Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-27075290-20160214063402/@comment-3965545-20160221161653

the eyes are the key, if there is no pigmentation around the eyes then he is using SPSM.. you also must remember that the only reason he did not use SPSM in the Last, is because it didn't exist yet for him since it didn't even debut until a chapter way after they finished production on the movie, therefor the fused Kurama sage mode was the visual replacement. So no pigmentation = no spsm except in that case