Chapter 253: Residual Energy

Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 253: Residual Energy

"Come in…" Tsunade stared in disbelief as Naruto entered. "You never visit me unless I call you…if it's about the wine, I still d—"

"Jiraiya is dead." Naruto decided to be direct about it.

Ino and Hinata had insisted that he needed to come here and inform the Hokage before doing anything else.

"What did you say?" Tsunade's tone completely changed.

"I believe it's best if you hear it from them." Naruto bit his finger for a bit of blood and made the summoning sign.

From a cloud of smoke, two old toads appeared.

Fukasaku was carrying two large scrolls in his hands, while his wife, Shima, stood at his side with a solemn expression.

"The Toad Elders…" Tsunade had only seen these two on very rare occasions, as they don't like leaving Mount Myoboku. The fact that they were here now only emphasized the gravity of Naruto's first words.

"Jiraiya…what happened?"

"I'm afraid it is true," Fukasaku said.

"We were with him during his last battle," Shima added. "We tried our best, but the enemy this time was too powerful."

"The Akatsuki leader?" Naruto asked. Tsunade had previously informed him that Jiraiya had left to chase a lead inside the Hidden Rain Village.

Fukasaku nodded. "His name is Pain. But there is more to it than Jiraiya initially thought." He placed one of the scrolls on top of the Hokage's desk. "Inside that scroll is the body of Pain."

"Wait…he killed him?! Then how?" Tsunade didn't understand. She stared down at the scroll as if demanding answers from it.

"That is one of the things we discovered," Shima said. "Pain isn't just one man, but several of them. All acting under the same name."

"Open it. I want to see this Pain," Naruto demanded.

"Not here. We should go to the morgue. We have specialists there who can give us more information after analyzing the body," Tsunade said, her eyes shifting to the other scroll. "Is that other scroll what I think it is?"

Fukasaku handed the scroll directly to Tsunade. "We couldn't let his corpse fall into the hands of the enemy. We had to risk a lot to bring him home…take care of him now." The wounds on his body were evidence that confirmed his words.

Both Toad Elders were in terrible shape, but they still came here to deliver these scrolls.

"Thank you, Elders," Tsunade said, doing her best to keep her composure, though her hands trembled as she held the scroll containing the body of her teammate.

She had recently buried what was left of Orochimaru but didn't expect to be laying her other teammate to rest so soon.

The toads turned to look at Naruto. His expression hadn't changed, but they could tell that he was truly furious.

"We're sorry, Naruto," Fukasaku said.

"Will you be going after this person?" Shima asked him.

Naruto considered it for a moment. "Something tells me that I won't need to chase the leader of Akatsuki. Instead…he'll be the one coming directly to me."

After his conversation with Zetsu, Naruto learned that his ability to absorb the Bijuu had been leaked to the organization. Since he refused to join them, they would have no choice but to come to Konoha and attempt to capture him.

If they had a functioning brain, they would send their strongest members after him.

"I will do what is necessary, Elder Shima. But rest assured, the person responsible for this…will not live long," Naruto responded.

"Then this may help," Fukasaku said, revealing a code that had been engraved into the flesh of his back. "Jiraiya did this during his last moments."

"A code?" Tsunade and Naruto stared at it. It was a series of numbers.

"It must be a clue to defeat this individual," Tsunade concluded. "I'll put my best decoders to work on this."

Naruto didn't seem very interested. If there was some secret to this Pain, he'd rather figure it out during the fight.

"Call upon the Toad Clan when the moment arrives," Fukasaku said, a fire still burning in his eyes.

"Yes, if you encounter this bastard…summon us," Shima added.

<><><><><><><><><>

After the toads left the Hokage's office, Tsunade and Naruto made their way to the most restricted area of the ninja hospital…the morgue.

The corpse of a ninja could hold many important secrets, so they were always taken to this well-guarded place.

The director of the morgue came to personally perform the autopsy of the two newly received corpses.

"..." Tsunade stared at the body on the table.

"Lady Tsunade, ehm…you don't need to remain here. I will give you my full report as soon as I—"

"No. I'm a medic too. You might miss something that I pick up on," Tsunade said, turning her eyes to the director. "No offense."

"Oh, none taken, Lady Tsunade. You are the number one medic in this village, after all. I appreciate you being here," the director hurried to say.

While they examined the corpse of Jiraiya, Naruto turned his attention to the other one.

He extended his senses, trying to figure out all of this body's secrets.

By the scent, he could tell that this person had been dead long before their encounter with Jiraiya.

'If I remember correctly, there was an old Demonic Sect that used to control corpses by placing a special type of blood crystal on their foreheads.'

Naruto considered if the metallic rods embedded in this body served a similar purpose, aiding in controlling this person.

'Hmm…what is this?' His attention was drawn to the eyes.

The dead eyes didn't look human. Instead of the usual iris, there was only a thin black line forming a spiral across the eye's surface.

But that wasn't what he found interesting...after all, he had already seen many people in this world with strange eyes.

No…it was the residual energy in them.

It was a tiny amount, barely noticeable. In fact, if he hadn't reached the Nascent Soul Stage already, he wouldn't have been able to detect something so small.

But no matter what, it was still there…something that didn't belong in this world.

'There is Divine Energy in there…' Naruto considered the possibility that he might not be the only one in this world with a Divine Artifact.

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