Time moved back slightly, to a few minutes earlier.
When the smoke and clouds from the explosion gradually dispersed, a deep pit around ten meters in diameter appeared in the middle of Akatsuki's formation.
Raging flames burned the severed limbs of Akatsuki members who had failed to escape in time, forever burying those dream chasers who had still been full of anticipation just one day earlier.
Although Jiraiya had protected several companions near him and retreated, he had ultimately been too close and was still caught in the explosion.
The clothes on his back were burned to tatters by the flames. Even the hair he had used to pull his companions away had turned scorched black and fallen off in pieces.
If the current situation had not been so grim that there was no room for joking around, Jiraiya would have cried several times over his beautiful hair.
"A-Are you all right, young lady?"
"What… are you saying?"
The girl Jiraiya had saved looked blankly at him as he mouthed words at her.
Bright red blood slowly flowed from both her ears.
She tried to stand with Jiraiya's support, but her body showed clear signs of imbalance and loss of control.
Seeing this, Jiraiya immediately shouted loudly to the surroundings.
"Medical-nin?! Are there any uninjured medical-nin among the logistics personnel?! Someone here needs urgent treatment!"
The Akatsuki members, who had been thrown into disorder by the sudden explosion, snapped back to themselves when they heard someone calling for help.
One after another, they began extending their hands to the companions beside them.
Many among them were spies and scouts from the major shinobi villages, and competition and conflict existed between them.
But when facing such a determined attack filled with killing intent, everyone understood that only by helping one another survive would they have a chance to live long enough to transmit their intelligence back.
"Karin?! Jiraiya-sensei?! Are you all right?!"
Seeing that there was no way to make the combat group properly become Nagato's support, Yahiko simply called everyone back, firmly surrounding the companions who had suffered from the self-destruction attack.
Konan, meanwhile, spread her paper clones in every direction to guard against enemies who might appear while arriving beside the two most important people at the moment.
She anxiously asked them both.
"Just some minor injuries. Nothing serious."
Jiraiya threw away his damaged mask and endured the pain on his back as he gave Konan a reassuring gesture.
"I-I'm sorry, Konan."
Karin Uzumaki stood up beside the broken body of an Akatsuki member, her face full of guilt and her expression low.
"I clearly sensed that person's chakra was very cold and very dark. But I thought his chakra had already been sealed, so he should not be able to cause any more trouble. That is why I did not warn everyone nearby…"
"This is not your fault, Karin… None of us expected Root, which had nothing to do with us, to suddenly launch such a costly attack against us."
Konan stepped forward and hugged Karin Uzumaki, who was several years older than her, doing her best to comfort the organization's most outstanding medical-nin.
Jiraiya, however, slowly stood.
Looking at the mass of dark figures slowly approaching from the distant rain curtain, his expression turned grave.
"With that scale and number, there is no way they are all Root shinobi… They actually colluded with Hanzo of the Salamander of Amegakure? Are they that determined to kill all of you?"
Yahiko, who had rushed over with several sensory-type shinobi, heard Jiraiya's words.
In his mind, he instantly recalled the bet Rei Kaguya had made with them when he invited them to witness the Two Kage Meeting.
Was I ultimately still too naive?
That Hanzo had once been a hero who acknowledged and praised even the shinobi of enemy Konoha, giving them the title of the Sannin.
Why has his capacity now become so narrow that he cannot even tolerate a small organization like ours, whose core purpose is neutrality and peace?
"Karin, sense them. Among that group of shinobi attacking us from over there, is Hanzo's chakra present?"
Facing Yahiko's instruction, which was almost too calm, Karin Uzumaki wiped her face.
She could not tell whether what she wiped away was rain or tears.
Then she closed her eyes and activated the Kagura Mind's Eye.
A moment later, her eyes shot open, and she spoke anxiously.
"N-No! Hanzo of the Salamander's chakra is not over there. He is heading toward Nagato and those dozen masked people!"
"Damn it! His final target is Nagato, the one capable of threatening him?!"
Yahiko angrily punched forward.
Then he turned to look at Jiraiya, whose expression had become somewhat conflicted, and stepped forward with a resolute face.
"Jiraiya-sensei, please. Go help Nagato."
"But the number of Amegakure shinobi approaching from over there is at least three times yours, maybe more."
Jiraiya looked at the other disciple he had not been especially optimistic about. His expression was complicated and anxious.
"If I am not here, you will all be surrounded and killed by their numerical advantage!"
"None of that matters! Nagato is the absolute core that allows Akatsuki's will to spread throughout the shinobi world. Only if he survives will the bridge leading to peace have a chance of being successfully built.
"We can sacrifice ourselves here as the bridge's foundation. But Nagato absolutely cannot die!"
Yahiko's eyes were firm.
The radiance contained within them even made Jiraiya feel a faint, burning sting.
He remained silent for a while.
Then he silently used the Summoning Technique and summoned Gamaken, who was skilled in defensive battles.
After that, he gripped Yahiko's shoulder tightly and spoke in a low voice to his disciple, who had already prepared his resolve.
"Live. You must hold on until Nagato and I return, Yahiko."
"I will give it everything I have, Jiraiya-sensei."
Looking at Yahiko's serious expression, which showed not the slightest false retreat or wavering, Jiraiya had to take a deep breath to stop the tears in his eyes from uselessly falling.
He turned, leaped into Gamaken's hand, and said with a trembling voice to the purple-red giant toad.
"Please, Gamaken. After throwing me over there, you must protect these children… This is my lifelong request. Please."
"I will do my best. Although I am very clumsy, and I do not know whether I can properly complete your request, Jiraiya…"
The huge combat toad nodded to the contractor in his hand.
Then he forcefully threw Jiraiya toward the area he had pointed at.
Afterward, he unhurriedly turned around, took off his pot-lid-shaped shield, gripped his U-shaped sasumata, and stood in front of Yahiko and the others.
"I will protect you."
"It is not protection. It is fighting side by side!"
Yahiko walked to Gamaken's side and raised his thumb at him.
"Please take care of us, comrade."
"…Mm. Comrade."
At this moment, the Amegakure shinobi had already broken through the obstruction of the rain curtain and clearly appeared in Akatsuki's sight.
The Akatsuki members in charge of combat, just like Yahiko, instinctively swallowed nervously as they looked at the dense mass of Amegakure shinobi.
Konan, who had already calmed Karin Uzumaki, also finished forming the seals for the Dance of the Shikigami and prepared to advance with her companions to meet the enemy.
"W-Wait, Konan!"
Karin Uzumaki grabbed Konan's right hand as it gradually turned into paper and shouted at her.
"Can't we try looking for reinforcements?"
"Reinforcements? What reinforcements do we have?"
Konan frowned in confusion.
"We do! We do have one! Isn't that Fourth Mizukage of Kirigakure on very good terms with Nagato? And didn't he leave you a summoning beast scroll to make contact easier? If we use that, maybe he can come here through the Reverse Summoning Technique!"
Karin Uzumaki's wild idea did make Konan dazed for an instant.
But immediately afterward, she shook her head with a bitter smile and denied the possibility.
"Impossible. That summoned snake only has the most basic intelligence needed to deliver objects. It cannot possibly use a high-level space-time ninjutsu like the Reverse Summoning Technique.
"And between Kirigakure and the Land of Rain lies the entire Land of Fire. Even if we use that summoned snake to notify him, there is no way he can cross such a long distance all at once to come help us."
"We should still try, right?!"
While Karin Uzumaki showed a dejected expression, she still refused to give up.
"He is strong like a monster, and he is also some kind of Sage from Ryuchi Cave, right? Maybe, just maybe, he has a way to do something beyond our imagination?"
"…Then let us try."
Moved by her words, Konan threw a summoning scroll out from inside her black uniform and controlled it to float upward in the pouring rain.
Then, while rapidly writing down a request for help on waterproof paper she created, she poured chakra into the scroll and attempted to summon the great snake Rei Kaguya had left for them.
Poof.
White smoke burst open in the rain curtain.
Then, under Konan's stunned gaze, a graceful woman in white appeared atop the summoning scroll.
A white snake coiled around her body. Her jade-like feet were bare, and only the tips of her toes touched the summoning scroll.
Then she slowly bent down and accepted the already written request for help from Konan's hand.
"Mm. A letter asking that monster Rei Kaguya for help…"
"Sigh. You people really are bold enough to trust that guy…"
The white-clothed woman, whose face was like polished jade and whose temperament was gentle and moving, shook her head.
She looked at Konan and Karin Uzumaki, who were at a loss, with pity in her eyes.
"You do not even know what price you will need to pay Rei Kaguya for this action…"
"Who are you?! Why would the contract scroll for summoning his great snake summon you instead?!"
Konan quickly protected Karin Uzumaki behind her and watched the white-clothed woman before her as if facing a great enemy.
The woman possessed enormous senjutsu chakra.
Her mere presence made Gamaken nearby suddenly let out a strange cry, turning his head and taking a combat stance against her.
"Me? I am Ichikishimahime.
"I am a pitiful person who was casually sent out to work by that hateful Rei Kaguya after he bribed the White Snake Sage with a tiny price."
Ichikishimahime gave the extremely tense Gamaken a playful smile.
Then she lightly leaped backward, dragged the summoning scroll into her hand, formed the seal for the Summoning Technique with one hand, and unhurriedly pressed her hand onto the scroll.
"Reverse Summoning Technique."
"You have ten minutes to deal with things here, Rei Kaguya."