"Ahem!"
Jiraiya's eyes drifted to the side of the road. "Actually, it's like this. My latest volume of Icha Icha Paradise is due soon. The publisher is rushing me, they'd practically send people to camp out and wait for my manuscript."
"My inspiration has been running dry lately, I can't squeeze out a single idea. It just so happens that this delivery mission passes through the Land of Bears, so I wanted to take the opportunity to gather material and find some inspiration."
"Naruto, you wouldn't want me to fail to submit my manuscript and leave millions of literature-loving readers across the Ninja World waiting in vain in front of bookstores, would you?"
Naruto was speechless.
What secret peace treaty between the Land of Claw and the Land of Fang, what peace ambassador?
To put it bluntly, Jiraiya just ran out to dodge his editor because he's stalling on his manuscript, and used it as an excuse to take a detour for material.
"Whatever you want."
Naruto didn't say much more, it wasn't like a day or two made a difference anyway.
Seeing that Naruto didn't object, Jiraiya beamed and strode toward the Land of Bears.
The two headed west, passing through the dense forests on the border of the Land of Fire, and hurried toward the Land of Bears.
While traveling, Jiraiya explained the principles of Sage Mode to Naruto.
"Naruto, before you formally learn Sage Mode, let's solidify your theoretical foundation."
"The essence of Sage Mode is that, in addition to your own physical energy and spiritual energy, you absorb the natural energy present everywhere in the natural world, and fuse all three in precise proportions to form Senjutsu Chakra."
"Any Ninjutsu unleashed using Senjutsu Chakra will receive an all-around boost. Power, speed, range, and even sensory abilities will all be elevated to a level unattainable in your normal state."
"But not everyone can control natural energy. When absorbing natural energy, you must remain absolutely still. Once your body moves, the natural energy will go out of control."
"The ratio of absorption cannot tolerate the slightest error. If any one of them is too much or too little, at best you'll lose all your progress, and at worst, you'll be backlashed by the natural energy."
Naruto listened as he walked, committing everything Jiraiya said to memory.
Just when he thought Jiraiya was being unusually serious for once, Jiraiya immediately reverted to his true self after finishing the theoretical framework of Sage Mode.
He leaned in and lowered his voice. "The landlady at a tavern in the town ahead is especially beautiful. Naruto, do you want to come with me to gather material?"
Naruto turned his head away, expressionless.
—
Soon, the two entered a bustling town.
Shops lined both sides of the street, and the sounds of hawking rose and fell.
As soon as Jiraiya entered the town, he was like a fish in water, disappearing in an instant, with a voice drifting back from afar. "I'm going to find inspiration!"
Naruto couldn't be bothered to care about him and strolled around the town on his own.
Naruto walked alone through the bustling main street. Hestopped in front of a fruit stall, and picked up an apple to weigh it in his hand.
Just then, a girl of similar age walked over to the stall, looked down at the fruit, and turned to ask the vendor, "Boss, how much for these fruits?"
Behind the girl followed a female ninja, her gaze calmly scanning the surrounding environment.
At that moment, Naruto sensed something, so he put down the apple and turned to leave.
The girl and the female ninja behind her looked up simultaneously in the direction Naruto was leaving.
"Shizuka-sama, that person just now seemed to be a Konoha Ninja." The female ninja withdrew her gaze and said to the girl in a low voice.
The girl nodded, her gaze lingering for a moment on Naruto's retreating figure. "I understand."
The female ninja asked, "Should we chase after him and ask if he knows the legendary Sannin, Jiraiya? After all, Konoha Ninja should at least know the name of the Sannin."
The girl was silent for a moment, then placed the fruit she was holding back on the stall.
"Although it is still early, I will have to trouble you."
The female ninja nodded and turned to leave.
After leaving the fruit stall, Naruto walked unhurriedly through the busy commercial street and turned into a secluded alley.
The surrounding noise gradually faded away, the houses on both sides became lower and more dilapidated, and the air was filled with the smell of damp soil.
He sneered as he walked, his Negative Emotions Sensing already locked onto the Chakra signal hidden in the shadows.
Here we go again.
He walked to the depths of the alley and suddenly stopped. In the instant he turned, his body disappeared from where he stood, and the next moment he appeared on a waist-high stone at the end of the alley.
With a wave of his right hand, several golden chains shot out from his palm, burrowing into the ground. A moment later, the Adamantine Sealing Chains retracted, and a white figure was tightly bound by the chains and dragged forcibly from underground.
"Impossible, I saw no Flying Thunder God marks at all, how could you move here in an instant!"
White Zetsu was bound tightly by the Adamantine Sealing Chains and could not move. It twisted its body desperately, trying to break free, but the power of the Fuinjutsu completely solidified its Chakra, preventing it from activating the Mayfly Technique.
Naruto took out a blank scroll, spreading it open. A powerful sealing force enveloped White Zetsu and its body was pulled into lines and drawn into the scroll, which then automatically closed.
After finishing this, Naruto activated Negative Emotions Sensing to confirm there were no other White Zetsu Chakra signals nearby, then put the scroll into his Ninja tool pouch.
A trace of doubt arose in his heart. 'Why would there be a White Zetsu here?'
He recalled Tsunade telling him when he left the Hokage Building that the Raikage had already publicized his information to the entire Ninja World. The appearance of White Zetsu here was likely a scout sent by Obito after seeing the intelligence.
Naruto walked back to the main street while deep in thought.
Just as he turned out of the alley, a female ninja blocked his path. It was the same female ninja who had been following the girl at the fruit stall earlier.
"What do you want?" Naruto stopped and scanned her face.
In his Negative Emotions Sensing, this woman had no malicious intent.
The female ninja bowed slightly, her tone polite and direct. "Pardon the intrusion, but are you a Konoha Ninja?"
Naruto nodded.
A flash of joy appeared in the female ninja's eyes as she asked, "Then do you know one of the Sannin of Konoha, Jiraiya-sama?"
Naruto was stunned.
The other party was looking for the Pervy Sage.
He guessed, 'Could this be some romantic debt Jiraiya owed when he was young, and now they've come knocking?'
Rumble!
Just as Naruto was about to nod and answer, a loud rumbling sound came from the distance.
The door of a tavern on the street flew out from the inside, with wood splinters and glass shards scattering everywhere.
Immediately after, a man flew backward out of the tavern, his body flipping twice in the air before crashing into a row of bamboo baskets on the roadside, sending vegetables and fruits rolling all over the ground.
From inside the tavern came a few screams from women and angry roars from men, followed by a trembling voice.
"This move is... You are that person..."
Before the words were finished, another figure was thrown out.
Then, Jiraiya's figure strode out of the tavern doorway, shouting back into the tavern as he walked, "My apologies, ladies! There's a bit of an emergency today, so I'll have to come back another day! Next time, it's on me!"
Jiraiya turned around and immediately saw the female ninja standing next to Naruto.
His eyes lit up, and he ran up to Naruto in a few strides, whispering, "Naruto, you are really something, you've already met such a beautiful woman in just a short while."
Naruto remained expressionless. He raised his finger to point at Jiraiya, and said to the female ninja, "This old man is the one you are looking for, one of the legendary Sannin, Jiraiya."
"What do you mean?" The smile on Jiraiya's face froze.
This beautiful woman is looking for him?
How could he not remember knowing such a beautiful female ninja?
"Are you Jiraiya-sama?"
The female ninja was stunned, not expecting that just stopping a random Konoha Ninja would lead her straight to the person she was looking for.
Jiraiya nodded.
He put away his unserious expression, and asked, "Who are you? What do you want with me?"
The female ninja straightened her back and formally introduced herself, "I am a ninja from Nadeshiko Village, named Tokiwa. I have come here presumptuously to fulfill the promise made between the former village chief and Jiraiya-sama."
"Nadeshiko Village?"
Jiraiya was stunned, and then a memory that had been sealed for many years was pried open in his mind.
When he was young, he went to Nadeshiko Village for research and met a very powerful female ninja. They fought to a draw, and then, in a moment of heat, he made an absurd bet.
If the current generation couldn't decide a winner, the next generation of students would continue the contest, and the student of the losing side would have to marry into the other's village.
At the time, he thought that since they couldn't finish the fight anyway, he would just make a promise to appease her, but who knew it would drag on for so many years.
"You mean that promise?" Jiraiya's voice changed.
Naruto, standing on the side, was also stunned, then recalled this plot from the original series, and couldn't help but twitch the corner of his lips.
Jiraiya had fought with the former village chief of Nadeshiko Village when he was young and couldn't decide a winner, so he had unilaterally arranged a fiancee for his student. This hole he dug was really deep.