Hii Kōri used the Body Flicker Technique to race swiftly toward the sea beyond the town, with Jiraiya close behind.
Though Jiraiya lacked only Lightning among the five basic natures, his specialties were indeed Fire and Earth Release. The open sea was the worst possible battlefield for him.
But Jiraiya had no choice. As the pursuer, he couldn't dictate the terrain.
As soon as they gained some distance from the town, he eagerly unleashed his signature technique at Hii Kōri's back, trying to interrupt his momentum and pin him down.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball!"
With a sharp cry, the oil refined from chakra was ignited the moment Jiraiya expelled it, forming a massive fireball.
Unlike conventional Fire Release, the superior fuel source—rather than relying solely on chakra conversion—gave this technique significantly longer duration and wider range.
The enormous fireball, carrying enough heat to melt stone, descended like a second sun crashing into the sea, aimed directly at Hii Kōri's back.
"Spitting oil everywhere pollutes the marine environment. Mount Myōboku's environmental awareness seems lacking~"
Facing this fierce assault—enough to reduce everything within dozens of meters to scorched earth—Hii Kōri suddenly accelerated, as if he had merely been toying with Jiraiya until now.
Countless jets of air propelled his figure, crossing hundreds of meters in an instant as he stepped onto the shimmering sea.
His teasing tone carried a hint of laziness. At the same time, the seemingly calm water beneath him surged violently. A towering wall of water, over thirty centimeters thick, rose abruptly from the surface.
Shriiik—!
Even before the blazing fireball made contact with the hardened water wall, a piercing screech erupted. Thick white steam rapidly expanded outward.
That formidable fireball—capable of melting metal—ultimately couldn't cross the barrier. Even the residual heat was completely blocked on the far side.
Then, moving with the fluid grace of a dancer, Hii Kōri turned and delivered a fierce side kick to the water wall—still towering despite most of it having been evaporated by the fireball.
Boom—!
The kick, cutting through the air with a sharp whistle, carried tremendous force. It shattered the massive water wall, which stretched over ten meters, into fragments.
The hardened water, held in shape by the Hard Water-style technique, burst into countless shards of varying sizes—like a thousand shotguns firing at once—forming a storm that engulfed Jiraiya from all directions!
The weather was fine today. The clear sky held few clouds; the late winter sun was bright and warm, scattering golden patches across the sea.
The hardened water shards, flying at high speed, refracted the sunlight into dazzling halos, tracing countless brilliant lines between the clear sky and the blue sea—like a curtain of light.
Truth be told, Hii Kōri was rather annoyed. If Jiraiya hadn't shown up, he would already be back home, the beef stewing in a pot, his arms around Tsunade, curled up in the rocking chair enjoying the warm afternoon.
Tsunade was now over nine months pregnant, nearing her due date. Both her body and mind needed extra care. Hii Kōri had even slowed his own research pace. And now this white-haired brute had come to waste his time. It stirred a real irritation in him.
"No amount of gold can compensate for my displeasure. How about you just let yourself be beaten into a pulp, Jiraiya-san?"
"If you're out of your mind, lock yourself up. Don't go around bothering others!"
His initial attack having failed, Jiraiya found himself in midair with no solid footing to maneuver as Hii Kōri launched this massive counterattack. His reaction was swift. Grimacing, he channeled a large amount of chakra into his long white hair.
The hair instantly seemed to come alive, lengthening and wrapping around his body, then hardening into a spiked armor.
Before he finished speaking, the storm of water shards was already upon him.
Even through the hardened hair armor, the heavy impacts made Jiraiya wince. The sharp, continuous pattern—like a hailstorm on a tin roof—was deafening.
But this technique, Needle Jizō, was never purely defensive. After weathering the single wave of violent assault, the hardened hair shuddered, and countless iron-hard strands shot toward Hii Kōri like a storm of senbon.
Compared to true metal senbon, however, these hair needles—hardened only by temporary chakra reinforcement—had clear limitations.
Having anticipated this move, Hii Kōri casually snapped his fingers at the approaching storm of needles. A small, highly condensed ball of Scorch Release chakra materialized before him.
Such a simple act—merely releasing chakra of a specific nature—required no hand seals. Yet even such a rudimentary technique was enough to neutralize Jiraiya's counterattack entirely.
Before they could reach Hii Kōri, the flying hair needles had their reinforcing chakra drained by the ball of searing heat. They didn't even burn—simply vaporized into nothing, carried away by the sea breeze.
"Hard Water-style Water Release…"
Landing on the battered, cratered beach, Jiraiya's hair returned to normal.
He crouched, eyes sharp, fixed on the composed figure standing on the water.
"You and Hanzō—no, after I take you down, the village has plenty of ways to make you talk!"
That Hii Kōri could use Scorch Release was no secret. But this Hard Water-style Water Release was the signature technique of Amegakure's Hanzō. Having nearly been beaten to a pulp by Hanzō on the battlefield, Jiraiya couldn't mistake it.
He wanted to demand what kind of secret dealings Hii Kōri had with Hanzō—but then thought better of it. Why would Hii Kōri answer honestly? Instead, he immediately shifted to threats.
"Huh."
Hii Kōri let out a dismissive snort. He hopped lightly on the water's surface, cracked his neck, and drew: "Is this kind of tough talk passed down through Konoha's generations? I remember Dan Katō said something similar when I came for him."
"And… you're that confident you can take me?"
His tone suddenly turned menacing. Flicking his foot through the water, he launched dozens of hardened water spears at Jiraiya. At the same time, he formed hand seals in rapid succession and exhaled a fierce gust of wind.
"Tch!"
Hearing him casually mention Dan Katō—whom he had personally killed—Jiraiya's thoughts involuntarily drifted to Tsunade, who had left the village, her whereabouts unknown. Frustration welled up inside him.
He grunted, giving up on pointless verbal sparring. Dodging the wave of attacks, he bit his thumb and pressed it against the air.
Realizing his usual elemental techniques were at a disadvantage on the open sea, Jiraiya opted to rely on his summon.
An intricate summoning array appeared in midair. With a poof and a burst of white smoke, a massive dark-colored toad appeared—over ten meters tall, smoking a giant pipe, wearing a short coat, with a sword at its waist.
Its name was Gamabunta. Among the toads of Mount Myōboku, it was the largest and, aside from the sages themselves, the strongest.
Its heavy, massive body crashed onto the beach and shallows, sending up huge waves.
"Yo, Bunta! Help me take that guy down!"
Crouched on Gamabunta's broad head, Jiraiya's voice was urgent. "Out at sea, your toads should be better adapted than on land, right?"
However anxious and frustrated he might be, Jiraiya wouldn't take it out on Bunta—his partner of over a decade, who had shared life-and-death battles with him. But even so, the experienced Gamabunta sensed something unusual in his tone—urgency, gravity.
"Hey, hey, Jiraiya. Even for toads, we're freshwater creatures. Seawater's salty and bitter!"
Gamabunta grumbled through his pipe, his voice muffled. But his movements showed no hesitation.
His enormous eyes locked onto the small figure on the water—red-and-white hair, radiating danger. Without a wasted motion, he coiled his powerful legs and leaped high, his thick forelimbs drawing the short sword at his waist, bringing it down on Hii Kōri in a savage slash.
Given Gamabunta's nearly twenty-meter height, the "short sword" was almost ten meters long. To maintain such a massive blade's integrity, it was thick and heavy—more a slab of iron than a cutting weapon.
"Take this!"
Bunta's deep voice boomed as the enormous blade descended with a terrifying roar, splitting the air like a collapsing mountain.
Before the blade reached him, the sheer wind pressure had already depressed the sea surface, sending waves ripping outward.
Facing this earth-shattering strike—capable of cleaving a ship in two—Hii Kōri didn't dodge. His expression didn't change.
With a flick of his wrist, he produced a small, oddly shaped shield—like an abstract, twisted coil representing some kind of creature.
Even by ordinary standards, the shield was small. Compared to Gamabunta's giant blade, it was laughably tiny.
Yet Hii Kōri raised it casually, like a mantis trying to stop a chariot.
The expected scene—shield shattered, wielder crushed—never came.
Gamabunta's powerful strike was stopped dead by the unremarkable little shield. It didn't even make a sound.
The sea beneath Hii Kōri's feet didn't ripple from the impact. He himself didn't budge. Only his robes fluttered in the wind.
"Vibranium… just kidding."
Even with the shield blocking his view, Hii Kōri could feel the incredulous stares from Gamabunta and Jiraiya above. He snorted, muttering some obscure reference no one would understand.
Still holding the shield in an awkward position, he formed hand seals with his free hand. The previously calm sea beneath him surged as if boiling. A dozen highly compressed water jets shot toward Gamabunta's massive body like high-pressure water cutters.
Unlike the blood threads that had easily pierced that Akimichi jōnin, these high-pressure jets—powerful enough to punch through steel struck Gamabunta's warty hide with dull thuds.
They barely broke the surface, leaving only shallow wounds and causing no real damage.
"Heh. Thick hide."
Hii Kōri wasn't surprised, merely muttering.
This toad was native to Mount Myōboku. Even without using senjutsu, its body naturally contained vast amounts of natural energy, giving it formidable physical defense.
And unlike the Akimichi clan's temporary size increase through their Expansion Technique, Gamabunta had grown to this size naturally.
For such a massive creature to move and fight without being crushed by its own weight, its muscles and bones were overwhelmingly stronger and tougher than those of other creatures.
This held true for all giant summoning beasts.
Natural is just stronger than drugs. The superiority of nature really shows.
On another note, while learning Hanzō's Hard Water-style allowed him to mimic the effects of Crimson Blood Manipulation with Water Release—even surpassing it in breadth of application—and similar liquid-manipulation techniques existed in the jujutsu world…
The essence of Crimson Blood Manipulation lay in the word "blood."
Beyond the fact that it was a technique passed down through the Kamo clan, "blood" carried strong symbolic meaning in all mystical systems. Jujutsu was no exception.
Blood could carry far more cursed energy than an equal volume of other liquids. And for chakra—which used life energy as one of its fundamental components—blood, as "proof of life," was also an excellent medium.
Even mixing a small amount of one's own blood into another's, a jujutsu sorcerer could use that connection and symbolism to manipulate the external blood as if it were part of their own body, with greater freedom and precision.
Given all these factors, struggling to pierce Gamabunta's defense was perfectly normal.
***
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