Regarding Pain

Jiraiya's first captive refuses to talk, so the Sannin makes an example of him by transforming the Amegakure ninja into a toad. The demonstration loosens the tongue of the second prisoner at once. He explains that ordinary villagers know almost nothing about Pain, and he corrects Jiraiya's assumption that the civil war is still raging: Pain's faction has already claimed victory. The Sannin is stunned that anyone could have brought down Hanzō, the village's former leader, a foe that not even Jiraiya and his fellow Sannin had managed to beat. The prisoner recounts how Pain climbed to the status of a god in the eyes of the people, slaughtering everyone with even a loose tie to Hanzō so that no opposition could survive. As this unfolds, Pain himself departs to confront Jiraiya.

Jiraiya turns an uncooperative prisoner into a toad to force answers. He learns Pain's side has already won Amegakure's civil war and that Hanzō was killed. The captive details Pain's purge of Hanzō's associates and his god-like reputation, while Pain sets out to face the Sannin.

Part of the Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant arc and collected in volume 40, the chapter frames the scale of Pain's power ahead of the direct clash between the two.