Jiraiya's Choice

"What?"

The Rasengan stopped just before it touched the Houki. To Jiraiya's astonishment, the arm holding the Rasengan flew into the air, swirling before falling to the side.

Houki sneered and swung his right arm smugly, "Hey hey, it seems even someone as strong as one of the Sannin can't detect the special ninja tool on my arm."

On his arm was a very inconspicuous arm guard, on which gas seemed to be constantly flowing.

"Visible attacks can be detected, but Wind Blade are unobservable."

The Houki let out a wild laugh and unleashed its Wind Blade, cleaving Jiraiya in two before he could react.

"This is really a headache. It seems like I'm being underestimated."

Jiraiya vanished in a puff of smoke. Realizing the danger, the Houki hurriedly turned around, only to be struck in the face by a wooden clog, sending it staggering backward.

Having landed a successful blow, Jiraiya, seeing the Houki's forehead bleeding from his powerful kick, chose to press his advantage.

The Houki was stunned by Jiraiya's kick, feeling as if it had drunk several bottles of sake, and it was unable to maintain its balance.

Realizing that he would be in big trouble if things continued this way, he began to try to control himself.

Jiraiya give him that chance. He threw a horizontal punch, which was blocked by the Houki's instincts, and then kicked it.

This attack was blocked by the Houki raising its leg, but when Jiraiya used the Houki's strength to turn around and wield his sharp hair as a weapon, the Houki could only rely on the arm armor on its wrist to defend itself.

Just as Houki was about to buy some breathing room after roughly severing several clumps of Jiraiya's hair, he was struck by Jiraiya's Taijutsu attack.

Fire Style: Flame Bullet

As the Houki gradually got used to the dizzying sensation, Jiraiya realized that the turtle was now able to block his attacks more efficiently. So, taking advantage of the last sliver of opening the turtle made, he activated Fire Style in an attempt to turn the tide.

The massive Fire Style, capable of burning a medium-sized summoned beast to ashes, was about to strike the Houki when it sensed the intense heat before it and cleaved it in two.

Large swathes of flame dissipated in the air, with only scattered sparks falling to his feet.

"Oil Bomb!"

Jiraiya seemed to have anticipated that his opponent could neutralize the Fire Style, and spat out the Toad Oil he had prepared beforehand.

Fireballs can be cut in half, but Toad Oil cannot.

Before he could figure out what kind of move it was, the viscous liquid had drenched him from head to toe. Sparks from beneath his feet spread rapidly toward the Houki's body, like a villain seeing a girl walking alone on a dark path at night.

His body temperature began to soar, adding a touch of warmth to this neither hot nor cold world.

His screams rang out along with the screams.

"You bastard, what have you done?! What have you done?!"

The panicked Houki tried to extinguish the flames on its body using Water Release, but the flames burning with Toad Oil as an accelerant were not so easy to deal with.

Seeing this, Jiraiya remained calm and used Earth Release to create a sealed space, preparing to cook the Houki like a roast duck in a simmering oven.

Having done all this, Jiraiya breathed a sigh of relief. After waiting for a while and seeing that there was no more movement coming from the artificial stone house in front of him, he turned around and prepared to deal with the other three.

The moment he turned around, a streak of light flashed from the middle of the stone house behind him, splitting the hard stone wall in two. Before the debris hit the ground, a dark shadow shot out from inside, rushing straight Jiraiya.

"What?!"

Jiraiya could turn around, he felt a sharp pain in his back.

Two deep, straight wounds, revealing bone, appeared on his back.

Even though his body was filled with pain, Jiraiya forced Jiraiya to lie on the ground and roll around to avoid further attacks.

Upon witnessing this scene, the Houki leaped into the air and delivered a powerful knee strike to Jiraiya's abdomen. In an instant, Jiraiya felt as if his internal organs were being crushed and deformed by the terrifying impact.

Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Jiraiya dipped his finger in it and then activated Summoning Technique.

Accompanied by Jiraiya's somewhat pitiful voice, Gama-Chū was summoned and used his tongue to repel the Houki.

Despite the pain, Jiraiya managed to prop Jiraiya and finally saw the full form of the Houki.

At this moment, small clusters of flames could still be seen on the Houki's body. Its upper garment was almost completely burned away, leaving only two arm armors on its arms.

Most of the skin was replaced by black and red, and some parts were almost burned through.

The only part that was intact was its face.

However, to Jiraiya's surprise, the opponent's seemingly fatal injuries had begun to heal, and in some places, granulation tissue could even be seen wriggling.

"This is really bad. This kind of recovery ability is almost on par with that guy Tsunade's."

In stark contrast was Jiraiya's constantly bleeding wound.

"Is the wound too deep?"

Feeling his blood constantly draining away, Jiraiya looked down at the ground, where the blood dripping from his back had formed a small red surface.

"Well, now I don't have to bite my fingers when using the Summoning Technique."

After uttering a sarcastic remark reminiscent of Jiraiya, he began to consider opportunities to break the deadlock.

This guy's healing ability is terrifying; we have to deal with him like Tsunade Ninjutsu.

Give that trick a try.

Jiraiya had come up with a move, but he wasn't sure if it would work on the guy in front of him.

He jumped onto Gama-Chū's back and directed the enemy to attack the Houki.

The Houki's injuries had not fully healed, and every movement was accompanied by excruciating pain.

He blamed it all on Jiraiya, his eyes filled with rage.

In mid-air, Gama-Chū's tongue swept towards the direction of the Houki.

Faced with Gama-Chū's tongue attack, the Houki leaped up and ran quickly towards Jiraiya, stepping on Gama-Chū's tongue.

The Houki, having reached Jiraiya, threw a straight punch, its other free hand already poised to launch a counterattack after Jiraiya blocked its attack.

Jiraiya did not dodge, but instead took the blow head-on.

Just as the Houki was stunned, Jiraiya clapped his hands, and the scene before him began to change rapidly.

"The Toad Mouth Binding Technique!"

The Ninjutsu was successfully activated, Jiraiya coughed up another mouthful of blood, staggering as he leaned against his esophagus to maintain his balance.

"This is?"

Looking at the constantly wriggling objects around it, the Houki seemed somewhat bewildered.

"I have summoned the esophagus of the Mount Myōboku's Great Toad; you cannot escape."

Jiraiya wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and explained to the Houki with a cold smile.

"What did you say?"

The Houki was taken aback at first, then its entire face became incredibly ferocious.

He was about to rush towards Jiraiya, but as he lifted his leg, he noticed that the soft, wriggling object under his feet had begun to spread towards his body.

The Houki hurriedly tried to swing its arm armor to cut through the unknown substances.

"Don't even think about it."

Jiraiya activated the Lion Dance Technique the instant the Houki made its move.

The sharp blade severed the Houki's arms and embedded itself firmly into the esophageal wall of the giant rock Toad.

Seemingly stimulated by the pain, the tissues spreading across the Houki's body began to move more rapidly.

Soon, the Houki was completely wrapped up.

"Huff... huff... huff..."

After doing all this, Jiraiya slumped down, but his gaze never left the location of the Houki.

Having learned his lesson, his back was still aching slightly.

After waiting a while, while keeping his eyes on the Houki, Jiraiya began to treat his injuries.

On the battlefield, after the Houki was taken away by Jiraiya's Summoning Technique, the remaining three—Ryūgan, Mizutora, and Kōjaku—after a brief moment of panic, all chose to retreat.

Their purpose in this operation was to provoke trouble on the border of Konoha. Just like Sasori, they intended to plunge Konoha and the surrounding villages into a vortex of suspicion.

Unexpectedly, they encountered Jiraiya, a powerful figure from Konoha, which prevented them from even carrying out the most basic task of silencing the witnesses. Staying here would only increase casualties.

Peacock and Dragon Eye quickly forced Kakashi and the other two Konoha Jonin retreat towards their pre-determined location.

Mizutora, however, was too badly injured and was held back by Naruto, Sasuke, and Karin. His body was covered with all sorts of horrific wounds, and escape was out of the question.

In contrast, among Naruto and his group, only Sasuke, who was at the forefront, took two punches, his arm aching and a few drops of blood visible at the corner of his mouth.

"You wretched brat!"

Mizutora never expected that he would be held up by a few kids.

Of course, he attributed most of the blame to Kakashi.

The previous Lightning Blade rendered Mizutora unable to form hand seals, leaving him only able to fight Naruto and the Naruto using Taijutsu and Scientific Ninja Tools.

Glancing at the now completely unusable fully automated attack drone, the only thing still usable for attacking on Mizutora's remaining arm was the Laser Sword on his wrist guard.

"Do we still have to rely on Taijutsu?"

Mizutora looked up at Naruto, his eyes filled with a hint of fear.

That kid was very skilled in Wind Release Ninjutsu, and at such a young age he had already mastered the nature transformation of Chakra; his talent was astonishing.

In contrast, the most powerful of the Four Heavenly Phenomenon People, Houki, almost died when inoculated with Ōtsutsuki cells. If it weren't for Amado's foresight in reducing the dosage beforehand, the Four Heavenly Phenomenon People would have become three idiots long ago.

It's not bad now; the longan and peacock ran away, and I and the Houki died.

The Four Heavenly Phenomenon People can be renamed the Two Dirty Men.

Activating the Laser Sword on his arm, and seeing Kakashi, who had given up tracking Peacock and the others and was beginning to approach him, Mizutora decided to go all out.

"Prepare to die, you brat!"

Mizutora brandished the Laser Sword on his wrist and charged straight at Sasuke.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Wave".

Naruto unleashed his Ninjutsu the moment the Mizutora acted.

Sensing the approaching wind blades, Mizutora prepared to use a jump to dodge the Wind Release attack.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique"

Sasuke anticipated his movements, unleashing Fire Style at the spot where he jumped, while simultaneously drawing Wind Shuriken and hurling it in his direction.

Mizutora wielded his Laser Sword, extinguishing the Great Fireball, then twisted his body, watching helplessly as the Wind Shuriken whistled past.

"Bang!"

Just as Mizutora thought he had successfully dodged the two's combined attack, the Wind Shuriken in front of him suddenly transformed into Naruto's appearance, and in his hand, a Rasengan was spinning wildly.

"Ahhhhh--"

Without any hesitation, Naruto slammed the Rasengan into Suiteki's shoulder, and the intense pain caused Mizutora to let out a miserable howl.