A/N: I apologize again for taking so long with Sasori – I swear to SOPHIA, and all that is good and knowing in the world, that was most impossible writing EVER. I actually wrote this in advance, for if I ever DO manage to get the last 17 TRUTHS down for that puppet, I imagine the world will end, just to spite me. Without further adieu, here is Pain/Nagato/Yahiko.
Second Note: OK, obviously I managed it, because you're reading this, and probably read the previous chapter. Anyway, here is Pain. This chapter is far longer than either of the first three, so enjoy.
Nagato/Pain\Yahiko
#1 – Nagato immediately knew what he had to do once he heard of the tailed beasts. If they wanted peace, it would follow the war to end all wars.
#2 – Little did he know, he was the fourth person to have those exact thoughts.
#3 – Pain picks the members of the Akatsuki not based on their strength alone, but by their "appearance" and personality as well. A physically immortal zealot, a cocky, regenerating miser, an artist that would (and did) die with their art, an apathetic puppet, and a swordsman who would give his life in a fight against his disciple all have one very important thing in common.
#4 – Yahiko picked Konan not because she was stellar or useful, but because he loves her.
#5 – Pein once thought that his bodies had minds of their own when he wasn't in control. Like all other nightmares, he fights his absolute hardest not to remember it.
#6 – Konan knows that her dream has come true. It is of no consequence to her that it is Nagato's darkest Night Terror – something not to be thought of, but something to be instinctively feared.
#7 – Pain is warming up to his newest body incredibly quickly. He's thinking of calling it Pane, with a Western Pronunciation.
#8 – Pane is the only body of the Rin'negan in its history without its own independent thoughts. Paehn's most secret conspiracy, shared only with those that can't listen, is that it is making up for the creativity of its last life.
#9 – Nagato has the potential for seven Rin'negan bodies, but doesn't know this, and isn't fool enough to try.
#10 – This is his key to immortality. It will never be turned.
#11 – Nagato knows that the number 11 is necessary for him to succeed. This knowledge is on a level far surpassing instinct or logic. "For we are the salt of the earth, us who are knowing, but we must create our justice swiftly, less the world fall deeper still."
#12 – Pain wishes he only had to deal with Duality, but it is not to be. He has to deal with Sextuality. (A/N: This is as funny as I get. Word Play. Chuckle now or forever hold your laughing. Seriously, it only gets angstier from here on out.)
#13 – While Nagato loved his parents with all of his heart, he couldn't help but envy Yahiko's Once-Daimyo father and Kunoichi Mother.
#14 – While Yahiko loved his parents with all of his heart, he couldn't help but envy Nagato's Blacksmith father and tailor mother.
#15 – Nagato agreed with Yahiko for the first time in years on the eve of Jiraiya's death.
This was the firs time the Tears of Amegakure stopped – Pain himself needed them more.
#16 – While everyone in the Akatsuki had a "son" and a protégé, Pæn .was the only one with a true son. The boy had lost his "true" father before birth, though his thoughts remain, and he sees him near every day.
#17 – There are eleven men he truly respects. Among them are five from Konoha, one from Ame, one from Suna, one from Taki, one from Kiri, one from Kusa, and one that is from a place he could barely understand. By far, Konoha has the most among his respected men, though few of those were conscious decisions.
#18 – Emotional Pain hurts, he found at four when his parents were killed by Iwa-nin, and he was left for dead in the aftermath of the blast.
Spiritual Pain hurts too, he found at six when his honor was stripped of him and the temple (his temporary home) was razed to the ground.
Physical Pain hurts a lot he found at nine, when he took blows so that Konan would be spared.
The Pain of Betrayal, however, holds the most potential in his mind. He learned this at 16.
#19 – Why does it have such might? Because it burns like all three. It cuts like the blades of the divine, carving circles in his eyes. It burns with the pain that makes sane men mad, when they were already grasping at straws.
#20 – God needs his followers because it is lonely at the top.