Chapter 149: I Want to Massacre Mount Myōboku
Jia turned on her heel and retreated into the small wooden cabin. She wove a quick set of hand signs, reinforcing the Sealing Technique over the perimeter one more time. Satisfied with the layered defenses, she dispatched the gathered intel regarding the Triple Sequential Questions directly to the Fourth Hokage.
Glancing through the narrow window, her gaze landed on Jiraiya. The white-haired Sannin was currently slumped against the thick branch of a towering tree, fast asleep. Mount Myōboku was a domain of ancient, colossal flora, and even under the midday sun, the air hung heavy with a suffocating dampness. At night, that moisture practically turned into a physical weight.
She had only stood in the forest for a few minutes earlier, yet the very tips of her hair were already clinging to her neck. Sleeping up in those branches was no different from taking a nap inside a raincloud.
Indeed, she could clearly see that the heavy coat Jiraiya had wrapped around his broad shoulders was completely soaked through, dripping water onto the leaves below.
Jia walked out to the base of the massive tree and kicked the trunk to wake him.
"What is wrong, Jia? Is something the matter?"
Jiraiya rubbed his eyes, looking entirely disoriented. He possessed absolute trust in the safety of Mount Myōboku, so the thought of her attempting an escape had not even crossed his mind. He had been sleeping like a log.
Jia pointed a thumb back toward the small wooden cabin. "I have a sleeping bag stored in my sealing scroll. Take it out and set up a bed on the floor inside. You cannot sleep out here in this humidity."
"Oh. Right. Okay."
Still half-asleep and operating on pure instinct, Jiraiya bit his thumb, slammed his hand against the wood, and summoned a medium-sized toad. He promptly ordered the amphibian to spit out her confiscated belongings.
Jia watched with a deadpan expression. Just how paranoid was this man about her retrieving her own gear that he felt the need to store it inside a toad's gastric tract?
Fishing her specific scroll out from the pile of saliva-covered ninja tools, she wiped it off, handed it to Jiraiya, and walked back inside.
Out in the cool night air, the transaction finally cleared the fog from Jiraiya's brain. He immediately snapped awake, his eyes darting over the pile of gear on the ground. He carefully took stock of every single item, ensuring not a single Explosive Tag or poisoned Senbon had gone missing, before sealing them all away again.
Only after satisfying his paranoia did he carry the sleeping bag into the cabin and lay it out on the wooden floorboards.
The silence stretched for a long time in the dark cabin before his gruff voice broke it. "Jia... about that day five years ago. I am sorry."
"You do not need to apologize," Jia replied, her tone entirely indifferent as she stared at the ceiling. "You stabbed me once. I stabbed you back. We are even."
She waited in the quiet cabin, fully expecting Jiraiya to launch into a defensive explanation about how he had been trapped under a Genjutsu when he struck her. To her surprise, the man kept his mouth shut. He showed absolutely no intention of justifying his actions.
After turning the thought over in her mind, she understood his perspective.
The Ninja World was a brutal ecosystem where the strong preyed on the weak. In Jiraiya's eyes, being controlled by an enemy's Genjutsu and hurting his own comrade was a personal failure. He would only feel crushing guilt and blame himself for being weak enough to leave an opening. A seasoned shinobi like him would never use enemy interference as a cheap excuse to evade responsibility.
The sarcastic rebuttal she had prepared went entirely unused.
Thus began Jia's grand journey of aggressive slacking off within the borders of Mount Myōboku.
Jiraiya proved to be disgustingly diligent. Every single morning, the moment the first rays of dawn broke through the canopy, he would haul himself out of his sleeping bag. His first order of business was always brutal physical conditioning under the roaring pressure of the local waterfall.
By the time he returned from his morning training, dripping wet and exhausted, she would just be waking up. He would then casually unroll a sealing scroll, unsealing a massive, piping-hot breakfast.
She began to suspect that every single scroll Jiraiya had hoarded inside the cabin was exclusively filled with pre-packaged meals from the human world.
Once they finished eating, Jiraiya would drag her over to a massive clearing, enthusiastically declaring his intention to build her a proper wooden house.
His own cabin was a shoddy, drafty shack, yet he insisted on constructing something elegant and comfortable for her. Unfortunately, the Sannin possessed absolutely zero architectural talent. The structural design he came up with looked completely bizarre, leaning at odd angles, yet he hammered away at the wood with boundless enthusiasm.
When noon rolled around, Jiraiya would head down to the rushing river to catch fresh fish. Lunch was always a massive seafood feast. Boiled, grilled, or fried over an open flame. Surprisingly, his culinary skills had vastly improved over the years.
In the past, any meal they attempted to cook together in the wild tasted like salted tree bark. Now, the fish he prepared was genuinely delicious, the meat tender and perfectly seasoned.
After lunch, he took on the role of a tour guide, leading her on long walks around the bizarre landscape of Mount Myōboku. He eagerly pointed out every strange landmark he found interesting.
They walked past poisonous mushrooms the size of grown men, observed insects with impossibly grotesque shapes, and examined rock formations that defied gravity.
Once the daily tour concluded, he would leave to practice drawing in natural energy for his Sage Mode. To ensure she did not die of boredom while he meditated, he had brought along a massive stack of literature for her to read. Naturally, he had the self-preservation instincts to ensure not a single copy of Icha Icha Paradise was in that pile.
He trained until the sun dipped below the horizon, returning only to unseal yet another extravagant dinner.
When the evening meals were cleared away, he would guide Jia to the highest peaks to watch the vibrant sunsets over the mountain ranges, or take her deep into the glowing forests to watch the massive fireflies dance between the ancient trees.
The days bled together in a peaceful, serene loop. It was so idyllic and detached from the bloody reality of the ninja world that Jia felt as though she had been trapped inside the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Naturally, it was also mind-numbingly boring.
Still, Jia could not help but feel a sliver of genuine admiration for the man. To voluntarily isolate himself in this remote, bizarre corner of the world for five whole years just to watch over her... Jiraiya truly belonged to the absolute elite of the shinobi world. His mental endurance was monstrous.
Taking advantage of Jiraiya's afternoon waterfall meditation, Jia casually wandered the perimeter of Mount Myōboku. Leaping lightly from one massive branch to another, she eventually reached the outermost edge of the sanctuary.
The air shifted abruptly. She could clearly feel the oppressive weight of a massive Barrier pressing against her skin.
This invisible dome enveloped the entirety of Mount Myōboku, locking the dense natural energy inside and keeping unwanted intruders out. It was a masterfully crafted technique, emitting only the faintest of chakra fluctuations. Unless a sensory ninja was actively searching for it, they would walk right past it.
But a simple wall was not enough to stump Jia.
She stepped up to the invisible boundary and pressed her bare palm flat against it. The moment her skin made contact, complex sealing formulas flared to life, glowing faintly in the air. Because she only applied light pressure, the full array remained hidden.
Pulling her arm back, she clenched her fist and drove it hard into the barrier.
The sheer kinetic force of her physical strike caused the invisible wall to ripple violently like a disturbed pond. Hundreds of complex sealing characters erupted across the surface, flashing brightly in response to the threat.
She threw seven or eight consecutive, heavy punches, her eyes tracking the glowing lines. Within moments, her mind rapidly analyzed the structural arrangement of the formulas, mapping out the energy flow and pinpointing the structural weak points.
A wicked thought crossed her mind. If a real fight broke out, she could just have Stelle infiltrate Mount Myōboku and tamper with the barrier's core structure. She could easily twist it into a custom-made cage designed specifically for Black Zetsu. And if these giant frogs found themselves unable to escape their own home, well... wouldn't that just be like catching turtles in a jar?
A sharp whistling sound sliced through the quiet forest. Someone was tearing through the dense foliage at extreme speeds.
A flash of red cloth flickered between the ancient trunks. Jiraiya materialized directly in her field of vision, using a high-speed Body Flicker to close the distance instantly.
Seeing her actively punching the boundary wall, his tense shoulders relaxed into a look of complete understanding.
"It is useless," Jiraiya called out, crossing his arms. "This Barrier was personally researched and erected by the Great Toad Sage himself. No intruder has ever managed to break it. And since you currently possess absolutely no Chakra, you are even less likely to leave a scratch on it."
Jia dropped her fist, giving up on the barrier. Instead, she pivoted on her heel and threw a blindingly fast punch directly at Jiraiya's face.
Growing mold like a mushroom every single day in this damp forest was driving her insane. She might as well get a good fight out of him to kill the time.
Jiraiya leaned back, letting her fist breeze past his nose. After dodging her first three lethal strikes with fluid footwork, he finally shifted his stance and began to fight back.
He did not channel a single drop of Chakra. Instead, he met her with pure, unadulterated Taijutsu, turning the sudden assault into a high-speed sparring match.
This time, he fought her properly, using the familiar, heavy-handed brawling style they had developed during their past spars.
More, he did not fight dirty. He deliberately avoided targeting her physical weaknesses. He never stepped into her blind spots, and he completely ignored the defensive gaps created by her ruined left hand.
At least the old man knew how to be sensible.
Fists and feet collided in a blur of motion, the sharp cracks of their strikes echoing through the quiet forest. After exchanging well over a hundred rapid-fire moves, Jia found an opening. She dropped her weight, pivoted, and delivered a devastating roundhouse kick directly to Jiraiya's chest, sending his heavy frame flying backward until he crashed hard into a thick tree trunk.
Jiraiya slid down the bark and steadied his footing. He reached back, massaging his aching spine with a wry smile.
"Well, having beaten me up, you must have vented some of that pent-up frustration, Jia. Come on, let us head back. It is time for breakfast."
He spoke in that gentle, placating tone one might use to coax a temperamental child. It made Jia's teeth grind together in sheer annoyance.
She did not say a single word, simply turning her back on him and marching off toward the cabin.
Today's morning feast consisted of steaming hot buns, thick congee, and an array of pickled side dishes.
After forcing down the last of her steamed bun, Jia slumped back against the wooden wall of the cabin. Her eyes were dead, her posture entirely listless, projecting an aura of absolute despair.
'Fourth Hokage, what exactly are you doing?'she complained internally, staring blankly at the ceiling.'Are we massacring these frogs or not? Give me a straight answer so I can prepare my schedule.'Being constantly scrutinized by an ancient, prophetic amphibian made her skin crawl.'If you do not hurry up, I am going to take matters into my own hands,'she threatened the absent Hokage in her mind.'When I get bored enough to start leaking Rinnegan abilities or accidentally summon a falling meteorite to crush this entire mountain range, the commotion is going to be entirely your problem. You can clean up the mess. I am supposed to be a dying woman anyway.'
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