Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Or Pein for that matter, unfortunately.
They say it's lonely at the top. Nobody ever mentioned the numbness. Then again, maybe no one else even knew what it felt like to be so high above being a mere mortal. The lack of emotion, perpetual numbness, distanced from all other life forms but himself. All these things came with the privilege of a higher plane of existence. The unfeeling…it gnawed at him, stretching the thin line of sanity he walked, stretching it thinner and thinner. It was cold, so very cold in this existence of which he subsided. Nobody could get close, nobody could touch his guarded soul. He was alone…forever alone.
When he made love to his humble servant Konan, the angel who carried out his bidding without a complaint, who would pleasure him without a second thought, he felt nothing. Naught at his victories…at his spoils. Nothing as men, strong, grown, and hardened from so many years of war, wept at his feet. There was only pain. Harsh, unforgiving, pain. The kind that ripped at your very core, the nerves erupting in and screaming in protest. The kind so intense, it was the very sole thing that could blow away those blades that surrounded his heart, the ones he spent so long sharpening, for a split-second. Just long enough to pierce his aching, fragile heart and cause a scream to rip through his body. But anything, even pain, was better than the dull numbness.
Was it worth it? Was the privilege of being given this higher plane, this way of living, really worth the numbness and loneliness that came with it? The reward…was it worth everything he went through? The pain, the coldness that ripped through his very soul? Yes, it was without a doubt in his mind, worth it. There was no price to be put on ending the years of unforgiving war that had so burdened this nation. He would give anything, anything at all, even his very emotions and feelings, to see that the people of the streets of Amegakure were free of oppression. That the government was rightful and just to it's people. That the government was what it was meant to be, a servant to the people. He was a hero to his people. For he had given them the best gift they could ever ask for. He had given his people freedom. He had set them free from the cage that was oppression. That was the duty of a god, and it was a decision he never, ever regretted. Not even for a second.