Friends

After returning to Mount Myoboku, Naruto made several clones, brought Hinata along, and hauled several carts loaded with snacks toward the place where the Rock-Dwelling Toad lived.

Jiraiya set off in the direction they had discussed, carrying a large jar of wine. That was where Gamabunta, the head of Mount Myoboku's troublemakers, lived.

The wine wasn't for Gamabunta to drink; Jiraiya had brought it for himself. Gamabunta and the others drank wine made at Mount Myoboku.

Before long, Naruto and Hinata arrived at the Rock-Dwelling Toad's home. Calling it a home was a bit of a stretch—it was really a huge lake, with the Rock-Dwelling Toad submerged in it.

Though the lake was enormous, it still couldn't cover the Rock-Dwelling Toad's entire body.

At the moment, he was reclining against the edge of the lake with one leg crossed over the other, eyes closed as he hummed an unfamiliar tune.

When Naruto and Hinata drew near, the Rock-Dwelling Toad sensed their arrival. He quickly lowered his leg and sat upright in the lake, putting on a serious expression.

Seeing the Rock-Dwelling Toad suddenly strike that pose, Naruto cleared his throat and said, "Hello, Rock-Dwelling Toad. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and this is Hinata Hyuga."

When Hinata heard Naruto introduce her, she waved to the Rock-Dwelling Toad and said, "Hello, I'm Hinata Hyuga. It's nice to meet you."

"Hello, both of you. Just call me Yanju," came the Rock-Dwelling Toad's deep voice in their ears.

Naruto quickly nodded. "Okay, sure. Um, I'd like to be friends with you. Is that all right?"

When the Rock-Dwelling Toad heard the words "be friends," he couldn't help but fall into memories.

Back then, he was still small, and he had plenty of friends around him. They spent their days carefree, playing and splashing about in the pond.

But that didn't last long. He grew faster and faster, gradually outgrowing the other toads his age, and his little circle of friends grew smaller and smaller.

By the time his tail had disappeared, his limbs had grown in, and he'd left the pond, his peers were still tadpoles.

Little by little, he no longer had any friends his age. The older toads, meanwhile, left the pond and began their own paths of cultivation.

After sitting by the pond for a long time, Yanju left and began wandering around the small world belonging to Mount Myoboku.

As time passed, he grew larger and larger. By now, even Gamahiro, the biggest of the three toad brothers, only came up to his foreleg.

He had lived alone like this for a long, long time.

When his recollection ended, the Rock-Dwelling Toad asked, disbelief in his voice, "You really would?"

"Of course!" Naruto replied at once. "All these gifts behind me are for you."

The Rock-Dwelling Toad lowered his head to look behind Naruto. Naruto had already dispelled his Shadow Clones, leaving only several carts full of snacks.

"Thank you," said the Rock-Dwelling Toad. "I'd be happy to be your friend, but I..."

He didn't finish, but Naruto knew what he meant, so he said, "Try these snacks and see which ones you like. I'll bring you more tomorrow."

Naruto didn't know why, but whenever he saw enormous creatures like this, he wanted to be friends with them. He just thought it was so cool.

The Rock-Dwelling Toad hesitated. "But my appetite..."

Naruto already knew he ate a lot. With a body that size, he needed a huge amount of food just to keep moving.

Then Naruto added, "I know a technique that can make your body smaller."

After deciding to befriend the Rock-Dwelling Toad, Naruto had searched through the techniques stored in his mind. After a great deal of effort, he'd found one called the Ruyi Body.

Just as its name suggested, this technique let its practitioner enlarge or shrink their body to whatever proportions they wanted.

Of course, maintaining the change required spiritual energy. Enlarging the body increased the practitioner's strength, but it also took more spiritual energy.

Shrinking, on the other hand, was a somewhat useless ability. When the practitioner shrank, their weight and strength decreased in proportion to their size. Still, it only took a little spiritual energy.

But this technique was perfect for the Rock-Dwelling Toad as he was now. Naruto wanted to take him out of Mount Myoboku, but that would be difficult with his current size.

Once the Rock-Dwelling Toad learned the technique, he could shrink whenever Naruto wanted to take him out. When they needed to fight, he could return to his normal size or enlarge himself.

The Rock-Dwelling Toad quickly asked, "There really is a technique like that?"

Naruto nodded and told him to lie down so he could pass it on.

But once the Rock-Dwelling Toad lay down, Naruto noticed a problem.

Even lying down, the Rock-Dwelling Toad was only as tall as the thickness of his own lower lip.

Embarrassed, Naruto asked the Rock-Dwelling Toad to lift a forepaw, then hopped onto it and had him raise Naruto up to the spot between his eyes.

Naruto passed the technique on to the Rock-Dwelling Toad. After lowering Naruto back to the ground, the Rock-Dwelling Toad immediately began practicing it.

A long while later, the Rock-Dwelling Toad began circulating spiritual energy along the route described in the technique.

Slowly, his body began to shrink before their eyes.

When he had shrunk to Gamahiro's size, the Rock-Dwelling Toad stopped. It wasn't that he didn't want to get smaller; he'd simply reached his current limit.

Now, Naruto could finally see the Rock-Dwelling Toad's whole body.

His skin was ochre-yellow, and beneath it were muscles like slabs of granite. A row of spiny protrusions ran down his back.

The toad looked rugged and formidable.

Naruto's eyes lit up. "Yanju, you look so cool!"

The Rock-Dwelling Toad didn't reply. He only shook his head sheepishly and said, "Sorry, I can only shrink this much for now."

"It's fine," Naruto said quickly. "It's your first time practicing. Once you get more familiar with it, you'll be able to shrink even further."

The Rock-Dwelling Toad nodded seriously. "Don't worry. I'll do my best."

"I'll come spend time with you and help you practice every day," Naruto said. "Until you can shrink down to the size of a fist."

The Rock-Dwelling Toad looked at Naruto gratefully. "Okay. I'm usually here by myself, and I get pretty bored."

"Hehe, once you're a bit smaller, I'll take you out to explore," Naruto said with a smile.

The Rock-Dwelling Toad nodded, looking forward to it.

Then Naruto unloaded all the snacks from the carts and sat down with Hinata in front of the Rock-Dwelling Toad.

The two of them and the toad began eating. Most of the snacks ended up in the Rock-Dwelling Toad's stomach—not just because of his size and appetite, but because these were foods he'd never tasted before.

As time passed, Naruto, Hinata, and the Rock-Dwelling Toad gradually grew comfortable with one another.

Eventually, the Rock-Dwelling Toad began telling them about his past and the loneliness he'd endured over the years.

Naruto and Hinata listened and comforted him.

By evening, they'd eaten all the snacks they'd brought. Naruto and Hinata planned to return to their lodgings and practice. After waving goodbye to the Rock-Dwelling Toad, they followed the route they'd taken there and headed back.

Jiraiya had already returned. The moment they entered, they were greeted by the strong smell of wine.

They saw Jiraiya lying on his bed, sound asleep. After closing his door, they each returned to their own rooms.

Naruto planned to practice hard that night. He sat cross-legged on his bed and began circulating the Supreme Demon Sutra. Spiritual energy from all around quickly gathered toward him.

As he slowly absorbed the spiritual energy, Naruto noticed something: the energy at Mount Myoboku wasn't just denser than it was outside; it was also much higher in quality.

Once it entered his vortex, it barely needed refining before gradually turning into his own reserves of spiritual energy.

He could also clearly feel the spiritual energy inside the vortex slowly condensing into spiritual liquid.

The process was still slow, but compared with the outside world, it was many times faster.

After practicing all night, Naruto checked the vortex. More than half of the spiritual energy inside had condensed into spiritual liquid.

With a little more time and effort, he'd be able to turn all the spiritual energy in the vortex into spiritual liquid. That would mean his cultivation had reached the perfected second layer.

Once he broke through to the perfected second layer, he'd be able to summon another demon statue.

After washing up, Naruto went to the living room. Jiraiya, hungover from the night before, and Hinata, who had finished practicing, emerged as well.

When Hinata came out, Naruto asked her, "How do you feel about training at Mount Myoboku?"

Hinata thought for a moment before answering, "I feel like I'm training much faster than I did in the Shinobi World. And I can faintly feel something flowing in my eyes."

Naruto immediately used his spiritual sense to examine Hinata's eyes. He discovered that a powerful energy was taking shape inside them.

Then he told Hinata, "That's a good thing. Your eyes are slowly evolving, though we can't tell what they're evolving into yet. Keep training hard, and we should be able to tell soon."

Hinata replied happily, "Okay. I'll definitely work hard."

Naruto nodded, then turned to Jiraiya. "What about you, Pervy Sage?"

"I can feel that my training has gotten faster, but I still need some time to break through to the fourth layer," Jiraiya replied. "My progress with tool-making is much better, though. I can set aside some time to go back and craft storage rings."

Naruto's eyes lit up. "Then let's go back this afternoon and try to make the storage rings."

Jiraiya nodded in agreement.

Then Naruto used the Flying Thunder God to take the two of them to Muyuan Town.

After buying a large batch of snacks, they brought them back to Mount Myoboku and went to see the Rock-Dwelling Toad. They stayed until the afternoon. Then Naruto got up to say goodbye and returned to their lodgings.

Hinata and Jiraiya had been waiting for him there. Naruto nodded to them, then took them back to the Altar.