"I... why didn't I act?"
Jiraiya's life and death were in Linto's hands.
But he couldn't bring himself to fight back even a little.
It wasn't that he couldn't win, or that he was afraid to fight.
It was the guilt in his heart that stopped him from acting.
Jiraiya knew very well what a stupid thing he had just done.
This was a trap set by Orochimaru for Linto, a truly desperate situation.
Linto used his own power to break out of this desperate situation and save Jiraiya.
From the start of the fight, every move Linto made was perfect.
But what about Jiraiya?
What did he do?
At the most critical moment of the battle, Linto, his teammate, had done 99% of the work. All Jiraiya had to do was take a step, slightly stop Orochimaru, and they could have won.
But he did nothing.
This was a betrayal of his teammate.
If he wasn't Jiraiya, but a beginner who acted on emotion, Linto wouldn't be angry.
In an emergency, being frightened and at a loss, or not being able to bring himself to attack an old friend, that would be understandable.
But Jiraiya wasn't a naive person. Or rather, the older generation of ninja, him, Orochimaru, Tsunade, and even the Third Hokage and Danzo above them...
This group had experienced the darkness of the ninja world.
When they really needed to kill, they would never be soft-hearted because of emotion.
"So, why didn't I act?"
Jiraiya asked himself.
Until he saw Linto and Sasuke, and their foreheads without headbands.
He understood the reason:
Because Orochimaru had not truly done anything to harm the "Will of Fire."
Orochimaru had not touched Jiraiya's principles, so for many years, he had only been tracking his old classmate, not hunting him down to kill him.
Jiraiya hoped that Orochimaru would turn over a new leaf, not that he would die.
"Because Orochimaru didn't touch my principles, I hesitated, causing Sasuke, who Linto had been protecting all along, to be hurt."
This was the reason for Linto's anger.
Let Orochimaru go?
It didn't matter.
It was just a few hundred soul fragments; he could do without them. Jiraiya could set out a table with good wine and food to make up for it. It would be over.
Everyone has some past friendships.
Linto could understand.
But Sasuke's situation was very bad. He...
Might die!
This was a completely different matter.
Jiraiya wasn't a petty person who would make excuses. After questioning his heart, he lowered his eyes:
"I... have nothing to say."
"Linto, I'm sorry about this time."
He looked at Sasuke.
Black commas were constantly flowing out from the neck where Orochimaru had bitten him.
Heavenly Cursed Seal.
Jiraiya said, "Linto, if you really want to kill me, I hope it's after Sasuke is healed."
Linto still had his back to him. Star Platinum suddenly disappeared, and Jiraiya fell to the ground.
He stood up, walked to Sasuke's side, and reached out to grab Sasuke's wrist.
After a moment, Jiraiya opened his eyes, looking nervous.
"There are three different forces fighting in his body: Chakra, natural energy, and Ripple."
If there were only Chakra and the natural energy brought by the cursed seal, Jiraiya, with his more than ten years of training in Senjutsu, could always find a way to achieve balance.
But with Ripple, the situation became complicated.
Linto and Jiraiya fell silent, and the atmosphere gradually became heavy.
Just then, a gloating voice came from the side:
"He's doomed. Instead of wasting him, you might as well let me eat him, and I'll forgive your disrespect to me."
As expected of a snake fairy, in just a short while, Tagorihime's injuries had mostly healed. She turned into a human-headed snake-bodied form, holding a Dragon Snake Jewel in her hands.
Linto slowly turned his head.
"What did you say?"
"I said, as long as you let me eat this child--"
Before she could finish speaking, Linto kicked Tagorihime, and the dozens of meters-long snake tumbled, the farmhouse collapsed, and a large cloud of dust was kicked up.
Hermit Purple reached out again, dragging her back like a dead dog.
Linto looked down at Tagorihime, raised his hand, summoned the still-hot Decimation Blade, and held it suspended below the snake demon's neck.
Feeling the blade on her throat, Tagorihime's scalp went numb.
Linto asked seriously, "Can you save him?"
"No, I can't. Like that ugly thing said, besides the cursed seal, there's a third energy. I can't do it. Only by finding Orochimaru and having him remove the cursed seal can he be saved."
"Can you find Orochimaru?"
"I can!" Tagorihime seemed to have found a lifeline: "As long as he comes to Ryuuchi Cave, I can contact him. Then--"
"Too slow."
Sasuke can't wait that long.
Linto said, "Right now, can you find him?"
"No, I can't."
Orochimaru's whereabouts are strange and unpredictable. He can't be summoned by a reverse Summoning Technique. Unless he actively reveals his location, no one knows where he's hiding.
Linto's gaze became increasingly cold.
"You can't do this, and you can't do that. Why do you think you can go back alive?"
"Do you dare kill me?!"
Tagorihime was really panicked, struggling to get up. Star Platinum suddenly appeared, pressed her head down, and slammed it hard on the ground. She was terrified.
Hundreds of years of life had not allowed Tagorihime to see through life and death. Instead, in the pursuit of longevity, she had become increasingly afraid of the arrival of death.
"You can't kill me! I am a snake princess of Ryuuchi Cave, an elder personally chosen by the White Snake Sage!"
"If you kill me, you will face endless revenge from Ryuuchi Cave, until you die!"
She turned her head to look at Jiraiya.
"I want to see the Toad Sage! Even if I'm really wrong, I shouldn't be judged by humans! For the sake of the connection between Ryuuchi Cave and Mount Myōboku, Jiraiya, you can't let him kill me!"
Jiraiya licked his dry lips.
Tagorihime was right. The lower-level snakes and toads, if they died, they died.
But if elders like Tagorihime, Fukasaku, and Shima were to die outside, it would inevitably lead to retaliation from the sacred places.
Just as Jiraiya was about to speak to comfort her, a flash of light suddenly appeared before his eyes.
Tagorihime's head rolled to the ground, instantly turning into a giant green snake head.
Killed!
Really killed!
The green snake head fell, with a trace of life remaining, not completely dead. It stared at Linto with a pair of venomous snake eyes, growling in a low voice:
"Linto, you will suffer Manda's heart-eating, you will die without a burial place, Ryuuchi Cave will not let you go--"
Before she could finish speaking, the Decimation Blade fell again, splitting the snake head in half, and brains were splattered everywhere.
"You... you..."
Jiraiya's eyes were full of shock and worry: "That's Ryuuchi Cave!"
Linto shook the blood and brains off the blade: "What dragon, just a bunch of animals."
Did they really think they were "immortals?"
If they were really so powerful, why did the world belong to humans and not these so-called "immortals?"
Linto looked at the painful Sasuke again.
His body temperature was rising little by little. If this continued, it wouldn't be long before Sasuke would burn himself to death from the inside out.
Jiraiya couldn't do anything, Tagorihime couldn't do anything, and the culprit, Orochimaru, had escaped...
If he wanted to save little Sasuke, there was only one way left:
Draw a new Stand.
Gamble that this Stand has healing abilities, like Crazy Diamond, Gold Experience, or Pearl Jam.
Linto opened the system interface, finally having time to check the rewards.
"Killed Kimimaro, gained 320 soul fragments."
"Killed Jugo, gained 290 soul fragments."
"Defeated Orochimaru, gained 890 soul fragments."
"Killed Tagorihime, gained 400 soul fragments."
Adding the more than 900 fragments Linto had left over from before, and the fragments he got from defeating the scattered small fries (Root organization ninja), the total number of soul fragments he currently had was--
2990 fragments.
Linto took a deep breath and clicked on the system interface.
Draw cards!
---
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