In the end, Jiraiya reluctantly agreed to train Naruto under Hiruzen's coercion and inducement.
In order to get Jiraiya to agree, Hiruzen even lent his crystal ball to him for two days.
At first, Jiraiya felt like he'd been scammed by the old man.
But the moment he laid eyes on the crystal ball, he had thrown all his worries behind him.
The next day, Jiraiya and Naruto agreed to meet at the training ground east of the village...
"Hehehehe..."
Jiraiya was sitting cross-legged on a stone, holding Hiruzen's crystal in his arms.
As he let out a lecherous laugh, drool was also dripping from the corner of his mouth.
"Can you... maybe take a break?"
"Old man, at your age, can you even still...?"
Naruto stood nearby, unable to hold back his urge to complain. But before he could finish rubbing salt in the white-haired geezer's wounds, Jiraiya cut him off.
"You brat! What kind of nonsense are you spouting!"
"A kid your age shouldn't be spewing such vulgar words!"
"Let me tell you something!"
"At my age, I'm still plenty vigorous!"
Jiraiya immediately got defensive upon hearing Naruto's words.
Are you kidding? This was a matter of male pride. How could he let anyone slander him like that?
Uzumaki Naruto: "..."
'I didn't even finish my sentence, and you're already freaking out.'
'You're definitely compensating for something!'
Naruto stared at Jiraiya's old face, his eyes full of skepticism. He said nothing, yet his gaze spoke volumes.
Seeing the kid's expression, Jiraiya's temper flared.
But the worst part was...
When this brat is in high spirits, he always takes out some strange cards and waves them in front of him.
He even saw Chiyo from Sunagakure!
And she's wearing a swimsuit!!!
The most outrageous thing is that there is also the Yondaime Raikage!!
Just a single glance made Jiraiya's whole body shudder in disgust. After that, the crystal ball lost all appeal.
Jiraiya glared at the pile of cards on the ground, his whole body filled with resistance.
But that wasn't even the most terrifying part.
What truly horrified Jiraiya was the thought of Naruto using these cards as reference and then transforming into them right in front of him...
"Naruto... can you just go somewhere else for now?"
"And also..."
"I have already promised that old man that I will take you as my student. Can't you show some respect to your teacher?"
"You're supposed to call me sensei, got it?"
"Right now, immediately, without delay!"
"And put away those weird cards of yours!"
Naruto lowered his head and said nothing, continuing to take out the No Nut November–themed cards from his system.
These cards were drawn by Uzumaki Naruko, and they contained all kinds of horrors.
Li Kui in white stockings, Zhang Fei in fishnet tights, Danzo in a JK uniform...
If it weren't for the fact that Hiruzen was still around, Uzumaki Naruko would even want to draw a Hiruzen with dress.
In short...
The psychological damage these cards inflicted was off the charts.
Even Naruto himself couldn't bear to look at them for too long.
Whenever he laid them out in front of Jiraiya, he had to mentally picture the 18-year-old Hinata to counteract the severe mental contamination.
"Stop, stop, stop!"
"Fine! I'll teach you an awesome technique, okay?"
Jiraiya rubbed his temples in frustration.
At this point, he refused to believe a single word from the old man's mouth!
'Well behaved!?'
'This brat Naruto…'
'How on earth such a menace so well behaved!?'
'Even I myself was not as troublesome as this brat when I was a child!'
Naruto, who had been in the middle of pulling out another card, paused when he heard Jiraiya wanted to teach him something.
'An awesome technique?'
'Rasengan? Or is it Summoning Technique?'
Naruto quickly threw the card on the ground back into his system. Then, he raised his head and showed a well-behaved expression again.
"White... Jiraiya-sensei, what awesome technique are you going to teach me?"
Jiraiya's eyes twitched. He felt that this brat was about to call him white-haired old man just now.
Glancing at Naruto's yellow hair, Jiraiya was reminded of Minato...
'Minato was such a well-behaved person when he was a child, how could he give birth to a son like this brat?'
'Or maybe...'
'This kid takes after Kushina?!'
A certain red-haired spitfire flashed through Jiraiya's mind, and he showed an expression of lingering fear.
'Yeah… That actually makes sense...'
"Cough!"
Snapping out of his thoughts, Jiraiya coughed twice, carefully tucked the crystal ball into his clothes, and stood up, straightening his clothes.
"Naruto, watch closely."
Jiraiya bit his thumb, smeared the blood on his palm, and began to form hand seals with both hands. Then, he slammed his palm onto the ground and shouted, "Summoning Technique!"
Bang…
With a puff of smoke, an orange toad about two meters long appeared on the spot. It flicked out its tongue, revealing a scroll, and spat it out.
Jiraiya picked it up and tossed it in front of Naruto.
"Sign your name on the scroll."
As he spoke, he opened the scroll, revealing the words inside.
Written on it are the names of people who have signed contracts with Mount Myoboku over the generations.
Naruto simply picked up a pen and scribbled his name right after his deadbeat dad's.
Once the ritual was complete, Jiraiya began teaching him the hand seals and key points of the Summoning Technique.
"So, how much of the Summoning Technique have you memorized?"
Jiraiya asked casually, already planning to send Naruto aside to figure it out on his own.
However, after he finished saying this, he found that Naruto didn't say anything and was still standing there motionless.
As if time had frozen around him.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Sensei is asking you a question!"
"How much of the Summoning Technique have you memorized?"
Jiraiya had to shout for a full two minutes before Naruto finally reacted.
"…Half."
Naruto looked up at Jiraiya, with stupidity clear in his eyes.
It wasn't that the Summoning Technique was hard …
It was just that while Jiraiya was explaining it, he had also dropped a bunch of Sealing Technique knowledge, which is very easy to understand.
Naruto remembered the Flying Thunder God Technique that he had written down from the Scroll of Seals before, and his consciousness sank directly into the sealed space to study the Flying Thunder God Technique...
As a result, he found that after he understood a few principles about Sealing Techniques, studying Flying Thunder God Technique was still like solving advanced calculus.
The good news is, he was starting to get somewhere.
The bad news, regarding the Summoning Technique that Jiraiya just mentioned...
He had completely zoned out during the second half.
"You…"
Jiraiya's veins bulged and his fists clenched again.
However, he still repeated the key points of the Summoning Technique.
This time, Naruto listened very carefully.
"Alright, alright, go practice on your own."
Jiraiya put his hands on Naruto's shoulders and pushed him to the side, then kept waving his hands to drive him away.
'From what I just saw, this kid couldn't even remember the key points of the Summoning Technique at once.'
'Then it's obvious he'll need ages to master it.'
'Guess Minato's talent didn't get passed down to him.'
'But…'
'At least that means I'll have some peace and quiet for a while.'
With that thought, Jiraiya found a secluded place and pulled out the crystal ball again.
"Hehehehe…"
"Ahh, young maidens are truly the best..."
Jiraiya's eyes were practically glued to the crystal ball.
Boom…
Boom…
But at this moment, there were suddenly several loud noises around, and Jiraiya was so scared that he almost dropped Hiruzen's precious crystal ball.
'Earthquake?!'
Jiraiya turned his head with doubts. When he saw what it was...
He almost fainted on the spot.
"TRAITOROUS DISCIPLE! STOP RIGHT NOW!!"
"THAT'S THE GREAT TOAD SAGE!!"