Shortly after identifying Shisui, Ryū had picked up sothing else — a concealed presence nearby. The concealnt was genuinely competent by normal shinobi standards. By his standards it was a non-issue.
Observation Haki, multi-vector. The kind that saw through walls and registered life signatures at distances that should have been impossible. Almost nothing slipped through it. White-spiky-hair was no exception.
"You're not planning to stay hidden there forever, are you? I can sll the fact that you haven't bathed in several days from thirty tres away."
Silence.
Then he made as if to leave.
"Hey hey hey! You found that easily?! I used every concealnt technique I know — even the Third Hokage might not have spotted !"
"Apparently still as strong as a month or two ago. Not surprising for soone who defeated ." A pause, then a laugh. "Ahahahaha!"
Jiraiya dropped from a tree branch, wooden sandals hitting the ground with a solid clack, crossing his arms with the posture of soone who considered himself quite presentable.
Ryū looked at him for a mont.
The urge to flick him in the forehead was present. It was always present, he'd discovered. This was probably a lingering artifact of the first impression Jiraiya had made — sitting down uninvited, running a slow conversational wear-down routine, trying to manoeuvre Ryū into sothing — which had ended in Jiraiya waking up in a garbage container at dusk. The urge to repeat the educational experience hadn't fully subsided.
He watched Jiraiya approach, wooden sandals clicking.
"This is your second ti coming to find . And the thing is, we're not exactly close. You weren't just sitting in a tree watching this whole ti?"
Jiraiya scratched his head with a slightly embarrassed look. "Ahaha! No, of course not. Just a small thing I wanted to ask you about, Ryū-kun."
He knew Ryū's na, obviously. He'd gotten everything from Minato — as one of Minato's teachers, he had access to everything the Fourth Hokage knew, and Minato was observant.
"Say what you need to say. And I'm not necessarily going to help — there's nothing in it for . Helping soone is one thing, but who and what matters. Your first impression wasn't great."
Jiraiya's expression wobbled, trying to determine whether Ryū was serious.
My first impression was bad? ? I'm devastatingly handso and stylish. That can't be right.
He set the thought aside and composed himself. The casual manner dropped. Sothing more serious took its place.
"Ryū-kun — I'll be direct. I'm here because of Orochimaru. You know him, don't you?"
"We know each other. Not well. What about him?"
First ti Ryū had seen this expression on the man — actually serious, no performance in it.
Sothing significant had clearly happened.
And Jiraiya's been in Konoha this whole ti without going out on his usual wandering travels. That alone is unusual.
The answer was obvious once you connected the pieces. Orochimaru's human experintation had been discovered, he'd fought his way out, and he'd escaped. And now Jiraiya was here, asking Ryū about Orochimaru's whereabouts.
Interesting point: even with Minato alive and present in the village, Orochimaru had still managed to get out. That was a notable data point.
"I don't know where he is — we're not close. But." He paused. "If you're looking for him, I'd suggest not wasting ti searching inside the village."
Jiraiya: "…"
That was functionally nothing. Everyone already knew not to look inside Konoha. Orochimaru's ticulous nature wasn't a secret.
"I wasn't finished." Ryū continued. "There's an organisation outside the village called Akatsuki. If nothing interrupts his plans, Orochimaru will probably join them."
He said it without any particular weight. At his level, sharing this kind of information carried no aningful risk.
Though, honestly, he wasn't entirely certain whether Akatsuki existed yet. The canon hadn't been explicit about the founding date. If the organisation wasn't established yet, Jiraiya was about to spend a long ti finding nothing.
He watched Jiraiya's reaction.
The white-haired man nodded slowly, more solemnly than Ryū had expected, and murmured to himself: "Akatsuki. I see. Thank you, Ryū-kun. If you ever need anything, you know where to find ."
Ryū blinked.
He believed that imdiately.
For a man of Jiraiya's intelligence and experience, the lack of scepticism was notable. Though on reflection — from Jiraiya's perspective, the man standing in front of him had defeated the Nine-Tails with thods no one fully understood. He ranked in the sa tier as the First Hokage. Soone at that level had no need to fabricate information. The instant credibility was understandable.
What Jiraiya didn't know was that Ryū genuinely wasn't certain the information was accurate.
If Akatsuki didn't exist yet, this was going to be a fruitless chase.
"Oh — one more thing, Ryū-kun. The last ti we t, you ambushed before I could see your actual capabilities. Would you be willing to fight at full strength? Just once?"
Jiraiya said this with a grin, like he'd just rembered.
Ryū looked at him. "That suggestion ca from Sarutobi Hiruzen, didn't it."
Jiraiya blinked. Cleared his throat quickly. "Ahem! The Third Hokage has no ti for things like that. This is purely personal curiosity. You defeated the Nine-Tails — I want to see what kind of power makes that possible."
"If I hit you at full strength," Ryū said, a faint edge of amusent in his expression, "you're not worried I'll kill you?"
"I'm one of the most powerful shinobi in Konoha, I'll have you know! That's a bit much!"
"Fine." He turned away. "I'm going for a walk. I'm done here."
"Hey! You can't just ignore a challenge from the great Jiraiya!"
"…"
Jiraiya, completely without sha, followed him.
He wanted to see Ryū's full power — that was genuine. But the observation request hadn't originated entirely with himself. Hiruzen, Minato, Danzō and others were positioned at varying distances from this conversation, watching. Ryū had registered all of them with his Haki and chosen not to acknowledge it. Making the scene uncomfortable wouldn't help anything.
So he walked. Jiraiya kept up a running monologue beside him. Several Konoha senior figures trailed at a discreet distance, doing their best impression of ordinary pedestrians.
Feels like taking a group of monkeys for a walk.
They reached the village gates.
Ryū stopped.
He turned, unhurried.
"The Fourth Hokage. The Third Hokage. And certain others. Your authority should be sufficient to let one ordinary civilian walk out of the village in broad daylight, shouldn't it?"
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