"An old man clinging to power and refusing to let go…"
Yahiko rested his cheek in his hand, staring at Kaguya Ren with a thoughtful look.
"I've got this feeling you're implying everyone here at once, Ren…"
"I'm not implying anything," Ren replied, the playful lilt in his voice rising just a touch. "I'm stating it outright~"
His gaze flicked to Jiraiya—whose expression had subtly changed—before he continued in that slow, unhurried tone.
"Our village aside, the Bloody Mist policy strangled half of our ninja candidates. It nearly wiped out the birth of sensory-types and medical-nin, and the Third Mizukage still forced a war without caring at all about the gap in top-tier strength between Kirigakure and Konoha… then practically threw away the most important combat force in the village—the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist—almost for free.
"If we don't snatch power back from the Third as soon as possible, Kirigakure—already bleeding out—won't be able to hold its place among the Five Great Ninja Villages for much longer. And if it really comes to that… it'll be far too humiliating."
Jiraiya wanted to interject—With you, you monster, Kirigakure's high-end strength isn't weaker than Konoha's at all—but Ren had already pushed his words to this point. Jiraiya swallowed the sentence before it could leave his mouth.
A village lacking top-tier strength was still better than top-tier strength turning against the village and its Kage.
"And as for Amegakure…" Ren's eyes swept over Yahiko and Nagato before settling on Jiraiya, who had fallen silent. "That part requires some help from someone who lived through Hanzo the Salamander's peak.
"Jiraiya-senpai—based on your experience fighting Hanzo during the Second Shinobi World War, do you think the policies he's enforcing in Amegakure now… still resemble the man who used to be full of ambition?"
"…Probably not," Jiraiya sighed.
He had crossed hands with the so-called Demigod of the Shinobi World more than once, and he'd kept tabs on the Land of Rain through every channel he could.
"Back then, he was a hero who truly fought for his village and his country. He had a blazing heart. When he saw talented young people, he praised and encouraged them without hesitation… But now, what I see is only his stubborn obsession with his position and power—and a paranoia that's gotten more extreme by the day."
Jiraiya's gaze dimmed.
"Twenty-four-hour rotating guards. No one allowed close. Amegakure's intelligence sealed tighter and tighter… Hah. I used to respect the Hanzo who fought so the Land of Rain wouldn't be trampled into a battlefield by the great nations again."
Yahiko exchanged a helpless glance with Nagato and Konan, then let out a long breath. It was Nagato—whose grudge against Konoha could never be fully erased—who spoke next, pressing Ren.
"Going by what you said, you've covered Kirigakure and Amegakure. Next should be Konohagakure, right? Why do you think Konoha—still unbelievably strong, still producing one hero after another that the other villages envy—would also be controlled by corrupted old men?"
"We can ask Jiraiya-senpai that one too," Ren said, smoothly turning the spearhead back toward him.
Jiraiya's heart sank.
"As the Third Hokage's student, and one of the Sannin who once saw the First and Second Hokage with your own eyes, you shouldn't be unfamiliar with why the First Hokage founded the shinobi village system. Tell us—what belief did he hold that made him unite with the Uchiha clan and build the first shinobi village in that age of chaos?"
The question wasn't sharp on its surface.
But it sent a chill down Jiraiya's spine.
Words could give people strength—courage and resolve even at the edge of despair. But words could also be poison without color or shape, corroding a heart's defenses and destroying everything someone once believed.
Jiraiya knew exactly why Konoha was founded.
But the moment he spoke the answer, Ren would strike like a venomous snake launching a hunt—injecting doubt into Jiraiya's wavering mind.
I shouldn't be here listening to Ren's "talk-no-jutsu."
And yet…
If he left things alone, Nagato might truly be influenced by the spell-like pull in Ren's words and drift away from the heart he started with.
After wrestling with himself, Jiraiya let out a long breath. His voice sounded like someone walking to the gallows.
"…So that small children would no longer be dragged into war. So children could grow up in peace. So they could have a quiet world where they could live long enough to exchange surnames with children from other clans. So the clans could cooperate and pursue peace together—opening an entirely new era…"
Ren's lips curved upward.
"You see? That's exactly the problem."
He rested his chin on his hands, speaking in that leisurely, almost gentle cadence.
"The Konoha of today doesn't hesitate at all to throw children who've just graduated the Academy—kids who don't know anything—onto the battlefield to die."
"Um…" Konan raised a hand, hesitant. "This might sound like I'm making excuses for Konoha's higher-ups, but… isn't it partly unavoidable? Konoha is constantly attacked by multiple villages. Their casualties are huge. If they didn't do that, Konoha might already—"
"The Second Hokage didn't think so, Konan," Ren cut in.
The moment he spoke, Jiraiya knew what poison Ren intended to spit.
And yet the irrefutable truth pinned him in place, leaving no room to dodge—not even the smallest margin to breathe.
"If Kirigakure's intelligence isn't wrong, back when the Kinkaku and Ginkaku brothers of Kumogakure pushed the Second Hokage into a corner, he didn't hesitate. He chose to act as bait himself—buying time for the young shinobi under him to escape—and then entrusted the village's entire future to them.
"And among those young shinobi were the four—no, three—most powerful people in Konoha today: Hiruzen Sarutobi, Koharu Utatane, Homura Mitokado… and the dead Shimura Danzo. Every last one of them became a heavyweight. Every last one of them called themselves inheritors of the Will of Fire.
"And then what?"
Ren paused. Then he sneered.
"Why, in all the wars that came after, did we never see them step forward and stake their lives to protect Konoha's young? How is it that under their rule, the thing the First and Second Hokage wanted to eradicate—children being sent to the battlefield—returned again, openly, shamelessly?"
"Shut up…" Jiraiya's fist clenched. He fought the urge to slam the table and rise.
"The facts aren't something you can deny, Jiraiya."
Ren dropped the honorific entirely. His face turned cold. His words made the veins throb at Jiraiya's temple.
"Speaking of which—shouldn't you thank me on behalf of your student, Namikaze Minato?
"I took care of the most troublesome political figure he'll face after becoming Fourth Hokage—ahead of time. Sure, he'll still have to deal with three rotten old ghosts who refuse to let go of their status and voice… but at least I reduced the burden by more than a third, right?"
Boom.
Jiraiya smashed through the meeting room wall and fled—headlong—toward Konoha's encampment.
He refused to listen any longer.
If he kept listening, the seed of doubt soaked in venom would truly take root in his heart.
He didn't want to use someone else's thoughts to doubt his teacher.
And he didn't want Ren's poison to spread through him into his student—and into even more Konoha shinobi.
"Tch. So he ran." Ren clicked his tongue, turning toward Nagato and Yahiko, who both looked at him with exhausted helplessness.
"Ren…" Nagato sighed, waving a hand at the Akatsuki members gathering outside, signaling them to stand down. "You never intended to make Jiraiya-sensei our ally from the start, did you? Otherwise you wouldn't have opened with something this sharp."
"So you noticed." Ren's cold expression vanished. He sat back down, looking up at the crude ceiling with a distant gaze.
"Can't be helped. Konoha's scale is just too big. We have to make them too busy to look elsewhere while we most need time to develop and stabilize ourselves."
"Will it really work?" Yahiko sounded pessimistic. "Even if your words hit the core, that's still Jiraiya-sensei—someone who's traveled most of the shinobi world and thought deeply about peace. Will his beliefs really be shaken that easily?"
"The smarter someone is, the less they can lie to themselves in the face of a correct argument," Ren said, tugging at his collar, sounding almost wistful. "Was I wrong? No. Did Konoha's higher-ups do wrong? They did. For someone as smart as Jiraiya, that's enough."
He tapped the table lightly.
"He's the type who wants to change a rotten world, and he's good at teaching disciples. If you plant a seed called 'correct' in his heart, you can calmly expect him to pass it to his student without even realizing it—letting 'correct' spread through his circle."
"And once they accept 'correct,' conflict with Konoha's old conservative faction becomes unavoidable. While they fight over their path, we'll have room to clean up our internal problems and clear obstacles for what comes next."
Nagato listened, then narrowed his eyes.
"Ren, your tone is a lot more relaxed than the last time we met."
"Yeah." Ren smiled. "I can sit beside you like this now without being so wary of your Rinnegan."
"Then my training's been too lax," Nagato said, knocking his knuckles lightly on the table with a troubled look. "At this rate, how am I supposed to intimidate the future leader of the Land of Water?"
"That's why I'm speaking louder than last time," Ren said, patting Nagato's shoulder. His voice carried real weight now. "And with more backbone."
He stood.
"Alright. We've talked enough. It's time we each take our next step. After I return to Kirigakure, I expect to keep hearing news of the Akatsuki—everyone—making big moves."
"You won't be disappointed," Nagato said. His pale purple Rinnegan burned with fighting spirit.
Yahiko and Konan rose and stepped behind him, gripping his hand with firm resolve.
"Goodbye."
"Goodbye."
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