Time ticked by, second by second.
The initial clash between Gamabunta and Manda was only the beginning.
Next, Orochimaru and Jiraiya joined the battle one after the other, and the fighting between the two sides grew increasingly fierce as time passed.
Before long, more than half the forest had been destroyed.
That left Yechen unable to use the Nurturing Wood Technique. With plenty of vegetation around, stimulating plant growth would not draw their attention, but now that most of the forest had been destroyed, doing so would be rather conspicuous.
Still, that did not prevent him from watching their battle.
Without the trees blocking his view, his keen eyesight let him see everything even more clearly.
He had to admit that Orochimaru and Jiraiya deserved their reputations as members of the legendary Konoha Sannin. They had a wealth of combat experience, and many of their fighting methods were worth learning from.
He gained a great deal from watching them fight.
Unfortunately, a battle this intense was never going to last long.
About a dozen minutes later, Orochimaru and Jiraiya put some distance between themselves again.
By now, both were in much worse shape than before.
Standing on Gamabunta's back, Jiraiya watched Orochimaru, knowing that if this continued, he would lose his chance to bring Orochimaru back.
So he looked down at Gamabunta and asked,
"Gamabunta, can you hold them off for a while?"
Gamabunta immediately wanted to unleash a torrent of curses. Asking him to take on both of them alone-was this some kind of joke?
Suddenly, something occurred to him. He looked at Jiraiya in surprise and asked,
"Are you going to use that move?"
"Yeah..." Jiraiya replied.
Gamabunta took a deep pull on his pipe. After pausing for a few seconds, he exhaled a thick cloud of smoke.