Where Did Your Dreams Go?

In the curtain of rain, the paper wall stood silent.

Jiraiya raised his head. Beneath the shadow of his hat, his eyes settled on the slender figure atop the wall.

Blue hair.

A paper flower.

And those eyes. Even through a wall of paper and a sky full of cold rain, he could never mistake them.

"Konan?"

He spoke slowly, a tremor in his voice that even he did not notice.

"You've grown so much."

The paper wall went still.

Only for an instant.

Then her beautiful face tightened again, and she forced down the last flicker of emotion in her eyes.

"You've mistaken me for someone else."

Konan's voice was soft, without a trace of warmth.

"There's no one by that name in Amegakure."

The moment she finished speaking, the paper wall burst apart!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Countless white sheets flew into the air, folding and compressing in the rain. In the blink of an eye, they became a sky full of paper Senbon, their needle-sharp points flashing cold as they rained down!

Jiraiya neither dodged nor retreated.

He brought his hands together.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

Boom!

An orange-red fireball roared into the sea of paper.

Sheets curled, blackened, and scattered like burning snow.

But there was too much paper.

The fire burned through one layer, only for another to press in behind it. An endless tide, as though every sheet of white paper in Amegakure had come alive to bury the intruder.

Jiraiya turned his palms outward.

"Oil Release: Toad Oil!"

Splash!

A broad cloud of thick oil sprayed out, covering half the alley.

The fireball struck the oil.

BOOM!

The flames swelled tenfold and rose into a wall of fire!

The sea of paper crashed into it, whole swaths turning to ash.

Konan swept