As Jiraiya had anticipated, the Magnet Release and Wind Release that Hii Kōri wielded most freely in his half-tailed beast form were indeed suppressed by his Sage-enhanced Fire Release. The fact that Hii Kōri was countering with several times the chakra expenditure meant this was far from effortless for him. If this became a battle of attrition, victory would surely be his—Jiraiya was confident of that.
Yet the more fervently one wishes for something, the less likely it is to go as planned.
Whether this was a curse, or simply the inevitable destruction brought on by too leaning heavily in one direction, Jiraiya likely had no mental bandwidth left to ponder the truth of it.
"That expression on your face is really something~"
Drawing on his experience with Scorch Release, Hii Kōri quickly identified the patterns in Jiraiya's Fire Release, and further, located the weaknesses in the Sage Art technique.
Relying on the enhanced physical defenses of his half-tailed beast form, he charged straight through the "weak points" of Jiraiya's fire—as if the crimson of his form surpassed the red of the flames, turning the inferno itself into mere backdrop for his vivid silhouette.
Cursing his misfortune, Jiraiya could only dodge frantically, using Fire Release to constantly obstruct Hii Kōri's movements. His main offense had shifted to the toad-style taijutsu of the two sages on his shoulders.
Namely, their extendable tongues.
This couldn't be helped. Wind and Water Release were Hii Kōri's comfort zone; countering with those would only make things easier.
It was often said that in battles between ninja, intelligence was everything—how detailed and accurate it was could drastically influence the outcome. But this was ultimately because ninja had such glaring weaknesses in defense and healing.
Even in Sage Mode, Jiraiya's improvements were primarily in attack power and range.
In terms of defense, he hadn't gained anything qualitative. One solid hit, and he would still die.
Because you couldn't take a hit, ambushes were highly effective, and information advantages were infinitely magnified. This was why the Body Flicker Technique was considered the dividing line between high-level ninja.
But now, Jiraiya felt like he was facing a truck ready to send him to another world.
In the past, he had relied on the toads' thick hides to "crush" his enemies. Now, facing Hii Kōri, who simply ignored his attacks, the fight was unbearably frustrating.
Tearing through another blazing fireball, Hii Kōri faced the tongues of the toad couple. He coated his tail with Iron Sand, then spun and lashed out.
Even though this was his first real combat in this form, he was already quite adept with this massive tail. He had sparred with Shukaku countless times in Bunpuku's mental world while training Water Release, and had seen this tail attack more times than he could count.
When tongue and tail met, the Iron Sand coating it suddenly formed several sharp spikes, punching seven or eight holes through Shima's tongue.
Shima cried out involuntarily. Hii Kōri, meanwhile, didn't miss a beat in his verbal assault: "Still, compared to your original face, maybe fully turning into a toad would make you more popular at Mount Myōboku—though Tsunade's naming sense is terrible, her aesthetic judgment isn't half bad!"
Words cut deeper than blades. Verbal barbs were a standard tool for ninja—whether in psychological warfare, crowd manipulation through supporting genjutsu, or attacking an opponent's mental state mid-combat.
Of course, maintaining steady breathing while speaking at high speed was a required skill for jōnin.
"Shut up!"
Jiraiya was always easy to provoke when Tsunade was mentioned. His Fire Release grew noticeably more aggressive, but the disturbance in his senjutsu chakra was even more apparent.
"What do you know about Tsunade?!"
"Everything."
"Her taste in food, her preferred clothing styles and sizes, her sensitive spots, the pain I've given her versus the pain your village gave her… I know all of it~"
"After all, she's the mother of my child. I have to get to know her properly, don't I?"
"—!!"
Jiraiya was nearly struck mute. A haze of hot red clouded his vision. He ground out a curse through clenched teeth: "Bullshit! You must have used some vile method to control her, made her leave the village…"
"Ha. That's rich, coming from someone in the village that couldn't wait to dig up her grandfather's corpse and put it on an experiment table right after the war ended."
The wind blades, sharp as a desert evening breeze, carried Hii Kōri's mocking words deep into Jiraiya's heart, leaving wounds that bled freely and left him speechless.
"Calm down! He's trying to rattle you!" Shima called out urgently, her voice slurred from the wounds on her tongue.
"His tailed beast chakra is almost gone! Hold steady!"
"Yeah. I know."
That's right. His advantage is temporary. Just hold out until that borrowed tailed beast chakra runs out—until then!
Jiraiya's gaze grew colder. He was ready to burn Hii Kōri to ash the moment the tailed beast cloak dissipated.
Hii Kōri, meanwhile, was calculating his remaining tailed beast chakra.
About nine seconds left… can't expect much more than that.
Sensing that his half-tailed beast state was about to end, he willingly withdrew to the humanoid Tailed Beast Cloak form, feeling no particular urgency.
Saying he'd twist Jiraiya's head off in forty seconds was just posturing. He could do it if he really tried, but his objective from the start had been to observe Mount Myōboku's Sage Mode.
Jiraiya's method of refining senjutsu chakra and his operational logic were, frankly, terrible—but that was fine.
His immaturity was a good thing. If he could just turn it on and off casually like Hashirama Senju, Hii Kōri wouldn't have these two toad sages as an extra control group.
Great to watch. Would watch again!
"Right now... I just want to thank you!"
Seeing Hii Kōri beginning to "regress," Jiraiya prepared to ramp up his output.
But at that moment, Hii Kōri suddenly cried out triumphantly, condensing the remaining tailed beast chakra on his body into a giant hand shaped like a wing.
A crimson wing-claw, as wide as a man and several meters long, grabbed Jiraiya, who had been maintaining distance for bombardment.
He had always been able to use this technique—pure chakra materialization—but he'd held back until now for this moment.
"What?! He still has energy left?!" Jiraiya exclaimed, trying instinctively to break free.
But the chakra hand was immensely strong. For a moment, he felt a kinship with Bunta, who had been caught in the Iron Sand claws.
"Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit—"
Fukasaku and Shima, still free, reacted quickly. They switched to Mount Myōboku's signature genjutsu.
Sage Art: Toad Croak!
A mixed assault of genjutsu and sonic shockwave erupted like a subwoofer at a street concert. The intense vibrations shattered the chakra hand's structure, freeing Jiraiya. As he formed seals again, preparing to strike at Hii Kōri—now presumably suppressed by the genjutsu—he saw Hii Kōri resolutely raise his hand and strike himself sharply beside the ear.
A faint crack was lost in the croaking. But the blood flowing from his ear canal made it clear: he had ruptured his own eardrums to nullify the sound-based genjutsu.
The toad couple were stunned. With the tailed beast chakra gone, the chance of genjutsu working should have been much higher. Jiraiya, too, was taken aback by Hii Kōri's ruthlessness.
That instant of hesitation sealed his defeat.
Swoosh!!
A nearly invisible sword pressure shot from the still-molten iron below, slicing precisely across Jiraiya's back.
The source was the Yatsuka no Tsurugi, which Hii Kōri had recovered when gathering the Iron Sand and concealed within the iron flow.
The blade carried no killing intent, left no mark. But the phantom pain—as if countless blades were cutting into him—errupted from every cell in his body.
"GWAAAH—!!!"
Tears and snot streaming, Jiraiya's hand seals faltered. Though the sages dispelled the phantom pain moments later, the "finishing blow" would never come.
"Fugu."
The air changed.
Jiraiya's trembling body went still.
"Kongō."
A hand—unblemished, unscarred, so clean one might doubt it belongs to a ninja—reached toward the sky. With it came a voice like a sutra chant, solemn and grave.
Jiraiya watched the lines and symbols appear in the air. The jet of air Hii Kōri had been standing on had dispersed, replaced by threads spreading like spider silk.
"Dakoku."
The luminous silk twisted, forming three circular patterns that rotated in a three-dimensional structure, like the scales of an armillary sphere.
"I… I can't move!"
Robbed of all kinetic energy, Jiraiya hung frozen in midair, unable even to contract his pupils—like an insect trapped in amber.
The toad sages and their students, frozen like prey caught in a spider's web… it was a dark sort of humor.
"Taiten. Chōkyō. Ōken…"
Though he could no longer hear himself, Hii Kōri quickened his pace, balancing solemnity with speed as he named the technique.
"Triple Barrier: Six Paths Boundary. These are spider threads woven between the two-dimensional and three-dimensional planes. Anything touching these circular threads loses its kinetic energy."
"Or rather, it's more accurate to say they're set to a 'stationary state.' In this state, even gravity has no effect. It's a purely exclusive effect."
Of course, as the central point, Hii Kōri was also affected to some extent. Recreating the technique of that Tendai monk whose name and face he had borrowed came at a cost, given that his origin—his essence—was anything but "stationary."
Maintaining the Six Paths Boundary with his raised right hand, Hii Kōri wiped the blood from his ear with his left and stepped forward to deliver the final blow.
But as he raised his hand—poof! poof!
With two soft pops, Fukasaku and Shima, frozen on Jiraiya's shoulders,
vanished in puffs of white smoke.
"Tch."
Hii Kōri clicked his tongue, already understanding what they had done.
Just as setting a condition that "everyone else can pass freely" creates an almost absolute barrier for a specific individual, this Six Paths Boundary was not a blocking structure like most barriers, but a fully open form designed to maximize the stationary effect.
This meant it couldn't block spatial transfer effects like the reverse summoning of a contracted creature—the way a Domain Expansion or other supreme barriers could create a separate "otherworld" isolated from outside influence.
Once activated, the self-restraint didn't apply to things set in motion before activation.
That was the rule.
Now that the two sages had returned to Mount Myōboku, they would naturally reverse-summon Jiraiya!
Spirit-thread nerves from Hii Kōri's hair wrapped around Jiraiya's hands faster than his limbs could move. But—
Poof!
White smoke burst again. Jiraiya's figure vanished from within the barrier, leaving only half a palm, missing three fingers.
The Six Paths Boundary dissolved. The severed right hand, still attached to thumb, index, and middle finger, fell limply onto the Iron Sand cloud, blood seeping from the wound.
"Eight hundred years of cultivation really sharpens one's eyes…"
"You got lucky, Jiraiya."
Despite letting them escape, Hii Kōri's tone held little frustration. He lay languidly on the Iron Sand cloud, using Reverse Cursed Technique to heal his ruptured eardrums, musing absently.
"Hmm... should I get a summoning creature too? Summoning is pretty useful."
"Naturally. The more tools available, the better."
Answering his musings, the shadow beneath Hii Kōri rippled and spread, slowly swallowing Jiraiya's severed hand. "Like this palm, soaked in natural energy."
The ripping darkness then swelled, forming a crude shape. A pair of eyes—like bloodstains, devoid of any other color—opened within the shadow.
"Mm-hmm. You've learned quite a lot, Rashōmon."
Hii Kōri tilted his head, looking at this product of over two years of work and future-gained support in Yin Release techniques, his tone noticeably pleased.
Before its consciousness fully formed, it had been observing and recording Hii Kōri's various actions and research, absorbing his teachings to the younger students. Such insight was only natural.
"Good morning. And… happy birthday~"
"…Birth… day?"
"Mm-hmm. Compared to Kao, who's about to be born, maybe you're my first child?"
Rashōmon fell silent. Then its entire form collapsed like a burst water balloon, flowing back into Hii Kōri's shadow.
"This entity does not consider itself Hii Kōri's child. This entity is a derivative of Hii Kōri's personality logic—closer to an artificial intelligence tool."
"Ha. No one calls themselves a tool."
"The facts remain. Even if Hii Kōri does not intend to treat this entity as a tool, this entity is still incomplete as an intelligent being, and is not yet capable of bearing the role of Hii Kōri's first son."
Rashōmon responded in the same steady tone as Hii Kōri.
"One thing is one thing. You like that phrase, don't you?"
"Ha. Is that so. Then keep learning. Growing from incomplete to complete… that's quite a romantic thing, you know."
"…This entity does have a question."
After a moment, Rashōmon spoke frankly: "Is Hii Kōri disappointed?"
"Hmm… not really. I wasn't planning to kill him at this stage anyway."
Lowering the Iron Sand cloud, retrieving Yatsuka no Tsurugi and Okitsu Kagami from the still-cooling iron, Hii Kōri explained frankly.
"I'm counting on him to spread the word…"
***
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