Atop the high tower, the Deva Path Pain observed everything unfolding in the distance. The newcomer had no intention of hiding, and the Rain Tiger at Will Technique had detected him immediately.
Sheets of paper flew in from afar, slowly coalescing into a tall, beautiful woman with long blue hair.
"Are you going?" Konan asked Pain. "You only just overexerted your life force in the last battle with Iwagakure..." She was worried; after all, an enemy appearing so brazenly in Amegakure must have come prepared.
"This is an unprecedented opportunity," the Deva Path Pain said, shaking his head slightly. That immense chakra could belong to no one else but the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. With the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki possessing the Flying Thunder God Technique, he was currently the only Akatsuki member capable of capturing him.
Perhaps because he had become a perfect Jinchuriki, Uzumaki Naruto, like the First Hokage's wife Mito Uzumaki, had gained the ability to sense hostility. This made it impossible for Akatsuki's intelligence operative, White Zetsu, to monitor him. It could be said that ever since the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki left Konoha, Akatsuki had an intelligence vacuum regarding him. What little information they had was gleaned from his recent battles.
"I understand. I will protect you." Konan nodded slightly, her body dissolving back into countless sheets of paper that drifted away.
A golden tail materialized behind Naruto. With a mere thought, the incapacitated Ame ninja were swatted to the ground like falling dumplings. Sensing a powerful chakra approaching at high speed, he stopped paying attention to the grunts on the ground and turned to face the newcomer.
"God?" "Look, it's God!" "..." The villagers, who had been flustered moments before due to the defeat of their Enforcement Squad, became strangely excited the instant they saw Pain. It was as if religious devotees were witnessing their god descend to earth.
"You've done a lot for them," Naruto said to Yahiko (Pain). "I once thought Akatsuki would be some kind of nefarious terrorist organization." The moment they met, sensing the complete lack of life from the other's body, he understood that this world's Yahiko was already dead. The one standing before him was merely a corpse controlled by someone else.
"Let's fight somewhere else. You wouldn't want to see the people who believe in you die in the crossfire of our battle, would you?"
"...Follow me." Hearing this, Pain's pupils constricted slightly. He gave Naruto a deep look; he, who had always presented himself as a god, showed an emotion only mortals possessed.
Their figures quickly vanished from the villagers' sight. But the fervor in their hearts did not cool. That was God, the one who had saved Amegakure, saved them all! To think they were fortunate enough to see his true form today!
Tap, tap, tap~
Their figures slowly came to a halt above a vast ocean. Having moved beyond the range of the Rain Tiger at Will Technique, sunlight once again shone down on them.
"Do you also desire peace?" Pain suddenly asked, a hint of yearning in his voice. He had thought that no one besides Konan could understand the peace he pursued in the shinobi world. This feeling, like meeting a kindred spirit while walking a long, dark road, was truly hard to describe in words.
"Can I hear your understanding of peace?" Naruto also asked. Although this was their first meeting in this world, the impression Pain gave him wasn't that of someone who would rely on the Ten-Tails to fulfill selfish desires.
"My philosophy of peace..." Pain looked up at the blue sky and white clouds, pondered for a long time, then slowly began to speak: "Let me start with my understanding of war. War, by its very nature, is a struggle between people that inevitably brings death, scars, and pain to both sides. However, throughout the long history of shinobi, the pain brought by such wars has been vague and unequal. For the same losses, the pain endured by a small nation like the Land of Rain cannot even be compared to that of a large nation like the Land of Fire. But even the Five Great Shinobi Nations, after suffering what they consider insignificant pain, develop an aversion to war and a longing for peace."
"It is precisely because of the pain experienced in the Third Great Ninja War that people rejected war, leading to the current peace. But humans are fickle. Today's shinobi have already forgotten the pain they once suffered. They are starting arms races, training ninja on a large scale, and provoking one another..."
"My idea is to collect the Tailed Beasts and create an ultimate weapon. Then, when people's inhibition against war reaches its lowest point... Make them feel pain anew, experience pain, understand pain, accept pain! You only see the trees, not the forest. Make the world know true pain! The fear of pain can stop war! Those who do not understand pain can never understand true peace!" Towards the end, Pain threw his arms wide to the sky, passionately proclaiming his ideals, his voice fervent!
Compared to the Dragon Vein timeline, his view on peace is much sharper. Is it because the timelines are different, leading to fundamentally different ideologies, or did something else happen... Naruto thought to himself after hearing Pain's speech.
"As fellow disciples of Jiraiya-sensei, you, who forced the Four Great Shinobi Villages to issue peace declarations—can you understand me?" Pain asked.
"I can understand parts of it." Naruto nodded slightly. After all, his own philosophy of peace bore a strong resemblance in some respects. One could even say Pain's philosophy was more complete than his own. Because to this day, he had yet to find an ultimate weapon capable of deterring all shinobi.
But...
"Do you know what will be created when the nine Tailed Beasts are combined?" Naruto frowned slightly, unable to resist asking.
"A powerful force capable of making the world feel pain," Pain replied.
"Who told you that?"
"..." Pain fell silent. The image of a figure wearing a yellow spiral mask involuntarily surfaced in his mind.
"A long time ago, in an era forgotten by history, a monster capable of destroying the world somehow appeared on the land. People didn't know what to call it, so based on its appearance, they named it the Ten-Tails." Seeing Pain's silence, Naruto recounted the story Kurama had told him about the Ten-Tails.
The Ten-Tails... Pain's expression flickered. The current shinobi world had nine Tailed Beasts, but no Ten-Tails...
"That's right. The Ten-Tails is the product of combining the nine Tailed Beasts." Noticing the change in Pain's expression, Naruto nodded slightly, delivering the final answer. Telling stories, especially telling them well, was genuinely difficult for him.
"...Was it the Sage of Six Paths who divided it into the nine Tailed Beasts?" Pain asked, recalling the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path that only he could summon.
"It seems that person hid a lot from you," Naruto said.
Pain: "..."
"In a way, the Ten-Tails can indeed make the world feel pain. But the first one to feel that pain might be you." Naruto slowly drew Kusabimaru from his waist. With a light swing, a ten-foot-long blade of light shot out.
A distant reef was split in two. A white figure emerged, then slowly dissolved into a puddle of white mud...