The rain that had poured through the night finally stopped.
After the downpour, the sky was exceptionally clear, and the air was full of a fresh, clean scent.
As consciousness returned, the faint smell of disinfectant reached his nose before his other senses stirred. However dazed he was, it told him he was somewhere that provided medical care.
His eyelids felt dry and heavy. Between the blood loss and the fever, nothing about his body felt right.
Jiraiya opened his eyes to a pristine white ceiling.
What happened to me...
Ah, I was rescued...
Did Tsunade and the others notice something was wrong and come to help?
His memories gradually returned. Those awful recollections, cast in a dim haze, brought a dull ache to his head.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes again. Enduring the discomfort, he forced himself to go through the entire memory once more.
He had let his guard down and been manipulated into verbally attacking Big Brother Leaf Dragon, then controlled into attempting suicide.
I did a lot of things wrong.
First, I carelessly fell under a genjutsu and failed to break it in time.
Second, my willpower wasn't strong enough. There are flaws in my heart. I still haven't moved past those memories.
Third, my desire to live wasn't strong enough. This genjutsu leaned toward persuasion rather than outright control. If I'd held firm, it wouldn't have worked at all. Ultimately, it happened because I was weak inside and had thoughts of giving everything up.
I'm still not strong enough. There are gaps in my abilities and flaws in my mind.
I need to fix them one by one.
And Big Brother Leaf Dragon was taken away by that guy. I have to rescue him!
His fist clenched involuntarily beneath the