Naruto : Bonds of a Teacher.

"Hey-Hey! Pervy Sage!"

Jiraiya grumbled incoherent curses at his newly minted apprentice, "Damn runt! It's the glorious Master Jiraiya to you!" he accentuated his point by supporting the aforementioned statement with an absolutely fantastic kabuki dance. His actions though were sadly ignored.

Feeling giddy, "What sort of training are we gonna do, Pervy Sage?!" Naruto asked with a bounce to his heels.

Offended at being ignored so easily, Jiraiya let it slide for now. "We won't be doing any training for now. We'll make a stop at the town up ahead, get some refreshments and rest. Then we'll start — the day after tomorrow." he added the last part with a bit more force than necessary to get his point across.

"Aw."

Downtrodden, Naruto fell silent and skulked his steps along with his teacher. Jiraiya was quite thankful for this, mind you. Silence gave him time to amass his thoughts and decide exactly how he was going to use up the three years — give or take — that he had been granted with the boy. He only had an inkling of an idea as to what made this bundle of energy tick — nothing concrete.

If Jiraiya was to be completely honest, Naruto took more after his mother than he did with his father; and despite the strikingly similar shade of hair and eyes that he shared with his father, nearly every other thing this lad shared with the ferocious redhead. But — and this was a huge but — Jiraiya vividly remembered the show this little brat put up back in Tanzaku Gai. Naruto: the talent-less, stubborn, harebrained academy dead last had mastered the Rasengan in a mere month — just to win a bet, and to protect Tsunade, but mostly because it was cool.

Cool?!

Minato had perfected this A-rank Assault technique in three years for lethal uses in the Third Great Shinobi War.

It took him — one of the Legendary Sannin and the conqueror of all that was feminine — six whole months to master the Rasengan so he could complement his own arsenal of already well versed shinobi techniques with another surefire killing technique.

Naruto had perfected it in a month, just because it was cool to him — let that seep in.

Now, it wasn't like Jiraiya was trying to over-inflate his rather modest self-ego — even though he did infact believe that he was a pretty fantastic teacher who also kicked ass on the side — there was something rather contradictory with the little fellow Minato and Kushina had conjured up. On one hand there was Sarutobi-sensei who was always insistent to point out the fact that to get Naruto to learn virtually anything that wasn't a recipe of ramen was no simple endeavor.

This was a kid who had essentially flunked his academy graduation three times in a row just because he felt confident he could make it this time and prove a 'point'. Sadly, that hadn't worked out pretty well in Naruto's favor and Jiraiya was still completely oblivious as to whatever the hell that 'point' he was trying to prove actually was. Nonetheless, he did respect Naruto's tenacity to not give up even after his constant failures since anyone else might have lost all hope in themselves after flunking such simple tests over and over, but Naruto was too darn stubborn — and stupid — to feel downtrodden. Instead, it drove the boy to push himself even more than before — well beyond his limits. Sarutobi-sensei had also pointed out one other thing to him that was worth mentioning — never back Naruto into a corner that he absolutely couldn't escape.

Even Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, the wisest man in the entirety of the Elemental Nations — the man who had essentially kept an eye on Naruto since he was a little baby — was completely oblivious as to what Naruto was actually capable of in situations where it actually mattered. The Academy dead-last with horrible cloning skills had managed to master an A-ranked Jōnin level Kinjutsu in a mere two hours just on the off chance that if he managed to master some fabulous skill from the forbidden scroll and make a magnificent showing to the Hokage come morning, he might be able pass his graduation exam and consequently make his 'point' — mind you, Jiraiya still didn't know what that 'point' was — let that seep in as well.

Sure the goofball had tons and tons of chakra in reserve to take as an excuse for it being so easy for the kid — reserves that put even Jiraiya's to shame — and he also possessed the stamina required to sustain the strain this technique put on his body for extended periods of time; stamina that would help him quite well in the years to come if you caught Jiraiya's drift — cue a perverted giggle. Still, there was no argument to be made in anyone's mind that the Shadow Clone jutsu was still a rather hard technique to master: the technique that had become practically second nature to the boy still took immense concentration and skill to pull off — whether Naruto knew it himself or otherwise — not to mention that Naruto had managed to learn it in merely two hours.

That last part bugged Jiraiya for reasons he'd rather not admit.

Also, instead of going the usual and easy way of working this technique out with the three handsign version like it had been intended for first use cases in the instructions laid down by the Second Hokage himself, Naruto had instead opted for the exponentially harder variant with a single, cross type hand sign. When Jiraiya had questioned that stupid decision of his pupil with a generous intent, the brat had the gall to wave him off with a retort that it was just because he knew he sucked at pulling off handsigns in a flurry and that he'd skipped the inconsequential and tiny instructions jotted down by the side of the scroll since he was on a pretty tight schedule that night.

Huh.

What do you know?

Important instructions to Forbidden techniques written in the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing were inconsequential to kids these days; huh, but Jiraiya digressed. He was a sage: a ninja so legendary that women practically threw themselves at his feet — a man who had undergone years of rigorous training in the sacred valley of Mt. Myōboku to tap into the infinite potential of the sage arts — and so, it was also worth mentioning that Jiraiya was a rather patient and understanding fellow.

But seriously, what the actual fuck was wrong with this kid?!

When Jiraiya had reasoned the worst case scenario to Naruto for failing the Shadow Clone technique on his rather amateur first attempt with all the seriousness he could conjure up — that likely outcome being death — he'd gotten a rather peculiar answer: one that still haunted him to this day.

"Meh."

What the fuck was that supposed to mean anyway?!

It wasn't even a proper syllable for crying out loud!

Deep breaths.

He was a rather patient man.

So, trying to gauge what else this odd kid was capable of, Jiraiya had tried to give him some tests. Shogi hadn't worked out as well as he'd hoped: each game, the kid had this stupid tendency to leave his king undefended instead of being guarded like it was intended in the rules, Naruto's king was almost always pushed on the offense. Naturally it ended in a checkmate for him everytime as well. Jiraiya had finally had enough on the third try and folded the board. He hadn't even bothered asking Naruto his strategy this time since, to be frank, there hadn't been any.

The kid had absolutely no strategic mindset to speak of.

And so, Jiraiya had moved on to testing the boy's physical aspects instead. Sending him to deliver a letter to a place that took any capable chunin at least three hours with the promise of an all-you-can-eat-ramen treat on the houseif Naruto could do it any better than what was normal for a regular run of the mill chunin had yielded unexpected results.

It had ended rather horribly for Jiraiya.

His checkbook had taken a pretty severe hit.

Trying to follow the kid from the shadows had been virtually impossible: Naruto was fast — he'd noted with a whimper — like blazing fast; the kind of fast this toad sage's eyes had not witnessed in well over two decades kinda fast. The rumors of the blonde prankster outgunning the Leaf's ANBU after his tricks hadn't been a hoax after all. And so, with all these positive points in mind Jiraiya gone in to test Naruto's hand to hand abilities with naturally aspirated high hopes.

It had ended rather horribly for Naruto.

He had sported a blue eye, split lip, and a bruised ego for a week.

The kid never seemed to surprise Jiraiya, did he?

Jiraiya had taken detailed notes on Naruto's Taijutsu style — or lack thereof. The kid had essentially no tact or formal style for any conventional way of the martial arts. When questioned why he didn't pay more attention to at least the physical portion of the Academy lessons since he despised book related stuff as much as his toads hated snakes — just so Jiraiya could have had a better foundation to build on than a metaphoric pit — Naruto had retorted that the Academy's stupid styles made him feel rather cramped and insecure. Every teacher — especially Iruka — had tried to drill in at least some tact into the boy's body through several other styles as well, but had failed miserably at the end of the day when Naruto ran off mid lesson without any improvement.

Even the Third Hokage himself had given the boy some private hands on seeing his difficulties in the Academy spars, but even that hadn't turned out well. Sarutobi-sensei — contrary to general consensus which said that he was a rather lenient fellow — was not so calm when it came to teaching. Hiruzen had taken more after his younger sensei than the elder one in the ways of teaching, and so, Jiraiya knew if even The Professor himself had failed in drilling some physical tact into his pupil's numb-skull — there was something seriously wrong with the relationship between Naruto and Taijutsu.

Jiraiya had been rather intrigued by that last 'insecure' part: that was not a word one usually associated with problems related to hand to hand combat abilities, but Naruto had skillfully dodged that question by saying that he didn't even know what that word meant and to understand what he was trying to say anyways. His smart explanation had consisted of, "—I wanna go whoosh, then swoosh and then BAM!" or something along those lines if memory served this Toad Sage correctly.

Gestures had not helped in making Jiraiya understand just what the hell his apprentice was trying to convey unto him. Cross legged and squinty-eyed, Jiraiya had sidled out some extra time in his notebook to work on the boy's communication aspects as well. If his claims to be Hokage turned out to be something more than an air-filled boast in the future; it would be absolutely necessary for his peers to understand his language lest he let his apprentice be labeled a mentally challenged freak of nature with a loose tongue.

Heh. Loose tongue. His pupil.

Get it?

…Never mind.

"Pervy Sage!" he really was a lost cause, this idiot.

"Hm. What is it?"

"You want some candy?!" Naruto chirped excitedly.

Jiraiya's eyes turned to the side at the vendor selling some confectionery and he smiled. Naruto could be such a kid, "Eh, why not? You're paying though. It's a master-pupil tradition of sorts for the student to pay for his teacher's meals. Keep that in mind for the rest of the trip as well." he remarked offhandedly. Free food and good sex was always a welcome in Jiraiya's books.

"Stingy old coot,"

Said coot flamed like a volcano when a couple of passing goddesses laughed to his face hearing that comment, "Damn runt, absolutely no respect I tell you!" Jiraiya fumed silently by the roadside. After a few minutes of baited silence, he started wondering just what exactly was taking his student so long to buy some candy.

"...what do you mean it's pricier in this town! You give me fifty for fifty, not forty!"

Ah, the good old bargain that never ended in the consumer's favor.

At least the kid had one of the principles in life down.

Walking up to his pupil's side, "Naruto, let it go." Jiraiya intoned calmly.

Naruto grumbled for it being too darn expensive, but threw him a pack of candies anyway. While master and pupil munched on the sweet balls of goodness, "Hey, Pervy Sage." Naruto said, a bit on the quieter side as he gulped down his treat. His tone was a little…odd.

Jiraiya glanced at him and noticing his fidgeting form he spoke, "What is it, Naruto?"

"Can I, you know, surpass Sasuke when we are done with this training?"

Feet halting, "What makes you say that you haven't already surpassed him?" Jiraiya retorted in askance. Jiraiya knew how wide the gap between the genius and stubborn little fool of Team 7 like him was from prior experience. They were so alike to his own squad from back in the day that it wasn't even funny, but it would be humbling to know just what kind of a student Jiraiya had taken on, and how much of his teachings was Naruto actually worthy to receive. Minato's son or not — strength and skills were earned not given when it came to being Jiraiya's student.

"I, uh, lost in that last battle at the Valley, -ttebayo! Sasuke trumped me nearly move for move." Naruto confessed, stopping his steps a couple meters ahead of Jiraiya as well. Head bowed, Jiraiya knew the boy was tormented even now from his failure ridden posture. "He is way more stronger than me." the last of his words honestly surprised Jiraiya. As far as he could surmise his new pupil's mindset, he was as headstrong as Kushina was back in the day and way too proud in his own abilities — nearly to a fault — but it seemed as though there was more to this funky little genin than met the eye; at least he knew his own weaknesses and was forthcoming about them, Jiraiya noted with a proud smile.

It didn't help Jiraiya's case any that this brat reminded him an awful lot about his own younger self. Jiraiya absolutely did not want Naruto to turn out the way he had. Putting so much emphasis on chasing after a person who didn't even want to return home of his own accord and eventually losing sight of what was actually right in front of him was a mistake Jiraiya did not wish to see repeated - least of all by in his own apprentice. Even if he did not like it very much, Naruto would have to be made to come to an understanding that Sasuke wasn't kidnapped. The Uchiha had betrayed his village to be apprenticed to an S-class criminal from the Leaf. If it weren't for Tsunade being the Hokage, a woman who had a frighteningly large soft spot for this idiot; Sasuke's name would currently be listed at the top of the Bingo Book.

The sooner this idiot realized this and faced the facts of life, the better. At least he had someone as awesome and legendary as Jiraiya himself to guide him.

That was always a plus, right?

"I never would have thought that you were modest enough to confess it yourself."

"Yeah." Naruto nodded, "It makes two of us, I guess."

"What changed your mind then?"

"That last clash we had, I put everything I had in that final Rasengan - Kyūbi and all. But Sasuke's Chidori ripped right through it as if my strongest technique was nothing to him. I actually believed after my fight with Gaara that the gap between our strengths had been closed; at least a little. But in that fight, one on one, Sasuke was still overpowering me : It was like he putting me in place and I couldn't do anything about it." Naruto whispered with moist eyes.

Huh.

Ironic was more like it.

On the one hand there was Sasuke. Jiraiya had seen the look in his eyes during their short little bout at the hospital's roof. Those eyes seeing nothing but revenge were all but lost to him; the same as Orochimaru had once been. But much more than that, Jiraiya had seen the anguish and humiliation in the Uchiha's eyes when he'd laid witness to the pure destructive potential Minato's prized technique wielded; out of Naruto's sight. It seemed that Naruto was actually undermining his father's skills.

And the Fourth's legendary techniques were a force to be reckoned with. Ask Iwa who were still trying and failing to replicate them.

"In a straight on collision between the two Chidori is surely the stronger technique. I'll give you that, Naruto." when his pupil's shoulders sagged even more than before, Jiraiya smiled and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "But do you actually know why that is?"

Naruto soundlessly shook his head.

"Your Rasengan is the epitome of chakra shape manipulation,"

"It is?!"

Jiraiya looked at him, offended, "Of course it is,"

"Hehe, what's epitome by the way?" Naruto asked, rubbing the back of neck sheepishly.

Jiraiya ignored him for a while after that.

Truly, kids these days had no idea what kind of techniques they were given. Honestly, he'd almost resisted the urge to wring that scarecrow's neck for teaching a revenge obsessed kid an assassination technique as powerful as the Chidori when Sasuke wasn't mentally prepared for handling what wielding such a power entailed. It was only thanks to Naruto's insistence to Tsunade that Sasuke hadn't been trialed on grounds for high treason for aiming an assassination technique on a comrade with an intent to kill. But Jiraiya been lucky enough that his own pupil at least had a technique that was just as powerful to counter Sasuke's Chidori, if not more. The thought of not having a pupil to teach was frankly disheartening to visualize; life would get boring pretty quickly.

The thought of him going to the afterlife to meet an irate redhead yelling bloody murder at him for getting her baby boy killed was pretty frightening as well.

"But Kakashi devised the Chidori after being enamored by his own sensei's technique." Jiraiya added.

"Whoa. Must have been one hell of a technique!" Naruto damn near squealed, amazed.

Jiraiya chuckled, "Yeah. The Rasengan was quite the jutsu back then. Minato was always a showman," he gave Naruto a knowing look. And the look in Naruto's eyes told Jiraiya that he'd gotten the reference.

Taking the bait, "Whoa. Kakashi-sensei was taught by the Fourth?!" Naruto instantly asked, starry eyed.

Jiraiya chuckled some more, "Yeah. You should have seen him back in the day. He tailed Minato as if he were god's gift to man. Nearly every day, Kakashi would beg Minato if his beloved sensei would teach him the Rasengan or the Hiraishin today. Never worked out pretty well for him in the end though, especially when Kushina was around..." the Toad Sage nearly bit off the tip of his tongue at that last part.

He'd said too much!

Naruto blinked, "Who's Kushina?" he naturally had to ask. "...and what's this Hiraishin?!"

Dear Lord.

"N-Nothing you need to worry about." Jiraiya ground out meekly. He was slipping, damn it!

"Oh. Okay then." Naruto let it go seeing Jiraiya's hesitance on the topic - much to Jiraiya's relief. The Toad Sage wasn't quite prepared to talk about that yet and neither was Naruto. Even Naruto knew he shouldn't not delve too deep into a topic that the bearer of said subject himself wasn't comfortable talking about. Naruto himself had very many demons of his own that he'd never want to talk openly to someone, after all.

Aside from the depressing thoughts though…

"Man, I should have gone on a trip with Kakashi-sensei instead." Naruto lamented.

Jiraiya nearly tripped and landed on his face,"Oi! I take offense to that." he grumbled, "I taught the fourth, who in turn taught Kakashi. I'm at the top of the food chain here!" the kid had practically insulted him to his face.

Naruto huffed, "You're still just a pervert!" he said indignantly.

Jiraiya's lips curled lower into a scowl, "Your prized sensei is an avid reader of my literature, you know." he argued, equally indignant. His pupil was absolutely not having the last word.

"It's not literature," Naruto clipped, miffed. "It's smut."

Jiraiya caught Naruto's shoulders with a serious glint in his eyes, "And I'm no mere pervert," he flipped the blonde around and got eye level with him. A perverted wiggle to his eyebrows and fingers cued, "I'm a big one!" Naruto was honestly ashamed that he hadn't seen that one coming. "That makes it so much better," the blonde remarked dryly.

"You should show some more respect, you damn runt! Do you have any idea how famous I am?!" this kid actually didn't realize that ninja from all round the globe would give an arm just to get a month's worth of training with someone as awesome as him; much less the amount of time Naruto had been officially privileged to by the village. The kid should have been thankful for this trip too, because had it been for the Third Hokage who had been truly overprotective of the blonde to his very last breath, Naruto would never even would have been allowed to take this trip had the man been alive. Tsunade, fortunately, had a really large soft spot for idiotic, doe-eyed kids.

Naruto scoffed, "To perverts maybe, but not to me -ttebayo!" he bit right back.

"Fine!" Jiraiya huffed, looking the other way crossed arms.

Naruto mirrored him and pouted. "Whatever," he grumbled.

The rest of the trip was made with a melancholy silence.

…These were going to be a long three years.

Reaching the inn had been an affair that Jiraiya could frankly have compared to visiting someone's funeral. It was that quiet. Naruto, true to his word, had not spoken a single word to him. The kid could definitely hold a grudge, Jiraiya had to give him that. But with the kind of metabolism and endless pits of energy Naruto seemed to possess, it was hard to imagine that sharing a room with Naruto could be so damn quiet. The silence between them could have been broken by a pin. And it was unnerving the Toad Sage beyond measure. "Stop sulking already, will you." Jiraiya finally gave in and accepted defeat.

Naruto perked up. But only a little, "I'm not sulking," he denied proudly. That obnoxious grin of his was annoying.

Jiraiya sighed and started unpacking his stuff. "Here," he threw a box to Naruto who deftly caught it without even looking back at him. Naruto currently had his back to him and Jiraiya was almost entirely certain that it should have hit his pupil's head bang on, being the oblivious idiot that he always was. But it hadn't.

Hm. Now this was certainly intriguing.

"What this?" Naruto asked, breaking him out of his reverie.

"The waitress from Ichiraku's gave it to me before we left. Said you'd love what it's contents had to offer."

"Whoa. Ayame nee-chan packed it for me? Awesome!"

Quickly undoing the strings, Naruto hugged the countless packets worth of powder for preparing fresh ramen broth for dear life. His big sister was an angel sent from the heavens to him.

"What's that?" Jiraiya asked, even though he had already scoured it's contents pretty shamelessly to check for any weird tricks or traps. It was nice to play ignorant sometimes, right?

Naruto craned his neck back and shot him a dirty look, "They are not for you is what they are." he huffed.

Jiraiya pouted. "How will I teach you an awesome new jutsu if I don't even know everything about your stuff?" he sulked sneakily. Naruto fidgeted and looked between the contents of his hands and the grinning Toad Sage with a mechanical stance.

"Well...?"

"I'm weighing my options."

Jiraiya nearly laughed. Leave it to Kushina's son to have difficulty choosing between a powerful jutsu and a bowl of ramen.

"No." Naruto finally ground out, earning a quirk of an eyebrow from Jiraiya. "Naruto absolutely does not share ramen. Plain and simple. No matter what." the blonde nodded to himself, looking proud of his choice.

Well his pupil had an interesting quirk of his own.

Both men arranged their gear and clothes within their personal closets since there were thankfully two of them, "Let's go to sleep early. We start training first thing tomorrow morning." Jiraiya said, thick and firm. Seeing as how the sun had been down for nearly an hour already, Naruto started unfurling his futon to do as he was instructed. Unlike Kakashi, who loved playing psychological warfare on his team of misfit genin for plain amusement, Jiraiya was a man who did not joke around when it came to actually training his students in something.

"Didn't you say we had an off-day tomorrow?" Naruto quipped.

"I changed my mind." Jiraiya responded.

Even though the man could care less for what Naruto did after the instructions to his teachings were done and dusted, Jiraiya did actively participate in restating his words if they weren't clear enough the first time or actually agree and give some tips if Naruto wasn't getting anything right. Jiraiya wasn't a man who held his student's finger every step of the way, but neither was he a useless teacher who couldn't care less about what they did during their training time. It was just his impression that the sooner Naruto became self-reliant, the better. He wouldn't always be around after all.

"What are we going to train in?" Naruto chirped, pulling his comforter up to his neck.

"I haven't decided yet." Jiraiya grumbled, annoyed. "We'll see tomorrow. Now sleep." he snapped.

Naruto was out like a light within seconds after falling on the pillow.

And if the foot crushed in Jiraiya's cheek wasn't enough to wisp away his sleep, the uncertainty Naruto's question had planted in his mind was certainly enough to do the job.

Unlike Minato, Jiraiya had absolutely no idea what to do with Naruto. Minato had been a genius, sure, but the boy had at least been predictable. Naruto, unlike his father who had been a natural to the contemporary shinobi arts, was not a genius in any way whatsoever and was entirely unpredictable for now. Jiraiya could almost envision Kushina giggling like a loon from somewhere up there on his miserable, sleepless state.

Moreover, the foot stuck in his face stank. A lot.

~TBC~