So-called "checks and balances" do not necessarily have to come from strength alone.
At this point, all of Madara's plans were based on the premise that no one knew he was still alive.
Thus, he could only operate from the shadows against the Senju Clan—and now was the perfect opportunity. The death of the Second Hokage had created a huge rift between the Senju and the pro-peace faction among the village's leadership.
Even so, stirring up conflict wasn't easy. The most effective method would be for Madara to use his powerful dōjutsu to manipulate one of the elders within the Senju Clan—someone with real authority.
Though Madara survived the Battle of the Valley of the End, his strength was nowhere near its peak. However, using just his eyes to interfere with people's minds was still within his ability.
That said, the Senju clan elders rarely left the village or even their compound. So for Madara, the only chance to act was this special window of time to infiltrate Konoha.
"If I can just find a way to have Lady Mito stay with the Senju Clan for a while, and let Teacher Hiruzen calm the unrest within the Senju, that should be enough."
That was Jiraiya's plan. Uzumaki Mito had incredibly strong and unique sensory abilities. Even if Madara found a way to conceal his chakra, the moment he got too close, Mito would sense it.
From the day Hashirama Senju founded Konoha, he and his family never lived within the Senju compound. That was a deliberate decision to balance the village's clans.
The idea sounded simple, but it was far from easy to carry out. Mito herself held no official position in the village and wasn't part of its leadership.
Yet as someone who had co-founded Konoha alongside the First Hokage, her reputation even surpassed that of Hiruzen, the current Third Hokage.
With Jiraiya's current status, the only possible way to connect with Mito would be through Tsunade.
How he would do that, he hadn't fully figured out yet. At worst, he'd just have to tell Hiruzen everything.
Either way, Jiraiya would never sit back and let Madara scheme against Konoha in secret.
"Let's begin Phase One of training, then."
He leaped lightly to his feet, then opened his right hand, palm facing upward.
He was going to start practicing the Rasengan right now.
Buzz…
Jiraiya focused all his attention on his palm. Gradually, pure blue chakra began to gather there.
Back when he was teaching Naruto the Rasengan, he had used water balloons and rubber balls as training tools. But having already mastered the Rasengan once, Jiraiya didn't need them now.
Though technically, he and Naruto had both been genin when they learned it.
In his palm, the chakra swirled more and more. The Rasengan was purely a shape transformation—no chakra nature involved.
But for his six-year-old body, this was the first time it had ever manipulated chakra in such a way.
As the chakra in his palm slowly took on an irregular, oval shape, the unstable energy burst with a "boom" and scattered.
A normal failure—Jiraiya didn't react much and immediately started again.
And again.
And again.
By the fifth attempt, the chakra in his palm had almost fully formed into a sphere.
But just as it was about to stabilize, Jiraiya felt his body grow weak.
Still, thanks to his experience, he managed to steady the half-formed Rasengan. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead.
He muttered to himself:
"I'm almost out of chakra... so close."
He was about to succeed in forming the spinning chakra sphere. But unknowingly, he had nearly depleted his chakra reserves.
If he could successfully form it even once, and let his body remember the feeling, that would complete the first stage of training.
But if he pushed any further, forcing more chakra from his still-developing body could do real harm. So he prepared to stop.
With the lessons from his failed attempts, he was confident that once he adjusted his chakra control, he'd succeed soon enough.
But then, something unexpected happened.
Just as he was retracting his chakra, a new force suddenly surged within his body.
Threads of blood-red chakra emerged from his palm and merged into the nearly fading chakra sphere.
Buzz!
The previously unstable Rasengan instantly stabilized and began spinning several times faster.
But now it wasn't just a pure blue sphere. The large blue orb seemed to be veiled in faint red membranes, giving it a strangely beautiful appearance.
Jiraiya froze.
Staring at the glowing red reflections in the sphere, his eyes widened.
"…This is… the Nine-Tails' chakra?"
At the same moment, a voice echoed in his mind:
"For being Minato's teacher, you are slow. Just like that, Naruto kid."
"You're inside my body? You followed me back to this era?" Jiraiya asked instantly. He was sure it was the Nine-Tails' voice. He felt a sudden chill throughout his body, but he paid it no mind.
No answer came.
The Nine-Tails wasn't about to respond to such an obvious question.
Having spent a decent amount of time together in the Pure Land, Jiraiya knew the Nine-Tails well. So he immediately asked a better question:
"What happened back in the Pure Land?"
The voice replied:
"Just as you guessed. I tried using my chakra to resist the Impure World Reincarnation that was summoning you. That jutsu falls under the space-time category."
"Naruto, thanks to years of living with me, still retained a small amount of my chakra even after I vanished. With that fragment, he revived me, affecting the space-time continuum. Also, there was a strong power from the Otsutsuki clan involved. I even sensed Boruto's chakra within it. That power was likely under his control."
"So your chakra, clashing with the power of the Impure World Reincarnation and the Otsutsuki's force, destabilized the space-time continuum—and pulled you into this era?" Jiraiya concluded.
"Maybe. Who can say? Space-time ninjutsu is a mystery to everyone," the Nine-Tails replied.
"Then this is bad…"
Jiraiya's face suddenly turned serious, his tone urgent:
"Naruto and Boruto worked together to revive you, which probably means they were facing some new crisis… but now you're here, in this time."
The Nine-Tails' chakra had always been a massive source of strength for Naruto—and a vital force in the entire shinobi world.
But then Jiraiya thought again: his presence here had likely already caused major changes in the course of history. Naruto's era might be very different by now.
Still, that was only speculation. No one could say for sure.
"It might affect things—but not as badly as you think," the Nine-Tails responded, its voice calm and steady.
Jiraiya knew how deeply the Nine-Tails cared about Naruto—perhaps as much as Jiraiya himself did.
So if the Nine-Tails sounded that calm, then it must have had a good reason.
And indeed, it didn't keep him in suspense.
"The me that's inside your body now… is only half of me."
(End of Chapter)