Mount Myoboku Will Always Be Your Home

Jiraiya followed Gamakichi, climbing the steps one by one until he arrived at the great hall where the Great Toad Sage usually slept.

Sage Fukasaku and Sage Shima smiled at Jiraiya. Not long ago, this child had fought for Mount Myoboku. If not for him working with them to buy time...

Mount Myoboku might not have held out until Uchiha Kō arrived to rescue them!

The two had already been fond of Jiraiya, and now, when they saw him, the kindness in their eyes practically overflowed.

When Jiraiya saw the two sages, he hurriedly bowed. Sage Shima stepped forward and said, "Little Jiraiya, get up, get up."

To Jiraiya, the two sages had valued him more highly than his own teacher, Sarutobi Hiruzen. When he was young, his talent had been inferior to Tsunade's, and his aptitude inferior to Orochimaru's.

Tsunade bore Konoha's most noble bloodline. She was the granddaughter of Konoha's founder, and her inborn talent was simply beyond comparison with an ordinary person like him.

Orochimaru, meanwhile, had come from a civilian family like him, but his mind worked quickly. The chakra extraction technique their teacher taught them took him only half a day to master, while Jiraiya took nearly a week.

Under such comparisons, Jiraiya became the undisputed dead last of their three-man team. The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, saw this, as well as the gap between him and the others.

So he merely offered Jiraiya verbal comfort, while placing more emphasis in his teaching on Tsunade and Orochimaru.

Oh, right. It was also thanks to Orochimaru teaching him what they had learned during the day, along with his own experience, that he could barely keep up with the team's progress and avoid dragging everyone down.

Although Jiraiya appeared as confident and upbeat as ever, no one