A week later.
Beside the river outside the training grounds, the setting sun scattered a layer of gold across the water.
Moonlight Ruyun wore a black trench coat, with a short sword hanging at his waist.
The Chakra Paper pinched between his fingers split, grew damp, and burned in different sections.
"Your chakra affinities are wind, water, and fire. You can learn the Great Fireball Technique."
Kushina asked curiously, "What about yours?"
"Wind and fire."
He walked to the bank and deliberately slowed his hand seals. "Watch my movements."
Snake-Ram-Monkey-Boar-Horse-Tiger.
Kushina's little face grew serious as she committed the hand seals firmly to memory.
"After you finish the seals, feel the chakra gathering in your chest, then..."
He couldn't stomach his uncle's teaching methods.
So he distilled what he had learned from his own week of training and taught it to Kushina.
A week had passed since he had given himself the pen name "Toad Literary Master."
Over that week, he had churned out a good deal of his manuscript, negotiated a decent royalty rate with the owner of the Ninja Literature Publishing House, and signed a contract.
Once typesetting and proofreading were finished, the book would be published within a month or two.
The first print run would be five hundred copies, with further printings depending on the market response.
Aside from that, he practiced his swordsmanship and the Great Fireball Technique every day.
Kushina had invited him to train with her several times, only for him to stand her up.
To make it up to her, he had agreed to train with her after school today and teach her a ninjutsu while he was at it.
Kushina nodded. "I've got it."
She stood at the edge of the riverbank and formed the hand seals, her movements a little clumsy.
Snake-Ram-Monkey-Boar-Horse-Tiger.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
After her sharp little cry, her chest swelled.
The next instant, she spat out an enormous fireball.
The huge orange-red fireball, over ten meters in diameter, flew through the air.
Startled, Kushina swayed. The fireball skimmed over the river and crashed straight into the woods on the opposite bank.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Flames exploded outward. The enormous fireball smashed several large trees apart, setting their branches ablaze and reducing their leaves to ash in the intense heat.
Moonlight Ruyun stared at the devastation across the river, frozen with his mouth half open.
He rubbed his eyes, wondering whether he had seen it wrong.
She just opened her mouth and spat out a fireball over ten meters wide?
Over ten meters!
Are you even still the Great Fireball Technique?
Are you still that familiar old Kindness Technique?
His uncle's fireballs were about three meters in diameter, while his own barely reached half a meter...
He fell silent for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled as he let it go.
"Fuck!"
Kushina's hands were still held in the final seal, her face flushed in the firelight.
She looked at her hands, then at Moonlight Ruyun. "...Did I do it?"
"Yes, you did. But now we need to put out the fire."
"Oh, right!" Kushina glanced at the flames spreading through the woods across the river and snapped out of her daze.
Moonlight Ruyun stepped onto the water and raced to the opposite bank.
Kushina didn't know Water Walking, so she had to swim across.
Deep in the dense forest.
Minato Namikaze practiced his swordsmanship with a wooden sword.
Jiraiya sat on a branch, chewing on a pencil with his brows tightly furrowed.
He glanced down. "Nice swordsmanship. Who taught you?"
Minato Namikaze lowered his short sword and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "My swordsmanship? A classmate taught me."
"Oh?" Jiraiya sounded surprised. "Looks like you have a good classmate."
In the world of Naruto, it was much harder for commoners to learn ninjutsu or a structured system of swordsmanship.
They either had to be talented enough to find a good teacher or risk their lives on missions and exchange their contributions for instruction.
Jiraiya had also come from a commoner background, so he understood that feeling all too well.
Minato Namikaze nodded.
He thought of Moonlight Ruyun, who had never beaten him but stubbornly kept challenging him.
A smile played on his lips as he told himself, I'll work twice as hard and put the swordsmanship you taught me to good use!
"Sir, what were you writing just now?"
Minato Namikaze asked curiously.
Jiraiya laughed and answered casually, "My first book."
"A book? You're amazing, sir." Minato Namikaze blinked. Writing a book was something entirely unfamiliar to him.
"Yeah. When I was training on Mount Myōboku, I thought of a story and started writing bits and pieces of it."
"What kind of story?"
Jiraiya's lips curved slightly. "A story about a ninja."
Minato quietly listened to Jiraiya's ideas, then asked in a very earnest tone, "Does the book have a title yet?"
"...I haven't decided. I've thought of a few, but none of them really satisfy me."
Jiraiya wrote a few titles on a blank manuscript page.
"At first, I wanted to call it 'Legend of the Gallant,' but that sounds a little like bragging.
"Then I changed it to 'Jiraiya's Adventure Journal,' but using my own name doesn't feel quite right."
Minato's little face turned serious. He pondered for a long time before his eyes lit up.
"Sir, I've thought of a great title!"
"Oh? Let's hear it."
"Beyond the Ninja Way: Flashing Heart, Resolute Resonance, Unfettered Adventure Journal, Type Zero!"
A few question marks practically appeared over Jiraiya's head. "...Say that again?"
"Didn't you hear me, sir? It's Beyond the Ninja Way: Flashing Heart, Resolute Resonance, Unfettered Adventure Journal, Type Zero!"
"...What does that title mean?"
"Transcending the ninja way, holding yourself to higher standards, shining brightly, staying determined, and making the entire Shinobi World acknowledge your beliefs!"
Jiraiya stared at him for a long time, as though seeing him anew.
"Then what does Type Zero mean?"
"It means it's even better than Type One."
"Why would a book need a Type Zero or a Type One?"
Minato scratched his head and asked in confusion, "Sir, aren't books supposed to come in several volumes? All the Ninja Academy textbooks do."
Jiraiya was speechless.
"Oh, sir, have you named the main character yet?"
"No... no, that's right. I already have."
"You've already decided? As expected of you, sir! What's the name?"
Jiraiya trembled and nearly fell off the branch.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Several explosions suddenly rang out in the distance, shaking even the ground beneath them.
Minato Namikaze instinctively grew alert, resting his hand on his sword hilt. "Sir, what was that?"
Jiraiya looked toward the sound, his expression turning serious at once. "It came from the village. Not too far from here. Let's take a look."
As the Hokage's student, he knew a great deal of classified information.
He knew that although the Shinobi World still appeared peaceful, dangerous undercurrents were stirring beneath the surface.
Now that explosions were coming from the direction of the village, he couldn't help feeling alarmed.
With no time to say more, he leaped from the branch and vanished into the depths of the forest in an instant.
Minato Namikaze dared not delay. He quickly grabbed Jiraiya's outer robe, leaped up as well, and chased after him.
After a hectic struggle, they finally put out the fire.
The two lay sprawled on their backs, Kushina's red hair fanned out behind her head. Several strands had curled from the heat.
Panting, she tilted her head to look at Moonlight Ruyun, whose face was now streaked with soot.
Suddenly, she began to giggle.
Her clear laughter echoed through the woods.
Moonlight Ruyun glanced at Kushina, who was just as grimy as he was, then turned his gaze back to the sky.
He felt even more exhausted than he would after using the Great Fireball Technique twice in a row. His mind went blank, and he didn't want to think about anything.
"Sorry..."
"Hm?"
"If I hadn't aimed it the wrong way..."
He yawned, pillowed his head on his hands, and watched the sky fill with crimson clouds, his feelings mixed. "It's fine. I underestimated how powerful your ninjutsu would be."
He was a little jealous. Chakra by the ton really lived up to its name.
Damn it, I want that too.
Tears of envy trickled from the corner of his mouth.
He wanted to stop worrying about running out of chakra too.
"Really?" Kushina's gaze seemed fixed on his profile. "How big is your Great Fireball Technique?"
"Um... well, a tiny bit smaller than yours."
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two sounds of rushing air came from the forest.
Before you continue