Jiraiya fell apart. With what little reason he had left, he hurled the kunai in his hand into the enemy who was still moving, finishing him off.
The cave fell silent. Aside from Jiraiya, there were no signs of life left.
He sat quietly beside the body of Leaf Dragon, the ANBU operative, and curled up.
He buried his head between his arms, his shoulders trembling slightly as he sobbed too hard to speak.
When Jiraiya stood at Konoha's gates again, the look in his eyes had completely changed.
When he left, he had still been fretting over how to make his summoning adventure sound cooler.
When he returned, all that remained in his heart was anguish over his own weakness and an unrelenting desire to grow stronger.
I'm too weak. I don't have enough strength. As I am now, I don't even qualify to take part in a fight.
If I hadn't been so full of myself, trying to help and rescue him, maybe Leaf Dragon wouldn't have died at all. He hadn't even been at a disadvantage in the fight before that.
Jiraiya couldn't help clenching his fists again. He squeezed so hard that his fingertips dug into his palms, leaving them bloody.
But no amount of regret would help. The dead could not come back to life.
I let Leaf Dragon down, but I'll spend the rest of my life atoning for his death.
He took a deep breath and stepped into Konoha with determination in his eyes.
Inside the Hokage's office building.
Watanabe Ichiro's consciousness returned to "Uchiha Ichiro," and he remotely retrieved the disposable disguise Jiraiya had buried in the forest.
That area was near the Land of Lightning, quite far from Konoha. He really had no idea how that foolish kid had