The Naka River was a waterway that flowed along the outer edge of Konoha.
In terms of the overall scale of the Naruto world, truly grand natural water systems were actually quite rare. If you ever saw something like a magnificent waterfall, there was a high probability it had been created by some bug-level ninja using a bug-level ninjutsu.
The Naka River, by contrast, was an entirely ordinary river.
That said, its ordinariness carried a certain peculiarity—not because this mountain spring was especially sweet, but because of where it flowed.
The Naka River curved around the Uchiha clan's residential district as it passed through Konoha.
Due to the Uchiha clan's unique status within the village, and because of policies enacted during the era of the Second Hokage—combined with the clan's own wishes—the entire clan lived clustered together. This, perhaps, was one of the external reasons the Uchiha had never fully integrated into Konoha.
This district was, for both civilians and ninja alike, effectively off-limits unless one was an Uchiha. It even carried a faint sense of extraterritoriality.
The villagers of Konoha viewed the Uchiha with a certain wariness, while the Uchiha themselves felt a distinct sense of separation from the village. Still, with the Great Ninja War ongoing, external conflict temporarily suppressed internal tensions, allowing both sides to remain united—for now.
The area around Naka also housed the Uchiha Clan Shrine, a place of particular significance.
In short, this entire region was essentially Uchiha territory. It was rare to see ninja from other clans active here—
But rare didn't mean impossible.
For example: Ueshira Hagoromo.
There was nothing special about why Hagoromo had come here. He simply wanted a training location with two requirements:
Few people
Readily available water
That was all.
At the moment, Hagoromo sat cross-legged on the riverbank. His right elbow rested on his knee, his palm propping up his chin.
His left hand was raised before his eyes.
The ring finger, little finger, and thumb of that hand were curled inward, while the index and middle fingers were extended together. Between those two fingers was clamped a chakra nature test paper.
His eyes were fixed on the paper.
He wasn't making any visible movements, but his expression suggested intense concentration.
The test paper had already begun to slowly dampen.
That meant he had successfully produced Water Release chakra.
Yet instead of satisfaction, Hagoromo shook his head repeatedly.
He had indeed begun water-nature training and could now generate water-aligned chakra—but this only solved the question of existence, not usability. If he wanted to actually perform Water Release ninjutsu, this was nowhere near sufficient.
At a minimum, using Water Release required:
Possessing water-nature chakra
The ability to instantaneously convert large quantities of chakra into water nature
Proper hand seals
The stronger the Water Release jutsu, the more critical the conversion efficiency became.
In other words, without rapid, large-scale chakra transformation, everything else was meaningless.
This was something Hagoromo was still very far from achieving.
When he thought about his Lightning Release and Fire Release, the contrast was stark. Lightning didn't even need discussion, and Fire Release was one of his innate chakra affinities. Using them was natural—effortless, almost instinctive.
That kind of training belonged to the realm of talent.
For Lightning or Fire, he only needed a single thought to complete the transformation.
For Water Release?
He simply couldn't do that yet.
As for why, among the remaining three chakra natures, he had chosen Water Release first—Hagoromo had his reasons.
First, Water Release's inherent characteristics.
It could attack, defend, and even achieve high offense and high defense simultaneously. Once mastered, its practicality was extremely high.
Second—and more importantly—his personal reasons.
During an earlier period, he and Kushina had jointly planned and executed a rather meaningful operation. And as the saying went, labor yields reward—after that incident, Hagoromo had acquired a significant number of Water Release jutsus.
Among them were several high-level Water Release jutsu once used by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, the so-called God of Water.
Letting so many advanced jutsus rot unused would be a terrible waste. Naturally, Hagoromo wanted to make use of them.
Unfortunately, chakra nature transformation had to be trained step by step. There were no shortcuts. Only steady accumulation could eventually lead to… even greater accumulation.
This wasn't about mastering a specific jutsu—it was about something far more fundamental.
Even Hagoromo needed time.
Still, understanding that intellectually didn't make the emotional gap any smaller. For someone used to rapid progress, this slow pace was deeply frustrating.
"Chakra nature transformation training? Water Release?"
A voice suddenly sounded from behind him.
Hearing it, Hagoromo didn't even need to turn around.
"Jiraiya… uncle."
The visitor was indeed Jiraiya.
Although Hagoromo had called his name with mild surprise, he was genuinely curious why Jiraiya was here.
Following him?
That was obviously impossible—Hagoromo's gender was quite clear… probably.
Was there a bathhouse nearby?
An Uchiha bathhouse, perhaps?
He forcibly stopped himself and replaced the thought with something far more in line with Jiraiya's actual behavior.
Right—he was overthinking it.
Jiraiya was about to leave Konoha again. He would soon regroup with his unit and return to the Cloud Village front line.
As one of the most critical front-line commanders, even being summoned back by the Hokage for serious matters wouldn't allow him to stay in the village long.
Although the fronts were temporarily stable, temporary was still temporary.
The Five Great Nations were actively redeploying forces. This was the calm before the storm. Once preparations were complete and fighting resumed, it would likely escalate into large-scale operations.
Jiraiya had simply happened to see Hagoromo and stopped to say hello.
"Do you have any tips for Water Release training?" Hagoromo suddenly asked.
After all, Jiraiya was famously well-rounded—maybe he had some secret jutsu?
He asked with genuine anticipation.
Jiraiya was one of the rare ninja of his era who could proficiently use multiple chakra natures. In fact, aside from Lightning Release, he was skilled in nearly everything.
And yet, back in the day, he had still been labeled a dead last.
Honestly, the shinobi world's way of judging potential was deeply flawed.
Deeply.
Jiraiya pondered briefly, then replied:
"No."
"…And even if I did have one, I wouldn't tell you."
Was this revenge for a certain incident on a certain day?
It certainly felt like it.
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