Orochimaru and Uchiha Itachi felt a sinking dread at the sight. They had expected Obito Uchiha to arrive first; he would have been easier to fool. They had never imagined Pain would be the first to come. This was going to be difficult.
Jiraiya was still lost in grief. "Yahiko, where's Nagato?!" Pain's face remained expressionless, but he paused before answering. "Teacher, why didn't you come sooner? They're both gone!"
Despite the flatness of his voice, Jiraiya heard despair in it. For an instant, he had the strange feeling that the person before him was not Yahiko at all, but Nagato.
Yet he looked exactly like Yahiko, with no sign of a transformation technique. "What happened? Yahiko, where's Nagato?"
As Yahiko drew closer, Jiraiya finally spotted what was wrong. Those eyes were unmistakably Nagato's. Perhaps the person before him wasn't Yahiko at all.
Jiraiya's expression hardened. "Nagato!" The moment he said the name, Pain, who had been perfectly still, sprang into action. A black rod appeared in his hand.
Pain stretched a palm toward Jiraiya. The black rod shot at him as though propelled by an invisible hand, aimed straight through his body.
Jiraiya's gaze sharpened. He flashed aside, but the rod paused only briefly before turning to pursue him.
Orochimaru and Uchiha Itachi watched anxiously from the sidelines. They could not step in without wasting years of effort.
Even so, they watched closely. In all their time here, they had rarely seen Pain fight, and their assessment of his abilities was far from certain. This was a chance to find out what he could do.
Elsewhere in Amegakure, Nagato crouched in a dark room, his face twisted with rage. Saro, who had brought him a meal, was startled. It had been years since she had seen that look on