Watching Meruem depart, the White Snake Sage slowly let out a breath, the bead on her brow almost slipping off.
Meruem's parting words and the aura he released both shook the White Snake Sage to her core. Such a terrifying monster had actually appeared in the human world. In sheer presence alone, this creature was hardly inferior to the Sage of Six Paths, and with that near-teleporting speed—if he learned Sage Mode—perhaps even the Sage of Six Paths might not be his match.
Fortunately, this kind of monster bore no malice toward Ryuchi Cave. They might even be on good terms—handing over the Sage Mode training method was proof enough.
It must be said, the Naruto world's medical methods lag far behind those of many other worlds. Most recovery hinges on a ninja's physique and innate talent—take Kakuzu and Hidan, for example.
Those two were near-immortal, so even severe injuries healed quickly.
By contrast, look at other shinobi. Medical ninjutsu is decent, but treatment methods are still lacking—of course compared to many anime worlds, not to the real world.
For instance, with Rock Lee's shattered bones and torn muscles, every medical ninja was helpless except Tsunade.
The chunin exam preliminaries ended, and there was still a full month until the finals.
Kakashi took Sasuke away to train in the weakened version of Kakashi's original Lightning Blade, the Chidori.
As for Kakashi playing favorites, Naruto didn't particularly care; he'd gotten used to not having anyone care about him. But this time, unlike in the original, Naruto didn't go find Konohamaru's tutor, the special jonin Ebisu.
The reason couldn't be simpler—Ebisu was too weak. He wasn't even as capable as Naruto without Nine-Tails Mode. Training with him would be pointless.
This time, the one instructing Naruto was once again the Golden Silkworm Gu, and this time it finally taught Naruto the Rasengan, an S-rank jutsu with infinite room for innovation.
Although the Nine-Tails wasn't deliberately disrupting Naruto's chakra, fine chakra control wasn't Naruto's strong suit.
So while Naruto's talent was excellent, his progress with the Rasengan wasn't much faster than Sasuke's with the Chidori.
But he worked hard every day because the Golden Silkworm Gu told him this was one of his father, the Fourth Hokage's, signature techniques. The word "father" was so distant for Naruto, but children always have their aspirations, and he'd long since learned his father was a great hero and the village's Fourth. So Naruto was very enthusiastic about his father's jutsu.
Of course, every day Naruto carved out time from training to visit Hinata at the hospital. Hinata really was an adorable girl.
Lately, Jiraiya had been troubled. The reason was simple: he'd returned to the village he once loved most—Konoha—for the son of his student, the Fourth Hokage's son, Uzumaki Naruto.
Though he'd been Naruto's guardian after the Fourth died, he hadn't visited the kid once in twelve years, leaving Jiraiya completely at a loss for how to face him.
The key to the Four Symbols Seal on Naruto—the toad Gerotora—was still with him. A pity that for personal reasons he hadn't checked in on the kid a single time in twelve years.
Although he'd heard some accounts from the Third after returning, getting along with people wasn't his strong suit.
For reference, the official data listed Jiraiya's overall score as 71—a super powerhouse no less than Uchiha Itachi. But just take those numbers as a glance. Take them too seriously and you lose; in real fights those stats hardly decide winners.
After all, with an overall score of 63, Hidan was still beaten by Shikamaru's strategy. His taijutsu score was 9 (out of 10), yet in the manga his taijutsu was about on par with Shikamaru, who wasn't a taijutsu specialist.
Maybe that's because Guy and Rock Lee would need taijutsu scores of, say, 20.
To get Naruto's attention, Jiraiya squatted at a hole outside a women's bathhouse along Naruto's route to the training grounds, peeping for "research," hoping to draw Naruto's notice.
Even as one of the Legendary Sannin, this was the only clumsy method he could think of.
However, Naruto only cast a disdainful glance in Jiraiya's direction and ignored him, walking straight on toward the training grounds.
By normal logic, wouldn't the first reaction on seeing such a lecher be to stop him? But the original Naruto was famously Konoha's Number One Most Unpredictable Ninja. Though the current Naruto was less "unpredictable," a person's essence doesn't change much.
Naruto's reason for ignoring Jiraiya was simple. He sensed no malice. He only felt the man was a skeevy old perv.
Then, not far ahead by a public restroom, there was that white-haired lecher squatting outside the ladies' again, face full of pervy glee.
Even so... Naruto still ignored Jiraiya and kept walking.
Rather than "ignore," it was more that Naruto didn't pay him any attention. Being single-minded, his focus was entirely on training. Who had time to look around?
The Golden Silkworm Gu on Naruto's head did notice, but didn't alert Naruto.
What a joke. After I've taught and influenced Naruto this long, you think you'll just show up and "reach" him? Make him fight for Konoha?
"Sigh, Minato... if only I'd come back once in those twelve years. Naruto... what kind of personality do you have now?" After Naruto walked past him, Jiraiya's flushed, lovestruck look vanished in an instant, replaced by a serious face.
With no opening for conversation, Jiraiya felt helpless. He couldn't very well run up to Naruto and say, "Hey, I'm your father's teacher. Let me train you!"
First, that'd be hard to believe; second, it's been twelve years with not a single visit—what's that supposed to be? Any normal person would be suspicious; third, Naruto would definitely ask about his father, and that was a tangled mess; fourth, that's super tacky and beneath this sage's dignity; fifth, it's super tacky and beneath this sage's dignity; sixth, it's super tacky and beneath this sage's dignity. It bears repeating.
"Finally here. Okay! This week's task is to master the Rasengan!" Arriving at Konoha's Training Ground 48, Naruto thumped his chest and set his goal.
The Golden Silkworm Gu had imparted the basic training method for the Rasengan. Although Meruem himself didn't use this jutsu, the original anime explained it so clearly, and with Meruem's stunning talent, he'd worked it out long ago. Uchiha Musashi had used it even before—an improved version at that.
As for Giant Rasengan and Rasenshuriken, those Rasengan evolutions, Meruem had long since developed them. After the Golden Silkworm Gu told Naruto about the Rasengan series, Naruto simply drooled over the jutsu.
Is Lightning Blade and Chidori so great—high-speed piercing jutsu? Rasengan's destructive power is hardly less, and it's silent—way more practical by a whole tier.
For Naruto's future, the Golden Silkworm Gu—more precisely Meruem—had long planned ahead. Naruto would learn Rasengan; he'd already mastered Nine-Tails Mode; what remained was Sage Mode and summoning. Meruem had only recently acquired Sage Mode and was still studying it; as for summoning beasts—
They're fine in the early and mid stages; once the Fourth Great Ninja War starts, forget it. Even the three strongest summoning beasts didn't have the qualifications to step onto that battlefield—Slugs could at least support. Gamabunta and Manda would just get slaughtered.
Below Kage-level you can't even guarantee survival. No— even Kage-level can't guarantee it.
If Naruto must have a summoning beast, handing him the Ryuchi Cave scroll isn't out of the question. But that'd be complicated—after all, that's Orochimaru's exclusive contract.
For now, Naruto's growth needed no intervention from Jiraiya.
"Rasengan!" Truly worthy of Naruto—worthy of being the Fourth's son. Though he hadn't fully mastered the jutsu yet, he'd already grasped many of its essentials. While, due to the Nine-Tails, Naruto still lacked a bit in fine chakra control, those were minor details.
Unlike the original, Naruto wasn't "kneading" the orb with two hands now. Single-hand chakra gathering was still a bit strenuous, but much improved. To be precise, ever since he could use Nine-Tails Mode, his chakra control had improved greatly.
"Hey, kid over there. The jutsu you're training—could it be the Rasengan?" It was Jiraiya. He'd been tailing Naruto from earlier.
With Naruto's Nine-Tails Mode exposed in the preliminaries, Danzo had already shifted his attention to Naruto. After all, he was the Nine-Tails jinchuriki—there could be no mistakes. Danzo even approached the Third more than once about it.
But as Naruto grew older, the Third's guilt only deepened. Each time, Danzo left unhappy. And after Jiraiya returned to Konoha, the Third told him all of this, since he was the father's teacher.
Though he was astonished at how far Naruto had grown, Jiraiya was even more startled by the jutsu Naruto was training now.
It was his proudest student the Fourth Hokage's signature technique—the Rasengan.
(End of Chapter)
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