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[— Manga Scene —]
In one of the alleys near the women's bathhouse, Naruto spotted a strange man sneaking into the place in a suspicious manner.
"You…"
Ebisu turned after noticing Naruto's sudden movement.
"!"
As for the man, he merely let out a quiet laugh.
"Hehehe"
Naruto narrowed his eyes as he stared at him.
'I don't know who you are… but…'
Then he rushed toward him, shouting:
"I won't let you do such a shameless thing!!"
"Hah?"
But the man didn't seem flustered at all.
"Heh."
And in the next moment, the entire scene was turned upside down.
A huge toad appeared suddenly, and on top of it was the same strange person who had been peeping at the women's bath.
Ebisu froze in place, staring at the scene.
"That's!"
The toad's tongue shot out and whipped around violently, and everything around them became chaotic within moments.
Then the man settled on the toad and looked at Naruto with a sharp gaze before saying:
"Don't make noise!"
"What are we going to do if they catch us?!"
Naruto kept staring at him in astonishment.
"..."
Then he screamed inside, his first impression completely overturned.
'Even the previous pervert lost?!'
'Who is this shameless pervert anyway?!'
[— End Scene —]
The readers in the store needed a full moment to process what they had seen.
It wasn't just because Naruto found himself in front of a giant toad…
But the chapter had revealed the second legendary Sannin.
Jiraiya!
And the problem, for at least half the people in the store, was that his legendary reveal came while he was caught peeping at the women's bathhouse.
A sharp exhale came from the man himself before anyone else.
Jiraiya was sitting not far from the shelves, the volume still open between his hands, while his eyes were fixed on his image twenty years later.
Long white hair falling like a wild mane, sharper features, a heavier gaze, a presence that filled the page even while sitting atop a huge toad. Everything in the picture clearly said that time had not left him as he was.
Then he said slowly, as if he hadn't yet decided whether he should be angry or proud:
"… That's me?"
No one answered him immediately.
He looked back at the page, and this time he didn't stop at the toad or at his sharp shout in Naruto's face, but at his own appearance. His astonishment was genuine in a rare way.
He wasn't just seeing an older version of himself; he was seeing a man who carried the years on his shoulders and remained standing despite it all.
"Hmm…"
He muttered, his hand rising unconsciously to his hair.
"I've become quite respectably handsome after two decades."
And in the next moment, the seriousness broke from more than one direction in the store at once.
Tsunade was the first to turn her face away so no one would see her smiling. But her shoulders shook despite herself, then she said after barely composing herself:
"That's the first thing that came out of your mouth?"
Jiraiya turned to her quickly.
"Isn't that the first thing one should notice?!"
He said, protesting.
"Look carefully. I'm majestic. I'm sitting on a giant toad. I have a truly legendary presence."
"Wait… isn't that toad Gama!?"
Tsunade raised her eyebrow.
"Yes. A legendary presence at the women's bathhouse."
And for the first time since the page appeared, muffled laughter was heard in more than one spot. Even some who tried to maintain their composure failed when their eyes returned to the first line of the scene, then to Jiraiya's name.
But Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't laugh.
Or rather, he didn't laugh at first.
The Third Hokage was looking at the page as if time had pulled one of his old faces from a distant place and suddenly placed it before him.
Just moments ago, Orochimaru's name was still casting its shadow over the village and over every political reading of the previous chapters. And now, the second had appeared.
His other student.
The old man's eyes widened slightly, then his face softened faintly as he saw the future Jiraiya alive, loud, chaotic, and ridiculous in his entrance as always… but present.
"Jiraiya…"
The name came out of him quietly, not as a comment on a page, but as a breath his soul had unexpectedly found relief in.
Jiraiya turned to him immediately, and noticed from the tone enough to stop complaining for a moment.
Hiruzen continued, his eyes still on the picture:
"I didn't expect your entrance to be like this… but I can't deny that I'm glad to see you."
Jiraiya's smile widened automatically, then he tried to hide it with a fake cough.
"Of course you'd be glad."
He said, and something of his usual lightness returned to him.
"My legendary appearance isn't something that happens every day."
Tsunade muttered from her side:
"Nor is the appearance of a legendary pervert."
This time, Hiruzen didn't hold himself back completely. A short, quick smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, but it was real. However, it disappeared just as quickly when he remembered what Jiraiya's appearance actually meant after Orochimaru's.
As for Uzumaki Mito, she remained calmer than everyone. She sat in her usual place, looking at the page with eyes experienced enough to know the difference between a funny scene and the heavy implication hidden beneath it. She saw Naruto, saw the toad, and saw the man who snatched him from the embrace of the ordinary scene as if fate had suddenly decided to extend its hand to the boy.
"This isn't the appearance of a passing man."
She finally said.
Her tone was calm, but the nearby store listened to her as one listens to a familiar verdict.
"The page deliberately appears comical at first… then suddenly turns into something else."
Tsunade turned to her.
"Something else like what?"
Mito answered, returning her gaze to the terrified Naruto atop the toad:
"Like a hand that reached out to that boy at the right moment."
The sentence wasn't long, but it gave the scene another weight. Because those who knew the previous chapters, and knew Orochimaru's thread that had begun to approach the children, understood that Jiraiya's appearance here couldn't be read as merely a heavy joke on Ebisu.
It was the entrance of a new power onto the stage.
Shimura Danzo didn't participate in the laughter at all.
His eyebrow rose by a small amount, and his eyes remained fixed on the page in cold silence.
He wasn't surprised that one of the Sannin appeared after Orochimaru; rather, the matter in his mind was closer to a natural result. If Orochimaru had come into the light, declared his rebellion, and revealed that his plan toward Konoha was bigger than a mere passing whim, then it was logical that the other old circles would begin to move, or that the manga would reveal them in succession.
'As I expected.'
He said inside without changing his features.
'When Orochimaru appears, the past doesn't stay asleep for long.'
But despite that, he couldn't prevent his eye from stopping for a moment at Jiraiya's ridiculous entrance.
'As for your way of appearing… it's disgraceful as always.'
On the other side of the store, the impact of the scene on Jiraiya himself seemed more complex than what he wanted to show.
He approached the page again, as if wanting to make sure that the man he saw there was truly his version after twenty years, not just someone who resembled him. In his future appearance was a roughness he didn't yet know, and in his posture atop the toad was a confidence unmistakable to the eye, and in his stern command to Naruto was something of the authority of fighters accustomed to being obeyed when they speak.
And for the first time since the reading began, Jiraiya didn't seem entirely sarcastic.
"I've changed a lot…"
He said this time more to himself than to anyone else.
"More than I expected."
Tsunade heard the sentence and looked at him from the corner of her eye. She saw the jest on his mouth,
but she also saw the brief gleam that passed through his eye then vanished. The man was happy about his appearance, yes. And he was astonished by his look after two decades, yes. But behind all that was something else, more subtle: a small acknowledgment that the time awaiting him was not light.
And that's why she didn't tease him this time.
As for Hiruzen, he kept watching his student in a short silence. He too didn't miss what passed over Jiraiya's face of genuine astonishment. And he didn't miss, more than that, that the page itself chose to present the man with his usual mix of absurdity and power.
As if it wanted to say that this loud fool would remain a loud fool… but he would also be something the village couldn't do without.
"Your appearance at this timing isn't a coincidence."
Hiruzen finally said.
Jiraiya raised his head to him.
"You mean after Orochimaru?"
Hiruzen nodded slowly.
"Yes."
He said.
"While the previous chapter was opening the door of threat, this chapter opens another door on the opposite side."
Tsunade interjected, folding her arms.
"Meaning the old cards have begun to appear one after another."
"That's what it seems."
Hiruzen answered.
Mito looked at Naruto's picture once more.
"And my clan's boy is at the heart of all of it."
A short silence prevailed after this sentence.
It wasn't an empty silence, but the silence of men and women before whom the picture had begun to come together from a new angle. Orochimaru was no longer just a heavy name in the background. Jiraiya was no longer just a stray student whose role hadn't yet appeared. Naruto himself was no longer a boy moving on the margins of the exams only. And every new page was pushing these three into a position closer to each other, even if it first wrapped that in a comical scene near the women's bathhouse.
Then Jiraiya suddenly returned to his main problem.
"But still…"
He said, the complaining returning to his voice.
"They could have introduced me in a way that preserved some of my dignity."
Tsunade turned to him slowly.
"Do you want me to list your history with women's bathhouses, or is this page enough?"
He choked on his protest for a moment.
"This isn't… I… the matter isn't that simple."
"It's exactly that simple."
She said, half-closing the volume.
"You're a powerful pervert. And this chapter was content to combine both traits in a single shot."
This time, even some who were trying to pretend seriousness didn't escape the laughter.
Jiraiya stood silent for a moment, then raised his index finger as if about to launch a historic defense speech, but he retreated when he realized that no one in the store was ready to believe him.
So he finally said, in the tone of a man who lost a battle he doesn't want to admit losing:
"At least… I entered atop a great toad."
…
The night grew late, and the noise of the Art Store gradually faded until the last visitors left, and the shelves remained still under the quiet light as if they had caught their breath after a long day of astonishment, laughter, and worry.
Only then did Jiraiya move through the aisles until he stood before Rob.
The young man was busy arranging some volumes that had been returned to the table, before raising his eyes to him with his known calm. As for Jiraiya, he didn't look like someone who came for a compliment or a passing question. On his face were the features of a man who had put on a brave face before people for a long time, then finally decided to open his objection in the only place where he thought he had a chance.
"I have a question."
Jiraiya said.
"Go ahead."
Rob answered calmly.
Jiraiya pointed with his finger at the volume placed between them.
"What does it mean that my introductory scene is while I'm caught peeping at naked women in the women's bathhouse?"
His tone intensified in the last sentence.
"Are you trying to ruin my reputation?!"
Rob's face didn't change.
He closed the volume gently, then said with the same calm:
"And does this person not represent you?"
Jiraiya paused for a moment, as if the question hit him where he wasn't prepared.
Then Rob added:
"Aren't you a pervert?"
Jiraiya recoiled a step backward immediately.
The shock on his face was frank this time, to the point that his body actually leaned backward as if he nearly lost his balance. He quickly raised his hand to steady himself on the edge of the nearby shelf, then stared at Rob as a man stares at a small abyss that has opened before all his certainty.
"You really are…"
The words came out of him slowly, then his eyes widened further.
"A prophet!?"
Rob didn't respond to the drama he poured into the question.
He merely went back to arranging the volumes in a single row, as if the most astonishing thing about the scene wasn't Jiraiya's objection, but that he needed all this time to arrive at this simple conclusion.
As for Jiraiya, he remained for moments staring at him, between the slight insult, the heavy conviction, and the genuine astonishment that the man didn't even need effort to shake all his defenses with just two sentences.
Then he coughed a faint cough, adjusted his posture, and said in a much less loud tone:
"Fine… but at least a more heroic angle could have been chosen."
Rob raised his gaze to him this time.
"You appeared atop your huge toad."
Jiraiya opened his mouth, then closed it.
And after a long moment, he found nothing to say except:
"That's… actually a strong point."
…
And in the middle of that night, the Third Hokage's office was drowning in a heavy stillness that didn't resemble the stillness of rest.
The small lamp above the desk left a pale circle of light on the open volume, while the shadows stretched across the rest of the office in a way that made the place wider and colder. Hiruzen Sarutobi sat alone, the pages before him, his right palm resting on the edge of the desk, dampened by a thin layer of sweat. And his forehead too was moist, unlike his usual self.
He wasn't thinking about Jiraiya now.
Or rather, he was no longer thinking about him alone.
His second student's appearance had left something of relief in his soul, yes. But after the store's noise died down and everyone left, he returned to the point that hadn't stopped pulling him from the inside since the previous chapter.
Orochimaru.
And his desire to kill his counterpart in the manga.
Hiruzen lowered his eyes to the page open before him, but his gaze wasn't actually reading the lines. It was passing over them and returning to that same truth every time. The student he had known since he was a talented boy, then a brilliant young man, then an exceedingly difficult man… that very student, in the future, wants to kill his teacher.
Why?
The question was simple in its form, but it left no settled place in his chest. Because every answer that occurred to him seemed incomplete, or false, or crueler than he could bear.
Was it ambition that rotted until it consumed everything above it?
Was the hatred older than he had noticed?
Did he make a mistake with him at some moment, and then that moment grew in the shadows until it became an abyss?
Or did the path Orochimaru walked simply lead him to a point after which he no longer saw his teacher as anything but the last chain that must be broken?
Hiruzen slowly pulled his hand from the desk, then looked at his palm as if the sweat on it came from a question, not from heat. He felt, for the first time in a long while, that old age isn't in the heaviness of bones nor in the slowness of movement, but in precisely this kind of question; questions in which a man returns to his entire past, not to remember it, but to search through it for a mistake he couldn't see when it was happening.
"What brought you there, Orochimaru…?"
He said in a low voice in the empty office.
No one answered him, naturally.
The moon remained fixed behind the window, the pages remained open, and the same name hung in the air as if it refused to settle.
Orochimaru.
His student.
And the man of the future who wanted to kill him.
Hiruzen closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them slowly, without the tension in his forehead lessening. He knew that Jiraiya's appearance today had granted his heart something of solace, but the solace hadn't touched the cruelest question.
Because the most dangerous thing about the manga was no longer that it only reveals Konoha's enemies.
But that it had also begun to reveal the cracks that occurred, in a time yet to come, within the heart of his own house.
And so, the chapter didn't end with the image of the toad, nor with Jiraiya's indignant protest about his reputation.
It ended in the Third Hokage's office, under a tired light, on a sweaty palm, and a single question that grew heavier the more its owner thought about it:
What made Orochimaru truly want to kill his teacher?
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Upcoming chapter titles (spoilers):
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Chapter 201: Echoes of Volume Ten and the Emotional Anime Episode!
Chapter 202: System Level 8!
Chapter 203: Volume 11 of the Naruto Manga Is Here!
Chapter 204: The Training Begins, and the Snake's Seal!
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