3 Days Ago...
Sasuke got a message from his brother Itachi Uchiha through a crow, asking to meet him at a specific location.
Without telling anyone, Sasuke tried to sneak out of the village. But Kakashi-sensei and Sakura caught him in the act. Eventually, Sasuke spilled the beans about the message from Itachi.
After hearing the news, Kakashi-sensei and Sakura decided to tag along with Sasuke to the meeting spot.
During this time, I was busy training with my own team, Team 10, since I wasn't a part of Sasuke's team with Kakashi-sensei and Sakura. So, I didn't get to spend much time with them.
They left the village and headed to the location Itachi mentioned...
When they arrived, they encountered a masked guy standing in front of a cave. Itachi wanted to meet Sasuke inside.
The masked man stopped Kakashi-sensei and Sakura at the entrance, allowing only Sasuke to go in. Inside the cave, Itachi and Sasuke faced off.
Long story short, Sasuke and Itachi fought inside the cave. Somehow, Sasuke managed to defeat Itachi. After his defeat, Itachi explained the reasons behind his actions in the past.
Just after revealing everything to Sasuke, Itachi died. At Itachi's death, Sasuke's Sharingan evolved into the Mangekyo Sharingan.
[A.N: Most of the details of this incident remain the same, but Naruto isn't involved. Also, I messed up the timeline and it took over 9 days to come up with an idea. Some changes will be made to the previous chapter, so if you've already read it, I suggest reading it again. Thanks and sorry.]
Outside the cave, Kakashi-sensei and Sakura fought with a masked ninja who introduced himself as Madara Uchiha. Just after Itachi died, he also retreated, and Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei, and Sakura returned to the village.
The day after they returned, I got the news of the incident from them. I was shocked to hear the truth about Itachi from Sasuke. He was devastated too. This is when he told me about his new goal of becoming the Hokage of the village and restoring the respect Itachi deserved.
Fast forward three days, and Lady Tsunade told us about Jiraiya's death.
"So these two are Jiraiya's people?" the toad sitting beside Granny Tsunade asked.
"Yeah, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto," Granny Tsunade nodded.
I felt a bit odd seeing the toad talk. If this had happened before I learned snake summoning, I would've been totally freaked out.
"Who are you?" I asked, eyeing the toad.
"He's one of the top sages from Mount Myoboku, Lord Fukasaku. He's here to chat with you and Sasuke," Granny Tsunade explained.
"Well, to be precise, I'm a great Sage toad. Jiraiya spoke highly of you, Naruto. He mentioned your talent and potential a lot. He also noted you picked snake sage over toad sage, which is cool, but I would've loved to teach you the toad sage arts. As for Sasuke, I'd like him to learn the toad sage techniques. But, putting that aside, the crucial thing now is that Jiraiya died in a battle with Pain," the toad sage said.
Hearing that hit me hard. Jiraiya was more than a teacher; he was a mentor, someone who believed in me. And now, he was gone.
"Pain?!" Sasuke suddenly burst out, anger and frustration all over his face. "You knew it was dangerous, and you still let him go? Wasn't it your job as Hokage to protect everyone? Anyway, I'll make sure to avenge him!" He stormed out of the room, with Sakura trailing behind him.
"I'll check on him," Kakashi-sensei said, following them out.
"Sorry about that. Could you tell us more?" I asked, sensing there was a lot we still needed to understand.
"For a while, there were rumors that the leader of the Akatsuki was operating from the Hidden Rain Village. So, Jiraiya went there in person to see if it was true," the toad sage explained.
"So, the leader of the Akatsuki was in the Hidden Rain Village? As far as I know, that place is nearly impossible to infiltrate because it's so closed off from the outside world," I said, puzzled.
"Yes, but Jiraiya managed to get in with his exceptional skills. He encountered Pain, the leader of the Akatsuki. However, Pain was a former student of Jiraiya from many years ago."
There was a moment of silence in the room as everyone, including me, tried to process the information. 'The Akatsuki leader is a former student of Jiraiya-sensei.'
"Furthermore, Jiraiya called him Nagato," the toad sage continued.
"That takes us back to the chaos of the great Ninja war," Granny Tsunade added, her voice tinged with disappointment. "The Hidden Rain Village had become a battlefield, and Jiraiya took some war orphans under his wing. Who would have imagined those kids..."
"But to think they were able to defeat Jiraiya-sensei means he's not someone to be underestimated," I interjected.
"Because Pain possesses the Rinnegan!" the toad sage declared, causing everyone in the room to gasp in shock.
"The Rinnegan?!" I exclaimed.
"Yes, it's an ocular jutsu, the Rinnegan. Its power is supposedly beyond anything you could imagine. But there's more: there were six of them who had Rinnegan eyes."
"Six of them had Rinnegan eyes?" I asked, trying to wrap my head around the gravity of the situation.
"Yes, I don't know how, but perhaps there is some trick behind it. I believe Jiraiya discovered the secret behind the six of them in that vital and terrible battle, but..."
"Even after having his throat crushed by Pain, Jiraiya left a message before collapsing," the toad sage said, revealing a coded message written on his back.
"It's a code!" Shizune exclaimed, examining the numbers closely.
"I'm sure it was so Pain wouldn't catch on. That's the extent of Jiraiya's efforts," the toad sage added.
"So, we need to decipher the code to find out what Jiraiya-sensei tried to tell us!" I said, racking my brain for the meaning behind the code.
"That's right," the toad sage replied.
"Also, about teaching Sasuke the toad sage techniques you mentioned, I think it will take him some time to get ready for that. He's had a couple of shocks in the last five days, so I think giving him some time would be best."
"No problem," he replied.
From there, we started trying every possible way to decipher the code left by Jiraiya-sensei.
[A. N: Thanks for reading, drop Powerstones that will help a lot and drop reviews if you like the story and add to your library]