AN: I've said this so many times before, but I mean it! I am going to finish this fic. I am putting all 80% of my brain power towards finishing this.

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"Hey there Mr. Teacher!" Rōzu came over to him while he watched the students head home.

"Hey?" Iruka wasn't really sure why they were here. "Did you adopt another one of my students recently?"

"Uh no, I just am stopping by to talk to you."

"Oh right that makes more sense, what's up?"

"Well in case you haven't heard, Naruto made it to the final round of his little exam."

"That's actually pretty surprising!" He had fully believed Team Seven would fail it. "But congrats to him!

"Yeah and uh, well apparently Kakashi said I could train him during this month gap they've got for it."

"Mhm" Iruka was having some deja vu.

"And well, unless Konoha's climate shifts pretty drastically overnight, I'm kind of out of things to teach him."

"So you're here."

"I am here."

"To ask me to help train him?"

"Well, I mean, I'm not not here to do that."

"Don't you have like, clan stuff you could teach him?"

"Oh yeah let me just teach my son how to pull out his own spine to use as a weapon. Oh wait, he can't do that."

"Hm. I see the issue."

"I'm glad you do, Naruto is quite upset that I refuse to teach him to use bone powers."

"To be honest, I'm not really sure I have too much I could teach him either. Do you know what Kakashi taught him?"

"How to climb trees."

"Well, conveniently that leaves a lot open for what he could learn. Maybe teach him some more chakra control exercises?"

"Hm that could work, and you could come too since I know you love visiting hot springs."

"Why do those two things go together?" Iruka couldn't see any correlation there.

"That's how I practiced water walking! Mostly cause there wasn't a lot of standing water back home."

"I mean, I guess I could go?"

"Great! Stop by my place when you're free and we can all head over."

"I could just meet you there?"

"That is also true. See you there then!"

"Mhm" he waved them off before heading back in to wrap things up. He'd finally gotten a good rhythm for taking care of everything alone, but it still took him a while. By the time it was all done he was actually looking forward to getting to relax at the hot spring.

"This is boring!" when Iruka found where the training was happening he was a little surprised to see Naruto already standing on the water.

"Look, unless you can make it snow I'm out of moves I can show you" Rōzu was on the water with him. "So just keep at this."

"I see you've gotten better at teaching" he decided to make his presence known.

"Well I don't have a fancy paper that says I'm qualified to turn children into child soldiers, but I do my best."

"Right" it'd been awhile since they'd made a comment like that.

"Can you show me like anything else? I can't go back next month and get upstaged by everyone else with their cool new moves!"

"I really wish I could, but I'm not actually a ninja anymore. I'm kinda out of stuff I know that I can teach you."

"Wait" Iruka didn't like what that meant. "Did you teach him the water dragon jutsu?"

"I mean."

"Did you."

"You mean this jutsu?" Naruto went through the hand seals and brought up a dragon from the hot springs water. The large dragon flying above the hot springs caused a good amount of panic throughout it.

"WHY WOULD YOU TEACH HIM THAT!"

"I SAID I WOULD AND I CAN'T JUST LIE TO HIM!"

"PUT THE WATER BACK!" Iruka was now wildly gesturing at the dragon and Naruto.

"Fine fine" he brought it back down to the pool, splashing hot water onto them all.

"Alright what kind of bozo is over here scaring away all my resea-" of all people to come over to them about what just happened, Iruka hadn't expected it to be Jiraya. Seeing the Uzumakis he turned on his heel and started walking away.

"Oh no you don't!" Rōzu grabbed him by the hair and tossed him back towards the water. "You're back in town and you didn't even try to stop by and say hello?"

Before Jiraya could say anything to defend himself, Naruto walked over and clocked him as hard as he could.

"WHAT THE HELL!" Jiraya was now yelling from his place on the floor.

"It's what I was told to do!" Naruto hadn't actually seen Jiraya in many years.

"BY WHO!"

"MOM!"

"WHY!" Jiraya was now looking at Rōzu.

"I DIDN'T SAY THAT! But I won't deny enjoying seeing you get hit."

"Well whatever! This is why I didn't stop in to say hi, and I wasn't even going to be in town for more than a day!"

"Interesting that your stops when in town include the hot spring but not visiting Naruto."

"Well that's, because, I, uh, work as a hot springs inspector, a traveling inspector."

"Mhm."

"Well what are you doing here huh!"

"We're training!"

"And it sucks!" Naruto was very open about his feelings.

"Let me guess, water walking?"

"Ok yes that is a correct guess."

"Yeah, that's pretty lame."

"Well I don't see you stopping by to help me train Naruto for his chunin exam so, shut up!"

"Oh chunin exam?" Jiraya turned back to Naruto.

"Yeah I'm a finalist for it."

"Well hey good job, most people fail that exam a ton."

"Well maybe if they suck."

"Hey" Iruka had taken it twice.

"What?"

"That's a rude thing to say about your fellow ninjas."

"What else do you have lined up for this training?" Jiraya spoke with Rōzu while Iruka bickered with Naruto.

"Would you believe I don't have anything."

"Seriously."

"I've already taught him most of my jutsu, and I'm not gonna fight my son to help him improve in combat."

"Why not? Loads of people do that."

"He's my baby boy!"

"Well, I wasn't planning on sticking around, but."

"No."

"What the hell I didn't even finish my offer!"

"I don't want you teaching my son! He's young and impressionable!"

"I'm like one of the greatest living ninjas in the world, who could be a better teacher than me!"

"Like literally anyone else."

"Hey Naruto I know tons of cool moves want me to train you" Jiraya decided to circumvent them by going right to the source.

"Like what" he was currently grappling with Iruka.

"Like this!" Jiraya demonstrated the Rasengan. "And this!"

He was now riding on top of a toad.

"Hm, I am intrigued."

"Naruto no don't be tempted by his large toad and spinning orb!"

"Too late!" Naruto hopped onto the toad. "Tell me more toad man."

"Another win for Jiraya!" the toad leapt away.

"This is the worst day of my life" Rōzu curled up in a ball on the floor. "My own son choose Jiraya over me."

"I mean" Iruka sat down by them. "It's just for training, I doubt Naruto would want to live with Jiraya."

"That's what they all say! It's just a matter of time before that toad man has stolen my son from me!"

"Again, I think you're overreacting just a little bit there. Besides, you said you didn't have anything more to teach him."

"So! I still wanted to get some more bonding time with my son! Now he's gonna train with Jiraya all month and then become a chunin and I'll never see him again!"

"He's not going to just ditch you if he gets promoted, he's still twelve."

"You really think so?" they unballed to look at him.

"Of course, now let's go have a great time relaxing in some hot springs."

"Yeah I guess that's only fair, I can't keep your old bones out of this soothing water for too long."

"I'm not old! I just like a good soak from time to time, and it'll help you feel better."

"Yeah yeah" they took his hand and pulled him along.