Chapter 101: Why Did Little Jiraiya Summon Us?
"Hm? Shimura Danzō?"
Jiraiya frowned. After hearing that it was that old silver coin Danzō, he was momentarily stunned.
Although he couldn't take everything Naruto said at face value, when it came to old man Danzō's character… he still knew a thing or two.
Even if they hadn't completely torn off the mask yet, he could only say the man's reputation wasn't exactly praiseworthy.
Jiraiya thought for a moment. He needed to find a way to get back at him for this!
Naruto didn't care whether Jiraiya believed him or not. He had already pocketed the money. He left the hot spring, got dressed, and looked like he was planning to leave with Jiraiya.
Jiraiya paused. "What are you doing?"
Naruto shrugged. "Obviously going with you to train."
"Fuck! What could I possibly teach you? Forget it, go home. I still have things to do!"
Bring Naruto along? Are you joking?
After he collected his money later, he was planning to find a place to drink a few cups and call two pretty girls. Bringing Naruto along would be way too inconvenient!
…Though if Naruto really wanted to train with him that way, it wasn't entirely impossible. But his age wasn't there yet. Forget it, forget it.
Naruto put his hands behind his head. "No matter what, you're still my father's teacher, right? Teach me some self-defense skills."
Jiraiya had actually come back with this intention. But from the information Kakashi had sent, Naruto was apparently a genius ninja. How much of a genius exactly, Kakashi hadn't said clearly in the letter. Jiraiya didn't know either, so he had simply classified Naruto as one of those "ordinary geniuses." Not the monstrous kind.
Or maybe there was another reason. After all, Kakashi was Minato Namikaze's disciple, and Naruto was Kakashi's disciple. It was only natural for the teacher to say a few nice words for his student and help protect his pride.
Over the past few years while traveling, Jiraiya hadn't completely ignored Naruto's situation either. The messages he received about Naruto were mostly "dead last" and "troublemaker." It was only recently that his reputation had improved. So he hadn't paid much attention at the time.
"Fine! But I'm only responsible for teaching you. How much you actually grasp depends on your own ability."
Jiraiya smiled.
If he remembered correctly, the third round of the Chūnin Exams was about to begin. And Naruto was one of the few lucky genin who had made it to the finals. Teaching him a couple of things was acceptable.
Rasengan? Forget it. Learning that wasn't something you could do in a short time — it required a lot of effort. Well… for Naruto, anyway.
He might as well teach him summoning jutsu. Make him the next Toad heir.
Jiraiya quickly made up his mind.
Seeing that Jiraiya agreed so readily, Naruto smiled too. "Deal!"
The two of them left the bathhouse — wait, the hot spring resort. Jiraiya didn't summon his summoning beast to take them outside. Otherwise, with its huge size, it would cause traffic jams and his return would be exposed immediately. Not good.
Jiraiya wasn't planning to reveal his return just yet.
Soon, the two arrived at a forest a little farther from the village center. The environment here was nice — there was a stream and a large valley.
Jiraiya had chosen this spot because if Naruto failed the summoning, he could just throw him off the cliff. A stimulating environment might force him to succeed. With the Nine-Tails inside him, chakra definitely wouldn't be a problem. Sometimes people just needed a little push to realize how awesome they really were!
"Alright, this place will do!"
Jiraiya pulled out a parasol from who-knows-where and stuck it in the ground. Then he turned to Naruto.
"Come here and watch carefully. The hand seals on my hands — first like this… then like this… and then like this…"
As Jiraiya spoke, he demonstrated on the side.
Naruto really wanted to walk over and slap him twice. Any normal person would have done so already. This situation was exactly like a billionaire worth over ten billion explaining how he got rich: "I was poor first, then I became rich. I did everything, then I did everything again, and then I got rich."
Useless bullshit.
But Naruto's focus wasn't on that. It was on Jiraiya's hand seals.
If it were anyone else, they would have lost patience by now, right? But he watched patiently. And with just one look, he memorized everything clearly.
Jiraiya had originally planned to play a little joke on Naruto. After all, the kid had just scammed him out of so many gold notes! But seeing how seriously Naruto was watching, he couldn't help but get serious too.
He didn't mess up the hand seals. He even adjusted his teaching words accordingly and began explaining the core points patiently.
After finishing all the key points, Jiraiya bit his thumb hard, formed the single hand seal he had long since mastered, and slapped the ground.
Bang——
A puff of white smoke rose. A toad appeared beneath his feet.
The toad had a round bead hanging from its neck with the character "Loyal" written on it.
The toad stretched out its long tongue, and on it was a scroll.
Jiraiya explained from the side, "This is the contract for summoning toads."
Naruto's heart was pounding wildly.
This was the first time he was learning something without relying on cheats. Walking the normal training path once in a while wasn't bad either, right?
Who would refuse to gain a little more power?
Naruto quickly skimmed through the contents of the contract. He read ten lines at a glance and never forgot what he saw. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that even if Jiraiya took the scroll back right now, he would still remember every single word.
"Finished reading? If you're done, give it a try."
Jiraiya smiled.
To be honest, if Kakashi hadn't mentioned that Naruto was a genius, Jiraiya would have made him drain all his own chakra first, then use the Nine-Tails' chakra to summon Gamabunta.
"Yeah." Naruto responded.
He casually formed the seals according to the instructions and summoned.
Jiraiya watched and nodded repeatedly, praising inwardly. Not bad. He learned well. He really looks the part. His ability to copy from a model is pretty good. Barely qualifies as a genius.
But his chakra was obviously insufficient. He wouldn't be able to summon anything powerful.
Jiraiya felt like he could already see the future.
But then — Bang!
Another puff of white smoke appeared.
When the smoke cleared, two old toads, both shorter than ordinary people, stood in the clearing.
The two toads looked at Jiraiya with confusion.
"Little Jiraiya, why did you summon us?"
"Yeah! We were just about to eat. Why don't you come join us?"
Jiraiya's expression at that moment was absolutely priceless! His face was filled with disbelief.
What the fuck — are you kidding me?!
Is Naruto's chakra really that insane?!
He summoned Shima Sage and Fukasaku Sage on his very first summoning attempt?!
This is way too ridiculous!!
At that moment, Jiraiya's mind went completely blank.
Even the usually expressionless Toad Loyalty showed a shocked expression.
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