Chapter 49: Master & Student
...Worthy of Minato's son! Jiraiya thought to himself, impressed. Then, a gleam of testing intent flashed in his eyes. Without warning, his arm shot out, his fist slamming toward Naruto through the curtain of water!
Though his eyes were closed, Naruto felt the sudden, fierce pressure. His eyes snapped open. He surged to his feet, crossing his forearms in a guard before him.
BAM!
A solid impact jarred his frame, but he held firm, blocking the blow.
Seeing this, Jiraiya's eyes lit up. "Not bad, kid! Solid form!" He didn't let up, pressing the attack. Naruto, seeing Jiraiya clearly wanted to test him, rose to the challenge. Their exchange of taijutsu carried them from the pounding waterfall to the solid ground of the bank.
A final, synchronized kick pushed them apart, creating distance.
Standing steady, Jiraiya let out a hearty laugh. "Excellent! Who taught you to fight like that?"
"Kakashi-sensei, and the old man Third," Naruto replied with a smile. Strictly speaking, they had only guided him; his progress was built on his own relentless effort and… certain pre-existing knowledge.
"You've done well for yourself in Konoha! Among your generation, you're a true prodigy!" Jiraiya praised. "But that's the limit of what Konoha can teach you conventionally. Let me show you something you haven't seen!"
As he spoke, Jiraiya extended his arm. Chakra roared to life, swirling into a familiar blue sphere—the Rasengan. He kicked off the ground, charging at Naruto with the technique humming in his palm.
Watching Jiraiya's Rasengan form, Naruto's lip twitched in amusement. Then, to the older man's utter shock, Naruto extended his own palm. With practiced ease, an identical, perfectly formed Rasengan materialized there.
"The Rasengan? I've known this one for a while."
Jiraiya skidded to a halt so abruptly he almost tripped, the chakra in his own hand dissipating. "Kid! How do you know that technique?! That was developed by the Fourth Hokage! No one in Konoha would have taught it to you!"
Naruto offered a bright, slightly mysterious smile and tapped his temple. "Where there's a will, there's a way. Just because no one taught it doesn't mean it can't be learned. Didn't the Fourth Hokage have to figure it out himself?"
Jiraiya's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "Are you telling me you invented it independently? That's… too much of a coincidence!" He couldn't believe it. To independently develop the exact same technique his father had created? Did father and son think that identically?
Seeing Jiraiya's stubborn disbelief, Naruto scrambled for an explanation. He couldn't very well say he was from another world and already knew the theory. In the past, the Third and Kakashi had been puzzled but had ultimately let it slide, perhaps attributing it to some latent legacy from his father.
After a moment's thought, Naruto decided to let the Fourth take the credit once more. He waved a hand dismissively. "Alright, alright. Since you're not a bad guy, I'll tell you. Sometimes… things just pop into my head. Bits of knowledge, information. I developed the Rasengan based on one of those… insights."
Jiraiya stared, then comprehension dawned. Of course! Minato must have left something behind in the seal! A fragment of knowledge for his son. The idea filled him with a bittersweet warmth. Minato… you thought of everything.
Satisfied he'd steered the conversation correctly, Naruto smiled inwardly. Sorry, Fourth. A little white lie for a good cause.
A moment later, Jiraiya shook off his reverie. He looked at Naruto anew—the spiky blond hair so like Minato's, the face bearing hints of Kushina. A surge of profound, paternal affection welled up in him.
"Naruto! Your skills are impressive. How would you like to become this sage's disciple?" Jiraiya declared, puffing out his chest.
"Oh? Your disciple?" Naruto feigned surprise. He'd been weighing this very decision: follow the original path and gain Jiraiya's protection and training, or strike out entirely on his own? After a brief internal debate, he nodded. "I would. But I need to know if you're qualified to be my master."
Naruto was neither naive nor foolish. Refusing Jiraiya made no sense. In all of Konoha, who was better suited? For all his lechery and lack of decorum, Jiraiya was a powerhouse who cared deeply. In the original tale, he had provided the fatherly love and unwavering support Naruto craved. While this Naruto didn't need that specific emotional scaffolding, a master-student bond with the legendary Toad Sage was an opportunity not to be missed.
"Hey! You dare doubt me? Fine! Witness this! Summoning Jutsu!" Jiraiya laughed, undeterred.
He bit his thumb and slammed his palm to the ground. BAM! A cloud of white smoke erupted, revealing a person-sized toad with the kanji for 'Loyalty' emblazoned on a bead around its neck.
"My summoning contract is with the toads of Mount Myoboku, hailed as the strongest summon clan in the ninja world! What do you think of that?"
That evening, beside the waterfall.
After signing the contract scroll, Naruto spent hours practicing the fundamentals. The key, he found, was the hand seal and precise chakra control. Once he mastered those, summoning a toad was straightforward. Summoning a specific toad from Myoboku would require familiarizing himself with their individual chakra signatures.
But for now, he had the first two points down. His seal-work was flawless, his chakra control exquisite. It was time for a test.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Naruto channeled a massive surge of chakra and slammed his palm onto the earth.
BOOOOM!
An earth-shaking crash accompanied a towering plume of white smoke. When it cleared, a toad the size of a small hill sat where Naruto had been standing. Naruto himself now stood atop the giant toad's head, having been lifted high into the air.
He let out a satisfied breath, looking down at Gamabunta—pipe in mouth, short haori worn like a jacket—and called out to Jiraiya, "See that, you old perv? This is what I can do!"
Jiraiya stood on the bank, his jaw practically on the ground. He stared up at Naruto, silhouetted against the setting sun on Gamabunta's head. For a heart-stopping moment, the image overlapped perfectly with Minato's.
He didn't even mind the insult. He just kept muttering, "One day… just one day… and he summoned Gamabunta on his first real try. This kid's talent… Minato, he's surpassed even you. I'll train him. I'll make him a shinobi who surpasses everyone."
"Oi. Who's the brat that summoned me? Hmph. You?" Gamabunta grumbled, exhaling a cloud of smoke. "Jiraiya… why'd you give the contract to a runt?"
Despite his tone, Gamabunta was secretly stunned. This kid… he looks just like the Fourth. Is he…?
Naruto then underwent Gamabunta's standard test of balance and nerve. But Naruto's current strength surpassed that of most Jonin in every metric. Standing firm on the giant toad's head, even during one of Bunta's prodigious leaps, was trivial.
In the end, Gamabunta had to concede. "Not bad, runt. Seems you're more reliable than that fool Jiraiya. Don't disappoint me." With a final BAMF, he vanished in another cloud of smoke.
Naruto dropped lightly back to the ground in front of a still-stunned Jiraiya. "So? Do I pass?"
Scene Sixteen: A Month of Progress
From that day, Jiraiya's estimation of Naruto soared. Powerful talent, a keen mind, mature reasoning—none of it fit a normal twelve-year-old.
Teaching him was almost effortless. Naruto grasped concepts instantly, often understanding an explanation halfway through and immediately putting it into practice. Jiraiya had never had a student so… self-sufficient.
A month flew by. Naruto mastered the Summoning Jutsu to a high degree of proficiency and learned several auxiliary toad techniques from Jiraiya, like the Toad Mouth Bind. By the month's end, Jiraiya was feeling the truth of the phrase "the student surpasses the master."
Naruto, however, hadn't focused solely on summoning. He'd also poured immense effort into developing the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken. The technique demanded extreme chakra control and vast reserves. Even with over a dozen shadow clones collaborating on the problem, a perfect, stable form still eluded him. Even tapping into the unstable Sage power of his Curse Mark didn't bridge the final gap. He could form it, but wielding it effectively, let alone throwing it as in the original future, was still beyond his reach.