Chapter 405: Ino's Condition
The myriad of tasks had Jiraiya extremely busy, but he still took the time to address Naruto's problem.
"Shikaku, you handle these official duties for now." He pushed a half-man-high stack of documents over to Shikaku.
Shikaku was actually very optimistic about Naruto's future. When the whole village was hostile to Naruto, he had intentionally or unintentionally guided his own son, Shikamaru, to befriend Naruto as a child. If it weren't for Sasuke, Shikamaru might have been the friend with the deepest bond to Naruto.
After becoming the Seventh Hokage, among his peers, Sasuke was in a league of his own. The second tier was Hinata, and the third was basically a tie between Shikamaru and Konohamaru. Sakura probably ranked even lower at that time. This was the friendly foundation laid in their childhood.
It couldn't be said that Shikaku had any bad intentions; it was just the way an adult thinks, placing a bet in advance.
Seeing the documents the Hokage had pushed onto him, he sighed softly, then waved his hand. Fine, you go play.
Using Naruto coming to find him as an excuse, Jiraiya gave himself half a day off.
He took Naruto with him, and the two went to soak in a hot spring.
After a couple of small cups of sake, Jiraiya let out a breath of turbid air and finally asked Naruto's purpose.
"A while ago, I met a blond big brother. He encouraged me to study hard." Naruto's opening statement made Jiraiya frown slightly.
He took a sip of his sake. "A blond big brother? Oh, I know who you're talking about. So, what you want has something to do with him?"
Minato Namikaze died at the age of 24. After death, his age didn't count. Whatever age he died at, he would be that age upon resurrection. Naruto was now 15, so there was only a 9-year difference between father and son. Calling him a big brother was not a problem. Jiraiya just found it awkward.
They were all ninja, not sociologists. No one had ever thought about the ethical issues involved before.
Now that this bombshell had dropped, it was a problem, neither big nor small.
How to solve it? It was just as Ino and Hinata had said: they were all people of the world, no need to be bogged down by too many formalities. They would just muddle through.
Naruto explained the purpose of his visit.
He didn't want to disappoint the blond big brother, so he wanted to learn this Flying Thunder God Technique. But he hadn't remembered how to practice it, and had even forgotten the process, only remembering the name. He now wanted Jiraiya to teach him.
"The Flying Thunder God Technique..." Jiraiya covered his face, looking like he wanted to say something but couldn't. This was going to be troublesome.
He was also a quick-witted person. From this matter, he could guess that Minato Namikaze was subtly expressing his dissatisfaction with the village leadership. To say dissatisfaction was a bit of an overstatement; perhaps he was using this as an opportunity to hope the village would give Naruto some compensation.
It was normal for Minato Namikaze to have grievances; anyone in his position would. For him to now demand compensation from the village, for the village to concentrate its resources and give Naruto some tangible benefits, was also reasonable.
Jiraiya felt a headache coming on. As the Hokage, he had the scroll for the Flying Thunder God Technique, but the problem was, could Naruto learn it???
He had spent so much effort teaching Naruto the Rasengan back then.
The Flying Thunder God Technique was too dependent on talent. Even he couldn't do it. Now he was supposed to teach Naruto?
Kakashi had苦练ed with the scroll for a year and had only managed to learn the jutsu after being personally guided by the resurrected Minato Namikaze.
Ino had also only managed to master it after being personally taught by the Second Hokage.
To learn the Flying Thunder God Technique just by studying the scroll and its written descriptions, without a teacher, there had only been one person in the history of Konoha: Minato Namikaze. The Second Hokage was the inventor of the jutsu, which was a different matter.
The Third Hokage couldn't do it, and neither could he, Jiraiya.
Jiraiya asked, seemingly unintentionally, "The Flying Thunder God Technique is the Fourth Hokage's signature move. Did you know that?"
Naruto had no idea and didn't catch the almost blatant hint in his words. He just shook his head in confusion.
Jiraiya cupped his cheek, deep in thought, trying to figure out how to get rid of this troublesome matter...
A quarter of an hour later, the two left the hot spring, their faces flushed, and went to the Yamanaka residence to find Ino.
Ino was resting at home and was shocked when she heard his purpose. "Are you kidding me! You want me to teach Naruto the Flying Thunder God?"
Is he the right material for it? If even Naruto could learn it, then the Flying Thunder God Technique could probably be written into the Ninja Academy's textbooks for those kids to learn. Maybe it could be renamed the Flying Thunder Body Technique then? The Three Basic Jutsu would become the Four Basic Jutsu?
Her mind raced with these thoughts, and she shook her head like a rattle drum. I can't teach him. This isn't a matter of difficulty; it's an impossible task.
Hinata, at her side, tugged at her, signaling her to show at least some basic respect to the Fifth Hokage.
Jiraiya knew it was a difficult request, but to get rid of this hot potato, he had no choice.
He sent Naruto away, then lowered his voice and said to Ino, "He's Minato's son. His genes probably have some information about the Flying Thunder God. You met my, uh, someone in the Land of the Moon, right? Didn't he inherit many of this sage's ninjutsu? I think it's about the same with Minato and Naruto."
About the same? Not even close! Ino didn't say anything.
Jiraiya continued to persuade her. "Just try your best to teach him. Whatever level you can teach him to is fine. At least let him have a general idea. This is also Minato's wish. You understand."
What the hell do I understand? I don't!
She turned her head to the other side, not looking at Jiraiya.
"I'll pay you out of my own pocket, ten million ryo!"
"Not interested."
"Then how about this? It'll count as an S-rank mission. The village will pay you, and I'll personally add another ten million ryo."
Ino hesitated for a moment, but still felt the difficulty was too great and refused. Earning this money would be too much of a pain.
Jiraiya tried to persuade her earnestly, and Hinata also chimed in with a few words of encouragement.
Ino finally relented. "...Alright, how about this? I'm currently training in Sage Mode and need spirit water from Mount Myoboku to help my body absorb natural energy more easily. Lord Hokage, just get me 200 pounds of it."
Energy is conserved. Kimimaro's fusion with the Uchiha bloodline in the "pickling jar" also consumed energy.
If it were a living person, like Ino, she could provide energy to her body by eating, eating a lot, and eating desperately. Kimimaro was already dead. Where was he going to eat? He consumed the energy of the spirit water in the pot.
The original half-full pot of spirit water had already been depleted by a fifth. Considering that Miss Izumi might find Obito Uchiha's hidden stash of Sharingan, and she would snatch them all to use on Kimimaro or Ginkaku, the consumption at that time would be even greater. She had to prepare more spirit water.
The Slug Sage fed herself and her whole family was fed; she didn't need this stuff.
The White Snake Sage? Ino had no connections whatsoever at Ryuchi Cave.
Mount Myoboku was the only place she could find spirit water.
And since Jiraiya was the representative of Mount Myoboku, it would be a waste not to use him. Besides, those frogs had no use for spirit water anyway.
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