Jiraiya was lazing around under the shade of the building. It was already getting close to noon and the sun was shining down on the three. The nine captives were not present as Jiraiya had already brought them into the office of the Hokage. Orochimaru was on the ground and soaking up the sunlight and a couple snake summons had joined him. Jiro was still staring at the opposing teams with a vengeance.Every once in a while, a ninja on the other side of the field would shiver a bit as they felt the gaze of Jiro land on their shoulders and back. Being under his vision felt like a kunai was held just close enough to lightly graze their skin. Jiro continued to observe the ninjas while looking for the team that took down Jiraiya and Orochimaru. He wanted to give Jiraiya a chance to try and prove his worth.
Soon enough, the team that took down Jiraiya and Orochimaru showed up with a team tied up next to them. Orochimaru immediately got up with a thirst for vengeance in his eyes. Sadly for him, Jiro put out a hand in front of Orochimaru. Even though the arm only reached to about his chest height, Orochimaru stopped.
"I want to give Jiraiya a chance."
Orochimaru stared at Jiro with a slightly bitter expression on his face as he had also wanted to try and redeem himself. Jiro stared back at Orochimaru and Orochimaru eventually looked away. He waved his hand at Jiraiya indicating that he would also be giving his support. Jiraiya looked at both of them with a shining grin on his face. He was about to start babbling on about his grat.i.tude, but Jiro interrupted him.
"I don"t want to hear c.r.a.p. Just don"t fail."
Jiraiya turned to Orochimaru, but he received a cold response similar to that of Jiro"s. As he was about to step forward, he realized that Jiro was at his right side and Orochimaru on his left. Confused, Jiraiya asked why they would accompany him. Jiro rolled his eyes in annoyance, but he explained anyways.
"Other teams are going to try to target you if you go by yourself."
Jiraiya immediately protested that answer.
"Come on guys, you know I"m not that stupid."
As Jiraiya turned around, he was met with the raised eyebrows of Orochimaru and Jiro. He let out a small shout of frustration at their antics before facing forward clearly p.i.s.sed off.
"You guys know what I"m asking about. Why did you guys give up on guarding the spot for more targets and decide to accompany me?"
"We are teammates as well as friends. It"s only natural for us to go with you. Also just saying, but we have another ten days to try again so it"s ok if we waste this time."
Jiro nodded to what Orochimaru said clearly agreeing with what he said. Jiraiya"s smile stretched from one side of his mouth to another. He marched forward with a conviction and a fire was burning in his eyes. Their team dynamic had improved, but Jiro decided to ruin the moment for entertainment.
"Hey, I bet that he"ll fail within the first minute of starting."
Orochimaru had clearly gotten the gist of Jiro"s joke as he continued with it while ignoring Jiraiya"s face that fell comically.
"No, I"m pretty sure that he won"t be able to last beyond one hit."
Jiraiya"s face was crumpled into a mix between a scowl and a pout. He knew that Jiro and Orochimaru were trying to rile him up, but he turned in an obvious display of pettiness before starting to speed up his walking speed in an effort to leave the two behind.
The remaining teams carefully dashed towards the entrance of the academy while giving a wide berth to the team walking away from it. The team targeted by Jiraiya stopped in front of the field while Jiraiya walked forward into battle with his comrades by his side. Jiro and Orochimaru stopped before they could enter into the area of the battle.
As Jiraiya continued onward alone into a battle to prove himself, he heard a clear "good luck" as well as a "be careful". He smiled to himself, but the smile disappeared as he entered into battle mode for one of the toughest battles he would have as a Genin. He quickly summoned one toad warrior to conserve his chakra in case he needed to spout out lots of Nnjutsu.
Jiraiya ducked under a spout of water before blowing flames out of his mouth in order to block their field of visions so that he could subst.i.tute himself with the toad warrior. The enemy ninja were surprised to witness a toad warrior armed with a spear lunge at them as the fire subsided. During their preoccupation with the toad, Jiraiya quickly closed in on them to avoid being attacked by a bunch of Ninjutsu.
He landed a hit on one of the Genin, but he turned out to be a water clone. It seems that while he was releasing his flames, they had also set up some tricks. The other member was taken down after Jiraiya threw an explosive kunai at their feet that detonated. Unfortunately, that member was an earth clone.
Jiraiya did not remember the last member having an elemental jutsu, but he was careful in his approach. The toad warrior was not fatigued yet so Jiraiya marched forth before coming to a stop. He had been keeping an eye out in his surroundings and he noticed that his toad warrior wasn"t looking quite the same as earlier.
The white haired teen quickly threw his hands together and shouted "Kai" releasing himself from the Genjutsu. Jiraiya was not sure when he had fallen into a Genjutsu, but his earlier attacks had all been useless as the team was right in front of him completely fine.
Jiraiya knew that he had wasted some chakra, but he still had plenty to go. Before charging straight in, he quickly pinched himself to make sure that he was fine before jumping on top of his toad warrior to charge. Jiraiya heaved a small sigh of relief as the toad warrior ran over the ground which quickly turned soft. He had learned his lesson.
The team spread out into a semi circular formation kind of surrounding Jiraiya and his toad warrior. They seemed to be at an impa.s.se as neither side was going forth. Even though the team had more members, the members were kind of tired. Jiraiya continued to pinch himself about every half minute or so. Once he pinched himself, he realized that he had fallen into a Genjutsu right after he had pinched himself.
The toad warrior was valiantly fighting off the three ninja, but it would fall soon. Jiraiya quickly sprung forth while the team was distracted to try and land a critical blow. He targeted the Genjutsu user and slammed an elbow into her back before slamming the back of a kunai into the back of her head, knocking her out.
Just as the female companion of the team fell, so did the toad warrior. The duo quickly tried to distance themselves from Jiraiya, but he kept up with them and continually interrupted them from casting Ninjutsu. Whenever they tried to form some hand seals, Jiraiya would throw a kunai or kick at their hands.
Jiraiya winced backwards a little bit as some dirt was thrown into his eye by one of the boys. Jiraiya knew he lost the advantage of close combat so he quickly blew a gust of wind into the boys. He quickly flew through the required hand seals to shape his chakra. Deciding to pay in kind, his gust was directed at the ground resulting in dust being blown into the eyes of the boys.
Jiraiya moved in once again as the boys furiously darted back. One boy got in front and completely acted as a human shield for the other. Jiraiya was squinting as he traded a couple of fists before Jiraiya finally had a kick connected with the boy"s face sending him stumbling back. When Jiraiya was about to pursue him, he was forced backwards by the other boy coming to the rescue with a wet shirt.
Through his stinging eyes, Jiraiya could noticed that his opponent seemed to have used water to wash the dust out of his eyes. The white haired teen decided to go for broke and took in a deep breathe before launching flames out of his mouth. The other boy noticed the signs of Ninjutsu and launched water out of his mouth resulting in a thick plume of smoke forming.
While his opponent was occupied, Jiraiya cleared out his eyes and formed a shadow clone. His reserves would be lowered further than he wanted, but Jiraiya summoned another toad warrior. He narrowed his eyes in antic.i.p.ation before jumping onto the shoulders of the toad in case the boys tried to repeat their earlier trick.
Jiraiya was not sure how the boys had located him, but a river of water along with rocks inside it gushed towards him all of a sudden. The toad warrior jumped and easily cleared the dangerous obstacle with ease. Jiraiya dismounted from the warrior before falling towards the boys. He quickly pulled out multiple kunai before launching them towards his opponents.
They quickly dodged and weaved between the kunai, but one boy was. .h.i.t on the leg and the wound looked to be deep. Blood was gushing out at a steady pace so the boy raised his hand in a gesture of surrender. Jiraiya noticed the gesture so he aimed his fire release at the remaining boy. A torrent of flames rushed out of Jiraiya"s mouth and closed in towards the boy who formed a spherical dirt fort that was beaten down.
The boy stumbled out of his rapidly crumbling fort disoriented while smelling of burnt flesh. Jiraiya was upon him within moments and the boy was swiftly dispatched with a blow to the head.