It's better to be a rebel ninja than to be a Hokage

The ruins before my eyes were full of strangeness.

Most of them are submerged in the turbid and corrosive "lake water", with only a small part exposed.

Beyond these ruins, there are red walls full of wrinkles.

Naruto stood on a broken pillar and looked around, and immediately determined where he was dragged by Jiraiya.

There is no doubt that this is the stomach of a toad from Mount Myōboku.

But no matter how special the toads in Myobokuyama are, they will not use these "buildings" as food.

This is obviously a barrier space attached to the stomach.

Naruto was not surprised by this, as Jiraiya was very good at using certain organs of the toads as a medium to cast barrier formations.

The first time Jiraiya showed this talent in the original work was when he used spiritualism to summon the stomach lining of the giant toad of Iwajuku on Mount Myōboku, and used the "Toad Mouth Binding Technique" to restrict the actions of Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi who invaded Konoha.

But now the toad's stomach wall that Jiraiya pulled Naruto into was obviously not the stomach of the Iwajuku giant toad.

It is another kind of space-time barrier that can completely isolate the outside world, "Boundary - Toad Prison"——

——In the original work, Jiraiya defeated the Animal Path among Pain's Six Paths through this barrier, and successfully brought the Animal Path's body back to Konoha.

Now that Nagato was dealt with by Naruto in advance, this barrier formation was actually used by Jiraiya on Naruto.

First, there is the spiritualism that channels people into spirits;

Then there are the secret techniques of the mountain clan;

Finally, there is the barrier that isolates the outside world...

The method Jiraiya used to deal with Naruto's Flying Thunder God was exactly the same as the method Danzo Shimura used three years ago.

Is Jiraiya's teacher really the third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen? Could it be that he is actually a disciple of Shimura Danzo?

Naruto couldn't help but have such an untenable idea in his mind.

But although the process is similar to that of three years ago, Naruto today will never repeat the same ending as three years ago.

He shifted his gaze from the barrier itself to Jiraiya, who was also in the barrier not far away and confronting him: "You look more like a toad than a human. Will you croak like a toad now, Jiraiya-sensei?"

Jiraiya has entered the Sage Mode of Myoboku Mountain taught by the toads.

However, due to his imperfect mastery of Sage Chakra, Jiraiya's Sage Mode caused his appearance to begin to take on the characteristics of a toad.

Jiraiya's eyes turned into the horizontal pupils of a toad, and his nose became huge and covered with lumps of flesh.

However, compared to Jiraiya in Sage Mode, Naruto's attention was more focused on the two skinny toads, one purple and one green, standing on his left and right shoulders, helping Jiraiya maintain Sage Mode.

There are two immortal toads in Myoboku Mountain, the purple one Shima and the green one Fukasaku.

"If you three get together, will there be enough flies in the pond for you to share?"

"Naruto! You are really amazing. You have already analyzed the ninjutsu information in the 'Gamago Prison' almost exactly after only seeing it for the second time."

Jiraiya felt a little emotional as he stared at Naruto, who had lost his means of escape with Flying Thunder God and was isolated and helpless, but remained calm and even had the leisure to mock Jiraiya.

That's right! The second time!

The first time Jiraiya used the "Gamako Prison" in front of Naruto was when he saved the dying Konan from Naruto in the Hidden Rain Village.

It was the experience of using the "Gamako Prison" to save Konan who was marked with the Flying Thunder God Mark that made Jiraiya judge that Naruto's Flying Thunder God had the same weakness as Minato Namikaze.

As Jiraiya's disciple, Minato Namikaze once privately told him how to restrain Flying Thunder God.

That is to limit the perception ability of the person who casts the Flying Thunder God spell.

Once the caster's perception ability is effectively restricted, the caster will not be able to activate the Flying Thunder God Mark outside the perception range.

Although it is impossible to stop the caster from continuing to use Flying Thunder God, it is possible to control the range of Flying Thunder God's use to a certain extent, trapping the caster of Flying Thunder God in a limited space.

This information about Flying Thunder God is top secret information known only to Jiraiya, who taught the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze.

Naruto can now only use Flying Thunder God within the barrier of the "Gamalo Prison".

Even though Naruto had noticed something unusual when he faced the "Gamago Prison" for only the second time, he was already deeply trapped in the battlefield prepared for him by Jiraiya, and it was too late.

"Naruto! As a master, I will teach you one last lesson - a ninja's life is made up of information!"

Jiraiya used his toad eyes that changed when he entered the Sage Mode to stare at Naruto's every move. Jiraiya was very clear about Naruto's fighting style, and he had to get rid of Naruto here. Once he escaped, the "Toad Prison" would never be able to imprison Naruto a second time!

"I will return this sentence to you intact."

In response to Jiraiya's words, Naruto just looked at him calmly.

In Jiraiya's opinion, Naruto should be anxious about his current predicament.

But Naruto has just as much information about Flying Thunder God as Jiraiya!

During the Fourth Shinobi World War, the battle between Uchiha Obito and Hatake Kakashi in the Kamui Space ended. Only after Obito returned to the Shinobi War battlefield from the Kamui Space was he sensed by the resurrected Namikaze Minato.

Minato Namikaze demonstrated both the advantages and weaknesses of Flying Thunder God on Uchiha Obito - the advantage of the Flying Thunder God Mark, which would not dissipate even if the caster died, which was like a ghostly nightmare to the enemy; and the weakness of being affected by different spaces such as "Kamui", which limited the perception ability and made it impossible to perceive the Flying Thunder God Mark, and without the perception of the Flying Thunder God Mark, he could not use Flying Thunder God to enter the Kamui space of the Mangekyō Sharingan.

It was based on the information that Minato Namikaze told Jiraiya that "even if you are marked with the Flying Thunder God mark, you cannot enter the alternate dimension through Flying Thunder God", that Jiraiya used the "Toad Gourd Prison" to pull Naruto into the barrier of the alternate dimension located in the stomach of the gourd toad.

Even the information about the "Gamago Prison". As far as Jiraiya knew, he first demonstrated this ninjutsu to Naruto when they were in the Hidden Rain Village.

It should be that Naruto cannot fully obtain the characteristics of "Gamalo Prison".

But for Naruto, he knew almost everything about Jiraiya's various ninjutsu.

It is more likely that Jiraiya judged that the "Gamako" could effectively restrict Naruto's use of Flying Thunder God by rescuing Konan.

Rather, it could be said that Naruto was inducing Jiraiya to use the "Gamabu Prison" to pull Naruto and Jiraiya himself into a "desperate situation" where neither of them could get support.

Such an "eager" invasion of Konoha made Konoha believe that Konan was in possession of crucial information related to Naruto. It was also to induce Jiraiya to think about why Naruto was "forced" to allow Jiraiya to take Konan away when he was in the Hidden Rain Village, since he was afraid that Konoha would obtain his information through Konan.

To induce Jiraiya to determine the necessity of the "Gamago Prison" barrier technique to deal with Naruto.

And everything worked out pretty well in the end, didn’t it?

If there is a ninja in the current ninja world who calls himself an "information life", that person can only be Naruto.

Jiraiya certainly didn't know this, and he couldn't possibly guess where Naruto's information came from even if he racked his brains.

He just followed his own plan and gave Naruto a final ultimatum before officially attacking him:

"Now...it's not too late to turn back, Naruto. I can promise you that I will convince Konoha to spare your life, and then I will slowly enlighten you. When you understand from the bottom of your heart that what you did was wrong, I will atone with you - Naruto, I don't want to kill you, surrender! Using personal strength to fight against Konoha and the Land of Fire, the final result is bound to be failure!"

Perhaps it was because of Sakura and Kakashi, or because Naruto was the only descendant of Minato Namikaze, or maybe it was because after killing the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, the Nine-Tails who would be resurrected somewhere in the Ninja World at an unknown time would affect the turbulent political situation among the other four major countries in the future, where they would abandon the contract they made with the first Hokage in the past and prepare to take the Nine-Tails, which would no longer be controlled by the Jinchuriki, into their possession.

Jiraiya still held out a glimmer of hope for Naruto, hoping that the pain would come to an end.

But these words, spoken by Kakashi to Naruto, were better than those spoken by Jiraiya.

"You are indeed such a person, Jiraiya-sensei. You did nothing when you should have done something, but when everything was irreversible, you appeared in front of everyone, shouting "morality and future", without hiding your murderous intentions. No wonder you chased Orochimaru all your life, but until you were killed by Sasuke, you couldn't make him and you understand each other, couldn't get Orochimaru's recognition, and tried your best but couldn't bring him back to Konoha."

The death of a disciple.

The murder of the master and his best friend.

There was no sign of Jiraiya, and he couldn't make up his mind to make a choice when he had the chance.

When the news of their deaths came, Jiraiya became even more certain of the correctness of the "Toad's Prophecy" and entrusted all fate to them.

He never thought about whether the prophecy was wrong, but instead regarded Nagato and Minato Namikaze as "not the real children of prophecy" and accepted their deaths as a matter of course.

What he did was irresponsible in the eyes of everyone.

For the sake of empty prophecies, they turn a blind eye to the problems in front of them, and arrogantly believe that all problems can be solved as long as the prophecies come true.

His idealistic personality makes him choose other idealists as children of prophecy.

That's what Nagato said.

The same is true for Minato Namikaze.

"Akatsuki" who wants to end violence with peaceful means, naively believes that as long as they are willing to work for peace, they can overthrow the Hanzo regime in the Hidden Rain Village without bloodshed, and treats politics as a joke.

The price was that Nagato lost his best friend, lost the real "Akatsuki", and became a seemingly ridiculous and stubborn "God", but in fact he had become a tool for the Uchiha class to resurrect.

He was also well aware that his wife was treated unfairly by Konoha after becoming the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, and was even imprisoned in a barrier for many years and monitored by the Anbu, restricting her movements.

Minato Namikaze still blindly believes that if he seals the Nine-Tails in Naruto's body, Naruto will be treated as a hero.

The son of a hero is not necessarily considered a hero.

Minato Namikaze should know this matter better than anyone else - the impact of Hatake Sakumo's death on Hatake Kakashi. As Kakashi's teacher, it has been Minato Namikaze's responsibility to think about how to help Kakashi get out of the mental haze for a long time!

However, the various facts around him provided reference and comparison for Minato Namikaze, but he still abandoned rationality without hesitation and only pursued ideals and emotions.

He was able to survive the Nine-Tails Rebellion sixteen years ago and teach and protect Naruto as the Hokage.

But he chose to die with Uzumaki Kushina for love.

However, even if he did not live for Naruto, Minato Namikaze had clearly noticed the abnormality of Uchiha Obito, who was wearing a mask and acting under the name of "Madara", during the Nine-Tails Rebellion.

Yet he still ignored the crisis.

Kushina, who had a strong vitality like that of the Uzumaki clan, had to die after her tailed beast was stripped away and her oil lamp ran out.

When Minato Namikaze, who could have survived and dealt with all the problems, still chose to commit suicide for love, he was not only unqualified as a father, but also as a Hokage.

Even Naruto, who was entrusted with the future by Jiraiya's death in the original work, and who was recognized as the "child of prophecy" by Jiraiya for the third time, is also an idealist. After knowing the truth about Uchiha Itachi's extermination of the clan, knowing Sasuke's pain, ignoring the fact that Konoha's high-level officials made a wrong decision, he still insisted on asking Sasuke to return to Konoha.