"Naruto, so this is Mount Myoboku. Compared with the clammy dampness of Ryuchi Cave, the environment here is so much better." Amid the birdsong and flowers of Mount Myoboku, an uninvited guest appeared.
"Heh, the Fourth's Flying Thunder God is certainly impressive, but with space-time ripples at that level, how could I possibly fail to detect it? Heh-heh, I can use Flying Thunder God too. And the spatial abilities I possess exceed yours." That's right—Meruem had deliberately let the Fourth escape. Unlike absorbing the First Hokage, which gave Meruem a qualitative boost in power.
The Second, Third, and Fourth contributed little to Meruem's overall strength—absorbing them didn't change much, and skipping them wouldn't weaken him much either. But unlike the Second and Third, the Fourth Hokage was, aside from Jiraiya, the only one in the shinobi world who could find Mount Myoboku.
The Enma clan's summoning sanctuary was decent, but Meruem didn't care for it. As for Mount Myoboku's leader—the Great Toad Sage—he was very likely the Sage of Six Paths' summoning beast in legend.
Even if not, it didn't matter. Unlike the White Snake Sage of Ryuchi Cave, Meruem was very interested in the Great Toad Sage's power.
Devouring it would surely strengthen him, and that prophecy-giving old toad—especially with prophecies that accurate—was quite a nuisance.
Though the shinobi world spoke of Three Great Summoning Sanctuaries, in reality Mount Myoboku stood foremost among them.
Meruem had felt the White Snake Sage's power—indeed impressive, not much inferior to a tailed beast.
But it still couldn't influence the entire shinobi world; Meruem figured the White Snake Sage might be stronger than Mount Myoboku's elder pair, Fukasaku and Shima, but still short of the Great Toad Sage.
That fellow was a toad thousands of years old. As for Shikkotsu Forest, they said only a single slug lived there. Meruem hadn't been, so he wouldn't judge—but it likely wasn't older than the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku.
That Mount Myoboku could be such an idyllic paradise showed it wasn't as simple as it looked.
In the original story, just Gamabunta alone fought the One-Tail Shukaku to a standstill. Mount Myoboku had several toads equal to Gamabunta, whereas Ryuchi Cave had only Manda. In heritage, the gap between the two was vast.
"Minato—Minato, it's really you. How are you? Any better?" When Minato Namikaze opened his eyes again, he saw a middle-aged man with long white hair—that was his teacher, Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin.
"Jiraiya-sensei…" Minato managed after catching his breath. His body was grievously wounded—the worst injuries of his life.
"Minato, didn't you die fifteen years ago? How… how are you here in Mount Myoboku? And this badly hurt?" Seeing Minato awake, Jiraiya's questions tumbled out.
But Minato had no strength left to speak. Using the Flying Thunder God just now had exhausted him completely.
Things had been strange lately: the Great Toad Sage's prophecy, Minato's return from the dead, the Child of Prophecy's fate altered—what had changed in the shinobi world?
"Little Jiraiya, priority one is healing Little Minato. Ask your questions after he recovers. Who did he fight to end up this injured? It makes no sense— even if the Nine-Tails reappeared, it shouldn't have left him on the brink of death by drowning." Perched on Jiraiya's left shoulder, Sage Shima frowned as she examined the near-drowned Minato.
Jiraiya realized she was right and left Minato to Mount Myoboku's medical toads. Their medical arts weren't on Tsunade's level, but they far surpassed most shinobi medics.
"This Mount Myoboku is not just twice the size of Ryuchi Cave—and there are strange barriers here that actually interfere with my En." Wandering aimlessly through Mount Myoboku, Meruem muttered to himself.
He'd thought even if it was larger than Ryuchi Cave's domain, it wouldn't be by much. He hadn't expected Mount Myoboku to be so vast, nor for it to have so many inexplicable barriers that could, to a degree, suppress the range of his En.
"What's going on? Mount Myoboku is the toads' turf—so why haven't I seen a single toad?" On his first visit to Mount Myoboku, Meruem—unluckily—found he was lost.
"Who are you? Why have you appeared in Mount Myoboku?" Just as Meruem's patience wore thin, a voice sounded underfoot. He looked down to find a little toad.
"How's Minato?" True to form, Mount Myoboku's strongest medical toads had stabilized him after a period of treatment. He wasn't fully restored, but his life was no longer in danger.
Even so, the medical toad said there was nothing it could do about Minato's shattered bones or the petrification of his lower body from overuse of senjutsu.
All it could do was keep him alive.
"Much better, Jiraiya-sensei," Minato said. He sounded stronger than before and seemed to have regained some energy.
"Jiraiya-sensei, I have something important to report. It's why I'm here— and why I'm this badly wounded." After a few formalities, Minato's tone turned grave.
"It wasn't just me who was revived. The First, Second, and Third were revived as well." Minato slowly recounted what had happened.
"You're not lying to me, Minato? I can't believe someone who even…" Jiraiya struggled to accept Minato's account.
The First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, called the God of Ninjutsu, had been resurrected—and then killed.
How was that possible?
"Bad news, Lord Fukasaku, Lady Shima—Mount Myoboku is under attack by an unknown enemy! Lord Gamabunta, Lord Gamaken, and Lord Gamahiro are fighting the intruder!" A toad the size of a small person rushed in in a panic.
"What? Impossible! How could anyone else find Mount Myoboku? This place is protected by barriers set personally by the Sage of Six Paths!" Sage Shima cried.
Minato's face turned ashen. If it was that monster, then I must have led him here. Damn it!
"You three pieces of trash—here to die?" Though Meruem looked tiny before three toads as big as tailed beasts,
the ones trembling were the three massive toads.
"Damn it, what kind of monster is this? Why… why does he feel even more terrifying than the Nine-Tails?" said Gamabunta, current head of the Mount Myoboku toads. He had once been summoned by the Fourth Hokage to confront the Nine-Tails, so he knew the tailed beasts' power well.
He'd still dare to fight the Nine-Tails, but before the small human in front of him, he felt a sense of absolute impossibility.
Even Gamabunta didn't know why that thought arose. It felt innate…
"I'm clumsy, but I absolutely won't let you pass." Though terrified, Gamaken still did his duty, leveling his giant steel trident across Meruem's path.
"Since you're so eager to die, I'll oblige you. Ten seconds… no, five is all I need to kill you." Meruem extended a hand toward the three great toads.
When Jiraiya and the two sages arrived, the scene was gruesome. Toad corpses of all sizes lay everywhere—without exception, all dead.
At the center lay the bodies of three giant toads. Even in the final battle of the canon, Mount Myoboku's toad clan had emerged unscathed; now more than half lay dead or wounded—their vitality devastated.
"My son!!!" Seeing her son's body, Sage Shima's first reaction was grief, and she instinctively tried to rush over.
But Fukasaku held her fast—he could see clearly there was still a figure at the center of the field.
Whatever had been done here, that figure had done it.
"Sorry to intrude. Where is the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku? Tell me—unless you'd like to end up like them." One moment he was far away; the next, Meruem was suddenly before Jiraiya and the two sages. His speed was such that none of them could react.
"You did all this?" Rarely for the usually jolly Jiraiya, his face twisted into a snarl. He stared hard at Meruem, not daring to relax. The man's strength was overwhelming. In so short a time, he had killed even the three great toads including Gamabunta.
"Yes. I won't ask a third time. Where is the Great Toad Sage?" Meruem answered without hesitation.
"The Great Toad Sage is—"
"Sage Art: Goemon!"
"Demonic Illusion: Toad Confrontation Chant!"
(End of Chapter)
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