"Alright, that's enough."
Ōnoki waved his hand, willingly taking all the diplomatic responsibility onto his own shoulders.
"Since you already possess the ability to use senjutsu, you don't need to concern yourself with Konoha's Sage Mode campaign. Focus on your duties as Tsuchikage and leave this entire matter to me."
He did not question Kurotsuchi too deeply about her highly unusual form of senjutsu, nor did he suggest making it public and spreading it throughout the village forces.
Not everything was suitable for mass adoption.
The strategic advantages of promoting Sage Mode clearly outweighed the risks.
Other abilities were entirely different.
Take Ōnoki's Dust Release, for example.
Even if there were some way for every ninja to learn it, spreading it would still be a terrible idea.
All it would accomplish was turning the shinobi world's standard small-scale border scuffles into apocalyptic fights where people were atomized the moment an argument started.
Even if countless ninja mastered Dust Release, they still wouldn't pose much of a threat to the Ōtsutsuki.
But if the Ōtsutsuki somehow absorbed and learned Dust Release in return, the danger to the shinobi world would increase exponentially.
Of course, according to Amegakure's current intelligence, the Ōtsutsuki clan was utterly obsessed with genetic bloodlines.
Every ability they possessed came directly from their ancestry, so they were naturally uninterested in "learning."
They were even less likely to study ninjutsu developed by shinobi whom they regarded as inferior life-forms.
Still, there was always a chance something might go wrong.
Ōnoki was not about to suffer a sudden attack of saintly idealism and publish every hidden secret art in the name of world unity.
Kurotsuchi was equally delighted that Ōnoki volunteered to handle the troublesome political matter.
It had nothing to do with her in the first place, and the entire training process sounded both annoying and deeply disgusting.
Letting the old man supervise everything from beginning to end was perfect.
...
And so, Iwagakure launched its own highly enthusiastic Sage Mode training campaign.
Ōnoki, Akatsuchi, and Kitsuchi all began training in secret.
The three of them approached the task with absolute, unwavering seriousness.
Yet Ōnoki, who was originally considered the most promising candidate due to his vast chakra control, turned out to be the slowest.
The reason was purely biological.
A piece of hardware taking too long to boot up—or failing to power on at all—was an entirely different technical problem from having a short battery life after it successfully started.
Jiraiya possessed a distinct advantage in this regard because his "hardware" still powered on normally and did so quickly.
Its standby time was simply short, causing it to shut down shortly afterward and allowing him to enter the tranquil Sage State rapidly.
Ōnoki was an entirely different story.
He was more than half a generation older than the late Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Although Ōnoki's standby time was also pitifully short, his startup sequence was painfully slow and unreliable.
It took him a considerable amount of manual effort to reach the proper physical state required for the shortcut. (He took too long to erect)
His notoriously bad back only made matters worse.
If his physical movements became too vigorous, he could easily throw it out and ruin the session entirely.
"Ōnoki, you old bastard! Get out here!"
Ōnoki was in the middle of attempting another grueling training session inside his private room when Rōshi's furious roar suddenly echoed from outside.
The sheer shock caused Ōnoki's dick—which had finally been on the verge of fully powering up—to crash once again.
He had no time to answer the door. He hurriedly pulled up his pants and straightened his clothing first.
That paranoid decision proved correct.
When Rōshi received no immediate response, the fiery jinchūriki stormed straight into the house, leaped up to the second floor, and barged in through the balcony doors.
Ōnoki was grateful he reacted quickly.
Otherwise, Rōshi would undoubtedly have caught him red-handed.
"Ōnoki, you really were secretly training by yourself! I misjudged you. I never imagined you'd still be this incredibly petty!" Rōshi looked Ōnoki up and down with visible disappointment and anger.
"Huh? Rōshi, what the hell are you talking about?" Ōnoki appeared genuinely confused.
"Still pretending? Were you practicing Sage Mode just now?" Rōshi folded his arms and stared coldly at the Tsuchikage.
"How did you know?" Ōnoki was genuinely stunned.
Only he, Kurotsuchi, Akatsuchi, and Kitsuchi knew about this operation.
He had specifically ordered them to keep it highly classified and not mention anything to the rest of the village until one of them successfully mastered senjutsu.
How had Rōshi found out? Had those Konoha brats leaked it to him?
"Hmph. The Four-Tails told me, obviously," Rōshi immediately countered before Ōnoki could dwell on it.
"Don't change the subject, Ōnoki. Why did you deliberately hide something as valuable as senjutsu training from me?!"
"The Four-Tails?"
Ōnoki found that baffling.
How had the giant lava monkey learned about it? But this was not the time to investigate.
If he failed to calm Rōshi down quickly, their fragile, newly repaired relationship would shatter all over again.
"Rōshi, calm down and listen to me. Since you learned about this from the Four-Tails, then you should also know exactly what the physical training requires. If I had told you and asked you to participate, what would you have thought? Wouldn't you have assumed I was deliberately trying to humiliate you?
"That's exactly why I didn't notify you. I only brought in Akatsuchi and Kitsuchi. Once one of us succeeded and secured the power, I planned to approach you with undeniable proof. Only then would you have believed me, wouldn't you?" Ōnoki sighed heavily as he explained.
"So that's the reason. Your concerns weren't entirely wrong. My reputation really can't be allowed to suffer."
After thinking briefly, Rōshi offered a compromise.
"Give me a copy of the training manual. I'll leave the village and find somewhere completely isolated to practice alone, just like before.
With a Tailed Beast's enormous chakra reserves, the quantity of natural energy we can control should be terrifying. Until there's a genuine strategic need for me to act, you'll continue keeping this secret. You cannot tell a single soul that I'm practicing Sage Mode. Agreed?"
In truth, Ōnoki's earlier suspicion had been completely correct.
Someone from Konoha had indeed told Rōshi.
Claiming that the Four-Tails informed him was merely a highly convenient excuse, because Ōnoki had absolutely no way to interrogate the beast and verify the story.
The person who actually tipped him off was Naruto.
After arriving in Iwagakure, Naruto had not forgotten his personal side-mission while carrying out the main diplomatic task of spreading Sage Mode.
He still needed to collect the chakra fragments of the Four-Tails and the Five-Tails.
Of the nine Tailed Beasts, they were the only two whose power he had yet to gather inside his body.
So, Naruto happily visited Rōshi as a fellow jinchūriki.
Surprisingly, Naruto's sudden appearance actually helped improve the strained relationship between Rōshi and the Four-Tails.
After Son Gokū spoke with the network of other Tailed Beasts residing inside Naruto's mindscape, he learned that Naruto was the prophesied reincarnation of Asura, the son of the Sage of Six Paths, as well as the boy destined to bring true happiness to the Tailed Beasts.
Naturally, the prideful Son Gokū happily agreed and voluntarily handed over a portion of his chakra.
The pleasant conversation even made him view his human host, Rōshi, much more favorably.
What Son Gokū did not know was that his absence from the First Tailed Beast Council had caused the others to mercilessly designate him and the Five-Tails as the ultimate sacrificial offerings.
Not a single one of the other Tailed Beasts mentioned the Great Toad Sage's actual horrifying prophecy regarding Naruto's degenerate tendencies.
They had even polished the ancient, majestic prediction about "the blue-eyed boy who calls the names of nine beasts" into something far more attractive.
They claimed Naruto was destined to bring pure bliss to the Tailed Beasts, deliberately using the prophecy as bait to lure Son Gokū in.
Once they confirmed that the Four-Tails had swallowed the hook, line, and sinker, the other Tailed Beasts' true bodies all simultaneously sensed it across the continent.
Their moods instantly skyrocketed.
...
Elsewhere in Amegakure, Yugito—who had just arranged to have dinner with Makoto—also sensed Matatabi's immense relief and smiled.
'Don't blame your siblings for being heartless, Four-Tails.'
'You're a giant monkey, and monkeys are the animals most biologically similar to humans. That means you and Naruto are clearly the perfect match.'