Leaf Monkey flickered to K's side in an instant.
"K, Captain Fox has located a lead on an Uzumaki remnant. Please follow me immediately."
Without a word, K used Body Flicker to depart. Leaf Monkey, anxious to return to his captain's side, funneled a portion of chakra from his Cross Seal into his movement. The combined output made his speed startlingly high.
K was slightly taken aback. He wasn't surprised that Fox had found a lead—Fox was the elite of the ANBU, after all—but he was surprised that a seemingly ordinary ninja like Leaf Monkey possessed such raw speed.
Simultaneously, Bull found Lynx, guiding the Lynx Division to follow. The four squads converged around Yagami, moving rapidly toward the southeast of the Land of Rain.
...
Near a small town in the southeastern Rain.
At noon, Jiraiya stepped out of a wooden shack with a wide yawn. After descending a few steps, his wooden sandals splashed into ankle-deep water.
"Curse this rain. Not a single patch of dry land. I even tripped into a puddle while escaping that 'scouting' mission last night."
Jiraiya looked down at his clothes, surprised to find them clean again. 'Ah, Konan must have washed them.'
The fabric was damp, but after two years in the Land of Rain, he had grown accustomed to the perpetual humidity.
He waded through the water to a clearing some distance from the shack. Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan had already been training for five or six hours. Jiraiya waved them over, and the three children quickly gathered before him.
"I'm hungry. Go into town and buy something for us to eat." Jiraiya pulled out his wallet and tossed it to Yahiko. As their ninjutsu teacher, he was incredibly lazy in daily life, letting the three children look after him instead.
Once they departed, Jiraiya's gaze suddenly shifted to the side. Three ANBU ninja emerged from the treeline.
Jiraiya frowned. 'Hidden Leaf ANBU?'
Fox, Lynx, and K walked toward him in unison. Jiraiya looked them over and said, "Did Lord Third send you to bring me back? The war is over; what does he want with me now? Tell him I'm not going back yet."
"Lord Jiraiya, we aren't here to bring you back," Yagami said.
"Oh? Then what are the three of you doing here?"
"Lord Jiraiya, that red-haired boy you are teaching—I suspect he is an Uzumaki remnant. We are taking him back to the village."
Jiraiya's expression instantly sharpened. He could ignore a summons to return, but the ANBU coming to abduct his student—the boy he believed to be the Child of Prophecy? That was out of the question.
"Fox! I saw you during the war; weren't you a squad leader in Yellow Dog's division?" Jiraiya said.
"Go back and tell Yellow Dog that Nagato is my disciple. The ANBU should stay out of my business. Besides, what's this 'Uzumaki remnant' talk? If Nagato has Uzumaki blood, shouldn't he be taught even more carefully? Every Hidden Leaf flak jacket has the Uzumaki crest on the back. My disciple will not be taken by you for interrogation."
"Lord Jiraiya, you really should go back and see the state of the village," Yagami said coldly. "If you had access to the secrets that Lord Orochimaru does, you would understand that Uzumaki remnants are people the village *must* eliminate."
Jiraiya was stunned. He had no idea why the village would want to kill Uzumaki ninja. "Does Tsunade know about this? Does she know the village 'must' kill her own kin?"
"Whether she knows or not," Yagami replied flatly, "the Uzumaki clan is already extinct, isn't it?"
K felt Fox was revealing a bit too much, but considering Jiraiya was the Hokage's student, he was bound to find out eventually. If they didn't explain the severity, Jiraiya would never let them take the boy.
"Fool! The extinction of the Whirlpool was the result of a joint ambush by the Cloud and Mist! Shouldn't the village be gathering the survivors to preserve the spark of our ally?"
"Lord Jiraiya!" Yagami interrupted. "If the Hidden Leaf truly wanted to preserve the Whirlpool's spark, if we were truly their ally, why is there only *one* Uzumaki left in the village? Why is the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki the only person who carries that name?
In the vast Hidden Leaf, is there no room for a second Uzumaki? Is the Jinchuriki truly the only one left in the entire world? Lord Jiraiya, stop being reckless. The village has its considerations. Everything the village does is for its future!"
Yagami felt a surge of dark satisfaction. Instigating conflict felt magnificent. Looking at Jiraiya's face—red and contorted like a piece of liver—was a treat.
'Face reality, Jiraiya,' Yagami thought. 'Your teacher is a piece of work, and he's surrounded by more of the same. Surprised? Well, I shouldn't talk, I'm technically one of them.'
For the first time, Jiraiya truly pondered these questions. Why *was* there only one Uzumaki left? Why did the ANBU refer to them as "remnants"? The terminology alone spoke volumes.
Yagami turned up the heat. "Lord Jiraiya, we must take the remnant today. If you have any issues, please return to the village and take them up with the Hokage."
Jiraiya couldn't wrap his head around the politics, but he knew he had to protect Nagato. He snorted. "You will never take Nagato today!"
Yagami glanced left and right. K and Lynx, understanding the importance of Danzo's orders to pull the weeds out by the roots, nodded.
"Then I apologize, Lord Jiraiya," Yagami said. "I'll hold Jiraiya back. You two, go capture the remnant!"
"ANBU... you would actually raise a hand against me?" Jiraiya dug his sandals into the wet ground and lunged at Fox with staggering speed. His front kick carried immense momentum.
The water on the ground rippled as the air he pushed aside slammed into the surface. As a true "all-rounder," Jiraiya's taijutsu was incredibly solid.
Suddenly, a Condensation Coiled Snake manifested in front of Yagami. Jiraiya's foot felt as if it had slammed into ultra-dense, viscous oil. The thin, coiled snake absorbed every ounce of kinetic energy. His body practically froze in mid-air.
As he finally kicked through the snake, a violent burst of water erupted from under his sandal, like a kicked water balloon. But by then, his momentum was gone. Yagami grabbed Jiraiya's ankle and swung him backward.
Lynx and K took the opening, flickering away toward the three children. The Flower Deer squad immediately moved to back Yagami up. Flower Deer's heart pounded; they were actually going up against one of the Sannin.
"Lord Jiraiya, give up," Yagami said. "Root and the Lynx Division have already set an ambush for the remnant. Today, he is coming with us."
Jiraiya pushed off the mud, his sandals finding the firm earth beneath the sludge. "Nagato is very likely the Child of Prophecy mentioned by the Great Toad Sage. He will not be killed by the ANBU! Your behavior makes the Hidden Leaf look like the great villain fighting against the future of the world!"
Yagami chuckled. "Lord Jiraiya, I have to say... your instincts are quite sharp."
Yagami waved his hand, and the Flower Deer squad charged. Jiraiya suddenly turned his head; in the direction of Nagato and the others, a series of explosive tag detonations echoed through the rain.
The other ANBU were playing for keeps.
Jiraiya's eyes darkened. "I don't want to hurt my comrades, even if you are my teacher's men. Don't force me to kill you..."
The Flower Deer squad ignored the threat. If their Captain gave the order, they would charge Danzo himself without hesitation. Two battlefields ignited instantly.
...
Fifteen kilometers away, inside the hollow of a massive tree.
"This is bad, Lord Madara! The Hidden Leaf ANBU are trying to take Nagato!"
On a wooden chair, the aged Uchiha Madara opened his eyes. His three-tomoe Sharingan took a moment to focus. White Zetsu had been monitoring Nagato in secret; even Jiraiya hadn't detected him.
Hearing that the ANBU were interfering, Madara slowly stood up and reached for his scythe.
"Lord Madara," White Zetsu asked, "should I send some puppets controlled by genjutsu to save him?"
"No," Madara rasped. "The ANBU is an organization created by that bastard Senju Tobirama; they have some skill. Since I've already been exposed to some extent, I will go personally."