"Then… what about Nagato?"
"He's dead."
To Jiraiya's question, asked amid his conflicted emotions, Hagoromo gave only those two words in reply.
When he said those two words, Hagoromo's tone carried neither the feeling of "finally getting what he wished for," nor the satisfaction of "getting rid of someone and feeling relieved." His emotions were not stiff to the point of coldness either… If one had to describe it, this attitude should probably be called indifference.
Although he was the one who had done it, the words sounded as if they had come from the mouth of an unrelated third party… In Hagoromo's eyes, perhaps "alive" or "dead" were the only two adjectives that could be used for the person called Nagato. And now, the two words "he's dead" were already enough to fully explain the other party's state.
It had to be said that this was very "Hagoromo." He had always been this kind of person. When it came to killing someone he had always wanted to kill, he felt neither sadness nor joy. It was merely carrying out the execution of someone who had long since been sentenced to death. Inside it, there was one thing and one thing only: "as it should be."
When answering that question, Hagoromo was walking in front of Jiraiya, so he did not see what kind of expression the other man had on his face.
But he did not need to see what expression Jiraiya had. Regret? Pity? Deserved? He did not guess.
After the message was delivered to Mount Myōboku, Jiraiya immediately returned from there to Konoha, appearing in the communications team's area in a great hurry.
Right afterward, Hagoromo briefly explained the reason he had been called back.
The matter of Amegakure, the matter of Kirigakure, and the Five Kage Summit—Hagoromo gave a summarized explanation of all of it. This allowed Jiraiya to understand as quickly as possible what kind of situation the shinobi world was currently in.
As for his mission after returning to Konoha, to put it nicely, it was to act as the Hokage's guard. To put it less nicely, it was to serve as a high-level hired muscle.
"How is Naruto doing?"
After that, Hagoromo asked Jiraiya this question. He was relatively concerned about this matter, and it also counted as changing the topic… Hagoromo did not want to dwell too much on someone who was already dead.
"Naruto's training is progressing quite smoothly. Sure enough, learning senjutsu requires innate qualities," Jiraiya said after adjusting his emotions.
Hagoromo could clearly sense both gratification and gloom in his tone. He could even tell that the gratification outweighed the gloom.
What gratified Jiraiya was that Naruto, who came from the Uzumaki clan, had a considerable affinity for senjutsu. After losing both the experience-based special ability and the interference of the Nine-Tails, his learning speed far exceeded prior expectations.
This was also precisely what made Jiraiya gloomy. As the saying went, there was no harm without comparison, and comparing people could make one furious. Back when he had learned senjutsu, it had not been nearly as simple as it was for Naruto. Just getting started alone had taken who knew how much effort.
For Jiraiya, the fact that he had always called himself the Toad Sage showed his pride in senjutsu. But after comparing himself to Naruto, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that calling himself that seemed rather low.
Without the legacy of the Sage's body… or, to put it more directly, without the bloodline of the Sage of Six Paths, learning senjutsu was an extremely difficult and painful thing. Jiraiya understood this deeply. The reason he had been able to complete his senjutsu training and apply Sage Mode in actual combat was that he had endured countless days and nights of bitter training.
But even with that much effort, when using senjutsu, he would still undergo slight toadification because of natural energy leaking outward.
However, he expected that this would not happen to Naruto… Uncle Jiraiya suddenly felt old. After being surpassed by Hagoromo, was he about to be surpassed by Naruto too?
Hagoromo could more or less understand Jiraiya's gloom. It had taken him five years to grasp senjutsu himself, and that was only because he had special ability-level chakra control. Without that, fundamentally speaking, he would not have been any different from Jiraiya either.
"After I left, Lord Fukasaku will continue helping Naruto with his training," Jiraiya said again after putting his gloom aside. Even though he had returned to Konoha, Naruto's training would not stagnate. After all, there were still toads at Mount Myōboku who knew senjutsu.
However, even if Naruto's training speed was fast, Hagoromo still felt it was not enough. After all, the challenge Naruto faced was not limited to senjutsu alone.
Even after successfully completing senjutsu training, truly applying it in actual combat was not something that could be done overnight.
"That's good. Let's put Naruto's matter aside for now and go see Lady Tsunade first. Although there's still about a month before the Five Kage Summit begins, considering how troublesome it is for the Hokage to leave the village, I believe this period will pass very quickly…" Hagoromo said.
Saying that the head of a village was this restricted might sound a little exaggerated, but if one thought about it from another perspective, the Hokage was essentially the defense minister of the entire Land of Fire. In that case, it became much easier to understand.
The distribution of daily missions, the mechanism for resolving major incidents that might occur while she was away from the village, and even explanations and reports to the daimyo—in short, this whole series of messy matters was almost enough to drive the rough-and-ready Fifth Hokage mad.
By the time she slowly finished dealing with everything, in terms of timing, it had already reached the point where she had no choice but to leave the village.
Taking safety as the most basic starting point, the Hokage's movements had to remain secret. So leaving the village with great fanfare was impossible. On the contrary, Tsunade and her two companions quietly left Konoha.
One could even say that shinobi below the upper ranks did not know the Hokage had already left the village, let alone ordinary civilians.
Five days before the Five Kage Summit began, Tsunade left the village accompanied by Jiraiya and Hagoromo. This amount of time was enough for them to reach the Land of Iron.
However, secrecy was secrecy, but at this moment, Tsunade was still wearing something extremely out of place—the hat on her head with the character "fire" written on it. In fact, that alone was enough to reveal her identity.
"Lady Tsunade, do you absolutely have to wear that thing? To be honest, it looks really out of place on you."
With that kind of bamboo hat on Tsunade's head, Hagoromo felt an indescribable awkwardness. Tsunade was racking her brains over the upcoming summit, while Hagoromo was completely relaxed. And the issue he cared about was not remotely on point.
Hearing Hagoromo speak like this, Tsunade had not yet reacted before Jiraiya quietly pulled some distance away from this guy.
"There's no helping it. This thing is the symbol of the Five Kage's status." Tsunade's frown had already expressed her attitude. The truth was not that she liked putting this thing on her head, but that she had no choice but to put it on.
Although Hagoromo was complaining about it, Konoha actually had it pretty good. There seemed to be fixed distinguishing colors between the Five Kage. At the very least, the Hokage's hat had red as its symbolic, legally designated color.
Sunagakure's side had always used that color, but did they ever say anything? The Kazekage through the generations could form an entire "forgiveness squad," yet did they ever say anything?
You would never understand his sorrow, just as day does not understand the darkness of night.
"Could this symbol have been designed by the First Hokage too…"
Whether this thing looked pleasing to the eye probably also depended on who was wearing it.
Then, as if remembering something, Hagoromo casually said, "Speaking of which, the Third Hokage used to be especially suited to this thing…" Then a thought stirred in his mind, inspiration descended, and he struck his fist into his palm. "So that's it. It's because of age… Lady Tsunade, as long as you return to your original appearance, this bamboo hat will definitely suit you especially well."
Come to think of it, ever since Tsunade left the Land of Wind battlefield during the Third Shinobi World War, Hagoromo had never seen her "true appearance" again, right? He had once seen the young girl version of Tsunade, but he had never seen the granny version of Tsunade. Was that not worth being curious about?
Curiosity was curiosity. But the moment Hagoromo's words fell, Tsunade abruptly shot him a murderous glare…
To eliminate the sense of dissonance, she had to directly turn old?
Hagoromo's logic was the kind that deserved a beating.
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