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"If you don't want to be discovered the moment you leave here, then listen to me." After being imprisoned by Jiraiya for two hours, Koro decided to give up resisting and chose to "cooperate" with him.
Jiraiya grinned in delight. "If you had just agreed to cooperate earlier, we could've avoided all this trouble."
Originally, Jiraiya had planned to use Koro as bait to lure out Pain and gather information about him. After all, Pain was far too mysterious, and the defenses of Amegakure were far too tight. Obtaining any intelligence related to Pain was no easy task.
Moreover, since Pain had already detected an intruder in Amegakure, he would undoubtedly heighten security. Getting in again would be next to impossible. Given that, it was better to gather all the necessary intelligence in one go.
But when Jiraiya heard Koro mention his identity as a "remnant," another idea struck him—perhaps he could extract useful information from these remnants. After all, they had lived in Amegakure for years and must have uncovered secrets unknown to outsiders.
Once Koro agreed to "cooperate," Jiraiya let out a long sigh of relief.
"However, you must also agree to one condition," Koro said.
"Go on."
"We are remnants, and our goal is to kill Pain. But we're well aware that our strength is nowhere near his. He could effortlessly wipe out all of us—it's only because we've hidden well that we've survived this long. To be honest, even among the remnants, the number of ninja willing to fight Pain to the death has dwindled. Especially those who've started families—they yearn for a peaceful life now. In that regard, Pain isn't a bad leader. Maybe… many of us have changed."
Despite being a "remnant," Koro was still an ordinary person beneath his ninja identity.
"Don't worry. Once I gather intel on the Akatsuki, I'll leave," Jiraiya assured him.
"No." Koro shook his head. "I hope that one day, you'll kill Pain."
Jiraiya fell silent.
He was a ninja of Konoha, and his loyalty lay with the village above all else. Who knew? Perhaps one day, they might even collaborate with Pain. The future was unpredictable.
"How about a different condition? I can't make that kind of promise. Like you said, Pain is Amegakure's 'god.' I don't have the confidence to defeat a 'god.'"
Koro thought for a moment and realized his request was naive.
Pain was a god. Even Hanzo had fallen to him—what chance did other ninja have?
"Then… there's nothing else. Let's see what the others say."
It wasn't until late at night that Koro and Jiraiya finally emerged from the frog's mouth. Koro warned Jiraiya to stay alert at all times.
"Especially anything that looks like paper. It can detect a ninja's presence."
"How do you know that?" Jiraiya recalled that Konan specialized in paper-based ninjutsu—this must be one of her abilities.
"Someone told me. I did say the remnants aren't just me, right?"
"Then how about this? You tell me the location, and I'll take you there." Jiraiya pointed at the still-present toad.
Without hesitation, Koro nodded.
The remnants' hideout was the basement of a bar. Instead of entering through the noisy front, the two slipped in through the back—less than two meters away from a filthy gutter. The entrance was tiny, requiring them to crawl in flat, and two massive trash bins blocked the way.
The stench was unbearable.
Koro tapped on the glass, and someone cracked open a small gap.
"Who is it?"
A toad hopped in through the gap.
Instantly, the room erupted into chaos. Everyone tensed as if facing a deadly threat, only to relax when they saw it was just a toad.
"Just a damn toad."
"I thought it was the Akatsuki!"
"Shut the window! Opening it recklessly will get us all killed!"
"Sorry… Only our people know about that entrance. I thought it might be another survivor."
"From now on, no matter who knocks, don't let them in!"
As the people inside argued, a hand suddenly extended from the toad's mouth.
The room froze in terror as everyone scrambled away from the toad.
When Jiraiya emerged from the toad's mouth, they all gaped in shock.
"Y-You… Who are you?" An elderly man in his sixties, with a grizzled beard, stared at Jiraiya in disbelief.
"Me? I'm Jiraiya, a ninja from Konoha." Jiraiya glanced toward the window.
Koro climbed in after him, looking awkwardly at the others in the room.
His clothes had been torn off by Jiraiya, leaving him in nothing but his underwear—an embarrassing sight.
But the others weren't much better. Nearly half of them were either shirtless or missing pants, their expressions equally awkward.
"What… What happened to everyone?" Koro stared in confusion before turning to the old man. "Lord Fuwan, what's going on?"
"You're alive?"
"Yeah."
"And him…?"
"I'll explain later. First, tell me why everyone's like this. What happened?"
"Pain launched a sudden attack. Some of us were ambushed," Fuwan said grimly.
"What? So… only this many are left?" Koro scanned the room—at most, twelve or thirteen people remained.
"Yeah. The rest were killed. We sensed something was wrong and escaped. Pain doesn't want us to live, so we've decided—if we're going down, we'll take him with us!" A young ninja clenched his fists.
Koro's face turned ashen as he slumped to the ground in despair.
"So, you're Jiraiya of the Sannin?" Fuwan studied the white-haired man with the "oil" character on his forehead.
The title "Sannin" had been bestowed upon three Konoha ninja by Hanzo himself. To earn Hanzo's recognition meant Jiraiya's strength was formidable. But aside from Fuwan, most here hadn't fought in that battle and didn't know much about him.
"That's right."
"Can you save us? We don't want to die!" A young man burst into tears.
"Shut up!" Fuwan snapped. "We are Lord Hanzo's ninja! We should be prepared to die at any moment. Since Pain has made his move tonight, we must show the resolve of true shinobi. Otherwise, we'll be scorned even in death."
The weeping young man stifled his sobs. "I'm sorry… I just lost control for a moment…"
"Remember this—Amegakure is our home. Outside these walls, we are nothing. If Pain wants us dead, then we'll make sure he knows that even people like us can unleash terrifying power before we fall!" Fuwan raised his fist, more to rally himself than anyone else, then turned back to Jiraiya. "Why have you infiltrated Amegakure?"
"I want information on the Akatsuki and Pain." Jiraiya rubbed his nose. "From that perspective, at least we share a common goal now, don't we?"