Chapter 289: Satoru's Self-Blame.

"How about we each take a step back? I'm not your opponent, but you can't kill me either. And from now on, I won't step into the Shinobi world, I'll just stay in this small Land of Snow. How about it?"

The Snow God immediately proposed to Hatake Satoru with a gleam in her eyes. Although she knew that Hatake Satoru couldn't kill her, she wasn't so arrogant as to forget her place.

"No way."

Hatake Satoru shook his head with a smile, refusing.

"So, since you can't kill me, what are you going to do?"

The Snow God showed a look of indifference at this moment. Since Hatake Satoru couldn't do anything to her, she naturally had no fear in her heart.

"Since physical attacks are useless, let's make you brain-dead."

As soon as these words came out, the Snow God had a bad feeling. She turned around and flew away. No matter what Hatake Satoru was going to do next, she didn't want to stay here any longer. She wanted to get as far away from this dangerous guy as possible.

"Heh, do you think you can escape?"

Hatake Satoru sneered, clapped his hands, and appeared directly on the path of the Snow God's escape.

"Domain Expansion: Infinite Void."

As Hatake Satoru's majestic voice fell, a huge black sphere that could be seen from the outside enveloped the Snow God and Hatake Satoru.

"What is that?"

Fukasaku and Shima, the toads below, looked at the black sphere in confusion. However, no one could answer their question.

"I don't know either. I've only seen Satoru use this move once. This is the second time. But when Satoru uses this move, the outcome of the battle is already determined."

Jiraiya said confidently. They didn't know what the inside of the black sphere looked like, but they didn't dare to go inside to experience it. After all, no one knew if there would be any accidents.

After about three minutes, from the outside, cracks appeared on the surface of the black sphere, and white light was visible in the cracks. It was as if the black sphere was enveloping a dazzling light.

Then, more and more cracks appeared on the surface of the black sphere, eventually forming a dense network. After that, with a 'pop', the black sphere turned into countless faint light spots and disappeared.

With the shattering of the black sphere, Hatake Satoru and the Snow God appeared in front of everyone again. However, the states of the two were completely different.

Hatake Satoru stood tall in the sky, his expression cold and indifferent. The Snow God, on the other hand, fell from mid-air, landing heavily on the ground and kicking up a large amount of snow.

Although the outcome of the battle seemed obvious now, Jiraiya and the others still didn't dare to act rashly. After all, these guys' backup plans were definitely more terrifying than they imagined.

"Is the battle over, Satoru?"

Jiraiya put his hands to his mouth, making a loudspeaker, and shouted at Hatake Satoru in the sky.

Hearing this voice, Hatake Satoru turned his head back, looked at Jiraiya on the ground, gave him a thumbs up, and smiled at him, showing a dazzling big tooth.

"Done."

Satoru's voice sounded a bit strange, but the confidence in his tone was undeniable.

Hearing Hatake Satoru's affirmative answer, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, then immediately jumped to the side of the Snow God's body.

"She's so ugly, it's really a waste of my feelings."

Looking at the incredibly ugly Snow God lying on the ground, Jiraiya's face showed an evil expression. He felt that he had been completely deceived by the Snow God.

However, Hatake Satoru didn't fall, but seemed to be contemplating something in the sky.

"If I didn't exist in this world, how would the Snow God that appeared be eliminated?"

Hatake Satoru was very puzzled about this. The Snow God was very powerful, but there were people in the ninja world who could match him, such as Naruto and Sasuke at their peak, and Minato at his current stage.

But according to the original story, Minato had already died, and Naruto and Sasuke hadn't grown up yet. There shouldn't be anyone who could take on the task of eliminating the Snow God.

"Hey, Satoru, what are you thinking about?"

At this time, Jiraiya also noticed the unusual expression on Satoru's face. He shouted several times on the ground before he was heard by Hatake Satoru.

"Nothing, just curious, if I weren't here, how would you guys could eliminate this Snow God?"

Hatake Satoru unconsciously blurted out what he was thinking.

"Haha, aren't you here? How could you not be?"

Jiraiya laughed and patted Hatake Satoru on the shoulder, indicating that Satoru shouldn't think too much.

"And if you weren't in the village at the time, I guess Naruto and I would have taken action long ago."

In an instant, a flash of light crossed Hatake Satoru's mind, and this sentence woke Hatake Satoru up.

That's right, he had wasted a month on the road, and if Jiraiya and Naruto hadn't been waiting for him, they might have taken action long ago. If they had acted earlier to break the Snow God's plot, the Snow God might not have been able to descend successfully.

Suddenly at this moment, Hatake Satoru felt a bit guilty. If he hadn't wasted so much time on the road, would those people not have died?

Feeling the sudden low and somewhat oppressive aura emanating from Hatake Satoru, Jiraiya's eyes shifted, and he immediately understood what Hatake Satoru was thinking.

Although Jiraiya usually has a carefree appearance, he is very careful, thinks very comprehensively, and is very intelligent.

"It's not your fault, Satoru. If Naruto and I could have prevented it one step earlier, this wouldn't have happened. In that sense, some of the responsibility lies with us. If we were braver and dared to take action ourselves, these tragedies wouldn't have happened."

Jiraiya comforted, but as he spoke, Jiraiya's heart also began to ache.

After all, what he said was true.

Hearing the two people's conversation, Naruto also became like this. Only the two toads looked at each other and understood what was going on from this brief conversation.

The reason why the Snow God could come out was closely related to the three of them.

"Although all three of you made mistakes in this matter, the incident has already happened. You have all made up for your mistakes. There is nothing to feel guilty about. You have done what you should do, and your actions can be said to have saved all the people in the ninja world."

Toad Fukasaku comforted from the side.

(End of the chapter)

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