Far away in Konoha, Aoba received a distress signal. It came from someone who hadn't appeared for a long time, Jiraiya.
After Aoba took control of Konoha, Jiraiya had found it difficult to accept and chose to leave. However, he hadn't truly abandoned Konoha; he continued his mission in secret, searching for the so-called Child of Prophecy.
Until one day, after finding nothing, Jiraiya returned to Mount Myōboku to seek help from the Great Toad Sage.
But that day, Jiraiya received no help, only a despairing revelation... There was no longer any Child of Destiny.
The fate of the Shinobi World had already completely collapsed. If there was to be any Child of Destiny, it could only be Aoba Kamikawa.
It took Jiraiya a long time to reluctantly accept this reality. Eventually, he returned to Konoha and met with Aoba.
After that meeting, Aoba gave him a mission, to search for the surviving members of the Uzumaki Clan. The specific reason was unknown.
Jiraiya found it strange, why was Aoba so sure there were still Uzumaki survivors? But Aoba gave no answer.
In truth, Aoba himself wasn't certain.
On the surface, he was confronting the Sage of Six Paths head-on. But behind the scenes, he absolutely didn't want the Shinigami, this sly old fox, to reap the rewards.
Thus, Aoba had never given up on searching for the Shinigami's whereabouts.
Since the Pure Land was now controlled by the Sage of Six Paths, the Shinigami must be hiding somewhere in the Shinobi World.
Even though Aoba now held the divine authorities of most of the deities in the world, he still couldn't locate it immediately. This indicated that the Shinigami had retained more power than expected, and that it must have a group of believers, allowing it to evade Aoba's divine search.
Aoba hadn't made a public spectacle of this matter.
To him, if divine powers couldn't find it, he would simply use traditional methods.
And Jiraiya, being highly skilled in tracking people, was the perfect man for the job.
As for why it involved the Uzumaki Clan, the reason was simple. The Uzumaki Clan was the only large group in the story that had deeply interacted with the Shinigami.
Though they were wiped out, that very fact raised Aoba's suspicions.
A large ninja clan, adept in sealing arts and even in contact with the Shinigami, suddenly getting wiped out overnight? Even considering the overwhelming power of multiple nations' combined forces, it still seemed off that they had been eradicated so completely and cleanly.
Aoba wasn't certain whether his guess was correct, so he sent Jiraiya to investigate.
It was destined to be a long and difficult task. Even if, as Aoba suspected, a group of Uzumaki survivors still existed, they had disappeared from the Shinobi World for decades.
After so many years without any trace, finding them would be unimaginably hard.
But for Aoba, a god-like entity embodying countless divine authorities, it wasn't entirely impossible.
He gave Jiraiya a hint, pointing him in a general direction to search. Aoba had no concrete clues or prophetic visions to guide him, the Shinigami had been very thorough in hiding.
However, he could rely on another authority, Luck. That's right, Aoba bestowed upon Jiraiya the Authority of Luck, letting him rely purely on good fortune to complete his mission.
At first, Jiraiya didn't believe he was truly blessed with luck. After all, he'd spent over half a year following hunches and found nothing related to the Uzumaki survivors.
Just when Jiraiya was feeling frustrated and preparing to rest somewhere, he realized he had wandered into the vicinity of a secluded mountain village.
The moment he got close, Jiraiya sensed something was off. Even though he couldn't detect any barriers, he still felt a vague unease. He couldn't pinpoint exactly what was wrong, but relying on his instincts as a top-tier ninja, he cautiously tested the situation.
To his surprise, the other side didn't even bother to pretend, right in front of him, they blatantly displayed an astonishing level of chakra control.
Without thinking, Jiraiya immediately turned and fled.
Yet he still underestimated the danger.
Although Jiraiya's combat power was no longer considered top-tier by today's standards, Aoba had equipped him with a chakra cloak and a large supply of life potions. Whether it was his "health bar" or "mana bar," they were ridiculously long, meaning that in theory, Jiraiya could hold his own against anyone below the Six Paths level among Konoha's forces.
But he couldn't defeat those three people.
They didn't even display particularly strong combat experience. It was just that their jutsu were so terrifying that Jiraiya had no desire to fight at all.
If you would like to read more...
The novel has be completed (Chp. 362) on the patreon -> SaintXI