The Harsh Truth

Chapter 25

"Konan...do you realize what you've done?" Nagato spoke softly, from his seat, as his rinnegan eyes looked at the blue haired kunoichi, wearing the Akatsuki garbs. Both stood in an underground section of New Kirigakure, kept dry and free from water infiltration by a complicated array of seals. The rock was smooth and without impurities, yet wasn't humid or slippery.

Normal commodities, just like the small hall was any other office, were scattered around. A desk, a chair, some shelves, normal things…except they were a long way beneath the ocean's surface.

"I…I couldn't let them go on," the woman retorted, "Nagato, please, Amegakure was Yahiko's…"

"Do you think he'd be happy about it?" Nagato's lips purled, as the words came out quietly, in a hushed tone. The red haired man shook his head slowly, his eyes, with their ripple-like pattern, concentrating on Konan's face.

"He would have…"

"Understood? No, he wouldn't have," Nagato replied, "He wouldn't have condoned any more killing than necessary. He wouldn't have destroyed Amegakure and he wouldn't have razed his own home village to the ground…"

"They were walking like they owned the place!" Konan snapped back at Nagato's true body, before closing her mouth quickly, and averting her gaze, "Someone had to do something."

"But that someone wasn't meant to be you, or any of us," Nagato muttered back, "How can we pronounce peace, when we slaughter the losers of war? How can we be seen as a force of good, if we don't show mercy?"

Konan closed her eyes shut for a moment: she knew he was right, Nagato was always right, usually…but she just couldn't let it drop like that.

"So what? We should wait and see? Nagato, we have to act before it's too late! Konoha is…"

"Konoha won't be doing much, any time soon," the red haired man replied, calmly, "If only you had waited…there are news of the Hokage's sickness spreading all across the land, you know? There would have been a long time for peace…but now?" the rinnegan user shook his head, with a sad expression plastered on his face, "Now we can only hope chaos doesn't erupt again, and so soon…"

"Why?" Konan queried, as her hands clenched against the fabric of her Akatsuki cloak.

"Amegakure was the last thing that could prevent Konoha from turning its hungry gaze to the east, Konan…to Kumogakure and Kirigakure…" Nagato replied bitterly, "It would have been a temporary time of peace that would have granted Mei the time to conquer Kumogakure…but now?"

"Now Konoha might intervene directly," Madara finished the sentence, appearing in the middle of the room with his usual trick. His orange mask was a twirl with but a hole for a single eye to see through, but, most importantly, he seemed to possess a sort of battle fan on his back.

"Madara, what brings you here?" Nagato queried, locking his eyes with the man that had backed them up, in the plan for peace.

"I was overseeing an exchange…let's leave it at that, for the moment," Tobi replied, grinning behind his mask, "The new girl, Kushina, got her daughter and came back here…but it turns out Orochimaru was a spy for Konoha, and Otogakure is their ally too."

"Orochimaru? Isn't he a missing-nin?" Konan's question was met with a glare from Madara, who growled.

"No, he was just the used and backstabbed tool of the Yondaime…and obviously the Godaime is nothing like his father: he's well in the process of giving him a full pardon…"

"Isn't he sick?" Nagato muttered, only for the Uchiha to merely chuckle.

"He's already back in full health. It appears the report on him using the Kyuubi's Yang chakra to heal himself were false: using the Yin does him no harm, at least, from what Itachi said when he came back here."