Namikaze Minato tilted his head while Jiraiya had an arm around his shoulders, then cast him a puzzled look.
Jiraiya gave him a mysterious smile.
"Heh heh, Minato, you're way behind on the latest news. I'm already Chen's big brother!"
"So from now on, you have to call him your grandmaster, got it?"
At those words, both Namikaze Minato and Hatake Kakashi were so stunned their jaws nearly hit the floor!
"Then wouldn't that make Uchiha Chen two generations above me? But he looks about my age!"
That thought sprang into Hatake Kakashi's mind and refused to go away.
"Sensei, you..."
Namikaze Minato stared at Jiraiya in disbelief. In the end, all he could manage was a helpless smile. He didn't know what to say.
He knew his teacher wasn't exactly reliable, but he'd never imagined things could get this ridiculous!
Watching this unfold, Uchiha Chen could only awkwardly rub his nose. It wasn't as if he'd deliberately tried to take advantage of anyone!
"Um, big brother, really, you don't have to do this..."
"No! There's an order of seniority. You have to call him grandmaster!"
To Chen's surprise, Jiraiya was actually pretty stubborn.
"Ahem. Grandmaster Chen..."
Though he felt helpless, Namikaze Minato still chose to go along with Jiraiya's wishes.
"Hey, I've got a great idea!"
Suddenly, Uchiha Chen's eyes lit up. With a Body Flicker Technique, he appeared beside Namikaze Minato, slung an arm around his shoulders, and reassured him,
"Actually, 'grandmaster' is just a title. You don't need to take it too seriously. From now on, we'll each use our own terms. You can call me grandmaster, and I'll call you Big Brother Minato!"
"Good idea!"
Namikaze Minato looked at Uchiha Chen in disbelief, then silently gave him a thumbs-up.
What a way to think! No wonder he got along so well with their teacher!
"Sensei, Grandmaster, time's short. Kakashi and I should get going. See you next time!"
"Go on, and be careful!"
Jiraiya nodded solemnly. At that moment, he finally looked like a real teacher.
"Big Brother Minato, safe travels. See you next time!"
Uchiha Chen waved goodbye just as solemnly.
Just as Namikaze Minato and Kakashi were about to disappear into the distance, Jiraiya seemed to remember something. He hurried after them and whispered a few words in Minato's ear. No one knew what he said, but Minato nodded. Only then did Jiraiya cheerfully bid them farewell and return to Uchiha Chen's side.
"Big Brother, shall we get going now?"
Uchiha Chen turned to Jiraiya and asked.
This mission would be his first real mission, so he was feeling a little excited.
"Heh heh, why the rush? I'll take you somewhere nice first."
To Chen's surprise, Jiraiya chuckled and answered without a care.
"Huh?"
A huge question mark appeared over Uchiha Chen's head.
"What do you mean, 'huh'? Just follow me!"
With that, Jiraiya pushed off with his toes and sped off in a certain direction.
Uchiha Chen smiled helplessly and followed.
The two raced through the forest for more than ten minutes before stopping in a valley.
Uchiha Chen looked around. Besides the dense canopy of towering trees, the area was dotted with many large boulders.
He then noticed countless holes of different sizes, spiraling and pockmarked, on the ground and across the boulders.
"Chen, let me show you something good."
Jiraiya winked at Uchiha Chen and smiled mysteriously.
"What is it?"
Given the surroundings and Jiraiya's expression, Uchiha Chen already had a pretty good idea.
"Heh heh, watch closely!"
Jiraiya held out his right hand and slowly raised it. Chakra gathered in his palm, countless streams flowing in different directions before compressing together. Before long, they formed a high-density sphere of chakra spinning at tremendous speed.
"Rasengan!!"
Uchiha Chen cried out at the sight. He knew this thing all too well. The sphere had appeared throughout the entire Naruto series—even Boruto: Naruto Next Generations couldn't do without it!
After all, there was no enemy a sphere couldn't take care of. And if there was, just make an even bigger one...
"Oh? I didn't expect you to know the name of this jutsu."
Jiraiya looked at Uchiha Chen, somewhat surprised.
"Ahem, I just heard some seniors in my clan mention it before. They said Big Brother Minato invented this jutsu himself over the course of three years, so it left a deep impression on me. I recognized it right away just now. I didn't expect it to really be the Rasengan."
Uchiha Chen scratched his head with an "honest" expression and explained.
"Mm, that's more or less how it happened."
Jiraiya nodded and didn't ask anything else. A little while later, he suddenly seemed to remember something and said with a leisurely smile,
"Still, the Rasengan actually has another name. Do you know what it is?"
"Another name? Hasn't the Rasengan always been called the Rasengan?"
Uchiha Chen searched through everything he knew about the Rasengan, but came up empty. This was genuinely outside his area of knowledge!
"Heh heh, you don't know? The Rasengan was originally called the Light Wheel Popsicle-Inspired Spiral Hair Jiraiya Twin-Style Sphere!!!"
Jiraiya chuckled, roared the name, and leaped into the air, smashing the Rasengan in his hand into a boulder taller than a person.
With a thunderous crash, the boulder was blasted to pieces by the Rasengan's immense power!
Uchiha Chen: ...
The Light Wheel Popsicle-Inspired Spiral Hair Jiraiya Twin-Style Sphere. That aggressively chuunibyou style, that ridiculously long name—it had to have been coined by Namikaze Minato.
And why smash the boulder just to explain the name?!
"Wow, as expected of the legendary Rasengan! Its power really is something else!"
"And from the name alone, I can tell you must have played a crucial role when Big Brother Minato created this jutsu, Big Brother Jiraiya!"
Uchiha Chen could poke fun at it all he wanted, but he still knew how to react. He lavished Jiraiya with praise.
Heh heh, this kid knows how to play along. No wonder I, Jiraiya, like him so much.
"Heh heh, it was nothing, nothing. Just a small matter, not worth mentioning."
Jiraiya waved a hand with a smile, but the grin spread across his face gave him away.
Once he'd finished laughing, Jiraiya's expression gradually turned serious. He spoke in a low voice,
"Chen, with your intelligence, you've probably already guessed why I brought you here. And you guessed right. I'm going to teach you the Rasengan today!"
"Huh?!"
Though he'd already suspected it, hearing Jiraiya say it out loud still made Uchiha Chen's heart tremble.