Saving the Uchiha clan starts with becoming the clan leader.

He could only use the Hardening Technique to strengthen his fist in order to test whether Hozuki Mangetsu had mastered the Water Transformation Technique. However, the result was not optimistic. Hozuki Mangetsu's Water Transformation Technique was more powerful than he had imagined. Not only was it almost completely immune to physical attacks, but its efficient recovery ability was also amazing.

Such an opponent,

If you can't seize the key point and strike decisively, you will lose if you get bogged down in a protracted battle!

Tu Tai had already come to a realization!

"Hey, Cloud Ninja, what's your name? You're a good opponent, tell me your name!" Hozuki Mangetsu, carrying Hiramekarei, didn't rush to seize the initiative in the upcoming second round of competition. Instead, he asked Tsuchida's name. Although Konoha had provided a list of Cloud Ninja's experts, he hadn't had time to look through it carefully before the Cloud Ninja attacked.

Therefore,

He didn't know who Tu Tai was.

"I'll tell you my name once you stop running around like that."

Tu Tai was not cooperating at all. This cautious man would not voluntarily reveal his name. He knew very well that a name was a key, a key that connected to secrets. Knowing a person's name meant that a series of secrets might be exposed. Even if most of these secrets were superficial, who could say for sure that there might be some unexpected events?

"What a boring personality!"

Hozuki Mangetsu pursed his lips.

then,

The flounder was swung, and one after another, shimmering chakra spikes flew out.

[Chapter 211 Toad Oil Flame Bullet]

"Bang!!!"

The toad, as large as a small hill, leaped and landed heavily on the ground. More than a dozen Cloud Ninjas around it turned into white smoke amidst a series of explosions. These were all shadow clones. The red-skinned toad carrying a short sword spat unhappily, and its saliva, like a cannonball, flew out, smashing an old tree not far away and leaving a deep pit, which also formed a small pool of water.

"A bunch of hiding rats! Don't you have the guts to fight back like men?"

Faced with the extremely arrogant provocation of this talking, vicious toad, the Cloud Ninja were seething with anger. However, when they saw the man standing on the toad's head, they managed to suppress their rage. The Jonin commanded their subordinates to use Shadow Clone Jutsu, Water Clone Jutsu, or even the most basic Clone Technique, exhausting every means to hold back the toad and the man.

after all,

The white-haired man standing on the toad's head is none other than Jiraiya, one of the "Three Legendary Sannin".

The so-called "Sannin" are some of the strongest ninjas in the current era, as recognized by the ninja world. Each of the Sannin is an extremely powerful top-level expert, a strong person that even the Kage of various villages have to be wary of. For example, Jiraiya only summoned a toad, and he made them only able to rely on their human strength to fight him and barely hold on.

They have already sent out a request for assistance.

The reinforcements have indeed arrived!

And there are quite a few of them.

The problem was that the reinforcements that arrived did not include any experts who could stand up to Jiraiya one-on-one. They only sent six Jonin and more than a hundred Chunin. Judging from the number of people, this wave of support was quite strong. However, the Cloud Ninja present could only grit their teeth and endure the situation, except for a bitter smile.

What use are Chunin against a powerhouse like Jiraiya? Chunin, who may not even have mastered Shadow Clones, are nothing more than cannon fodder in this kind of battle. Only when Jonin team up can they hold him off and prevent Jiraiya from wandering around and disrupting the Cloud Ninja's offensive.

As the commanding officers, they all understood that it was unlikely that the village's top experts could come to their aid; Konoha simply had too many top experts! If they blocked one, another would slip through, and it seemed that Jiraiya was the one who had slipped through!

Fortunately, judging from the current overall situation,

Aside from being at a disadvantage on some battlefields, the Cloud Ninja held the advantage on most battlefields. Their massive force proved effective. If they couldn't defeat the Konoha ninjas in a two-on-one fight, they would fight three against one, four against one, and so on. In fact, the Cloud Ninja had more Jonin than Konoha and its allies.

Therefore,

It doesn't matter if we can't beat Jiraiya.

The key is to keep Jiraiya occupied and prevent him from becoming a troubleshooter and disrupting the Cloud Ninja's overall advantage. This is the Cloud Ninja's current tactical objective.

at the same time,

Jiraiya, who was standing on top of Gamabunta, did not join Gamabunta in attacking.

"Lord Jiraiya, the Cloud Ninja have too many troops! A rough estimate suggests that the total number of Cloud Ninja troops they have mobilized this time is definitely over ten thousand. Our defenses have already been breached in several places by the Cloud Ninja. If this continues, things may not be good!"

The voice rang directly in Jiraiya's mind.

The messenger was a member of the mountain tribe, while the information came from the command center.

Currently, both Sogen and Jiraiya are fighting on the front lines. However, it is impossible for such a large-scale war to allow subordinates to fight independently. On the contrary, at this time, it is even more necessary for the higher-ups to command so that the various units can cooperate and achieve the ideal effect of one plus one being greater than two.

Suzaku Nara, Kokuren Yamanaka, and a group of others were entrusted with the important task of commanding a large army in battle.

Unfortunately, this time the Cloud Ninja side clearly had a mastermind behind them, making full use of their numerical advantage. Nara Suzaku, Nara Ezumi, and other clever people racked their brains, but could only keep robbing Peter to pay Paul. Insufficient troops meant insufficient available pieces. Even with the support of Jiraiya's troops, they were ultimately no match for the Cloud Ninja in terms of numbers.

Upon hearing this, Jiraiya frowned slightly. He took out his wireless communicator, put it on his ear, turned it on, and tuned the channel. "Is that Kumako?"

"It's me, Jiraiya-sama. Please speak."

"Please ask the command headquarters if they have informed the Hokage's assistant about the current situation. If not, have them inform the Hokage's assistant. If they have, have them tell me the Hokage's reaction."

"Yes, Jiraiya-sama."

Wearing the same radio communicator, Kumako Yamanaka responded in a deep voice.

Not far behind Gamabunta, a young woman with long yellow hair closed her eyes and used her family's secret technique to contact the command center. Beside her, two Konoha ninjas vigilantly watched the surrounding area to ensure that Kumako Yamanaka would not be harmed by a surprise attack from the Cloud Ninjas.

She was one of Jiraiya's subordinates. As a member of the Yamanaka clan, her mission was not to kill enemies, but to act as Jiraiya's mouthpiece to contact the command headquarters or issue combat orders. That was her job. As for radio, unfortunately, the distance of radio communication was too short to allow Jiraiya to communicate directly with the command headquarters.

To protect the safety of the bear cub in the mountains, someone was specially assigned to accompany her.

The secret technique of the Yamanaka clan can only transmit sound in one direction and does not support two-way communication. It seems that this back-and-forth is very troublesome, but in fact, it is already an extremely convenient command system in the ninja world. The Cloud Ninja also combined radio communication equipment with tamed ninja hawks and other ninja beasts to form a command system, which is far less flexible than that of Konoha.

correct,

Sogen naturally also possessed the same communication system as Jiraiya.

Jiraiya wasn't kept waiting too long.

The voice echoed in Jiraiya's mind once more, "Lord Jiraiya, the situation here has been relayed to the Hokage's assistant, but... the Hokage's assistant said we need not worry and should observe the situation. The Cloud Ninja will surely be defeated in this battle! But the current situation is not optimistic; the Cloud Ninja's forces are truly..."

"Noisy!"

Jiraiya had no patience for this nonsense and angrily cursed.

He simply contacted Kumako Yamanaka again, "Kumako, tell command that since the Hokage's assistant has already given the order, just follow it. Remind them not to forget who the supreme commander is, and tell them to stop buzzing around in my head. If there's something to say, say it. Don't spout that useless nonsense in my head!"

The tone of these words was quite impolite.

He's not stupid.

Although he was mocked by Orochimaru since childhood, only Orochimaru and Tsunade dared to keep laughing at him for being an idiot. In fact, apart from the time they first met when they were children, the two of them never looked down on Jiraiya. Beneath his carefree appearance, he had a kind heart!

Jiraiya wasn't entirely sure what Nara Suzaku and the others were up to or what they were secretly plotting. However, the fact that Nara Suzaku and the others didn't ask Uchiha Munen, the Hokage's assistant, for orders when they encountered problems, but instead contacted him, made Jiraiya realize that they seemed to be trying to target Uchiha Munen.

A feeling of disgust arose spontaneously.

We're still at war!

Instead of focusing on this major battle, they're causing trouble with these little antics. Aren't they afraid that this will allow the Cloud Ninja to take advantage of them?

Jiraiya was incredibly frustrated. While his departure from the village was partly due to the Great Toad Sage's prophecy and partly due to Orochimaru's betrayal, another reason was his disgust for the village's sordid and disgusting political struggles, which led him to leave and remain aloof for many years.

"Even though Sarutobi-sensei has passed away, does he still dislike the Uchiha clan so much? Really... sigh!"

Jiraiya let out a sigh, his face grim.

He stomped his foot and shouted, "Gamabunta, use the oil! Since these rats like to hide, let's make sure they have nowhere to hide!" As long as Konoha is still Konoha, he doesn't want to get involved in these troublesome things in the village. Whether it's the Fifth Hokage disliking the Uchiha or Suzaku Nara and others wanting to suppress the Uchiha, he doesn't intend to get involved.

In any case, political struggles are impossible to disappear. In order to find the Child of Destiny, he traveled through the ninja world, saw many different landscapes and people, and his horizons and vision were greatly broadened. As a result, he became increasingly disgusted with the petty squabbles in the village.

He didn't intend to get involved in the village's troubles, nor did he plan to vent his anger on Nara Suzaku and the others, but he still needed a way to release the pent-up frustration he had been holding in.

The Cloud Ninja were right in front of them.

There's no better punching bag than the Cloud Ninja!

Furthermore,

Although he told them to follow Uchiha Sogen's orders, he believed that Uchiha Sogen, the young Hokage's assistant, was not the kind of good-for-nothing who only talked big. Since he dared to tell the command to wait and see, he must have a certain degree of confidence.

But to be honest, I was still a little worried about the outcome of this battle, so I was thinking about putting in more effort to take down the opponent in front of me first, and then go to other places to provide support as soon as possible.

Gamabunta, already quite impatient from being harassed by the Cloud Ninja's Shadow Clone Technique and long-range attacks, heard Jiraiya's command and, without uttering a word, spat out a torrent of toad oil. Simultaneously, Jiraiya, standing atop Gamabunta's head, completed the hand seals.

Fire Release: Flame Bullet!

He spat out a ball of blazing fire, which landed in the toad oil and immediately ignited the massive amount of oil, causing a raging inferno to engulf the surrounding area in an instant!

This is a composite ninjutsu—

Fire Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet

This move is not only a fire-style ninjutsu with destructive power far exceeding that of ordinary techniques, but also, due to the presence of toad oil, ordinary water-style techniques simply cannot extinguish such a large fire. In addition, the amount of toad oil that Gamabunta spits out is truly enormous, and the spreading sea of ​​fire covers an extremely wide area.

"Ahhh!!"

"Help--"

A wail of agony came from the sea of ​​fire.

However, many more Cloud Ninjas didn't even have time to utter a word before being swept away by the scorching flames, their bodies reduced to charred remains scattered in the fire, and even their ashes were swallowed up by the toad oil, achieving a complete physical annihilation.

The Cloud Ninjas who could howl were basically all experts, at the very least with very strong bodies, or able to instantly cast defensive ninjutsu. They were not killed immediately by the sea of ​​fire, but unfortunately the sea of ​​fire was too large!

Even using the Body Flicker Technique, they couldn't escape the sea of ​​fire.

A Cloud Ninja skilled in Earth Release stealth techniques attempted to escape underground, but the temperature of the inferno was astonishing. The underground was practically an oven; although there were no open flames, the temperature was still deadly!

Just this one strike,

Dozens of Cloud Ninja perished in the sea of ​​fire. Most importantly, the command system of this group of Cloud Ninjas was directly destroyed. The real bodies of the Jonin fighting on the front line, along with their shadow clones, were basically wiped out. Although a considerable number of Chunin survived because they were located outside the sea of ​​fire, it was clear that without the command of the Jonin, these Cloud Ninjas were completely unable to continue to hold Jiraiya.

These small fry,

It's not worth Jiraiya wasting any more time; let the others clean it up!

"Annoying rats, where do you think you're going to run now!"

Gazing at the dazzling sea of ​​fire before him, Gamabunta picked up his pipe and took a delightful puff.

kill,

For Gamabunta, it was a very pleasant thing. It was like hunting insects on Mount Myoboku. Hunting such things brought him an extremely wonderful experience. Of course, humans were not tasty at all, not as delicious as the insects of Mount Myoboku. Only those stinky snakes in Ryuchi Cave would like to eat people!

"Gamabunta, the battle isn't over yet! It's not time to rest. Let's go over there!" Jiraiya stomped his foot helplessly as he watched Gamabunta smoking, reminding him to get back to work. He glanced at the still-burning sea of ​​fire, then turned his gaze away, showing no emotion towards the Cloud Ninja who had been burned to death.

This war was initiated by the Cloud Ninja, and the conflict between the Cloud Ninja and Konoha was also started by the Cloud Ninja. So no matter how many Cloud Ninja die, Jiraiya will not care, even though he doesn't like war and even hates it!

but,

This will not stop him from taking action to punish any enemy who dares to invade Konoha.