Chapter 388: Master-Disciple Meeting Across Time

Ninja Academy Teacher: I Get Stronger by Teaching, Chapter 306: A Master-Disciple Meeting Across Time. At night, Mu Yue interrogated An Lushan alone.

"Tell me the secret technique for absorbing the Dragon Vein's power, and I'll let you die a bit more easily," Mu Yue said calmly.

That was the only value An Lushan held for him.

"Hahaha, what's this? So you want the Dragon Vein's power too." An Lushan laughed loudly.

Having fallen to this state, he had already become utterly disheartened, believing his death was certain—he hadn't expected a chance to survive against all odds.

Although Mu Yue's words were harsh, An Lushan didn't care; he understood too well the kind of person who pursued power like Mu Yue.

"Let me go, and together we'll kill the Queen of Loulan. Her daughter can also control the Dragon Vein's power, and she's even easier to control than her. Then I'll give you sixty percent of the Dragon Vein's capabilities, keeping only forty percent for myself." An Lushan proposed in a tempting tone.

"You're already so powerful, and if you absorb that much Dragon Vein power, you'll definitely become invincible in the ninja world. Then you'll be the one and only king of the ninja world—it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call you the second Sage of Six Paths."

If Mu Yue agreed to his terms, An Lushan would indeed teach Mu Yue the secret technique for absorbing Dragon Vein energy.

Of course, An Lushan wasn't that good; only half of his words were true. If Mu Yue actually used the secret technique to absorb Dragon Vein energy with his ordinary body, he would end up draining himself to death.

At that point, An Lushan wouldn't need to do anything; he'd just wait for Mu Yue to die and then take the Dragon Vein energy inside his body.

"You still want forty percent?" Mu Yue smiled as he looked at An Lushan.

He thought An Lushan was quite the dreamer, still daring to propose a forty-sixty split in this situation.

"Then it's eighty for you, twenty for me. Can't go lower—that's my bottom line," An Lushan said in a deep voice.

Actually, he'd have been fine with even 0.5 percent, since after Mu Yue died it would all come back, but he was worried Mu Yue would see through the trick.

"I don't have time to play games with you. If you're unwilling to talk, I'll have to use ninjutsu to search your memories myself." Mu Yue dropped his smile and looked at An Lushan expressionlessly.

Mu Yue would never trust An Lushan. With such a dominant advantage, why would he bother with insincere dealings?

While grinding for mid-level class rewards, Mu Yue had obtained the Yamanaka clan's secret technique, but since his proficiency wasn't high, he wasn't confident he could accurately find the information he wanted.

Moreover, An Lushan's current state was somewhat special; strictly speaking, An Lushan was no longer human, and Mu Yue wasn't sure if the secret technique would still work.

"If you can do it, go ahead." An Lushan refused to back down for the moment.

Extracting information directly from a ninja's brain was an extremely rare secret technique; he didn't believe Mu Yue happened to know it, and even if he did, whether it would work on his current state was another question.

Mu Yue didn't waste any more words with An Lushan. He left some torturous arrangements behind and departed.

If An Lushan was willing to speak voluntarily, that would be great; if not, Mu Yue would wait until his spirit was weakened, then use the secret technique to invade.

In the following days, Mu Yue's activities were much the same as in Konoha—either teaching or researching.

However, due to time constraints, Mu Yue temporarily gave up on sealing techniques and focused entirely on developing Yang Breathing.

With the boost from teaching, plus Mu Yue's full effort in development, the progress on Yang Breathing was very promising, and the hope of it becoming a practical cultivation method was now in sight.

At this time, Jiraiya arrived at Loulan.

Mu Yue's shadow clone, after leading Jiraiya's shadow clone into Loulan, immediately dispelled itself, leaving only a Flying Thunder God kunai on the ground.

Of course, Mu Yue wouldn't go meet Jiraiya in person. Right after Naruto Uzumaki stated his request, he had immediately sent a shadow clone to find Jiraiya.

That way, he wouldn't delay his progress on Yang Breathing while also letting Naruto meet Jiraiya sooner.

After receiving the shadow clone's memories, Mu Yue immediately used Flying Thunder God to teleport in front of Jiraiya.

"Lord Jiraiya." Mu Yue greeted Jiraiya with a warm smile.

"Mu Yue, you've learned Flying Thunder God too." Jiraiya looked at Mu Yue in surprise.

Flying Thunder God was no ordinary jutsu; its difficulty was absurdly high. In Jiraiya's memory, ever since the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, developed it, only Minato Namikaze had learned it. He hadn't expected Mu Yue to become the third person so quickly.

"Mm, I have to thank Minato for his guidance. Without him, I definitely couldn't have mastered Flying Thunder God so quickly." Mu Yue smiled and nodded.

After a bit of small talk, Mu Yue didn't waste any more words. He directly used Flying Thunder God to go to Naruto Uzumaki's side and brought him before Jiraiya.

"Brother Mu Yue, what—" Naruto Uzumaki was about to ask why Mu Yue was so sudden, but when he clearly saw the familiar yet strange figure ahead, he couldn't speak.

Familiar, because that white hair, the marks on his eyes, and the aura all proved that this was his dearly missed Pervy Sage.

But at the same time, Naruto Uzumaki felt a strong sense of unfamiliarity, because the Pervy Sage before him wasn't wearing his unchanging red haori; instead, he wore gray plate armor, and there wasn't a single wrinkle on his face, quite different from the Pervy Sage in his memory.

Looking at the younger version of Jiraiya, Naruto Uzumaki felt his own dissonance—he was a traveler who did not belong to this time and space.

Thinking of this, Naruto Uzumaki tried hard to control his emotions, so that his eyes wouldn't be so red, so moist, and his voice wouldn't be so choked.

The Pervy Sage of this era didn't know him; if he got too excited, it would cause trouble for the other person.

"So you're Naruto Uzumaki? That's rude—either call me Lord Jiraiya or call me the Toad Sage." Jiraiya said as he looked Naruto over.

"He does look a bit like Minato, and with the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki and the surname Uzumaki..." After a few glances, Jiraiya confirmed Muyue's guess in his heart.

"But you're the Pervy Sage, aren't you?" Naruto Uzumaki wiped his eyes and said righteously.

"Never mind, I can't be bothered to argue with a brat like you." Naruto's behavior reminded Jiraiya of someone.

"I heard from Muyue that you wanted to see me." Jiraiya said as he walked toward the main street of Rōran.

Naruto Uzumaki's eyes flickered; thinking of something, he clenched his fist and nodded firmly.

"I'm a ninja from the future." Naruto Uzumaki said as he caught up with Jiraiya.

"So? What exactly is your business?" Jiraiya's eyes instantly widened when he saw a beauty wearing traditional Rōran clothing on the main street.

Seeing Jiraiya's nonchalant attitude, Naruto scratched his head—this reaction was too bland.

"Don't you want to ask me about the future? About you?" Naruto Uzumaki couldn't help asking.

When Obito and the others found out he was a ninja from the future, they ran to his room at night to ask.

"No." Jiraiya answered very bluntly.

"If I knew everything about my life from now on, life would lose a lot of its fun."

Although Jiraiya was willing to run around for the Great Toad Sage's prophecy, that was a different matter from knowing his own future.

"Besides, if you directly tell me the future, aren't you worried about changing history? You might even disappear entirely." Jiraiya looked seriously at Naruto Uzumaki.

"As long as history moves in a good direction, what does it matter if it changes? Even if that good future doesn't include me, I'll still be happy." Naruto Uzumaki looked straight into Jiraiya's eyes and said solemnly.

If in the future Muyue, the Fourth Hokage, Obito, and Jiraiya all survived, Naruto Uzumaki felt it would be worth it even if he disappeared.

"Who do you think you are? A brat who's not even grown up, daring to speak so arrogantly? No one needs you to sacrifice yourself, and no one needs you to save them." Jiraiya raised an eyebrow.

Having talked with Naruto this far, Jiraiya could roughly guess that his future wasn't too bright, but Jiraiya still didn't want to know his future.

What a joke—he was Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, the Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku; did he need a ninja from the future to sacrifice himself to save him?

"Damn it, don't underestimate me! I've completed countless missions and defeated countless opponents." Naruto Uzumaki said indignantly.

At the first sight of Jiraiya, Naruto Uzumaki felt that Jiraiya was so young he seemed unfamiliar, but after talking, Naruto was sure this was the Pervy Sage he knew.

He spoke so annoyingly and was so perverted—who else could it be but the Pervy Sage?

"Oh really? I see you don't even have a chūnin vest. You're not even a chūnin yet, are you?" Jiraiya teased.

The chūnin vest isn't mandatory; some chūnin don't wear it.

Naruto Uzumaki wanted to retort, but after thinking carefully, his face stiffened—he really was still a genin.

Naruto's reaction made Jiraiya laugh heartily; it was pretty rare to still be a genin at this age.

Naruto Uzumaki's face showed a disgruntled expression, then his eyes rolled as he thought of a good idea.

"Ninja rank doesn't matter. I've got a really powerful jutsu to teach you—it's really strong, with huge power." Naruto Uzumaki said as he pulled Jiraiya aside to a corner.

"Rasengan!"

Naruto Uzumaki gathered a large amount of chakra in his palm, then formed it into a high-speed spinning ball of chakra.

With a loud bang, Naruto Uzumaki slammed the ball in his hand directly onto the ground, creating a crater.

After demonstrating the Rasengan, Naruto Uzumaki put his hands on his hips and said smugly, "I told you it's strong, right?"

He didn't believe this still wouldn't win Jiraiya over.

Naruto Uzumaki was really looking forward to the scene of Jiraiya learning the Rasengan from him; he would do everything that Jiraiya had done to him, back to Jiraiya.

"All you need to do is give me 150,000 ryō and treat me to ten bowls of ramen, and I'll teach you."

"The power is indeed impressive." Jiraiya acknowledged the Rasengan's power.

With his insight, it wasn't hard to see that this was a seemingly simple but actually complex and very powerful no-hand-seal jutsu.

"But I don't want to learn." Jiraiya then flatly refused Naruto Uzumaki.

"Ah, why?" Naruto's jaw nearly dropped in surprise as he asked Jiraiya in puzzlement.

"Because you look too arrogant." Jiraiya said, stroking his chin.

That was, of course, a joke—actually, Jiraiya didn't want to change history.

Jiraiya came to see Naruto Uzumaki not because Naruto Uzumaki was from the future, but because Naruto Uzumaki was connected to Minato and to his own future self.

He simply came to fulfill Naruto Uzumaki's wish and had no desire to learn about the future or to learn any future jutsu.

"Then I don't want the money—just treat me to ramen once, and that's enough." Thinking the price he'd set was too high, Naruto Uzumaki immediately panicked and slashed his conditions.

Of course, he wasn't after Jiraiya's money; he just wanted Jiraiya to learn the Rasengan earlier and become stronger. The chance to eat ramen together was only because he wanted to have ramen with Jiraiya one more time.

"Ramen isn't cheap either." Jiraiya continued.

"Then how about I treat you? I'll treat you to ramen once, and you learn the Rasengan with me." Naruto Uzumaki was getting a bit anxious.

Jiraiya's eyes swept across Loulan's main street and lit up when he spotted a popsicle vendor.

"Forget ramen—just treat me to a popsicle once." Saying this, Jiraiya led Naruto over to the popsicle vendor.

"One popsicle."

The vendor immediately handed Jiraiya two popsicles joined together.

Naruto Uzumaki sighed, obediently took out a coin, and handed it to the vendor. Since Jiraiya was unwilling to eat ramen, he just hoped Jiraiya would remember his words and learn the Rasengan later.

Just then, Jiraiya broke the popsicle into two and handed one of them to Naruto Uzumaki.

"My treat." Jiraiya said with a smile.

"What do you mean, 'my treat'? I bought it, you know." Naruto Uzumaki couldn't help complaining.

Despite the complaint, Naruto Uzumaki immediately took the popsicle Jiraiya handed him and shoved it into his mouth.

Jiraiya didn't eat his right away; instead, he asked Naruto with a chuckle, "Is it good?"

"Mm, delicious!" Naruto Uzumaki nodded with a happy smile.

Even though it was just the simplest popsicle, at that moment its deliciousness in Naruto Uzumaki's heart could rival Muyue's cooking.

"No matter what happens, face it with strength—don't give up, don't run away. As long as you stay firm in the dream in your heart, there will always be a chance to make it come true." Jiraiya ate a few bites of his popsicle and suddenly spoke.

He didn't know exactly what Naruto Uzumaki had been through, but he could tell this kid was starved for affection and trusted him a lot.

"Thanks for the popsicle. As for learning ninjutsu—skip it. This clone's chakra is about done too."

As the number one fighter using Shadow Clones, Naruto Uzumaki naturally understood what Jiraiya meant. His face full of anxiety, he tried to warn Jiraiya not to go investigate the intel.

But Jiraiya seemed to anticipate Naruto Uzumaki's thoughts and covered Naruto Uzumaki's mouth with his hand.

Jiraiya didn't use much force, but Naruto Uzumaki didn't dare struggle hard—he was afraid that injuring the clone would make Jiraiya disappear immediately.

Jiraiya quickly finished his popsicle and placed his hand on Naruto Uzumaki's head.

"If I ever take another disciple, I'll train him to be just as excellent as you." Jiraiya laughed twice and then dispelled the Shadow Clone.

He hadn't interacted much with Naruto Uzumaki, but Naruto Uzumaki's performance satisfied him thoroughly.

"Pervy Sage, don't…" Naruto Uzumaki reached out to grab Jiraiya, but only caught the falling popsicle stick.

Naruto Uzumaki stared blankly at the ground where Jiraiya had just been standing. If not for the still-cool popsicle stick in his hand, he might have thought it was all a dream.

At that moment, Naruto Uzumaki could no longer control his emotions—his vision gradually blurred, and tears streamed down uncontrollably.

He really, really wanted Jiraiya to survive.