Konoha, in the courtyard of Naruto's house.
The barbecue party had ended, and Naruto's friends had left one by one. Only he, Hinata, and Karin remained in the courtyard cleaning up.
After cleaning up, the three of them sat around the stone table.
Karin reported her recent training results to Naruto, "Naruto, let me tell you, I can now skillfully use the Mystical Palm Technique. Tsunade-sensei said my Chakra control precision is very high, and I'm very suited to learning this."
"After a while, she said she would teach me the basic techniques of the Chakra Scalpel."
Naruto nodded and turned to Hinata. "How about you, Hinata? How is your training going recently?"
Hinata lowered her head and said, "I've been practicing the advanced footwork of the Eight Trigrams Palms recently, and I have indeed made progress, but compared to Naruto-kun's progress..."
Naruto comforted her, "Your Gentle Fist follows a precision route, which is different from my fighting style. When your Hyuga Clan's Eight Trigrams Palms is practiced to a high level, it can seal all the Chakra points on an enemy's body. This is a top-tier ability on the battlefield, whether for offense or defense. Don't deny yourself just because your progress is slow for the moment."
Hinata nodded solemnly. "Mm, I will continue to work hard, Naruto-kun."
It was getting late, and Hinata and Karin got up to leave.
After seeing them off, Naruto closed the courtyard gate and walked back to his room.
After a quick wash, he lay on the bed and slowly fell asleep.
—
The next day.
After a quick wash, Naruto prepared to continue testing the strengthening power of Amenotokotachi.
Just then—
Knock! Knock!
He put down what he was doing and opened the door.
He saw Jiraiya with his arms crossed, wearing a smug expression on his face.
"Pervy Sage, why are you here? Does Granny Tsunade have a mission?"
Naruto stepped aside, preparing to let Jiraiya in, but Jiraiya waved his hand, showing no intention of entering.
"Naruto, I've come here specifically to teach you Sage Mode this time. How about it, aren't you excited?"
After finishing, Jiraiya paused deliberately, waiting to see Naruto's eyes light up.
Naruto was indeed a bit surprised to hear this. Ever since he returned to the village from Tanzaku Quarters, he had been waiting for Jiraiya to fulfill this promise.
"I wouldn't say I'm overly excited, I am quite surprised. I thought you had forgotten about it."
"Ahem, well, about that..." Jiraiya's expression visibly slumped upon hearing this.
"The village has had a lot of things going on lately, and Tsunade has been holding meetings every few days. I couldn't leave even if I wanted to. That's why it dragged on for so long, but now that everything is finished, I have come to fulfill the promise immediately."
Naruto nodded.
He didn't hold it against him. If Jiraiya was willing to teach, he would learn.
"When are we leaving?"
"If there's nothing else, we can leave right now. However, the training will take at least a month or two, so you'd better go and say goodbye to your friends first. I'll wait for you at the village gate."
Jiraiya turned and walked toward the direction of the Konoha gate.
Seeing this, Naruto walked into the house to pack a few changes of clothes into his backpack. Then, with his backpack on, he left the villa.
He detoured toward the commercial street in the Konoha ninja district first.
He pushed open the door to the ninja tool shop, and the bell on the door gave a jingle.
There were no other customers in the shop, Tenten was not there, and Tenten's father was sitting behind the counter.
A middle-aged man with slightly graying hair looked up, and seeing that it was Naruto who had walked in, he hurriedly put down the ledger in his hand and stood up.
"Jonin Naruto?"
Naruto smiled. "Uncle, I'd like to buy a batch of blank scrolls."
He had been using blank scrolls too quickly lately, and his supply was running low.
Tenten's father immediately asked, "Alright, how many do you need?"
Naruto thought for a moment and gave a number. "Fifty."
Tenten's father was stunned. They usually didn't sell that many blank sealing scrolls in a month.
But he didn't ask any more questions, turning to take a stack of brand-new blank scrolls from the storeroom and placing them on the counter.
After paying and putting all the scrolls into his Ninja tool pouch, he nodded to Tenten's father, and pushed the door open to leave.
After walking out of the Ninja tool shop, he activated Mind's Eye of the Kagura. The Chakra signals of all of Konoha spread out within his sensory range, and he quickly found Karin's location at the Hokage Building.
He searched for Hinata's Chakra, then frowned slightly. There was no Chakra signal for Hinata within the village, so he guessed she was probably executing some mission outside the village.
Thinking of this, he shook his head and walked toward the Hokage Building.
...
Pushing open the door to the medical room, he saw Karin and Sakura standing side by side in front of a table.
In front of each of them lay a fish that had died recently, with their hands hovering above the fish, green Chakra gathering in their palms. The green Chakra covered the scales of the dead fish, penetrating at an extremely slow speed into the capillaries that had already stopped flowing.
A moment later, the tail fins of both fish twitched at the same time, and then began to flap vigorously.
Both of them withdrew their Chakra at the same time, beads of sweat forming on their foreheads.
"You two have done well. You can start dealing with wounded patients in the next step." Tsunade said.
Karin wiped the sweat from her forehead. The moment she looked up and saw Naruto standing at the door, a joyful smile appeared on her face.
She ran over. "Naruto, why are you here?"
Tsunade leaned against the window and glanced at Naruto, asking, "Jiraiya has been to see you, right?"
Naruto nodded.
Karin looked at Tsunade and then at Naruto in confusion.
Naruto explained, "Karin, I'm going out to train with Pervy Sage for a while, about two months or so. I came to tell everyone before leaving."
"Training? Two months?"
Karin was stunned for a moment, the smile on her face fading slightly.
Naruto nodded and then said, "Hinata doesn't seem to be in the village. When she gets back, please tell her for me."
"Sakura, if Ino and the others ask, please convey this to them as well."
"Leave it to me." Sakura made a 'no problem' gesture.
Naruto nodded at the two of them as a thank you, then turned and walked out.
"By the way, Naruto, I have something to tell you." Tsunade spoke up at this moment.
Naruto nodded and followed Tsunade out.
A moment later, they returned.
"Then I'll be leaving now, Granny Tsunade."
Tsunade nodded.
Naruto turned and left, with Karin following behind him all the way to the entrance of the Hokage Building.
Karin stood at the entrance for a while, and only withdrew her gaze after Naruto's figure disappeared around the street corner, then returned to the training room to continue practicing.
However, during the subsequent Mystical Palm Technique practice, Sakura noticed that Karin's Chakra output was significantly larger than before, almost shocking the fish back to life. She quickly reached out to hold Karin down.
...
When Naruto arrived at the gate of Konoha, he found that Jiraiya had been waiting for a long time.
Seeing Naruto approach, Jiraiya grinned. "I thought I would have to wait a while longer."
"Hinata isn't in the village, and Karin and Sakura are training at Granny Tsunade's place. I'll just have them pass the message to everyone else." Naruto explained.
After walking along the main road for a while, Naruto gradually sensed something was wrong.
Shouldn't they go directly to Mount Myōboku to learn Sage Mode? They could get there instantly using the Summoning Technique, so why walk?
He asked Jiraiya as they walked, "Pervy Sage, where are we going to learn Sage Mode?"
"We need to complete a delivery mission first, and then go to Mount Myōboku."
"What kind of delivery mission?" Naruto was a bit surprised.
"This letter is a secret peace treaty between the Land of Claw and the Land of Fang. It concerns whether the two countries can avoid an all-out war. Diplomatic letters of this level must be escorted by Konoha Ninjas personally to ensure nothing goes wrong, so I have to make the trip myself."
"The Land of Claw and the Land of Fang are both small countries without their own ninja villages. They usually rely on entrusting Konoha to handle these kinds of matters."
"The Land of Claw and the Land of Fang?"
"For border frictions between such small countries, given Konoha's current reputation, wouldn't sending an ordinary Jonin to deliver the letter be enough? Does it really require a Sannin to make the trip personally?" Naruto narrowed his eyes.