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Suikazan Fuguki's lips curled into a faint grin. With mist and hair hanging over his face, Samehada suddenly whipped sideways toward Leo.
Kakashi jumped in front of him right away.
But…
Almost immediately, he felt something was wrong.This sword… was draining his chakra.
Whoosh!
Samehada scraped past, tearing Kisame's arm and shredding the ropes around him.
Kisame grit his teeth through the pain, lashed out with a backward kick, and broke free from Leo.
Fuguki moved fast. The blade flipped and swung again. Leo dodged, but all the chakra he had gathered in his hands vanished into the sword.
No way to fight like this.
Leo cursed deep inside. So this is what it feels like to fight against Samehada. Miserable.
The two of them turned to run.
Fuguki chased immediately, a twisted grin on his face.
Seeing this, Kakashi said, "You go first. I'll hold him off!"
"No, if we both run—"
Leo didn't finish.
Fuguki's face suddenly changed. He grabbed Kisame and sprinted toward Juzo Biwa and Hozuki Mangetsu's group.
But halfway there… he changed direction again.
He abandoned them.
Kakashi froze.
He turned to Leo, confused. "Why'd he suddenly run?"
"Sensei stepped in."
Leo let out a small breath and stopped.
Jiraiya was closing the net.
Fuguki escaped, which was a shame, but they would at least secure one of the other two. Not a total loss.
Still… if Samehada hadn't warned him, Fuguki shouldn't have noticed anything.
Ribbit!
While they relaxed, a frog croaked nearby.
A toad hopped out, and Jiraiya followed behind it. His face was dark.
"Sensei."
Leo breathed easier.So Jiraiya had been shadowing them the whole time. Even if Fuguki had gone all in, killing them wouldn't have been easy.
For all his quirks, Jiraiya was reliable when it mattered.
Jiraiya sighed heavily. "I worked hard fishing… and the biggest one slipped away."
"The guy with the giant sword?" Kakashi asked.
Jiraiya nodded. "Suikazan Fuguki. Big name in recent years. I always suspected there was something off about his sword. Guess I was right."
"His sword absorbs chakra," Kakashi said.
Jiraiya nodded again, then noticed Leo thinking deeply. "What's on your mind?"
"At the end, he was running straight at you. Then he suddenly fled. It didn't feel like he sensed you directly, but more like he detected something else."
Leo explained.
Jiraiya thought for a moment. "I crawled out of the toad's mouth and was preparing a barrier technique to trap him."
"Chakra?" Kakashi said immediately.
Leo nodded. "That's the only explanation. He must have sensed the barrier's chakra. Probably a special ability of that sword."
"The sword…" Jiraiya murmured.
A blade that absorbs chakra.Strange indeed.
Kirigakure had been acting shady for years. Peace really was nothing more than the moon's reflection in water.
He sighed inwardly.
Then he tried to cheer himself up. "Well, at least the other two didn't escape. And one of them is a Hozuki kid. A prodigy, too. They won't give up on him. So this wasn't a wasted trip."
He led the way back.
Kakashi glanced at Leo, curiosity in his eyes.
Leo shook his head.
A moment later, they returned to the courtyard.
The fleshy walls were receding, revealing the captured and sealed prisoners inside—one person and a water-filled jar—alongside the real Jiraiya.
The Jiraiya who had led them here vanished.Just a shadow clone.
Leo stepped forward.
Juzo Biwa looked miserable and furious.A jonin, defeated by two genin. The humiliation was unbearable.
Especially…getting captured alive.
If only his knee hadn't taken that punch, he could've escaped.At least, that's what he told himself.
Reality was… escaping Jiraiya was never going to happen.
Jiraiya looked at the jar with a grin. "If I wasn't trying so hard to catch you, would I need to be this careful? Hozuki clan… Orochimaru will be thrilled."
"!!!"
Hearing Orochimaru's name, Mangetsu trembled inside the jar.
He was still far from the monster he'd grow into years later. Right now he was just a talented kid around Leo and Kakashi's age. Orochimaru, on the other hand, was already infamous across the shinobi world.
Jiraiya was one thing.But Orochimaru? His reputation for "research" was terrifying, especially for someone who mastered the Hydrification technique.
And sealed inside the jar, Mangetsu couldn't even move.
Leo asked, "Sensei, what do we do with them?"
"Lock them up and let the Mist pay ransom. Otherwise send them to research. Who knows, we might uncover secrets of the Hydrification technique."
Jiraiya hadn't risked so much just for fun.
Mist wasn't like in the early days anymore.Capturing random people was meaningless. They might simply abandon them.
But the Hozuki Clan…They were influential. More important than grabbing a single jonin.
Like—
Jiraiya turned to the jonin with the shattered knee.
"A jonin ending up like this is embarrassing, you know."
Juzo almost coughed blood.
One moment of carelessness, one lucky sneak attack, and now this.If he could redo it, things wouldn't look like this.
He snorted and shut his eyes, refusing to speak.
"Failure is failure. Any excuse is pointless. Staying quiet suits you," Leo added.
Juzo's eyes snapped open in anger.
But…he couldn't deny the brat was right.
Failure was failure.
His voice was hoarse. "What do you want?"
"Nothing much. Just wait for your village to come buy you back. A jonin and a Hozuki clan prodigy… they won't come cheap."
Juzo fell silent but felt a bit relieved.
At least he wouldn't die.He wasn't afraid of death, but if he could live, nobody wanted to die for nothing.
Jiraiya made a few clones to lock them up.
After that, he headed upstairs to find Matsuyama Ichiro, who had been taken to safety by Kurenai.
The attack tonight had terrified Ichiro. He'd planned to buy materials in the Land of Waves, but now he had no intention of staying another day.
Money can be earned again.Life, once gone, doesn't come back.
The chaotic night finally ended. Kakashi, Leo, and Kurenai sat together in silence.
After a long while, Leo finally spoke."Yeah… keeping the plan from you was kind of messed up."
"I worried all night!" Kurenai glared at him.
Kakashi said nothing. But earlier, he had been ready to sacrifice himself to help Leo escape. It showed how serious he took the situation.
In the end…
Jiraiya hadn't left at all. He was hiding close by the entire time.
"Alright, don't sweat the details. It all worked out. And the plan was Sensei's idea. I only woke up halfway through. I wasn't in the loop either!"
"....."