"The reason I want to become stronger is to protect my friends and the Hidden Leaf Village. Ever since I can remember, my greatest dream has been to become Hokage, and even now, that dream hasn't wavered.
But everything that's happened over the years has made me realize how weak I am. So I want you to take me on as your student and help me become stronger, so I can protect the village and my friends...
So please, sensei, take me on as your student..."
Josuke: Who the hell wants to be Hokage? And I'm not protecting the Hidden Leaf Village. When I play Naruto, I only play as a regular person. I'd go straight for the regular girl.
Jiraiya fell silent when he heard that. Josuke really reminded him of himself as a boy: wanting to protect the Hidden Leaf Village and become Hokage.
Hadn't he once been a dashing young man with the same fiery spirit? But after going through so much, that passion had faded away, hadn't it?
To be honest, Jiraiya felt a pang of sympathy.
Naruto was moved, too. Josuke shared the same dream as him: becoming Hokage. He could hardly contain his excitement. After all, now he had another person he wanted to surpass, besides Sasuke.
(Yes, Naruto had always thought he wasn't as good as Sasuke or Josuke. He'd always wanted to earn their acknowledgment, especially Sasuke's.)
And so, Naruto used a jutsu!!!
A cloud of white smoke appeared, and Naruko made her entrance. Jiraiya's nose started gushing blood at the sight.
Naruko spoke in a sweet, coquettish voice. "Pervy Sage, just say yes~~~ Please?"
Oh, man!!!
Josuke almost got a nosebleed, too.
Who could resist that? Forget Jiraiya—even he'd nearly lost it.
The scene had been somewhat serious, but after Naruto's little performance, it turned comical and absurd. The whole tone had changed. Jiraiya had been planning to play it cool, but he'd completely lost his composure.
Jiraiya grinned like a lecher. "Heh... all right, all right!!!"
And just like that, Josuke unbelievably became Jiraiya's student.
Ahem, ahem.
Naruto ended the Sexy Technique. Jiraiya was a little disappointed, but he still accepted Josuke as his student.
Wanting to make a grand impression on his new pupil, Jiraiya decided to show off one of his signature techniques.
A rapidly spinning sphere appeared in his hand.
Naruto and Josuke looked at it.
Josuke immediately recognized it. Wasn't that the Rasengan?
"Pervy Sage, what's that?"
Naruto asked curiously.
"Heh, heh, heh." Jiraiya chuckled.
"This is the A-rank jutsu, Rasengan!! How about it? Want to learn?"
No way, he was pulling out the big guns right from the start? Josuke was thrilled. Now he had no choice but to learn it!
But compared to the Rasengan, he was more interested in signing a summoning contract. Summons were just so much cooler.
Who wouldn't want to ride on a toad?
Ahem, ahem.
"Pervy Sage, I want to summon a giant toad!"
Josuke said to Jiraiya.
Jiraiya looked as if he'd nearly forgotten, then slapped his forehead.
"Right, right. I almost forgot."
With that, he took the Summoning Scroll from behind his back and unrolled it. Jiraiya's and Naruto's names were clearly written on it, with the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, between them.
Josuke fell silent. The Yellow Flash, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.
Jiraiya took out a pen and a small needle.
"Go ahead, write your name, then press your blood onto the scroll. After that, you'll be able to summon toads from Mount Myoboku to fight."
Josuke could hardly believe it.
He was one step closer to Senjutsu.
Without any hesitation, Josuke carefully wrote his name, pricked his hand with the needle, and pressed his five bloodied fingers onto the scroll.
The contract was complete.
Jiraiya nodded.
"Good. Now say 'Summoning Technique,' gather chakra in your hand, press it down, and release."
Josuke quietly recited the Summoning Technique.
A summoning pattern appeared on the ground.
"Poof!!!"
A little toad appeared.
It was Gamakichi.
Josuke recognized him at a glance.
Gamakichi looked around.
"Naruto, Jiraiya, did you summon me? Is there anything you need help with?"
Gamakichi sounded confused.
Naruto hurried to explain.
"No, no. Josuke summoned you. He's signed a Summoning Contract with Mount Myoboku now, too. Josuke's amazing—he summoned a toad on his very first try."
Gamakichi understood.
"Okay, then I'll be off. I'll go let Mount Myoboku know."
Jiraiya nodded. They ought to tell them, to avoid any unnecessary trouble.
That's pretty cool.
Josuke exclaimed. He'd summoned Gamakichi on his first try, which was better than Naruto summoning a tadpole. Wait, wasn't a tadpole just Gamakichi?
Tch.
In the end, there was no escaping it.
With the summoning business taken care of, Jiraiya began teaching them the Rasengan.
Put simply, the Rasengan worked by gathering chakra in the hand, making it flow continuously in different directions, and then compressing it.
This formed a "chakra sphere" with an extremely high rotational density and tremendous destructive power.
It sounded simple and easy to understand, but it required extremely precise control over chakra.
Naturally, the initial training would be difficult.
Josuke was no exception. Even though he considered himself one of the top rookies in the Hidden Leaf Village, he struggled quite a bit when using the Rasengan.
He still wasn't good enough at controlling the flow of chakra.
But he was doing much better than Naruto.
By the end of the day, he could at least get the chakra to flow. Naruto was still working on gathering chakra.
That was Naruto for you. He really hadn't been very talented as a kid, but after he began traveling with Jiraiya, it was as if his life had gone into overdrive.
Speaking of Jiraiya...
Josuke thought of something.
In the original story, the main cast seemed to be taught by the Hidden Leaf Village's gambling-and-womanizing trio—no, the Sannin. First Kakashi led the team, and then they went straight to the Sannin.
Unbelievable.
No wonder they were the main cast. It was no surprise people joked that Naruto wasn't a story about a loser rising to greatness, but about a fallen young master.
There was no going wrong by sticking with the main cast. Josuke believed that as long as he got along with Huang Yuan, even if he defected and became a handsome rogue ninja...
Naruto wouldn't give up on him. o(*￣︶￣*)o
He'd be heartbroken, unable to stop thinking about him.
Sigh.
No point thinking about all that.
Josuke continued training hard with the Rasengan.
And so, the days passed. The people of the Hidden Leaf Village gradually recovered from the grief of the Third's death.
His death had been a heavy blow, but life had to go on. The Konoha High Command proposed that Jiraiya become Hokage, but he flatly refused.
Instead, he suggested that Tsunade, who had been away from the village for many years, return to the Hidden Leaf Village and become Hokage.
The mission naturally fell to Jiraiya. He set off with Naruto and Josuke to find Tsunade.
After all that practice,
Josuke had learned the Rasengan, and Naruto could now just barely form the shape of a sphere. That was much faster than in the original story, probably because Josuke had been there to motivate Naruto.
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