Jiraiya's Guidance

"Hey, hey, Gen, where are you going?"

"To the hospital to visit my teacher. Speaking of which, why are you following me? Don't you have class?"

On Konoha's main street, Kitagawa Gen walked toward the hospital with his head lowered. Behind him, Naruto and Sasuke had been following him the whole time, which left him feeling a little depressed.

He had discovered something was off with his eyes first thing that morning, and he was already wondering whether he should get some cosmetic contact lenses or something to disguise them.

He remembered that Kakashi had used cosmetic contacts to hide his Sharingan, then fooled the two behind him in his true appearance until they were completely spun around.

Of course, he was still fine for now. Even if someone looked closely, they would only see faint glimmers, but he felt it was better to be prepared.

But right now, he still needed to go see Kakashi, only to have these two little guys latch onto him the moment he left the house.

"We're off today. What class?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, but very quickly grew excited again.

"Um, um, Gen, can you help train me? I only just found out you're actually that strong!"

"Tch, did you think I was joking when I said I could leave the village to carry out missions?"

Kitagawa Gen snorted, then shook his head again.

"But forget about helping train you. I'm a ninja, I'm very busy. Besides, Lord Jiraiya is much stronger than me, and he doesn't have much going on. I already taught you the method, too."

"Jiraiya? Method?"

Sasuke looked at Kitagawa Gen in confusion, then quickly shifted his gaze to Naruto. Naruto froze for a moment, and his face instantly filled with disgust.

"Ugh, I really have to use such a perverted method?"

"You've pulled plenty of pranks yourself, haven't you?"

Kitagawa Gen shrugged.

"In the end, they're all pranks by nature. What are you afraid of?"

"Is that so?"

Naruto nodded. Although his mouth was full of disgust, his heart was full of interest.

"You really ran into that guy? Also, how did you become so strong?"

Naruto was so easily distracted, but Sasuke was not so easy to deal with.

When Kitagawa Gen had mentioned Itachi Uchiha last night, he had already fiercely struck Sasuke's nerves. It was just that before Sasuke could ask more, they had run into another Uchiha!

And that guy had actually been forced into having no way out by Kitagawa Gen, to the point that even his mask had been knocked flying.

Sasuke seemed never to have seen that person before, but that was not important.

He could tell that person was extremely terrifying, and also knew some kind of space-time technique, yet Kitagawa Gen had still handled him with ease.

He had even gained the upper hand, dragging things out until Konoha's reinforcements arrived!

Sasuke simply could not understand it. This guy was not much older than him, and he himself was an Uchiha, so why?

"You mean Itachi Uchiha?"

Kitagawa Gen pretended not to understand despite knowing perfectly well. He thought for a moment before speaking.

"I did run into him, but unfortunately, I didn't fight him. As for you saying I've become strong.

Not really. All I can say is that you should work hard. Look at Itachi Uchiha. At my age, he had already..."

At this point, Kitagawa Gen noticed Sasuke's expression beginning to darken. Clearly, he had realized something.

He immediately changed what he had been about to say. Originally, he had wanted to say, "turned your whole family into red bean paste."

"Became a captain of the Anbu. Teacher Kakashi told me that. They were all in the Anbu before."

"Is that so."

Sasuke lowered his head. He had always known that Itachi Uchiha's talent was extremely good. Back then, his father's praise for Itachi Uchiha had practically overflowed.

Just how hard did he have to work to catch up to that guy?

"Do your best, Sasuke."

Seeing this, Kitagawa Gen walked over, patted Sasuke's shoulder, and smiled.

"I had a teacher who was once a famous Dead Last, but now he's an Elite Jonin in Konoha second only to Teacher Kakashi.

Because he worked extremely hard. He knew his talent couldn't compare to Teacher Kakashi's, but he firmly believed he could become a genius of hard work!

He gave everything, and he did it. I believe you can too."

"A genius of hard work, huh."

After hearing those words, Sasuke could not help murmuring under his breath.

"I'll go first. Also, thank you for being willing to stay behind last night and take care of Naruto."

Kitagawa Gen shrugged and smiled, then turned around, waved at them with his back facing them, and prepared to leave. At that moment, Sasuke suddenly raised his head.

"Gen-senpai, did you rely on hard work too?"

"Me?"

Kitagawa Gen froze for a moment, then put on an act and thought for a while before nodding.

"That's right. What I relied on to get here step by step was sweat and hard work!"

And my cheat.

But seriously, in order to complete those crappy missions, had he worked hard or not?

"Hard work?"

Sasuke watched Kitagawa Gen's departing back as he waved, and his gaze gradually became serious.

Although he felt he had already worked very hard, compared to this senior, the gap truly seemed very large.

Perhaps he should work even harder!

"All right! I've decided!"

Just as he was thinking, Naruto at the side suddenly shouted!

"I'll go develop it right now. I want to see whether this method is actually useful!"

Method?

Naruto's words immediately made Sasuke think of something, and a thought suddenly popped into his mind.

Should he learn from Naruto, that so-called "method"?

"Teacher Kakashi. Huh, Lord Jiraiya is here too?"

Inside Konoha Hospital, Kitagawa Gen walked into Kakashi's ward carrying a fruit basket, only to discover that Jiraiya was there.

"Hey, kid, isn't it perfectly normal for me to be here?"

Jiraiya looked at Kitagawa Gen with some dissatisfaction, while Kakashi was lying on the hospital bed reading the "Make-Out Paradise" in his hands.

Only when he saw Kitagawa Gen arrive did he put down the book in his hands.

"Gen, you're here."

"Mm, I came to see how my teacher is recovering."

Kitagawa Gen put down the fruit basket and nodded. He sized Kakashi up, then smiled and said,

"Teacher seems to be recovering pretty well. Maybe we'll be able to go on missions again very soon."

"Please, we only just returned to Konoha. How could it be that fast?"

Kakashi did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"But the situation is better than expected. Maybe because you acted relatively quickly, my condition isn't that bad. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gone along last night."

Kitagawa Gen nodded. He could tell that Itachi Uchiha had probably gone easy on him.

After all, that guy still regarded himself as Konoha's spy. He had been fighting outside, and his own teammate had also been too busy to look after himself.

So since he did not want to lay a hand on Konoha's people, he would naturally hold back somewhat.

But inside Konoha, it was different. Kisame was watching from the side, and Konoha's reinforcements could arrive at any moment, so it was normal for him to strike heavily in order to escape.

"Still, I really didn't expect to run into something like that last night."

Kakashi sighed helplessly. He tilted his head and looked at Kitagawa Gen.

"Luckily, you're all right. Otherwise... But although you performed very well this time, I hope you won't be so impulsive next time."

"All right, you should rest."

Jiraiya shook his head at the side. He looked at Kakashi and said helplessly,

"You should avoid getting too involved in this matter before you recover. Once you've recovered, you naturally won't be able to run from it, but for now, don't think too much about it."

Jiraiya already knew about the situation between Kakashi and Obito Uchiha, so he naturally understood that pain.

After all, he was still chasing after an Orochimaru himself.

So he did not want Kakashi to keep putting his mind on this. That would not be too good for Kakashi.

"Kid, you're following me for this period of time."

Turning his head, Jiraiya looked at Kitagawa Gen, his face full of displeasure.

Last night, the look in his teacher Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes had made him feel uneasy. Sure enough, after the meeting ended, Hiruzen had kept him behind.

And the purpose was very simple: to have him fill in for Kakashi. This really left Jiraiya suffering in silence.

"Seriously, your teacher gets injured, but I'm the unlucky one. How infuriating."

"Huh?"

Kitagawa Gen froze for a moment. He had not expected there to be such a good thing.

Although Jiraiya was unreliable, this guy was absolutely one of the best teachers in the ninja world.

Among the students he had taught, almost not a single one was bad!

"All right, let's go. Don't disturb your teacher's rest."

Jiraiya stood up and walked to Kitagawa Gen's side, sizing him up and down. Only then did he grin wickedly.

"But kid, you'd better be mentally prepared. After all, this is the old man's commission, and what I'm going to teach you is extremely difficult."