As we walked along the path toward the Land of Water, I approached Jiraiya.
"Uncle Toad, you're a sage, right?" I asked, skimming across the water.
"That's right, I'm the sage toad of Mount Myoboku," he replied with great pride, only for that pride to slowly fade. "But not perfect."
I was surprised to hear him say that.
"How so?" I asked curiously.
"Well, to be a sage, you need a very high amount of chakra. Before the war, I had already reached the minimum level to train in the sage arts, but the war broke out in the middle of my training, so when I fought Hanzo, I wasn't a sage yet." He began to recount his training in a rather scattered way. "Afterward, I trained those three orphans from Ame. Sometimes I would leave to return to the mountain to try to finish their training; other times I would go to gather information."
"But what's this about being an imperfect sage?" I asked again.
"It's because I need the two great toad sages to safely enter Sage Mode, since I didn't complete the training properly," Jiraiya told me.
"I imagine you'll finish your sage training," I said, as if it were obvious.
"Maybe in the future; I'm fine now, but busy. Sensei asked me to set up a spy network not too long ago, and that will take up my time," he explained.
"I don't know why I think you agreed to that, because you'd have the opportunity to spy on the different hot springs in the ninja world without any problems with the village," I said.
"Now you're a clairvoyant or something," he said, looking at me worriedly, making it clear that I had a point.
"You don't need to be a clairvoyant to see the obvious," I replied. "But honestly, I was asking you all this so you could help me control the power of nature."
I explained my situation; I could do these myself, but if someone could save me time, that would be ideal.
"Why don't you ask Katsuyu for help? I don't think she'd refuse," Jiraiya asked me.
"She'd be happy to help, but no one's ever been a slug sage, so she doesn't really know what she's doing, not to mention that what I want is the Sage Mode you get with Wood Release, just like the First Hokage did."
"Hmm, I think it is different. I've heard stories about the First Hokage's Sage Mode, and if it's something like what I did, maybe she can help you, or better yet, ask Fukasaku to help you." Jiraiya added thoughtfully. "We'll see about that later; you're still too young for that. Let's hope your chakra reserves grow larger and your body gets stronger first."
"Understood, I'll be waiting for that to happen," I said, but inside I wasn't quite sure when that time would come.
I'll be busy with experiments soon, not to mention what I'm doing regarding the Senju clan. I don't have much time right now. If it weren't for the wood and shadow clones, I wouldn't be here doing missions with my team.
"Alright, let's continue. I think we've rested enough," Jiraiya announced, leaping into the trees.
"Understood," the three of us replied.
Minato put away his notes on the Flying Thunder God Technique, Kosuke put away the kunai he'd been playing with, and we sped off to our destination.
...
"I sense about 10 subjects in the camp; the one with the most chakra must be the jōnin," I commented, using my sensory abilities.
"I sense the same as Miyu," Minato said, using his new sensor jutsu.
"Alright, the three of you shouldn't have any problem taking them all down, and remember, they have to be alive; if they're dead, the mission fails, especially the jōnin," Jiraiya said.
Obviously, if they were dead, they couldn't be experimented on. This was with the idea of using them as guinea pigs to see if they could withstand the insertion of an external bloodline.
Soon we'll need to capture users of these bloodline boundaries, an excuse to go to the Land of Lightning and search for the Chinoiken clan under the guise of looking for Storm Release users.
Everything is going according to plan.
"There shouldn't be a problem, Jiraiya-sensei," Kosuke said confidently. Minato simply nodded in response.
"Well, you two go ahead; you're much more careful than I am; I might end up killing someone," I remarked.
They both looked at me strangely.
"I think you can both do this perfectly well quietly; Miyu and I will watch your backs so you can do everything peacefully," Uncle Toad said with a bead of sweat.
They looked at each other and nodded, and with Shunshin, they left, leaving us alone.
The situation was good. Too good, really. And it was, because in the distance I sensed a strong chakra source, not as strong as mine, walking toward the camp.
"Uncle Toad, someone's coming," I warned him as soon as I felt his presence.
"How inconvenient, let's see who it is," he said, brushing off the imaginary dust and moving quickly; I followed him.
I hid, trying to camouflage myself with the wood, and when I saw who it was, I was surprised.
Standing nearby was Kakuzu, the ninja who fought Hashirama years ago and lost and who would later become an Akatsuki member; I already mentioned he lost to Hashirama.
Watching the loser-turned bounty hunter survey the area, I realized he'd spotted us but didn't know our exact location; that was an advantage. I had no idea this guy's skills were so good.
I didn't see Jiraiya starting this, but knowing this guy was most likely after the bounty on the rogue ninja we came to find, he wasn't going to leave without a fight.
Using a kunai with several explosive talismans, I threw them at Kakuzu; the talismans were free, not to mention the explosive tag I'd created; I could basically blow up anything I wanted.
Several explosions erupted at Kakuzu's location. Smoke filled the air.
Once the smoke cleared, Kakuzu stood there, covered only in scratches and bruises, his clothes torn.
Perhaps the Earth Spear jutsu hardens the skin, but with the explosion of so many talismans, it's impossible he escaped without a scratch.
"What kind of madman does something like that out of nowhere?" the bounty hunter's voice rang out.
"Someone trying to end a fight as quickly as possible," Jiraiya said, appearing in front of Kakuzu.
Kakuzu narrowed his eyes at the sight, only to glance around. Jiraiya simply clicked his tongue at the sight. He had leaped forward; he tried to shift his attention away from me, but Kakuzu was more experienced than he appeared at first glance.
"Any ordinary ninja would have ended up severely injured at the very least," Kakuzu remarked, turning his gaze to Jiraiya. "One of the Sannin, student of the Third Hokage, Jiraiya, 40 million ryo."
Upon hearing that, I expected Jiraiya's bounty to be higher, but considering he hadn't done anything so wrong, that money must be for his titles and status rather than him being a threat.
I watched as Jiraiya formed his hand seals, followed by Kakuzu. I formed mine as well.
Likewise, I saw them both launch fireballs at each other. I sank into the ground and reappeared beneath Kakuzu. The moment I tried to grab his feet and complete the jutsu, he jumped, avoiding my grasp.
The bounty hunter barely managed to back away, throwing a kunai with an explosive talisman in my direction. To avoid the explosion, I used the Substitution Jutsu, dodging the blast and reappearing on a tree trunk near the battle.
"Well, look who we have here, a clan leader," Kakuzu's excited voice boomed. I just narrowed my eyes. "With you here, I've already got 60 million ryo in my pocket."
I was confused by this new information I hadn't known.
"Iwa put a bounty on you a while ago; initially it was 10 million for the destruction of a major station at the beginning of the war, but upon learning that you had taken over the Senju clan's position, they doubled it," Jiraiya explained to me as he formed hand seals and launched a mud ball in the enemy's direction.
The enemy simply placed his hands on the ground, and a wall of earth formed.
This guy, if I'm not mistaken, is an earth element specialist, since he has four masks, none of which are earth-based. And if each heart corresponds to a different affinity, then by default Kakuzu has an affinity for earth, and given how long he's lived, he must have a very high level of skill with this element.
During the fight with Kakashi in the series, I didn't use it much, since it wasn't very effective against the Raikiri, but here's the problem: no one here has an affinity for the lightning element.
With a hand seal, I launched a fireball.
"How annoying," Kakuzu said, as a mask appeared from his shoulder and a fireball erupted from his mouth, neutralizing my attack.
"What's that?" Jiraiya asked, seeing the mask and even more so when he witnessed it, along with others, emerging from Kakuzu's back.
"Let's continue," the rogue ninja from Taki said calmly, his masked creatures at his back.
Kakuzu leaped at Jiraiya with the yellow mask, while the other three jumped at me.
I quickly threw several explosive kunai, but the one with the blue mask opened his mouth, and several spheres of wind destroyed them mid-flight.
For a moment, the thought of using Wood Release crossed my mind, but I knew that doing so might not solve everything in life; otherwise, Hashirama wouldn't have died. I already mentioned that Kakuzu lost to Hashirama. It's always good to remember that.
Creating several explosive clones, I scattered them around the area, trying to bring them closer to confuse the creatures and, if possible, damage them.
The blue one is wind, and the red one is fire, as far as I know.
Using hand seals, I created a fireball in the direction of the one with the light blue mask; it launched a compressed jet of water that split the fireball in half.
Faced with this, I had to use the Body Flicker Technique to escape since the other two masks had launched a combined fire and wind attack at me.
But this gave me the opportunity to detonate the clones near them.
The explosion was powerful, but I didn't manage to knock the creatures down; they were still standing, their masks cracked.
In the distance, I saw a giant toad appear on the horizon. I saw Jiraiya standing on top, slightly singed.
I couldn't see any further, as the blue and red mask had sunk into the water and launched a terrifying attack at me.
A titanic fireball appeared in front of me.
I knew an earthen wall wouldn't stop it, so I formed hand seals and dodged into a tunnel I quickly created, avoiding the attack.
I sensed someone approaching at high speed, and knowing who it was, it was best to act fast.
Likewise, I emerged from the tunnel's flames, ignoring the damage all around me, and launched several dust balls at the blue mask. Then, forming hand seals, I used the Water Convergence Technique to draw water from the air. After performing four more seals, a water dragon began to form from the air.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu," I said, and the dragon lunged at the two entwined creatures, forcing them to separate to avoid the attack.
The carnage behind them, even amidst the surrounding dust, was about to attack, but someone was faster than it.
"Fire Release: Magnificent Fire Destruction," I heard its jutsu, and a massive amount of fire engulfed the celestial carnage.
Along with the flammable dust I had thrown, the area exploded in a blaze.
Once the technique ended, nothing remained of the place, not even a piece of the mask.
"You're late," I said to Kosuke, who appeared beside me.
"The noise startled the other rogue ninja; it took us longer than it should have to neutralize them," he explained, and it made sense knowing how I started the fight.
The creatures, instead of continuing to fight, quickly fled the scene.
"They escaped," Kosuke exclaimed, somewhat doubtfully.
"Damn, they're heading toward where Toad Uncle is fighting," I said, alerting Kosuke.
We both ran quickly to where they were, only to see the masks merge again, ending up behind Kakuzu. I noticed that the yellow mask was destroyed.
I also noticed that Minato was already with Jiraiya, ready to fight.
Kakuzu didn't say anything; he just moved behind the two merged creatures. That gave me a bad feeling.
I saw a huge amount of chakra in the creatures, and they opened their mouths, revealing a buildup of fire and wind about to be unleashed and destroy everything.
"Miyu," Jiraiya told me, knowing that an earth wall might not be enough this time.
"I know," I said simply, slamming my palm against the ground.
The earth shattered, and a pillar of earth lifted us off the ground, just as the creatures unleashed their technique, creating a sea of fire that destroyed everything in its path.
The flames began to rise, so I formed a single hand seal for my technique.
"Water Release: Wave Crash Technique," I said, spitting a large amount of water into the sea of fire below, neutralizing much of the flames and creating a puff of smoke that enveloped the entire area.
When the smoke cleared, neither Kakuzu nor the creatures were there.
"He escaped," Kosuke remarked.
"He must have figured that out of four people, and one of them being Jiraiya-sensei, he was bound to lose," Minato remarked.
"That's probably the case," Jiraiya said, rubbing his neck.
It was a short fight, but that's how all ninja battles should be.
And here I wanted to use Wood Release now to remind him of Vietnam; maybe next time.