A/N:

Yo peeps! What up? I hope you're ready. 'Cause one of the major questions that you were asking is about to be answered! Get your ass prepared, you got your drink? Are you alone? Then you are ready...

Without further adieu... let us begin the chapter!

Chapter 10: Chakra vs. Mana {Durotar Arc}

"Well, it'll be a good experience. And... I want to test something. I was wondering why a genius like Jaina would have trouble mastering the Rasengan. Come Castle. Let's try something..." Jiraiya motioned for the paladin to come closer, who gave him a confused expression but approached him anyway. Jiraiya pulled out a water balloon from his pocket and handed it to Castle, who took it hesitantly.

"What's this?" He asked.

"As you can see, it's a water balloon. Try rotating the water inside through the use of your mana." Jiraiya instructed.

"Let me change clothes then." The paladin said, handing the balloon back to Jiraiya. A few moments later, he came back in his casual clothes. He took the rubber ball and did as he was told, and the water inside the balloon started moving. "Great job." He praised. "Now, rotate it in all directions and try to make the balloon explode." He added, carefully observing the man. Castle, still confused, did as he was told.

One hour later...

Pop!

"I did it!" Castle yelled triumphantly, grinning widely. He then turned to Jiraiya and looked at him skeptically. "What's the purpose of this?"

"I wanna know something." Jiraiya replied nonchalantly. "Next." He pulled out a rubber ball. "Try this. Make it explode like last time."

Castle frowned but took the ball anyway. 'It's better than just sitting around and having an awkward silence.' He thought to himself, inspecting the ball. "Like last time huh?"

"Like last time." The sage said. Castle nodded, his eyes narrowed as he focused, putting some mana into it and started to rotate the insides. The ball just shook a bit before it stopped. He tried again, this time putting some more mana into it. It shook again, but did not explode.

"Damn, this is harder than I thought." He stated.

"Yeah well... we still have a few days. So, don't rush it." The other man replied, looking at him.

Silence followed for hours, the only sound coming from Castle's grunts and the rubber ball creating small sounds. He was doing it nonstop, only resting for water and snacks. Night started to fall. Jiraiya and Castle ate dinner.

"What are you gonna do after we eat? You should rest." The Sage asked as he leaned on the table. He had just finished up his dinner.

"I guess I would." Richard replied, slumping to his chair.

Jiraiya smiled at him. "That blonde hair, reminds of Naruto a lot." He told him thoughtfully.

"Oh yeah? How was your student like?"

The Sage laughed. "He was a noisy, childish, annoying, and very stupid brat. And he has this habit of calling someone names. Heck, he calls me Ero-sennin. Or Pervy Sage."

"You seem to have a great relationship with the kid." Castle laughed.

"Even with those traits. He just has this personality that makes you wanna acknowledge him. He may not know it, but he inspires a lot of people. And he has this great determination in everything. He once said "I would not run away! I'm never going back on my word! That's my ninja way!"" He added.

"Tell me more about him." Castle suddenly said, surprising Jiraiya. "He seems to be a very interesting person."

"Well. Okay then." The Sage straightened himself up. "He is named after the protagonist in my book. "The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi". He doesn't know his parents, as they died upon his birth. His father was the Fourth Hokage, and his mother was a jōnin in my village. His father, Minato Namikaze, along with his Mother Kushina Uzumaki died protecting the village from the Nine Tails. Half of the Nine Tails was sealed inside his father and the other half inside of himself. And because the very thing that almost destroyed the village and killed the Hokage was sealed inside of him, he was shunned by the villagers. As such, he resorted to pranks to be acknowledged which didn't really bode well for him. The villagers ended up hating him more. A few years later, he studied in the academy and became rivals with Sasuke Uchiha. Sasuke, the final Uchiha, was the younger brother of Itachi Uchiha, the traitor who killed off his entire clan. Naruto and Sasuke became rivals and at the same time, very close friends. I took him as my student when I knocked out his teacher. I was forced to teach him. Several weeks passed, the near-destruction of my village took place. The Third Hokage was killed by Orochimaru, one of his students and one of the Legendary Sannin, and I was asked to become the Fifth. I refused and instead offered to find Tsunade, another of the Legendary Sannin. Along the way, I taught him the Rasengan. He had little difficulty on the first two steps, but he wasn't able to accomplish the third. We encountered Orochimaru and Kabuto and we fought. Me, Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Naruto. He amazingly managed to do the third step and do a Rasengan by creating a Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone) to help him create it while he fought Kabuto. We came back, and the Fifth was announced. Sasuke's lust for power to kill his brother drove him mad and made him approach Orochimaru. Naruto, of course, chased after him along with a small team of genins and chūnin. They failed, and Sasuke still went to Orochimaru. He came back after that, injured and all. I agreed to take him as a student for three full years. We've trained, and grew closer and closer to each other. I was technically his godfather, but instead... it seemed for a little while... we were actual family. We developed from having a teacher-student relationship to an almost father-son relationship. He was a son that I never had and I was a parent that he never had." Jiraiya concluded, a single tear fell on his left eye as he thought about Naruto.

"Wow." Castle simply commented, completely in awe of everything that Jiraiya told him. "I'm actually at loss of words."

"I do miss the brat. And I swear on my soul not to die until he becomes the Hokage." Jiraiya said, determination clear on his face.

Richard smiled at him. "Well, i'm going to sleep. Goodnight." He stood up and went to his room, leaving Jiraiya alone with his thoughts.

'You brat. Wait for me. I'll be back soon. I just have something to do here. You better be the Hokage once I come back!'

The next day...

The sound of something exploding woke Jiraiya up. Looking around, he noted that it was not from his room but to the main room. he quickly went outside to find a triumphant Castle. He has finally made the rubber ball explode.

The man noticed Jiraiya come out of his room. "Hey! I finally made the ball explode! How about that?"

"Great job! How did you do it? Do it again." Jiraiya asked. He gave him another rubber ball. Castle took it, and started hitting it with his other hand with mana. The ball popped after a few moments. Jiraiya nodded in approval. "Now, let's proceed to the final step. You must combine both steps and contain it in a sphere." He handed the man a balloon. A simple balloon, no water, just air inside. "The ball should not move, nor pop. Okay?"

"Okay." Castle narrowed his eyes again and started trying to form a ball of mana.

'I'll give him a day. If it doesn't work... then i'll ask him to mix it with something.' He thought to himself, carefully observing the struggling paladin. He went into his room and took out a bag full of balloons. "If you manage to pop it, take another one." He said as he put the bag near the wall then sat down on the couch. 'Though I highly doubt that.' Castle almost completely ignored the man. He was so focused on the balloon. "Hmm... you're so focused. I should do some training of my own." Jiraiya said, standing up. He created a Rasengan and tried to add his fire nature release to it.

An hour later...

The whole zeppelin was silent other than the humming of the machinery and the occasional conversations of the pilots and the grunts of the Castle and Jiraiya.

"Come on!" Castle yelled, frustrated. He was still trying to do the last step. "What is this for anyway?"

"I guess it's time that I told you." Jiraiya started, he let the Rasengan dissipate and took a balloon from the bag. He then extended his hand out to show Castle. The balloon wasn't moving.

"What are you doing?" Castle was looking at the balloon curiously.

"This." Jiraiya held out his other hand, creating a Rasengan. "Inside this balloon is this."

"The... Rasengan!?" Castle exclaimed.

"Correct. And since I don't think you will be able to do it... let me ask you to do it in another way." Jiraiya put the balloon back on the bag and faced the man. "Try adding Light into it."

"What? That's ridiculous. Even you had a hard time adding fire to it. What makes you think me, who haven't even mastered the spell yet is going to be able to do that?" Castle replied.

"Just try it." Jiraiya simply said. Castle glared at him before turning back to his ball. He did tried the same thing, hitting the ball with his energy, this time, adding Light energy. After a good five minutes, the ball popped. Jiraiya's eyes widened. "I knew it!"

"Knew what?" Castle asked.

"I knew that mana can't materialize!" He almost yelled. "At least I suspected as such. Jaina is a genius. Her intellect, skills and experience, all of that. She shouldn't have problems mastering the Rasengan. And now I know why." He explained.

"Would you mind explaining it more?"

"You see... Chakra can materialize, while mana cannot. Mana easily dissipates when it is released. Although Jaina can create hands to help her create the Rasengan, I highly doubt that it was completely made out of mana. It was probably mixed in with other things. I read a few books, and I can only assume that she used Arcane magic and maybe frost or water magic to create those. Which means, that mana can materialize, but it's nature needs to be changed." He explained further.

"I think I get it." Castle said. He looked at the ball. He hit the ball with his energy, adding in light. The ball popped again after a few minutes. He cursed to himself and took another ball.

"You know..." Jiraiya said, heading back to the couch. He looked at Castle again as he sat. "My student did it in a week. The Fourth Hokage invented that technique. It took him three years to complete it. And even though he completed it, it's an incomplete technique." He told the man, who stopped what he was doing and looked at him.

"Incomplete? What do you mean?" He asked.

"This-" Jiraiya created a Rasengan in his right hand. "Is an incomplete technique. The Fourth originally intended to combine his chakra nature... but he died young and failed to do so." He did a Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone) and added his fire release chakra nature into the Rasengan. "I managed to make it into a complete technique. But guess what? My student beat me to it!" He finished that with a laugh. "He added his wind chakra nature into it and created the Fuuton: Rasenshuriken (Wind Release: Rasenshuriken). The technique was so powerful that using it can destroy the chakra pathway system. But it does have it's drawbacks. It required him to create two Kage Bunshin to create, and using it damages the arm he used to attack his opponent. And getting hit by that technique, is an almost guaranteed death. At least... that's what they said. I wasn't there when he mastered it."

"Wow. Your student is indeed amazing." Castle praised, smiling.

"He is." Jiraiya affirmed.

Meanwhile on Theramore...

"Lady Jaina." A knight called out.

"Yes?"

"You have a message from Orgrimmar." The knight told her, handing her the letter.

"Okay. Thank you." She said. The knight bowed and left her alone. She opened the letter and read it's contents. Her eyes widened as she finished. "Captain!" She yelled. The captain came running, a worried look on his face.

"Lady Jaina! Is something wrong?" The captain asked worriedly.

"Summon me five of your best knights. I'm going to Northrend." She commanded.

A/N:

It's another short chapter! But I promise that the next ones gonna be longer. I promise!

So, what is this? Jaina is going to Northrend!? Damn.

Anyways. This chapter answered some of your questions, so I hope you are satisfied. Look forward to the next chapter. We'll have some action on it.

Total words:

With A/N: 2,261

Without A/N: 2,091

Merci d'avoir lu. Au revoir mon'ami.