The Savior: Uzumaki Naruto

Chapter 15: Gallant | Truth

Previously:

He was so casual about it. Like it was normal to never see the village leader. And to call him their god?

'A true shadow. Puts some real meaning behind the word 'Kage.' Looks like my only real source of info is the man himself.' Jiraiya assessed mentally.

"Rumor has it, they spend most of their time in the tallest building just northeast of here. If you ever wanna go see Pain-sama then you can try and get an audience." The second shinobi piped up.

Jiraiya smirked at how ironic it was that such information had fallen into his hands when it did, otherwise he might've had to pull out of Ame earlier than expected. With that, he set off to meet this 'god.'

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     'Damn! He's still nowhere to be found!' He thought to himself as he rushed to gather chakra. Summoning those two geezers took a lot outta him.

     "Your resistance is futile, Jiraiya-sensei. Bow down to the god in front of you and perhaps I'll leave the pain of your death manageable." A dark, commanding voice said from no direction in particular.

     "You're no god, Yahiko. Only a man, a man so clearly misunderstanding the weight of his actions." Jiraiya spoke.

The two had been fighting only a few minutes and Jiraiya knew almost instantly that he would require the fabled Sage Mode. The only problem lies in the fact that despite being branded a Sage long ago, the man was actually not great at attaining the perks of that title. Konan had long since backed off, opting to let Pain do the work. It could turn out to be an emotional fight, and she wasn't good at that.

Jiraiya finally gained the chakra required to summon the long-dubbed geezer frogs. He retreated into some large empty pipes quickly, and finally activated the summoning.

A "poof" was heard and reverberated throughout the pipes of the building.

"Jiraiya-kun, whatddya need?" a croaky male voice asked.

"Oh why hello Jiraiya-kun, whatcha summon us both for?" a more grandmotherly voice questioned.

     Jiraiya's sage transformation instantly began taking place. He had made leaps and bounds with it over the course of his training with Naruto, having finally perfected his Sage Mode. The only downside to his triumph was the time limit, being over 90 seconds shorter than his blonde student. But his student didn't have the option for the toads to mount his shoulders, evening the playing ground.

     "I'm battling a Rinnegan user, a former student of mine. I appreciate your help." The man said, truly grateful to have some kind of reinforcements.

     Two audible shocks were heard from Lord Fukasaku and Lady Shima as Jiraiya walked towards the exit of the large pipe he found himself in. They conversed a bit more before exiting the pipe, only sharing important information.

     Pain, who by now had dropped the invisible reptile from the battle and summoned two other people of incredibly similar appearance, didn't even spare a smirk of authority before one charged. He had much longer orange hair, but otherwise looked wildly like the original.

     The other stepped in front of the original and held his hands up. He was a tad bigger than the other two, but held the same neutral expression. The original man only stood and observed as Jiraiya engaged with the long-haired man.

     In only a few moments and exchanged blows, the Sage could tell that these three strikingly similar shinobi had to be sharing some sort of information, and without talking.