Chapter 267: The Tardy Jiraiya
"Are you trying to fight me, Jiraiya?" Orochimaru asked, staring at the white-haired man with his cold, reptilian eyes and licking his lips. "Uzumaki Naruto has already started fighting. It's not good for you to still be here. What if something... unexpected happens to him?"
Jiraiya's brow furrowed fiercely.
Orochimaru was right. Naruto was currently facing members of the Akatsuki, and two of them at that. Even with Sakura watching over him, it would be difficult to hold out for long!
However, letting Orochimaru get close to the battlefield was also an extremely dangerous matter.
For a moment, Jiraiya was caught in a dilemma.
Seeing the slight change in Jiraiya's expression, Orochimaru took a step forward and continued.
"Hmph! It seems you really don't know... The reason Sasori appeared here is because he wanted to ask the little guy behind me about my hiding place! As for why your Konoha ninja appeared here, hehe, you'll have to ask yourself!"
Orochimaru's explanation was, for the most part, the truth.
To Jiraiya, he disdained to lie about such a small matter.
"Could it be that you came here to kill Sasori?" Jiraiya asked, narrowing his eyes.
The corner of Orochimaru's mouth curled up, and he let out a wicked laugh. "It seems you're not so incompetent that you're beyond saving, Jiraiya! But it's a pity. Your Konoha people got there first... I was also hesitating, whether to help Sasori get rid of your people, or to help you get rid of Sasori first, or perhaps, to take advantage of the situation when both sides are battered and exhausted, and kill all of you and Sasori, all these annoying people!"
He had shown his malice without any concealment!
"You bastard...!" Jiraiya said with hatred, his eyes staring fiercely at Orochimaru. He clenched his fists, fiercely grit his teeth, and an impulse that had suddenly appeared in his heart was quickly suppressed by him. Patience!
The emotional fluctuation had only appeared for an instant. His self-control quickly calmed his mind, and he regained his composure.
Jiraiya's mind raced.
The reason the Konoha ninja had appeared here was none other than that they had discovered a trace of Sasori. They had been discovered while tracking him, which had led to this encounter. It seemed to be an unexpected accident.
Orochimaru was also surprised that Sasori had clashed with the Konoha ninja first.
The problem now was, how to both stop Orochimaru here and go to support Naruto's side...
Jiraiya was considering whether to summon one of the toads from Mount Myōboku, or to use Sage Mode to solve the problem. Suddenly, not far away, on the other side of the mountain, a bright light suddenly flared up, followed by a huge sound. When the blast wave reached this side of the mountain, it had already attenuated into a fierce wind, which swept up countless pieces of rubble and sand, making a pattering sound.
"That's Deidara's move..." the three of them glanced in that direction at the same time. Orochimaru said faintly, "If you don't go over, the treasure left by the Fourth will be blown to bits!"
Jiraiya was unmoved. "Haruno Sakura's Ice Style has blocked that move... This child is very strong."
"Fool. They didn't notice the second bomb, and you didn't either?" Orochimaru said with a sneer. Unlike Jiraiya, who had been keeping his main focus on him, to prevent him from playing any tricks; Orochimaru had been paying close attention to the movements on that side of the battlefield. He had keenly sensed that Deidara had laid a double yolk this time!
Jiraiya's expression changed, and he immediately found that what Orochimaru had said was true. Then, BOOM—after an extremely short interval, the second bomb also went off. The chakra fluctuations in the distance made Jiraiya's heart tighten. His rock-solid expression finally loosened!
The Nine-Tails' chakra has dispersed... Naruto is injured and unconscious.
In a flash, Jiraiya had made his decision. He couldn't care about so much anymore. He had to get to that battlefield immediately!
When he arrived at the battlefield, he happened to see the scene of Haruno Sakura flickering into the sky and cleanly and crisply slaying Deidara.
If not for the fact that the girl in the sky had pink hair instead of golden; if not for the fact that what she had activated in her hand was a silver water line and not a blue chakra ball...
Jiraiya had almost mistaken her for his beloved disciple, resurrected.
His expression, for a moment, was somewhat lost.
He quickly recovered and assessed the situation on the battlefield: Naruto's chakra was still stable, with not much fluctuation, and not weak. It seemed he had just been knocked unconscious by the blast. On Sasori's side, he had been stunned by Haruno Sakura's clean and neat instant-kill of Deidara. His puppets were shrinking their defensive line and had not taken the opportunity to attack Naruto.
"Phew..." Jiraiya let out a sigh of relief. Naruto was safe and sound. It seemed it was just a small accident.
However, when he came back to his senses, he realized what Sakura had just done.
The one she had just killed seemed to be a member of the Akatsuki?
As far as he knew, all the members of the Akatsuki were extremely dangerous rogue-nin, and their strength could almost all reach the "Kage" level... That golden-haired youth, who should be called Deidara, was no exception.
To be instantly killed just like that?
Jiraiya was a little stunned. He was suddenly reminded of Namikaze Minato's glorious achievements back then. The Golden Flash back then had also slaughtered Jonin like dogs. Many Kage-level ninja couldn't last a few rounds under his hands. The Fourth Raikage and the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, two Kage-levels, had almost been instantly killed by him when they had fought him...
In that case, Jiraiya was, on the contrary, in no hurry to show himself. He hid in a corner where he could provide support at any time and quietly watched the situation unfold.
Sasori and the two, Haruno Sakura and Naruto, were in a brief standoff.
The weakness in Haruno Sakura's body, she had tried her best to hide it, but it couldn't be concealed. It seemed she was injured. Sasori had noticed this, but he was more suspicious that Sakura was deliberately showing weakness. After all, the girl's body had no traces of injury, and her chakra had not decreased by much...
More importantly, he had vaguely sensed that someone had broken in—just now, when Jiraiya had been rushing over, he had not made any cover for his tracks.
After thinking for a moment, he quickly made a decision.
"Are you trying to escape?" Haruno Sakura asked coldly, looking at Sasori, who was showing faint signs of retreating.
"Are you trying to keep me here?" Sasori smiled faintly, not denying it, but said, "Just with you, who is injured?"
Sakura's face was cold as she said nothing.
She was in pain just standing right now. She could only stand firm because she was secretly supporting her body with an ice frame under her clothes.
So she was in no mood to refute him.
"If you still had a lot of combat power, you would have already attacked, wouldn't you?" Sasori's smile was shy and clean, as if he had turned back into that innocent youth. "You look like you can't even stand steadily. Is that an ice block?"
He looked at the girl in front of him. The tattered opening on her clothes, when blown by the wind, had exposed her true state of being strong on the outside but weak on the inside.
Sakura, who had been exposed, was speechless.
"Let's end this battle here," Sasori said calmly, glancing around. "I have no interest in fighting with an audience."
"Audience?" Sakura immediately thought, He must be referring to Jiraiya, right? He really did come...
"Are you still not coming out, you sneaky rats?" Sasori said, his face cold, as he glanced from left to right.
"Rats?" The girl was stunned. Who else?
She soon found out—
A giant fireball suddenly attacked from the side of the battlefield—towards Sasori's puppets. The latter dodged agilely, calmly watching as the fireball crashed into a rock on the other side, exploding with a roar and kicking up a cloud of dust.
Jiraiya, retracting his Fire Style hand seal posture, walked to the side of Sakura and Naruto.
"Are you still not coming out, Orochimaru?" he said, looking at the stone that had been blasted apart by the fire bullet.
Under the watchful eyes of the four on the field—if you counted the hundred or so pairs of eyes on Sasori's side as one—the figures of Orochimaru and Kabuto walked out of the thick dust.
"It's so lively today!" he said, licking his lips with his long tongue and sneering.
As he had said, at this moment, there were three mutually hostile forces standing on the battlefield...
The three sides just happened to be standing in an equilateral triangle, on guard against each other!
It really was lively!
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