Chapter 76: Malice

Right after Tsunade yelled, an explosion tag attached to a kunai flew straight at them, causing her to quickly stomp and make a large rock come out of the ground.

She then kicked it into the kunai, making it explode away from them.

She then grabbed Kasume and body flickered with him inside of the cave, where Jiraiya and Orochimaru were already up and ready for battle.

"Orochimaru, stay here and protect him." Tsunade told Orochimaru, to which he nodded and accepted the order.

She then turned her attention to Jiraiya as she spoke "Jiraiya, come with to take out any enemies that are here."

Then, with a tactic understanding, the two both body flickered back out of the cave, with them seeing three shinobi with a rock on their forehead protectors.

'Shinobi from the Hidden Stone. However, I don't feel their chakra reserves are too large, so it shouldn't be too difficult to take them both down quickly.' Tsunade thought to herself.

One of the shinobi grew a vicious smile on his face as he spoke "Well, it seems we may get to enjoy ourselves with one of these tree huggers."

The other two laughed in agreement as they all began to pull out their weapons in preparation.

Tsunade simply remained unfazed by the comment, though she did feel somewhat disgusted by them.

However, before she could begin her attack, she was left completely stunned at what happened, as were the remaining two shinobi.

The reason for their being only two was simply: Jiraiya had gone directly in front of the one who made the comment and stabbed him in the throat with a kunai, killing him instantly.

The other two could only feel a chill travel down their backs and sweat pouring from their faces as Jiraiya looked up and stared at them both with cold eyes.

"Whose next?" he asked in a calm voice, though one could notice the deep amount of malice and hatred laced in his tone.

Both shinobi jumped back and began weaving sins for ninjutsu as they spoke

"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Jutsu!!"

"Earth Style: Tearing Earth Turning Palm!!"

A dragon burst from the ground and began spitting mud bullets at Jiraiya, while on the other hand, the ground began tearing and folding in onto him.

Jiraiya jumped from his position and onto one of the trees, after which he skillfully dodged each of the projectiles, treating each as if they weren't even there.

He then moved close to one of the shinobi, with him hitting him in the chest so hard that his rib cage caved in, killing him as well.

The last one, seeing the futility of the situation, decided to flee and tried to body flicker away.

However, his attempt was unsuccessful as Tsunade appeared in front of him and punch him straight into the ground whilst using her chakra-enhanced strength, creating a powerful shockwave and a crater upon impact.

She didn't even check to see if he was dead as she felt his heartbeat completely stop on the ground.

Jiraiya then appeared by Tsunade and asked with a concerned expression and asked "Are you alright, Tsuna?"

Tsunade simply responded by nodding, after which they headed back to the cave to make sure that Orochimaru and Kasume were fine.

After making it back to the cave and seeing they were fine, Tsunade spoke "Since our position is compromised, we'll have to leave now so that we don't deal with any more unnecessary trouble."

The group all agreed, after which they once again took off in the darkness of the night.

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