Jiraiya looked up. A stranger stood atop an iron tower, cold rain sliding down the metal. Yet the Rinnegan in that man's eyes made Jiraiya's heart drop.
Nagato's eyes.
Why were they in another body?
Had Nagato been killed, his eyes stolen by the masked Uchiha?
If so, why did Konan still follow him willingly?
And why did this body call Jiraiya teacher?
Many questions, no answers.
"So you are Pain? Why do you bear Nagato's Rinnegan?" Jiraiya asked, voice steady though his pulse quickened.
"This has nothing to do with you, Jiraiya-sensei. You are an outsider now."
"Oh? You call me sensei while saying I am an outsider. Sounds like we are close strangers."
The crab summoned a wave of bubbles that washed the oil from Konan's body. She stepped out, wings reforming from countless sheets.
"Stand back, Konan," Pain ordered.
The crab charged Jiraiya.
He clapped his hands together.
"Wild Lion's Mane Technique!"
His hair shot out, thick as rope, snaring the beast. He pulled to tear it apart, but the crab vanished in smoke.
Without pause, his hair lunged at Pain like a serpent, binding him completely.
"Nagato, Yahiko... what became of them?" Jiraiya shouted.
Pain's eyes narrowed slightly.
"That one... Yahiko, yes. He died long ago. Such a person no longer matters."
He spoke without the faintest ripple of emotion.
Jiraiya's heart sank.
Yahiko dead.
Konan alive but unbroken by genjutsu.
Pain using Nagato's eyes.
Konan listening to him freely.
There was only one conclusion.
Nagato still lived. Hidden. Changed beyond recognition.
"Why did you become like this?" Jiraiya asked softly.
Pain answered with the calm of a judge delivering sentence.
"War. Everyone died. The pain of it changed me."
Jiraiya listened closely. Every word mattered.
"Even children, once they understand pain, become adults. Their speech and thoughts mature."
"So you abandoned your precious friend and call him just another corpse. This is your idea of growth?" Jiraiya's voice hardened.
"You are still merely human, sensei. I have felt pain beyond human limits. I transcended mortality. I grew further."
Jiraiya's jaw tightened.
"From human to God."
Pain looked down upon him with chilling certainty.
"As God, I speak and think from above. You are only human. It is normal that you cannot understand."
Even Hashirama, the God of Shinobi, never spoke like this. Jiraiya tasted bitterness at the back of his throat.
"You now call yourself God? You grew this twisted?"
"What does God intend to do?" Jiraiya asked. "What is your goal?"
To understand the Akatsuki's purpose was the reason he came.
"To end the world of war. That is God's duty."
"So that is why you hunt tailed beasts?" Jiraiya pressed.
Pain did not hide it.
"Since you will die here, I shall tell you. Using the sealed tailed beasts, we will create a forbidden technique capable of annihilating a nation in an instant. The ultimate weapon."
He meant the Gedo Statue. The shell of the Ten-Tails.
Jiraiya felt a cold weight settle in his chest.
If this path continued, then war would not end. It would only reset, again and again, each time bloodier.
And he knew he might not leave this village alive.