Mount Myōboku

Jiraiya was equally surprised to see that the summoned Gamabunta was already an adult.

He remembered that during his Chunin Exams, he had only summoned a juvenile Gamabunta three people tall. Even juvenile Gamabunta had allowed Jiraiya to wreak havoc during the Chunin Exams.

Worthy of being the Child of Prophecy he had chosen. This was truly an enormous surprise.

Jiraiya shouted up at Gamabunta, "Hahaha, sorry to disappoint you, old man, but it's nowhere near time for me to be purged from the sect! I didn't cause trouble—my disciple summoned you!"

A childish voice came from above his head.

"Hello, Toad-san. I'm eleven-year-old Minato Namikaze. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Gamabunta sensed the person atop his head. An eleven-year-old genin, Jiraiya's disciple, had actually managed to summon him?

"So you're Jiraiya's chosen disciple. I understand."

Jiraiya nodded at Gamabunta, and Gamabunta understood that this was the Child of Prophecy Jiraiya had encountered.

There was nothing Gamabunta could do within Konoha Village, so he said:

"Since Hiruzen Sarutobi isn't purging his sect, I'll be going now. Summon me again when it's time to fight."

After a puff of white smoke, Gamabunta returned to Mount Myōboku and hurriedly went to find the Great Toad Sage.

The Great Toad Sage was even more senile today. Like an extremely old man, he could no longer recognize descendants such as Gamabunta.

"Great Toad Sage, I was summoned to Konoha Village today."

Sage Shima, seated on a cushion nearby, said, "Hm? Konoha Village? Didn't the ninja war end? What did you go to Konoha Village for? Don't tell me..."

Gamabunta shook his head.

"I'd quite like to fight Enma again. Enma is very strong. Unfortunately, it wasn't Jiraiya getting beaten senseless by Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"It was Jiraiya's disciple who summoned me. That disciple is only eleven years old, yet he has the strength to summon me.

"Jiraiya said he had found the Child of Prophecy—a golden-haired child."

Upon hearing the words "Child of Prophecy," the Great Toad Sage in the center opened his drooping, limp eyelids.

"The Child of Prophecy... ah, there was something like that. I don't know who the Child of Prophecy is. Only little Jiraiya knows, and only little Jiraiya can meet him. Jiraiya is the key to guiding the Child of Prophecy. If he says it is so, then it is so.

"But who is little Jiraiya? Why don't I remember a toad like that on Mount Myōboku?"

Sage Fukasaku reminded him, "Little Jiraiya is a Konoha ninja, not a Mount Myōboku toad. We even taught Jiraiya Mount Myōboku's sage techniques. Have you forgotten?"

The Great Toad Sage did not hear him clearly and fell into a deep sleep.

Gamabunta chatted with Sage Fukasaku for a while and was about to leave when the Great Toad Sage suddenly spoke in his sleep.

"The ninja world will head down a path between right and wrong, a path that neither all ninjas nor the Three Great Sage Lands could imagine. That path... is very abstract.

"Konoha Village will undergo drastic change. The Land of Fire will undergo drastic change. Even the ninja world will undergo drastic change."

After muttering for a while, the Great Toad Sage fell asleep, his words slurred.

Sage Fukasaku and Sage Shima exchanged a glance. Then Sage Fukasaku said to Gamabunta, "Gamabunta, work well with little Jiraiya's disciple. Observe the Child of Prophecy Jiraiya has chosen."

"Understood."

Back in Konoha Village, after Jiraiya and Minato finished fiddling with the Summoning Technique, they went their separate ways. Jiraiya headed to the Women's Bathhouse, while Minato went home.

Outside the Women's Bathhouse, Jiraiya was gleefully peeping when he suddenly sensed traces of the Body Flicker Technique behind him.

This is bad. You really can't peep at Konoha Village's Women's Bathhouse for too long. Three hours a day is the limit—any more, and you're likely to get exposed.

After turning around and seeing that it was his teacher, Hiruzen Sarutobi, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Teacher, come on. I'll give you half my spot."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's goatee trembled wildly, and his breathing quickened with rage.

Jiraiya added, "Half a spot isn't enough? Fine, fine, you're the teacher, so you go first. I'll give you the whole spot. Once you've had your fill of peeping, I'll take my turn. How about that?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi, dressed in his Hokage cloak, grew even angrier upon hearing this. He rolled up his long sleeves, preparing to teach Jiraiya a lesson.

"Taking turns doesn't satisfy you either? Still not happy? Is the hole too small, making it hard for your old eyes to see? I'll widen it for you. But let me tell you, from my experience, the hole can't be more than two centimeters in diameter, or it'll be way too easy to get caught."

Jiraiya was widening the hole with a kunai when he heard the sound of something cutting through the air behind him.

The two exchanged two or three moves before withdrawing at the same time.

"What are you doing, Teacher?! What if we get exposed?!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's gaze lowered for an instant. He actually could not take down Jiraiya as effortlessly as he had before.

Either Jiraiya had grown stronger, or he himself had grown weaker.

"Jiraiya!" Hiruzen Sarutobi stopped dwelling on the changes in their strength and began scolding him instead. "You have made two mistakes recently. Two extremely serious mistakes."

Jiraiya picked at his ear and sighed. Here we go again.

"Your first mistake was taking part in the mission issued by Uchiha Ishijima. You should not have gotten mixed up with the Uchiha Clan.

"Uchiha Madara was the culprit behind the First Hokage's premature decline, and the Uchiha Clan is even more ambitious. They have always claimed they would become the Hokage after the Senju Clan.

"Your second mistake was teaching Minato Namikaze the Summoning Technique inside the village.

"Ninjutsu is a ninja's trump card. Gamabunta grew so quickly. With Gamabunta's current size, wouldn't everyone in the village know that Minato's trump card is the giant toads of Mount Myōboku?

"Idiotic. Both things you did were utterly idiotic."

Jiraiya waved a hand, clearly not thinking he had done anything idiotic. He said:

"Old man, just be the Hokage properly. Why are you meddling in so much of my business?

"Is it because Tsunade left and won't listen to you, and Orochimaru is obsessed with his experiments and won't listen to you either? Do you have no one to talk to, so you came to bother me?"

"You!" Hiruzen Sarutobi was truly enraged. He really wanted to purge Jiraiya from the sect.

Seeing the veins bulging on Hiruzen Sarutobi's face, Jiraiya rarely reined himself in and spoke with a little more seriousness.

"Fine, fine, don't get yourself worked up. You're getting older, so don't give yourself high blood pressure.

"Since you came here to lecture me, let me explain myself.

"First, I agreed to go somewhere with Uchiha Ishijima. Where was it again? I forgot. Somewhere with cats, I think.

"Anyway, to me, it was nothing more than taking a mission that would get me as far away from the village as possible. Who I went with and where we went didn't matter.

"And Teacher, you aren't just the village's Hokage. You're the Uchiha Clan's Hokage too, aren't you? It's fine to suppress the Uchiha a little, but there's no need to be so paranoid about it.

"Second, as for me teaching Minato the Summoning Technique and him summoning Gamabunta, that really isn't my fault.

"Who could have known that Minato's chakra reserves were so immense that he could directly summon Gamabunta?

"Even when I imagined the most gifted genin possible, I thought they would only summon a toad two or three people tall, not even as tall as a tree.

"So this really can't be blamed on me."

After hearing Jiraiya's explanation, Hiruzen Sarutobi shook his head. He had completely abandoned the idea of grooming Jiraiya for the upper ranks.

Jiraiya possessed extraordinary talent in battle, but his shortcomings in overall aptitude were far too severe.

Forget it. Let him do as he pleased.