"Don't do anything stupid, you're surrounded!
Takara looked at the Konoha ninjas who returned his gaze with unfriendly faces and sighed.
He felt like lately he was sighing more often because of the appearance of more obstacles wherever he went.
"It's him!" shouted a Konoha ninja from the top of a nearby tree branch. "He killed Hideyoshi with a sword strike!"
Tch! Of course, they had to have a damn Hyuga...
Out of common sense, Takara put away the Sunagakure headband and was using the transformation technique to impersonate the Konoha ninja he killed. Even if the ninjas could tell he was transformed, the point was that they couldn't see his original form!
"Identify yourself or face the consequences!" said a white-haired ninja with a red jacket.
Great, the Sannin had to notice the disturbance and come to see what was happening.
"Aren't you supposed to be looking for your jinchuriki?" Takara complained with a distorted voice, leaving no loose ends that could lead to identification by an analysis team. "You just have to come with the attitude of a young master and block the area for everyone."
He even smeared blood from the murdered ninja to alter his scent and pretend to be injured, to excuse his withdrawal from the area with logic!
However, that didn't prove to be as useful given the situation...
Jiraiya was stunned by the question.
So, did they really take Naruto to Otogakure?
It's good to have that unconscious confirmation; that means the information provided by Sunagakure was real, and he could still rescue his godson.
Wait, that's not the point!
"How do you know about this operation?" Jiraiya's sharp gaze didn't intimidate Takara in the slightest.
"I heard it's all over the black market, just open a path, and you won't hear from me anymore," Takara said, even though the chances were low, he wanted to see if he could leave without fighting.
Jiraiya was silent.
"Jiraiya-sama, you can't just let him go as if nothing happened," interrupted the Hyuga clan ninja. "Hideyoshi was only one mission away from retiring, and this guy killed him in cold blood!"
Not to mention that Hideyoshi owed him 200,000 ryo and would never see them again...
Jiraiya turned and glared at him, indicating he should shut up.
Of course, he wasn't going to let him go!
The only reason Jiraiya didn't respond immediately was that he was using his full reasoning capacity to use the available pieces of information to analyze the other party's identity.
Black market...
Knows about Naruto...
The direction he came from...
Enough strength to kill and replace a chunin silently...
"You're a member of Otogakure, aren't you?" Jiraiya declared. "You must have been on a mission outside the village, possibly near the Land of Lightning, and upon returning, you were caught off guard by our presence due to the lack of information. So you tried to sneak in by taking the place of one of ours."
The ninjas around were perplexed, wondering how they had allowed a rat to escape from the net they had put around that village and admiring how Jiraiya was able to see through his identity.
Takara nodded inwardly; indeed, this was the thought process of the Toad Sannin.
Although his logic seems to make sense, it's totally off track.
If he were really a ninja from Otogakure and saw this situation, isn't it more logical to turn around and wait to see how everything turns out from a safe place?
Unless he thinks he's one of those Orochimaru fanatics...
"You're going to try anyway no matter what I say, aren't you?" Takara looked around; the number was problematic, but the most annoying was Jiraiya himself.
Should he use them to gain battle experience with Sage Mode?
Of course, he couldn't use the puppets, his main strength, if he wanted to keep his identity hidden, and the noxins were too recognizable a creation of his.
Around twenty people not counting the Sannin, probably mostly jonin, and who knows how many more around harassing Otogakure who could act as reinforcements at any moment.
It wasn't realistic to take out all of them, but using Sage Mode to carve out a path would fulfill his desire to leave and gain some real practice.
As for Jiraiya recognizing Sage Mode...
Takara would be more worried if he summoned the two elder toads, as they might indeed be able to distinguish the traits of his Sage Mode. They might even extrapolate Tsunade's downfall, which would make Jiraiya relentlessly pursue him for answers.
He slightly separated his legs and lowered his torso slowly, taking a deep breath as he prepared to engage in his first fight with Sage Mode.
Jiraiya suddenly had a sinister premonition and jumped while shouting to the others.
"Back off, something's wrong!"
Why did this ninja give him such a familiar feeling?
The next moment, he recognized what the other party was doing and couldn't help but curse.