The packed dirt road had dried and cracked beneath the sun. Sunlight glimmered on the water in the rice paddies on either side, and now and then a frog leaped into the water with a plop.
Naruto brought up the rear, his sandals kicking up little puffs of dust with every step.
Jiraiya carried a massive scroll at the head of the group. Tsunade walked alongside him, and the two were arguing over which inn to stay at that night.
Sakura's gait was completely different from how it had been a few days ago.
As she walked, she flexed her wrists and traced the motions for chakra flow in the air with her fingers, muttering to herself. Her ponytail swayed behind her.
Naruto stared at the back of Sakura's head for a while.
Then he sped up and grabbed Sasuke's sleeve from behind.
"Sasuke!"
Sasuke glanced at him and pulled his sleeve free.
"What?"
"You taught Sakura something a few days ago, and Lady Tsunade taught her too. Why won't you teach me?" Naruto's voice rang out, startling several frogs in the rice paddy by the roadside.
Sakura looked back. Her face turned slightly red, but she quickly turned around again and went back to flexing her wrists.
Tsunade casually waved her right hand twice, as if to say, "What's it to me?"
"Yeah," Sasuke said.
"You admit it!" Naruto pointed at Sasuke's nose.
"Lady Tsunade even took her aside to her room yesterday! She hasn't taught me a thing! Not a thing!"
"And the Pervy Sage, too! He promised to teach me the Summoning Technique, but all he's taught me so far is Hand Seals! I've even practiced the Clone Technique until I can make faces, and he's still off soaking in hot springs to gather material!"
Jiraiya's steps faltered up ahead. His ears twitched, but he didn't turn around.
"Isn't teaching you Hand Seals enough? You can't summon anything but tadpoles anyway."
"Be grateful. You're not even a Genin yet, and I've already taught you plenty."
Sasuke stopped and turned to face Naruto.
"Jiraiya is one of the Sannin," Sasuke said calmly. "If he isn't in a hurry to teach you, he must think you need something else most right now."
"Like what?" Naruto planted his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest. "I can learn anything!"
"Fundamentals. Your chakra control is unstable, your awareness can't keep up with your Cursed Technique's activation, and your tactical judgment needs work."
Naruto's mouth hung open. His hand was still pointed at Sasuke's nose, but it slowly dropped.
"How do you know...?"
"I still haven't fully figured out the things I need to learn myself." Sasuke started walking again, half a step ahead of Naruto. "I'll teach you later. Don't rush."
Naruto stood there, stunned for a moment, then dashed after him.
"You said it! No taking it back! Anyone who does has to swallow a thousand needles!"
Sakura muttered under her breath, "Naruto, can't you think of anything else?"
"Sakura, Lady Tsunade's already teaching you. You don't get a say!"
Tsunade's voice drifted back from the front of the group. "Who are you calling your granny? Call me Lady Tsunade."
Naruto gritted his teeth and ran to the front of the group.
"Pervy Sage!"
At Naruto's shout, Jiraiya instinctively sidestepped.
"What are you up to now—"
"Check out my new technique!"
Naruto formed Hand Seals in quick succession.
The chakra flowing through him was far steadier than before, and he divided it almost evenly in two.
A cloud of white smoke burst forth, and two identical clones appeared in front of him.
Jiraiya stopped, planted his scroll on the ground, and folded his arms.
Sasuke walked over and stood beside him.
Naruto moved. He and his two clones rolled their shoulders in unison and yanked off their orange jackets.
The three Naruto Uzumakis wore white crop tops and green scarves, with their hair gelled into upward spikes. They pushed their hips back slightly, raised their hands beside their faces in bunny-ear poses, and spoke in sweet, coy voices.
"Sexy Technique: Triplets! Meow~!"
With a bang, the three Narutos transformed into three mature women dressed as bunny girls.
Sakura clenched her fist. Her knuckles cracked, but before she could move—
"Pfft—!"
Two streams of red liquid spurted from Jiraiya's nose, and he fell flat on his back into the rice paddy beside the road.
The splash drenched one of Tsunade's pant legs.
Tsunade looked down at her pant leg, then at Jiraiya, who was struggling to crawl out of the muddy water. Without changing her expression, she raised her right foot and planted it on his face, pushing him back into the mud.
"Are you a child?"
"This isn't childish! It's art!" Jiraiya's muffled voice came from beneath Tsunade's foot.
Sasuke fixed his gaze on Naruto.
He was watching Naruto's chakra.
The moment Naruto formed the Hand Seals, the chakra inside him had split in two, then divided again into three.
The chakra seeping out from Naruto's abdomen flowed alongside Naruto's own chakra through his network of pathways, with no sign of conflict.
Naruto used to be unable to learn the Clone Technique because his chakra was too chaotic. So how could he do it now?
"Come here," Sasuke said to Naruto.
Naruto was still holding his Sexy Technique pose. The moment he heard Sasuke call him, he dispelled it and bounced over.
"How was that? Pretty amazing, huh?" Naruto leaned his face toward Sasuke's.
"I came up with it myself! The Pervy Sage gets a nosebleed every time he sees it, so I decided to keep practicing until—"
"When did your chakra change?" Sasuke interrupted.
Naruto stared at him blankly, his mouth opening and closing.
"Huh? My chakra?"
"Your chakra flow is steadier than before." Sasuke stepped in front of Naruto and put a hand on his shoulder.
"It's stronger, too. Before, you couldn't distribute your chakra evenly when making clones. They were often missing faces or arms."
"Jiraiya, come over here."
Sasuke called toward the rice paddy.
Jiraiya was climbing out of the muddy water, and Tsunade had already lifted her foot.
"Pervy Sage! Sasuke's calling you!" Naruto added.
Jiraiya wiped the mud off his face and strode back onto the road.
He was just about to scold Naruto, but when he saw Sasuke's expression, the humor vanished from his face.
"What is it?"
"Take a look at Naruto's chakra flow." Sasuke pointed at Naruto.
Jiraiya frowned, crouched down, and pressed a palm against Naruto's abdomen.
He closed his eyes and let his awareness sink into Naruto's chakra pathways.
Jiraiya opened his eyes and stared at Naruto's belly for a long while. Then he stood and clapped the mud from his hands.
The leak had slowed.
The Nine-Tails Chakra was blending with Naruto's own chakra far better than it had during the last examination.
It was because Black Dog's absorption of chakra had made Naruto's own chakra production ramp up to keep pace.
At this rate, his chakra reserves might—
"Surpass mine..." Jiraiya fell silent for a moment, then grinned.
"Then that settles it. Overwhelming force solves everything. This is the direction I should be training him in."
"Pervy Sage! What do you mean?" Naruto finally blurted out. "What do you mean, surpass you?"
"It means that starting today, you don't need to practice fine control." Jiraiya slapped Naruto on the back, making him stagger forward a couple of steps.
"Just pile on chakra until you drop.
"When other people use one technique, you use ten at once. Your job is to be the team's firepower."
Naruto's eyes went wide, then he grinned.
"I can hit them with ten techniques for every one they use! That'll make me strong, right?"
"Right. But first you need to learn how to blast all that chakra out of your body in one go. You can't do that just by having a lot of it. You'll have to train."
"Train! Let's do it now!" Naruto grabbed Jiraiya's sleeve and dragged him toward a clearing beside the road.
Sasuke watched Naruto drag Jiraiya into the vacant lot by the roadside, then lowered his gaze to his hands.
He opened and closed his palm. The Cursed Energy inside him was steadily growing along his chakra pathways.
The energy in Naruto's instance kept being absorbed by Black Dog, turned into Cursed Energy, and then sent back to him through the Shadow Channel.
Tsunade and Sakura were studying how to refine Cursed Energy, managing its quality.
Naruto and Jiraiya's training, meanwhile, would provide the raw material for his Cursed Energy, managing its quantity.
Escaping Rabbit had now entered a new stage.
He could make a clone that didn't need to be maintained at close range by his main body. It could exist independently, no matter how far away it went.
He currently had two trump cards: the Shikigami Mahoraga and the Domain Expansion, Chimera Shadow Garden.
He still wasn't very proficient with Domain Expansions, but he could summon Mahoraga whenever he wanted.
Still, being unable to tame it was a major problem. Did he really have to die every time he performed the Taming Ritual?
If everything went smoothly with Escaping Rabbit, he should be able to carry out his plan after he returned and spoke with Yakumo Kurama.
If the plan worked, he might not be able to tame Mahoraga, but at least he'd have some chance of not getting killed by it.
A terrifying explosion and Jiraiya's anguished cry rang out in the distance.
"My scroll! Naruto, you really have no talent!"
Before you continue