Chapter Six
Tsunade didn't hold back in the slightest. She knew that even if she attacked with her full strength, there was no way she could injure Hiruzen-sensei.
"He even considered this…"
Once again caught in a pincer attack, Hiruzen Sarutobi looked on in surprise at the small figure beyond the surging flames. Even Jiraiya's Flame Bullet hadn't been released randomly.
He had deliberately forced Hiruzen into this position.
In fact, from the very beginning, the angle of Jiraiya's initial attack was designed in a way that made it easy for Orochimaru to flank him from behind.
Once could be a coincidence—but for such setups to appear repeatedly made it clear: before he even launched his attack, Jiraiya had already calculated where Orochimaru and Tsunade would position themselves.
This kind of rapid situational judgment is something only seasoned veterans could pull off.
Could this child be born with such an instinct?
And that wasn't all. Jiraiya had laid out this entire sequence of attacks without any prior discussion with either Orochimaru or Tsunade.
Could it be that he understood the two of them to such a degree—so thoroughly that he could predict whether they would naturally follow through with each step?
That shouldn't be possible—they didn't even get along well at the academy.
What Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't know was that, in the future, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru would be known to the world as the "Legendary Sannin."
Across all of shinobi history, no team of three ever came close to rivaling their strength, except the Sannin themselves.
Though Orochimaru and Tsunade didn't know Jiraiya well yet, Jiraiya, even at this young age, had an innate sense of their abilities—enough that integrating them into his strategies came as naturally as breathing.
"Interesting."
Sarutobi smiled. The test had only just begun, and these three rookies—especially Jiraiya—had already given him a huge surprise.
Turning around, he swung his kunai to meet Tsunade's incoming strike.
Clang!
Their kunai clashed with a sharp sound, sending out a spray of sparks.
Sarutobi intentionally added extra force to this strike, and even though Tsunade had charged in at full speed using Body Flicker, she was still sent flying backward.
This was, in fact, a protective gesture. But at that moment, Sarutobi's eyes shifted—he noticed that the intense flames behind him were suddenly weakening.
Of course, he could tell this wasn't due to Jiraiya running out of chakra—it was because Jiraiya didn't want the flames to accidentally injure Tsunade.
As the fire weakened, a deliberate opening was created. Out of that gap burst Jiraiya, a kunai in hand.
At the same time, Tsunade—who had been knocked back—used a nearby tree to break her fall, and then charged back in toward Sarutobi.
Jiraiya had achieved his goal. He had cornered their teacher into a confined area—ideal for close combat. Only in such tight quarters would they stand a chance of grabbing the bells.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
In that narrow space, as the three tangled together and the sound of clashing kunai rang out repeatedly, the tree Tsunade had used earlier still swayed, with leaves just beginning to fall.
Tsunade and Jiraiya struck repeatedly in alternating patterns, trying to snatch the bells hanging from Sarutobi's waist. But their opponent's level of agility was simply in another league. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't even touch the bells.
And that was with Sarutobi already going easy on them. If he were fighting seriously, Jiraiya and Tsunade wouldn't even be able to trap him in such a tight space.
But if he did fight seriously, the test would be unwinnable by design.
As things stood, Jiraiya had already performed exceptionally. His ability to read the battlefield surpassed even some chunin.
After multiple close-range exchanges with Sarutobi, Orochimaru—who had previously gone to intercept him on the opposite side of the fireball—finally arrived and joined the fray.
But perhaps recognizing that close combat wouldn't give them an advantage, even with all three working together, Orochimaru picked his moment carefully.
As Tsunade and Jiraiya's figures passed in front of Sarutobi in quick succession, Orochimaru suddenly hurled several shuriken straight at Sarutobi's front.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The high-speed spinning shuriken flew like streaks of black light, aligning into a straight line as they shot toward Sarutobi.
From another angle, it looked as though the shuriken were flying in a single, perfectly aligned trajectory.
Sarutobi, watching this, was slightly surprised. Orochimaru's move was reminiscent of the Uchiha clan's "Shadow Windmill," but unlike that technique—which used threads to control and overlap multiple shuriken—these relied on visual deception.
To most experienced ninjas, however, this trick wasn't very effective. Even if the shuriken lined up perfectly to deceive the eye, the difference in the number of rotating blades would easily give it away through sound.
Still, just as Orochimaru flung his shuriken, Jiraiya twisted his body, gathered chakra, and shouted to Tsunade across the battlefield.
"Tsunade, get ready to pin him down!"
"What kind of nonsense is he saying?"
Tsunade was confused. She didn't think Orochimaru's attack would drastically change the tide of battle. However, after witnessing Jiraiya's tactics earlier, she had already started seeing him in a new light—someone she once didn't think much of.
Without realizing it, Jiraiya's words had gained her trust.
So she focused, preparing to act.
Clang! Clang!
Sarutobi, unsure where Jiraiya's confidence was coming from, deflected the shuriken one by one. But when only three were left, the final shuriken in the rear suddenly burst open with a "poof"—smoke billowing out.
From within the smoke, the shuriken transformed into a copy of Jiraiya.
"Transformation Jutsu…"
"A Shadow Clone?"
Sarutobi flicked his kunai to knock away the remaining two shuriken, staring in surprise at the suddenly appeared Jiraiya.
He immediately recognized the technique Jiraiya had used—but he couldn't figure out when Jiraiya had planted this clone.
Was it during those first few shuriken attacks? Sarutobi quickly recalled: to dodge Orochimaru's Great Fireball Technique, he had used Body Flicker and didn't bother deflecting all of Jiraiya's early shuriken.
Now it all made sense. The initial Ground Split technique wasn't just meant to limit Sarutobi's movement—it also provided a place for this transformed clone to hide and avoid Orochimaru's fire attack.
So many layers of planning… even he hadn't noticed.
As realization dawned, Sarutobi widened his eyes, staring at the clone in front of him with growing interest.
He truly wanted to know: after all the effort Jiraiya went through to hide this clone, what role would it play now?
It even gave Jiraiya the confidence to shout out, in front of Sarutobi no less, for Tsunade to "get ready to pin him down."
Under Sarutobi's intense attention, the shadow clone in front of him formed another hand seal—for Transformation Jutsu.
"Poof!"
Smoke erupted again.
When it cleared, standing before Sarutobi was a scantily-clad, curvaceous, and alluring young woman.
She gave him a flirty wink and purred in a seductive voice:
"Darling~"
(End of Chapter)