A bloody tooth rested in Orochimaru's palm. A flick of his fingernail, and it arced away, disappearing into the night grass. Orochimaru grinned.
"To hell with it," he thought, watching the commotion in the hospital. "Konoha hasn't been my village for a long time. What does it matter to me if its renowned medics are incompetent?"
...
"Lord Jiraiya, your tooth... we couldn't find it."
The medic, pale and confused, stood at the foot of the bed. Jiraiya lay staring at the ceiling, the blank, unfocused gaze of a man for whom the world had collapsed.
"What do you mean... couldn't?" His voice was hoarse and lifeless. "How much time has passed?"
He froze, struck by a new wave of despair. His legs were crippled, his virility was destroyed, and now a tooth… knocked out by his own stupidity.
Immeasurable, all-consuming regret. Had he known this was reality and not a bad dream, would he have killed himself? He hadn't just nearly sent himself to the next world—he had crippled himself, knocked out his own, natural tooth.
Soon, the medic, having completed his procedures, silently left. The silence in the room became oppressive.
"Danzo..."
The name fell from his lips like a curse. Jiraiya raised his head, and rage flashed in his eyes. If it weren't for that old bastard, not for his obsession with the Uchiha clan, Yue would never have acquired such monstrous power. This entire catastrophe, all this grief—Shimura Danzo's fault!
"Kwa... Shimura Danzo, you old bastard, damn you!" My body, my legs... my tooth...
The very thought of it made the blood pound in my temples. Then my anger turned to Sarutobi-sensei. To hell with his "Konoha Darkness"! To hell with "Root"! If that blind Hiruzen hadn't indulged Danzo, allowing him to commit his dirty deeds, would the village have fallen to such shame?
"Necessary darkness"? And now they've seen its fruits: he himself is dead, his legacy trampled, and Konoha is on its knees. And all of this is the work of that very "darkness."
That paranoid Danzo brought nothing but discord to the village in life, and after his death, he managed to drag everyone down with him.
The more Jiraiya thought, the more he seethed. Just recently, he was traveling, gathering material for his books, searching for the Child of Prophecy... And then one madman ruined it all. The great prophecy had crumbled to dust, and he, one of the Legendary Sannin, had been reduced to a helpless cripple. All those years of effort, wasted on the whim of one idiot.
Jiraiya swore: if he could return to the past, to the day of the Uchiha's extermination, he would strangle that old man with his own hands. Even if it meant becoming a renegade. After all, his sensei wouldn't truly pursue him anyway. Just as he hadn't pursued Orochimaru.
"I need to call Tsunade," he thought desperately. "In my current state, leading Konoha is impossible. Her medical ninjutsu... will they be able to restore what's lost? The legs are manageable, but the rest..."
A fragile hope flickered in his heart for a moment.
Shhhh...
A snake, thin as a chopstick, slithered through the crack under the door. It paused on the floor, then began to inflate unnaturally, disgorging a human figure from its mouth.
"Orochimaru!"
Jiraiya tensed, watching the shadow on the floor take on a familiar shape. Chakra instinctively flowed through the mangled channels.
"Don't bother, Jiraiya. I just came to visit an old friend. And I bring news."
Orochimaru straightened. His gaze slid over the mangled body on the bed, and a venomous grin played on his lips.
"I heard you got into a bit of trouble. But to such an extent... Where are your legs, Jiraiya?"
"What do you want, Orochimaru? Have you come to mock me?" Jiraiya's face hardened. - Get out. I'm not in the mood for this.
What a shame. What a shame. He set out to seek revenge, but didn't even see the enemy, and returned a pathetic stump.
"Not at all," Orochimaru hissed, leaning closer. His voice was like a snake's whisper. "I came to talk about Uchiha Yue. You know, Jiraiya, that the shinobi world is on the brink of destruction?"
"I know everything. He is a walking disaster who killed our teacher. Go away, Orochimaru. I will find a way to stop him."
Jiraiya shook his head stubbornly. He had known about this before. He had already made up his mind. As soon as he recovered, he would immediately search for the Child of the Prophecy.
"Universal catastrophe? Uchiha Yue, I will stop you!" he swore silently. There was still time. If Yue took his time, he had several years left. He would find the Child, even at the cost of his own life.
No, he had already found it. Nagato.
"The Rinnegan... the legendary eyes of the Sage of the Six Paths. Nagato is the Child of prophecy. What could some Mangekyō Sharingan possibly do against the Rinnegan? A legend against a simple dojutsu. The answer is obvious."
"Oh, you have a way?" Orochimaru looked at the empty half of the bed with undisguised curiosity. "Are you sure you're not delusional?"
"I have my own methods," Jiraiya snapped. "Now get out, or I'll have to use force."
He waved her off, unwilling to continue. If he hadn't been crippled in a weakened village, he would have captured Orochimaru and thrown him in prison long ago. Perhaps then he could have returned him to the right path. But now... now he was powerless.
"Very well, so be it," Orochimaru straightened, his smile growing wider and more sinister. "But let me give you one piece of advice, Jiraiya. If Uchiha Yue's domain continues to expand at its current rate, the entire world will be in its shadow within a year. I hope your 'method' will help you meet that deadline."
With these words, his figure melted away, turning into hundreds of snakes that scurried through the cracks and vanished into the darkness.
The words hung in the silence of the chamber, heavy and inescapable.
"A year..." Jiraiya whispered, his head hanging helplessly.