Logan stopped walking and turned back to ask:
"What did you say?"
He hadn't heard clearly. He was speaking to Jiraiya.
"How dare you say such a thing?"
Jiraiya took a deep breath. "Logan, you can't go after Orochimaru with an injured man, and you definitely can't leave Sasuke to Momo and Mayuri. With their strength, they won't be able to protect him."
An Uchiha—just that name alone held immense weight.
A living Uchiha, separated from Konoha and unable to protect himself, was more than enough to drive countless bounty hunters and hidden villages into a frenzy.
"And—"
Jiraiya pointed to the crown of thorns embedded in Sasuke's head.
"It's keeping him in a fragile equilibrium. Any disruption will break that balance. If you bring him into a battle in this state, he will die."
Jiraiya paused, then looked straight at Logan.
"I know you don't trust me, but…"
His brows lowered. His fists clenched tightly.
"I want to do something right."
Because he was Jiraiya.
And at the most crucial moment in battle, there had been a moment's hesitation—that hesitation allowed Orochimaru to escape.
But it was also because he was Jiraiya.
Not a pure, profit-seeking shinobi. Not someone who turned his back on conscience. He still held morality close to his heart.
So, even though Logan was about to walk away, Jiraiya took the initiative. He offered to bear the burden of protecting Sasuke, to make up for his earlier mistake with a thankless duty.
He waited silently for a response.
A few seconds passed before Logan finally said:
"Fine."
"But I will write a command into your 'heart'—to 'protect Sasuke.' Until I personally revoke that command, protecting Sasuke will take precedence over everything else—even over the Will of Fire that you believe in. Do you accept that?"
Logan stared coldly at him.
It was a harsh condition.
Logan had assumed Jiraiya would refuse. But to his surprise, Jiraiya nodded without a moment's hesitation.
Logan gazed deeply at the disheveled man in front of him, and for the first time, the chill in his eyes began to melt away.
"I've made my own mistakes," Jiraiya said. "And I have to take responsibility for them. I'm still a man."
White Snake.
The white snake slithered forward, still radiating arrogance, its head tilted upward, looking down its nose at Jiraiya.
It raised a hand and struck Jiraiya across the chest.
"Ziga—Gada!"
A mechanical, jarring sound echoed—like old DVD discs being ejected. Jiraiya froze as two discs slid out from his face.
Logan reached out and took them.
One was labeled Ninjutsu.
The other: Memory.
Just as Logan had expected, the White Snake's extraction couldn't touch Jiraiya's physical attributes—his years of cultivated strength and training.
In other words, physical abilities lay outside the scope of extraction.
Things like the Uchiha's bloodline limit, the Raikage's formidable physique, or even Sasuke's current unstable energy state—these couldn't be stripped with discs.
Logan confirmed his hypothesis and looked at the discs in his hand.
If he wanted, he could now delve into Jiraiya's memories, manipulate his will, and turn him into a puppet. Or kill him, simply and cleanly.
But this man—Jiraiya—was willing to entrust Logan with his life and soul, all in the name of righteousness.
Logan couldn't bring himself to commit such a vile act.
The White Snake could only write simple, direct commands onto a memory disc—unlike Heaven's Gate, which could imprint complex directives onto a soul.
Logan wrote four words onto the disc:
Protect Sasuke.
Then he gently inserted it back.
Jiraiya shuddered violently and blinked as awareness returned.
He reached up, touching his face where the discs had been extracted. There was no pain, no change he could feel.
But the moment his eyes met Sasuke, a deep, instinctual urge surged from within:
"I must protect this child."
Even though Jiraiya knew that this drive came from Logan's power, there was no resistance in his heart.
"Is this what it means to be under an 'order'?" Jiraiya murmured. "It's like…"
His mind flashed to Konoha's legendary genjutsu—Kotoamatsukami, the ability to control others without their knowledge.
This was a terrifying power.
But more terrifying than the ability itself… was the man who wielded it.
Jiraiya clearly sensed that aside from the single command to protect Sasuke, Logan hadn't implanted anything else.
He could have done anything. But he didn't.
He had overwhelming strength, yet treated life with reverence.
There were many powerful people in this world—but in all these years, Jiraiya hadn't met anyone quite like Logan.
"What are you staring at?"
Logan's voice brought Jiraiya back to the present.
He stepped forward, took Sasuke from Logan, and formed a summoning seal.
A massive toad appeared with a loud bang.
"I'm taking Sasuke to Mount Myōboku," Jiraiya said. "I'll ask the Great Toad Sage for help."
Then he looked at Logan seriously.
"Even with this 'order' inside me, I want to say it myself: Logan, I owe you today. If Sasuke is ever harmed again…"
"I'll come find you and offer my head."
Logan gave a solemn nod.
Bang!
Jiraiya, Sasuke, and the toad vanished, headed for Mount Myōboku.
Silence fell over the battlefield.
Logan looked at the corpses strewn across the village—Lion Majesty included—and let out a soft sigh.
"Human life really is worthless."
He walked to the pool of blood that flowed from Tian Xin Shen Ji's corpse and retrieved the Dragon-Snake Orb.
Natural energy surged into his body.
He recalled the moment from the earlier battle—when he unleashed his strongest sword strike, shattered the enemy's barrier, killed Kimimaro and Jūgo, and gravely wounded Orochimaru.
He remembered what it felt like—
An overwhelming flood of nature energy, pouring into a body already pushed to its limits through Ripple training.
In that instant, something inside him changed.
His very genes had been transformed.
It felt like… sublimation.
If Ripple was about vibrating cells...
Then this was resonance at the genetic level.
If he could master the law and rhythm of that resonance—
"Maybe we can surpass human limitations."
Logan stored away the orb.
He knew this power came at a cost. Despite how calm he appeared, it was extremely dangerous. A single misstep could lead to total genetic collapse—leaving behind nothing but meat and blood.
Still...
This level of resonance had forced the power of the curse out of Sasuke's body.
There was no longer any need to pursue Orochimaru for that.
Unfortunately, Sasuke would never be able to learn this power.
In fact, anyone who could generate Chakra was incompatible.
Once natural energy entered a chakra-using body, chakra would immediately cling to it—disrupting the delicate control needed for ripple resonance.
Logan shook his head, brushing aside unnecessary thoughts. He slung the Sword of Destruction over his back and began walking in the direction Orochimaru had fled.
---
Three days later.
Akatsuki underground base.
Figures began appearing on the outstretched fingers of the Gedo Statue.
Scorpion.
Konan.
Uchiha Itachi.
Deidara.
Zetsu.
Hoshigaki Kisame.
And finally—the leader: Pain.
Eight silhouettes—some real, some projections—stood in the dim light.
Pain scanned them silently with his Rinnegan, his gaze as cold and oppressive as ever.
"New mission?" Deidara asked lazily, hands in his pockets, blond ponytail swaying. "Who are we killing this time?"
He and Kisame were Akatsuki's newest recruits.
Kisame was calm and composed, but Deidara was a different story. Freed from the restrictions of his village, he was eager to let his art explode into the world.
"It's not a mission," Konan said. "It's about a traitor."
At the word traitor, everyone's thoughts landed on a single name:
Orochimaru.
After failing to take Uchiha Itachi's eyes, Orochimaru had defected from the organization. Since then, Akatsuki had been hunting him down.
But Orochimaru was a master of escape and disguise. So far, no one had caught him.
"Have we finally located him?" Kisame asked, clearly intrigued by the mention of his partner's infamous ex-comrade.
"We have," Konan replied. "He's currently being hunted by Logan and has fled to the Land of Rice Fields."
Logan.
The name stirred different reactions from the members.
Deidara's eyes lit up with excitement.
Itachi's brow furrowed.
Even Scorpion, whose face rarely changed, looked intrigued.
Pain's voice echoed through the chamber:
"Bring back both Orochimaru and Logan. Who will go?"
"I will," Itachi said.
"My genjutsu is enough to suppress all of his abilities."
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