Naruto: I Draw Power Into Reality

"Ahhh, it's so boring without Jiraiya around." 

Tsunade balled her fists, clearly restless. Knowing that Jiraiya was likely safe, she instantly felt more at ease. 

"Girls shouldn't be so violent. Don't you understand gentleness at all?" 

Akaba felt troubled. 

Jiraiya had gone to Mount Myoboku for a vacation, so he had to take his place on this mission. The problem was, with him joining, the Third no longer needed his Shadow Clone to follow them. 

No rest, and he had to look after both Orochimaru and Tsunade—this pressure was overwhelming! 

"Hehe, I do lack the gentleness typical of Uzumaki women. You don't have to come along with us on missions if you don't want to." 

Tsunade's temple bulged, and her expression turned grim as she walked ahead. 

If not for worrying about Akaba's weak constitution, she might have already thrown a punch right away. 

"I never said that." 

Akaba shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. 

Orochimaru eyed Akaba suspiciously, finding nothing unusual, yet feeling something off inside. 

If he hadn't confirmed that Jiraiya had left, he would suspect this Akaba was just like Jiraiya—reckless and death-defying. 

His suspicions deepened — and someone lurking in the shadows had taken notice. 

"This is too over the top; need to avoid this kind of thing from now on." 

Akaba mentally cursed his clone while noting this point carefully. 

The Multiple Shadow Clones possessed independent consciousness; henceforth, he must pay attention to speech and personality disguises! 

Otherwise, even a young Orochimaru could sense something amiss—no way to hide anything from schemers like the Third or Danzo. 

After thinking for a moment, leaving the clones alone didn't seem wise. 

The Shadow Clone slowed down, ending up at the rear of the trio. Then in the next second— 

[Substitution Jutsu!] 

Switching places swiftly, he immediately dispelled the clone. 

Orochimaru had a strange feeling, looking back at Akaba but couldn't pinpoint anything specifically wrong. 

"Hey, why are you sneaking behind? Don't tell me you're planning to run off?" 

Tsunade turned around, looking ferocious. 

If Akaba really wanted to sneak away and slack off, she might actually send a righteous fist flying toward him. 

"No, I'm just tired and walking slower, that's all." 

From beginning to end, Akaba merely tested the combined effects of Shadow Clone and Genjutsu. 

He wouldn't dare slack off now anyway—if he did, chances are neither Orochimaru nor Tsunade could escape alive. 

As lazy as he was, he'd never put his teammates in danger just to save himself some trouble. 

"Oh right, where are we heading today?" 

Lazily trailing behind, Akaba still didn't know what exactly they were supposed to do today. 

To kill rogue ninja, at least there should be a target. 

"The teacher didn't specify. Probably wants us to investigate ourselves. Yesterday we ran into quite a few ninja up ahead, so let's start here today and see whether we can find any clues." 

Orochimaru pointed at the three-way fork ahead in the forest. 

"I'll go check it out." 

Akaba moved forward, standing atop a large tree observing the terrain. 

"So yesterday, you got separated?" 

Looking at the surroundings, he roughly figured things out. 

This place was perfect for an ambush by mist-hidden ninja. Without the Third's Multiple Shadow Clone following, Orochimaru and others would only meet their deaths. 

"Yeah, [Hiding in Mist Technique]." 

Tsunade answered. 

"The traces were cleaned up. Likely someone came back afterward." 

Orochimaru took a circle around and finally remarked indifferently.

"It's the pursuit squad."

Tsunade wasn't surprised at all. If Kirigakure couldn't even handle this, there was no way it could be one of the Five Great Ninja Villages.

It would've been better if Kyoyuki were here.

Akaba sighed inwardly.

Kyoyuki's sensory ability was the deadliest threat to these Kiri ninja.

Under her radar-like perception, techniques like [Hiding in Mist Technique] and [Silent Killing Jutsu] were nothing but jokes.

But she was only six years old. He just couldn't stomach sending a six-year-old girl into the field.

Shaking off the distractions, Akaba climbed to a high spot to look for any clues nearby.

"Huh? What's that?"

Suddenly, he noticed something odd.

"What?"

Tsunade blinked, then looked in the direction Akaba was pointing. With her sharp eyesight, she quickly spotted what he meant by "something unusual."

Slowly walking closer, she finally got a clear look.

It was a torn corner of paper.

"What is this?"

Akaba asked.

"A piece of damaged paper—just a corner. But judging by its appearance…"

Tsunade recalled carefully, her face gradually showing traces of both anger and embarrassment.

"What's wrong?"

"It looks familiar… This might belong to that idiot Jiraiya. Could it have slipped out when he used the Summoning Technique?"

Orochimaru recognized it as well once he saw it.

"Jiraiya's? So this could be—"

Akaba hesitated. If it belonged to Jiraiya, there was a good chance it was one of his artistic works.

Dropped unintentionally during a summoning?

He imagined all sorts of possibilities, and his face twisted in confusion. No wonder Tsunade had such a reaction.

"What's going on?"

Orochimaru was slightly taken aback, not understanding why they both wore such expressions.

"You haven't seen Jiraiya's drawings?"

"Drawings? Does that idiot actually draw pictures?"

Orochimaru paused for a moment, feeling his worldview was being challenged—he'd never imagined that this idiot could actually paint.

"If you saw his work, do you really think it's art?"

Tsunade growled under her breath.

In her memory, Jiraiya started getting more devious from that time onward—like sneaking into women's bathhouses secretly.

"Er, I'm kind of curious now."

Orochimaru murmured softly.

Now knowing Jiraiya drew manga, he couldn't help but think about his own unfinished story idea.

If his work turned out worse than that idiot's, how could someone as proud as Orochimaru accept that?

"Don't go digging into it. That isn't artwork—that's a nightmare!"

Akaba shuddered involuntarily when recalling Jiraiya's terrifying drawing style.

Those images were even worse than those cheesy American comics.

"Forget that for now. Although we have this scrap of paper, without Sakumo and his Fang, we can't track any scent."

Tsunade didn't want to keep discussing Jiraiya's manga—it triggered an overwhelming urge to destroy things inside her.

Akaba glanced around and said, "We'll just search casually. If nothing's found, we return."

The strength of the rogue ninja far exceeded theirs. Even if they located their hideout, the three of them wouldn't dare attack directly.

In that case, there was no harm in simply wandering around aimlessly.

Truthfully speaking, Akaba was quite curious too—what expression would a rogue ninja make upon seeing Jiraiya's manga? Would his face distort in horror, or maybe charge forward frantically?

Somewhere in the Land of Whirlpools.

A group of rogue ninja gathered together, each holding a piece of paper with rough, unbearable illustrations drawn across them.

John's drawings were passed around, and everyone looked at them with great interest, completely captivated.

In this world where artistic paintings didn't exist, people viewed drawings merely as boring decorations. None had ever imagined such a wonderful form of expression.

After a short while, everyone set the pages aside and let out a disappointed sigh.

It was frustrating not being able to read more after just a few pages—it left everyone restless and annoyed.

"What a pity; there's only this much."

"If Haku the white-haired boy hadn't died, we could've grabbed him and made him draw more."

A Chunin sighed, clearly still wanting more.

As he exhaled in disappointment, he turned his head and couldn't help but shudder.

What on earth was going on here?

Everyone's expressions were unusually strange, their eyes seemingly glowing, sending chills down his spine.

"I need to step out for a sec."

"I gotta take a leak."

"Go ahead, go ahead. Leave those drawings to me—I'll take 'em to the cave and keep 'em safe."

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