This is my first story. Don't hate for no reason. Will take fair criticism though.
I do not own Naruto or anything related. That goes to Masashi Kishimoto
CHAPTER 24
Ten days into training with Jiraiya and Naruto had learned one new seal and was almost done with an A-Rank jutsu. His intense chakra control training had prepared him for the first step. He had already learned to multitask with his chakra so pooping a water balloon by spinning his chakra was easy. He thought the next step would be harder but it too was easy because of the sheer amount of his chakra. Popping a rubber ball only required him to put more force into the chaotic spinning of the Rasengan. But Jiraiya was definitely correct when he said that the third step was harder than the first two. While maintaining the same rotation and power of the previous two steps he had to contain it in a hard chakra shell. Jiraiya had him practice this by trying to contain his chakra within a balloon. But because it was only filled with air, it was extremely sensitive to disturbances and would pop.
He had been working on the third step alone for 5 days straight. So he sighed when yet again the balloon popped he was able to maintain it for a few seconds but that control quickly faded away.
Laying down on the grass of Training Ground 31 Naruto thought, 'I really have to thank Hinata for making that chakra burn cream.'
He had been working so hard on the last step that two days prior his own chakra had burnt his hands, and not wanting to see her boyfriend in pain Hinata was kind enough to make a cream to cure the chakra burns overnight. But Naruto knew he couldn't brute force his way through the last step. He tried so hard to create the shell around his chakra as it became chaotic, maybe he had to try it another way. Picking up another balloon he closed his eyes and began to focus.
In past attempts Naruto began by circling around his chakra, so this time he tried by first creating the shell. Once he thought it was strong enough he began to spiral his chakra around, and once it became chaotic enough he continued by pumping more and more chakra into it until he thought the chakra shell would break. Keeping a continuous flow of chakra he focused on maintaining the shell as the chaotic chakra continued to try and break out. He began to pump more chakra into the shell trying to make it thicker while containing the rotations when he heard the balloon pop. But without breaking his flow of chakra he opened his eyes. Looking at his hand he saw a perfect Rasengan. He was confused on why the balloon popped, when he realized that the blue spiraling sphere in his hand was bigger than the balloon. When he increased the thickness of the shell the size of the Rasengan increased and broke out of the balloon.
For the first time he let the Rasengan dissipate instead of it exploding in his hands. Standing up he walked over to the nearest tree and restarted his process. Focusing chakra into his hand and within a few seconds a glowing orb of chakra slowly began to form until finally a stable Rasengan formed in his hand. Ramming the Rasengan into the nearest tree the jutsu began to drill straight through and halfway through the tree was unable to support it's own weight and crashed to the ground.
Naruto shouted excitedly, "I did it! I did it!"
He was going to find Jiraiya but he already knew what Jiraiya was going to tell him: to practice it until he could form it near instantly. However, not wanting to spend even another day on the Rasengan Naruto formed twenty clones, each of them broke off to practice forming the Rasengan hoping that by the next morning he would be prepared for whatever Jiraiya had prepared next.
-Next Morning-
"You're done already!?! It hasn't even been two weeks. It took me months to learn the Rasengan." Jiraiya shouted.
Naruto scratched the back of his head in hidden pride, "Well yeah, it's probably because you didn't have a good sensei. I did."
"That or I didn't use shadow clones to speed up the process."
Naruto puffed out his cheeks, "I didn't either, at least not until I could form one on my own. Then I let the shadow clones perfect it. But everything else I did on my own."
Jiraiya held his head and sighed, "I honestly thought it would take at least three weeks for you to learn this jutsu, not one and a half. But you know what, I guess this leaves me time to teach you more."
JIraiya then smiled widely as he pulled the gigantic scroll of his back and said, "So as proof of your strength, and to lock in your status as my student and protege—"
"Woah, woah, woah, I thought this was a temporary thing. I don't want to leave Team 8 to be your protege."
"You don't have to. I already asked Kurenai to let me train you. I'm not in the village too often, so Kurenai agreed that when I am, I am allowed to train you," Jiraiya explains.
"Really."
"Yeah," Jiraiya confirms.
-flashback-
In a diner Jiraiya sat across from Kurenai and if looks could kill Jiraiya would definitely be dead.
"What do you want, pervert?" Kurenai growled.
Jiraiya gave a lecherous smirk, "Well a night with you would be fantastic!"
Kurenai slammed the table and stood up, "I thought you would have something important to say, mostly because Naruto asked, but I guess not."
She was about to walk away before Jiraiya called out, "Wait, wait! Look, I do have something important to ask."
"It damn well better be," she sighs. "What exactly do you want?"
"I want to train Naruto."
"But he's a part of Team 8!" Kurenai shouts.
"I know, I know. Look, I understand how important a team is. Believe me, however, I also want to train Naruto.
"So what am I supposed to do? I still have a team to run," Kurenai asks.
"I would only train him now and then. I spend most of my time outside the village, so he would still spend time with you and the team. But sometimes when I pass by the village let me train him for a while."
"And if he turns out to be a pervert like you?"
"No one is a pervert like me, but if he did then wouldn't that be great!"
Kurenai sighs and once again stands up to leave but once again Jiraiya stops her, "Wait, I really want to train him. I'll try my best not to turn him into a pervert."
Kurenai rubs her forehead in frustration, "Fine! But only because it is what's best for his ninja career. If it wasn't we wouldn't be talking."
"I know, and thank you." Jiraiya smiled.
"Yeah. Whatever," Kurenai walks away.
-flashback over-
Naruto shrugged, "All right then Ero-sensei, what's next?"
"Didn't I tell you not to call me that?" Jiraiya huffed.
"Probably but I'm not going to stop.
"Ugh. Anyway to show that you are, in fact, my student you must sign the Toad Summoning contract."
"You want to give me your summons?"
"Well yeah, the toads are good for battle, infiltration, and are just generally good companions."
Naruto scratched his chin then shrugged, "Some battle partners can't be a bad thing. What should I do?"
Jiraiya smiled as he laid out the large scroll on the ground, "Well first you need to bite your thumb and sign your name in blood."
"Okay" Naruto complied.
"Then just below that spread that blood across all your fingertips and stamp your fingerprints."
Following Jiraiya's instructions Naruto called out, "Done."
"Great! This jutsu requires a bit a blood so normally you have to bite your thumb before weaving these hand signs, but seeing as you've already done that here are the hand signs: Boar- Dog- Bird- Monkey- Ram"
Following his instructor's movement he bit his thumb (because Kurama already healed the first one) then weaved hand signs, and finally slammed the ground with his palm and shouted, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu."(Summoning Technique) And with a puff of smoke…a tadpole appeared.
Jiraiya broke out into raucous laughter. It took him a minute before he ran out of breath and wheezed, "That was the most pitiful attempt I have ever seen! How much chakra did you put in?"
'Not much," Naruto said, "Maybe about as much as I would put into the Rasengan."
"That's why," Jiraiya nodded sagely, "You need to add more chakra. You might not even have enough. You might have to tap into the Kyubi's chakra."
Naruto guffawed, "Oh please, I have more than enough! How much of your chakra do you put in?"
Mulling it over Jiraiya said, "Well considering you have to summon the boss Toad and ask him for permission, then I usually put in about a fourth of my chakra."
"Okay then, I'll put in half of mine." Once again Naruto ran through the hand signs, bit his thumb and slammed the ground shouting, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
With a larger puff of smoke nothing could be seen until a voice called out, "Jiraiya-boy, why did you summon me?"
As the smoke faded a small green elderly toad with yellow eyes and rectangular pupils.
Jiraiya just stood there shocked as Naruto asked, "You're the boss toad? When I summoned I thought you would be bigger, and maybe a little less old.
Jiraiya immediately reacted, "Hey! This is the Great Sage Toad Fukasaku!" Have some respect!"
Naruto just raised an eyebrow, "So still not enough? I guess you're right, this does take a ton of chakra."
The elder toad just chuckled, "No young one, you used too much chakra. What is your name?"
"Uzumaki Naruto. So what then, how much was I supposed to use?"
"Well Naruto-boy, from what I'm sensing from your reserves, you only needed to use about a third of your chakra, not half. Though I suggest you let some of your chakra recover before you try again. Until then why don't you tell me about yourself"
-an hour later-
"Are you ready Naruto-boy?" Fukasaku asked.
"Definitely!" Naruto shouted back.
Pacing himself through the hand signs, 'Boar. Dog. Bird. Monkey. Ram.' Naruto bites his finger and shouts, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
In a large puff of smoke suddenly Naruto was 100 feet in the air as a voice bellowed, "Jiraiya? Why have I been summoned? I see no battle."
A gigantic toad, nearly 100 feet tall appeared. He was red, and wore a black haori with white outlines. In his mouth held a long wooden pipe, and by his hip was a tanto.
From on top of the toad's head Naruto shouted, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I summoned you, not Jiraiya."
A deep guttural laugh came from the gigantic toad, "Like a puny kid like you? Yeah right."
"I did summon you because I was told I needed to in order to officially become a Toad Summoner."
"You do, but you also gotta pass my test."
Naruto grinned, "I'll pass any test you throw at me."
Gamabunta began to crouch, "All right then, last until sunset."
Naruto was confused, "Huh?"
"Hold on!" Suddenly Gamabunta leaped straight up into the air. And Naruto was plastered on his back as he was forced upwards, then he felt weightless. Looking down he saw the ground nearly 500 feet below him. Realizing he was about to fall, Naruto quickly grabbed onto the toads haori before he began his descent.
But not receiving even a moment of rest Gamabunta jumped into the air once more. Not wanting to accidentally let go 500 feet in the air, Naruto began to stick himself to Gamabunta's skin using the tree walking exercise.
Laughing Gamabunta says, "This is gonna be fun!" and all Naruto could think was, 'This is going to be a looong day.'
-few minutes before sunset-
Atop of Gamabuntas head Naruto felt only one thing, pure exhaustion. Thank kami for his seals or he'd be hungry and tired as well. But using his chakra for hours on end? It left him quite drained. But looking at the horizon he knew there were only a few minutes left. However, the toad noticed the same so as a last ditch effort Gamabunta began to do flips midair, hoping that Naruto would spin right off but in response Naruto only held on harder, until finally. The sun had set.
Naruto breathed a sigh if relief as he was finally done with the challenge.
"Well Done! You have earned my resect by completing the test, and are officially our summoner. Though we do need to share a drink to really seal the deal."
Naruto shook his head, "Sure but not today. I'm too exhausted."
Gamabunta laughed heartily, "I understand. See ya!" And with that he poofed away back to his own realm.
Landing on the ground Naruto sat down to try regain some energy. Jiraiya walked over to his student with a grin, "Well done kid, I knew you could do it."
"Yeah…sure. Just warn me next time."
Jiraiya fake pouted, "Aww, but that would take all the fun out it."
"Hey, does this mean I can get that horned hitai-ate?" Naruto asked.
Jiraiya shook his head, "You have to be a sage first."
"Then can I learn that next?"
"You have to be a little older, and know the toads a little better."
Naruto groaned as his eyelids began to close, "Fine. Can you take me home? I can barely move."
"Sure. I'm proud of you kid." Jiraiya picked Naruto up and shifted him into a piggyback position.
"Thanks, Jiraiya-sensei," Naruto murmured as he drifted off to sleep.
Jiraiya ran back to the village with a smile on his face.
To be Continued...
I will post every one to two weeks. Thank you for reading.
