To be honest, the words were strange and baffling, but the man had shouted them with such conviction that Naruto was impressed despite not understanding a thing.
"So?"
The Sage of the Toads grinned lecherously. "If I go down there alone, I'm afraid I'll scare those buxom young ladies. Would you come with me?"
His eyes curved into crescents, and he said in a quavering voice, "Then you can pretend to be my grandnephew. I'll take you along, and that way I can play in the water with the ladies without anyone raising an eyebrow!"
Pure lust filled Naruto's vision.
He considered himself fairly worldly, but the Sage of the Toads' gaze—so utterly untainted by anything but desire—still left him deeply shaken.
He was like a wild dog in heat, barking at every female dog that passed and saying, "I admire your beauty."
Naruto turned and walked away. "Not happening."
But the Sage of the Toads suddenly appeared in front of him, moving almost as if he'd teleported. His open red coat fluttered in the still air like a towering wall.
"In exchange, I'll teach you how to train."
Naruto didn't think the man meant him any harm, but that didn't mean he'd trust a stranger's instructions. "No thanks. I appreciate the offer."
The Sage of the Toads froze for a moment, then burst out laughing. "You've clearly never heard of me."
Naruto sized him up. "I suggest you get to the point and give me a reason to be interested. Otherwise, I can only be patient for two more sentences."
The Sage of the Toads had planned to approach Naruto casually, using their chance encounter to strike up a conversation like one might with a child, and avoid the awkwardness of a formal introduction.
But now he realized that the boy was unusually mature and wary of him.
He reached out to shake hands. "My name is Jiraiya. I'm a bestselling novelist, I love beautiful women, and I've just returned from traveling abroad to gather material."
"Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto shook his hand openly. "What do you write?"
"Adult romance." Jiraiya proudly puffed out his chest. "My most famous work is Icha Icha Paradise."
Naruto knew the book. Kakashi carried it around and read it over and over, and there was even a huge sign in the village showing a man and woman chasing each other to promote it.
But it was forbidden to anyone under eighteen, so Naruto had no idea what was inside.
Jiraiya chuckled and leaned over to look at the girls in swimsuits again. His pupils widened and narrowed. "Come gather material with me, Naruto! This is all for the readers!"
Emotions were contagious. Seeing how absorbed and enthusiastic Jiraiya was, Naruto's gaze drifted over too.
He had to admit, they were shapely and lively.
Naruto wasn't a prude, either. His adoptive father often went to the virgin springs, after all, saying they helped ease tension.
Once they started looking, the old man and the boy really did keep at it. They splashed around with the girls, who hopped about and laughed brightly.
Noon.
"Naruto! What are you doing?"
Haruno Sakura stared in disbelief at Naruto, who was being held underwater by four women in bikinis. He choked, squeezed his eyes shut, and flailed wildly with his hands.
The lunch box she'd been carrying nearly slipped from her hands.
Ever since she'd been eliminated, Naruto had brought her lunch every day for the past two weeks and delivered dinner to Sasuke in the evenings. He'd worked hard without complaint.
She was already used to Sasuke's coldness. Naruto wasn't as warm toward her as he used to be, but at least they could still chat and laugh together.
But what she was seeing now broke her still-young heart.
Naruto rose from the water, wiped his face, and waved enthusiastically. "Come play with us, Sakura!"
The women had flinched at his shout, but when they saw how relaxed he was, they smiled and waved too. "Come on in, little girl!"
The sky was blue and cloudless. In the distance, a waterfall roared as it crashed against the rocks, while the river here flowed gently.
Haruno Sakura picked up the lunch box. Her green eyes trembled, and she ran off without looking back.
Jiraiya, bare-chested, scratched his head. "Feels like I might've done something wrong."
Splash!
Several handfuls of water splattered across his face, making the women's curves jiggle.
"Hey, old man, don't just stand there!"
Jiraiya's mouth stretched almost from ear to ear. He stomped up a huge sheet of water like an ape. "Coming!"
"Ahaha! You're so naughty, mister!"
The sun sank in the west, spreading a dusky golden glow across the sky. An old man and a boy lay on the riverbank's pebbles with their hands behind their heads.
Jiraiya gazed up at the sky. "What a busy day."
Naruto said, "Yeah."
They lay in silence until the sky darkened and the air turned cool.
Jiraiya suddenly called out, "Naruto."
"Hmm?"
"I knew your father."
"Hmm."
Naruto wasn't particularly interested. By all rights, his biological father was the Fourth Hokage, so plenty of the village's higher-ups must have known him. But none of them had ever paid Naruto any attention. There was no warmth in their relations, which was as good as having none at all.
Jiraiya sat up, a little surprised by Naruto's calmness, though he understood the reason. His voice was soft and apologetic. "He was my student. I was his teacher."
Only then did Naruto perk up a little, realizing Jiraiya had been directly connected to his father. "And?"
"He was a good student. There was almost nothing wrong with his personality. He was conscientious and dependable, and he was devoted in his relationships, so..."
Jiraiya looked down at Naruto, who was still lying flat on his back, and smiled kindly. "I'm sure he loved you."
Stars dotted the sky, and cicadas shrilled.
Naruto sat up to face Jiraiya. "I'm glad to hear that."
Jiraiya let out a heavy sigh of relief and shook his head. "I'm impressed with you. Starting tomorrow, train with me. We can do it here—the scenery's nice. But the bathhouse isn't bad either. This is a tough decision."
Naruto slapped the ground and shouted, "You old geezer! What are you going on about? Show me what you can do! I still haven't seen your real—"
Two thick-knuckled fingers, his index and middle fingers, suddenly tapped Naruto lightly on the forehead.
Naruto felt weightless in an instant. The scenery on either side rushed past like the view from a train window.
He was being carried through the air by an indescribable force, as if he were floating along without anything beneath him.
By the time he came to his senses and stopped, he had crossed half the forest and was standing in the main current beneath the waterfall, half a riverbank away from Jiraiya.
There was no doubt about it. The strongest.
The strongest person Naruto had encountered in the Shinobi World so far.
So strong he couldn't even understand what he was seeing.
Was this what they called a sage?
Naruto had easily used magnetism to pull a crowd of people from more than a thousand meters away, but that was Chakra. It wasn't the same thing at all.
He still couldn't use Chakra to move objects from a distance.
As he pondered this, Jiraiya appeared in front of him, riding a huge red toad with a plaque bearing the character "Loyalty" hanging from its chest.
With a croak, the wind roared through the forest, deafeningly loud.
Jiraiya laughed heartily and unrolled the scroll from his back. The newest name on it was clearly "Minato Namikaze."
"Want to summon the Great Toads of Mount Myōboku? Then train with me."
Light gleamed in Naruto's eyes. It seemed a whole new world was opening up before him, ready to lift the veil over the Shinobi World—a world he still barely understood.
He looked at Jiraiya solemnly. "Will you answer all my questions?"
"I will." Jiraiya grinned, showing all his teeth. "Except for the secrets I promised the ladies I'd keep."
Naruto smiled. "No hiding things from me or lying?"
"Never." Jiraiya thumped his broad chest like a hero.
Naruto was always quick to trust people, at least until they gave him a reason not to. "I'm trying to decide whether to go home and cook or get Ichiraku Ramen."
Jiraiya's wooden sandals clacked against the pebbles as he walked. "Let's get ramen first, then go to your place. I don't have anywhere else to stay."
"I only have one small bed."
"Haha, that's fine. I can sleep on the roof or the floor."
Naruto and Jiraiya went to Ichiraku Ramen. Jiraiya didn't have any money to pay, and Naruto didn't pay for him either.
Before you continue