Chapter 99: Jiraiya's Unease
The huge figure of the toad was like a small hill, shrouding numerous Sand ninjas under its body.
"Jiraiya, you didn't summon me out just to deal with a little snake, did you?"
Gamabunta held a pipe in his mouth and spoke with a tone of dissatisfaction.
Jiraiya chuckled and did not explain. Could he tell Gamabunta that appearing like this would be more imposing?
Gamabunta held the pipe with one hand and calmly exhaled a smoke ring. With his understanding of Jiraiya, he naturally guessed what was in Jiraiya's mind.
"What happened!"
Seeing the three-headed serpent they had just summoned being killed directly before it could show its power, looks of shock and anger appeared on the faces of numerous Sand ninjas.
"He... he is Jiraiya, one of the Sannin!"
A ninja from Sunagakure looked at Jiraiya, his voice trembling slightly.
Most ninjas in the entire Ninja World knew what the title of Sannin represented.
"Damn it, wasn't it rumored that Jiraiya left Konoha? Why would he appear at this time?"
Another Sand ninja's voice held a trace of unwillingness.
This was one of the legendary Sannin; he didn't expect to face him directly here.
"Now is not the time to be dazed! Since the summoned beast won't work, then attack directly!"
The Sand Captain responsible for leading this unit let out a roar at the surrounding bewildered Sand ninjas.
Hearing the captain's words, the other numerous Sand ninjas also reacted.
Among the crowd, ten Sand ninjas stepped forward simultaneously. Their hands formed seals rapidly, they pressed them on the ground, and shouted in unison:
"Earth Release — Earth Flow Wall!"
Dozens of earth walls several meters high rose from the ground. However, instead of blocking in front of the Sand ninjas, they formed a circle, firmly surrounding Gamabunta in the center.
While these ten Sand ninjas completed the Earth Flow Wall Ninjutsu, on the other side, the Sand Captain also completed his hand seals at the same time.
"Earth Release — Earth Flow River!!"
The land beneath Gamabunta's feet rapidly became soft, and then the entire ground directly turned into a mudslide resembling quicksand.
Under the effect of the surrounding Earth Flow Walls, the mudslide rose rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In the blink of an eye, the mud quicksand had already submerged Gamabunta's four feet. At the same time, the mud quicksand began to solidify.
Clearly, the numerous ninjas of Sunagakure wanted to imprison Gamabunta's movements!
After all, with Gamabunta's massive body, once he moved, the impact alone would be enough to injure them.
"Tsk tsk, that's really a nice idea. However, they underestimate you too much, Bunta."
Jiraiya saw the scene before him and spoke with a smile to Gamabunta beneath his feet.
Gamabunta did not speak, or rather, he couldn't be bothered to pay attention to Jiraiya.
His four thick, muscular legs pressed down gently with force. The next moment, Gamabunta jumped directly up from the ground.
The confinement of the surrounding Earth Flow Walls and Earth Flow River seemed as if it didn't exist.
Gamabunta's huge figure, like Mount Tai pressing down, fell directly from the sky, smashing toward the numerous Sand ninjas below.
Boom!
A huge roar resounded through the surroundings, and a large amount of dust instantly covered a small half of the forest.
"Thinking of attacking Konoha with this strength, the people of Sunagakure are really becoming more and more whimsical."
Jiraiya looked at the dusty scene below and spoke in a flat tone.
Jiraiya had never placed the Sand ninjas below in his eyes from the very beginning.
What Jiraiya truly cared about was Orochimaru's side!
However, due to Jiraiya's early return, coupled with the prophecy given by the Toad Sage, Jiraiya naturally attached great importance to this.
Therefore, the phenomenon of being slightly caught off guard when facing the attacks of Orochimaru and Sunagakure, as seen in the original story, did not occur.
Now, it did not play out in Konoha at all.
Jiraiya and Hiruzen had made preparations in advance just to prevent accidents from happening.
Since Sunagakure and Orochimaru joined forces, naturally, they could not only attack from these two directions.
There were also several forces of Sunagakure attacking other directions of Konoha.
However, the same scenes played out one after another.
Not long after the attacks of Sunagakure and Otogakure began, they were all suppressed by the Konoha ninjas who suddenly appeared.
It must be known that the locations attacked by both the Sand and Sound were relatively remote places in Konoha. Under such circumstances, they were still suppressed by numerous Konoha ninjas.
It could be imagined that now, let alone attacking Konoha, even causing major losses to Konoha was impossible.
However, up to now, the only thing that surprised Jiraiya and Hiruzen was that Konoha's defensive barrier had actually been destroyed.
He didn't know why, but clearly everything was in Konoha's favor in the current situation, yet a trace of bad premonition could not help but flash through Jiraiya's heart.
The prophecy that "Konoha will be engulfed in the flames of war" was given by the Toad Sage, but judging from the current situation, Sunagakure seemed unqualified to plunge Konoha into war.
Could it be that the Toad Sage's prophecy was not that accurate?
Or perhaps, prophecies themselves represented uncertainty.
Jiraiya shook his head gently, lowered his head again, and looked at the Sand ninjas trapped in the dust below.
Regardless, he would resolve this unit of Sand ninjas first, then rush to Sarutobi-sensei's side.
"Bunta, finish them off in one breath!"
A smile appeared on Jiraiya's face as he shouted.
"I was ready to do that long ago!" Gamabunta raised his huge webbed foot and fanned it violently toward the dust below.
A gale formed, blowing away the smoke and dust below cleanly in an instant like a Wind Release Ninjutsu, revealing the figures of the Sand ninja unit below.
On the ground, all the Sand ninjas were wounded. Even one-third of them could not dodge in time and were pierced by various flying rocks splashed up when Gamabunta crashed down, suffering heavy injuries.
Although it seemed like a long time, in fact, the time elapsed since the two sides engaged in battle until now was quite short. In just a moment's effort, this unit of Sunagakure had already suffered heavy losses.
"How can he be so strong?!"
"Is this the strength of the legendary Sannin!"
"..."
Voices of terror came from the Sand ninjas one after another.
The opponent hadn't even made a move; just relying on the summoned beast had already caused them a miserable defeat.
The captain of this Sand ninja unit looked with unwillingness in his eyes at Jiraiya, who stood on Gamabunta with an arrogant face, his hands involuntarily clenching into fists tightly.
"Does Sunagakure really have no hope of rising?"
He understood better than any other Sand ninja present what Sunagakure would face if they lost this attack on Konoha.
On the Hokage Rock of Konoha Village.
Yuto dangled his legs, sitting comfortably on top of Senju Hashirama's Hokage head.
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