Naruto had never felt so exhausted before. The massive depletion of his chakra made him reluctant to move. All he wanted was to lie on the ground and rest.
He stared blankly at the setting sun on the horizon, then instinctively turned his head to look at the girl who had completely worn him out.
She was tired too, but not nearly enough to collapse to the ground.
For her, the recent event was merely a process of draining Naruto's chakra dry.
But Naruto knew—he had tried his best. No matter how hard he worked, he couldn't even touch the hem of her clothes.
As Naruto zoned out, a tall figure suddenly loomed over him, blocking his view.
"What do you want, you pervy sage?" Naruto said with an irritated look, glaring at Jiraiya, who had obstructed his view of Sakura.
"Get up. The real training begins now," Jiraiya declared.
Naruto was speechless. He was already this exhausted—how was he supposed to continue training? He decided to ignore Jiraiya and remain lying down.
"So tired…" he muttered.
Meanwhile, Sakura was catching her breath, calming the slightly erratic flow of chakra within her body. Although there was a significant gap in their strength, depleting all of Naruto's chakra still took considerable effort on her part.
After all, Hashirama Senju himself had once said that Naruto's chakra reserves nearly rivaled his own.
Though, that referred to a sixteen or seventeen-year-old Naruto.
"Get up, Naruto," Sakura said, standing in front of him with a dissatisfied expression. "Otherwise, all the effort will go to waste."
Sakura wasn't about to let her hard work go down the drain. She knew how quickly Naruto recovered. If he lay there for even a little while longer, his chakra would start replenishing.
Naruto looked at Sakura, then broke into a big grin before springing up from the ground.
"No problem at all!" he exclaimed. "I'm not tired at all!"
Jiraiya watched the blond boy forcing himself to stand and stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"Alright, let's try the Summoning Jutsu now," Jiraiya said, clapping his hands to get Naruto's attention. He demonstrated the hand signs for the jutsu.
"Now, use all your remaining chakra and see what kind of toad you can summon."
Naruto glanced at Jiraiya, then at Sakura. Without hesitation, he bit his thumb and quickly formed the seals.
"Boar—Dog—Bird—Monkey—Ram!"
Gathering the last remnants of his chakra, Naruto attempted to summon a toad from Mount Myoboku.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
A barely visible puff of white smoke appeared before the three of them. Naruto scratched his head when he saw nothing materialize.
"Move your hand," Jiraiya prompted.
As Naruto removed his hand, a small, wriggling tadpole appeared in front of them.
"Huh?" Naruto was stunned. "Why is it just a tadpole?"
Before Naruto could dwell on his disappointment, the tadpole vanished with a soft "pop," returning to Mount Myoboku.
"Not bad," Jiraiya said, surprisingly pleased. "Considering you spent the whole afternoon sparring with Sakura, you still managed to summon something."
This attempt had completely drained Naruto of all his chakra.
"Now then…" Jiraiya's tone grew serious. "Naruto, have you ever sensed another chakra inside you?"
"Another chakra?" Naruto was puzzled, not fully understanding what Jiraiya meant.
But then he remembered. When he had stolen the Scroll of Seals and was caught red-handed by Sakura, she mentioned something about a fox inside him.
"Actually, the Fourth Hokage sealed a creature called the Nine-Tails inside you. I told you this before, remember?" Sakura reminded him, noticing his confused expression.
"Oh, yeah! Sakura mentioned it before!" Naruto said, scratching his head as he recalled.
"Exactly," Jiraiya continued. "Now, Naruto, you need to sense that power within you and use it to summon a real toad from Mount Myoboku."
Naruto tilted his head, still unsure of how to go about it. "Sense that power? How?"
Without a word, Jiraiya extended his finger and tapped Naruto's forehead protector.
In an instant, Naruto was sent flying backward with incredible force! He crashed through the trees by the riverbank, beyond which lay a deep, dark gorge.
Naruto's eyes widened in disbelief as Jiraiya and Sakura grew smaller in the distance. He opened his mouth to shout for help but quickly closed it, his thoughts unknown to anyone.
The blond boy's figure vanished into the shadowy chasm.
Sakura stared, dumbfounded, her hand frozen mid-air before slowly withdrawing it. She vaguely recalled this being how Jiraiya had taught Naruto to tap into the Nine-Tails' power.
"I don't have the scroll for the Four Symbols Seal on me right now. I'll bring it tomorrow," Jiraiya remarked casually. "I'll also prepare an authorization letter for you tonight."
Sakura glanced at Jiraiya, who seemed completely unfazed, a faint smile at the corner of his lips.
"What if Naruto fails to control the tailed beast's power?" she asked with a frown.
"He won't. Even if Naruto wanted to die, the Nine-Tails wouldn't let him," Jiraiya replied confidently, sitting down to wait.
Sakura pressed her lips together but said nothing more, trusting his confidence.
As if to prove Jiraiya's point, a massive shadow suddenly shot out of the gorge, accompanied by a gust of wind.
"Yahoo!" Naruto's voice echoed. "Sakura! Am I cool or what?"
Sakura sighed in relief as she saw Naruto standing triumphantly atop the giant toad.
"Great… He summoned a troublesome one," she muttered.
True to his protagonist status, he always managed to survive.
Jiraiya scratched his head, staring at the enormous toad armed with a short blade.
It was Gamabunta, the Boss Toad of Mount Myoboku.
"Jiraiya," Gamabunta rumbled as his colossal body landed with a thud, shaking the ground. "So, you've passed the summoning contract to this brat?"
"Haha, well, it couldn't be helped," Jiraiya said sheepishly. "He's inherited the will of that one."
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