Madara grit his teeth. The Chakra in his eyes surged. My vision flickered, and I see, in the dimension of Limbo, a presence materializing.

So the Rinnegan can do even something like that?

Hmm.

I I let myself divide, pushing a bit of Darkness into Limbo, though I stay still so it he can't see it.

"But first... I'll admit some curiosity, Madara." I say, keeping my eyes on him even as he breaks his lock with Naruto and jumps back. Naruto, and Kurama, can feel his emotions, and that's why they let it happen. "What was your plan? Obviously Obito was key to it, and through Obito, you manipulated the Akatsuki to keep Nagato's implanted Rinnegan in play, but what did you want the Juubi for?"

Ah, I do so love that emotion, Nagato. Konan, too.

"Peace, you said... But how did you intend to bring it about?" Chakra washes over me, a failed Genjutsu. I shred it without physically reacting.

The Limbo Clone reaches me, and attacks. My own Limbo-self counters, Proof of Courage slicing out with Haste-enhanced speed. It's cut down before it even manages to blink. In the base layer of reality, neither of us moves, save for a slight widening of eyes on his part.

"You-" Konan speaks up, pushing aside her fear. Commendable courage, that. "Nagato's Rinnegan is his."

"No." The Shinigami denies. "The eyes he has are sourced from Madara Uchiha. Prior to his Death, he transplanted his eyes into a young Nagato."

Konan slumps, something akin to desperation on her face. "But, that's-"

"The truth." The Shinigami stated. "It occured when he was four."

Her heart twists, and despair bubbles to the surface, sinking to her knees. "Why- why him?"

"Convenience." The Shinigami is unmoved by the display of emotions. "Nagato was an unmonitored Uzumaki, easy to isolate and manipulate, possessing a body and Chakra strong enough to keep up with the demand the Rinnegan places upon its bearer. The perfect target."

"Konan..." Nagato holds a hand over her.

"We were wrong, Nagato." She says, bitterly, not looking at him.

His jaw tightens.

"Only now realizing it?" I asked them. "What did you think I was on about when I was talking about how you were puppets? Sorry, you've been manipulated your entire lives. Your goals? Somebody else's convenience. Your power, the thing that makes you oh so special? Not yours." I paused just long enough to make the pause obvious. "Hey, Shinigami. Their friend, Yahiko... Was his death also helped along?"

"Yes." Nagato and Konan freeze. "Obito Uchiha intercepted and killed the members of the Akatsuki who attempted to rescue him, in order to better manipulate Nagato."

Black Rage seeps from them, killing intent flooding the air. Slowly, as one, their heads turn to Obito.

Obito doesn't look back.

The sound Nagato releases can only be described as 'animalistic'. Both he and Konan immediately leap into action, Chakra surging-

And both immediately collide with a barrier, halted completely. Konan hits it with a strong punch, and it does nothing. Nagato holds his hands out, and gravity pulses-

And it's him that gets slammed into the ground. Konan is by his side in an instant, but he's fine.

I clapped my hands together. Nagato and Konan immediately turn their glares to me, angered at being stopped.

"Oh, so you don't like it when the shoe is on the other foot, hmm?"

"He killed-"

"So have you." I interrupted, and the two went silent. "You have taken many lives, all in the name of your goals, and you've not regretted it. But, now that you're the ones who've been wronged, suddenly you're righteous?"

Konan loosens, realising what I'm saying.

"Have a little consistency." I continued. "Or acknowledge your hypocrisy. Either way, you will sit there and you will ruminate as we show why partnerships built on lies and manipulation crumble so easily."

Madara suddenly darted forwards, Gunbai raised to strike.

He didn't get very far, because Naruto kicked his chest so hard that it exploded, a shower of gore spreading backwards.

He was already beginning to regenerate, but it wasn't nearly fast enough.

"Shall we go to Kisame, next?" I asked. "Yeah... He sounds good. What about it, Shinigami? Would Kisame leave the Akatsuki if he knew the full extent of what Madara and Obito had done?"

"It is likely." The Shinigami stated. "Kisame was enticed by the idea of a world without lies."

"I can speak for myself." Kisame said. On his back, Samehada writhed, scales shifting. "I will not betray my allies."

"With every day that passes, you become less and less certain that they are your allies." The Shinigami responds. He speaks not with an argument, but a simple fact. The Shinigami does not, and has never, argued. "Obito Uchiha came to you with an ideal; a world without lies. You were enticed by it, as at the time he appeared, you had recently stuck down your superior for his treasonous acts, and had become uncertain of yourself and your place within the World."

"Aren't you the god of the dead?" Kisame asks. "Why do you know so much about the living?"

"My task is to guide the dead to their proper place." The Shinigami answers. "To do that, I must know them, and so I do."

"Don't you think the timing was a little suspicious?" I ask. "That he came to you in so perfect a moment to recruit you?"

"He-" Kisame paused.

"His timing was not unintentional." The Shinigami agrees. "Through his control of Yagura Karatachi, he was able to monitor you, and thus decide when to approach you. His lies were lies of omission."

"Tch." Kisame looked away.

But I could see it inside of him. That niggling little doubt. Crawling. Wondering. Asking things that Kisame had not wanted asked.

A doubt that had been watered with deception and was now flowering.

"Answer a question for me, Shinigami." Kisame said. "My place in the world... World? Whatever... What is it?"