Konoha Prison.
Inside a brightly lit special cell, Jiraiya lay on the prison bed with one leg crossed over the other, engrossed in a copy of Make-Out Paradise.
At times, he wore a blissful expression; at others, he let out a lecherous chuckle.
Tap... tap... tap...
Hurried footsteps interrupted Jiraiya's reading.
Jiraiya had just set down his book when the iron door was forcefully pushed open.
"Old man?" Jiraiya looked up and saw the Third Hokage standing in the doorway, his face grave and urgent.
"What's wrong? Didn't you say I was locked up for seven days? There are still two days left."
"The situation has changed." The Third Hokage wasted no words. "Come with me."
Jiraiya froze for a moment, then rolled off the bed and followed the Third Hokage out of the prison.
As they hurried along, the Third Hokage told him that the verdict on Danzo had been reached.
But the key matter was the masked man's attempt to recruit Shimura Danzō.
"...So that masked man claimed to be Uchiha Madara, and he was also the true mastermind behind the Nine-Tails Attack?"
The Third Hokage nodded. "Most likely."
"This man possesses an extremely strange space-time ninjutsu."
"During the Nine-Tails Attack, only someone using space-time ninjutsu could have infiltrated Konoha."
"He could go looking for Danzo again at any time."
"We need to set up an ambush in advance and kill him!"
The Third Hokage spoke coldly.
"Time is tight. We won't get a second chance."
Jiraiya frowned.
"Then... why not bring in the Uchiha? Don't they have five Mangekyō Sharingan?"
The Third Hokage did not recount everything that had been discussed at the meeting.
He merely offered a simple explanation. "Things would become troublesome if the Uchiha got involved."
"Besides, the Mangekyō Sharingan are powerful, but our