Jiraiya pieced together an astonishing amount of information from nothing more than subtle clues and fragments of conversation.
When it came to gathering intelligence, there were few in the entire shinobi world who could rival him.
"But what's going on with this Rinnegan? Why do so many bodies have it?"
He frowned as the thought took shape.
At first, he had assumed the existence of a Rinnegan clan. After all, the Uchiha Clan and the Hyuga Clan were precedents; it wouldn't have been strange for another bloodline to possess such an eye.
Otherwise, how could so many Rinnegan appear at once?
But now, he overturned that conclusion.
The Rinnegan still belonged to Nagato. As for why these bodies all bore it, it was most likely the result of some unknown technique.
Jiraiya had spent a long time with Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan, and understood their personalities better than anyone. That familiarity allowed him to infer far more than others could.
Most people barely knew anything at all. They didn't even realize that the origin of the Akatsuki in the Land of Rain traced back to Jiraiya himself.
That he had taken in disciples outside of Konoha.
In the video, the man Jiraiya controlled had successfully infiltrated Amegakure. But within moments, countless sheets of paper surged forward, swallowing and binding him.
Konan's figure emerged, her body dispersing into paper as it gathered into a long spear that drove down toward him.
At that instant, Jiraiya burst out from the shadow beneath, flames spilling from his mouth.
"Fire Release: Flame Bullet!"
The blazing attack forced Konan back, and Jiraiya separated from the strange shadow state he had used.
Konan showed no surprise.
"Toad Flat Shadow Control Technique…?"
It was clear she had seen him use it before.
"I laid that bait to draw out Pain, but I didn't expect you to take it," Jiraiya said, his tone tinged with emotion.
"Your techniques have gotten sharper. And you've grown into quite a woman, Konan."
"I thought you were dead, but it turns out you've become something like a drifting paper figure." His gaze hardened. "Who exactly is Pain?"
"That has nothing to do with you, Sensei."
Konan slowly rose into the sky, countless sheets of paper forming wings behind her, making her look like an angel descended into the mortal world.
"You think that makes you an angel? What's the point of taking that form?"
"I'm acting under God's command. I will kill you."
Her wings dissolved into a storm of razor-sharp blades, sweeping toward him.
Jiraiya countered by spraying oil across her body, preventing her from dispersing again.
"You always loved origami. Out of the three of you, you were the gentlest," he said, watching the flicker of discomfort in her expression. "What about the other two? How are Nagato and Yahiko? That rumor about their deaths… it's not true, is it?"
Konan's reaction told him enough.
"So that's how it is. Then which one of them is Pain?"
"Why have you come here?" she asked instead, avoiding a direct answer.
"No grand plan. If you weren't part of the Akatsuki, I would've believed those rumors that you were dead. I never imagined things would turn out like this."
"If we had followed Orochimaru's suggestion back then, things would've been better, right?" Konan said, referring to the time Orochimaru had wanted to kill them outright—only to be stopped by Jiraiya.
"We've already started walking down his path."
"If killing you back then would've led to this, I still wouldn't have done it," Jiraiya replied. "I just feel… sad. I taught you how to survive in a world like this. You were my students, without a doubt. And now, without even a word, you attack me like this… that hurts."
He didn't let her lead the conversation where she wanted.
"After I left, I still heard about you from time to time. You made a name for yourselves in a few conflicts, and then suddenly… the news said you were dead."
Konan's expression finally shifted.
"You never understood what we went through after that."
"That's true. I don't. But does that justify becoming part of the Akatsuki? What they're doing is wrong."
At that moment, the Animal Path arrived.
"That's the conclusion we reached on our own, Jiraiya-sensei!"
Jiraiya's expression grew grave as he looked up at the figure above.
"Your appearance has changed a lot… but those eyes…"
He knew those eyes.
They belonged to Nagato.
"So you really are Pain… Nagato. Looks like you didn't end up walking the right path. What happened?"
"You don't need to know," the Animal Path replied coldly. "You're an outsider."
There was no hesitation.
In an instant, it summoned a creature that released bubbles, washing away the oil covering Konan, before sending summoned beasts to attack Jiraiya.
But Jiraiya was no ordinary opponent. He drove back the summoned creatures and immediately used the Wild Lion's Mane Technique, his hair lashing out to seize the Animal Path.
"Nagato, answer me. What happened to Yahiko?"
The response that came sent a chill through everyone watching.
"Ah… that guy? He's been dead for a long time. Someone like him."
There was no trace of the gentle child he once was.
Only cold indifference remained.
War had changed him completely. His thoughts, his words—everything had become something else.
"Yes. I've gone from being human… to being a god. Once you become a god, everything you think and say comes from a god's perspective. And you, Sensei, are just a mere human. It's only natural that you don't understand the way I speak."
The ideology spilling from Pain left everyone reading the diary stunned.
They had never imagined that Nagato would see himself as a god.
"Things that humans can't perceive, I can see clearly now. Because I am a god, I can achieve what humans cannot. Simply put… I've evolved."
"To bring an end to this war-torn world—that is the duty of a god."
Every word he spoke struck like a hammer.
"In that case, why are you collecting the Tailed Beasts?" Jiraiya pressed, trying to extract more information.
"You're about to die anyway, so I'll tell you," Pain said without hesitation. "By using the sealed Tailed Beasts, I will create a new forbidden technique. With it, I can destroy even a great nation in an instant. That is the ultimate weapon."
The answer stunned everyone.
He intended to gather all the Tailed Beasts and use that overwhelming power to enforce peace.
Jiraiya didn't believe it.
"Countries are constantly at war. So how do you end those wars quickly, Jiraiya-sensei?" Pain continued. "You provide every warring nation with that forbidden weapon. Once they possess that power, they will use it. In a single instant, hundreds of millions will die."
"And then… people will learn fear. Nations will come to understand pain. That fear will restrain them. War will disappear, and the world will move toward peace."
"Pain makes the world grow. Just like it did for me. For the world to grow, to think, to move forward… it needs the guidance of a god. Because right now, this world is still just a child."
His voice was calm, as though he were stating an undeniable truth.
His belief was clear—only by teaching the world pain could it mature.
"What arrogance… he really thinks he's a god?"
Uchiha Sasuke stared, momentarily at a loss.
No matter how arrogant he had been, even when Kaede Kitahara jokingly called him a savior, he had never gone so far as to imagine himself a god.
Of course, he didn't realize that his future actions wouldn't be all that different from Pain's.
But right now, that idea was beyond him.
Through Kaede Kitahara's diary, he had come to understand just how vast and unfathomable this world truly was. That alone was enough to keep him from falling into that kind of blind arrogance again.
That was the difference between the Sasuke of now and the Sasuke of the future.
"Nagato really lost his way," Jiraiya said quietly as he watched his former student, now completely consumed by obsession.
Back then, the three of them had been such good kids. Nagato had even wanted to use the Rinnegan to protect the other two.
And now…
Konan had become something inhuman, and Yahiko was reduced to nothing more than a dismissive remark.
How could he accept that?
The child he once believed might become the one to change the world, just as the Great Toad Sage had spoken of, had turned into this.
Just as Kaede Kitahara had described—
A villain at the center of it all.
And now, even if Jiraiya wanted to intervene, it was already too late.
Everything had already been set in motion.
If he went to Amegakure to face Nagato now, the outcome would likely be exactly as shown in the video.
Death at his student's hands.
"Relying on that kind of fear to create lasting peace? That's just naive."
Tsunade dismissed the idea with a snort.
Because long before this, someone had already tried something very similar—and failed.