Rain Village.
tendo Pain stood atop a high platform, his pair of Rinnegan eyes gazing solemnly over the village below.
"Konan, once the rain stops, use your technique to find the intruder."
Behind him, Konan began forming hand seals. "Leave it to me."
As she prepared, Pain also brought his hands together, ready to end the jutsu that covered the entirety of Hidden Rain Village—Rain Tiger at Will.
This was a large-scale sensory ninjutsu capable of enveloping the whole village. Anyone touched by its rain would have their chakra immediately detected by the caster.
Ever since Jiraiya had emerged from the frog's mouth on the water's surface, Pain had sensed it—an unfamiliar yet powerful chakra signature had appeared within the village.
He now intended to stop the rain so that Konan could deploy her own technique and flush out Jiraiya's location.
Pain's hands clasped together one final time. The jutsu ended.
"It's begun," he murmured.
At his words, Konan moved. Her paper talismans began to flutter and whirl as she activated her technique. Her body dissolved into countless sheets of paper, which folded one after another into delicate paper butterflies.
The moment the rain ceased, a torrent of these butterflies erupted from the platform, scattering through the air and sweeping across the entire Rain Village.
Meanwhile, Jiraiya had used a toad's transformation technique to create a small tavern, disguising himself as the barkeep. He had already captured two Rain Village shinobi and was in the midst of interrogating them.
One of the captives refused to cooperate, so Jiraiya sighed and used Ninjutsu: Frog Transformation, turning the man into an actual frog.
The other ninja—wearing a headscarf—was terrified at the sight. Before Jiraiya could even reach for him, the man broke and confessed everything he knew.
From his interrogation, Jiraiya learned something shocking—
the man once hailed as the "Demigod," Hanzō of the Salamander, the very same who had nearly defeated him, Orochimaru, and Tsunade in the past—
had been killed by this very man named Pain.
The ninja with the headscarf said with fanatical admiration, "Lord Pain is like a god. Of course he's powerful."
Jiraiya wanted to ask more, but the man was merely a small fry; he knew nothing of real value.
After some thought, Jiraiya made a decision—he would meet this "god" himself.
But before doing so, he resolved to take one crucial precaution.
Leaving the frog that served as his interrogation chamber, Jiraiya arrived at a toad-shaped altar. From his mouth, he summoned Scroll Toad – Toad Shima, and instructed it to bring out the key to the Nine-Tails' seal. Then he imprinted a seal on his own hand for teleportation.
He knew Pain's strength was formidable. Should the worst happen, the toad was to take the key and deliver it to Naruto.
Once everything was prepared, Jiraiya, still controlling the headscarf-wearing ninja, made his way toward the depths of Rain Village—to the tallest tower where Pain resided.
All the while, Konan's paper butterflies swept across the village skies.
Beneath the tower, a frog surfaced quietly from the water. After scanning its surroundings and confirming no one was near, it opened its mouth. A human hand reached out, pressed against the water's surface, and soon an entire body emerged—it was the ninja in the headscarf, under Jiraiya's control.
He looked at the toad and said kindly, "Head back to Konoha now. Once you arrive, find Ibiki—I've already told him what to do."
The frog croaked in acknowledgment and dove back into the water, disappearing without a trace.
Indeed, the "ninja" was being controlled by Jiraiya through his Toad Shadow Manipulation Technique.
"Alright then, I'm counting on you," Jiraiya said softly.
He had the puppet ninja look around—nothing suspicious.
"Good. As long as I keep up the disguise, this should work."
With that, he started moving again.
But just moments after he left, two paper butterflies drifted down behind him. Konan stepped out from behind a pillar in the shadows.
High above, she reported to the long-haired Pain, "I've found him—it's Jiraiya-sensei."
Pain's expression softened slightly, his voice tinged with nostalgia. "Is that so? Jiraiya-sensei… how nostalgic."
Konan asked quietly, "What should we do, Pain?"
His eyes hardened. "He's no longer one of us. At this point, there's nothing left to hesitate over. Kill him. I've already come in this body—let's end this intruder. Lead the way, Konan."
Konan nodded. "Understood. I'll engage him first until you arrive."
Following her origami plane, Pain replied coolly, "Fine. If you can kill him yourself, even better."
Then, with a leap, he vanished into the rainless sky, pursuing his old master.
Elsewhere, the controlled ninja was walking through the streets when countless paper sheets suddenly appeared, wrapping tightly around him in an instant. Within moments, his entire body was cocooned. From the swirling papers emerged Konan, forming a blade from paper in her hand, ready to strike.
At that critical instant, the ground behind the ninja rippled—and Jiraiya burst forth.
"Fire Style: Flame Bullet!"
A torrent of fire erupted from his mouth, scorching through the paper storm. Countless sheets of paper burned to ash as the blast hurled Konan backward, slamming her into a wall. Flames licked at the air, filling the alley with thick smoke.
The headscarf-wearing ninja, freed momentarily from Jiraiya's control, gasped in panic, hands trembling against the ground.
Jiraiya straightened up, eyes narrowing as he looked toward his opponent emerging from the haze.
Konan leapt from the smoke, face expressionless. Her voice was low and calm.
"Toad Shadow Manipulation Technique… is that what you used?"
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