Jiraiya's Choice

by Edaar the Mage

Knowing the pain and suffering he would grow up with Jiraiya takes Naruto in and raises him. Upon his return to Konoha he falls for Hinata finally understanding her affections. But by traveling with Jiraiya may have brought him too much attention...

14. Training in the Valley of the Toads

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters in this fan fiction. I do not make money from this fan fiction.

Author's Note: Hey guys, glad you all enjoyed Chapter 13 so much! This chapter is a good bit longer than the previous ones. I do want to clear one thing up because some people mentioned Naruto and the Rasengan, Naruto does not have the Rasengan yet in my story. He's been taught the first two steps (unknown to him) by Jiraiya when he was younger, if you recall the leaf training he did, but does not have the actual technique. I'm trying hard to balance Naruto as more advanced without being overpowered so I really appreciate everyone who has shown some concern with that. I think you'll find this chapter explains things a lot more for the training involved.

Author's Note Cont.: I have narrowed Naruto's sensei down to two choices, I won't say who but I appreciate everyone's comments, I am still unsure who I want to put on the team with Naruto, I've gone through several different combinations so far and have an idea what I want, I am looking for a good balanced team, much like how they put the original team together. So if you have an idea and would like me to consider someone please feel free to let me know in a review or something! Enjoy Chapter 14!!

Chapter 14: Training in the Valley of the Toads

Silence consumed them as the only noise to be heard was from the waterfall. There was nothing to be said, they simply waited for Jiraiya to speak. Jiraiya looked directly at Naruto, he could see the adjustments being made in the boys mind, accepting this new information. He gave him a moment to absorb it before speaking again.

"This will not be easy, and we'll be training in taijutsu as well as ninjutsu while we're here at night. This technique is extremely powerful and dangerous, and it is nothing like you've had to learn before. Your going to have to start from scratch with basic seals so as to understand the jutsu completely, no short cuts. Also we'll be practicing your taijutsu while we're here. At night we will focus on taijutsu training and Naruto, right now you do not have an actual style of fighting, quite honestly with your conditioning I am going to set you to learning the basic style of the Heihuquan. This style if a mixture of several different sets focusing on a lower stance with aerobatic kicks and more explosive footwork, it also focuses on external body conditioning which turns to internal conditioning over time.

"Your current temperament wouldn't suit a more relaxed style, so I decided we should try something more movement based. However this is a secondary function of why we are here. At best I'll be giving you minor instruction in the Heihuquan, we're here to give you the basic knowledge to perform the Flying God Thunder technique."

Jiraiya jumped down from his rock and walked over to his godson, his face became oddly sentimental and his he looked so much older, so tired for a moment, as a gentle smile crossed his face and placed his hand on Naruto's head, ruffling his hair he looked into his eyes before speaking.

"You look just like him you know, blonde hair, blue eyes, your faith in people, but man, you act just like you mom a real firehead always putting her heart into everything. You really did inherit both of their wills and the will of fire of Konoha."

Jiraiya stood up and yawned, "Time to get some rest, let's head back to camp, we have a big day tomorrow after all, what we're doing will be very difficult and we need to get some sleep."

And with that Jiraiya began his walk back toward their camp site, however he left alone as Naruto and Hinata remained behind. Naruto wasn't ready to leave yet, he rewound the scroll and replaced the seal on it, it was possibly the most precious thing he owned then and he was still too shocked to move.

Minato Namikaze, the fourth hokage, my father? I have a father and he loved me! Naruto thought to himself over and over again.

"Naruto, are you alright?" Hinata asked quietly. She hadn't moved from her place beside him. She felt the waves of emotion roll through his body, she felt the pain, the remorse, the loss, the love, and the pure, unbridled joy at the knowledge given to him. Everything he had held back for eleven years came forth that night. His body was leaning against her and she supported him as best she could, the way he had always supported her.

Naruto, I am here for you, the way you were always there for me, please be alright, Hinata thought to herself.

And it was at this moment, while sitting there with the boy who was her best friend, Hinata began to recognize the warm feeling in her stomach. The thoughts of all the times they had been together, his smiling face, the way he made her laugh, his letters, the small items he had always sent her, his determination, his faith in people they came to her mind from her heart. The same feeling that had always been there before, it made her feel so good being near him and it felt empty when he was away. She merely wanted to be near him, close to him.

What is this feeling? Hinata thought to herself.

Hinata let the feelings wash over her as she began to realize she liked her best friend as more than a friend. And in that setting, as he leaned on her for support right then, she knew she would not change anything in her life, the hate from her father, the abuse, all the decisions in her life, they all were worth it to be sitting here with him to her. And with that Hinata realized her feelings went beyond friendship, she realized that she never wanted to leave that spot right then or his side.

And as Naruto held the letter in his hands he hugged his best friend back, completely unaware of the emotions inside her as his own raged at the new found knowledge in his life. He looked at his friend, the rising moon framing her face, and the purple highlights in her hair against the backdrop of the waterfall and couldn't help but think how beautiful she was and smiled at her.

"I'll be ok Hinata, thank you." And he hugged back tightly.

They smiled at one another and blushed again before rising and beginning the walk back to their camp. Naruto told her what the letter had said, he told her about his father being the fourth hokage, and he told her he now knew who he was in a way her had never known before. And for the first time in his life, Naruto got to talk about his father.

Year's later people would wonder if it was that moment that Naurto realized his feelings for Hinata as well, but they'd be sadly mistaken. Naruto was as oblivious as ever to his best friend's feelings and, in fact, was rather oblivious to any girl who might have liked him. Right at that moment he was entirely consumed by the new found knowledge of his lineage.

But Hinata had learned to be patient and the seed which had finally begun to burst from the soil of their friendship into something more was still young, she could wait for him to come around. She knew Naruto better than anyone else, and was well aware of how dense he was about such things. And inwardly she smiled at being given the gift of his company for so many years and his friendship. The two friends retired for the evening to fall into a deep sleep where Naruto dreamt of his father and mother and Hinata began to dream about Naruto.

The Next Morning

Naruto awoke to find his guardian and best friend already awake. They were going over several scrolls explaining the theory's behind the Bajiquan style. They looked up as Naruto exited his tent and waved at them. Hinata blushed deeply as the thoughts of the previous evening went through her head.

Naruto grabbed some of the breakfast that Hinata had made and while he was munching Jiraiya finished explaining her task for the day.

"Ok Hinata, I want you to study the rest of these scrolls while I talk to Naruto ok?" Hinata nodded and turned back to the scrolls in front of her as she continued reading.

Jiraiya motioned for Naruto to follow him and began walking along the river's edge as his godson followed. Jiraiya frowned to himself, he still was unsure he was doing the right thing, not even he had managed to completely understand the technique which Minato had used. He had read the scroll of course and attempted it, but he questioned if anyone other than Minato could have actually used it.

In truth, I am not sure teaching him this technique is the right decision, I have a lot of doubts in anyone's ability to be able to master this technique, but there is a good chance I won't have another opportunity like this to teach him. Even the Rasengan is easier than this jutsu, but unlike this technique, Kakashi can instruct him on the Rasengan if something happens. Right now I am the only one who knows this technique, and I can't actually use it successfully, even to me, its all theory. Jiraiya thought to himself as he continued on the path before stopping at a grass spot beside the river.

"Naruto, I want you to understand something, I do not expect you to be able to master this jutsu within the year available to us. In fact, I expect if you do manage to master it will be several years from now when you are older, this is an S-Ranked jutsu and was your father's most powerful ability. Not even I can do it. But I believe a time is coming when you will need this knowledge, understand?"

Naruto nodded remaining quiet as his guardian spoke to him before voicing his question, "But, if I'm not expected to master it then what good is it right now? And should I be learning something useful then!"

"Listen up kid, just because you can't master it right now doesn't mean you won't be able to in the future. Right now we have an opportunity to give you a head start, when you become a genin and begin missions I won't have the luxury of training you personally for long, uninterrupted periods of time and no one else can help you with this. Your father gave me this scroll personally, he told me it was the only one in existence and I'm the only person to have studied it, and as I said I can't actually use the jutsu. Right now, I am the only person who can instruct you on this jutsu and you need that instruction if you want any hope of mastering it now or in the future, understand?"

Naruto nodded to his guardian.

"This technique is not based on the amount of Chakra you have, in fact, it requires no use of chakra at all. Minato designed this ability to be based off the idea of reverse summoning, you know how you summon Gamakichi? Well, he could also summon you to him if the situation required it and that is called reverse summoning. This technique allows you to place a seal on an item, such a kunai knife, a person, or anything and, effectively, summon yourself to the item. Also while you have that seal on an item, once it strikes the ground you will always know where that seal is and be able to sense those around the seal. This is not an increase in speed, it is actual teleportation.

"At its very heart you're summoning yourself to that item or person, or teleporting yourself. The key to this technique is the seal and secondary seal on the jutsu itself. As I said, I do not expect you to master this technique, in fact the next year we will be focusing your studies on seals and jutsu surrounding them to give you a base to be able to master this technique in the future."

Jiraiya took off his back pack at the side of the river and removed from it a large stack of paper, a brush and ink pot. He then set them down next to a very smooth rock and took out a scroll. Opening the scroll he placed it on the rock.

"Before you are ready for the technique I am going to show you, I want you to focus on the seals in that scroll, they are basic paper bomb seals. I want you to imbue the paper with your chakra as the scroll instructs. Before I even let you near the scroll from your father you have to show me you can create basic seals understand? Most shinobi take for granted small things like paper bombs, we get them so readily from the seal and weapons masters, but you have to understand how the chakra is stored in the paper behind the seal so that the energy can be released on the moment the shinobi wishes. I'll be back in a few hours to see your progress." And with a wave Jiraiya began walking back toward their camp.

This is going to be hard for you Naruto, you have to be patient and learn the basics first. The only reason I can even consider this is because you're so used to summoning the toads and this technique is so similar. But even with that similarity it's going to be incredibly difficult, Jiraiya thought as he left a very bored Naruto to copy seal after seal.

And so the first day of training passed for Naruto and Hinata. Naruto sat by the rock reading the scroll over and over, copying the seal and attempting to understand the basics of sealing chakra into the paper and then reactivating it. Jiraiya would show up every few hours to explain something or provide a small amount of guidance, but he always told Naruto, "This is something you simply have to learn on your own, I won't be there to create the seals on your kunai knives for you. You have to be able to feel this and understand it entirely. I will help some, but you have to do a lot of this on your own."

Hinata's day wasn't much better as she read the scrolls to try and understand the theory behind the Bajiquan style. It was similar enough to the gentle fist but it differed in some startling ways. Where the Juken style required a firm stance and rock hard base the Bajiquan was about flexibility, it described keeping the legs relaxed and knees bent. Where the Juken focused on direct contact with the palms and fingers of the hand the Bajiquan used elbows, knees, and feet as well as the palms and hands. Hinata immediately saw the possibilities with the alterations to the Juken style and both its ups and downs.

And thus the next week was filled more with theories and discussion rather than practical training. Every day began the same, Jiraiya, Naruto, and Hinata would all get up as the dawn was breaking, eat a quick breakfast, then Hinata would sit to studying her scrolls and Naruto would focus on creating paper bombs. At night Naruto was assigned scrolls on the theories behind the Heihuquan style while Hinata worked at forcing chakra from chakra points on her knee's, elbows, feet, and legs. Jiraiya refused to allow them to begin practical training until they each demonstrated a basic understanding of what he was going to be teaching them.

At first Naruto's paper bombs did little more than fizzle and create a large amount of smoke or wouldn't go off when they were supposed too, this caused some issues when a bag full of what they thought to be dud paper bombs suddenly all went off together one night in the middle of their camp. Thankfully they were from Naruto's first batch and mostly just smelled bad and caused some smoke damage but by the end of the week he seemed to finally be able to create stable paper bombs. They were not very powerful but they exploded like regular paper bombs, could be activated using hand signs from a distance, and were of decent quality.

Once Naruto demonstrated to them that he could make the paper bombs Jiraiya set him to improving them and told him to work on different variations.

"Very good Naruto, you might be able to scare an old lady with them. Now that you have some of the basics down I want you to work on variations while improving the ones you already are making. In the scroll are designs for Smoke and Sound bombs. I want you to make both variations with the normal paper bombs." Jiraiya had told him, he wouldn't let the boy rest for a moment.

Naruto grunted his response and sat back down to making more paper bombs. He had never hated paper bombs so much in his life. His training in the Heihuquan style wasn't progressing any better. After a week he was still having trouble with the basic forms. He understood the idea, move from one stance to the aerobatic kick, flow to the straight punch, back to the stance and to another kick, but Naruto had trouble getting it down.

Up to this point Naruto had always fought using his own thrown together techniques with no thought to styles and now he was being forced to confine himself to a particular set of movements. It was very different for him.

Hinata's training was going much the same, just as she thought she was getting an understanding of the Bajiquan theory Jiraiya took her back to the side of the waterfall and explained her the next part of her assignment as he draw several dozen circles in the ground with a piece of chalk.

"Ok Hinata, you're used to the Juken style, so we have to break you out of that mental state. Your mind is used to flowing its strict principles and guidelines, our goal is to free you of that. See the water? I want you to practice the Bajiquan basic techniques inside these circles, I've spaced them out on purpose and this chalk I am using is special, if your arms or a body part moves past the circle it will flash red and you have to start over. The Bajiquan style requires a lot of movement, similar to the motion of water at the ocean or ripples on a lake surface, it's very similar to a dance. Now watch me."

Jiraiya then went through and showed her several basic excersizes for the style. Legs bent, constant motion of the arms and elbows and legs. His feet danced from one circle to another, each circle was only as big as the movement should be, he told her, her hands should not go past the circle, and no part of her body should leave the circle until the movement was completed.

She was amazed at the fluidity of the moves, he'd strike with his right palm only to turn it into a strike with his left elbow to flow into a fluid kick. He showed her twice and had Hinata go through the dance three times to make sure she had it down before leaving her to practice. He would return every few hours to check on her and advise her on her movements.

At night they would continue their training. Sometimes Jiraiya would have them spar as a team against him, sometimes they would spar each other, and on rare nights he would have them practice jutsu. In particular he focused on wind and water jutsu's, they were simple things, such as the Water Whip or the Wind Cutter, but he told them they would be building blocks for later.

And so the days passed, each time the two thought they had gained a handle on things Jiraiya quickly would heap an additional challenges on them. Once Naruto had the variations down Jiraiya told him to come up with a new paper bomb all of his own creation. Once Hinata had the dance down perfectly where she could do it with her eyes closed he ran wiring through the circles so she had to complete the dance perfectly while avoiding the wire, all without her byakugan.

When Hinata had mastered that he told her to do the dance on the water forcing her to combine her chakra control into the dance as well. And when Naruto finally managed to create his own version of the paper bomb which, he felt, was far superior to the normal paper bombs because he had managed to increase the radius of the blast while decreasing the size of the paper bomb (in truth this had already been done before and wasn't very difficult but it forced Naruto to think about what he was doing rather than simply copy) Jiraiya handed him a more advanced scroll for sealing jutsu on how to place weapons into a scroll to be summoned.

Naruto's training with the Heihuquan style also increased in pace, at night he when he would spar with Hinata or Jiraiya he was required to use only the stances and forms of the Heihuquan style, and if he didn't he would be forced to run laps around the lake, normally joined by Hinata.

And so it continued, day in and day out for nearly four months and in that time Naruto and Hinata rarely were given free time, when they were they spent it asleep as they training would go well into the night and they were expected to rise early in the morning, usually before dawn. Jiraiya pushed his pupils hard and long, from before sun up to well past sundown, they worked but they also learned.

Finally after a third of a year had passed since they entered the valley Jiraiya told them their training schedule would be changing.

"Naruto, you'll be working on sealing jutsu in the morning and begin working Gamakichi in the afternoon on summoning and reverse summoning and continue sparring with Hinata in the evening. Hinata, you will continue your normal training in the morning and I will begin working with you on the next level of jutsu which combines the techniques you've been practicing in the afternoon, and sparring in the evening, understand?"

They nodded without complaint, if it meant less writing Naruto was more than happy to be doing it!

The next day, after Jiraiya made sure Naruto was hard at work on making more seals and working at placing kunai knives into scrolls, he took Hinata down to the lake side. The lake itself was beautiful, it sparkled in the morning and the water was completely clear to the bottom of the lake. Toads could be seen swimming in the lake often and many times would stop by and chat with the trio or offer recommendations on their fighting forms.

"Hinata, you've been learning about the Bajiquan dance for a while now, you can do it in your sleep. Now, the next step is combining the water whip and the Bajiquan style you've been learning. What you do is focus your chakra into the water and raise it with you as you strike and move. If done properly you will be able to not only strike with the water itself but it will provide a shield from incoming strikes creating offense and defense at the same time."

As Jiraiya spoke he stepped onto the water to demonstrate, he started with the usual stance and brought his leg up for a straight kick only the water came with him following his foot! He flowed to the next strike on the right hand picking up the water from the foot and bringing it with him into the strike and so on to the next move and the next, the water flowed with the movement itself!

As he moved Jiraiya continued to explain how the water worked in combination with the forms.

"As you can see the water is moving with me, over time you'll learn you harden the water into steel or ice and be able to shield yourself or even throw it increasing your ranged attacked. It's very similar in theory to the water whip. You spread your chakra into the water molecules and mold it to your needs."

Hinata watched in wonder at the beauty, grace and power of the movements before Jiraiya finished and told her to try it. After first Hinata had a lot of trouble, she kept trying but the water wouldn't follow her the way it had Jiraiya.

"Its ok, just concentrate and focus, don't do anything other than try and have the water follow your movements from your chakra points. I don't expect you to be able to do it perfectly the first time around. Just keep trying and remain focused ok? I'm going to check on Naruto and make sure he and Gamakichi aren't messing around, I'll be back soon. Also don't push yourself past exhaustion, watch your chakra levels, I don't want you dropping from exhaustion. This is difficult stuff and you've come a long way already."

And as Jiraiya was turning to leave he had a thought and he yelled to a toad as he walked along the lake sure and asked them to keep an eye on the girl to make sure she was safe. The toad agree'd and Jiraiya was off to find Naruto and Gamakichi.

As he expected Naruto and Gamakichi had been playing around. He found them both in the river splashing each other back and forth. He immediately put them back to work watching them. When Gamakichi obviously was having trouble with the reverse summoning, being a young toad still, Jiraiya summoned Ma and Pa instead to help the boys.

"Alright, let us get this here training going!" Pa had said and proceeding to launch into a long winded explination on how summoning and reverse summoning worked to the two of them.

While Pa was explaining to the two boys what they would need to work on Ma pulled Jiraiya away.

"Jiraiya-boy, dontcha think he's a bit young for this kind of training? I know you want him to be Minato but he's not, he doesn't have the same natural talent and ability, sure he's come a long way but he's still only eleven."

Ma was clearly concerned Jiraiya was pushing things too far too quickly.

"I've asked myself the same question many times, but I don't think we're going to get another chance like this. He needs this knowledge if he wants any chance of succeeding with this jutsu in the future. And I am not sure I'll have this luxury in the future to teach him like this, we need you and Pa's help to succeed at this. I don't expect him to master it but I can hope to give him the tools to master it in the future."

Ma nodded, understanding his reasoning and set herself to the task of helping Pa explain, in more simple terms, how summoning and reverse summoning worked.

Again Jiraiya wondered if he was making the right decision and if he shouldn't have simply taught the boy the rasengan and been done with it. But as he saw Naruto and Gamakichi working with Ma and Pa and beginning to understand the way summoning and reverse summoning worked, he saw the determination in his eyes,he knew that Naruto had the potential to master this techinique, maybe not right that moment but sometime in the future he could do it.

In the evenings Jiraiya continued their sparring lessons, he could see Naruto was finally becoming accustomed to the forms of the Heihuquan style. His footwork had improved tremendously and he was able to move from kick to palm thrust, to kick to fist strike in a much more fluid manner, although it was obvious he still had difficulty controlling his movements entirely and when paired against Hinata he looked like a toddler against a ballerina.

The next quarter year passed and Ma and Pa, the toad sage's, became more and more involved with Naruto and Hinata. At first Hinata was rather shy around the sage's, but after Ma had given Hinata some tips on cooking in the wild and they began to discuss a subject Hinata understood she warmed up to them.

"Now you see sweeties, some natural honey-suckle into this stew, and some wild garlic, and you give it a great taste!" Ma had explained to her as she and Hinata exchanged recipes and cooking tips.

Pa worked with Naruto and Gamakichi on summoning and reverse summoning while Ma worked with Hinata on water jutsu. The children advanced very quickly now that they had the toad sage's working with them. Jiraiya was a great teacher but he was splitting his time and with the toad sage's helping he was able to provide much greater instruction.

At the eighth month of training he once again announced a change to their training schedule.

"After discussing it with the toad sage's I've decided to let you start designing the seals for the jutsu Naruto. This part of the seal is what you will send yourself too, you'll be summoning yourself to this seal. It will need to be infused with a portion of your chakra and you'll need to understand the hand signs required for summoning yourself to it. Also, I'm going to show you how to advance your Heihuquan movements with some more advanced movements.

"Hinata, Ma has said she wants to show you some new water jutsu she's cooked up. So I'll be letting her take over your training for the last four months we are here."

The children nodded and after dinner Jiraiya told them to relax a bit and enjoy the night. It was a beautiful night out and the first time since arriving that they had a chance to actually enjoy the surroundings. They decided to go to the lake and play around in the sand with Gamakichi who had decided it would just be easier if he stayed with them the entire time rather than being summoned every day.

As they ran to the lake Naruto had a great idea and pulled off his shirt and headed right for the water.

"Yay! Come on Hinata, the water feels great!" Naruto yelled from the lake as he had already jumped in.

Hinata blushed so deeply you could see it in the darkness of the night. She smiled shyly at her friend who had tossed his clothes aside before jumping in and was standing half naked before her.

As Naruto was standing there Gamakichi jumped onto his head and yelled as well, "Yo! Come on Hinata, its fun!"

Hinata blushed and said she didn't really want to swim after dinner but that didn't stop Naruto who sent a chakra infused wave of water crashing over to her soaking her thoroughly. She fumed at him while he and Gamakichi laughed.

"Oh You Two!!! Damn it, Boys!" She said and stormed away soaked to dry by the fire.

"You know bud, she's growing up isn't she?" Gamakichi said as he jumped off Naruto's head.

"Huh, what ya mean Gamakichi? It's Hinata." Naruto was conifused by the statement and question.

Gamakichi laughed, "Man, Naruto, you really are clueless aren't ya?"

Naruto shrugged and splashed his toad friend with water, they laughed and splashed around for a while before they returned to the camp. He apologized to Hinata who was drying herself by the fire. She sighed and accepted.

I just can't stay mad when he smiles like that, damn him! Hinata thought to herself.

Naruto went on to bed thinking about what Gamakichi had said.

What does he mean I'm clueless? Naruto wondered and resolved to ask his godfather next time he thought about it.

The next day Hinata was taken by Ma back down to the lake where she showed her a new water jutsu she could work on as a strong combination to the Water Dance, as Hinata had come to call her new jutsu and fighting style combination, which Ma called the Water Needle Jutsu.

"Now, with your juken style chakra control you should have no trouble with this. You've already gotten used to work the water into a water whip and in your water dance to shield you from attacks after your strikes. The water needle jutsu is where you create several needle like objects from the water itself, much like the whip, only you need to focus more chakra into the needles because they won't be a single part of you.

"The needles will be thrown over a distance and thus you need more chakra control to maintain their shape and solidity. Now watch."

Ma took a deep breath and made a hand sign, "Ninja Art: Water Needle Jutsu!" And Hinata was amazed as three perfect needles rose from the water and Ma threw them at a rock only to have them bore right through the rock! Ma smiled and told Hinata to try.

This was very different from the water whip and Hinata had to maintain a greater amount of focus on the water and imbue more of her chakra into the water itself. When she finally was able to maintain their shape, which looked more like water blobs, and throw them they fell apart mid-flight and did nothing but splash on the ground.

"It's alright sweetie, it takes time and practice, and that's why we're here after all. Once you can do this you can turn a defense into a simultaneous attack with your water dance. You have a stream of water coming up as a shield and send water needles right out of it. Now, that's a good ways away but by combining the techniques later on you'll find it's very effective."

Meanwhile Naruto, Jiraiya and Pa were working on the seals Naruto would need to create to be able to summon himself somewhere. Naruto was able to manage most intermediary sealing jutsu, although the more advanced intermediary were still a bit out of his reach but he understood the basics.

"The writing has to be perfect, precise, and you need to have your chakra infused as your going Naruto." Jiraiya told him again as he tried to make the perfect strokes with the brush. It was frustrating because a single missed mark and the seal would be ruined. His training with Gamakichi was put on hold while they focused all of their efforts to the creation of the seals themselves.

The nights were still reserved for sparring and taijutsu training but the days became a frustrating exercise in proper seal creation. It took Naruto nearly two months before he finally manage to draw the seal properly and another month to manage to infuse the chakra correctly, and this was with training nearly 10 hours a day on nothing but seal drawing and chakra placement.

But their work was not for nothing. Within the last month Naruto began to make huge achievements in his seals. He could now sense the location of anyone around the seals, although he still couldn't teleport himself, it was a huge step forward and as far Jiraiya himself had ever gotten. The range was severely limited to only 30 or 40 yards but it was still very good for the boy.

As the year winded down Jiraiya looked back on the time they had spent. Naruto had improved drastically with his Heihuquan forms and was actually fighting in a set style rather than throwing random punches and kicks and had begun to think before he struck someone. He couldn't teleport himself as the Flying Thunder God technique was supposed to allow, but he understood all of the basics and Jiraiya had given him the key to one of the most powerful jutsu in the world, it would be up to him over the next year to learn how to finish it.

Hinata had broken out of the strict Juken style and incorporated the Bajiquan techniques extremely well. Watching her fight was like watching a dancer and she was able to utilize the water around her to block incoming attacks after her strikes as well. She showed signed of having a very strong affinity to water jutsu. Her range had increased dramatically and, if he didn't miss his guess, would probably have the strongest defensive technique he'd ever seen, well, once she had fully mastered it.

The year had been well spent, in Jiraiya's mind. They had learned much and gained much and soon it be time to return home. He hoped he had prepared them enough for the future.

Jiraiya had noticed one other thing that summer, he had seen Hinata staring at Naruto many times and blushing. It seems one of them finally figured it out, and of course Naruto's still as oblivious as always. He thought to himself, it was definitely time to have a chat with the boy.

Author's Note: I looked into several different martial arts styles for Naruto but most of them seemed too rigid and knowing Naruto's rather explosive personality I chose the Heihuquan style, it is also called Black Tiger Kung Fu, I even watched several video's on it and could definitely see Naruto using it. It has a lot of kicks and strikes to it, very explosive and reminded me of Naruto's explosive personality. It's a real martial art from northern china based and is a shaolin style, or similar to the shaolin styles. Just thought you all might find that interesting!