Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
The news was like a tidal wave dropping on the shoulders of those who know him and Nagato could not have anticipated the way his disappearance would affect his friends when they realized what had happened to him.
A P.O.W., prisoner of war. That could be the only explanation, they all soon realized. Jiraiya was the one who had pointed it out; he had more experience, he'd seen the corpses of friends who'd been "interrogated" by the Iwa.
"You realize what's likely happened, don't you? There's an Iwa base near where he meant missing, and we all know what Rock nin do to their captives."
Yahiko and Konan both looked like they were going to be sick. Minato and Kushina immediately went into the next room—the latter looked about ready to have one of her famous outbursts and Minato was trying to calm her.
Jiraiya knew how they felt.
He'd seen it before. The waiting, the hoping—oh, the hoping—and ultimately the disappointment.
"Damn this is awful," he muttered to himself later over a saucer of sake.
Jiraiya had seen it before with other nin, but he'd never had it happen to one of his own. Not one of his own students. But he knew better than to try to storm a base full of enemy nin just for the sake of one. Over the years, he'd learned—Konoha needed him elsewhere and Nagato, Nagato was tough.
The kid will just have to survive on his own.
That didn't give Jiraiya much comfort.
