Konan: Qingshui Big Brother is so amazing

Qingshui's words made Jiraiya chuckle. Who wouldn't like someone talented and polite?

Afterward, Jiraiya taught Qingshui a second fire-style ninjutsu, Great Flame Bullet.

This move was an upgraded version of Flame Bullet, with its power increased tenfold. It was a B-Rank Ninjutsu.

Although the principle was the same as Flame Bullet, the learning difficulty had greatly increased.

The reason was simple: the amount of Chakra input was significantly higher, and the size of the resulting Flame Bullet was also much larger, capable of covering an area of tens of meters.

Therefore, controlling such a large Flame Bullet naturally required strong control abilities.

Otherwise, if not controlled properly, one might injure themselves before even hitting the enemy.

For the next period, Qingshui continuously practiced Great Flame Bullet.

Even with the foundation of Flame Bullet, he couldn't master it immediately, which showed the difficulty of learning B-Rank Ninjutsu.

Furthermore, unlike Flame Bullet, Qingshui had not mastered this move in advance through system rewards.

This time, he could only rely entirely on himself to learn.

Thus, by the time night fell, he still hadn't learned Great Flame Bullet.

After finishing a day of training, Qingshui and his group returned home.

Meanwhile, Mikoto also returned with Mukai Yuki and Sasaki Ayami, though the latter two looked quite disheveled.

After some questioning, they learned that Mikoto had been teaching them water-walking that day.

Before this, they had already completed tree climbing.

Tree climbing and water-walking were training methods for Genin to practice Chakra control, with the latter being more difficult.

After all, water is fluid, requiring continuous adjustment of Chakra output to ensure one could stand steadily on the water's surface.

Another three days quickly passed.

During this time, Qingshui not only mastered Great Flame Bullet but also, under Jiraiya's guidance, refined his already mastered Earth Release and Lightning Release nature transformations.

Additionally, Qingshui learned two more Earth Release ninjutsu from Jiraiya: Earth Return, a C-Rank, and Earth Dragon Bullet, a B-Rank.

Qingshui had already mastered the former.

The latter still required diligent practice, and he hadn't even grasped the basics yet.

As for Lightning Release ninjutsu, Jiraiya himself didn't know any, so he couldn't teach Qingshui.

Qingshui wasn't disappointed by this and planned to find another opportunity to refine it later.

"Today we won't be training, but will have a practical combat match."

Looking at Minato and the Trio, Jiraiya announced the rules for the match: opponents would be decided by drawing lots, and the winners would then compete to determine the final victor.

The draw resulted in Konan facing Minato, and Nagato facing Yahiko.

"I want you all to fight with your full strength and show me your progress. Don't worry about getting injured; Qingshui is a Medical Ninja."

The match began, with the first bout between Konan and Minato.

As Jiraiya gave the command, Konan, who already knew how formidable Minato was, launched the first attack. She threw several white shuriken with both hands.

Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that these shuriken were all made of paper.

These were Paper Shuriken!

Under the enhancement of Chakra, the originally fragile white paper became extremely hard and incredibly sharp.

Konan's Shurikenjutsu was also quite good. Several paper shuriken flew towards Minato from multiple directions, but he easily dodged them.

Not only that, while dodging the paper shuriken, Minato had already closed in on Konan.

If it came to close combat, Konan would surely not be Minato's match.

However, she had anticipated this situation and showed no panic on her face. She quickly formed a Hand Seal and created a Paper Clone.

Konan then had the clone move forward to block Minato while she, the main body, took the opportunity to attack again with Paper Shuriken.

She intended to seize this chance for a decisive blow.

For Konan, who had only trained with Jiraiya for a year, such a tactic was undoubtedly very successful.

But it was not enough to deal with Minato.

Konan's sneak attack failed. Instead, Minato used it against her, causing the paper shuriken to hit her own Paper Clone.

At the same time, Minato struck Konan's main body with a single blow, sending her flying.

"Minato wins!"

Jiraiya announced the result promptly.

"Sigh, Konan lost again, but Senior Brother Minato is indeed very strong," Yahiko said with some regret.

Qingshui quickly stepped forward, picked up Konan who had been sent flying and fallen to the ground, and began to treat her.

Meanwhile, the match between Yahiko and Nagato began.

Seeing Nagato's stance of wanting to surrender to avoid hurting him, Yahiko stopped him in time.

"Nagato, I hope you can show your true abilities and let me see how big the gap in strength between us really is."

Although among the Trio, Nagato had the weakest presence.

Everyone knew clearly that he was the strongest of the three, just lacking in assertiveness.

Seeing Yahiko so serious, Nagato could only nod.

Qingshui was not concerned with the known outcome.

While treating Konan, he also offered his suggestion.

"Konan, the upper limit of your Paper Manipulation Ninjutsu is still very high. Perhaps you could consider changing the white paper you control to explosive tags to increase your power."

"Explosive tags?"

Konan pondered.

"Just like just now, your Paper Shuriken couldn't hit Minato. But if you switched to explosive tags, even if they were dodged, they could still detonate and form a second attack."

"But explosive tags are very expensive. Using explosive tags would cost too much."

This was a problem they had to face.

Even if Konan, a War Orphan, became a ninja and could earn money from missions in the future, she couldn't afford such high expenses.

"You can learn to make explosive tags yourself from Jiraiya."

Upon hearing this, Konan's eyes lit up.

She thought that if she learned to make explosive tags, she could also make money from it in the future.

Having had enough of a life without money, Konan actually had a bit of a Money Grubber trait.

It was just not as extreme as Kakuzu's.

"Qingshui Big Brother is amazing. You thought of such a powerful method in such a short time."

Hearing Konan's praise, Qingshui smiled calmly.

This was the path that the future Konan had taken. Now he was just letting Konan walk the same path earlier.

After all, if the Six Hundred Billion Explosive Tags were all bought with money, even Kakuzu, no matter how much he earned, wouldn't have enough.

While the two were talking, Yahiko and Nagato's spar also ended.

Although Yahiko had asked Nagato to go all out, Nagato was naturally not that foolish.

If he had truly gone all out, he would have had to beg Yahiko on his knees not to die.

Therefore, Nagato, who held back, fought Yahiko with back-and-forth exchanges, allowing Yahiko to fully display his strength before finally defeating him.

[Completed healing Konan, rewarded with one Blue Orb.]

[Congratulations on obtaining 30 Chakra.]

Just in time, Qingshui also finished healing Konan and could continue to treat Yahiko.

"Thank you, Qingshui Big Brother."

Yahiko said politely.

[Completed healing Yahiko, rewarded with one Blue Orb.]

[Congratulations on obtaining 30 Chakra.]

After Qingshui finished healing Yahiko, Minato and Nagato's match officially began.