Sasori's disappearance caused a minor stir in Sunagakure before gradually fading into calm. Apart from Chiyo, fewer and fewer people continued to care about it.
After all, the disappearance of a genius was not some earth-shattering disaster. Though regrettable, with the search yielding nothing, all they could do was file it away in the Anbu archives and wait for new leads to emerge someday.
Of course, under normal circumstances, such files would never be reopened.
And so, amid these inconsequential events, Konoha's fiftieth year passed peacefully.
Then, in February of the fifty-first year, Jiraiya, one of the Sannin who had remained in the Land of Rain since the latter stages of the Third Shinobi World War, returned to Konoha.
He had stayed in the Land of Rain for nearly three years, sending only a handful of letters back to the village during that time to inform the Third of his situation.
This time, he finally felt that Yahiko and Nagato were capable of standing on their own, allowing him to leave without worry.
In truth, suddenly staying behind during wartime had been an extremely willful act. After returning to the village, Jiraiya received plenty of criticism from the other higher-ups. Fortunately, Konoha had ultimately won the war, and the Third, Hiruzen Sarutobi, now held great authority. The others did not dare make things too difficult for Jiraiya.
Originally, Jiraiya had not intended to remain for so long. At the time, he had merely felt sorry for Yahiko and Nagato and wanted to stay behind to care for them for a while, intending to return to the battlefield after perhaps one or two months. But when he accidentally discovered Nagato's Rinnegan, he changed his mind. Believing Nagato might be the child of prophecy from legend, he stayed to teach him with