Mount Myoboku was a damp lowland basin surrounded by mountains.
Huge leaves and mushrooms sprang up everywhere, with hardly a tree in sight; the place belonged entirely to herbaceous plants.
Many insects lived there, and toads of all sizes passed their days in comfort across the region.
On the distant mountains, buildings like temples and pavilions could be made out faintly.
Streams trickled down the mountainsides, gathering into rivers and even forming waterfalls, bringing an endless supply of water to this sacred land.
Beneath the waterfalls, countless stone toad statues sat gathered before the cascade.
The rivers pooled into lakes in the lowlands, and on a cliff by one of those lakes stood a temple of red tiles and white brick. That was the Great Toad Sage's dwelling.
Before the temple, the two toads, Fukasaku and Shima, answered the summons and pushed open the temple doors.
"No idea why the Great Elder called us over in such a hurry," Sage Shima complained. She had a head of purple—whether it was hair or skin was hard to tell. "The bugs back home had just gone into the pot to stew. If I get back late and they're overcooked, that'll be awful."
"Oh, the Great Elder must have something urgent," Sage Fukasaku said, urging his old partner on. "Stop thinking about those bugs of yours. I have a feeling this matter is no small thing."
The two toads hopped through the temple. Fukasaku's brows stayed furrowed the entire time, his face full of worry.
"What is it? Ever since you came back from Amegakure, you've been like this for years. It's driving me crazy." Seeing her old partner wearing such a sour face, Shima curled her purple lips and said, "Or did the news little Jiraiya brought back from Konoha give that