"Orochimaru!!! Stop running! Come back with me!"
Looking at Jiraiya, who had once again caught up like a lingering ghost with the support of Konoha's intelligence system, Orochimaru let out a helpless sigh.
In the end, he stopped fleeing.
Standing on a towering ancient tree that had endured countless storms, he looked down at Jiraiya, who wore Konoha's jonin uniform.
"You truly refuse to give up, Jiraiya… To you, am I really someone worth clinging to this stubbornly?"
"Do you even need to ask!?"
Hearing Orochimaru's question, Jiraiya roared at him furiously like an enraged lion.
"The name of the Konoha Sannin is something we earned together through countless battles fought side by side, with our lives entrusted to one another! How could I not value a friend like you, someone I once trusted with my life!?"
"A friend…"
Hearing Jiraiya say that word so solemnly, even Orochimaru's eyes could not help but show a slight ripple.
But very quickly, he adjusted his emotions and shook his head with a mocking smile.
"We are already adults who have found our own paths, Jiraiya. Children's games of friendship cannot convince me…"
"How will we know the result unless I try!?"
Jiraiya had no intention of giving up.
"I will never watch my friend walk onto an evil path of no return without doing anything!"
"Oh, Jiraiya. You are still so naive."
Orochimaru looked at Jiraiya with pity and said faintly,
"Why is it that even now, you still use the things you learned in the Ninja Academy to view the world? Endless war, prophecy from a sage, the passing of old lives, the birth of new lives—are these things still not enough to separate you from the simple identity of a shinobi and teach you to view this world from a different perspective?"
"What are you trying to say… What exactly are you trying to say, Orochimaru!?"
"See? You and Sarutobi-sensei are the same. You are both pitiful people whose souls are bound by so-called ninja ways…"
Orochimaru shook his head.
His hands began forming the seals for a Summoning Technique.
"Sarutobi-sensei planned to take away my memories, make me give up the results I gained through research, make me forget the different perspectives I obtained from that research, and turn me back into a fool like you, one who only knows how to think like a shinobi, continuing to sacrifice myself for Konoha's prosperity and development…"
"Do you not find it funny? When Danzo was alive, he could tacitly allow everything Danzo did in the dark. Even when Danzo crossed the line, he only gave a few verbal warnings. In reality, he allowed Danzo to possess a force almost no weaker than his own as Hokage…"
"But after Danzo died, he suddenly became impartial. Suddenly, his eyes could not tolerate even a grain of sand. Suddenly, he wanted to settle accounts with me, his disciple who had once cooperated with Danzo. Suddenly, he wanted me to pay the price of having my memories sealed for the mistakes I once made…"
"The position of Fourth Hokage candidate—he did not give it to me. The position of second leader of Root—he did not give that to me either. Now, he even wants to turn me into a fool like you, whose mind contains nothing but the village and his ninja way, so I can continue contributing, continue sacrificing, for the Fourth Hokage he chose…"
Looking at Jiraiya's face shifting between green and white, Orochimaru let out a long breath.
With the slight pleasure of having vented his emotions, he smiled darkly and coldly.
"Whether it is a village or a nation, it is true that only by relying on someone's sacrifice can it stumble forward. But why must the person being sacrificed be me? I finally saw the truth of this world clearly. I finally found the path I expected by relying on the sacrifices of others. If I return with you, wouldn't the people who were sacrificed by my hands all have been wasted for nothing?"
"Enough, Orochimaru!"
Jiraiya shouted explosively.
His whole body rose from the ground.
With a complicated expression that no one could clearly define, he released a high-speed rotating Big Ball Rasengan in his right hand and charged with all his strength toward Orochimaru.
"So this is your answer, Jiraiya? How disappointing… Rashomon."
White smoke from the Summoning Technique exploded.
A massive gate bearing the face of a demon cut between the two of them, blocking the attack of the Big Ball Rasengan.
Although Jiraiya's attack had already been quite serious, Rashomon's defensive power still canceled out the full force of the Big Ball Rasengan.
Only an ear-piercing screech of twisting metal remained.
And the instant the Big Ball Rasengan's offensive dispersed, Orochimaru's counterattack followed.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A violent storm swept out from behind the collapsing Rashomon and struck Jiraiya directly, who for some unknown reason had not put up any defense.
It tore the Konoha jonin uniform on his body into a miserable mess and sent Jiraiya, with his lion-like wild white hair, flying far away.
After snapping many trees one after another, he slumped in place like a broken puppet with its strings cut and stopped moving.
Orochimaru first showed a slightly surprised expression.
Immediately afterward, he shook his head.
With an equally complicated expression, he turned and left the place where the two of them had briefly exchanged blows, heading toward a hidden base he had established during missions in his earlier years.
"Your heart is wavering terribly, Jiraiya… I wonder whether today's conversation will become the final straw that crushes your heart."
"If it does, then the name of the Konoha Sannin will exist in name only from now on."
…
Jiraiya lay in the ruins of the forest, staring blankly at the sky.
Every part of his body hurt because Orochimaru's Wind Release had blown him so far away.
But compared to the pain inside Jiraiya's heart, the pain of his body seemed almost insignificant.
Before catching up to Orochimaru this time, he had seriously considered what he should do if he managed to bring Orochimaru back to the village so that Orochimaru would not hold such great resentment toward the village and their teacher.
All the wrongdoing could be pushed onto the already dead Danzo.
They could do their best to downplay Orochimaru's subjective initiative in those inhumane human experiments and forbidden technique research inside Root.
After all, everyone had seen how much Orochimaru had contributed to the village and how much blood he had shed for it.
As long as the higher-ups did not actively spread word of the crimes Orochimaru had committed, time would quickly dilute the negative public opinion around him.
As for the matter of sealing his memories, Jiraiya had already prepared himself to bind himself completely to Orochimaru.
Orochimaru's memories did not need to be sealed.
He could continue conducting research and experiments without harming the lives of others.
And Jiraiya would serve as the one supervising Orochimaru, responsible for monitoring his every move.
Although this idea might not fully convince Konoha's higher-ups, at least it would allow them to see his attitude.
When the village's external environment was not that good, and Konoha could not withstand the loss of a Kage-level fighter, the higher-ups of Konoha, including Hiruzen Sarutobi, should be willing to take a step back and stop so aggressively tracing Orochimaru's crimes…
"But now, how am I supposed to say something like that?"
Jiraiya recalled Orochimaru's eyes from earlier and closed his eyes with a bitter smile.
In those eyes, he could no longer see even the slightest attachment or recognition toward Konoha.
Although Orochimaru's words about Hiruzen Sarutobi carried personal resentment, to Jiraiya, who also knew the village's development over the years, the problems Orochimaru spoke of truly did exist.
"Sarutobi-sensei… To you, Danzo should have been like Orochimaru is in my eyes, right? Although you knew he had walked down the wrong path, you still could not help wanting to favor him, protect him, and let him continue appearing before your eyes with an identity that could still barely be justified…"
"But if that is the case, then my desire to persuade Orochimaru to return was impossible from the very beginning, wasn't it?"
Chaotic thoughts surged up from the depths of his heart all at once.
One moment, Jiraiya's mind was filled with Hiruzen Sarutobi's earnest teachings to himself, Orochimaru, and Tsunade.
The next, it was filled with the absolute trust he and Orochimaru once had when fighting side by side and carrying out missions together.
Then it became the arguments he had shared with Orochimaru over the years as Orochimaru grew increasingly gloomy.
Then it became Orochimaru's incomparably resolute and icy gaze from moments ago.
"I should go out and walk around."
Jiraiya opened his eyes and sighed as he sat up from the ground.
He could not clearly explain what he wanted to do now.
Nor did he know what someone like him, who had been rendered speechless by Orochimaru's few words, could still do.
Right now, he only wanted to find a different environment and quietly stay there for a while, allowing his mind, which had received far too much information and intelligence during this period, to empty out slightly.
But where could he go to completely empty his mind?
The moment this question appeared, two strange answers uncontrollably surfaced in Jiraiya's mind.
One was the Akatsuki organization run by Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan.
The other was Kirigakure, which was also in a period of postwar reconstruction and reform.
"I should still go to Akatsuki… At least, I should still be able to understand Nagato and the others' thoughts."
Jiraiya shivered and quickly eliminated the latter option, which was quite tempting but also very likely to make him sink into it.
"However, if I am going to stay with Akatsuki for a while, I cannot use my original appearance… Otherwise, if Kumogakure, Iwagakure, and Sunagakure think Akatsuki is a 'peace organization' jointly supported by Kirigakure and Konoha, that would ruin things badly."
"And Akatsuki absorbed a large number of shinobi from various countries some time ago. While their strength increased greatly, many problems must have appeared too. If I go help them, that brat Rei Kaguya will have no way to mock me again by saying I am an irresponsible hands-off teacher, right?"
"Mm… I'll do that."