"Nani?"
The Rasengan halted just before it could touch Hōki. Under Jiraiya's stunned gaze, his arm holding the Rasengan flew into the air, spiraling as it fell to the side.
Hōki let out a cold laugh, shaking his right arm as if to show it off: "Yare yare, it seems even one as strong as the Sannin cannot detect the special ninja tool on my arm."
On his arm was an extremely inconspicuous gauntlet, with gas seemingly flowing constantly across its surface.
"Tangible attacks can be detected, but the blade of wind is unobservable."
Hōki laughed maniacally and slashed out with the Wind Blade, cutting Jiraiya, who had no time to react, in two with a single strike.
"What a headache. It seems I've been underestimated."
The Jiraiya before him vanished into a puff of smoke. Realizing the situation was bad, Hōki hurriedly turned around, only to be struck squarely in the face by a wooden clog, sending him stumbling backward violently.
Having succeeded with the hit, Jiraiya looked at Hōki, whose forehead had begun to bleed from the powerful kick, and chose to press the attack.
Hōki was dazed by Jiraiya's kick; he felt as though he had downed several bottles of sake and struggled to maintain his balance.
Realizing that he would be in serious trouble if this continued, he began to struggle to control himself.
Jiraiya would not give him such an opportunity. He threw a horizontal punch, and after Hōki blocked it on instinct, he followed up with a flying kick.
This strike was also blocked by Hōki raising his leg, but when Jiraiya used Hōki's force to spin around and swing his sharp hair as a weapon, Hōki could only rely on the gauntlet on his wrist for defense.
Roughly severing several clumps of Jiraiya's hair, Hōki was just planning to buy some breathing room when he was hit by Jiraiya's Taijutsu assault.
"Fire Release: Flame Bullet."
As Hōki slowly grew accustomed to the dizzying sensation, Jiraiya noticed that his opponent was becoming more efficient at blocking his attacks. So, seizing the last sliver of an opening the opponent revealed, he unleashed a Fire Release technique in an attempt to break the deadlock.
The massive Fire Release, capable of burning a medium-sized summon beast to ash, was split down the middle and turned into two halves by Hōki, who sensed the searing heat before his eyes, just before it could hit him.
Large swathes of fire dissipated in the air, with only scattered sparks falling to his feet.
"Toad Oil Bullet!"
Jiraiya seemed to have anticipated that the opponent could neutralize the Fire Release and spat out the toad oil he had prepared earlier from his mouth.
A fireball could be cut, but toad oil could not.
Drenched from head to toe in the viscous liquid, before he could figure out what kind of move this was, the sparks at his feet—like thugs spotting a young girl walking alone down a dark alley at night—rapidly spread toward Hōki's body.
His body temperature began to skyrocket, adding a bit of warmth to this lukewarm world.
Rising along with it were his screams.
"Bastard! What did you do? What did you do?!" panicked Hōki tried to use Water Release to extinguish the flames on his body, but fire fueled by toad oil was not so easily dealt with.
Seeing this, Jiraiya unhurriedly used Earth Release to create a confined space, preparing to cook Hōki like a roast duck in an oven.
Having done all this, Jiraiya breathed a sigh of relief. After waiting for a while and seeing no further movement from the artificial stone chamber before him, he turned around, ready to deal with the other three.
The instant he turned, a streak of flowing light flashed from the center of the stone chamber behind him. The hard stone walls were split in two, and before the debris could even land, a black shadow had already burst forth from within, pouncing straight at Jiraiya.
"Nani?!"
Jiraiya didn't have time to turn around before he felt intense pain radiating from his back.
Two straight lacerations, deep enough to expose bone, appeared on his back.
Even though his body was filled with pain, Jiraiya forced himself to drop to the ground and rolled, dodging further attacks.
Seeing this, Hōki leaped into the air and drove a knee violently into Jiraiya's abdomen. For a moment, Jiraiya felt as if his internal organs were going to be crushed and deformed under the terrifying impact.
Spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood, Jiraiya extended a finger to catch some of it, then immediately activated the Summoning Technique.
Accompanying Jiraiya's somewhat wretched voice, Gama was summoned, extending his tongue to knock Hōki back.
Jiraiya, enduring the pain to prop himself up, finally saw Hōki's full appearance.
At this moment, small clusters of burning flames could still be seen on Hōki's body. His shirt had been burned almost completely away, leaving only the two gauntlets on his arms.
Most of his skin had been replaced by black and red charred flesh, and some parts were burned almost entirely through.
The only intact place was that face.
However, what astonished Jiraiya was that the opponent's potentially fatal injuries had already begun to heal, and in some places, squirming granulation tissue could even be seen.
"This is really bad. That recovery ability... it's catching up to Tsunade's."
In stark contrast was Jiraiya's continuously bleeding wound.
"Is the wound too deep?"
Feeling the constant loss of blood, Jiraiya looked down at the ground. The blood dripping from his back had already formed a small red pool.
"Ma, at least I don't have to bite my finger to use the Summoning Technique now."
After making a quip characteristic of Jiraiya, he began to think of a way to break the situation.
This guy's self-healing ability was too terrifying; he had to be treated like a Tsunade who could use ninjutsu.
Let's try that move.
Jiraiya thought of a technique, though he didn't know if it would work on the guy in front of him.
He jumped onto Gama's back and commanded him to attack Hōki.
...
Hōki's injuries had not yet fully healed; every movement was accompanied by piercing pain.
He blamed all of this on Jiraiya in front of him, his gaze filled with fury.
In mid-air, Gama's tongue swept toward Hōki.
Facing Gama's tongue attack, Hōki leaped fiercely, stepping on Gama's tongue to run rapidly toward Jiraiya.
Arriving in front of Jiraiya, Hōki threw a straight punch, his other free hand already prepared to launch a counterattack once the attack was blocked by Jiraiya.
But Jiraiya did not dodge; instead, he took the hit head-on.
Just as Hōki was stunned, Jiraiya slammed his hands together, and the scene before them began to change rapidly.
"Summoning: Toad Mouth Binding!"
With the ninjutsu successfully activated, Jiraiya coughed up another mouthful of blood, his body staggering slightly, leaning against the esophagus behind him to stay upright.
"This is?"
Looking at the constantly writhing objects around him, Hōki was somewhat at a loss.
"I have summoned the esophagus of the Great Toad of Mount Myōboku. You cannot escape."
Jiraiya wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, sneering as he explained to Hōki.
"What did you say?"
Hōki was stunned at first, then his entire face became incredibly ferocious.
He immediately tried to dash toward Jiraiya, but as he lifted his leg, he realized that the soft, squirming substance beneath his feet had already begun to spread up his body.
Hōki hurriedly tried to swing his gauntlets to sever the unidentified matter.
"Don't even think about it."
Jiraiya activated the Wild Lion's Mane Technique the moment Hōki moved.
The sharp hair blades severed Hōki's arms, pinning them tightly into the esophagus wall of the Great Toad.
Seeming stimulated by the pain, the tissue spreading over Hōki's body began to move even faster.
Soon, Hōki was completely wrapped up tight.
"Haa... Haa... Haa..."
Having done all this, Jiraiya collapsed into a sitting position, but he dared not take his eyes off Hōki's location.
Having suffered once already, his back was still throbbing with pain.
He waited for a while, ensuring his gaze did not leave Hōki while simultaneously beginning to treat his injuries.
...
On the battlefield, as Hōki was taken away by Jiraiya's Summoning Technique, the remaining three—Ryūgan, Suiko, and Kujaku—chose to retreat in unison after a brief moment of panic.
The purpose of their operation was originally to provoke an incident at the Konoha border. Like Sasori's approach, they intended to plunge Konoha and the surrounding villages into a vortex of suspicion.
Unexpectedly, they encountered Jiraiya, a Konoha powerhouse, this time. Consequently, they couldn't even manage the most basic silencing of witnesses; remaining here would only increase casualties in vain.
Kujaku and Ryūgan quickly forced Kakashi and two other Konoha Jōnin back, retreating toward a pre-determined location.
Suiko, however, because of his severe injuries, was frustratingly pinned down by Naruto, Sasuke, and Karin. Covered in terrible wounds, escape had become a luxury.
Conversely, among Naruto's group, only Sasuke, who rushed to the front, had taken two punches; his arm was somewhat painful, and faint traces of blood could be seen at the corner of his mouth.
"Damn brats!"
Suiko never imagined he would be held back by a few kids.
Of course, he attributed most of the reason to Kakashi.
That Raikiri earlier had caused Suiko to lose the means to form hand seals, leaving him to rely only on Taijutsu and scientific ninja tools to fight Naruto and the others.
Glancing at the fully automated attack drone that was now completely unusable, the only thing left on Suiko's remaining arm that could be used for attack was the laser sword on his bracer.
"Do I still have to rely on Taijutsu?"
Suiko looked up at Naruto, his eyes holding a measure of wariness.
That kid's Wind Release ninjutsu was very proficient; to have mastered nature transformation at such a young age, his talent was astonishing.
Looking back at their Four Celestial Symbols Men, the strongest, Hōki, almost died when receiving the Ōtsutsuki cells. If Amado hadn't had the foresight to reduce the dosage beforehand, the Four Celestial Symbols Men would have long since become three idiots.
Now it wasn't much better; Ryūgan and Kujaku had run, and he and Hōki were dead.
Activating the laser sword on his arm and watching Kakashi, who had already given up chasing Kujaku and the others and was starting to close in on his direction, Suiko decided to go for broke.
"Die!"
Suiko waved the laser sword on his wrist, charging straight at Sasuke.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Wave."
Naruto unleashed a ninjutsu the moment Suiko moved.
Sensing the rapidly approaching wind blades, Suiko prepared to jump to dodge the Wind Release attack.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique."
Sasuke anticipated his move, releasing a Fire Release at the spot where he jumped, while simultaneously pulling out a Fūma Shuriken and throwing it in his direction.
Suiko swung the laser sword, extinguishing the Great Fireball, then twisted his body, watching helplessly as the Fūma Shuriken whistled past.
"Bang."
Just as Suiko thought he had successfully dodged their combo attack, the Fūma Shuriken before his eyes suddenly transformed into Naruto, and in his hand, a Rasengan was spinning wildly.
"Aaaaaah——"
Naruto smashed the Rasengan into his shoulder without hesitation, the intense agony causing Suiko to let out a wretched howl.
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