Chapter 44: The Weight of a Prophecy
"Old man, I..." Jiraiya looked up, finally shaken from his stupor by the sheer force of Sarutobi Hiruzen's fury. An angry Hiruzen in his prime was a genuinely intimidating sight.
Hiruzen's voice was low and dangerous. "You will explain this. Clearly. The Rinnegan is the legendary ocular power of the Sage of Six Paths. Its existence suggests the myths about the Sage may hold truth. No one can predict the heights a wielder of those eyes might reach!"
"Hiruzen," Danzo interjected, his single eye narrowed. "The Rinnegan is entangled with this 'Uchiha Madara' figure. This matter must be clarified, or we will remain perpetually on the back foot."
"Akira Jonin." Jiraiya's gaze shifted from Danzo and Hiruzen to Uchiha Akira, who stood beside Uchiha Fugaku. A nervous, almost desperate expression crossed his face. "Is the leader of this Akatsuki... is his name truly Nagato?"
"It is indeed Nagato," Uchiha Akira confirmed with a nod. "The one claiming to be Uchiha Madara referred to him as such."
Hearing the confirmation, Jiraiya seemed to deflate, slumping back into his chair as if all life had been drained from him.
BANG!
Sarutobi Hiruzen, his eyes seeming to spit fire, slammed his palm down on the solid wood conference table with such force it left a visible imprint.
"Jiraiya! You will explain this! I may be older, but I am still more than capable of dealing with internal disorder!" Hiruzen's voice was icy, his stare fixed on his student.
The other assembled leaders watched the scene unfold, their faces carefully neutral, waiting to see where this would lead.
Jiraiya let out a long, shuddering sigh. He braced his hands on the table and began to speak, his voice heavy with regret. "During the Second Great Shinobi War... after Orochimaru, Tsunade, and I fought Hanzo to a standstill... we encountered three orphaned children..."
As Jiraiya recounted the story, looks of profound surprise and disbelief spread across the faces in the room. The tale was filled with so many questionable decisions it was difficult to know where to begin.
Orochimaru, listening, recalled the distant memory clearly. To him, it had been a trivial incident, but as a shinobi of his caliber, no detail was ever truly forgotten.
"Heh..." Orochimaru let out a soft, dry chuckle. "I suggested eliminating those three children from the start. Had we done so, we would not be facing this predicament now."
"Orochimaru!" Jiraiya snapped, glaring at his former teammate with fresh anger.
"Jiraiya," Hiruzen cut in, his tone frigid, laced with utter bewilderment. "Why did you not bring them back to Konoha? You recognized them as prodigies! You knew one possessed the legendary Rinnegan! Why would you leave them to grow unrestrained in a war-torn country?!"
His disappointment in his student was a physical ache, and his anger burned so hot it threatened to consume him. The Rinnegan! The ocular power of myth. Even a fraction of the Sage's power could grant dominion over the shinobi world. That power could have been Konoha's. Now, it stood in opposition.
"Is it because of that damned prophecy?" Hiruzen's voice dropped to a seething whisper. "The 'Great Toad Sage's' vision of a 'Child of Prophecy'? Let us see how that prophecy unfolds now! He walks alongside a man claiming to be Uchiha Madara! You know who Uchiha Madara was!"
He leaned forward, his voice cracking with emotion. "Does your prophecy mean this 'Child of Destiny' will bring peace by slaughtering everyone until none are left to fight? Is that the peace you foresaw?!"
"Teacher..." Jiraiya's mouth opened and closed soundlessly. There were no words. The hostility between Nagato and Konoha was now an unchangeable fact.
"Abandon any thought of 'correcting' this mistake," Hiruzen stated coldly, as if reading Jiraiya's mind. "Let us set aside whether you could even defeat your former student. Do not forget the presence of this 'Uchiha Madara.'"
"Teacher, I..." Jiraiya slumped forward, resting his forehead on the table, a picture of utter dejection.
"Preposterous!" Utatane Koharu glared at Jiraiya before turning to Hiruzen. "Hiruzen, what is our course of action now?"
"My recommendation," Danzo spoke up, his voice cutting through the tension, "is to assemble a strike force of our strongest. Eliminate this threat while the Rinnegan wielder is still immature, before he fully awakens to its power. Once he does, Konoha may find him... unmanageable."
Sarutobi Hiruzen ignored Danzo's suggestion for the moment. He focused on Jiraiya. "What do you know of the Rinnegan's abilities? What power does it grant?"
"I..." Jiraiya faltered, shame coloring his features. After an awkward pause, he mumbled, "I... I don't actually know what powers the Rinnegan possesses."
A wave of stunned silence, followed by sheer absurdity, washed over the conference room.
He had lived with them, trained them, been their teacher for three years... and he never learned the capabilities of the most legendary eyes in shinobi history?
The thought was almost comical, though no one dared voice it aloud. Jiraiya was still a Sannin, still the Hokage's student. Such criticism was kept internal.
"You... don't know?" Sarutobi Hiruzen felt a nearly overwhelming urge to stride across the room and strike his student. The sheer negligence was staggering.
Jiraiya kept his head lowered. "I'm sorry, Teacher. I truly do not know."
Hiruzen released a weary, frustrated sigh. He turned his attention to Uchiha Akira, who stood beside Fugaku.
"Jonin Akira. You are the only person here who has engaged the Rinnegan wielder in combat. What is your assessment?"
Uchiha Akira responded with measured gravity. "There is no question: the Rinnegan is superior to even the Mangekyo Sharingan of my clan. The sheer scale of its ocular power is on a different level entirely."
"Jonin Kaoru," Utatane Koharu addressed Hyuga Kaoru, who stood near Hyuga Hiashi. "Your perspective?"
"My skill level was insufficient to accurately gauge the upper limits of the opponent's ocular power," Kaoru reported calmly. "However, if the entity we fought was merely a puppet controlled from a distance... then even that puppet's chakra and ocular pressure far exceeded the scope of my Byakugan."
Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu exchanged a significant look. Homura then fixed Uchiha Akira with a piercing stare.
"You are suggesting that if this Rinnegan wielder matures fully, his potential ceiling could surpass even that of the historical Uchiha Madara?"
"That is a distinct possibility," Uchiha Akira affirmed with a solemn nod.
His words carried weight. As members of clans renowned for their dojutsu, the Uchiha and Hyuga were considered authorities on ocular power. No one present seriously doubted Akira's professional judgment.
A murmur of hushed, anxious discussion immediately rippled through the conference room.
Uchiha Madara. While none present had witnessed his true might firsthand, they all understood he existed in a realm beyond modern shinobi. In all of recorded history, only two individuals were acknowledged to have reached such heights: the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and Uchiha Madara himself.
Sarutobi Hiruzen massaged his throbbing temples, the headache intensifying. He looked back at Uchiha Akira.
"And your assessment of this so-called 'Uchiha Madara'? How powerful did he seem?"
(End of Chapter)
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