Naruto Uzumaki stared at them in utter confusion and hurriedly asked, "Pervy Sage, you never said you were taking Qingchuan Tianming as your disciple, did you?"
"Naruto, are you jealous? Afraid that what I teach you will be shared with someone else?" Jiraiya grinned wickedly. "What you're going to learn is something no one else can learn. Besides, I'll be teaching each of you different things."
"Oh, I see." Naruto Uzumaki nodded, only half understanding.
Tianming, meanwhile, finished his ramen and got up to say goodbye. On the way home, he kept wondering why Jiraiya wanted to take him as a disciple.
Jiraiya had taken Naruto Uzumaki as his disciple because Naruto was the son of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki. There was every reason for him to accept Naruto.
But Qingchuan Tianming? The Aokawa Clan could barely even be called a clan. In Konoha's history, they were nothing more than cannon fodder and background decoration. In Jiraiya's era, they would have been lucky to leave even the faintest impression.
So from the very beginning, Tianming had never considered training under any one of the Three Legendary Sannin.
But now... for the sign-in mission in Tanzaku Town, he could only become someone's disciple.
The night passed without incident. Early the next morning,
Tianming appeared at the agreed-upon intersection and saw Jiraiya waiting there.
"Tianming, you're here?" Jiraiya greeted him. He took the mission to find Tsunade seriously, so it was rare for him not to be drinking or late.
"Jiraiya-sensei," Tianming replied.
"Do you know why I took you as my disciple?" Jiraiya suddenly asked.
Faced with such a direct question, Tianming did not play dumb. "To be Naruto's sparring partner?"
Jiraiya smiled and shook his head. "Not to make you a sparring partner. It's