Chapter 219: The Toad Sage's Gambit 2
The late summer night's breeze, now tainted with the scent of ash and ozone, whispered through the ruins of Konoha. Jiraiya's arrival had shifted the very atmosphere, introducing a variable of legendary power into the equation of destruction. There was no denying the Toad Sage's might, especially when augmented by the profound energy of Sage Mode. A lifetime of espionage and frontline combat had honed his instincts to a razor's edge, making him a perilous foe for any who lacked perfect intelligence.
Ren was not caught entirely off guard. He had anticipated Jiraiya's return from his fruitless mission in Amegakure, though the Sannin's timing was slightly more expedient than he had calculated.
So, the hermit returns to defend his nest, Ren thought, a flicker of cold amusement in his heart. It matters not. The people of this village always throw themselves into the fire for this rotten, decaying place. It's a pattern I've grown accustomed to.
"It seems your path has led you into utter darkness, Ren," Jiraiya's voice was low, stripped of its usual boisterous humor. The red markings around his eyes seemed to glow with an inner light. "There's nothing left to say. For the sake of the village's future, I must end your threat here."
"Stop me, Jiraiya?" Ren's lips curled into a sneer. "You overestimate your capabilities."
"Hahahaha...! To be looked down upon by a brat like you!" Jiraiya's laugh was a short, angry bark. In the same instant, his body, already crouched low, became a blur. His palm, now transformed into a fully webbed, frog-like hand, slammed into the earth. Utilizing the Toad's unique underground mobility, he vanished from sight and erupted from the ground directly beside Ren, his leg a whip of compressed air aimed at Ren's temple.
BAM!
The kick connected not with Ren's head, but with his forearm, which had snapped up to block with preternatural speed. The impact sent a jolt of numbing pain through Ren's arm, yet his stance did not waver; Jiraiya's powerful sweep was halted dead.
So this is Sage Mode, Ren analyzed, his Sharingan meticulously recording every detail of the chakra flow around Jiraiya. It's no mere parlor trick. It elevates his speed and strength to a level that makes him a genuine threat in close quarters, despite not being a dedicated taijutsu specialist. Perhaps I should pursue a Sage Body of my own. His version is impressive, but the potential of a true Senju-based Sage Body... that is a far more tantalizing prospect.
While Ren was calculating, Jiraiya's own mind was reeling. Impossible! I put the full force of my Sage-enhanced strength into that. He blocked it with one arm, casually, and didn't even budge!
"Little Jiraiya," the deep, croaking voice of the elder toad, Fukasaku, resonated in his mind. "This brat is the real deal. Don't hold back. He feels... profoundly dangerous."
Before the warning had fully registered, Ren retaliated. He didn't block; he attacked. A fist, sheathed in visible, swirling chakra, shot toward Jiraiya's face with terrifying speed. The pressure of the punch deformed the air, forcing Jiraiya's cheeks inward. Instinctively, Jiraiya's left hand shot up to grab the incoming wrist, but the sheer, unstoppable power behind it made his eyes widen in shock.
This raw strength... it reminds me of Tsunade!
Abandoning his grapple, Jiraiya wrenched his head to the side, the fist grazing his temple with a searing wind, and used the momentum to bend his knees and push off, putting a dozen meters between them in an instant.
I can't gain an advantage in close combat, even in Sage Mode! he realized, his palm still stinging from the failed catch.
"Little Jiraiya, use the oil! The boy favors Fire Release!" Fukasaku's wife, Shima, chirped urgently. The decades of seamless three-way coordination between them made the plan clear in an instant.
"Sage Art: Fire-Enhanced Oil Bomb!"
Jiraiya's hands flew through seals. In perfect unison, he, Fukasaku, and Shima expelled a torrent of viscous, flammable oil from their mouths. A moment later, Jiraiya followed it with a colossal Fire Release technique. The oil ignited, transforming into a roaring, all-consuming sea of flames that rushed to engulf Ren, its heat warping the very stone beneath it.
"Hmph! Can't win up close, so you switch to long-range? No... this is a Sage Art," Ren observed, his tone dripping with disdain. He made no move to retreat. Instead, he drew the Ryūko, its edge gleaming with a deadly light. "A futile effort."
With a single, fluid motion, he swung the blade. "Flowing Sky Rend!"
A crescent of concentrated chakra shot from the sword, cleaving through the heart of the inferno. Where it passed, the flames and oil were parted as if by an invisible wedge, creating a temporary corridor through the devastation. Ren strode through the gap, untouched.
But when he emerged on the other side, Jiraiya and the toads were gone.
A split second later, the air above him screamed.
"Sage Art: Super Big Ball Rasengan!"
Ren looked up. His entire field of vision was filled with a monstrous, swirling sphere of white, Sage-charged chakra, descending upon him with the force of a falling star. Jiraiya was a silhouette of focused power behind it.
"Tch. Predictable and boring." Ren didn't dodge. He simply cocked his right fist back, channeling a surge of chakra into it, and met the colossal technique head-on. His fist, a pinpoint of immense force, struck the center of the Rasengan. For a moment, the two energies warred—then, with a sound like shattering glass, the Super Big Ball Rasengan fractured into a million glittering motes of harmless light.
In the same motion, Ren twisted his body, the Ryūko in his other hand becoming a silver blur as it sliced horizontally toward Jiraiya's neck. The strike was too fast, too seamless. The blade passed cleanly through flesh and bone.
A look of frozen shock remained on Jiraiya's face for an instant before his entire form dissolved into a puff of white smoke.
A shadow clone! Ren's eyes narrowed. Of course.
"Senpō: Hair Needle Senbon!"
The thought had barely formed when a mass of white hair from behind—Jiraiya's true body, having hidden himself perfectly—shot forward like a nest of steel vipers. It wrapped around his arms, torso, and legs in a flash, its grip as unyielding as forged iron.
"Damn it, I should have known!" Ren snarled, testing the bonds. They were incredibly resilient.
He used the visual cover of the oil fire and the Rasengan's distraction to set this up, he realized, a grudging respect for the old warrior's tactics warring with his fury. A true battle-hardened veteran. More cunning than even Kakashi.
Before he could formulate a counter, the female toad on Jiraiya's shoulder, Shima, took a deep breath.
"Water Gun Technique!"
A jet of water, thin as a wire and moving with the speed of a sniper's bullet, shot from her mouth. It wasn't a stream, but a blade of pressurized liquid capable of slicing through solid rock, and it was aimed directly at Ren's immobilized form.
This technique... Ren's memory flashed to intelligence reports of Jiraiya's fight in Amegakure. He used this to kill the chameleon summon. If that hits, it will cut me in half.
Struggling was pointless; the hair bindings held fast. As the lethal water jet closed the distance, a deadly calm settled over Ren. There was no panic in his eyes, only a cold, rising fury.
His left eye, the Mangekyō Sharingan, blazed with a malevolent crimson light.
"Enough of this farce," he growled. "Domain Expansion: Temporal Shackles!"
An invisible wave of power erupted from him, and the world within its radius slowed to a grinding, absolute halt.
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