Jiraiya brought Sen and Naruto to the Small Woods.
The soil in the woods gave off the damp smell of rotting leaves.
A thick layer of yellowed leaves covered the ground, crunching crisply underfoot.
Jiraiya stopped and held out his right hand.
The rough, yellowed calluses on his palm, built up over years of training,
stood out sharply in the blue glow of chakra.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-"
Violent blue energy spun rapidly in his palm.
It scraped against the air, making a faint, shrill whistle like wind blowing through a crack in a door.
"Humm!"
A perfectly round ball of blue chakra
fully formed in his palm.
Naruto crouched nearby, a strand of drool dangling from the corner of his mouth, his eyes as wide as glass marbles.
He pressed his two filthy hands firmly against his knees.
The big toe poking through his shoe sole dug excitedly into the mud.
"Whoa! Pervy old man! What jutsu is that?"
"That's so cool! You don't even need hand seals!"
Jiraiya found Naruto's wide-eyed ignorance immensely gratifying.
His battered, swollen face, still sporting a rotten tomato leaf, brimmed with undisguised smugness.
"Heh heh. Listen, dead last. This is the ultimate jutsu without hand seals, developed by the Fourth Hokage over three whole years!"
"Rasengan!"
Jiraiya cast a sidelong glance at Sen, who stood nearby with his hands in his pockets.
"Well, kid?"
He deliberately waved the rapidly spinning blue ball in front of Sen.
"Want to learn this jutsu that doesn't need hand seals?"
"Just be a good boy and call me Master, and I guarantee you'll... learn it within a month!"
Sen crouched beneath a tree and picked at the dried mud stuck to his shoe sole.
He pried off a little clump of mud and casually flicked it onto the