"These three brats... when did they do it?"
Jiraiya was rather stunned.
He began recalling every detail of the fight, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not remember when he had lost the bells.
He had kept his guard up even while exchanging taijutsu blows with Minato Namikaze.
With his awareness of his own body, there was no way anyone could have snatched the bells from his side
without him noticing.
"It happened right at the start, Master Jiraiya."
Minato Namikaze narrowed his bright blue eyes, his sunny smile spreading as he shook with laughter.
He slowly explained.
As it turned out, right at the beginning,
the plan had already begun with the first Tailed Beast Bomb Kushina fired.
Although that Tailed Beast Bomb had only flown toward Gamahiro,
it had also forced Jiraiya to reveal himself and jump off Gamamaru's back.
And during that jump, the air rushing over his entire body
had kept him from sensing any subtle changes.
Hoshizuki Hyuga had used Banshō Ten'in to pull the bells straight off him,
sending them falling in another direction,
while Minato Namikaze had used Space-Time Ninjutsu to take them.
In other words, the three of them had already won the contest at the very start through a simple coordinated maneuver.
Minato Namikaze had planned everything in advance, including Kushina breaking away to attack first and undergoing Tailed Beast Transformation.
That, too, had been part of Minato Namikaze's plan.
They had let Kushina Uzumaki attack first precisely to force Jiraiya to reveal himself.
The other two had been after the bells from beginning to end.
But after getting the bells, they had not chosen to end the contest.
Instead, they had continued fighting Jiraiya.
After all, what they lacked most right now was combat experience.
An opponent