"You? You're still alive?!"
The instant he laid eyes on that thing, Jiraiya's pupils tightened.
That creepy bastard from before.
The last time he'd seen it was also at the border of the Land of Rain. Back then, it had melted into a puddle at the end. He'd assumed it was dead.
Now it seemed that "puddle" had probably been something like a clone.
"White Zetsu?"
Compared to Jiraiya, Uchiha Kai's reaction was far calmer.
He simply turned around and fixed his gaze on the creature.
Pale white skin, slick green hair—
He recognized it instantly.
This was the monster that had raised Obito from childhood and later wiped out nearly half of the Allied Shinobi Forces.
White Zetsu.
The appearance looked closer to its later-stage form, but there was no mistaking it.
"You know it?"
Jiraiya blinked in surprise at Kai's words.
"Haven't you lived in Konoha since you were a kid? How did you recognize some Rain Country freak in one second?"
He honestly found it hard to believe.
Yet Kai didn't look like he was bluffing.
Which left Jiraiya… confused.
Recognize it in one second?
Kai rolled his eyes inwardly.
He'd watched all 720 episodes.
If he still couldn't recognize this thing after sitting through nearly a third of the series being flashbacks, then what exactly had those years of suffering been for?
Training his patience?
After a brief pause, Kai spoke calmly:
"This thing is a sensor for a mysterious organization."
"A sensor?"
Jiraiya clearly didn't buy it.
What kind of respectable sensor squats around eating literal crap?
And with the rain pouring down, that crap had been diluted into a watery disaster.
Picture it—
A rainy day.
A chalk-white humanoid whose skin practically glows.
Stuffing its mouth with rain-soaked filth.
Then turning its head and staring at you blankly.
The visual impact was so strong it made even Jiraiya's encounters—while "collecting research materials"—between seventy-year-old grandmas and eighty-year-old grandpas seem tame by comparison.
Still, reason won out.
Jiraiya suppressed the urge to incinerate it with a toad-oil flame bullet and chose to observe instead.
"Strange… It doesn't seem very strong at all."
After watching for a bit, Jiraiya made a probing move.
A few exchanges later, he had the thing captured.
Too easily.
This was nothing like the fierce battle he'd imagined.
Seeing this, Kai shook his head.
"I told you—it's a sensor. Or think of it as intelligence personnel. A war correspondent works too."
Did a war correspondent need combat strength?
Obviously not.
As he spoke, Kai flicked his wrist.
Several chains shot forward.
Adamantine Sealing Chains.
Clang—clatter.
White Zetsu was bound in an instant.
Kai even dragged it through a nearby puddle a few times in disgust before turning to Jiraiya and issuing orders:
"Take it back to Mount Myōboku. I'll need it later."
With the Adamantine Seal in place, these White Zetsu spores couldn't break free.
After all—
This thing was the perfect vessel for Edo Tensei.
If Kai wanted to get his hands on First Hokage Senju Hashirama's traits, resurrection was unavoidable.
Resurrect him.
Kill him.
Loot the corpse.
Wait for cooldown.
Resurrect again.
Repeat.
Hashirama's Sage Body and that absurd passive Tsunade treated as a trump card—
At this rate, Kai might get them sooner than expected.
Just thinking about it was a little exciting.
Plop.
Across from him, Jiraiya shot Kai an unhappy look and muttered:
"Tch… treating me like some errand boy."
"Don't you know how to respect your elders?"
Grumbling, he performed a summoning jutsu and packed up the tightly bound White Zetsu.
It wasn't human anyway—might as well count it as cargo.
Only then did Jiraiya turn back to Kai.
"You… know what that thing really is?"
"Yeah."
That calm answer made Jiraiya frown again.
"Then taking it like this—won't we be exposed immediately?"
"We need to move. Now."
With that, he turned and ran toward Amegakure.
But after a short distance, he realized something was off.
Kai wasn't moving.
He doubled back urgently.
"Uchiha Kai! Move it! If we're discovered—"
Kai raised a hand, letting the rain pool in his palm.
Cool droplets seeped between his fingers.
"Discovered?" he murmured. "We were discovered a long time ago."
Pain's Rain Tiger at Will Technique had detected them the moment they stepped into the Land of Rain.
"What?!"
"Discovered already?!"
"No way! Absolutely impossible!"
"We were extremely careful! We didn't even leave chakra traces—how could we—"
Jiraiya's first instinct was denial.
But as he spoke, his voice grew weaker.
From the moment they met, Kai had carried this unsettling air of omniscience.
As if the Land of Rain were nothing more than a spring picnic to him.
As if everything here was already etched into his mind.
"…This can't be real, can it?"
Jiraiya sucked in a cold breath, gripping the scroll at his waist.
Kai looked at him and shook his head lightly.
"So when you managed to locate Pain's hideout back then… Nagato probably let a lot slide, didn't he?"
Killing one's master might be a Naruto-world tradition—
But Jiraiya had been given plenty of chances to leave.
Unfortunately, back when shinobi combat still revolved around information, Jiraiya insisted on uncovering the truth.
And so, death was the curtain call.
If Kishimoto had decided earlier that everyone would start piloting chakra mechs and face-tanking battles—
Maybe Jiraiya's ending would've been different.
"Hey, brat—what exactly are you implying?"
Seeing Kai still unmoving, Jiraiya lowered his voice.
"If we've really been exposed, we need to rethink our battle plan."
Before entering the village, Jiraiya was still the sharp-minded veteran beneath the perversion.
Kai took a slow breath, then turned his gaze toward the shadowed forest behind them.
"You can come out now."
His voice wasn't loud—but it sliced cleanly through the rain.
Silence.
Jiraiya frowned, about to speak—
Pffsh!
The muddy ground in the shadows suddenly bulged upward.
Then—
Another pale, naked humanoid creature emerged from the earth like a growing plant.
But this one had only half a face.
"That thing—!"
Jiraiya's expression hardened.
"Doesn't it look just like the one from earlier?"
"Not just looks," Kai replied casually. "It's White Zetsu too. The one you caught was probably grown from its spores."
Kai stepped forward unhurriedly, eyes fixed on the creature.
In his hand, a purple, nano-scale insect floated gently.
That was how he'd detected this White Zetsu—through the sensing range of his nano venom bug.
"Oh my~ I've been found~"
Unlike the silent one before, this White Zetsu spoke immediately.
Its voice was shrill and theatrical.
"The Toad Sage of Konoha~ and… hmm? A little kid wearing Uchiha clothes? Heehee~ What rare guests!"
"Care for a chewy delicacy?"
Its single remaining eye lingered on Kai.
Curiosity flickered within.
Its body twisted like drifting seaweed.
Kai smiled faintly.
"Since you're here," he asked lightly,
"does that mean Obito is nearby too?"
Clack.
White Zetsu's grin froze solid.
White Zetsu: Heehee—not heehee anymore.
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