"Watch out."
Seeing Jiraiya unaware of the danger swooping in behind him, Vincent called out without hesitation.
"What?"
Jiraiya spun and saw the summoned beast with a savage, gaping maw diving straight at him. He began to part his hands, ready to abandon Sage Mode for the moment.
"I got it."
Vincent's calm voice sounded behind him as he stepped forward.
Jiraiya glanced at Vincent's back and nodded. He pressed his palms together again and continued gathering natural energy.
"Hah."
Vincent let out a short shout and wrapped both forearms in Armament Haki. Beneath his sleeves, his skin turned ink black. With a single leap he rose into the air.
Both hands became crushing palms as he clapped down at the giant bird's skull.
Boom.
The Yatagarasu-like bird showed a disturbingly human cunning and cut its speed the instant Vincent closed in. Vincent's strike landed square on its thorny, iron-hard beak.
"Hmph. Your palms must be pierced through. Let us see you use taijutsu now," the Animal Path sneered, already picturing blood pouring from shredded hands.
Instead, a sharp cracking rang out.
Crack.
The beak snapped shut with a pained scream. Fissures spread across that vicious mouth. Vincent had smashed it with brute force.
While still airborne, he clamped both hands around the bird's mangled jaws and wrenched them shut. With a whip of his waist and legs he swung onto its back.
Boom.
His fist drove down and punched a crater into the bird's spine. Agony rippled through the summon. It shrieked, high and ugly.
"Again."
Vincent gave it no time to react. Another punch fell.
Boom.
The entire giant bird shattered under the force and Vincent dropped toward the ground.
"Look out."
He had barely landed when Jiraiya shouted. Heavy footfalls thundered behind Vincent like a charging juggernaut.
He pivoted. A massive ox was already upon him.
"Moo!"
The brute slammed into Vincent.
Bang.
Vincent was blasted backward and driven into a wall by the ox's skull.
Crash. Crash. Crash.
Three walls collapsed in a row before the ox skidded to a halt.
"That should have pulverized him," the Animal Path muttered, peering through the dust. His eyes went wide.
From the rubble, Vincent stood straight as a spear. The ox's forehead, by contrast, was a mangled mess. Both horns were webbed with cracks that looked ready to splinter at a touch.
"That all?"
Vincent's tone was almost bored. He stepped in and kicked.
Bang.
The ox's head burst bloody. A heartbeat later Vincent's fist caved in half its skull. Red and white matter sluiced out in a sickening wash.
"Incredible. When did Konoha get a jōnin this strong?"
Jiraiya continued to draw in natural energy while keeping an eye on the fight. Vincent's sheer physical dominance left him quietly astonished. He ran through the roster in his head. Very few in the village could trade more than a couple of moves with this young man, and that was being generous. Among the younger generation there might be no one at all.
"Maybe once Naruto finishes Sage Mode, he will have a chance," Jiraiya thought.
Vincent dusted broken stone and blood from his clothes and walked out of the wreckage.
"Any other summons, call them all at once."
He stared into the Animal Path's Rinnegan, expression steady.
"You have exceeded my expectations," the Animal Path replied without emotion after watching three of his summons get dismantled in quick succession.
He flashed through seals. The chameleon that Jiraiya had bound dissolved in smoke, the summoning undone. The Animal Path immediately summoned it again and slipped back into the chameleon's belly.
Vincent stared for a beat, speechless.
This guy was really that afraid to die.
It did not matter. He closed his eyes for a breath and quietly opened his Observation Haki.
The world snapped into crystalline focus. Every thread of motion and intent around him separated out and presented itself. Even his blind spots were clear as day. He could feel the emotional currents nearby too. Jiraiya, deep in concentration, radiated sharp impatience, as if muttering to himself, Faster. Just a little faster.
That was Observation Haki.
And the Animal Path's position could not hide from it.
"There."
Vincent moved. His gaze snapped to a corner of the alley and he launched like a shot.
"Substitution."
Having seen what Vincent's fists could do, the Animal Path did not dare take a direct hit. In an instant a wooden log took his place while he slipped away.
Boom.
Vincent's punch vaporized the log, and even with him pulling the blow the wall behind imploded into a deep crater.
The Animal Path landed high above and sucked in a breath through his teeth as the mere punch wind left the remaining wall shuddering. His gaze grew heavy. He glanced to the corner where Jiraiya hid.
"Little Jiraiya, why do you always drag us to such noisy places," came a male and a female voice from the shadows.
"I would rather not, but our opponent has the Rinnegan," Jiraiya answered, stepping out. His wooden clogs clicked crisply on the floor.
"The Six Paths eyes?" the female toad on Jiraiya's left shoulder gasped. "So they truly exist?"
The bearded male toad on his right shoulder stared just as intently.
Jiraiya nodded and walked forward, drawing all eyes. Blood markings on his face deepened. His pupils thinned. His gaze turned sharp and luminous.
"What power is that?" The Animal Path frowned. He had never seen this state.
Vincent was not surprised. He had seen Jiraiya like this before.
The two toad sages studied the enemy, then fixed on the Animal Path.
"The Rinnegan, as expected," Shima murmured, bringing her forepaws together in a seal.
Fukasaku glared at the Animal Path, beard bristling, his voice eager. "Let us begin."
----------------------------------------------------
The deeper he goes, the more the truth unravels. Don't wait read ahead and witness Vincent's rise before the world catches up!
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