"Wondering how I knew?" Jiraiya asked with a smile upon seeing their reactions.
"It was actually quite simple. When I first saw the so-called Six Paths of Pain three years ago, I already had my doubts. That face was definitely Yahiko's, and since he called me Teacher, there could be no one else. During the later battle, I realized that the so-called Six Paths of Pain were the corpses of deceased shinobi. It wasn't difficult to draw certain conclusions from that.
"I knew back then that Nagato possessed the Rinnegan, yet now it had appeared on you, Yahiko. Could all of this really be nothing more than a coincidence?"
"You could determine that Nagato was the one behind Pain from that alone?" Konan asked in disbelief. Pain's greatest secret had been exposed by Jiraiya upon only their second meeting.
Jiraiya shook his head with a smile. "Of course not from that alone. More than anything, I relied on my intuition and my understanding of the two of you."
"I know that even in death, the bond between you wouldn't let either of you abandon the other... Am I right, Nagato?"
"Heh, as expected of Teacher Jiraiya. You understand us so well." A voice rang out as the figure in the sky descended. Just as he neared the ground, he abruptly stopped, as though gravity had suddenly vanished, hovering roughly three inches above the earth.
"So you're finally willing to show yourself, Nagato. Can you tell me what happened back then now?" Jiraiya asked again.
Nagato closed his eyes as though lost in memory. After a moment, he let out a soft sigh. "There is no need for that anymore. What happened back then is not important. What matters is what comes next. This world is like an ignorant child—it must