"What exactly did Jiraiya do?"
The Third Hokage asked uneasily. Only now did he remember that Jiraiya had indeed been unusually low-key lately.
However, with Shimura Danzo and Root as such major targets, the Third Hokage had overlooked his good student. He knew Jiraiya's character well enough that he hadn't thought Jiraiya would do anything harmful to Konoha.
But looking back, his student simply wouldn't deliberately do anything to harm Konoha. With his overly naive nature, he might well mean well and still make things worse.
"Hmph! He..."
"Hokage-sama, we have a problem! Naruto... Naruto was taken away by Lord Jiraiya!"
With a bang, the Third Hokage shot to his feet, his face twisted with anger and edged with panic.
"Looks like I don't need to say much more... The Root Ninja assigned to watch the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was knocked unconscious by Jiraiya, too. When he woke up, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki had vanished."
"Your student has gone too far! What does he think a Jinchuriki is?! This is practically treason!"
The Third Hokage waved a hand. This wasn't the time to ask why the Root Ninja had reported the matter to Shimura Danzo first instead of to him, the Hokage.
The most important thing now was to find a way to bring the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki back!
"Why would Jiraiya do something like this...?"
After thinking it over, the Third Hokage couldn't make sense of it. Uzumaki Naruto had suffered plenty of cold treatment in Konoha, but weren't all Jinchuriki tempered by enduring the same sort of treatment?
Even if Uzumaki Naruto was the Fourth Hokage's son, Jiraiya's grand-student, and close to Jiraiya...
The Third Hokage had assumed Jiraiya would at most show Naruto some discreet concern. He had never imagined Jiraiya would take the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki straight out of Konoha.