UK:GSW Chapter 336 – The Two Jiraiyas Talk, Serious Version
The streets were sparse, lacking liveliness, and quiet—almost like stepping back into a dream of six months ago.
Jiraiya felt somewhat unaccustomed to such a scene. After all, in the main world, when he had been summoned back to the Hidden Leaf, the village had already undergone a major initial boom. At that time, the population and street activity had exploded.
After returning to the Hidden Leaf, this growth had only intensified. In just six months, the Hidden Leaf had become a large city with a permanent population of over 250,000.
To know—on Earth, aside from a Asian countries with massive populations, a city with 250,000 residents wouldn't be considered small. In the ninja world, it was certainly significant; there were not many cities whose permanent population exceeded that of the Hidden Leaf.
And this was only half a year's development—at most, in a few more months, the Hidden Leaf could surpass 500,000 and become a super-large city. In the future, it would inevitably become the first city in the ninja world to surpass one million residents.
A city of over a million people—in all of Earth's feudal era—only ancient China had achieved such a feat.
According to Uchiha Kei, this was only the beginning. Once industrialization reached a certain stage, super-urbanization would arrive, and the Hidden Leaf would inevitably absorb all surrounding areas, becoming a megacity with a population of over ten million.
Of course, this was something for many years in the future.
Fortunately, the ninja world was a supernatural world. The Hidden Leaf possessed great extraordinary abilities, and Uchiha Kei had even opened the mental network world to Tsunade and Minato Namikaze as a management reference and guiding direction. Otherwise, at this rate of population expansion, various problems would inevitably arise during the process.
The main world's Jiraiya had adapted to this rapid growth, grown used to the liveliness and prosperity of the Hidden Leaf, and felt proud of it.
Thus, seeing that the parallel world's Hidden Leaf was still so quiet and desolate after more than twenty years made him frown and feel out of place.
"So this is what the Hidden Leaf looks like when it clings to tradition? Honestly… backward, and so very ordinary…"
"Even if you consider the Nine-Tails' attack, the low population and lack of prosperity clearly aren't just because of that incident—they're due to fundamental flaws in the village's overall development approach and mindset."
"They're both Hidden Leaf Villages, yet without Kei around, the difference is this huge. One can't help but marvel at Kei's greatness. If Kei wasn't my junior but my student, he'd be even more like the Child of the Prophecy than Minato."
Jiraiya sighed with emotion. He truly understood the changes Uchiha Kei had brought to the Hidden Leaf—changes that were harder to feel when living inside them, but stark when compared.
In that moment, Jiraiya even felt lucky—especially recalling that Uchiha Kei had brought him into the illusion world to develop his own artistic works. His sense of gratitude deepened. Without Kei's help, he wouldn't be who he was today.
Kei's kindness… could never be repaid!
Just then, a laughing voice came from nearby: "Yo, so? How's it different from your place?"
Hearing the voice, Jiraiya turned and saw, in the shadow of a nearby alley with arms folded across his chest, another him.
Or rather, an older him—the Jiraiya of World No. 2—who also wasn't in disguise.
Facing this other self, the younger Jiraiya raised an eyebrow, then curled his lip and bluntly said: "It's bad. It's quiet. Too few people. Not enough prosperity. In Kei's words, it's a primitive town with extremely low development potential—one you can see the limits of at a glance."
Hearing this, the older Jiraiya's expression stiffened, becoming somewhat awkward. Clearly, he hadn't expected his younger self to be so blunt.
The older Jiraiya coughed lightly, then scratched his cheek: "Ahaha… true. Just looking at the numbers, it's clear your Hidden Leaf and ours are quite different. By the way, this 'Kei' you mentioned—is he that Uchiha?"
The younger Jiraiya nodded. "Of course. Who else would I call my 'junior' besides Kei?"
The older Jiraiya nodded in agreement. "Indeed. After all, he's the creator of the illusion game. Such talent and ability truly stand out."
The fact that Uchiha Kei was the creator of the illusion game wasn't hidden—after all, in the main world, anyone could find out with a bit of investigation. Since this was a cooperative arrangement, some level of 'honesty' was necessary. And since it was a Shadow Clone of Uchiha Kei here, there was no security risk, so there was no need to conceal it.
However, beyond knowing he had created the illusion game, nothing else was known—for example, the extremely important "illusion world" cheat remained a complete secret.
Naturally, the younger Jiraiya wouldn't reveal it—not even to himself.
The younger Jiraiya then smiled. "Since you're here, how about keeping me company while I look around?"
The older Jiraiya raised an eyebrow, then chuckled. "No problem."
He immediately performed a Transformation Jutsu, changing into the appearance of an ordinary Hidden Leaf shinobi. "No objections if I change my appearance, right? After all, I'm a famous guy in the Hidden Leaf. If people saw me walking around with you, it would draw attention. And you don't want that, do you?"
The younger Jiraiya smiled. "Being seen by ordinary Hidden Leaf shinobi doesn't matter, but if certain people saw us, it could cause trouble. So, you're right."
The older Jiraiya smirked. "You say that like your place doesn't have that kind of trouble. From what I heard from Kakashi, those old guys in your world have already stepped down, but their old comrades are still around, right?"
The younger Jiraiya smiled meaningfully. "Yes, they're still there. But that doesn't mean they're obstacles. On the contrary—if our interests and goals align, they can be assets."
"Besides, our biggest obstacle has already been dealt with."
The older Jiraiya clicked his tongue. "Tch, the way you say that makes you sound more like a noble or a feudal lord than a shinobi."
The younger Jiraiya smiled. "Is that so? Then you'll have to change that naïve way of thinking in the future. Because once we cooperate—even if you can't produce the illusion game yourselves—you'll still be able to soar ahead quickly. And once that happens, the Hidden Leaf's development will be nothing like before. Your thinking must change to match that growth."
"Otherwise, major problems will definitely arise."
The older Jiraiya was silent for a moment, then asked, "Is that advice or a warning?"
The younger Jiraiya spread his hands. "Both—it depends on how you take it."
After another pause, the older Jiraiya asked, "You said your biggest obstacle was dealt with… so in your world, 'Root' has already—?"
Hearing this, the younger Jiraiya immediately knew Kakashi hadn't told this to World No. 2's Hidden Leaf. Which made sense—after returning from Warhammer 40K, Kakashi had resolved to deal with Shimura Danzo, and would naturally withhold certain information.
Shimura Danzo's downfall was also tied to Uchiha Madara, and such intel was critical—connected to Kakashi's plans to consolidate power—so he had chosen to keep it secret.
Yes—Kakashi intended to take control of World No. 2's Hidden Leaf, rather than drift along as before.
Not out of sudden greed for power or some awakened will to dominate, but because certain things required power to accomplish. For Kakashi, having no power and having power but not using it were entirely different matters.
After experiencing another world's glory, understanding the Emperor's true will, and learning that Chaos existed, Kakashi could no longer tolerate the Hidden Leaf's current decay and stagnation.
Indeed, at this point, if Kakashi slicked back his hair into a big pompadour while standing high above, he could probably pull off a decent cosplay of a certain Shinigami big boss—Aizen-sama.
Back to the point—facing the older Jiraiya's question, the younger Jiraiya only smiled. "Some things, you'll see for yourself once our two sides formally establish diplomatic relations and you visit our Hidden Leaf. Once you've been there, you'll naturally learn more."
The older Jiraiya paused, then laughed heartily. "Hahaha! All right—if I get the chance, I'll definitely go. Come on, I'll show you our place. Judging from your tone, it's surely no match for your world, but still—we have our own unique features."
And so, the older Jiraiya took the younger Jiraiya to tour the Hidden Leaf of the original world.
Currently, the Hidden Leaf here was still one of the most prosperous cities in the ninja world. Compared to the main world's Hidden Leaf six months ago, it was actually more developed—at least in terms of population.
Its military strength might be slightly less than the main world's from six months ago, but it had more people—after all, this was nearly the Boruto era, and in Boruto's time, the Hidden Leaf rivaled the current main world's village.
All of that was built on the foundation laid by today's World No. 2 Hidden Leaf.
Of course, if things followed the original story, this Hidden Leaf would soon be blasted into a crater by Nagato, who called himself a god, and would require another round of reconstruction before truly advancing toward Boruto's era.
Even so, the population was already here—it only lacked the passage of time.
The younger Jiraiya had to admit—if he'd seen this Hidden Leaf six months ago, he would have marveled at it and hoped his village could develop toward World No. 2's level.
But times had changed.
After witnessing true prosperity, looking at World No. 2's Hidden Leaf now just made it seem more and more like a backwater town.
Faced with this, the younger Jiraiya had already voiced his complaints earlier, so he didn't repeat them. Still, the older Jiraiya could see the younger's disdain—making him slightly awkward. But knowing the other was himself, he also knew exactly what kind of person he was, and that the younger self wouldn't bother hiding certain feelings when facing 'himself.'
So, the older Jiraiya just rubbed his nose and said, "By the way, I haven't heard much from you about your place—like, the Child of the Prophecy and such."
The younger Jiraiya looked over. "Now you've got my attention. Your world's twenty-plus years ahead of mine—did you find the Child of the Prophecy?"
The older Jiraiya smiled proudly. "Of course. You've met him too."
The younger Jiraiya understood. "Ah, so it's Naruto? Indeed, that kid has presence and ideas, and most importantly, he truly has the ability to change the ninja world now."
After all, he had been taken into the illusion world for high-level learning by his proud master, Minato Namikaze. How could he not have the ability to change the ninja world?
Hearing his 'younger self' praise his student, the older Jiraiya's pride only grew, and there was even a glint in his eye. "Naruto is truly special—different from all of us. I believe he will change the ninja world. Especially now that he's become even better. Honestly, his performance today surprised us all. I never imagined that the brash Naruto could pull off what he did—that head-to-head diplomatic stance with Minato wasn't something the old Naruto could've managed, or even a typical shinobi."
"Minato's truly amazing. Just twenty-odd days with Naruto, and he's grown so much. When it comes to teaching kids, Minato's the better one."
The older Jiraiya spoke with deep emotion—after all, his own years of teaching Naruto hadn't produced as much progress as Minato had in just twenty days.
But the younger Jiraiya shook his head. "Minato has indeed given his all in teaching Naruto, sharing everything he knows. But the one you should truly thank for this change in Naruto is Kei. Without Kei, neither Naruto nor Minato would be where they are now."
This stunned the older Jiraiya. "Kei again? Wait—you're saying Minato was taught by that Uchiha?"
The younger Jiraiya nodded. "In a sense, yes. But the process isn't what you think—or rather, you wouldn't even be able to imagine it unless you saw it for yourself."
The older Jiraiya was even more curious. "Now I'm really wondering—what exactly did that Uchiha do? Didn't he just create the illusion game?"
The younger Jiraiya spread his hands helplessly. "That's why I said—you'll only know once you visit our place. Some things, I simply can't tell you."
The older Jiraiya didn't press, instead circling back. "So, in your world, the Child of the Prophecy is that Uchiha? Didn't the Great Toad Sage say the Child of the Prophecy would be my student? Or is your world's prophecy different?"
The younger Jiraiya shook his head. "No—the Great Toad Sage's prophecy was the same as yours. In our world, Minato is the Child of the Prophecy. There's no doubt—our Minato already has the ability, resolve, and vision to change the entire ninja world."
"I believe that once Minato truly becomes Hokage, he will lead the entire ninja world into a new era of transformation."
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