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"If his strength is overwhelming, then we avoid close combat as much as possible. Keep our distance," Jiraiya analyzed quickly. "And be careful of that Rinnegan. It's the same eyes Nagato had. I don't know how he got them, but we can't take any chances."
"Got it." Tsunade nodded. "Then we go all out. It's time for you to use Sage Mode."
"No problem. But entering Sage Mode takes time. You'll be under a lot of pressure handling him alone."
"Relax." Tsunade's voice was steady. "My Strength of a Hundred Seal can last a full ten minutes. As long as my vital points aren't destroyed in one blow, I can regenerate instantly. That's more than enough time for you."
The moment she finished speaking, she bent low and shot forward like a hunting cheetah.
"I won't let you down, Tsunade!"
Jiraiya bit his finger, smeared blood across his palm, and began forming hand seals to summon the toad sages from Mount Myōboku.
But before he could complete the summoning, a black blur slammed into him and sent him flying.
It was Tsunade.
"Hey! Didn't you say you'd buy me time?!" Jiraiya scrambled to his feet, frowning. "It hasn't even been three seconds!"
"No choice," Tsunade said grimly as she rose from the rubble and returned to his side. "I don't have long-range attacks. I have to fight him up close. But his body is ridiculous. His defense is insane. His speed, strength… all of it's above mine. He outclasses me across the board."
Jiraiya's expression hardened.
"In that case, I'll summon Gamabunta to buy time instead. But he's huge. Fighting inside the village will cause too much damage. We'll move the battlefield outside."
"No need."
The Tsunade standing beside him suddenly transformed into Akira. In an instant, the two had swapped positions.
"What? Space-time ninjutsu?!"
"It's over."
Akira's tone was calm as he threw an ordinary-looking punch at Jiraiya's head.
Bang!!
The blow connected cleanly—yet Jiraiya dissolved into a puff of smoke.
"A Shadow Clone? When did he cast it? Even my eyes didn't catch that." Akira withdrew his fist, a faint smile curving his lips. "As expected of one of the Sannin. Not bad."
His gaze swept the surroundings, searching.
"You fell for it!"
From a distance, Jiraiya appeared, hands slamming together.
"Summoning Technique: Toad Mouth Bind!"
The ground beneath Akira trembled. A sticky sensation wrapped around his feet.
He glanced down.
Thick, crimson flesh had coiled around his legs. In every direction, writhing red walls of meat closed in. He was sealed inside what looked like a massive, living stomach.
"So you summoned just the toad's stomach, huh? And you think this can hold me?" Akira sneered.
He punched the fleshy wall.
Pfft!
It felt like hitting cotton. No solid resistance. Instead, his fist was sucked in and stuck fast to the pulsing flesh.
"In that case… Susanoo."
The Eternal Mangekyō in his eyes glowed an eerie crimson as overwhelming ocular power surged outward.
Purple flames ignited around him. Massive chakra condensed into solid form.
In an instant, a towering purple giant, nearly two hundred meters tall with wings spread wide, materialized.
Perfect Susanoo—activated.
Boom!!!
The moment it formed, the toad's stomach was torn apart, shredded into countless chunks of flesh that rained down like grotesque debris.
When the dust settled, Akira found himself no longer in the village. Instead, he stood amidst lush forest outside Konoha.
"Now! Bunta, attack!"
Jiraiya stood atop Gamabunta, hands clasped together, the two small elder toads perched on his shoulders.
"Damn it, Jiraiya!" Gamabunta growled. "Didn't you say the enemy was just some tiny human? What the hell is that?! How am I supposed to ambush something that big?!"
The purple giant dwarfed even him.
They had planned to strike the moment Akira exited the toad stomach, catching him off guard.
No one expected this monstrosity.
Still, opportunity was fleeting. Gamabunta gritted his teeth, swung his massive blade, and slashed at Susanoo's leg.
Clang!!
The sword struck the armored shin with a thunderous crash—but failed to break through.
"Little frog, that blade's not cutting it." Akira's voice echoed from within the giant. "Try this instead."
A massive chakra greatsword formed in Susanoo's hand. It swept toward Gamabunta's head.
Gamabunta raised his own blade vertically to block.
Boom!!!
The collision shook the heavens. The shockwave ripped trees from the ground, flattening the surrounding forest. Just one exchange between the two titans reshaped the landscape.
"Hah! Guess your chakra sword isn't all that either!" Gamabunta snorted proudly, puffing on his pipe and blowing a taunting ring of smoke toward the giant.
"Oh? Then let's go again."
Susanoo's blade came down once more.
Gamabunta didn't flinch. He charged straight in, sword raised to meet it head-on.
At the instant their weapons were about to collide, a cold smile tugged at Akira's lips.
Idiot.
His Eternal Mangekyō contracted slightly. Ocular power flowed into the chakra blade.
Amaterasu.
Pitch-black flames burst to life along the edge of Susanoo's sword.
This was one of Akira's Mangekyō abilities: inextinguishable black fire.
"Bunta! Don't block it! Dodge!!"
Jiraiya shouted from atop his head. The moment those black flames appeared, he felt it—the deadly heat, the danger.
If Bunta took that head-on, it would be fatal.
"No time, Jiraiya!!"
Gamabunta roared, forcing his blade up in defense.
He could feel the threat radiating from the black fire. But they were too close. There was no space to retreat.
He had no choice but to clash.
Crack!!!
The instant Susanoo's black-flamed blade met Gamabunta's metal sword, the metal shattered cleanly in two.
It didn't last even a fraction of a second. It was like cutting through tofu.
Gamabunta stared in shock. He'd thought his blade could at least stall for a moment.
But once the black flames coated that chakra sword, his weapon broke on contact.
He had hoped to buy even a heartbeat of time—to create an opening to escape and widen the distance between himself and Akira's Susanoo.
Instead, his only line of defense had just been erased.
Now that its defenses had failed, the massive chakra blade wrapped in black flames was descending toward its head.
Akira's eyes were ice-cold as he controlled Susanoo and brought the great sword down in one merciless arc.
The next second—
Screech!
The sound of flesh being torn apart rang through the battlefield.
Gamabunta… no, the giant toad himself… was split cleanly in two.
Blood and organs spilled across the ground, black flames licking at them as they continued to burn.
His eyes were wide open, frozen in disbelief.
He hadn't even had the chance to cancel the summoning and return to Mount Myoboku. Akira had cut him down in one swift, ruthless strike.
"Bastard!"
"Boss Toad!"
"Little Bunta!"
Three furious roars exploded into the air as the two halves of Gamabunta's body crashed to the ground.
Then, with a heavy bang, they dissolved into white smoke.
He had returned to Mount Myoboku… but as a corpse.
"Trying to ambush me? You were asking to die."
Akira looked ahead. Three pairs of crimson eyes were locked onto him.
Jiraiya—and the two toads perched on his shoulders.
Jiraiya's teeth were clenched tight, rage blazing in his eyes as he stared at Akira with naked hatred. He had summoned Bunta to catch Akira off guard. Instead, he had sent him to his death.
"Jiraiya, don't lose your focus! Gather natural energy. Only Sage Mode can defeat him. Only then can you avenge Little Bunta."
Fukasaku barked sharply from his shoulder. He could tell Jiraiya was on the verge of charging in recklessly.
Jiraiya let out a long breath and forced the urge down.
Akira sneered. "As expected of the student of the so-called 'Hero of Shinobi,' Hiruzen Sarutobi. You're just as patient. Your partner dies and you still hold back instead of attacking me. Impressive."
Jiraiya clasped his hands together and shut his eyes, focusing on gathering natural energy. He ignored the taunt.
Akira didn't move either. He simply smiled coldly.
"You really think Sage Mode will make you my equal? I'll let you enter it. Then I'll show you exactly how small you are."
He dismissed Susanoo and stood atop a tree branch, watching Jiraiya quietly.
He was confident. Even in Sage Mode, Jiraiya wouldn't be his match.
Besides, he was curious.
Chakra's origin lay with the Ten-Tails—the Divine Tree—brought from another world by Kaguya Otsutsuki. Chakra was, in a sense, an alien power.
Natural energy, on the other hand, belonged to this world. It could amplify a shinobi's strength tremendously.
If Akira hadn't had his "cheat," Sage Mode would have been his first goal after arriving in this world.
By the late stages of the ninja era, ordinary ninjutsu was useless against those wielding Six Paths power. Only senjutsu could harm them—just like in the original story, when Naruto Uzumaki needed Jūgo's senjutsu chakra to damage Obito Uchiha.
So even with his advantages, Akira remained deeply interested in natural energy.
But the real reason?
He wanted to see whose Sage Mode was stronger—his, or Jiraiya's.
That's right.
Akira had Sage Mode too.
It had been one of the rewards from his nine sign-ins—along with the Eight Gates and several other powerful techniques and forbidden jutsu.
Those nine sign-ins had been his biggest haul yet.
…
Ten minutes later, Jiraiya slowly opened his eyes.
He had changed.
Black markings crept across his face. His pupils had turned into horizontal rectangles like a toad's. His hands and feet had grown larger, thicker. Crouched low, he resembled something more beast than man.
He stared at Akira, voice cold. "Letting me enter Sage Mode was your biggest mistake. You'll pay for your arrogance."
Akira folded his arms. "Oh? Feeling confident now?"
"For Gamabunta, you brat!"
Jiraiya roared and launched forward, leg muscles bulging.
At that moment, another figure rushed in from the distance.
"Jiraiya, don't be careless! We'll take him together!"
Blonde hair whipping in the wind—it was Tsunade, now clad in a fresh battle outfit. Earlier, her clothes had been torn open by Akira, and she'd taken the opportunity to change.
Her fists clenched as she glared at him, fury and humiliation burning in her eyes.
"Brat! I'll make you feel what it's like to have your chest punched through!"
Akira looked down at the two of them. "Two-on-one again? Fine. Just don't disappoint me like before."
Now he faced Jiraiya at full power in Sage Mode—
And Tsunade with the Strength of a Hundred Seal unleashed.
The battle escalated.
Boom!
Two forces collided violently. The explosion rippled outward in invisible shockwaves, uprooting trees and scattering leaves in every direction.
Both figures staggered back several steps.
Akira still wore a faint smile. He wasn't injured at all.
Jiraiya's face flushed red, shock flickering in his eyes.
This was Akira?
He had matched him evenly?
That strike had been one of his strongest attacks in Sage Mode—and Akira had taken it head-on.
"Kid, I've figured out that move. Next time, you're the one who'll suffer."
Jiraiya's gaze turned savage. He refused to believe he could lose like this.
Akira laughed, brushing a hand across his forehead in a wild Uchiha-style grin.
"That's rich. You're the one who's about to eat dirt."
He hadn't been afraid of a pure power clash.
Still, this exchange gave him a new appreciation.
Sage Mode Jiraiya was truly troublesome.
Jiraiya snorted and charged again.
"Fine."
Akira's chakra surged violently through his body.
"Sage Mode… activate."
A terrifying aura erupted from him—denser, heavier, more oppressive.
He spread his arms, then brought his hands together. Endless senjutsu energy poured from his body.
"Sage Art: Lightning Release — Thunder Orbs."
White spheres formed in his palms, each glowing with a faint violet shimmer.
With a forward thrust, the thunder orbs shot toward Jiraiya.
"..."
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