[send power stones plz]
The person who left Hikaru utterly stunned was, of course, Jiraiya.
Even though Hikaru now held the position of Konoha's ANBU Minister, his direct contact with Jiraiya had been pitifully scarce.
That was hardly strange.
Their statuses had once been worlds apart, and they had belonged to entirely different branches of the village.
Back when Hikaru was still just a low-ranking ANBU operative, Jiraiya had been the supreme commander on Konoha's front lines.
And by the time Hikaru had started making a name for himself, Jiraiya had already left the village.
There was no way Hikaru would have memorized Jiraiya's chakra signature.
Which was why, just now, he had failed to recognize him at all.
What truly puzzled Hikaru, however, was why Jiraiya had followed him all the way here.
After dodging Hikaru's kunai, Jiraiya instantly shifted into a combat stance.
The moment he discovered that one of Konoha's hidden outposts had been wiped out, he had gone in to investigate.
But before he had even descended into the basement, he noticed the back door of the little shop had already been opened.
Whoever had attacked the place had already left.
So he silently tracked the traces all the way here.
By sheer coincidence, when he arrived, he found that the intruder had already started fighting more Kusa shinobi.
Jiraiya had not rushed to interfere.
He planned to observe first and gather some information.
Kusagakure might maintain a passable relationship with Konoha, but in the end they were still competitors.
No matter how kind-hearted Jiraiya was, he was still a man who had survived brutal wars.
He simply had not expected the Kusa shinobi to be so hopelessly fragile.
It had not even taken a full minute before they had already been completely wiped out by this silver-haired boy.
Worse still, before Jiraiya could gather any real information, the boy had already noticed him.
Jiraiya understood at once that this kid likely possessed exceptional sensory ability.
And his speed was downright terrifying.
If Jiraiya had not clearly seen that there were no thrown kunai involved, he would have suspected the Flying Thunder God Technique.
"I never expected it to be Lord Jiraiya."
Hikaru looked at Jiraiya for a moment before finally speaking.
"May I ask why you've been following me?"
"And you still have the nerve to ask that?"
Jiraiya stared at Hikaru with sharp caution, still fully prepared to fight.
"I don't know who you are or what you want, but it's obvious that nothing you're doing can possibly be for anything good!"
"So for the sake of the justice in your heart, you mean to stop me?"
Hikaru looked at Jiraiya with a half-smile.
Truth be told, he had never imagined that this would be the circumstances of their first real meeting.
In his previous life, Hikaru had liked Jiraiya very, very much.
When he saw Jiraiya fall to the Six Paths of Pain—and later Naruto sitting alone on that bench with a popsicle in his hand—it had wrung more tears out of him than he cared to admit.
After coming to this world, even knowing full well that his ideals and Jiraiya's would never align—and even understanding that, as Hiruzen's disciple, Jiraiya could very well become his enemy depending on where the lines were drawn—Hikaru had still always held a deep respect for the old pervert.
He just had not expected their first true encounter to turn into this.
He shook his head lightly and stopped wasting words.
Instead, he drew his blade and slashed straight toward the surviving Kusa shinobi.
To his surprise, Jiraiya suddenly formed hand seals.
In the next second, his white hair shot outward, lengthening at incredible speed into a lion's mane-like mass that stabbed toward Hikaru.
Hikaru knew that jutsu well.
He also knew that, in this state, Jiraiya's hair was no less hard and sharp than steel.
Clang!
Hikaru twisted his blade and caught Jiraiya's hair head-on.
At the same time, Jiraiya charged in and drove a punch straight at Hikaru.
Hikaru frowned faintly, then blurred aside and dodged the punch with ease.
It was only then that something clicked in his mind.
"So that's how it is. As Hiruzen's disciple, attacking me like this… This just got interesting."
He laughed inwardly.
Jiraiya truly did not recognize him.
And that made things far more amusing.
Without the slightest hesitation, Hikaru slid back to open distance, then brought his hands together in a seal.
"Water Release: Water Wave!"
In an instant, he had already completed the jutsu.
Jiraiya's expression shifted slightly.
He could feel the sheer force behind it—and, more importantly, the terrifying density of Hikaru's chakra.
"This kid has that much chakra at his age? The younger generation really is monstrous."
Jiraiya's thoughts raced, but his hands never stopped.
He completed his own seal just as quickly.
"Fire Release: Flame Bullet!"
A blast of scorching fire roared from his mouth, heating the forest air to a blistering degree.
When Jiraiya's fire and Hikaru's water collided, dense steam exploded across the battlefield, swallowing the area whole.
The surviving Kusa shinobi immediately tried to scramble away.
But after only a few steps, his abdomen seized with pain, and in the next instant he was sent flying into a tree with a hard crash.
"I never said you could leave."
Hikaru's voice drifted through the steam.
A split second later, the Kusa shinobi heard a sharp slicing sound through the mist.
He knew at once that the silver-haired attacker had struck again.
And the despairing truth was that he had absolutely no way to defend himself.
"I hate people like this…"
The Kusa shinobi screamed inwardly in misery.
"They run wild outside the law, doing whatever they want in other villages just because they have power!"
"If only I had power too… If only I could capture criminals like this…"
Then, just as he thought death had arrived, a figure suddenly appeared in front of him.
Clang!
A metallic ring echoed out as a kunai fell to the ground.
Two figures blurred through the steam, crossing and colliding over and over, their overflowing chakra pressure violent enough to make the Kusa shinobi feel like he could die just from being nearby.
At that moment, he truly felt how pitifully small he was.
He did not dare move.
Surrounded by these two terrifying monsters, one wrong step and he would be dead.
And yet, even in that fear, one conviction rose in his mind.
He could not stay in Kusagakure anymore.
He had to go to Hōzuki Castle.
"Mui… you can do it. You definitely can! As long as I get to Hōzuki Castle, I'll be able to deal with people like this!"
Hikaru, of course, had no idea that the Kusa shinobi cowering nearby was none other than the future warden of Hōzuki Castle—Mui.
What he knew even less was that, despite all his previous encounters, he himself had once already killed Kakuzu with his own hands.
Right now, all his attention was focused on Jiraiya.
But even then, he had not gone all out.
Up to this point, Hikaru had never encountered anyone besides himself who could truly use Sage Mode.
True, he had sparred with Minato about half a year ago.
But Minato had never used Sage Mode in that match.
And because of that, Hikaru had missed the chance to witness another person's senjutsu firsthand.
As for Jiraiya, Hikaru was more than happy to take things slowly.
Aside from Sage Mode itself, Jiraiya's combat awareness, technique, and battlefield instincts were all things worth learning from.
While Hikaru's interest in Boruto had been limited in his previous life, he had still been lured into watching a few episodes by all the false hype surrounding "Jiraiya's return."
And to his surprise, he had seen this supposed Jiraiya—wearing a mask—force an Ōtsutsuki into an incredibly miserable fight.
If not for the overwhelming gap in information, the absurd difference in raw power, and the fact that the Ōtsutsuki in question had performed so pathetically badly, Hikaru might even have believed that fake Jiraiya could really have killed Isshiki.
Of course, later he learned the truth.
That "Jiraiya" had only been a clone.
And that Ōtsutsuki had not even fully resurrected.
Still, that clone had inherited Jiraiya's combat instincts and battle experience.
There was no way Hikaru could see that and not become curious.
Now that he was facing the real thing, of course he wanted to try him properly.
Bang!
When their fists collided, chakra exploded violently in all directions.
The invisible shockwave blasted through the surrounding trees, flattening them instantly.
Jiraiya clenched his teeth and stared at the silver-haired teenager in front of him.
"This kid's physical strength is that ridiculous too?"
He had already known that Hikaru's speed was monstrous.
But seeing how young he looked, Jiraiya had initially assumed physical power might be a weak point.
Even if he could not keep up with that speed, he had hoped he might still have openings elsewhere.
But now, faced with Hikaru trading pure taijutsu and raw force head-on, Jiraiya found that the boy's strength was not lacking in the slightest.
"He's looking down on me. And that chakra… It's outrageous. Who the hell is this kid?"
Jiraiya's thoughts raced.
At that moment, Hikaru shifted his stance and suddenly whipped a kick toward him.
Jiraiya's battle instincts were still first-rate.
Even though he had been distracted for a split second, he reacted fast enough to cross both arms in front of his chest.
The kick sent him flying back, but at least he avoided serious injury.
"In battle, it's best not to lose focus so easily."
Hikaru paused and looked at him with a calm smile.
"Next time, you might really die."
But instead of responding, Jiraiya suddenly raised his voice.
"We're making too much noise!"
Steam and shattered earth surrounded them, the battlefield already devastated.
And in the distance, Kusagakure was bound to respond soon.
"If we keep going like this—"
"—then I should get serious too."
Hikaru finished the sentence for him.
As he spoke, his chakra burst upward.
Not just his own chakra—but also the Dragon Vein chakra sealed within him began to circulate in sync.
He chose not to use the Nine-Tails' chakra.
Who knew whether Jiraiya would recognize it?
As far as the public knew, "Senju Hikaru" had never displayed the power of the Nine-Tails at all.
He absolutely would not allow his real identity and his new mask to blur together.
With both streams of chakra surging violently, blue chakra erupted from his body in visible waves.
Boom!
The instant that pressure exploded outward, the earth itself began to quake.
Cracks spread from Hikaru's feet in every direction like a spiderweb, splitting the ground apart.
A terrifying aura crashed down upon both Jiraiya and Mui, making it difficult for either of them to breathe.
Mui nearly collapsed from the pressure alone.
At that moment, he truly understood how horrifying a monster like this was.
Jiraiya, however, was made of sterner stuff.
Still, even he felt a deep chill under that pressure.
This was not an enemy he could afford to hold back against.
"The pressure is overwhelming. I've never felt anything like this.
When did a monster like this appear in the shinobi world? Who is he?"
Gritting his teeth, Jiraiya made his decision.
He bit his thumb, then began rapidly weaving seals.
If his normal state could not keep up, then there was only one path left.
"Fire Release: Great Flame Bullet!"
A massive torrent of fire burst from Jiraiya's mouth.
But he did not linger to see the result.
He kicked backward at once, widening the distance between them.
At the same time, he drew blood from his thumb and smeared it at the corners of his eyes, beginning the transition toward Sage Mode.
He also prepared another set of seals to summon Gamabunta.
Because Jiraiya understood one thing with perfect clarity:
this enemy was absurd.
And if he intended to survive, then he needed Sage Mode.
The problem was that gathering natural energy took him time.
So he needed Gamabunta to hold the line until then.
Otherwise, it would all be over.
Poof!
A cloud of smoke exploded outward, and a giant toad appeared in the distance.
The moment Hikaru saw Gamabunta—and sensed the natural energy beginning to gather around Jiraiya—he knew what was happening.
That was good news.
After all, the entire reason he had been dragging this out was because he wanted to witness Jiraiya's Sage Mode.
As for Jiraiya's base state, Hikaru had already seen enough.
His technique, experience, instincts, strength, and speed were all excellent.
But not excellent enough to push Hikaru into a difficult position.
Because among those five categories, none of Jiraiya's advantages over Hikaru reached the level of total dominance.
Meanwhile, in the area where Hikaru surpassed him—
that gap was overwhelming.
Speed.
Even without Flying Thunder God, Hikaru's speed already exceeded normal human comprehension.
And because of that, Jiraiya had had no real answer for him even in their standard exchange.
"Still, he's too slow at entering Sage Mode."
Hikaru's gaze flicked briefly toward the underground laboratory.
Their clash had caused too much disturbance.
The people below had definitely noticed.
He could already sense a large number of ninja gathering there and preparing a defense.
Worse, more chakra signatures were converging from the outside.
Reinforcements were on the way.
Seeing that, Hikaru's chakra pulsed sharply.
And the next second, he vanished.
"If Jiraiya needs time, I may as well use it to bring the Uzumaki survivor out first."
When he reappeared, he was already inside the underground facility.
The shinobi gathered there were visibly horrified by his sudden arrival.
"Who is he?!"
"How did he get in here?!"
"Attack!"
Their cries rang out at once as they charged him.
In the cramped confines of the underground chamber, their logic was sound: if they swarmed one person together, no matter how strong he was, he should not be able to evade everything.
Unfortunately for them, Hikaru was not a normal opponent.
He raised an eyebrow faintly.
Then he moved.
Before any of the incoming weapons could even reach him, golden chakra flared across his body.
With one single punch, he struck the fastest Kusa shinobi head-on.
Boom!
The man's chest caved in instantly as he was blasted backward.
He smashed into the others behind him, sending them all sprawling in chaos across the chamber.
Without pausing, Hikaru formed a single seal.
A huge amount of chakra surged through him.
"Water Release: Water Severing Wave!"
A razor-thin beam of pressurized water shot from his mouth.
It looked narrow and harmless.
But it was sharper than any blade.
In that cramped underground space, the Kusa shinobi had nowhere to run.
Screams filled the chamber as the beam carved straight through them.
Bodies split open.
Blood sprayed across walls and floor alike.
The scene became a grotesque slaughterhouse in seconds.
And Hikaru remained utterly calm.
He had seen scenes far worse than this.
ANBU lived in the darkest part of the shinobi world.
That darkness was not only ambition, conspiracy, and power plays.
It was also death.
It was hell.
Ignoring the carnage, Hikaru formed another seal.
"Wood Release: Cutting Sprigs Jutsu!"
Chakra exploded through the chamber once more.
In an instant, countless wooden spikes erupted through the enclosed space.
They shot from all directions, skewering the remaining Kusa shinobi and the reinforcements rushing in from deeper below.
The spikes did not stop once they pierced flesh.
Under Hikaru's chakra control, they branched and grew, tearing through bodies from the inside before bursting outward in sprays of blood and stabbing into those behind them as well.
In a confined area like this, Hikaru himself might have been vulnerable to being surrounded.
But by the same token, no one inside had any hope of escaping him.
"That should do it."
Looking at the hellish scene and listening to the screams echo through the chamber, Hikaru nodded to himself.
Then he turned his gaze toward the rearmost man in the room—a figure dressed like a researcher.
He had no idea exactly where the Uzumaki woman was being held.
Nor did he know whether she even possessed any chakra herself.
But none of that mattered.
He had intentionally not killed everyone for a reason.
He wanted information.
In a blur, he appeared beside a researcher whose injuries were comparatively light.
Smiling gently, Hikaru asked:
"Do you want to live?"
Standing atop Gamabunta's head, Jiraiya continued gathering senjutsu chakra at high speed while the giant toad stayed alert, waiting for the enemy's next move.
Gamabunta already understood the situation.
Anyone who could force Jiraiya into Sage Mode was guaranteed to be a nightmare of an opponent.
And yet what neither of them had expected was—
nothing.
They stood there for a long while, waiting for an attack that never came.
If not for the chakra fluctuations and spreading blood scent from the underground facility not far away, they would have thought the enemy had simply run off.
The situation was as awkward as it was suspicious.
The enemy clearly did not care at all that Jiraiya was using this chance to enter Sage Mode.
That kind of disregard was infuriating.
Jiraiya, at least, had long since grown used to feeling humiliated—he had spent years dealing with Orochimaru, after all.
But for Gamabunta, this was an entirely different matter.
He had seen arrogance before.
He had never seen someone this openly dismissive.
Still, beneath the embarrassment, both of them realized one thing:
this boy likely knew Jiraiya.
Or at the very least, knew Sage Mode.
"Jiraiya," Gamabunta said quietly, his hand resting on his blade as he surveyed the area, "who exactly is this enemy of yours?"
"I don't know."
Jiraiya continued gathering natural energy even as he answered.
"I only know that he attacked one of Konoha's hidden outposts and is now massacring Kusa shinobi without restraint.
I don't know what he wants.
But he's dangerous—far too dangerous."
Gamabunta nodded.
Given everything he had seen, that was obvious.
If this person was responsible for wiping out Konoha operatives and then tearing through Kusagakure forces as if they were grass, it was no wonder Jiraiya had chosen to act.
And Jiraiya, for all his wandering, was still Konoha through and through.
He might also intervene even if Konoha had not been involved at all.
That was just the kind of man he was.
Gamabunta opened his mouth to say something else—
but then his expression sharpened.
He gripped his sword.
His senses and chakra both snapped toward the same direction.
Because someone was coming.
"Still not done?"
A mild voice drifted over.
Then a silver-haired teenager stepped calmly into view.
"I'm finished."
At last, Jiraiya opened his eyes.
The change in him was immediate.
Senjutsu chakra surged through his body.
He stared at Hikaru and asked, "You know a lot about me. Or should I say… you know a lot about Sage Mode?"
"To be precise," Hikaru replied with a slight nod, "I know both fairly well."
Then he closed his eyes.
In the next instant, Jiraiya's and Gamabunta's expressions changed at the same time.
Because they both felt it.
Senjutsu chakra was now appearing around the silver-haired boy as well.
"You—!"
Jiraiya pointed at him, momentarily unable to speak.
"No need to be so shocked, Lord Jiraiya."
Hikaru opened his eyes again, and red markings had already appeared around them.
"I can use Sage Mode too.
Though compared to me, your entry speed is still rather clumsy."
"You little monster…"
Jiraiya ground his teeth.
But in the next moment, his entire presence sharpened.
"That may be true.
But being slow to enter Sage Mode and being unable to fight with it are two different things!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Jiraiya was already in front of Hikaru.
His speed in Sage Mode completely eclipsed what he had shown earlier.
His fist tore through the air with such force that the wind pressure alone felt suffocating.
Yet Hikaru merely shifted his body and avoided it with effortless precision.
At the same instant, his expression changed slightly.
His enhanced perception had already sensed it—
the natural energy around them had shifted.
"Toad Kata?"
Hikaru recognized it instantly.
Naruto had used something similar against the Six Paths of Pain.
And it had come from Mount Myōboku.
If Naruto could learn that style, then Jiraiya obviously would know it too.
"Interesting."
That thought flashed through Hikaru's mind, and his evasive movement widened further.
Jiraiya seized the opening.
"Sage Art: Wild Lion's Mane Technique!"
As the two passed each other, Jiraiya completed the hand seals and his hair shot out again, stabbing toward Hikaru like a forest of hardened blades.
"Impressive."
Hikaru truly did admire Jiraiya's battlefield instincts.
But admiration did not stop him from countering.
His sword flashed free.
Blue chakra coated the blade as he cut through the incoming strands in a flurry of precise slashes.
Jiraiya's hair was severed in an instant.
But Jiraiya had already disengaged.
At the same time, Gamabunta drew his massive blade and slashed downward.
Hikaru jumped away immediately—
and the moment he landed, his sensory field caught something beneath the surface.
The ground had changed.
Though it still looked solid, it had already become a swamp.
"Using Yomi Numa enhanced by senjutsu?"
Hikaru instantly grasped what was happening.
"So that was the plan. Use Gamabunta's strike to make me jump, then turn the landing zone into a trap."
Jiraiya's biggest problem had always been Hikaru's speed.
So restricting that speed had naturally become his highest priority.
Gamabunta attacked.
Hikaru dodged.
Jiraiya set Yomi Numa beneath the predicted landing point.
A perfectly logical sequence.
And a good one.
But Jiraiya had underestimated Hikaru's perception again.
Because Hikaru had already sensed even more than that.
"Very nice."
Hikaru stood on the swamp surface, looking toward Jiraiya atop Gamabunta's head with a faint smile.
"You're trying to limit my speed. But that alone won't be enough."
"True," Jiraiya said grimly. "But what makes you think that's all I prepared?"
The instant he spoke, another Jiraiya burst upward from beneath the swamp itself.
"Got you! You're not escaping!"
This shadow clone grabbed Hikaru directly, his body drenched in a slick, chakra-infused toad oil.
At the exact same time, Jiraiya and Gamabunta formed seals together.
"Sage Art: Fire Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet!"
A colossal torrent of flame roared forward.
Hikaru, pinned by Jiraiya's clone, appeared unable to move.
The inferno swept across the swamp, igniting the entire area.
And because the swamp itself had already been saturated with toad oil, the moment the fire touched it—
a violent explosion erupted.
Boom!
The blast detonated across the Land of Grass like thunder.
The surrounding trees were instantly snapped in half and consumed by fire.
The forest became a sea of flames.
Countless animals never even had a chance to flee before they were reduced to ash.
Jiraiya stood on Gamabunta's head, breathing heavily.
Even Gamabunta had leapt backward to avoid the worst of the devastation.
"Did it… work?"
Jiraiya murmured, exhausted.
Maintaining Sage Mode was an enormous burden for him.
"I think so."
A warm, calm voice answered from behind him.
Jiraiya's pupils shrank sharply.
"You used a shadow clone hidden beneath Yomi Numa," Hikaru said, his voice leisurely as if discussing tactics over tea, "and packed the swamp with toad oil.
Then you let me believe the swamp's sole purpose was to restrict my speed.
Once I landed, your clone seized me.
After that, you used Fire Release to ignite the oil and amplify the blast.
A very clever battlefield setup, Lord Jiraiya."
As he calmly laid out every step of the trap, and as Jiraiya felt the senjutsu chakra inside him beginning to wane—
cold dread flooded his entire body.
This opponent had seen through everything.
And still walked out of it alive.
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 150 Power Stones.
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