"Shit..." Finn muttered just as he landed on a tree branch, instantly crouching to dodge Jiraiya's spiked hair, which shot forward and pierced straight through the trunk.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Jiraiya's voice roared through the immense forest.
With a swift flick of his hand, Finn conjured a massive shield that blocked the incoming torrent of flames. A split second later, seven of his clones materialized and lunged toward Jiraiya.
Retracting his hair, Jiraiya watched the approaching clones as the original Finn vanished to hunt down Shisui. Jiraiya let out a faint smirk before sidestepping one clone and using his hardened hair as a shield to block a Rasengan from another. With a sudden leap, he evaded a fiery quail projectile that slammed into the ground, unleashing a powerful burst of fire that scorched the grass.
(He managed to mimic Fire Jutsu using that magic of his in such a short time... The more Jutsu I show him, the faster he copies them,) Jiraiya analyzed. So far, every single technique he had used against Finn had been perfectly copied and adapted through Finn's magic.
Spotting a small conjured porcupine rushing toward him, Jiraiya moved fast, narrowly avoiding long quills that shot out and embedded themselves into the surrounding trees.
(It's only been ten minutes since I showed him that technique, and he's already copied it!) Jiraiya thought, genuinely fascinated. He was loath to admit it, but he was thoroughly enjoying these training sessions. Unlike training Minato—who focused on analyzing and neutralizing his Jutsu—Finn completely understood them and shamelessly turned them back against him. In fact, over the last four days, this brutal back-and-forth had forced Jiraiya to spot several flaws in his own techniques and improve them, which ironically made things even harder for Finn.
"Just give it up, you closet pervert!" one of the clones barked, bursting from the ground and grabbing Jiraiya by the ankles while he was still mid-air.
Twisting his body, the clone spun Jiraiya around before slamming him hard against the earth.
BOOM!
A thick cloud of dust and debris kicked up from the impact. The seven clones landed in a circle around the crash site, warily eyeing the smoke-filled crater.
"We didn't kill him, did we?" one clone asked.
"Don't be stupid. Don't you remember all the beatings Jiraiya took from Tsunade? This is nothing to him," the clone next to him replied—right before he and two others were impaled by Jiraiya's spiked hair.
"You hit the nail on the head, kid," Jiraiya countered, a mocking edge to his voice.
"Shit, fall back...!!!"
Jiraiya shot out of the smoke, grabbing a clone by the head before smashing it into the dirt, forcing it to disperse into smoke.
The remaining three clones lunged at him, triggering a fierce hand-to-hand brawl where Jiraiya clearly held the upper hand. He parried and dodged them with little trouble, though he found it increasingly difficult to land a solid hit before having to block an attack from another angle.
As the fight escalated, Jiraiya noticed the clones were strangely getting better with each passing second. He deduced it was a side effect of Finn gaining the memories and experience of the already dispersed clones—a theory proven correct right after he drew a kunai and popped another one.
The final two clones conjured kunai of their own, locking him in a swift clash of weapons. After eliminating one more, the sharp spike in the last clone's combat prowess was undeniable. Jiraiya attributed this to Finn's magic, which Minato had explained allowed him to process and comprehend information at an accelerated rate.
Jiraiya was dodging with a bit more effort now; surprisingly, dealing with just two clones had been harder than fighting seven. Seizing an opening, Jiraiya leaped and drove his knee into a clone's chin, turning it to smoke and causing it to drop its kunai, which Jiraiya immediately caught. Seeing this, the final clone grinned broadly just as the kunai in Jiraiya's hand transmuted into a massive heavy weight, dragging him straight toward the ground.
"Dammit," Jiraiya muttered, instantly letting go of the weight, but the brief distraction was all the clone needed to land a devastating punch that sent Jiraiya flying meters back.
Jiraiya crashed against a tree trunk before rolling away just in time to dodge a kunai. The moment the weapon struck the wood, it exploded, releasing a powerful Rasengan. The blast sent Jiraiya airborne again, but he flipped mid-air, recovering his footing and landing firmly on his feet.
(This little monster is progressing way too fast... and he's getting more creative by the minute,) Jiraiya thought, a satisfied smile playing on his lips. He genuinely believed that by the end of the week, Finn would be ready to revive Minato, or at least make his first attempt. (And the brat hits hard,) he added mentally, wiping a streak of blood from his split lip.
"How much longer are we going to keep this up, Jiraiya?" the clone asked from what it deemed a safe distance.
"We're running out of time, Finn, which is why this fast training is essential. Once this week is over, we're making our first attempt to bring Minato back."
The clone didn't reply, letting out a heavy, exhausted sigh instead. Then, with three sharp pops of smoke, more clones emerged, ready to fight.
"You relentless bastard..." Jiraiya muttered, seeing he was facing four of them again. "I'll wrap this up quickly. I still have to catch the original... wherever the hell he is."
A Rasengan began to form in Jiraiya's palm, expanding until it was visibly larger than a standard one. Seeing this, the clones didn't hesitate to follow suit, though their Rasengans remained normal-sized.
"I'm ending this in one shot," Jiraiya warned with a confident smirk.
———
Elsewhere in the forest, Shisui was dodging Finn, looking thoroughly bewildered and frustrated. His breathing was ragged, and sweat drenched his brow.
"How the hell are you still improving this fast?!" Shisui demanded, genuinely baffled. Just a few minutes ago, Finn couldn't even touch him or react to his movements; now, Shisui was forced to actively rely on his Taijutsu to neutralize Finn and the endless stream of clones. "Don't you ever get tired?!"
A clone erupted from the dirt, snapping at Shisui's ankles, but he jumped to clear it. Unfortunately, another clone was already waiting for him in mid-air, delivering a powerful strike that sent Shisui crashing into the ground.
"Fuck!" Shisui hissed as he hit the grass. Hearing a coordinated "Get him!" from the clones, he instantly vanished in a Body Flicker of scattered leaves.
"Damn, he slipped away again... I seriously need to learn that technique," the original Finn muttered, dispelling all his active clones and absorbing their collective memories and combat experience.
Moments later, a fresh wave of a hundred clones materialized and scattered into the woods to hunt Shisui down, followed by a flock of twelve birds forged from his Arc of Embodiment magic, which took to the skies to join the search.
"You're not escaping me..." Finn whispered.
Finn knew it was only a matter of time before he cornered him. He sat down quietly, recovering as much chakra and magic as possible. Within minutes, his search clones clashed with Jiraiya again, triggering another skirmish. An hour later, Finn and the rest of the network received a mental ping from a clone that had finally spotted Shisui's hiding spot.
"I am officially hating this training..." Shisui groaned, utterly spent. He had been running for hours every single day, hiding as best as he could, but Finn's tracking was becoming terrifyingly sharp.
"Well, I'm loving it."
Finn's voice drifted down from the canopy of a tall tree. Surrounding the clearing, over seventy clones stood motionless, their eyes locked dead on Shisui.
"This is bullying. I'm telling the Fourth Hokage the second he's resurrected," Shisui complained.
"I'll be a whole dimension away by the time you even utter a word," Finn shot back with a mocking grin, tilting his head to signal his clones to attack.