"Pervy Sage! Why are you here too?!" Naruto was getting more and more lost.
"Yo, morning, everyone."
Kakashi strolled over as well.
Naruto's problems were Team 7's problems. When it came to what was going on with Naruto, Kakashi couldn't exactly sit it out.
"Obviously, we all came here for you, idiot." Even Sasuke had already read the situation—and yet the person this actually concerned was still completely in the dark.
Jiraiya circled Naruto twice. "Mm, no doubt about it. This kind of erosion is somewhat similar to Sage Mode."
[Dropping new concepts again]
[The person above—were you quantum-reading or something? This was brought up before]
[Gotta hand it to the production team for cramming this many Chinese-aesthetic elements into a Japanese anime framework]
[I'm legit starting to think the production team is Chinese]
[No way. A Chinese production team would never obsess over kimono details like that, and Tenten's the textbook stereotype bun-head]
[Tenten's actually pretty cute, though]
[Easy there, that's Big Bro-in-Law's ship]
[Big Bro-in-Law, this lovely green hat symbolizes the new sprouts of Konoha—a gift, just for you]
[Holy crap, NTR!]
[What the hell do you mean NTR]
Hanabi took this moment to helpfully explain: "Our Chakra is a mix of spiritual energy and physical energy. But if you add a third element—the Natural Energy from the environment—turning two energies into three, you get Senjutsu Chakra. The so-called Sage Mode is the state of operating under this Senjutsu Chakra. Because of the added Natural Energy, all of the user's Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu receive a massive boost in power."
"…Mm, uh-huh…"
Naruto nodded blankly. He didn't understand a word of it, but he'd pretend he did for now.
Sasuke, on the other hand, actually seemed to get it.
"Exactly right. When using Sage Mode, the body undergoes certain changes—mostly facial markings resembling a kabuki pattern, but sometimes more drastic alterations. For instance, that Kimimaro from yesterday…"
"That was Sage Mode too?!" Sasuke perked up immediately.
"A degraded form of it, more or less. Orochimaru, that guy… well, never mind that for now." Jiraiya didn't want to go off on a tangent, so he steered back to Naruto. "The reason Naruto's ended up like this is partly because a third type of Chakra has mixed into his body. But this Chakra is more like a manifestation of someone's life force—not just raw Chakra."
Hanabi continued: "Let me explain that part. The changes in Naruto first appeared back in the Land of Waves, when we ran into a battle."
As Hanabi narrated, the Stage helpfully began rolling a flashback.
Hanabi's voice became the voiceover.
After giving a general rundown of the Zabuza and Kushina Yuki incident, Hanabi said: "At that time, Kushina Yuki seemed to be trying to use some kind of jutsu to extract the Nine-Tails from Naruto's body. But if a Jinchūriki loses their Tailed Beast, they die."
Hanabi paused. "That said—if the host's life force is strong enough, even after extraction, as long as the Tailed Beast is sealed back within the time limit, the Jinchūriki themselves should be fine."
The biggest reaction to that statement didn't come from the people present, or from the audience. It came from Kushina.
During the Nine-Tails rampage incident all those years ago—if she'd just pulled the Nine-Tails back inside herself, would she have survived?
If she hadn't died, wouldn't Minato have been spared from following her?
And if Minato hadn't died, would Naruto be a happy kid with both parents right now?
Kushina's thoughts were in chaos.
A cocktail of regret and rage.
It would have been so simple. With Minato's help, resealing the Nine-Tails was entirely possible. The Kushina of that time could even have dragged the Nine-Tails down with her if she had to.
But… she hadn't known!
Infuriating! Absolutely infuriating!
"Hahahaha! Ahahahahaha!"
And right here on the scene, there was one other person—well, one other… uh, half a demon fox—cackling like a maniac.
"I'm so high right now! This is the greatest high!"
"Ahahahahaha!"
Hanabi continued her explanation: "However, Kushina Yuki seemed to have used some kind of secret technique that redirected the cost of the extraction onto herself. But this technique had a small… hiccup."
"Because inside Naruto's body, there isn't just the Nine-Tails' Chakra. There's other Chakra too. So when Sasuke attacked Kushina Yuki and the technique deviated, what was originally a jutsu that targeted the Nine-Tails for extraction… became a jutsu where the Nine-Tails was the recipient."
Hanabi paused, giving Jiraiya time to process.
Then she went on: "I've now more or less reverse-engineered this 'deviation.' By using a deceased person's Chakra—or a part of their body—you can summon the deceased's soul onto the recipient, causing the recipient's body to transform into the state of the deceased."
"Doesn't that sound a bit like Edo Tensei?" Kakashi rubbed his chin.
"Not quite. This technique is actually temporary. Once the recipient's Chakra is depleted, the spirit-link dissolves. I've named it the Spirit Descent Technique. Whether it counts as a branch of the Summoning Technique—I honestly can't say."
"Wait, wait, wait!" At this point, Naruto finally understood. "But that thing… has been on me this whole time!"
"Ah, that's because the technique wasn't actually applied to you, Naruto. Kushina Yuki deflected the jutsu at the last moment. Like I just said—the recipient is the Nine-Tails itself. The changes to your body are actually caused by the third type of Chakra flowing in and 'overlaying' your body."
Hearing Hanabi's explanation, Kakashi muttered: "Once the recipient's Chakra is depleted, the descended spirit returns to the body… but the Nine-Tails' Chakra is…"
"Ah—the Nine-Tails' Chakra is infinite." Jiraiya understood too.
This time around, they'd straight-up exploited a bug.
[I remember people used to say it was the fox's second personality, and others said it was Kushina Yuki—well, this confirms it. It's Naruto's mom]
[The technique itself is normal enough, but the Nine-Tails is basically a nuclear reactor]
[I thought she was possessing Naruto, but the one getting screwed over is the Nine-Tails]
[No wonder the Nine-Tails keeps coming out trying to tempt Naruto's mom—it's stuck holding the bag!]
[Peak comedy right there, I'm dying]
The logic of it all—even Hanabi herself had only just fully pieced it together.
The "Kushina" flowing into Naruto's body was the entirety of Kushina's soul and energy, and the root cause of his physical transformation. Normally, a person's energy is nothing compared to Natural Energy—minuscule in quantity.
But here was the bug: although Kushina was constantly consuming energy, the Nine-Tails serving as her vessel was an infinite-energy nuclear battery.
Well… that was awkward.
From this angle, the Nine-Tails really had been suckered into a losing position by this mother-son duo…