Sen Senju held his hand above Jiraiya's chest without making a single unnecessary movement.
His fingertips dipped slightly, and a faint green glow slowly spread along his wrist.
The glow looked dim, but as soon as it touched Jiraiya's mangled chest, the dead flesh inside the bloody holes began visibly writhing.
Tsunade stood beside him, panting heavily, her eyes fixed on the new flesh growing there.
Her hands, so accustomed to holding a scalpel, now shook like leaves. She could not get a word out.
Sen Senju flicked his fingers in disgust, as if something filthy had gotten on them.
"Old hag, step back a little. You're crowding me."
"This old man's body is in lousy shape. Patching these few holes is more work than growing ten fruit trees."
He complained, but the green light beneath his hand never stopped.
A trace of color slowly returned to Jiraiya's deathly pale face.
Even the cartilage in his pierced throat crackled as it forcibly knit itself back together.
Elsewhere, in a cold, damp cavern in the Land of Rain, water dripped steadily onto the rocks.
Obito stood on a toe of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, staring down at Black and White Zetsu. The Sharingan behind his mask glowed a frightening red.
"Ridiculously strong?"
Obito's voice squeezed through the gaps in his mask, carrying an icy chill.
"Zetsu, have you spent so long underground that water's seeped into your brain?"
"He's a teenage brat. Even with Wood Release, how strong could he possibly be?"
"We both know what that snake Orochimaru's Wood Release test subjects are like."
White Zetsu twisted his neck in the soil and chuckled twice, his shrill voice raising goose bumps.
"Oh, come now. I'm not making this up."
"That kid's chakra isn't anything a human should