Welcome to new reviewer Lil' DeiDei.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Nagato couldn't help but feel troubled when the whispers came down. They were never meant to reach his ears, but at the same time, the ones who whispered knew he'd find out about it and were not ashamed of their words.
Nagato stopped for a moment during the course of the battle to look for his teammates. Yahiko was busy having it out with an enemy nin, nodachi swinging left and right, hacking away at tissue and skin. Konan hovered above the fray, wings sending little wind currents swirling in the air. She seemed so remote from it all, until one noticed the paper shuriken flying from her hands.
His ringed eyes settled on Konan for a moment before Nagato tore his eyes away and focused his attention on the Iwa nin snarling at him.
We aren't anything like them, are we?
It troubled him constantly, being compared to the Sannin.
There wasn't any real reason, Nagato admitted, to be troubled by it, apart from Orochimaru (In his opinion, that didn't need any more explaining). He respected Tsunade and Jiraiya was a well-loved figure in his life, and under normal circumstances, he wouldn't mind being compared to them and would even feel somewhat flattered by it.
But he wasn't.
There was something wrong about being compared to the Sannin; Nagato knew that, deep down in his bones. Being compared with the good traits was all fine and good, but in order to be held up against the good, it was required to be held up against the bad as well.
If Konan was the new Tsunade, would she embark on the same destructive behavior patterns? Nagato prayed not, and wasn't afraid to have it out with anyone who even implied that Konan would some day be an alcoholic or overly fond of the lottery. Konan wasn't like that.
If Yahiko was Jiraiya in the flesh, then would he display the same irresponsibility? Sure, Jiraiya had gotten better about making sure everything was status quo and beyond, but he still disappeared on certain nights, and Nagato knew exactly where he was going. Nagato didn't like to think that Yahiko would ever be that sort of person.
And again, it was fairly self-explanatory why Nagato did not want to be compared in any way, shape or form with Orochimaru.
There was something else, and Nagato thought about it as he sent the Iwa nin running for his life.
Nagato wanted to be his own person. He wanted to make a name for himself, his own name, not shadowed by the looming reputation of another. Once someone stepped under the shadow of the Sannin, it would be a miracle if they ever managed to get out from under it and into the sunlight.
He could see similarities between them and the Sannin, and that disturbed Nagato more than anything. It was the way they worked together, complementing each other, as Yahiko tossed a nin towards Konan who shredded his skin with shuriken then let Nagato have him, who finished him off with a clean kunai strike to the throat. They were deadly together, and that, Nagato supposed, was a good part of why people seemed so fond of identifying the trio with the Sannin.
But as the order for the Leaf nin to fall back to their embattled base was given, Nagato knew the defining way in which he and his teammates were different from the Sannin.
Unlike the Sannin, Nagato, Konan and Yahiko knew when to pull out, and they knew when it was better not to fight.