The teacher quickly shook his head and waved his hands.
No way, he really didn't think that!
Even if he did, he wouldn't dare say it!
Although Naruto had been behaving better in class lately, dealing with a troublemaker like him was best left to Jiraiya.
He was really exhausted.
"Then I'll leave him to you."
After thanking the teacher, Jiraiya waved at Naruto, signaling him to come over.
Naruto, who had been holding back his excitement, ran straight toward him, almost jumping into Jiraiya's arms.
"You little brat, I'll deal with you later."
Instead of the warm welcome he expected, Naruto's ear got grabbed instead.
"Ah! Ouch, ouch! Jiraiya-Grandpa, let go! It hurts!"
"Always causing trouble. Just wait, I'll teach you a lesson later."
Jiraiya smiled apologetically at the teacher, then dragged Naruto away by the ear.
Once they left the academy, he finally let go.
Twisting Naruto's ear in class was just to give the teacher some relief.
Jiraiya didn't need to guess—just from what Naruto had done, the teacher probably wished he could kick him out.
Not every teacher was like Iruka, who had been brainwashed by the Third Hokage into tolerating Naruto no matter what.
Normally, there would only be one outcome—the more Naruto acted out, the less teachers liked him.
It was only because of his special status and orders from the Hokage's office that they couldn't do anything about him.
When Yan told the teacher he didn't need to worry about Naruto anymore, the teacher was so happy he almost cried.
"Jiraiya-Grandpa, you're finally back!"
"If I didn't come back, you'd have turned the whole place upside down. You're still as mischievous as ever."
"Sorry, I won't do it again."
Naruto lowered his head and apologized to Jiraiya.
Seeing Naruto looking more serious than before, Jiraiya sighed.
"Alright, I'm not really mad at you.
But Naruto, you're growing up now.
You can't keep messing around like before, understand?
I heard you've been training with Kakashi and have improved a lot, so I've decided to give you a reward."
"What kind of reward?"
As soon as he heard the word "reward," Naruto's eyes lit up.
"A really powerful jutsu that's not too hard to learn. It suits you perfectly. Want to learn it?"
"I do!!!"
"Awesome! Grandpa Jiraiya, you're the best!!!"
With just a small reward, all of Naruto's bottled-up frustration over the years vanished instantly. He kept eagerly flattering Jiraiya.
Jiraiya grinned—gotcha, you little rascal.
After keeping Naruto in suspense for a while, Jiraiya took off the scroll from his back and told him to sign the contract.
That's right—he was going to teach Naruto the Summoning Jutsu.
As Jiraiya's student, how could he not inherit the legacy of Mount Myoboku? Summoning Jutsu was just the first step.
Jumping straight to learning the Rasengan is a bit too soon for Naruto.
So summoning jutsu is an important step in his growth.
Most importantly, once Naruto learns it, his strength will definitely improve.
As for whether he might accidentally summon a giant toad, Jiraiya hasn't thought about that yet.
He just needs to give the toads of Mount Myoboku a heads-up. They won't hold it against Naruto.
At most, they might mess with him a little.
No big deal.
Feeling great about it, Naruto happily signed the contract on the scroll and stamped his palm print, then started learning summoning jutsu from Jiraiya.
"Has Jiraiya changed?"
Hearing that Jiraiya had been seriously teaching Naruto these past few days, staying put, and not even sneaking off to fool around, Tsunade thought maybe he had finally wised up.
"At least until Naruto learns the jutsu he's teaching, he should behave himself."
Yan glanced at the documents, then suddenly thought of something.
"You think the village will start seeing random giant toads popping up?"
"Uh…"
Tsunade imagined the scene.
"That… probably won't happen. Naruto isn't exactly a prodigy when it comes to ninjutsu. Learning summoning jutsu and actually bringing out the toads from Mount Myoboku won't be that easy for him."
"But what about you? Wanna go visit the Slug Sage?"
"I'll pass. I don't really like slimy creatures."
Yan's face twitched as he shook his head repeatedly, refusing Tsunade's suggestion.
"Ugh, this is so frustrating!"
Naruto was thrilled to learn a powerful ninjutsu.
But his excitement didn't last long. No matter how hard he tried, every time he used the jutsu… he only summoned a tiny tadpole.
Jiraiya would burst into laughter every single time.
It reminded him of when he first started and only managed to summon tadpoles and little toads. He also recalled Minato struggling at the beginning.
That's right, even a genius like Minato had to put in a lot of effort before he finally mastered summoning jutsu.
At first, Minato wasn't much better than Naruto.
It was either tiny toads or tadpoles.
It was as if the jutsu was locked to these two creatures, letting them summon nothing else.
Naruto was getting frustrated, while Jiraiya laughed without a care.
He laughed on the first day, laughed just as much on the second, and by the third…
By then, Jiraiya couldn't laugh anymore.
Because Naruto's progress was seriously slow.
After another day of training, Jiraiya stopped Yan on his way home from work.
At dinner, Jiraiya kept complaining.
"This kid is way too slow. He's way behind where Minato was. He's still only summoning tadpoles and little toads. If this keeps up, he's gonna lose patience completely."
I knew it—Jiraiya treating me to a meal had to come with a catch. He just wanted to vent.
"Just give him a push."
Yan casually ate his food and threw out a small suggestion.
In the original story, Naruto's summoning jutsu progress was slow too, and Jiraiya ended up giving him the push he needed.
He threw Naruto into a deep ravine. The fear shocked him into summoning Gamabunta successfully.
The giant toad, Gamabunta, who was summoned in this state, didn't show Naruto a friendly face. Instead, he played a little prank on him.
Naruto almost threw up his last meal.
If the original Naruto could handle this, then there's no reason why the current Naruto, who has a stronger foundation, couldn't.
"You've got a point. This kid does need a little push, but how should we do it?"
Jiraiya put down his chopsticks and started thinking seriously.
Yan thought Jiraiya would throw Naruto into a ravine just like in the original story. But instead, Jiraiya suddenly slapped the table.
"I got it! I'll go find Orochimaru. I'm sure he's already taught Sasuke the Summoning Jutsu.
If Sasuke's results are better than Naruto's, that should be enough motivation for the kid."
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