"No. Something is wrong!"
Tsunade's expression was grave.
"According to the news from Konoha, quite a few people should have come to the Land of Fire capital during this period. They already left Konoha, but they never arrived here."
Jiraiya froze for a moment.
"They left Konoha but didn't come here? Then where did they go? Did they vanish into thin air?"
Tsunade nodded.
"If nothing unexpected happened, then they probably did vanish."
Jiraiya frowned.
"Previously, Hiruzen-sensei went mad and used the Senju clan genealogy to slaughter those people. Now Hiruzen-sensei has fallen unconscious, and the village is being managed by Acting Hokage Danzo Shimura."
"Could it be that he also laid hands on those people?"
Tsunade's eyes flickered.
"Jiraiya, let me ask you a question."
"What question?"
"Is Danzo's relationship with Hiruzen-sensei very good?"
"I remember that it wasn't very good."
"I remember the same."
Tsunade said, "That is exactly what I don't understand. I only want to investigate the truth behind Nawaki's death back then. What you want is only to overthrow Hiruzen-sensei."
"Now Hiruzen-sensei has already fallen unconscious. The person managing the village is Danzo."
"If Danzo reached an agreement with us at this time, he might even be able to become the true Hokage. But he has not shown the slightest intention of contacting us."
Jiraiya thought for a while.
"I can't figure it out. Then I'll investigate directly."
"If people disappeared, then either they disappeared inside Konoha, or they disappeared on the road to the Land of Fire capital. I'll investigate along the path, and I'll know what happened."
Tsunade nodded.
"Then I'll trouble you, Jiraiya. Be careful."
Hearing Tsunade's reminder, Jiraiya felt warmth fill his heart.
"Don't worry. My current strength may not be as good as before, but I am definitely not weak."
Night fell.
Several figures secretly slipped out of Konoha.
Even after leaving Konoha for more than ten kilometers, they encountered no obstruction. They thought that their group could smoothly reach the Land of Fire capital and join Tsunade's command.
An unusual light flickered in the cloudy eyes of an old man.
"The Senju clan should have been rebuilt long ago!"
"Lord Hashirama's decision was wrong!"
"Look at these years. Only we of the Senju clan have been sacrificing ourselves. The other shinobi clans have done everything they could to gain benefits, fighting over resources that should have belonged to the Senju clan."
"Fortunately, Tsunade-sama has finally awakened."
"I truly hope I can live to see the day the Senju clan regains its glory."
Just then—
A figure walked out from the darkness and appeared before these people.
Many black threads surged out from his body.
One strand after another.
One line after another.
And several masks.
"What is that?"
"A m-monster!"
Kakuzu looked even more terrifying beneath the night than he did during the day. He did not look like a person at all. Moreover, the moment Kakuzu attacked, it was with extremely powerful force. These people could not block him at all.
The difference in strength between the two sides was far too great.
Numbers could not make up for it.
It was a massacre.
A one-sided massacre.
Before long, all these people had fallen. Blood splattered everywhere.
Sasori of the Red Sand kept shaking his head.
"Kakuzu, next time you attack, can you make it cleaner?"
Kakuzu narrowed his eyes, obvious displeasure appearing in them.
Perhaps because of his age, Kakuzu's temper was extremely violent. The slightest disagreement could make him attack. Just now, when facing those people fleeing Konoha, Kakuzu's methods had been exceptionally vicious.
But facing Sasori of the Red Sand, Kakuzu endured.
As a companion, Kakuzu knew Sasori's strength very clearly.
His body was hidden inside a puppet. No one knew where his true body was.
Even if Kakuzu wanted to find it, it would be extremely difficult.
Moreover, Sasori of the Red Sand was very skilled with poison, which to some extent countered him.
Against Sasori of the Red Sand, Kakuzu had no certainty of victory.
Suddenly—
Sasori of the Red Sand looked toward one direction. His aura changed, becoming alert.
Kakuzu sensed this change.
"Sasori, what is it?"
"Someone is there!"
"Who?"
Sasori of the Red Sand frowned.
"I don't know. Rather than saying it is a person, it is more like a toad. But not entirely a toad either. It walks upright, like a monster formed from a fusion of human and toad. But its aura is very strong."
Kakuzu thought of one possibility.
"Sunagakure's Devil Fruit?"
"It doesn't seem like it."
Sasori of the Red Sand was not ignorant of Devil Fruits.
On the contrary, as a spy planted inside the Akatsuki organization, Sasori communicated with Rasa fairly often and had come into contact with quite a few Devil Fruit users.
He could easily judge that this was definitely not the aura of a Devil Fruit.
"He's here!"
Kakuzu looked over.
He saw a red figure charging toward them like lightning.
It carried the force to sweep through a thousand troops.
Kakuzu's pupils contracted fiercely.
A true battle began.
On one side was Jiraiya.
On the other were Kakuzu and Sasori of the Red Sand.
At this current stage, both sides could be considered top-level existences in the shinobi world.
Kakuzu's Earth Grudge Fear technique allowed him to master multiple elemental ninjutsu. His vitality was also extremely powerful. Not only did he possess multiple hearts, he could also repair himself while fighting.
As for Sasori of the Red Sand, his true body was hidden very deeply. He fought entirely through puppets.
The two sides exchanged blows back and forth.
The ground cracked. One stretch of forest after another collapsed.
Until Jiraiya used senjutsu.
The combination of natural energy and chakra clearly raised Jiraiya's offensive ability by an entire level.
Anything touched was injured.
In a very short period of time, Kakuzu lost two hearts.
That shocked Kakuzu greatly.
Sasori of the Red Sand had originally wanted to flee directly. Risking his life for an Akatsuki mission? Sasori had no such awareness.
It wasn't as though he had sincerely joined the Akatsuki.
But after thinking for a moment, Sasori still threw out a puppet.
A special puppet with extremely strong restraining ability.
And its body was installed with a large number of explosive tags.
"Go!"
With the puppet's assistance, Kakuzu finally found an opportunity to escape. Without hesitation, he turned and ran.
Jiraiya's gaze sharpened. Unwilling to let them go easily, he chased after them.
However, he could no longer catch them. At the very end, he only destroyed one more of Kakuzu's hearts, pushing Kakuzu one step closer to death.
But this was precisely the advantage of Earth Grudge Fear.
As long as Kakuzu did not die, he could replenish them.
By hunting other living beings, he could replace the lost hearts.
Even if they were not human hearts, animal hearts could be used barely enough.
Jiraiya looked at the corpses of those Konoha shinobi lying on the ground. His expression turned ugly to the extreme.
"Who were those two?"
Elsewhere.
After listening to the Root shinobi's report, Danzo's face darkened.
"Those two useless things were actually driven off so easily?"