180. Shadow Clones to Train 100× Faster

"Auch, what are you doing?"

Naruto rubbed his stomach to relieve the pain. He was so surprised by Jiraiya that suddenly hit him and didn't understand why he did that.

"Well, well, I'm just trying to stretch your muscles because yours are too stiff. Now try running on the water surface of that river, then try using any Ninjutsu!"

Naruto was suspicious of Jiraiya, he felt that Jiraiya was hiding something. Even so, Naruto still followed his instructions.

When Naruto stepped on the surface of the water, he was so surprised that he could easily control his chakra. The previous few days, especially after being defeated by Orochimaru, he had even struggled to use any ninjutsu.

He looked at Jiraiya and felt that Jiraiya did something to his body earlier. But since what Jiraiya was doing was with the intention of helping him, he got a little overjoyed.

Naruto remembered that Jiraiya told him to run on the surface of the water, and he immediately ran. Not stopping there, while running and not letting go of his concentration, his hands formed a hand seal and several shadow clones appeared and ran with him.

"As I would expect from Minato's son. He's pretty good."

"It would be great if he could control the nine-tailed fox's chakra perfectly."

Hearing Izumi's words, Jiraiya's eyes changed as he looked at Izumi. Izumi separated from his group and walked alone to where Jiraiya was watching Naruto.

"How did you know?"

"He showed it to me once when he fought me. I'm sensitive to one's aura. And I can tell what kind of aura a person has and I can instantly remember every one of them. If only the nine-tailed fox's chakra didn't have a sinister aura. Maybe Naruto could use it freely."

Izumi ignored Jiraiya's change in expression, he continued to speak calmly.

"Don't look at me like that, old man. If my intentions were bad, I would have done it from the start because my ability exceed Naruto's. Besides, if my intentions are evil, it's also impossible for me to ask for your help given his unstable chakra control is a good opportunity to do something to him." Izumi said while pointing at Naruto. Jiraiya was also silent for a while. Then he nodded because he felt Izumi wasn't lying to him.

"What you said is true. Then what made you help him?"

"He is interesting, there is a resemblance in his character like this friend of mine." Izumi said while pointing at Luffy.

"Is that your only reason?" Jiraiya held his chin and asked again. Then, Izumi answered.

"Actually, there's more. Sasuke, a person who is on the same team as Naruto, or someone Naruto considers a rival, is given special training by Kakashi. That's why I tried to find him someone strong to teach him. And you are a suitable person to teach Naruto."

"Oh, hearing you talk, it seems you know my identity."

Izumi nodded.

"Who doesn't know one from the Legend of the Three Ninjas? I met the other one the other day."

"You're quite smart as a kid, hahaha. Not many kids your age know me." Jiraiya laughed. Although Jiraiya felt that Izumi was quite shrewd, he seemed sincere in wanting to help Naruto.

"But I became curious about one thing."

"What is it?"

Suddenly, Izumi's face became a little serious. This also made Jiraiya want to know what Izumi wanted to say.

Izumi sneered.

"Why don't people in Konohagakure tell everyone that Naruto is your student's son, the fourth Hokage? Even though hiding his identity could protect him from any harm from being targeted by the fourth Hokage's enemies. I still felt sorry for hearing that his childhood was always avoided, ridiculed, and hated by the people in the village. Dude, as a kid, he needs care from his parents, or at least, the people who he could call parents. If Naruto's level of self-confidence and unyielding character is lower than his negative character, I'm sure Naruto is already broken. And this was caused by the people of Konohagakure themselves."

Jiraiya became speechless at Izumi's words. Jiraiya himself also regretted that at that time, he was not there to protect Minato and his wife. When he returned, it was too late because Minato only left Naruto alone who had been taken care of by the Hokage. Feeling that it would be better to leave Naruto in the Hokage's care, Jiraiya wandered off again. He was surprised to hear from Izumi that Naruto's childhood was not treated well. This was what made him silent without a word.

Izumi carried on.

"Well, Naruto is a bit happy now that he has friends and people who care about him. So you don't have to think about that. I just don't like the way people treat Naruto."

After Izumi added those words, Jiraiya responded.

"If I'm not mistaken, because Namikaze Minato is a ninja who is feared by many, the Hokage hid Naruto's identity where he was deliberately given the surname Uzumaki. Because the Hokage was afraid that someone would want revenge on the Minato family, he took the Uzumaki surname which according to the Hokage was safer than the Namikaze surname."

Izumi already knew that. But still, it didn't make sense. Knowing a great ninja like Minato, it was impossible for his enemies to miss the name and origin of his wife who came from the Uzumaki clan. And if traced further, it would not be difficult to suspect that Uzumaki Naruto was the Fourth Hokage's son. If they didn't know, it meant that the people in the Shinobi world were really stupid.

Izumi sighed. He didn't want to say it out loud. So, as he looked into the skies, he said.

"Well, never mind. After all, it's a past matter. Now Naruto is quite happy. Although he still has to get rid of his negative emotions."

"Negative emotions? I don't see anything wrong with Naruto." Jiraiya was a little confused by Izumi's words. He thought for a moment then said again. "You mean negative emotions when he was a kid?"

Izumi smiled with a nod. He wanted to say something, but Naruto came back. So he stopped talking about Naruto.

— — — —

Jiraiya decided to make Naruto his disciple. He saw Naruto was quite good at controlling his chakra, and he was willing to teach Ninjutsu. Naruto was overjoyed when Jiraiya intended to teach him.

What Jiraiya wanted to teach was Kuchiyose no Jutsu. A Summoning Jutsu was used to summon a toad or even toad elders from Mount Myouboku, one of the big three unexplored sage regions.

"Oh, right, Izumi once said that he wanted to teach me how to train 100 times faster. I want to know how."

Suddenly Naruto said by mentioning Izumi which made Jiraiya also look at Izumi. He was curious if what Naruto said was true and if Izumi wanted to teach him that way.

"It's actually easy, but not many people can do it."

"Why do you say it's easy when not many people can do it?"

"Because this method will use up as many shadow clones as possible."

"Shadow clones?"

Naruto was a little confused, about what had to do with training 100 times faster than others using shadow clones. But Jiraiya who heard Izumi's words immediately understood.

"So you told him to make as many shadow clones as possible and train at the same time. And with that, you can get 100 times the results? How clever."

Izumi just smiled at Jiraiya's words. Of course, he couldn't say that this wasn't his idea but an idea from the anime.

"What does that mean? I don't understand."

Naruto was confused because he didn't understand what the two of them meant at all. Jiraiya explained and gave an example.

With shadow clones, Naruto could use one shadow clone to train one Ninjutsu, then the other clones train a different Jutsu. After finishing training and the shadow clones dispersed into smoke, the experience of the shadow clones will be transferred to Naruto. What's more, Naruto could duplicate so many shadow clones. That's why Izumi said that Naruto could train 100 times faster. But then, Izumi said something to Naruto.

"But I don't recommend you use this method to practice Kuchiyose no Jutsu."

"Why?"

"Because Kuchiyose no Jutsu prioritizes the amount of chakra you will use for summoning. The more chakra you use, the stronger you will summon. So it will be useless if you train Kuchiyose no Jutsu using shadow clones which divide your chakra." Izumi explained the reason. And Jiraiya nodded at Izumi's explanation as well.