I am not confusing anything. The rod Naruto used to pin BZ down is the same truth seeking ball after changing the shape. People tried to ignore what we knew as soon as Hiruzen made his analysis. Shape manipulation is done consciously by Naruto just as he can transform it into a floating disk to help Sasuke fly.
FYI, don't you notice BZ couldn't move as soon as naruto place the rod on him. They work just like Nagato, Obito's and Madara's black rod. The only reason no body talk about Naruto's badassness is that Naruto is not a villain. Otherwise, he would be wrecking the Narutoverse right now.
So like I said you are confusing them, or maybe I should say conflating. Madara never said the TSB are manifistations of the users will. You might be able to come to that conclusion, since Naruto used them like chakra rods, but you were stating it as if it were fact. Just because they share some attributes doesn't mean anything that is true for chakra rods is true for TSB.
Naruto and Ashura's chakra are one but Ashura's chakra is a spiritual energy that could be seen by Hagoromo after it was activated completely. In BM, Ashura's chakra is also activated, but initially, Naruto could not activate it on his own without being help by Kyuubi. However, when he went through his near death experience, the chakra was activated and he does not need Kyuubi anymore to have Chakra cloak.
Most people think Naruto's cloak and corss-eye are SM+Kyuubi mode, but they are either wrong, butthurt, or in denial. Fact is that Naruto inherited the ultimate power of Ashura, which is recognize by the six lines on his face. As we saw in hagoromo's flashback, Ashura himself has demon power (using the fact that Kyuubi and tailed beast are called demons). His avatar is actually the boss of all the bijus avatar in Narutoverse, which suggest that Ashura is actually the embodiement of Juubi physical energy while indra is certainly the spiritual energy of Juubi.
Again stop stating you theory as if it's fact. This is not confirmed in the manga. "boss of all bijuu avatar" is a nice piece of fanfic though. This same six line appear when Naruto is in BM mode too, yes they are related to Ashura, but that's because he's a transmigrate.
Below is something very interesting, and not the only evidence. Many people disregard it because it destroys their argument.
You can see in that image that Naruto who is in Rikudo+Ashura mode is about to receive chakra from Kyuubi. This proves that Naruto is not in Kyuubi mode, otherwise, he would already have Kyuubi chakra.
Because his mode is like KCM, I typed BM before but that was mistake. I meant it's like his first cloak mode, where he is using the stored chakra of the bijuu, but not directly from them.
(1) Why Naruto has crossed eyes if he is in mode made of the chakra of all the Bijus (aka Juubi chakra)?
(2) Why each bijus is giving him chakra when he need their chakra?
(3) Why is Naruto the only one to have two different patterns on his Sage cloak?
1) Because he's using KCM with sage mode.
2) So he can use their special elements
3) Not sure what you mean by two different patterns. If you mean why it looks different from Madara and Obito it's because he's not an actual juubi jin (no mezzo / body). If you mean why it has some BM stuff on it, it's because it's a mix of KCM (like mode w/o a seal) + rikodu chakra.
My answer are in what I said - that is Naruto is in SM + Ashura mode. In the same way the uchiha can activate Indra's power, Naruto and Hashirama can also activate Ashura's power. The only difference is that Naruto is more gifted than Hashirama just as Sasuke has more of Indra's power than Madara. So far, no one was able to explain Hashirama's SM, but the answer is simple - Ashura.
You can't agree that Naruto and Ashura's chakra is the same, but then say it's derived from Ashura's power, it's all quite messy when the answer has already been provided. Rikodu said he would give Naruto some of his power, not awaken Ashura's power inside him. Nice theory, though.