HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND EMBRACE PAIN (NARUTO SI)
PROLOGUE: UNDERSTANDING PAIN
Somewhere in the outskirts of the Village Hidden in the Rain
Despite the many battles he fought, and the ocular power he obtained and strengthened through strife and conflict, Madara found time to be his potent weapon and his most dangerous foe. After many decades, the village which had cast him out, the clan that spurned him, and the world believed him to be dead allowing him to move freely within the shadows.
Hashirama Senju: the one obstacle on his path to peace that he couldn't overcome, was long dead and now Hashirama's power coursed through his body for the sake of his amitions. Through time and patience he mastered the once terrifying Wood Release: the bane of his clan, and now he was able to wield the powers of both the Uchiha and the Senju clans as one, just like the Ancient Sage of the Six Paths had done. And yet despite this new power, he only was able to unlock the Rinnegan in his old age with his body becoming weak and infirm forcing him to siphon chakra from the Gedo statue in order to keep himself alive.
While he could still utilize the Rinnegan's abilities, Madara knew that he was near the end of his natural lifespan and thus unable to collect the other tailed beasts, and crush the forces of this accursed Shinobi world who would dare to defy the peace he would bring.
Despite this setback, Madara refused to die leaving his plans unfulfilled, as he was the Second Coming of the Sage of the Six Paths destined to save mankind from this hellish world of conflict and strife. And for the sake of this goal, he would suffer any tribulation and pay any price. This was why despite the aches and strain placed upon his fragile body, he undertook the perilous journey outside his cave to fulfill the next step of his plan where he would obtain a vessel to carry out his will.
Now Madara was hidden in plain sight passing as a harmless elderly old man in the outskirts of the Village Hidden in the Rain. He paused as he reached his intended destination, with his gaze directed at a family standing outside a small nondescript house.
A White Zetsu popped its head from the ground and said, "these are the Uzumaki we found Lord Madara."
Madara smirked as he began walking towards them.
"The family of Uzumaki, no half Uzumaki," Madara corrected himself, noting the father's dark hair and the mother's and her child's red hair: the signature trait of an Uzumaki.
The family had finally noticed his approach and they turned their gaze towards him with the single Sharingan he possessed swirling as he cast them under a Genjutsu.
Madara walked closer towards the two red-haired Uzumaki, with his focus directed toward the mother. He noticed her vast, but untapped chakra reserves. As he looked around at their surroundings, he noted that these Uzumaki rather than being the fearsome Shinobi who made nations tremble over their master of sealing jutsu, were naught but mere civilians.
Madara knew his time was approaching, and accordingly he planned to continue his scheme from the shadows as the puppet master, and even beyond the grave through a vessel who would have the honor of bearing his eyes.
This was the reason why he sought out a candidate from the Uzumaki Clan as its members are known for their tremendous vitality and abundant reserves of chakra. Madara had originally thought of bestowing his eyes to the Uzumaki woman in front him, but he soon discarded that idea as a mere civilian would waste the power that came with the use of such eyes.
Madara needed someone who would use his eyes to their full potential as they would be able to eventually crush the fools who rejected peace and if needed, revive him through Rinne-Rebirth.
Madara's attention however shifted to the child in the woman's arms as something strange was occurring. The boy, like his mother, had extremely large chakra reserves as well, but his chakra was starting to fluctuate as the child seemed to be trying to resist the effects of his genjutsu.
Madara, fascinated by what he had seen, picked up the child from its mother's arms and stared at the child with his sole Sharingan piercing through the child's eyes.
The child seemed to focus intently on Madara with its gaze directed at his left eye, before ultimately passing out.
The child was only a few months old at best, and yet it instinctively tried to resist his genjutsu failing because its small body couldn't handle its chakra usage.
Madara smirked knowing he found a worthy vessel to bear his eyes. Based on what he had seen, he knew the boy had a massive amount of potential, and with just the right push, he would serve as the perfect tool to become the foundation upon which his road to peace would be paved.
— — —
Seven Years Later
The sound of explosions could be heard in the distance with the shockwaves rattling the very buildings they lived in.
Fusō and her family took shelter within their home as a battle between the Shinobi of the Hidden Rain and the enemy Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf was taking place near the outskirts of the village. As the Hidden Rain village bordered many great nations, it unwillingly became the battlefield whenever war broke out among them. It was only thanks to the leadership of Lord Hanzo, that the village was still standing in its current form.
And as she hoped for the Hidden Rain's victory over the invaders she couldn't help but think about her son, Nagato: her pride and joy.
Fusō knew that ever since Nagato was born, that he was quite strange. She remembered how when he was born, rather than crying as normal infants would do, Nagato instead made no sound whatsoever. She and her husband Ise had been scared that he had been born stillborn, but instead she found her child simply staring at them as though it was in deep thought. Though he started crying not long after, she brushed it off, as something she imagined, but now she just wasn't sure anymore.
Looking back, she remembered how Nagato simply stopped crying altogether a few months after he was born. At first she welcomed it feeling relief at no longer having to deal with a crying baby many hours into the night, but now she started to feel increasingly concerned by her son's odd behaviors.
Nagato was what she could best describe as an odd child who started speaking earlier than other children. And rather than starting off simply babbling words, he spoke complete sentences and phrases taking both her and her husband by surprise. They welcomed it as their son had shown himself to be a natural prodigy.
Though she was concerned when it came to his social development, rather than playing or even interacting with the other children in the village, he simply preferred to stay inside reading whatever he could get his hands on. And whenever other children tried interacting with him, he simply ignored them altogether. She and Ise had thought that her son was just shy, but when they had asked him about it, he said that he had no interest in playing with small children, as if he himself wasn't a small child.
To make matters worse, he had developed an odd habit of staring at himself in the mirror and squinting. Ise had his son's eyes examined thinking that he might have needed glasses, but he found that Nagato had nothing wrong with his sight. They then simply assumed that it was a phase that he was going through. And despite his odd quirks, Fusō knew that Nagato was a kind and sweet child at heart.
Though the village was heavily militarized, she and Ise were not Shinobi, but rather worked to save lives as opposed to taking them, with Fusō working in the village as a doctor while she assisted him as a nurse.
And while they both were from the Hidden Eddy, they had chosen not to become Shinobi but to instead live as civilians where they would work to save lives instead of taking them as Shinob had done. As a member of the Uzumaki Clan, Fusō had been born with a vast amount of chakra and her parents wanted her to become a Shinobi.
But she found herself unable to take a life, being disgusted by the idea. And so despite it being against her parents' wishes, she had chosen instead to save lives as a nurse. That was how she had met Fusō, who worked as a traveling doctor who went to various war-torn areas providing humanitarian aid.
She had followed him to the Hidden Rain, and not long after they had fallen in love with each other. And after she had become pregnant with Nagato, they had chosen to settle down in Hidden Rain, becoming its citizens.
And while she became estranged from her parents, she had always wanted to reconcile with them, but she had never gotten a chance as her old village was destroyed.
She looked down at her son who she kept near her, and prayed that he wouldn't experience the horrors of war she and her husband had suffered through.
"Mother…Father, it seems the explosions have stopped," Nagato said without a trace of fear in his voice, "do you think that our enemies were defeated?"
"It's too early to tell Nagato," Ise said with a slightly nervous tone, "keep your voice down and stay out of sight. Even if we won, there could still be enemy shinobi hiding out there."
A frown appeared on Nagato's face, as he sighed, saying "I'm sorry for asking father, I just hope that this war ends so that we can go back to our normal lives."
"It's alright son, soon this war will be over and we'll be able to return to our normal lives again," he said, trying to reassure him.
However their worst fears were realized when the door to their house was kicked open.
Fusō grabbed Nagato and brought him near her side ready to protect him with her life while Ise had grabbed a spare scalpel he had on hand, using whatever he could to defend his family.
The enemy Shinobi rushed straight for their kitchen gorging themselves on the food which she and her husband had saved up.
"Man this tastes great!" a Shinobi exclaimed, "these sure beat our awful rations!"
Seeing as the enemy Shinobi were distracted, Ise whispered "Now's our chance to make a run for it."
"B…But father, we'll be sure to get caught," Nagato said nervously, "we should stay hidden."
"Don't worry we'll be fine. You're mother and I will protect you," Ise said smiling, in a vain attempt to reassure him.
Fusō however knew deep down that her husband, just like her, was terrified of facing off against an enemy shinobi.
With the enemy ninja distracted, Fusō, Ise, and Nagato managed to flee their home hoping to find a place to hide and lie low until the rest of the Hidden Rain's Shinobi came to liberate them.
Despite not having anything but the clothes on their backs, Fusō was still grateful that they all had their lives.
"Father, what will we do for food?" Nagato asked, concerned, "we left everything back at home."
In order to put Nagato at ease, she tried giving him a reassuring smile, but it did little to mask her own concerns.
"We will be fine Nagato," she said.
"We can always find something later. What's important now is to find someplace to hide until all this is over."
"Hide? Oh I don't think you can do that anymore," a voice she didn't recognize said.
Fusō turned around in horror and saw a Shinobi draped in black robes and wearing a white pig's mask.
She and her family tried to run the other way only for two other Shinobi to appear behind her.
Fusō noticed that like the Shinobi wearing the pig-shaped mask, these two were wearing masks as well with one wearing a cat-shaped mask while the other wore a bear-shaped mask.
"Looks like we found some rats trying to escape," the bear-masked shinobi behind her said, smirking as he pulled out a kunai from his weapon pouch.
"Kill them!"
Desperate to protect their son, Fusō and Ise rushed towards the two enemy shinobi in front of them.
Ise with his scalpel managed to stab the Shinobi in the cat mask in the arm causing him to drop his kunai. And just before Ise could stab him again, his comrade in the bear mask appeared behind him and bashed Ise on the head, causing him to collapse to the ground.
"Nooo!" Fusō screamed.
"You damned Hidden Rain scum!" the Shinobi with the cat mask said, clutching his bleeding arm.
"Nagato run!" Fusō cried out, as she desperately tried to wrestle the kunai away from the Shinobi in front of her, only to find herself overpowered and thrown to the ground.
Nagato tried to run away, but he was caught by the Shinobi in the bear mask.
"Now that we've captured and subdued them, we should interrogate for information about Hanzo's forces," the Shinobi in the bear mask said, "after all those were our orders."
The Shinobi in the bear mask directed his attention towards Fusō, "you there woman, where are Hanzo's forces located?"
"It's no use asking her, Bear," the Shinobi in the pig mask said.
"Look at these people closely. They're not Shinobi, but civilians."
"Damn we wasted time here!" the Shinobi in the cat mask exclaimed, his voice expressing his exasperation.
"What should we do with them Pig?" the shinobi in the bear mask asked.
"We have no use of them. They likely won't provide us with any useful information anyway," the Shinobi wearing the Pig mask said.
"Plus if we let them escape now, they'll probably be spotted by enemy reinforcements, and alert them to our presence."
Knowing what was about to happen Fusō let out a silent prayer that they would be saved, but her hopes were dashed when the Shinobi in the Pig mask gave the order to execute them.
"Nagato!" Fusō screamed as she tried to reach out for her son.
She felt a sharp pain in her abdomen, and looking down she realized that she had been stabbed. Fusō then collapsed to the ground still conscious but unable to move.
She could only watch helplessly as Ise was then stabbed in the chest. She could do nothing but scream as silently as he fell motionless onto the ground.
The shinobi with the bear mask pulled out his Kunai only to be stopped by the Shinobi with the pig mask.
"I'm sorry child that you have to suffer such a cruel fate. But worry not, as I've fashioned a poison for you that will kill you painlessly," he said.
Fusō saw the tears streaming down Nagatos's face, whose sobs slowly turned into laughter.
"Ah I finally understand now," he said, "this must be what it's like to feel true Pain."
Fusō, feeling her consciousness slipping, reached out towards her son and with her last breath she said, "Naga…to, I'm…sorry."
— — —
Bear hated this part of his job, but as a member of Lord Danzo's Root, he would serve as the foundation which would support the Hidden Leaf no matter at any cost regardless of how heinous the price for peace was.
And as they were acting to secretly gather intel within the Hidden Rain, they couldn't leave behind any witnesses which is why these people had to die.
Looking at the small child in front of him Bear couldn't help but pity him.
The child was crouched on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably after watching his parents die.
Bear took a closer look at him and noticed how frail he looked. "Perhaps killing him would be more merciful than letting him live," he thought to himself.
"I'm sorry child that you have to suffer such a cruel fate," he said to the red-haired boy in front of him.
"But worry not, as I've got a poison for you that will kill you painlessly."
But as he removed the vial of poison from his flak jacket, he noticed that something was off.
He had thought the child was shaking from his shuddering sobs, but the kid wasn't crying at all, he was laughing.
The child lifted his head from the ground, his face still wet from his tears from earlier and stared directly at Bear.
"Ah…I finally understand now," the child said calmly, smirking at the Root Shinobi, "this is what it's like to feel true pain."
Sensing imminent danger, he dropped the vial and went for his kunai.
"Pig, Cat get away from this kid now!"
"Almighty Push!" the child roared, with a single hand outstretched towards them.
The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was the child's eyes, whose color changed from a coal black to an amethyst purple.
— — —
As he regained consciousness, Bear opened his eyes and was greeted by a ghastly sight.
The buildings surrounding him were utterly destroyed as though the village was hit by some sort of massive storm. He looked around to try and find his team-mates, only to find them lying near him impaled by a bunch of strange black rods.
"Who could have done this?!" he thought, shocked and frightened by what he had seen.
His thoughts immediately shifted to the red-haired child. He remembered the last thing he saw were the brat's mad laughter, and its eyes changing color from black to purple.
He concluded that this must have been the work of some sort of new or undiscovered kekkei genkai.
"I need to find that boy," Bear said to himself planning to search the area for the child, only to pause after feeling the very earth trembling behind him.
Turning his head around, he saw the red-haired boy, surrounded by dark pink flames as what looked like a giant head emerged from below the earth.
Bear watched in sheer astonishment, and horror as the creature opened its mouth, and then with its long tongue, brought the bodies of the child's father, and then his mother into its mouth.
Bear was terrified as he had just seen a child feed his parents' bodies to some sort of demon. This wasn't some random kid, but some sort of demon child.
"What kind of horror have I unleashed upon the world?!" he thought.
Bear knew he needed to get away. He needed to warn the village and Lord Danzo of what he had seen.
And as he struggled to stand he sensed the demon-child's glare directed towards him.
The child extended his arm outwards and then made a gesture as though he was pulling something towards him.
Bear found himself being dragged towards the demon child by some sort of invisible force, and tried desperately to resist kicking at the ground and clawing at with his kunai until he was laid at the demon child's feet.
"I'm impressed you're still alive almost completely unscathed by my Almighty Push," the child said with a cruel smirk.
"You monster!" Bear hissed at the boy. "You fed your own parents to that thing, demon-child!"
"Demon-child?! Monster?!" the red-headed boy exclaimed, incredulously.
"That's rich coming from the ANBU shinobi who tried to massacre an innocent child and his parents. Besides, who said anything about killing them? They'll soon have their wounds healed."
The red haired boy gestured at the sole surviving ANBU shinobi, and said "though I can't say the same thing will happen to you."
The boy's smug smirk morphed into a cruel grin as he outstretched both his arms towards Bear.
Bear reached for a Kunai to try and throw at the child, but he found himself forced to the ground as two black rods emerging from the child's arms, penetrated Bear's hands pinning him to the ground.
He was now unable to move and unable to use ninjutsu of any kind to help him escape. He tried kicking at the child with his legs desperately trying to escape only for the child to direct his hands towards his feet.
"Wait no please!" Bear cried out in fear and desperation!
The boy's smile vanished as a dark and ghastly expression appeared on his face, full of nothing but hatred and rage as he shot those same black rods into Bear's legs.
"Feel pain, contemplate pain, accept pain, and know pain," the boy said.
"It is by accepting this reality that you self-righteous shinobi will finally understand the suffering you inflict on others in your many wars."
The boy now stood directly over him, with the wind blowing away his long hair, making his eyes appear as clear as a cloudless sky. Bear noticed the deep purple color of the eyes along with the black spiral ripple pattern.
"Those eyes…No that's impossible!" he said, shuddering in denial of what he saw.
"That's the -"
"These eyes are the legendary Rinnegan, the eyes of the venerable Sage of the Six Paths who founded this Shinobi world of ours," the boy said calmly.
"Wh..who a..a..are you?" Bear stammered fearful of the unknown entity before him.
"Earlier you called me a monster and a demon-child, but neither of those are my name," the boy said.
"My name is Nagato Uzumaki, the Second Sage of the Six Paths, and the one who shall tear down this accursed Shinobi world of ours and remake it anew. But for scum like you, you may refer to me as Pain."
"Though I must say that despite what you and your other friends have done to me Mr. Bear, I'm truly grateful to all three of you as you taught me the meaning of true pain within this wretched world of ours. And as a token of my gratitude I'd like to share this pain with you as well."
Bear tried to scream, but he felt an overwhelming force bearing down on him, slowly crushing him until his vision was consumed by darkness.
Hey guys Basileus Komnenos here,
I've started another story rn. Though as I've finally graduated and its summer, I've got a lot more free time now to write stories and do other things. And as for my other stories, right now I'll be focusing on this fic for the foreseeable future.
I hope you guys enjoyed reading this prologue as the next chapter is coming soon.
Regards,
Basileus_Komnenos
