The small snakes that Orochimaru transformed into were numerous, but most of them could be easily identified as just ordinary summoning snakes.
Jiraiya was not unfamiliar with Orochimaru's escape tactics, so he easily eliminated most of them.
He swiftly pursued one of the small snakes, as for why he chased that one and abandoned the others.
Jiraiya couldn't explain the reason; if he had to say, it was intuition.
Just as Jiraiya was about to catch up, the small snake in front of him suddenly accelerated, fleeing from Jiraiya at an even faster speed.
Between the chase and the escape, the man and the snake had completely left the forest and arrived at a grassy area.
The grassland gave the small snake stronger concealment, but Jiraiya, who was staring intently at it, showed no hesitation and continued to follow persistently.
At the same time, Jiraiya clasped his hands together again, dangling behind the small snake.
Five minutes later, Jiraiya, having accumulated enough Natural Energy, summoned two old toads wearing clothes.
"You two elders, I apologize for the trouble!"
"Although Jiraiya, this time your summoning isn't in a noisy environment, there isn't even an enemy here!"
Shima, standing on Jiraiya's left shoulder, immediately complained after seeing the surroundings.
Previously, she complained about the noise when summoned during a battle, and now that the summoning environment was exceptionally quiet, she complained about the lack of enemies.
It truly lacked reason and logic, even for a female toad.
After silently complaining to himself, Jiraiya still gave a simple explanation of the situation.
"A successor of Ryūchi Cave, huh? This time I will help you with all my might, little Jiraiya!"
"Me too!"
After understanding the situation, Fukasaku was the first to express his stance, followed by Shima, echoing her husband.
As the two Sages of Mount Myōboku took their positions and formed hand signs, Jiraiya quickly underwent a transformation, with toad-like marks appearing on his hands, feet, and face, and his eye pupils also began to change.
Compared to the changes in his appearance, the unseen changes were even more terrifying, as all of Jiraiya's abilities were comprehensively amplified.
For the current situation, the most important abilities were, of course, sensory and taijutsu capabilities.
After entering Sage Mode, Jiraiya's speed surged, and just as he was about to catch up to the small snake in front.
The tiny snake body suddenly swelled, transforming into a giant python, and then split again into countless small snakes, fleeing in different directions.
"Little Jiraiya, what should we do?"
Shima, who was not very calm, asked.
Seeing this situation, Jiraiya was more excited; that's right, it must be Orochimaru!
"This way!"
Jiraiya didn't hesitate and once again chose a direction based on his intuition.
Even if it wasn't, Jiraiya still had another chance; after activating Sage Mode, his greatly enhanced taijutsu gave him a higher margin of error.
At a speed far exceeding the small snake's, Jiraiya quickly caught up.
And the small snake, which had been fleeing rapidly, sensed Jiraiya approaching quickly from behind and finally gave up running.
It opened its mouth slightly, which quickly tore apart, and then Orochimaru emerged from within.
He stood still, turned around, and looked at the greatly changed Jiraiya.
And Jiraiya, after approaching, also stopped about ten meters from Orochimaru.
"Orochimaru, give up. This time you won't have any chance to escape. I must take you back, even if you disagree, even if I have to cripple you, I will take you back!"
Orochimaru looked at Jiraiya, who, despite his age, still had undiminished passion, and asked a question that made Jiraiya pause.
"Take me back? Take me where?"
"Of course, to Konoha…"
Jiraiya, who spoke without thinking, finally realized something was wrong after opening his mouth.
That's right, where to take him back?
Konoha?
Jiraiya himself was unwilling to stay there; his original expectations for Konoha completely vanished after seeing Yuuki today.
Konoha had never changed; it was just that he hadn't seen clearly back then, twice!
Swallowing the words that were about to escape his lips, Jiraiya was silent for a moment, then shouted loudly.
"Then I'll cripple you, Orochimaru! I want to stop you; too many people have died because of your ambition!"
Orochimaru's face revealed his characteristic sinister smile, then he asked.
"Is it just killing, Jiraiya? You and I are both Ninja. On the Battlefield, you haven't killed fewer people than I have. How can you, with hands equally stained with blood, speak so self-righteously?"
Jiraiya's sanctimonious attitude had always annoyed Orochimaru since childhood. Without waiting for Jiraiya's answer, he asked again.
"If we're talking about that, then the Fifth Hokage, who was with you just now, has more blood on his hands than you and I combined, not to mention your proud disciple, Minato Namikaze, who is even worse than Uchiha Tomoki. Why don't you stop him?"
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