Jiraiya and the Overly Familiar Brat

The barrier shrouding Sunny City might be unfamiliar to Uncle Umino, but Touma was intimately acquainted with it, for this type of barrier capable of releasing toxic gas was developed by Orochimaru.

This formation is called the "Four Flower Tree Formation," and its effect is to use chakra to simulate the toxic miasma of flowers and plants, allowing the user to poison all enemies within the barrier and strip them of their control over their internal chakra.

The "Four Flower Tree Formation" was developed using the First Hokage Senju Hashirama's "Wood Style: Deep Forest Bloom" as a template, which is why it requires the casters to possess the ability to manipulate three types of chakra nature transformations: Water, Earth, and Yang.

This can be considered a technique that lowers the difficulty of using the First Hokage's Wood Style; similar barrier techniques include the "Four Seal Ten Formation," the "Four Beast Press Formation," and the "Four Sage Buddha Formation," all of which were developed by Orochimaru based on the concepts left behind by Senju Tobirama.

However, the activation requirements for these latter three barrier techniques become increasingly demanding, to the point where the final "Four Sage Buddha Formation" requires four ninjas capable of entering Sage Mode simultaneously to activate, making it impossible to popularize.

In Konoha, the only ones who have practiced Sage Mode are Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade, who possess the summoning scrolls of the three great holy lands. Among them, only Orochimaru possesses the ability to use Sage Mode in actual combat; both Jiraiya and Tsunade require a long preparation time to activate it.

Even if one were to include Shibi, who can barely use "Insect Sage Mode," the four of them combined still could not sustain the consumption required for the "Four Sage Buddha Formation," which goes to show just what level Senju Hashirama's strength reached back in the day.

The person who set up the "Four Flower Tree Formation" is, without a doubt, Jiraiya, as he is the only one with the connections to obtain this barrier technique from Orochimaru.

Therefore, as long as Touma followed the layout of the barrier pillars with Uncle Umino, he would be able to find Jiraiya.

Sure enough, this guy was hiding in a cave twelve meters underground, monitoring the changes within Sunny City, and he didn't even notice Touma drifting in silently through a ventilation shaft.

In the state of "Heavenly Storm Sky Dance," Touma could not only elementalize his own clothing and weapons but also the unresisting Uncle Umino.

Although Uncle Umino's talents might have been focused on the field of summoning, at his level, he still had some understanding of chakra elementalization.

It was a pity that while he was being controlled and elementalized by Touma, he could not use his chakra to perceive his surroundings; otherwise, he might have been able to gain some insight from the experience.

"Pervert Jiraiya!"

Touma, suddenly revealing his form, leaned over to Jiraiya and shouted.

However, what Touma didn't expect was that this sentence immediately triggered Jiraiya, causing him to enter combat mode.

In the next second, the white hair on his head surged, turning into sharp needles of hair that thrust toward Touma.

Touma, however, was not afraid. While in the state of "Heavenly Storm Sky Dance," he quickly formed hand seals and used a "Clone Technique" infused with Yin Style chakra nature transformation, known as the "Flash Shadow Clone."

The "Flash Shadow Clone" can directly animate all shadows within sight, allowing these shadows to transform into his own clones and ambush the target silently.

This is far more practical than the Nara clan's shadow secret techniques. The Nara clan spends all their training time on their own shadows, deliberately trying to make them more flexible and resilient, yet once the environment changes, the various attributes of their shadows weaken rapidly.

Using the "Flash Shadow Clone" does not require consuming chakra to suppress the target's chakra; one only needs to animate the opponent's shadow and take control of it. For instance, the shadow that had turned into a sharp blade at Jiraiya's neck could take his life at a single thought from Touma!

Noticing the change in his shadow, Jiraiya finally realized that the person before him was not an enemy, but that annoying "familiar brat"!

When Touma was a child, he not only had a good relationship with Orochimaru but also with Tsunade; he just looked down on Jiraiya alone.

Moreover, Touma's predecessor was a loyal supporter of the "Will of Fire," and he held Jiraiya's lazy attitude during training in low regard, often using extremely biting language to mock him.

On top of that, Jiraiya had tried to pursue Tsunade when he was younger, but every preparation he made would backfire.

At those times, Touma, who was tagging along and mooching off them, would launch verbal attacks, showing no respect to Jiraiya, who often called himself the big brother.

This led to the two of them getting into a war of words whenever they met!

"Familiar brat, you scared the life out of me!"

"Hurry up and dispel your ninjutsu, you're really wasting time!"

Seeing the shadow blade at his throat recede, Jiraiya cut off his elongated hair with a kunai.

"Can't you retract that hair of yours?"

"How long has it been, and you're still as stupid as ever, Pervert Jiraiya!"

Touma hadn't intended to say anything at first, but his mouth had involuntarily entered "roast mode."

"Brat... wait until the mission is over, and see how Master Jiraiya deals with you!"

Looking at the pile of white hair on the ground, Jiraiya gritted his teeth and said irritably.

In reality, Jiraiya wasn't feeling particularly confident.

Especially since he had just received a letter from Orochimaru, which stated that the "familiar brat's" strength was already approaching the level of a Jonin.

Orochimaru had even used a very flat tone to tell him that he might not be a match for the "familiar brat," which had made him afraid to return to the village for the past six months, fearing that the "familiar brat" would seek him out for sparring.

In truth, Jiraiya's combat style might not have fully matured yet, but his combat IQ was definitely high. If it really came down to a life-or-death struggle, it was uncertain whether Touma could survive against him.

But when the two used to spar, Jiraiya would subconsciously hold back, while Touma would often use his age advantage to be relentless, resulting in Jiraiya losing more than he won.

Mainly, Jiraiya didn't dare to win too much; if he did, he might face the dual cold and hot violence of Orochimaru and Tsunade, and he could already foresee his miserable end.

Now that this "familiar brat" was even stronger, his future days were bound to be even more difficult.

Jiraiya was able to recognize the "Flash Shadow Clone" because the concept of chakra shape transformation used within it was an imitation of his own "Wild Lion Mane Technique."

This signature ninjutsu he had personally developed was currently only understood and practiced by himself and the "familiar brat."

It wasn't that the "familiar brat" had asked him for guidance; it was entirely because after he successfully developed it, he ran over to show off to the "familiar brat," only to be humiliated because of the technique's flaws.

However, what Jiraiya hadn't expected was that the "familiar brat" had actually managed to do what he claimed he could: develop a technique even more perfect than his "Wild Lion Mane Technique."

With Jiraiya's eye for talent, he could see that his shadow had been animated in an instant by Yin Style chakra, turning to attack him—the owner of the shadow—which was indeed far more perfect than his own "Wild Lion Mane."

However, just as he was about to refocus his attention on Sunny City, he realized something was wrong: how exactly did this brat get into their underground surveillance room?

One had to know that all of them had entered this place using the "Earth Style: Subterranean Voyage Technique." If anyone had used an Earth Style ninjutsu, the ninjas responsible for the outer perimeter security would certainly have given a warning.

Yet, the "familiar brat" had appeared beside him so suddenly, and even brought along a Kairan Village Jonin who looked somewhat familiar, which forced Jiraiya to become vigilant!