"Yeah, yeah, it's all the same to me. A frog... Alright, alright, a toad if that's what you want,"
Shukaku initially wanted to keep calling him a frog, but after seeing Gamabunta's genuinely displeased and almost explosive face, he was forced to hold back his words a bit.
As a wise prospective great boss, he had to be a little more sincere and understanding when recruiting his first potential little brother, so that the other party would be more convinced that he was not just any boss and was worthy of being followed.
"So, how about it?"
Shukaku continued, reverting to his arrogant tone.
"As long as you're willing to be my sworn younger brother, you can walk throughout this ninja world with your head held high and full of pride! No matter who you meet later, just say loudly that you are the younger brother of the mighty Master Shukaku, and I guarantee no one will dare to underestimate or humiliate you!"
"Hahaha! Become someone else's sworn younger brother?" Gamabunta laughed mockingly.
"I'm not interested at all!" Gamabunta flatly refused Shukaku's proposal and even seemed to further disdain the Tanuki's arrogant words.
"Then what do you mean by walking sideways throughout the ninja world? If you're really that great and strong, why were you sealed inside that weak brat from the Sand Village for so many years, huh?"
Hana smirked again within the seal. "Checkmate! This Big Toad has a sharp tongue too. The Tanuki must be really annoyed now. Fufufu, I like this."
"Hey, Smelly Toad! Who said I wanted to be sealed in the Sand Village?!"
Shukaku's voice rose, clearly offended.
"I... I was just a little tired at that time, so I decided to run to the Sand Village and rest there for a bit! That's all!"
Shukaku was so angry that he kept stomping his large feet on the ground, creating small tremors. He refused to admit the bitter reality that he had indeed been sealed and controlled.
"Damn Smelly Toad! I tried to recruit you with good intentions and full sincerity, but you didn't appreciate me at all?! In that case, don't blame me for being rough and beating you up right now!"
After saying that, without waiting for Gamabunta to reply, Shukaku took a deep breath until his large stomach bulged, then slapped his stomach hard.
A giant, compressed wind chakra ball immediately shot out from his mouth, heading straight for Gamabunta.
"Damn it! This guy is exactly as the rumors have said all along! He's not just weird, but also mentally unstable!" Gamabunta cursed.
Gamabunta deftly leaped high using his extraordinary jumping ability, successfully avoiding Shukaku's deadly Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet.
Then, while his body was still in the air, he immediately launched a counterattack without the slightest hesitation.
"Suiton: Teppōdama (Water Style: Gunshot)!"
A giant water ball was spewed from Gamabunta's mouth and crashed violently towards Shukaku.
However, when the water ball was only halfway there, another drilling air bullet flew from Shukaku's direction and destroyed Gamabunta's water ball on the spot, creating a large steam explosion.
Amidst the splashing water and billowing steam, Gamabunta's figure nimbly passed through the remaining water and rushed forward towards Shukaku.
The Tanto short sword tucked at his waist was now drawn, and its gleaming sharp blade slashed directly towards Shukaku's large head.
"You Smelly Toad! You think a playful attack like that can hurt me, huh?! Don't dream!"
Shukaku slapped the ground with both his large hands.
Instantly, a thick and sturdy wall of quicksand emerged from the ground, directly blocking the path of Gamabunta's sword slash, just in time to protect his head.
"I am the strongest tailed beast! Prepare to feel my wrath!"
Several wind chakra balls were again spewed from Shukaku's mouth in succession.
As a tailed beast, the one thing he never worried about was running out of chakra.
When fighting others, he didn't need to bother thinking about chakra consumption or efficiency.
He could just continuously throw powerful ninjutsu without stopping until his opponent was exhausted or destroyed.
"Damn it! What a troublesome and chakra-wasting Tanuki!"
Gamabunta cursed in annoyance, but his body continued to move nimbly, avoiding Shukaku's barrage of drilling air bullet attacks.
Although Shukaku's power might only rank low among the other tailed beasts, if he were to be hit directly by one of those drilling bullets from his opponent, he would definitely be severely injured, and then he might have to return to Mount Myōboku in shame.
Gamabunta felt his pride torn to shreds.
Being pushed back and underestimated by his opponent as soon as he appeared on stage, and he absolutely couldn't afford to lose face like this in front of Naruto and Sasuke.
However, he also had to admit that he didn't have as much chakra reserve as Shukaku, and he couldn't continuously launch powerful ninjutsu like his opponent did.
Facing Shukaku's seemingly endless air bullet attacks, Gamabunta could only helplessly dodge for the time being, looking for an opening for a counterattack.
"Damn it! If I don't teach you a proper lesson today, you Damn Tanuki, will you really think that I, the great Gamabunta, am afraid of you, huh?!"
After successfully dodging another air bullet, and seeing Shukaku laughing mockingly over there, Gamabunta's eyes suddenly focused sharply.
A large amount of chakra began to condense and swirl around his body.
"Hey, Naruto! And you, that Uchiha brat named Sasuke! I remember one of you has a wind element affinity and the other has a fire element affinity, right?!"
Gamabunta suddenly exclaimed.
"That's right, Bunta! What's up? What do you want to do?!"
Naruto nodded quickly and asked in confusion, not understanding what the Toad Boss was planning.
"What do I want to do, you ask? Of course, I'm going to use a great combination jutsu to thrash and defeat this damn Tanuki until he can't move!"
Gamabunta grinned broadly, revealing his large teeth.
"Although the tacit understanding and cooperation between you and me will never be as high and smooth as when I fight alongside Jiraiya, I think it still won't be a big problem to use some simple ninjutsu to cooperate and create a devastating attack. I'll summon a large amount of Toad Oil (Gama Yuei) later. Sasuke, you use your strongest fire technique! Naruto, you use your wind technique to increase the power and range of Sasuke's fire technique! Then, use that amplified flame to ignite the Toad Oil I summon! I'm going to roast that damn Tanuki until he's well done!"
"No problem, leave it to me, Bunta!"
Naruto and Sasuke responded almost simultaneously, the chakra aura around their bodies beginning to condense rapidly, ready to launch an attack.
"Alright! Get ready, you two!"
Gamabunta took a deep breath until his chest bulged, then a large amount of thick and sticky toad oil gushed out from his mouth.
"Ninpō – Gama Yueidan (Ninja Art – Toad Oil Bullet)!"
"Katon – Gōryūka no Jutsu (Fire Style – Great Dragon Fire Technique)!"
"Fūton – Daitoppa (Wind Style – Great Breakthrough)!"
Almost at the same time Gamabunta summoned and spewed out the sea of Toad Oil, Sasuke's giant dragon-shaped Fire Jutsu and Naruto's gale-force Wind Jutsu were also released simultaneously.
After being blessed and amplified by the Daitoppa wind gusts, Sasuke's already large fire dragon suddenly expanded many times over rapidly, turning into a terrifying giant fire vortex.
Then, the giant fire dragon crashed into the sea of Toad Oil, burning and igniting the toad oil in an instant.
Due to the significant difference in body size, the Toad Oil Bullet Gamabunta used this time was dozens of times larger and more voluminous than what Jiraiya usually used.
Even if his opponent was a giant monster like Shukaku the One-Tail, the sea of Toad Oil spewed by Gamabunta was more than enough to cover and submerge his opponent's entire body.
The sea of Toad Oil, now ignited by the Wind-amplified Fire Element, emitted an incredibly terrifying heatwave.
The air around them seemed to distort and tremble violently due to the extremely high temperature.
And Shukaku, who was the main target of that devastating combination attack, was now screaming very loudly and shrilly.
"OUCH! IT HURTS! HOT! THIS HURTS SO MUCH, DAMN IT!"
He hadn't expected at all that Gamabunta and those two Genin brats would suddenly launch such a powerful combination attack.
Shukaku was surprised and caught off guard, and in an instant, he was doused and trapped within the now fiercely burning sea of Toad Oil.
Although Shukaku was an entity formed from pure chakra aggregate, his various senses were not much different from those of living creatures in general.
Of course, he could feel the excruciating pain of being burned alive.
As the blazing fire began to burn and melt his sandy body, Shukaku immediately screamed in pain and began to try to dodge frantically.
While rolling on the ground, he also deftly added several layers of thick sand shields around Gaara, who was still unconscious on his head, trying his best to prevent his Jinchuriki from being accidentally hit by the fire.
Although a tailed beast like himself could be revived after death, Shukaku had absolutely no particular hobby of feeling suffering or pain, and of course, he didn't want to endure the terrifying pain of death.
Therefore, ensuring the safety and life of Gaara, his Jinchuriki, became his main task at this moment.
At this moment, Shukaku suddenly felt a little envious of Isobu the Three-Tails.
That turtle monster had a water element affinity.
If he himself had a water element affinity like Isobu, wouldn't it be much easier for him to face and extinguish this sea of fire that was now burning him?
Shukaku frantically controlled the remnants of his sand to form a thick defensive wall around his body, trying his best to withstand the continuous onslaught of fire.
He felt that if he was roasted a little longer in this giant oven, he might actually be roasted alive until both his sides were golden brown and crispy.
Fortunately, just as Shukaku felt he was about to suffer total dehydration and turn into a burnt sand statue, the blazing sea of fire on the opposite side finally began to subside and extinguish itself.
The feeling of relief from surviving that terrible disaster made Shukaku unconsciously wipe the cold sweat (which wasn't actually there) from his forehead.
"What a pity. The level of tacit understanding and cooperation between you three turned out not to be very high, huh,"
Gamabunta said with a slightly regretful tone, looking at the remnants of the dying fire.
"We couldn't truly connect and unify our chakra together to use the real Toad Oil Flame Bomb jutsu. We could only passively rely on the natural flammability of Toad Oil and its ability to be ignited by Fire Jutsu to use this incomplete and much weaker version of the Toad Oil Flame Bomb. Otherwise, if you had actually faced a perfect Toad Oil Flame Bomb directly just now, even if the opponent was a tailed beast like you, you definitely wouldn't have ended up so well and as relaxed as you are now!"
If the person standing on Gamabunta's head at that moment had been Jiraiya, Shukaku, who had just been hit directly by the Toad Oil Flame Bomb, would definitely not have just been screaming in pain and still able to stand relatively intact like now.
"DAMN SMELLY FROG! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"
After managing to shake off the remaining obstructing and slightly burnt sand on his body, Shukaku roared with extreme anger, his voice echoing.
When had the great and dignified Shukaku, the feared Ruler of the Desert, the One-Tail, ever suffered such humiliation?
He had actually just been roasted alive over a fire by an annoying dead toad and two impolite naughty children!
This was unforgivable!
"I've told you countless times, I'm a TOAD, not a FROG! You Damn Eyeless Tanuki!"
Gamabunta also got angry, refusing to be outdone. "If those ugly eyes of yours are useless, just gouge them out and give them to someone who needs them more!"
Although frogs and toads might look similar to the untrained eye, as a true toad with high self-esteem, how could Gamabunta let others continuously miscall him a frog?!
That was a great insult!
Hana burst out laughing inside Naruto's seal, tears even welling up in the corners of her eyes.
"Oh my goodness! A frog and toad debate in the middle of an invasion! This... this is too ridiculous! My prince, it seems your destiny is always surrounded by such absurd things! Buahahaha! My stomach hurts!"
Hana's kimono was slightly disheveled from her uncontrollable laughter.