Since Nagato and Konan had already chosen to reveal themselves, they were clearly prepared for Jiraiya to find out about them.
So, they didn't bother hiding their identities.
Of course, before this, Nagato and Konan would never have done such a thing. After all, the Akatsuki was still considered a terrorist organization.
As for the information Kakuzu had dug up—honestly, only someone like Kakuzu, an "old relic," could find that kind of thing.
Most of Akatsuki's former members were already dead, and the few remaining outsiders had no real influence.
But Kakuzu was no ordinary person. Having lived for so long, he naturally had his own connections. And through them, he had uncovered the Akatsuki's core ideology.
As for Nagato and Konan, Konan had always followed Nagato's lead. And it wasn't that Nagato had suddenly had a change of heart and wanted to quit being a terrorist.
He had no idea what Kakuzu had been looking into.
The only reason Nagato chose to reveal himself was that a huge chunk of the Ten-Tails had been taken without his knowledge.
This made Nagato realize that he might be caught in someone else's scheme.
After all, no matter what, Nagato wasn't as clueless as the Third Hokage or Danzo.
And so, this letter, sealed away for over ten years, ended up in Shanks' hands.
"To Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan… Personally addressed by Jiraiya-sensei."
Everyone stared at the names. Nagato and Konan recognized them, but… who was Yahiko?
"Yahiko was the founder of the Akatsuki. Or rather, he was the true leader of the Revolutionary Army."
"The three of them were Jiraiya's students when he traveled the ninja world. After finishing their training, Yahiko established the Akatsuki."
"So in a way, Jiraiya played a role in the creation of the Akatsuki."
Shanks explained, and the others nodded as they began to understand the connection.
Naruto, on the other hand, was a bit stunned.
Nagato was Jiraiya's student?
That meant the current leader of the Akatsuki was also a student of Jiraiya.
And if that was the case… then as Jiraiya's student himself…
Naruto thought for a moment. Hmm, this could actually work in his favor.
"I'll take this letter back to Konohagakure."
Kakashi took the letter from Shanks and nodded at him.
Kakashi didn't know all the details, but one thing was clear—Jiraiya needed to see this.
As for Shanks, he didn't really care either way.
Nagato's actions meant that the Akatsuki would no longer remain in the shadows. They were stepping into the light, officially declaring themselves as a force in the shinobi world.
As for what would happen to the Akatsuki next, Shanks had no idea.
But even with Nagato doing this, it wouldn't throw Black Zetsu's plans too far off course, and Obito wouldn't suddenly turn against them at this point.
Shanks wasn't completely confident in dealing with Nagato and Konan, but he was confident in himself. As long as he was around, he would continue to put pressure on Black Zetsu and Obito.
To the entire shinobi world, he—Shanks—was the greatest threat. The tools that Black Zetsu and Obito could use were completely useless against him.
For example—lies.
"Jiraiya really is a handful," Orochimaru sighed. Jiraiya's greatest strength wasn't his own power but his ability as a teacher—his talent for training outstanding shinobi.
After handling everything, Shanks led the others to settle in the Land of Waves for now.
Gato? Of course, he had no objections. What could he possibly say?
Of course, his "deal" with Orochimaru wasn't finished yet.
Even though Orochimaru hadn't really done much, the fact remained—Shisui had gotten his eyes back.
But when Shanks thought about the Dragon Vein, he couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.
At the moment, Orochimaru was the only one on the ship. After thinking for a while, Shanks asked the question on his mind.
"Orochimaru, I want to know—how is chakra formed?"
Orochimaru was momentarily stunned by the question. He had thought Shanks was struggling with something serious, but this was all he wanted to ask?
But… there was no way Shanks would ask something so simple.
Which meant this had something to do with the Dragon Vein?
"Under normal circumstances… No, actually, no matter the situation, even if the God Tree is involved, chakra is always created through the combination of life energy and spiritual energy."
Orochimaru frowned. Shanks was excellent at reverse deduction, but the origin of chakra wasn't something that could be figured out that way.
The fusion of life energy and spiritual energy was the very foundation—it couldn't be broken down any further.
"That's right. I see it the same way," Shanks nodded.
"But I have another question. If a Tailed Beast's chakra is also a fusion of life energy and spiritual energy… then where does its life energy come from? And similarly, how does this relate to the rebirth of Devil Fruits? Where does that power actually come from?"
Shanks stared at Orochimaru intently. In truth, he had already sensed something back when he was at sea and fought Jiraiya and the others.
But he couldn't fully understand it himself. Orochimaru, however, was the perfect person to figure it out. At the same time, Shanks was also trying to give Orochimaru a hint.
Hearing Shanks' words, Orochimaru frowned even deeper.
The power of the Tailed Beasts?
Where did their life energy come from?
Chakra feedback? No, that wasn't right.
Chakra feedback worked more like what Shanks was doing—using chakra to strengthen the body, making it even more powerful.
It required extremely precise chakra control, something that most people couldn't achieve to Shanks' level.
Shanks' chakra feedback had already reached close to 100%.
That meant every bit of chakra his body produced was constantly nourishing and reinforcing his body.
A normal person—like Zabuza or Kakashi—couldn't do this.
Zabuza could at least hold onto a little extra chakra to use for simple ninjutsu.
But Kakashi? Any extra chakra he had was basically wasted.
However, whether it was Shanks or Kakashi, chakra feedback into spiritual and life energy required one thing first—having chakra in the first place.
So this creates a never-ending cycle.
If this happened inside a human body, it would be a positive cycle. But for the Tailed Beasts, it's a dead-end cycle, so the idea of energy returning to them is impossible.
"..."
Orochimaru thought for a long time. As his thoughts went deeper, it felt like something in his mind had broken free.
"The chakra formula can't be changed, and the process of energy returning does exist. That means the life energy of the Tailed Beasts doesn't just appear out of nowhere."
"So which came first? The chakra of the Tailed Beasts, or their bodies and minds?"
Orochimaru got stuck on this "chicken or the egg" dilemma. If the chakra came first, then the revival of a Tailed Beast would be the result of chakra returning to its original state.
This process could be simulated more easily through ninjutsu.
For example, chakra is generated, then takes on a fixed form, and eventually manifests as a living being.
A simpler way to understand this is through Transformation Jutsu and Clone Jutsu.
These two types of ninjutsu use chakra's "returning" effect to directly simulate life, even giving the clones independent thoughts.
"What if an external force was involved?"
Shanks spoke up.
"An external force? What kind of external force could interfere with the creation of a Tailed Beast…? Such power shouldn't exist in this world."
Orochimaru shook his head.
But in the next moment, he froze.
Then, an overwhelming sense of fear crawled up his spine, and cold sweat started dripping down his back.
He looked at Shanks. In that instant, the pressure coming from Shanks was far more terrifying than the so-called Conqueror's Haki. Behind him, it was as if an endless, terrifying abyss had opened its mouth, ready to swallow him whole.
In the face of that power, Orochimaru couldn't even bring himself to look directly into the abyss.
"This world!!!"
At that moment, Orochimaru finally understood what set Shanks apart from everyone else.
Shanks had long surpassed the people of the ninja world. The ones he was up against weren't just the ninjas of this world, but… the world itself.
"If any external force could interfere and give the Tailed Beasts life, then the only possibility is… this world itself!!"
Orochimaru was shaken to his core. Even he didn't have the courage to face an opponent like that.
This was far beyond anything he had ever imagined. But at the same time, Shanks' words made perfect sense.
"Back then, I could only barely sense it. But looking at the facts… the ninja world does have its own spiritual energy and life force, because there is chakra in this world that isn't tied to a person's body."
Shanks spoke. This was a terrifying realization—at least for Orochimaru, it was something completely absurd and frightening.
"The ninja world… this world has its own life force and spiritual energy?"
"That's the truth."
"The Dragon Veins contain massive amounts of chakra. And that chakra doesn't come from any individual—it belongs to the world itself."
"If the chakra formula is correct, that means this world possesses both life force and spiritual energy."
Shanks scratched his head, looking troubled. This was the kind of power he had encountered in the past.
During his battles with Jiraiya and the others, his Conqueror's Haki had reached absurd levels—so strong that even he couldn't see its limits.
And the only thing that could have enhanced his power to such an extreme… was this world itself.
Of course, Shanks didn't just come up with this idea out of nowhere—it was based on his intuition.
His greatest strength wasn't his Conqueror's Haki, but rather his Observation Haki.
Even though he couldn't do something as crazy as "hearing the voice of all things," he could still use his Observation Haki's "intuition" to make certain judgments.
Once he had the answer from his intuition, working backward to figure out the reasoning became much easier.
And in the ninja world, the strangest thing by far was this "natural chakra," which clearly went against the established chakra system.
"That's why I said back then that the Dragon Vein was dangerous."
Shanks explained that the danger of the Dragon Vein wasn't about how threatening it was to Orochimaru specifically—it was that this thing could affect the entire ninja world.
Thinking about the Dragon Vein's situation and how it had been sealed away…
It was probably because it was too dangerous that the Second and Fourth Hokage decided to seal it.
"Wait, if that's the case… does that mean the Divine Tree was absorbing the life force of the world?"
Orochimaru suddenly had a realization.
"Yeah, the Divine Tree was definitely absorbing the life force of the world."
Shanks nodded.
"So, it's very possible that the Land of Wind became what it is today because of the Divine Tree."
Hearing Shanks say this, Orochimaru had to force himself to stay calm.
If Shanks knew all this, why didn't he say something earlier? Why did he always act like everyone should already know what he knew?
"Then, Shanks, do you know what those crystals that suppress Devil Fruit powers are?"
Orochimaru rubbed his forehead and asked again.
"Seastone. If a Devil Fruit user touches seastone, their abilities will be nullified. …Wait, don't tell me—you actually found seastone?"
As he spoke, Shanks looked at Orochimaru in shock.
No way—what was wrong with this ninja world? First, Devil Fruits appeared, and now even seastone was showing up?
Then, Orochimaru took out a test tube filled with seastone crystals.
Seeing the tube full of seastone, Shanks was completely dumbfounded.
Just what kind of world had he ended up in?
And it wasn't just Shanks—Orochimaru was just as stunned.
If Shanks knew so much, why didn't he just say it earlier?
"I need a moment to process this."
"Me too."
The two of them walked out of the cabin and onto the deck, facing the ocean as the sea breeze blew past.
Orochimaru really needed to calm down. And honestly, so did Shanks.
He had already thought the way this ninja world worked was crazy enough.
But now, even more absurd things were showing up. Seastone actually existed—how did that make any sense?
Of course, it made sense, because it was right there in front of him.
At first, Shanks had also thought Devil Fruits didn't belong in this world. But in reality, their appearance made perfect sense.
And now, with seastone showing up too… was there really anything left that didn't make sense?
It seemed… not anymore.
What is this, some kind of Naruto-One Piece crossover? This is getting ridiculous.
"These crystals can stop the Divine Tree from growing. If the Divine Tree absorbs the life force of the ninja world, and the ninja world itself contains natural chakra, that means the world has its own life energy and spirit energy. In that case, Seastone exists specifically to suppress the Divine Tree in this world."
Orochimaru explained.
Shanks, looking completely drained, stared out at the ocean and nodded.
"Yeah, that sounds about right."
See? It makes perfect sense. But come on, this is clearly a power from the One Piece world. Could the Naruto world stop making such a logical explanation for it?
But… even Shanks had to admit, this stuff really did seem to belong to the Naruto world.
"Then why does the ocean also suppress Devil Fruit powers?"
Orochimaru turned to Shanks. It was obvious—this question wasn't a problem for him at all.
"Tell me, where do you think life in the ninja world originally came from?"
Shanks sighed. Great, now this made even more sense.
If he followed the logic of how life formed in his own world, then the ocean was the birthplace of all life.
Since the ninja world naturally suppresses the Divine Tree, which absorbs its life force, then the "ocean" as the origin of life would suppress Devil Fruit users even more.
This was the most reasonable explanation—so reasonable it was almost absurd.
That's why Shanks looked so defeated.
Forget whether Kishimoto had ever thought of this—even Oda hadn't come up with something like this!
How was he supposed to know what was going on anymore? The Naruto world had somehow turned into a perfectly logical version of the One Piece world.
"So you're saying the ocean is the origin of life in the ninja world?"
"If that's the case, then it makes perfect sense that the ocean would suppress Devil Fruit users."
Orochimaru looked just as drained. Neither of them could fully accept this sudden explanation.
But the rules were just so flawlessly logical that they had no choice but to go along with them.
"Yeah, that's… normal."
"Right, the logic is airtight."
"Seamless. No way to argue against it."
The two of them sat on the deck, talking to themselves like they were the only ones in the world.
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