Chapter 35

Naito Village
Ryoma, Jonin

Jiraiya of the Sannin, one of three legendary ninja who received their titles from Hanzo himself, for their immense achievement of actually surviving an extended battle against him mostly intact during the Second Ninja War. Student of the Third Hokage, previous leader of Konoha. Teammate to Tsunade and Orochimaru, both equally legendary ninja in their own rights, and mentor of the current Fourth Hokage, who may be the single most dangerous ninja alive.

“Genin- run to Pao-Pao Bridge immediately, do not stop until you reach it and link up with Jonin Tsubame. Complete the mission and return to Suna from there.” Ryoma ordered harshly, hands immediately going through the seals to produce a sand clone. Dust from the previous clone swirled together again, reforming his shape. Four motes expended. Forty motes remaining.

Every name in that list was a S-rank ninja by an unquestionable margin. A monster capable of clearing entire battlefields of lesser ninja on their lonesome. Titans of chakra and skill that shaped the rest of the ninja world around their antics.

“But what about-“

“That was a direct order Genin!” Ryoma barked and glared, Sato immediately flinching back and then leaping away. Clone-Ryoma, Cloma, leapt forwards towards the source of the horizontal hurricane as the giant toad continued to loom in the distance. Ryoma reached into his vest-pocket and withdrew a chakra pill, immediately crunching down and swallowing the fruit, nut, and meth mixture. Almost immediately his reserves started to noticeably replenish, hypercharged by the drug.

Jiraiya ‘The Gallant’ was known for two main patterns of behavior. The first was his lecherous attitude, visiting whorehouses, spying on women’s bathhouses, writing fairly popular smut-adventure stories, and similar. The second thing he was famous for was butting his head into missions and situations that had nothing to do with him or his village and immediately throwing himself into supporting one side according to his moral sense.

The second thing made him immensely frustrating for most villages to negotiate with. Ryoma whipped out his field-scroll, rolling it across the ground in front of himself and starting to unseal components. He threw his bulky outer jacket off, hurriedly grabbing accessories and locking them into place on the mk3’s frame.

Cloma landed next to Captain Arada, who stood with iron fan unfolded, glaring at the giant toad in the distance. “…Jiraiya…” The old ninja growled, before glancing in his direction. “Jonin- where’s the genin?!”

“I ordered him to evacuate the region and complete the last objective.” Cloma quickly responded, withdrawing a pair of kunai in defensive posture. “The Kyojutsu has yet to be employed, employing it now will absolutely compromise its security now that Jiraiya has appeared on the field. What are your orders?”

Arada glared at the giant toad in the distance, before huffing. “We will attempt negotiations. If negotiations fail, be prepared to support me against the Sannin for as long as you can. Collateral damage will have to suffice for partial mission completion. Do not employ the Kyojutsu under any circumstances.”

Ryoma was afraid he was going to say that. Arada leapt forwards, jumping twice and landing just to the side of the immense groove his wind had carved into the earth. Cloma leapt to follow, landing next to him in a crouching, ready stance. The immense toad leaned forwards to look at them, planting its toad-knuckles into the ground to kneel, still holding its massive sword, and tilting a huge eye down.

On top of its head, the tall, white-haired form of Jiraiya stood with one leg raised. Locked into a dramatic kabuki pose and grinning down at them, palms facing towards them and fingers splayed wide.

“Jiraiya of Konoha! Our mission calls for the destruction of this village! Do not interfere!” Arada boomed out, clearly abandoning the optional objective of secrecy in the process. He slammed the end of his iron fan down.

In many ways, Ryoma was very glad that Jiraiya was here, making his team leader abandon the need to totally wipe out the village to maintain secrecy. That meant he didn’t need to deploy the Mk2 to stomp a small town worth of civilians to death. Not yet, at least. Perhaps ironically, the Mk2 was explicitly designed for that kind of work, built as a prototype for a model designed to annihilate the hordes of plant-zombies that were coming in the future apocalypse.

Of course, a design suited to wipe out hordes of plant-zombies was also very applicable to wiping out hordes of normal people, something that Ryoma didn’t quite realize while designing and constructing it. Shame on him for not picking up on the fact that a giant puppet built to stomp armies to death and break through fortified lines would be useful for other things too.

Jiraiya being here meant he could avoid at least one more instance of that in his lifetime. Unfortunately, it also meant that they were likely about to get their teeth kicked in by one of the most legendary ninja to ever live.

“Haaaah?” Jiraiya boomed back, leaning forwards on the toad’s head and raising a hand to his ear. “Is that Arada the Typhoon I hear down there? I thought that crusty old bastard would’ve died drinking his morning tea by now!”

“Interference in our mission can only damage the alliance made between our villages!” Arada continued with a booming rumble in his voice. “Are you prepared for that?!”

The legendary ninja pretended to consider that for a few moments, rubbing his chin with one hand. After several moments, he nodded firmly and shouted back. “I’ll swing by Suna and apologize to your Kazekage afterwards- but this village has some really beautiful women! There’s no way I can let you destroy it!” Then, the white-haired legend swiped his hands in a brushing motion down at them. “Run off and do something else, will ya?”

That declaration that he would apologize afterwards could very easily be taken as a direct threat. Arada’s face was already hardened into a stony countenance. “…Assist me, Jonin.” He declared, pulling his fan back. “Wind Release-!”

Cloma dropped his kunai and flashed through handseals. “Fire Release-!”

Jiraiya tapped a foot against the giant toad’s brow. “Gamabushi- Water please!”

“Storm God’s Sword!” Arada roared out as he swung his fan, an immense, howling tornado immediately twisting to lift and speeding forwards, deepening the immense groove in the earth as it tore its way forwards.

“Fireball!” Cloma called out, spitting a relatively modest ball of fire from his mouth and towards the massive, destructive tornado speeding towards the giant toad. Wind chakra strengthened fire chakra. Immediately the tornado was set alight, turning into a twisting column of fire that went from earth to sky and illuminating the world like a miniature sun.

Immediately, Arada leapt to the side, sticking to the shadows as he moved to flank around the giant toad. “Jonin- with me.” He hissed out lowly, Cloma following immediately.

The immense, burning tornado continued to race forwards, tearing a burning line in the earth beneath it. The cheeks of the giant toad bulged momentarily. Slightly muffled by the mouthful, the immense voice of the toad rumbled over the sound of the scorching tornado.

“Water Bullet!”

A bolt of water, hundreds of thousands of gallons of it, was spat out by the toad, colliding with the bulk of the burning tornado. Almost immediately the world exploded into steam, both the burning tornado and the burst of water destructively cancelling each other out and shrouding the earth in their wake. Exceptionally good concealment for any ninja to operate it.

With a new vantage point, Arada twisted to swing his fan again-

He twisted again, leaping back and away as Jiraiya’s sandaled foot smashed down on the rock he was just standing on. The boulder cracked loudly at the impact, slowly sliding apart as the legendary ninja rose back to his full and rather intimidating height before them.

“Gamabushi!” Jiraiya called out, tilting his head slightly to the side but gaze locked on them. “Prepare to intercept any jutsu that might hit the village, please!”

“Hmh. That is the way of the warrior.” The massive toad responded, voice booming and earth shaking as it took several massive steps through the field of steam. “I will not resent a request such as that, Jiraiya-bushi.”

“I’d really just suggest retreating.” He continued, nodding towards them. “I’ll kill you if I have to, but there’s no need for anyone to die today. I’m sure this mission isn’t worth your lives.”

“This mission is critical to secure Sunagakure’s future.” Arada countered plainly. “For the sake of our future, I am more than ready to lay down my life.”

“Something somewhere went seriously sideways if your future depends on killing a bunch of bystanding civilians and tempting another war.” Jiraiya shot back with a deep frown and grumble in his voice. “What’s going on over in Wind Country that something like this got approved?”

Arada responded with a much shallower wave of his fan, sending a buffeting wave of wind forwards. Cloma dashed to the side, tossing a handful of shuriken as he moved to flank.

Jiraiya leapt over the wave of twisting winds, hands flashing through seals as he spun into a kick to bounce the shuriken away. “Earth Release : Underworld Swamp!”

Cloma’s eyes widened, and he immediately jumped as far up and away as he could. Arada did the same, rising high above the steam and twisting his fan beneath himself.

Beneath them, for hundreds of feet in all directions, the ground turned into noxious, bubbling mud. Trees and rocks almost immediately sank into the newborn swamp, the landscape itself clearing out into smooth and trackless bog. There was nowhere for him to land.

Arada caught his hand as he began to fall, swinging him up and around to stand on the fan as they glided over the immense black stretch of earth. A battlefield reshaped completely in a single jutsu.

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Cloma performed a long series of handseals, kneeling down on the fan and staring down at the shock of white hair on the field below. Jiraiya was standing on a lone pillar of rock, staring up at them with an unreadable expression from this distance, illuminated by the bright moon. After an eleventh seal, he called out his jutsu.

“Earth Release : Practice Brick Technique.” A D-rank justu he had learned to diversify his lineup of techniques, the very simple jutsu took a section of earth within a fairly generous distance near the user and raised it in relatively fragile rectangular sections. Normally it was used to make walls for quick cover.

Below them, dozens of earth pillars rose from the otherwise inhospitable swamp in a four meter by four meter grid pattern. Arada flipped his fan around as Cloma dissolved into sand, falling out of the sky and landing on one of the pillars.