Chapter 172: Chapter 174: Jiraiya: Now THIS Right Here—Tactical Unconsciousness!
Kushina let out a slow breath.
Jiraiya had been keeping Naruto in Naruko form this whole time, and on top of that he kept collecting "material" along the way—and it had honestly made Kushina want to kill him.
And then Jiraiya brought up letting Naruto use the Nine-Tails’ power. But Naruto was this young. How could he possibly have the control to handle the Nine-Tails’ chakra at this age?
Maybe... she should just get rid of him?
For one brief moment, Kushina had genuinely considered whether to take Jiraiya out.
And if that had happened, the one who killed Jiraiya wouldn’t be Konan, or Nagato, or even Yahiko—it would have been Kushina.
But right then, Hanabi appeared.
Only a Shadow Clone, but a Shadow Clone was essentially the same thing as the original.
What Hanabi conveyed to Jiraiya was, in effect, Kushina’s own message.
Before Naruto could use the Nine-Tails’ power, the Adamantine Sealing Chains came first.
That was the one thing that would ensure Naruto could actually suppress the Nine-Tails’ strength.
Only after Naruto had a firm grasp on that power could they think about using the key to open that door—
Jiraiya studied Hanabi. "This is your idea? You’ve done research on the Nine-Tails?"
He suspected Hanabi must have done some digging, or she wouldn’t know the details this precisely.
"No," Hanabi said, then paused. "This comes from someone else. Also—I’ve been sheltering a young girl from the Uzumaki Clan at my home."
"I see."
Hearing that, Jiraiya turned it over in his mind. Must be some Uzumaki survivor who came to Konoha to entrust a child to someone’s care. If it’s advice from an expert, I’d better listen.
[Naruto’s mom is also Uzumaki—technically not wrong]
[Jiraiya: Young people these days have no martial ethics—tricking me, setting me up!]
[But Hanabi hasn’t actually said anything false. She really does have Karin under her roof, this IS Naruto’s mom’s advice, and his mom IS Uzumaki]
[Grass (a type of exclamation), every single word technically checks out]
[That’s called narrative misdirection, isn’t it?]
[Hanabi: Jiraiya-sama, I didn’t lie]
And it was true—Hanabi hadn’t lied.
She had simply let a clever string of implications steer Jiraiya toward the conclusion that some Uzumaki survivor had come to Konoha to entrust a child to someone’s care, and upon hearing of Naruto’s situation had offered a "medical opinion."
In reality, Karin had nothing to do with any of this.
But the misalignment had done its job.
"So," Jiraiya said, "can Naruto actually use the Adamantine Sealing Chains?"
"If Naruto could use the Adamantine Sealing Chains, he wouldn’t have to fear his next opponent at all," Hanabi said.
"Hmm..." A tough ask.
Jiraiya sank into thought.
"Naruto does show a lot of promise, though." Hanabi added. "He keeps summoning the same tadpole every single time."
Naruto’s repeated summon was his future partner—Gamakichi.
The little guy was still a tadpole, hadn’t even become a frog yet.
But summoning the exact same creature every time—that was genuinely unusual.
"Speaking of which," Jiraiya said, "you can use the Summoning Technique too, can’t you?"
"Oh? Would Jiraiya-sama like to see?"
"Is that all right?"
"Of course." Hanabi turned. "Naruto."
"Yeah!" Naruto snapped to attention.
"I’m about to use the Summoning Technique. Watch carefully."
She formed the seals.
"Boar—Dog—Rooster—Monkey—Ram. Ninja Art—Summoning Technique! Come forth—Yuki-onna!"
Not actually Yuki-onna—this was Teacher Jingliu’s ice-crystal puppet, but she needed everyone to get the wrong idea.
The ice-crystal summon materialized behind Hanabi.
"Whoa...!" Naruto’s eyes went wide.
"That’s incredible."
Hanabi had a real flair for it.
But she dismissed the summon right after.
This Shadow Clone wasn’t running on much chakra, and she still had things to do—no point wasting it.
"Hanabi! Hanabi! What’s the trick?!" Naruto called out.
"Naruto—you remember that guy Mizuki? The one who gave Iruka-sensei so much grief?"
Naruto blinked. "Yeah, what about him?"
"What did it feel like when you used the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu that day?"
"What did it feel like? Hmm... I was furious? Like I had this pressure building up inside me."
"Good. Just imagine Jiraiya-sama is Mizuki."
"OHHH!"
Naruto locked eyes with Jiraiya.
"Huh? What? What are you two talking about?"
Jiraiya was baffled.
He had absolutely no idea how he’d suddenly ended up as the villain.
[My waifu is always this much of a comedic genius when she shows up]
[She knows exactly how to stir things up]
[Jiraiya: So who even IS Mizuki?!]
[This man just became the bad guy out of nowhere, lmao]
The audience was thoroughly delighted by the chaos.
"Oh—AAAAAH!"
The moment Naruto started picturing Jiraiya as Mizuki, he felt power erupt throughout his body.
Not the Nine-Tails’ chakra—this was all Naruto’s own.
In the original story, Naruto had needed the Nine-Tails’ chakra the first time he summoned Gamabunta. But the second time, he’d managed it on his own power.
In other words, with Naruto’s strength alone, summoning Gamabunta was possible.
"Summoning Technique!"
As his chakra burst free, Naruto used the Summoning Technique again.
"Oh—this time’s going to work." Jiraiya nodded.
But the next moment, something felt wrong.
"Wait—don’t tell me—"
Boom.
An enormous toad erupted into being at Naruto’s call.
"Whoa!"
Naruto plastered himself to the massive toad’s head, clinging with chakra for dear life.
"Jiraiya?"
Gamabunta looked left. Looked right. No sign of Jiraiya anywhere. But then he felt something underfoot.
He lifted his foot.
There was Jiraiya, flat on the ground beneath him.
[Yamcha pose]
[That is clearly the Yamcha death pose]
[I strongly suspect Jiraiya is not actually unconscious]
[Tactical unconsciousness, right?]
[Jiraiya probably didn’t expect Naruto to go straight to the big summon]
The audience was spot-on.
Jiraiya was indeed tactically unconscious. Hanabi could tell—he’d suppressed his breathing to make himself look out cold, but he was wide awake.
He just hadn’t expected Naruto to go straight for Gamabunta in one shot.
It had backfired spectacularly.
"Hey! Hey!"
Gamabunta grabbed Jiraiya’s leg and shook him back and forth, but Jiraiya refused to come around.
Well—naturally. Jiraiya had never been unconscious to begin with, so there was no way Gamabunta could rouse someone who was faking it.
"You just summon me whenever you feel like it, then immediately pass out on me—what do you think you’re doing?!"
Gamabunta was furious.
"Uh—"
And right then, a voice drifted down from the top of Gamabunta’s head: "The one who summoned you... was me..."
(AI-illustrated Naruko in ninja outfit)(Another version)
Comments