"Ah, it's so boring without Jiraiya."
Tsunade felt something was off, now that she knew that Jiraiya is fine, she came back to the normal her.
"Hey, you should behave more mature, understand?"
Akabane looked so troubled.
Jiraiya went to Mount Myōboku, so Akabane had to fill their lack of personnel for a mission. But why Hiruzen must find a replacement if he can do it himself.
It is very stressful to take care of these two without taking rest!
"Hehe, I don't have the politeness of Tsukiha. You don't really need to join us for the mission."
She rushed up to the front, looking ugly.
If it weren't for Akabane's physique, she might have punched him on the stomach.
"That not what I meant."
Akabane shrugged, looking nonchalant.
Orochimaru looked at Akabane suspiciously. He just felt something strange.
If it weren't for Jiraiya who suddenly disappeared, Akabane could fit Jiraiya's role on the team perfectly, a slacker full of complain.
Then again, Akabane's subtle movement reminded him of a clone…
"You dumb, you shouldn't talk too much."
Akabane cursed the clone secretly.
Akabane's shadow clone has an individual consciousness. Therefore he must pay more attention to his behavior more.
Otherwise, Orochimaru could notice it.
He pondered for a moment, and this mission might not be enough to let the clone do it.
The shadow avatar slowed down and fell behind the other, then…
Substitution Jutsu!
Switch positions and quickly release the clone.
Orochimaru sense something and quickly looked back at Akabane, but couldn't tell what was wrong.
"Hey, you're falling behind, slacker, don't let me come after you."
Tsunade turned around with a fierce expression on her face.
If he wanted to run away, she might really give him some lessons.
"No, I just felt a bit tired."
From the beginning, Akabane just wants to test his combination of shadow clone and genjutsu.
He can't be lazy for now because, without him, those two will cause trouble sooner or later.
He is a slacker, but he still cares about his teammates.
"By the way, what is our mission today?"
Akabane followed behind slowly, not knowing what to do.
Searching for Jiraiya or killing invaders?
"Sarutobi-sensei didn't really explain it. It should've meant that we have to check it for ourselves. Yesterday we met a lot of ninjas. Thus we will check about some clues of Jiraiya today."
Orochimaru pointed toward the forest ahead.
"I'll take a look."
Akabane walked to the front, standing on the big tree to observe his surrounding.
"Yesterday, you were separated?"
Looking at the surrounding, he had a rough idea of what to expect.
The forest is too suitable for the Hidden Mist's ninja to ambush, and without Hiruzen's clone, they were left alone to deal with the trouble.
"Yes, we were. It was because of their Hidden Mist Jutsu."
Tsunade explained the detail.
"The traces have been cleaned up, and someone had likely came back afterward."
Orochimaru walked around and speculated.
"It was the pursuit force."
Tsunade didn't have the slightest surprise. The Hidden Mist Village must be able to do it. Thus they became one of the five great ninja villages.
It must be good if Tsukiha is here right now…
Akabane sighed in his heart.
With her perception, all the hiding Jutsu are all jokes.
But then again, how cruel he is to ask a six years old girl to go behind the enemy's line.
Came back to the current situation, Akabane carefully checking the possibility of clues around.
"Huh…what is that?"
Suddenly, he saw something strange.
"What?"
Tsunade looked at him curiously, and then looked at where he was pointing, and she immediately noticed something.
Slowly walked over and got closer.
It was the remaining corner of a page.
"What is this?"
Akabane asked.
"The torn paper has only one corner, but it looks…"
Tsunade recalled carefully. Then her face suddenly turned red of embarrassment.
"What's the matter ?"
"It seems that this page belongs to Jiraiya. He must have dropped it before he was disappeared.
Orochimaru immediately recognized it.
"Jiraiya? Is it possible …" Akabane was stunned, looked at the page, it might be his "work of art."
He accidentally dropped it during spiritism?
His brain made up a bunch of speculation, and his expression became weirder and weirder. No wonder Tsunade had this expression.
"What's the matter?"
Orochimaru was taken aback for a moment, wondering why they both looked embarrassed.
"Have you never seen Jiraiya's drawing?"
"His drawing? I just knew that he could draw…"
Orochimaru was startled for a moment. He knew that for the first time, that idiot could draw.
"What do you think is a fool's work?"
Tsunade gritted her teeth.
As she recalls, Jiraiya became wiser from then on, such as peeking on Women's Bathhouse…
"Uh, in fact, I'm quite curious…"
Orochimaru whispered.
Knowing that Jiraiya can also draw comics, he couldn't help but think of what story that idiot will write.
"Don't bother by it. It's not a drawing, more like… nightmare.."
Akabane thought about Jiraiya's terrifying drawing style and couldn't help but shudder.
He doesn't have any talent for drawing.
"Let's not talk about it, although we have this piece of paper, we can't track his smell, if only Sakumo was here…"
Tsunade changes the topic before it went too far.
Akabane looked around and said, "Let's just keep looking."
The rebellion's number and strength far exceed them, and they hopefully didn't meet their hideout on the way.
That being said, it's better to search the clues slowly.
Honestly, Akabane was curious, what was the expression of the invaders when they saw Jiraiya's drawing.
…
Somewhere in the Uzumaki Village.
A group of invaders gathered together, each holding a page in their hands, pictures were drawn on each of the pages.
The pages are passed around, and everyone looks at it with great fascination.
There is no drawing jutsu in this world. Everyone's perception of drawing is just boring decoration. But seeing this kind of art for the first time it baffled them.
After a while, everyone put down the page and sighed dumbly.
Finished reading the pages, but the story stops on a cliffhanger made everyone upset.
"Unfortunately, it only reached this far."
"If that white-haired boy wasn't disappeared, we can kidnap him to continue his work."
One of the Chuunin sighed in disappointment.
He turned around after the sigh and couldn't help but shiver.
What happened?
Everyone's expressions were very weird, and their eyes seemed to be gleaming, making him shudder.
"Master, I'll go out…"
"I want to go as well…"
"Yes, go get me the remaining scattered pages, I will collect it and keep it, it's amazing!"