Chapter 551: Evaluation
Yahiko showed great interest in Jiraiya's suggestion.
Because, in truth, he had already wanted to tell this story.
"After you left, Jiraiya-sensei, we wanted to use our own strength to contribute to peace in the Land of Rain. At first, we helped some villages repel attacking ninja..."
Yahiko put down his chopsticks, picked up his teacup, and began recounting what had happened.
At the beginning, he had never intended to create a ninja organization.
After all, back then, he had just been a fledgling kid.
Whether it was strength, vision, or overall ability, he was nowhere near enough to support such an idea.
The Land of Rain had already been chaotic at the time, but even within that chaos, there were still ninja who yearned for peace.
As their actions piled up one after another, Yahiko and the others gradually gained companions. And when their numbers reached a certain point, the Akatsuki Organization naturally came into being.
However, Yahiko did not linger too long on the Akatsuki period. He quickly moved on to the first time they met Sōsuke.
It was not because Yahiko thought the Akatsuki period had been bad. It was simply that there wasn't all that much to say.
"Compared to the Shinobi Sect's impact on the Land of Rain, the Akatsuki Organization could only be called a minor skirmish. The slogan sounded grand, but the actual influence was really limited," Yahiko said before taking a sip of water to wet his throat.
"As a young man, what you did was already enough to make you proud," Jiraiya encouraged him.
To Jiraiya, Yahiko, an orphan without any proper education, had still developed such ideals and acted on them. That alone was enough to surpass countless others.
Hearing those words, Yahiko smiled. Then he began telling the story of how they met Sōsuke.
"At that time, Sōsuke-sensei had probably heard about the Akatsuki Organization from somewhere else and became interested in our ideals. Unfortunately, I disappointed him. I barely understood anything myself," Yahiko said with some regret.
From the moment they first met, Yahiko had already been convinced that Sōsuke was someone important, someone who could push peace in the Land of Rain forward.
What Yahiko regretted was that his performance back then had been too poor. He had not answered Sōsuke's questions well, and that may well have disappointed him at the time.
"He sounds like a very serious and meticulous person," Jiraiya thought as he stroked his chin while listening to Yahiko.
Yahiko's words reminded him a little of the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju. It was as if he had been born to compensate for his elder brother's straightforward nature, because in every respect, Tobirama had been serious and meticulous.
Jiraiya did not dislike people like that.
Rather, almost no one would dislike someone who was serious and careful when it came to important work and ideals.
Of course, if someone was serious and meticulous about every tiny detail in daily life, Jiraiya felt that would be exhausting.
"Sōsuke-sensei is very serious when dealing with major matters, but when he gives lectures, he's very approachable," Yahiko explained.
After all, the development of the Shinobi Sect was inseparable from Sōsuke's lectures. In a sense, the Shinobi Sect had begun with Sōsuke traveling all over the Land of Rain to teach.
Yahiko himself had kept attending those lectures, and eventually, he chose to join the Shinobi Sect. He even directly disbanded the Akatsuki Organization and brought all its members into the Shinobi Sect.
"So you were there that time too," Jiraiya said, a little surprised.
Even he had heard about the battle that made Ninja Master Sōsuke famous across the entire Ninja World.
Of course, since Jiraiya had never paid special attention to it, all he really knew was one thing: Sōsuke's Fire Release was overwhelming, and he had defeated Hanzō, a master of Water Release, by using Fire Release against its natural weakness.
As for the presence of people like Yahiko and Nagato, who had only been on the sidelines at the time, Jiraiya had known nothing.
As Yahiko kept talking, the image of Sōsuke in Jiraiya's mind gradually became fuller and more vivid.
He dreamed of world peace and pursued it with seriousness and rigor. He possessed remarkable talent in teaching while also embracing an inclusive philosophy. He had broad vision and could even set aside the hatred of the Amegakure for the sake of peace in the Land of Rain.
"Have I really been too busy these past few years? A person this interesting appeared in the Ninja World, and I didn't even notice," Jiraiya sighed inwardly, already deciding that once the war ended, he would have to travel more again.
He had to admit, the Sōsuke Yahiko described sounded almost too perfect.
In some matters, even Jiraiya, putting himself in Sōsuke's shoes, felt that he might not have been able to do the same.
"Yahiko, Nagato, it really hasn't been easy for you to come this far after going through so much. Tonight's meal is on me," Jiraiya said with a smile.
Pursuing a dream, meeting companions who shared it, forming a ninja organization, then struggling through hardship until they encountered an impossibly strong senior who held the same ideal, and finally enduring one challenge after another together while continuing forward...
From Jiraiya's perspective, the story of what Nagato and the others had experienced truly was worthy of being turned into a novel.
"Yay!" Yahiko cheered.
Getting a free meal was naturally a good thing, but what really made him happy was that Jiraiya would stay until the evening.
After lunch, Jiraiya took the initiative to fulfill his responsibility as their former teacher and offered to guide their training.
Naturally, the three of them were delighted, and the four headed together to the training ground outside the city.
Because he had not seen them for far too long, Jiraiya's understanding of Nagato and the others' strength was limited to the intelligence he had gathered. For the sake of more accurate guidance, and also because he was curious, he decided to spar with them.
However, to make the results clearer, he had them go one at a time instead of all together.
After all, the gap in strength between the three of them was too large. If all three fought him at once, it would probably just turn into Nagato's personal showcase.
"How about I go first?" Yahiko volunteered.
Seeing that neither Nagato nor Konan objected, he stepped forward to face Jiraiya.
"Use everything you've got as much as possible. Don't hold back. Let me see your true level," Jiraiya said boldly.
As one of the current top powerhouses in the Ninja World, he naturally had the confidence to say that.
"Jiraiya-sensei, please excuse me."
Since Jiraiya himself had asked for it, Yahiko stopped holding back. He immediately gathered strength and rushed forward.
The moment he launched his charge, Yahiko focused his breathing and reinforced his physical abilities.
The breathing style Yahiko practiced was a branch style Mugetsu had developed from Rock Breathing, called Ninja Breathing.
Strictly speaking, Ninja Breathing was actually divided into two separate breathing techniques. One emphasized power enhancement and came with a taijutsu technique similar to Rankyaku. The other emphasized defense and came with a defensive ninjutsu similar to Tekkai.
The two could be trained side by side, but they could not be used at the same time. It was impossible to have both immense offense and immense defense like Rock Breathing.
However, compared to Rock Breathing, the difficulty of training had dropped sharply. Under Mugetsu's guidance, even the most ordinary Shinobi Sect ninja could gradually learn one branch of it.
Yahiko's talent was decent, so he had successfully learned both halves of Ninja Breathing.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Yahiko first threw two kunai.
Clang! Clang!
Jiraiya casually drew a kunai from his ninja pouch and easily knocked both aside.
Swish!
Yahiko instantly seized the opening created by Jiraiya's movement and kicked out. A crescent shaped chakra slash concentrated in his leg shot toward Jiraiya.
But Jiraiya's battle experience was far too rich. He had already read Yahiko's movement in advance, and with a simple twist of his body, he sidestepped the kick.
Bang!
The crescent slash struck a tree and carved a deep wound into it, nearly cutting the trunk in two.
"The power's not bad, but the speed is too slow," Jiraiya commented.
If that attack landed on an actual ninja, it would definitely deal significant damage.
"Water Release: Water Spear!"
Yahiko paid no attention to the comment and threw himself fully into the fight. He quickly condensed chakra and created three water spears in front of him, launching them at Jiraiya.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"
Jiraiya formed hand seals at high speed, and a thick earth wall rose up in front of him. Yahiko's Water Spears only left several deep pits in it, failing to break through.
Since his ninjutsu had failed, Yahiko once again mobilized the power of his breathing technique and closed the distance, preparing for close combat.
Bang! Bang!
Because Jiraiya was holding back, the two exchanged several moves back and forth.
Once he understood Yahiko's taijutsu habits, Jiraiya began deliberately increasing the difficulty. A feint instantly drew out a flaw in Yahiko's defense.
"Earth Release: Iron Rock Technique!"
Yahiko stayed calm and used the Ninja World version of Tekkai.
The power of Ninja Breathing flowed into his body, increasing his defense, while Earth Release chakra nature transformation hardened him further. This technique had the potential to withstand even ninjutsu.
Inside the Shinobi Sect, it even had the nickname Turtle Shell Technique, because it was truly hard enough to deserve it.
Bang!
Jiraiya punched Yahiko, but Yahiko barely moved. Instead, it was Jiraiya's own fist that came away slightly reddened from the recoil.
Yahiko could not help showing a smug smile.
Jiraiya raised a brow. He had only been holding back. How had this kid gotten full of himself already?
The next moment, Jiraiya's palm surged with much more chakra. He struck again with explosive speed and sent Yahiko flying.
"When you have no other choice, using a defensive ninjutsu isn't wrong, but after that, you need to either disengage immediately or counterattack," Jiraiya reminded him.
"And the technique you just used should be Earth Release. If you run into a Lightning Release user, try not to use it. Otherwise, you'll just end up injuring yourself," Jiraiya added.
He had fought Iwagakure many times during the Second Shinobi World War. He knew very well that hardening techniques were troublesome against opponents like him who lacked strong Lightning Release chakra nature transformation, but once they met a true Lightning Release ninja, those same techniques were practically useless.
Because a hardening technique applied directly to the body, once it was broken, the best possible outcome was still injury.
"Hehe, thanks for the reminder, Jiraiya-sensei," Yahiko replied with a grin.
In truth, Mugetsu had already warned them about this back when he taught them. The problem with defensive techniques like this was that they often created a false sense of invincibility. Without a reminder, it was easy to grow arrogant.
About ten minutes later, Jiraiya turned his gaze to Nagato and Konan.
"Who's next?"
Nagato stepped back on his own initiative.
It wasn't because he was shy. It was because if he fought Jiraiya first, then by the time Jiraiya turned to Konan afterward, he might actually need a rest.
Nagato did not think he could defeat Jiraiya, but with just the Deva Path and Preta Path alone, it would not be easy for Jiraiya to deal with him either.
One path could absorb all ninjutsu, and the other could repel all attacks. The combination covered too many situations.
"Then I'll go," Konan said as she stepped forward.
"Paper Shuriken!"
Konan drew sheets of paper from her body, infused them with chakra, hardened them, and flung them out.
She did, in fact, carry real kunai and shuriken in her ninja pouch. But Konan was very economical, and whenever paper techniques could do the job, she preferred to use those instead.
Whoosh!
Right after throwing the paper shuriken, she surged forward with her breathing technique and closed in on Jiraiya.
Unlike Yahiko, while Konan had also learned the offense focused Ninja Breathing branch rather quickly, she had not learned the defense focused one as he had.
The reason was simple. Her paper technique already gave her strong defensive utility. As long as she trained it well enough, she could turn her body into paper to evade attacks altogether, making direct tanking unnecessary.
"Your taijutsu's pretty good. Your offensive power is actually stronger than Yahiko's," Jiraiya said with praise.
Of course, praise did not mean mercy. Jiraiya still beat her down the same way, without any intention of going easy on her just because she was a girl.
After getting thoroughly beaten around in close combat, Konan threw out three shuriken.
This time, Jiraiya did not bother using a kunai to block them. He simply fired a small Fire Release technique and knocked them down in advance.
Boom!
The instant the fire struck them, one of the "shuriken" exploded.
Of the three, one had not been a shuriken at all, but a sheet of paper disguised as one by her technique and transformed into an explosive tag.
Jiraiya, however, had still seen through it.
Even if Konan's fake shuriken looked identical to the real thing, they still carried subtle differences. In the eyes of a veteran like Jiraiya, those differences became obvious the moment they left her hand.
Another ten minutes passed, and after receiving her guidance, Konan stepped aside. Jiraiya then turned to Nagato.
At that exact moment, Nagato happened to look back at him, and their gazes met.
Once again, Jiraiya saw those eyes, the same eyes that had shocked him to the core years ago.
"Jiraiya-sensei, please be careful."
Nagato stepped forward and spoke politely.
Given how easily the Rinnegan's abilities could decide a battle if the enemy had no prior information, Nagato genuinely did mean it.
"Haha, let me see how much you've grown over the years."
Jiraiya did not think Nagato was exaggerating in the slightest.
He was facing the current so called number one genius in the Ninja World, and those eyes belonged to the Sage of Six Paths.
Combined with how unpredictable ninja battles were by nature, Jiraiya knew that if Nagato were truly his enemy, he would definitely summon Gamabunta right from the start.
Those were the legendary eyes of the Sage of Six Paths. Who knew what terrifying abilities they might hide?
.....
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