A Shadow Clone? When did he make one?
No, it wasn't a Shadow Clone.
Jiraiya realized that the moment the sound reached him, the kid in front of him had vanished, leaving behind only an afterimage.
So that's it. That kunai hadn't missed. He'd thrown it that way on purpose?
"Had you already come up with this plan when you activated your Sharingan? Not bad, kid. You even know Minato's Flying Thunder God Technique."
It was his own fault for not returning to the village in so long. Were the new generation's talents really this impressive?
Jiraiya's reflexes were nothing to scoff at, either. He tossed his long white hair and twisted sharply, pushing the mini Rasengan in his hand toward Qiuyang's Rasengan...
He couldn't even remember the last time he'd felt this fired up. The last time... must have been when he fought his close friend, Orochimaru!
This boy really was just as the Great Toad Sage had said. Jiraiya approved of his heaven-defying talent.
Both Rasengan surged forward, colliding head-on. Despite their huge difference in size, they met like needle against needle, each struggling to prove which was stronger.
With a thunderous boom, the ground where Qiuyang and Jiraiya stood caved in under the force of the energy, forming two interlocking circles centered on them.
The trees around them were swept up by the shock wave. Leaves drifted into the distance and fell into the river, then were carried even farther away by the waves stirred up by the Rasengan...
The shock waves alone were enough to show just how astonishing the Rasengan's destructive power was.
But how could the Rasengan Qiuyang had used for the first time compare to the one Jiraiya had made?
Even though his Rasengan was a little larger, it still couldn't withstand the mini Rasengan Jiraiya had unleashed with his mastery of the technique.
So most of the spiraling force from the two clashing Rasengan naturally passed over to Qiuyang's side.
Starting at the sleeve on his right arm, Qiuyang's clothes were ripped apart inch by inch by the twisting force.
When the force reached his shoulder and could no longer tear his clothes, a new round of tearing began.
Gradually, small cuts appeared across his arm. In no time, it was soaked in blood, but Qiuyang still gritted his teeth and stubbornly fought back.
"Hey, kid! If you don't cancel your Rasengan and get out of the way, you'll pass out from blood loss in a minute!"
Honestly, seeing this made Jiraiya feel a little sorry for Qiuyang, even as he was impressed by his determination.
In truth, since he had the upper hand in strength, he could have backed off himself. But that wouldn't befit his status as the Toad Sage, so he called on Qiuyang to give in instead.
Yet Qiuyang showed no sign of backing down. Instead, a sly, triumphant smile appeared on his face.
"You can't move at all right now, can you, sensei?"
Jiraiya felt a chill in his rear and couldn't shake the feeling that there was something suggestive about the kid's words, though he couldn't figure out what was wrong with them.
After all, he hadn't been exposed to Japanese movies the way Qiuyang had in his previous life.
"Sensei, you know, sometimes life really is just that strange."
Qiuyang sounded so serious that Jiraiya couldn't help meeting his Sharingan gaze.
But with that casual glance, he saw one of the black tomoe in the boy's scarlet eyes suddenly spin a full turn, and Jiraiya's mind went blank for an instant.
He hurriedly shook his head. Just as he was about to retort that the kid hadn't gotten a bell yet and had no right to call him sensei, Qiuyang's voice suddenly came from the side.
"You agree, don't you?"
Jiraiya's pupils contracted. It was too late to react. He felt a sudden numbness in his waist...
Then came a clear, ringing sound.
It was just as crisp as the sound he'd heard when Qiuyang took the bell earlier that day.
The kid was like a ghost, appearing and disappearing without a trace. If this had been a real fight, things would have... Jiraiya couldn't help breaking out in a cold sweat.
Seeing his clone succeed while he himself was locked in a Rasengan struggle, Qiuyang hurriedly dispelled his Rasengan and jumped back.
"Thank you, Jiraiya-sensei. You let me win!"
Jiraiya looked at Qiuyang, who was identical to the one who'd used Chidori, and slapped his head several times in frustration.
Sigh. He'd made a mistake by judging things according to common sense.
As the old man had said, you couldn't afford to be careless when fighting someone with a Sharingan. Otherwise, they'd seize on your opening—and it could be a fatal one.
The random shuriken the kid had thrown earlier had set up two moves for what came next:
First, it aroused his suspicion and briefly drew his gaze away, giving the kid a chance to make a Shadow Clone and lay an ambush.
Second, of course, he used Flying Thunder God to catch him off guard with a Rasengan, forcing him to meet the attack with the Rasengan in his hand.
Then the kid said some baffling things to make him meet his Sharingan gaze, using it to cast a simple genjutsu and create an opening for an instant.
And judging by the outcome, Qiuyang's clone had taken advantage of it.
After piecing together what had happened, Jiraiya slapped his thigh and cried out that he'd fallen for a huge trick.
When Qiuyang had made a sword-finger sign with his left hand, he should have remembered that Minato had needed to use that sign to move through space when he first began using Flying Thunder God.
It was only after Minato earned the title of "Yellow Flash" that he no longer needed Hand Seals to make spatial leaps.
And since no one else had been able to use this high-level technique after that, Jiraiya had simply chosen to forget about that detail.
Now he'd paid dearly for it.
Jiraiya couldn't help regretting it.
Of course, Qiuyang knew perfectly well that he'd gotten the bell through a trick. In terms of raw strength, a hundred of him couldn't beat Jiraiya.
So as soon as he got the bell, he hurried to explain to his bargain-basement sensei that he'd only won through luck.
He said things like, "You used the weakest kind of Rasengan, sensei," and "You didn't even summon any of your powerful summons."
He even added, "Grandpa Third Hokage always says that Jiraiya-sensei is the strongest ninja in the village." (The old Third Hokage would be killed by Snake Auntie's Konoha Crush Plan before long anyway, so there'd be no one to dispute it.)
He buttered Jiraiya up until his spirits were soaring. In the end, Jiraiya stopped dwelling on it and tacitly accepted Qiuyang calling him "Jiraiya-sensei."
"Meet me at the usual place tomorrow."
Then he formed Hand Seals and disappeared in a puff of smoke. The bell in Qiuyang's hand vanished in smoke along with him.
"????"
What was going on?
This time, Qiuyang's jaw dropped. He used his Sharingan to examine the area again and again, but couldn't find any trace of Jiraiya.
Could the Jiraiya-sensei he'd fought just now have been a Shadow Clone, too? Then when had he...
Qiuyang frantically retraced everything in his mind and finally figured it out—
Jiraiya must have left a Shadow Clone behind and slipped away while Qiuyang was washing the dishes by the river.
Still, the outcome was what he wanted. It was clear that Jiraiya had tacitly accepted him as a student.
Wasn't it perfectly normal for a student to be weaker than his teacher?
Mm, that's right. Exactly.
At that moment, far away in a town bathhouse, Jiraiya was drooling as he peered over the fence at his "material." When he received the memory from his clone, he froze for a moment.
Then his grin spread wide. He took the bell hanging from his waist and tucked it carefully into his clothes.
After all, it was the first gift he'd received from his fifth student, so it was very special.
"He even managed to learn the Flying Thunder God Technique. I'll have to train him properly."
Before you continue