Clearly, the scheme behind the Mirai incident had already been discovered.
That was how things stood. Time passed slowly... The only sounds in this world were the waterfall crashing into the pool and the occasional whisper of the breeze.
About ten minutes later, natural energy began to stir around Mirai and slowly entered his body under Jiraiya's deep perception.
With a deep smile, Jiraiya had long known that Mirai had taken this step. Now, all his attention was focused on Mirai.
However, without the aid of toad oil, integrating natural energy into one's body was no easy task.
Two hours later, a breeze swept across the sky above the stone forest, stirring Mirai's clothes and bangs, as well as Jiraiya's.
"Ha!"
Yet as the breeze gradually faded, the air around Mirai accelerated once more, slowly forming a gust of wind.
At almost the same time, the stone slab beneath the motionless Mirai began to shake violently.
Mirai suddenly opened his eyes, no longer able to maintain his balance, and fell together with the stone slab.
Jiraiya had originally intended to catch him, but upon seeing Mirai's expression, he shook his head.
Mirai fell along with the stone slab. Due to gravity, he almost immediately dropped below the slab's falling position.
He quickly stretched out a hand, gripped the stone slab with his entire palm, then hurled it back into the air.
Under gravity, Mirai's descent accelerated once more, but there was no panic on his face.
Whoosh!
Mirai sent the stone slab into the air, and it almost instantly rose above the top of the stone forest. At the same time, Mirai vanished from where he had been.
Whoosh, whoosh.
The next moment, he appeared beneath the stone slab. His falling body landed steadily atop the stone forest, and