"Hmm?"
Jiraiya, who was on the move, sensed something was wrong.
He reached out to stop the squad that was about to continue forward, and called for Yamanaka Santen, who was responsible for the front row sentry duty.
"Santen, did you not sense anything?"
Jiraiya looked around and asked Yamanaka Santen in a low voice.
Yamanaka Santen was stunned for a moment, then closed his eyes and increased his sensing range.
A moment later, he opened his eyes and shook his head in Jiraiya's direction: "I apologize, Jiraiya-sama, I really didn't sense anything."
Hearing this answer, Jiraiya frowned slightly. He subconsciously looked at Karin's location, and after finding that she also looked bewildered, the expression on his face became even more strange.
"Kakashi, protect your subordinates."
At this time, Kakashi couldn't care less about Jiraiya's revenge, and brought Naruto and the others close to them.
Their mission on this trip was to transport supplies while accepting the cover of Jiraiya's squad, which was why the two sides were acting together.
"Did something happen, Jiraiya-sama."
Kakashi also became serious.
"No, maybe it's my illusion, but years of war experience tell me that the situation around us is a bit wrong."
Jiraiya took a few steps forward and came to a bush.
Pushing aside the weeds at the roots of the tree, a very fresh mark appeared before his eyes.
"This is..."
Yamanaka Santen's expression changed.
He knew the meaning of this mark; it represented an encounter with an enemy attack.
Generally, it was a mark left by Konoha ninja after they were attacked.
"In the stronghold we just passed, no one said that there were personnel attacked."
Jiraiya stood up with a sneer, using his body as cover to form hand seals in the shadows.
"Toad Oil Bullet!"
Once the seals were completed, Jiraiya jumped up and sprayed thick toad oil towards a treetop.
"Water Style: Water Wall!"
Jiraiya's attack seemed to have triggered some incredible switch, as a water curtain suddenly appeared, blocking his toad oil.
The direction where Kakashi was located was attacked by a Water Dragon Bullet.
"Wind Style: Manipulating Wind Blade."
Seeing Kakashi being attacked, Yamanaka Santen subconsciously looked at the other's location. The next second, a bloody line appeared on his neck, his head wobbled a few times, and fell from his neck to the ground.
The last one to be attacked was Ichihi, who had taken over Yamanaka Santen's position at the forefront of the team. After seeing Yamanaka Santen's miserable state, he immediately assumed a defensive stance, but was still cut to pieces by the Wind Style.
"Are there four enemies?"
Jiraiya noticed the condition of the team from the corner of his eye, his expression a bit ugly.
The first attack took away two ninja from his side, this was really...
And to be able to escape the sensing of the Yamanaka clan and the Uzumaki clan, how exactly did they do it?
"Yare yare, that's why I hate so-called intuition. We are obviously wearing anti-sensing ninja tools, aren't we, Jiraiya-sama of the Sannin?"
The water curtain faded, revealing the full appearance of the people blocking Jiraiya.
One of the Four Celestial Symbols Men, Ryūgan.
"That face, so that's it, I have an impression. You are missing-nin from the Takumi Village, the Four Celestial Symbols Men, right?"
Jiraiya recognized Ryūgan, and then deduced the identities of the others.
"Not bad, old man, to actually be able to recognize us."
Kujaku, who killed Ichihi, walked out with a smile and kicked the ninja fragments under her feet.
Next was Suiko, who was fighting Kakashi. Although he didn't speak, his eyes were staring dead at Kakashi.
The Water Dragon Bullet just now was obviously very tricky, but that ninja wearing a mask only had slightly dirty clothes.
The last one to walk out was Hōki, who had killed Yamanaka Santen. In his hand, a transparent wind blade was still hovering.
"Ryūgan, you are not his match. Hehehe, I didn't expect it, to actually have the opportunity to fight Jiraiya of the Sannin."
Hōki looked at Jiraiya carefully, signaling Ryūgan to switch opponents with him.
"Humph, you guys are looking down on the elderly a bit too much."
Jiraiya shook his hair. If it were his usual self, he would definitely have struck his classic pose by now.
However, the temperature of the blood of his comrades flowing under his feet was still there, and this had already aroused Jiraiya's killing intent.
"The four of you don't have the right to choose your opponents, all of you will be defeated by me alone! Summoning Jutsu!"
A huge landing sound rang out, and Gamaken, holding a pot-lid-shaped shield and a sasumata, was summoned by Jiraiya.
(T/N: The term sasumata combines the Japanese words 刺 (sasu, "to stab" or "to thrust") and 股 (mata, "fork" or "crotch"), literally meaning "thrusting fork.")
"Kakashi, retreat with Naruto and the others!"
Taking advantage of the chaos created by Gamaken, Jiraiya activated the Wild Lion's Mane Jutsu, manipulating his hair to wrap around Ryūgan in front of him.
Ryūgan hurriedly retreated, while simultaneously using Water Style to try and block Jiraiya's hair:
"Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu!"
The ferocious water dragon roared and spiraled up, but Jiraiya exerted force with his feet and cut it directly with his hair.
"Seriously?!"
Ryūgan, who was a bit arrogant just now, couldn't laugh anymore. Witnessing the power of Jiraiya's hair with his own eyes, he couldn't care about his image and quickly retreated backwards.
"Save me quickly, Suiko!"
Ryūgan cried out for help to Suiko, who was closest to him, but Suiko had no time to attend to him because Gamaken had launched an attack on him immediately after appearing.
"One by one, really useless. Wind Style."
Hōki jumped up violently, and the blade-shaped wind blade in his hand was thrown out by him, cutting off Jiraiya's equally sharp hair.
"Fire Style: Flame Bullet."
Jiraiya seized the gap when Hōki was in the air and spat out a fireball to attack the opponent.
The huge fireball was shattered by the wind blade in mid-air, turning into sparks filling the sky.
"Hmm?"
Hōki was looking at his masterpiece with satisfaction when alarm bells suddenly rang in his mind, and he hurriedly lowered his head.
Sure enough, taking advantage of the flickering sparks, Jiraiya kicked at Hōki, the wooden clog on his foot almost grazing Hōki's scalp as it flew past.
The somewhat annoyed Hōki was about to reach out and grab Jiraiya's calf, but when he turned his head, he saw that a rotating chakra sphere had already condensed in Jiraiya's right hand.
"Rasengan!"
"Wind Style—"
As a ninjutsu without hand seals, the Rasengan's greatest advantage was being able to quickly attack the opponent in close combat.
Hōki didn't have time to form seals before his shoulder was ruthlessly hit by the Rasengan, and his whole body spiraled as he flew backwards.
"Wind Style: Wind Killing Array!"
Kujaku hurriedly made a move. Originally, she intended to help Suiko attack Gamaken, but seeing Hōki under attack, she had to change her target.
"Earth Style: Mud Wall."
Jiraiya leaned over and used Earth Style to block the opponent's attack.
Ryūgan also regrouped and came killing towards Jiraiya.
"Damn toad, die!"
Hit by the sasumata, Suiko tried it out and found that he couldn't break free from the restraint. Enduring the pain, he took out a weirdly shaped weapon from behind his back.
A multi-barrel machine gun.
"Die!"
Accompanied by the sound of rotating barrels, Suiko pulled the trigger.
Bullets pouring out from the barrels like a flood instantly submerged Gamaken.
Gamaken subconsciously raised his shield to defend, but the attack power of the bullets was higher. His shield was shattered very quickly, and a large number of bullets took away part of his flesh and blood, quickly forcing him to actively cancel the Summoning Jutsu.
"Raikiri!"
Kakashi, who was retreating, saw this and realized that he couldn't let Suiko attack Jiraiya with that kind of weapon. He hurriedly turned around and used Raikiri to charge at the opponent.
Suiko noticed Kakashi's movement and turned the gun head, about to shoot at Kakashi. Naruto didn't say a word, forming seals to use ninjutsu to cover the other: "Wind Style: Vacuum Sphere."
Small wind bullets shot towards Suiko at a speed no less than bullets, and a few of them directly pierced his shoulder and arm.
Under Naruto's cover, Kakashi's Raikiri approached Suiko with a sharp thunder sound. Lightning flashed, and Suiko's arm holding the Gatling gun was completely cut off.
The moment Kakashi succeeded, Jiraiya had already kicked away Ryūgan who wanted to sneak attack him.
When he intended to give Ryūgan a fatal blow, several more wind blades flashed past. If Jiraiya hadn't dodged in time, the large tree that crashed and broke beside him would have been Jiraiya's fate.
No way?
Jiraiya turned his head to look in the direction the attack came from. It was actually Hōki, who had just been hit by the Rasengan.
The torn clothes on his shoulder proved that the Rasengan had indeed hit him just now, but the unscarred skin denied this point.
This is bad, could it be that this guy possesses the self-healing ability of a human puppet?
Jiraiya assumed a defensive stance. Sure enough, Hōki, whose Wind Style missed, quickly charged at Jiraiya, arriving in front of him in the blink of an eye.
Such fast speed.
Jiraiya sighed in his heart, rallying all his spirit to fight the opponent.
As the only one in the group who had been implanted with Otsutsuki Shibai cells, Hōki's taijutsu was powerful enough to gain the upper hand in a fight with Jiraiya.
The fight between the two sides was fatal and fierce, and their movements were rapid. Kujaku on the side had no room to intervene at all, so she set her target on Kakashi again.
Ryūgan, who was kicked away by Jiraiya, was entangled by two other Konoha ninja, and the two sides fought inextricably for a while.
Suiko struggled to get up, facing the coordinated attack of Naruto and Sasuke head-on.
"Don't drag me down, Sasuke."
"Humph, worry about yourself first, Naruto."
It wasn't difficult for the two to deal with Suiko, who had lost an arm.
Seeing that the other enemies didn't possess terrifying abilities like Hōki, Jiraiya breathed a sigh of relief and began to think about countermeasures for the next step.
Originally, he thought that ninja who defected from such a small ninja village were not difficult existences to deal with, but after engaging the opponent head-on, Jiraiya discovered that the opponent had impressive performance in both ninjutsu and taijutsu.
This strength was enough to rival a Kage.
While thinking, Jiraiya deliberately sold a flaw, enticing Hōki to attack him.
Then, just as Hōki's foot was about to kick him, Jiraiya used a ninjutsu: "Ninja Art: Needle Jizō."
A head full of white hair wrapped Jiraiya's whole body, leaving only an area for observation. The exposed hair strands stood up, just like spikes.
Hōki's fierce kick landed on it, and his entire foot surface was pierced.
"Rasengan."
Seeing Hōki controlled by the spikes, Jiraiya extended his hand, smashing out another Rasengan. This time, he aimed at Hōki's head.