"Sorry, Konan, you heard it."
Jiraiya offered an apologetic smile to his former student, seeming somewhat embarrassed about the circumstances of their reunion.
However, talking was one thing, Jiraiya's movements were anything but slow.
He brought his palms together and swung his head.
Ninja Art: Wild Lion's Mane Technique!
His head full of white hair rapidly extended under the power of Chakra, swiftly entangling Konan in mid-air.
Konan naturally had no intention of surrendering without a fight. Paper rapidly sharpened and sliced around her.
But no matter what those paper shuriken came into contact with, they would end up stained with ink, losing control, and even having ink-formed thin ropes extend from them to wrap around Konan.
Even up to this point, Jiraiya still had no intention of taking Konan's life.
With no escape route, and her explosions being intercepted prematurely, this was the first time Konan had found herself in such a frustrating situation.
It could be said that all the techniques she had mastered were completely countered by Jiraiya.
A teacher is still a teacher after all.
The next moment, Konan's body was entangled by the long hair and quickly pulled closer.
On the other side, after decapitating Asura Path, Naruto called out to Jiraiya and jumped into the large hole.
The situation inside was even more dangerous.
He seemed to be intentionally leaving Jiraiya and Konan alone together.
Konan thought Jiraiya would just restrain her like this and take her back for interrogation about Nagato's whereabouts.
But she never expected the dismembered Asura Path Pain to still be active.
A severed arm used its fingers to grip the ground, then aimed its broken cross-section towards Jiraiya.
The next moment, several sharp blades shot out from it.
Swish—
The white long hair was severed in the middle. The Asura Path's head, which had rolled onto the ground, spoke its final words like a malfunctioning robot.
"Ko-Kon-nan... Na-n..."
This was because the black rods used for transmitting Chakra on its body had been disconnected from the main body, like an internet connection reverting from fiber optic back to dial-up.
Nagato could remotely control the Six Paths of Pain, but this distance also had its limits.
To carry out missions across hundreds of miles, it was necessary to bring Nagato's main body, the 'signal transmission base station', along as well.
Therefore, Nagato's main body was currently located over a hundred miles away, inside a large tree made of paper.
The other five Pains were currently rushing towards this location at this moment.
Although Nagato also believed that Jiraiya would not kill Konan, Naruto was an uncertain variable. He couldn't gamble.
He could no longer bear the price of losing another comrade.
It was a pity that even though the Wild Lion's Mane Technique was severed, Konan still did not attempt to escape after landing on the ground.
Because now, her body was covered in dozens, maybe even hundreds, of characters for [Seal], [Sleep], and [Weak].
All her strength and Chakra had become like a stagnant pool of water at this moment. She could sense their presence but was completely unable to mobilize them.
Konan even felt her thinking had slowed down.
Jiraiya simply loosened his hair, the tips were still dripping ink.
He had used his hair as a brush to perform a comprehensive sealing.
Without help from others, breaking free from this wouldn't be easy.
"Konan, just stay put quietly over here. I still have some things I want to ask you."
"I won't say anything."
Uttering these words seemed to consume the last of Konan's strength. Her eyelids, heavy with intense drowsiness, closed uncontrollably.
Jiraiya walked over to check, confirming that the Asura Path was truly dead this time, beyond any doubt.
But the more he looked, the more familiar that face seemed.
Jiraiya squatted there, stroking his chin as he carefully examined the corpse, completely unaware of a figure silently 'growing' out of the ground behind him.
'Oh!'
'I remembered!'
'This person was a puppeteer I had encountered during his travels.'
Jiraiya recalled this man advocated that "Fate need not be sought deliberately, and people should calmly accept the fate that arrives."
Because of this, Jiraiya had even written the man into his debut novel, [The Tale of the Gutsy Ninja].
'To think he had been killed by them... It seemed Nagato had used their bodies to create these human puppets.'
'Why have you become like this, Nagato?'
Just as Jiraiya was lost in thought, Zetsu, who had 'grown' from the earth, had already taken Konan and was 'submerging' back downwards.
But he forgot that Konan was currently covered in the ink Jiraiya had created.
The instant Jiraiya sensed it, he turned around. What he saw was Zetsu's face, half-black and half-white, wrapped in a venus flytrap, and Konan who had vanished without a trace.
"Ara, we've been discovered."
Zetsu narrowed his eyes and smiled, seemingly unafraid.
When dealing with others, Jiraiya had no intention of holding back.
His hair swung, and the ink transformed into countless sharp blades shooting towards Zetsu from all directions.
But before that ink could reach Zetsu, it was sucked into an invisible vortex.
The next moment, Obito, wearing his spiral mask, made his entrance from the void.
That scarlet Sharingan glanced at Jiraiya, then scanned towards the location below where Naruto had gone.
Ultimately, he said nothing, retreating into the [Kamui Dimension] created by his Mangekyo Sharingan before Jiraiya's next wave of attacks could arrive.
With that delay, Zetsu had already escaped with Konan.
In fact, they had already made plans the moment Nagato made this decision.
According to the information Kisame sent back, Naruto's strength was far beyond ordinary. If they underestimated him, Konan and one Pain's body would most likely be defeated.
It didn't matter if a Pain died, but if Konan died or was captured, Nagato would definitely not sit still, which was very unfavorable for their behind-the-scenes manipulation.
Suffice to say, before all the Tailed Beasts were collected, Obito's investment in the Akatsuki far exceeded Nagato's.
The facts also proved his prediction was not wrong.
'This Naruto Uzumaki was even stronger than Kisame had described.'
'I'm afraid he is not much inferior to Namikaze Minato back then.''
Having never truly fought him, Obito's assessment of Naruto was still somewhat conservative.
If Naruto knew, he might just imitate a certain elderly chuunibyou and say:
"Have you seen me in my prime?"
Earlier, while hidden within Kamui, Obito had gotten a preview of the scene unfolding in the power room below.
Therefore, he immediately had Zetsu take Konan away and had no intention of staying here himself.
Jiraiya was still unclear about what had happened.
Meanwhile, down below, Naruto looked at the large, unidentified mass in front of him, his expression subtle.
That was Shinno who had completely fused with the Zero-Tails, having lost his human form.
Now, only his face remained embedded on the surface of the Zero-Tails' body, while his limbs had completely merged with the Zero-Tails itself.
Shinno seemed to have lost consciousness. His mouth moved, emitting only meaningless groans.
But the Chakra around him, which was expanding more and more and becoming unstable, gave off an extremely intense sense of crisis.
Someone like Karin, who hadn't learned Observation Haki, just felt her hair stand on end.
But Naruto, relying on Observation Haki, and Sasuke, relying on his [Disaster Perception] Ability, both observed the impending crisis.
"Karin, take them and go first."
"This guy... is about to explode."