Jiraiya had never imagined there would come a day when he heard the old man say something like that. "Old man, you finally figured it out. If you'd realized it sooner, maybe Konoha wouldn't have taken until now to develop."
Hiruzen Sarutobi waved a hand. "All right, enough about me. How have you been this past year?"
Jiraiya thought for a moment. "Not bad, I guess. I traveled through the Land of Rain for a while, but... something very strange happened in that country too. The whole place felt incredibly bizarre."
Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed as well. "I think I heard about that too. The Land of Rain may decline because of this."
"But none of that matters anymore. In the future, the Shinobi World probably won't see another war break out. Everyone will start focusing on developing in peace."
Jiraiya didn't know why the old man would say that. Wars between nations could break out at any time. No one could predict them.
But how could the old man be so certain? Was there something he didn't know?
Before Jiraiya could ask, Hiruzen Sarutobi told him what had happened some time ago.
"Minato should have already told you about the development of the Land of Rain, right?"
Jiraiya nodded. "Yeah, he did. What does that have to do with this?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi smiled and said, "Of course it has something to do with it."
"The Land of Wind, the Land of Earth, and the Land of Lightning coveted the Land of Rain's territory and launched an invasion against them. In the end, before they even reached the Land of Rain's border, their armies—seventy to eighty thousand troops in total—were repelled!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's words shocked Jiraiya badly. "How is that possible! An army of seventy to eighty thousand was driven back!"