Two hours were up.
Leaning against the doorframe, Sen casually snapped his fingers.
Snap.
The Wood Release vines wound tightly around the top of the utility pole instantly withered.
They crumbled into black sawdust scattered across the ground.
Splat!
A heavy, solid thud rang out as flesh hit the ground.
Jiraiya dropped headfirst like a discarded, ragged flour sack.
He landed face-down in a muddy puddle with a resounding smack.
Mud splashed everywhere, staining his already disheveled white hair pitch-black.
"Ow... my poor back... ow, ow, ow..."
Lying in the puddle, Jiraiya grimaced and spat out gritty mouthfuls of muddy water.
The two wads of green toilet paper stuffed into his nostrils had swollen from soaking up the mud.
He rubbed his aching lower back, grunting as he tried to get up.
Yet his hand still clutched the brass telescope, a rotten chive dangling from it.
"Hahahaha! This is killing me!"
Naruto had just come past, pushing the empty cart.
The sight of the old man sprawled in the mud had him laughing so hard he couldn't straighten up.
He slapped his thigh, pointed at Jiraiya, and shouted.
"Pervy old man! How'd you end up hanging there?"
"Your face is covered in tomato juice and mud, too! Nice going. Were you playing in the mud?"
Scowling, Jiraiya scrubbed the mud off his face with the back of his hand.
He spat a gritty mouthful hard onto the ground.
"Ptooey!"
Ignoring Naruto's mockery, he fixed a gaze more shocked and serious than ever before.
He stared intently at Sen Senju, who stood at the entrance to the hot spring bathhouse.
In that brief instant just now.
The chakra fluctuations coming from those vines.
That feeling...
It was far too familiar!
Having trained on Mount Myōboku for years, Jiraiya's sensitivity to natural