"There are six of them?" Fukasaku whispered in disbelief.
"Look! The ones we killed are among them again!" Shima gasped.
"Resurrected?"
"But reviving the dead is impossible…"
"What are these things?"
Even the two sages were shaken.
"Pain refers to all of us."
Tendo Pain stepped forward, calm and absolute.
Jiraiya's eyes widened.
"That face… Yahiko?"
"You look at me and see Yahiko. That much I expected. But Yahiko is gone. The one before you… is Pain."
Jiraiya could barely speak through shock.
"How does Yahiko have the Rinnegan? Nagato was the one who…"
Fukasaku glanced at him.
"You know him?"
"He was one of my students. But Yahiko never had the Rinnegan."
The Six Paths attacked at once.
Jiraiya defended desperately.
While fighting, his mind raced.
The summoner used contracts. The fat one absorbs ninjutsu.
Yahiko is dead. Yet he stands here with Rinnegan.
Then Nagato is not among these bodies.
These are corpses puppets under Nagato's control.
So the real body is elsewhere…
"I understand…"
Tendo raised his hand.
"Universal Pull."
The crushing force yanked Jiraiya off his feet.
Before he could stabilize
"Almighty Push!"
Gravity reversed violently. Jiraiya's body twisted midair like a rag caught in a storm.
Blood burst from his lungs. Bones cracked loudly beneath his skin. He crashed into the lake, coughing red.
Pain was unlike any opponent he had faced.
The toads dragged Jiraiya into their barrier beneath the water.
His breaths were shallow, each exhale a struggle.
"We must retreat! I will reverse summon us back to Mount Myoboku or you will die!" Fukasaku urged.
Jiraiya shook his head weakly.
"No. There is one truth… I have to confirm. If I leave now, I may never see it again."
"You fool!" Shima snapped, voice breaking.
Jiraiya forced a smile.
"I still have one move left."
He placed a Flying Thunder God kunai into Shima's hands.
"If I don't return, pour chakra into this. It will pull me back."
He slipped out of the water quietly.
On the mirrored surface of the lake, the Six Pains waited.
All of them… ninja I once met. All dead.
Puppets. Controlled by Nagato's eyes.
Jiraiya turned to leave.
But a hand shot out from the darkness, crushing his throat.
He spat blood, voice destroyed instantly. He collapsed among the stones.
"You realized too late."
Black receivers pierced his flesh. Pain's silhouettes surrounded him.
Consciousness faded.
Warmth drained from his body.
So this is it. Am I finished?
His life flashed like pages of a book.
Rejected by Tsunade.
Failed to stop my friend.
Failed to save my student and his wife.
Compared to the brilliance of Hokage, my achievements are laughable.
I once dreamed of dying a grand death, worthy of a hero.
The ending defines the tale.
But my finale is… like this?
The Great Toad Sage foretold I would guide the world's future.
Fight Pain. Stop Akatsuki. Save the shinobi world.
Yet even that… I failed.
This is the end of Jiraiya the Gallant?
What a ridiculous story.
His final thought trembled like a whisper: