Chapter 93
They were coming and coming at him. One after another. Jiraiya was quite frustrated at how many swords he had to block or deflect. Being surrounded by the samurai sure sucked. And the worst part of it was that he couldn't even kill them.
Not that he wanted to, since they were caught up in this mess involuntarily. But still, it would be a lot easier to just get rid of them with a big jutsu or something. There were far more dangerous enemies to deal with.
And yet there he was, throwing and kicking away the samurai, one after another, even trying not to hurt them badly. Just as the Hokage had dealt with Mifune, who still seemed to be struggling even to stand up, Jiraiya had to deal with the samurai, which was his job.
But unlike Jiraiya, Hiashi was ripping the Kiri shinobi apart like they were children. He knew that the Hyuga clan had a less lethal way to deal with others, even more methods than anyone else. But Hiashi was as brutal as always.
Ripping one's throat out with his hand, letting a Kiri shinobi choke on his own blood as he collapsed to the ground. He would then turn and gouge out the eyes of another before turning to one more, piercing his hand into their chest and taking out their still-beating heart.
And he did it with cold precision, flicking away the blood from his hands like it was an everyday occurrence. And then, with one quick and sharp palm strike, he would shatter another shinobi's spine. And he did so while protecting himself from countless attacks.
That's why Jiraiya didn't let any samurai even get close to Hiashi; that maniac didn't think twice before he killed someone. He had to deal with the armored and armed samurai himself; thankfully, there weren't too many of them, but they were tough.
It took a lot of effort to control his strength and knock them down without killing them. And he didn't like how much time he was taking with them; out of the corner of his eye, he could see the Hokage fighting the Mizukage.
For now, he was holding up well, but for how long? Without chakra, even he wouldn't be able to last much longer. This whole situation was a mess that shouldn't have happened, but there wasn't much he could do right now.
He looked at the two jinchuriki who were handling three of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. They seemed to be occupied, and if the Tsuchikage wasn't in danger as well, Jiraiya might have suspected them of holding back, though they weren't using their tailed beasts just yet.
Catching a sword descending upon his throat, Jiraiya snapped the blade in half with his hand in a fit of anger before calming down and throwing the samurai at the monks who tried to sneak behind him.
Turning around, he drove his elbow into another's temple, knocking him down as his helmet flew into the air. But he quickly found himself surrounded once again, as five swords stabbed into him.
Though they didn't have much time to be happy, as he used substitution jutsu to replace himself with the helmet that was above them. Descending on them, he kicked one to the ground, while punching at the other in the air with an uppercut.
Then he caught the samurai soaring into the air by his legs and threw him at another one. Knocking both of them down. With that, half of them were done for. But that was barely a thing to be happy about.
He had just seen how the Mizukage tried to crush the Hokage under a massive wave of water. If not for his skills in saving himself and the Tsuchikage, it would have turned bad pretty quickly. And Jiraiya decided at that moment to kill that fucker.
"You are taking too much time, Jiraiya," Hiashi said as he approached him with bloodied sleeves, though his hands were clean. "We should finish this quickly before more variables appear."
"Don't." Jiraiya had to stop him. "We can't kill them."
"I know," Hiashi replied, as a samurai attacked him only to be hit multiple times with the Gentle Fist technique and collapse to the ground. "But if we dawdle for too long, we might have no other choice."
"I know that," Jiraiya sighed in agreement as he looked at five more samurai and twice as many Kiri shinobi surrounding them. "But don't underestimate the Hokage; he is more than capable of taking care of himself."
At Jiraiya's words, he felt a powerful blast of chakra; if he didn't know how the Hokage's chakra felt, he would have thought it was his. But this one was far too violent, heated even. And it was even more than anything the Hokage had shown.
The next moment, he saw the Hokage crashing and rolling through the ground, all battered. Though he quickly stood up on his unsteady feet, and seeing that he didn't lean on the staff he was holding, it didn't seem like he was too injured.
"Go," Hiashi said. "There aren't too many of them for me to take care of by myself."
Jiraiya took one of the samurai with him as he charged out of the encirclement, throwing him at the rest and then jumping over them. Landing heavily on his feet, he rushed to the Hokage, who deftly evaded the Mizukage's attacks.
"Hair Binding Technique." Jiraiya's hair grew longer and thicker as it captured the enraged Mizukage, who now had a red chakra cloak around him. "You aren't going anywhere."
At least that's what he wanted, but he underestimated a jinchuriki's strength and was thrown into the air. Realizing that he couldn't hold on to the Mizukage, he released him. But since he was already up there, he took the opportunity.
"Hair Needle Senbon." His white hair straightened and shot out countless times, pushing the Mizukage back. "Rasengan."
There was no need to hold back on this guy. The moment he landed, he channeled his chakra into his hand, created a spiraling ball, and charged at the Mizukage. Even when red chakra tails sprang out from the ground like spears, ready to pierce through Jiraiya's body.
They almost got him, if not for the Hokage tripping Jiraiya's feet. The Rasengan crashing into the ground created a wall of dust. Jiraiya looked at the hook that caught his foot and the receding red chakra tails receding back.
"I would have avoided it," Jiraiya said as he stood up on his feet.
He would have, as he saw them, and would have used the opening to slam that fucker. So he wondered why the Hokage stopped him. Did he not trust his abilities? He must have known that he was capable of it, right? Or was he too drunk from the poison to think straight and just acted on impulse?
"Could have, could have not," Hiruzen replied. "It doesn't matter; the question is, should you have?"
"What the monkey is trying to say is that you will only escalate things," the Tsuchikage, clutching his back, said. "Han and Roshi could have ended those three swordsmen if they used their tailed beasts, but once they do that, the Mizukage will pounce on them by using his tailed beast."
And then the temple would be no more. Jiraiya understood that Mifune was still incapacitated, and the samurai and monks were only victims of this attack. They would all be swept into the destruction that would unfold.
"So far, the monkey has managed to keep that fool from using too much power, but if you had attacked with that jutsu, who knows what would have been used to retaliate against you and the rest of us," the Tsuchikage continued. "This time, I have to agree with the monkey: excessive force will only be met with more force. The best course of action is to subjugate them and stall for time until my chakra recovers."
"That might be true," Jiraiya agreed. "But the Hokage has drunk more poison than you, and his recovery will be far slower than yours, allowing you to turn the tables on us."
And that's what Jiraiya feared the most. He knew how dangerous this old man was. On the same level as the Hokage. And the previous display of hostility toward Konoha made Jiraiya think that he would use this situation to get rid of all of them here and now and blame it on Kirigakure.
The Tsuchikage bristled at Jiraiya's words but didn't say anything about it. And just as Jiraiya was about to continue, he was hit on the head by a staff. The Hokage's eyes were lidded, and he looked like he was going to fall asleep at any moment now, but Jiraiya could see more.
"Don't be distracted by what would or would not be," He said. "Look at what is in front of you first."
Did the Hokage believe that the Tsuchikage wouldn't do that? Why else would he stop Jiraiya and be so calm about this situation? He might be drunk, but he must still have a clear mind. He probably had prepared for it, if anything.
Either way, Jiraiya trusted the Hokage's decision and accepted his position. He would do as the Hokage wished. He must have it all planned out, even if he was drunk from poison and couldn't use his chakra.
"Damn it, it seems it didn't matter what you would have done now," Onoki said as he turned to the Mizukage, who was now completely in his tailed-beast form. "Can you block it?"
"I will," Jiraiya replied as he saw the chakra ball gathering in that beast's maw. "This is a jutsu made to counter a tailed beast. So, I will put my trust in it, even though I have never tried it."
Chakra swirled in his hand once again; this time, he didn't stop with just a regular-sized Rasengan. No, he let his chakra feed into it, making it bigger and bigger, matching the size of the tailed beast's chakra ball.
"The bigger they are, the harder they fall." But before Jiraiya could do anything more, the Hokage threw his staff at the beast.
It pierced through the chakra ball, and Jiraiya had only a moment to pull the two kage next to him to the ground as an explosion rang out. Well, that was one way to deal with it. Jiraiya was now reminded of how physically strong the Hokage was.
So much for not destroying the temple. The explosion of the tailed beast's chakra ball shook everything within their sight. With dust rising in the air, Jiraiya slowly stood up. Roshi and Han of Iwagakure came to the Tsuchikage to support him.
Hiashi joined Jiraiya as the Kiri shinobi went to the Mizukage. Now he understood why the Hokage stopped him. Before, it was isolated fights that could be contained. But now it wouldn't be that simple. Their numbers might have dwindled thanks to Hiashi's brutality, and the samurai and monks were out, but there were still more of them.
And they weren't weak. None of them were; if those shinobi could survive Hiashi's hands, they were tough as nails. Not to mention the three of the Seven Swordsmen who held Roshi and Han back. And Jiraiya knew how well those two could fight from personal experience.
"Impossible." Of course, it was too much to think that it would be the end of the Mizukage. "How can you possess such strength even without the use of chakra? It is impossible."
"Is it?" the Hokage asked back. "Well, that's surprising; I didn't know it was."
"I am going to kill you! No matter what." There went the plan not to escalate things any further when the Hokage could do that with his words alone. "No matter where you go, no matter where you hide, I will personally kill you."
"Will you, now?" the Hokage smiled. "Good for you to have a goal. It's impressive. If you strive for it, you will go far. What is the saying, right? Shoot for the moon and you at least land among the stars."
Jiraiya now didn't know whether the Hokage was doing it on purpose, but it sure worked to anger the Mizukage further. Or could it be that his plan, since there was no escaping it, was to try to rile him up and create more openings?
"Wait," Onoki stepped forward for the first time, "You must have realized that it won't end as you wish, Yagura. The samurai are out of commission, and your shinobi are mostly dead. You don't have the advantage you had at the start."
"I still have enough to at least take one of you out," the Mizukage replied.
"Maybe, but why risk it?" Jiraiya was surprised to see that Onoki tried to reason with him. "Let me, Roshi, and Han go. I know you want Konoha more than us anyway."
"You…" Before Jiraiya could say anything more, the Hokage stopped him, putting his hand on his shoulder.
"Curse me as you wish; we are no friends. I have no reason to die here."
Jiraiya had forgotten for a second what kind of world they lived in. He wondered how he could have forgotten. It was survival of the fittest. In this world filled with violence, deception, and betrayal, how could he say anything about Onoki's decision?
"Go," the Hokage said. "We will protect your back, even if they aren't going to let you go. Rather than your survival depending on the enemy's mercy, let it be because of a friend's help. And even though you might not consider me a friend, after this, I hope you at least won't think of me as an enemy anymore."
"Tch, that depends on whether you survive to keep me accountable for my disgrace today."
At least he understood that. Jiraiya and Hiashi stepped forward with the Hokage as Onoki and his two guards stepped back. Now it would be even more difficult, but since it had come to this, they would end it on their own terms.
A.N. As always, thanks for reading and supporting me, so I can continue writing without any concerns, and if you want more, up to seven more chapters, you can support me on pa treon. com \ ironwolf852.