Chapter 275: The Great Toad of Iwayado
The air went rigid in that instant.
Fukasaku stared at everything unfolding before him, with no idea what he could possibly do.
Should he plead with the Hokage for peace?
But whether it was the harm done to her own sister, or her arrival on Mount Myōboku in the first place — in both cases, it had been their side that struck first...
At that moment, Yuki — who had been trailing silently behind the Hokage the whole time — finally stepped forward.
"Thank you for this."
"Please, look after her."
The Hokage carefully passed the sleeping little girl from her arms into Yuki's.
"Mm."
Yuki looked down at the child bundled in the Hokage's robe — a face so nearly identical to the woman standing before her — and nodded, expression complicated.
They look alike. Too alike.
The child in her arms and the Hokage in front of her might as well have been cast from the same mold.
Once Yuki had retreated to the edge of the courtyard with Mirai in her arms, the Hokage finally turned her gaze toward the colossal shape waiting within the palace.
A being that had already been active in the shinobi world a thousand years ago.
The Great Toad Sage.
"Die!"
Seeing that the blade pinned beneath the Hokage's foot wouldn't budge no matter what he did, Hiro simply gave up on it, snatched up his second blade instead, and swung it straight at her.
"Stop this!"
Fukasaku's face went white with fury at the sight.
But this time, the Hokage finally turned to look back at the toad she'd spared, again and again, only for him to keep failing to recognize a mercy when he saw one.
Blade in hand — the intent to kill had already taken root.
"Challenging someone stronger than you takes courage, I'll grant that. But do it again and again without learning a thing, and it just gets tedious."
"Stepping on an ant without crushing it — that takes real precision, you know."
"That kind of restraint is harder to manage than you'd think."
She simply sidestepped the blow — a strike that looked overwhelming but was riddled with openings — and pressed her palm flat against Hiro's massive hand. He felt something slam into his wrist with tremendous force, his whole arm going numb instantly, the second blade falling from his grip before he even registered letting go.
A light kick sent the huge blade spinning up into the air. In the flicker of gold across her emerald eyes, the Hokage was suddenly somewhere in midair, no one quite sure when she'd moved.
One foot landed lightly on the hilt of the airborne blade — and the massive weapon shot forward like a fired bullet, straight at Hiro.
"Hiro!"
Fukasaku's face drained of color at the sight, and he moved to intervene.
"Sage Technique — Water Release — Water Gun!"
A high-speed jet of water burst from Fukasaku's mouth, racing to intercept the flying blade — trying to knock it off course, to pull his son back from the edge of death.
But somehow, the pink-haired figure had already placed herself between the water jet and its target.
Expression distant. Face calm.
She simply raised one hand, and it caught the water jet dead in its path.
The Hokage stood there like a chasm between life and death, and that water jet was the bridge across it — the one hope of dragging Hiro back from the brink.
But—
The hand she'd raised only widened that chasm into something uncrossable.
The high-speed jet of water met her pale, delicate palm and simply burst apart against it.
Amid the spray, all Fukasaku could see, in despair, was that pair of emerald eyes flickering with gold.
It felt like it lasted an eternity. In truth, it hadn't even taken the length of a blink.
Hiro — spared so many times over without ever realizing it — was struck clean through the throat by the very blade he'd carried at his side for years.
Blood poured from the wound as his enormous body was flung backward by the force of the strike.
And then—
Pinned fast against a cliff face.
Blood ran steadily down from the wound, and within moments a pool of it had formed at the base of the cliff.
"Hiro!"
Fukasaku stared at the sight, grief tearing through him, and turned a look of pure anguished fury on the Hokage.
"Your sister didn't die!"
"But my son did!"
Having just lost one son, now he'd lost another. How could Fukasaku not feel that pain, that bitterness, all the way down to the bone?
"And whose fault is that, exactly?"
The Hokage looked down at him from above, calm, unmoved.
Her words made Fukasaku want to scream, want to lash out — but he clenched his jaw shut, his hands wound so tight his claws nearly drew blood, and said nothing.
The Hokage walked past him, straight toward the palace ahead.
"For the sake of what you and your wife, and Bunta, have done for Konoha — I'll let this go."
"Leave now, and I won't hold any of this against you."
But just as she was about to step into the palace, Fukasaku's voice reached her from behind.
Still facing away from her, he spoke:
"Lord Hokage. Is this your way of clearing out anyone who stands in your path?"
The Hokage looked faintly puzzled at that, then shook her head, resigned.
Hundreds of years alive, and this is what you've got.
What a waste.
Fukasaku had apparently convinced himself, without evidence, that the Hokage was using the whole Jiraiya-and-Mirai affair as an excuse to crush Mount Myōboku politically. After all, this Hokage was the one bound by contract to Shikkotsu Forest.
Back in the Third Hokage's time, Tsunade — bound to Shikkotsu Forest — and Jiraiya — bound to Mount Myōboku — had both served under Hiruzen Sarutobi. Now that Hiruzen was gone, this Hokage, like Tsunade, was bound to Shikkotsu Forest as well.
But Fukasaku, a creature who'd never once dabbled in politics in his life, had arrived at a conclusion the Hokage found nothing short of absurd.
A toad's a toad, no matter how many centuries it lives.
Ignoring Fukasaku entirely, the Hokage stepped into the great hall and turned her gaze on the one figure who, through everything, had said nothing at all.
"You've come."
The Great Toad Sage spoke.
"There's actually something I've been curious about. Care to enlighten me?"
The Hokage looked at the toad before her, wearing his scholar's cap, and asked.
"I can. It's only right for an elder to answer a junior's questions."
The Great Toad Sage said.
"Jiraiya grew up in Konoha his entire life. How did you get him so utterly, blindly devoted to Mount Myōboku?"
The Hokage regarded him, calm.
The Great Toad Sage seemed not to have expected that particular question. He thought for a moment before answering.
"It's simple, really."
"Because what I do is right. Just as it was a thousand years ago."
Listening to this, the Hokage found something almost funny in it.
"Because you're right?"
"Meaning — when I killed Hiro just now and you did nothing to stop it, that was also 'right'?"
The Great Toad Sage nodded.
"Precisely."
"He gave his life to secure intelligence about you for my sake."
"So naturally, it was right."
His enormous eyes settled on her then, and he continued:
"That's Yang Release, isn't it."
"Hard to believe anyone since Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki has managed Yang Release to that degree."
"And..."
At that, the Great Toad Sage caught himself and stopped.
"And what?"
"And you're not even a member of the Ōtsutsuki bloodline, are you."
The Hokage finished the thought for him.
But the phrase "Ōtsutsuki clan" made the Great Toad Sage's eyes narrow slightly.
"So you do know something about that clan."
"While every shinobi alive was busy chasing balance across ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu, you alone — with the ability to master Wood Release, the First Hokage Hashirama Senju's own technique — chose to stake everything on taijutsu instead."
"Your sights were set beyond ordinary shinobi from the very start, it seems."
The Hokage wasn't particularly surprised that the Great Toad Sage knew she was capable of learning Wood Release.
He was a being from Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki's own era. Even a thousand years ago, he'd apparently played some role in sealing Kaguya Ōtsutsuki herself.
And Konoha held records on Wood Release. She herself had Tobirama Senju at her side.
Put in his position, it wasn't strange at all that he'd know this much.
Though this does confirm the path I chose was right.
Wood Release is no match for the Ōtsutsuki.
Only taijutsu — only my own fists — can put real pressure on beings like that.
"Is that so. But all of this power belongs to me alone."
"I have no bloodline. No special gift. I'm just an ordinary person."
The Hokage raised her open palm before her, in her own line of sight.
That once-towering toad now sat, small, in the center of it.
"You've said quite a lot. Ready to end this long, tedious life of yours yet?"
The Hokage asked, calm.
"Heh. Plenty of people have wanted my life over the years."
"They're all dead now."
The Great Toad Sage remained exactly where he sat, unmoved.
But—
The ground began to shudder.
In Sakura's senses, the very grains of sand across the ground trembled with each pulse.
This is—
Something's about to surface from beneath.
And it's enormous. Far larger than anything she'd ever faced.
In an instant, Sakura's body shot backward!
Within seconds she'd cleared the palace entirely — but it wasn't over yet. Her sharp, near-precognitive instinct told her:
Even clear of the palace, I'm still within its attack range.
She launched herself upward, turning into a streak of light racing toward the sky, and only once the danger had faded did she have a chance to glance back down.
A gaping maw — vast enough to swallow heaven and earth whole — burst up from the ground.
Had Sakura been even a fraction slower, that mouth would have swallowed her whole.
And now, her eyes went hard.
She understood.
That "Great Toad Sage" was never anything more than a tongue — a projection, formed from the tongue of the true creature within that mouth.
This wasn't an illusion. It was simply an ability certain creatures possessed — the same kind of terrifying trap nature used to lure in prey.
No wonder that so-called "Great Toad Sage" sat in one spot all day, never moving. It wasn't that he didn't want to move.
He never could. He was nothing but one of the real Great Toad Sage's tongues.
And—
Where her eyes fell now, a colossal monster was tearing itself free of the earth.
The mountain beneath the palace was breaking apart entirely.
No—
The mountain itself is the Great Toad Sage's true body.
Suddenly, Sakura remembered — there was another presence somewhere on Mount Myōboku.
The Great Toad of Iwayado.
In the original story, this was the being Jiraiya had summoned to face Itachi and Kisame. Its body had been so massive that he could only summon a fragment of it — one of its stomachs — to trap his enemies inside.
Maybe that "Great Toad of Iwayado" was always the Great Toad Sage himself.
Well, isn't that something.
"HOKAGE!"
"Your existence is a mistake!"
"What's happening here proves it — between the future and its destruction, you chose destruction!"
"For the sake of the shinobi world! For the sake of the future!"
"Die here, now!"
The Great Toad Sage's voice hit like a war-drum against Sakura's skull.
Hovering there in the air, she could finally see the full shape of what she was up against.
In the original story, Jiraiya had let slip that the Great Toad of Iwayado commanded flame itself — which was why he'd been so stunned that Amaterasu had managed to burn a hole through its stomach at all.
Now, as the massive form shook off trees and clods of earth from its body, heat and flickers of fire leaked faintly from its open mouth as it spoke.
Sakura's suspicion had all but confirmed itself.
The Great Toad of Iwayado is the Great Toad Sage.
Thinking it over, it made perfect sense. There was no way Mount Myōboku could stand as equal to Shikkotsu Forest on the strength of Fukasaku and Shima alone — a pair of aging, half-dead sages wouldn't cut it.
Still — compared to Katsuyu, this Great Toad of Iwayado fell just a bit short.
A spark of battle-hunger flickered in Sakura's eyes.
Big, huh?
Big is exactly what I like dealing with.
"For the future's sake, you want me dead?"
"Mirai's the one who'll be crying about that!"
She bit her thumb, and in the blink of an eye completed the hand seals for the Summoning Jutsu.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
"Lord Enma!"
For the first time in three years, Sakura summoned the one she'd once fought shoulder to shoulder with.
"Sakura."
"It's been a while since you've called on me."
High in the air, Enma had just started striking a pose befitting a great warrior — when he realized there was nowhere to actually land.
Scrambling, Sakura simply grabbed him by the wrist.
"Wasn't much point summoning you when there wasn't an opponent who deserved it."
"Well, now there is."
At her prompting, Enma finally turned to look at the massive, overwhelming presence of the giant toad.
"This is Mount Myōboku?"
"And this toad's size is a bit much, even for—"
Enma recognized their location instantly, and his gaze landed on the Great Toad Sage, his expression turning grim.
"Ah — this bunch of toads grabbed my sister. And now they're coming after me too."
"You're not scared, are you, Lord Enma?"
At Sakura's words, Enma bared a set of sharp fangs, a cruel little smile crossing his face.
"Scared?"
"Of some overgrown toad?"
Hearing him just as eager for a fight, Sakura's mouth curled into a faint smirk.
"By the way — this particular toad is the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku. Also known as the Great Toad of Iwayado."
Rather than giving Enma pause, the words only made him laugh.
"Even better!"
"An opponent at that level is exactly the kind worth my getting involved!"
"No need to say more!"
"Adamantine Staff!"
The familiar golden-banded staff dropped into Sakura's hand.
She spun it through a sharp, elegant flourish, battle-hunger surging through her whole body, and rose with the staff in hand.
"A wretched monkey of the Enma line!"
"And you dare show such insolence before me!"
"Body of Indestructible Vajra!"
"Let's see if I can't melt you down today, old man!"
The Great Toad Sage had clearly resolved by now to finish off this Fifth Hokage he saw as an agent of ruin against the future itself.
"Bring it, then!"
"Adamantine Staff — Extension!"
In an instant, a thin black shadow shot through the sun-blotting dust and sand, straight toward the Great Toad Sage!
(End of chapter.)
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