Chakra was an incredibly wondrous form of energy.
When ninja applied it to combat and ninjutsu, it produced tremendous fighting power. But if it was applied to production and daily life, one could state without exaggeration:
Chakra was the number-one productive force.
After the greatest crisis in the shinobi world ended and peace endured for a long time, the absence of war allowed chakra to be widely applied across all aspects of life. Light-and-shadow technologies also advanced by leaps and bounds…
And in that era, Konoha produced a legendary female director named Sarupi Erufei.
She directed countless classic works, but her most famous—and final—film was titled "The First Shinobi Grandmaster."
The film told a biographical story of Konoha's legendary ninja, White Yaksha. During its runtime, there was a particular piece of dialogue that, thanks to the movie's massive success, later inspired countless ninja to make pilgrimages to a certain holy land.
In the film, White Yaksha—after waiting endlessly in Konoha for the "Great Mentor" Jiraiya to return—finally asked him:
"Jiraiya-senpai, what is it that drives you to keep traveling?"
The Great Mentor, with an expression untouched by praise or humiliation and a voice weathered by time, replied:
"Listen to the toads, don't let them get hurt.
Grow up quickly, so you can protect them.
Beautiful bumps, sprouting in happiness.
Toad Sage Arts—warm, and kind…"
Later, this monologue was set to music by a rap artist and spread widely. The scene itself was selected as one of the Top Ten Most Iconic Moments of a Century in the Shinobi World.
And later still…
The truth came out.
There had never been such a conversation between the Great Mentor and White Yaksha.
Sarupi Erufei had forcibly inserted this "fabricated" scene into the biography simply because Mount Myōboku's toads had sponsored the film.
In short—
It was a victory for product placement.
Ironically, The First Shinobi Grandmaster became both the peak and downfall of Sarupi Erufei's career. Because she fabricated an inappropriate romantic subplot in the film, she was sued after release by the Konoha Hagoromo Protection Association in the Konoha Supreme People's Court.
Her reputation was utterly ruined, and she was expelled from the film industry.
That said, industry rumors always claimed that this was a setup orchestrated by her fellow villager and rival director, Namiron Ryo.
Naturally—every circle had its open and hidden battles.
But that was all in the future.
The part of this story that was true was this:
Jiraiya's initial reason for traveling really had come from the Great Toad Sage's prophecy. During the Second Shinobi World War, Jiraiya had even left the battlefield because of it.
His journey's purpose was to write novels while searching for the Child of Prophecy.
However, the main reason he was currently absent from Konoha had nothing to do with prophecy.
It was because he was tracking another member of the Legendary Sannin—
Orochimaru, who had long since defected from the village.
And Hagoromo truly was waiting for Jiraiya to return to Konoha.
Unfortunately, he waited until the daylilies had long since gone cold—and Jiraiya still hadn't come back.
At one point, Hagoromo even began to suspect that Jiraiya had caused a fatal incident during "research," settled down locally, and started a family.
Given that perverted old man's nature, it wasn't impossible.
But even if he were getting married, shouldn't he come back to Konoha for it?
And had he forgotten about that old virgin Tsunade?!
In any case, Orochimaru had vanished for ages, and Hagoromo still couldn't get Jiraiya to return.
On the one hand, only when Jiraiya came back could Hagoromo most smoothly head to Mount Myōboku.
He had serious business to discuss with Gamamaru, and the timing had already been planned.
On the other hand, while raising kids, Hagoromo discovered a small problem.
In Hagoromo's teaching syllabus
(yes, a real one—formal and unexpectedly detailed),
a later course included Fourth Hokage–style Rasengan training.
But the question was—
How exactly was he supposed to teach Rasengan?
Hagoromo was stumped.
Using Rasengan himself was no issue. Chakra control was his specialty. But the problem was that in actual combat, he had never once bothered to form a spinning ball.
The reason was simple.
Rasengan's greatest strengths were no hand seals and instant activation, and among seal-less techniques, it possessed top-tier power.
Unfortunately—
Due to Hagoromo's own peculiarities, he already had better seal-less techniques.
He didn't need hand seals to use Lightning Cutter, either. It was smoother and far more habitual.
More importantly, compared to a technique that rotated and shredded locally, he preferred straightforward, penetrating attacks.
That was simply a matter of combat instinct and style.
Rasengan worked by compressing chakra into a small space and using high-speed rotation to generate enormous tearing force. Once Hagoromo understood the principle, mastering it took very little practice.
But teaching it?
That was another matter entirely.
Rasengan's core difficulty lay in chakra control—but for Hagoromo, chakra control had never been difficult.
He operated at a higher level.
It was like solving an advanced calculus problem instantly—but being completely unable to explain the steps to someone else.
And expecting Naruto's brain to follow Hagoromo's thought process?
That was asking too much.
So ideally, before teaching it, he needed to reference Jiraiya's Rasengan training method—
Or better yet, let Jiraiya teach Naruto directly.
Learning too fast could be painful.
Why hadn't Hagoromo listened more carefully to Minato's explanations and demonstrations back then?
That said, high-level offensive ninjutsu training was scheduled much later in the syllabus—classified as Course Four. Once mastered, it meant the young driver was officially allowed on the road.
Naruto hadn't even completed Wind Nature Transformation yet, so there was no rush.
If all else failed—
Hagoromo planned to invent a Hagoromo-style, Naruto-readable, family-inherited Rasengan method himself.
Strictly speaking, Hagoromo's teaching was "special tutoring." Most of the time, the kids still attended the Ninja Academy.
But what they learned in these two places was fundamentally different.
Hagoromo taught starting from real combat logic.
During this period, Naruto only returned to his own place at night. The rest of the time, he was basically living at Hagoromo's house.
ANBU still monitored him, but this clearly meant that the Hokage's original restrictions were slowly loosening.
Mirai often shared school gossip with Hagoromo, and whenever that happened, Naruto would very consciously go back to chopping ice walls.
Bothering Sister Haku every day like this—was that really okay?
"Hagoromo, that Uchiha boy has returned to school," Mirai said.
She'd been paying attention ever since what she saw that day.
"Is that so?" Hagoromo asked.
"Any changes?"
Only a little over a month to recover from such psychological trauma…
It seemed Sasuke had found emotional support.
That support was probably hatred for Itachi.
Itachi's seemingly unreasonable actions—appearing to shatter his brother's mind—had actually prevented total mental collapse.
Hatred was the fastest way to fill an empty heart.
Otherwise, Sasuke wouldn't have regained momentum so quickly. What he endured wasn't just the loss of parents—it was the annihilation of an entire clan.
"The boy's quieter than before," Mirai said.
"But…"
She couldn't quite describe it.
"Is someone watching him?" Hagoromo asked.
"Like Naruto?"
Given Sasuke's situation, it was highly likely that ANBU or Root were monitoring him.
And if that were the case, Mirai would definitely notice.
Sure enough, she nodded.
"But speaking of Naruto," she continued,
"I noticed a girl has been paying a lot of attention to him lately. The one we saved the day we returned to Konoha…"
Hagoromo was speechless.
First—your eyes are shining way too brightly. Why is a kid your age this invested in gossip?
Second—had Naruto already unlocked flirting skills?
Who taught him that?
Hagoromo?
Impossible.
In this field, Naruto was already a higher level than him.
To this day, Hagoromo still hadn't properly unlocked that skill tree.
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