"As expected of Anubis!"
Rasa looked at the blade in his hand, a satisfied smile appearing on his face.
It was different from the Lightning Blades.
The Lightning Blades merely provided Rasa with the ability to use Lightning Release.
But now, Rasa had already used Magnet Release to create lightning and had deliberately developed a combination ninjutsu—Gold Dust Thundercloud.
The Lightning Blades no longer had any use to Rasa.
Though they were called blades, the Lightning Blades were more like Lightning Release manufacturing tools.
Anubis was the true blade.
The moment he held it, he directly mastered top-tier swordsmanship.
It also possessed the special ability to cut through objects across other objects.
Seeing that Ninja Art: Needle Jizo had no effect on Rasa, Jiraiya switched ninjutsu again.
"Fire Release: Great Flame Bullet!"
Compared to Flame Bullet, this ninjutsu was ten times more powerful, and its attack range was much wider. Even with the Gold Dust Cube blocking it, Rasa's figure would still be engulfed by the Great Flame Bullet.
Massive flames erupted violently.
The entire area seemed to turn into a sea of fire.
"Quicksand Displacement!"
But before the flames descended, Rasa had already used Quicksand Displacement to shift his position.
The sand soldiers were not merely the six Jiraiya had seen. There were far more than that.
It was only that Rasa had used a small amount of chakra to create some of them. They did not need to fight the enemy. They merely needed to provide Rasa with coordinates for Quicksand Displacement.
"Missed?"
"He moved again?"
Jiraiya frowned.
"As expected, troublesome. Just like Minato."
"Too fast."
But Jiraiya did not give up. After discovering Rasa's position, he charged over again.
In a short span of time, the two exchanged many rounds.
"So strong!"
"Both sides are so strong!"
The Sunagakure ninja could not help realizing something.
When Jiraiya had attacked them earlier, he had not been serious at all. Compared to now, the difference was far too great.
"But Kazekage-sama will definitely win!"
"That's right. Kazekage-sama will absolutely win!"
"Kazekage-sama is certain to win!"
The voices of the Sunagakure ninja greatly irritated the Konoha ninja.
"Rasa will win?"
"What kind of joke is that? Our Konoha's fighter is one of the legendary Sannin, a man who made his name during the Second Great Ninja War! When Jiraiya-sama was invincible, Rasa was still playing with mud."
"Jiraiya-sama is certain to win!"
Rasa glanced at the situation around him.
The difference in strength between ninja could be enormous.
Some gaps were even greater than the gap between ordinary people and ninja.
In the current battle between himself and Jiraiya, the other ninja on both sides could no longer help at all.
They had completely become an atmosphere group.
"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
Three clusters of flame danced wildly like fire dragons, yet remained fully under Jiraiya's control as they surrounded Rasa from the front, left, and right.
"Quicksand Displacement!"
Rasa's figure vanished again.
The Konoha ninja cursed angrily.
"Is that the only move he knows? Does he only know how to run away?"
"If he doesn't dare face Jiraiya-sama head-on, then he should obediently retreat and admit defeat!"
When Minato Namikaze had used the Flying Thunder God Technique in the past, the Konoha ninja had been very happy.
Facing the rage of their enemies—such as the fury of Kumogakure ninja—the Konoha ninja had not cared at all. They had even mocked them, believing those Kumogakure ninja were simply raging helplessly.
But now, Konoha had lost the Flying Thunder God.
Facing Sunagakure's Quicksand Displacement, the ones raging helplessly had become Konoha.
It was now the Sunagakure ninja's turn to mock Konoha.
"Why shouldn't he use it if he can?"
"If Jiraiya has the skill, let him catch up."
"Exactly. Let Jiraiya learn the Flying Thunder God."
At that moment—
One sand soldier approached Rasa in a somewhat abnormal manner, while disguising its movements as normal.
Just as it was about to get close to Rasa—
A figure emerged from the sand soldier's shadow.
"Toad Flat Shadow Manipulation Technique!"
By hiding within the target's shadow, one could manipulate the target's movements.
After Rasa repeatedly used Quicksand Displacement, Jiraiya realized that ordinary attacks would have no effect against him.
They simply would not hit.
Once an attack arrived, Rasa would directly use Quicksand Displacement.
And Jiraiya had no idea where Rasa had hidden a sand soldier.
Otherwise, he could have lain in wait.
Thus, the method Jiraiya came up with was to use a sand soldier as cover.
He hid within the sand soldier's shadow, taking advantage of Rasa's low guard against his own sand soldiers to approach him.
Once he got close, he would launch a lethal strike against Rasa.
"Now!"
"Rasengan!"
A ball of extremely compressed, rapidly rotating chakra appeared in Jiraiya's hand.
This was the ninjutsu Minato Namikaze had created after drawing inspiration from the Tailed Beast Ball.
An A-rank ninjutsu with tremendous destructive power.
One of Uzumaki Naruto's signature ninjutsu. During the early stages of his ninja career, it was the technique he used most frequently. Even after his strength increased later, he continued to use variants of this technique.
For example, Giant Rasengan.
And Wind Release: Rasenshuriken.
Jiraiya smashed the Rasengan in his hand toward Rasa with all his strength.
But what Jiraiya did not know was that while he believed his strategy of hiding inside the sand soldier's shadow had been effective, all his actions had been completely exposed before Rasa's eyes.
In midair, a Byakugan wrapped in gold dust had covered everything nearby within its field of vision.
Nothing could escape it.
Boom!
The Rasengan hit.
Joy appeared on Jiraiya's face. But the next moment, it instantly froze.
"No!"
The body of the Rasa struck by the Rasengan collapsed with a crash, turning into countless grains of sand.
The true Rasa had already arrived directly above Jiraiya.
"Grant S!"
"Grant N!"
S was granted to Jiraiya.
N was granted to the sand soldier.
Immediately, an extremely powerful attraction acted upon Jiraiya and the sand soldier.
The sand soldier rapidly charged toward Jiraiya. The closer it got, the faster it moved.
Jiraiya's pupils shrank. He turned and charged toward Rasa instead.
"Grant S!"
S was granted to a sand soldier beside Rasa.
The closer Jiraiya ran in that direction, the stronger the repulsive force between them became.
With this push and pull, Jiraiya's speed dropped sharply.
"What ninjutsu is this?"
Jiraiya had never seen such a technique before. For a moment, he did not know how to respond.
But Rasa suffered no trouble at all.
Gradually, Jiraiya fell into disadvantage.
The two sand soldiers caused him enormous interference.
Rasa pressed the advantage and accelerated his assault, attacking with full force.
Because Rasa knew that if he wanted to kill Jiraiya, this was the best chance.
The expressions of the Konoha ninja turned extremely ugly.
"Jiraiya-sama is going to lose?"
"How is that possible?"
"Even Jiraiya-sama isn't Rasa's opponent?"
"No, hurry and support Jiraiya-sama!"
Large numbers of Konoha ninja rushed out.
Seeing this, the Sunagakure ninja across from them rushed out as well.