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"Help!"
"Tsunade! Orochimaru!"
Jiraiya plummeted rapidly from the sky. Just before his face hit the ground, Akio lifted a hand, and Jiraiya came to a sudden halt—hovering less than ten centimeters above the surface.
After a long moment, Jiraiya's tightly shut eyes slowly opened. Realizing his situation, he let out a sigh of relief, pushed himself up, and looked around.
Everyone around him was stifling laughter, and Jiraiya's face flushed with a mix of embarrassment and anger.
He turned to Akio, gritting his teeth. "You old geezer! What kind of strange jutsu is that? Daring to mess with the great Jiraiya! I'll make you pay!"
With that, he charged at Akio again.
Akio smiled faintly and raised his hand once more.
Suddenly, Jiraiya found himself running… up into the sky.
He froze mid-stride, dumbfounded, before suddenly dropping like a stone.
"Aaaah! Not again!" he screamed, only to hover once more just above the ground. He opened his mouth to speak—only to find himself rising into the air again.
"Hmph! The great Jiraiya fears no heights!"
Akio turned to Tsunade with a chuckle. "Seems like your team might be short one member..."
"No big loss. He's an idiot anyway."
In midair, Jiraiya's face turned green. His hands stealthily formed hand seals behind his back.
Akio narrowed his eyes and abruptly released the force field.
This time, Jiraiya really crashed to the ground with a loud thud.
Orochimaru's pupils contracted and his fists clenched—only to slowly loosen after a brief pause.
Akio chuckled to himself. Looks like their bond's not bad after all...
"Great-Grandpa, you didn't actually kill that idiot, did you?" Tsunade asked, blinking.
Akio shook his head with a smile and waved his hand. Suddenly, Jiraiya appeared behind him and was flung back into the sky.
Tsunade blinked again and looked at the spot where Jiraiya had crashed—only to see a wooden log.
"A substitution jutsu?"
Akio shook his head. "Not just that."
He lifted off the ground, floating in the air.
Looking down, two hands emerged from the earth below him.
"He used both Shadow Clone and the Inner Decapitation Technique."
"Impressive... but—" Akio narrowed his eyes. A large chunk of earth trembled and rose from the ground, revealing Jiraiya encased inside.
"To be able to manage this…" Orochimaru murmured with visible astonishment. Earlier, he hadn't questioned the floating technique, assuming it was just a unique jutsu. But this—extracting thousands of kilograms of earth without forming hand seals—was on another level.
"Of course he's strong. Great-Grandpa is way stronger than even my grandfather!" Tsunade said proudly.
Akio gave a wry smile. "You mean at gambling, right?"
"Sucking up won't help. I'm still not teaching you how to gamble."
Above them, the floating chunk of earth began to crumble, revealing a flailing Jiraiya.
"So then… which one's the real one?" Akio asked with a mischievous grin, maneuvering the two airborne Jiraiyas closer together—face to face.
Jiraiya's eyes went wide in panic as one of them vanished with a pop.
"Well, have you decided how to address me yet?" Akio smiled up at him.
"Hmph!" Jiraiya snorted and looked away, clearly refusing to yield.
Akio sighed. "Stubborn, huh?" And with that, he let Jiraiya fall once more.
"Great-Grandpa!"
Jiraiya, finally giving in, shouted the title just before impact—though his tone was full of reluctance.
He had just landed safely and sighed in relief when Tsunade suddenly appeared and punched him, sending him flying.
"You pervert!"
Akio shook his head, half-laughing. He hadn't expected the fourteen-year-old Tsunade to be that strong.
Based on her strength just now, even Akio himself would've had to catch his breath if that punch had hit him head-on. Yet in the distance, Jiraiya limped back unscathed—a mystery perhaps only the Hokage could explain.
"Tsunade, why'd you hit me again?!"
The word again made Akio feel a strange sense of sorrow.
"Idiot."
"Orochimaru, what did you say?!"
Just as Jiraiya and Orochimaru were about to start bickering again, Tsunade shouted, "Idiot Jiraiya! That's my great-grandfather!"
"Great?" Jiraiya blinked in confusion. Looking Akio up and down, he muttered, "He's not that tall..."
Akio couldn't help but laugh. Orochimaru sneered, "I still don't know how you managed to graduate from the Academy."
"A great-grandfather is your grandfather's father," Tsunade explained.
"My grandpa's… grandpa?"
Jiraiya stared at Akio. His jaw dropped. "So you really are some ancient monster?!"
And with that, he was launched skyward again.
Ten minutes later, Jiraiya lay sprawled on the ground, eyes spinning with stars. Akio had just given him a ride on the most insane rollercoaster the shinobi world had never seen.
After the fun, Akio finally turned to Tsunade. "Did you come here on your own this time?"
Tsunade shook her head. "Sensei brought us. We accepted a mission escorting a merchant caravan to Uzushiogakure. Otherwise, they wouldn't have let Nawaki come along."
"Huh? Where is Nawaki?"
Akio sighed. Some big sister you are.
"Relax. He's with Yuna, and there are two ANBU guarding him."
"ANBU?"
Akio blinked. "Tobirama actually pulled some strings? Why am I so proud of him?"
"Oh right, Great-Grandpa, Sensei brought a message from Second-Grandpa for you..."
"Tobirama? Now that's interesting. Didn't come to me during the war, but now that it's over, he suddenly wants to chat? He better not be trying to hand off some spoils..."
"Let's go."
"Idiot Jiraiya…"
"He's fine. Listening to us over there," Akio said with a teasing smile. "You seem concerned about him."
Tsunade glared at him and instinctively raised a fist—only to stop when she remembered who he was.
Helpless, she turned away and walked off.
"Tsunade, wait up!" Jiraiya instantly sprang to his feet and ran after her.
Akio and Orochimaru lagged behind. Akio glanced over. "You seemed pretty curious about my jutsu earlier, didn't you?"
"I did," came Orochimaru's raspy reply.
"It's a technique that requires mastering both lightning and earth chakra transformations to their utmost limits."
Orochimaru's eyes gleamed with interest. Akio continued, "However, there's a limit to what the human body can do. Aside from me, no one has ever reached that level with both elements."
"To break past that limit, you'd need to start at the cellular level. Do you know what cells are?"
"Yes. We studied them at the Academy."
Akio blinked. The Academy teaches that now? Must be Tobirama's doing.
He looked at Orochimaru. Looks like I can reel you in.
"Young man, do you seek immortality?"
Orochimaru paused… then slowly licked his lips in his signature, unsettling way.
"Senior, may I have a few drops of your blood?"
"Not a chance!" Akio's face darkened instantly.
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