Qiu Xia's words made Jiraiya's head practically smoke with rage. He was dying to give the boy a good swat, but the sixth sense he had honed through years of war and endless missions told him otherwise. It warned him that if he dared to lay a hand on the child, a lethal danger would manifest one that could very well cost him his life.
In the past, Jiraiya had trusted this intuition implicitly. However, he had already sensed the surroundings; while there were ninja near the ramen shop, none were strong enough to threaten him. As for Qiu Xia, he was just a child. Even if the boy were a genius capable of hiding his chakra, how much strength could a six or seven-year-old truly possess?
Even if one began training in the womb, reaching Kage-level by age seven was unheard of. Not even the Sage of Six Paths could have accomplished such a feat.
Despite his doubts, Jiraiya refrained from acting. For one, they were in a public ramen shop; for another, even if he did move, he felt it was better to do so stealthily.
After driving Jiraiya into a state of depression, Qiu Xia turned his attention back to his meal. Once he had his fill of Ichiraku Ramen, he set his money down and walked out, heading back toward the Uchiha Clan compound.
On the way back, Qiu Xia sensed Jiraiya trailing him. The man had picked up a handful of pebbles and was flicking them his way. In response, Qiu Xia subtly shifted his body at just the right moment and continued walking.
Jiraiya blinked in surprise when he missed. He pulled out another stone and flicked it again, but just as it was about to hit, the pebble dropped short. On his third attempt, the stone missed Qiu Xia entirely and struck a middle-aged man walking toward the ramen shop.
"Ouch! That hurts! Whose brat is being so naughty!?"
Jiraiya: "..."
Qiu Xia kept walking, and Jiraiya continued his clandestine assault. Yet, by the time Qiu Xia reached the gates of the Uchiha Clan, Jiraiya had failed to hit him even once. Every attempt was thwarted by some minor coincidence Qiu Xia turning his head to look at the scenery, tripping over his own feet, stopping to tie a shoelace, or the stone simply hitting someone else.
Frustrated and failing every shot, Jiraiya began to wonder if he had somehow forgotten everything his instructors at the Ninja Academy had ever taught him. Otherwise, how could he possibly miss every single time?
What Jiraiya failed to notice was that during his repeated attacks, a single strand of his white hair had fallen out. Carried by the wind, it had followed Qiu Xia right into the Uchiha compound.
This kid is too strange. I can't hit him at all. Has he awakened some kind of perception ability? But if he had, he should have reacted to being attacked stopped to see who was behind it. This is bizarre. I have to keep an eye on him. Next time I see that brat, I'm going to give him a thorough examination.
While Jiraiya was plotting his next move, Qiu Xia had already returned to his courtyard. He raised his hand, revealing the single strand of white hair caught in his palm.
"Oh, Jiraiya, Jiraiya... I was going to let you off for the sake of the Uchiha, seeing as you haven't done much harm to the clan. But you've been buzzing around me like a persistent fly, and it's getting disgusting. You like to play? Then I'll play with you. Let's see if a self-proclaimed Sage can dodge a curse technique."
As he spoke, Qiu Xia summoned two clones. One clone began crafting small mechanical triggers, while the other began weaving a straw doll. Qiu Xia himself mixed the white hair with a bit of mud, quickly molding a small clay figurine of Jiraiya.
Taking his materials down into the basement, Qiu Xia placed the Jiraiya figurine onto a ritual altar. He began to form hand seals, chanting incantations as he stepped through the ritual patterns.
Once the preparation was complete, he placed the mechanical triggers his clones had made on both sides of the doll. He flipped a switch. "Get ready for your punishment, Jiraiya."
Meanwhile, having witnessed Qiu Xia's oddities, Jiraiya headed to the Hokage Building to report to his teacher. He had just leaped through the window of the Hokage's office and was about to speak when a sudden, sharp pain exploded through him.
"Agh!" Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had been about to ask Jiraiya if he'd found any clues lately, watched in shock as his disciple let out a blood-curdling scream and collapsed face-down on the floor.
"Who? Who is it!? Who used such a vicious move to ambush this Sage!?" Jiraiya scrambled up, clutching his backside, his eyes bloodshot as he glared at the space behind him.
Dammit! He was one of the top elites of Konoha, yet someone had managed to ambush him right inside the Hokage Building. And the method was so despicable daring to use the One Thousand Years of Death on him! Wait, why did the name of that move suddenly pop into his head?
"An attack!?" Hiruzen's expression shifted instantly. He signaled the Anbu, and a squad of masked ninja materialized at once.
Hiruzen and the Anbu scanned the room with high alert, but there was no sign of an intruder. Hiruzen looked at his student with skepticism. "Jiraiya, were you truly attacked?"
"Do you think I'd lie about something like Augh!" Jiraiya started to explain when another wave of intense pain hit him. His face turned the color of a bruised plum. His hands flew from his back to his front, his features contorting as he doubled over, clutching the most vital part of his manhood.
"Hiss!" Seeing Jiraiya's expression and where he was holding himself, the surrounding Anbu winced in collective sympathy. Damn, he took a hit right there? That's gotta hurt.
Standing among the guards, Kakashi Hatake watched the scene with a pensive look. He turned to Hiruzen. "Third Lord... do you think it could be Obito?"
At the mention of Obito Uchiha, Hiruzen's face darkened. This eerie scene wasn't as gruesome as the deaths of Itachi Uchiha and Danzo, but the bizarre nature of the attack was indeed reminiscent of Obito Uchiha's methods.
"Obito Uchiha! Come out this instant! What is it you want!?" Hiruzen roared in anger. Was there no end to this? Even if Obito wanted revenge on Konoha, hadn't he done enough? He had already caused the deaths of the Fourth Hokage and his wife,
murdered Itachi Uchiha and Shisui Uchiha, killed three of the clan elders, and reclaimed his Mangekyō Sharingan. Now he was back for more? Did he truly want a fight to the death with the village?
Down in his basement, Qiu Xia was watching the chaos in the Hokage Building via the Maoshan Profound Light Technique. Seeing Hiruzen's face, his mood soured.
"I think I've been looking at this the wrong way. I haven't moved against you, you old relic, because I didn't want to plunge Konoha and the ninja world into a new round of war. I shouldn't kill you, but that doesn't mean I can't mess with you! Since you're so eager to jump around, I'll give you a proper taste of your own medicine."
Qiu Xia pulled out more materials. In less than a minute, he had constructed two more simple mechanical rigs. Just like with Jiraiya's straw doll, he set up the mechanism to strike from both the front and back. The frequency was set to about once a minute: first a One Thousand Years of Death, followed by a lineage-ending groin strike.
Back in the office, Hiruzen was about to bark more orders when a searing pain struck him from behind. His face paled, and he let out a sharp cry. "Ah! Obito Uchiha, you bastard! To use such a low-class trick against an old man!"
Jiraiya, still clutching his own groin, looked at his teacher with a sudden sense of shared suffering. He was about to say something to Hiruzen when that all-too-familiar agony flared up again. "Ah! Not again!"
With both of them under constant assault, the Anbu were ordered to investigate. They placed seals and erected barriers to block any incoming attacks, but nothing worked. They even summoned a medical ninja to help.
However, after a thorough check, the medic found that wounds only appeared at the exact moment of the "attacks" and vanished afterward. Furthermore, they confirmed that neither man had been poisoned.
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