"Old people who cling to power and refuse to let go…"
Yahiko propped his cheek up with one hand, looked thoughtfully at Rei Kaguya, and asked,
"I keep feeling like you're hinting at everyone present at the same time, Rei Kaguya…"
"I'm not hinting. I'm saying it outright."
His tone rose slightly with a playful lilt. Rei Kaguya looked at Jiraiya, whose expression shifted slightly, and spoke at an unhurried pace.
"As for our village, there isn't much need to explain. The Bloody Mist policy has strangled half of our shinobi candidates in the cradle, almost cutting off the birth of sensory shinobi and medical-nin entirely. The Third also disregarded the gap in high-end combat strength between Kirigakure and Konoha and forcibly started a war, then practically gave away the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, the village's most important fighting force.
"If we don't hurry up and take power back from the Third's hands, Kirigakure, which has already lost far too much blood, will soon fall out of the ranks of the Five Great Shinobi Villages. If it truly reaches that point, it would be far too disgraceful."
Jiraiya very much wanted to interrupt and say that with a monster like him present, Kirigakure did not have any issue of lacking high-end combat strength compared to Konoha.
But once he considered that Rei Kaguya had already said things to this extent, he gave up on voicing those words.
A village lacking high-end combat strength was still better than having its high-end combat strength estranged from and morally opposed to its own Kage.
"As for Amegakure… Hm. This will require some help from Jiraiya-senpai, who once experienced Hanzo of the Salamander at his peak."
After sweeping his gaze between Yahiko and Nagato, Rei Kaguya's eyes finally stopped on the silent Jiraiya.
"Jiraiya-senpai, based on your experience fighting Hanzo of the Salamander during the Second Shinobi World War, do you think the various policies he is currently implementing in Amegakure can still remind you of the ambitious man he once was?"
"Probably… not."
When Hanzo of the Salamander was brought up, Jiraiya, who had once fought that demigod of the shinobi world several times and had kept an eye on intelligence from the Land of Rain through various channels, could not help sighing.
Half regretful and half emotional, he said,
"Once, he was also a great figure who worked hard for his village and country. He carried passionate ideals in his heart, and he was never stingy with praise and encouragement toward outstanding young people…
"But now, what I can see from him is probably only his stubborn attachment to his own position and power, as well as paranoia and self-preservation that have grown more and more extreme."
"He assigns rotating guards around himself twenty-four hours a day and does not allow anyone the chance to approach him. He does everything he can to seal off all kinds of information about Amegakure… Sigh. I once truly respected Hanzo for fighting to protect the Land of Rain from becoming a battlefield between the great nations again."
Yahiko exchanged a helpless glance with Nagato and Konan, then let out a long sigh.
After that, Nagato, who still carried an impossible-to-fully-erase hatred toward Konoha, opened his mouth and pressed Rei Kaguya further.
"According to what Rei-kun said earlier, after talking about Kirigakure and Amegakure, next should be Konohagakure, right? Why do you think Konoha, which is still so powerful now and continues to produce one outstanding hero after another that other villages envy deeply, is also controlled by corrupted old people?"
"We can ask Jiraiya-senpai the same question."
Rei Kaguya changed direction and aimed his spear at Jiraiya, whose heart sank.
"As a disciple of the Third Hokage, and one of the Sannin who once met the First and Second Hokage, Jiraiya-senpai should not be unfamiliar with the reason the First Hokage established the shinobi village system, right?
"Can you tell us what belief the First Hokage held when he joined hands with the Uchiha clan amid that chaotic era and established the first shinobi village in the shinobi world?"
The question itself was not particularly sharp.
But it made Jiraiya feel a chill run through him.
Words could give people strength. They could give people the courage and determination to keep going even in desperate situations.
But in the same way, words could also become a colorless, formless poison.
They could easily corrode defenses someone believed had no flaws and destroy everything they once believed in.
Why Konoha was founded—of course Jiraiya knew.
But the moment he spoke that answer aloud, Rei Kaguya would surely strike at his wavering self like a snake beginning its hunt, injecting his poison into Jiraiya's thoughts.
He should not have stayed here to listen to Rei Kaguya's talk-no-jutsu.
But if he ignored it, Nagato might be influenced by the strange magic within the other party's words and gradually deviate from his original heart.
After struggling with himself again and again, Jiraiya exhaled deeply and spoke in a heavy tone, as if he had resolved himself to march toward death.
"So that young children would no longer be dragged into war. So that children could have a peaceful environment in which to grow up quietly. So that they could have the chance to exchange surnames normally with children from other clans. So that an entirely new era could begin, one where different clans worked together and pursued peace together…"
"You see? The problem is right there."
The corners of Rei Kaguya's mouth lifted slightly.
Then, supporting his chin with both hands, he said slowly,
"Present-day Konoha does not hesitate at all to throw children who have just graduated from the Ninja Academy and know nothing onto the battlefield to die."
"Um, although saying this sounds a bit like I'm making excuses for Konoha's higher-ups…"
Konan raised her hand and said hesitantly,
"But to a certain extent, isn't that something they had no choice about? Because Konoha is always being attacked by multiple villages, their shinobi suffered severe casualties. If they did not do that, Konoha might have already…"
"The Second Hokage did not think that way, Konan."
The moment Rei Kaguya said those words, Jiraiya knew what kind of poison he intended to spit at him.
But undeniable fact pinned him in place.
It did not leave him even the slightest room or strength to dodge.
"If our Kirigakure intelligence is not wrong, when the Second Hokage was driven into a desperate situation by Kumogakure's Gold and Silver Brothers back then, he chose without hesitation to act as bait himself. While buying time for his young subordinates to escape, he entrusted all of the village's future to them…
"And among those subordinates were the four—oh no, three—people who later held the highest authority in Konoha. Hiruzen Sarutobi, Koharu Utatane, Homura Mitokado, and the now-dead Danzo Shimura… Every one of them became a heavyweight later. Every one of them claimed to be an inheritor of the Will of Fire.
"And then?"
Rei Kaguya paused for a moment, then sneered.
"Why, in the later Shinobi World Wars, did we never see any scene of them stepping forward and risking their lives for the young people of the village?
"Why, once Konoha entered the era of their rule, did the practice the First and Second Hokage always wanted to eradicate—making children go to the battlefield—openly appear again?"
"Shut up…"
Jiraiya clenched his fists, trying hard to suppress the urge to slam the table and rise.
"You cannot deny fact, Jiraiya."
Dropping the respectful suffix, Rei Kaguya's face turned cold as he continued saying words that made veins bulge on Jiraiya's forehead.
"Speaking of which, shouldn't you properly thank me on behalf of your disciple, Minato Namikaze?
"I helped him solve in advance the person who would have been the most troublesome problem after he became the Fourth Hokage. Although he still has to continue facing the entanglement of three rotten old ghosts who refuse to give up their authority and status, at least his mission has already been reduced by more than a third, hasn't it?"
Boom.
Jiraiya smashed through the wall of the reception room and sprinted toward Konoha's camp without looking back.
He did not intend to keep listening.
If he continued listening, the seed of doubt soaked in poison would truly take root in his heart.
He did not want to use someone else's ideas to doubt his teacher.
Nor did he want the other party's ideological poison to spread through him as a medium into the hearts of his disciples and even more Konoha shinobi.
"Tsk, tsk. He ran away just like that…"
Rei Kaguya curled his lips, then turned toward Nagato and Yahiko, who were looking at him helplessly.
"Rei-kun… from the very beginning, you had no intention of turning Jiraiya-sensei into our comrade, did you?"
Nagato sighed and waved at the Akatsuki members gathering outside, signaling that they did not need to worry.
"Otherwise, there would have been no need to start with such a sharp topic."
"You saw through me."
Rei Kaguya put away the icy expression on his face, sat back down in his seat, looked up at the simple ceiling, and spoke in a distant voice.
"There is no helping it. Konoha's current scale is simply a little too large. I have to think of some way to make them too busy to care about anything else while we most need time to develop and consolidate ourselves."
"Will it really work?" Yahiko sounded pessimistic. "Even if everything you said struck directly at the problem, that is Jiraiya-sensei. He has traveled across more than half of the shinobi world and has explored and thought deeply about peace. Would his thinking really be shaken so easily?"
"The smarter a person is, the harder it is for them to deceive their own heart in front of a correct argument."
Rei Kaguya tugged at his collar and sighed emotionally.
"Was I wrong? No. Did Konoha's higher-ups do something wrong? Yes. For a smart person like Jiraiya, that is already enough.
"A guy like him, who wants to change this terrible world and is also good at teaching disciples, only needs a seed called 'correctness' planted in his heart. Then we can calmly look forward to him unconsciously teaching these things to his disciples, letting 'correctness' continuously expand within his circle.
"Once that happens, those who accept 'correctness' will inevitably clash with Konoha's old conservative forces. And while they argue endlessly over their path, we can calmly deal with our own internal problems and clear away obstacles for our later actions."
Listening to Rei Kaguya's orderly speech, then looking at his overly relaxed posture, Nagato narrowed his eyes and said thoughtfully,
"Rei-kun, your tone is much more relaxed than when we met last time."
"Yes. Now I even dare to sit beside you this relaxed, without being so wary of your Rinnegan."
Rei Kaguya answered very honestly.
"It seems my training has been somewhat too lax."
Nagato shook his head and lightly tapped the table with his fingers in some distress.
"In that case, won't I be unable to deter you, the future leader of the Land of Water?"
"That is why my voice is much louder this time than last time. And much more confident."
Rei Kaguya patted Nagato on the shoulder and said seriously,
"All right. After talking this much, it is about time for us to take our respective next steps… I look forward to continuing to receive intelligence about all of Akatsuki's active movements after I return to Kirigakure."
"We won't disappoint you."
Nagato nodded.
His pale purple Rinnegan was filled with fighting spirit and motivation.
Yahiko and Konan also stood and came behind Nagato, firmly holding his hand.
"Goodbye."
"Goodbye."