Chapter 14

The only people in the village surnamed Uzumaki were from that clan.

That head of blond hair, those blue eyes... all of it told Jiraiya who Naruto was.

In the end, after a casual investigation, the fire in Jiraiya's heart flared up again.

The crowd had noisily rushed to the bottom of the Hokage Building, wishing they could go straight to Hiruzen Sarutobi and demand an explanation.

But the Jiraiya of today was no longer the hot-tempered, reckless kid he had been back then.

He raised his head and looked at the building that represented Konoha's highest authority. A bitter smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, and in the end, he shook his head, turned, and left.

Some things were no longer within his power to change.

Even if he forced the issue, it might only make Naruto's days harder and bring him even more trouble.

After thinking it over again and again for a long while, Jiraiya still decided to proceed with his original plan.

As for Naruto, he would set that aside for now.

In any case, with that kid Sasuke beside him as a friend, Naruto's life was clearly much better than before.

For the time being, there was no need for him to worry too much.

The most important thing right now was still dealing with that damn nuisance—Orochimaru!

The school bell rang. "Sasuke, should we keep practicing shuriken?"

"Or should we try something new?"

"Sasuke, what do you think..."

"An elder's here. Don't speak yet."

Naruto had been chattering nonstop when Sasuke suddenly sensed a very powerful presence approaching and cut him off directly. "An elder?"

Naruto froze, then turned his head and looked around.

The moment he turned, a huge face suddenly pressed right up in front of him.

The distance between their noses was just a hair from touching. "Waaah!"

Naruto jumped in fright, cried out, and shrank back again and again. "Who are you?"

Sasuke, on the other hand, was very calm.

Jiraiya...

He had known this guy would come looking sooner or later, but he had not expected him to move so quickly.

This man's ability to act really was no joke!

"Ta-da—"

A few gong strikes sounded from who knew where.

Jiraiya struck a pose and began announcing his name. "The Toad Sage—that is the name the world does not know. The one who wishes to hide his identity is me."

"The white-haired boy, toad-wielding messenger of the Legendary Sannin, whom no one in all the world, east, south, west, or north, can defeat."

"The great handsome man whose name can even silence crying children—Lord Jiraiya!"

After finishing, Jiraiya struck an especially exaggerated pose. "Lord Jiraiya, the Toad Sage?"

Sasuke put on a curious expression. "Ah!"

Naruto suddenly let out a loud yell and raised his hand to point straight at Jiraiya.

His finger trembled nonstop, and for a long while, all that came from his mouth was "Ah, ah, ah," without a proper word. "Naruto, you..."

Sasuke felt a little awkward.

These two couldn't have already met outside behind his back, could they?

Could this be the so-called power of the world forcefully correcting the plot?

"Sasuke, you don't know."

"When I came to school this morning."

"I passed by the bathhouse and saw this guy peeping there, and he even got caught."

"And he was holding a big bunch of pictures of aunties in women's clothes!"

"All that stuff he just said has got to be made up."

"What Toad Sage? I say he's just an old Pervy Sage!"

Naruto blurted out everything he had seen that morning in one breath. "Huh?"

"What?"

Sasuke and Jiraiya were both stunned.

The two of them had just been wondering how to get along, but after Naruto stirred things up like this, they were both left dumbfounded. "Hahaha..."

"Naruto, you must have been dreaming, right?"

"Um... this is Lord Jiraiya, one of Konoha's legendary three Sannin!"

"He's incredibly strong!"

"If he wanted, he could even become Hokage!"

Sasuke hurriedly steered the topic away.

He could not just let the two of them keep staring at each other like that.

Naruto Uzumaki knew very well that Jiraiya must have come looking for him because there was something serious to say.

"Hokage?!"

"This pervy old man can become Hokage too?"

Naruto was dumbfounded on the spot.

The image of the Hokage in his mind was clearly supposed to be a hero who protected the village.

Absolutely not some creep squatting outside the women's bathhouse peeping!

"Naruto, everyone has a different path of training."

"Don't use that kind of look to judge an adult's methods."

"All right, I'm heading out."

"I have to go home and eat too. I'm starving!"

With one sentence, Sasuke pulled Naruto's drifting thoughts back, then turned and left after speaking.

Watching Sasuke's back disappear around the street corner, Naruto waved blankly, his face still full of question marks, then headed toward his own home.

Jiraiya really wanted to chase after him and explain a few things. After all, that kid was Minato's child.

But when he reconsidered the matter at hand, he still gritted his teeth and decided to go find Uchiha Sasuke first.

At least right now, even if he went to Naruto, he could not give him anything.

If things went badly, he might even bring trouble to the kid. "Oh!"

"I get it!"

"This... is probably how adults train, right?"

Naruto pulled a book from his bag.

He immediately flipped to the page explaining the Transformation Technique.

In his mind, he recalled the contents of that book Jiraiya had dropped on the ground.

A confident light shone in his eyes.

On the other side, Jiraiya soon caught up to Sasuke.

No, to be precise, Sasuke was crouching by the lake, waiting for him.

"Lord Jiraiya, you came to find me?"

"It's because of the summoned beast, right?"

Sasuke did not beat around the bush and went straight to the point.

In front of Jiraiya, there was no need to play those empty games.

"That's right."

"Tell me honestly. How did you get this thing?"

Jiraiya took the card from his robe and held it out in front of Sasuke.

Jiraiya stared at Sasuke with a grave expression.

The matter hidden behind this thing could be huge or could be small.

The key was that even Gamabunta himself could not figure out how he had been forcibly summoned.

Jiraiya had even already asked Gamabunta to go question the Great Toad Sage.

In the end, he had only received one reply: "unknowable."

Now Jiraiya was even more curious.

At present, someone could forcibly drag a summoned beast out.

Then what about in the future?

Who could guarantee that a method to forcibly control summoned beasts would not appear!?

Besides, this was the Uchiha Clan!

Although Jiraiya trusted that the Nine-Tails incident back then had not been the Uchiha's doing.

But the higher-ups had been using this matter as an excuse to suppress the Uchiha all these years.

If they really developed some eye technique that controlled summoned beasts...

And then added this method of forcibly summoning while ignoring the rules, when the time came...

"I don't know."

"I picked up that card."

"When Orochimaru attacked me, this card suddenly drained part of my chakra, and then a big toad popped out..."

In just a few words, Sasuke washed his hands of the whole matter completely.

He said it so smoothly.

Add in the fact that he was only five years old, and who would suspect a little brat of casually making up a lie?

"Picked it up?"

The corner of Jiraiya's mouth twitched, and his whole person felt unwell.

If Sasuke had stammered while speaking, he really might have found some angle for suspicion.

But...

A claim that sounded like obvious nonsense the moment you heard it instead left Jiraiya unable to pick out the slightest flaw. "Mm."

Sasuke nodded.

Judging by Jiraiya's current state, there should not be any problems in the short term.

What he had to do next was find a way to pin him by his side and keep him from leaving.

After that, the road ahead would be much easier.

"I need to test whether what you said is reliable."

"Take a trip with me. Scared?"

An idea popped into Jiraiya's mind.

Against little kids of this age, whose minds had not yet been hardened, this move was especially useful.

"Not scared."

Sasuke nodded again.

There was a bit of confusion in his eyes, but on closer look, that certainty could still be seen.

"Good!"

"Off we go!"

Before Jiraiya had finished speaking, he reached out and picked Sasuke up.

The scroll behind him unfurled with a swish.

"Hiss!"

He bit his fingertip and pressed it down on the scroll.

"Boom!"

White smoke suddenly exploded, and the two figures vanished completely together.

Over at the Hokage's office.

Inside the Uchiha family residence.

"Jiraiya took Uchiha Sasuke away?" Hiruzen Sarutobi frowned.

"Lord Jiraiya took Sasuke away?" Uchiha Fugaku looked bewildered.

One was shocked, the other stunned.

What shocked Hiruzen Sarutobi was whether Jiraiya, that fellow, truly intended to take Uchiha Sasuke as his disciple.

If so, some of his later plans would have to be recalculated.

After all, if that connection to Jiraiya was established, it would be much easier for him to draw the Uchiha over.

He might even be able to throw off a few burdens that got in his way.

What Uchiha Fugaku was puzzling over was simply that he did not understand what Jiraiya was planning.

On Mount Myoboku's side.

Sasuke looked around, his eyes full of scenery that only existed in fairy-tale picture books.

He forced out a look of curiosity.

In his heart, he knew perfectly well where this place was.

But in the end, he was a little brat only five years old. No matter what, he had to put on an act and show the look a child should have. "This place is called Mount Myoboku, one of the three great sage lands of the Shinobi World."

"That Gamabunta you summoned before is from here."

"Keep up. I'll take you to meet an elder."

After Jiraiya finished speaking, he strode forward.

Sasuke "reluctantly" pulled his gaze away from those strange and curious things, then trotted after him.

At this moment, unease also began to beat in his heart.

They couldn't really be going to see that Great Toad Sage, could they?

That old thing had lived from the era of the Sage of Six Paths all the way until now.

Sasuke knew the old toad's background very well.

That ability to see through the future—he was truly afraid the other party would see some flaw in him.

But no matter how worried he was, he could only keep it bottled up in his heart right now.

Before long, the two of them stood in front of a great hall.

On the statues at the palace entrance crouched two toads.

Fukasaku Sage, and Shima Sage.

So it really was... to see the Toad Sage?

"Little Jiraiya, you brought this kid here because of that matter from last time?"

Shima Sage spoke first. "Mm."

"I still want the Toad Sage to have a look."

Jiraiya did not hide anything and stated his purpose plainly. "Come in."

A dull, distant voice came from deep within the great hall.

Just that one sound made Sasuke's whole body jolt.

That voice seemed to burrow straight into the gaps between his bones. "Go."

Jiraiya only tossed out that one word, then lifted his foot and walked inside.

But Sasuke's feet seemed nailed to the ground. No matter what, he could not move.

An overwhelming sense of pressure had already enveloped him completely.

No need to think about it. The one releasing this pressure had to be the Toad Sage.

Inside this palace, what exactly was that old toad trying to do?

He was clearly leaving proper business aside and not going to find the child of destiny they were looking for.

If they really could not find him, Sasuke could tell them himself that person was Naruto.

Why did he have to show off his presence on Sasuke?

The more he thought about it, the more blocked his chest felt.

If not for the fact that Gamabunta really had saved his life, Sasuke truly would have turned around and left. Bang!

Gritting his teeth, he took a step forward.

Just that single step made the pressure suddenly surge.

It was as if someone had smashed his head hard with a hammer. "Huff... huff..."

Gasping for breath, Sasuke slowly raised his head, his gaze locking firmly onto the palace ahead. Bang!

He took another step.

This time, it was not only the pressure that grew greater. Even his soul felt as if something were tearing at it.

His body swayed, and he nearly tumbled down the steps.

After steadying himself, Sasuke gritted his teeth and continued walking upward.

Each step took several times longer than the one before.

His breathing grew heavier and more ragged.

Pain was written all over his face.

The only thing that did not change was the stubbornness in his eyes.

Inside the palace, there was a huge screen, and Sasuke's appearance outside could be seen clearly. "Little Jiraiya, back then, the first time you stepped onto these stairs..."

"You didn't even manage to set foot on the first step."

"You tried a full five times before you finally took the first step."

"In all, it took you eight days."

Before Fukasaku Sage could finish speaking, Jiraiya himself spilled his entire experience from back then.

This was also why Jiraiya's current expression looked as if he had seen a ghost.

Even if everyone in the Uchiha Clan were geniuses, this was too absurd, wasn't it?

Could he still be called human?

He was plainly a monster!

Jiraiya was not the only one thinking this.

The same thought was in the minds of Fukasaku Sage and Shima Sage.