For a time, the toads found it difficult to make a decision.
Who could have imagined Naruto would defect? And to the Akatsuki, no less. That made it exceedingly difficult for the toads of Mount Myōboku to contact Naruto.
"Little Jiraiya, I remember you mentioning that you once suspected Nagato was the Child of Prophecy?" Sage Fukasaku asked.
Jiraiya nodded with a solemn expression. "That's right. It was the first time I had seen the Rinnegan. I decided to stay in Amegakure and teach Nagato for three years, hoping he could bring change to Amegakure and even the entire Shinobi World."
"No change came. There was plenty more destruction, though." Sage Shima sighed.
Jiraiya's face was full of shame.
The toads did not question why Jiraiya had failed to report Nagato to Mount Myōboku immediately after discovering him.
Clearly, Jiraiya had not wanted outside forces interfering with Nagato. He had wanted to let Nagato develop freely in that small place. And look how that had turned out—the boy had gone down the wrong path.
"According to the old master's prophecy, Naruto seems more like the true Child of Prophecy. But that was what the old master foresaw years ago. Just look at Naruto now..." Sage Fukasaku covered his face.
Defector Naruto—cold, cruel, dark... No matter how one looked at him, he did not resemble a savior capable of saving the world.
He looked more like a great villain. Even Sasuke seemed more like the Child of Prophecy than Naruto did.
Where had things gone wrong?
"The old master has kept many things from us. In its youth, it lived in the same era as the ancestor of Chakra and even had some dealings with the Sage of Six Paths," Sage Shima added.
Fukasaku and Shima were already over eight hundred