"Pervy Sage"—the moment the words left his mouth, Uchiha Chen realized he might have said something wrong. He quickly shut up and glanced nervously at Jiraiya.
If Jiraiya wanted to teach him a lesson, he had no way to fight back.
"You... can use Sage Mode?"
Jiraiya, however, seemed not to have heard Uchiha Chen call him "Pervy Sage."
His eyes narrowed slightly as he fixed them on Uchiha Chen and asked unhurriedly,
"Sage Mode? What's that...?"
Faced with Jiraiya's question, Uchiha Chen naturally wasn't foolish enough to answer honestly. He pretended to be confused, rubbed the back of his head, and asked in a guileless tone,
"You don't know what Sage Mode is? Then what have you been practicing?"
Jiraiya furrowed his brow. His expression didn't change much as he pointed to the eyeshadow at the corners of Uchiha Chen's eyes and continued,
"This? I'm not really sure either. While I was practicing my clan's training method these past few days, I suddenly had an idea and changed the way I circulated my chakra. Then this happened.
But it seems pretty good, so I've kept training this way."
Uchiha Chen naturally knew exactly what was happening to his body.
After giving it a little thought, he looked up at Jiraiya, shrugged, and said casually,
"Hmm? You mean you came up with a new chakra training method?"
As soon as he heard Uchiha Chen's words, Jiraiya's eyes widened until they were as big as lanterns. His round eyeballs looked as though they might pop out.
It took a long while for Jiraiya to realize how shocked he looked. He quickly composed himself, but the astonishment in his eyes was impossible to hide.
There was no shortage of geniuses in the Ninja World who invented their own techniques, but Jiraiya had never heard of anyone inventing a chakra training method.
And creating a Senjutsu Chakra training method from an ordinary chakra training method? That was unheard of!
What's more, what the Uchiha Clan kid said was most likely true, because the Sage Mode he was using looked like it belonged to the same lineage as Mount Myoboku's Sage Mode.
If the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku had taught him Sage Mode, Jiraiya would have known.
As for whether the kid had stolen the technique, Jiraiya dismissed the idea without a second thought.
The kid was currently in perfect Sage Mode. Even Jiraiya himself couldn't achieve that!
Could... he really be a genius?
At that thought, Jiraiya suddenly looked up at Uchiha Chen, his expression serious.
"Kid, would you like to become my student?"
"Huh???"
Jiraiya's thought process completely stunned Uchiha Chen.
He never would have expected Jiraiya to say something like that.
After all, this was the first time they'd met. What's more, Jiraiya didn't even know his name!
"What do you mean, 'huh'? I'm asking if you want to become my student!"
Seeing Uchiha Chen's reaction, Jiraiya frowned, clearly displeased.
Didn't this kid know the name of Jiraiya, the Toad Sage?
But he'd recognized Jiraiya as soon as he saw him, and the happiness on his face had seemed genuine. There was no way he didn't know!
"But, Lord Jiraiya, you don't even know my name..."
Uchiha Chen's eye twitched. Jiraiya really was Jiraiya.
"Ah!"
"Ahem, don't worry about the details. By the way, what's your name?"
Jiraiya smacked the back of his head and gave an awkward laugh. But he quickly acted as though nothing had happened and asked Uchiha Chen for his name.
"Um... my name is Uchiha Chen."
"Hmm, Uchiha Chen. Good name. So, become my student!"
Jiraiya nodded, then bluntly repeated his offer.
Just as Uchiha Chen was about to speak, Jiraiya suddenly frowned. He rubbed the back of his head, then his nose, and looked around before saying, puzzled,
"Huh? That's a familiar presence."
"Why do I have this sense of danger?"
"Could it be her?!"
The moment Jiraiya finished speaking, an enraged voice came from outside the gate.
"Jiraiya!!"
With a loud crash, the gate to Uchiha Chen's courtyard shattered into pieces. A powerful gust of wind swept in through the entrance and straight toward Uchiha Chen and Jiraiya, leaving them unable to open their eyes for a moment.
"Tsunade?! It really is you!"
Once Uchiha Chen and Jiraiya recovered and saw who was outside, Jiraiya couldn't help but exclaim.
But his voice trembled slightly...
"Jiraiya, you bastard! You've barely gotten back, and you're already trying to steal my student?!"
Tsunade stood outside the gate. Her long hair stirred in the wind, her eyes blazing with fury, and her fists clenched tightly as she glared at Jiraiya.
Clearly, the gate scattered across the ground was her doing.
Looking at the furious Tsunade outside, Jiraiya's eye twitched repeatedly, and he instinctively took a step back...
"What? Steal your student?"
But Jiraiya quickly seemed to realize something. He pointed at Uchiha Chen.
"Don't tell me the student you're talking about is Uchiha Chen?!"
"That's right! He's the student I picked out ages ago!"
Tsunade couldn't believe that she'd only just reached Uchiha Chen's gate when she heard Jiraiya's voice coming from inside.
And he was trying to make Uchiha Chen his student!
She'd put so much effort into winning him over and still hadn't managed it. Jiraiya had no business coming back from wandering around and immediately trying to steal her student. How could she stand for that?
Uchiha Chen had been staring at the gate with a look of regret. At Tsunade's words, he finally poked his head out and blinked.
"Lady Tsunade, um... I don't think I ever agreed to become your student, did I?"
Tsunade: ...
Hearing that, Jiraiya paused. He quietly brought back the foot he'd stepped away with, then strode forward.
"You heard him, Tsunade. Uchiha Chen said he never agreed to become your student!"
"That doesn't matter. Uchiha Chen will become my student sooner or later, so you can't steal him!"
Tsunade folded her arms, her expression calm and utterly unyielding.
"Heh heh, Tsunade, since Uchiha Chen isn't your student, then there's no such thing as stealing him."
Jiraiya chuckled, feeling all the more confident.
Although Jiraiya had offered to take Uchiha Chen as his student the moment he opened his mouth, he'd still had some doubts.
Now that he'd seen Tsunade wanted to take Uchiha Chen as her student too, all his doubts vanished, and his resolve to make Uchiha Chen his student grew even stronger.