The sun barely peaked over the walls of the village border. Jiraiya approached the walled checkpoint with an air of caution. Tanigakure did not treat Wind and Fire ninjas amicably.
As he reached the two border guards strapped into their river blue vests the constant chatter of the bustling urban sprawl behind the walls warded off any silence. The hundreds of voices rang out in messy, uncoordinated unison which reminded one of how threatening the size of Tanigakure was.
"State your business," the Tani Ninja commanded Jiraiya.
"Visiting friends," Jiraiya glanced from guard to guard to gauge their thoughts.
"How long will you be in the village?" the other guard beckoned.
"A day."
Both guards shared concerned glances with one another, leaving Jiraiya aloof.
"Passport," the guard reached his hand out to Jiraiya ready to take his passport.
"Oh!" Jiraiya yelped. "Of course, I forgot to have it ready," he said as he frantically dug into his pouch and retrieved an orange frog wallet. "Here you go," he laid the passport in the guard's hand.
"No way," the guard mumbled as he scrutinized the document.
"What?" the other guard beckoned.
Jiraiya already knew where this was going.
"You were right," the other guy muttered in a mix of disbelief and defeat.
"Told you it was Jiraiya of the Sannin," the other guard laughed. "The 'Oil' head protector is an iconic giveaway," he boasted.
Jiraiya had to fight off a smirk. It felt good being famous.
"What is a damn Konoha-nin like you doing in Tani?" the guard scowled at Jiraiya.
The smirk fell off his face. 'Oh, right,' Jiraiya recalled after being taken aback. 'I'm infamous in Tanigakure.' He cleared his throat, "I'm just here to meet a friend."
"Yeah right."
"No good ever comes from Konoha, especially from big-name shinobi like yourself."
Jiraiya frowned. "I understand that you guys have bad blood with the Land of Fire, but I promise that I'm not here to cause any trouble."
Both the guards shared another glance. Jiraiya could see the anger melt away in their faces. Sure they hated Konoha and Jiraiya by extension, but what could they do to keep a Sannin out of their village? Each of them grew indignant.
The guard with Jiraiya's passport tossed it back to him. "Just don't mess around," he warned.
Each guard stepped aside and Jiraiya slipped by them, through the wall and into Tani proper.
The immediate rotten stench of the filth in the streets assaulted Jiraiya's nose. An assortment of trash and homeless speckled the sidewalks and the alleyways. No flora or fauna to behold. What remnants remained were long dead, failed attempts to try and grow something in the poisoned earth.
The dirt path led deeper into the village center and then forked away into the village outskirts. Jiraiya paced down the street with caution, putting his head protector away to stave off any unwanted recognition. In most nations Jiraiya visited, the homeless were usually veteran shinobi or the impoverished left to wallow in squalor.
Tani was different. Even fifteen years later, the homeless issue is only marginally better outside of the village center. Seeing all the sick and dying writhing around in the nooks and crannies of the village reminded Jiraiya of the horror and violence of the shinobi. Sometimes he couldn't help but regret being a ninja.
These people were innocents cast out of their homes and left to decay far away from anyone else. They had the misfortune of eating or drinking the wrong thing.
The Land of Rivers was scarred. The Wind and Fire used it as stomping grounds in the First Great War. At the time of the First War, the Sand was desperate to break through the Leaf-occupied village of Tanigakure and get its hands on the integral supply hub and farmland. Under an up-and-coming kunoichi who was skilled with poisons, Chiyo of the Sand, the Wind launched a devastating assault on the Konoha Shinobi.
A great victory under the Wind's belt, if not for the caravans of poison being set ablaze in the chaos. A toxic cloud of gas began to form, poisoning the air and causing most to choke to death. In desperation, the shinobi of both villages had to work together to put the fires out. When all was said and done, the poison had soaked into the earth and into the water, permanently wilting away the trees and greenery. The Battle of Tanigakure has since been acknowledged as one of the worst military disasters ever.
The poison clouds eventually got into the rain, and after a while, a large portion of the Land of Rivers could not be used to grow crops or raise farm animals. The huge swath of creatures that died from the poison could not be eaten out of fear of being poisoned by it. All the people who are unfortunate enough to be compromised are banished from the village center and forced to die in the outskirts where the rest of the homeless and sick are, spending their final days in long abandoned, dilapidated buildings and hastily pitched straw huts.
It was tough on Jiraiya to see what became of a once prosperous nation, but he could only imagine the impact it had on Tsunade.
At the fork in the road was a sign. It read "Tani Center Straight Ahead" and a subheading clarified that "any sick past this point will be killed." The bottom part of the sign gave directions for the road away from the village center. "Tani Medical Facility" was written with a simple directory arrow.
Jiraiya turned off the main path and followed the sign's instructions. It led into the decaying valley away from the more urban regions. Jiraiya noticed how the grass and flowers that remained in the soil were pale and wilted as he walked by. After a few miles of trudging through the once-luscious valleys of Tanigakure, he spotted a settlement tucked away between the hills.
Several dozen tents were sprawled out just beyond the gated confines of a much larger campus. The gated community consisted of several well-built buildings that revolved around a larger center building. Compared to the half-a-century old and abandoned structures of the Tani outskirts this campus was brand new top-of-the-line construction.
Jiraiya approached the tents, each of them harbored several ill and dying. As he strolled past the tents a sudden yell made him halt in his tracks.
"All the sick have to stay in their designated tents! A specialist will be with you shortly," the voice boomed.
Jiraiya turned to meet the voice. A Tani Ninja stood behind the gate watching Jiraiya expectantly, waiting for him to go to a tent.
"Eh actually," Jiraiya stammered and walked toward him, "I'm not sick. I'm trying to get inside the campus."
The Tani Shinobi gave Jiraiya a scrutinizing squint. "And why do you need inside the campus, exactly?"
"I'm supposed to meet with someone inside," Jiraiya said bluntly.
The Tani Ninja rolled his eyes. "Uh huh, look, no unauthorized outsiders are allowed on facility grounds." He pointed to the road that leads away from the campus. "Be on your way now."
Jiraiya frowned. "I was sent here by Daimyo Kawadoku to discuss with the head doctors," he reached into his pouch and dug around for a scroll. "See, here you go," he tossed the scroll over the gate and to the guard. "A letter from the Daimyo authorizing my visit," he said with his arms crossed.
"We'll see about that," the guard unfurled the scroll to read its contents when a flash of light burst from the parchment. The guard started to fall to the ground before Jiraiya hopped the gate and caught him gracefully.
"You'll only be out for a few hours, it was only a genjutsu," Jiraiya whispered to the Tani Ninja.
"...Bastard…!" the guard mumbled before slipping away into unconsciousness.
Jiraiya placed the guard's limp body up against the gate and studied his features for a few moments before a confident hmph escaped his lips. He put his hands together in a hand sign, "Body Transformation Jutsu." A cloud of white, wispy smoke engulfed his person and what emerged was no longer Jiraiya, merely the Tani Shinobi. "This will suffice as a disguise for now," he reassured himself. The Body Transformation Jutsu physically altered the appearance for as long as one was able to maintain it, and it was much harder to discover then the normal Transformation Jutsu.
He turned toward the great buildings erected on the campus. With no clue about where Tsunade could be within these buildings, Jiraiya decided that the greatest building was the best bet considering it is the heart of the medical facility.
He strolled through the doorway of the facility and was greeted by the receptionist. "Where are you off to, Gaido?"
Jiraiya mentally noted that the guard he was impersonating was named Gaido. "I was hoping to speak with the head doctor if that was possible."
"Haha," the receptionist smirked, "Why are you acting so formal?" She giggled. "You'll find Dr. Iryō in the conference room on the top floor."
Jiraiya smiled back. "Thank you," and he walked to the stairway, up to the final floor.
His whole way up the stairs something weighed on his mind. He had no clue who Dr. Iryō was. He had assumed that if Tsunade was here, she would certainly be running the show. It appeared that wasn't the case though. Regardless of whether or not Tsunade ran the show, Jiraiya was going to have to find a way to negotiate with the facility to send a skilled medical specialist to Konoha.
At the top of the stairs, he was faced with two hallways lined with different doors. He scanned his surroundings for a sign, seeing that one was hanging from the ceiling. The corridor directly ahead was where Jiraiya would find the conference room.
He paced down the hallway, quickly searching for the door that read "conference" before he finally found it. Peaking through the small, rectangular window in the door, he saw three separate women discussing amongst each other at the conference table.
All of them sported white coats like any doctor. One of them wore a pair of glasses and had blonde hair that was put into a bun. The other was a black-haired lady, and at the front of the table was a woman with shoulder-length brown hair who was currently passing around a packet of paperwork to the others.
Jiraiya made a single hand sign and created a clone that shared his disguise but wore a mask over his features and a pair of glasses to seem different from his original disguise. It stood at the door like an entirely different guard.
After examining each of them for a moment, Jiraiya was a bit disappointed to not recognize the likes of Tsunade in the room. She wasn't the end-all be-all, though. He twisted the knob of the door and walked inside, knocking on the frame only after he had stepped inside.
The conversation between the trio halted and was succeeded by a moment of silence. "Yes?" the lady passing out papers asked. "Oh, Gaido, what did you need?"
"I was wondering if I could discuss something with you all," Jiraiya said, feigning nervousness. "Could I grab a seat here?" He motioned to the seat next to the dark and brown-headed ladies.
"Sure. Is there something wrong?" the brunette woman prodded.
Jiraiya took his seat. "No, not at all," he assured them as he quickly glanced at each of their designated name tags pinned to their white coats. The blonde was Dr. Karuki, the black-haired woman was Dr. Kato who felt familiar for some reason, and that left the woman next to him who was Dr. Iryō.
"Well, what's the matter then?" Dr. Karuki said as she adjusted her glasses.
Jiraiya paused. This was going to be the hard part of the mission. Medical facilities won't just hand over a skilled surgeon to a hidden village. That is a good way to get your medical knowledge stolen and lose a lot of money because of it. Jiraiya was also certain that they wouldn't take kindly to finding out that he wasn't even Gaido and did not work for them. He wasn't supposed to be here at all.
Furthermore, he was on borrowed time and he was well aware of that. Sure, he was disguised for now but the truth was that eventually the original guard would be found. The facility's security wasn't top-notch – probably because the diversity of the staff and volunteers brought the establishment a sense of immunity. If anyone attacked the facility it would be an attack on top-of-the-line medical specialists from all the Great Nations.
He didn't have any tricks up his sleeve or clever leading questions to get him closer to Tsunade or any doctor for that matter.
"All I need is a doctor to travel with me," Jiraiya said through his disguise.
Each of the doctors quirked their eyebrows out of confusion. "To travel with you where?" Dr. Kato beckoned.
"And why?" Dr. Iryō added.
Jiraiya's face was stern. "I need a highly skilled medical specialist to travel with me to Konoha," he admitted honestly. "There is someone there, they're very important to me, a little boy, he's in a coma and no one can wake him up."
Karuki managed a gasp. "You're not even Gaido!"
Iryō scowled. "You broke into my facility to ask for my help?" her tongue quipped with disgust.
Jiraiya remained perfectly calm. "I know that it's wrong of me. Nobody got hurt. I just seek your cooperation on this. I'm willing to pay for everything. What's your price?" He wished for this to go over as smoothly and amicably as possible. Most important to Jiraiya was that the deal was struck quickly, first and foremost. He had no intention of dancing around the matter.
Iryō and Karuki both scoffed. "We don't take bribes from the Great Nations," Iryō said. "We have no interest in getting involved with them at all."
"That can't be," Jiraiya protested. "Why not?"
Iryō crossed her arms over her chest. "The Great Nations are greedy. We can't trust our highly trained doctors to go out to the Hidden Villages and come back alive. We'd be killed for the kind of knowledge we possess, tortured to spill our secrets. The Sand already can't stand us learning how to neutralize their poisons."
Jiraiya was silenced. The idea that they wouldn't even cooperate with him just because of his village was infuriating. He cursed his honesty up and down. But he did have one final shot to get a doctor to the Leaf.
"I'm sure you have at least one doctor who would be willing to return to Konoha if I spoke with them," he revealed with a hint of desperation. "They're a hero in Konoha so they'd have immunity in the village and would be under no threat."
Dr. Kato perked up to his right. "Who do you mean?"
"I know Tsunade of the Sannin is here," he said.
Dr. Kato and Dr. Iryō each shared shocked expressions. Karuki remained oblivious as to what Jiraiya was saying.
At the door, Jiraiya's clone stepped into the room. 'Shit,' Jiraiya raged. 'The guards have found me out.'
Jiraiya stood from his chair next to Iryō. "Take the one with the glasses just in case," Jiraiya instructed his clone.
"What–!" Karuki yelped as Jiraiya's clone seized her by the arm and held a kunai to her throat.
Dr. Kato screamed in horror as Jiraiya put a kunai of his own against Iryō's neck and pressed it against her jugular.
"Bastard–!" Iryō cursed under her breath.
BANG!
The door to the conference room was kicked in revealing an entire platoon of Tani Ninja and the clanging of their drawn weapons.
"Dr. Iryō, the facility has been compromised, there is an intrud–!"
The Tani Ninja halted at the sight of two of the most important doctors in the facility being held as hostages.
"Let's all remain calm," Jiraiya began. "I have no intention of hurting anybody."
"What about your friend?" one of the ninjas beckoned.
"He's not gonna do anything unnecessary."
"What do you want?" another Tani Ninja asked.
"First, I want you to lower your weapons onto the floor," Jiraiya began.
Each of the shinobi looked at one another. Trying to gauge whether or not that was a good idea.
Jiraiya pressed the kunai harder into Iryō's throat causing a streak of crimson blood to run down her neck. "I won't ask again," he warned.
The ninjas calmly placed their weapons onto the ground. "Now what?" one of them asked.
"Now we negotiate," Jiraiya said. "Here's the deal. I know that there has to be a doctor here willing to travel with me to Konoha," his calm tone taunted the intense chill in the room. "I need you to fetch me that doctor or I'm going to have to take one of these two in her stead." He motioned towards Iryō and Karuki.
"What doctor do you want specifically?" the Tani Ninjas asked.
"I need Tsunade of the Sannin," he proclaimed.
A silence filled the air which only added to the tension. The Tani Shinobi looked at each other, all confused glances. "Tsunade of the Sannin does not work at this facility," one of them finally spoke up.
Jiraiya's features were consumed with an air of confusion. He saw the look that Dr. Kato and Dr. Iryō shared. They didn't look like they had seen a ghost for no reason.
He heaved a deep, disappointed sigh, as if let down by Tsunade herself. "Fine," he groaned. He shot a nod to his clone who tied Karuki's wrists together with wire and Jiraiya did the same with Iryō.
"W-What are you doing?" one of the Tani Ninja called out.
"A deal is a deal. I'm taking both of them to Konoha. Don't follow me and I can assure you they'll walk away from this alive. I'll still pay them handsomely too," Jiraiya added calmly as he tightened the wire around Iryō's wrists. "Now then, we'll be leaving."
Jiraiya and his clone turned their hostages to face them. The clone placed Karuki on his shoulder, while Iryō was struggling against her binds.
"Don't fight it, miss," Jiraiya instructed. "Things will go over easier if you com–!"
BANG!
Jiraiya's vision went black. A piercing ringing bounced around in his head. He stumbled back a couple of steps. His eyes watered. He opened them again and was greeted with a blurred reality. He felt a streak coming down his nose to his chin. He wiped his face and examined his hand which was coated in crimson blood. "Heh, you busted my nose," he said. "That's a pretty good headbutt. It's a miracle my Transformation held up," he commended as he wiped his eyes of the tears.
He opened them back again. His vision was clear. He scanned the room and his eyes rested on Iryō. An expression of surprise erupted from him at the sight. She was rubbing her wrists, freed from the wire that confined her. 'It would take a real brute to break out of that ninja wire,' he thought.
Her face was made determined. Her aura was frightening her own guards, who stepped away to create distance from her. "Are you done now?" Jiraiya taunted. Iryō gave him no reply. "Okay then." Jiraiya stepped forward, laying his hand upon her shoulder, ready to apprehend her once again.
She snatched his wrist from the air. Jiraiya pulled back but her grip was iron. His stomach was doing backflips, realizing he was caught. His wide eyes met hers as she dropped into a low stance and drew her fist back. Jiraiya threw his free arm over his face to prepare. Iryō unleashed a devastating overhand that crashed into his narrowly protected head with bone-crushing force.
The overwhelming power exerted on him from the blow was causing the flooring to creak and snap apart. Jiraiya uttered a pained grunt as Iryō sent him flying diagonally through the floor. His body made the wind whistle as he soared through the wall of the building and fell another four stories into the campus grounds.
'What monstrous strength!' He thought as he skidded across the earth like a flat stone on the water. The air escaped his lungs as he slammed into a tree, felling it in the process. His aching back rested against the trunk while he gasped for breath. His vision whirled around in circles from the dizziness.
BANG!
He gathered his composure really quickly when he heard a thunderous crash. He swung his head up to the fifth floor, watching concrete and wood debris crash into the ground below. 'Such brutish strength,' he thought, watching Iryō punch the wall completely open.
A crowd of Tani Ninja formed at the whole, ready to perform an assault on Jiraiya. "If any of you ninja leave the room, I'll kill the hostage," he heard his clone declare from inside the room.
He sighed and perched his hand on his knee to leverage his weight. 'There's no mistaking it,' he thought as he stood up straight. Iryō stepped off the fifth floor and landed on the ground in a wide stance. 'Only one person I know can sock me like that.'
"I'm impressed," Iryō stood up straight. "Most ninja would've died from that punch." Jiraiya and Iryō stared across from each other, only fifty paces apart.
Jiraiya shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not most shinobi." He dropped into a wide stance with his lead palm outstretched and his balled fist next to his head. A grin poked at his lips, "Something tells me you're not most medic-nin."
"Hmph! We'll see about that," she scowled at him as she dropped into a taijutsu stance of her own.
They each narrowed their gazes at one another before Iryō gritted her teeth, resolving herself to begin. Jiraiya watched her lean carefully into her right foot, only just anticipating her as she dashed right on top of him. 'Impressive speed.' Her fist was already drawn back to prepare another lead overhand. Jiraiya sidestepped her strike, the gust of wind from the punch blew his hair and clothes around.
Jiraiya took initiative, clearing a hook at her face. Iryō casually caught it with her left hand. Her grasp was inescapable. She threw a deadly straight that Jiraiya barely managed to duck under. He shifted his weight to his off foot and spun around, breaking his hand free of her grip to then retaliate with an explosive crescent kick that careened toward her head.
She managed to block it, but the follow-through was heavy. It slammed her away, making her skip across the surface, she only stopped by digging her feet into the earth.
Jiraiya took advantage of the newfound distance and threw his hands together to form the snake sign. The chakra gathered inside him like a great maelstrom. Iryō pounced away to create more distance. Jiraiya dashed away too, flashing through the monkey and tiger seals in midair. He briefly caught sight of Iryō racing through her own signs before he sucked in a deep breath that filled his lungs and puffed out his chest. He swung his hands up to his chest as he felt the fire crawl up his throat and erupt from his mouth with ferocity. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A stream of fire escaped his lips which rapidly grew into a massive, raging boulder of concentrated flame soaring directly at Iryō. The cloud of fire tumbled forward, searing a path into the earth as it went. The sweat rolled down Jiraiya's forehead, stinging his eyes.
A sizzling hiss emanated from the fireball and pierced Jiraiya's ears. Squinting to get a better look at it, Jiraiya had to quickly shield his face as powerful, sizzling gusts of steam whipped and lashed at him. Boiling droplets of water pelted his hands with ugly, irritating red blotches. "She used a water jutsu to negate my fireball."
A thick cloud of steam consumed the area making it difficult for Jiraiya to see. The mist made the atmosphere feel heavy and uncomfortably humid. He looked below him and couldn't even make out his feet from all the steam. The hissing of the boiling rapids evaporating against the raging flames then died out and an eerie silence fell on the area.
Jiraiya held his breath, focusing all of his attention on his hearing. For a moment, everything remained quiet until he heard the splashing of feet plodding through puddles. Racing to the sound, Jiraiya knew that he had pinpointed his target. He dashed on top of her, looming over her from behind. Jiraiya drew his fist back for a devastating surprise attack until his feet stomping through the water gave him away. He followed through with his attack, deciding the time was now.
Iryō dropped to the ground, slipping Jiraiya's jab from her blind spot. She transitioned into a squatted position. 'A low kick?' Jiraiya prepared his guard to defend but Iryō slammed her hands into the muddy surface. "Earth Style: Mobile Core!"
The foundation underneath Jiraiya shot into the air at a nauseating speed. He tried to catch his bearings and swiftly readjust his weight but Iryō swept his legs out from under him.
His vision swung to the skies as he barreled back down to the ground. Expertly, Jiraiya shifted his body. Throwing his hands down below him he landed a masterful handstand on the protruding pillar of earth.
His sight was inverted but he could see Iryō wheeling back a devastating uppercut for his ribs. Using his hands to push off the earthen slap, he was able to brush past the blow, landing on his feet at her back.
With little time to collect himself, Jiraiya slipped past a heavy sidekick and barely saved his jaw. He jetted to her left and used the mist to his advantage, slipping away from view. A confident grin prodded at the corners of his mouth as he made a new Shadow Clone with the same Transformation. 'I'll get her with this next one.'
It wasted no time darting toward Iryō's last position. Jiraiya watched the clone disappear into the wisps of mist, circling the area, he waited patiently for his cue.
"No more hiding!" Iryō proclaimed with deep frustration. "Wind Style: Blowing Air Wave!" With one jutsu Jiraiya witnessed the mist be flushed from the area as the strong gales beat against him and tore the grass from the surface.
'Three nature transformations is no joke,' Jiraiya thought. He closed in on her position. She stared him down. Well, she stared down the Clone of him that was facing her in his signature taijutsu stance.
Iryō rocketed towards the Clone who did the same. Both of them locked fingers in a standoff. The initial struggle between them swiftly ceased as Iryō came to overpower the Clone.
'Time to move,' Jiraiya dashed at her exposed flank with blinding speed. Iryō was oblivious as she yanked the Clone's arms down and delivered a killing headbutt into its face. It burst into a cloud of smoke right in her face. Her eyes widened in terror. Jiraiya reeled his fist back behind his head with conviction. 'Gotcha.' He blindsided her, driving his knuckles right into her jaw with a crushing overhand. Her dark eyes bulged from her head while her jaw was displaced against his fist to a degree of disfigurement. Spit was flung into the air as her head snapped back from the force, she was sent flying into the ground. Jiraiya watched with a smug air about him as she skipped atop the surface four times before she could stop herself.
He could physically feel the rage radiating from her glare. She snarled from her low pose on the ground. She rubbed at her cheek as she stood back up. "Who are you?"
Jiraiya rolled his shoulders. "Come with me to Konoha and you'll find out," he half-joked.
A labored sigh escaped her lips and she reluctantly settled into a new taijutsu stance. She held her hands straight out from her sides. "I'll find out when I knock you out of that Body Transformation," her hands glistened with the sharp, jagged edges of her blue chakra.
'Chakra Scalpels. She wants to finish me here,' Jiraiya planted his feet firmly on the ground, inviting her to go on the attack. He eyed her carefully, waiting for her to pounce on him.
She lifted her leg into the air and struck the ground with quaking force. The earth groaned as it was split apart with deep cracks and a miasma of chunks of sediment were uprooted into the sky. Jiraiya felt the rumbling in his legs with the ground shattering beneath him. He leapt into the air, escaping the collapsing sinkhole beneath him. 'That was too close,' he thought as his hands sprung into motion, forming hand sign after hand sign.
Eyeing Iryō from above, he completed his counterattack. "Lightning Style: Rolling Thunderbolts!" He outstretched his hands which crackled with blue lightning that arched at his fingertips and fired strokes of plasma down at Iryō. He fell onto the earth early enough to feel the ripples of the lightning bolts assaulting the ground, fracturing it into pieces. Spotting her through the clouds of dust and strands of lightning, he saw her gunning for him, dodging the bolts with ease.
He flew through another set of seals to prepare his next attack. "Try dodging this," he taunted. "Water Style: Great Surging Wave!" He spat a beam of water from his mouth at Iryō which rapidly grew into a towering wave of water. 'Water and lightning are always a great combo,' he smirked.
The erupting geyser of water leaving his mouth quickly deteriorated into a flowing stream but the wave was so huge he could no longer get sight of his enemy. The tidal wave of water swallowed everything in its path as the lightning danced throughout its surface.
A tsunami cloaked in lightning quickly became a barely electrified pool of water only inches deep. As the wave lost its initiative, Jiraiya spotted the cracking, dilapidated dome of stone that trickled water from its surface. 'She really gambled using an earth jutsu with all that lightning around.' Jiraiya wasn't even certain if she was alive in that igloo of earth.
He wasn't prepared when Iryō dashed through the dome directly at him with breakneck speed, Chakra Scalpels at the ready to chop Jiraiya's head off. She shot at him with one swift motion, a straight jab right for his jugular which he only narrowly sidestepped.
Her assault did not relent and she pressed on with a sharp swipe right for his head with her other hand which Jiraiya weaved under. His eyes followed her deadly blue hands as she swiped at him with a downward chop, about to split his shoulder apart. Jiraiya dashed away from her onslaught, creating distance which is where Iryō threw a misplaced jab.
'Now!' Jiraiya snatched her hand from the air. He yanked her off her feet with all his might and balled his fist for another strike. Her eyes flung open, she was defenseless against Jiraiya. He pulled her toward him as his fist shot upward. Iryō's eyes rolled into the back of her head at the connection of his fist to her chin, her body spun in the air. "Get up from that one," Jiraiya taunted triumphantly.
Her body bounced against the ground with a thud before it burst into a cloud of water. The droplets coated Jiraiya, getting in his face. "A Water Clone?"
The puddle to the left of him sloshed upward. Time seemed to flow slower as his head snapped toward the noise. His eyes dilated watching her race toward him with her Chakra Scalpel. Her shirt had been seared at the shoulder, he definitely hit her with that lightning. Jiraiya gritted his teeth with finality and held his palm out. A whirlwind of chakra gathered at his palm, swirling into a compact yellow ball that grew and grew until it was larger than his hand.
His countenance was stern. "This is the end of the line." Iryō's face flooded with surprise at the sight of it. Jiraiya rushed in to meet her Chakra Scalpel. "Rasengan!" Yellow and blue clashed with intense force. Jiraiya felt the vibrations within his bones. The attacks exploded on each other, blowing up in Jiraiya's face. He was sent soaring through the air like a white bullet with a red casing.
He choked out the breath in his throat after slamming into a tree and landing face-first into the water that blanketed the surface. He struggled to pull his face out of the suffocating water for a moment. Perching his weight on his left hand, he peeled his face from the ground to examine the aftermath. What remained was a crater that was torn into the ground, revealing the scarred earth beneath.
Jiraiya suddenly felt a debilitating burning pain in his hand that traveled up to his elbow. He scrutinized his right arm. It was like a blade lashed around his entire arm. A deep gash that spiraled from the wrist to the elbow was gushing blood into the puddles beneath him. "Nothing bandages won't resolve," he mumbled.
He rubbed his white hair out of his face. It was hard to keep out of his eyes without his head protector on. A sudden sense of shock struck him. 'My hair is white,' he realized. Jiraiya examined his reflection in the mirror-like puddles. Indeed, his Transformation had broken. "If my Transformation broke then surely…" He scanned the area for where Iryō was. She crawled through a hole in the side of the building. Must have gone through it with the explosion. Wisps of steam rolled off her arm. It was totally healed. But something was off. The roots of her hair were becoming blonde. Her eyes were developing into a brown pigment. Even her white coat evolved into a green haori. The giveaway was the diamond on her forehead.
Jiraiya could hardly hear the gasps of shock from all the onlookers. A nefarious grin crept onto his face, "I knew it was you, Tsunade."
END
Author's Note
So here's chapter 4, I hope you guys enjoy it.
A big thank you to carnage1699, V3X, and Kastra for helping me put this bad boy together.
Next chapter drops on Saturday, October 14th around 12-1pm. Leave a review or follow/favorite at your leisure.
Godspeed,
Salt.