"Oh?"
Jiraiya halted mid-step, his sharp gaze narrowing at Vincent.
Vincent calmly pulled something from his pocket a forehead protector etched with the unmistakable leaf insignia.
The symbol of a Konoha shinobi.
"You're from Konoha too?" Jiraiya's eyes flicked across Vincent's face, searching for cracks in his composure.
But Vincent stood there, unshaken, his posture relaxed.
If you're honest, you have nothing to fear from shadows.
As far as the system here was concerned, his identity was indeed that of a Konoha ninja. For all he knew, there might even be a fabricated record of him in the village archives.
After a long silence, Jiraiya finally spoke. "Who sent you?"
"Lady Tsunade, of course," Vincent replied evenly, before smirking. "Or should I say… Miss Tsunade?"
"You"
Color touched Jiraiya's cheeks, but he quickly forced it down with chakra control, regaining his composure. "This mission is extremely dangerous. Why would Tsunade send you? And why… have I never seen you before?"
"I'm ANBU." Vincent waved a hand dismissively, closing off the topic. He gestured toward the two shinobi still writhing helplessly, bound against the wall. "What about them?"
Jiraiya chuckled, forming a hand seal.
In an instant, the Toad Club tavern shrank and transformed into a deep blue toad, which promptly leapt into the nearby water. At that same moment, the endless rain outside ceased.
Elsewhere, Yahiko's corpse now serving as the Deva Path of Pain stood atop a tower.
"Konan, find Jiraiya."
Konan nodded. Her body dissolved into countless paper sheets, scattering into the skies of Amegakure.
Inside the toad's stomach, the interrogation began.
"No matter what you ask, I'll never speak!" Tsunade's husband snarled, eyes wide with terror. His voice was fierce, but it carried the weight of fear.
Refusing to talk meant certain death. Talking, however, meant condemning his family.
For how could anyone betray that man?
The so-called "god" who had ended Amegakure's ceaseless civil wars with his own hands.
The man who annihilated every trace of the former ruler, Hanzo the Salamander, and his followers down to the last child and elder.
It was no wonder the villagers revered him as a savior. Without Pain, the village would still be drowning in chaos. Now, under his reign, Amegakure thrived.
Jiraiya folded his arms. "If you won't talk, then I'll have to use… alternative methods."
He pulled out a feather. "Will you speak?"
Stripping the younger shinobi's shirt, he began tickling him mercilessly. The youth laughed until tears and snot ran down his face, but clenched his teeth and refused to answer.
"Don't say a word!" Tsunade's husband barked desperately, terrified his comrade would break.
Vincent leaned lazily against the wall, watching the spectacle like a play. He knew the truth of the story, but revealing it now would only draw Jiraiya's suspicion.
Jiraiya sighed. "If you still won't talk… I'll just turn you into frogs."
His palm pressed against the younger shinobi's head. A puff of smoke, and
Ribbit!
The young man was now a frog, blinking dumbly at his captors.
"What?" Tsunade's husband stared in horror.
"Now it's your turn," Jiraiya said, smiling faintly. "Talk, or join your friend."
The man gritted his teeth, trembling. In the end, he broke.
"I'll speak!"
He drew in a shaky breath, then spilled everything. "God… is Lord Pain. They say he dwells in the western tower. He's from the Fūma Clan."
Jiraiya leaned closer, his hand still hovering ominously over the man's head. "So easily betrayed, hm? But… you say he dwells there?"
"I don't know for certain," the man admitted. "But my devotion to Lord Pain is unwavering. Everything we have, this village itself, comes from him. Whether he exists as flesh and blood… I cannot say."
He raised his head, eyes alight with conviction. "But Lady Angel appears often enough. She is real."
"Angel?" Jiraiya stroked his chin, committing the name to memory. "Amegakure has more secrets than I thought."
Though the man claimed ignorance about the rest, Jiraiya's jutsu, which monitored heartbeat and stress, told him he was lying.
Vincent finally spoke, his voice calm. "Jiraiya-sensei, it seems we won't get anything else out of him."
Jiraiya nodded, his eyes narrowing. "Then I'll go ask Pain myself."
The fleshy walls of the toad's stomach twisted open, forming an exit. Together, Jiraiya and Vincent stepped out, leaving behind one terrified man and one confused frog.
High above, atop the tower, Pain reclined into a strange device. Five other identical pods surrounded him, each containing one of his Six Paths.
His eyes rippling with the Rinnegan opened coldly.
"Now… destroy the intruders."
----------------------------------------------------
The deeper he goes, the more the truth unravels. Don't wait read ahead and witness Vincent's rise before the world catches up!
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