Naruto: Starting as the Third Hokage with Tears in His Eyes

Chapter 574 Jiraiya's On-the-Spot Instruction

The remaining Iwagakure ninja below raised their heads, their hands and feet icy cold.

"The Tsuchikage's defense didn't even last a second?" A Jonin from Iwagakure asked, his voice trembling as he gripped the kunai tightly in his hand.

"This isn't ninjutsu, what kind of monster is this...?"

The defenses of the Iwagakure faction are crumbling.

It wasn't a physical collapse, but a complete psychological one.

The will of rock and absolute power they had always believed in became a bubble that could be burst at any moment in front of the white-haired man in mid-air.

Onoki gasped for breath, suppressing the churning blood in his chest.

Don't panic.

He raised his hands again, and chakra surged wildly to his fingertips.

Zi, Chen, Mao...

Dust Release: As long as you create distance, a single Dust Release spell can cover the area, and even a Sage Art will be destroyed.

A slight gust of air exploded overhead.

Jiraiya was hanging upside down above, with one foot on the surface of another broken pillar.

His right leg came down at an extremely tricky angle.

Snapped!

The instep of his foot struck Onoki's wrists precisely as he formed the hand seals.

The flow of chakra was instantly interrupted.

Onoki's wrist went numb, and a surge of internal energy rushed along his meridians to his forearm, causing the half-formed hand seal to instantly dissipate into an invisible flow of energy.

Ohnoki was shocked and quickly retreated.

"What's the rush?"

Jiraiya landed with a flip, one hand on his hip. "Don't you understand the meaning of 'calm down'? Your hand seals are way too exaggerated; your shoulders aren't relaxed at all. With this level of skill, a first-year student at our Konoha Ninja Academy would be getting their parents called in. Onoki, shouldn't you consider stepping down and making way for someone more capable?"

What is this? Combat instructions?

The mighty Tsuchikage was treated like a student by a mere Konoha brat on the battlefield.

"Shut up!"

Enraged, Onoki trembled with rage. He forcefully channeled his chakra, his right fist encased in a thick layer of rock armor, and slammed it toward Jiraiya's chest.

This powerful punch, imbued with the terrifying mass of the Weighted Rock Technique, was so strong that it could level even a small hill.

Jiraiya had no intention of resisting head-on; his body tilted slightly in mid-air in a way that defied normal gravity.

The fist, accompanied by a piercing whistle, grazed past the hem of Jiraiya's clothes.

Jiraiya raised his left hand accordingly.

Snapped.

He slapped Onoki's elbow.

It wasn't a hard slap, just a light tap.

The palm pierced through Onoki's elbow, precisely severing the muscle power line of that arm.

Onoki felt a numbness in half of his body, and his entire right arm went limp and hung down.

The forward momentum lost its balance, and the whole body tilted forward uncontrollably.

"Your lower body is unstable. Don't use brute force when you punch; you need to know how to control your strength. At your age, you're still so irritable; can your blood pressure handle it?"

Jiraiya used the momentum to raise his knee and firmly plant it on Onoki's abdomen.

Onoki opened his mouth wide, gagged and vomited a mouthful of bile, and was sent flying backward again.

suffocated.

Extreme frustration.

Onoki's prized combat experience became completely useless at this moment.

The opponent doesn't play by the rules at all. They don't use large-scale destructive ninjutsu or engage in close combat by maintaining distance. Instead, they rely on their terrifying sensory abilities and physical prowess in Sage Mode to fight hand-to-hand.

Ōnoki floated in mid-air, rapidly listing five counterattack plans in his mind.

First plan: Continue using Dust Escape.

No, the opponent is too fast. It takes time for chakra to gather, and it will definitely be interrupted.

The second plan involves close-quarters combat combined with a heavy rock attack. I just tried it. That bizarre perception is completely unreasonable; it's impossible to hit it.

The third plan is to abandon the offensive and retreat at full speed.

Absolutely not! The remaining members of the Iwagakure ninja are watching. If they escape today, Onoki, the Tsuchikage, will be sweeping the village gates tomorrow. Iwagakure will become a laughingstock throughout the entire ninja world.

All three safest options have been blocked.

Then the only option is to use sheer numbers to create blind spots and cover the main body as it unleashes its killing move.

This is the safest way to break the deadlock. No matter how strong this kid's senses are, there are limits to how fast his brain can process information.

As long as the Earth Release clones apply pressure simultaneously, they will definitely be able to create a 0.1-second opening.

"You bastard! This is outrageous!"

Ōnoki was utterly enraged and his chakra erupted recklessly as he rapidly formed hand seals.

"Rock Clone!"

bang bang bang-

A series of smoke bursts in the air.

The identical Onoki surrounded Jiraiya tightly in the center in a circular formation.

The old man raised his hand at the same time, aiming it at Jiraiya in the middle.

"Now let's see where you can hide!"

The sounds overlapped and echoed in mid-air.

The Iwa ninja below were filled with renewed hope.

"It's appeared! The Tsuchikage's Rock clone!"

"Even that monster couldn't possibly defend against attacks from multiple blind spots simultaneously!"

Right in the center of the encirclement.

Jiraiya made no attempt to defend himself; he even had the leisure to reach out and pick at his ear.

Shima, the sage on the left shoulder, pursed his lips.

"Honey, this old man is so noisy. The soup in the pot is almost gone. If this drags on any longer, we'll only have boiled vegetables for dinner."

Fukasaku the Immortal rolled his eyes.

"Little Jiraiya, stop playing around."

"I understand, I understand."

Jiraiya closed his eyes.

In the Sage Mode's perception network, the entire world becomes a holographic projection made of energy.

Every single one of the surrounding trees was glowing.

But these points of light are just a simple accumulation of chakra, empty and superficial.

The only bright spot behind them, at the eight o'clock position, had energy that exploded like a furnace.

found it.

Jiraiya opened his eyes, stomped his foot hard, and the air exploded with a deafening roar.

Instead of turning around, he shot backward in an extremely counterintuitive manner.

It moved so fast that it left a long trail of white sonic boom clouds.

Multiple Onoki are simultaneously performing hand seals.

The real Onoki hid behind the clone, holding the initial hand seal for Dust Release in his hand.

He was waiting for Jiraiya to attack those clones; it was a perfectly calculated scheme.

Suddenly, my vision went dark.

Jiraiya's face, painted with red greasepaint, broke through the blockade of the fourteen outer clones without warning and appeared directly in front of his main body.

How could anyone possibly determine that?!

Onoki's eyes widened to their limit, his brain frantically sending evasive signals to his body, but his muscles simply couldn't keep up with the speed of his nerve reactions.

Jiraiya's right leg swung in the air in a perfect semi-circle.

Snapped!

A solid whip kick, without any fancy ninjutsu added, relying solely on the pure physical strength of Sage Mode, struck Onoki hard on the side of his waist.

"Aww—"

A scream, distorted and agonizing, pierced the sky.

A crisp snapping sound.