บท 155: Several Reactions

Something was amiss, Jiraiya could tell with just a glance at the collapsed buildings around Amegakure. Initially, he had intended to infiltrate the village with the help of a toad, but it was clear that someone was providing a perfect distraction unknowingly.

And he never wasted opportunities like that; it was half the success of his exploits, a secret he took care to cover carefully to maintain his reputation for strength despite not keeping up with Orochimaru and Tsunade's growth rate.

His plan was to come to this place later after dealing with some matters, but lately, he had a bad feeling following him everywhere, so he advanced his information gathering as soon as he had Naruto safely in the village.

The journey was productive, but the boy was adamant about using the Uzumaki surname, causing quite a few (too many) problems with authorities wherever they went, especially with his strange habit of shouting his full name.

It turns out the previous Daimyo made sure everyone was aware of this decree, and the current one didn't care enough to do anything about it, although Jiraiya still couldn't understand why that man was so decisive.

What he didn't expect was that, while moving through the pipes of Amegakure lost in his thoughts, with his gaze constantly searching for information, he would encounter the people of Seimeigakure. He didn't even need to see their headbands up close; their strange armors were all that was necessary to identify the other party.

Approaching carefully and pulling out his old but reliable telescope, a friend that helped him greatly in collecting materials, he saw that one of the women had someone vaguely familiar on her shoulders, but the person's face was so swollen that it made it difficult to place them in his memory.

Although he was quite sure it was a woman, given those hairs...

Could it be Konan?

Doing a quick calculation, he estimated that the ages should match, so he thought about how to kidnap his student from that group of women. He thought about it a lot, but if each of them was Kage-level, as intelligence estimated, then the best he could do was try to negotiate.

Or else lives, most likely Konan's, would be lost. He didn't believe they would dare to kill him, not with the current alliance between Iwa and Konoha.

He also wanted to know how Konan ended up in their hands and why.

—Good morning, ladies! —his old charm could work wonders, and it never hurt to try, before resorting to force.

It was a nuisance, but he also couldn't eliminate any of them due to Enel's highly likely violent reaction, so he would have to restrain himself from hurting them too much if it came to that.

The three women turned to look at him, and one of them, Orochimaru's former student and Konoha's rebel ninja, Anko, was the first to speak.

Was it just him, or did she seem to have gained some kind of mature charm?

—Perfect, just in time —she commented while narrowing her eyes dangerously.

While the beating they gave Konan helped release some of his anger, they still had much more accumulated, and just when they didn't know whether to direct it at Amegakure, a live target arrived, resilient enough for them to vent for a while.

If he died, they wouldn't care either, so they could unleash themselves freely and use their entire arsenal.

Jiraiya: ???

The wise toad sage had a very bad feeling when he saw the looks they gave him, and for some reason, he remembered the moment he had to flee from the Hokage's office pursued by the Hyuga clan head and several kunoichis.

That was not a good day in his books, although it was not the worst considering what happened later because of Tsunade...

How was he supposed to know that he would end up even more miserable later?

Meanwhile, in the Hyuga clan compound in Konoha...

Hinata received Anko's message by surprise and hurriedly left her room, sending various secret signals to the members of the branch family she had on standby as she found them, and several messenger snakes sprouted from her sleeves, sliding towards the Inuzuka clan and others involved in her plan.

For a moment, she recalled the shocked face when the matriarch of the Inuzuka clan found out that they would communicate secretly using Orochimaru's summoning, but after explaining her connection with Anko, Tsume sighed in relief, understanding how she obtained the qualification to use snakes.

But even as she moved to start the plan, she was surprised and even furious at the audacity of the Nara clan patriarch to try to use babies in his revenge.

Her Enel-kun's children!

She was even sad when she heard about Shikamaru's death, but they were ninjas, and everyone knew the risks. What exactly did Shikaku expect if his son took on missions?

Still, the sudden advance of Pain's attack was unexpected, and she felt fortunate to have followed Enel-kun's advice to prepare storage scrolls in advance with everything she needed so that when the time came, she just had to pick them up and leave.

He said he was inspired by earthquake preparations or something.

An explosion brought her out of her thoughts, and she turned her gaze in the direction of its origin.

—Was that the Nara clan?

It seems that Enel-kun was really angry...

While freezing for a moment at the thought, she saw several creatures with purple eyes starting to emerge and devastate the surroundings of the area where the explosion occurred.

—Konoha ninjas will react soon; I have to hurry —Hinata thought as she went to find her sister Hanabi, hoping that Tsume would respond to her message as soon as possible.

In the Inuzuka clan...

—That brat keeps giving me so many headaches! —Tsume complained once she finished her duties as the clan matriarch for the day and could stretch out in her private room.

Kuromaro simply looked at her in silence with his left eye, letting her vent.

Kiba had been a frank disappointment as he grew up. As a child, he was too reckless even for an Inuzuka, and after the incident with the last Uchiha's escape, she thought he would get a dose of reality and improve his attitude.

That brat scared her a lot when she found out he was injured!

But now his thoughts about becoming strong were twisted when his interest in people of the opposite gender awakened, trying to be "cool" to impress girls.

It was embarrassing to attend meetings where other clan leaders were present.

—Stupid outdated traditions —Tsume felt like hitting something— If I had known it would turn out like this, I would have named Hana as the heir instead. She's much more sensible and uses her head! But Kiba only seems to think now with his...

—Tsume —Kuromaro interrupted his human companion's monologue for many years and turned his head to look at a beam on the ceiling— It seems you have another message from the Hyuga heir, it smells like snake.

Hearing that, Tsume sighed and raised her head to see a snake spitting out a small scroll and disappearing. Taking the scroll in the air before it hit her, she didn't care about the saliva and opened it lazily to read its contents.

She barely had time to shake her head, burying that unrealistic thought from her mind, and read the content when the clan's dogs and members became alert after hearing a nearby explosion.

—Tsume? —Kuromaro asked, realizing that the Inuzuka matriarch wasn't surprised like the others, including himself.

—I take back what I said; Shikaku earned the title of the biggest idiot at the top of the list —Tsume stood up, put on her vest with a tired and annoyed expression, but determined— Let's go; we have a debt to pay, and we need some big dogs for that.

Paying the debt had become something that could bring her another kind of invisible benefit; she just hoped that the village's ANBU was too busy to notice their movements.