Inside the earth and stone toad, Jiraiya pressed his hands to the ground, continuously maintaining his defense, feeling bitter but unable to say anything.
He hadn't expected Shishou to be so abnormal, directly using the Fire Style: Rasengan to unleash a barrage of attacks.
Moreover, Shishou was hovering several dozen meters in the air, giving him no opportunity to counterattack, forcing him to passively endure the assault.
Additionally, Shishou seemed to know his exact position. Just as he was about to use Earth Release to escape, Shishou detected him and bombarded his escape route, frightening him into retreating once again.
Even after entering Sage Mode, he was still being suppressed like this.
Jiraiya never anticipated this outcome.
"Little Jiraiya, this can't go on," came a voice amidst the explosions, as Fukasaku frowned.
Shishou, floating dozens of meters away, was proving to be quite a problem.
"Honey, should we summon Gamabunta to help?" Shima suggested.
"Absolutely not, honey," Fukasaku replied. "Shishou's Ninjutsu is too powerful. Summoning Gamabunta would just make him a sitting duck."
Upon hearing Shima's suggestion, Jiraiya shook his head repeatedly.
"I think Jiraiya is right. Gamabunta would be no different than an ant to me," came Shishou's voice.
"If you summon him, and I accidentally kill him, that would be bad."
Hearing this, Jiraiya nodded repeatedly, feeling that Shishou spoke his mind.
A giant summoning beast like Gamabunta might be effective against tailed beasts or weaker foes, but against someone who casually used powerful Ninjutsu like the Flying Thunder God Technique, it would just be a target.
If Gamabunta were accidentally killed by a Flying Thunder God user, it would be a huge grudge.
Jiraiya was only testing the waters with Shishou; there was no need to escalate things to that level.
Suddenly, Jiraiya felt two intense glares on his shoulders.
"It wasn't me who said that..."
Seeing Fukasaku and Shima glaring at him, Jiraiya quickly explained.
If Jiraiya didn't say it... then who did?
Jiraiya and Fukasaku looked behind them in shock.
To their astonishment, Shishou was examining the surrounding earth walls, prodding and poking as if studying the toad's earth defense.
When did he appear behind me? Even in Sage Mode, I didn't sense him...
Seeing Shishou, now back to his normal height of 1.8 meters, Jiraiya was shocked.
Wait, he's studying the earth defense. Does he want to steal my technique?
Seeing Shishou examining the interior walls of the earth toad, Jiraiya was furious.
"You brat, how dare you call Gamabunta an ant!"
"Let's see how you handle this!" Shima shouted, spraying a stream of water at Shishou.
Water Style: Water Severing Wave!
Shishou glanced at Shima's water stream.
The next second, both Fukasaku and Shima groaned in pain, and the water stream disappeared.
Shishou had agreed to another match with Jiraiya and allowed him to enter Sage Mode.
The purpose was to let the Parasitic Insects on Jiraiya transfer to Fukasaku and Shima, making it easier to locate Mount Myoboku.
Now that the insects had successfully transferred, the lives of Fukasaku and Shima were completely in Shishou's hands.
Watching the two toads sweat as the insects consumed them, Shishou said expressionlessly:
"In my eyes, you're no different from Gamabunta."
"This time, I'll spare you out of respect for Tsunade."
"Next time you disrespect me, it won't be so simple."
With that, Shishou withdrew some of the insects from Jiraiya and the two toads and vanished.
He no longer had enough Sage energy to maintain his Curse Mark form, so he had no reason to continue fighting Jiraiya.
In terms of endurance, Jiraiya, who could gather natural energy during battle, was much stronger than Shishou's Curse Mark form.
After all, with the Curse Mark, his Sage energy would only deplete, unable to last long.
"What did he do to us? Why do I feel my Sage Chakra continuously draining?"
"Little Jiraiya, is this the poison you mentioned?"
"I didn't expect him to be so formidable at such a young age," Fukasaku said with some fear.
"Although it's my second time experiencing it, I still don't understand what it is," Jiraiya wiped the sweat from his forehead, suddenly feeling grateful that Shishou had a close relationship with Tsunade. Hopefully, he wouldn't do anything harmful to Konoha.
"Second time?" Shima frowned at Jiraiya.
"Yes, I lost to him before, which is why I called you for help."
Fukasaku: "..."
Shima: "..."
Meanwhile, after teaching Fukasaku and Shima a lesson, Shishou canceled his shadow clone bombardment and disappeared.
He didn't want to deal with the Third Hokage, so he returned to Tsunade's home first.
Seeing Shishou leave, the Third Hokage snapped out of his shock, watching Jiraiya, pale-faced, emerge from the earth toad. He frowned at Tsunade:
"Tsunade, couldn't you ask him to go easier on Jiraiya?"
The Third Hokage had been genuinely afraid that Jiraiya might be killed by accident.
Tsunade and Shizune exchanged glances.
Shishou had gone far beyond just going easy on Jiraiya; he had practically let him off.
If Shishou had only gone a little easy, Jiraiya would likely be dead by now.
Thinking about it, Tsunade glanced at the Third Hokage, "He didn't even use a third of his power."
Tsunade originally wanted to say Shishou had used only a tenth of his power, but she didn't want to scare the others, so she settled on a third.
Less than a third of his power, and he reduced Jiraiya to this state.
Kakashi and the others were shocked.
Nearby, Kurenai Yuhi pursed her lips, quietly searching for Shishou.
She noticed that since she had told Shishou not to appear before her again, he had indeed stayed away, making her feel frustrated.
He didn't even use a third of his power?
The Third Hokage was deeply alarmed.
He finally understood why Mei Terumi, the Fifth Mizukage, and Tsunade, the future Fifth Hokage, were so determined to hold on to Shishou.
"Cough, cough, a third, Tsunade, you flatter me."
"I can sense he has many techniques he hasn't shown, and those are likely his true killing moves."
Back to his normal state, Jiraiya sighed, dispirited.
He could clearly feel Shishou's strength and knew that the latter hadn't even used twenty percent of his power.
Just the fact that Shishou could appear behind him, even in Sage Mode.
Just the fact that Shishou could easily subdue Fukasaku and Shima.
Jiraiya understood the vast gap in their abilities.
Tsunade shrugged nonchalantly, hearing Jiraiya's words.
"Jiraiya, as long as you know."
**********
This fanfiction is complete on my Patreon. If you want to read it, you can find it at patreon.com/Betek.