"So, how do you want to do this, Naruto?" Choji asked as they walked through the streets of Konoha.

"Hmm, might as well go back to the onsen," Naruto mused, hands clasped behind his head. "Ebizu's probably up there, the closet pervert, so once you help me master the walking on water he can see that and actually teach me a cool jutsu." He grinned at Choji who smiled back gently.

"Are you not worried about facing Neji at all?" Choji asked.

Naruto pouted, "Why should I be? So he's got magic eyeballs, Sasuke's got magic eyeballs and it doesn't make him better than I am."

"Maybe so, but Neji's got a lot of skill," argued Choji. "Even Lee respects his strength and we saw just what Lee was capable of."

Naruto made a non-committal noise, looking downcast for a moment before smiling again. "It'll be fine, I'll kick Neji's butt, I'll kick Sasuke's butt and then I'll beat Gaara and win the entire tournament!" he laughed.

Choji smirked, "Hey, don't underestimate Shikamaru and Ino, they're strong too."

"Nah, Shikamaru isn't gonna beat Sasuke," Naruto reasoned walking up the steps to Konoha's hot spring resort. The resort itself was split into a number of buildings with hot natural spring water flowing through carefully crafted waterways both in and around the springs, leading to the area being accessible by bridge.

Rather than checking into the springs and having to exchange their clothes, Naruto lead Choji around the side of the onsen towards the women's bathhouse where Ebisu was waiting impatiently tapping his foot. Ebisu was a lanky man who seemed a fan of more traditional ninja attire; the standard Jonin uniform minus the flak jacket, his Hitai-ate covering his hair like a bandana, and his eyes hidden behind dark classes, all pointing towards stealth over personality. He looked like he could be a background character in a manga.

"Naruto! You're late!" Ebisu shouted. Noticing Choji belatedly, Ebisu pointed at the other boy, "Who is this? I'm training you as a favour to Kakashi-sensei, I won't have you bringing people for free lessons!"

"Who's this plain guy with no flair?" Choji asked Naruto. "Even my Great-Granddad never looked so boring. And he fought the First Shinobi War in all black armour."

"The metal kind or bamboo?" Naruto asked, completely ignoring Ebisu.

"Metal. And he had this cool tengu mask. It had these massive tusks and Gramps swears down he used to impale enemies on them, since the tusks were always covered in blood when he came home from battle."

"Wow!" Naruto lit up, eyes sparkling with awe. "Hey, do you still have the mask? I reaaally wanna see it."

"Naruto don't ignore me!" Ebisu roared, drawing the attention of the two boys.

"Shut your pie hole, Ebisu. Choji already knows how to walk on water," Naruto shot with a dark look. "I asked him for help."

Ebisu blinked in confusion and Choji saw this as a good time to show Naruto was telling the truth. Taking a moment to gather his chakra, Choji turned to the nearest river of hot water and walked onto the surface. He looked back to Naruto and Ebisu with a smile.

"See! Told you!" Naruto shouted. "Hey, Choji! That's awesome!" he added encouragingly, making Choji laugh in slight embarrassment as his smile grew.

Ebisu sighed. "Alright, but what does having another person here who can walk on water do for you?"

"Choji's gonna teach me, because last time you got bored and started peeping at the ladies!" Naruto hollered, pointing at the bathhouse in question. An ominous rumble seemed to come from within.

Ebisu clapped a hand over Naruto's mouth, "Shhhh!" he hissed, looking over to the bathhouse worriedly.

Choji sagged. "Naruto, my parents will kill me if I get marched home by the police for peeping. Even if it's a crime by association."

"Ignore him, Choji," Ebisu insisted, "I would never do such a thing." Choji slowly quirked a judging eyebrow but didn't comment.

"Right, well. Hey, Naruto, show me how you were trying it yesterday," Choji instructed, walking back to flat ground.

Naruto rolled up his sleeve eagerly, "Right!"

Choji was by no means an expert in sensing chakra, but Naruto's practically wafted off of him, crazy and untamed as he gathered it together and pushed it to his feet. It wasn't really a surprise when Naruto took one step onto the water and sank like a brick.

"Yaah! Hot!" Naruto cried, clambering out.

Seeing movement out of the corner of his eye, Choji dived at Naruto, knocking him to the ground as something pink swiped over their heads. Spinning to a crouch, one hand on the floor in preparation to either dodge or charge forward and attack, the other thrown out in front of Naruto protectively Choji surveyed the situation. A man in a short green kimono with matching trousers and a red haori with long bushy white hair bound in a ponytail sat atop a rhino sized toad, likely the one who had attacked them. Choji unfortunately knew nothing about toads, but he didn't like the combination of deep orange skin and blue speckles. Probably poisonous. Nearby, Ebisu was flat on his back on one of the onsen's wooden bridges.

"Wow… where'd that guy come from?" Naruto wondered.

"Nice reflexes kid," the man praised looking between Choji, Naruto and Ebisu. "Unlike that fool over there. Now, do you two think you can be quiet? I have important work to do."

Shifting from behind Choji, Naruto jumped to check on Ebisu. "Choji! He's knocked out! And what's with that huge frog?"

"Summoning animal probably," Choji mumbled standing slowly watching the man warily. "Who are you?"

The man frowned, looking between the two teens. Glancing over his shoulder at the women's bathhouse, his lips stretched into a wide grin and he shifted to stand on the toad, raising his arm in a dramatic pose. "You haven't heard of me huh? Then I'll tell you! I am the wise sage of Mount Myouboku! The Toad Sage Jiraiya!"

"Toad… Sage?" Naruto didn't look impressed. "That sounds disgusting."

"He kicked your Sensei's butt though, Naruto," Choji pointed out, jumping over to Naruto as Jiraiya's summoning dissipated. Turning to the man, he asked. "You said you were working, doing what?"

"Well, since you two have quietened down, I'll tell you!" Jiraiya preened, "I'm working on a book. I'm a writer!" Reaching into his kimono, Jiraiya withdrew a book with an orange cover. "The sequel to this."

Naruto's eyes widened and he jabbed his finger at Jiraiya, "That's the same pervy book Kaka-sensei reads!" Jiraiya's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "He's always reading that instead of paying attention to us during training! As if that's work!"

"You little snot, you're just too young to appreciate it," Jiraiya hissed. "Try again in ten years." He span on his heel and began to walk back towards the women's bathhouse, revealing a large scroll sitting across the base of his spine.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?!" Naruto and Choji roared. Surprised they said the same thing, each boy raised an eyebrow at the other.

"Hmm?" The man paused and looked to them. "What do you mean?"

"You knocked my Sensei out! How am I supposed to keep training?" Naruto demanded. "I have an important tournament in a month!"

"The men's baths are on the other side!" Choji yelled raising his fists, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Research," Jiraiya told Choji plainly. Looking to Naruto, he added, "As for you, what does it matter to me that he's knocked out? You were all making too much noise and the girls were starting to get shifty. So, I decided to come out here and shut you up."

"Sages shouldn't be looking at naked women," Choji deadpanned. "If you go back, I'll go tell the Konoha Police."

The man tensed and looked over his shoulder concern written all over his face, "Are they still all Uchiha?" Jiraiya asked.

"Pretty much, and my Sensei's an Uchiha," Choji added, "So why don't you come back over here if you don't intend to use the onsen, hmm?"

Frowning, Jiraiya slowly approached. "Alright, what do I have to do for you two to forget any of this happened?"

"Train me!" Naruto shouted before Choji could get a word in.

"Naruto! Are you crazy?"

"What? He's stronger than that idiot," Naruto pointed out, gesturing towards the still unconscious Ebisu with a frown.

"What about me?" Choji said, looking hurt. He'd been quite looking forward to teaching someone else a technique rather than being taught or helped himself.

Naruto gave him a sympathetic smile, eyebrows drawn together thoughtfully. "Alright, Pervy Sage, you're teaching us both!" Naruto declared. "If you do, we'll keep quiet."

"Deal."

"Naruto!"

"What?"

Choji just groaned and put his head in one hand.

"Buuut," Jiraiya drawled, "It's just for today, now come on you two idiots. We're drawing a crowd."

Bending to look around Jiraiya, Choji saw various unimpressed patrons and employees of the baths sticking their heads out of doors. The sage took to the rooftops and gestured for Naruto and Choji to follow, the blonde happily springing off after Jiraiya.

"Are you sure he's even a good ninja?" Choji asked once he caught up with Naruto. "I don't recognise that symbol on his Hitai-ate."

"Maybe he's from another country?" Naruto suggested.

"But he knew which clan the police are with," Choji pointed out.

Naruto groaned. "I dunno, Choji. But I'm not wasting more time. With your help, I'll knock this water walking stuff out of the park and maybe this guy'll teach us how to summon animals like that toad or Kaka-sensei's dogs."

"Or Itachi-sensei's crows," Choji hummed in agreement.

"Itachi has crows?"

"Yeah, did you never see them?"

Naruto and Choji blinked at each other curiously. Looking away to think, Naruto eventually spoke up, "To be honest I thought birds just liked him. Whenever I'd go to his place he'd be sat on the windowsill feeding one."

"Probably Kohaku," Choji revealed. "I think that one's his favourite."

They followed Jiraiya to a stream not far from the baths. Jerking his thumb to the water, Jiraiya commented, "So you were doing walking on water before right? Show me what you've got. Both of you," he added seeing Choji make no move to go to the water while Naruto smacked his hands together and started charging chakra.

Frowning, Choji kicked off of the ground and landed on the stream water, turning to Jiraiya expectantly. As before, Naruto fell in with a shriek. Stomping out of the water, Naruto threw his clothes off and went back to the water. "I'm sick of getting wet!" he griped, stepping in again as strange black markings faded into existence on Naruto's stomach.

"You're just charging chakra to your feet and sticking to the water, push chakra into the water," Choji tried to explain, jogging over to Naruto and grabbing him by the elbows to keep him afloat. Seeing the marks on Naruto as the blonde strained to make his chakra work for him, Choji startled. "What are those?"

"Huh? What's what?" asked Naruto. The distraction caused Naruto to forget about his chakra, leading to the marks disappearing as well as Naruto slipping further into the water, Choji fumbling and trying to stop him, only to tumble into the drink too.

"Ahhh! Cold!" Choji complained, scrambling to get his hands on the water and climb out.

"Wow! You can do it with your hands too?!" Naruto balked from his hands and knees on shore.

"Yeah, once you know how to do it with your feet, I'll help you do it with your hands too," Choji said with a shiver. "And I asked what were those marks on your stomach?"

"Huh? Oh, weird squiggle things like you see in scrolls?" Naruto asked. "Some kind of seal," he dismissed. "Itachi told me about it, he said I was born with weird chakra and because there's so much of it, it got sealed to dampen it."

It didn't sound like a lie, and with Naruto's innocent expression, Choji could well believe he was just repeating what an adult told him, but Choji had never heard of such a weird birth defect. Apparently, neither had Jiraiya as the man walked forward. "Hey, can I see them?" Jiraiya asked. "The marks."

Naruto frowned, "Why would I let you see, I barely know you."

"Because I'm your new Sensei, and I know a little bit about seals," Jiraiya explained. Naruto met Choji's gaze, the Akimichi shaking his head the barest amount. He didn't like that idea.

Hands smacking into a seal, Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke startling Jiraiya. The smoke cleared revealing a naked, voluptuous young girl with long blonde hair in pigtails as well as Naruto's trademark whisker marks and bright blue eyes. From the smoke it soon became obvious Naruto had added clones to the mix, each as naked and beautiful as the first. Stunned, Jiryaya was powerless to stop the female Narutos as they cooed and threw themselves at him, the sage's face bright red. Moving quickly, Choji snuck behind the man and knocked him out. Another poof of smoke later and Naruto was back to normal.

"What a creep," he sighed. Looking to Choji, Naruto said, "I'll stay here and knock him out with my harem jutsu again if he wakes up, you go get Itachi."

"Shouldn't we just go to the police? What if he messes with your seals?"

Naruto shook his head. "I still need a teacher. Besides, you said I wasn't charging chakra right and to be honest, it's felt weird since the second exam, so maybe it'd be worth letting him try. But I want someone I actually trust here, and since Kaka-sensei won't give me the time of day, I'm hoping Itachi will."

Choji wasn't convinced and it probably showed on his face because Naruto smiled and clapped his hands together like a prayer. "Please, Choji? I know Shikamaru's busy too, but I'm sure this perv won't be long."

Sighing he nodded. "Fine. I'm pretty sure he and Shikamaru agreed to train at Shikamaru's house. I'll be right back. Be careful."

Naruto saluted. "You got it!"

"A weird guy with a giant toad?" Itachi repeated, frowning at Choji. Behind Itachi, Shikamaru was trapped in genjutsu, grumbling and occasionally flicking his hand at something only he could see.

"Yeah?" Choji panted, hands on his knees. He'd pushed chakra into his feet to get from the stream to the Nara District quickly. "Naruto and me knocked him out, but he wants to play with Naruto's seals."

"Naruto has seals?" Shikamaru questioned, looking over from the floor, having fallen over at some point while breaking the illusion. "Choji, when'd you get here?"

Sighing, Itachi waved his hand at Shikamaru dismissively. "I'll explain later. Take a break for an hour, Shikamaru. If I'm not back, practise your Shadow Possession."

"I'll hold you to it," Shikamaru drawled shooting Itachi a dark look, hands stuffing into his pockets as he went towards his house, flopping onto the en for a nap.

"Having a hard time with him?" Choji wondered, leading Itachi back towards where Naruto and Jiraiya were.

"I'm being less nice than usual," Itachi explained. "Genjutsu can be used for training, and with a fast mind like Shikamaru's it's more effective to do exercises in an illusionary world where he can master the theory of a technique in a short space of time and then focus on his execution of it in real time."

That sounded awful to Choji's ears and not for the first time, Choji was glad he didn't have to fight in the tournament. "So you're running him ragged?" Choji guessed.

"A little, but I've told him if he ever wants to stop, just break the genjutsu," Itachi said. "He broke it after the first hour and slept for three while I played Shogi with Shikaku."

Choji chuckled, "Yeah that sounds about right."

When they arrived, Jiraiya was just coming around, Naruto hurriedly transforming into his female form.

"Huh, what… happened…" Jiraiya drifted off, eyes racking over Naruto's female form.

"Lord Jiraiya," Itachi said in surprise, his eyebrows inching up toward his Hitai-ate. Tensing, Jiraiya redirected his gaze to the Jonin.

"Huh? You know this guy, Itachi?" Naruto flapped, not even bothering to change his voice to match his form.

"Yes… Naruto, why are you transformed like that?" Itachi asked, frowning and looking between Naruto and Jiraiya. "Nevermind, just turn back already," he sighed, hand on his head in exasperation.

A puff of smoke later and Naruto was back to his regular size and shape, though still in his boxers, looking just as confused as before. "So what do you mean Lord Jiraiya?" he shot. Jiraiya coughed and tried to gather his remaining dignity.

"He's a powerful Shinobi who gained the title of Sannin during the last Great War," Itachi explained. "He'd also left the village to pursue writing I think?"

"AH! So you've heard of me!" Jiraiya said ecstatically, "Are you a fan? If you want I'll sign your book, just give me your name."

"Uchiha Itachi," Itachi replied, producing a copy of Icha Icha Paradise from his weapon pouch, stunning the three other males.

"You read that dirty book Itachi?!" Naruto spat indignantly.

"It's Kakashi's, he threw it at me and won't let me return it," Itachi replied flatly. "I figure if it's signed maybe he'll take it back finally."

Jiraiya glared at Naruto and Choji, "Hey what is this?! I thought you said if I agreed to train you two you wouldn't tell the cops."

Itachi's eyebrow rose higher. "I'm not in the Konoha Police Force. I joined ANBU instead before becoming a Jonin instructor," he explained, holding out the book to Jiraiya. "Address this to Kakashi will you?"

"That's a lot to unpack," Jiraiya noted with a frown, taking the book slowly and flipping it open while pulling out a pen from his pocket. "I thought all Uchiha joined the force?" he asked off-handedly, eyes flickering between writing his signature and watching Itachi warily. "Here you go."

"A few don't, it depends how their ninja career looks," said Itachi guardedly, taking the book back and slipping it into his pouch. "Choji and Naruto asked me here because you wanted to look at his seal?"

"Huh? Oh yeah," Jiraiya blinked. Turning to Naruto he said, "Charge your chakra for me?"

Naruto looked between Jiraiya and Itachi with a pout, the latter nodding reassuringly. "I'm still not sure about this, but fine." Closing his eyes to try and forget the people watching, Naruto drew on his chakra reserves and as if in response, the seals faded into view again.

"A double tetragram seal with eight trigrams," Jiraiya hummed, crouching to observe the seal. As Naruto continued to charge his chakra another layer formed on the outer ring, causing Jiraiya to frown, "Did you put that five pronged seal on him?" he asked Itachi with a dark frown.

"No," the Uchiha replied, his brows furrowed. "I've never seen that on the normal seal. You wouldn't add an odd number to even numbered seals anyway."

Jiraiya's expression softened, "Ah, so that's why they called you, you know something about fuuinjutsu."

Naruto opened one eye, "Actually, it's because I like him and know he's training a lazy bum, so probably has a lot of free time." He looked up to Itachi. "What's all this mumbo jumbo about even tetragrams?"

Stepping forward, Itachi kneeled by Jiraiya and drew his finger over the swirl pattern around Naruto's belly button. "This is a double tetragram and the eight points around it are the trigrams. When sealing you have a choice of even markers or odd, with benefits to each," Itachi said carefully. "Basically, the person who sealed your chakra chose even because it makes a stronger seal, but he also left a gap here and here," he said, poking the gaps between two sets of fours seals. "This allows your sealed chakra to drip into your main reserves."

"But the odd seal on top is affecting that," Jiraiya added. "It's covering the gaps in the trigrams as well as overbalancing the seal, which might be why you're struggling with your chakra. I'll remove it and you can try again."

"Is, that a good idea?" Naruto asked, cringing back eyes bugging at the chakra burning at Jiraiya's fingertips. "W-why is your hand like that?"

Itachi hummed. "Naruto, was there a time recently where someone's hand looked similar to Lord Jiraiya's and struck you in the stomach?"

"Huh? Uh, well – gah!" Using Naruto's distraction as an opportunity, Jiraiya thrust his hand into Naruto's belly, causing him to keel over. "Yeah," Naruto groaned. "Yeah I remember that. This feels like when that snake bastard found us in the second test."

Jiraiya and Itachi looked at each other. "I'm assuming because you aren't surprised, you're here because Orochimaru was spotted in the village?" Itachi guessed.

"Something like," Jiraiya muttered. "That guy was always lazy with his seals, especially if he had no intention of going back to the sealed object."

"Why do you guys know that snake guy?" asked Naruto, still curled up on the ground.

"He's a legendarily not nice person," Itachi replied reaching out to ruffle Naruto's hair. "Why don't you try walking on the water again?"

Grumbling, Naruto staggered to his feet, one hand wrapped around himself. "Kay, how am I meant to do this again, Choji?" Naruto asked.

"So, charge chakra to your feet and as you put it on the water, reach down and spread it out, creating a surface of chakra to stand on," Choji explained, charging chakra to demonstrate. "Too much or too little and you sink."

Nodding, Naruto took a moment, the difference before and after the seal breaking was like day and night, "This feels way better than before!" Naruto grinned, stepping onto the water, sinking at first before slowly rising back to the surface. "Haha! Yes!" Dancing around from foot to foot, Naruto grinned at Choji.

"Nice one, Naruto!" Choji praised also smiling. Over Naruto's shoulder, Choji could see Itachi and Jiraiya discussing something quietly, neither looking pleased about the subject.

"Hm, what'cha frowning about, Choji?" Naruto asked, turning to spot the two older ninja. "Huh, wonder what they're talking about?"

"No idea." Nor were they likely to find out, as Itachi walked away from Jiraiya and started back towards the village. "Itachi-sensei?"

Looking over his shoulder, Itachi called back, "I'm going to head back to Shikamaru. Lord Jiraiya has agreed to teach you both for the time being provided we keep his presence in the village a secret. I think you should take him up on his offer."

Naruto blinked, "Eh, really? So I don't have to go back to the other guy?"

"Nope!" Jiraiya said brightly. "And I'll even teach you a cool new jutsu if you stay."

Choji looked between his Sensei and the old perverted coot. "What kind of jutsu?"

"Well, I'm a toad sage. So I'll teach you summoning!" Jiraiya smiled. "And around you two doing that, I want to do some more personal training." Choji and Naruto both zeroed in on Jiraiya at that, coming over to the sage while Itachi took his leave.

"Yeah? What kind of training?" Naruto asked.

Smiling Jiraiya pointed at Naruto. "You, I'm gonna teach how to draw out more of that chakra in the seal, and you, Mister Akimichi," Jiraiya grinned, "I'll bet the other members of your InoShikaCho troupe are learning the next versions of their jutsu for single combat round about now, so we can look at training your new jutsu too. Do you know it yet?"

Choji shook his head, "Dad mentioned the Partial Expansion, but I've not practised it much. He's showing me the signs tonight."

"Ah, well, we can work on that when you come back here tomorrow. Just remember,"Jiraiya added seriously, "we're not telling anyone I'm here."

"I still don't get why," Naruto huffed, perking up as Jiraya pulled his scroll off his back and laid it on the floor. "What's with the big scroll?"

"The Summoning jutsu is done by signing a contract with the animal you want to summon," Jiraiya explained, crouching down and gesturing for the two Genin to copy. "Like I said before, I'm the Toad Sage. I'm basically like their ambassador, so I have their contract scroll." He tapped the scroll before slowly unravelling it to reveal a short list of names for how big the scroll was, "This thing. Each name here is a ninja who has made a contract with the toads of Mount Myouboku, sealed in blood. Look, you can see my name here," he added pointing to the second most recent name.

"Namikaze Minato…" Choji murmered, reading the next name. It was familiar… Startling as he suddenly remembered, Choji blurted out, "That's the Fourth Hokage!"

"Eh? The Fourth was a Toad Sage too?!"

Jiraiya shook his head. "No, he was just able to summon toads. If he'd have lived a little longer, I would have taken him to learn the sage teachings," he added sombrely, looking sadly at the name on the scroll. "But anyway," he continued in a happier tone. "Let's get you two started. Which hand do you write with? Hold it up."

Both boys looked at Jiraya weirdly, raising one hand. "It's like we're back at the academy," Naruto griped.

"Can it, Naruto," Jiraiya frowned. "This is important, so you need to listen. Now, both of you cut the thumb of that hand and sign the contract with your full name. One at a time, I know this scroll is big but you two need to make no mistakes."

"Yeesh, no pressure," Choji sighed, "You first, Naruto."

"Eh? Why me?"

"Your name's longer, so if you can make it fit I'll know I'm fine," Choji smiled.

Naruto grumbled, but nonetheless bit into the pad of his thumb until it bled, rising up onto his knees and one hand to reach up to the top of the scroll and write.

"Leave some space at the bottom," instructed Jiraiya. "See how the others have dots at the bottom? That's fingerprints from the hand that signed the contract. It's how the jutsu registers a user. Just add your blood to each finger pad and press them below your name."

Once both Choji and Naruto had signed their names and printed their fingers, Jiraiya smiled. "Great. Now, I'm going to show you the signs. I'd say… put a quarter of your remaining chakra into it." Biting on his own thumb, Jiraya spread the liquid onto he right hand. "You always need your blood on the hand you signed the contract, it can be blood from anywhere, a bit thumb, a battle wound, but it has to be yours," he explained, running through the signs slowly. "I, Inu, Tori, Saru, Hitsuji. Then, smack the hand you used in the contract on the ground, like this, releasing your chakra. Summoning jutsu!" From Jiraiya's hand seals snaked out to form concentric circles, with lines of seals dividing them similar to a spider web. A smoke cloud erupted, clearing to show the same large toad Jiraiya had summoned before. "Your turn, kids!"

"Kay!" Choji and Naruto chirped, getting to their feet and taking a few steps back. Making the signs carefully to minimize the chance of messing up, each boy smacked their hand to the ground, "Summoning!"

Two small puffs of smoke later, and each had summoned a toad. Or at least, Choji had. It was a little light orange thing with chubby cheeks and a dark blue vest. Smiling up at Choji, the toad waved, "Hey there, I'm Gamatatsu!"

"I'm Choji," Choji smiled back.

"You smell nice!" Gamatatsu noted, "Have you got snacks?"

Choji blinked in confusion but soon chuckled. "Of course I do. One sec." He twisted to reach into his pouch. "Do you like barbecue flavour?" he asked the toad, pulling out a packet of crisps and crouching down to offer them to Gamatatsu.

"Sure do!" Gamatatsu hopped forward and reached into the packet.

Across the way, Naruto stared in disbelief at the tadpole he had summoned. The little thing flailed weakly on the ground a moment before poofing back to wherever it had come from.

Jiraiya sighed, looking between his two new students. "I think we need to focus on getting you to use that big chakra reserve of yours, Naruto."