Unknown Place
"All the Pains have been defeated," Nagato said out loud, which immediately surprised Konan. "And now he's coming here."
That last part made her uneasy.
Konan started gathering chakra, and the paper around her body began peeling away to form a barrier at the entrance, but before she could finish, Nagato stopped her.
"Don't bother, Konan... he has to come."
She wanted to argue, but before she could even get a word out, a powerful gust tore through the unfinished paper barrier. Naruto stepped into view carrying Yahiko's body in his arms.
Without saying a word, he walked toward them and, once he was close enough that neither side felt immediately threatened, he gently laid Yahiko's body on the ground.
The whole place fell into an uncomfortable silence.
Honestly, Nagato had expected Naruto to attack the moment he entered, but seeing him carry Yahiko's body like that left him unsure of what to think. Konan was not much better.
Naruto was never the type to stay quiet for long, so he said the first thing that came to mind.
"I don't think she would've liked you using his body."
"Shut up. You know nothing about him," Nagato growled.
"We have the same dream," Naruto replied.
"That doesn't give you the right to talk about him."
"And does controlling his body for your own goals give you that right?" Naruto shot back. Then he let out a slow breath. "Your plan for peace is shit, Nagato."
He kept speaking while looking at Konan for a moment, reminding her a little too much of someone she had once known.
"Peace is not an easy thing to reach. The people who truly want it should be helping each other... and yet you didn't hesitate to kill a man who spent his whole life searching for you."
Nagato had no real answer to that, so he stayed silent. Konan, on the other hand, had no intention of doing the same.
"And how exactly do you plan to reach peace then? Through love?" she asked, a little mockery slipping into her voice.
This is way too ironic, Kurama muttered in Naruto's mind, since to him the whole thing was almost funny.
Shut up, Naruto told the fox.
Then he answered Konan.
"No."
"You haven't even felt enough pain to go looking for peace," Nagato said flatly.
Naruto's eyes hardened.
"I've felt more pain than you think," he said. "I was born an orphan, hated by my own village and pushed away by everyone because they thought I was a demon. Just when I thought I had found someone I could call my brother, he tried to kill me out of jealousy and hunger for power. I had to watch the man I saw as my own grandfather die without being able to do a damn thing."
His voice dropped lower.
"And now I'm standing in front of the man who killed one of the few people who never treated me like I was some monster."
Nagato and Konan stayed quiet. Naruto could tell his words were getting through to them little by little. He did not want to see the people he had once considered family in another life die for nothing.
His gaze shifted back to Konan, making her tense up a little.
"You can't reach peace through love alone," Naruto said. "But you won't reach it through hatred or pain either."
"Then how?" Nagato asked.
"I don't know," Naruto answered simply.
Then he reached into his clothes and pulled out an old book, one both members of Akatsuki recognized right away.
"The first book Jiraiya ever wrote. He told me my parents named me after the main character in this book... If that character changed, then the story would become something else."
Soft footsteps started echoing from outside the paper tree. Naruto did not react, because he already knew who was coming, but Konan immediately raised her guard.
A large white wolf stepped into view with a white flower in her mouth, making it obvious Kaia had returned to her normal size. She walked up to Naruto, and he took the flower from her since he had been the one who asked her to bring it. Then he crouched down and placed it gently on Yahiko's chest before slowly standing back up.
He had done everything he came here to do.
He did not want to stay any longer. He felt like shit for everything Nagato and Konan had gone through... but especially because of Konan. He knew how much she loved Yahiko, and he hated that she had to live through all of this. She was the reason he had once sworn never to fall for another mortal woman again.
Just before leaving, he heard Nagato speak again.
"You're an interesting one, Uzumaki Naruto," Nagato said out loud, his voice quieter now. "I'll try to believe in you."
Konan looked at Nagato in shock after hearing those words.
He's really changing his mind now? she thought, still not fully convinced by any of this.
Naruto's face tightened. He did not know whether to feel relieved or frustrated. He had not come there to watch what was left of Nagato destroy himself even more.
Nagato slowly raised a trembling hand toward the black receivers in his body. One by one, he began pulling them out.
The moment he did, his body visibly weakened.
His breathing turned heavier.
His red hair began losing color little by little, and his already thin body looked even worse than before.
Konan's eyes widened.
"Nagato—"
"This path is over," Nagato said, cutting her off before she could get any closer. "I chased peace through pain... and all I created was more hatred."
His voice was weaker now, but still steady enough to be heard.
"People die like trash... hatred almost never ends, especially when it is guided by unbearable pain. That is war. You'll have to face that."
He drew a rough breath, then lifted his eyes toward Damon.
"Naruto... I truly believe you can change this world full of hatred."
With that, the last receiver slipped from his hand.
Nagato's body sagged, and Konan rushed forward to catch him before he could fully collapse.
Naruto lowered his gaze. He did not want to look at him like that.
The paper leaves around them began to tremble and fall.
Konan stayed beside Nagato and Yahiko, wrapping both bodies in paper with hands that were trying far too hard not to shake.
Naruto stayed quiet for a moment. More than a thousand years of life, and moments like this still felt too big for him.
He finally walked over, cut his finger with a kunai, and drew the Uzumaki clan symbol on the white paper over Nagato's chest with his blood.
Konan did nothing to stop him. She just watched in silence while Naruto wrote something else beside it in a language she did not understand.
"Don't die, Konan."
That made the blue-haired woman look up at him.
"Amegakure still needs a leader. If you die too, it will fall apart... and you're not alone. You still have the people of Amegakure," Naruto said while finishing what he was writing. Then he stood up so he could face her properly and gave her a small smile. "After all, we're the only students Jiraiya has left."
Konan stared at him for a long moment. Then a bouquet of white flowers slowly formed in her hand.
"I'll believe in you, Naruto Uzumaki."
Naruto took the bouquet, but before he could answer, his expression shifted.
Kaia raised her head at the same time Damon felt them. Several chakra signatures were moving quickly toward Amegakure, and he did not need long to recognize who they belonged to. Konoha shinobi. At the front of them was Tsunade, which made Damon let out a slow breath. Of course she came. He turned his gaze back toward Konan, who did not need to ask what he meant when he quietly said, "They're here." His eyes moved one last time to Nagato, then to Yahiko. "Take care of them," he said before looking back at her. "Goodbye, Konan."
He did not wait for an answer. Damon turned and walked away, heading toward Kaia, who was already waiting beside the cracked wall of a ruined building. He placed one hand against the surface and looked away for a moment, as if forcing himself to steady his thoughts before facing what was coming next. His grip tightened until more fractures spread beneath his fingers.
"Aagh..." he growled under his breath. "This is too damn hard."
Then he pushed himself off the wall and started walking toward the approaching chakra signatures of Konoha.
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P@treon: Brotato