"Oh, little Jiraiya. Calling you to Mount Myoboku so late at night shouldn't have interrupted you while you were flirting with some girl, right?"
Mount Myoboku.
Shima Sage lowered both hands and looked at Jiraiya, who had appeared in a cloud of white smoke with a confused expression, then asked him bluntly.
"Uh, I wasn't exactly flirting with a girl…"
Jiraiya's old face, already flushed from the alcohol, instantly turned even redder.
He coughed twice and deliberately changed the subject.
"L-Let's not talk about those irrelevant things. Shima Sage, is there something urgent you need to inform me about? To trouble you into directly using the Reverse Summoning Technique to summon me here…"
"Mm, it's not anything major. The Great Toad Sage just had another vague dream and felt it was necessary to tell you the new contents of that dream sooner."
Shima Sage hopped onto Jiraiya's shoulder.
Then, because of the heavy smell of alcohol on him, she immediately frowned. Squatting on his shoulder, she began scolding Jiraiya fiercely.
"Little Jiraiya, I don't have much of an opinion about the lifestyle you choose, but if you keep drinking gloomy wine late at night like this, you'll soon age into an old fool like the Great Toad Sage. You haven't even gotten married yet. Surely you don't want to become a rotten old man no one likes, do you?"
"Cough. I know, Shima Sage. It's just that I ran into some troublesome things today, so I thought of using alcohol to drown my worries… Please let me off just this once, all right?"
Jiraiya repeatedly begged for mercy from the sharp-tongued Shima Sage.
He successfully made her sigh and stop preaching.
Then Jiraiya followed the path he had walked many times before, all the way to the temple where the Great Toad Sage resided, and saw that ancient sage who had existed since the era of the Sage of Six Paths.
"Great Toad Sage, do you have a new prophecy to tell me?"
"The one who came… who is it?"
The Great Toad Sage slowly lowered the bottle in his hand and asked with a hiccup.
"It's little Jiraiya! You old fool who sleeps so heavily you can barely tell dreams from reality!"
Shima Sage shouted at the Great Toad Sage in dissatisfaction.
"Stop acting stupid in the same way every time in front of others! Didn't you tell me to bring little Jiraiya over the moment you woke up? Hurry up and finish what you need to say!"
"Hohoho. Shima, you are still as impatient as ever…"
The fully orange Great Toad Sage shook his head.
Slowly, he opened those yellow eyes that had always gazed upon the myriad states of the world. Looking at Jiraiya, whose expression was solemn and serious, he asked with a peaceful smile,
"Jiraiya… you should have already met the child chosen by the white snake, correct?"
"Putting aside prejudice and position, do you feel that compared to the two Children of Prophecy you once found, he actually resembles someone who can completely change this shinobi world even more?"
"You really gave me a question I don't know how to answer right from the start, Great Toad Sage."
Jiraiya sat cross-legged before the Great Toad Sage's seat. Sighing, he spoke with a troubled expression.
"Nagato and Minato are both outstanding shinobi with precious qualities. They do not lack gentleness toward their companions. They also possess valuable empathy toward others. Their talent is exceptional enough to make the geniuses around them pale in comparison."
"If they were the ones to change the shinobi world, I believe the day when people understand one another will eventually arrive through their efforts."
"But Rei Kaguya is different from them."
At this point, Jiraiya, who had only just been stabbed in the heart by Rei Kaguya, looked down at his own hands and murmured to himself.
"That boy… I always feel that he is not a shinobi, but rather some strange existence with a way of thinking different from shinobi."
"Compared to Nagato, who has only just begun chasing the dream of peace he shares with Yahiko and is still perfecting his own ideals little by little, and compared to Minato, who personally witnessed many tragedies that inevitably arise under the shinobi system but has yet to figure out how to change them…"
"Rei Kaguya is clearly the youngest of the three and has the shallowest life experience, yet he possesses thoughts more mature and firm than both of them."
"If he is the Child of Prophecy you spoke of, the one who will bring change to the world, then I am truly worried about whether there will still be a place for shinobi in the new world he constructs."
"Even I cannot predict the answer to that question."
The Great Toad Sage picked up his bottle and drank another mouthful before slowly speaking to Jiraiya.
"Jiraiya, you should still remember. In the dream I last conveyed to you, the flow of the future and the identity of the Child of Prophecy were still relatively clear and definite…"
Jiraiya nodded.
"But this time, after Rei Kaguya began dancing on the stage of history, the future I dreamed of became incomparably chaotic."
"The existence of the Child of Prophecy became fragmented. The flow of the future was also shrouded in thick mist. The scenes of the future that were once foreseen have all changed."
"I cannot make any prediction about the future of that child named Rei Kaguya, even though he is already the one and only moon of this era, surrounded by glittering stars."
"Even you cannot predict his future and fate?"
Jiraiya showed a very surprised expression.
"Then, Great Toad Sage, why exactly did you specially call me here today?"
"Do not be anxious, Jiraiya."
The Great Toad Sage smiled kindly.
"Although I cannot see the future shrouded by the mist surrounding Rei Kaguya, I did see a future under another possibility."
"A future under… another possibility?"
Jiraiya repeated the Great Toad Sage's words and frowned in confusion.
"What does that mean?"
"The girl with the Byakugan will arrive side by side with the hero who knows the past and future. They will bring the possibility of making the future clear and anchored. But where this possibility will be guided by the powers that already exist now is a completely unknown field."
The Great Toad Sage narrowed his eyes.
Maintaining a half-awake, half-dreaming state, he spoke such a prophecy in an ethereal and unfathomable tone. Then he returned to normal and gently said to Jiraiya, whose face had become thoughtful,
"Wait, and hold hope in your heart, Jiraiya. Before long, you will encounter a new possibility. Meet them. Speak with them. Walk beside them. I hope that in the end, you can find the answer in your heart and make a choice you will not regret."
As soon as the words fell, the scenery around Jiraiya rapidly began to change once again.
When he recovered from his brief daze, he had already returned to the spot he had been in before he was reverse summoned.
Rei Kaguya, who had originally been sitting across from him and chatting with him cheerfully, had already disappeared. Only a few coins used to pay for the wine remained on the table.
Looking at this scene, Jiraiya closed his eyes and slowly took a deep breath.
A future and fate blurred by confusion and chaos.
A hero who knew the past and future.
The possibility of making the future clear and anchored…
"Sigh. Why do they always like telling these vague, hidden prophecies to an idiot like me who has a simple mind and does not understand people's hearts? Honestly, even my mood to drink gloomy wine has been completely ruined."
Leaving behind his share of the wine money, Jiraiya swayed to his feet and headed toward the residence the Land of Iron had prepared for Konoha's three representatives.