Chapter 85.6- One Thousand Hands

“That was a very different fight. He was stronger than whatever it was Naruto fought. Maybe it was edo tensei not managing to bring him back at full power, or maybe it was Naruto having a stronger element of surprise or he could just be plain stronger thanks to the same butterfly effect shit Chiyo seems to have goin on” I said, shooting down that point. In the wider scheme of things, I had to be at least as strong as Naruto was when he fought Juubito. That was about Stage Two Chakra Cloak, yeah.

“Do that math again, but do it without my chakra” Kurama said, leaning down towards me.

“What?”

“You just had a thought that you were as strong as Stage Two chakra cloak Naruto. I said do the math again. How strong are you without my chakra, Shorirama Senju?” He asked.

I began to think about it. That was a much different question. Without his chakra meant I had sage mode, but a less powerful one than the purer sage mode I could get if I balanced it against a fusion of my chakra and his. I also had the hiraishin. But I had to stop deceiving myself. I was good enough with it— but I was no Minato. Using it in combat meant I had to spend time thinking about it. It was a useful means pod dodging attacks, but in truth that was most of what I used it for, where Minato in canon had turned it into a whole fighting style. No, my bread and butter would always be lethal taijutsu and overwhelming Ninjutsu. And where did that put me?

“Stage One chakra cloak Naruto?” I asked.

He actually chuckled.

“You wish. You’d beat Sage Naruto, probably. I give you good odds. But that Stage One chakra cloak? The one that had enough chakra to send shadow clones to every part of a war effort while still fighting on his own against a rinnegan wielder and six jinchuriki? You’d lose, Shorirama Senju”

“So what are you trying to say? That I’m weak. I train every day to get stronger as it is. What is telling me what I haven’t achieved supposed to do?”

“It’s supposed to teach you that you have bigger problems than finding people to blame for your mistakes and failings. Tsunade is dead. You think it is your fault. You might even be right. But she is dead, and there is nothing you can do about it. Wasting precious time with silly and dangerous acts of violence against innocents would both fail to help you feel better, but might come to hurt down the line. Madara remains alive, and I assure you that you are far from at the level necessary to even be more than a stumbling block when facing that man”

“Everything comes down to him, huh? How come you get to focus on your revenge while I don’t get to focus on mine” I sniped.

“Because I have asked you to kill Madara, not the whole Uchiha clan.” He roared back.

I took a step backwards while the giant fox sighed to himself.

“There was no need for me to scream. I just see so much of myself in you, Shorirama. I remember the first time humanity caused me pain. I remember what I did to get over it, and I assure you it was far from pretty, and I felt no better for it. I just want you to avoid making the same mistakes I did. The same mistakes so many have. You have the potential to lead this world to so much more. A human with a true understanding of my father’s dream. I used to hope for times like this. You give me hope, and you can bring that to the rest of the world. I will not ask you to abandon your revenge, but I will ask you to dig only two graves, not thousands in your search”

A/N: And so we get some big bro Kurama to round things off a bit, yeah.