At least... I won't be killed by Mahoraga, right?

The mud on the dirt road had been packed down hard and was beginning to crack under the sun. Water in the rice paddies on either side reflected shards of light, and occasionally, a few frogs plopped into the water.

Naruto Uzumaki walked at the very back of the group, his sandals kicking up small puffs of dust with every step.

Jiraiya carried a large scroll at the front of the line, with Tsunade walking alongside him, the two of them arguing over which inn they should stay at for the night.

Sakura's walking posture was completely different from how it had been a few days ago.

As she walked, she flexed her wrists, her fingers tracing the flow of chakra in the air while she muttered to herself, her ponytail swaying behind her head.

Naruto stared at the back of Sakura's head for a long while.

Then, he quickened his pace and grabbed Sasuke's sleeve from behind.

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke tilted his head to look at him, then yanked his sleeve out of Naruto's grip.

"Speak."

"You taught Sakura stuff a few days ago, and Granny Tsunade taught her too—why aren't you teaching me!" Naruto's voice was loud, startling a few frogs in the nearby paddies into fleeing.

Sakura, walking ahead, turned back, her face flushing slightly, but she quickly turned away again and went back to exercising her wrists.

Tsunade raised her right hand and gave a casual wave, signaling, "None of my business."

"Correct," Sasuke said.

"You dare say 'correct'!" Naruto pointed at Sasuke's nose.

"Granny Tsunade even called her into her room alone yesterday! She didn't teach me anything! Nothing at all!"

"And Pervy Sage too! He promised to teach me the Summoning Technique, but so far he's only taught me how to weave hand signs! I've practiced the Clone Technique until I'm blue in the face, and he's still just there soaking in the hot springs for 'research'!"

Jiraiya's footsteps faltered for a moment, his ears twitching, but he didn't turn around.

"Isn't teaching you the hand signs enough? It's not my fault you can only summon a tadpole every time."

"Be content. You aren't even a genin yet; I've already been generous enough by teaching you this much."

Sasuke stopped walking and turned to face Naruto directly.

"Jiraiya is one of the Sannin," Sasuke said, his voice calm. "If he isn't in a rush to teach you, it means he thinks you need something else right now."

"What kind of thing!" Naruto stood with his hands on his hips, chest puffed out. "This great me can learn anything!"

"Fundamentals. Your chakra stability isn't enough, your consciousness can't keep up with the speed of your jutsu release, and your tactical judgment is lacking."

Naruto's mouth hung open, his hand still frozen in the gesture of pointing at Sasuke's nose, but it slowly began to slide downward.

"How do you know..."

"I haven't fully mastered the things I need to learn yet, either." Sasuke resumed walking, staying half a step ahead of Naruto. "I'll teach you later. Don't be impatient."

Naruto stood rooted to the spot for a moment, then scrambled to catch up.

"You said it! No backing out! Whoever goes back on their word has to swallow a thousand needles!"

Sakura muttered from the front, "Naruto, can't you think of something else?"

"Sakura, you've already got Granny Tsunade teaching you, you don't get a say!"

Tsunade's voice drifted back lazily from the front: "Who is your granny? Call me Lady Tsunade."

Naruto gritted his teeth and sprinted to the very front of the group.

"Pervy Sage!"

Hearing Naruto's shout, Jiraiya instinctively dodged a step to the side.

"What are you trying to do agai—"

"Watch my new jutsu!"

Naruto quickly wove hand signs.

The chakra flow within him was much more stable than before, and his chakra was distributed almost perfectly into two equal parts.

White smoke exploded, and two clones identical to him appeared before him.

Jiraiya stopped, slammed his scroll into the ground, and crossed his arms.

Sasuke walked over from behind and stood next to Jiraiya.

Naruto moved; he and his two clones simultaneously threw their shoulders back and yanked their orange jackets down.

The three Naruto Uzumakis were wearing white crop tops and green scarves, their hair styled into spikes with gel, their hips slightly swayed, and they held their hands up to their faces in a rabbit-ear gesture, their voices pitched to be sweet and coy.

"Sexy Technique: Triplets! Meow~!"

With a poof, the three Narutos transformed into three mature women dressed in bunny-girl outfits.

Sakura's fists clenched, her knuckles cracking, but before she could act—

"Pfft—!"

Two streams of red liquid sprayed from Jiraiya's nose, and he fell backward, landing flat on his back in the rice paddy by the side of the road.

The splashing water soaked Tsunade's pant legs.

Tsunade looked down at her trousers, then at Jiraiya, who was struggling to crawl out of the muddy water. With an expressionless face, she raised her right foot and stomped him back into the mud.

"Are you ever going to grow up?"

"This isn't immaturity! This is art!" Jiraiya's voice came muffled from beneath Tsunade's foot.

Sasuke's gaze was locked firmly onto Naruto.

He was observing Naruto's chakra.

The moment the hand seals were formed just now, the chakra inside Naruto's body had been split in two, then into three.

The chakra seeping from his abdomen flowed in parallel with Naruto's own chakra through his meridians, showing no signs of conflict.

Naruto used to be unable to master the Clone Technique because his chakra was too chaotic; how was he managing it now?

"Come here," Sasuke said to Naruto.

Naruto was still holding his Sexy Technique pose, but upon hearing Sasuke call him, he immediately dispelled the technique and hopped over to Sasuke's side.

"How was that! Pretty impressive, right?" Naruto thrust his face in front of Sasuke's.

"I invented it myself! Pervy Sage gets a nosebleed every time he sees it, so I decided to train it until—"

"When did your chakra become like this?" Sasuke cut him off.

Naruto stared blankly at Sasuke, his mouth opening and closing.

"Huh? Chakra what?"

"Your chakra flow is more stable than before." Sasuke walked up to Naruto and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"The intensity is higher, too. Before, when you used clones, your chakra distribution was uneven, and the clones were often missing faces or limbs."

"Call Jiraiya over."

Sasuke turned his head and shouted toward the rice paddies.

Jiraiya was just climbing out of the mud, and Tsunade had already pulled her foot back.

"Pervy Sage! Sasuke wants you!" Naruto added a shout of his own.

Jiraiya wiped the mud from his face and strode back onto the road.

He was about to scold Naruto, but seeing the expression on Sasuke's face, he wiped the comical look off his own.

"What is it?"

"Take a look at Naruto's chakra flow," Sasuke said, gesturing toward Naruto.

Jiraiya frowned, crouched down, and placed a palm against Naruto's abdomen.

He closed his eyes, his perception sinking into Naruto's meridians.

Jiraiya opened his eyes, stared at Naruto's stomach for a long time, then stood up and brushed the mud off his hands.

The leakage rate had slowed down.

The fusion rate between the Nine-Tails chakra and Naruto's own chakra was much higher than during the last check.

It was because Black Dog was absorbing the chakra, causing the production speed of Naruto's own chakra to catch up.

If this continued, his total chakra volume might—

"Exceed even mine..." Jiraiya was silent for a moment, then grinned.

"That's it then. Brute force creates miracles; that's the direction I should be teaching him."

"Pervy Sage! What does that mean!" Naruto finally couldn't hold back and yelled, "What do you mean 'more than you'!"

"It means that from today on, you don't need to practice that fine control anymore." Jiraiya slapped Naruto on the back, sending him stumbling forward a few steps.

"You just pile up your chakra volume until you drop."

"When others use one ninjutsu, you use ten at the same time. You're going to fulfill the role of a heavy artillery unit."

Naruto's eyes went wide, and then his mouth split into a grin.

"I'll smash others with ten ninjutsu at once! Isn't that super strong!"

"It is. But you have to learn how to dump all that chakra out of your body at once first. That doesn't happen just by having a lot of it; you have to train."

"Train! Let's train right now!" Naruto grabbed Jiraiya's sleeve and dragged him toward the empty lot by the side of the road.

Sasuke watched as Naruto dragged Jiraiya into the wasteland, then looked down at his own hands.

He opened his palm and clenched it into a fist; the cursed energy within him was growing steadily along his meridians.

The energy in the Naruto instance was being continuously absorbed by Black Dog to become cursed energy, then flowing back to him through the Shadow Channel.

Tsunade and Sakura were researching the purification of cursed energy, responsible for managing its quality.

Naruto and Jiraiya's training was effectively providing him with the raw materials, responsible for the quantity of the cursed energy.

Now, Escaping Rabbit had entered a new stage.

He could create a clone that didn't require the main body to maintain it at close range, allowing it to exist independently no matter the distance.

Currently, I possess two major trump cards: the Shikigami Mahoraga and the Domain Chimera Shadow Garden.

I was never particularly proficient with domains, though I can summon Mahoraga whenever I please.

However, the inability to tame it remains a significant pain point; must I truly face death every time I perform the Taming Ritual?

If everything goes smoothly with the Escaping Rabbit, I should be able to complete my plan once I return and consult with Yakumo Kurama.

As long as this plan succeeds, even if I cannot tame Mahoraga, I will at least have a fighting chance of not being beaten to death by it.

Just then, a terrifying explosion echoed from the distance, followed by a wail from Jiraiya.

"My scroll! Naruto! You really have no talent!"