a thousand jutsu, he never stops learning—and now he's even mastered Sage Mode!"
"Guy, you can actually try learning it too", Kakashi suddenly said.
Only then did Kakashi remember that Guy also had a summoning beast: the Ninja Turtle.
And physically, Guy might be similar to Jiraiya—possibly even more compatible with Naruto's "shortcut" method.
"Huh? Kakashi, learn what exactly?"
Guy froze mid-embrace with Rock Lee.
As a longtime friend, Kakashi was telling him, a pure taijutsu specialist, to learn something else?
Was this really Kakashi?
Or was this someone transformed by Transformation Jutsu?
Guy immediately became alert. He let go of Rock Lee and walked quickly up to Kakashi, carefully inspecting him from head to toe.
In the end, he concluded: Kakashi might or might not be real—but the eight ninken on him were definitely real.
"Guy, Sage Mode isn't a ninjutsu. It's a state, just like your Eight Gates. So I believe you can master it too—and further increase your taijutsu by at least ten percent", Kakashi persuaded him.
To deal with the Ōtsutsuki clan, only taijutsu and senjutsu could be relied on.
Guy was already a taijutsu expert. Logically speaking, Kakashi didn't need to force this.
But ever since he was "forced into being an author", Kakashi had started thinking more in terms of narrative structure to maintain his persona.
One of those ideas was: if a detonating tag appears in Act One, it must explode by Act Three.
Guy had mastered the Eight Gates, and opening them meant sacrificing his life for a brief power surpassing even the Hokage.
That was no secret.
Previously, Kakashi hadn't thought much of it, but after starting to think like a creator, he realized Guy's fate seemed almost predetermined.
A user of the Eight Gates would inevitably end his story with the Death Gate.
Like in many traditional stories: if the protagonist gains a resurrection technique, it usually means they will suffer and die at least once later.
Kakashi wanted to prevent that.
So he wanted Guy to learn Sage Mode.
"Guy, are you backing down when faced with difficulty?" Kakashi provoked him.
This tactic worked extremely well on simple-minded people like Guy and Naruto.
As expected, Guy immediately snapped.
"Kakashi! Let's settle this with a match first! If you can beat me, I'll learn it from you!"
"Really?"
"Really! Come on!"
"Good! Then don't blame me for not holding back, Guy."
Kakashi's eyes sharpened. Even though he had only just mastered Sage Mode, he had already begun formulating tactics in his mind.
(End of this chapter)