Naruto: The Uchiha Chronicles Re-Version:

Hey everyone, hope you're doing well! Here is the first chapter in Part 2 of the Chunin Exams arc. Next time I post will be a chapter for The God of Wind. Well, hope you enjoy!

Chunin Exams Arc Part 2:

Chapter 46: Training Plans

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The Falling Kunai was a small bar tucked away in a side alley, between two rundown apartment buildings in the Hidden Leaf's seventh ward. A seedy part of the village, an area where shady deals were done, and information was swapped. A faded sign with a kunai hung by a thread over the entrance, the crimson lettering chipped and weathered. The bar was a cramped, dark, smoky place, with a long counter that needed a new coat of finish, and a few booths. Behind the counter, an old toothless man sat behind the counter cleaning classes with a threadbare rag, a cluttered wall of assorted boos lining the shelves behind him.

If someone stumbled into the bar, they'd have no idea that the old bartender could kill you as easy as blinking. The same could be said for the clientele. The bar was frequented by the upper echelon of the village's shinobi forces. Experienced chunin, jonin, and even off-duty Anbu, could meet and drink in peace after a long day's work.

In the back corner of a quiet, Kakashi sat in a booth alone. He sipped on a cup of sake as he glanced over a set of notes on his students. The notes had their various skills listed, as well as how they might work on expanding them. Underneath each summary was a list of potential trainers. Two days had passed since the end of the preliminaries, and the day before he'd visited his students to see what they were thinking and helped them decide what to work on so he could line up the best tutors for them.

'Sakura and Sasuki would benefit the most if I train them personally.' Unfortunately, he could only train one. The second he'd learned Sakura was facing Gaara, he'd halfway hoped she would choose to bow out. There was little chance she could learn enough to survive against him, let alone win. Yet when he'd spoken to the girl last night, she'd been steadfast.

"I'm going to try my best Sensei."

When had the shy and weak girl grown such resolve? He might be proud, if he wasn't busy worrying for her safety against Gaara. Instinctually he wanted to train her himself. Afterall, he was the Copy Ninja, surely, he could give her the direction needed. But that was his ego talking. In reality, her best chance was her skill at Earth Jutsu, and there were far better people than him to train her in that. So, he'd called in a favor, and a trainer had been lined up for her.

'Which means I'll be training Sasuki.' It was a logical choice. There were numerous reasons, from being targeted by Orochimaru, to their shared affinity, and even the drama between her and his sole male student.

Yes, when it came to two of his students, he was able to decide fairly quickly, which was nice. It was the third that was giving him an issue. 'Big surprise there. He's been a challenge from the beginning.' The problem wasn't that Naruto was a bad student, to the contrary, he was excellent. Almost too excellent. With intricate knowledge of things like chakra control and shape manipulation, and a penchant for creating his own jutsu, he could learn basically anything you showed him, save for maybe genjutsu. Naruto learned basically everything Kakashi showed him in beyond record time.

Once again, he had to set his ego aside when it came to Naruto. The fact was his student was rapidly outpacing Kakashi's ability to teach him.

Thus, the conundrum he now found himself in. He needed to find someone more … unorthodox. Who could match his student's creativity.

A sigh of frustration escaped him. Kakashi slipped his mask down and threw back the rest of his sake before putting the mask back in place.

"If it wouldn't be blatantly unfair, I might have requested Lord Hokage train him. Maybe I need to table this for now."

"Talking to yourself is kind of weird, don't you think Kakashi?"

As a shadow fell across his table, Kakashi glanced up. His eye widened in surprise.

"It's you."

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The stifling midday sun washed over Naruto, it loosened his stiff muscles and drove away the troublesome thoughts that had plagued him. Every time he was alone with his thoughts, his worries about Sasuki crept in. What if she never forgave him? Was there a chance that she'd start hating him, would he be the one who drove his friend to the arms of their clan's curse? It was too much, so he had tried to distract himself with training. Since the day the preliminaries ended, he'd had clones working around the clock to fix his chakra control. Advanced exercises like sticking stones to their body while water walking and practicing elemental training, had left him tired from the mental strain.

Yesterday was fairly uneventful, save for Kakashi's clone stopping by as he promised to go over what Naruto wanted to work on. It was a welcome, though brief, distraction from his own mind.

After a lot of thought, Naruto had finally narrowed down what he wanted to train. In the forest, he was rendered completely useless using a sealing jutsu. He knew how powerful they could be, and they helped with his barrier jutsu. So, Naruto eventually decided to mainly focus on sealing, as well as smoothing out a few other jutsu he was working on.

The clone had taken it in stride, "I'll get back to you tomorrow with a suggestion for your tutor for the month."

Alone in his apartment, with little else to do, the worrying questions about Sasuki crept in again like shadows pulling his mind down. Finally, Naruto needed a break, so he decided to visit Gramps and tell him about what happened with Temari. He wanted to make sure Gramps was in the loop well before the Sand Village upper echelon had the chance to send any demands in. 'If they ask for any proof, we can't provide much.' His grandparents never had their marriage registered anywhere, and more importantly, there was no way they could risk telling the Sand who his grandfather was. If the situation wasn't handled carefully, a bit too much about his heritage might get out.

Naruto was lost in his thoughts and walking on instinct, when he bumped into a tall old man walking the other way. The old man didn't budge an inch, but Naruto was nearly knocked to the ground. His impeccable balance saved him, developed over years of martial training.

"Whoa, sorry there, kid, didn't mean to knock you over."

"Uh, no problem."

Naruto looked the man up and down curiously. The man was big, in almost every sense of the word. Tall, and broad, he had a mane of spiky white hair gathered into a ponytail that fell down his back. On his brow rested a horned forehead protector. His baggy moss-green clothing and red haori, combined with the hair and the red lines that trailed beneath his eyes, were almost like a Kabuki performers. Not to mention how strong he must be. Naruto's shoulder was throbbing slightly, it was like he'd walked into a granite pillar, how odd. Shrugging it off, he waved goodbye.

"Well, see ya around old timer."

"Wait a second!"

Pulling up short, Naruto looked at the man oddly. "Yeah?"

The old man rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "It's been a while since I was in the village. Can you remind me where the hot springs are?"

Though odd, Naruto didn't see anything wrong with it. So, he gave the man his directions. A few blocks to the north and one block up. Before they parted ways, Naruto was slightly curious why he was looking for them.

"Going to soothe the aches and pains huh?"

The man waved his hand, face falling into a lecherous expression and a perverted giggle, the same one Gramps gave off when reading that little orange book. "Oh, something like that. Mostly just peaking, I mean, researching the women of the Leaf."

"Oh, so you're a perv."

Naruto shook his head and left. The old man's protests went ignored as he continued towards the Hokage Office. He had a healthy libido like anyone else, but there were limits. Though it wasn't all bad. There were two hot springs in the village, one that was preferred by Shinobi, and the other one almost exclusively used by Civilians. Unfortunately for the old man, Naruto had given him the directions to the hot springs a lot of shinobi and kunoichi used. He'd have felt a little bad if he sent the old man to the one for civilians. Most likely the old man would be in for a rude awakening if he tried peeping on them.

'Are you really the one to be talking about perversion, what was the name of that jutsu you created, Sexy Jutsu?'

Though he knew only he could hear the fox, Naruto jumped, and looked around carefully. 'That was a long time ago, and it was for distraction! Besides, I said not to talk about it. I don't want Sasuki finding out.'

'And just how in the world would she ever meet me to have me tell her?' Naruto didn't have a counter for the foxes' dry sarcasm.

The windows and doors in the administrative building were thrown wide open, letting what little breeze that existed in. Electric fans were all over, working diligently to try to cool the sweaty workers. Gramps' secretary Tsuki smiled politely as he approached the reception desk. She was a retired kunoichi. The years had taken the edge off her athletic physique, but she was still well-conditioned, and her eyes and instincts were as sharp as ever despite her kind appearance. "Good morning, Naruto. If you're looking to see him, Lord Hokage isn't busy right now."

Naruto nodded and made his way up the spiral staircase, before knocking on the double doors to Gramps' office. Hiruzen glanced up from a scroll as Naruto opened the door, his pipe hanging between his clenched teeth.

"Naruto, my boy. I hadn't expected to see you for a while. Shouldn't you be training?"

He shrugged. "Still waiting for Kakashi to get back to me on who he's lined up to teach me. Besides, there's something important we need to talk about."

"Ah, this wouldn't have anything to do with our guests from the Sand being agitated, would it?"

The old man's eyes twinkled as Naruto gaped in surprise. "Did their council already reach out? I figured they wouldn't even receive the intel until today."

Hiruzen shook his head. "Hardly, though I did have a rather … tense chat with the Jonin-sensei to confirm what you told them."

Judging by how the words came out, tense was probably an understatement. Not that much else could really be expected. Relationships between them and the Sand were tense, due to the number of jobs their Daimyo was outsourcing to the Leaf. This was just adding insult to injury. Without being prompted, Naruto plopped down into one of the seats in front of the big oak desk, and kicked his legs up on the edge, which earned him a disapproving look.

"So, considering their sensei already ranted at you, do you need me for anything?" He asked.

"Well, considering the importance of the matter, I'd still like your side of the story."

Naruto nodded easily enough. He recounted how Temari had cornered him, and the conversation they'd had about their villages higher ups handling it. Gramps looked slightly grumpy at the casual mention of the headache it would cause.

"I see, so naturally this will drop in my lap. As if the situation with Orochimaru wasn't bad enough." Hiruzen muttered as he rubbed his temples tiredly.

"That's why you got the fancy hat. Though you are getting a bit up there to deal with that stress. Feel free to pass it off to me any time, I won't mind." Naruto grinned cheekily.

Hiruzen rolled his eyes with good humor. "I dare not subject the village to your mischief if you were in charge. Not yet at least."

They chatted for a while longer, but when Naruto glanced at the clock, he realized it was well past noon. He stretched his arms over his head with his fingers laced together, his knuckles gave a satisfying pop. He stood and offered Gramps a friendly wave and a smile.

"Well, I'm gonna get going and let you work. I expect that clone Kakashi mentioned is looking for me by now."

"Did somebody say my name?" Naruto looked towards one of the open windows in surprise. Kakashi was leaning against it, his hands in pocket as he slouched. He offered a lazy wave. "I checked your place, but you weren't there. So, I thought to myself, where might my cute little genin have run off to? In the end I settled on either this place or Ichiraku's, so I flipped a coin. Looks like I was right."

Naruto casually extended a tendril of his sensing ability. Based on the chakra level, this was definitely a clone. "Does that mean you lined up a trainer for me?"

"Yep."

His eyebrow twitched. Even the mans clones were annoying. "Care to tell me who it is and where I can meet them?"

"Sorry, the original thinks it would be nice if it was a surprise. Though he said to meet your teacher here around five o'clock." The clone pulled out a folded slip of paper and with a casual flick, it zoomed across the room towards Naruto. The blonde reached out and snatched it with his hand.

He fumbled a bit as he unfolded the paper. Two words were written on it in an unfamiliar hand. "Ryumi Falls? "Isn't there anything el–" He looked up to the clone for more information, but it was already gone, small wisps of smoke left floating out the window.

Clicking his teeth in annoyance, he clanked towards his grandfather figure.

"Well, I'm going to head out. Though if you find out anything on the Sand thing let me know."

"Very well my boy, have a good day."

After their farewells, Naruto left the tower how he came. Walking at a casual pace, he enjoyed the quiet atmosphere of the village as he slowly wound his way towards the Ryumi Falls. The falls were a local landmark, and a very popular spot to swim. They weren't as violent as the other set of falls at the Naka River. Though he had to wonder why his teacher for the month would want to meet there 'It's not exactly the best for training since people are there so often.'

As he walked through the village, the peaceful murmur of people going about their days was pierced by shouting voices. A man's voice crying for mercy, as several women's voice screamed after him angrily. He raised an eyebrow as the big pervert from earlier dashed around the corner, eyes wide in panic. The man's gaze instantly locked on him with desperation.

"Kid, ya gotta help me hide. There was a misunderstanding with the ladies at the hot spring!"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yeah, a misunderstanding, sure. I think I'll leave you to it, I've got other places to be ya little pervert.

The man's eyes widened in comical rage. "I am not a little pervert!"

"Oh really, then what are you?"

The old man struck a goofy pose, waggling his tongue and fingers as he proudly declared, "I, am a Super Pervert!

Blinking in surprise at the man's shamelessness, Naruto was grateful when he sensed several large chakra signatures approaching. Oddly enough, the old man's head whipped around in the same direction, before he took off running again. He moved surprisingly quickly, disappearing around the corner. Not a second after the man's ponytail whipped out of sight, three women rounded the corner he'd originally come from.

They were barefoot, with nothing but towels to cover their modesty. He was surprised to see Samui, along with her teammate, and a woman with long purple hair he didn't recognize. Their towels clung to them rather precariously.

Like the pervert, Samui's eyes locked on him quickly. The ice blue eyes were uncharacteristically animated. "Naruto, did you see an old man run past here? We caught him peaking on us in the hot spring, so uncool."

Naruto blushed as a drop of water trailed down her chest and disappeared into the cleavage. "Actually, yeah, he went that way." He was quick to point out where the man had gone. Karui grinned savagely and punched her palm.

"Imma kill that perverted old bastard!"

She took off with zero hesitation, the other women trailing after her. Naruto tried not to let his eyes linger after them. Honestly, they were probably giving people more of a show chasing after the man than he got when he peeked on them. Though Naruto wasn't about to vocalize that.

He shook his head in bemusement, and continued on to where he was supposed to meet his teacher.

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The day was sweltering hot. If it weren't for a trick he'd learned to reduce his body temperature with water chakra, Kakashi might have had to consider removing his mask. He was strolling casually as he walked through the Leaf Villages fifth ward. Alongside him was a brown-haired man named Tenzo, who donned a happuri style forehead protector and undershirt that reached his chin.

The man was his old subordinate in the Anbu and a friend, though Tenzo himself would likely deny that last part. Given his mastery of both Earth and Water jutsu, Tenzo was the only choice to train Sakura.

Kakashi's eye wandered to the building marked with the number two. A tall, multi-story duplex painted a deep brown, with red awnings, and a large front door with a gold-painted bar handle, framed by glass windows. The building was newer, likely rebuilt after the Nine-Tails attack like many buildings in the fifth ward.

"Is this it?" Tenzo asked. Kakashi nodded. "Remember Captain, I'm going by Yamato right now so be sure to use that codename."

"Huh, did you say something Tenzo?"

He ignored the deadpan gaze from his companion, and instead he headed to the right-hand entryway, marked with a sign declaring it the Haruno residence. Tenzo trailed behind quietly. Kakashi had been here a couple times previously, mostly to get a feel for Sakura's parents and her lifestyle. Mebuki and Kizashi were a shinobi couple, but they'd never been particularly ambitious and remained career genin.

They walked up to the door and Kakashi knocked. From within the house, a muffled voice said, "Just a minute!" Then the sound of approaching footsteps before he saw a blurred figure behind the glass. The door opened with a click, revealing the smiling face of Sakura's mother, Mebuki. Her hair was a golden blonde, a far cry from the pink hair her daughter inherited from Kizashi. "Ah, good afternoon Kakashi. Are you two here to see Sakura, is this her trainer?"

"Yes, it is. Is she upstairs?"

Mebuki nodded politely. "Yes, go on up."

Kakashi didn't bother to knock on Sakura's door after they went upstairs, sliding it open despite Tenzo protesting they should knock.

Sakura was sitting at her desk, pouring over a book. "What is it mom?" As she glanced up and realized it wasn't her mother, Sakura let out a surprised squeal and pointed an accusing finger at him. "Sensei! You should knock when you're entering a girl's room, what if I was changing?"

"Now, now, the fact is you weren't, so no harms done." he said dismissively.

His student rolled her eyes and ignored him, instead turning her attention to the man with him. "Who's this?"

"This is the man I've lined up to teach you this month. Assuming, that is, you haven't changed your mind."

A nervous look flitted across Sakura's face. She bit her lip and wouldn't meet his eyes while pretending to be unconcerned. It was a poor attempt. Underneath her appearance, the girl must be a bundle of nerves. Especially considering what her opponent had done to Lee. Personally, he thought there would be no shame in forfeiting for her. She'd gotten far enough to impress, and probably wouldn't be faulted for recognizing she couldn't beat Gaara. But his job was to help her, not tell her what to do.

"I'm sure." She told him firmly.

"Very well, this here is Ten–"

Tenzo cut in quickly "Yamato."

"Ah yes, Yamato, and he's probably the best Earth Style shinobi in the village both in terms of skill and power. With his help, you might be able to form a strategy to fight Gaara."

Sakura seemed a little dubious but accepted his words none the less. She bowed her head to Tenzo. "In that case, I look forward to learning under you Yamato-sensei."

The brown-haired man nodded in satisfaction. "Very well, meet me at training ground fifteen tomorrow at 8 am sharp."

"Well, I'll see you two later, I have another student to go talk to."

Kakashi gave the two a wave, before he used a seal less teleportation jutsu to disappear in a plume of smoke.

He held the jutsu for a few seconds, the world around him blurring as he traversed several blocks in in a few blinks of the eye. When he released the jutsu, he stood on a quiet street in front of a nice three-story apartment building, made of concrete, with individual balconies. The orange awnings and large glass doors gleamed in the afternoon sun.

Kakashi strolled into the entrance way, up a set of stairs to the third floor, where he turned to the right. He went all the way to the end, to the last apartment in the row, where he rapped his knuckles against the wooden door. Within the home, there was a muttered curse. Seconds later the chain was undone, and the lock clicked as the door swung open. Sasuki peaked around the edge, looking at him with a single dark eye. When she realized who it was, the girl opened the door fully.

She wore a casual pair of pants, and an oversized t-shirt. With her hair slightly messy, one might think the girl had just gotten out of bed. But her red-ringed eyes told a different story. Kakashi chose to ignore it.

"Yo, how's it going?"

Sasuki scowled. "Is this about training? If so, make it quick. Who've you lined up for me?"

"Straight to the point, I guess." Kakashi sighed in disappointment. "Oh well, can't be helped."

"Get to the point." The girl snapped.

Kakashi narrowed his eye. "Fine, I've decided to train you myself. Given the … similarities, in our elements and the Sharingan, it was the best choice. I want you to be ready tomorrow at dawn. We'll be headed into the forests within the village boundary to train while camping."

"Got it." Sasuki made to shut the door, but Kakashi held it open. He stared at the girl pointedly.

"A word of advice; don't let this issue with Naruto interfere with training. The other two might be walking on eggshells around you, but if I think it's affecting you, I'll point it out. Understood?"

She nodded stiffly. "I'm focusing on the exams right now, nothing else."

The Uchiha girl tried to shut the door again, and this time Kakashi allowed it. After the door had slammed closed, he let out a sigh and began to walk away. For all her bravado, he doubted Sasuki could completely block out the issue with Naruto. Though there wasn't much he could do about it, short of sitting the two down and forcing them to talk it out. Given the stubbornness of the two, such an idea was doomed to failure.

'Man, if I knew this would be such a hassle, I'd have failed them. Can't imagine how Minato-Sensei put up with us if we were like this.' He mused as he exited the building.

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Ryuumi Falls was a premier tourist destination in the Hidden Leaf. Pristine water cascaded into a crystal-clear pool, which turned into a gently flowing river with abnormally smooth, flat rocks along the bottom. Rumor had it the falls and the river were created artificially with the combined efforts of the First and Second Hokage's. Naruto was inclined to believe it; the river really was abnormally perfect.

Which was one of the reasons it was a favorite spot for people to come and swim. The fact the water was almost always the perfect temperature, save for winter, probably helped.

Naruto strolled through a game trail in the trees, towards a clearing that was rather well known amongst Academy students. It was one of the few places you could go to train if the training grounds reserved for the academy were booked. He assumed that's where his instructor wanted to meet, though it was an odd choice. The clearing was favored more by the younger academy students, since you couldn't get too destructive, or you'd get in trouble. That made it fairly useless for anyone who was learning more advanced jutsu.

The sound of roaring water got louder, as he came closer to the clearing. Finally, Naruto saw a break in the emerald underbrush, the afternoon sun poured through the gap. He came out into a quaint clearing, the ground blanketed in grass, with tall oaks all around. On the far side, the clearing overlooked the pool below the waterfall. The air was cooler here, filled with the mist from the waterfall. And huddled in the broad back, white hair trailing down in a long ponytail over a red haori and olive-green clothing, was a familiar figrue.

"YOU!"

The old pervert jumped violently, he turned and shushed Naruto. "Are you trying to get me caught again brat? You're going to ruin my peaki–" The large man cut himself off. "–Uh, I mean research."

He spoke in a harsh whisper. Now that he paid attention, Naruto could hear the sound of women giggling down below. But that was beside the point. "Research my butt, you're peaking! Why don't you scram, I'm looking to meet my trainer for the finals."

"I said keep it down brat! You wanna get me caught twice today? That's a fine way to treat your teacher!" The white-haired man hissed back.

Naruto blinked in surprise. "Kakashi-sensei made a creepy old peeping-tom like you, my teacher? Are you even a shinobi?"

The old man's eyes blazed with anger. "I am not a peeping tom! I, am a writer of great books, and a powerful shinobi, who is inspired by youth and beauty!" To demonstrate his point, the old man pulled out a familiar orange book.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "You're the one that wrote that book Kakashi-sensei is always reading? Figures, I'm gonna go give him a piece of my mind. What's he thinking giving me some useless, perverted, washed-up shinobi as a tutor?" He turned on his heel, and prepared to leave.

"I was under the impression you wanted training." Jiraiya's words stopped Naruto in his tracks.

Naruto glanced back over his shoulder to fire back at the old pervert, only to blink in surprise. Because the old man wasn't where he'd been a second ago. Where could he have gone? A second later, he bumped into something solid. Naruto looked back, only to have to stare up into the face of the old man. His horned forehead protector glinted in the sunlight, as the old man stared down at Naruto with a serious look.

"Useless, pervert, washed-up shinobi, huh? You should know not to judge a book by its cover kid!" The old man leapt back, sweeping his arms grandiosely as he posed. A column of smoke erupted underneath him, and a giant red toad with black markings appeared, the old man perched atop it's wide, flat head. "For I'm not just any shinobi! Or any pervert! From the east to the west, the north to the south, men fear and admire him! The ladies grovel and worship at his sheer awesomeness! He is the legendary Super Pervert, the Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku, Lord Jiraiya!"

"Wait, like, the Sannin, Jiraiya?"

"The very same!"

Stunned, Naruto wasn't quite sure how to respond. This pervy goof was the one that trained his father, somebody supposedly on par with Orochimaru? He didn't believe it. Naruto shook off his confusion and made to leave again. He had better things to do than waste his time here. Jiraiya called after him.

"Still think I can't offer you anything as a teacher, then how about a deal?"

Naruto hesitated. "What kind of deal?"

"You manage to land a hit on me in a five-minute spar, and I'll get whoever you want to train you. Even the Hokage. But if I win, you have to accept my teaching!"

Naruto's eyes shone greedily. The idea of an entire month with Gramps as his trainer was enticing. It wasn't the most upstanding thing to do, getting a leg up like that. But they were ninja, fair went out the window a long time ago. 'One hit, huh? This guy must not have heard about my fight with Orochimaru. This should be a piece of cake.' He'd managed to get more than a hit on Orochimaru, it couldn't possibly be that hard to hit Jiraiya.

He took up a spot across the clearing from Jiraiya, as the old shinobi unsealed a battered old alarm clock and set it for five minutes. Jiraiya's hand, the back covered in armor, hovered over the start button.

"We begin when I press the button. Three, two, one … go!"

Naruto had already begun to gather his chakra for a Flash Step. He activated his Sharingan, and took off the millisecond Jiraiya activated the clock. In a blur of movement, he appeared in front of the man, fist cocked back for a punch. His punch was dodged easily. And the follow up kick, the leg sweep that followed failed as well. Every attempt at a strike utterly failed.

"Gonna have to do better than that kid, your dad was way faster." In desperation, Naruto tried for a point-blank barrier jutsu. He flashed through hand seals, pointing his index finger at Jiraiya.

"Six Rod Light Prison!"

Jiraiya disappeared and Naruto felt a throbbing pain erupt in his side. He struggled to hold in his lunch, as he was rag dolled across the clearing. Naruto crawled shakily to his feet. The Sannin stood across the clearing, a serious expression on his face; his eyes watched Naruto like a hawk. Naruto yanked Senbonzakura from it's sheath, the seals glowed as he activated it, unleashing a swarm of razor blades.

His opponent was unphased. Jiraiya performed a ram seal, his hair stretched endlessly, forming a spiky, impenetrable shield as hard as steel. "Needle Hell!"

The spiky prongs of hair began to fire, one after another in an endless hail. Tink-tink-tink-tink-tink. Each needle easily pierced one of Senbonzakura's blades, much to Naruto's disbelief. 'What is it going to take to beat this guy? Nine-Tails, some chakra!'

He felt the familiar tingling of the red chakra enveloping him. Naruto focused and held his palm up. Eyes screwed up in concentration, Naruto activated his Flash Step sealessly. At the same time, a swirling orb of chakra, vermillion from the combination of chakras, appeared above his palm. Naruto blitzed towards Jiraiya, intent to at least graze him. But the nimble old man simply formed a hand seal and slammed a foot into the ground. The earth beneath Naruto's feet turned to mud, he slipped, the incomplete Rasengan destabilized, blasting wet dirt into the air.

Before he could even think to get up, Jiraiya had slapped a seal across Naruto's forehead. The Nine-Tails chakra disappeared, leaving him exhausted, and immobile. Then the ultimate indignity came.

As Naruto struggled to get to his feet, he felt an unbearable weight slam into him, as a great big toad appeared on top of him, Jiraiya on it's back. He struggled and squirmed, but there was no escape. He was forced to watch helplessly as the remaining time expired. Naruto had never felt as humiliated or humbled in a long time. He was left in a sweaty, panting heap and Jiraiya looked just fine.

"So, gonna be a brat of your word and let me teach you?"

"Yes." Naruto bit out reluctantly. He sat up with a wince. Jiraiya had barely pulled his punches, or at least, Naruto hoped he hadn't. "I don't get it, I still haven't sealed my chakra back up, and my control is better, how can you beat me so easily? Orochimaru wasn't this strong."

Jiraiya sat down with his legs crossed. "Well, aside from the fact I'm stronger, Orochimaru likes to play with his food. Not to mention he had to restrain his chakra to keep people from noticing him. From the report I read on your account, he didn't even bother to use his sword. Us Sannin, we're on a different level kid, you've got a ways to go before you match us."

"I knew he wasn't taking me seriously, but I didn't know the gap was that ridiculous."

After several moments resting in silence, Jiraiya got to his feet. The sun was hanging low in the sky, dusk wasn't far off. "Well, go home and get cleaned up kid. Your training starts tomorrow, first things first we're gonna fix that incomplete Rasengan. After that, well, who knows."

Naruto nodded in agreement. Despite his reservations, he felt a bit excited at the prospect of training with Jiraiya. For the first time in a few days, his mind didn't even wander to Sasuki.

x-x-x-x-x-x- TGOW -x-x-x-x-x-x

Well, how was it? All of Team 7 have their trainers for the finals set up, and their training begins in the next chapter. How will they fare? And will Naruto and Sasuki be able to focus on their training? You'll have to find out in the next chapter.

Thanks again my patrons for their support, I really appreciate it. Chapter 48 of Uchiha Chronicles is out now on Pat reon, as is Chapter 13 of The God of Wind.

⸻ Patron Shoutout Wall ⸻

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Until Next Time,

RinneTaicho, Signing Off!