Should he tell them or not?
At this point, that wasn't even a question anymore.
Shinobi battles were always wars of intelligence. Now that the agreement between him and Obito had been torn apart, if Hikari continued to withhold information about the Akatsuki, it would be nothing short of betrayal to Konoha.
"This is a long story, so..."
"Don't tell me you're planning to stay quiet!" Jiraiya glared at him, looking ready to explode.
Hikari shook his head. "Of course not. I just meant—let me sit down first. We'll talk slowly."
Jiraiya nearly choked on his own breath. If frustration could kill, he might have ascended to the Pure Land right there.
Once Hikari had seated himself, Jiraiya unceremoniously sat cross-legged on the floor. This place was cleaned every day anyway—spotless.
"Alright, then talk. Start from the founding of the Akatsuki. That shouldn't be a problem, right?"
Jiraiya intended to make things difficult for Hikari—but the answer he got instead left him stunned.
"Sure."
"What did you say?" Jiraiya shot up from the floor as if someone had set his backside on fire.
"The founders of the Akatsuki... You should be quite familiar with them. Don't tell me you've already forgotten the three kids from Amegakure?"
The three children from Ame?
In an instant, both Tsunade and Jiraiya recalled that moment in the past.
It was right before the Second Great Ninja War had ended. The three of them—Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru—had been given the title of the "Sannin" by Hanzō the Salamander.
As they were about to retreat to the Konoha border, three war-orphaned children stopped them. Out of sympathy, Jiraiya gave them food. Then the children begged to become his students. Tsunade hesitated, Orochimaru was ready to refuse, but Jiraiya's compassion won out—and he took them in.
If those three were the founders of the Akatsuki, then...
Tsunade's expression turned suspicious. She couldn't help wondering if Jiraiya had been holding back against Amegakure all these years because of his bond with his former students.
Otherwise, with Jiraiya's skill, he could have easily infiltrated the village to find out the truth.
"You're talking about Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan? There's no way those three could've founded the Akatsuki!" Jiraiya instinctively protested.
"Why not?"
Hikari met his gaze. "After you left, the three of them, by a twist of fate, formed the Akatsuki. Their goal was to bring a new dawn to the shinobi world. But later, because of Hanzō and Danzō, Yahiko was killed. Enraged, Nagato unleashed his power and drove Hanzō away. From that point on, Amegakure fell completely under the Akatsuki's control."
"Yahiko... died?" Jiraiya pressed his hand to his chest.
It was a pang of heartache.
He had truly cared for those three. To him, they were his students, his responsibility.
Now, hearing that Yahiko was dead—it felt like an old man sending off his own children.
"Yahiko is definitely dead. But Nagato used his body as a puppet—that's the 'Pain' the Kiri shinobi mentioned. There are six of them, collectively called the Six Paths of Pain. And their eyes... you'll be shocked when you see them."
If this were an ordinary conversation, Hikari would've given Jiraiya time to process everything. But time was not on their side. He had to get it all out quickly.
"As the Akatsuki grew in strength, a mysterious man named 'Madara' approached them. He called himself Uchiha Madara. His goal—was Nagato's Rinnegan."
"Those are the eyes of the Sage of the Six Paths. Madara wanted to use the Rinnegan to cast a genjutsu called 'Infinite Tsukuyomi', enveloping the shinobi world so no one would ever fight again, living out their lives in an illusion."
"What kind of nonsense is that?!" Tsunade blurted out, stunned.
Anyone with common sense would find that concept impossible to accept.
To normal people, life was life, and genjutsu was genjutsu. No matter how blissful a dream was, it could never replace reality.
"But Nagato's vision was different. He wanted to use the Rinnegan to make the great villages feel true pain. He would become the 'god' of the future world—one who punished anyone who dared to start a war. His power came not only from the Rinnegan, but also from the legendary shell of the Ten-Tails—the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path!"
"The Ten-Tails?"
Another term they had never heard before.
Tsunade wanted to ask where Hikari had learned all of this—information that even Jiraiya hadn't discovered in over a decade of research. Hearing it all laid out so easily by Hikari felt almost unreal.
Jiraiya's mind was still rebooting. He couldn't even find words to argue.
"The Demonic Statue is just an empty shell now. To resurrect the complete Ten-Tails, they need all nine tailed beasts. That's the real reason the Akatsuki is hunting them. Once the Ten-Tails is revived... no one in this world could possibly stop it."
"The shinobi world is really a dangerous place..." Tsunade murmured under her breath.
She believed Hikari's words.
After all, he had no reason to deceive her.
Now she regretted it—if she had known the Three-Tails was so important, she never would've stopped Hikari from killing it before.
Compared to the threat of the Ten-Tails, what was a mere Kirigakure?
She also realized that Hikari hadn't explained everything back then.
Her gaze turned reproachful.
'If only you'd told me all this earlier...'
"The shinobi world is vast, and there are many things that exist beyond the Five Great Villages. That Pain just mentioned going after the Three-Tails—it means they're already moving. Aside from Pain, others may also come to Konoha."
"Konoha? Why would they target Konoha? You mean they're after Naruto?" Tsunade asked, frowning.
"Not Naruto—Orochimaru."
"A few days ago, Orochimaru came to the village trying to lure Sasuke away, but I stopped him. Considering how impossible he is to kill, I let him go this time."
To Hikari, Orochimaru was even more troublesome than Nagato.
Because no one could ever predict how many tricks that man still had hidden up his sleeve.
Leaving a snake half-dead only got you bitten later.
"Orochimaru? But he's not a tailed beast. Why would the Akatsuki target him?" Jiraiya asked, finally regaining his senses.
Hikari sighed.
"Orochimaru used his research to fuse the Three-Tails' chakra into his own body. Calling him a mini–Three-Tails wouldn't be an exaggeration."
"For the Demonic Statue, he may not be equal to the real Three-Tails, but he's close enough to serve as a substitute."
"If the Akatsuki captures either Orochimaru or the real Three-Tails, the Ten-Tails' resurrection will truly begin!"
The thought of it made Hikari's head ache. He genuinely wanted to catch Orochimaru himself—just to beat some sense into him.
Thoroughly.
If Orochimaru hadn't meddled, the Three-Tails wouldn't have surfaced so soon.
If the Three-Tails hadn't appeared, the Akatsuki would still be lurking in the shadows.
And he... wouldn't have been forced to reveal himself.
But now it was too late to blame anyone.
Instead of cursing Orochimaru, it was better to start thinking about how to deal with the Akatsuki.
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