Naruto: Boruto Returns to Shippuden

Chapter 72 The Secret

A major event occurred in Konoha Village: the body of Hayate Gekko, the proctor of the third round of the Chunin Exams, was discovered by villagers in a secluded corner.

This discovery immediately drew great attention from the Konoha leadership, as the Chunin Exams were a very important event for the village, and the death of the chief examiner undoubtedly posed a challenge to the village's security.

While Naruto was practicing the Summoning Jutsu, although he didn't make much progress, he did at least go from only being able to summon legless tadpoles to being able to summon tadpoles with two legs.

"Whoa! I'm getting the hang of it! I'm sure I can summon a frog this time!" Naruto shouted confidently, "Ninja Art: Summoning Jutsu!"

Naruto quickly formed hand seals, and as he completed the last seal, he pressed his hands to the ground, whereupon a series of black runes appeared.

Immediately afterwards, a cloud of smoke erupted from the rune, obscuring what was happening inside.

As the smoke gradually dissipated, the figure of a creature began to appear before Naruto.

Naruto looked at the creature in front of him and was so excited that he wanted to immediately pull Boruto, who was practicing not far away, over to see the results of his training.

Meanwhile, Boruto was carefully recalling the feeling he had when he used scientific ninja tools to unleash Purple Lightning during the Chunin Exams.

I'd like to try and see if I can recreate the Purple Lightning technique in this Chunin Exam.

It's quite a coincidence, actually. In the Chunin Exams, he fought against Shinki, Gaara's uncle's son (adopted son), and in this Chunin Exams, he directly fought against Gaara's uncle.

Just as Boruto was getting some ideas and preparing to test them out, Naruto pulled him to the spot where he had just used a summoning jutsu.

Naruto excitedly pointed at the summoned beast he had summoned and exclaimed, "Look! Look! I finally summoned the frog!"

Boruto looked in the direction Naruto was pointing, his lips twitching slightly, and said helplessly, "Are you sure this is the frog you were talking about?"

Naruto looked at the summoned beast he had just created and asked, "What else could it be but a frog? Look at it, it has four legs and green skin, isn't it just a frog?"

"This doesn't really count as a frog yet, although it does have four legs, its tail hasn't disappeared." Then he added, "Also, I seriously suspect that you've been summoning the same tadpole these past few days, it's just grown up now."

Upon hearing this, Naruto nearly collapsed and cried out, "Ah! When will I ever be able to summon a complete frog?"

"Uh..." Naruto shouted, then suddenly rolled his eyes and fell straight backward.

Boruto quickly reached out to support Naruto and shouted to Jiraiya, "18+ Sage! Come quick! What happened to him? Why did he suddenly faint?"

Jiraiya arrived upon hearing the commotion. Looking at Naruto, who had collapsed unconscious on the ground, he shook his head and said, "So he finally couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed. But we can't blame him. After all, he persevered for the past few days with his own tenacious willpower and spirit."

Boruto, seeing Naruto collapse to the ground, felt worried and said to Jiraiya, "What should we do now? Should we wake him up first?"

Jiraiya nodded after hearing this, then picked up a wooden bucket from the side and handed it to Boruto, saying, "Go and fetch some water from the stream over there."

Boruto took the bucket and immediately ran to the stream, filled it with water, and then ran back to hand it to Jiraiya.

Jiraiya took the bucket full of water from Boruto and poured it all over Naruto.

Instantly, Naruto was jolted awake by the icy stream water. He sat up abruptly, his eyes wide as he looked around: "What happened?"

Jiraiya looked at Naruto's bewildered expression and coldly replied, "To be honest, don't you feel anything at all? So many days have passed, and you're still stuck in the same place, while Boruto was able to summon a giant toad on his first day. If you continue like this, there's no point in training any longer."

Upon hearing this, Naruto immediately retorted, "N-no, that's not true at all! I've been practicing as hard as I can!"

Boruto added, "That's right, we've all seen how hard he works; he's not slacking off at all."

Jiraiya looked at Naruto and Boruto and said softly, "I understand all of that. If you really want the summoning jutsu to succeed, you absolutely cannot succeed if you don't do it with a do-or-die attitude."

Upon hearing this, Naruto immediately jumped up, pointed at Jiraiya angrily, and said, "Instead of complaining about me here, you should teach me some tricks so I can master the Summoning Jutsu faster!"

Jiraiya scratched his head helplessly and said, "The trick, the trick is..."

Naruto looked at Jiraiya expectantly and asked eagerly, "What is it? Tell me quickly!"

Jiraiya said seriously, "...Even if it costs you your life, are you still going to practice?"

Upon hearing this, Boruto's intuition told him that Jiraiya wasn't joking with Naruto like he usually did.

Naruto snapped out of his daze and answered without hesitation, "Of...of course, I've always been working my hardest!"

Jiraiya nodded, slowly stood up, and said, "Is that so... then come with me."

So, for the next day, Jiraiya took Boruto and Naruto around Konoha Village. Along the way, Jiraiya kept asking Naruto if there was anything he needed or wanted.

Finally, Jiraiya led them to Ichiraku Ramen and said to the two of them, "Eat as much as you want."

Naruto took a big slurp of noodles and said happily, "This is so delicious! If this is how I train, I want to do it every day!"

Jiraiya smiled and said, "Eat as much as you like, it's the last time anyway..."

Naruto asked, "What do you mean by 'last time'?"

"It's nothing, eat up, eat as much as you want, eat until you have no regrets."

Boruto found Jiraiya's behavior increasingly strange, as if he were giving a farewell before his death. However, Boruto didn't think too much about it, since Jiraiya wouldn't harm them.

Naruto, completely oblivious to Jiraiya's odd behavior, was engrossed in eating and quickly finished his second bowl of noodles.

Halfway through the meal, Boruto realized something was wrong.

Boruto noticed out of the corner of his eye that Jiraiya, though eating noodles with gusto, had already gotten off his seat and was slowly approaching the shop entrance, clearly intending to skip out on the bill.