Chapter 255: Past Events
Jiraiya returned to this dilapidated wooden house with a flood of emotions. The interior layout and furnishings were put together bit by bit by the four of them back then. Every table and chair holds corresponding stories and bits and pieces of their lives. Always mindful of the Great Toad Sage's prophecy, Jiraiya, like a wanderer, spent his life running from east to west, from south to north. Being able to stay in this wooden house for three years was already precious to him.
This wooden house carried many of his hopes and expectations. Later, when he heard that Nagato and the other two had died, he was sad for a long time.
For him, the wooden house was just one stop in his life, but in Konan's heart, it was the warmest and most peaceful home in a turbulent world.
As the two entered, the scene inside the house gained a touch of life. Four humanoid illusions wearing green toad costumes appeared before them.
One large and three small. The large one was naturally their teacher, Jiraiya, and the small ones were Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan. The three children had naive faces, while Jiraiya was an older young man with a somewhat comical demeanor, currently explaining something with an awkward expression.
Ino's involvement in this matter was naturally driven by her desire to witness the Rinnegan.
Her gaze fell upon the young Nagato, who stood with Konan and Yahiko. Even if this Rinnegan was just a projection, it didn't matter. Konan had seen these eyes day after day, though not at night. Having seen them for so many years, based on her memory, she could capture a trace of the Rinnegan's essence.
These were truly the Sage's Eyes, the crystallization of Lord Madara's seventy years of solitude, built on the foundation of Indra's Chakra and integrated with Asura's Chakra, nurtured for more than half a lifetime. This was unique.
Given Madara Uchiha's talent and intellect, plus the fact that he was a genuine reincarnation of Indra at the time, he still spent so many years integrating the All of Creation. It was easy to imagine how difficult this path was.
The Sharingan is an eye that reflects the heart. The Sharingan, Mangekyo Sharingan, and Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan are all still confined to the mortal realm; they are the eyes of mortals. The Rinnegan is different; it is the Sage's Eye.
How vast is the gap between mortals and sages? One can only say it's even greater than the gap between humans and dogs.
Just from the trace of the Rinnegan's essence reflected in Konan's memory, Ino knew that Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan was simply too far behind Madara's Rinnegan. This was not merely accumulating eye power, nor was it something that could be gathered by fusing Indra's Chakra and Asura's Chakra; it involved more, much more complex changes.
Ino was contemplating secretly, while the four illusions wearing toad costumes in the wooden house were still enacting a warm and joyful scene. It was evident that even with the Rinnegan, Yahiko was the leader within the small team of three, and Konan and Nagato were Yahiko's assistants. This memory was unrelated to Ino. Forcing a read would definitely cause subconscious hostility from Konan. From her perspective, she couldn't hear what the four humanoid illusions were saying.
Jiraiya felt that Ino didn't know about these past events, so he explained. Pointing at the names below the wooden tags, he said, "The three of them were my disciples. At that time, I taught them ninjutsu, and after that, we lived together in this house for about three years. I told them back then... I said that the environment in the Land of Rain was chaotic, and to survive long-term, you had to have sufficient survival skills. This wooden tag was our agreed-upon secret code. It's the same principle as registering when entering and leaving our village's gates. The front of the small wooden tag is red, representing that the person is at home, and the back has a small green frog pattern on a white background, representing that the person has left".
Jiraiya pointed to the west wall, where there was a lone small wooden tag. "That one is mine. The small green frog shown there is me, representing that I left this wooden house". His voice became lower and lower: "I disappointed them. After I left, I never came back".
His heart was filled with sorrow. At this moment, the small wooden tag representing Yahiko in the house had been turned to the red side, indicating that in Konan's heart, Yahiko had returned here. Nagato and Konan's wooden tags were still in the "gone out" state. Jiraiya guessed this point and muttered to himself, "...This must be Konan's memory. This means Yahiko is either dead or betrayed? No way, Yahiko wouldn't betray them".
He deeply understood the depth of the bond between Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan. They would only live and die together; there would be no betrayal. This was much purer than the friendship between Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade, the Three Sannin.
"Yahiko was a very ambitious child, and he was also good at Water Release, just like you, little Ino, ah? Little Ino, what are you doing!?". Jiraiya turned his head and only then realized that during the time he was immersed in past memories, Ino had started fighting with Konan, who was wearing a black cloak with red clouds!. This Konan had no face; where her features should be, there were only some indentations. The skin not covered by the black cloak with red clouds was covered in fine scales. Her fingernails had become quite sharp, and a long tongue shot out from her middle finger, which wore the White Tiger ring. Inside the tongue was a circle of barbs of varying lengths. A wicked aura emanated from her entire body.
A drastic change also occurred within the wooden house. The sunlight shining through the roof leaks turned gray. Dark green vines crawled all over the surrounding walls. Jiraiya had prepared a tunnel leading outside for the three of them back then. Now, the tunnel seemed to have come alive, like the intestines of a giant insect, bottomless. The tunnel entrance turned into a giant mouth, with several rows of washing machine-like sharp teeth rotating and cutting inside. The entire wooden house instantly became eerie.
What was going on? It was a nice nostalgic scene; how did it suddenly turn into a horror movie?.
Jiraiya could perform the Frog Song in conjunction with the two Great Sage Toads of Mount Myōboku. He himself knew genjutsu and understood Yin Release to some extent, but when it came to mind invasion, he was far less professional than Ino.
At this time, Ino's spirit body hadn't changed much, but Konan might have come into contact with the Gedo Statue, so the gloom within her body carried the resentment that had taken shape from the Ten-Tails. The quality of this resentment was very high. Fortunately, Ino's Yin Release level was extremely profound. She forcefully pushed the black-transformed Konan against the wall, kneed her in the abdomen, formed her left hand into a claw, and using the Black Tiger Steals Heart technique, continuously pulled out clumps of black energy, like cotton wadding, from her chest.
Seeing Ino and Konan having a "heart-to-heart" talk, Jiraiya didn't know what to do. "Is that, is that Konan?".
Is it? Ino wasn't very sure. She guessed it was. Before, Jiraiya was reminiscing to himself, and this thing rushed in and started fighting with her. She really didn't have time to discern its true identity.
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