Chapter 52 (Patreon)

“Ninja Art: Toad Mouth Bind!”

From farther down the corridor, Jiraiya slammed both palms against the floor.

In an instant, the entire hallway transformed. The walls, floor, and ceiling became living flesh, pulsing and contracting around them as though they had been swallowed by some enormous creature.

Sasuke, who had been pinned against the wall by Itachi, was quickly engulfed by the growing flesh. At the same time, the ground beneath Itachi and Kisame softened and began dragging their feet downward.

The gruesome sight made Kisame’s expression tighten. Even Itachi became more guarded.

“You’re standing inside the esophagus of the giant Rock-Lodging Toad from Mount Myōboku,” Jiraiya declared, smiling at the two Akatsuki members. “In other words, you’ve already been swallowed.”

His smile sharpened.

“You’re both wanted criminals anyway, so you might as well become food for the toad!”

Naruto’s eyes lit up as he watched.

The toads of Mount Myōboku possessed all kinds of unusual and useful abilities. Once this was over, he definitely needed Jiraiya to teach him their techniques.

Choosing Jiraiya as his teacher, just as Naruto had in the original story, had clearly been the right decision.

“Come with me,” Itachi said at once.

Kisame immediately followed him, carrying Samehada as the two raced toward the opposite end of the corridor.

“It’s useless!” Jiraiya called after them with complete confidence. “No one has ever escaped from here!”

At his command, the surrounding flesh contracted violently. Thick tendrils of muscle rose from the walls and floor, closing in from every direction to crush and bury the two intruders.

However, Jiraiya had underestimated the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan.

Black flames suddenly erupted at the end of the corridor. Itachi’s Amaterasu burned straight through the Rock-Lodging Toad’s esophagus, opening a large hole through which he and Kisame swiftly escaped.

Watching them escape, Jiraiya’s expression soured. With no way to pursue them, he could only seal the remaining black flames away before they caused any further damage.

As Naruto stared at the flames of Amaterasu, his own Mangekyō Sharingan stirred, threatening to activate on its own.

For a brief moment, a powerful urge rose within him. He wanted to pit the power of his Mangekyō against Itachi’s.

Naruto immediately forced that impulse back down.

Uchiha Itachi’s strength did not come from the Mangekyō Sharingan alone. He was a true genius who had honed his taijutsu, genjutsu, ninjutsu, and shurikenjutsu to an extraordinary level.

Naruto still had some distance to go before he could confidently defeat him.

He only needed a little more time. Once he was ready, he would kill Uchiha Itachi without giving him the slightest chance to resist.

When that day came, Itachi’s Mangekyō Sharingan, the Mangekyō Sharingan Fugaku might have left behind, and Shisui’s remaining Mangekyō—which contained Kotoamatsukami—would all become Naruto’s trophies.

After Jiraiya sealed the flames and returned the corridor to normal, Might Guy suddenly appeared and mistook him for the enemy. Before Jiraiya could explain, Guy’s kick sent him flying.

That kind of reckless entrance could only have come from Konoha’s Sublime Green Beast.

After everything that had happened, Sasuke had suffered severe damage both physically and mentally. Even the conviction that had kept him moving forward was beginning to crumble, leaving him questioning everything he had believed in.

It was no surprise that when Orochimaru later reached out to tempt him, Sasuke chose to defect without hesitation. For revenge and greater power, he was prepared to entrust even his body and soul to a monster.

…

Might Guy took Sasuke back to Konoha for treatment. He was placed in a hospital bed beside his beloved teacher, Kakashi, who was also suffering from the effects of Tsukuyomi.

Master and student now lay side by side, both victims of the same technique. What a miserable pair.

Meanwhile, Naruto set out with Jiraiya in search of Tsunade while continuing to train with the weights strapped to his body.

Throughout the journey, Naruto silently focused on his physical conditioning. Jiraiya, worried that the Akatsuki’s attack might be weighing on the boy’s mind, eventually asked, “Naruto, aren’t you curious about why those two were trying to capture you?”

Naruto stopped walking. His eyes shifted for a moment as he quickly came up with an answer.

“I just need to get stronger. The next time they come after me, I’ll beat them and ask them myself!”

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. He had not expected Naruto to answer that way, but he could not help feeling impressed.

“All right, Naruto. I’m going to teach you an extremely powerful ninjutsu.”

Jiraiya extended his right hand. A sphere of pale-blue chakra swiftly formed above his palm, spinning at an incredible speed.

Naruto’s eyes brightened.

The Rasengan! I’ve finally reached this part!

“Tree Climbing Practice teaches you to focus and maintain chakra at a specific point,” Jiraiya explained. “Water Surface Walking Practice teaches you to release a precise and constant amount of chakra.”

He held the spinning sphere in front of Naruto.

“This ninjutsu requires something different. You must create a flow within your chakra and make it rotate.”

“Gather chakra in your palm, maintain a steady output, and then set it spinning. That’s the foundation of the Rasengan.”

Naruto extended his right hand and immediately began experimenting. Unfortunately, even after trying for quite some time, he failed to form anything resembling the sphere in Jiraiya’s palm.

He checked his system panel. His [Super Chakra Control] was only at the [Entry] level. That was enough for him to quickly master Tree Climbing Practice and Water Surface Walking Practice, but it was nowhere near sufficient to let him learn the Rasengan immediately.

Naruto wanted to spend system points to improve either [Super Chakra Control] or [Rasengan] directly, but he had already exhausted every point he possessed.

For once, he had no choice but to learn through honest effort.

Fortunately, Naruto already knew the secret behind the Rasengan’s training method.

Not long afterward, he and Jiraiya arrived at a small town. Jiraiya purchased several water balloons, rubber balls, and ordinary balloons for Naruto’s training.

Every person’s chakra naturally circulated in a particular direction. For some, it rotated to the left; for others, it rotated to the right. Most experienced shinobi could sense their own direction of circulation.

There was also a simpler way to check: the direction of the hair whorl on top of a person’s head was said to match the natural circulation of their chakra. If the whorl turned to the right, their chakra would do the same, and vice versa.

When Naruto had first learned that, he had thought it sounded completely ridiculous.

He could already sense that his chakra naturally rotated to the right. Even so, he still created a Shadow Clone and had it inspect the whorl on top of his head. Only after confirming that both directions matched did he feel fully satisfied.

The direction of his chakra circulation would directly affect his Rasengan training.

To master the technique more efficiently, Naruto needed to make the chakra in his palm rotate clockwise, following its natural flow.

The first stage of the Rasengan’s training was rotation.

Naruto placed a water balloon in his left palm and sent chakra into it. He then used his right hand to rub and press against its surface, helping force the water inside into a violent, irregular rotation.

Five minutes later—

Pop!

The water balloon burst.

Jiraiya stared at him in surprise before offering a rare word of praise. “Looks like your chakra control isn’t nearly as bad as I thought.”

He then handed Naruto a rubber ball.

“Now for the second stage. You’ll keep the rotation you just learned, but this time, you’ll increase its force.”

The key to the second stage was power.

Naruto smiled and created fifty Shadow Clones. Each clone held a rubber ball in its right hand and began gathering chakra, forcing it to rotate inside the ball.

Their left hands moved over the rubber balls like cats batting at toys, helping the chakra inside spin with even greater force.

Naruto and his fifty Shadow Clones trained simultaneously. Once every hour, he dispelled the clones and absorbed the experience they had accumulated before creating a new group.

His training speed was now effectively fifty-one times greater than that of an ordinary person.

With the enormous advantage provided by the Shadow Clone Technique, Naruto completed the second stage in a single morning. When Jiraiya returned from gathering information in time for lunch, he was stunned by the result.

For the first time, Jiraiya began to realize that he might truly have taken on an unbelievable disciple.

Maybe this boy really was the Child of Prophecy.

The third stage of the Rasengan’s training was containment.

Jiraiya held an ordinary balloon in his right hand and formed a Rasengan within it. Despite the violent rotation of the chakra inside, the balloon remained perfectly still and completely undamaged.

The purpose of the third stage was to bring out everything learned during the previous two stages and maintain it without allowing the chakra to escape.

Naruto had to preserve both the rotation and power of his chakra while imagining a thin membrane surrounding it. By compressing the chakra within that boundary, he would create something like a miniature typhoon in the palm of his hand.

“I see!”

Naruto nodded, then tried the same method as before. He held the balloon in his right hand while using his left to guide and stabilize the chakra inside.

Pop!

The balloon burst instantly.

“Just as I thought.” Naruto sighed.

The Rasengan was an A-rank ninjutsu. That rank represented more than its destructive power—the technique was also extraordinarily difficult to master.

Completing the second stage in only a few hours was already an astonishing achievement. Naruto had managed it because he knew the training method from the original story and possessed advantages that no ordinary shinobi could match.

There was no reason to stop using those advantages now.

With a thought, Naruto created fifty-one Shadow Clones. They split into pairs, with the final clone joining Naruto himself.

In each pair, one person concentrated chakra in his right palm and forced it to rotate at high speed. The other used both hands to guide the chakra, helping compress it and maintain the Rasengan’s stability.

When Jiraiya returned that afternoon, he stopped dead and stared at Naruto in disbelief.

Naruto had already completed the third stage of training and successfully mastered the [Rasengan].

…

While Naruto was training to master the Rasengan, Orochimaru had already found Tsunade.

He used the promise of resurrecting her late lover, Dan Katō, and her younger brother, Nawaki, to tempt her into healing his ruined arms.

“If I heal your arms, what will you do afterward?” Tsunade asked.

“Why, continue destroying Konoha, of course.”