001 Memory

Deep within a highly classified underground base in Konoha Village.

A tall, white-haired man pushed open the inner door. He wore a red vest and wooden clogs, but his most striking features were the red lines running from beneath his eyes down to his jaw, resembling streaks of blood.

The forehead protector he wore did not bear the leaf symbol of Konoha, but rather a large character for "Oil."

One of the Legendary Sannin, Jiraiya.

He navigated the dark, winding underground tunnels with practiced ease until he finally reached a specific room.

"Knock, knock, knock." Even he, usually so boisterous, knew to knock.

"Is that you, Jiraiya? Come in." An aged voice drifted from within.

Jiraiya pushed the door open and took in the scene.

On a massive circular platform lay a young boy wearing strange equipment. Sitting before the platform was a ninja wearing a matching device. The boy was shirtless, and the entire platform was covered in dense, complex runes and curse marks, all converging on the boy's exposed abdomen. There, they formed an Eight Trigrams Seal, seemingly suppressing something within. The ninja at the platform appeared to be using the headgear to establish some form of connection with the boy.

Two other men were in the room: a middle-aged ninja with a high ponytail wearing the standard high-ranking Konoha flak jacket, and the elderly Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Jiraiya's teacher.

"What happened? Why call me back with such a high-priority signal, Old Man?" Jiraiya approached the platform and got a clear look at the boy lying there. It was hard to see much, as the boy's upper face was obscured by the equipment, but there were six whisker-like marks on his cheeks.

Jiraiya's expression turned solemn. The boy gave him a strange sense of familiarity, especially when he caught a glimpse of the short, golden hair at his temples.

The Third Hokage stared intently at the boy, took a few silent puffs of his pipe, and said slowly, "This is... Naruto Uzumaki."

Jiraiya froze. With a heart tempered by blood and fire, he was stunned for a moment upon hearing the name "Naruto Uzumaki." But it was only for a second. Jiraiya quickly regained his composure, his face growing even sterner as he addressed his teacher.

"Teacher Sarutobi, what are you doing? Wasn't it agreed that this child would live a normal life?"

The Third Hokage took another few puffs of his pipe and gestured to the ninja standing silently nearby. "Shikaku, explain it to Jiraiya."

Shikaku Nara nodded and explained to Jiraiya, "It is like this, Lord Jiraiya. Three days ago, Lord Hokage received a report from the Anbu that the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Naruto Uzumaki, was acting abnormally. Then, Naruto himself approached Lord Hokage, claiming..." He paused, then continued, "Claiming that he had 'seen the future'."

Jiraiya's brow furrowed deeply. "Seen the future?" He glanced at the boy on the platform and asked, "What does that mean?"

Shikaku replied with a grave expression, "He has obtained memories of his own future, eleven years from now!"

Jiraiya's frown deepened. He understood every word Shikaku said, but how could they possibly make sense when put together?

"Is it a genjutsu?" A ninja's vigilance made this his first thought. Had agents from other villages already targeted their Jinchuriki?

Shikaku glanced at his close friend, Inoichi Yamanaka, who was sitting before the platform, and shook his head. "Based on what Inoichi has seen so far... the possibility of a planted genjutsu should be ruled out."

"You mean to say..." Jiraiya still found it hard to believe.

The Third Hokage spoke up, "It is better for you to see it with your own eyes; that is why I called you back." Seeming to recall something, the old man shook his head and sighed, "It cannot be a genjutsu, because those who know 'that matter' could never pull off something like this."

That matter? Jiraiya was curious, but he didn't ask. He took the head-mounted mental connection device from Shikaku and put it on.

"I am going to connect the minds of myself, Naruto Uzumaki, and Lord Jiraiya. Lord Jiraiya, you will be able to see the extra 'memories' within Naruto Uzumaki's mental world directly," Inoichi Yamanaka cautioned.

Jiraiya nodded.

The Third Hokage puffed on his pipe, gazing at the boy lying quietly on the platform, lost in thought.

Time in the mental world seemed to move much faster than in reality; only a few hours had passed when Jiraiya finally removed the headset.

Unlike when he had put it on, his eyes were now filled with shock.

He looked again at the quiet six-year-old boy lying on the platform—the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, the son of his student, the Fourth Hokage, and the child of the previous Nine-Tails Jinchuriki: Naruto Uzumaki.

His student's son.

"It cannot be fake. The details about Mount Myōboku—only Minato and I knew those. Minato is dead; no one could possibly create a genjutsu containing such specific details about Mount Myōboku," Jiraiya stated flatly.

The Third Hokage and Shikaku exchanged glances; this was within their expectations.

The room suddenly fell into an eerie silence.

"That guy, Orochimaru..." Jiraiya was the first to break the silence.

Naruto's memories did not contain every detail of that upheaval. He had only attended the Chunin Exams, then the venue descended into chaos, and shortly after, he was sent out to pursue the Sunagakure Jinchuriki team. By the time they returned, the chaos had ended. But who were the people in this room? Just from the fragments in Naruto's memories, they had managed to piece together Orochimaru's plan: colluding with Sunagakure to plot against Konoha, while simultaneously assassinating the Kazekage and launching a surprise attack on the Third Hokage.

The Third Hokage had died at the hands of Orochimaru.

"..." The Third Hokage puffed on his pipe and smiled silently. Regarding the disciple who had defected, his feelings were more complex than anyone else's.

The room fell into a long, heavy silence once more.

The intelligence contained in Naruto's memories was simply too vast. It was so much that even the Third Hokage, known as the "Shinobi World Professor," and Shikaku Nara, the strategist known as the "Brain of Konoha," could not digest it all at once. Those images continued to strike hard at their minds.

The Third Hokage classified the matter as top secret, restricting knowledge of it to only four people: himself, Jiraiya, Shikaku Nara, and Inoichi Yamanaka.

He dared not inform Danzo. If Danzo knew that something like this had happened to the Jinchuriki, there was no telling what he might do.

The four of them spent three days meticulously combing through Naruto's eleven years of memories, summarizing several major pieces of intelligence:

Orochimaru's Konoha Crush Plan, the S-rank rogue ninjas behind the Akatsuki Organization, the secret of the Akatsuki leader Pain, the culprit behind the Nine-Tails' attack, Obito Uchiha, the highly likely resurrection of Madara Uchiha, the residual chakra of the Fourth Hokage and the previous Jinchuriki, Kushina Uzumaki, inside Naruto Uzumaki, the plans of the Konoha rogue Itachi Uchiha regarding his brother Sasuke Uchiha, the secrets of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and the Rinnegan, and the truth behind the Uchiha clan massacre...

The Third Hokage looked at Jiraiya with an incredibly solemn expression. "Jiraiya, are you certain you want to go to Amegakure? You must think this through. Even with the intelligence from Naruto's memories, the 'Six Paths of Pain' will not be easy to deal with!"

Jiraiya nodded firmly. Thinking of those three students, his heart felt heavy. "This is one trip I must make."