While Haku guided Naruto in Senjutsu training, Jiraiya, Anko, and Asuma stood in a row atop a distant tree, watching closely.
Seeing Haku enter Sage Mode with apparent ease and without any preparation, Jiraiya's brow twitched as he sighed. "That's really embarrassing!"
It took him a great deal of effort to enter Sage Mode. He was nowhere near as relaxed as Haku.
Anko asked, "Lord Jiraiya, why would this Sound ninja specifically come to guide Naruto?"
Asuma was also rather curious. "Yeah, and he's even teaching him a Forbidden Technique like Senjutsu!"
Jiraiya shook his head. "How would I know?"
Even among the upper ranks of the Ninja World, Senjutsu was an extremely mysterious Forbidden Technique. Many villages had studied it, but so far, not a single village, including Konoha, had achieved any results. This had left very few ninja in the Ninja World who had mastered Senjutsu, so Haku's act of freely teaching the techniques of Senjutsu training to a ninja from another village was truly difficult to understand.
Anko looked troubled. "Then should we stop them?"
As a member of Hyuga Kagami's Shadow Guard, she had been sent by Hyuga Kagami to specifically protect Naruto. But she knew far too little about Senjutsu to determine whether the techniques Haku was teaching Naruto were genuine or whether they concealed ulterior motives—flawed or even harmful methods.
It was not that Anko liked to assume the worst of people. Things like this had happened far too often in the Ninja World, so as Naruto's protector, she had no choice but to be cautious.
Jiraiya observed them carefully for a moment and said, "No rush. Let's watch for now."
Outside Konoha.
Amid the sound of rushing wind, one of Jugo's Shadow Clones landed in a secluded forest.
At that moment, a