While the injured ninja were fighting a defeated battle, two fifteen-person teams were giving their all to get a sliver of a chance of survival, to run away, and to do that they have to go against one of the strongest ninja in the world.
One group consisting of the commander of the outpost was going toward Jiraiya, who was waiting for them. None of the injured ninja went toward that direction because that was the job of this group, a group that could be considered best of the best in one of the major villages in the world.
A team of fifteen Jonins and elite Jonin, this would even force a Kage to go all out in front of them, and there was a non-zero chance of them coming out victorious from such a fight.
Considering the force he was about to take on, and the current situation they were in, Jiraiya knew he couldn't handle this lightly anymore. A small mishap and these Ninja would pounce on him like hyenas. Taking a deep breath, he made a series of hand signs one after another, and in the next second, Ma and Pa were standing in front of him.
"So you finally called us, Jiraiya boy," Pa said, taking his seat on Jiraiya's shoulder, Ma doing the same on the other one.
"Yeah, the situation is a little dire and I may need your help against them," Jiraiya said, pointing toward the crowd moving toward him with blood in their eyes. While he was looking toward them, his facial features began changing; his nose inflated with some small bumps appearing on it, his eyes started resembling those of frogs, red lines emerged on his face, covering it like a half mask for a warrior.
Suddenly the pressure emanating from Jiraiya's body increased manyfold. The task which was previously hard but manageable for Kumo Ninja suddenly became close to impossible.
Jiraiya was looking toward them, especially toward the commander of the outpost, Kaito Raizan, an elite Jonin from Kumogakure, once a general of a small army during the third great ninja war, the person with more military achievements than the age of all of the combined ninja on his team.
The person Jiraiya was most cautious against, not because of his power which was pretty high in its own regard, but his most lethal weapon was his strategic mind. If given a chance, he would surely make things difficult for him.
"So he is the main one," Pa said, looking toward the commander as well.
"Yeah, he should be eliminated first, otherwise some of them may escape," Jiraiya said, and then he disappeared from his position. Not using movement Jutsu, nor any invisibility Jutsu, heck he didn't even use any jutsu at all, it was just sheer speed of him that made his movement look like small distance teleportation.
The Kumo ninja became tense at that, but the person who was most tense was Kaito himself, knowing fully well that Jiraiya would target him first. That's why he had given orders to his team: he and 3 more ninja would stall Jiraiya enough for them to make a run for themselves.
Kaito had given up on any hope of coming out of this fight alive; there was no way Konoha would miss a chance to eliminate him. So he decided to act as a bait. Even if he had to die, he would give his brothers a chance to run away, to go back to the village and tell Raikage-sama what Konoha had dared to do in the land of lightning.
From the looks of it, they don't want this to happen, and that means this is what they have to do. That's why he was happy with sacrificing himself for the group, but now seeing Jiraiya like that, he had lost the confidence of holding Jiraiya back for enough time to make a difference.
And like his thoughts were a cue, Jiraiya appeared in front of him in an instant, throwing a punch straight toward him. Kaito, who was already aware of something like this happening, had already covered his body in lightning chakra. His reaction speed, which was already high to begin with, was increased by a level, due to which he was able to dodge Jiraiya's punch which was coming toward him.
This should have meant Jiraiya missed the attack, giving him time to retaliate, but contrary to the expectation of everyone present there, the face of Kaito got disfigured like some invisible entity had punched him with enough force to shatter boulders.
The moment the invisible punch connected, his facial bones were broken with a sickening crunch sounding in the area. Blood came out of Kaito's nose, eyes, ears, and whatever was left of his mouth. It was clear that he was so close to death that all it needed was a gentle push to make him fall under the embrace of death.
His subordinates rushed to protect him, but Jiraiya was a tad bit faster than them. He reached Kaito before they could, but then—
"Fall back, boy!" Ma said. Jiraiya didn't need to be told twice; even though he had not sensed anything, he still followed Ma's advice without a single shred of doubt in his mind.
While he was jumping back, he saw a small smile forming on the face of Kaito. With all the blood staining his face, it looked almost demonic, followed by an explosion which consumed Kaito and his surroundings completely.
Jiraiya was thrown away by the explosion, along with some of Kumo ninja who went to rescue their commander. It was truly a vile move, taking the enemy with himself was fine, but even all of his subordinates who were running toward him to save him from Jiraiya.
That is something Kaito would do, catching the enemy off guard. Jiraiya was about to steady himself when a ninja appeared behind him. Not wasting the chance their commander had provided them at the cost of his life, he unleashed the most lethal strike he could at Jiraiya.
Straining his chakra reserve to pass as much lightning chakra as he could in the attack, Jiraiya sensed the attack and used Iron Skin Jutsu along with Sage mode enhanced defense. Most of the attack should be handled by this much, but the last full-powered attack from an elite Jonin—
At the final moment, he used his Kunai to intercept the attack head on, flowing earth chakra in the kunai to snuff out some of the lighting chakra, but even that was not enough. The sword sliced through the Kunai and continued toward Jiraiya's body, but now was only powerful enough to leave a deep wound on Jiraiya, which was a far cry from before, which could have bisected him.
Pa released a wind blade toward the Jonin while he was busy with the attack, killing him effectively.
"Are you fine, Jiraiya boy?" Ma asked.
"Alive. But we have a bigger problem than my condition," Jiraiya replied. There were still 9 Ninja uninjured, weighing their options of running away or attacking a now injured enemy.
Finally remembering the speed Jiraiya showed and his other feats, they decided to eliminate the plan of running away and focus on fighting Jiraiya head on.
Sensing this, Jiraiya brought out a sticky bandage from his storage seal to seal the wound for now and stop the blood loss. Just as he applied the bandage, three Jonin were onto him, ready to remove his head from his body.