On the screen—
Just as Jiraiya and Konan were locked in a stalemate, Nagato, controlling Animal Path Pain, landed on the elevated platform.
"You look very different. But those eyes... so you were Pain... Nagato!" As soon as Jiraiya saw the Rinnegan, he guessed Nagato's identity.
"It seems you've strayed off the path of good. What happened?"
Nagato didn't care about Jiraiya's questioning. His voice came from the mouth of Animal Path Pain, "You don't need to know. After all, you are just an outsider."
"You've changed, Nagato." Jiraiya said with some emotion.
But Nagato no longer wanted to waste words. He pressed his palms together: "Summoning Jutsu!"
Rumble!
The pipe-covered wall shattered with a loud bang, sending rubble flying and dust filling the air.
A giant summoned crab appeared, spewing a massive amount of foam toward Jiraiya, forcing him to dodge. The long hair that had bound Konan was instantly retracted, hanging down behind his back.
Taking advantage of the foam washing away the toad oil, Konan's Paper Release was recovered. However, she didn't continue to attack, but instead materialized her form in mid-air.
"Konan, stay back." At Nagato's command, Konan immediately retreated, leaving the battlefield to Animal Path Pain and Jiraiya.
"Raging Lion's Mane Jutsu!" Jiraiya reacted extremely quickly. His white hair instantly lengthened and tightly entangled the giant summoned crab. Then with a burst of strength from his whole body—
Poof!
The summoned beast turned into a puff of white smoke and dissipated.
And before Animal Path Pain could a move, Jiraiya's long hair came together and instantly struck it. Animal Path Pain's body flew backward like a kite with its string cut, crashing into the pipes, and was then bound by the hair, suspended in midair, just like Konan before.
The people of the Shinobi World watching the screen couldn't help but nod in approval of Jiraiya's performance.
As expected of one of the Legendary Sannin, a famous veteran powerhouse of the Shinobi World. Even without any prior intelligence, he managed to instantly defeat one of the Six Paths of Pain!
Unfortunately, he was facing more than just one Pain, there were six of them, and the strongest—Tendo Pain—hadn't even made a move yet.
"Nagato, I want to ask you a few things."
"What happened to Yahiko?"
Although Animal Path Pain was bound, Nagato showed no emotional fluctuation.
"Oh yeah... There was such a guy, wasn't there? He died a long time ago."
Jiraiya's pupils dilated in shock. He had never expected that Nagato, who had aimed to protect his companions when young, would turn into this.
Facing Jiraiya's shock, Nagato answered seriously, "Sensei... you are still just a man. However, through this never-ending pain... I have matured and become even more than a man."
"From a man... to a god!"
---
[Konoha, Year 60]
[Somewhere in an underground base in Amegakure]
Nagato, sitting in his wheelchair, couldn't help but cough dryly after hearing "his" speech on the Sky screen. Even as calm as he usually was, he was incredibly embarrassed by those words.
Did he really talk in such a pretentious manner?
Surely not!
The corner of Nagato's mouth twitched, and an urge to shut off the screen welled up in his heart.
Seeing this, Konan, who was standing by his side, quietly curled her lips into a slight smile.
Meanwhile, the screen quickly flashed through the content of Nagato endlessly talking about his dream, then returned to the battle scene.
Animal Path Pain bound by the white hair went "poof" and turned into a log. It turned out that he had used Substitution Jutsu in advance at some point.
However, Jiraiya wasn't surprised. He calmly pressed his palms together and also chose to use Summoning Jutsu. "A kid treating me like a kid! Well, I'm no longer human either! These tears of blood, overflowing with rage! I went from the Sannin to Sage! The Monstrous Toad of Mount Myoboku! I am Lord Jiraiya—"
As he spoke, he began to make exaggerated movements, spreading his hands and leaning his body back, as if performing some ancient ritualistic dance.
But before Jiraiya could finish his exaggerated movements, Gamaken, holding a fork and shield, suddenly appeared beneath his feet; unable to keep his balance, Jiraiya awkwardly fell onto Gamaken's head.
"You haven't matured at all... You're just as clumsy as before." Nagato remarked with a hint of nostalgia.
Jiraiya scrambled up from Gamaken's head, patted the dust off his clothes, and coughed twice, pretending nothing had happened. He had summoned Gamaken, naturally, to buy time for himself to enter Sage Mode.
Soon, Gamaken and the summoned beasts called forth by Animal Path Pain were locked in fierce combat.
[Here we can compare the Sage Modes of the master-disciple pair, Jiraiya and Naruto. After all, when Pain later invaded Konoha, Naruto also used Sage Mode to fight Pain.]
[Overall, the advantages and disadvantages of their respective Sage Modes are fairly obvious.]
[First, in terms of the speed of entering Sage Mode, Naruto clearly has the advantage.]
[When prepared, Naruto can use shadow clones to help absorb natural energy, achieving an "instant" Sage Mode; this made a major contribution during the fight against Pain.]
[Jiraiya, on the other hand, is much worse in this regard. The time he needs to accumulate natural energy is clearly much longer. If not for Nagato holding back, with all Six Paths attacking at once, Jiraiya probably wouldn't even have had time to enter Sage Mode. A single Almighty Push from Tendo Pain, and Gamaken would have no way to buy time.]
[But Jiraiya also has his advantages. Although Naruto's Sage Mode activates quickly, due to the Nine-Tails' interference, the Toad Sages cannot fuse with him and continuously supply him with Senjutsu chakra, so its duration can only last five minutes. Even with two Shadow Clones, it only totals 15 minutes, making a prolonged battle impossible.]
[By contrast, with the help of the two Toad Sages, Jiraiya can maintain Sage Mode almost indefinitely. There's no such thing as a time limit, and he can spam Senjutsu as if it costs nothing.]
[Furthermore, with the help of the Toad Sages, Jiraiya's weakness in Genjutsu is greatly compensated for. At this point, whether in Taijutsu or various types of Ninjutsu, Jiraiya could perform at an extremely high level, making him a true all-rounder.]
[Therefore, at this stage, Jiraiya's Sage Mode was undoubtedly stronger than Naruto's.]
[Of course, later, after the Nine-Tails reconciled with Naruto and directly helped him refine Senjutsu chakra, Naruto could also spam Senjutsu at will, making his Sage Mode even more perfect than Jiraiya's.]
---
[Konoha, Year 60. Location of Team 7]
After hearing what the screen said, Naruto was extremely surprised. He hadn't expected that his Sage Mode was different from Pervy Sage's Sage Mode!
He had thought that Sage Mode was just Sage Mode, the same for everyone. It turned out there was so much more to it.
More importantly, the Nine-Tails could help him refine Senjutsu chakra?
During this period, just sensing natural energy had exhausted him badly, let alone balancing the ratio of Natural Energy and Chakra for Senjutsu.
So this was good news. Since the Nine-Tails could help him refine Senjutsu chakra, why was he still practicing? Shouldn't he just negotiate with the Nine-Tails and have it help him?
But he was somewhat troubled; how was he supposed to communicate with the Nine-Tails?
Sasuke was also thinking to himself. It was a good thing he didn't have a Tailed Beast to interfere, so he could focus on gathering natural energy in peace.
But how was he supposed to find the two Toad Sages from Mount Myoboku? Otherwise, the duration of his Sage Mode would also be a problem in the future. Without their help, the duration of the Sage Mode would be greatly reduced.
And his chakra was much less than Naruto's too, so he probably wouldn't even last 15 minutes!
If he couldn't get the help of the Toad Sages, he would have to find a way to increase his Chakra reserves or find another method to maintain Sage Mode.
Sakura sat nearby, hands braced behind her back, looking up at the screen. Listening to the analysis of Sage Mode, she felt a trace of envy in her heart.
Naruto and Sasuke were already getting somewhere with learning Senjutsu. And although her sensei had also taken her to Shikkotsu Forest, she still couldn't even grasp the basics.
While her Monstrous Strength Fist and Medical Ninjutsu weren't bad, she still felt something was always missing.
As the screen narrated, Gamaken and the summoned beasts became entangled in battle, iron forks and pincers colliding, sparks flying everywhere.
Gamaken's body was wounded in many places, but it still stood firmly in front of Jiraiya, not retreating a single step.
Who knew how much time had passed, but under Gamaken's desperate cover, Jiraiya finally activated Sage Mode.
---
[Konoha, Year One. One a high platform outside Konoha]
Hashirama watched Jiraiya on the screen trying so hard to activate Sage Mode and still ending up in such a sorry state, and couldn't help shaking his head.
This young one from the village still had work to do! Using something meant as a trump card so ineptly really made fighting troublesome.
And from the looks of it, even after activating Sage Mode, his strength still didn't seem that much more to Hiruzen's.
On the screen—
Inside a dark, narrow tunnel, footsteps sounded closer and closer. Then finally, three pairs of glowing eyes appeared in the tunnel!
When the people of the Shinobi World saw clearly, they found that Jiraiya's cheeks were covered with oil-paint patterns, his white hair moving on its own without wind, and on his left and right shoulders crouched two Toads.
"Now then, let's go!"
Jiraiya leaped, jumping from the high tunnel to the ground. His body crouched slightly, knees bent, feet stepping on the wet stone slabs.
With a "boom," the ground beneath his feet cracked like a spiderweb, rubble flew everywhere, and cracks spread in all directions, kicking up a cloud of dust.
And before Jiraiya could even move, the two Toad Sages, Fukasaku and Shima, struck first!
The tongue in Shima's mouth quickly lengthened. Her tongue seemed to have a special sensory ability, which quickly located the invisible chameleon summoned beast, then tightly entangled it!
The tongue squeezed the chameleon until it let out a low hiss, its body reappearing from its invisible state as it struggled desperately.
Fukasaku followed closely with a Water Release Ninjutsu, spitting out a high-pressure water gun from his mouth.
The water column cut across the chameleon's body like a blade and killed it instantly.
At the same time, Animal Path Pain also moved. It pressed its palms together and used the Summoning Jutsu again.
However, this time it wasn't to summon a summoned creature, but to summon Human Path Pain and Preta Path Pain over.
Jiraiya, who didn't have any prior intelligence, was dumbfounded to see two more pairs of Rinnegan. But Nagato didn't care about Jiraiya's shock; Human Path struck first, rushing quickly toward Jiraiya.
But Jiraiya, having activated Sage Mode, had clearly gotten a boost to his strength. Facing the sudden attack from Human Path Pain, he simply kicked out, hitting it squarely in the face and sending it flying back dozens of meters before it finally stopped after crashing into a rock wall.
And Jiraiya didn't let this opportunity slip. He spat out oil from his mouth, Shima spat out a Fire Release, and Fukasaku spat out a Wind Release, unleashing the combination Jutsu: "Sage Art: Goemon."
The wind and the oil fed the fire, making a huge tsunami of flames.
Unfortunately, seeing that Human Path Pain couldn't move out in time, Preta Path Pain made its move. It jumped in front of Human Path Pain and spread both hands.
The combined attack was completely absorbed by its hands.
"The oil disappeared too?" Feeling that something was wrong, Jiraiya leaped backward, and channeling chakra to his feet, stood sideways on the vertical wall.
Seeing that his attack was ineffective, Jiraiya took off the wooden clogs on his feet, placed both hands on the wall, and clung to it like a toad; even his palms and soles had turned into webbed toad feet.
Clearly, seeing that ranged attacks were ineffective, he was preparing to try close combat.
Jiraiya kicked off with both feet, using the wall's rebound force, he lunged downward at Animal Path Pain.
"Super Big Ball Rasengan!"
In midair, a huge blue orb of light formed in his hand.
But just as the Super Big Ball Rasengan was about to touch Animal Path Pain, Preta Path Pain spread its hands again, and the blue orb was quickly absorbed by it at a speed visible to the naked eye.
At this point, Jiraiya finally confirmed that Preta Path Pain had the ability to absorb Ninjutsu!
Just as Jiraiya was shocked, Human Path Pain seized the opening and attacked again from the side.
Jiraiya had no time to react, so Fukasaku took the initiative and threw a purple smoke bomb to block Human Path Pain's line of sight.
"We got his back!" Under the cover of the smoke bomb, Jiraiya quietly appeared behind Human Path Pain and threw a punch with all his might!
But what surprised Jiraiya even more was that although he was in a blind spot, Human Path Pain still seemed to see him, like it had eyes on its back. It extended its right hand and steadily blocked the punch.
"What?! He blocked my Sage Mode attack without even looking?!"
Only now did the people of the Shinobi World watching the screen realize that the Super Kage-level evaluation of Nagato's Six Paths of Pain was no exaggeration!
Without prior intelligence, even if Tendo Pain didn't act, just the three Paths on the screen had put so much pressure on Jiraiya, and that too in Sage Mode. They were truly absurdly strong.
It seemed that in Nagato's invasion of Konoha, they only won because the Konoha shinobis gave their live to obtain information, and then the Child of Prophecy came and turned the tide.
And apart from Kage-level powerhouses with space-time abilities like Obito, who could escape from Nagato, any other Kage-level figure who encountered the Six Paths of Pain would absolutely die.
Without prior intelligence, there was simply no way to fight them!
Of course, even with intelligence, Tendo Pain would still be hard to counter.
On the screen, Jiraiya was still attacking proactively.
He had a summoned toad leap out of the smoke to draw the Pains' attention, while he himself flashed quickly and appeared behind Animal Path Pain.
"Sage Art: Kebari Senbon!" Jiraiya lay on the ground, and his white hair turned into countless needles that shot toward Animal Path Pain.
But Animal Path Pain also reacted quickly. It formed hand seals with both hands and summoned a panda several meters tall; its round body stood in front of Animal Path Pain like a furry wall.
The needles struck the panda with muffled pfft pfft pfft sounds. But the panda's fur was extremely thick, and the needles only sank in a little bit, unable to harm Animal Path Pain at all.
Seeing this, cold sweat couldn't help but appear on Jiraiya's face. And even at this point, he hadn't realized that all the Pains were puppets that could share vision.
*****
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