Dropping out from the hollow in the tree trunk, Jiraiya landed with a kunai in his right hand, holding it across his chest in a guarded stance.
"That was close~" Kizaru patted his chest lightly, looking as if he'd truly been startled. "I almost got killed by some suspicious old man."
This brat's personality is awful, Jiraiya thought as he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his left hand.
Still, he quickly slipped back into character.
"So the rumors were true," Jiraiya said in a stern voice, deliberately imitating the style of a Kumogakure shinobi. "Konoha's new genius really is troublesome."
His gaze sharpened.
"A brat like you has to be eliminated before you can grow up."
With that, Jiraiya bent his knees and launched himself into the air.
At the same time, he hurled the kunai in his hand straight at Kizaru's face.
"Do you really think that's going to work, Uncle~?"
As he spoke, Kizaru tilted his head slightly, letting the kunai flash past his cheek.
Then he smiled.
"I'm not quite that easy to deal with anymore, you know~"
As his feet shifted, Kizaru casually lifted one hand.
"Cut the nonsense, brat!"
Still airborne, Jiraiya quickly formed seals.
"Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!"
The ground beneath Kizaru instantly softened into thick, clinging mud. The moment his feet sank, he lowered his head and saw the previously solid earth had already turned into a swamp.
"Kid, this is what you get for looking down on your opponent," Jiraiya said loudly, taking the opportunity to lecture him. "Now die!"
"Fire Release: Flame Bullet!"
A blast of fire roared toward him.
"You'll need a little more than that if you want to kill me, Uncle~"
Kizaru formed seals at once, drew in a deep breath, and answered with his own jutsu.
"Wind Release: Super Vacuum Waves!"
A whip-like blade of wind burst from his mouth, slashing out with a sharp, snakelike motion. As Kizaru turned his head, the long wind blade twisted through the air like a venomous serpent striking at Jiraiya.
Jiraiya jumped back immediately, weaving and moving as he avoided the "wind snake" with nimble footwork.
But even while dodging, he didn't stop attacking.
His hands moved through more seals, and with another exhale, a line of flames blasted forward.
The fire swallowed the wind blade head-on, burned through it, and kept charging toward Kizaru without slowing down.
From behind the bushes, Tsunade—who had been watching the battle unfold—tensed up the moment she saw Jiraiya use a high-level Fire Release technique.
"That idiot… he's taking it too far," she muttered, halfway rising to her feet, ready to jump in at any moment.
Beside her, Orochimaru remained calm.
"That brat's fine," he said evenly.
"Hm?" Tsunade turned her head toward him, having missed what he said.
"He already got out," Orochimaru replied.
The moment she looked back, she saw Kizaru bursting free of the swamp and leaping into the air.
"That one almost got me~" Kizaru said with a cheerful smile as he avoided the flames. "You're pretty scary for an old man, Uncle~"
Jiraiya didn't pause.
He rushed forward at once, and while charging, he drew three shuriken from the holster at his thigh and threw them at Kizaru midair.
Kizaru was still descending, with no foothold in the air. At first glance, there seemed to be no way for him to evade all three.
But instead of using the Substitution Technique like an ordinary shinobi, Kizaru simply raised his right hand and extended one finger.
Jiraiya's eyes narrowed.
What is this brat doing now?
A dazzling golden light gathered at Kizaru's fingertip.
In the next instant, a laser shot out.
It pierced through the air, melted through the incoming shuriken, blasted them apart, and continued straight toward Jiraiya's path.
Jiraiya, already on guard, reacted instantly.
He twisted away and jumped swiftly to the left, barely avoiding the beam.
Boom!
The laser struck the ground and exploded, kicking up dirt, stone, and a violent cloud of dust.
Shielding himself from the flying debris with both arms, Jiraiya secretly thanked himself for reacting quickly enough.
What kind of jutsu was that? Lightning Release?
No… something else?
He lifted his head and stared at Kizaru, who had just landed.
"Ohh~ that's no good. You saw something you really weren't supposed to, Uncle~" Kizaru said, still pointing a finger at him with a troubled little smile.
Then he smiled.
"That means I can't just let you walk away now, can I~?"
For the first time, a real sense of danger ran through Jiraiya's body.
"Then come try it, you damn brat!"
"Alright then~"
The moment the words left his mouth, Kizaru vanished with the Body Flicker Technique—
Then, in midair, his form blurred into a flash of light.
He reappeared instantly right in front of Jiraiya.
As he returned to human shape, his entire body shone with such blinding radiance that it was hard to look at him directly.
"He turned into light!" Tsunade blurted out in shock.
"What kind of ninjutsu is that…?" Orochimaru's curiosity only deepened.
Compared to the two watching from the edge of the field, Jiraiya had no room for amazement.
The blinding light pouring off Kizaru hit him head-on. Having never faced anything like this before, Jiraiya's vision was overwhelmed instantly.
He squeezed his eyes shut. Tears streamed down involuntarily, and relying purely on instinct, he leapt backward to avoid the next strike.
But Kizaru, already wrapped in golden light, had no intention of giving him time to recover.
With a single step, he shot forward again and closed the distance in an instant.
Then his voice rang out lightly beside Jiraiya.
"Uncle~ have you ever been kicked at light speed before?"
As he spoke, Kizaru's right leg flashed into golden radiance.
The kick connected with Jiraiya's side the moment it materialized.
Speed was power.
And a strike delivered with light-speed acceleration, backed by Kizaru's newly enhanced strength, was terrifying far beyond reason.
Of course, his Template System hadn't reached its peak yet, so there was no way it could give him true light-speed movement right now.
Otherwise, he'd already be pulling off things even crazier than Dabura, that absurd speed freak from JJK.
Still, Kizaru had a feeling he wouldn't need to reach one hundred percent before surpassing that level.
After all, his power and that guy's weren't the same thing to begin with.
Jiraiya's body turned into a blur and flew backward.
He smashed through three tree trunks in a row before finally crashing to the ground and sliding several more meters.
Kizaru turned calmly to face the direction Jiraiya had been sent flying.
He didn't stop there.
Raising his right hand again, he let another golden light gather at the tip of his finger.
"Well then… goodbye~"
"Wait!"
Tsunade shouted as she burst out from behind the bushes and jumped into the field.
The light at Kizaru's fingertip remained bright as he turned to look at her.
He gave her a quick once-over. The face was pretty, a little familiar too… but once his gaze dropped, that was what really made the answer click.
That level of presence was hard to mistake.
That was enough for Kizaru to immediately recognize her.
One of the future Sannin—
Tsunade-hime.
"The one you were fighting just now was Jiraiya," Tsunade said quickly. "He's a shinobi of Konoha."
Kizaru lifted his brows, and the smile on his face deepened.
"Ohh~ so it was Jiraiya-sama." He sounded positively delighted. "My apologies. Jiraiya-sama's acting was just a little too convincing, so I genuinely thought some Kumogakure spy had come to assassinate me."
He placed a hand over his chest again.
"You really gave me quite a scare~"
Tsunade, who had been ready to keep explaining, suddenly fell silent.
Because no matter how she listened to it, that tone…
There was definitely something wrong with that tone.
It sounded polite, yes.
But underneath it, there was such an obvious layer of lewd-mockery that it made people want to punch him on sight.
--------------------------------------
Support me at patreon.com/Arthorain and read upto 50 Advanced Chapters and R-18 Content!
--------------------------------------
Update schedule: 7 chapters/week
Every 200 power stones = 1 Extra Chapter
By voting with [power stones], you can easily get double the number of chapters.