“Your stealth has improved considerably.”
Jiraiya turned around and raised his gaze toward the woman standing in the tree—the girl who had once been his student.
“And you’ve grown into quite the beauty… Konan.”
Konan stood silently upon the branch, her face completely devoid of emotion.
The steady drizzle fell upon her blue hair, soaking the paper flower pinned above her temple.
Droplets slid down her rain-cold eyes, fell upon the surface of her loose black cloak, and traced the blood-red clouds decorating it before vanishing from sight.
Then, little by little, the edges of the cloak began to lift—
Like layers of paper peeling apart.
“You used to be such a gentle little girl who loved origami,” Jiraiya said, his gaze sharpening.
“I never imagined you’d grow up and turn yourself into paper.”
Another piece of information from Naruto’s memories had just been confirmed.
“Who’s this little girl, Jiraiya?” Shima asked impatiently from his shoulder.
“She’s one of my former students, Shima-sama.”
Jiraiya answered lightly, then looked back at Konan.
“I’d rather not fight you.
How about we wait until the one rushing this way arrives before we begin?”
“What remarkable sensory abilities.”
Konan’s expression remained unchanged.
“Is it because of that strange appearance of yours, Jiraiya-sensei?”
Rustle—!
Her lower body suddenly dissolved into countless sheets of white paper.
The paper gathered behind her in two enormous clusters before unfolding into a pair of pure-white wings.
With a single beat—
Fwoosh!
Countless paper senbon tore through the rain, descending upon Jiraiya at terrifying speed.
“Looks like there’s no avoiding it…”
Jiraiya’s expression turned solemn.
He stamped both feet against the ground, kicking off his wooden geta, while his hands swiftly formed a sequence of seals.
“Needle Jizō!”
His long white hair suddenly grew at an explosive rate.
In the blink of an eye, it wrapped around his entire body, transforming into an impenetrable shell of hardened needles.
Clack-clack-clack-clack!
The storm of paper senbon struck his hair, only to be deflected one after another.
“So you still use that technique…”
Konan murmured softly.
But then—
Boom!
The ground beneath the tree suddenly exploded.
Jiraiya, empowered by Sage Mode, shot upward with movement speed far beyond that of an ordinary shinobi.
He reached the branch in an instant—
And unleashed a sweeping kick.
Konan had no time to react.
Before she could fully transform her body into paper, Jiraiya’s heel slammed into her side.
“Guh—!”
Blood spilled from her lips as her body was sent flying backward.
Mid-flight, half of her body scattered into sheets of paper.
Jiraiya did not give her even a moment to recover.
“Sage Art: Toad Oil Bullet Barrage!”
Dozens of masses of oil erupted from his mouth, chasing after Konan before she could regain her balance.
With the seemingly inexhaustible chakra granted by Sage Mode, Jiraiya used sheer numbers to seal off every possible escape route.
Konan was struck from every direction.
Oil drenched her paper body.
At the same time—
“Wild Lion’s Mane Technique!”
Jiraiya’s white hair surged forward like a living beast.
There was not the slightest gap between one technique and the next.
In the blink of an eye, his hair wrapped tightly around Konan’s oil-soaked body, binding her in midair.
However, at that exact moment—
A dark figure descended from the heavens between them.
Shhk!
The Wild Lion’s Mane was severed straight through the middle.
Amid the falling rain, an orange-haired man landed upon the ground.
He wore the same black cloak decorated with crimson clouds as Konan.
The man slowly turned around.
His face was utterly expressionless.
No—
It was more than that.
There was no warmth, no vitality, and not even the faintest trace of humanity in his features.
Konan landed quietly behind him.
So he’s finally here…
Jiraiya stood atop the branch, staring down at the newcomer.
Fukasaku narrowed his eyes from his shoulder.
“Another one showed up, Jiraiya-chan.
Do you know this one too?”
“Old man, look at his eyes!”
Shima’s startled voice came from Jiraiya’s other shoulder.
“His eyes?”
Fukasaku focused his gaze.
Only then did he notice the strange concentric rings within the orange-haired man’s eyes.
“That is the Rinnegan,” Jiraiya said, his expression graver than ever.
“The eyes of the Sage of Six Paths?!” Fukasaku exclaimed.
Shima was equally stunned.
“To think such eyes truly exist in this world…”
“Konan.”
Pain spoke in an emotionless voice.
“You may withdraw.”
Konan remained silent for a moment.
Then she lowered her head.
“Understood.”
Her body scattered into countless sheets of paper, which vanished into the rain.
Jiraiya did not attempt to stop her.
His eyes remained fixed upon the Pain standing below.
This man clearly was not one of the Six Paths of Pain he had seen among Naruto’s future memories.
In other words—
This must be the one Pain whom the future me managed to seal and send back to Konoha.
The original Animal Path.
The instant that thought crossed his mind, Jiraiya leaped from the branch.
He raised his right hand.
Vrrrrm—!
A gigantic sphere of spiraling chakra rapidly formed above his palm.
At the same time, the Animal Path brought his hands together.
“Summoning Jutsu!”
A summoning formula spread across the ground beneath him.
Boom!
A massive three-headed hound emerged from the smoke and lunged directly toward Jiraiya.
“Sage Art: Super Big Ball Rasengan!”
Jiraiya drove the enormous Rasengan into the summoned beast.
BOOOOOOM!
The sphere of spinning chakra crashed into the three-headed hound with overwhelming force.
Yet instead of being destroyed—
The injured hound split apart.
One became three.
By dividing its body, it dispersed much of the damage it had received.
The three giant hounds immediately regrouped and pounced upon Jiraiya from different directions.
After driving the Rasengan downward, Jiraiya used the recoil to remain suspended in midair for a brief moment.
“Old man, use Wind Release!” Shima shouted while rapidly forming Fire Release seals.
“Jiraiya, use oil!”
“Got it!” Fukasaku replied.
“Understood!”
Jiraiya formed his own hand seals.
The two toads and one man leaned backward at the same time.
Their chests expanded as they drew in a tremendous breath.
The three summoned hounds were already upon them.
Then—
“Sage Art: Goemon!”
Jiraiya released an enormous torrent of oil.
Shima unleashed fire.
Fukasaku added wind.
Fire ignited the oil.
Wind fed the flames.
What kind of destructive force would result when three Sage-level beings combined their power into a single composite Fire Release technique?
The answer appeared before them.
WHOOOOOOOSH—!
An ocean of blazing fire surged forward like an unstoppable tidal wave.
It swallowed the sky.
It covered the earth.
In a single instant, all three summoned hounds were engulfed by the inferno.
The temperature of the surrounding area skyrocketed.
The rain falling from the heavens evaporated before it could even touch the ground.
Every trace of moisture in the air vanished in an instant.
A sea of fire flooded the battlefield.
…
The Ninja Academy
The day’s classes were about to end.
Iruka stood at the front of the classroom and looked over his students.
“I have one final question for everyone.”
The students gradually quieted down.
Iruka smiled and asked—
“If tomorrow were the end of the world, who would you want beside you?”
“The end of the world?”
Naruto leaned back against the desk behind him, both hands folded behind his head.
Naturally, his thoughts drifted toward the Fourth Shinobi World War contained within his future memories.
He remembered Uchiha Obito and Uchiha Madara.
He remembered how they had repeatedly spoken of the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
I guess that would count as the end of the world…
“For example,” Iruka continued, “imagine the moon suddenly falling from the sky.”
“If the world’s going to end, I hope it isn’t the moon that falls.”
Chōji stared dreamily ahead from the front row.
“I hope it rains meat instead.”
The entire classroom erupted into laughter.
Iruka’s face twitched.
A drop of cold sweat slid down his forehead, but by now, he was already accustomed to Chōji’s way of thinking.
“Anyway,” Iruka continued, “write down the name of the person you would want beside you at the end.”
The students began taking out blank sheets of paper.
Naruto stared at the empty page on his desk.
The laughter around him gradually faded from his awareness.
My father and mother are already gone.
And I don’t have any friends, either.
His fingers tightened slightly around his pencil.
Who am I supposed to write?
…
Tap.
Jiraiya landed upon the scorched ground.
The flames slowly dispersed.
Everything around him had been burned black.
However, the Animal Path was nowhere to be seen.
“A summoned creature with the ability to camouflage itself like a chameleon?” Fukasaku muttered.
Jiraiya and Shima stared intently at the seemingly empty space ahead.
All three of them were currently in Sage Mode.
Their ability to sense chakra far surpassed that of most sensory-type shinobi.
To the naked eye, there was nothing there.
However, through their chakra perception, an enormous mass of chakra stood directly before them.
And within the upper portion of that chakra—
There was another, distinctly different chakra signature.
In an instant, Jiraiya and the two Great Toad Sages understood what had happened.
The Animal Path had summoned an enormous creature capable of turning invisible.
Then, after hiding inside the creature’s mouth, both summoner and summon had vanished from sight.
Crackle… crackle…
A gigantic and bizarre summoned beast slowly appeared before them.
Its entire body had been burned black.
The rich scent of roasted flesh spread through the air.
Is it dead?
The creature slowly collapsed.
Poof!
Its body disappeared in a cloud of white smoke.
At the same moment, a voice echoed from within the smoke.
“Summoning Jutsu!”
Jiraiya’s pupils contracted.
Within the slowly clearing white smoke—
Six human silhouettes appeared.
For the first time since entering Amegakure, Jiraiya’s expression became truly grave.