Konoha, emergency conference room.
Not the Hokage's office, but three levels underground. Tsunade sat at the end of the long table, an intelligence scroll spread before her. It was no ordinary scroll—it was a sealing scroll. What it sealed was not a jutsu, but intelligence. The intelligence had been gathered by Jiraiya after three years undercover in Amegakure. Every word was stained with Amegakure's water—not rainwater, but bloody water.
Jiraiya stood beside Tsunade, his hand resting on the scroll. Not resting—pressing down. Pressing down the fear of three years, the urge he had felt countless times over those three years to charge in and kill Pain, and the fury of returning to Konoha after three years only to discover that war had already begun.
"Akatsuki. Every member is an S-rank rogue ninja."
He unfurled the scroll, and nine portraits rose under the effect of chakra. Not paper, but light. The light floated through the dim conference room: nine faces, nine colors of chakra, nine kinds of power capable of destroying a village.
"Pain, Zero. Rinnegan, Amegakure. Not a Kekkei Genkai, but the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths. His abilities are unknown, but he can control six corpses at once, each possessing a separate ninjutsu. They are not clones, but independent individuals. Kill one, and five remain. Kill five, and he can replace them. He is not impossible to kill—he is impossible to finish."
"Konan, White. Paper ninjutsu, angel form. Her body can turn into countless sheets of paper. Every sheet is both weapon and defense. Not a weakness, but an advantage. The advantage is—you never know where she is, because every sheet of paper is her."
"Itachi Uchiha, Vermilion. Tsukuyomi, Amaterasu, Susanoo. Konoha rogue ninja—" Jiraiya paused. Not because he dared not say it, but because he did