While Orochimaru, having found Roushi's weakness, managed to hold his own with Water Style, Sakumo Hatake was finding himself locked in an arduous struggle.
The young Five-Tails Jinchuriki, Han, was a titan of a man. His naturally immense strength alone made his attacks devastating, but his custom-made Steam Armor allowed him to manipulate steam with such precision that it granted him terrifying speed. In this clash, his mobility was in no way inferior to the White Fang's.
Though Han's raw skill couldn't quite match Sakumo's—his lack of refinement having brought him to the brink of disaster several times during their brief exchange of blows—his ability to vent steam from any part of his armor effectively neutralized Sakumo's lethal finishing moves.
Whenever Han realized a strike was unavoidable, he would vent high-pressure steam from the point of impact. At that moment, the primary weakness of the White Fang short blade became glaringly apparent. Its short reach forced Sakumo to get dangerously close to Han's body to pierce the armor. If Sakumo insisted on landing the blow, he might wound Han, but he would be scalded by superheated steam in return.
Steam might seem harmless in a domestic setting, but in combat, it is far more lethal than boiling water. While liquid water is capped at $100^\circ\text{C}$ under normal pressure, high-pressure steam can reach temperatures several times higher. The snakes that had been vaporized just by being near Han earlier were a grim testament to that fact.
Unless Sakumo could land a guaranteed one-hit kill, any trade of injuries would leave him at a severe disadvantage. Han knew this well, meticulously guarding his few vulnerable spots—specifically his eyes and temples—where the armor offered no protection.
For a time, Sakumo was like a "mouse trying to pull a turtle"—unable to find a single place to get a solid grip.
The battle had ground to a halt, a result that satisfied neither Hiruzen Sarutobi nor Ohnoki. Seeing their top fighters unable to break the deadlock, both leaders simultaneously upped the ante.
Hiruzen deployed Jiraiya, while Ohnoki ordered his Explosion Corps—who had vanished after their initial sneak attack—to emerge and strike with everything they had. It became a contest of quality versus quantity: Jiraiya against the elite demolition unit of Iwagakure.
Boom!
To Konoha's surprise, it was Iwa that broke the stalemate first, and the catalyst was the Explosion Corps.
A Konoha swordsman parried a punch from an Iwa ninja with a wild mane of hair, only for the back of his blade to explode upon contact. The massive concussive force shattered the sword instantly. A shard of the broken steel flew back like a shuriken, piercing the swordsman's throat, while other fragments wounded several nearby comrades.
"Careful! That's Gari of the Explosion Style!"
Recognizing his distinctive look and ability, several Konoha shinobi shouted warnings to their allies.
Explosion Style, as the name implied, was the art of detonation. Unlike Deidara, who pursued "Art" by infusing clay to create mobile bombs, Gari concentrated his Bakuton chakra into his fists. Anything he touched was detonated on impact.
The Konoha swordsmen treated him like the plague, but the explosions continued to ring out one after another. Unlike ninjutsu specialists, swordsmen relied on their blades for lethality. Except for a few masters like Hayama Shirakumo, most required physical contact with their swords to kill. In a scrap with Gari, it was only a matter of time before he found an opening to strike a blade—or a body.
"Fall back! Clear the area!" Jiraiya shouted, noticing their predicament. He stepped forward to intercept. "Leave this one to me."
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Jiraiya unleashed a volley of shuriken, which multiplied into a metallic cloud that rained down on Gari.
"Explosion Style: Explosive Palm!"
The shuriken didn't pose much of a threat to Gari. Retreating slightly, he thrust his palms forward. The air itself seemed to ignite as countless invisible pockets of chakra detonated, creating a massive shockwave that rippled through the clearing.
The shadow clones vanished in the concussive blast, and the original shuriken lost their momentum, clattering harmlessly to the ground.
However, Jiraiya had never expected to kill Gari so easily. The move was a diversion to cover his allies' retreat.
"Fire Style: Flame Bullet!"
Jiraiya didn't give Gari a moment to breathe. While Gari was still mid-air from his defensive maneuver, Jiraiya's hand signs were already complete. He spat out a globe of oil-slicked fire. The oil boosted the flames' intensity and kept the attack focused, preventing the fire from scattering.
But as an elite of the Explosion Corps, Gari wasn't so easily taken down.
As the smoke from the Flame Bullet cleared, a charred log fell to the ground. Gari had escaped using a Substitution Jutsu. Jiraiya narrowed his eyes, focusing his senses on the shifting dirt around him.
"Ha! Got you!" an excited voice rang out from behind.
Jiraiya spun around in alarm to see Gari emerging from the earth. Using the smoke and his substitution as cover, Gari had tunneled underground with the Headhunter Jutsu to get directly behind the Sannin.
"Explosion Style: Landmine Fist!"
Gari's fist, glowing with volatile chakra, slammed into Jiraiya's back.
Boom!
A massive explosion erupted, shrouded in a pillar of thick smoke nearly two meters wide. Gari's triumphant smirk, however, vanished instantly. The sensation of his fist hitting flesh wasn't there; the debris sent flying by the blast wasn't blood and bone.
"Ninja Art: Toad Mouth Bind!"
Jiraiya's voice echoed from behind Gari. Having predicted the move, Jiraiya had appeared behind him with his own hand signs finished. He slammed his palms onto the ground.
Suddenly, the world shifted. A fleshy, crimson corridor manifested, swallowing both Jiraiya and Gari whole.
Shocked, Gari prepared to punch his way out of this strange, organic room, only to realize with horror that the "walls" were moving. The pulsating, red muscular tissue lunged at him, trying to pin him down and absorb him into the floor.
Boom!
Gari threw a desperate punch at the fleshy wall. His devastating explosion, however, only managed to blast a shallow, fist-sized crater into the tissue—a wound that began to knit itself back together almost instantly.
"It's no use. You're inside the stomach of a rock-dwelling toad from Mount Myuboku. The walls are incredibly tough and possess a regenerative factor far beyond your damage output. You could exhaust your chakra and you still wouldn't scratch it," Jiraiya said, a smug grin spreading across his face.
"So, why don't you just stay here... forever?"
In his moment of triumph, Jiraiya got a bit carried away—planting a massive, metaphorical "death flag" right in front of his enemy.
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