"My dad is Namikaze Minato," Naruto repeated.
"The Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato?" Jiraiya asked again, sounding unsure.
"Yeah." Naruto nodded.
Jiraiya looked Naruto up and down. "Do you have any proof?"
"My hair. It's blond, just like the Fourth Hokage!" Naruto said, pointing at his head.
"..."
Jiraiya's mouth twitched as he asked, "Anything else?"
"I'm handsome!" Naruto said, pointing at his face.
"..."
Jiraiya looked at him speechlessly. "And?"
"Hmm… My last name is Uzumaki. I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I also have the gift they gave me when I was born!" As Naruto spoke, he gathered a bit of Nine-Tails chakra in his hand.
"Look... it's the little fox's chakra!"
"..."
The Nine-Tails—the same one that had the whole village on edge—and he just called it a little fox?
Still, with all this evidence, it was clear Naruto really was who he said he was.
Jiraiya didn't expect that little baby to have grown up so much already.
"Alright then. So why did you come looking for me? Or should I ask... how did you even know I was here?"
Jiraiya changed his posture, sitting cross-legged with arms folded, and looked at Naruto with a mix of doubt and caution.
"I came to soak in the hot spring," Naruto replied with a straight face.
"You came here to soak alone?" Jiraiya was skeptical. What kind of twelve-year-old kid comes to a hot spring inn alone?
"I just finished the second round of the Chunin Exams and came here to relax. And I'm not used to inviting others to bathe with me," Naruto said calmly.
He had expected Jiraiya to be suspicious. Naruto wanted to get familiar with him here, but it's not like he came unprepared just to force a connection.
"Chunin Exams, huh…"
Jiraiya had heard a bit about them but didn't pay much attention.
He didn't expect Minato's kid to be this talented—only twelve, already through two rounds, and possibly on his way to becoming a Chunin.
A twelve-year-old Chunin. That kind of genius is rare in today's Konoha.
A genius… and the son of Minato…
Jiraiya looked Naruto up and down, then said, "Hey kid, do you want to train with me?"
Train?
Naruto didn't expect Jiraiya to offer so suddenly.
He remembered that in the past, Jiraiya only agreed to train him because of Naruto's Sexy Jutsu!
But back then, Jiraiya probably didn't know Naruto was a Jinchuriki.
"Hmm… okay!"
Naruto hesitated for a moment, then agreed to train with him.
Even though he hadn't planned on becoming Jiraiya's student, now that Jiraiya brought it up himself, there was no reason to say no.
If they didn't spend some time together, Jiraiya might not even bother taking him to find Tsunade.
"Great! We'll start this afternoon! But before that, I need to gather more material! Hehehe!"
Jiraiya said with a sneaky grin as he walked back to the wooden wall to keep peeping!
Naruto stood still for a second, gave up the idea of going along with him, and instead went to soak in the hot spring, quietly waiting.
He wasn't in a rush to learn any new jutsu. After all, no matter how powerful Jiraiya's jutsu was, it still couldn't beat the strength of the Glistening Fruit.
An hour later—
After the girls finished their bath and left, Jiraiya finally came back to Naruto, still looking like he wanted more.
"What a shame, all those beautiful girls are gone already. Such a short and sweet moment~"
Hearing Jiraiya talk to himself like that, Naruto rolled his eyes.
Was that really a "moment"?
That was clearly all in your head!
"Hey, Naruto, I'm thinking of going to find more pretty girls. Wanna come with me?"
Since it was still a while before the afternoon, Jiraiya obviously wasn't going to waste his "research time" teaching Naruto.
Hearing that Jiraiya wanted to sneak around somewhere else, Naruto almost said no without thinking.
But then he remembered why he came to find Jiraiya in the first place. He couldn't just let the old man slip away so easily. Sure, Jiraiya said he'd train him—but who knew if he'd change his mind?
"I'll come."
Naruto got up, put on his clothes, and followed Jiraiya out of the hot spring inn. The two of them wandered through the streets of Konoha… acting like hooligans.
That's right, total hooligans!
Naruto never thought an old man could be this shameless—walking down the street loudly telling dirty jokes to young women, and even trying to cop a feel when he had the chance.
It was… honestly embarrassing!
Naruto felt like a stiff sidekick following Jiraiya around, and since some of the girls would occasionally tease him too, he was getting really uncomfortable.
Thankfully, lunchtime came around pretty quickly. Naruto treated Jiraiya to a meal at Ichiraku Ramen.
Jiraiya didn't hold back at all and ordered the most expensive ramen on the menu—8,200 yen a bowl!
And he ate three bowls in one go!
Good thing Naruto still had some money on him. If he didn't, that lunch would've made him cry in pain.
When the afternoon rolled around, Jiraiya seemed to have forgotten all about the training and dragged Naruto off to chase girls again.
Naruto didn't really care and just followed Jiraiya quietly.
Eventually, they came to a waterfall.
After watching Naruto all morning, Jiraiya had a rough idea of what kind of person he was.
Calm, patient, logical… boring. Compared to kind and smart Minato, Naruto was totally different—but not hopeless.
Still… Naruto's personality reminded Jiraiya a bit of young Orochimaru and Minato's student, Kakashi!
"By the way, Naruto, who's your jonin instructor?" Jiraiya asked casually.
"Kakashi," Naruto replied without looking back.
"Kakashi, huh… that makes sense."
Jiraiya firmly believed that teachers had a big impact on their students.
Since Naruto was Kakashi's student, it was normal that he picked up some of Kakashi's traits.
"Alright! Let's start training right here!"
Jiraiya sat down on the ground near the river in front of the waterfall. "Naruto, you already know what's inside you, right?"
"Yeah, the Nine-Tails," Naruto nodded. "I found out a few months ago from a teacher in the village."
A teacher from Konoha?
Jiraiya was a bit confused.
Why would the Third Hokage let someone with no filter become Naruto's teacher?
He didn't really get it, but didn't ask any more questions.
"Well, since you already know about that thing, I guess you also understand the ninth kind of chakra inside you. From what I saw this morning, you seemed pretty good at controlling it?"
"Yeah, I can fully control it."
"Fully control it?!"
Jiraiya was clearly shocked.
Even though he had never been a Jinchuriki himself, he had studied Kushina enough to know how hard it was to control the Nine-Tails' chakra.
Kushina had trained like crazy to gain control of that power.
And even then, she never claimed she could control it completely.
From what he knew, the Nine-Tails' chakra still belonged to the beast itself. Unless a Jinchuriki gained its full approval, there was no way they could fully control it.
But could a tailed beast really acknowledge someone like that?
At this point, Naruto was starting to feel like a real mystery to Jiraiya.
"If you've really mastered that chakra, then I'll teach you a super powerful jutsu!"
As Jiraiya spoke, he bit his thumb and slammed his hand on the ground—Summoning Jutsu!
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