Shinobi Battle Mode Theory (Naruto/Boruto Generations)

Shinobi Battle Mode Theory

This is a copy/paste of a theory belonging to my friend, Luna. All credit goes to her.

Shinobi Battle Mode Theory is an axiomatic concept within the Naruto franchise I personally engage with when analyzing Naruto’s Powerscaling, and often with other verses that use mystical energy. Although a presupposition in the common meta, I have arguments to back this ideology up (see examples). The concept was created in order to comprehend and explain the complex interactions between the physical capabilities and statistics of the characters in the Naruto franchise. 

The Theory: Chakra [and any of your resident anime Spirit/Magic/Mystical Energies] is used to amplify the base physical capabilities of the user in the form of an “activated combat mode”, that’s flipped like a switch.

What this means: Characters in Naruto can "punch up" quite a lot, not because their physical stats are closer to each other, but because you can amp your body with chakra by large margins. A character's power is based on the passive potency of their body without any chakra use at all, then amplified by them activating a chakra combat baseline or "Shinobi Battle Mode", which is dependent on their intent, mental state, and physical health and can exist at whatever level they choose, provided it is within their abilities. This level also may fluctuate depending on if they're on guard or not. There's the possibility of dumping your chakra into amplifying your body intensely as well, which can be concentrated even further into a single statistic, or finally even a single body part. Characters can alter the output of their Shinobi Battle Mode, even mid battle if they have the wherewithal, control, and skill. Chakra combat is about control and efficiency to not waste Chakra. Standard combat would likely have the user’s output be around 40-60% of their maximum, amplifying their extremities or other qualities as needed and saving full out bursts of energy for when they want to apply pressure. Going at 100% of their battle mode output overtaxes the body and is extremely inefficient, even when utilizing Chakra Modes.

Examples:

1. Naruto and Sasuke seemingly struggle with Shin, a basic Mangekyo user, in the anime. At one point, Naruto is stabbed by Sasuke’s sword, which wouldn’t have happened if he had focused his chakra in any way around himself, especially when he’s demonstrated the ability to block blades in the same arc, and given the distance in power between Naruto and Shin, if Naruto’s Shinobi Battle Mode was actually running on its proper active level, that wouldn’t have hurt him.
2. Sakura Vs Sarada in her training. Even though Sarada is Sanin Level given her scaling relative to Boruto, who is stronger than Konohamaru, a character who stalemated Victor, who was praised by Orochimaru for his stubbornness and difficulty to defeat, Sakura should be around Sage Hashirama level in strength. It’s reasonable to assume that Sakura was using her base body with little to no chakra provided to her via Shinobi Battle Mode, and then decided to use one low level Chakra punch on Sarada to knock her out as painlessly as possible. Sarada, even though the Sharingan drains her reserves rather heavily, was panting, exhausted after one or two exchanges. She noted the need to calm herself down and focus, meaning she had to be dumping everything she had into her own physicality.
3. The gap between Zabuza and Genin Naruto and Sasuke should be such that no attack from them, bladed weapon or not should be able to pierce their skin— we see ninja like Baki tank blades on their flesh from characters like Hayate, both of whom are far closer to each other than the genin boys are to Zabuza. And yet, Zabuza felt the need to avoid being hit by those attacks. And the reason is because Zabuza was dumping all of his available Chakra into maintaining the water prison, where the rest of his physical body would be completely vulnerable and standard flesh— superhuman flesh, which wouldn’t be harmed by bullets or any normal human attack, but could be harmed by two superhumans running high on adrenaline, will of fire, and max Chakra output amps.
4. Sasuke attacking Gaara using the speed and strength of Lee. Sasuke couldn’t consistently utilize that kind of output because it requires a lot of stamina to use. The way he’s likely accomplishing this feat is by hyper-amplifying his body with Chakra, rather than just moving his natural body as fast as possible. Guy also refers to the Chidori as “a full bodied activation” in the English dub, and the mechanics of the Chidori seem to be a powerful lightning jab with cutting shape transformation on it, whilst using an extremely powerful variant of the body flicker. The body flicker is quite literally just amplifying the user’s speed by vitalizing their body according to that purpose using their Chakra as fuel and as a booster.
5. The mechanics of the 8 Gates necessarily confirm this idea. The Gates release additional Chakra locked away from the body into the user’s circulatory system. Lee and Guy necessarily amplify their combat capabilities using a literal battle mode, it just seems that the Gates are all about overtaxing the body even more than a standard max amplification, as the 1st gate unlocks the restraints on the natural body’s limits, boosting them 5x over, from their 20% physical output to 100% of their body’s output. All that exists in addition to giving a large amount of Chakra to amplify the user through their battle mode.
6. Kiba vs Naruto has Naruto dumping all of his Chakra into his speed to avoid being chewed by Kiba, who has Chakra literally flowing off of his hands and feet and limbs when he activates his Man-Beast Taijutsu.
7. Orochimaru vs Sasuke features Sasuke putting everything he has into attacking, definitely not holding anything back, and starts off with Orochimaru flexing his Chakra and letting off a gust as Sasuke descends onto him, likely deciding to actually vitalize his body for once with less than a 100th of his actual Chakra potency.
8. The nature of Chakra Modes in general confirm the existence of Shinobi Battle Mode because the concept is literally the same as a Chakra Mode on a lesser, often non-elemental scale. From the Butterfly Mode to KCM to the Lightning Cloak to the Jinchuriki Version 1 cloaks, to even the initial Biju Chakra states, ninjas dump their energy into their bodies to amplify their capabilities. It’s just that these are extreme versions of thr already existing Shinobi Battle Mode technique, just as coat your hand in lightning Chakra isn’t going to be anywhere near as good as the Chidori or Shiden.

What this really means: In essence, Shinobi Battle Mode exists as a universal application of Chakra Vitalization which amplifies the body of the user. Given characters like Lee, who cannot even skillfully utilize Chakra beyond water walking and tree climbing due to sheer incompetence, Lee relies on strengthening his regular body through training and then amplifying his extremely toned natural, non-mystically affected body with his Chakra, and then increasing that effect through the 8 Gates, which functions similar to any other form of physical enhancement through Chakra. The baseline flesh of a Shinobi might be anywhere from normal human level, to anything up to whatever limits the verse has, likely being around Sage Hashirama level in my analysis.