Chapter 87: Jiraiya: The Old Man’s Reputation Has Already Been Ruined?

At the entrance of Konoha.

Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane were standing guard, bored out of their minds as they watched the gate.

A figure with long, white, hedgehog-like hair approached from a distance.

"Huh? He looks pretty familiar."

Izumo Kamizuki rubbed his eyes and carefully looked at the approaching man.

He wore a metal forehead protector engraved with the character "Oil."

There was also red makeup painted beneath his eyes.

"It’s Senior Jiraiya!"

Kotetsu Hagane was the first to remember. He immediately stood up excitedly.

He had even read the books Jiraiya had written!

"Ahaha, I didn’t expect that after being away for so many years, there would actually still be someone who remembers me."

Jiraiya laughed heartily.

After completing the registration procedures for returning to the village, Jiraiya was just about to walk inside when he suddenly stopped and asked the two:

"By the way, could I ask where Uzumaki Naruto lives?"

Come to think of it, he had never even gone to see the child Minato had left behind.

Even the child’s name had been taken from the protagonist of one of his books.

Kotetsu Hagane immediately walked over enthusiastically.

"I’ll do it! I’ll take you there."

As he secretly pulled out a copy of Make-Out Paradise for Jiraiya to autograph, Kotetsu said:

"I heard that Naruto has been feeling really depressed lately after learning the truth about that bastard, Sarutobi Hiruzen."

"..."

Jiraiya.

Bastard?

Was he talking about his teacher?

Surely his teacher’s reputation hadn’t become that terrible?

Before returning to the village, he had already heard that his teacher had been killed by a young member of the Uchiha clan.

But he wasn’t particularly clear about what had happened afterward.

"Oh, sorry, Senior Jiraiya. I have nothing against you."

"Although you’re Sarutobi Hiruzen’s disciple, I believe you’re different from that bastard Sarutobi Hiruzen!"

Only then did Kotetsu remember that the man in front of him was Sarutobi Hiruzen’s disciple, so he hurriedly added that clarification.

Bastard...?

Jiraiya was practically dumbfounded.

In barely any time, Kotetsu had already cursed his teacher twice.

Had the old man’s reputation in the village really fallen this far?

That shouldn’t be possible!

Could it be... that after the coup, the Uchiha clan had smeared the old man’s reputation?

A trace of suspicion arose in Jiraiya’s heart, but he did not voice it. Instead, he asked casually:

"Speaking of which, I don’t really know much about what has happened in the village recently. Could you tell me about it?"

Kotetsu readily nodded.

He first told Jiraiya about how Sarutobi Hiruzen had been blown to death in the village, as well as how the entire Sarutobi clan had been wiped out.

"Wait!"

Jiraiya hurriedly interrupted him, his face changing drastically.

"The entire Sarutobi clan... was killed?"

After receiving confirmation from Kotetsu, a chill rose in Jiraiya’s heart.

Did the Uchiha clan really have to go this far?

They had actually wiped out the entire Sarutobi clan!

"However, the truth is that Sarutobi Hiruzen was the one who planned to exterminate the Uchiha clan first. He even turned the Uchiha clan leader’s son, Uchiha Itachi, against his own clan and had him carry out the massacre. Afterward, he intended to make Itachi bear the entire blame for the extermination."

Kotetsu spoke with disdain.

In his opinion, since Sarutobi Hiruzen had dared to do something like that, then it was only fitting that his own clan had been wiped out!

Jiraiya was completely dumbfounded. After remaining stunned for a long while, he asked:

"That can’t be true, can it? Is there any evidence?"

Although the old man had changed somewhat over the years, he couldn’t possibly have become this evil, could he?!

Jiraiya now seriously suspected that this was nothing more than slander from the Uchiha clan!

"How could it be fake?"

Kotetsu immediately retorted:

"I heard it from the village’s jonin. Uchiha Reiji personally interrogated the two elder advisors and extracted the truth from them on the spot!"

"Moreover, I heard that afterward, members of the Yamanaka clan used their secret techniques to examine the two elders’ memories and confirmed everything again."

"You could say that there’s no one in the village who has any doubts about these matters anymore."

"Everyone now believes that Uchiha Reiji killing Sarutobi Hiruzen was actually eliminating a threat to the village!"

Jiraiya suddenly stopped walking.

He went to the side of the road and leaned against the wall.

At that moment, he felt as though the entire world were spinning.

Although he had already noticed long ago that after the old man took the position of Hokage for the second time, he had gradually become corrupted by power...

He had never expected him to have become this thoroughly rotten!

He had ordered Uchiha Itachi to slaughter the Uchiha clan and then intended to make Itachi shoulder the crime alone, preserving the image of his own greatness as Hokage?

He had actually done something like that?!

"Lord Jiraiya, are you all right?"

Kotetsu asked with some sympathy.

He couldn’t handle just hearing this?

There was even more shocking stuff coming later.

"I’m fine... Y-You can continue."

Jiraiya held his forehead as he spoke.

Kotetsu nodded and continued explaining how Sarutobi Hiruzen had targeted the Senju clan, abandoned the Land of Whirlpools, plotted against the Konoha White Fang, and arranged Naruto’s circumstances...

Jiraiya opened his mouth, his expression becoming increasingly strained.

"Were these things also extracted from the two elders during interrogation?"

Kotetsu nodded.

This time, Jiraiya was completely speechless.

So he had been wrong before.

His teacher hadn’t only become corrupted after taking the position of Hokage for the second time.

He had been this rotten from the very beginning!

The Senju clan, the Land of Whirlpools...

When had all of this happened?!

Even the Konoha White Fang incident had occurred more than ten years ago.

And even...

Jiraiya stood motionless in place for a long time before finally recovering.

Yet he had even used such despicable methods to scheme against Minato’s orphan, Naruto!

This time, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t force a smile onto his face.

Looking grim, Jiraiya followed Kotetsu until they reached the vicinity of Naruto’s home. He took out a handwritten intelligence report and handed it to Kotetsu.

"Could I trouble you with one more thing? Take this to the communications unit."

"Use my name. Summon the jonin for a meeting. The Hidden Cloud Village and Hidden Stone Village are very likely to invade the Land of Fire next."

Kotetsu’s expression changed drastically when he heard this.

He immediately stopped saying anything else and ran off to deliver the intelligence.

Jiraiya slowly entered Naruto’s home and saw several people inside.

One was a little boy with blond hair and blue eyes. He was somewhat shorter than children his age, so he should be Naruto.

Another was a black-haired boy who seemed to be about the same age as Naruto. Judging by the clan crest on his clothes, he should be a member of the Uchiha clan.

Beside them was a white-haired man with hair shaped like a broom.

Jiraiya knew him.

He was Minato’s disciple, Kakashi.

There was also another person. Although he was quite tall, there was still a youthful quality to his face, and the Uchiha clan’s fan crest was also displayed on his clothes.

Most importantly—

Jiraiya sensed that this young man’s chakra reserves were actually far greater than his own!

An Uchiha of this age possessing such an enormous amount of chakra...

Jiraiya immediately guessed his identity.

"You must be Uchiha Reiji, right?"

Reiji had originally been examining something within Naruto when he heard this. He raised his head.

"So it’s Lord Jiraiya. I’ve heard a lot about you."

"What were you doing to Naruto just now? Checking on the Nine-Tails?"

Jiraiya asked as calmly as possible.

Although the things his teacher had done could be described as unforgivable crimes, he still couldn’t help feeling hostility toward Uchiha Reiji, the man who had ordered the extermination of the entire Sarutobi clan.

Suddenly.

Jiraiya recalled the Great Toad Sage’s prophecy from earlier.

He couldn’t help but scrutinize Reiji.

Terrifying eyes.

Destroying everything in the shinobi world.

Within Konoha...

Reiji already fulfilled two of those three conditions.

If the terrifying eyes within Konoha could be interpreted as the eyes of someone terrifying, then the only possible candidate was Uchiha Reiji, who had already awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan!

"Nothing much. I just wanted to see if I could find something inside Naruto and Sasuke."

Reiji replied casually.

Earlier, he had wanted to check whether Naruto and Sasuke possessed another source of chakra within their bodies—the chakra of Asura and Indra.

However, perhaps because of the limitations of his current realm, he hadn’t found anything.

"Speaking of which, what does your Uchiha clan plan to do now that things have changed in the village? Are you planning to become Hokage, or is Uchiha Fugaku planning to become Hokage?"

Hearing Reiji’s perfunctory answer, Jiraiya secretly frowned and changed the subject.

To Jiraiya, even if Reiji wasn’t the "Child of Destruction" mentioned in the Great Toad Sage’s prophecy, the fact that he had exterminated the entire Sarutobi clan showed that his character was far from admirable.

He absolutely could not allow someone like that to become Hokage!

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