Jiraiya looked at Tōshirō's face. The two were very close. If he took one more step forward, he could reach out and touch him.
But that one step was an unbridgeable distance.
It was as if a thick, tragic wall had formed between them. This feeling was just like when Orochimaru betrayed the village.
"You know what I want to ask you," Jiraiya said.
Tōshirō let out a breath, and a sneer showed his bitter sarcasm: "Instead of asking me, don't you think you should ask your good sensei what he did to me and what he did to Tsunade?"
"Wh-what?"
Jiraiya's eyes widened, his face filled with shock. After a few beats, his heavy lips parted: "Wh-what happened?"
"It's better that you don't know some things."
Tōshirō slowly closed his eyes: "For someone with your personality, knowing will only cause you more grief."
"Tōshirō..." Jiraiya opened his mouth, but no words came out.
"If there's nothing else, I'm leaving. Unlike you, who likes to be a carefree hermit, I'm a very busy person."
Tōshirō turned and walked away, leaving Jiraiya with a lonely back view.
Jiraiya stood there, his hand reaching into the air as if he were trying to grab something. His fingers spread open, and after a while, the hand that was reaching into the air fell limply to his side.
Jiraiya lowered his head and said in a low voice: "Old man..."
Hokage's Office, meeting room.
The four elders who were in a meeting looked up at the door at the same time.
The sound of a dispute came from that direction.
"Wait a minute..."
"Jiraiya-sama, you can't go in..."
"The Hokage-sama is in a meeting..."
...
Jiraiya ignored the guards' obstruction, rudely pushed the door open, and scanned the room. His eyes finally landed on an old man wearing a white robe.
The guard, who had failed to stop Jiraiya, stood at the door, looked at the elders inside, and knelt down on one knee. He was just short of saying, "I have failed in my duty. Please punish me, Lord Hokage."
Hiruzen Sarutobi showed the generosity of a leader: "I'm sorry you had to go through that. You can leave."
Hiruzen had already anticipated that Jiraiya would come here and had already set up his plan.
"Yes, sir."
The guard quickly stood up, bowed, and left.
Jiraiya's eyes were fixed on Hiruzen, his face stern: "Old man, I have something to ask you..."
Hiruzen pondered for a while, then motioned for the others to leave, so he could talk to Jiraiya alone.
Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane didn't ask any questions. They stood up and slowly walked away.
Danzō remained in his seat, refusing to move.
"Danzō."
Hiruzen frowned, urging him to move.
"This is not on you. It's on me."
Danzō's act of taking the blame made Jiraiya frown. He wondered why this matter was also related to Danzō.
After the non-essential people left, only Hiruzen, Jiraiya, and Danzō remained in the room.
The air was heavy, and Hiruzen slowly broke the oppressive silence: "Jiraiya, you're here about Tōshirō, aren't you?"
Jiraiya remained silent, waiting for them to reveal the truth.
Hiruzen closed his eyes, his face showing difficulty. After a long time, as if he was about to say something, he took a deep breath. Just as he was about to tell the "truth," Danzō interrupted him.
"Hiruzen, you don't have to say anything. Let me do it."
Danzō took on the role of the villain, to make Hiruzen look like a white lotus who knew nothing and was kept in the dark.
Danzō said in a low voice, probing: "Jiraiya, in your mind, what kind of person is Tōshirō?"
Before he could fool Jiraiya, Danzō needed to know for sure if Jiraiya had gone to see Tōshirō and how much he knew about the truth. This would help him with the rest of the conversation.
Frowning, Jiraiya didn't understand Danzō's intention. He could only describe the Tōshirō he knew, organizing his words, but the words slipped away from his mouth.
He couldn't understand Tōshirō anymore: "I... I don't know. But I know he's not a bad person."
Danzō didn't try to argue about good and evil, because it was useless. To convince a person, the best way is to provide them with facts and let them judge for themselves.
So, he began his plan: "Do you know that Tōshirō is sometimes too childish?"
Jiraiya's expression froze. He didn't know what Danzō was getting at: "Childish?"
"What is a child? A child is someone who is good to you if you're good to them but is bad to you if you're bad to them."
"What's wrong with that?" Jiraiya said: "I think most people are like that."
Danzō sighed: "There's nothing wrong with that in itself, but the problem is that Tōshirō is too childish, and children often act without considering the consequences."
He then looked at the solemn-faced Jiraiya: "Do you remember the incident where the son of the Fire Daimyō was kidnapped?"
The son of the Fire Daimyō was kidnapped?
This was a very old incident. Jiraiya had almost forgotten about it. With Danzō's reminder, he recalled it and said vaguely: "I think there was such a thing."
Then, he was suddenly shocked, as if he had realized something.
Danzō wouldn't bring up an old matter for no reason. There could only be one possibility.
An ominous feeling welled up in Jiraiya's heart: "Is Tōshirō involved in this?"
"He is," Danzō said with a sigh: "And he's very involved."
"..."
"Because... the person who planned the kidnapping of the Daimyō's son..." Danzō paused, his voice firm: "was Tōshirō!"
Jiraiya's eyes widened, his voice filled with shock: "How is that possible?"
"Why not?"
Danzō raised his voice, increasing his credibility.
Jiraiya was unwilling to believe it: "There must be some misunderstanding."
Danzō said loudly: "Is the 'misunderstanding' that he kidnapped the Daimyō's son, beat him up, and then blackmailed him?"
"..."
Danzō's tone softened as he began to speak calmly: "Back then, Tōshirō failed a mission. Because the target he was protecting was special, he should have paid with his life. Thanks to many people's mediation, the Daimyō reluctantly decided to pardon Tōshirō, changing his punishment to imprisonment. Because of his good behavior, he was released early. We thought Tōshirō would seriously reflect, but we didn't expect that while he was in prison, he wasn't repenting. He was plotting how to get revenge on the Daimyō after he got out."
Jiraiya's voice trembled: "Re-revenge?"
"I told you. In some ways, Tōshirō is as simple as a child. He simply wouldn't consider the consequences of his actions," Danzō explained: "Tōshirō, filled with resentment, spent half a year traveling after he got out. He was collecting information and gathering people. Since it was hard to get to the Daimyō due to the many experts around him, he chose to make his son his target.
"If he had done it right after getting out of prison, he wouldn't have had enough information, and people would easily have connected it to him. So he spent half a year going around in circles to make sure no one would suspect him."
At this point, Danzō said with great sorrow: "To have such intelligence at a young age, it's a pity he used it for the wrong thing."
Jiraiya wasn't stupid. At this point, he already understood Danzō's motive. He walked up to Danzō and grabbed his collar: "So, you killed Tōshirō..."
He remembered that at that time, the person in charge of the Hokage position was Danzō. With his personality, he was very likely to do something like this.
Danzō had a good reason. Facing Jiraiya's questioning gaze, he said loudly: "I had no choice. Tōshirō went too far. With his personality and the power he had at that time, do you think he would have cooperated peacefully?"
When this question was asked, Jiraiya was speechless. The grip on Danzō's collar loosened a little.
Danzō was waiting for this moment. He broke free from Jiraiya's grip, and with that action, his next words had even more power: "Probably not."
At this time, Hiruzen stepped forward and called Danzō's name, signaling for him to stop talking, to show his righteous image.
Danzō, with an "I won't stop" attitude, said: "At that time, the village would have faced the greatest crisis since its founding. The situation would have been even worse than when the Uchiha led the Nine-Tails."
Danzō then played the selfless and emotional card: "Lord Tobirama handed Konoha to us disciples. I couldn't just stand by and watch Tōshirō destroy the village."
Torn between his friend and the village, Jiraiya was like a drowning person, even his breathing became difficult.
"Why did things turn out like this?"
Danzō and Hiruzen just watched him silently, not saying a word.
Jiraiya slumped his shoulders, his spirits low for a while: "Then what about what happened to Tsunade?"
(End of Chapter)
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