Jiraiya returned to the dilapidated wooden house, filled with a myriad of emotions.
The furnishings and decor inside were all put together by the four of them, bit by bit, back then. A table, a chair—each held corresponding stories and fragments of life. Always mindful of the Great Toad Sage's prophecy, Jiraiya, like a wanderer, spent his entire life running from east to west, from south to north. To be able to stay in this wooden house for three years was already a rare and precious thing for him.
This wooden house carried many of his hopes and expectations. Later, when he heard that Nagato and the other two had died, he was sad for a long time.
For him, the wooden house was just a stop in his life, but in Konan's heart, it was the most warm and peaceful home in a chaotic world.
The scene inside the house gained a touch of life as the two entered. Four human-shaped phantoms, wearing green frog costumes, appeared before their eyes.
One large and three small. The large one was naturally Jiraiya, the teacher, while the smaller ones were Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan.
The three children had innocent faces, while Jiraiya was an older young man with a somewhat comical air, currently explaining something with an awkward expression.
Ino's involvement in this matter was naturally to witness the Rinnegan.
Her gaze fell upon the young Nagato, standing with Konan and Yahiko.
Even if this Rinnegan was just a projection, it didn't matter.
Konan saw these eyes daily; though she couldn't see them at night, she had seen them for so many years. Relying on her memory, she could capture a hint of the Rinnegan's divine essence.
This was a true Sages Eye, the crystallization of Lord Madara's seventy years of celibacy, built upon Indra Chakra, infused with Asura Chakra, and nurtured for most of his life.
One of a kind, no branches.
Given Uchiha Madara's talent and his status as the genuine reincarnation of Indra at the time, he still spent so many years integrating All Things of Nature. One can imagine how difficult this path was.
The Sharingan is an eye that reflects the mind. The Sharingan, Mangekyo Sharingan, and Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan are all still confined to the mundane world, they are the eyes of mortals. The Rinnegan is different; it is a Sages Eye.
How great is the difference between a mortal and a Sage? One can only say it's greater than the difference between a human and a dog.
From just this hint of Rinnegan divine essence projected from Konan's memory, Ino knew that Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan was vastly inferior to Madara's Rinnegan.
This wasn't simply accumulating Dojutsu Power, nor was it something that could be gathered by merging Indra Chakra and Asura Chakra; it involved many more, even more complex changes.
While Ino pondered in secret, the four phantoms in frog costumes inside the wooden house continued to act out a warm and joyful scene.
It was clear that even with the Rinnegan, Yahiko was the leader of the small team of three, with Konan and Nagato as his assistants.
This memory was unrelated to Ino. Forcibly reading it would surely provoke Konan's subconscious hostility. From Ino's perspective, she couldn't hear what the four human phantoms were saying.
Jiraiya felt that Ino didn't know these past events, so he explained a bit.
He pointed to the names below the wooden plaque and said, "The three of them were once my disciples. At that time, I taught them Ninjutsu, and after that, we lived together in this house for about three years.
I told them back then... I said that the Land of Rain's environment was chaotic, and to survive long-term, they needed sufficient survival skills. This wooden plaque was our secret code. Just like how we register when entering and exiting Konoha's gates, this follows the same principle. The front of the small wooden plaque is red, meaning the person is home, and the back has a small frog pattern on a white background, meaning the person has left."
Jiraiya pointed to the west side of the wall, where there was still a solitary small wooden plaque: "That one is mine. The small frog displayed there is me, meaning I left this wooden house."
His voice grew softer and softer: "I disappointed them. After I left, I never came back."
His heart was filled with sorrow. At this moment, the small wooden plaque representing Yahiko inside the house had flipped to the red side. This meant that in Konan's heart, Yahiko had returned here. Nagato's and Konan's plaques were still in the 'out' state.
Jiraiya guessed this and murmured to himself, "...This must be Konan's memory. So, Yahiko is dead, or betrayed? No, Yahiko wouldn't betray them."
He deeply understood the profound bond between Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan. They would only live and die together, never betray each other. In this aspect, their friendship was much purer than the bond between Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade, the Three Sannin.
"Yahiko was a very ambitious child, and he was also skilled in Water Release, just like you, Xiao Jing—huh? Xiao Jing, what is this!?"
Jiraiya turned around only to find that during the time he was immersed in past memories, Ino had already started fighting with Corrupted Konan, who was wearing a black robe with red clouds!
This Konan had no face; only some depressions could be seen where her facial features should be. Her skin, not covered by the black robe with red clouds, was covered in fine scales. Her fingernails had become quite sharp, and a long tongue shot out from her middle finger, which wore the White Tiger ring. The tongue had a circle of barbs of varying lengths inside, and an evil aura emanated from her entire body.
The wooden house also underwent drastic changes.
The sunlight filtering through the roof's holes turned grayish, and dark green vines crawled all over the surrounding walls. Jiraiya had once prepared an underground tunnel for the three to escape, and now this tunnel seemed to come alive, like the intestines of a giant worm, bottomless. The tunnel entrance transformed into a giant mouth, with several rows of sharp teeth, like those of a washing machine, rotating and cutting inside.
The entire wooden house instantly became very eerie.
What's going on? A perfectly good nostalgic film, how did it suddenly turn into a horror film?
Jiraiya could use Frog Song in conjunction with Mount Myōboku's two Sages, and he himself could use Genjutsu and understood a bit of Yin Release, but in terms of mind invasion, he was far from as professional as Ino.
At this moment, Ino's spiritual body had basically not changed much, but Konan might have had contact with the Gedo Statue, so the gloom within her body carried the resentment that had formed from the Ten-Tails. The quality of this resentment was extremely high. Fortunately, Ino's Yin Release skill was extremely profound; she forcefully pushed Corrupted Konan against the wall, kneeing her in the abdomen, and with her left hand forming a claw, she used the 'Black Tiger Steals Heart' technique, continuously pulling out clumps of black mist, like cotton wool, from her chest.
Seeing Ino and Konan having a 'heart-to-heart' talk, Jiraiya didn't know what to do: "Uh, is that, is that Konan?"
Is it? Ino wasn't very sure. She guessed it was. Earlier, Jiraiya was reminiscing about the past alone, talking to thin air, and then this thing rushed in and started fighting her. She really didn't have time to discern its true identity.
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