The Monkey Talisman

"Hell Hound!"

Two comets struck the ground, and their shockwaves alone shattered the surrounding grove. Chixing charged at Zhi Qiang first, his arm transforming into scorching magma as he thrust it forward.

Hell Hound was renowned throughout the One Piece World for its incredible speed, piercing power, and devastating force. But Zhi Qiang's advanced Observation Haki was every bit its match. He dodged with a sidestep, then immediately turned and coated his axe in Armament Haki. The axe collided with the Magma Fist as it curved around and came back at him.

--Bam!

Magma sprayed everywhere, igniting the forest. Chixing and Zhi Qiang were almost face-to-face, but Chixing could transform into an element. His cheek became boiling magma in an instant. Zhi Qiang reacted immediately, hardening his body with Armament Haki and hopping back to avoid the heat, but he still lost a sliver of health.

"Looks like the Three Admirals of Bikini Bottom aren't just for show. Then I'd better get serious too!"

Zhi Qiang tossed his axe into the air, then leaped high and gripped it tightly before bringing it down with all his strength!

--Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Visible sword energy shot forth in a continuous barrage, seeming to tear through space and leaving conspicuous streaks of red lightning in the air, along with a faint smell of burning.

Chixing raised his head and watched the sword energy grow larger in his eyes. He lifted both fists and gathered magma into them, forming two enormous molten fists that blotted out a vast stretch of sky.

"Great Eruption!"

Chixing launched his fists by simulating the force of a volcanic eruption. They were made not only of liquid magma, but also of solidified lava.

Fists and sword energy collided. Chixing kept punching, trying to counter the relentless barrage of sword energy from Zhi Qiang.

Just as the two sides reached a stalemate and the surrounding area had been completely destroyed, Uncle finally arrived. At the same time, the Shadowkhan, acting as the "spoilsports," dutifully set about their task of holding him back.

"Good grief! You pesky Shadowkhan!"

"Demons and monsters, begone..."

Uncle had just started chanting the spell to drive off the Shadowkhan when Zhi Qiang did something no one expected. He hardened his body with Armament Haki and took one of Chixing's attacks head-on, while using the Monkey Talisman's magic on Uncle.

As the light faded, Uncle had turned into an old mountain goat standing on four hooves and bleating. His dried blowfish and dried gecko lay scattered on the ground, and chanting spells was no longer an option.

"Uncle!"

Seeing Uncle hit, Chixing lost all interest in fighting and rushed to his side, shielding him from the Shadowkhan.

"Sorry, Mr. Uncle... I'll be taking the Monkey Talisman..."

As the saying went, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." If he could get the talisman and use the Shadowkhan as tools, there was no reason not to.

After chopping a path clear with a few swings of his axe, Zhi Qiang put it away and was about to leave. But his keen Observation Haki warned him that danger was approaching, and he immediately raised his axe across his chest to block.

"Rasengan!"

Jiraiya hovered in the air with a comical, toad-like leap, pushing a gigantic Rasengan forward with the webbed foot of his front leg.

"Impossible... It didn't work?!"

Jiraiya was astonished, but Zhi Qiang had no intention of explaining. With a swing of his axe, he split the Rasengan in half. Jiraiya immediately hopped backward to avoid the sword energy, forming Hand Seals with his tiny hands at the same time. "Then how about this one?"

"Fire Release: Flame Bullet!"

Jiraiya held oil refined from chakra in his mouth and spat it out, igniting it with Fire Release as he attacked with bullet-shaped bursts of flame.

In the original Naruto series, this technique was quite powerful. It instantly killed the Animal Path of Pain's summoned beast, Yatagarasu.

As Jiraiya unleashed a volley of Flame Bullets, Zhi Qiang merely closed his eyes. Then, in a completely unreasonable display, he predicted where every single one would land and evaded them all with pinpoint precision and effortless grace.

"What?!"

"Too slow! Too slow! Even that squirrel on Bear Ridge that can only climb trees is several times faster than you."

After spending all these years in the Ninja World, he'd completed at least eighty S-rank missions, if not a hundred. And now he was being looked down on like this?

Who could possibly put up with that?

Jiraiya immediately entered his "serious mode." Too bad I can't summon the two Toad Sages in this form...

"Fire Release: Great Flame Bomb!"

Once again, he refined chakra into oil, then spat out the oil filling his mouth and ignited it with Fire Release. This time, however, Jiraiya used far more chakra, making the attack ten times more powerful than a regular Fire Release: Flame Bullet!

Looking at the sea of fire rushing toward him, Zhi Qiang merely smiled. "Now we're getting somewhere... Perfect. Let's test this too...!"

Zhi Qiang raised the Monkey Talisman and pointed it at himself. As light flashed and briefly blinded everyone, thick white smoke billowed up.

"Wait...! This sinister, evil chakra—?!"

Jiraiya realized something was wrong, but it was already too late. A fierce red glow erupted from the smoke and crashed down. A gigantic hand covered in orange-red fur, its claws razor-sharp, came down from above and utterly destroyed the forest in the area.

--Roar!

Two enormous hands parted the smoke, slowly revealing the beast's colossal body.

"T-The Nine-Tails?!"

Jiraiya's toad eyes widened. He stood frozen, as if struck by lightning. If using Genjutsu: Release countless times hadn't been completely useless, he would have thought he was under a genjutsu.

"So this is the Monkey Talisman's power?!"

To be fair, Jiraiya absolutely didn't want to face the Nine-Tails. But Zhi Qiang didn't care about any of that. Its nine tails swept out with the force of a landslide, and even its simple breaths whipped up howling gales.

The "immense power" of Fire Release: Great Flame Bomb was nothing but a scratch against the Nine-Tails, whose body was coated in Armament Haki and possessed tremendous defensive power, much like Susanoo with its armored avatar. It couldn't even break the skin.

"You may be strong, but you're nowhere near strong enough to make me pull out my chainsaw..."

Zhi Qiang's voice now sounded like the Nine-Tails' as he looked down at Jiraiya, radiating an overwhelming sense of pressure. Then he opened his enormous, steaming jaws. A dense black energy sphere gradually formed inside and began spinning at high speed.

"Is that a Tailed Beast Bomb?!"

Jiraiya was shocked for a simple reason: could the Monkey Talisman grant its user the powers of the creature they transformed into, on top of changing their form? No wonder his jumping ability had improved so much, and his field of vision had widened.

"So it's more than just a simple transformation..."

After making that assessment, Jiraiya immediately leaped into the air. The Tailed Beast Bomb had already been fired and was about to explode beside him!

--Rumble!

A gigantic fireball rapidly expanded on the horizon, surging upward as brilliant light, gale-force winds, and shock waves spread in every direction. At last, amid thick clouds of smoke, the entire mountain disappeared from the map of the Ninja World, leaving behind only an enormous pit so vast it made the heart tremble.