Jiraiya pulled out something.
It was a palm-sized sphere—a smoke bomb.
He hurled it hard at the ground.
"Bang!"
Thick Haku smoke exploded outward in an instant, engulfing everything around them.
"Careful! Guard against his sneak attack!" the lead frog shouted.
The frogs croaked in unison, their sound waves turning into a gale that swept the smoke away completely in the blink of an eye.
As the smoke cleared,
The center of the encirclement was Sora.
"Damn it! He fooled us!" a young frog cried.
"That brat never intended to fight. He just used the smoke to escape!"
"Chase him! Hurry!"
The lead frog raised a forepaw, signaling for silence.
It closed its eyes, then opened them a moment later with a cold smile curling across its mouth.
"Frogs, he's over there."
It raised its staff and pointed toward the woods beyond the square. "Catch him!"
In the distance, Jiraiya was hiding behind a large boulder, covering his mouth as he watched the frogs in the square descend into chaos.
"A bunch of idiots, and they think they can catch me? This genius only needed a little trick and—"
Before he could finish, countless footsteps sounded behind him.
He turned around and saw dozens of frogs charging straight toward him. The leader shouted as it ran:
"He's there! Catch him!"
"What?!"
Jiraiya leaped up in shock. "They could find me even like this?!"
He had no time to think and turned to run.
"Retreat—!"
Behind him, the frogs' cries rose and fell, drawing closer and closer.
The next morning, the camp by the stream lay shrouded in a thin mist.
The campfire had long since gone out, leaving behind only a pile of ashes.
Tsunade sat up from her crude bedding and rubbed her eyes, instinctively looking toward the Sora