Chapter 96: Chapter 96
Crackle, crackle—
"Hmph! Hah!"
Bang, bang, clang!
Several minutes later, Kiriya finally stopped.
The orange eye shadow and horizontal pupils in his eyes had completely disappeared, which meant he had exited Sage Mode.
Sweat covered his body as he looked at Fukasaku-sennin in front of him and praised him sincerely.
"As expected of Fukasaku-sama. You really are amazing."
Just now, Kiriya had used the explosive physical enhancement granted by Sage Mode to unleash Akaza’s powerful taijutsu.
With that kind of force, he was practically a walking human bomber, every strike carrying terrifying power.
Yet against Fukasaku, he had never managed to break through the old sage’s defense.
Beneath that small body was a frightening amount of power.
Of course, what shocked Kiriya even more was Fukasaku’s mastery of taijutsu.
That sharp, detailed insight and battle-hardened experience made Kiriya feel as if he had all the strength in the world but no proper way to use it.
Every move he made was restrained, redirected, or punished.
Especially that unpredictable Frog Kata. He had no idea how many hits he had taken from it.
Thankfully, his stats in Sage Mode were strong enough. Otherwise, Kiriya would have swollen up several sizes by now.
"Hehe, it’s nothing. Just the basics."
Fukasaku-sennin clasped his hands behind his back, his expression calm and detached, looking every bit like a master hidden away from the world.
However, behind him where Kiriya could not see, his hands were rubbing against each other desperately.
That was the only way to ease the intense soreness running through his palms.
’Is this boy part bull? Or did he turn from a bear? How is he this strong?’
Naturally, Fukasaku did not know that all the training and battles Kiriya had gone through after receiving his Falna had been converted into ability values that strengthened his entire body.
In terms of physical toughness, Kiriya was already one of the stronger bodies in the shinobi world.
Now, with the boost from Sage Mode, his strength had reached a truly terrifying level.
This was what people meant when they said overwhelming force could smash through skill.
Fortunately, Fukasaku had been immersed in Sage Mode for a long time, and his experience, insight, and technique far surpassed Kiriya’s.
If Jiraiya had been the one standing there instead... he might actually have been overturned!
And if that happened, the joke would be huge.
"Old man, I’m ready. Let’s continue!"
Before Fukasaku-sennin could catch his breath, he heard Kiriya’s eager voice, and his body jolted slightly.
"Now listen here, Kiriya-chan. Training should be done step by step. You need to digest what you just learned before the next round of practice can truly have direction."
Fukasaku spoke earnestly, wearing the expression of an elder who was doing this entirely for Kiriya’s sake.
"It’s fine, Fukasaku-sama. Real understanding comes from practice. Whether my insights are useful or not, I won’t know until I test them."
Kiriya opened his toad-like horizontal pupils, his fighting spirit burning fiercely.
Since Kiriya had already said that much, Fukasaku, as a veteran sage, naturally could not back down.
He could only grit his teeth and continue the fight.
Round after round, again and again, Kiriya consumed a huge amount of energy but kept forcing himself to continue, while Fukasaku-sennin was already panting hard and drenched in sweat.
He was struggling to find a dignified way to end things when he saw his wife walking over with a lunchbox.
His eyes immediately lit up.
"Boy, let’s take a short break and eat some bento."
Kiriya’s face instantly wrinkled like a bitter melon.
This kind of training continued for several more days.
Aside from practicing Frog Kata, Kiriya also adapted to using different senjutsu techniques while in Sage Mode.
At the same time, he deliberately sent out one shadow clone to study how to form the Rasengan.
He was still lacking in high-burst, high-damage techniques, so naturally, his eyes had fallen on this ninjutsu that represented the peak of shape transformation.
His chakra was already abundant to begin with, and after training Sage Mode, his chakra control rose to another level.
Because of that, his progress was extremely fast. He even had the spare energy to begin improving it through chakra nature transformation.
In short, Kiriya’s days were tense but fulfilling.
Just when Kiriya was filled with the satisfaction of growing stronger and thought this life would continue for a while, a messenger toad brought news from Jiraiya.
"They want me to go back for a mission?"
Kiriya looked surprised.
The problems with Kirigakure and Sunagakure had both been dealt with, so Konoha should have quite a bit of manpower freed up now.
What kind of situation still required him to act personally?
When he continued reading, Kiriya found the answer.
It turned out that on the front line between the Lands of Fire and Lightning, a pair of brothers had appeared.
The older one was the son of the Sandaime Raikage, a powerful taijutsu user with terrifying speed.
The other was a young man known as Killer B, whose strength was also extremely troublesome.
Working together, the two had almost swept through Konoha’s entire front line. Barely anyone on Konoha’s side could withstand even a single exchange against them.
Kiriya found that description familiar.
Wasn’t this Kumogakure’s famous muscle-bro duo?
Killer B and A?
But weren’t these two supposed to be soloed by Minato, which then completely established the Yellow Flash’s absolute dominance in the field of speed?
Why did they need him instead?
As it turned out, Konoha’s higher-ups had indeed considered sending Minato Namikaze to stabilize the situation.
Unfortunately, Iwagakure had begun making major moves, and Konoha’s leadership did not dare transfer Minato away so easily.
At the same time, Jiraiya still needed to keep an eye on Kirigakure, while Orochimaru’s experiment had reached a critical stage.
Neither of them could free themselves.
So Konoha’s higher-ups turned their attention to Kiriya.
"Fine."
Kiriya shook his head.
It just so happened that he had newly completed Sage Mode and wanted to find a worthy opponent to test it against.
The future Fourth Raikage and the Eight-Tails jinchūriki should be weighty enough opponents.
"Well then, old man, Granny, I’ll be going first. I’ll come back to receive more of your guidance when I have the chance." Kiriya said farewell to the two sages.
Fukasaku-sennin quickly said, "Yes, yes, Ma. He’s a shinobi, after all. Missions have to come first."
Inwardly, he let out a huge sigh of relief.
Kiriya was simply too much trouble!
After several days of fighting, Fukasaku felt as if his body had nearly been emptied out.
Only now did he deeply understand what it meant when people said fists feared the young.
If they kept going like this, he might stop being Fukasaku-sennin and become Fukasaku the Dead.
"Oh my, you’re leaving already?"
Shima looked somewhat regretful.
"But I still have so many special dishes I haven’t made for you."
Hearing that, Kiriya discovered a very sad fact.
Some part of him was actually looking forward to it.
’This is bad. If I stay any longer, I’ll really turn into a toad.’
Kiriya felt bitter inside and quickly waved his hands.
"Next time, definitely next time."
After saying that, he fled in a panic.
...
After returning to the shinobi world through the reverse summoning of Mount Myōboku’s toads, Kiriya immediately rushed toward the front line between the Lands of Lightning and Fire without stopping.
Along the way, he encountered several small Kumogakure units.
There was nothing to say.
He went up and beat them down.
The unlucky ones died on the spot, while the luckier ones were beaten so badly their own parents would not recognize them.
"I heard everyone in Kumogakure is a real man with hard fists. So what’s this?"
Kiriya looked down from above at a jōnin, the corner of his mouth curving slightly.
"You..."
The Kumo-nin heard Kiriya insult his village like that and immediately grew furious.
He tried to fight back, only for Kiriya to step down on him so hard that he nearly passed out.
"You’re really too weak!"
Kiriya’s words were like steel knives, stabbing the Kumogakure jōnin’s heart full of holes.
"Don’t get so full of yourself. Our village has powerhouse like the A-B Combo! If you run into them, you’ll die."
He immediately retorted.
"Oh? Then why haven’t I run into them yet? They couldn’t be hiding, could they?"
Kiriya smiled contemptuously, then crouched down and looked straight into the man’s eyes.
"My name is Kiriya. Remember it! Tell that so-called A-B Combo or whatever to hurry up and come find me!"
"We’ll decide both victory and death on battelfied!"
After saying that, Kiriya vanished, leaving only the stunned Kumogakure jōnin behind.
As several Kumogakure survivors returned to their own lines, a piece of news quickly spread.
Konoha’s Ninja Senju Kiriya had issued a challenge to the A-B brothers, demanding a true, fist-to-flesh duel between real men!
"We’ll decide both victory and death."
When A and Killer B, who were fighting on another battlefield, heard the news, they were instantly furious and swore to kill Kiriya.
"We’ll let Konoha taste the pain of losing its genius."
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