"Big Bomb!"
"A single 3!"
"Ahahahaha! I win again! Pay up, pay up!"
Naruto, face dark, pulled 100 ryo from his wallet and handed it to Jiraiya.
"100 ryo?"
"Bombs double the payout! Come on, you played one bomb, I played two — that means it's 800 ryo! Pay up!"
"..."
He'd made this mess himself — now Naruto could only grit his teeth and swallow the loss.
He never imagined that Jiraiya would be so good at Dou Dizhu the very first time playing!
Except for the first round, Jiraiya didn't lose a single game after that.
Out of seven games, Naruto lost every one!
"Bad luck today. I'm done!"
Just from those seven rounds, Naruto had already lost almost 5,000 ryo!
If he didn't stop now, he could kiss the rest of his savings goodbye!
Jiraiya, seeing Naruto stop, grinned and happily stuffed the money into his clothes.
"This game's fun — we'll definitely play again sometime!"
"Boss lady! Bill, please!"
"Yes, one moment…"
Hearing Jiraiya's voice, the owner walked over with the bill — only to find Naruto sitting there by himself.
Jiraiya's seat had nothing but a frog plushie on it!
"That old man won the money and still made me pay for drinks!"
Naruto looked at the frog plush Jiraiya had left behind with a substitution jutsu, his face twitching.
Holding back his pain, he pulled out another 1,000 ryo to cover the drinks.
He seriously suspected that Jiraiya was using "training" as an excuse to scam him!
In just one day, he'd already lost nearly 10,000 ryo!
If he kept hanging out with Jiraiya like this, he'd go completely broke!
Leaving the izakaya,
Naruto spotted Jiraiya leaning coolly against the wall outside with his arms crossed.
"We still have to train?" Naruto asked with a blank face.
Jiraiya looked at the night sky and said seriously, "It's already this late. Let's stop for today. But…"
"But what?"
"I'm hungry."
"..."
...
The next day, Naruto slept in.
He lay in bed with no intention of getting up.
Compared to training with Jiraiya, he'd much rather stay home and watch shows.
But the world never goes the way you want. Even if he didn't want to get up, someone came to drag him out of bed.
"Time to get up, Naruto!"
Jiraiya was sitting by his window, eating a steamed bun and drinking soy milk. "You're still young—how can you sleep so much? Come on, let's go train!"
Naruto stayed quiet for a few seconds, then slowly got out of bed with a deadpan face, brushing his teeth and washing his face like a robot.
Jiraiya could see the helpless look in Naruto's eyes, and a faint smile formed at the corner of his lips.
In Jiraiya's eyes, Naruto was already strong enough physically, and there wasn't much more he could teach him in that area.
So now he planned to teach Naruto something deeper—willpower and emotion.
Jiraiya believed that someone who could change the future of the ninja world couldn't be someone dull and lifeless.
He didn't need to be loud or outgoing, but he had to care about others and have a dream in life.
But Jiraiya didn't see much of that in Naruto... maybe a little, but not enough.
He could feel that Naruto wasn't great at expressing emotions, so he wanted to expose him to more things that could stir up human feelings and desires.
But Naruto was still too young, so there were limits to what kind of fun things Jiraiya could take him to do.
A few minutes later, Naruto had finished getting ready, changed into new clothes, and asked Jiraiya, "What kind of training are we doing today?"
"Hmm… this morning we'll just do some basic hand sign practice."
Jiraiya handed him breakfast and said, "You're still pretty weak in this area. I don't know what your Chunin teacher was doing."
Iruka's face flashed through Naruto's mind.
Honestly, Iruka probably taught it pretty well. But… Naruto had never really gone to his classes.
After breakfast, Jiraiya brought Naruto to the bathhouse for hand sign practice.
While Naruto practiced forming hand signs, Jiraiya stayed nearby collecting "materials." Both of them were super busy.
Just like that, the morning flew by.
At noon, Jiraiya treated Naruto to a fancy BBQ meal that cost 2,000 ryo. When it was time to pay, he left a little frog clone behind again.
Naruto walked out of the BBQ place holding the frog and asked, "Where are we going next? Back to the hot spring inn?"
"Nope. Follow me!"
As expected of a ninja who traveled the world—his English was surprisingly smooth!
Too bad Jiraiya didn't know how to rap. Otherwise, he might've teamed up with Killer Bee for a ninja rap duo.
Naruto even came up with a name for them—The "Ya-Bee" Duo!
Because "Ya-Bee"... uh... yeah...
Not long after, Naruto followed Jiraiya back to the waterfall where they trained yesterday.
Just as Jiraiya was about to start training again, he suddenly heard the sound of girls playing nearby!
"That sound! That sound!"
"There are cute girls!!"
Excited, Jiraiya dove into the bushes, pulled out his telescope, and instantly turned into a "master of gathering materials."
"..."
Hearing Jiraiya let out the occasional "hehehe," Naruto gave a helpless sigh, then found a comfortable spot nearby and started watching his shows.
To be honest, he didn't mind Jiraiya getting distracted like this—it gave him some peace and quiet.
An hour later, the two girls finished playing and left the waterfall.
Only then did Jiraiya finally turn around with a satisfied look, staring at Naruto who was sitting there like a statue, totally still.
'This kid really knows how to stay calm.'
Other people couldn't see AI-chan's virtual screen, so from Jiraiya's point of view, Naruto had been sitting still in the same spot for a whole hour!
That gave Jiraiya a completely wrong impression about Naruto's personality.
This kid… is way too calm. It's scary!
"Alright, let's start training now!"
Jiraiya snapped Naruto out of the show he was watching and called him over.
"How did the hand sign practice go this morning?" Jiraiya asked.
Naruto didn't say anything. Instead, he quickly ran through the hand signs Jiraiya had taught him.
"Not bad. Then today, we'll keep practicing—Summoning Jutsu!"
"We're still practicing Summoning Jutsu?"
Seeing Naruto a little confused, Jiraiya explained, "Even though you've already learned this jutsu, the real secret behind it isn't just summoning—it's about the summon creature!"
"To truly use this jutsu well, you need to build a bond with the toads of Mount Myoboku. Only then can you summon the specific one you want whenever you need it."
Put simply, learning the Summoning Jutsu meant Naruto could now summon all kinds of toads—but he couldn't choose which one would appear.
For example, last time he managed to beat Gamabunta into submission. So if Naruto wanted to summon him again, he could send a summoning message through the jutsu.
If Gamabunta wasn't busy or in a bad mood, chances were he'd answer the call.
But if Naruto wanted to summon a different toad this time—one that didn't know him—it would most likely reject the summon, and the jutsu would fail.
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