Aoshi's words made Jiraiya smile warmly. After all, who wouldn't like someone both talented and polite? Following that, Jiraiya began teaching Aoshi a second Fire Style Jutsu—Great Flame Bullet.
It was an upgraded version of Flame Bullet, with its power increased tenfold. It was a B-rank jutsu.
Although the principle was similar to the original, the difficulty of learning it was significantly higher. The reason was simple: the chakra required was far greater, and the resulting fireball was also much larger, capable of covering a wide area—dozens of meters across.
Naturally, controlling such a massive fireball required precise chakra control. A slight misstep could result in harming oneself before even reaching the enemy.
For the rest of the day, Aoshi focused on practicing Great Flame Bullet.
Even with the foundational knowledge from Flame Bullet, he wasn't able to learn it instantly—highlighting the immense difficulty of B-rank jutsu.
And unlike before, this time Aoshi hadn't obtained the technique through the system's rewards. He had to rely entirely on his own ability.
Thus, by the time night fell, he had yet to master the Great Flame Bullet fully.
After a long day of training, Aoshi and his group returned home.
Meanwhile, Mikoto also returned, accompanied by Tomoki and Ayame—both of whom looked completely exhausted.
Upon asking, Aoshi learned that Mikoto had spent the day teaching them water-walking, as they had already mastered tree climbing before this.
Both tree climbing and water-walking were chakra control exercises for Genin, with water-walking being the more advanced of the two.
Because water constantly flows and shifts, it requires continuous adjustments in chakra output to remain stable on the surface.
---
Three more days quickly passed.
In that time, Aoshi not only mastered Great Flame Bullet, but under Jiraiya's guidance, also 'cleansed' his previously system-gained Earth and Lightning nature transformations—making them seem properly trained.
Additionally, he learned two Earth Release techniques from Jiraiya: the C-rank Earth Style: Earth Flow Wave, which he already mastered quickly, and the B-rank Earth Dragon Bullet, which he was still training and had yet to grasp fully.
As for Lightning Release techniques—Jiraiya didn't know any himself, so naturally, he couldn't teach Aoshi.
Aoshi didn't mind. He'd find another opportunity later to legitimize his Lightning style jutsu.
"No more training today. We're doing a sparring tournament instead."
Looking at Minato and the three orphans, Jiraiya announced the rules: matches would be decided by drawing lots. The winners would then face off to determine the final champion.
The draw resulted in Konan vs. Minato and Nagato vs. Yahiko.
"I want all of you to give it your best. Show me how much you've improved. Don't worry if you get hurt—Aoshi is a medical ninja."
The first match between Konan and Minato began.
As soon as Jiraiya gave the signal, Konan—already aware of Minato's strength—took the initiative. She flung several white shuriken from both hands.
Upon closer inspection, one would realize all the shuriken were made of paper.
These were Paper Shuriken! With chakra infused, even fragile paper became sharp and durable—dangerous enough to cut flesh.
Konan's accuracy was also excellent. The paper shuriken flew at Minato from multiple directions.
But he evaded them all with ease. And before anyone could react, he had already closed the distance to Konan.
Once in close quarters, Konan stood no chance.
But she had anticipated this. Her expression remained calm as she quickly formed hand signs and created a paper clone.
She sent the clone forward to intercept Minato while using the opening to launch another wave of paper shuriken from behind.
Hoping to land a decisive strike, she coordinated clone and projectile flawlessly. For someone who had only trained under Jiraiya for a year, her tactics were impressive.
But they weren't enough to best Minato. He cleverly redirected the attack so that Konan's own shuriken hit her paper clone.
At the same time, he landed a solid blow on Konan herself, sending her flying.
"Minato wins!"
Jiraiya promptly declared the result.
"Ahh, Konan still lost. But Minato-senpai really is strong," Yahiko said with a touch of regret.
Aoshi immediately rushed over to catch Konan, who had fallen to the ground, and began healing her injuries.
Meanwhile, the next match—Yahiko versus Nagato—began.
Seeing Nagato hesitating with a guilty look, ready to surrender, Yahiko stopped him. "Nagato, I want you to go all out. Let me see how far apart our strength really is."
Though Nagato had the weakest presence among the three orphans, everyone knew he was the strongest of the trio, just seriously lacking in self-confidence.
Seeing Yahiko's sincerity, Nagato could only nod.
Aoshi, who already knew the likely outcome, wasn't too concerned.
While healing Konan, he also offered some advice.
"Konan, your paper manipulation jutsu has a lot of potential. You might consider incorporating explosive tags to increase its power."
"Explosive tags?" Konan repeated thoughtfully.
"Think about it—your paper shuriken didn't land on Minato, but if they were explosive tags, even a near miss could detonate and deal damage."
"But explosive tags are expensive… Using them that often would cost too much."
That was an unavoidable reality. As a war orphan, even after completing missions and earning income, Konan wouldn't be able to afford such an extravagant expense.
"You could ask Jiraiya-sama to teach you how to make them yourself." Hearing that, Konan's eyes lit up.
If she learned to craft explosive tags, she could even sell them to earn money. Tired of living in poverty, Konan secretly had a bit of a money-loving side, too. Just not as extreme as Kakuzu's.
"Aoshi-nii, you're amazing! You thought of such a clever idea so quickly."
Aoshi just gave her a calm smile. After all, this was the very path Konan would one day walk on her own. He had merely nudged her onto it earlier.
After all, if she had to buy all six hundred billion explosive tags one day, even Kakuzu couldn't earn enough to cover it.
While they were talking, Yahiko and Nagato's match had also concluded. Although Yahiko urged him to go all out, Nagato wasn't foolish enough to actually do it.
If he had, he would've had to kneel on the spot and beg Yahiko not to die.
Instead, Nagato held back, and they exchanged a fair number of blows—allowing Yahiko to fully showcase his strength before being defeated.
[Treatment of Konan completed. Reward: 1 Blue Orb.]
[Congratulations, you gained 30 Chakra points.]
Just as he finished treating Konan, Aoshi turned to begin healing Yahiko.
"Thanks, Aoshi-nii," Yahiko said gratefully.
[Treatment of Yahiko completed. Reward: 1 Blue Orb.]
[Congratulations, you gained 30 Chakra points.]
And with that, as Aoshi finished treating Yahiko, the final match between Minato and Nagato was about to begin.