When the senbon hail storm died down Naruto looked around not seeing Jiraiya anywhere, he frowned before closing his eyes trying to sense out the man's chakra. Having felt Jiraiya's chakra signature for six months now Naruto could pick it up fairly easily, he finally found him however his eyes widened when he realized the man was right under him. His realization came too late as Jiraiya came out of the water and smashed a fist right into Naruto's chin, before Naruto could fly too far he felt hair wrap around his body and harden immobilizing him.
Jiraiya grinned at his student who was currently hanging upside down; the boy had come quite far in just six months. His physical abilities and taijutsu were now extremely impressive, definitely high jonin level with all the work they had been doing to bring it up to snuff. His chakra control was also coming along nicely, being at around mid Jonin level; which was good, especially considering the fact that it grew at a near constant rate. However it was Naruto's ninjutsu that took the biggest leap, particularly in the field of elemental manipulation. Jiraiya had decided that since the boy was doing so well they would get started on learning elemental nature manipulation, something that Jiraiya had planned on having Kakashi teach the kid when they returned. Now he was glad that he didn't go through with that plan; since Naruto appeared to have three elements, Fuuton (Wind), Suiton (Water) and Raiton (Lightning). It had been a shocking discovery and Jiraiya had to wonder if it was some kind of bloodline or if it just came from his parent's. Minato had been a Fuuton user starting out, but had later learned to use Raiton during the third Great Ninja War. And Kushina had an affinity for Suiton Jutsu, so he supposed it was possible but it still didn't make much sense. He actually planned on having Naruto tested when they returned to Konoha in three years, if he did have a Kekkei Genkai of some kind it could cause problems.
Jiraiya shook his head he would worry about that later, "nice job Gaki, but your still too early to beat me!"
Naruto gave Jiraiya a pout before it turned into a grin that instantly put the Sennin on guard, "Oh really?" Naruto asked right as Jiraiya's eyes widened.
"Shit!" Jiraiya jumped out of the way just in time to dodge a large explosion as the now identified Kage Bushin he was holding blew itself up. As Jiraiya landed he felt cold steel against his neck; he couldn't help but chuckle, "you've been waiting to use that tactic haven't you?"
Naruto grinned as he put his Kunai away, "Well… yeah, you tend to immobilize me a lot with those hair techniques of yours so I figured it would be a good way to beat you."
Jiraiya nodded as they had sparred quite often, by now it was obvious that Naruto would know Jiraiya's tactics. That was going to be an issue since others would not fight like he did, nor would they pull their punches. He would need to have Naruto gain some experience, maybe he could see if Tsunade would give them some missions to accomplish? "You're getting better," Jiraiya complimented as he thought about how to give Naruto some real life experience. "Anways let's set up camp for the night, tomorrow we'll head into a town a little ways off."
"Alright Ero-sensei," Naruto said as he grabbed several scrolls from his kunai pouches.
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"Hey Ero-sensei," Naruto said as the two sat around a camp fire.
"What is gaki?" he asked as he took some meat off the spit over the fire and began to eat.
"I was wondering," Naruto started as he ate some of his own food, "do you think that it's possible for me to bring Sasuke back?"
Jiraiya sighed, he had expected this to come up soon, Naruto had recently been getting quiet and contemplative again; which had not happened since the first month of their training. He also knew about the kids promise that pink haired girl who the kid had a crush on, though judging by the amount of times he had caught Naruto talking and even flirting with other girls now, he was sure that crush would be gone soon. He resisted the urge to give a perverted giggle at that thought before speaking, "I'll be honest with you Naruto; even if you brought Sasuke back it would only cause more problems. Sasuke is like Orochimaru in many ways; he desires power and will do anything he can to get it. I don't need to remind you of how he had nearly killed you trying to leave for that traitor. If you brought Sasuke back it would just cause him to resent you and Konoha more, he left because he felt that the village and his friendship with you was holding him back; if you did succeed in forcing him back he would only hate you more for trying to block him from gaining power."
Naruto's shoulders slumped, "so you're saying I should forget about him?"
Jiraiya patted the boy on the shoulder, "I know it's hard, hell when I tried to bring Orochimaru back and failed I was just as hurt as you were. But being a shinobi and especially if you want to be Hokage means that you sometimes have to make hard decisions."
Naruto nodded to himself it had been on his mind a lot recently, he had a feeling that this would be the case but had wanted a second opinion. He didn't like it, he had wanted to bring his best friend back; but if that was not possible it would be better to forget about him. "I understand," Naruto said with some conviction, "I was wondering, do you think we could extend the training trip?"