However, Nagato wasn't questioning Naruto about his reason for coming to kill him. He hadn't asked Naruto any questions at all. Instead, it felt as though he were challenging Heaven itself.
"Why did you grant me such overwhelming strength," Nagato murmured, his gaze fixed on the sky, "force me to endure such a tragic fate, reveal to me the only way to change this world—only to snatch it away with Your own hands!? Why must this world be so corrupt and broken!?"
Overcome by emotion, Nagato's voice grew louder, but Naruto didn't back down. At first, he didn't know how to respond. The words struck deep within him. From their last meeting to everything that had transpired during this war, Naruto had little to say in response.
He was a killer—he had taken countless lives. He knew that. In every battle he had fought, more people had died by his hand than had survived. He had long since accepted who he truly was.
"Because you're the savior of peace," Naruto shot back. "If you hadn't spent the last twenty years trying to tear this world apart, I might believe what you just said. I've killed people too, but Root has never harmed civilians! Even when we struck Sunagakure, our targets were always those terrorists!"
"I've never claimed to be a god, nor have I ever tried to justify my killings."
"No one who upholds this rotten system is innocent."
"Is that so? Then tell me, when you destroyed Sunagakure, how many civilians did you kill? I remember hearing someone say that you didn't just kill Hanzo and his followers—you murdered their families too. You killed Hanzo's wife and children—those defenseless children! Those infants who weren't even ninja!"
"Who gave you the right to judge me?" Nagato countered. "You—a member of Root. An organization far more consumed by violence and war than anything I ever created."
"I already told you," Naruto replied calmly, without raising his voice, but making sure Nagato understood. "I've never tried to justify myself. But you… you keep trying to justify yourself."
What he said was true, yet he didn't need to shout it into Nagato's ears. "If you were willing to speak the truth, maybe I'd respect you. After all, once upon a time, you were just one step from changing this world." Naruto held up his index finger and thumb, pinching them close together to emphasize his point—a tiny gap between them. "Just one step."
"You speak as if I'm already defeated."
The front panel of the wheelchair suddenly slid open, and a long black chakra receiver shot toward Naruto's chest like a bolt of lightning—but Naruto drew his sword in time and deflected it.
"I just want to understand," Naruto said evenly, as if the attack had come not from his enemy, not from the leader of Akatsuki, not from the most feared figure in the ninja world. "Why do people believe they're gods just because they have beautiful eyes?"
"Why do you think you have the right to judge others, to make the world *taste suffering*? What makes you believe that Amegakure is more pure and innocent than other villages?"
"You could never understand! You're nothing but a walking disaster! I can give life as easily as I can take it away! And this... this isn't even close to the peak of my power! Only when you've gone through everything I've experienced, endured the pain I endured, struggled for survival day after day, witnessed the brutality of those larger nations, and seen betrayal from your closest friends—you'll finally understand!"
Naruto simply shrugged and looked around as if waiting for something to happen. "Your parents died before your eyes? Mine did too. We both made the culprits pay, except I took much longer to do it. Your friends died in your arms? I had to rip a Black Receiver from someone who trusted me completely, someone willing to give everything for me, because you manipulated him."
"What are you trying to say?"
"What I'm saying is, there are plenty of people with worse stories than yours. That's life—you have to endure it."
A ninja has no right to justify his own madness. When you chose to become a ninja, to learn how to kill, and to fight against those who wanted to kill you, you already lost that right.
"I've endured enough," Nagato said painfully. "It was those experiences that shaped me into who I am today. I have become God, and I will make the world taste suffering so they can finally understand true peace."
Naruto just shook his head slightly. "Sounds like you've had it rough."
"I told you, you'll never understand."
"...I'm glad this is finally over."
The standard ninja blade in Naruto's hand pierced through Nagato's chest. Before his opponent could even react, he twisted the blade sideways, driving it deep beyond salvation.
He wasn't going to waste any more time arguing over ideologies. Instantly, he activated Sage Mode and closed the distance between them in an instant.
Gripping the hilt, he kept pushing until the guard pressed firmly against Nagato's chest. With his other hand, he clamped the man's mouth shut, preventing any sound from escaping. Nagato's drained body was powerless to resist the young killer's attack.
"The thing I truly hate about you isn't that you started a war," Naruto said softly, looking down at the helpless Nagato writhing beneath the blade. As he twisted the blade further, Nagato's strength rapidly faded away. "What I truly hate is that you dragged your family—the people who trusted you, who depended on you to protect them—into your pathetic revenge."
You can do whatever you want; as a ninja, you can find countless excuses for your actions. But when you become a country's leader, when your people need you to make the right choices, and when you use them as tools to chase your personal ambitions—that is the moment you lose the qualifications to be a leader.
After saying those words, Naruto moved his hand from Nagato's mouth to the top of his head and whispered,
"...Rasengan."
He had spent years honing the Rasengan, mastering countless variations of it.
Now, he pushed that technique to its limit—generating a Rasengan within Nagato's skull without triggering a chakra explosion.
He didn't need to see inside Nagato's skull to know it worked. The shattered Rinnegan, the blood seeping from his ears, nose, and mouth—that was proof enough of his success.
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