Chapter 402: Naruto Arrives at Mount Myōboku
"It is nothing." Uchiha Akira's lips curved into a faint, knowing smile. He glanced down at the blonde genin clutching his bandaged limb. "This brat simply developed an S-Rank ninjutsu. He failed to control the output and nearly crippled his own arm in the process."
Jiraiya froze. The playful demeanor vanished from the Sannin's face, replaced by sheer disbelief.
"Come again?" he choked out. "An S-Rank ninjutsu? Him?"
He jabbed a thick finger toward Naruto, who merely offered a sheepish, wide-toothed grin. Jiraiya knew the boy possessed monstrous potential—he was Minato's son, after all—but an S-Rank technique was not just a parlor trick. It was the absolute pinnacle of shinobi arts, the kind of power hoarded as a village's ultimate heritage.
Akira let the silence stretch for a heartbeat before delivering the final blow to Jiraiya's sanity.
"He applied Wind Release nature transformation directly into the Rasengan," Akira explained, his tone measured and precise. "Then, he pushed the shape transformation to its absolute limit. He successfully developed the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken."
Jiraiya stared at Akira, then back at Naruto. Once the reality of the achievement finally sank in, a booming laugh erupted from his chest. He stepped forward and delivered a massive, open-handed slap to Naruto's back.
"Outstanding work, Naruto!"
"Ouch! Hey, watch the arm, Pervy Sage!" Naruto yelped, nearly face-planting into the floorboards.
"To think you would pull this off..." Jiraiya chuckled, his eyes softening with deep, unmistakable pride. "This kind of raw talent... it is even more monstrous than Minato's back in the day."
"However."
Akira's cold voice sliced cleanly through the celebratory mood.
"The technique carries severe side effects." He gestured toward Naruto's trembling, heavily wrapped arm. "You saw the damage. Right now, this jutsu is nothing more than a semi-finished product. It destroys the user just as effectively as it destroys the enemy."
Jiraiya's grin faded into a grim scowl.
"A double-edged sword. Killing a thousand enemies at the cost of eight hundred of your own," he muttered, crossing his arms. "A technique like that cannot be thrown around recklessly. We should classify it as a Forbidden Jutsu."
Akira shook his head dismissively.
"There is no need for bans. The side effects only occur because he is holding it. As long as he learns to throw the technique, the backlash will naturally cease to exist."
Jiraiya blinked, stunned. As a seasoned master of ninjutsu, the sheer mechanical difficulty of that statement hit him instantly. The Rasengan was the ultimate peak of shape transformation. It required constant, physical contact to maintain its violent rotation. The second it left the user's hand, without a continuous feed of chakra, the containment would fail. It would instantly dissipate into harmless wind or detonate prematurely.
"Since the foundation of the technique has already been forged, the next logical step is eliminating the flaw," Akira continued, his dark eyes locking onto Jiraiya. "Therefore, I need you to take Naruto to Mount Myōboku. He is going to learn Sage Mode."
Jiraiya stiffened.
"Only by enveloping the jutsu in Natural Energy can he maintain its structural stability after it leaves his hand," Akira concluded. "That is how he will throw it."
Hearing the words Sage Mode, Jiraiya's face drained of color. He immediately waved both hands in frantic refusal.
"No, absolutely not! Akira, you are grossly underestimating what Sage Mode entails!" he barked. "Do you think it is some standard academy trick? Even a peerless genius like yours truly had to spend years of grueling meditation to barely grasp the basics!"
He jabbed a thumb at his own chest. "And even now, I still require the assistance of the Two Great Sage Toads just to enter the mode safely!"
Jiraiya paced the floorboards, his voice rising in agitation. "We are standing on the precipice of war! Hostilities could erupt at any second. Where exactly am I supposed to find the time to babysit Naruto in quiet cultivation at Mount Myōboku? If he needs three to five years to master this, the war will be over and we will all be dead!"
Naruto, who had been listening to the exchange with growing bewilderment, finally chimed in. "Hey, Pervy Sage... is this Sage Mode thing really that hard?"
"Hard?" Jiraiya rolled his eyes so far back they nearly vanished into his skull. "It is lethal, you idiot! If you fail to balance the Natural Energy perfectly, you do not just get a stomach ache. You turn into a stone toad! You will be stuck sitting by the oil fountain at Mount Myōboku as a lawn ornament for the rest of eternity!"
Naruto's face instantly flushed a sickly shade of green. He slapped both hands over his cheeks, his wide blue eyes darting around as if he could already feel warts sprouting on his skin and a croak building in his throat.
"Do not panic."
Akira stepped smoothly to Naruto's side, his heavy hand clamping down on the boy's trembling shoulder. The grounding weight of his grip instantly silenced Naruto's rising hysteria.
Akira shifted his cold, unyielding gaze back to Jiraiya. "I will be accompanying you."
Jiraiya blinked. "You?"
"With me present, he will not die," Akira stated, his voice carrying the absolute weight of a decree. "also..."
He calmly raised three fingers.
"It will not take years. It will not take months, either."
He dropped two fingers, leaving only the stark truth hanging in the air.
"Three days. Three days will be more than enough."
Jiraiya's jaw practically unhinged. He stared at Akira as if the man had just sprouted a second head. In the corner of the room, even the perpetually composed Kakashi stiffened, his visible eye widening in sheer shock.
Three days? To master the legendary Sage Mode? It was utter lunacy. A complete fantasy.
"Akira... are you out of your mind?" Jiraiya swallowed hard, his throat suddenly dry. "Do you think senjutsu is some cheap trick you can pick up at a roadside stall?"
Akira's expression did not shift. Instead, that characteristic, domineering confidence bled into his aura, suffocating any further arguments.
"It will take three days because I am Uchiha Akira," he said quietly, the sheer arrogance of the statement backed by a terrifying history of absolute success. "If I say it can be done, then it is already a certainty. We leave immediately."
"But..." Kakashi finally broke his silence, stepping out from the shadows. His brow furrowed deeply as he addressed his leader. "Hokage-sama. The situation on the front lines is on a knife's edge. Kumogakure and Iwagakure are massing their forces; they could launch a full-scale offensive at any given moment. The 'wolf pack' infiltrators are still wreaking havoc across our supply routes."
Kakashi took a breath, his tactical mind running through the disastrous possibilities. "If both you and Jiraiya-sama abandon the camp simultaneously... should the enemy strike in the next few days, who will command the vanguard?"
It was a deeply valid concern. Jiraiya was the supreme commander of the front lines. Akira was their god-like Hokage. The sudden disappearance of both pillars of strength would inevitably send shockwaves through the ranks and shatter morale.
Meeting Kakashi's worried gaze with cool indifference, Akira subtly flicked his wrist. A heavy, three-pronged black kunai materialized in his grasp. Carved into the handle was a complex, glowing golden formula.
"Take it," Akira ordered, casually tossing the weapon through the air.
Kakashi caught it purely on reflex. He looked down at the strange seal, his lone eye narrowing as recognition dawned. "This is..."
"A spatial coordinate," Akira supplied smoothly. "The moment you inject your chakra into that seal, I will sense it. It does not matter if I am halfway across the continent or in another dimension entirely. I will instantly lock onto that coordinate and return before the enemy can even draw their blades. So, cast your worries aside."
Akira stepped forward, clapping a firm hand onto Kakashi's shoulder. The physical weight of the gesture was a direct transfer of authority. "I am leaving the front lines in your hands, Kakashi."
Kakashi's fingers tightened around the cold metal of the kunai. The anxiety in his eye dissolved, replaced by the hardened resolve of a veteran shinobi.
"Understood. You can rest assured, Hokage-sama. The line will not break."
Akira nodded in satisfaction. "Excellent."
He pivoted sharply, his dark cloak billowing as he leveled a glare at the Toad Sage. "What are you still standing around for, Jiraiya? Initiate the summon."
Jiraiya let out a long, long-suffering sigh, shaking his head at the sheer audacity of the man. "What a reckless, tyrannical Hokage we have," he grumbled under his breath.
Despite his complaints, the Sannin's hands moved with blinding speed. He bit down hard on his thumb, drawing a bead of blood, and slammed his hands together in a rapid sequence of seals.
"Reverse Summoning Technique!"
A massive plume of dense white smoke exploded outward, swallowing the center of the command tent. When the swirling vapor finally cleared, the space was empty. Uchiha Akira, Jiraiya, and Naruto had vanished without a trace.
Mount Myōboku. One of the Three Great Unexplored Sage Regions of the shinobi world.
The sky above was a permanent, surreal canvas of swirling purple and deep crimson. Colossal, prehistoric-looking plants towered high into the alien clouds, casting massive shadows over the vibrant landscape. The very air itself felt heavy, saturated with a concentration of Natural Energy so thick and pure it was practically tangible against the skin.
High above the ground, a violent explosion of white smoke erupted atop a gargantuan lotus leaf.
"Cough! Cough, cough..."
"Whoa... is this Mount Myōboku?" Naruto hacked, waving his hands frantically to clear the lingering smoke from his face. He blinked, his jaw dropping as he took in his surroundings.
Beneath his sandals rested a single green lotus leaf larger than a mansion. In the far distance, a massive waterfall cascaded down a cliffside, flowing with a strange, golden-yellow liquid. And everywhere he looked, scattered across the giant flora and stone statues, were toads. Hundreds of toads of every conceivable shape and size, croaking and leaping through the mystical realm.
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