Gamamo's Advance

"Really flattering me... summoning three giant snakes just to deal with me!"

Gamamo the toad laughed.

"Can you stop being so optimistic at a time like this?!" Jimo complained.

"Can't help it, this big guy's born cheerful! Can't change it!"

Gamamo drew his waist blade and in an instant sliced one giant snake into several pieces.

"Oh, this fragrant snake meat, can't let it go to waste!" With a flash of his blade, Gamamo peeled off the snake's skin, revealing the flesh beneath.

"Tender and juicy! A delicacy of the world!"

Gamamo stuffed the snake meat into his mouth and swallowed, not forgetting to share a piece with Jimo perched on his head.

"Mmm! Truly tender and juicy! You sure know how to eat!" Jimo praised.

"Right?"

"Hey hey, Jiraiya... did that kid just call that toad Gamamo?" Tsunade asked.

"You're not wrong, it's the problem child from Mount Myoboku..." Jiraiya said, covering his face.

"That kind of guy actually listens to his summoner... unbelievable..." Tsunade marveled.

Back when Jiraiya tried to summon Gamamo for help, he couldn't get him out no matter what! A toad with an extremely strong personality...

"Kid, two left!" Gamamo said.

"One each!" The Saiyan bloodline's love for battle surged within Jimo!

Jimo leaped off Gamamo's head.

Seeing them fight with increasing fervor, Kabuto Yakushi summoned another swarm of ordinary giant snakes.

"Come on! This big guy hasn't had a full meal in ages!"

Gamamo's eyes were bloodshot, his body drenched in the snakes' splattered blood. Though he'd taken a few solid hits from their iron-whip-like tails, it was nothing serious.

Jimo was the same. Though he'd been sent flying several times, his burning battle fervor never dimmed.

"Are they insane... these guys!"

Kabuto squinted, his brow furrowed.

He had underestimated that vermillion toad, and he had underestimated Jimo.

Back at the main battlefield, Manda's mouth was pinned to the ground by a long blade, unable to move.

Orochimaru extended his tongue to strangle Tsunade, but was instead beaten mercilessly by her.

"Strange... this feel is off!"

Though Tsunade swung her fists, continuously striking Orochimaru's body, the feedback from her hits carried an indescribable sensation.

After a wave of attacks, Orochimaru stood before Jiraiya and Tsunade with a completely unfamiliar face...

"Even if you don't help me, I have ways to restore my hands! It'll just take a little longer..."

Orochimaru laughed coldly.

"Konoha! I will destroy it for sure! We'll meet again then! Jiraiya! Tsunade!"

Watching Orochimaru tear off his face, both Jiraiya and Tsunade were stunned.

"His face..."

"It's probably some strange jutsu taking over another person's body... no wonder the feel was off during the fight!"

"Jiraiya, Tsunade! I am the true immortal!" Orochimaru declared.

Before his words faded, a blaze of fire struck.

"Fire Release! Toad Oil Flame Bullet!"

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough! Combined version!"

In the distance, dozens of Jimo's clones simultaneously used Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, combining with the Toad Oil Flame Bullet from Gamamo and the main Jimo to surge toward Orochimaru.

Seeing this, Manda quickly dispelled the summoning jutsu and vanished from the ground.

A sea of fire swept past, leaving only a charred corpse on the ground.

"You sure know how to waste chakra..." Jiraichi remarked.

Though Wind Release: Great Breakthrough was a C-rank jutsu, at this scale, the kid's chakra reserves were probably no less than Naruto's—likely even more than Naruto using the Nine-Tails' chakra...

"Just couldn't stand it..." Jimo explained.

"With the battle here, we should head back too!" Gamabunta said, dragging Gamamo along.

"Jimo! Next time there's a fight, call me, got it!" Gamamo called out, snake meat still in his mouth.

The Slug also bid everyone farewell and then dispelled the Summoning Technique.

In the end, though Naruto still couldn't form a perfect Rasengan with one hand, Tsunade handed the necklace over to him anyway.

"A person's will and dreams are passed down from generation to generation..."

The Fifth Hokage said as much.

On the Hokage Building, Tsunade gazed at the newly rebuilt structures and walls, feeling the passage of time.

"Never thought you'd actually manage to bring Princess Tsunade back!"

The Two Advisors remarked as they watched Tsunade's figure.

"Of course—who could refuse a handsome guy like me?" Jiraiya said, brimming with pride.

"Hey, Jimo, wasn't there someone who got drugged and couldn't move a muscle...?" Naruto deliberately said loudly from the side.

"Yeah, yeah! One of the Three Ninja, the Toad Sage, and during battle he summons a frog the size of a palm..."

"Thump! Thump!"

Unable to take it anymore, Jiraiya gave each of them a big lump on the head.

"By the way, Jiraiya, where are the people I need to treat?"

Tsunade asked.

After some simple treatment, Sasuke and Kakashi were mostly out of danger.

The toughest case was still Rock Lee.

"You should... give up on being a ninja..."

Tsunade said after examining the condition inside Rock Lee's body.

"Bone fragments have already penetrated deep into the nervous system... Even with surgery... the risk is extremely high..."

Tsunade paused.

"The chance of death is as high as... fifty percent... If the surgery fails, the chance of death is one hundred percent..."

On the rooftop, Jimo looked helplessly at Naruto and Sasuke, both covered in bumps from his beatings.

"Grown-ups acting like kids..."

Kakashi nodded from the side.

"Sasuke! Is that the kind of move you use on a teammate... Were you trying to kill Naruto?"

Sasuke looked at the damage he and Naruto had done to the water bucket, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly.

To adjust Sasuke's mindset, Jimo quickly sent Kakashi away...

Sakura also helped the dizzy and disoriented Naruto to the medical room.

"Pretty sore about it, aren't you? Being saved by someone who used to be weaker than you?"

Jimo walked over to Sasuke.

"You're really sticking your nose where it doesn't belong..."

"Do you honestly think... if you'd fought to the end, you'd be the one to win?"

Jimo grabbed Sasuke and dragged him behind the Water Tank.

The massive, jagged tear in it left Sasuke frozen in place.

"Do you know why Naruto works so hard?"

Jimo said calmly.

"You only see that he's gotten strong, but you don't understand what's in Naruto's heart."

Sasuke tilted his head in confusion, his eyes clear like a fool who'd just finished four years of higher education.

"In Naruto's eyes, you've always been the best. He's always been trying to catch up to you... What he wants most right now probably isn't everyone else's recognition... It's yours."