The Land of Fire.
In the fields behind a mountain village.
A white-haired man was tilling the soil with a hoe.
As he worked, he muttered, "What the hell is going on? Why did my chakra disappear?"
"Could it be... Orochimaru poisoned me?"
"Yeah! Orochimaru's probably the only one who could mess with me like this!"
"Damn it... once I get back to Konoha, I'm going to settle the score with him!"
Just then, a little boy dressed in coarse hemp clothing ran over. "Lord Jiraiya... it's time to eat!"
Jiraiya nodded, then slung the hoe over his shoulder and returned to his temporary lodgings-the village chief's house.
Earlier...
Jiraiya had left Konoha on a mission to investigate the Land of Fire's border, but... after barely half a day of traveling, he had discovered that his chakra was gradually slipping out of his control.
Eventually, the chakra inside his body had vanished altogether. Not only that, his physical strength had also steadily declined until he was little different from an ordinary person!
Realizing something was wrong with his body, Jiraiya had immediately turned back. After all... in his current state, he was in serious danger. Any random gang of bandits could kill him.
But what he feared had come to pass. Before he had gone far, he had run into a gang of mountain bandits. They had robbed him of all his money, beaten him up, stripped him naked, and dumped him by the roadside.
Fortunately, the village chief had happened to pass by and taken him home. Otherwise... he might have ended up in some wild beast's belly.
After arriving at the village chief's house, Jiraiya had kept insisting that he was Jiraiya of the Konoha Sannin...
But this village was already far from Konoha, tucked