Looking at the boy standing before him, Jiraiya felt his mind descending into a state of utter confusion.
Earlier, when he'd heard Hatani tell that story and deliver a maxim so profound it had shaken him to his core, Jiraiya's gut had screamed, "This is it! This is the Child of Prophecy the Great Toad Sage spoke of!"
But now, he was beginning to wonder if that intuition had been nothing more than a delusion.
No matter how he looked at him, this kid—who hadn't even been out of the Academy for a year—was clearly dropping hints for Jiraiya to take him on as an apprentice.
The Jiraiya of this era wasn't yet the "Pervy Sage" who traveled the world, having seen every custom and culture under the sun. However, he was a far cry from the "dead-last" loser he had been in his youth.
As one of the Third Hokage's only three students, Jiraiya had been a prime target for parents and hopeful genin alike from the moment he reached the rank of Jonin. He was well-versed in the art of the "subtle hint" from those seeking a powerful mentor.
But to have a twelve-year-old boy deliver an invitation so simultaneously obscure and blatant was something he wasn't prepared for.
For a moment, Jiraiya couldn't tell which version of Namikaze Hatani was the real one.
If he hadn't already heard from Tsunade that Hatani was a lone orphan who had lost his parents years ago, he would have suspected the boy was reading from a script written by some calculating clan elder.
But even within the most prestigious ninja clans in Konoha, was there anyone who understood Jiraiya's inner thoughts as well as this boy seemed to?
'Am I overthinking this? Is he really just speaking his mind?' Jiraiya wondered, his eyes narrowing as he scrutinized the slight, yellow-haired child.
Ever since receiving the prophecy from the Great Toad Sage, Jiraiya—who usually found such things troublesome—had become increasingly picky and cautious regarding potential students.
With Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato, he had initially stayed out of a sense of pity, moved by their persistence and a desire to do something for the war-torn Land of Rain. It was only after Nagato manifested the Rinnegan to protect his friends that Jiraiya recognized the "Sage's Eyes" from the legend. Believing Nagato to be the Child of Prophecy, he had officially taken the trio as his students to teach them ninjutsu.
Now, he was looking at Hatani—a boy with eyes even sharper than Yahiko's, who could see the true rot at the heart of the world, but who chose to remain a cold bystander out of a sense of self-preservation and a lack of power.
If I take him as my student and help him grow, Jiraiya reasoned, perhaps I can give him both the strength and the conviction he needs to change the world.
After a brief internal struggle, Jiraiya made his decision.
Even though he had the nagging suspicion he was being "played" by a twelve-year-old, he refused to let even a sliver of hope go to waste.
Besides, any kid capable of inventing an A-rank ninjutsu at twelve was bound to be an exceptional shinobi. He wouldn't be a disgrace to Jiraiya's name.
Furthermore, once the master-student bond was established, he could finally ask about the secret that both he and Tsunade were dying to know: How on earth did Hatani compress wind to the width of a finger while maintaining such an incredible rotational speed?
Hatani, who had burned through a significant amount of brain cells and effectively nuked his "ordinary" persona to reach this point, finally let out a long, internal sigh of relief when Jiraiya agreed to mentor him.
He had taken a massive risk on this gamble, and it had finally paid off.
When Jiraiya eventually asked about the secret behind Wind Style: Powershot, Hatani didn't hesitate or hold back. He offered up his "truth."
"One day, when I was eight years old, the world suddenly felt... different. From that day on, I felt like I could hear the wind breathing. I could feel its rhythm, its movements—its emotions, even. At first, it was weak and vague, so I started spending my free time in different parts of the village, just trying to listen to the different types of wind."
Naturally, he couldn't mention the Dota 2 system. Instead, he crafted a narrative that fit perfectly within the logic of the shinobi world.
"Oh! No wonder!" Nawaki blurted out, unable to keep quiet. He pointed at Hatani with a look of mock betrayal. "I used to wonder why back in third grade you'd spend every day after school either sitting on the Hokage Rock with your eyes closed or lying in the trees in the eastern forest. I thought you were just being lazy, but you were 'feeling the wind' that whole time?"
As Jiraiya processed this revelation with a look of surprise, Nawaki continued his realization.
"You jerk! That's why you never tripped when we were running through the dark, and why you could find me immediately whenever I got separated. The wind was telling you, wasn't it?"
Despite his grumbling, Nawaki didn't actually blame Hatani for keeping it a secret back in the village. After their terrifying ordeal in the Land of Rain, he was no longer the naive boy he once was. He understood the need for secrecy.
Jiraiya, who knew far more than Nawaki, saw nothing wrong with Hatani's caution either. In fact, despite being the students of the Hokage, both he and Orochimaru had dealt with their fair share of "shadowy interference" after they were lucky enough to gain the legacies of Mount Myoboku and Ryuchi Cave.
"So," Jiraiya asked, "the jutsu is an extension of that ability?"
"Yes," Hatani nodded. "In the face of death, I had a breakthrough. I found I could ask the wind for its maximum cooperation. Because of that, I only need to use my chakra to give the wind its high-speed rotation. My 'ability' takes care of the rest, gathering the wind as tightly as possible to complete the Powershot."
As if to demonstrate, Hatani raised his hand and gave a light flick. A swirl of wind materialized out of thin air, gathering into a tight ball before shifting into various shapes at his command.
Though the invisible wind was hard to see with the naked eye, Jiraiya—who, like Sarutobi Hiruzen, was a master of all five nature transformations—perceived it instantly through his sheer familiarity with Wind Style.
His eyes narrowed, a sharp glint of realization flashing within them.
This was fundamentally different from the Wind Style he knew.
The wind Hatani had summoned out of nowhere didn't have a trace of chakra in it. It felt exactly like the wind found in nature.
And because of that, Jiraiya sensed something else—something he was intimately familiar with, something he had been struggling to master at Mount Myoboku before the war broke out: Natural Energy.
However, this natural energy felt different.
At Mount Myoboku, the natural energy was violent and chaotic. One wrong move and your body would begin to "toadify," eventually turning into a stone statue.
But the energy before him—while seemingly lacking something—was gentle. Just like the breeze it rode upon, it felt harmless and docile.
Why is that?
"Hatani... can you merge this wind into your body? Into your chakra?" Jiraiya asked, unable to contain his curiosity.
Hatani blinked, looking genuinely taken aback, before answering with a touch of indignation.
"Why would I merge with them? They are spirits of nature. They are my friends!"
As he spoke, Jiraiya watched in shock as the gentle, docile wind instantly turned violent.
It became a raging gale, fiercer than almost anything he had seen at Mount Myoboku—as if Jiraiya had just insulted its very existence and become its sworn enemy.