Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
With practiced speed, the three Pains withdrew their black receivers, splattering blood into the air.
Thump!
Jiraiya clutched his throat, his eyes wide with agony, and collapsed to his knees, utterly drained.
"Gurgle... gurgle..."
Blood choked his mouth, his throat working like a broken pump, producing only wet, desperate sounds.
Jiraiya never expected Nagato to know so much about him.
Not only did Nagato know that Jiraiya had expended massive chakra to summon the three toads via blood pact to cover his Sage Mode, but he also hadn't given him a single second to stall.
This information was supposed to be known only to his closest confidants.
And the name Nagato mentioned—the informant, Kaze...
Kaze!
Jiraiya's pupils trembled as the realization hit him.
He remembered that Menma, supposedly sealed away by the Second Hokage, had once infiltrated the Akatsuki using a Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Now Nagato was mentioning him again.
Jiraiya pieced together a terrifying truth.
The "Kaze" inside Nagato was Menma, or rather, one of his shadow clones.
Menma hadn't been sealed at all; he was hiding.
And he had been maintaining a spy within the Akatsuki the entire time.
After all, over the past year, Jiraiya had told Naruto about his Sage Mode.
Only Naruto, the student he was teaching, understood his full capabilities and methods intimately.
Naruto naturally couldn't be connected to the Akatsuki to leak information to Nagato.
Therefore, the Menma hidden within Naruto was the "Kaze" feeding Nagato intel.
He was using Nagato to kill me instead of doing it himself. He must be plotting something.
Menma's shadow clone had already demonstrated the power to seal the Impure World Reincarnation of the First Hokage.
To deal with Jiraiya or Konoha, there was no need for such roundabout methods or using a proxy.
Therefore, the only target Menma could be scheming against...
Was Naruto.
Menma wanted to eliminate Naruto, the only one capable of restraining him.
Pretending to be sealed and hiding behind the scenes was to keep Naruto from knowing his plans and offering any help.
On the verge of death, Jiraiya's mind was exceptionally clear, processing information with terrifying speed.
All the clues flashed through his mind like a montage, connecting one after another.
He instantly understood the cause and effect.
He had to pass this information on.
This entire realization process, which seemed long, actually took less than three seconds.
In those three seconds, Jiraiya was defeated, a fact that also startled the three toads fighting fiercely below.
"Damn it, Jiraiya! What's your status?"
Gamabunta, covered in wounds, anxiously kicked away the swarming Cerberus.
He shouted to Gamaken and Gamahiro, who were just as injured, "You two hold them off!"
"Got it!" Gamahiro replied succinctly, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.
With a swift slash of his twin blades, he instantly sliced the summoned rhinoceros in front of him into four pieces, which vanished in smoke.
Then, he single-handedly blocked the Cerberus about to bite Gamabunta, as well as the Yatagarasu circling in mid-air.
Gamabunta held his shield high, blocking the missile fired by the Asura Path.
With the other hand, harpoon firmly embedded in the Preta Path's body, he wearily whispered, "No problem, but hurry up. I'm useless—my chakra is about to run dry..."
Swish!
Now free, Gamabunta swung his short sword in a horizontal arc toward the three Pain paths above. At the same time, his other free hand reached for Jiraiya.
Pain's three paths didn't try to block it, simply jumping back and landing on the Yatagarasu in mid-air.
"Jiraiya... your body... your neck!!!"
"You damned bastards!!!"
Gamabunta saw Jiraiya barely alive in his grip and instantly roared in rage, ready to swing his sword to cleave the Yatagarasu apart.
But the pain in his hand stopped him.
Jiraiya, one hand clutching his bleeding neck, the other struggling to sit up, moved abruptly.
Blue chakra glowed in his palm, pressing a dent into Gamabunta's hand.
With his throat pierced, Jiraiya could only gurgle.
However, Gamabunta understood Jiraiya's intent.
He was using chakra to leave information in the toad's palm.
Pain, hovering atop the Yatagarasu, also saw Jiraiya struggling to move.
"He's still alive?"
"And he's trying to leave information with the toads... That Menma was right again."
"Well, that's good. If the Master died, those three toads would have bolted immediately."
"Today, neither humans nor toads leave alive," Pain continued.
The five-second cooldown of Shinra Tensei finished.
The Deva Path appeared in front of Gamabunta in a flash, palms raised forward.
Shinra Tensei.
Gamabunta, who had been on guard, immediately swung his short sword.
However, this was a supreme power of the Rinnegan.
A tremendous repulsive force erupted from Pain's palms.
Instantly, Gamabunta's sword froze in mid-air. Then, both Gamabunta and the sword were blasted backward at high speed, slamming heavily into the barren Gobi Desert.
Boom!
A cloud of yellow sand billowed up. Gamabunta was instantly knocked unconscious.
"Boss!"
Gamahiro, surrounded by five or six split-dogs, unleashed a dual-sword sliding slash, trying to come to his aid.
But the Human Path had already landed on top of him.
With a sudden grab, a toad's head in soul form was pulled out.
This was the Human Path's Soul Extraction ability.
However, Gamahiro's strength was considerable, and the Human Path didn't extract the soul immediately.
Blocked by this, the hellhounds—which had been slashed and split into more than ten pieces—pounced again.
They bit down hard on Gamahiro's limbs and torso, causing blood to gush.
As for Gamaken, besieged by the Asura Path and the Preta Path and nearing his end, Konan used the Dance of Paper to completely cover his body with white paper.
Finally, amidst a series of Explosive Tags, he was reduced to charred remains and collapsed.
As Gamaken fell, Gamahiro on the other side had his soul completely extracted and died instantly.
The three giant toads of Mount Myōboku were all dealt with.
The two dead toads were ignored.
Pain arrived at the unconscious Gamabunta and Jiraiya in the distance.
Jiraiya, due to excessive blood loss, had already stopped breathing.
But he still managed to move his hand, writing a numerical code on Gamabunta's palm.
However, the code was only half-finished when a black rod pierced through his hand and the toad's palm alike.
"Truly resilient, Jiraiya-sensei," Pain said, looking down at him expressionlessly.
"But it ends here. Your death message will go unreceived."
"So, farewell."
Whoosh!
Five black rods fell simultaneously.
In the burst of crimson light, the light in Jiraiya's eyes vanished completely.
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