"It was definitely him. It was Jigen from the Canopy Screen," Jiraiya said quietly. "His chakra felt cold and vast, with an inhuman sense of superiority."
"He appeared without warning, and he was clearly after Naruto. I tried to stop him, but all he did was look at me."
Jiraiya's hand drifted to his chest. The spot where a Black Receiver had pierced him seemed to ache even now.
"Then I lost consciousness. I didn't sense the attack at all."
"I've traveled the Shinobi World for years, and I've never faced a gap in strength so hopeless."
Tsunade rested her chin on her clasped hands, her green eyes fixed on Jiraiya as she absorbed the horrifying news.
She knew how strong Jiraiya was. He stood among the very best in the Shinobi World today.
For Jigen to take him down before he could withstand even one move—and leave him shaken at the memory—meant his strength was probably more terrifying than they had guessed from the fragments shown on the Canopy Screen.
It also confirmed that the future revealed by the Canopy Screen was neither fiction nor exaggeration.
"But," Jiraiya said, his brow tightening, "here's the strangest part."
"When I woke up, I was lying where I'd fallen, without a single wound."
"Even the tears in my clothes were gone. Naruto insisted I'd worn myself out traveling, fallen asleep along the way, and had a nightmare. He even said my shouting woke him up."
He studied Tsunade. "That kid knows something."
"He was right there. And knowing him, if I'd really just had a nightmare, he would've laughed at me. He wouldn't have kept insisting so seriously that I'd 'just fallen asleep.'"
"Should we have a proper 'talk' with him?"
Tsunade fell silent for a moment, tapping her fingers lightly on