Jiraiya hated war.
He couldn't understand why humans refused to pursue the beautiful things in life, insisting instead on fighting each other to the death.
Wasn't looking at scenery nice?
Wasn't traveling around the ninja world wonderful?
Wasn't writing novels comfortable?
And if none of that worked, then finding a women's bath and admiring the beauty of the female body—wasn't that exciting?
Yes, it was nice, wonderful, comfortable, and exciting.
But Jiraiya knew that was only him. That was the desire and pursuit in his own heart, not anyone else's. More than that, he had no right to represent other people.
Just as Orochimaru defecting from Konoha had been something he had never imagined, something he had never seen coming.
For a time, it had made him doubt his whole life. He often asked himself whether the Orochimaru who had defected was really the Orochimaru he knew, or whether he, Jiraiya, was no longer himself.
Lost in that confusion, he would often zone out, even now, stationed on the front line in the Land of Grass and facing pressure from both Kumogakure and Iwagakure.
"Lord Jiraiya..."
"Lord Jiraiya..."
Two calls interrupted his thoughts and pulled him back from his daze.
Jiraiya's white hair fell behind him like a lion's mane. He wore a forehead protector marked with the character "oil," a brown ninja outfit, and a red outer coat. Seeing it was Shikaku, he coughed twice to cover his embarrassment.
"Oh, Shikaku."
Inside the temporary wartime command post at Konoha's main camp, the curtain was lifted and a slender man walked in. His eyes had a naturally sharp, drooping shape, and there was a scar on his right cheek near the jawline.
With his brows tightly furrowed, he raised a hand and slowly passed a scroll to Jiraiya.
"This is the latest intelligence from the sensory unit. The new Raikage, A, and that Killer Bee ambushed another one of our chūnin squads last night. Every member of the squad, including the squad captain... was killed."
Jiraiya's hand paused as he took the scroll.
It felt unbearably heavy, like a mountain had been placed in his hands.
This was already the seventh chūnin squad Konoha had lost.
Ever since the Third Raikage took advantage of the Kazekage's death and Sunagakure's internal chaos to invade the Land of Wind, that Raikage candidate who had inherited the name A had gone completely mad. Ignoring national borders and relationships, he was specifically hunting down both Konoha and Iwagakure forces, throwing the entire battlefield into chaos.
Invisible pressure was falling heavily on Jiraiya—
and on Iwagakure as well.
Jiraiya silently sighed. His hatred of war rose another level.
The man could no longer sit still. He stood, walked to the window in his wooden clogs, and looked through the window frame at the sunlight filtering through the dense forest, scattering patches of light on the ground.
After a long silence, he asked Shikaku in frustration, "Shikaku, tell me. How do we end this damned war?"
The lives of Konoha ninja were lives.
The lives of Suna ninja were lives.
The lives of Iwa ninja were lives.
Even Kumo ninja—the lives of their village's shinobi were lives too.
The war had dragged on to this point, with deaths in the tens of thousands. Jiraiya was truly sick of it. He had had enough.
But Konoha as it stood now—
Orochimaru had defected. Tsunade had given up. The old man had to sit in the rear and hold the village together.
Only he, and no one else, had to bear the weight of holding the front line.
Laughable.
The mighty Land of Fire, the greatest ninja village in the shinobi world, had actually fallen to the point where there was no one left to use.
Was this Konoha's tragedy, or Jiraiya's?
A dragon should return to the sea, but the sea refuses to receive me...
A breeze blew through, carrying a few green leaves into the tent.
Nara Shikaku frowned and carefully considered the question. He compared the current battlefield situation with the intelligence gathered by the sensory unit, then looked at Jiraiya and asked, "How long until reinforcements arrive from the rear?"
"I've already sent someone to urge the old man," Jiraiya said, catching a falling leaf in his hand.
He still couldn't promise Shikaku a specific date. Everything had to wait until Boss Fukasaku returned with the old man's message.
Nara Shikaku propped up his chin and pondered for a long while before saying, "If that's the case, assuming Lord White Fang and your student Minato Namikaze are leading the reinforcements, then at least with the two of them here, we won't have to face quite so much pressure."
Both Jiraiya and Shikaku understood that fighting on two fronts was unwise.
But who asked everyone to want a bite out of Konoha?
Jiraiya and Shikaku both knew very clearly that by this point, the war was no longer something that could end just because one person wished for it.
Perhaps by the end, they might not even be able to tell who had won or lost.
For all anyone knew, Konoha, Suna, Iwa, and Kumo might all "win big."
Kumo wanted to cut Iwa's supply line at Kannabi Bridge.
Suna wanted to cut Iwa's supply line at Kannabi Bridge.
Konoha also wanted to cut Iwa's supply line at Kannabi Bridge.
Everyone was "winning big."
It was both absurd and somehow deeply tragic.
"That's not what I mean," Jiraiya said, letting go of the leaf and watching it drift away on the wind.
He turned and looked deeply at Shikaku.
"I mean—how do we make sure the ninja world never has another damned war again?"
Shikaku froze.
With his exceptional intellect, he immediately sensed the thick disgust and hatred in Jiraiya's tone.
His first instinct was to say that it was impossible.
Wherever there were people, there would be disputes of interest, and wherever there were disputes, there would be war.
But when he met Jiraiya's unusually serious gaze head-on, Shikaku swallowed and thought for a very, very long time.
Only then did he come up with one possibility.
"Unless the First Hokage comes back to life..."
Shikaku looked up at Jiraiya and took a deep breath.
"Only if someone's personal strength reaches Lord Hashirama's level could the Five Great Villages be forced into restraint."
The First Hokage.
The God of Shinobi.
Senju Hashirama.
Jiraiya froze slightly as Shikaku continued analyzing.
"From the Warring States Period, through the First and Second Great Ninja Wars, and now into the Third, the only true period of peace in the ninja world was the time after Lord Hashirama founded Konoha and was still alive."
"As for what happened after his death..."
Shikaku looked deeply at Jiraiya.
"Lord Jiraiya should know that better than I do."
Hanzō of the Salamander from Amegakure began expanding.
That battle was also the one where Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru earned their title as the Sannin.
Jiraiya smiled bitterly.
"You're right. But you said it yourself—that was the First Hokage. The God of Shinobi..."
"You don't seriously believe someone could surpass him, do you?"
Shikaku shrugged.
"That's my answer. Apart from that... I can't think of any other possibility for ending war."
All under heaven rushes about for profit.
All under heaven stirs for gain.
The way of shogi lay in contest, and contest existed only in war, killing, and confrontation.
Nara Shikaku understood shogi deeply. In his free time, he had played several games with Jiraiya to ease their mutual stress, so he naturally knew—
the man in front of him understood this truth as well.
But as for whether someone in the future might surpass the First Hokage?
All Shikaku could say was that the God of Shinobi would forever be the shinobi world's unreachable monument.
There had never been anyone like him before.
There would never be anyone like him again.
There was, and would only ever be, one.
"Forget it."
Asking was the same as not asking. Speaking was the same as not speaking.
Jiraiya waved a hand and returned to the main seat, disheartened.
"Call Hizashi, Akimichi, and Yamanaka in for a meeting."
But just as the man's backside touched the chair, an aged voice suddenly drifted into his ears, carrying an aura he knew very well—
senjutsu chakra.
"Mm... after a thousand years, the Child of Prophecy... has finally... appeared..."
So familiar.
This chakra.
This voice.
It's the Great Toad Sage!
Jiraiya shoved the chair back and shot to his feet.
His expression changed rapidly. Part of his face took on toad-like traits, instantly startling Nara Shikaku.
Shikaku, who had been about to leave and inform the others, immediately went on guard. His right hand moved unconsciously toward the kunai at his waist.
Then Jiraiya turned back.
Shikaku met the sudden light blazing in Jiraiya's eyes and heard him say:
"Shikaku... you may have just been right."
Shikaku: "?"
He opened his mouth and was just about to ask what that meant when Jiraiya's mouth curved upward.
"Go call them."
Then he waved Shikaku out.
The tent flap rustled.
In the blink of an eye, Jiraiya was alone in the command tent. He slowly sat back down in the main seat.
The red markings that ran from his eyelids down to his jaw glowed vividly in the sunlight streaming through the window.
Lost in thought, he murmured to himself:
"Child of Prophecy... who are you?"
One young face after another flashed through his mind.
His student, Minato Namikaze.
The Nine-Tails jinchūriki, Kushina Uzumaki.
The men and women, old and young, he had met during his travels.
His thoughts scattered, drifting far away...
"Achoo! Little Jiraiya must be rushing me..."
In the study of the Hokage residence, after a brief moment of astonishment, Fukasaku sneezed with a croak and waved a hand, signaling to Minato that he was fine.
Then the old toad ignored Roy and asked Hiruzen directly, "The front line is under pressure. Little Jiraiya told me to ask: when exactly will Konoha's reinforcements arrive?"
Hiruzen looked at Minato.
"Minato, you're fast. Prepare tomorrow. Leave the day after. Go hold off Kumogakure first and wait for White Fang's support."
Minato smiled and said, "Uncle White Fang may not be any slower than me."
His blond hair fell behind him as he turned his head and glanced at Roy.
He remembered the day the boy had manifested that giant form and pierced the sensory barrier with one slash, and how he and Sakumo Hatake had run into each other in the southern forest. Sakumo's lightning-like movement had been so fast it nearly rivaled the boy's Light Release.
Who was slower or faster?
That was still hard to say.
Konoha's White Fang?
Fukasaku pondered the name.
Could he be the Child of Prophecy?
Above the Sannin stood Konoha's White Fang.
Hatake Sakumo's name was not only famous across the Five Great Nations, but even in Mount Myōboku—and even Ryūchi Cave and Shikkotsu Forest—people had heard of him.
Fukasaku, at least, had heard Jiraiya praise him highly more than once.
But considering his age and past accomplishments, if he truly were the one, then the Great Toad Sage should not have waited until now to make the prophecy.
In other words, he was not the Child of Prophecy.
The true Child of Prophecy should have only recently appeared—
or only recently revealed a hint of brilliance.
As Fukasaku was still thinking, he suddenly heard a flat voice say, "If there's nothing else, I'm leaving."
He looked up.
It was that Uchiha brat born evil.
Fukasaku automatically tossed him out of consideration and ignored Roy completely.
Impure World Reincarnation had been obtained, along with Multiple Shadow Clone and Rashōmon. This trip had not been wasted. It could be considered a decent harvest.
Roy was ready to stop lingering. He glanced at Hiruzen and, without waiting for the old man to nod, was just about to leave—
when someone suddenly wrapped an arm around his shoulder.
The boy turned his head.
Minato Namikaze leaned in with a smile.
"Wait. Let's go together."
His lake-blue eyes curved like crescent moons.
"Kushina wants to eat Mikoto-nee's cooking. Let's have lunch together today."
He was about to go to the front again.
This time, he had no idea how long it would be before he returned.
So Minato did not want Kushina to be disappointed. Whatever request she made, he would do everything he could to fulfill it.
This was guilt.
It was helplessness.
And it was also his way of trying to make it up to her.
Roy stopped.
Thinking of Uzumaki Kushina's relationship with his mother, and remembering that in the original story Kushina often visited Mikoto during pregnancy and even made an agreement that their unborn children—Sasuke and Naruto—would become friends in the future, he silently nodded.
Once Minato finished discussing the details of departure with Hiruzen,
Roy, with black hair falling behind him, completely ignored Fukasaku and treated him like air. With a thought, he summoned Swamp Space, took Minato with him, and slowly sank into the ground.
When they reappeared, they were already outside the courtyard and gone from sight.
"Gua—"
The old toad's yellow eyes widened.
Watching the boy flicker in and out between the underground and the surface as if moving through empty space, he thought in shock:
This kid has quite the Earth Release!
Then he leapt onto Hiruzen's desk with a kick of his hind legs.
"Sarutobi brat, since when did you get so close to a kid from the Uchiha clan?"
As Jiraiya's trusted contracted summon, Fukasaku already knew quite a lot about Hiruzen Sarutobi through Jiraiya's perspective.
Forget opening his private home to invite an Uchiha in for a chat—
if Hiruzen didn't openly or secretly cooperate with Danzo and the others to suppress the Uchiha, that was already a good thing.
"What's wrong with that?" Hiruzen chuckled, taking out his pipe and lighting it again. After a puff, he said, "The Uchiha are also part of Konoha. As Hokage, I have a responsibility to care for every villager of Konoha."
Fukasaku: "..."
His eyes widened suspiciously.
He strongly suspected that the Hiruzen Sarutobi in front of him was a fake.
Hiruzen calmly exhaled a smoke ring and pretended not to see Fukasaku's dumbfounded expression. Then he asked in return,
"Now then, explain."
"What did you mean just now when you said the ninja world is about to change?"
Fukasaku came back to himself.
He had no intention of hiding it from Hiruzen.
Even if he did want to hide it, given Jiraiya's relationship with Hiruzen, and Jiraiya's big mouth, Hiruzen would probably find out eventually anyway.
So he said directly, "The Great Elder dreamed a prophecy and delivered a revelation. He said..."
"The Child of Prophecy has appeared."
Click.
Hiruzen took a hard puff from his pipe.