At this moment, Naruto's state was less a true Tailed Beast Cloak and more akin to the "civilian version" he used during the Fourth Great Ninja War—when he shared the Nine-Tails' chakra with the Allied Shinobi Forces.
Kurama's chakra massively amplified a ninja's offensive and defensive capabilities, with an especially dramatic boost to ninjutsu.
Take Hinata Hyūga, for example. During the Fourth War, at her peak she was no more than a special jōnin—perhaps not even that, likely only chūnin level. She absolutely did not possess jōnin-tier strength.
And yet, under the enhancement of the Nine-Tails' cloak, she was able to knock aside a swipe from the Ten-Tails with a single Eight Trigrams Air Palm. Judging by the power of that strike alone, calling it Kage-level wouldn't have been an exaggeration. That was the true might of the Nine-Tails' chakra cloak.
Now, Naruto cleanly tanked Neji's Gentle Fist chakra penetration head-on and even took Sasuke's Great Fireball Technique without dodging. Forget injuries—his clothes weren't even torn.
Meanwhile, Neji and Sasuke lost nearly half their combat strength from just a single hit from Naruto.
"Damn it… that chakra cloak is way too tough," Neji growled, forcing his eyes open as he shouted to the side.
"Uchiha Sasuke—though I really can't stand you, if we don't want to lose, we'll have to work together!"
"Hmph. I don't like you either," Sasuke replied coldly. "But you're right. Beating this dead-last comes first. You go in—I'll support with ninjutsu!"
"Fine!"
Neji immediately assumed the opening stance of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. In the next instant, his body vanished—reappearing in front of Naruto as if he had teleported. Even at Naruto's current speed, he couldn't react in time.
In a blink, Neji unleashed all sixty-four strikes. Naruto was sent flying into the air, tumbling as he crashed away.
This was the true power of the Sixty-Four Palms—not the anime version where the target politely stands still and lets all sixty-four hits land.
The key difference between the Sixty-Four Palms and standard Gentle Fist lay in speed. Gentle Fist was delivered strike by strike; against evenly matched opponents, it could be parried with experience and timing, making clean hits difficult.
The Sixty-Four Palms, however, though similar in force generation, was several times faster.
That was why, in anime and manga, whenever Neji used it, his opponents looked like they were throwing the match—standing there, taking hit after hit without counterattacking. It wasn't bad writing; it was simply that the technique was too fast to dodge or defend against.
Some might ask: If you can land sixty-four hits in a row, why not just stab a vital point with a kunai and end it instantly?
The answer was simple—using a weapon would drastically reduce attack speed.
In real life, Bruce Lee's famed one-inch punch wasn't revered because it was the strongest possible strike. No matter how powerful it was, it could never match the force of a fully wound-up punch—let alone the destructive power of elbows or knee strikes.
But the goal of a fight isn't to win a power contest—it's to knock the opponent down. No matter how strong your attacks are, if they don't land, they're useless. That's why people who only train on sandbags will never beat those experienced in real combat.
The one-inch punch was prized precisely because it delivered explosive power over the shortest possible distance. With minimal wind-up, it was incredibly fast and difficult to defend against—making it practical.
Of course, all of that assumed true mastery. If you had to stand there "charging" for half a day like a stage performer, you'd be better off throwing a full punch instead.
Thanks to the force-generation method of the Sixty-Four Palms, the technique used minimal movement to unleash tremendous power, achieving a terrifying attack speed that almost no one could defend against.
That said, this was still a taijutsu clash. If one truly wanted to counter it, there were methods.
And Naruto's current state happened to be the perfect counter.
After hitting the ground, Naruto rolled once and stood up immediately—completely unscathed.
Neji's eyes widened. The chakra inside Naruto's body was still flowing smoothly. His Sixty-Four Palms had done absolutely nothing.
"How is that possible?! How can that chakra cloak have such insane defense?!"
"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"
More than a dozen fireballs the size of soccer balls slammed toward Naruto. He swung his fists, smashing them apart one by one. Just as sparks filled the air, Sasuke appeared behind him.
Using the last of his chakra, Sasuke unleashed another Great Fireball.
BOOM!
The fireball struck Naruto square in the back, blasting him away again. He crashed to the ground, knocking over two large trees.
Sasuke braced his hands on his knees, gasping for breath.
"That should do it… right?"
He turned to look at Neji—only to see the grim expression on his face. Sasuke instantly understood.
"You bastard! Sneak attacking from behind again!" Naruto roared.
"This time, I'm really going to teach you a lesson—die!"
After tanking several powerful techniques in a row, Naruto's chakra cloak had thinned slightly—but it still hadn't been broken.
In contrast, Neji and Sasuke were both panting heavily, nearly out of chakra.
When Naruto charged in, still full of vigor, the outcome was already decided.
"The match is over," Rokuro said as he walked over.
"Now do you understand why I value Naruto so highly?"
He used medical ninja tools to treat Neji and Sasuke's injuries.
At this point, Rokuro no longer cared about exposing his tools. As he explained, both Neji and Sasuke finally understood the origin of the chakra Naruto was using.
Neji let out a long breath. There was envy in his eyes—but even more so, renewed fighting spirit.
"Naruto, you really are strong. But the Hyūga Clan's Byakugan isn't just for show. I'll catch up to you soon—and then we'll settle it properly."
He extended a fist. Naruto grinned and bumped it with his own.
Sasuke, on the other hand, remained tsundere to the end—letting out only a cold snort. But unlike Neji, deep within his eyes burned a fierce, unmistakable jealousy.
"Alright, you two rest up," Rokuro said.
"I'm going to teach Naruto the Rasengan."
"Big Bro Rokuro, isn't that move called the Rasenshuriken?" Naruto asked.
"The Rasenshuriken's prerequisite is the A-rank Rasengan. At your current level, mastering the Rasengan within a year would already be impressive. As for the Rasenshuriken—being able to complete it within five years would qualify you as a genius."
"I'll master it within five years!" Naruto declared firmly.
As Rokuro began teaching Naruto the Rasengan, intelligence reached Tsunade almost immediately.
"Rasenshuriken?!"
ANBU had delivered not only written reports—but photographs as well.
After carefully examining the destruction caused by the Rasenshuriken, Tsunade stood up and headed for Konoha Hospital, handing the files to Jiraiya.
Jiraiya was still recovering. Though Tsunade had healed his injuries, his chakra reserves hadn't fully recovered yet.
"Jiraiya," Tsunade asked, "have you ever heard of the Rasenshuriken?"
Jiraiya shook his head. Tsunade pulled out a photo from the report and handed it to him.
The moment Jiraiya saw it, he sat straight up.
"Rasengan?! How the hell does that brat Uchiha Rokuro know this technique?!"
Tsunade sighed.
"There's nothing shocking about it. Rokuro can analyze different chakra forms and nature transformations using curse-script analysis. Those two elements are the core secrets of ninjutsu. Once you grasp them, learning techniques becomes much faster."
She continued calmly,
"As for the Rasengan—it's a seal-less technique. As long as you understand the principle, someone of his caliber would have no difficulty mastering it."
Jiraiya, who knew the Rasengan himself, naturally understood that its core lay in chakra shape transformation.
"So that's how it is… In that case, Uchiha Rokuro has already surpassed Minato back then."
He sighed deeply.
"Damn it… that kid really is a genius."
Tsunade looked over in confusion. Jiraiya explained,
"When Minato created the Rasengan, he once said it was an incomplete technique—there was still room to go further. That meant adding nature transformation on top of shape transformation."
"But that's insanely difficult. It's like asking someone to look left and right at the same time. The level of chakra control required is absurd—even Minato couldn't pull it off. And yet now… Uchiha Rokuro has done it. He's not even twelve years old."
Jiraiya let out another sigh.
"At least there's one silver lining—he's willing to teach the technique to Naruto. Maybe this really is karma coming full circle."
Tsunade looked at him, hesitated, then suddenly said,
"Jiraiya… about your left hand—"
"Tsunade, don't worry about it," Jiraiya interrupted calmly. "I'm planning to train one-handed seals. Once I master that, I'll still be a force to be reckoned with—at least eighty percent of my original strength. For now, endure it. Don't provoke the Uchiha side."
Tsunade opened her mouth as if to say something more, but in the end, she swallowed her words and only nodded silently.
After school the next day, Naruto and the other two came to find Rokuro—only to discover him standing calmly atop a small lake.
"You're here? Good. Let's get started—I don't want to miss dinner."
Rokuro motioned for the three of them to step onto the water.
In the end, only Neji managed to stay upright.
Sasuke had heard about water-walking training from Uchiha Mikoto, but since he still hadn't fully mastered tree-climbing, water-walking was far beyond him.
As for Naruto—he hadn't even heard of it before. Seeing Rokuro standing on the water, he immediately clamored to learn.
"Tree-climbing and water-walking are things you can practice on your own after school. I'm not teaching those—waste of time," Rokuro said flatly.
"Today, I'm here to teach you how to swim. Strip."
The three of them were confused, but obediently took off their clothes, leaving only their shorts.
The moment they jumped into the lake, their expressions changed drastically.
"It's so heavy—I'm sinking… glub!"
Naruto went under almost instantly. Sasuke lasted a few seconds before following suit. Only Neji, being slightly older, managed to hold on for a bit longer.
"This lake has twice the normal gravity," Rokuro said calmly.
"Today's training is simple: swim ten laps around it. Anyone who doesn't finish doesn't eat dinner. Begin."
Just as the three were about to burst out their chakra, Rokuro flicked his hand. Dense sealing script crawled across their bodies in an instant.
Immediately, they felt their chakra become inaccessible.
Now even Neji—who could normally walk on water—was forced to swim using brute strength alone.
"I've restricted most of your chakra," Rokuro explained.
"What remains will prevent injury and restore stamina—but it won't be enough to finish ten laps. If you want to succeed, you'll need to figure out a more efficient way to control chakra while swimming. Think as you move."
At the bottom of the lake lay a gravity ninja tool, capable of increasing gravity up to thirty times within a limited area.
With their chakra partially sealed and gravity increased, the only way to finish was to perform more actions with less chakra—effectively forcing higher-level control.
"These three are all geniuses," Rokuro mused.
"But they're experiential learners, not theorists like Sakura. Explaining chakra control would be useless—practice is the fastest teacher."
Especially Naruto.
If it were theory, forget a day—he wouldn't get it even in a month. This kind of training was perfect for him.
Three hours later, the trio finally finished all ten laps.
They lay sprawled on the shore like dead dogs.
Rokuro pulled pre-prepared food from a sealing scroll.
"Look at yourselves—pathetic. Forget going home. Dinner's on me."
Already starving, the three pounced on the food like wolves.
Three days later, they could finish ten laps within an hour.
Seeing diminishing returns, Rokuro decisively changed training methods.
"Here—my latest ninja tool. It alters gravity, but only on the wearer. One each. Put them on."
He handed each of them a necklace and activated it.
With gravity doubled, the three felt uncomfortable—but after three days, they were already somewhat used to it.
"Brother Rokuro, are we swimming again today?" Naruto asked eagerly.
Rokuro shook his head and led them wandering through the forest, seemingly searching for something.
Suddenly, he found it.
"Here. Training's here today. Stand over there."
As the three gathered under a tree, Rokuro activated Adamantine Sealing Chains.
Three chakra chains bound their bodies and sealed nearly ninety percent of their chakra.
"Today's training is simple—survive here for thirty minutes."
"Survive? What do you mean?" Naruto scratched his head, confused.
Sasuke and Neji were just as lost.
By the time they looked up—Rokuro was already gone.
"Neji, use your Byakugan," Sasuke suggested. "Check if something's wrong."
Neji nodded and activated it immediately.
The moment he did, his expression changed.
"There!"
Before he could finish, a kunai flew in from afar and struck something above.
That "something" dropped straight into the middle of the three.
"A hornet's nest—run!"
They reacted instantly, scattering in three directions—but the chakra chains tethered them to the tree. There was nowhere to escape.
With the added gravity, the enraged hornets caught up in seconds.
"AAAH!"
"I got stung!"
"That hurts!"
"Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Pal—OW!"
After utter chaos, they finally wiped out all the hornets—only to be left covered in swollen welts.
For an entire month, their daily training was absurd, brutal, and borderline insane.
Yet their strength skyrocketed.
So did the bond between them and Rokuro.
Even Sasuke no longer talked about revenge every single day.
The closer Naruto grew to Rokuro, the heavier the pressure Tsunade felt.
And yet—she still hadn't made up her mind to open the forbidden path.
When Rokuro noticed this, he chuckled darkly.
"Looks like I'll need to turn up the heat a bit more…
Sigh. Guess I'll have to kill someone again."
END OF CHAPTER
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