Chapter 58 — Swagger Won't Feed You, Nagato Bro
Yujiro thought that if Nagato and Konan were both standing there, they might show the same pained expression as Jiraiya did.
But Konan did not appear, and Nagato had long since grown used to operating from the shadows. So in this moment it was only Jiraiya who wallowed in the grief of an older man watching a former pupil fall.
"Never thought I'd meet you again under these circumstances," Jiraiya managed, voice breaking.
Across from him, Yahiko—no, Pain—remained perfectly impassive. That cold, godlike visage was everything Nagato wanted the world to see. Outside of the Deva Path, where were the other Paths? Lying in wait? Or had Nagato not yet completed the other bodies for this moment?
If the latter were true, their odds suddenly looked much better.
Yujiro mulled this over, while Jiraiya fell silent. He didn't know what to say. He lacked the face to lecture Nagato to turn back—and the heart to strike him down.
"You feel it, don't you?" Pain said softly, breaking the quiet. "You sense that intense pain."
Unlike the later, self-proclaimed deity, in this moment Pain still spoke with a trace of humanity. He referenced suffering and grief in a way that nearly made him seem… normal. But that was a dangerous illusion. Yujiro and Jiraiya both knew: Nagato had broken. When he killed his best friend with his own hands, the fracture became irreparable. He was a tragic madman now—unable to stop, unable to turn back. Even if he sensed the abyss ahead, he would march into it until the end.
And before the end, he wanted to humiliate the world with his unmatched power.
"So go back, Jiraiya-sensei," Pain told him. "I have perceived your sorrow. I have perceived your despair. I do not blame you; I forgive you. I do not wish to be your enemy. But if you impede me, even you… I will show no mercy."
"—Yahiko, Nagato…"
Jiraiya could only whisper. He remained frozen between being a teacher and being a warrior, paralyzed by indecision.
The rain kept falling.
Yujiro put a hand on Jiraiya's shoulder and stepped forward.
"Yujiro…?" Jiraiya breathed.
"Enough, Jiraiya-sensei," Yujiro said quietly. "If you're at a loss, don't force words you can't keep. Leave the villain role to me."
Jiraiya's hesitation turned into a silent nod. That quiet assent was effectively permission. Perhaps, unseen by all, Nagato sighed in the rain as well—disappointed in Jiraiya at that moment.
"I can put on a show with you all day, bro," Yujiro drawled. "But we don't have the luxury of American time. Let's be frank."
Yujiro and Nagato had no real history together. Nagato deserved sympathy, yes—but sympathy wasn't a currency you could spend in the ninja world and still expect progress. The world was full of tragic figures; if you paused for each one, you'd never get anything done.
So Yujiro was blunt.
"Listen: I don't like Danzo either. Konoha's already had a regime change—Fourth Hokage rules now. The old guard isn't in charge. If you want vengeance, you'll get it: the moment the village has the chance, guys like Danzo will be dealt with. That'll be eyes-wide-shut payback for you. You can sleep easy, bro. Everybody's happy. Isn't that better?"
He painted it in practical terms: undermine the old villainy by letting the new leadership handle it—quiet, tidy, effective. No theatrical showdown necessary.
Nagato said nothing.
—And the rain kept falling.
Yujiro's words fell into a stunned silence on both sides.
It was one of those odd little cognitive mismatches — what he'd just said didn't sit neatly with the prevailing mindset of the shinobi world. That mindset tended to magnify every hurt into a cosmic injustice: you get cheated, you lose some face, your lover gets conned — and the conclusion is quick and extreme: "The whole world is at fault." Psychology has a name for that tendency (Yujiro had forgotten the exact term), but it exists.
Grounded, practical, don't-blow-things-up-into-epic-conspiracies behavior like Yujiro's is rare. The next person who might behave like that would be Uchiha Sasuke — not yet present, but on the horizon.
A long moment passed. Then Pain spoke.
"—You have no reverence for the divine."
Even with Yahiko dead and his face a statue, Pain could still deliver that kind of composed, theatrical line without flinching. He continued, cold and elevated:
"In the chaos of war countless lives vanish; their suffering forged me. Only by walking through pain can a child shed his ignorance and become an adult. From that endless suffering I achieved growth beyond ordinary men — my metamorphosis from mortal to god. In this corrupt world of flame and ruin, I shoulder a divine mission: to hunt down peace and strike a final, halting chord against war."
If this were Nagato himself speaking, he would by now be in full zealot mode:
"I know—only by making the world feel true, crushing pain can we use terror as a deterrent to stop war's spread, and thus lead the world to order and peace!"
Everyone expected mockery. Instead, Yujiro applauded — seriously, sincerely.
"Impressive," he said. "With your power, if you wanted to, you could indulge in every excess and be a perpetual bridegroom. But you don't. You actually want to save the world. That makes you, in my book, the kindest person in the shinobi world.
"Honestly, I'm not as saintly as you are, but I also want to save the world, bro. You want to save the world, I want to save the world — we're teammates, aren't we?"
Pain said nothing. He only regarded Yujiro with a measured, inspecting gaze.
Of course Yujiro wasn't done.
"So let's act, great Kami-sama. You must already have plans: how to stop the endless rains and floods in the Land of Rain, how to tame the sandstorms of the Land of Wind. Unequal wealth distribution, barren fields, exhausted farmers and miserable laborers — surely you have ideas for giving them decent lives. At the very least, you must have a plan to make sure people don't go hungry, right?"
Even Pain — even though he was, at this point, practically a living corpse and perfectly aware that Yujiro's intentions weren't pure — felt something pierce him.
But Yujiro continued to push.
"And bro — even if you can't accomplish all that, don't worry. Pure, absolute military force will buy a generation of stability. Look at Hashirama. The God of Shinobi was so strong that in his lifetime no one dared resist him. But what happened after Hashirama died, you know that, don't you?
"So, Nagato: have you thought about how peace will be preserved after you die? The resentment, the anger and despair accumulated under your terror — when you're gone, they'll erupt. Have you prepared for that?"
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