A stack of bowls sat on the table.
Xuǎnmíng left Ichiraku Ramen, thoroughly satisfied.
As everyone knew,
Uncle Ichiraku's name wasn't actually Ichiraku.
But once Xuǎnmíng had eaten his fill, he forgot all about it.
When he got home, he fell straight into bed.
The dual Four Symbols Seals Minato Namikaze had left behind had been combined into the Eight Trigrams Seal, which converted some of the chakra released from it for Xuǎnmíng.
Along with the Uzumaki Clan's natural talent, his chakra reserves had already reached an astonishing level.
Night fell.
Xuǎnmíng took a bath, then flopped onto his bed.
Sealing Space.
"He's still as stupid as ever. Looks like I was overthinking it."
The Nine-Tails grumbled.
The Nine-Tails, who hated humanity, had never understood
why Naruto Uzumaki didn't hate people.
He'd been rejected just the same, yet somehow stayed so optimistic.
"All right!"
"Time to start training!"
Sealing Space.
Xuǎnmíng appeared outside the gate.
Ignoring the Nine-Tails' surprise,
he began training on his own, practicing the Rasengan.
The Nine-Tails glanced at Xuǎnmíng and pretended not to care.
What is this brat up to?
Whoosh!
He failed in a flash.
He'd come within a step of mastering the Rasengan on his very first try.
Xuǎnmíng didn't make a fuss about it. He kept practicing!
Hm?
He was seriously training?
The Nine-Tails narrowed his eyes, staring at Xuǎnmíng in the darkness.
What's he up to?
Isn't he going to sleep?
It looked beyond Xuǎnmíng, at the space around him.
At least ten Shadow Clones were sleeping all over the place.
What kind of person used the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu just to sleep?!
According to how Shadow Clones worked,
Xuǎnmíng was using less than a tenth of his energy to train the Rasengan.
Nine-tenths of him were resting.
By tomorrow morning, he'd still be full of energy!
Xuǎnmíng formed Rasengan after Rasengan.
The Nine-Tails gradually figured out what the kid was doing.
The Rasengan was a chakra-natureless combat jutsu Minato Namikaze had created by imitating the Tailed Beast Bomb.
It wasn't just incredibly destructive; it could also be infused with different types of chakra to increase its power.
As a Tailed Beast, the Nine-Tails had noticed the implications right away.
Damn it!
The more the Nine-Tails thought about it, the angrier he got.
Naruto Uzumaki was practicing the Rasengan right there in the Sealing Space, right in front of him, without giving him a second thought!
There was no way he'd learn it!
The Rasengan was an A-rank jutsu. If it were that easy to master, wouldn't that make light of the original, the Tailed Beast Bomb?!
"I got it!"
After training for most of the night, Xuǎnmíng finally formed his first Rasengan!
The dark Sealing Space lit up with its first glimmer.
The Nine-Tails glanced over without a word.
Hmph. He only managed it thanks to the talent he inherited from Minato Namikaze!
"Hahahaha!"
Xuǎnmíng was overjoyed.
He grabbed the bars and shouted at the Nine-Tails.
"Are you asleep, Nine-Tails? Are you asleep yet? You're not asleep, are you?"
Xuǎnmíng shouted with his eyes wide open.
The noise made the Nine-Tails cover his ears with his paws.
"Bring a tail over here! I want to test the Rasengan's power!"
Xuǎnmíng said excitedly.
Can't you act like a decent person?!
The Nine-Tails couldn't take it any longer.
He hadn't expected Naruto Uzumaki to finally show his true colors!
Swish!
The Nine-Tails turned around, completely ignoring Xuǎnmíng.
"I knew you little foxes never sleep!"
Xuǎnmíng clapped his hands.
He hadn't expected his talent to be this strong, either.
He'd mastered the Rasengan in just two hours.
"See you later, little fox. This place is perfect for training. I'll come back next time!"
Xuǎnmíng said goodbye to the Nine-Tails.
By the time he opened his eyes, it was already broad daylight.
He arrived at the place where he was supposed to meet Jiraiya.
"I didn't expect you to get here so early!"
Jiraiya hastily tucked away Make-Out Paradise.
"Naruto, let's pick up where we left off yesterday."
Tap, tap, tap!
Xuǎnmíng ran across the water with ease.
"Looks like you've been training hard on your own, kid!"
Jiraiya was pleased.
It seemed Naruto could make up for his shortcomings with hard work after all.
"Now that you've finished the basic chakra training,"
"today, we'll learn a powerful technique!"
Swish!
Jiraiya unrolled part of a gigantic scroll.
"If you were paying attention in class, you'd understand."
"This is the Blood Contract required for the Summoning Jutsu!"
"Basically, it's a kind of Space-Time Ninjutsu!"
"Do as I say and use up all the chakra inside you. Then you'll have a chance of summoning the Toad Clan from Mount Myoboku!"
"Remember, you have to take this seriously. What kind of being you summon depends on your strength and how much it accepts you."
"At first, you won't be able to summon anything particularly powerful..."
Bang!
Jiraiya was still explaining the basics of the Summoning Jutsu
when Xuǎnmíng had already signed the Blood Contract.
His first time using the Summoning Jutsu.
Boom!
Everything around him seemed to shrink.
Xuǎnmíng was sitting on something rather slippery.
"You're incredibly rude!"
"How dare you summon me, Toad Gamabunta!"
"And you've got the nerve to stand on my head!"
Gamabunta held a short sword in one hand.
His eyes had crossed as he stared at Xuǎnmíng, who stood on his forehead.
"I did it!"
Xuǎnmíng grinned at Gamabunta.
"That's a familiar presence, Jiraiya."
Gamabunta looked at Jiraiya.
Still stunned, Jiraiya could only manage a pleased smile.
That's right.
It was the bloodline of the Fourth Hokage.
He'd mastered the Summoning Jutsu and summoned a toad from Mount Myoboku on his very first try.
"Brat! Be more careful next time!"
Before Gamabunta left, he set Xuǎnmíng down with one hand.
"The Summoning Jutsu doesn't seem as hard as you said, Jiraiya-sensei."
Xuǎnmíng spread his hands.
It really was so easy it felt ridiculous.
"It was just a fluke!"
"Besides, you only learned it after I explained the basics!"
"I figured it out on my own, one moonless night!"
Jiraiya was seething.
He just couldn't understand it.
Could Minato Namikaze's son really be this talented, too?
He'd summoned Gamabunta on his first try!
"You're in luck."
"Your official third-round Chunin match is in 29 days."
"From now on, I'll train you intensively, especially in this technique!"
Jiraiya formed a Rasengan in his hand.
He slammed it into an innocent tree.
Boom!
A huge hole blasted through the middle of the tree!
Incredible power!
"Now I'll teach you how to master this technique called the Rasengan. It's extremely difficult, so if you learn it within seven days, you'll be very lucky!"
Jiraiya explained the Rasengan's principles and fundamentals.
"All right. Now take a water balloon and practice the first stage!"
Whoosh!
"Like this?"
Xuǎnmíng formed a Rasengan in his hand, even bigger than the one he'd made the night before.
That was fast!
Jiraiya felt a jumble of emotions.
"You... you're pretty talented, I guess."
No matter how he looked at it,
there was no way Minato Namikaze had taught Naruto the Rasengan in a dream, right?
"Chakra control, the Summoning Jutsu, and the Rasengan are just filling in some of your shortcomings."
"They're basic training at best!"
Even after his awkward moment, Jiraiya couldn't help feeling delighted.
At Naruto's age, he could still catch the last train to join the ranks of those freakishly talented geniuses!
Maybe another prodigy like Minato Namikaze would appear in the future!
"That explains it!"
"I was really worried the training wouldn't be brutal enough!"
Naruto shattered a rock with a Rasengan.
Then he asked Jiraiya an extremely awkward question.
"So, how are we going to do hellish training for the next 29 days?"
Hellish training!
Jiraiya blinked.
It seemed a crow flew across the sky.
What else was there to teach him?
Sage Mode?
"It's time I taught you some Fire Release and Earth Release techniques that involve chakra transformation!"
Jiraiya refused to believe Naruto had inherited talent for other ninjutsu, too!