The Temptation to Return to the Village

After killing the bandits from the waterfall, Qiuyang returned to Hanabi's side, wiping the blood from his short sword while waiting for Hiashi to finish off the remaining brigands.

Seeing the worry in the little girl's eyes as she kept glancing toward the direction her father had chased the others, Qiuyang couldn't help but offer some comfort:

"Even though your father was injured, dealing with those common thugs is no problem for him."

Hanabi blushed and murmured an acknowledgment, taking a deep breath and falling silent, unsure of how to interact with the big brother who had just saved her.

Qiuyang, however, found Naruto's future sister-in-law—who was still quite adorable—more endearing by the second. He sheathed his cleaned blade and pulled a few candies from his pocket, deciding to tease her:

"Well... these are candies I confiscated during my undercover mission these past few days. Have some."

In truth, he had confiscated far more than just these; the bandit he had transformed into was originally in charge of the warehouse.

Over the past two days, Qiuyang had already "confiscated" everything he needed from that storehouse.

This included ninja tools like shuriken and explosive tags, scrolls capable of inscribing jutsu, and, of course, the vast majority of their wealth.

The method he used was incredibly simple—

He had taken one of the warehouse's precious summoning scrolls, inscribed a storage formula onto it, and was able to temporarily tuck all those valuables into the scroll's space.

No longer did he have to lug a heavy backpack around everywhere he went.

It was no exaggeration to say that Qiuyang was now a wealthy man.

No wonder people always talked about striking down the rich to redistribute the land! It was definitely worth doing.

Thinking about how he had finally shed the label of poverty with the help of his teacher, Jiraiya, Qiuyang felt even more delighted.

"These weren't made by the bandits; they were stolen."

He had only grabbed them because he saw the box labeled "Exclusive Supply" while in the warehouse, though after tasting one, he hadn't found anything particularly special about them.

Now, they were just perfect for coaxing a little girl.

What, giving me candy?

Hanabi pouted: "I'm not a child anymore."

"Does being a grown-up mean you can't eat candy?"

With that, he shoved the candy into the little girl's hands and, like petting a cat, gave her long hair a quick, casual ruffle.

Hanabi felt it was quite strange, but she didn't make a sound and eventually accepted the sweets.

At that moment, Hiashi finally returned after finishing off all the bandits. Seeing the cleanup crew back, Qiuyang went up to greet him happily:

"Lord Hiashi, I have completed the mission my teacher assigned me. I'll leave the rest of the cleanup to you."

He was referring to the disposal of the corpses and the bulky valuables that Qiuyang found too troublesome to handle.

His mission was indeed complete, and wasn't the whole purpose of his teacher giving him this task to help him escape poverty?

Hiashi quickly told Qiuyang not to call him "Lord," then asked with a puzzled look: "Aren't you coming back to the village with us?"

How could I go back with you? I still need to fence my stolen goods!

Qiuyang certainly wouldn't say that to Hiashi, so he lied, claiming that his teacher, Jiraiya, was still waiting for him to return.

Hiashi didn't press the matter, and after another round of thanks, the two parties went their separate ways.

Watching Qiuyang's retreating figure, Hiashi admonished his daughter standing beside him:

"Hanabi, your goal from now on should be to become someone like this Qiuyang, someone whose strength even makes me marvel."

Hanabi nodded, half-understanding, and tightened her grip on the candy in her hand.

Qiuyang didn't stop to think about what expression Hiashi would have upon seeing the bandit's warehouse. After leaving Xia Mountain, he went to a nearby pawnshop to exchange the items he didn't need for cash.

Having solved his thorny financial problems, Qiuyang still had no immediate plans to return to Konoha.

While continuing to familiarize himself with the Flying Thunder God and the Rasengan, he scoured the border of the Land of Fire and the ruins of the former Land of Whirlpools for any remnants or records of the Uzumaki clan, as hinted at in the Scroll of Sealing.

Combining the two, he actually managed to collect quite a few sealing jutsus, as well as that one thing the future... Snake Lady was so eager to find.

The catalyst for Qiuyang's return to Konoha came one day when he saw many ninjas from other lands rushing toward the village.

He had initially wondered what was happening, but then he suddenly recalled that the first Chunin Exams Naruto participated in were held jointly by many ninja villages.

It was precisely because of this that the Snake Lady found the opportunity to infiltrate Konoha and execute the Konoha Crush Plan.

In the end, he actually succeeded in a decapitation strike, killing his teacher, the Third Hokage.

Interesting, has the grand entrance of Orochimaru finally arrived?

Qiuyang thought, resting his chin on his hand in excitement. Since he had found most of the clues regarding the Uzumaki clan anyway, he began to stroll slowly toward the village from that day on.

He didn't want to return too early; the timing would be best if he arrived on the day of the Konoha Crush Plan, just in time to catch a weakened Orochimaru.

As for this Chunin Exam, it basically followed the original plot:

The twelve rookies of Konoha and Gaara of the Sand appeared one by one, Ibiki intimidated the examinees during the written test, Anko Mitarashi initiated the Forest of Death trial, and Orochimaru found Sasuke and placed a curse mark on him...

Then, the special jonin Ebisu, who was teaching Naruto, was knocked unconscious by Jiraiya, and Naruto successfully began his training with Jiraiya.

"Hey, hey, you idiot Naruto, how come you're still only summoning a tiny tadpole? You really have zero talent."

Jiraiya watched Naruto, who had been training for several days, summon yet another tadpole, and he nearly suffered a heart attack on the spot.

He found himself missing his other student, the one with the excellent culinary skills.

Comparing disciples like this could truly drive a man to his grave; back when he taught Qiuyang, the boy understood everything with a single hint, but this Naruto...

"What do you mean 'still a tadpole'? It clearly has four legs now, so it counts as a proper toad, Pervy Sage."

Jiraiya's mouth twitched at this explanation, and for a fleeting moment, he felt the urge to crack open Naruto's skull just to see if he was truly the son of his student, Minato.

Otherwise, how could one be a monstrous genius while the other was... well, let's just say he had absolutely no talent at all.

After failing a few more summoning attempts, Naruto couldn't take it anymore:

"Argh, Pervy Sage, how can I summon a toad suitable for battle like you do?"

This was exactly what Jiraiya had been waiting for; he had long wanted to test whether the Nine-Tails chakra inside Naruto could actually be harnessed by the boy.

Now was the perfect opportunity, so he lured Naruto in with a slightly sinister tone:

"There is a way. Follow me."

Naruto, naturally, trotted along happily behind Jiraiya. Just like in the original story, Jiraiya pushed Naruto off the edge of a deep, secluded valley.

The only difference was:

Before pushing Naruto down, Jiraiya had already created a Shadow Clone to wait at the bottom of the ravine.

If Naruto ultimately failed to borrow the Nine-Tails chakra, he would still step in at the very last second to save him.

After all, Naruto was the son of his student Minato; Jiraiya wouldn't actually let him die.

The final result did not disappoint Jiraiya. In his desperation, Naruto's consciousness dove straight into the Eight Trigrams Sealing to demand "rent" from the Nine-Tails, successfully summoning Gamabunta, a toad that even gave Jiraiya a headache.

Then came the wager between Naruto and Gamabunta, with Naruto betting that the toad couldn't shake him off its head, a struggle that lasted from daylight until dusk.