Ssssh!
For the first time, Senku stopped in his tracks. He hadn't expected his robe to be slashed by Kimimaro.
He reached out, slapped with his left palm, and directly knocked both of Kimimaro's hands away.
He made a seal with his hand, then pressed it onto Kimimaro.
Immediately countless seals wrapped around Kimimaro's body.
Kimimaro felt the chakra in his body ebb away like a receding tide, disappearing without a trace.
His whole body went limp and he collapsed to the ground.
Senku continued forward, swept his sleeve, and Sasuke and Gaara were knocked down to the side.
Naruto, though he formed a Rasengan, had his wrist grabbed in an instant.
Senku again formed a seal in his hand and struck Naruto.
Naruto groaned; the chakra inside his body likewise rapidly faded away.
As Senku advanced, aside from Kimimaro having slashed his monk robe, no one else had managed to stop him even a bit.
It was utterly overwhelming.
Only now did Ishishu and the others arrive from behind, they had just been preparing to assist.
But the moment they approached Senku, the flow of chakra in their bodies immediately slowed.
The formation didn't distinguish friend from foe; while Ishishu and the others hesitated whether to advance, Senku had already dealt with them all.
At this point Senku had already used a technique to seal away all of Naruto's chakra.
After Naruto's chakra disappeared, he panicked a little.
But the next moment a familiar red chakra cloak surfaced from Naruto.
Naruto was overjoyed.
The flaring red chakra cloak reached out a hand toward Senku.
A smile flickered in Senku's eyes; he formed hand seals with both hands.
"Holy Seal!"
A huge lotus of flames erupted behind Senku, like a holy seal appearing at his back.
The flame-lotus quickly transformed, wrapping around the hovering monk like a living thing.
It then changed into a flaming whip and rapidly coiled toward Naruto, directly binding him.
Originally the flaming whip had been enhanced by Rengoku's Demon Lantern flames.
This time, since he was binding Naruto, Rengoku had deliberately reduced the flame's intensity.
Still, Naruto screamed as the flaming whips tightened around him.
After all, pain is pain.
Naruto's chakra was pressed back to his surface; Rengoku clamped a hand on Naruto's head.
Instantly he invaded Naruto's consciousness.
["Kurama, stop playing around. Prepare to carry out the plan."]
The Nine-Tails slowly opened his eyes, ["This plan of yours takes too long a cycle."]
Rengoku said helplessly, ["If I didn't set things up this long, the Third Hokage wouldn't fall for it."]
["Get ready, act according to the plan."]
Kurama said lazily, ["Fine, understood."]
After Rengoku's figure vanished from Naruto's mental world, Kurama stood and chakra surged like tidal waves.
It rattled the whole seal.
Within the seal, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, appeared.
He watched Kurama's movements with puzzlement, ["Kurama, what are you doing?"]
He didn't rush, he was just puzzled because Kurama showed no intention of breaking the seal.
He was only releasing chakra.
Kurama looked at Minato. Although they had past grievances, Rengoku had already told Kurama that the Hidden Nine-Tails and Minato were now friends.
Kurama straightened, clapped his hands together, and began consolidating his chakra, saying dryly, ["I forgot to tell you, this is Rengoku's plan to protect Naruto."]
"Kincle's Shedding Shell."
In the real world, Naruto's chakra cloak kept bubbling and churning.
But he himself remained unconscious.
Senku made a gesture to Ishishu.
Ishishu immediately fired a signal flare into the sky.
———
On Jiraiya's side, before receiving the signal, they could only fight on resolutely.
But Rengoku didn't continue dueling Jiraiya; instead he focused on hunting down the ANBU.
After all, killing the active forces loyal to Sarutobi Hiruzen was the real task.
If he wanted to truly kill Jiraiya, he could have used Null Horizon to kill his toads and Jiraiya would be finished.
First you have to keep Jiraiya occupied and at the same time kill more people, that's the priority.
So when Jiraiya came to block him, Rengoku only gave a brief gesture, then turned back to slaughter the ANBU elites.
Rengoku's Sage Mode relied on sage chakra stored inside the bodies of his clones.
Ordinarily, a person's sage chakra storage has limits and will leak if unused.
But Rengoku's clones were different, those things were just shells.
They could store various energies; Rengoku's clones continuously absorbed natural energy day and night and converted it into sage chakra.
When he recalled the clones, the large amount of sage chakra returned to his body.
Even though Rengoku's consumption was multiplied, the total amount was so great he showed no signs of fatigue.
Although Jiraiya still had Fukusaku acting as a living antenna and Two-Life Technique to help gather natural energy, without Shima, Jiraiya could only barely maintain Sage Mode.
He dared not use high-cost sage techniques.
Because once he dropped out of Sage Mode, his stats would fall and Rengoku could slaughter him on the spot.
Still, even like this, Jiraiya was in terrible shape.
Jiraiya didn't have a good counter to Amaterasu, he could only wrap himself in Needle Jizo to fight Rengoku.
Even Fukusaku could only hide in fur.
When Rengoku used Amaterasu again and Jiraiya was burned by it, Jiraiya could only have his fur regrow with sage energy. Otherwise Jiraiya would be bald.
Rengoku's consumption of sage chakra was even higher, yet he didn't use sage jutsu recklessly; he instead ran rampant through the crowds.
These ten minutes were the longest of Jiraiya's life.
He couldn't stop Rengoku, so he could only watch ANBU die before his eyes.
All those ANBU were Hiruzen's loyalists and strong fighters.
During this time Rengoku had killed over a hundred people; the blood on the ground stuck to their feet.
Shhh!
Exhausted and nearly shattered, Jiraiya finally saw the retreat signal flare.
His spirit jolted.
Fukusaku opened his mouth.
Sage art, Toad Cry!
"RIBBIT~ RIBBIT~ RIBBIT~"
The sonic waves pressed down toward Rengoku.
Jiraiya slapped his hands together hard.
Sage art, Earth Release, Swamp of the Underworld!
The ground where Rengoku stood instantly turned into a marsh; the earth collapsed beneath him.
Because Jiraiya had used a massive amount of sage chakra, he immediately fell out of Sage Mode.
He made the hand seals, "Retreat!"
Fukusaku on Jiraiya gasped, ["Jiraiya, I have to go back and check on the toad mother."]
Before the sentence finished, he turned into smoke and disappeared. After all, being hit by Amaterasu was no small matter.
Jiraiya retreated only a short distance when the ground behind him suddenly exploded.
A chill went through him; he didn't yet know the aftermath of this matter, but he had no choice but to leave quickly.
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