It was still evening. Akari said, "You three can explore the town a bit if you want, just don't get lost and make sure to come back before it gets dark."
"So, where do you guys wanna go?" Ryuma asked.
"Huh! Isn't it obvious?" Kazuki replied.
"Yeah, hot springs, of course." Yuki said.
They roamed around the town for a while, found a hot spring and entered it.
"I am going then, see you guys later." Yuki said before entering the women's section.
Kazuki and Ryuma entered the men's section.
Kazuki thought, 'It's my first time going to a hot spring, I wonder how would it feel.'
Both of them entered the hot spring.
Ryuma said, "It feels so relaxing."
Kazuki replied, "Yeah, especially after running for 8 hours."
After a few minutes of relaxing, Ryuma said, pointing in a direction, "Hey, Kazuki, you see that old man over there? He's peeking at the girl's section."
Kazuki looked at the direction Ryuma was pointing and froze.
His eyes widened as he almost said, "Jir-"
"What?" Ryuma asked.
"Oh, umm, I was just saying that… Yuki's is in the women bath, so we gotta stop that old man." Kazuki replied.
Kazuki thought, 'It's not like he's peeping at Yuki, I know he's not into children. I just need an excuse to talk to one of my favorite fictional characters. He's not fictional anymore though.'
"You are right but what should we do?" Ryuma said.
"Let's just talk to him." Kazuki replied and walked towards that old man.
"Hey, what are you doing, old man?" Kazuki said.
There he was, a tall old man with white hair and a slightly muscular build, carrying a monocular and peeping in the women's bath through a tiny hole.
Yes, it was none other than one of the Legendary Sannin, The Toad Sage Jiraiya.
"Shhh, keep it down, kid. Can't you see I'm busy?" Jiraiya said without even looking at Kazuki
Kazuki smirked and said, "Buys doing what? Peeping at girls, you pervy old man."
Jiraiya looked at Kazuki and thought, 'Why's this kid smiling so much anyway? It's weird.'
"I'm not peeping, kid it's called research. Now go back to your mama and let me do my work. shoo!" Jiraiya said.
Kazuki thought, "It's a great opportunity, I can force him to teach me a jutsu."
Kazuki spread his chakra field to sense Jiraiya's chakra, but it was surprisingly normal, even less than Kazuki's.
'He must be hiding it.' Kazuki thought
"Hey old man, you're a ninja, aren't you?" Kazuki said.
Jiraiya thought, 'This kid is more trouble than I thought but he sure is a talented ninja, learning sensory skills at such a young age and his chakra is very massive as well.'
"Yeah, I'm a really powerful and dangerous ninja, now go home because you are starting to annoy me." Jiraiya said in a slightly angry voice.
Kazuki grinned and said, "Teach me a jutsu, or I'll shout that you are peeping."
"Do whatever you want, just go away from here first, I want to enjoy this beautiful sight- I mean research." Jiraiya said without paying much attention to Kazuki's words.
"Alright then, don't blame me for what happens." Kazuki said.
"THERE IS AN OL-" Jiraiya shut Kazuki's mouth with his hands and said, "Alright, alright, I'll teach you a jutsu, just stop shouting."
Jiraiya took his hand off Kazuki's mouth, and Kazuki said, "So, when are you going to teach me?"
"First, tell me your name and which village you are from." Jiraiya said.
"I am Kazuki Uchiha from Konoha." Kazuki replied.
Jiraiya's eyes widened slightly. He thought, 'A kid Uchiha with this much chakra? How can that even be possible? Uchiha aren't known for their chakra reserves."
Jiraiya said, "Meet me at the gate of this hot spring in 30 minutes, and don't disturb me now, we have a deal." Before going back to his 'research'
'That was easier than I expected.' Kazuki thought.
He walked back to Ryuma, who was watching from a distance.
Ryuma said, "So, you couldn't stop him after all, huh."
"Turns out that he's a powerful ninja, so I made a deal with him." Kazuki replied.
"What kind of deal?" Ryuma asked.
Kazuki grinned and said, "He'll teach me a jutsu if I don't interrupt him."
Ryuma, who was a little taken aback by this, said, "Wah! What can that old man even teach you? And we only have a few hours before it gets dark."
"I don't know, but there's nothing wrong in trying." Kazuki said.
A few minutes later they came out of the bath and met Yuki.
"So, how was it?" Kazuki asked.
"It was amazing, I've never taken such a good bath in my whole life." Yuki replied.
"Where are we going now?" Ryuma asked.
Yuki replied, "I don't know. What about you, Kazuki?"
Kazuki said, "Sorry, but I can't come with you guys. I promised an old man that I'd train with him."
Yuki gave him a confusing look and said, "What do you mean by training? What can you learn in a few hours?"
Kazuki said, "I'll learn something, he seemed pretty strong."
Yuki asked, "Are you sure? We can stay and watch your training if you want."
Kazuki replied, "No, there's no need for that, you guys can explore the village. I'll meet you in a few hours at the mansion."
After convincing them for a while, Kazuki managed to convince them to leave him alone, and they went to explore the village.
As they left, Jiraiya suddenly appeared in front of him.
He smirked and said, "Was that your girlfriend? She looked really worried about you."
Kazuki said, "No, she's just a close friend. Leaving that aside, what about our deal?"
Jiraiya said, "That's why I'm here, kid. Now follow me."
Kazuki followed Jiraiya for a few minutes, they reached an empty training ground.
Jiraiya said, "What is your main affinity?"
"Fire." Kazuki replied.
"Just as I thought, I've got something for you." Jiraiya said as he took out a scroll.
"What's this?" Kazuki asked.
Jiraiya smiled and said, "This is a jutsu that I got recently, it's a very powerful jutsu that even I couldn't learn, mainly because it requires very high chakra reserves and extremely high affinity to fire release."
He added, "I also have a high affinity for fire, but it's nothing compared to the Uchiha clan prodigies who learn fire style jutsu in mere days or hours, so if you can show some progress in this jutsu, then I'll take you as a student."
Kazuki was shocked by this, his eyes widened as he thought, "I got a chance to be his student. Is this even real, or am I dreaming?"
"Hey kid, you okay?"
Kazuki flinched. "Yeah, I was just thinking something."
"Weird." Jiraiya said, "Anyway, how many days are you staying here?"
Kazuki said, "I am leaving tomorrow morning."
Jiraiya's face showed disappointment as he said, "You've got bad luck, kid. Anyway, you have time till tomorrow morning. Meet me on this ground before you go, I'll see if you learned the jutsu or not. See you tomorrow then."
Jiraiya flickered after handing the scroll to Kazuki.
'Alright, I've got around 1 hour before it gets dark, let's learn the fundamentals of this jutsu first.' Kazuki thought
After around one hour, Kazuki went back to the mansion, ate dinner, talked a while, and told them that the old guy was a fraud and didn't know anything.
At night when everyone went to sleep, Kazuki sneaked out, went to the training ground, and secretly started training for the new ninjutsu.
He thought, "It would not be possible for a normal person to show even progress in a ninjutsu so difficult, but I bet Itachi could do this if he had enough chakra at this time, but if I make several shadow clones, then can I do it?"
Kazuki took a weaker version of the chakra pill and made 5 shadow clones, it wasn't his limit but the jutsu also uses so much chakra, as stated in the scroll, so he decided to make only five.
A chakra pill is a medicine for ninjas that gives them the nutrition and energy to fight for three days without sleeping, it also increases their natural chakra regeneration capabilities.
Hours felt like days as he continued training, most times he was completely unable to do the jutsu, so he didn't have to use that much chakra.
Seven hours passed and all Kazuki's clones were dispelled, and his chakra reserves were depleting as well, so he took a 30 minute break to meditate and analyze all the information in his brain.
Just as he was about to stand up, Jiraiya arrived in front of him and said, "Oh boy, you look quite worn out. Were you training all night?"
"Yeah, it was tough." Kazuk replied, stretching his arms.
"So, did you make any progress?"
"Kinda." Kazuki replied with a grin on his face.
[A/N- Make some predictions about the new jutsu and let's aim for 50 power stones this week. I know it's difficult, but there's nothing wrong in trying and yeah, from this chapter I have stopped even using AI for editing, so from now on all chapters are raw.]