Chapter 184: The First Step: An Army of Water Balloons
The sounds of Konoha Village faded behind them, replaced by the rustling of leaves and the chirping of cicadas.
On a wide-open training ground, miles outside the village walls, Naruto bounced on his heels, vibrating with excess energy.
"C'mon, c'mon, Pervy Sage, let's start quickly! I can't wait!" Naruto urged, shadowboxing the air. "Teach me this... this Rasengan! I'm ready!"
Jiraiya, one of the three Legendary Sannin, let out a long, put-upon sigh. "Naruto, calm down. You're all fired up from that tournament, aren't you? Learning the Rasengan isn't like your shadow clones. You can't just brute-force it."
He stood up, his expression becoming, for a moment, unusually serious. He walked over to Naruto, his student... the son of his own late student.
"Before we start, I need to see where you're at." Jiraiya reached out and placed his large, calloused hand on Naruto's stomach, right over the Eight Trigrams Seal. He closed his eyes, sensing.
Naruto flinched but stood still.
"Hmm..." Jiraiya murmured, concentrating. "Your chakra control is... better than I expected. Akira's training, no doubt. But it's still wild. You've got all the power, but no finesse. It's like trying to put out a candle with a fire hose."
Jiraiya withdrew his hand. "Learning the Rasengan isn't that easy. It took the Fourth Hokage three years to create it, and a lifetime to master."
"Before we really start, you have to pass my test first."
He reached into his ninja pouch, rummaged past a few scrolls and a small, leather-bound notebook, and took out... an ordinary water balloon.
"See this?" Jiraiya handed the small, wobbly balloon to Naruto.
"Uh... yeah? It's a water balloon. Are we gonna have a water fight? I'll totally soak you!"
"Don't be an idiot," Jiraiya said, flicking Naruto on the forehead. "This is Step One."
"I want you to use your chakra... to burst it. Right there, in the palm of your hand."
He held up a warning finger. "Remember. No brute force. You can't just squeeze it. You can't use your nails. You need to use the rotation of your chakra inside the balloon to pop it from within."
"That's... it?"
Naruto weighed the water balloon in his hand. It was light, flimsy. His face was a mask of disdain.
"Burst it with chakra? Pervy Sage, that's too simple! I'm the guy who beat Sasuke! I'm the guy who beat Kiba with thirty clones! Give me something hard!"
"Oh?" A slow, knowing smile spread across Jiraiya's face. "Too simple, huh?"
"Then you try."
"Watch closely, Pervy Sage! I'll have this done in, like, five seconds!"
Naruto took a deep breath. He cupped the water balloon firmly in his left palm, brought his right hand over to stabilize it, and closed his eyes. He began to gather his chakra, pushing it from his stomach, down his arm, and into his hand.
One second.
Two seconds.
Ten seconds passed.
The water inside the balloon... sloshed. It jiggled a few times with the slight, unconscious trembling of Naruto's hand. But it showed no other change.
"Wh-What's going on?"
A fine layer of sweat had already appeared on Naruto's forehead. He was pushing so much chakra into the balloon. He could feel it!
C'mon... Pop!
He had clearly infused a ton of chakra into it, so why was there no reaction at all? It was just... a wet, wobbly balloon.
"You're just... holding it," Jiraiya observed, his voice tinged with amusement. "You're not doing anything to it. You're just making the water warm."
"Shut up! I'm concentrating!"
Jiraiya sighed again. "This is painful to watch. Here."
He took out another water balloon from his ninja pouch and cupped it in his own palm.
"Watch closely, Naruto. And I mean really watch."
"The Rasengan is the pinnacle of shape transformation. Its essence lies in the ultimate rotation and control of chakra."
[Inorin's Note: The Rasengan is an A-rank ninjutsu created by Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage. It involves molding chakra into a sphere of pure, high-speed rotation, causing massive damage on impact.]
"I'll only demonstrate this once. So pay attention."
As soon as he finished speaking, Jiraiya's entire demeanor shifted. The lecherous, goofy "Pervy Sage" vanished, and in his place stood the Sannin. His eyes instantly became focused, sharp as a kunai.
Naruto stared, holding his breath.
The water balloon in Jiraiya's palm silently, impossibly, began to change internally.
It wasn't just jiggling.
Several tiny, perfect vortexes appeared out of nowhere inside the water. They looked like miniature typhoons, spinning in different, chaotic directions.
Then, as Naruto watched, Jiraiya's chakra forced them all to spin in the same direction.
The vortexes grew more numerous. Their rotational speed became faster... and more violent. The balloon itself wasn't moving, but the water inside was a raging, contained storm.
The thin rubber of the balloon began to expand at a visible rate, stretched to its absolute limit by the centrifugal force.
Naruto's eyes widened, staring at the balloon that looked like it could explode at any moment.
Pffft!
It wasn't a loud pop. It was a soft, wet shred. The rubber didn't burst; it was torn to pieces, as if by a thousand tiny blades.
The water didn't splash. It simply fell out, the balloon's structure having completely failed.
"Did you see that?"
Jiraiya shook the water from his hand, looking at Naruto with satisfaction.
"The key is to make the chakra form a rotation. A chaotic, powerful, multi-directional rotation, all contained in one spot. When that rotational force exceeds the limit of the container, it will naturally burst."
"This... this is just the first step of the Rasengan."
Naruto swallowed, his mouth dry. That... was so cool.
"I... I get it!" Naruto said, his determination returning. "That's all? Just spin it? I can do that!"
Naruto picked up another water balloon, taking a deep breath.
"Again!"
Naruto imitated Jiraiya. He closed his eyes, immersing his entire mind in his palm.
Okay... rotate... rotate...
He mobilized the chakra within his body, carefully guiding it, trying to make it spin.
But the chakra, which he was so used to just blasting, simply wouldn't obey.
Naruto wanted the chakra to form a vortex. He pictured a typhoon in his head. But the chakra just turned into a tangled, jumbled mess, like a knot of yarn. It was completely powerless.
The water in the balloon... still just sloshed lazily.
"Damn it! Rotate, you stupid thing!"
Naruto gritted his teeth and increased his chakra output.
Pffffft...
The water balloon remained as steady as a mountain.
"I won't... give up!"
"I absolutely... will learn this jutsu!"
...
After a long while.
The sun had moved high into the sky.
Jiraiya, leaning against a large tree nearby, was no longer watching. He held a pen and his notebook, mumbling to himself.
"Hm... so then, the feisty kunoichi says... 'Your scrolls aren't the only thing you'll be unsealing tonight!'... Ooh, that's good. That's very good..."
Not far away, a very frustrated Naruto was still struggling with a pile of water balloons.
"Damn it! Damn it! Why isn't it working?!"
He was sweating, his orange jumpsuit damp. His arm ached.
"Aaaaaah—!"
Naruto roared in frustration, and the chakra in his hand suddenly burst forth with pure, uncontrolled power.
Pffft!
The water balloon squeezed. It didn't pop from rotation. It popped from pressure.
Water splashed all over his face, leaving him disheveled and soaking wet.
"You idiot!" Jiraiya cursed from under the tree, not even looking up from his "research." "How many times have I told you! It's ROTATION! Not FORCE! You're just squeezing it, you blockhead!"
"I understand the principle, you pervert!" Naruto scratched his hair in frustration, flinging water everywhere. "But I can't do it!"
This feeling was too frustrating. It was worse than tree-walking. It was worse than water-walking.
"Hmph, you can't even do the first step, and you want to learn the Rasengan? You're a hundred years too early!" Jiraiya pooh-poohed, then buried his head back into writing Make-Out Paradise.
"You... You Pervy Sage! All you do is make sarcastic remarks! You're not even teaching me!" Naruto yelled back, fuming.
If he couldn't even achieve the most basic rotation, further training was completely out of the question.
Damn it... Akira-sensei didn't entrust me to you just for me to embarrass myself here!
He taught me... He taught me to control my chakra, to focus... I...
The spirit of not giving up, the same spirit that had gotten him through Akira's hellish training, surged up again.
Naruto took a deep breath, picked up another water balloon, and sat down. He closed his eyes, ignoring the pervert under the tree.
"Calm down... calm down..."
"Like Sensei taught. Guide it... control it..."
He tried again.
Slosh.
And again.
Slosh.
Failure.
Failure again.
Still... failure.
The broken pieces of water balloons on the ground had piled up into a small, wet, rubbery mountain.
Naruto's palm was already red and raw from repeatedly, and uselessly, gathering chakra.
It was fortunate that Naruto had the massive chakra reserves of an Uzumaki and a Jinchūriki. Anyone else would have run out of chakra, and patience, hours ago.
In the woods not far away, Hinata hid behind a tree, her white Byakugan eyes deactivated. She was watching the scene, her hands clasped to her chest.
Seeing Naruto's desperate, repeated efforts, his frustration, and his refusal to quit... her heart was filled with both pity and a deep, soaring admiration.
Naruto-kun... he's working so hard...
She clenched her small fists, cheering him on silently. You can do it!
"Bang!"
Naruto failed again, this time just dropping the balloon in exhaustion. He sat back on the ground, panting heavily, his shoulders slumped.
"No... I just... I can't find the feeling at all..."
He stared at his red, aching palm. He had power. He had chakra. Why couldn't he make it spin?
He thought back to his training with Akira. It was always about precision. About control. About results.
He thought about his fight with Kiba. How had he won so easily?
It was...
A light bulb went off in his head.
That's right!
His head snapped up, a sly, foxy grin spreading across his face.
If I can't do it alone... I don't have to do it alone!
Jiraiya, who was deep in a very creative part of his novel, was suddenly startled by a loud shout.
"Multiple! Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
[Inorin's Note: The Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu (Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu) is a forbidden, Kage-level technique. Because the clones are solid and divide the user's chakra, it's incredibly dangerous for a normal ninja. For Naruto, it's his greatest tool.]
BANG, bang, bang, bang, bang!
In an instant, the quiet training ground was filled with clouds of smoke.
Dozens of Uzumaki Narutos appeared everywhere.
"Alright, guys! You heard the Pervy Sage!" the original Naruto commanded loudly, standing on a tree stump. "We're not leaving until we pop these things!"
"Oh—!"
Dozens of Narutos responded in perfect, enthusiastic unison.
Jiraiya, under the tree, saw this scene. His pen, which had been writing a masterpiece, fell from his slack-jawed grasp.
His eyes widened.
He watched as all fifty Narutos ran to the crate of water balloons, each grabbed one, and then fanned out across the entire training ground.
The scene instantly became incredibly, absurdly spectacular.
Fifty Narutos, all sitting cross-legged, all holding a water balloon, all concentrating with screwed-up, constipated faces.
"Rotate, damn it!" one yelled, and his balloon splashed him.
"Aaargh! I'm just making it warm!" another shouted.
"This is stupid!" a third one complained.
Jiraiya's mouth couldn't help but twitch.
This... this kid...
He's using a forbidden, Kage-level jutsu...
To aid in training... for the absolute lowest C-rank chakra control exercise.
This... this...
This luxurious, wasteful, and insanely brilliant training method!
He had originally thought, based on Minato's progress, that Naruto would take at least a week, maybe two, to complete this first step.
But now...
Now, it seemed it wouldn't take that long at all.
Jiraiya knew the secret of the Shadow Clone training method. It was its greatest, most hidden advantage. All the experience, all the failures, all the memories... they all fed back to the original body when the clone was dispelled.
If one Naruto couldn't do it...
With dozens of Narutos working together, eventually... one of them would get lucky. One of them would find the right feeling, the right "knack."
And when that one clone popped his balloon... all of them would instantly know how.
Minato, you magnificent bastard, Jiraiya thought, a grin spreading across his face. Your son... he's not a genius like you. He's something else entirely.
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]