Chapter 267: Jiraiya's Choice
"Jiraiya-sensei. It's been a long time."
Having already cut down one of Konan's paper clones along the way, Jiraiya finally found the man he'd come to see.
Before a towering spire, a man sat perched atop a bizarre statue — some looming, godlike figure, its tongue extended, the man seated on that very tongue, gazing down at Jiraiya with an air of cold, elevated detachment.
A black cloak patterned with red clouds. Orange hair. Pale lavender, ripple-patterned eyes. His face studded with dark piercings.
Pain's Deva Path.
With Konoha's squad already having breached Amegakure, and the front-line forces already clashing with Sunagakure, Pain had no intention of lingering here in conversation with Jiraiya.
He'd chosen the strongest of his own Six Paths, Deva, to meet him head-on.
Of course, if Jiraiya was willing to simply leave Amegakure and take the Konoha squad with him, Pain wouldn't stop him either.
After all, once this business was finished, Pain still had to head off to deal with Sunagakure's invading force.
And Kirigakure's own contingent would be arriving soon, on top of everything else.
Which meant Pain was, genuinely, quite busy right now.
"Nagato!"
"No — wait, you're not Nagato!"
"You're Yahiko!"
"But why — why is Nagato's Rinnegan on your face?!"
Staring at that face, both familiar and strange all at once, Jiraiya's expression turned deeply grave.
His mind went back to Gamabunta's prophecy.
He'd travel the world as a novelist, cross paths with the prophesied child, and take him on as a student. Somewhere along the way, he'd face a choice — one bearing on the very survival of the shinobi world itself.
Sakura had already dismissed the idea that Nagato was the student he'd taken on during his travels.
But still—
If the bearer of the Rinnegan itself doesn't qualify as the prophesied child, then who possibly could?
The current Fifth Hokage, Sakura, certainly qualified.
Jiraiya's mind drifted, unbidden, to that familiar pink-haired figure.
But she wasn't his student.
Sure, Jiraiya had once thought about asking her to become one — but that idea had gotten him personally kicked straight out of the Hokage Building by said pink-haired girl.
The matter had gone nowhere.
"Jiraiya-sensei. Whether I'm Yahiko, or Nagato — it doesn't matter anymore."
"I go by a new name now."
"You may call me Pain."
"Leave now, and I'll let this go."
Pain regarded Jiraiya with cold detachment.
"Yes. None of that matters."
Jiraiya gritted his teeth, his gaze fixed unwaveringly on the man before him.
"I don't care if you're Yahiko or Nagato — but do you understand what you're doing?!"
"Deliberately stoking a war!"
"Kidnapping the Kazekage, the Mizukage!"
"Nagato, you were someone who suffered under the ravages of war yourself!"
"You, of all people, should understand that pain better than anyone!"
"Why!"
"Why would you do this?!"
Jiraiya's voice rose, thick with anguish and unresigned frustration.
He needed to stop this — stop this reckless, dangerous path his own prophesied student had chosen.
"Pain?"
Pain, hearing this, made no protest about being called Nagato — tacitly conceding that yes, he was the man Jiraiya believed him to be.
"Jiraiya-sensei. I once truly believed in your ideal."
"That people could learn to understand each other."
"Back then, my heart burned with hope, full of it."
"Yahiko, too, worked tirelessly, driven entirely by you, sensei."
"He wanted to change this world. To make it better."
"But—"
"He died."
"Killed by treachery and schemes."
Pain's words made Jiraiya press his lips together, his fists clenching tight, memory rising of that boy who'd once carried nothing but bright, burning hope for the future.
"Who killed him."
Jiraiya asked.
"Hanzō the Salamander. Danzō Shimura."
Two names slipped from Pain's mouth.
Jiraiya's expression shifted at that.
Danzō, again?
Hanzō made sense, given Amegakure had nominally been his territory.
But what did Danzō Shimura have to do with any of this?
"I see. So the 'Hanzō the Salamander' from the coalition summit was your man."
He'd already sensed something off about that Hanzō back then — and now, understanding Nagato's current mindset, it seemed all but certain the real demigod had died long ago.
"Jiraiya-sensei."
"I don't want to kill you."
"Leave. I can pretend I never saw you here today."
Pain didn't deny anything Jiraiya had said.
"Nagato."
Jiraiya breathed in deeply, letting the torrential rain soak him through.
"You are the child I recognized as prophesied."
"And as your teacher, when you've wandered onto the wrong path, it's my responsibility to pull you back onto the right one."
Jiraiya's gaze stayed steady, calm — as though stating the most ordinary fact in the world.
"The prophesied child?"
A flicker of surprise crossed Pain's eyes.
He hadn't heard this particular framing from Jiraiya before.
Still — it hardly mattered.
"Jiraiya-sensei."
"You've gotten one thing wrong."
"Wrong from the very start."
"I am a god."
Pain rose slowly from his perch atop the statue, his gaze cold, stating what was, to him, simple fact.
"A god?"
"This world doesn't need gods."
Jiraiya shook his head, rejecting Pain's claim outright.
"Jiraiya-sensei. I'll say this one last time."
"Go back."
"I don't wish to kill you."
Pain spoke again — the third time now.
There were limits, even for him.
This was the very edge of what Pain could tolerate.
"So you're saying you could kill me whenever you wanted?"
Jiraiya's gaze stayed grave, fixed on the man before him.
He'd already made his decision. He would settle this, here and now.
A shinobi's life was defined not by how he survived, but by what he chose to do in the face of death.
Jiraiya's resolve was steady, unshaken. He formed hand seals.
"Summoning Technique!"
His whole life had been marked by failure — rejected by Tsunade time and again, unable to stop a dear friend's death.
Unable, even, to protect his own student.
Measured against the achievements of every Hokage before him, his life might as well have been written in bold letters spelling out one word.
Failure.
Every day, he filled his time with foolish, pointless things.
But—
Even in failure, one had to keep marching forward, walking the road called courage.
And here, now, facing his own student — the very child he'd once believed prophesied — Jiraiya had decided.
He would stop him.
Jiraiya was certain: this was the very moment of the great choice foretold in the prophecy.
A vast plume of white smoke billowed upward, and a monstrous figure, several dozen meters tall, materialized before Pain!
One of Mount Myōboku's Three Delinquents — Gamaken!
Pain regarded the towering figure with cold indifference, entirely unmoved.
A faint, weary sigh flickered across the surface of those calm, rippled Rinnegan eyes.
If that's how it is, then—
"Gamaken, buy me some time. I'm summoning both Sages."
Jiraiya swiftly smeared the blood on his hand across his own face, preparing to summon Fukasaku and Shima to join the fight.
His opponent wielded the Rinnegan — an absolute, top-tier threat. He needed to bring his full, complete strength.
"Uh, Jiraiya... looks like the two Sages have something going on today. Might not be able to make it."
Gamaken's words froze Jiraiya's expression solid.
What?
The two of them, usually rotting away out of sheer boredom on Mount Myōboku — unavailable, of all times, today?
"Don't know the exact details myself. Sounded like they went off looking for someone from a prophecy, or something."
Gamaken scratched his head, sounding uncertain.
!!!
WHAT!
Jiraiya's pupils contracted sharply, recalling Gamabunta's latest prophecy from before.
The pink-haired figure in that prophecy — Jiraiya had already firmly decided it referred to Sakura, Konoha's current Fifth Hokage.
But Sakura's own encounter with Gamabunta had ended on distinctly poor terms.
Gamabunta had asked him to bring Sakura's little sister, Mirai, along for a look.
Jiraiya had verbally agreed, at the time — but he hadn't actually followed through with it.
And now, apparently, the Great Toad Sage had gone and sent both Sages out personally, to hunt down a three-year-old child on their own!
If Sakura ever found out about this—
Given her temperament, she'd probably level Mount Myōboku entirely!
No!
She's going to find out about this eventually! There's no avoiding it!
And she is absolutely going to make someone pay for it!
And beyond that—
A sharp pang of anguish rose in Jiraiya's chest.
How had it come to this?
How had it come to THIS?!
This wasn't just about the consequences of the two Sages going after Mirai on their own.
It represented something else entirely, too.
He himself...
...had been under surveillance.
Watched, this whole time, by Mount Myōboku.
Jiraiya felt a wave of pure anguish wash over him.
He'd always considered Mount Myōboku a second home.
Why? Why?
Am I really so untrustworthy?
All because he'd shown one moment's hesitation, facing a question about the Great Toad Sage?
"Seems your capacity to surprise hasn't diminished at all, sensei, even now."
Pain watched Jiraiya's frozen expression calmly, recognizing that his teacher had just lost access to some trump card or another.
"Nagato."
Jiraiya let his hand fall silently. Sage Mode was no longer an option.
But even so—
He'd only get one chance at this.
If he backed down now, Jiraiya knew he'd never forgive himself.
But then, thinking of Sakura's little sister — that three-year-old girl — and of Sakura herself, Jiraiya realized he needed to return to Konoha immediately, and stop the two Sages from carrying out their reckless plan.
Right now, part of him genuinely wanted to bolt.
But Pain had already given him three separate chances to leave, and he showed no sign of offering a fourth.
As far as Pain was concerned, Jiraiya, despite his unpredictable streak, wasn't someone who gave up easily.
So Pain had already raised a hand, aiming it directly at Jiraiya, still perched atop Gamaken's head.
"Chibaku Tensei."
The words came, calm, from Pain's mouth.
At that, Jiraiya's body, entirely against his own will, was yanked violently toward Pain at tremendous speed!
What?!
Facing this abrupt, uncontrollable pull, Jiraiya's mind raced, moving to counter it somehow — but Gamaken, swinging his massive harpoon, brought it crashing down directly at Pain!
A harpoon dozens of meters long, capable of devastating destruction with even a casual swing — exactly why shinobi across the world favored such massive summoned creatures in the first place.
But—
Against a being at Pain's level, sheer size meant nothing at all.
If anything, that very size made him an easier target — Pain could have crippled him blind.
He simply raised a hand toward Gamaken instead.
"Shinra Tensei."
Invisible force erupted outward, radiating from Pain in every direction.
In an instant, both Jiraiya and his summoned Gamaken were sent flying backward violently!
Gamaken slammed hard into one of the steel towers!
Had the tower not been forged entirely from reinforced steel, the impact alone would have shattered several buildings outright.
Even so, the tower shuddered violently, teetering on the edge of collapse.
"What kind of technique is that."
Jiraiya, having been caught within Shinra Tensei's blast radius too, had taken far worse damage than Gamaken thanks to the earlier Chibaku Tensei pull.
Right now, he genuinely felt as though his own internal organs had been shifted several inches out of place.
"Not sure."
Gamaken, breathing heavily, hauled himself back up, reaching for the harpoon lying nearby on the ground.
But the massive harpoon, which should have remained where it fell, suddenly moved on its own, streaking upward through the air directly toward Pain.
Jiraiya caught the movement too, his eyes locked instantly onto Pain.
Pain, controlling the harpoon with one hand via Chibaku Tensei, hurled it back down at Gamaken with brutal force!
Some kind of object-control technique?
And judging by the power behind it — this thing is genuinely devastating.
Jiraiya watched the incoming harpoon closing on Gamaken, rapidly analyzing everything he could.
Having just personally experienced Chibaku Tensei firsthand, he was already piecing together most of what he needed to know about it.
Just as the massive harpoon was about to slam into Gamaken, the toad quickly pulled the bowl-shaped shield from his back, bracing hard against the incoming strike, managing to block it!
But Pain's expression stayed just as cold as ever, and with a single grasping motion of his hand, still channeling Chibaku Tensei, he tore the very steel tower — already teetering from Gamaken's earlier crash — clean out of the ground, roots and all, sending it hurtling into the sky!
The sight left Jiraiya's mind momentarily reeling.
Where does this technique's limit even end?!
It's capable of THAT?!
"Feel it, Jiraiya-sensei. Feel the pain."
Pain's gaze stayed indifferent, watching Jiraiya.
As his own former student, he understood exactly what Mount Myōboku's toads meant to Jiraiya.
Cutting down one of Mount Myōboku's own here, right now, was the single most effective way to make his teacher feel exactly what he wanted him to feel.
Like a god idly flicking his finger to move the world, that steel tower, under Pain's control, came crashing down toward Gamaken with crushing force!
A tower forged from pure reinforced steel — under the amplification of Chibaku Tensei, ninety-nine percent of the shinobi world would never withstand a single strike like this!
"Gamaken!"
Jiraiya's heart lurched at the sight.
His hands flew through seals!
"Summoning Technique — Toad Trapping Squash!"
Another summoning technique, and an enormous, green-skinned toad plummeted from the sky, crashing straight down onto Pain, still channeling his control over the falling tower.
But Pain only glanced up at it, calm, unbothered.
His hand, still maintaining Chibaku Tensei, never wavered.
Five seconds passed.
"Shinra Tensei."
Invisible force erupted once more, and Gamaken — arms crossed, entirely composed a moment ago — was suddenly repelled with brutal force, his massive body sent flying clean out of Amegakure's borders under that invisible push.
And at that exact moment, the steel tower fell...
Blood filled Jiraiya's vision, staining everything red...
(End of chapter)
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