Chapter 14 – Meeting with Jiraiya

"Talk"

'Think'

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto sensei. So…yeah.

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Noriko took a deep breathe, focussed her chakra on her eyes, performed hand seals "byaku-sharingan!"

'ok, feels the chakra in both eyes' she thought. Then she deactivated her dōjutsus, took a few deep breathes before tried to channel chakra only to her right eyes. She opened her right eye while her left eye remained closed. Her vision became red. 'Yeay! Finally' Noriko thought cheerfully.

She repeated the process to her left eye before going back to the right eye and so on for a few times before she felt a tingling in her brain, and then she stopped.

'Today only 30 minutes and it took me a couple of minutes to gather and direct chakra to my eyes' thought Noriko while recording her practice. She re-read her recordings and cheered up a little. Today she can finally activate her dōjutsu in one eye.

Her thought was broken by a scream of frustration from Naruto "Argh! This is boring!"

"You want to spar? I'm getting the hang of moving with only one eye" asked Noriko.

"Sure" Naruto said enthusiastically.

Noriko covered her left eye with a piece of cloth. They both went into stance and fight. The spar ended with Naruto being the winner.

"Again!" said Noriko.

"Are you sure?" asked Naruto dubiously "You are slower, and your left and back are your blind spots'

"I know. That's why I need to spar with me. So I can overcome my blind spots" answered Noriko.

"I don't want to hurt you" said Naruto.

"Better she got hurt now than get killed in real battle" said a female voice.

"Keiko-obasan!" greeted Naruto and Noriko happily and run to her.

"What are you doing here" asked Noriko while Naruto asked "What are you bringing?"

Keiko laughed "Well, I have no mission today. So I thought I'd make mochi for my favourite pre-Academy students".

Keiko looked at Noriko whose eye is still covered with a piece of cloth "Are you copying the copy-ninja Hatake Kakashi?"

Embarrassed, Noriko took off the cloth and explained to Keiko of Shisui's suggestion while Keiko dished out the snack she's been making.

"Not a bad idea" said Keiko before turning to Naruto who was munching on two mochi "How about you? What were you doing before I arrived?"

"Leaf exercise, then Noriko asked for a spar" answered Naruto before asked "Why do we need to do the leaf exercise Keiko-obasan?"

"It's the basis for chakra control. A shinobi with a good control means he or she can execute a jutsu very fast while an exceptional one requires fewer number of hand seals to perform a jutsu" explained Keiko.

"So, if I have a better chakra control, does that mean I can activate my dōjutsu faster?" asked Noriko excitedly.

"Definitely" answered Keiko "I have seen a Hyūga and an Uchiha activated their dōjutsu within seconds"

"Why Shishui-ojisan insists on our basics, Keiko-obasan?" asked Naruto.

"If I were to guess, I'd say to make things easier when you've become genin and started to learn higher rank jutsu which requires chakra control and manipulation. In a battlefield between two equally strong opponents, sometimes being able to move or execute a jutsu faster can be the difference between life and death" replied Keiko solemnly.

"Are we interrupting?" said a voice. The three of them turned and saw smiling Sandaime Hokage and a tall man with long, spiky hair.

"Hokage-ojiisan!" said Naruto and Noriko while Keiko stood up and gave a bow "Hokage-sama"

"My, my, you've grown so fast" Sandaime said beamingly and turned to the white-haired man "Naruto, Noriko, and Keiko, this is my student, Jiraiya. He's an expert with Fūinjutsu"

"Is he going to teach us Fūinjutsu?" asked Naruto.

Sandaime chuckled "No, not today. He's going to check on your seal"

"Why?" asked Noriko.

"I heard you saw orange chakra in your stomach. I believe it belongs to the Kyūbi. I called Jiraiya to check on your sealings" explained Sandaime.

"Yo kids!" Jiraiya greeted with a smile and raised his right hand.

Uncertain at the strange man, Noriko raised her hand feebly "Y-yo?" while Naruto raised his hand and shouted "YO Jiraiya-ojiisan!"

Jiraiya smiled reminiscently, remembering old memories. He crouched in front of Naruto and asked "Can I see your stomach?".

Puzzled, Naruto raised the front of his shirt when he heard Jiraiya's voice "Can you mold some chakra?"

Still puzzled, Naruto obliged.

"Hmm…interesting…I see, four on top of four eh? Genius…always knew he was a genius…ah, a small leak, but…oh, I see" muttered Jiraiya.

Then he crouched in front of Noriko and asked to look at her seal briefly "Yup, same seals".

Jiraiya stand up and said "Ok, no problem" with a thumb up and a grin.

His statement was met with varied reaction "That's all?!" Who's he?" "What leak?"

Calmly, Sandaime said "Could you elaborate a little?"

Jiraiya sratched his chin, pretended to think "Yondaime used a sealing technique that allows the Kyūbi's chakra to leak into your chakra coil thus boosting you chakra"

Noriko gaped "So we have more chakra?"

"Yup" Jiraiya responded with a smile "With the Kyūbi's chakra, I think your chakra is almost equivalent to a chūnin, Noriko while you, Naruto, your chakra is higher than average jōnin"

Noriko looked crestfallen while Naruto was jumping up and down in elation "Why you look so glum, Noriko?"

"…because that's mean, it's harder for us to achieve a good chakra control" explained Noriko. Her training seemed so hard now.

Naruto listened then yelled as he remembered something "Ack! That's mean it would be forever before I could learn kage bunshin from Shisui-ojisan! That jutsu is so cool"

Both Jiraiya and Sandaime chuckled at their antics while Keiko made a mental a note to talk to Shisui about their training.

Uchiha Itachi was walking near onsen, scanning around when he found his target-

"Jiraiya-sama" he greeted.

Jiraiya barely gave him a glance and said in a low tone "Shhh…I'm doing my research, go away".

Itachi just stared impassively "I'd like to discuss your book"

Without turning, Jiraiya said "Aren't you a bit young to read my book?"

Itachi sighed "You first book, Jiraiya-sama. Dokonjō Ninden"

Jiraiya turned, noted the serious look on Itachi "What about it?"

Itachi was quiet for a moment before he said "Do you think it's possible?" Jiraiya stared questioningly. Itachi continued "To break the chain of hatred?"

Jiraiya continued to stare at Itachi who returned the stare.

"This is not the right place. Let's go somewhere private" said Jiraiya.

End Chapter 14

Dokonjō Ninden – Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi

Fūinjutsu – sealing technique

Obasan – aunty

Ojisan – uncle

Ojiisan – grandfather

Onsen – hot spring