"Don't feel bad about not getting it," Jiraiya says at the end of the day. "It took the Fourth three years to invent from scratch."

"I mean yeah it's gonna take more than a day? But with my clones and having some idea of the steps should take me less time... And after the third round I'll have more spare clones during training..."

Bounce over to check on Sasuke (exhausted and sore) and Chihiro, then, though he's been keeping an eye on them with his external-attention clone.

She is no more tired than usual.

That's good!

Once he has the wind technique down, they should work on their own fight... Though that'll be a bit yet, he's not sure how far out he is.

It will likely take a week, based on the difficulty of the technique and extrapolating from past experience.

Yeah, that seems about accurate... Leaves them a good amount afterwards, still.

This is true. But she will also have coordinate her duel with Sasuke and he seems less likely to have significant free time.

"Yeah. That'll probably have to be mostly crammed into the end... Or while he's resting, you guys can at least talk, and I don't think those inscribed techniques of his tire him out much? If he's low on chakra from training but not exhausted yet."

Chihiro nods. "Yes."

"Got any ideas for our fight other than clones and the chameleon technique? Might be fun to show off wind against each other, we've got different enough styles." Naruto's tended to be very swirly, good for barriers and defense and causing widespread chaos. He's fully confident Chihiro could use any style she wanted, of course, but he wouldn't call that sword 'designed for defense.'

Indeed, Chihiro focuses mainly on augmenting her sword, and her other techniques are just as sharp.

"That would serve as a demonstration of both the team's specialization and versatility."

"Yeah! And different stuff than we do in our other fights, too. You and Neji are way different, so, same with me and Sasuke."

"Hyuga Neji and I both specialize in close-range combat."

"Eh, within that. Big sword and wind techniques is really different than taijutsu and related stuff, kind of different point within close-range too? Like you've got more reach. Also Neji probably can't throw his hands at me."

"...That is a disturbing image."

He snickers.

"Man, you know what'd be fun, figuring out how to throw that Rasengan at people."

"From what I understand of it, once the technique has been formed, there should be no problem in principle with throwing it, other than the difficulty of maintain chakra control at increased range."

"Yeah, and chakra control's not my strong suite, but it'd be something neat to work on."

"Not something to advertise before you finish it."

"Yeah, it's definitely a future project."

About a week and a half later, there is a new customer seated at Naruto's favorite ramen stand when he returns home in the evening.

Friendly but not demanding smile. There aren't too many seats at the stall, so he ends up one seat down from her. He doesn't want to crowd her, after all. While he waits for his order, because he's fundamentally incapable of shutting up: "Hi!" he says to her. "Trying out restaurants? Ichiraku has the best ramen."

She gives him a very flat look over the rim of her second bowl.

He once tried to befriend a rapid badger, she's really not that scary.

"Have you tried Yakiniku Q yet? They're good for barbeque, though it's sometimes a bit odd going in there on your own... Weird times on a Tuesday is best time to swing by, they're a lot less crowded."

Narrowed eyes. A thin tendril of sand snakes out to grab a napkin and brings it up to her lips.