Jiraiya's Perfect Plan

Now Jiraiya finally understood why the clone had vanished without a trace after committing those crimes.

Why hadn't the clone come looking for him?

Because the clone was not yet a match for him.

The clone had committed crimes partly because, like Jiraiya himself, it was born as it was meant to be and simply could not resist the pleasure district.

The other reason was to use Konoha's hands to capture him, then secretly wait for an opportunity to strike and kill him after his Chakra had likely been sealed.

At that point, the clone might be able to replace him and become the new Jiraiya.

But what the clone had not expected was that Tsunade's absurdly powerful Medical Ninjutsu had healed everyone outright. The matter had not escalated, so Konoha had not deployed its full strength to hunt him down.

He had hidden himself quite easily.

The clone did not dare show itself. Its strength was insufficient to begin with, and once it appeared, the situation would become one where the enemy was in the open while he was in the shadows, which would be especially disadvantageous for it.

Since it could not quickly eliminate the original body, the clone chose a long-term strategy. It would use its natural talent to train, and only emerge once its strength surpassed that of the original.

Then, after luring out the original body, it could crush him with absolute power.

So, what could Jiraiya do in the face of such a situation?

It was simple. He would train as well and increase his strength.

How could the clone judge whether it was time to emerge? It could only use its own strength as a reference, comparing it against the information Orochimaru had on Jiraiya's strength within the Shinobi World.

In other words,