Knowing Naruto had returned, Shisui Uchiha felt much more confident and walked toward Jiraiya.
Like Sasori of the Red Sand, he had already guessed Jiraiya's identity. It wasn't because Jiraiya's disguise was bad—it was simply because there were only so many powerful ninjas in the world. And among them, there were even fewer lunatics who used their hair as a weapon.
Jiraiya also knew his identity had probably been exposed, but he still didn't admit it. With a casual smile, he said,
"I'm just an enthusiastic ninja passing by. I saw your village being attacked, so I came to help…"
Since Jiraiya didn't reveal his identity, Shisui didn't bother tearing away the final layer of that thin window paper either.
No matter the reason for the Uchiha clan leaving Konoha, in Konoha's eyes they were still missing-nin. And missing-nin naturally stood on the opposite side of normal Konoha shinobi.
"Thank you very much for your help," Shisui said politely.
"You're welcome, you're welcome…" Jiraiya scratched his head.
Then he looked around with a puzzled expression.
"You're Uchihas from Konoha, right? Why did you build a base here in the Land of Whirlpools? Did Konoha secretly expand its influence here?"
Hearing Jiraiya's clearly deliberate question, Shisui's expression changed slightly.
"Konoha squeezes the Uchiha clan everywhere," he said coldly. "Are we not even allowed to leave Konoha? We simply don't want another madman appearing in our clan."
The madman Shisui referred to was Uchiha Itachi.
Jiraiya had heard about Itachi's actions before. He sighed inwardly. But from Konoha's standpoint, he couldn't agree with the Uchiha's actions either—because if one clan could leave freely, other ninjas might follow.
At that moment, Izumi Uchiha and the others who had finished killing the remaining giant snakes rushed over.
After seeing Jiraiya, Izumi quickly said to Shisui:
"Patriarch Shisui, this senior just forced Orochimaru to retreat. Don't forget to pay him the reward—10 taels."
"...10 taels?"
Shisui looked at Jiraiya in surprise, his expression becoming rather complicated.
Regardless of Jiraiya's stance toward the Uchiha, he had just driven away Orochimaru and reduced the losses of Uzumaki Village. That alone qualified him to be treated as a guest.
Thinking of this, Shisui smiled.
"Senior, why don't you come to the village and sit for a while? We can slowly explain why the Uchiha left Konoha and why we chose to settle in Uzumaki Village."
Jiraiya nodded.
He was also curious to see what the situation inside Uzumaki Village looked like.
Then he suddenly remembered something and added,
"Oh right—besides me, there's also a Kirigakure squad supporting Uzumaki Village. They're not far away."
As soon as he finished speaking, Naruto, Zabuza, and Haku appeared before them.
Shisui immediately recognized Naruto, but after noticing Naruto's subtle eye signal, he shifted his gaze to Zabuza instead, confusion filling his eyes.
"Zabuza Momochi, why are you here again?"
Zabuza instantly remembered his miserable experience in the interrogation room earlier and quickly replied,
"This time I came under Master Menma's orders. I have no hostile intentions toward the Land of Whirlpools."
Shisui smiled.
"Of course I believe you have no ill intentions. Although we had some small unpleasantness before, this time you came to support Uzumaki Village, so you are naturally our guest."
Zabuza quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
Then he quickly said to Naruto and Haku:
"I've never met Lord Shisui before, but his strength surpasses even that of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. Our earlier exchange was simply a… learning experience."
The conversation between Shisui and Zabuza made Jiraiya frown repeatedly.
Although the Uchiha didn't seem to be colluding with Orochimaru, the fact that they were cooperating with Kirigakure was practically right in front of him.
But what puzzled him most was Zabuza's attitude toward the Uchiha.
It was… far too respectful.
Even if the Uchiha had repeatedly defeated Kirigakure forces on the battlefield in the past, that level of respect still seemed excessive.
What Jiraiya didn't notice, however, was that Naruto was quietly playing with several puppet fragments in his hand.
Those fragments possessed strong magnetic force, and some of them could even float slightly in midair.
A few minutes earlier…
After using Wind Release to disrupt the movements of the Third Kazekage puppet, Naruto instantly appeared at the place where it had fallen.
However, after searching the area thoroughly, he still couldn't find Sasori's puppet core.
If the core wasn't destroyed, Sasori could rebuild his puppet army sooner or later.
Naruto picked up fragments of the Kazekage puppet from the ground. Even after letting the fragments sink into the flesh and soil around the area while searching carefully, he still couldn't find the puppet core.
After ruling out the possibility that the core had fallen into the sea after the puppet shattered, Naruto reached a conclusion.
Sasori was most likely rescued by Orochimaru.
And once Orochimaru was involved, things instantly became troublesome.
Although Orochimaru's combat strength wasn't the most terrifying part of him, his ability to escape was absurd. His bizarre ninjutsu seemed endless. Even if you killed him, he could simply resurrect through one of his spare bodies.
To put it bluntly, Orochimaru was practically a discount version of an Ōtsutsuki—ridiculously hard to kill.
Still, considering the relationship between Orochimaru and Sasori…
Sasori's next few days probably wouldn't be very pleasant.
Not long after Naruto left, a highly venomous snake slithered out from the forest and spat out Sasori's puppet core.
The core quickly assembled itself into a puppet body and stared at the snake.
"Orochimaru… why did you run away? We had a chance just now!"
The snake revealed a disturbingly human-like expression.
"But in the end, I saved your life," Orochimaru replied lazily. "Besides Jiraiya and Shisui, there are other powerful ninjas inside Uzumaki Village. We had no chance of winning."
"Instead of arguing about that, we should go back and question Zetsu. He deliberately leaked the information and lured us here."
Sasori snorted coldly.
"I owe you one this time. I'll give you a good experimental subject later."
Then he added coldly,
"But compared to Zetsu, I still think you are the bigger problem. Why did Jiraiya appear here?"
"Jiraiya was an accident…" Orochimaru muttered, feeling a headache coming on.
How exactly had Jiraiya discovered him and followed him here?
Could Uzumaki Village be some secret outpost established by Konoha?
But the Third Hokage didn't seem bold enough to do that… and Danzo would never compromise with the Uchiha clan.
Inside Uzumaki Village.
Shisui brought Jiraiya, Naruto, and the others to the village office and introduced them to the second-in-command, Uzumaki Homura.
Homura recognized Shisui, but not Jiraiya. He warmly received everyone and began explaining the past of Uzumaki Village as well as its plans for future development.
Finally, Homura directly invited Jiraiya to stay and help build Uzumaki Village together.
Jiraiya politely declined.
He said he planned to look around the village first, but had no intention of settling there for now.
Homura was a little disappointed, but it was understandable. A powerhouse like Jiraiya wouldn't easily join a small village like theirs.
After leaving the Uzumaki Village office and walking through the streets that were still under reconstruction—
Jiraiya suddenly stopped.
He looked at Naruto and said quietly:
"Little Menma… if I'm not mistaken, you're the real leader of Uzumaki Village, aren't you?"
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