Jiraiya knew that the brat would need a lot of work to actually be a shinobi, he had heard the reports on his fight against the Inuzuka, and wondered if he could do enough training to actually make the boy a competent enough shinobi to actually prove to be a challenge towards Neji Hyuga, a Hyuga prodigy whose skills are said to put him on the upper echelon in terms of skill for finalist candidates.
Jiraiya's conversation with HIM also came to mind, the man's plan would require that the boy actually gets training and a reality check, he knew that the boy's parents would be angry with him in the afterlife but the boy's life was more important to Jiraiya than what his parents thought at the moment and the positives did out do the negatives.
"Brat, come here for a second," said Jiraiya as Naruto continued to practice water surface walking before walking over to Jiraiya, "exactly, why do you want to beat this Neji kid, so bad?"
"Neji hurt Hinata for no reason, I want him to pay for that and I also want to prove that it doesn't matter about fate, it is by hard work and trying that one can be a good shinobi, and they can do anything if they try hard enough," answered Naruto, to which Jiraiya thought about it, while a part of himself, was reminded of him as a child but he could definitely see Minato and Kushina in the boy in that sentence.
"Okay, brat, we're going to need to do a lot of work if you want to improve so I want to know if you want serious training since we have 31 days till the final exam, are you willing to put the effort in?" asked Jiraiya, his face becoming serious.
"Of course, Pervy Sage, bring it on!" shouted Naruto, as Jiraiya thought about it for a second.
"Brat, do you know the leaf concentration exercise?" asked Jiraiya, to which Naruto nodded.
"What about it?" asked Naruto.
"Good, first I want you to spend time practicing, both the Leaf concentrating exercise and the water surface walking exercise, once you believe that you are good enough at both, then try to keep the leaf on your forehead while walking on water," answered Jiraiya to which Naruto, nodded before getting confused.
"Umm, I don't know who to do the leaf concentrating exercise," said Naruto, to which Jiraiya sighed.
"How don't you?" asked Jiraiya, if he remembered, correctly, the leaf concentrating exercise was one taught at the academy.
"I may have not been paying attention when Iruka sensei tried to teach it to me," said Naruto, rubbing the back of his neck, embarrassed.
'Oh yep, he definitely looks like Minato, especially when he's nervous,' thought Jiraiya, with a sad smile before getting his focus back.
"Brat, the exercise is simple, you have to place a leaf over your forehead and then focus your chakra into keeping it there," said Jiraiya as Naruto smiled understanding.
"Okay," said Naruto, with a smile.
"Now, I am going to do some research," said Jiraiya with a pervy smile.
"Pervert, you're just going to spy on woman, you creep!" shouted Naruto, to which Jiraiya looked at him with annoyance.
"It's called research, brat, say it with me, re-sear-ch," said Jiraiya, to which Naruto looked unimpressed as Jiraiya disappeared in smoke. Naruto then grabbed multiple leaves and began practising, he did what Jiraiya told him to do, place a leaf on his head and then focus his chakra to it, so that he could keep it there, but the leaf fell off.
"Dammit," said Naruto as he grabbed the leaf and tried again but the result was the same. Naruto tried again but the result was the same, but this time it stayed on for a few seconds before falling off.
"Man, I'm hungry, I should get something to eat but I want to keep training, I'll send a clone," said Naruto as he summoned a shadow clone which rushed off to do what Naruto said.
Naruto then continued trying to keep a leaf on his forehead as Jiraiya told him to but the leaf would continuously fall off barely lasting a few seconds. The clone on the other hand arrived at Naruto's favorite lunch place, Ichiraku Ramen and saw the old man at the counter.
"Hey old, man, one miso Ramen to go!" shouted Naruto as the man let out a chuckle, it seemed that Naruto, never changed no matter what happened to him. He of course prepared the order, placed it into a bag and gave it to Naruto who ran back to himself, the clone was saddened that he wouldn't get to eat the ramen as was his nature as a copy of Uzumaki.
When he arrived, he saw a frustrated Naruto practicing again and again, trying to get the leaf to stick on his forehead but no matter what he did, it only lasted a few seconds and then fell off.
"Hey, me, I brought ramen," said the clone, holding out the bag, as the real Naruto smiled to himself.
"Thanks me!" shouted Naruto as he dispelled the clone. As he sat down and ate the ramen, he realized something, he remembered going to ichiraku, getting the ramen, and giving it back to himself, how could this be?
"Do I get the memories of my shadow clones?" asked Naruto, out loud, to which he received no reply and summoned himself to answer the question.
"Well boss, we did just skim over the scroll on the jutsu," said the shadow clone, as Naruto, thought about it for a second before going to a trusted source, who could help decifer what this meant.
"Hey, Naruto, training hard for the finals?" asked Iruka with a smile, as Naruto entered the classroom to find the man at his desk, marking homework assignments, he gave out.
"Yep, hey Iruka sensei, do you know anything about getting memories back from shadow clones?" asked Naruto, confused.
"Yeah, Naruto, did you read the scroll properly on the shadow clone?" asked Iruka to which Naruto shrugged. Iruka, of course, sighed, having expected this from the boy.
"Well, Naruto, the shadow clone was originally a reconnaissance jutsu invented by the second Hokage, basically it was invented to spy on enemies rather than for direct combat, though it can be used for that specific function, when the clone dispels, the chakra returns to the user as do the clones memories and experiences," explained Iruka to which Naruto, thought about it for a second.
"Can I use it for training?" asked Naruto, to which Iruka gave it much thought.
"Theoretically yes, you can, both to gain experience and cut down on the time required to do something, for example, if you and a clone do an exercise together, you could do the exercise in the half time, and with two clones in a third of the time, and another example could be if both you and a clone practice a jutsu, you would get double and triple the experience and could master it in a shorter time, and due to your unique circumstance of being able to make hundreds of clones, you could do this training to get much stronger," answered Iruka, his eyes wide with possibilities.
"Whoa," said Naruto, imagining how much stronger he could get in a shorter time.
"Though I should tell you that physical exercise and such things are not relayed by clones, meaning you will have to actually practice physical exercise by yourself, and getting to much memories can lead to head aches or even brain damage," said Iruka, gravely as Naruto thought up all the possible traininig he could in that time, "and Naruto, only you can do this training as most Kage don't even have your level of chakra, the shadow clone requires humongous reserves for a regular person to even do, I can only do one or two, so don't suggest this to anyone else"
"Okay, Iruka-sensei, bye," said Naruto, as he rushed off to begin training.
-4 hours later-
When Jiraiya returned, he was shocked to find about 21 Narutos practicing the final exercise, focusing a leaf on their heads while at the same time walking on water, he could clearly see the improvement from before now the boy could actually keep the leaf on his forehead without it falling off and at the same time walk on water, he could also see that the boy's chakra control had massively improved from moments before.
"Brat, what in the world is going on here?" asked Jiraiya, to which the real Naruto, walked over to him and smirked.
"You know how shadow clones give memories back to the person who uses them?" asked Naruto as Jiraiya nodded, to which Naruto smirked, "Well I talked to Iruka sensei and decided to use it to train as he said that I could gain a lot of things in half the time and gain a lot more experience."
"Ahh, I see," said Jiraiya, "smart guy, huh, I wonder why I didn't think of it?"
"Because, you were peeping," said Naruto, bluntly but Jiraiya promptly, ignored him.
"I can see some definitive improvement in your chakra control, now then, dispel the clones" said Jiraiya, as he decided to invent a plan for Naruto's training, as Naruto did, he gained their experience in the exercise, and smirked, things were looking up for him.
"So what are we going to do?" asked Naruto, his excitement showing.
"Well brat, I am going to be teaching you a few katas of frog kumite you can use, and try to get some knowledge and strategy in to your head, once that happens, we'll be working on nature transformation, and after that, we'll be trying to get a good number of jutsu into your head and at the same time, trying to master a few of them and finally we'll try to get you to access some of that special chakra in your body," answered Jiraiya to which Naruto, sighed.
"I don't want to use that thing's power, I want to be known for my own power," said Naruto, to which Jiraiya smiled.
"Brat, that's noble and all, but a good shinobi uses all the resources at his disposal, and that is a resource, you also don't have to use it often, just when you need to, plus the Fourth Hokage sealed that damn fur ball into you for a reason," answered Jiraiya, as Naruto looked up at him, his determination showing.
"I'll do it, sensei," said Naruto, his determination showing, to which Jiraiya smirked.
"Well then, start by dispelling those clones and we'll get started on the training," said Jiraiya, as the clones went up in smoke and gained the experience and their memories, feeling a bit weird.
"But pervy sage, we only have like a month, are you sure, we can do all of this?" asked Naruto, showing off how nervous he truly was, to which Jiraiya chuckled.
"I am sure, we'll be able to brat," said Jiraiya, as he grabbed Naruto and teleported both of them to training ground 3 to begin teaching the genin, the few katas of frog kumite.
"So how do we do it?" asked Naruto.
"Well, the first kata is like this," said Jiraiya, showing it off and Naruto replicated it, though Jiraiya did correct, a few mistakes in his taijutsu to get the kata right.
AN: Since I have no knowledge of the katas, I'll be showing a bit on them.