Kakashi thought there was a lot of promise in giving the Rasengan a Nature Transformation.
But whether Naruto, who'd only just learned the Rasengan, could finish a Nature Transformation within a month... Kakashi couldn't say.
If Naruto could already wield the Rasengan smoothly with one hand, that'd be fine—but Naruto still needed a Shadow Clone to help him form it, so that wasn't great.
"Hmm... oh, right."
Naruto's sensory ability seemed to have been enhanced. Kakashi wondered whether Naruto might be able to master something like Kushina's Adamantine Sealing Chains.
"Naruto, when your sensing got stronger, did you get any unique feeling? Anything else?" Kakashi asked.
"Anything else?" Naruto squinted, thinking.
It was Sasuke who came up with something. "Those chains that work on and off?"
"Oh, you mean those Adamantine-whatchamacallit Sealing Chains?"
That fox seemed to have called them that.
But how strange—that fox hadn't spoken up in a long while. What was that about?
"If you've got that move, maybe there's a shot?"
Kakashi rubbed his chin.
If he could do that, would it actually work?
"Oh, it'll absolutely work~" Hanabi tilted her head on the far side of the screen.
Kushina had stayed silent the whole time.
Because earlier, Kushina had heard the Nine-Tails' voice.
The Nine-Tails was now the medium for summoning Kushina. But unlike an ordinary medium, the Nine-Tails wasn't itself a physical entity. There was no undoing that state, but it had already recovered its consciousness.
Right now that great fox still loathed this world—it had even rendered Kushina silent.
Well, the Nine-Tails didn't really need to do anything. It only had to play back for Kushina everything Naruto had been through over these twelve years.
"And because the more she takes over for him, the more changes get worked into Naruto's body—is that why she's chosen silence?"
Right now Kushina was unwilling to speak, unwilling even to appear, precisely out of fear of affecting Naruto—and fear that Naruto would suffer even more inside the village.
She couldn't even comfort Naruto properly.
Even her wanting to protect Naruto would, in itself, end up harming him.
—Hanabi, though, found it all rather interesting.
"That said, the texture of Naruto's hair really has gotten a lot better, and his skin's gone quite a bit fairer. Ara-ra-ra, at this rate is he actually going to turn into Naruko?"
Hanabi tilted her head. She figured probably not—Naruto's changes looked more like a boost to physical conditioning than a sex swap.
She hadn't considered that the Spirit Descent might cause changes in that department. The medium was the Nine-Tails, and the target summoned was Kushina, but because the Nine-Tails itself was sealed away and had no body, and because Hanabi's Spirit Descent Technique borrowed from Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation, the result was that it manifested as a possession overlaid onto Naruto's body.
This part was actually a good thing. First, Naruto's talent as a Jinchūriki had been strengthened, and with the Nine-Tails' power no longer interfering, Naruto's own ability could be expressed more accurately. Most importantly, from Hanabi's observation, Kushina's possession wasn't a simple power boost or overwrite—it was more like a "stacking."
Meaning Kushina hadn't overwritten Naruto with her own physique and talent—the two were layered together.
So compared to the original, the current Naruto was, in effect, a "Super Saiyan"—ah, no, a "Super Naruto."
As for whether this was good or bad for how the plot would unfold next, even Hanabi couldn't say.
But Naruto himself didn't seem to mind, so no problem there.
If Naruto really did turn into Naruko and she didn't want that, the Shadow Mirror Body Transfer Technique could turn her back...
"Looks like I'll spice things up a bit more."
Barring surprises, Jiraiya would track down Kakashi tonight, get Kakashi to hand Naruto over to him, and then tomorrow Jiraiya would find a way to observe Naruto.
So the only window to act was tonight.
"Hanabi!"
The moment Hanabi appeared before the other three, Naruto charged over, full of energy.
"Naruto, pack up. We're heading out of the village in a bit. Don't worry, it's not far," Hanabi said.
"Hanabi, are you here to teach Naruto?" Kakashi looked over at her.
It suddenly came back to him—Hanabi could apparently summon an ice sword too, and he had no idea whether that was Summoning, Ice Release, or some other technique.
—Could it be that Hanabi intends to pass on that special jutsu?
"No, I'm just taking Naruto somewhere. It doesn't quite count as leaving the village, but it's a fair distance off. Don't worry, I'll bring him back tomorrow," Hanabi said.
"So somewhere in a corner of the village? What kind of place is that?" Naruto tilted his head.
"The Uzumaki Clan's Mask Storage Temple. Just as the name says, it's where the Uzumaki clan stored their masks," Hanabi said.
"You dug up even that?" Kakashi was dumbstruck.
"Ah, including the fall of Uzushiogakure," Hanabi said with a smile.
[Grass (a type of exclamation), there's even more new gossip]
[Oh so Naruto's script has a whole sub-script tucked inside it]
[Is this whole thing The Orphan of Zhao or something?]
[I'm straight-up dogstruck!]
The audience was straight-up dogstruck, and fair enough.
At first everyone had assumed Naruto was holding the script of the sacrificed victim. But now it looked like... maybe it was an avenger's script too?
Hanabi hadn't spelled it out—she wanted to let the audience guess wildly.
Sometimes, letting the audience guess wildly was exactly what sparked the most unique flights of imagination.
She could borrow from those later, and the audience members whose wild guesses landed could play prophet for a day.
It was Qin Shi Huang looking in a mirror—double Ying, a win-win all around!
"Uzushiogakure? Fall? What's that supposed to be?" Naruto's face was a total blank.
Sasuke, on the other hand, sensed something.
Uzumaki meant whirlpool; Uzushiogakure—the Village Hidden by Whirling Tides—was practically self-explanatory.
—Could it be that this guy also comes from a destroyed clan?
Sasuke's heart lurched again.
Then weren't Naruto and he one and the same?
Hanabi found the scene rather entertaining.
She hadn't expected the audience to still be guessing wildly while, over here, Sasuke had launched into a headcanon spiral of his own.
"Uzushiogakure..." This time even Kushina couldn't stay silent.
Kushina had once witnessed the fall of Uzushiogakure in the Land of Whirlpools with her own eyes.
This was unlike the original. In the original, there hadn't been much time, so all Kushina had shown in front of Naruto was her gentle side.
But things were different now. Because she'd lingered for a long while, Kushina's "mom mode" had kicked in too—and before she realized she'd be affecting Naruto, she'd even made Naruto breakfast.
It was a privilege even Minato had never enjoyed, since back when she was with her husband, it had actually been Minato who did the cooking.
But that was no longer an option.
"...The Chunin Exams and all that don't matter. Right now I need to get Naruto to master controlling the Nine-Tails' power as quickly as possible, so that... I can leave."
Her very existence would affect Naruto.
Kushina was afraid.
She was afraid she'd influence Naruto. Even more, she was afraid that, having seen what Naruto had been through, she might resonate with the Nine-Tails' hatred.