Jiraiya patted Reko on the shoulder as he said so. Since she had arrived, she would surely find something.
There was no need to worry!
…
"She didn't seem to be confident either. I know her special technique since I learnt it from her already."
Reko sighed as he shook his head lightly. He knew all the techniques she knew. The only difference between the student teacher duo was their experience but Reko had little hope with medicine techniques.
Though, he decided to not refute Jiraiya directly and only showed a polite smile as he muttered.
"Anyways, did anything happen when I was away?" He asked, curious as to what has happened in the last three days. He was not in the village after the first day.
He had gone hunting for the white Zetsu hiding underground and kept chasing it for nearly two days.
He was just curious and also pretty interested to see what the Zetsu would react like.
He did not aim to kill but to capture and thoroughly horrified the white Zetsu with his tracking and sensory skills.
"No. I was extra cautious. I didn't let Naruto push harder and only had him meditate."
Jiraiya replied, denying training Naruto to his limits. Truth to be told, it was not even basic training, even worse.
'I should not say that I forgot to train Naruto and enjoyed myself in the bathhouse as Naruto waited for Reko to arrive.' Jiraiya looked at Reko who seemed to be thinking about the training Reko must have gone through.
And he decided that he would not expose the truth and let Reko make assumptions on his own.
'This would appear very irresponsible of me.'
Jiraiya thought, deciding to keep his visits for inspiration a secret.
Fortunately, Naruto happened to arrive at the exact moment and allowed Jiraiya the opportunity to end his conversation.
"Ohhh!! You're finally back!!"
Naruto shouted excitedly, running towards Reko from a distance. He was looking for a fight, very obvious from the pace of his running and his clenched fists.
"Itching for more already? Has he gone down the wrong path?"
Reko mumbled as he observed Naruto. It appeared to him that Naruto might have developed a thing for being beat up in training.
Naruto stopped after hearing Reko speak something about the wrong path.
"Huh? What does that mean?" He paused for a second as he looked at his limbs thoroughly before asking.
He had no idea what Reko's words implied. So, he stopped in the final moment and decided against attacking.
"I was waiting for you to come back and start training. This fox has been so nosy the last few days." Naruto boosted his chakra, covering his body with the oppressive tailed-beast chakra.
He directly pulled on the chakra from the Nine-Tails and began to use it to physically enforce his body.
The fox had been very chatty these days. Since he was not being drained and beaten up, the beast had lots of time to try and coerce Naruto.
Unfortunately, Naruto was dumb but not on the level where he would entertain the Nine-Tails.
"Waiting??" Reko asked, curiously.
What was there to wait for? Jiraiya alone would suffice to deal with the tailed beast.
The worst case scenario was that the terrain would be damaged and nearby people would perish. But they were in a very remote area, devoid of any humans.
Was Jiraiya not pushing him to the limit because Reko was not there?
"Aha! Let's start!! Seeing the enthusiasm in my young disciple, I can't wait to train him even harder today." Before Naruto could answer Reko's doubts, Jiraiya showed enthusiasm for the training, enthusiasm on the same level as his interesting hobbies.
He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth as he said that he would train Naruto even harder today.
'Damn! He must have used all his seals and such to suppress the Nine-Tails rampage, allowing Reko to fully concentrate on battles.'
Reko thought as he saw the level of excitement in Jiraiya's eyes. He believed that the legendary Sannin must have given his all to train Naruto these past few days.
'I need to learn Fuinjutsu. It will allow me to become all rounder, covering nearly all my weaknesses.' Reko thought to himself as he realised that he was still kind of far away from the level of battle and strategic combat.
His battle prowess was high but it did not mean that Jiraiya could not beat him with unknown tactics. There was always a possibility.
Unaware that Naruto was not trained, he sighed, hoping that Naruto would have become stronger, and would give him good battles.
"Ahhh!!!"
Naruto roared, his chakra cloak even getting denser as the pressure around his body increased tremendously.
"Three tails from the start? He has indeed improved!" Reko complimented as he saw Naruto directly get to the three tails form. It showed that he had near absolute control over the power of three tails.
"Come on! Push harder! Make it five or no ramen for you." He challenged without meaning it. But the chakra cloak on Naruto flared up once again after he heard this.
The chakra tails went from three to five in a mere three seconds, surprising Reko a lot.
Roar!!
The figure of Naruto roared, but this time his eyes still had his consciousness, not even a tiny bit influenced by the tailed beast.
'Did I spend that long with the Mizukage? It was just a day at most.' Reko thought for a second before recalling the incidents in the last two days.
"Damn! Isn't he getting really good at this? What the heck did you teach him in the last three days?"
Reko asked Jiraiya who was standing leisurely by his side. This was too surprising for just three days of progress.
Naruto could go to six tails without being influenced but not at this pace. This was too big of an improvement.
"Haha!! Nothing much." Jiraiya rubbed the back of his head as he smiled looking proud, his nose up in the air as he did not reveal the secrets.
'I just told Naruto that you have been eating ramen without sharing with him.' He thought as realised how big of an effect that knowledge made on Naruto.
Even when alone, this motivated Naruto to train on his own and to this level at that.
'Didn't expect it to work that well.' Jiraiya himself was surprised with the results.
…
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