Ryou and Tsunade stopped their fooling around.
Tsunade looked at the red hair of Kiyomi and Nagato and said, "You are both orphans of the Uzumaki Clan! Kiyomi is a bit older, so Nagato, you should call Kiyomi 'big sister' from now on!"
"Big sister?"
Nagato looked at Kiyomi.
Kiyomi smiled at Nagato. "If you don't mind, Nagato, call me big sister! Speaking of which, you're from the Land of Rain, right?"
Nagato nodded.
Kiyomi said, "Back then, a sister named Fusō took me and fled from Uzushiogakure, but we got separated on the way."
"She went to the Land of Rain, while I was taken in by Kusagakure."
Nagato suddenly became agitated. "Fusō is my mother. She and my father were both... killed by Konoha Ninja."
Nagato looked coldly at Ryou and Tsunade.
"..."
Ryou and Tsunade were stunned.
Immediately, Ryou set Tsunade down, pointed at his rogue ninja headband, and said, "Nagato, I am a rogue ninja of Konoha. I do not represent Konoha."
Nagato then looked at Tsunade.
Ryou directly tied Tsunade to a tree and began 'interrogating' her. "Speak! Why did you Konoha Ninja kill Nagato's parents?"
"This..."
Tsunade didn't know how to explain!
Ryou watched from the side, stroking his chin.
Firstly, Konoha was not a peace organization; it was the Land of Fire's machine of violence, a military stronghold where Ninjas gathered.
If the Daimyo wanted to invade another country, Konoha was the blade in the Daimyo's hand.
The Will of Fire says not to take advantage of the weak, but cigarette packs also say smoking is harmful to your health, yet the number of smokers remains as high as ever.
There were bound to be bad people among the Konoha Ninja, those who strayed from the Will of Fire.
During wartime, these people bore the pressure of death; it wasn't particularly hard to understand why they might do something to harm civilians.
Furthermore, in the original work, the people who killed Nagato's parents didn't do it on purpose.
At that time, Nagato's home was in a combat zone.
The Konoha people thought the civilians had all evacuated and went into Nagato's house to look for food. Nagato suddenly broke a bottle, making a noise that led the Konoha Ninja to mistake them for enemies.
Then Nagato's parents rushed out to protect him and were killed by mistake!
Ninjas tried their best to avoid involving ordinary people in their wars, but your enemy might disguise themselves as civilians to make you lower your guard.
A Kunai has no eyes, civilians don't have teammate markers, and Ninjas are meant for killing.
In the end, it wasn't just the fault of the war, but pure bad luck.
Why didn't they evacuate early upon hearing news of the fighting? Why did the Konoha Ninja happen to pick Nagato's house to restock supplies?
Why didn't Nagato's parents keep a better eye on him? Why didn't they immediately kneel and show they were just civilians when discovered?
There was really no way around it; it was like offering one's own head to be cut off.
With so many coincidences, maybe Madara had a hand in it too!
The goal would be to make Nagato awaken the Rinnegan early.
Because Madara needed Nagato to use the Rinne Rebirth Jutsu to resurrect him, and the Rinne Rebirth Jutsu required Nagato to fully master the Rinnegan.
The possibility of this was quite high.
Ryou kept this in mind; Nagato had now become a follower of Madara.
In the future, when Ryou wanted to backstab Madara, he would tell Nagato that Madara was responsible, and let Nagato give Madara a vicious blow.
For now, it was better to blame the death of Nagato's parents on Konoha to keep Nagato firmly on Madara's path of terror.
"Tsunade, you're still not talking? It looks like I'll have to use some 'torture' on you!"
Kiyomi looked on, feeling extremely conflicted. She wanted to step forward and save Tsunade, but she had to understand her own position.
The survival of herself and the child in her womb depended on Ryou's whim; she couldn't do anything to make him dislike her.
Furthermore, Kiyomi had misunderstood Ryou's 'torture'—it was just taking off Tsunade's Ninja boots to tickle her feet.
"Will you talk? Will you talk? Will you talk?"
"Hahaha..."
Tsunade laughed until tears came out.
"I'll talk! What can I say? I'm not the Hokage, can I control that many people?"
Even the Hokage couldn't control every single Konoha Ninja.
Danzo and Orochimaru's human experiments required a large number of civilians. Where did those people come from?
They couldn't have just grown out of the ground!
Their actions violated Konoha's regulations, yet didn't they still hold high positions?
The human heart cannot be legislated.
Ryou looked at the silent Nagato and said helplessly, "This broad won't talk. Nagato, tell you what, I'll take her to a room and give her a proper interrogation."
"When I get something out of her, I'll give you an answer!"
Nagato shook his head. "No need. After all these years, I already have the answer in my heart. It was all fate."
Did Nagato hate Konoha?
Konoha killed his parents, so of course he hated them.
But Nagato had also taken his revenge. Moreover, Nagato could never repay the kindness Jiraiya had shown him in this lifetime.
The people he should hate were the Konoha Ninja who broke into his home, the Three Great Nations that invaded the Land of Rain, and Hanzo, who overestimately challenged the order of the Great Nations.
In the end, it all boiled down to one word—conflict!
Nagato became more and more convinced of Madara's words.
In this world, wherever there is light, there must be shadows. In order to protect love, hate is born.
This causality cannot be severed; such is reality.
Nagato became more determined about the Eye of the Moon Plan. He hoped that in the world of dreams, he could live happily with his parents.
Yahiko wouldn't die, and they would continue on the path of revolution.
Konan—
Nagato fell into conflict. He liked Konan, and Yahiko also liked Konan.
They couldn't exactly share, could they?
Nagato, even in his own dream, still had to think of Yahiko.
He's really... I'm crying my eyes out!
Ryou released Tsunade and pointed at her, saying, "Tsunade, do you see? How many wrongs has your Konoha committed?"
"This is the evil of the Great Nations!"
Tsunade bit down hard on Ryou's hand, leaving a teeth mark.
After letting go, she pinched Ryou's face and cursed, "'Your Konoha'? You talk as if you have nothing to do with Konoha."
"You've done things that hurt civilians too, otherwise why would you be labeled a rogue ninja?"
Ryou explained, "It's different. I only used bandits and villains."
"What's different? Do you get to decide who is a bandit or a villain? You just label them so you can hurt them with a clear conscience."
Ryou was speechless.
Tsunade was right. Using people for human experiments was wrong to begin with. Ryou was also just using 'bandits and villains' as an excuse for himself.
Are bad people not human?
But a person's goodness or badness shouldn't be defined by his subjective view, but by the laws of the country, and his punishment should be judged by the country.
The process must be tedious, for that is what makes human value irreplaceable.
But then again—
Sociology is the scientific discipline that studies human society and summarizes social laws.
But there's a simple truth: if it were science, dogs or livestock should be used for experiments, not humans to summarize laws.
Human life is not worth much! Or rather, from the moment of birth, a price has already been set!
Tsunade walked up to Nagato and gave him a deep bow. "I'm sorry, Nagato. I apologize to you as the granddaughter of Konoha's First Hokage."
"If you still remember the culprits from back then, I will help you root them out. All evil shall eventually be brought to justice."
There was absolutely no need for Tsunade to apologize to Nagato. Although she was the granddaughter of the First Hokage, in the world of Ninjas, the descendants of great figures should be the first to lead by example.
Nawaki had to go to the battlefield as soon as he graduated, and Itachi had to go to the battlefield at a very young age.
This matter should be the fault of the Ninjas who killed Nagato's parents, and the fault of the Konoha front-line commander at the time.
Tsunade had no obligation to stand up and apologize to Nagato.
Nagato shook his head. "No need, Lady Tsunade. When my parents died, I unleashed the power of the Rinnegan and killed them."
"I hold no hatred toward Konoha!"