Writing Prompt #28 from r/NarutoFanfiction by livezinshadowz - Take one deus ex machina moment and change it to a more satisfying, less ass-pully one.
Sacrifices
Pain watched with a stone expression as the wall opened up and the dark room was bathed in light. Someone entered, looking like a shadow surrounded by a halo of white. He heard his ever loyal friend step forward beside him.
"Stand back Konan." He said.
She looked to him, compassion in her eyes. "Nagato…" He didn't repeat himself, and he didn't have to. She listened and obeyed, like she always had.
Naruto stepped forward allowing the walls to close together behind him. Nagato thought it brave. To enter the base of his enemy with no back up, and no exit in sight.
"You're the real one. You're Pain." Said Naruto.
Nagato nodded softly. "You've come to kill me. Haven't you?"
"No."
"Why did you come here, if not to kill me?"
Naruto hesitated. Even without his rinnegan, Naruto's efforts to control his emotions were visible from his trembling fists to his clenched jaw. "I wanted to see how I'd feel… once I saw your face."
"And?"
"I can't forget what you've done, but I can forgive you. You're a victim of this system the same as anyone else. Jiraiya-sensei would've wanted me to see the good in you he once saw." Naruto said the words as if they were some ungodly taste infecting his mouth. He didn't want to forgive, that much was true. He was doing it regardless.
Nagato sighed and leant his head back and closed his eyes, easing the soreness in his neck and trying to ignore the throbbing of a headache he'd seemingly always had.
"Forgiveness won't undo what I've done to you. The people I've taken. The lives I've destroyed."
Naruto's voice rose in indignation. "We can rebuild. We can grow again. We did it once after the Kyuubi attacked, so I'll be damned if we don't do it again."
It was strange, thought Nagato, how quickly and easily it came to Naruto. This sense of belief and hope. That it could turn out all right. It was wrong. Nagato had seen the truth of it all those years ago. Nothing got better. Nothing changed. The cycle of hatred would turn until the ends of time, and it would touch everyone one way or another.
He leant forwards and met the gaze of the boy who believed in good.
"This decision, this mercy you're showing me. It's come easily to you, hasn't it?"
Naruto shook his head as if still warring in his own mind. "Hurting you won't bring back the people I love."
Nagato smiled grimly. "What if it could?"
Konan leapt in front of him in the same moment Naruto stepped forward. There was a light in his eyes that hadn't been there before. Nagato continued, even as Naruto stepped forward with every word.
"These eyes, in my head, are god's eyes. They see everything, the physical and that which exists beyond. I can see their lost souls."
"Don't."
Naruto's voice rumbled with an otherness that chilled Nagato's bones to the core. He fought through the fear.
"They believed in you. Believe you could keep them safe."
"You bastard!"
"Shizune, Hinata, Kakashi."
"Don't say their names!"
"Jiraiya!"
The walls shook and paper filled the air, crumbling from the surroundings of Konan's construct. Nagato had to shout to get through to him.
"I have the power to bring them back!" Naruto stopped, barely two feet from Konan. "Along with every life I've taken today. They would be whole. My reign of terror nothing but a nightmare to fade into your memories. But I won't."
Naruto's voice trembled with weakness. "What do you want from me?"
"I won't bring them back for you. The decision lies in your hands Naruto. You can kill me here, right now, and take my eyes. Bring back the people you love and swore to protect. Use my power to achieve your dreams, whatever they may be. Or you can hold to your morals, your ninja way. Let me live. And I promise you, on our sensei's grave, I will return, and next time I will defeat you. No matter what it takes, no matter who I have to kill, you won't survive me again. Make your choice Naruto Uzumaki."
Silence stretched in the wake of his words. He could see the cogs turning in Naruto's mind. He was beginning to see the world for what it was. No place for idealism and naïve dreams. The prospect of seeing those he loved brought back to life would be his breaking point. That's what it would take. Why, in that very moment he would be visualizing exactly how he could take out Konan an-
"I'm not going to kill you."
It took a second for the words to register in Nagato's mind before he laughed incredulously. "You're not going to kill me?"
"I'll defeat you a million times if I have to. I'll prove to you that peace can win. But I'll do it on my own terms. Without death."
Naruto turned and began to walk away. Nagato realized the finality in the boy's words.
"You're a fool." He called out after him. "Do you think they'll understand when you tell them you let me go free? They'll hate you!"
Naruto peeled back the wall and was again bathed in light. "Probably. But I like to think they'll understand. The cycle of hatred needs to be broken, and I can't tell them to do it if I can't bring myself to do it. I choose peace."