Inheritance

The Power of Combination

Jiraiya saw the mix of understanding and determination on his students face, and smiled. It was a familiar scene to him. His father had been exactly the same when he failed his first D-rank; distraught at first, but utterly determined to improve, and ensure that when he did lead a squad into combat, he wouldn't lose any of his comrades. Of course, life doesn't always play fair, and even the best laid plans could be unravelled. But that was not a lesson that could be taught, it could only be learnt through experience.

"Having said that," Jiraiya continued; "there wasn't much else wrong with how you worked. The only fault I can find is with the Bunshin you deployed underground. Whilst the idea in itself was pretty ingenious, there is a large risk attached to that particular tactic. During the fight, you allowed me to get between you and your Bunshin, leaving it isolated. Had I allowed myself to raise my game, that would be another team-mate dead. Of course, there would be nothing wrong with you using a clone to do that on a real mission. You certainly have the chakra for it, and the Kage Bunshin are, to some extent, expendable."

As Jiraiya finished he fished around in his pocket to produce the map he had used to give Naruto his route.

"Now, I want to spend a bit of time working through different ways you could have approached that particular mission. That way, you have a variety of different ways of approaching different situations at hand."

Hours had passed, and Jiraiya was absolutely delighted with the way his session on tactics with Naruto had gone. Largely, Jiraiya had allowed Naruto to plan independently, and then he would point out faults and problems with what the blonde had come up with, so he could find a way round the problem. The Sannin found himself incredibly surprised with Naruto's intuitive grasp of strategy. He did have a tendency to overlook minor issues, but that was something that could be improved through practice and experience, two things Jiraiya could help Naruto attain.

He glanced towards the sky, trying to work out the time from the position of the sun. It had been overcast for a few hours, and it would probably rain in the night; and for someone of lesser ability, judging the position of the sun in such condition would have been a difficult task. Fortunately, Jiraiya had spent most of his later years living under an open sky, traveling between the various informants that made up his spy network. This level of experience meant that he only needed a small glance to see that it was late afternoon. They had been talking for far too long, and Jiraiya needed to speak to the Sandaime fairly early. Especially if he wanted to get some 'research' in.

"Okay, listen up gaki." Naruto immediately turned his attention from the map of Konoha to Jiraiya. "We're gonna have to call it quits for today. I have some business I need to attend to."

"As if Ero-sennin! You're just gonna go and do your 'research'!"

Jiraiya gave an involuntary flinch at both is nickname, and the fact that the boy was almost spot on with his predictions.

"For your information, gaki, I have a meeting with the Hokage." 'Yeah for about five minutes, and then it's time for some quality research!' "But first, I need to explain to you how training is going to work under me. I want you here at 6 a.m every single morning except for Wednesdays and Saturdays. We will spend the first three hours working over anything that doesn't involve large amounts of physical work; for example, things such as strategy, ninjutsu theory and eventually, things such as sealing techniques and working on chakra mastery, which I know you've already spoken about with Yuugao. The rest of the day will change depending on the activities of the other Genin Cells, which makes it tricky to schedule properly. However you will always do at least one D-rank independently, and one with one of the other Cells. The rest of the day, will be spent on the fun stuff. We will be working on taijutsu and ninjutsu, as well as improving your ability to counter genjutsu. Any questions?"