The second new Diary recipient

In an inn on an obscure street somewhere in the Land of Fire.

There was another person who had received a Diary: Jiraiya.

His reaction upon receiving the Diary was much the same as Tsunade's. He had just returned from the hot springs and happened to land on the Diary when he lay down on the bed. He had not gone there to bathe, though, but to watch.

Unlike Tsunade, however, he reacted differently to the Diary's very presence.

After all, he had not let himself grow complacent. He was still searching for the Child of Prophecy, so his reflexes and senses remained sharp even without Sage Mode.

He could detect even slight movements and changes in his room, yet someone had managed to place the Diary there without making a sound.

Especially striking were its contents: future disasters and prophetic videos.

"Could the Child of Prophecy really be exactly what the title says?"

Jiraiya rubbed his chin, unconsciously recalling the task the toad had given him. Was he supposed to find the savior foretold in the prophecy, or someone who could predict the future?

He could not quite figure it out, so he could only continue studying the videos.

"Is this the enemy the village will face in the future?"

Looking at the man leading them, Jiraiya felt a strong sense of familiarity, but he could not place him right away. Judging by his expression, he really did not match anyone Jiraiya knew.

He could only mutter the name spoken in the video.

"Pain?"

But those eyes... could they be...?

Without Konan beside him to confirm it, and unable to recognize Pain's true identity right away, his first suspicion was that this man had killed his three former students and stolen the Rinnegan!

"So it really is an evil organization?"

Jiraiya quietly looked through the events that followed, occasionally offering an approving comment.

From time to time, he also passed judgment on what happened in the videos.

"You've got ambition, kid! You've already set your sights on the Hyuga Clan's little princess!"

"Will the last surviving Uchiha really turn out like this?"

"Danzo really is utterly deranged. His death was well deserved. But Sasuke, if you dare do anything to Konoha, then you..."

Jiraiya did not finish, but in his heart, Mount Myōboku came first, and Konoha came second.

One was the place that had helped him stop being a failure, and the other was the village that had raised him. Those two held the highest places in Jiraiya's heart.

Everything else came after them, whether it was an Uchiha or a Hajiba.

Anyone who threatened them had to die!

His expression settled into calm as he continued reading, only for his brows to knot tightly a moment later.

The Konoha Crush Plan?

At first, the phrase puzzled him, and he could only sigh helplessly. It seemed Konoha still faced many crises. He would have to return sooner to deal with them.

But just a few pages later, he came across a video of Kakashi and Orochimaru.

It revealed a great deal of information.

[Orochimaru stepped out calmly, his snakelike eyes fixed on Kakashi's covered left eye.

"Heh heh, I'd love to possess the Uchiha bloodline myself!"

Kakashi remained silent, quietly watching Orochimaru express his admiration for the Sharingan.

Only when the other man stopped speaking did he ask a question.

"What are you trying to do?"

"The recently established Otogakure is the Ran Village I founded."

Orochimaru sounded increasingly proud as he spoke.

"For your tiresome ambitions again?"

Kakashi stared coldly at Orochimaru as he questioned him.

"Heh heh, you could say that. They're all fairly useful pawns!"

...]

The scene still ended with Kakashi mocking himself.

But it was enough to prove that Orochimaru was plotting something.

Jiraiya's expression grew grave as he watched what his former companion had become.

Even now, Jiraiya did not know why Orochimaru had betrayed the village. He had originally assumed it was merely a difference of opinion, but the video showed that Orochimaru had founded a new village and come to Konoha. Just what was he trying to do?

A newly established ninja village had no standing to visit a major village like Konoha. It could only have come under the leadership of another major ninja village.

Combined with the Diary writer's repeated claims that Hiruzen Sarutobi was weak toward outsiders and treated as a pushover, Jiraiya was not so stupid that he could not figure it out.

"To think you actually joined forces with other villages!"

Jiraiya had worked out the gist of it. It seemed this was connected to the so-called Crush Plan, and Orochimaru had even allied with a major ninja village to strike at Konoha!

"Orochimaru, you really are beyond saving!"

"If what this Diary records is true, then I'll kill you myself, my former companion!"

This time, Jiraiya did not continue reading. Instead, he closed the book. He needed to digest what he had just learned.

Was Naruto really the savior?

When would the crises facing Konoha arrive?

Why was Tsunade the Hokage when Pain invaded, with the old Third Hokage nowhere to be seen?

These questions flooded Jiraiya's mind, and he began carefully turning them over.

He pondered for a long time. Only when the Diary lit up and new writing began appearing did he come back to his senses. He turned to the final page and read its contents.

He had expected something novel, but it turned out to be nothing more than this.

"I didn't expect this kid to be such a womanizer!"

Jiraiya could not help making a quip.

Nothing wrong with having ambition. If I get a chance to meet you, kid, and we hit it off, I'll help put in a good word so you can actually land yourself a woman to support you!

Quips were quips, and jokes were jokes. Jiraiya soon grew serious again and began organizing the information the Diary had revealed.

As established earlier, anyone who threatened Mount Myōboku or Konoha had to be stopped before the threat could grow, including Orochimaru!

He had set out to find the Child of Prophecy and look for Orochimaru along the way, hoping he would return.

In Jiraiya's mind, Orochimaru had always been someone who liked to expound on grand ideas, lamenting the brevity of life and searching for meaning.

He was not evil at heart, so Jiraiya wanted to bring him back to admit his mistakes to their teacher, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Then, once they returned to Konoha, the three of them would be as they had been before, companions once more. That was what he hoped for: for the Sannin to return to the way they used to be.

To return to the days before Nawaki's death, when they had still been so close.

Yet now he had seen the future in the Diary. In that future, Orochimaru attacked Konoha. Even if Jiraiya did not want to believe it, he had to.

It seemed that had only ever been his own wishful thinking. Orochimaru apparently did not feel the same way.

Otogakure, huh?

Committing the village's name to memory, Jiraiya prepared to begin investigating tomorrow. This was a serious matter for Konoha, and there was no time to waste.

After all, no one would know that the people they had invited in actually harbored malicious intentions. The major villages all had Tailed Beasts. If this really escalated into something huge, more people would have to sacrifice their lives.

I'll go back after investigating.

Once he finished muttering, Jiraiya closed the Diary and tried to put it into the backpack he carried with him. But the moment he set it inside, it turned into motes of light and entered his head.

After learning how to use the Diary, his lips curved slightly upward, and he nodded in satisfaction. It was quite practical.

Today's Diary entry might have astonished Jiraiya, but the earlier contents had already stunned him so much that he deliberately overlooked the question of why Tsunade would agree to let Sakura become his student.

"Orochimaru, I'll capture you alive myself. But if you dare do anything to the village, I won't hold back."