"Huh?"
"Wasn't it Jiraiya who used the Summoning Technique?"
Gamabunta grabbed his pipe and blew out a massive smoke ring.
Jiraiya hooked an arm around Naruto's neck and whispered through gritted teeth.
"Naruto, remember this..."
"The Summoned Beasts are our partners. Don't you dare pull that stunt from earlier again, you hear me?"
"Got it?!"
"Say something!"
"Yes."
Trapped in Jiraiya's grip, Naruto glanced at the yakuza toad in front of him, his eyes full of regret.
'What a pity…'
'This toad is even bigger than the previous one.'
'If I could've used it for training... I definitely would've gotten a lot stronger.'
Jiraiya let out a long sigh of relief when he heard Naruto's response.
'Good…'
'At least this kid could still listen to reason.'
"Bunta, it was this kid who summoned you."
"His name is Uzumaki Naruto."
"Uzumaki... Naruto, huh?"
Gamabunta looked at the yellow-haired boy, and the image of Minato flashed through his mind.
"So you're that kid Minato's son?"
He was actually a little surprised.
After all, even Minato couldn't summon him at Naruto's age.
Jiraiya then chatted with Gamabunta for a while and warned Naruto once again. After making sure that Naruto wouldn't do anything else outrageous again, Jiraiya dumped Naruto on Gamabunta and made his escape.
If he stayed any longer, he was sure Naruto would give him wrinkles.
Moreover, he also wanted to settle the score with the old man.
It wasn't that Jiraiya didn't want to take Naruto as his student.
But...
'Why the hell didn't that old man tell me about Naruto's situation beforehand?!'
'Damn it!'
After Jiraiya left the training ground, he immediately ran towards the Hokage Tower.
As a result, before he could even enter the entrance, he was stopped by two Anbu's members.
"Jiraiya-sama, please wait."
"Sandaime-sama said he was busy with official duties these days..."
"So he won't be seeing any outsiders for now."
When the Anbu's member said this, he couldn't help but feel sympathy for Jiraiya.
After all, Jiraiya was now shouldering the heavy responsibility of training the infamous yellow-haired delinquent of Konoha!
It is no exaggeration to say that the future of Konoha is in Jiraiya's hands now.
"Damn it!!"
"That old man!!"
Jiraiya completely lost it.
'What do you mean busy these days...'
'I'm sure you're just avoiding me out of guilt and didn't dare to see me, for fear that I would quit, right?!'
"SARUTOBI HIRUZEN! GET OUT HERE!"
"SINCE YOU HAD THE GUTS TO TRICK ME, COME OUT AND FACE ME!!"
The fact that Jiraiya outright yelled Hiruzen's full name showed just how furious he was.
Hiding behind the curtains in his office, Hiruzen peeked through a tiny gap, and watched as Jiraiya cursed downstairs from above.
No matter how harshly Jiraiya scolded him, Hiruzen didn't say a word. In fact, he even seemed a little happy.
'Very good…'
'I finally don't have to face that kid anymore.'
'Jiraiya... as my student, you'll just have to endure this hardship for your old teacher.'
At this time, Hiruzen was even tempted to toss all the medicines in his drawer straight into the trash.
'Maybe...'
'With Jiraiya around, I wouldn't need them anymore.'
"Jiraiya-sama..."
"You should go back... Sandaime-sama isn't going to see you."
Finally, the Anbu's members couldn't bear to watch Jiraiya's outburst and quietly advised him to leave.
"Damn it!!"
"I knew being called back to the village won't mean anything good!"
Jiraiya, who couldn't see Hiruzen, could only stand under the Hokage Tower, seething helplessly.
After cursing for nearly half an hour, he finally stomped away, his wooden sandals clacking angrily against the ground.
However, as he left, he muttered under his breath...
"You old man, don't even think about getting your crystal ball back."
…
On the other side, at Naruto's exclusive training ground.
Naruto and Gamabunta were getting along just fine.
The giant toad declared that since Minato had been his 'younger brother', and Naruto was his son, if anything happened, he'd definitely have his younger brother's son's back.
When Naruto heard that Gamabunta wanted to protect him, he felt quite awkward.
For some reason…
Naruto always felt that he got along very well with animals, but it was very difficult for him to get along with other people in the village.
Let's not talk about anything else, just take his future brother-in-law as an example...
Even now, he still held a grudge against him.
It was clearly his future brother-in-law who beat him and made him vomit, but Naruto hadn't even held a grudge, which was incredibly generous of him.
And yet...
It's been a few years since this happened, but Neji was still more resentful than he was.
Thinking of this, Naruto figured he should try to get along better with the people around him. He glanced at Gamabunta, who was as tall as a mountain in front of him, and a brilliant idea flashed through his mind.
'That's it!'
'I can help Konohamaru and Sakura with special training.'
Naruto remembered them mentioning multiple times how much they wanted to get stronger.
With that in mind, Naruto said a few words to Gamabunta, then lifted the Summoning Technique, and created a shadow clone.
The clone then passed through the portal to go find Sakura, while the main body went to find his little 'younger brother', Konohamaru. (T/N: In China, younger brother is usually the same as underling.)
At noon, Konohamaru and Sakura appeared at the training ground.
The two of them looked very confused.
They had been forcibly dragged here by Naruto, who claimed he had a way to make them stronger.
Of course, they still held some hope in their hearts.
Especially Sakura.
As she trained to become a Medical-nin, she had become increasingly aware of the gap between herself and Sasuke… and Naruto.
After all, Naruto could just pull out all kinds of things to heal injuries...
This makes her, who practices Medical Ninjutsu, seem even more useless.
As for Konohamaru, he had originally wanted to learn the 'Door Style' from his Aniki.
Lately, he had already upgraded from hollow wooden doors to solid ones. Although it was still a little difficult for him to lift it, Konohamaru could feel himself getting stronger!
Especially since his grandfather had started looking terrified every time he saw him… that was proof enough!
"Aniki! Let's get started!"
"Are we training in the Door Style today?"
Konohamaru was excited and looked like he couldn't wait any longer.
When Sakura saw the kid mention the Door Style, her head started spinning.
'No… no way, right?!'
'I don't want to learn Naruto's so-called Door Style!'
"Naruto... Maybe we should just forget it?"
"I don't think I'm suitable to learn your Taijutsu."
After a moment of hesitation, Sakura decided that it would be better for her to go to the hospital to continue learning Medical Ninjutsu.
The main reason was that she always felt uneasy when she looked at Naruto's familiar grin.
"Hahahahaha, don't worry, Sakura-Bro."
"This special training is not about that."
Naruto flashed her a reassuring smile, which made Sakura even more uneasy.
She remembered that the last time Naruto smiled like this was when Sasuke was dressed as a woman and when Naruto nearly became a Missing-nin.
"Watch this!"
Naruto didn't notice the abnormality in Sakura's expression.
He bit his thumb and began to form hand seals.
The two of them were suddenly shocked by Naruto's move.
Especially Sakura, as she knew that the only technique Naruto could really master was the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, and it only required one hand seal.
'But there are so many hand seals now…'
'Is he going to teach us real Ninjutsu??'
'Had Naruto… actually become reliable for once?'
"Summoning Technique!!"
As Naruto slammed his palm onto the ground, Gamabunta's huge figure appeared in front of the two.
Sakura and Konohamaru raised their necks stiffly and looked at the huge toad in front of them. They were shocked, but also felt a sense of anticipation.
"Aniki! I want to learn this!"
Konohamaru lowered his head and shouted excitedly, only to realize his Aniki was no longer standing beside him.
"Hey, where's Aniki?"
"Naruto... what are you doing up there?"
Sakura looked up and spotted Naruto suddenly perched on top of the giant toad, and her uneasiness grew even stronger.
'Wasn't he supposed to be teaching us that technique...'
'Why did he climb up there?'
Naruto stood on Gamabunta's head with his arms folded. At this moment, he felt like all he was missing was a giant scroll and some orange eyeshadow.
After a brief moment of distraction, Naruto looked at the two people on the ground and shouted at Gamabunta very seriously.
"Bunta Fuji... Bro."
"Attack them!"
Gamabunta: "…???"
After hearing what Naruto said, Gamabunta was stunned for a full minute.
'What the hell? It hasn't even been that long since I was last in Konoha, right?'
'Why do I feel like I can't keep up with the thinking of today's young Shinobi?'
However, Gamabunta didn't think much about it. He raised his foot and stepped on the two people below.
Boom…
The huge toad's foot descended upon Sakura and Konohamaru, kicking up a massive dust cloud.
Thankfully, Sakura reacted in time. She grabbed Konohamaru by the collar and yanked him out of the way just before impact.
But then…
She suddenly discovered...
The giant toad was still chasing them!!
"NARUTO!!!"
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"
"WAAAAAAH!!"
"ANIKI, WHAT'S GOING ON?!"
Sakura felt her soul nearly leave her body as the ground trembled behind them. Konohamaru beside her was crying and screaming at the same time.
At this point, neither of them doubted that Naruto was actively trying to kill them.
And just then, they heard Naruto's voice...
"Sakura-Bro! Konohamaru!"
"Why are you running!?"
"Come after my Summoned Beast!"
Naruto's tone was deadly serious, though the way his lips kept twitching betrayed just how hard he was trying not to laugh.
"ANIKI! I DON'T GET IT! THIS IS TOO DANGEROUS!"
"THAT'S RIGHT!"
"NARUTO! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US?!"