Becoming Jiraiya's Disciple

During the next half-month of training, the Rasengan was still nowhere near coming together, even though he had gotten much more comfortable using the Flying Thunder God.

It felt as though he had hit a bottleneck he couldn't put into words. Qiuyang had a hunch that to truly master it, he first needed to see what the Rasengan looked like as it was being formed.

A thought struck him. He unsealed the Summoning Scroll and carefully studied some of the Second Hokage's ninjutsu instead.

Later, he returned to the village. When he learned that Kakashi's team of four had accepted a mission to escort Tazuna back to the Land of Waves, Qiuyang knew his training was officially over.

Under Kakashi's lead, the three rookie knuckleheads—Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura—would encounter Demon Zabuza and Haku during this mission.

All three would find opportunities to grow, especially Sasuke, who would awaken his Two-Tomoe Sharingan.

But what Qiuyang really cared about was this:

Not long after Naruto and the others returned, the Chunin Ninja Exams arc would begin. That would be when Jiraiya made his official entrance and taught Naruto how to control the Nine-Tails Chakra and use the Summoning Jutsu.

So Qiuyang figured Jiraiya must be somewhere in the Land of Fire at the moment.

He could take advantage of this window to find Jiraiya first and become his student.

He was like a clever cook with no rice: he desperately needed a way to increase his chakra quickly. It would be even better if he could convince Jiraiya to teach him Senjutsu.

So over the next month, Qiuyang traveled through the large towns and villages near Konoha, searching for signs of Jiraiya.

He'd thought that searching for someone with an "oil" symbol on his forehead protector would be easy, but once he actually started, he found it was a miserable slog.

A few girls in some towns did say they'd seen the lecher, but that had been months ago.

Qiuyang could only follow the trail by date and hope for a lucky break, but none of the villages he visited afterward had seen anyone matching the description.

He couldn't help feeling discouraged. As expected of Jiraiya, who specialized in intelligence work—he really was hard to find.

That day, after searching for Jiraiya for a long time, Qiuyang relaxed in a bathhouse, soaking in the hot water and letting himself go limp.

With his finances rapidly running dry, he'd been wondering since yesterday whether he should give up looking for Jiraiya.

First, Jiraiya worked in intelligence, so there was almost no chance he'd leave a trail revealing where he was going.

Second, from what Qiuyang remembered, it wasn't easy to earn Jiraiya's favor, and becoming his student would be difficult too.

And third, the ninjutsu in his scroll was already enough for now. As for a way to increase his chakra... he could try checking the Uchiha Ruins and Naka Shrine.

But that would be risky. He didn't know whether Obito, that crafty bastard, might have left a White Zetsu there specifically to wait for him.

It was fine for Sasuke to go, since he had his older brother backing him up. But before Qiuyang got the Scroll of Sealing, he wouldn't dare.

He'd learned the Second Hokage's sensory technique, but that still didn't guarantee he could detect whether the place was being watched.

Thinking about how precarious his situation still was, Qiuyang let out a deep sigh. Then he submerged his whole face in the warm water, hoping its heat would soothe his unease.

He held his breath for about two minutes before he couldn't take it anymore and lifted his head. When he opened his eyes, he spotted a scruffy, lecherous-looking man crouched on a concealed rock above him.

The man was drooling as he peered through a monocular telescope.

From that angle, facing that direction, Qiuyang didn't even need to look to know the man was spying on the women's bath nearby.

"Ahem. The person I'm looking for is as lecherous as you, but you're not the one I'm after, so..."

Qiuyang charged straight at the peeping pervert, intending to knock him out. There were several pretty young ladies at the women's bath who had just given him information, after all!

It was only right to stop him.

Just as his fist was about to smash into the peeper's head, white smoke suddenly billowed from beneath the man. Then Qiuyang felt his fist slam into a slab of steel.

Something had clearly replaced the pervert's head.

"Kid, who do you think you are, trying to hit this Sage?"

As the smoke cleared, a middle-aged man with long white hair and wooden sandals appeared in front of Qiuyang.

Only then did Qiuyang realize that his fist had struck the bracer of a gigantic toad.

A toad? The Transformation Technique?

Qiuyang's eyes widened as he took a step back, disbelief written all over his face. "Y-you're..."

He'd searched high and low, only to find him without even trying!

He never expected to run into Jiraiya here just when he'd decided to give up searching.

Jiraiya looked pleased with himself. After treating him to an extremely awkward dance, he said:

"Good question, kid! I am the Sage of the Toad, Sage of the Toad Spirit of Mount Myoboku, commonly known as the Toad Sage! Presenting—"

"Wow, it really is Master Jiraiya, one of the three legendary sages of Mount Myoboku! I'm a Konoha Ninja, Xia—Qiuyang. I've come to ask you to take me as your student."

Now that he'd met Jiraiya, Qiuyang had decided he wouldn't use the other name he'd gone by in the village, "Xia Yi," anymore.

Unlike a Genin, if he became Jiraiya's student, there was no way he could keep his past secret. Besides, he had no plans to hide it anymore.

"Ha, a Konoha Ninja?"

Jiraiya, who had been about to order the toad to knock Qiuyang out, stopped and stared at him with undisguised disdain.

Qiuyang quickly put on the clothes he'd left on the bank and fastened his Konoha Headband.

Well, turns out he really was a ninja from Jiraiya's village.

Jiraiya sighed in exasperation. He dispelled the Summoning Jutsu, then waved Qiuyang away, saying he needed to keep gathering material.

But Jiraiya hadn't even crouched back down in his original spot before the kid sidled up again and began chattering in his ear:

"Master Jiraiya, please take me in! I'm talented and strong."

"Master, are you spying on them? That's not right. If someone finds out, they'll beat you to death."

"Master..."

Keep nagging me and you'll drive me to death.

"Go, go, go! This Sage doesn't take students."

Fed up with the kid, Jiraiya had lost all interest in watching the "beauties." He vanished in a puff of smoke.

But Qiuyang wasn't about to let him get away. He followed the trail and chased after him, even knocking over street stalls as they ran and drawing a stream of angry curses from the people along the way.

By the time they reached the outskirts, Jiraiya had grown thoroughly impatient. He stopped and turned his face away with an air of haughty indifference before refusing again.

"The students I take are all exceptionally talented. I won't take a mediocre talent like you. Don't think I'll say yes just because you're a junior from Konoha."

He swore that if the kid kept pestering him, he'd teach him a lesson.

But as he spoke, Jiraiya suddenly heard a "jingle." He reflexively reached behind himself and caught something.

When he opened his hand, he saw a very familiar object.

A bell?

Jiraiya couldn't help freezing.

...Back then, the old man had used two bells to test the abilities of him, Tsunade, and... Orochimaru.

The four of them had been so close then, with a future they all looked forward to.

But now Orochimaru had defected and vanished without a trace, while Tsunade spent her days drinking and gambling, just as impossible to find.

The bell Qiuyang had thrown brought back a flood of memories. For the first time, Jiraiya carefully looked Qiuyang up and down.

Hmm... he still couldn't see anything special about him.