Chapter 52: Pain's Peace
Normal P.O.V.
As Naruto steps outside of his mind and back into reality with his new feelings of peace, relief, and determination filling his heart, he was ready to finish his fight with Pain. On the other side of the battle, Pain watches anxiously as his opponent struggles against his attack.
"I can't believe it! He's digging himself out of my Chibaku Tensei! I must stop him by increasing the size before he escapes!" Pain lifts his hands for another attack but stops as the Nine-Tail's form disappears, "What?! It just… vanished?! But how?! Where did he go?!"
In its place, Naruto stands still with his Sage Mode activated. Just he was about to jump towards his enemy, the sphere collapses. To save himself from falling, Naruto jumps from each falling boulder until he finally reaches the round.
"Oh my, that was a close one!"
"Huh? What was that?" Naruto asks while looking around. Suddenly, one of Katsuya's clones appears on his right shoulder, "Lady Katsuyu? What are you doing here?"
"I attached myself to you a little bit ago while you were in the Nine-Tails' form. I've been helping to heal you too. Are you alright?"
"Yes, but why are you here? It's dangerous. Where's Grandma Tsunade and Pervy Sage? Are they alright?" Naruto turns his head towards where the village once stood and gasps when he sees dust coming from that direction, "That village is over that way, but what happened? Where's Sasuke's body?"
"Lady Tsunade summoned me for her Immense Network Healing Jutsu. She used almost all her chakra to help heal the villagers before operating on Master Jiraiya. She told me that after she uses the last of her chakra, she would fall into a comma. It's faint, but I can sense both of hers and Master Jiraiya's chakra. As far as I can tell, they're both safe,"
"That's a relief. But what happened to the village? I know Pain leveled it, but it looks like more damage was done to it,"
"You did that, Naruto. While you were in the Nine-Tails form. You created more damage to the village, but no casualties were reported,"
"And what about Sasuke?" Naruto asked nervously.
"I found the body of the young Uchiha. There are no signs of life, but his body is unharmed,"
Even though the news of Sasuke's death brings hot tears to his eyes, knowing that his rampage did not hurt his mate's corpse gives Naruto a sense of relief, "Thank you for letting me know, Lady Katsuyu," he says while whipping the tears from his eyes with the heel of his hand.
"Naruto Uzumaki! The time has come to end this battle!" Pain calls out.
Naruto stops whipping his tears and nods, "Yeah, you're right. Let's do this,"
"Before we begin, let me ask you something. Do you finally comprehend pain? Unless you have not understood it, then you cannot understand someone else's. And, even if you understood their pain, you may never agree with them. That's why it was useless; all the training you did to get Sasuke back. After he came back, he was thrown in jail for your sake. You did not understand his pain just like he did not understand Itachi's. Everything both of you did was for nothing. Both of you chased after something neither of you could comprehend just to have Sasuke meet his end and you yours soon. Tell me, Naruto Uzumaki, how does it feel? What have you come to understand?"
Naruto stood there, glaring at Deva Pain, and said nothing. He only had one goal on his mind, and he couldn't accomplish it here, "Enough of this. Take me to the real Pain's body now. I need to end this. I want to talk to him face-to-face now,"
"Ah, so you've figured it out, huh? How knowledgeable of you. I guess the rumors are true then; you're not as stupid as you play. It matters not. The time for conversation is over,"
"Take me to the real Pain now. I won't be asking again," Naruto growls with clenching fists.
"So, you've come this far and still you understand nothing. Fine, then allow me to be your teacher then,"
"Naruto,"
"Don't worry, Lady Katsuyu. I have a plan to defeat him. Just hang on tight and keep healing me,"
Pain throws his right hand out, unleashing one of those black rods before thrusting it forward. Naruto dodges it, grabs the rod, throwing Pain against a boulder in the process, and thrusts it into his right shoulder. Using his Sage Power, he focuses his charka on the real Pain's location. When Naruto finds him, he smirks.
"Found you,"
"Bastard," Pain growls as he stands up.
"Multi-Shadow-Clone Jutsu!" Naruto summons three Shadow Clones before creating a Sage Wind Rasenshuriken, "Smoke Bombs, now!"
His Shadow Clones throw smoke bombs to cover the real Naruto. Deva Pain stands his ground as he anticipates the first attack. Two Sage Wind Rasenshurikens appear. Deva Pain uses his Universal Pull attack to dispel the two Shadow Clones before jumping out of the attacks' way. While in the air, he watches as the attacks tear through the boulders where he was just standing. Thinking he won, Pain gets ready for his final attack. However, he was not ready for Naruto's surprise.
"Now!" Naruto yells as at least a hundred Shadow Clones jump out of the ground.
"What?! Impossible?!"
"We only have four seconds! We can do this! Let's Go! Go!" Naruto commands his clones.
The clones try to get close enough for the attack.
"Three seconds! Two! One! Zero!" Pain uses his Universal Pull attack to create more distance between him and Naruto's clones, but he notices something interesting, "No! He's using his clones as backup!"
As the attack finishes, only two clones and the real Naruto remains, panting Naruto uses the last of his chakra to form a final Rasengan, "Give up Pain. You've lost!"
Naruto's two clones grab hold of both arms to launch Naruto towards Deva Pain. As he gets close, Naruto's Rasengan attack lands in Deva Pain's chest, ultimately defeating him. Having won the battle, Naruto leans down and begins taking the black receivers out of his opponent's body.
"What are you doing, Naruto?" Lady Katsuyu asks.
"The real Pain uses these to control his clones. If they've been removed, then the clone can't move. There, that should be the last one,"
"What, will you do now? Will you go confront the real Pain?"
"Yeah. That's the only way I know that things will be done,"
"Then let me heal you first,"
"But Lady Katsuyu, you should be helping someone else. I'll be alright with Kurama's chakra,"
"You're the one who needs me right now. You may have the Nine-Tails inside of you, but with my help, you'll heal twice as fast. Now, why don't you rest up for a moment? Something tells me you're going to need all the chakra you can manage for this one,"
"Hn. Alright. I guess I could take a little break,"
Naruto settles down with his sweaty back against the cool ground and looks up to the bright sky. The image of Sasuke's corpse and the destroyed village weighing heavily on his mind.
Closing his eyes, Naruto makes an internal pledge, "Sasuke, I promise to create a world of peace; one both you and Itachi can be proud of,"
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After Lady Katsuyu cleared him, Naruto continued onward to find the real Pain. When he came to the tree where Konan and the real Pain were hiding in, Naruto activates Sage Mode again, takes a deep breath, and rips through the trunk of the tree. Inside, Konan and a red-haired, skeleton fox creature wait for him.
"So, you finally found us," Konan says as she prepares to attack.
"Konan, stand down,"
"But Nagato,"
"It's alright. I'll take care of him," the red-haired man named Nagato says. Konan hesitantly steps aside. Once she is out of the way, Nagato chuckles, "So, peace finally stumbles upon me. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Naruto Uzumaki,"
"So, you're the real Pain? You're not what I was expecting," Naruto says, taking in the skeletal appearance.
"Tell me Naruto Uzumaki… do you hate me? After everything I have done to your village, those you love, and to you. Can you look upon me and answer me honestly…? Do you hate me?"
Naruto doesn't answer the question. Instead, he remains silent with his fists clenching at his side.
"You know it won't matter anyway. Even if you exact your revenge and kill Pain now, it will not change what has occurred. What has been done cannot be undone," Konan says as she takes a step forward.
Naruto still refuses to answer.
"Fine then. If you refuse to answer, then maybe you haven't found the answer. And if you haven't found the answer, then there's nothing you can do,"
Suddenly, a black rod shoots from Nagato's body and into Naruto's torso. Just as the rod enters his body, Naruto hunches over but does not fall to his knees. Just as Nagato was about to absorb Naruto's chakra, he gasps at the raw, intense, and angry Nine-Tails chakra Naruto releases into the rod.
Nagato hunches over as his body shakes.
"What's wrong, Nagato?" Konan asks.
"You brat. You purposely didn't move,"
"I did not come here to fight either of you. I just wanted to talk. However, as I journeyed here, I kept thinking about everything you did. How you leveled my village, almost killed my sensei, tried to kill me. But worse of all… you killed my mate… You killed Sasuke… With everything you've done I kept thinking about how I can't forgive you! I wasn't so sure what I'd do! Even now, I want to kill you!" Naruto looks up, his eyes showing a cross and being replaced with red irises as he throws the rod out of his torso. Nagato and Konan gasp as they look at his shaking clawed hands, "See, even my hands won't stop shaking. But I remembered something Pervy-Sage said. He told me that a day will come where everyone will understand one another. This got me excited because that was the day that he had finally acknowledged me as his student, but~"
"Meaningless words from a delusional old man. It doesn't change the fact that you still want to kill me or that you can't forgive, does it not?" Nagato says coolly.
"Tell me something. You both were Pervy-Sage's students, right? How did you two turn out this way? So full of pain and hatred?" Naruto asks, his Sage Mode long gone.
"Since you asked, I will tell you about our pain. There were originally three of us. The other one was named Yahiko. You remind me a lot of him. We were all victims of war and lost our parents to it. We were made into orphans and abandoned to the harsh world during the Second Shinobi World War. I had my parents for a while though. We wanted to avoid the fighting altogether, so we hid. But my parents were murdered by Shinobi who broke into our house looking for food. They were killed in self-defense. Those shinobi were from the Hidden Leaf. Upon realizing that they were just civilians, the shinobi tried to apologize to me, but I killed them with the Rinnegan bestowed to me by Madara Uchiha. That was the first time I ever used the power. After burying my parents, I was soon rescued by Konan and Yahiko.
We stayed together and survived. We found food, fought, and did whatever it took to stay alive. We also shared dreams of a future where we ruled over the nations to eliminate war and create peace. Soon we found the Legendary Three Sanin. Orochimaru tried to kill us, but Jiraiya-sensei saw potential in us and took us in as his students. He taught us survival tactics. He taught us the basics but didn't originally teach us ninjutsu until we were assaulted by Iwagakura chunin. Once he saw the power I possessed, he decided to start teaching us ninjutsu. At the time, I was remorseful for killing that chunin. I never wanted to kill anyone, even those Konoha shinobi who killed my parents. But it was Jiraiya-sensei who taught us that sometimes violence and personal pain was necessary to protect others.
Jiraiya-sensei trained us for three years and by the end of those three years, we had mastered everything he had taught us. He left us knowing that we were ready to make our own paths in this harsh world before returning to The Hidden Leaf. After his departure, we formed the Akatsuki with the sole purpose of creating a world of peace. Yahiko was our leader.
Over the years, our message grew popular among a lot of shinobi and we had many members. However, the larger we grew, the more of a threat we became to Hanzō the Salamander and leader of Amegakure at the time. He approached Yahiko and me with a proposal to work with the other warring nations. But he ambushed us at the meeting where we were supposed to finalize the agreement. With Danzo from the Hidden Leaf as support, they held Konan hostage and threatened to kill her if I did not kill Yahiko. I couldn't do it. I was so angry that the Hidden Leaf would cause me so much pain more than once in my life. They took my parents and no they wanted me to take my best friend too. Sensing my turmoil, Yahiko used my kunai to commit suicide. I managed to escape with Konan and Yahiko's body, despite my legs being severely wounded in the process. Afterward, I summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, linked with it, and used it to slaughter Hanzō's men even though Hanzō escaped.
Deciding that we no longer wanted to be associated with Amegakure or Hanzō, we slashed our headbands and severed all ties with the village. With Yahiko's death, I realized that creating a world of peace was a foolish dream. The world would never be willing to end the cycle of death and hatred. It's how the world thrives. Now with my new revelations, I desired nothing more than to bring the same level of despair and pain I was gifted onto the world. I took the name "Pain" in place of Nagato to send a message to all those who stood against me. I also took the role of the leader in place of Yahiko to spread my desires throughout the nations, but I had to start with Hanzō.
Using the corpses of people who met Jiraiya-sensei, I turned them into my clones for my Six Paths of Pain technique. Don't worry though, Jiraiya-sensei didn't know until our battle earlier about what I had done. Years later and several S-ranked missing-nin later, our ranks were powerful enough to wage a civil war against Hanzō. Together, we overthrew Hanzō with his own villagers rallying behind us. I was a god to them. I had finally achieved something I had never thought possible. It was sad to see how much of a pitiful man he had become. He was once an admirable man but was soon reduced to nothing more than a mere mortal. I slaughtered him and anyone close to prevent any uprising. I have been ruling over that village ever since,"
"Why have I not heard of any of this then?" Naruto asks.
"I wanted to keep Amegakure secretive nature. I made sure that no news of Hanzō's death surfaced outside of the village. I made sure rumors of the village of Amegakure being nothing more than a war-torn land made it to the other nations. This was the safest way to keep others from investigating us or interfering with our plans. Now, do you see what I mean by understanding one's pain? I have told you our story for you to understand that there cannot be peace without pain or war. That is why we are doing all of this. Therefore, we must have the Fourth Shinobi World War. And therefore, we must construct the Ten-Tails Beast,"
Naruto takes in everything Nagato tells him with consideration. Even after hearing their painful story, there are parts he just cannot accept.
Taking a deep breath, Naruto finally speaks, "Pain, Konan… I am truly sorry for everything that happened to both you and your friend Yahiko. However, I cannot forgive you for what you've done. You are not the only one who has experienced pain. Pain is a universal feeling, but it comes in various forms. For you, it's being orphaned during a war. For Sasuke, it's living with knowing that it was our village's Elders responsible for his clan's genocide and his brother's death. For me… it's living with as the Nine-Tails' vessel and having to constantly prove I'm not the monster they think I am. We have all experienced pain in different forms, but how we respond or choose to live our lives is what makes us different.
So, I'm sorry if I don't agree with your mission or way of creating peace. However, we do agree on one thing: there cannot be peace without pain. I choose to use my pain and loneness to create a world where peace can exist for everyone, just like Pervy-Sage said. So, if you want my answer to your question, there it is!"
"Then you're just as naïve as that old man! It's far too late for me, for us! We are cursed~"
"Then I'll break that curse! Pain, Konan, there are so many people out there who have experienced pain like you guys. I tend to break that curse and create a world where that kind of pain doesn't need to exist! I'll never give up! Even if the odds are against me! Even if I must die to see it come true, I will make it happen!"
Nagato gasps at Naruto's words. Hearing that resolve brought the image of a conversation between him and Jiraiya into his mind.
"You remind me so much of who I used to be. I used to be such a strong-willed shinobi hell-bent on breaking that curse until that day Yahiko passed. After that, I… lost my way… Naruto Uzumaki, if you truly believe in yourself as much as you say, then keep walking towards that future. If you can truly bring about a world of peace, then I shall too believe in you," Nagato releases his hands from its restraints to form a hand sign, "Ninja Art: Gedo Art of Rinne Rebirth,"
"Nagato, are you really going to use that jutsu?!" Konan asks in a panic.
"Yes. This is the least I can do. He strives for a goal I gave up a long time ago. I can at least give him back the people he's lost,"
"Those people I've lost? Just what kind of jutsu is he using?"
"Nagato's Outer Path is recreation ninjutsu. He controls life and death. By using this jutsu, he can either take people's lives or reincarnate them by infusing new life into the bodies of the dead. But… he'll be lost his life in the process…" Konan explains.
"He'll die? But~"
"It's his choice. He knows what he's doing. For him to go this far for you, he must see something in you. You should honor," Konan says.
Naruto does not say anything as he watches Nagato's focus. In the distance, the King of Hell emerges from the ground to release the souls from its mouth. As this happens, Nagato's hair turns white.
"Naruto, the villagers are being revived!" Lady Katsuyu announces as she climbs out of his jacket and onto his shoulder.
"They are?! Then that means that Sasuke!?"
"Yes, I am sensing the younger Uchiha along with the other villagers being revived from this distance,"
"There's nothing harder than accepting the death of a loved one, especially a parent or a mate. Because of this, we convenience ourselves that they cannot die. If only I had this jutsu when my parents or Yahiko died, then things might have been different. Naruto, your generation has not experienced war as we did. You have many trials ahead of you. But I believe that you will face them all and overcome them… I believe you can bring about true peace to this forsaken world,"
"Nagato… thank you…" Naruto says, trying to hold back his tears.
Just as Nagato whispers his last words, the paper-mache tree starts to disappear to nothing. Konan takes the paper and warps it around Nagato, and the Deva Pain's bodies.
"Why are you taking the Deva Pain's body?" Naruto asks.
"It was created from Yahiko's body. Now I can finally lay them both to rest,"
"Hn, I see. So, what are you going to do now? Are you going back to the Akatsuki?"
"No. My work with them is done. I only stayed because of Nagato. Both meant everything to me. Without them in it, there's nothing left for me," she says before creating a bouquet of paper roses, "Here, these are for you. I pray that you remain the blossom of hope that will never wilt,"
Naruto takes the bouquet with a light blush on his cheeks, "Thank you. I will keep my promise to all of you,"
"I believe you will. So long, Naruto Uzumaki," Konan nods before flying off with the corpses of her two friends.
Naruto watches in wonder before feeling a familiar pain in his lower back, bending over Naruto grunts in pain as an eight tail emerges. Once the pain subsides, Naruto pants in exhaustion. His knees shake and his vision blurs a little bit. His body feels heavy as he starts to fall back.
"I'm so tired. I just want to sleep,"
As he falls backward, his back hits something solid while two pale arms wrap around his chest.
"Are you done playing yet, dobe?"
Naruto leans his head back and smiles as a smirking Sasuke staring down at him, "Sasuke… you're alright…"
"Yeah. I'm alright, thanks to you,"
"That's a relief," Naruto breaths out as he rests his head against Sasuke's shoulder. Seeing that Naruto needs to rest, Sasuke settles down with Naruto's head on his lap. He takes the white paper-mache bouquet and lays it on top of Naruto's chest while running his fingers through Naruto's blond hair, "I thought I lost you. I don't know how I would have gone on without you,"
"Yeah. I've never died before. It was… interesting. Thank you for saving me… again…"
"Anytime..."
"Are you alright?" Sasuke asks.
"Yeah, just really tried,"
"Well rest, dobe. You've done enough for the day,"
Naruto turns his head towards the horizon with a sheepish smile. The sky is painted with bright reds, yellows, purples, and oranges. He didn't realize how late it had gotten but he didn't mind, "Wow, look how pretty the sunset is,"
"Huh?" Sasuke looks over to the horizon and gives a similar smile, "Yeah, it is,"
Both turn their gazes to stare at the other. Naruto raises his right hand to caress Sasuke's cheek. Sasuke uses his right hand to keep it in place, "Have I ever told you how beautiful you look in the sunset?"
"When we were younger, you used to tell me every chance you got. And you'll have plenty more chances later. But for now, you need to rest. We still need to get back to the village and I'm not carrying your heavy ass," Sasuke teases with a smirk.
Naruto smiles back before closing his eyes. Letting the silence, the warmth from the sun and the scent of strawberries lull him into a simple dream. A dream is full of peace, love, and laughter from himself, his mate, and two children. A future Naruto looks forward to living to see.
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To Be Continued…
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Author's Note:
Well we did it guys! We made it through the Pain Arc! I hope you guys loved and enjoyed reading it! It was a task writing, but it was worth it. I'm excited to move onto other parts of this story and am happy to give you guys more chapters and NARUSASU love. Thanks for sticking through this with me! I love you guys!