Supplementing His Vitality

The Myriad Spirit Longevity Art absorbed Wood Spirit Qi in a special way, extracting the life force within it to heal injuries.

Being injured was also a sign of life force loss. Jiraiya had lost a great deal of life force from extracting chakra for years, which was why Naruto had given him this technique.

If Jiraiya didn't replenish his life force and bring his body back to its peak before cultivating, he might suffer irreversible damage. That was also why Naruto hadn't taught him the entire technique all at once.

Naruto wanted Jiraiya to restore his life force first and bring his body back to its peak. As for whether Jiraiya could quickly switch to the new technique, Naruto wasn't in the least bit worried.

After explaining everything to Jiraiya, Naruto told him to find a forest with dense vegetation. Jiraiya had spent a long time in the Land of Hot Water and knew the area well.

Traveling at top speed, they reached a forest within an hour. Trees stretched as far as the eye could see, and many were so enormous that it took several people joining hands to encircle them. The forest was sparsely inhabited, which meant the Wood Spirit Qi within was astonishingly abundant.

They found a relatively spacious clearing beside a small pond. Jiraiya sat down cross-legged and began circulating the technique according to its instructions. With his eyes shut, he gradually sensed the Wood Spirit Qi in the air and used a special method to draw it toward him.

Once the Wood Spirit Qi had gathered around him, Jiraiya formed an odd hand position, then seized a wisp of it and pressed it against his chest.

The Wood Spirit Qi around him immediately surged, flowing into Jiraiya like a tide. At the same time, it drew in the Wood Spirit Qi from farther away, gathering it all around him.

Naruto had cultivated the technique too. Through his senses, he saw the Wood Spirit Qi form a massive whirlpool, pouring furiously into Jiraiya's body.

As the Wood Spirit Qi entered him, it spread from his heart throughout his body. With every beat of his heart, it washed through him like a tide, gradually reaching his chakra pathways and acupoints. The hidden injuries he had accumulated over years of cultivation and battle slowly began to heal.

As time passed, the wrinkles on Jiraiya's face gradually faded until they vanished completely. His skin became firmer and fairer, and his thick, flowing white hair grew coarser.

A while later, gray material began to seep from Jiraiya's skin. Seeing this, Naruto murmured, "It's starting," then moved far away.

This was another effect of the Myriad Spirit Longevity Art: cleansing the body and marrow. As it healed injuries, it also expelled harmful substances, allowing the body to return to its peak after each healing.

Gradually, more and more gray material seeped from Jiraiya's body, forming a layer of dark gray grime around him. A foul stench followed. From where he stood at a distance, Naruto seemed to see wisps of green gas rising around Jiraiya.

Jiraiya, still circulating the Longevity Art, knew nothing of this. He was absorbed in the process of healing. Gradually, he heard his own heartbeat: "Thump, thump, thump-thump..." The sound grew stronger and stronger, and then he heard the rush of blood flowing through him.

Hearing these sounds, Jiraiya knew his internal organs were gradually growing stronger. Once the process was complete, the sounds would disappear.

The whirlpool of Wood Spirit Qi around Jiraiya slowly shrank, and the Qi in the surrounding area stopped gathering toward him. Watching from a distance, Naruto knew Jiraiya's injuries had healed completely and his life force could no longer be replenished. The marrow cleansing had also ended.

After absorbing the last wisp of Wood Spirit Qi, Jiraiya slowly opened his eyes and caught a pungent, foul smell. Naruto waved at him from a distance and pointed at him. Jiraiya looked down at his hands and saw them covered in a layer of black grime. Then he realized his whole body was coated in it.

Naruto waved at him again and pointed to the nearby pond. Jiraiya understood, quickly took off his clothes, and jumped in. The water where he landed soon grew murky. As he scrubbed himself, the murky patch spread wider and wider.

After a long while, Jiraiya felt he had cleaned himself thoroughly and leaped ashore. Small fish and shrimp floated on the surface of the pond.

As soon as he reached the bank, Jiraiya quickly used the Summoning Technique to summon a toad.

The toad Jiraiya had summoned stood about a foot tall and wore a necklace bearing the character for "loyalty." This was the toad Jiraiya often summoned: Gamatatsu.

Gamatatsu wasn't very strong, but his belly could hold things, so Jiraiya usually stored his belongings inside it.

As soon as Gamatatsu appeared, Jiraiya said, "Gamatatsu, take out my luggage."

Only then did Gamatatsu notice Jiraiya. If not for Jiraiya's unchanged voice, he would hardly have recognized him.

Apart from the last scrap of clothing covering his modesty, Jiraiya was completely naked. Seeing this, Gamatatsu immediately spat out Jiraiya's luggage.

Under Gamatatsu's puzzled gaze, Jiraiya rummaged through the luggage, pulled out a black robe, and quickly put it on. Then he had Gamatatsu stow the luggage again before ending the Summoning Technique.

Naruto walked over and asked, "Pervy Sage, how do you feel?"

After sensing the changes in his body, Jiraiya replied, "I feel great. My body feels much lighter, like I'm decades younger. I also feel a little stronger."

Naruto took a small mirror from his bag and handed it to Jiraiya.

Puzzled, Jiraiya accepted it and held it up to his face. He froze. The face reflected in the mirror was both strange and familiar.

Jiraiya had actually been quite handsome when he was young, as long as he didn't peep into women's baths or wear that lecherous grin. Back then, he'd taken pride in his looks. But after leaving Konoha and taking up heavy drinking, the alcohol had left him with a decaying air. As he grew older, he also gradually stopped looking in mirrors.

The face in the mirror had returned to how he looked at twenty. The tear marks on his face were still there, but they weren't as long as before. Now they were shaped like sharp spikes and reached only to the bridge of his nose.

The tear marks looked far less strange than they had before. Instead, they added to Jiraiya's good looks.

In disbelief, Jiraiya raised a hand and touched his cheek, then pinched it. When he felt the pain, he knew he wasn't dreaming. Overcome with excitement, he crushed the mirror in his hand.

Naruto walked over and teased him, "Heh heh, Pervy Sage, you're actually pretty handsome."

Hearing Naruto praise him, Jiraiya raised his chin proudly. "Of course. Back in the day, plenty of lovestruck girls had their eyes on me, you know."

Jiraiya wasn't bragging. As Hiruzen Sarutobi's disciple, he had earned the title of Konoha Sannin in his early twenties. And since few people ever caught him peeping, he really had plenty of young girls cheering him on back then.

And Jiraiya, who had traveled the Shinobi World for years, had received plenty of admiration in his youth. He simply hadn't paid any attention to it. Otherwise, he wouldn't have remained alone all this time.

The life force in Wood Spirit Qi was powerful. It could repair damage and imperfections in the body, and aging was one kind of imperfection. As it removed the decaying smell from Jiraiya, it also left him with a pleasant, soothing fragrance.

Of course, these changes were temporary. If Jiraiya stopped cultivating the technique and absorbing spiritual energy to sustain the life force within him, he would gradually grow old again.

Naruto smiled again. "All right, Pervy Sage. You can admire yourself later. You should still have chakra in your body, right? Don't extract any more. Just use what you have to test the power of your ninjutsu."

Jiraiya nodded. He tossed his soiled clothes into the small pond, then formed Hand Seals. "Fire Release: Flame Bullet!"

He held oil refined from chakra in his mouth and spat it out while igniting it with Fire Release. This ninjutsu attacked in the shape of a Flame Bullet. Limiting the amount of oil refined shortened the time needed to perform the technique. If an enemy let their guard down, they would be burned to nothing by the oil-laced Flame Bullet. He could also spit out the oil in several successive bursts. This was a new ninjutsu Jiraiya had developed by modifying the Great Fireball Technique.

Jiraiya spat a blazing stream of fire toward the small pond. Before it even touched the water, the pond had begun to evaporate. When the flames finally reached the surface, they hissed, and the water level began to drop rapidly.

Jiraiya maintained his chakra output, and soon all the water in the pond had evaporated. He stopped using Flame Bullet, changed his hand seals, and performed the Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique. A stream of water appeared above the pond and poured down into it.

Once the pond had filled, Jiraiya used an Earth Release technique: Earthquake. The ground on both sides of the pond rapidly pressed inward. In the blink of an eye, the pond disappeared, filled in by Jiraiya.

The water Jiraiya had just poured into the pond also vanished completely. That was because water created by ninjutsu wasn't real water. Not only would it disappear, but it also lacked every property of actual water.