After killing Takisui, Qiuyang returned to Hanabi's side. He wiped the blood from his short sword as they waited for Hiashi to finish clearing out the remaining bandits.
The little girl beside him looked worried. While they waited, she kept glancing in the direction her father had gone. Qiuyang couldn't help reassuring her.
"Your father's injured, but he'll have no trouble dealing with those ordinary bandits."
Hanabi blushed and murmured an assent. After taking a deep breath, she fell silent, unsure how to talk to the big brother who had just saved her.
Qiuyang, meanwhile, found himself liking this adorable future sister-in-law of Naruto's more and more. He sheathed his cleaned sword, then pulled a few candies from his pocket, deciding to tease her.
"Um... I confiscated these candies while undercover the past few days. Here, have some."
He had actually confiscated much more than that. The bandit he had disguised himself as had been in charge of the gang's storeroom.
Over the past two days, Qiuyang had already "confiscated" everything he needed from the storeroom.
That included ninja tools like shuriken and Explosive Tags, scrolls that could be inscribed with jutsu formulas, and, of course, most of the money.
The method he'd used was incredibly simple—
He had taken one of the storeroom's precious Summoning Scrolls and inscribed a storage formula on it, allowing him to temporarily store all the loot in the scroll's space.
No more trudging around with everything stuffed in a backpack.
It was no exaggeration to say that Qiuyang was a rich man now.
No wonder people used to say that the rich should be overthrown and their land divided! They really did deserve it.
Thinking about how he had finally shed the label of poverty thanks to his teacher Jiraiya, Qiuyang grew even happier.
"These weren't made by the bandits. They stole them."
He had noticed the words "exclusive supply" on the box in the storeroom and grabbed it without thinking. But after trying one, he hadn't found anything special about it.
Now, though, they were just the thing to cheer up a little girl.
Huh? You're giving me candy?
Hanabi pouted. "I'm not a little kid anymore."
"Does that mean you can't eat candy anymore?"
With that, he shoved the candies into the little girl's hand, then casually ruffled her long hair like he was petting a cat.
Hanabi found it rather strange but didn't say anything. In the end, she accepted the candy.
Just then, Hiashi returned after dealing with all the bandits. Seeing that the person handling the cleanup was back, Qiuyang happily went over to greet him.
"Lord Hiashi, I've completed the mission my teacher gave me. I'll leave the rest to you."
He meant disposing of the bodies and dealing with the bulky loot, which Qiuyang thought would be a hassle.
His mission was indeed complete. Wasn't the whole point of his teacher assigning it to him to help him escape poverty and get rich?
Hiashi hurriedly told Qiuyang not to call him "Lord," then asked in confusion, "Aren't you coming back to the village with us?"
No way am I going back with you. I still have to fence the loot!
But Qiuyang would never say that to Hiashi. He only claimed that his teacher Jiraiya was still waiting for him.
Hiashi didn't press him. After thanking him again, they parted ways.
Watching Qiuyang walk away, Hiashi turned to his daughter and told her, "Hanabi, your goal from now on is to become as strong as this young man named Qiuyang—strong enough to amaze even me."
Hanabi nodded, seeming to understand. She tightened her grip on the candy in her hand.
Qiuyang didn't bother wondering what Hiashi's reaction would be when he saw the bandits' storeroom. After leaving Xia Mountain, he went to a nearby pawnshop and exchanged all the things he didn't need for money.
With the troublesome financial problem taken care of, Qiuyang still had no plans to return to Konoha right away.
As he continued getting familiar with Flying Thunder God and Rasengan, he searched the Land of Fire's border, among the ruins of the former Land of Whirlpools, for Uzumaki Clan ruins and records mentioned in the Scroll of Sealing.
Combining his findings with what he already knew, he managed to gather quite a few Sealing Jutsu—and even found that thing Snake Auntie would want to seek out in the future...
Qiuyang's reason for returning to Konoha came one day when he saw many ninja from other countries heading toward the village.
He had wanted to ask what was going on, but then he suddenly remembered that the first Chunin Ninja Exams Naruto took part in seemed to have been jointly hosted by many ninja villages.
That was also what gave Snake Auntie the chance to launch the Konoha Crush Plan from within Konoha.
In the end, she actually managed to behead his teacher, the Third Hokage, and kill him.
How interesting. Is it finally time for Orochimaru's grand entrance?
Qiuyang rested his chin in his hand, excited. Since he had already found almost all the clues about the Uzumaki Clan, he began making his leisurely way back to the village that day.
He didn't want to return too early. Ideally, he'd arrive on the day of the Konoha Crush Plan and catch Snake Auntie when she was down to her last bit of strength.
This Chunin Ninja Exam mostly followed the original storyline:
The new generation of Konoha's Konoha 12 and Gaara of the Sand made their appearances one by one. Ibiki intimidated the examinees during the written test, Mitaraishi Anko began the Forest of Death trial, and Orochimaru found Sasuke and placed the Cursed Seal on him...
Next, Jiraiya knocked out Ebisu, the Special Jōnin teaching Naruto, and Naruto successfully began training with Jiraiya.
"Hey, hey, idiot Naruto! How come you've only summoned a tadpole again? You really have no talent at all."
Jiraiya watched Naruto summon a tadpole yet again after several days of training and nearly collapsed from a heart attack.
What was he supposed to do? He kind of missed that student of his who was such a great cook.
Teaching this disciple was enough to drive anyone crazy. Back when he taught Qiuyang, the kid had understood everything at once. But Naruto...
"What do you mean, 'still a tadpole'? It's already grown four legs. That makes it a proper toad, Pervy Sage."
Jiraiya's mouth twitched at the explanation. For a moment, he wanted to crack Naruto's head open and check whether he really was Minato's son.
Otherwise, why would one have such monstrous talent, while the other had... well, absolutely no talent at all?
After trying to summon a few more times, Naruto couldn't take it anymore.
"Arrgh! Pervy Sage, how can I summon a toad that's actually suitable for fighting, like you do?"
That was exactly what Jiraiya had been waiting to hear. He had long wanted to test whether Naruto could use the Nine-Tails Chakra inside him.
Now was the perfect opportunity, so he coaxed Naruto with a hint of slyness.
"There is a way. Come with me."
Naruto happily followed Jiraiya all the way. Just like in the original storyline, Jiraiya pushed him into a deep mountain ravine.
There was one slight difference:
Before pushing Naruto down, Jiraiya had already made a Shadow Clone and sent it to wait at the bottom of the ravine.
If Naruto ultimately failed to borrow the Nine-Tails Chakra, Jiraiya would still save him at the last moment.
After all, Naruto was Minato's son. Jiraiya would never actually kill him.
The result didn't disappoint Jiraiya. In the depths of despair, Naruto's consciousness entered the Eight Trigrams Sealing, where he demanded "rent" from the Nine-Tails. Then he summoned Gamabunta, the toad who gave even Jiraiya a headache.
After that, Naruto and Gamabunta made a bet that Gamabunta couldn't shake him off its head. They kept at it from morning until dusk.
Before you continue