A Bountiful Haul

Flower Village's main force had sealed off every road and pass. No matter which way the routed soldiers fled, they ran straight into an iron wall.

After a grueling battle, the soldiers were exhausted and covered in soot from the explosions. Once they realized there was no escape, they dropped to their knees and surrendered with barely a word of persuasion.

The captives were escorted back to the village in batches. Horses, provisions, armor, and weapons followed by the cartload. The procession lasted the entire afternoon.

The villagers were swept up in the joy of victory and gathered in the square of their own accord.

Some shouted, "Long live Flower Village!" Others shared their homemade wine, while still others lit bonfires and sang and danced.

Lu Zeming did not join them. He returned to his office at once to replenish his supplies.

Explosive Stones were effective, but he went through them too quickly. The real crisis had yet to arrive, and he needed to prepare as much as he could.

Hundreds of kilometers from Flower Village, at the border between the Land of Grass and the Land of Fire, a figure was on the move.

A white-haired middle-aged man in a red vest and wooden clogs sped toward Flower Village.

His usually carefree face was uncharacteristically grave. Even his large, pimple-covered nose seemed to have grown a little bigger for some reason.

He was Jiraiya. The reason he had come here began a week earlier.

A week ago, Fukasaku had sought him out in person and told him the Great Toad Sage had made a new prophecy.

Jiraiya had been astonished. The last prophecy had come over twenty years ago, when he was still young. He remembered every word the Great Toad Sage had spoken.

"You, lecherous as you are,