The Fourth Beast

25

Calm before the Storm

IV

The mission had been compromised.

Honestly, this did not surprise Jiraiya. He knew it was bound to fail with this team. The goal was simple but the stakes were high, and yet most of the members focused on their misplaced pride.

So, why did he bother to stick with them?

The 'Sensei' side of him wanted to see if he could show these kids that the world was not only black and white. The world and its inhabitants had a lot to offer if they were willing to just sit down and listen. At the same time, he wanted to understand their mindset. What drove them? What fueled their hatred? Yes, he did his research in this area, but he always preferred firsthand experience over written documents.

The 'Shinobi' side of him, on the other hand, wanted to leverage the failure. All the parties involved knew that this mission was a critical one. And all the members of the task force were aware of this fact, even though most of them did not act like it. So, if the mission was compromised because of certain task force members, which it had, then they would be held accountable... which in return would put their leaders in a very sticky situation.

A sticky situation that the kingdom could use as a bargaining chip somewhere down the line.

Of course, he had no intention of letting Rizevim go. He was like Danzo. He knew many secrets but it was not worth the trouble that he was sure to bring. That was why, Jiraiya had a backup plan, he always did.

Jiraiya made a deal with Diehauser Belial. The champion of the Rating Game would give him his full support in assassinating Rizevim. Yes, he was aware that the son of the original Lucifer fell into the 'Super' class, but so was he. Jiraiya was confident that he could take down Rizevim with the help of 'Worthless', Diehauser's unique clan ability.

Of course, Diehauser's help did not come for free. In return for his complete cooperation, Jiraiya would pass him his findings regarding the death of Cleria Belial with the condition that Diehauser would never mention this deal to anyone.

"I will send you the coordinates, wait for me there."

The small rectangular card in his hand started to crumble, indicating that the order was received from the other side, "I really hope this works."

If this plan of his failed, then the other option was to call for reinforcements from the kingdom; Jiraiya really did not want to resort to that.

Another explosion, a bit further than the last one.

Jiraiya took a deep long breath. It was hard to fade out the screams and harder not to take any actions, but he was used to it. One could say, he was quite experienced when it came to dealing with situations such as this. Steeling his nerves, he started to move through the shadows once again.

Xenovia Quarta and Irina Shidou.

Jiraiya knew those two girls would compromise the mission, but he did not know that they would do it in such a spectacular fashion.

When in a team, Jiraiya always prioritized teamwork. Without it, power, knowledge, and even experience would fall short. This was not a theory that he came up with. He learned this from his own experience, repeatedly. With that in mind, Jiraiya gave a bit of a pep talk to the members and have them do some light but fun team-building activities. Unfortunately, most of the members were not so keen on improving their teamwork. There was less cooperation and lesser chemistry between the members. Yes, some gave it an honest try but it was not enough.

Jiraiya knew that if he had enough time, he could have knocked them into shape. Unfortunately, he had his hands full. So, he decided to cut his losses.

He went for the most troublesome ones. He asked Xenovia and Irina to be replaced with someone more mature. He did not need someone powerful or experienced, but someone who would understand the severity of the mission. Of course, he did not directly reach out to Michael about this. He let Naruto handle the matter since he had more free time than him.