East of the Akatsuki hideout stretched a vast canyon rarely touched by human presence due to its harsh and jagged terrain.
Night gradually swallowed the horizon.
Konan, dressed in black robes, slowly pushed Nagato's wooden wheelchair through the rain-soaked canyon. In her right hand, she held a simple bamboo-handled oil-paper umbrella, shielding both herself and Nagato from the endless downpour.
The wheels creaked softly against the wet ground.
As they entered deeper into the canyon, two figures came into view.
One wore a spiral-patterned mask. Beside him stood a strange black-and-white humanoid creature.
The creature casually sat atop a rocky ledge, holding a large lotus leaf over its head to block the rain. Water continuously slid down the leaf and splashed into its mouth, giving it an absurd appearance.
Konan stopped pushing the wheelchair once they were roughly a hundred meters away.
"You came, Nagato," Fugaku said, his voice intentionally aged and heavy.
Nagato quietly stared through the rain curtain at the masked man ahead of him.
"So you already expected what happened today?" Nagato asked.
"Naturally," Fugaku replied in a low voice. "The shinobi world never truly changes. History simply repeats itself over and over again."
Nagato's gaze sharpened.
"Then answer me this. Did you know beforehand that Hanzō planned to ambush the Akatsuki?"
Fugaku narrowed his eyes slightly.
"And if I did?"
The Sharingan beneath his mask slowly spun, the three tomoe revolving in silence.
An overwhelming killing intent suddenly erupted from Nagato's body.
Without warning, a black chakra receiver shot forward like a senbon, piercing through the rain straight toward Fugaku's head.
Clang!
A kunai abruptly rose into the air and intercepted it mid-flight.
Fugaku calmly caught the black receiver between his fingers and let out a faint chuckle.
"So you're going to kill me simply because I didn't warn you?"
He shook his head lightly, almost mocking the idea.
"Someone once told me something interesting."
"The joys and suffering of people are never truly shared. Most people only see the pain of others as noise."
"When I first heard those words, I didn't fully understand them."
"But after living long enough, I realized there was truth to them."
Fugaku slowly raised his hand, allowing cold rainwater to fall across his palm.
"Yet after thinking about it even more, I realized those words were incomplete."
"If someone experiences the same pain you have endured, then no matter what, they will understand at least a fraction of it."
His gaze fixed directly onto Nagato.
"I have watched countless shinobi die throughout my life."
"The pain you felt today is the same pain I experienced long ago, and the same pain others will experience tomorrow."
"I understand the hatred in your heart better than anyone."
The canyon fell silent except for the rain.
Fugaku's voice remained steady.
"It doesn't matter whether I knew about Hanzō's attack."
"It also doesn't matter who I truly am."
"Small nations survive beneath the shadows of greater ones. Conflict between people never ends."
"Aren't you and Yahiko trying to change that reality?"
Nagato remained silent.
"But if you truly wish to change this world," Fugaku continued, "then you must learn how to properly use the power of the Rinnegan."
"With those eyes, you can create the world you desire."
"And I can teach you how to guide that power."
"That is what truly matters."
Nagato lowered his gaze slightly.
The temptation in those words was impossible to ignore.
If he wanted to force the world to understand pain, then he needed overwhelming power.
Only through pain could true peace be born.
Konan quietly bit her lip.
She could tell Nagato was beginning to waver.
Nagato finally spoke again.
"Why are you helping me?"
Fugaku looked directly into the ripple-patterned eyes of the Rinnegan.
"Because those eyes possess power beyond your imagination."
"The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path is only a fragment of what the Rinnegan can truly do."
"You carry the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths himself."
"And I wish to become the one who guides that power."
Nagato stared coldly at him.
"You keep calling yourself Madara."
"If you truly are Uchiha Madara, then why don't you create peace yourself?"
A low laugh escaped from beneath Fugaku's mask.
"I already tried."
"And I failed."
"My battle at the Valley of the End cost me nearly everything."
"What remains now is nothing more than a decaying shell barely clinging to life."
"But even so, my knowledge and experience still have value."
"You don't need to believe me right now."
"Time will prove whether my words are true."
Nagato remained expressionless.
"Then tell me this."
"How exactly will you help me?"
Fugaku's lips curved slightly beneath the mask.
"Simple."
"I can give you manpower."
"The power of the Demonic Statue is not something your body can easily withstand. Your current injuries have already left you unable to move properly."
"But I can provide capable shinobi."
"Not useless idealists like the original Akatsuki."
"Real fighters."
His gaze sharpened.
"And since your body cannot move freely, I can also provide excellent corpses for your Six Paths Technique."
For the first time, Nagato's eyes visibly shifted.
Fugaku slowly spoke the next words.
"What do you think about using the corpses of the Third and Fourth Mizukage?"
The rain continued to pour endlessly across the canyon.
A shinobi who fears death survives longer.
But on the battlefield, fear itself becomes a weakness.
Everyone understood that truth.
Yet not everyone could accept reality as it was.
When reality became unbearable, people changed.
Nagato changed completely that night.
He no longer sought simple peace.
He chose to become a god.
A god capable of forcing the world into peace through suffering.
And because of that, he chose to cooperate with Fugaku.
As for the fleeing Hanzō, he eventually died at Nagato's hands.
Soon after, Nagato abandoned the Akatsuki's former hideout and seized control of Amegakure.
Fugaku and Zetsu officially joined the organization.
From that moment onward, the hunt for the Tailed Beasts began.
Nagato wished to gather the Tailed Beasts to create an ultimate weapon, one capable of forcing every nation to experience true pain so that peace could finally emerge.
Fugaku, however, had a different objective.
He sought to revive the Ten-Tails and cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi upon the world, creating an eternal illusion where everyone could live within their ideal reality.
Different methods.
The same destination.
Inside the dim cave hideout, Fugaku relaxed on a rattan chair handmade by Pakura, gently rocking back and forth.
Pakura herself had already left alongside Konan to recruit new Akatsuki members.
White Zetsu dragged over another chair and sat nearby.
"Fugaku, why didn't you tell Nagato that Danzō was involved in the attack against the Akatsuki?"
"The timing wasn't right," Fugaku replied calmly.
"We still need Danzō for now."
"If Nagato learned the truth this early, with his personality, he would immediately attack Konoha."
"The existence of the Rinnegan cannot be exposed to Konoha yet."
"And Danzō has no reason to reveal it himself."
White Zetsu nodded slowly.
"I see."
"Then where are we heading next?"
"Konoha."
Fugaku answered without hesitation.
White Zetsu immediately became interested.
"Konoha's Chūnin Exams are about to begin."
"Things inside the Uchiha Clan have also become much more interesting lately."
Fugaku quietly looked toward the dark night sky outside the cave.
His expression turned distant.
"Weren't you always unwilling to return there?" White Zetsu asked curiously.
Fugaku closed his eyes briefly.
"No matter how unwilling I am..."
"Some places must eventually be revisited."
Back in his old courtyard, several bottles of sake still remained buried beneath the ground exactly where he had hidden them years ago before leaving Konoha.
And there was also the loquat tree planted by his father, Uchiha Yama.
He wondered whether it was still alive.
===
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