Through My Lying Eyes

26 - Exchanging of Wills

"I know you are curious Naruto, but just let me explain why I started the akatsuki in the first place, I'm sure you can relate to it." Nagato said. Naruto was still a bit tired from the huge fight he just had, but he still had the energy to listen, so he let him continue.

"My homeland is the land you are in right now. Due to wars, this land has been ravaged and destroyed by every other major nation. I was born a few years before the third great war, and during it, my parents were killed in front of me by leaf shinobi. It was the first time I used my rinnegan's abilities to kill." Nagato explained.

"So they were always like that? *sigh* Of course they were." Naruto said disappointingly. Naruto took a good look at Nagato's rinnegan and noticed that they were still purple, unlike his silver ones. He originally thought the path's rinnegan were purple because they were just puppets, but no, even the original's was purple. Naruto figured that because of his ancestors, he was the new 'sage of six paths' because he had the original sage's chakra in him, something Nagato didn't have. He wondered if there was a power difference with them, but it's something he'll have to test out later.

"Unfortunately they were. You said that you lost your love, right? Was it by a shinobi?" Nagato asked, and Naruto nodded in confirmation. "Shinobi are always looking to kill something, they are trained at a young age to show no emotion when in the act, and fight in wars for their pride, their 'love'. But through that love, hate builds up, and they take it out on those who they see fit. The innocent victims suffer, and the tormentors prosper, while they preach about peace and justice as if what they were doing was right. Konoha is notorious for this very act, for they forced their own feudal clans to wage war against each other, and they profited from it."

"My little village became a battlefield, and my parents died because of it. I wandered the land of rain for weeks, months, searching for food. That was when I met Konan and Yahiko, they took me in, and we became a family. We found Jiraiya, before he became a sanin, and he decided to train us, making us strong, and sharing his dream with us. We carried that dream on and reformed Amegakure from the ground up. This action alone, created enemies."

"Hanzo the Salamander went to war with our nation, and it took the life of Yahiko, who jumped on the blade I had in my hand, killing him. I was furious, and killed every single enemy there, crippling myself in the process. I vowed then and there that I would change this world, that I...would show this world pain. That is why I am called pain, because through pain, will this world learn the true meaning of peace."

"We have the same views, the same desires, we are the same. We both feel the same pain after losing the ones we loved. I want to show the world justice, just as you are doing now. Your justice is no different from mine, even if we have different methods of obtaining that same justice, the outcomes are the same. We are both normal men who have been driven to vengeance in the name of justice."

"Vengeance isn't the same as justice, even I know that." Naruto interrupted. "If you call vengeance justice, you only cause more vengeance, creating a vicious cycle of hatred."

"Correct." Nagato continued. "We both live in that very cycle as we speak. I know the past and can see our future, it is the same as our history. Human beings simply can not understand each other, and they never will. Our world is ruled by hatred and hatred alone. But Naruto, how would you confront this hatred in order to create peace?" Nagato ended with a question that Naruto wasn't ready for.

Naruto stood silent. He wanted to change the world for the better, but he had no idea how he would do it or where to even begin. Or even if he even wanted it to begin with.

"...I...I don't know. Lately, I've been too preoccupied to think about that, so I decided to just let the world run on its own, I had no desire to change anything. I think deep down I knew that nothing could get rid of the hatred in people's hearts."