https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-390-The-Unexpected-Effects-of-Dragon-Vein-Energy/12558510/
Chapter 389: A Meeting of Mentor and Disciple Across Time
Chapter 389: A Meeting of Mentor and Disciple Across Time
In the quiet of the night, Mu Yue interrogated An Lushan alone.
"Reveal the secret to absorbing the power of the dragon vein, and I'll grant you a quick death." Mu Yue said calmly.
An Lushan's value ended there.
"Hahaha! So, you want the power of the dragon vein as well?" An Lushan laughed loudly.
Having fallen to such a state, he had already resigned himself to his fate, believing death to be inevitable. Yet, an opportunity for a turnaround had presented itself.
Despite Mu Yue's harsh words, An Lushan remained unfazed. He understood people like Mu Yue, driven by their pursuit of power, all too well.
"Set me free, and let's kill Queen Loulan together. Her daughter can also control the power of the dragon vein, and she's easier to control than her mother. I can give you sixty percent of the dragon vein's power and keep only forty percent for myself." An Lushan proposed, his voice dripping with temptation.
"With your formidable strength, absorbing so much dragon vein power will undoubtedly make you invincible in the ninja world. At that time, you will be the sole king of the ninja world, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call you the second Sage of the Six Paths."
If Mu Yue agreed to his condition, An Lushan would indeed teach him the secret to absorbing the power of the dragon vein.
Of course, An Lushan wasn't that generous. Only half of what he said was true. If Mu Yue dared to use the secret technique with his ordinary body, he would only end up absorbing himself to death.
By then, An Lushan wouldn't need to do anything. He could just wait for Mu Yue to die and then absorb the dragon vein energy from his body.
"You still want forty percent?" Mu Yue smiled as he looked at An Lushan.
He thought that An Lushan was quite the dreamer, daring to bring up such a division of shares in their current situation.
"Then eighty-two percent for you and eighteen percent for me. I can't go any lower; this is my bottom line," An Lushan said in a low voice.
In truth, he wouldn't have a problem with giving Mu Yue ninety-nine percent, as he would get it all back after Mu Yue died. However, he was worried that Mu Yue would see through his ploy.
"I don't have time to play games with you. If you're unwilling to talk, I'll have to use ninjutsu to search for the information in your memory myself." Mu Yue retracted his smile and looked at An Lushan expressionlessly.
There was no way Mu Yue would trust An Lushan. With such a significant advantage, he wouldn't waste time haggling with him.
When Mu Yue had redeemed his intermediate class rewards, he had obtained a secret technique of the Mountain Hermits Clan. However, due to his lack of proficiency, he wasn't confident in accurately finding the information he sought.
Moreover, An Lushan's current state was somewhat unique. Strictly speaking, he was no longer human, and Mu Yue wasn't sure if the secret technique would even work on him.
"Go ahead if you can," An Lushan retorted defiantly.
Directly extracting information from a ninja's brain was an extremely rare secret technique, and he didn't believe that Mu Yue happened to know it. Furthermore, given his current state, he wasn't sure if his mind could even be read.
Mu Yue didn't bother to argue with An Lushan. After making some torturous arrangements, he left.
If An Lushan was willing to divulge the information himself, that would be ideal. But if he refused, Mu Yue would wait until his spirit weakened before using the secret technique to invade his mind.
In the following days, Mu Yue's activities were similar to those in Konoha—either teaching or conducting research.
However, due to time constraints, Mu Yue temporarily set aside his study of sealing techniques and focused solely on developing the Yang Release.
With the bonus from his classes and his dedicated efforts, Mu Yue quickly made promising progress with the Yang Release. There was now a tangible prospect of being able to cultivate it.
At this time, Jiraiya arrived in Loulan.
After Mu Yue's shadow clone and Jiraiya's shadow clone entered Loulan, Mu Yue dispelled his clone, leaving behind only a Flying Thunder God Kunai on the ground.
Of course, Mu Yue wouldn't go looking for Jiraiya in person. As soon as Uzumaki Naruto finished speaking, he immediately sent out a shadow clone to search for Jiraiya.
This way, he wouldn't delay his progress in developing the Yang Release, and he could also bring Naruto to Jiraiya faster.
After absorbing the memories of his shadow clone, Mu Yue immediately used the Flying Thunder God Technique to appear before Jiraiya.
"Jiraiya-sama," Mu Yue greeted Jiraiya with a gentle smile.
"Mu Yue, you've also learned the Flying Thunder God Technique," Jiraiya said, astonished as he looked at Mu Yue.
The Flying Thunder God Technique was no ordinary ninjutsu; its difficulty was off the charts. In Jiraiya's memory, only the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, and the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, had mastered it. He hadn't expected Mu Yue to become the third person to do so in such a short time.
"Yes, I have to thank Minato for his guidance. Without him, I wouldn't have been able to grasp the Flying Thunder God Technique so quickly," Mu Yue nodded with a smile.
After some pleasantries, Mu Yue cut straight to the chase and used the Flying Thunder God Technique to bring Uzumaki Naruto to Jiraiya's side.
"Big brother Mu Yue, how..." Naruto had intended to ask Mu Yue why he was here so suddenly, but when he saw the familiar yet unfamiliar figure before him, he was left speechless.
Looking at this younger version of Jiraiya, Naruto felt a sense of dissonance as he himself was a traveler from another time.
Realizing this, Naruto struggled to control his emotions, trying to keep his eyes from turning too red, his eyes too moist, and his tone too choked up.
The Jiraiya from this time didn't know him, and if he got too emotional, it might cause trouble for the sage.
"So, you're Naruto Uzumaki? How rude. Call me Jiraiya-sama or the Toad Sage," Jiraiya said, sizing Naruto up.
"He does resemble Minato, and with the Nine-Tails inside him and the Uzumaki surname..." After a few glances, Jiraiya confirmed Mu Yue's guess.
"But you're the perverted hermit, aren't you?" Naruto said defiantly as he wiped his eyes.
"Forget it, I can't be bothered to argue with a brat like you," Naruto's behavior reminded Jiraiya of someone.
"I hear you have something to discuss with me," Jiraiya said as he started walking towards Loulan Street.
Naruto's eyes flickered as he remembered something. He clenched his fists and nodded firmly.
"I'm a ninja from the future," Naruto said, catching up with Jiraiya.
"So what? What do you want?" Jiraiya asked, his eyes widening as he saw the beauties on Loulan Street dressed in traditional Loulan attire.
Naruto scratched his head, feeling that Jiraiya's reaction was a little too casual.
"Aren't you curious about the future at all? About your own future?" Naruto asked.
When they found out he was a ninja from the future, Obito and the others had rushed to his room that very night to ask him about it.
"Nope," Jiraiya answered bluntly.
"If I knew everything about my future, life would lose a lot of its fun."
Although Jiraiya was willing to travel far and wide for the Great Toad Sage's prophecies, knowing his own future was a different matter.
"Also, if you tell me the future directly, aren't you worried about changing history? You might even disappear as a result." Jiraiya looked at Naruto seriously.
"As long as history takes a turn for the better, so what if it changes? Even if there's no place for me in a brighter future, I'd still be happy," Naruto said solemnly, looking directly into Jiraiya's eyes.
If the future meant that Mu Yue, the Fourth Hokage, Obito, and Jiraiya all survived, Naruto felt that even his own disappearance would be worth it.
"Who do you think you are? You're just a brat, and yet you dare to be so arrogant. No one needs your sacrifice, and no one needs you to save them," Jiraiya said, raising an eyebrow.
From his conversation with Naruto so far, Jiraiya could guess that the boy's future probably wouldn't be too bright. However, he still didn't want to know what it held.
What a joke! He was Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, the Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku. Why would he need a ninja from the future to save him?
"Damn it, don't underestimate me! I've completed countless missions and defeated numerous opponents!" Naruto said indignantly.
When Naruto first laid eyes on Jiraiya, he felt that the sage looked too young, almost unrecognizable. But as they talked, Naruto confirmed that this was indeed the perverted sage he knew so well.
The way he spoke was so irritating and perverted; there was no mistaking his identity.
"Oh? I don't see you wearing the Jonin vest. Are you even a Jonin yet?" Jiraiya teased.
Wearing the Jonin vest wasn't mandatory, and there were Jonin who chose not to wear them.
Naruto wanted to argue further but paused as he thought about it. His expression froze as he realized he was indeed still a Genin.
Naruto's reaction made Jiraiya burst into laughter. It was quite rare to see someone his age still a Genin.
Naruto's face twisted in displeasure, but then his eyes lit up as he thought of a good idea.
"Never mind ninja ranks. I have a really powerful jutsu to teach you. It's incredibly strong and has immense destructive power," Naruto said, pulling Jiraiya towards a corner.
"Rasengan!"
Naruto gathered a large amount of chakra in his palm and formed it into a rapidly spinning sphere of chakra.
With a loud bang, Naruto slammed the sphere into the ground, creating a deep pit.
Naruto eagerly anticipated the scene of Jiraiya learning the Rasengan from him, and he planned to do to Jiraiya everything that Jiraiya had done to him.
"All you need to do is give me 150,000 ryo and treat me to ramen ten times, and I'll teach you," Naruto said.
"It's indeed quite powerful," Jiraiya acknowledged the might of the Rasengan.
With his keen eyes, he could tell that this was a deceptively simple yet complex and immensely powerful elemental ninjutsu.
"But I don't want to learn it," Jiraiya promptly and decisively refused.
"Ah, why not?" Naruto exclaimed, his jaw dropping in surprise as he looked at Jiraiya in confusion.
"Because you're acting too arrogantly," Jiraiya said, stroking his chin.
Of course, he was joking, as he actually didn't want to alter the course of history.
The reason Jiraiya had come to see Naruto was not because Naruto was from the future, but because Naruto was connected to Minato and, by extension, to Jiraiya's future self.
He had simply come to indulge Naruto's wish, and he had no intention of learning about the future or adopting future ninjutsu.
"Then forget the money, just treat me to ramen once, and I'll teach you," Naruto hastily amended his offer, thinking that he had asked for too much.
Of course, he didn't care about Jiraiya's money; he just wanted Jiraiya to learn the Rasengan earlier so that he could become stronger. The offer of a ramen treat was also his way of hoping to share a meal with Jiraiya again.
"Ramen isn't cheap, you know," Jiraiya continued.
"Then let me treat you, and in return, you learn the Rasengan from me," Naruto said, a bit anxiously.
Jiraiya's eyes scanned Loulan Street and lit up as he spotted an ice pop vendor.
"Forget the ramen, just treat me to an ice pop," Jiraiya said, leading Naruto to the vendor.
"I'll have an ice pop," Jiraiya ordered.
The vendor promptly handed Jiraiya two connected ice pops.
Naruto sighed and reluctantly took out some coins to pay the vendor. Since Jiraiya didn't want to eat ramen, he could only hope that Jiraiya would remember his words and learn the Rasengan.
At that moment, Jiraiya broke the ice pop in half and offered one to Naruto.
"Here, have one," Jiraiya said with a smile.
"What do you mean, 'have one'? I bought them, didn't I?" Naruto couldn't help but retort.
Despite his words, Naruto immediately took the ice pop from Jiraiya and popped it into his mouth.
Jiraiya didn't eat his right away but instead smiled at Naruto and asked, "Is it good?"
"Mhm, it's delicious!" Naruto nodded with a blissful smile.
Although it was just a simple ice pop, at that moment, it tasted as wonderful to Naruto as one of Mu Yue's culinary masterpieces.
"No matter what challenges life throws at you, always face them head-on. Don't give up, don't run away. As long as you remain steadfast in your dreams, you will surely find a way to make them come true," Jiraiya said after taking a few bites of his ice pop.
He didn't know what Naruto had been through, but he could tell that this child lacked love and craved his trust.
"Thank you for the ice pop. As for learning ninjutsu, let's forget about it. This shadow clone's chakra is almost depleted anyway," Jiraiya said.
As the master of shadow clone combat, Naruto immediately understood Jiraiya's meaning, and he anxiously wanted to warn Jiraiya not to go investigating.
But Jiraiya seemed to anticipate Naruto's thoughts, as he gently covered Naruto's mouth with his hand.
Jiraiya didn't use much force, but Naruto dared not struggle, fearing that he might accidentally harm the shadow clone and cause it to disappear.
Jiraiya quickly finished his ice pop and placed his hand on Naruto's head.
"If I ever take on another disciple in the future, I'll make sure to nurture them to be as outstanding as you," Jiraiya said with a hearty laugh before dispelling the shadow clone.
Although he hadn't interacted with Naruto much, he was highly satisfied with what he had seen.
"You damn perverted hermit, don't..." Naruto reached out to grab Jiraiya but only managed to grasp the wooden stick of the melting ice pop.
Naruto stared blankly at the spot where Jiraiya had been standing. If it weren't for the slightly cool feeling of the ice pop stick in his hand, he might have thought that this had all been a dream.
At that moment, Naruto could no longer hold back his emotions. His vision blurred, and tears began to flow uncontrollably.
He desperately wanted Jiraiya to survive.
(End of Chapter)
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