Training

"Are you talking big... kid?" Jiraiya frowned. "This isn't a Ninjutsu a kid could have created himself-"

"It's a Ninjutsu that even the genius Fourth Lord Hokage took three years to create, right?" I cut Jiraiya off. "But it's also a Ninjutsu I developed myself from start to finish! Maybe we just happened to have the same idea... If you don't believe me, you can check with my team leader, Jonin Kakashi Hatake!"

Jiraiya stared seriously into my eyes, seemingly looking for any sign of a lie or a guilty conscience.

Unfortunately for him, everything I'd said was true. Although I had indeed considered using the training details I'd seen in my previous life to master the Rasengan, I'd ultimately abandoned the idea precisely to avoid a situation like this.

But once my Chakra control reached a certain level, all I needed was a general idea of how a Ninjutsu like the Rasengan worked, and I could master it...!

I met Jiraiya's gaze without the slightest hesitation. "Hey, mister, who are you? I think you're even more suspicious than me! How come you know the Fourth Hokage's Ninjutsu too? And you're the pervert those people were shouting about just now, aren't you?"

Probably because he couldn't see anything in my eyes, Jiraiya gave up playing "if you're a man, don't blink for a hundred seconds" with me. Speaking of which, there was something about that game's name that made me want to snark. Had I already lost before we even started? Anyway, once he was sure he couldn't see anything suspicious about me, the Pervy Sage, wearing a rare serious expression, began a performance that revealed his true goofy nature-

"Summoning Technique!"

Jiraiya bit his right thumb and drew a line of blood across his left arm, made Hand Seals with both hands, then slammed his left hand against the ground. The line of blood quickly transformed into countless mysterious, tadpole-sized markings that spread across the ground-

"Poof!"

A toad fully twice my height appeared before us in a cloud of white smoke. Jiraiya stood on its broad back, waving his arms and legs in a dance that had no beauty to it whatsoever!

"Good question!" Jiraiya proudly held out his palm toward us. "I am Jiraiya, the White-Haired Boy of Mount Myōboku, the Toad Sage! A pleasure to meet you!"

Then another cloud of white smoke appeared, and the toad that had served as a prop for his introduction was reverse-summoned away.

Actually, without that inexplicable dance, his introduction would have been pretty cool!

"Toad Sage?" Naruto stared at Jiraiya in frustration. "More like Pervy Sage! You were obviously peeping just now, and I got mistaken for a pervert and chased all that way because of you!"

I had a pretty good idea what had happened...

"Y-you idiot! What do you mean, peeping? That sounds awful!" Jiraiya, exposed in public, shouted angrily at Naruto. "It's called research! Got it? I was gathering inspiration for my writing!"

"What kind of book needs you to peep on the women's bath to get inspiration? You're just making excuses!"

"Don't give me that look, I really am a writer. Look! Ta-da-da-daaah~~!" As soon as his writing came up, Jiraiya proudly pulled a book from inside his clothes. "This one!"

Four large characters stood out on the cover-

"Make-Out Hall"!

"Isn't that-?!" Naruto looked like he'd seen a ghost!

"That's the book Kakashi always has in his hands! And it's not respectable at all!" I finally caught up with Naruto's snark. "So you're just a sleazy writer of dirty books who peeps on people everywhere under the excuse of doing research!"

"-I told you, that's not called peeping!" Jiraiya shouted!

Just then, "Peeping?" A woman who had just finished bathing happened to be passing by and unfortunately heard the last part of our conversation. Then-

"The peeping toms are here! Both perverts are hiding here, and there's a third one transformed into a girl!"

Hey, lady! I'm innocent! I didn't transform into a girl and sneak into the women's bath! That was my lifelong wish in my previous life, but in this life I can already walk in openly! Listen to me! I'm really not a pervert-listen to me!

"-Naruto, Pervy Sage, wait for me!"

By a river half of Konoha away from the Rising Sun Hot Spring Bathhouse.

"Puff, puff, puff-!" I sprawled gracelessly on a boulder, panting like a dog with my tongue hanging out. "That... that run nearly killed me!"

"For a ninja, your stamina is a little subpar!" Jiraiya said casually, sitting to one side.

"Yeah, Sakura! How come you're tired after running such a short distance?" Naruto wasn't even out of breath.

It took me a while to catch my breath. "You jerks! Don't you know I only just recovered from my injuries and haven't got my strength back yet? And the Rasengan I used to demonstrate for you just now really took too much out of me... The one who chased us fastest and hardest was definitely a female ninja!"

"This is all your fault, Pervy Sage! You were shouting and brought everyone over! I finally got a chance to soak in a hot spring, and it all went down the drain! And I don't even know if anyone remembered my face. What if I can't go there anymore?" I glared fiercely at Jiraiya. "You big pervert, how are you going to make it up to me?"

That was what I said, but I was really just joking. Even if someone had gotten a good look at my face, at most they'd think someone had transformed into me to peep.

Jiraiya scratched his chin with his right hand and thought seriously for a moment. "Make it up to you?" Suddenly, he looked at me with a lecherous smile. "How about I make you the protagonist of my new book?"

"Bang!" A huge bump appeared on Jiraiya's head, the consequence of making a pass at a girl under fourteen...!

"Hmph... I knew nothing decent would come out of your mouth. Forget it!" I turned to Naruto. "Naruto, let's keep training! Let me see how far you've gotten with Water Walking!"

"Okay!"

"Shadow Clone Technique!"

Ten Narutos took off their shirts and stood in a row, then stepped shakily onto the water. They seemed to have gained a basic ability to stay on the surface.

I used Water Release to make a set of clothes, then sat on the boulder with Jiraiya to watch Naruto practice. After watching for a while, I noticed a problem-

He'd been practicing with ten Shadow Clones for almost twenty minutes. Why was he still as unsteady as he'd been at the start, without making any progress? Back at the hot spring, hadn't he gone from not knowing how at all to being able to stand on the water in no time?! Could Orochimaru's Five Elements Seal not only have affected how quickly Naruto learned Chakra control, but also made him incapable of controlling his Chakra with much precision?

"Haha! You've used ten Shadow Clones to practice for so long, which is equivalent to someone else practicing for two or three hours. How come you still haven't made any progress?" Jiraiya laughed and mocked Naruto without mercy, then turned to me. "Looks like you're not much of a teacher either!"

I was indignant. "It's obviously Naruto's own problem!"

"Tell you what! As compensation," Jiraiya said, adopting a serious expression, "I'll help you train this idiot! Watch closely!"

"Naruto, stop for a moment! Come over here!" Relying on his superb Chakra control, Jiraiya formed the technique to undo the Five Elements Seal on his five fingertips without making Hand Seals!

"Raise your hands!"

Then Jiraiya slammed his right hand into Naruto's abdomen, undoing Orochimaru's seal in a single strike!

"Now go try it on the water again!"

"Huh? I learned Water Walking! Sakura!" Naruto discovered he could finally stand steadily on the water and shouted excitedly, "Let's hurry up and start learning your Ninjutsu!"

Jiraiya glanced at me. "Well?! How about I teach him the Rasengan next?!"

"Tch! It's nothing special! I learned an unsealing technique of that level with one look! I've already figured out how to guide him next, too. At Naruto's level, he can learn the basics of the Rasengan without a change in nature in two weeks! Come back and say that when you find Naruto isn't making any progress!"

Since I'd already mastered the Rasengan and hadn't recalled it for years, I'd forgotten many details of the Rasengan training steps from the manga. But that was fine. If even the training details were identical to Jiraiya's, that would be suspicious! Besides, the original story's training method should have been a general-purpose method devised by the Fourth Hokage, while the method I'd just come up with was optimized for Naruto's strengths!

If my idea really worked, the time Naruto needed to learn the Rasengan should be greatly reduced!

Come to think of it, training for the Rasengan in the original story was, in a sense, also an advanced method of training Chakra control after Tree Climbing and Water Walking.

As we knew, the most basic Tree Climbing practice for a ninja trained them to concentrate Chakra in a certain area and maintain it there. Maintaining it on the soles of the feet let them cling to all sorts of things, enabling them to move over terrain that was vertical at ninety degrees or even inverted at 180 degrees. Maintaining it in the legs and soles increased muscular explosiveness and endurance, making them faster, like Lee. Maintaining it in the skin made the skin tougher and improved resistance to damage from ninja tools. In short, completing this step improved a ninja in every respect. Only a ninja who could complete this exercise could be said to truly use Chakra effectively. Before that, a ninja merely had some brute strength and knew a few Ninjutsu thanks to Chakra.

Next, the so-called Water Walking, or Water Surface Walking, trained the ability to continuously release a fixed amount of Chakra. Only after completing this step could one strike all sorts of cool poses while standing upside down on trees and use Ninjutsu that required continuous release, such as the Water Prison Technique. This also counted as one of a ninja's basic skills.

I had completed both exercises before entering the Ninja Academy.

As for Rasengan training, the first stage trained the ability to continuously release Chakra and further control its movement. Simply put, it involved releasing Chakra into the palm and controlling it to flow rapidly. The passing standard was to use one hand to control several streams of Chakra rotating in different directions, to the point of bursting a water balloon.

The second stage trained the ability to release high-density Chakra to increase its power. The passing standard was Chakra dense enough to crush a rubber ball hundreds of times harder than a water balloon.

The third stage trained the release and maintenance of this Chakra, so that it rotated into a dense ball of Chakra. Its surface could appear calm, while inside it spun wildly like a typhoon, shattering everything it touched! The passing standard was successfully using the Rasengan!

After completing these three stages of practice, one could be said to have reached the pinnacle in certain aspects of Chakra control. A Ninjutsu like the Rasengan could be called both the simplest and the hardest of Ninjutsu! It was simple because it didn't require complex Hand Seals to assist with the changes in nature and form of various release techniques; one only needed to control dense Chakra and make it rotate. It was hard because, compared to Ninjutsu with a clear process to follow and seals to make, it required extraordinarily powerful Chakra control!

But I didn't intend to have Naruto train through these three steps one at a time. Naruto was an animal who remembered sensations with his body rather than his mind. I planned to tackle all three steps together and have Naruto use Shadow Clones to build up to the Ninjutsu!

"Naruto, I'm not going to have you learn step by step how to control Chakra to use this Ninjutsu," I told him. "You won't remember a long explanation, so instead of teaching you, it's better to let you experience it yourself! Make seven clones!"

"Wait, what are you planning?" Jiraiya's eyes widened when he heard the words "experience it yourself." "Don't do anything reckless!"

"Don't worry! There won't be any danger!"

I made a ball of water, then created a Rasengan at its center to make the whole ball rotate. I had Naruto and his Shadow Clones produce Chakra and attach it to the water flowing on the outside, controlling the water to rotate in the direction it was already moving!

"Listen carefully, Naruto!" I carefully controlled the ball of Chakra to keep it from colliding with Naruto's Chakra. "Now control the water your Chakra is attached to and keep up with my Rasengan. Remember how it feels! I'll slowly speed up and make the Chakra ball smaller. Your Chakra needs to speed up accordingly and fill the space that opens up, until my Rasengan disappears completely!"

"Since seven Shadow Clones and the original are working together on this step, the difficulty becomes manageable for each of you, and you can train progressively, because you don't have to control your Chakra to perform movements that are too complicated all at once!"

"Once my Rasengan disappears, keep maintaining the rotating Chakra ball for a while before stopping. Then disperse the Shadow Clones and absorb their experience. That whole process makes one cycle. About four or five cycles a day will be enough. Each cycle, I'll increase the difficulty and have you increase the rotation speed and Chakra density, until the Chakra ball you maintain reaches the power of a Rasengan! That's the first stage. Simply increasing the power of your Chakra should be fairly easy for you! I estimate it'll take a week at most."

"The second stage is subtracting Shadow Clones! Remove one Shadow Clone at a time, and once the remaining Shadow Clones can use the Rasengan reliably, remove another! Keep going until all the Shadow Clones are gone and you can use the Ninjutsu by yourself. Then your training will be complete!"

"Well? Does that idea work?"

I laid out my plan in one breath!

"..." The two of them stared blankly at me.

"...I don't understand!" Naruto said to me with a miserable look. "You said too much, and it's too complicated!"

I shook my head helplessly. "Forget it, it's fine! I wasn't counting on you to understand anyway. Just follow along!"

"...Not a bad idea!" Jiraiya said with a smile. "And it's tailored to Naruto, right? As soon as I heard Shadow Clones, I knew it. Naruto's the only one who can afford to use this training method! I was going to teach Naruto using my own method... but your way is pretty interesting too! In that case, I can leave Naruto to train with you for the time being without worrying!"

"Wait! Don't leave yet!" Seeing that Jiraiya was thinking of dumping the trouble on me and slipping away, I hurriedly grabbed him. "Pervy Sage, haven't you sensed it? There's a tremendous power hidden inside Naruto! Last time, in the Land of Waves, Naruto used that energy... and suddenly became super strong!"

"Weren't you also responsible for Naruto being falsely accused..."

"As compensation, please help him master that power! Since you call yourself a sage, surely you can easily handle a little request like that, right?"

Jiraiya narrowed his eyes at me, then, after a long while, broke into a hearty laugh.

"Looks like you know quite a bit, Sakura! Since you put it that way, I'll agree to that little request!"

Looking at Jiraiya and Naruto, I smiled faintly too!

[Sorry, this chapter really was very late. Fortunately, I kept my promise of one chapter a day...!]