"A change in the future and a follow-up prophecy? What would happen then?" Jiraiya seemed to be conversing with the Toad Sages, but he was secretly adjusting his condition. The self-recovery ability of the Sage Mode was very strong.
Soon, he was able to completely recover. Ryoha had clearly consumed a lot of chakra just now. After all, Ryoha was not yet a Kage-level or even Pseudo-Kage-level ninja. Compared to Jiraiya in his Sage Mode, there was still a big gap between them in terms of chakra quality.
"I remember it too clearly. You also know that I don't really believe that old fool's words, and I got sleepy since he kept talking nonsense. I think he said something about some demons, gods, and something about destruction and creation." Shima told Jiraiya her story after thinking for a while.
"Idiot, I know you are using this chance to recover your condition. Are you looking down on me because my chakra has yet to reach the level of Kage? Don't you know anything about Nine-tails Chakra's amazing recovery rate? In addition, there's some amount of Wood Release's power mixed inside the Nine-tails chakra, so my regeneration ability is even stronger."
Ryoha muttered angrily. His initially pale face slowly became rosy, and Jiraiya clearly noticed the change in Ryoha. He cursed himself for making this mistake. He quickly remembered Shima's words and immediately rushed to Ryoha. His speed was out of this world. He was too fast.
"Thunder God Armor!."* Ryoha shouted, and his body was instantly covered by the crimson lightning chakra, bolts of lightning flashed around him. He immediately rushed towards Jiraiya to confront him in mid-air.
"He robbed my opponent." Tsunade said unhappily, but a smile flashed on her face.
"Sage Art: Fire Release - Big Flame Bullet!" Jiraiya also used his Senjutsu Fire Release. The power was enormous. The high-temperature huge flames quickly enveloped Ryoha. Shima and Fukasaku also prepared to use a combo jutsu.
"Jiraiya, Sage Art - Goemon!" Fukasaku shouted and used his Wind Release Jutsu. At the same time, Shima used her Fire Release Jutsu. Jiraiya put away his previous jutsu and released a large volume of oil from his mouth. With the combination attack between the three, the area around them turned into a sea of flames.
"Water Release - Exploding Water Shockwave!" Ryoha used Kisame's signature ninjutsu, which was enough to create a sea of water around him. The huge amount of water collided with Jiraiya's sea of flames.
"Crash!"
The sound of boiling-hot evaporation continuously sounded. A cloud of white smoke was also rising at the same time. Although Ryoha wasn't able to change the terrain completely, he was able to suppress the Toad Trio's sea of flames.
"This is our chance! Come!" Fukasaku once again launched his Wind Release, which affected Ryoha's speed.
"Sage Art - Thousand Hair Needle!" Jiraiya immediately seized the opportunity. He was able to force a 3-on-1 situation and launched a rain of hardened hair needles toward Ryoha.
"Water Release - Water Formation Wall!" Ryoha continued to compress his water wall, solidifying it. Obviously, each of Ryoha's Water Release was combined with his own unique nature and shape transformation making it seem as if his Water Release jutsus were alive.
"Try dodging this!" With a cold voice, Shima launched her long, snake-like tongue, which suddenly penetrated the water wall and ensnared Ryoha. The snake-like tongue spewed out a strong corrosive poison that corroded Ryoha's body. Unfortunately, the corroded Ryoha quickly disappeared, turning into a pile of water as usual.
"It's the unique Water Clone from before. If someone is not very proficient in the Water Release, they can't tell whether it is real or fake. Even Kakashi's 3-tomoe Sharingan can't see through that jutsu. It really is a simple but very practical jutsu like the Three Basic Jutsu."
When Jiraiya was struggling against Tsunade, he saw Ryoha use this unique jutsu to dodge Guy's Morning Peacock.
"Jiraiya, it seems that you are in a lot of trouble today. Even if you defeat this kid, there are still Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Byakko, that Gamabunta told to us about when he came back. You're just wasting your time today. It would be better for you to save your strength and have another trump card."
Fukasaku was really an expert in hiding.
"I understand what you said, but if Tsunade can cure Orochimaru's hand, it will definitely be a disaster for Konoha. Moreover, it is obvious that Tsunade will not go back to become the Fifth Hokage." Jiraiya said unwillingly.
"Then you should retreat back to Konoha and preserve your strength to prepare for more trouble in the future. Now it's very dangerous for you to expose all your cards." Shima punched Jiraiya on the head.
"Is there no other way?" Jiraiya didn't want to give up just like that. After all, the fight had already reached this point.
"It's not like there's no other way. Although doing this might be a bit cowardly, we still have one last chance. You can go capture the person that this kid cares the most to threaten him." At this moment, the two Toad Sages, who had lived for more than 800 years, showed their sinister side. To put it nicely, it was the conspiracy side of them.
"Is that so?" Jiraiya also thought that it might work. Ryoha defected because Danzo wanted to capture Bulma to threaten him. If he could get Bulma on his hands, all the problems would be solved.
However, when he looked at Bulma, he found that there was not only Byakko, whose real strength was still unknown, but also Haku and of course, Tsunade.
It was obviously impossible for him to break through that layers of defense. If he failed, he would definitely provoke Ryoha's crazy revenge of killing every single ninja from Konoha. If that happened, then even the Sage of Six Paths would not be able to protect everyone. Ryoha could massacre the entire population of Konoha.
Thinking of this, he immediately rejected this idea. No matter what, his heart couldn't accept such a method, so it would be best if he didn't do it.
"Oh, are you planning something? But it seems that you have given up. You are a smart guy. If you have any nasty ideas about Bulma, I will kill all the people in Konoha. I don't believe that you can protect everyone in Konoha."
Ryoha saw the two toads muttering and their vague eyes looking at Bulma. He knew what they wanted to do, but when he saw that Jiraiya had given up on this idea, he nodded with satisfaction.
If they did that, he would definitely change his mind. He would not just kill everyone in Konoha involved in Bulma's previous incident. Instead, he would kill everyone in Konoha. Of course, he would spare those he cared about, such as Hinata.
*TL Note: Thunder God Armor is Ryoha's version of Raikage's Lightning Release Chakra Mode. Although he used the same name in the previous chapter, since it's different from the usual Lightning chakra mode (he used Kyubi's chakra and all), I've decided to change the name.