"Monsters?"
For the first time in their long lives as toads, someone had pointed at their noses and called them monsters. The two Toad Sages, Fukasaku and Shima, were furious.
"You rude little brat! We're sages!"
Seething, Fukasaku leaped down from the cliff and landed right on Jiraiya's head.
"What are you doing? Get off! You'll stunt my growth!"
Jiraiya immediately reached up to swat the toad away, but how could he possibly handle Fukasaku, who had lived for who knew how many years?
Fukasaku easily dodged his attack, then raised both forefeet high and punched Jiraiya hard on the head twice. A big lump immediately swelled on the little brat's head.
"Ow! That hurts!"
Jiraiya clutched his head and yelled reflexively. A moment later, he seemed to realize something and suddenly froze.
"I... I got beaten up by a toad?"
In all four years of Jiraiya's life, the only people who had ever hit him were his daycare teachers, his parents, Tsunade, Shingetsu, Orochimaru, and Madara Uchiha.
Counting them up like that, it seemed like quite a few people, but they were all adults and friends he was close to.
But now even a toad could beat him up!
Little Jiraiya's pride took a massive blow. Tears clouded his eyes, and he barely managed to hold back his sobs.
But when he looked around and discovered that countless strange toads surrounded him, Jiraiya, a troublemaker of only four, sniffled. His eyes reddened, and tears spilled down his cheeks like beads from a broken string.
Not bursting into loud sobs right there was his last stubborn stand as a man!
"Pa! How could you hit a child!"
Sage Shima descended with righteous fury, kicking her husband Fukasaku away before hopping onto Jiraiya's head herself, landing right on the swollen lump.