Kind of and old question, but don't think I've ever discussed this before, so here goes

After Naruto failed bringing Sasuke back at the end of part one, he went training with Jiraiya. Two and a half years he returned to the village, stronger, and older. What we don't really know, is what kind of training Naruto have been doing.

Meanwhile Sakura have had training under Tsunade, and she have improved her skill tremendously (great chakra control, and medical skills, not to mention her strength).

But what did Naruto learn? Except how to stop his chakra flow in order to escape a genjutsu, and making a giant Rasengan.

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These eyes can see fine in the darkness

It is possible that the majority of the time wasn't even spent leaning new moves, but just building up his body to reach the point of one day controlling the kyuubi. The only things we know he definitely taught naruto was: better chakra control (applied in both countering genjutsu and maing odama rasengan), and higher chakra output for more power (again shown with the odama rasengan). Both of those were areas that naruto had always lacked in (although learning rasengan greatly helped) Another way of putting it, jiraiya layed the framework necessary for naruto to get to his current strength. It wasn't as imidiately obvious how much the training helped naruto (like it was with sasuke who was trained by orochimaru). In the end though, whatever method Jiraiya uses while training seems to be working. Just look at his previous students, Jiraiya was absent much of their lives but still the fundamentals he taught each of them ended up paving way for their own unique strengths. And it does seem to work, has he yet had a student who didn't become an S class ninja or stronger?

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The difference between Naruto in Part I and Part II is visible clearly through Kakashi's Bell Tests. Most of Naruto's time would have went reading Jiraya's Icha Icha, considering the fact that, he accurately pointed out the difference between "9" and "Ta". I feel Naruto became more intelligent, got better chakra control and was given basic lessons pertaining to genjutsus. As far as new techniques are concerned, its close to none. This was because, he worked on his existing techniques very well and made them his strong-hold.

SOME VISIBLE DIFFERENCES...

1) During Part I, it took him atleast a minute or two forming a Rasengan. In Part II, his Rasengan was just too fast. It was like as if, he summoned the Rasengan Ball.

2) During Part I, his Taijutsu skills were very ordinary. In Part II, he was able to dodge the fists of Kakashi which is remarkable.

3) During Part I, he had no idea whether he was in a genjutsu or not. In Part II, he was able to partially recover the effects of genjutsu even of Itachi's calibre.

4) He was able to outwit Kakashi a couple of times which is excellent taking into consideration how intelligent Kakashi is.

5) He was able to control the Kyuubi seal at will going into Tailed Beast states much more effectively than before. Some might say it was because, the seal weakened, but the amount of confidence he had in himself to go into jinchuuriki state was visible.

6) Finally, he showed some respect to ninja rule book, looking "underneath the underneath", something he seldom did in Part I.

IMO, Naruto never learnt something completely new in the 2 1/2 years, but, he refined his existing skills to a level that he was absolutely confident how, when and where to use them.

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Regards,
krishna.kumar

You're right, Konan, Nagato and Yahiko turned into elite s-rank ninjas, yet all they were able to do when Jiraiya left, was to kill one of his Shadow clones. The same goes for the 4th Hokage, he was also s-rank/kage level. Sasuke though, didn't get very much stronger since the start of part I, if you don't count his MS that is.

The thing that Naruto kinda lacked was new jutsu. At the age of 15, the only jutsu Naruto could perform was Kage Bunshin, Rasengan, Ōdama Rasengan and Kuchiyose.

It's magnificent how skilled he has become with these few jutsu.

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These eyes can see fine in the darkness

Jariya stated to teach naruto how to be a full fledge ninja, somthing he lacked

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Yeah, all Jiraiya did was refine his existing skills and have him master the basics.(mainly chakra control and Taijutsu)
Without that training, he never would have been able to reach the level he's at today.

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Run... Run, and cling to life.

yes i think so.. training is most important here!

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