Everyone fell silent.
They watched as Nagato, once such a gentle child, lost his parents and began wandering alone. Eventually, he met Konan and Yahiko. The three of them lived in poverty, but they were happy together.
Then they encountered the Sannin during their battle against Hanzo, the Demigod of Amegakure.
The three children began dreaming of learning Ninjutsu. Their only chance was to seek help from the Sannin they had met that day.
But when they finally caught up with them, Orochimaru nearly killed them.
In the end, Jiraiya took pity on the children. He saved them and accepted all three as his students.
Nagato must have felt deeply conflicted.
Shinobi from Konoha had killed his parents.
Yet another shinobi from Konoha had saved him and guided him onto the path of a shinobi.
Under Jiraiya's teachings, Yahiko led the three of them in founding Akatsuki.
It was still the original Akatsuki then, an organization dedicated to bringing peace to the Land of Rain.
As Akatsuki grew, it attracted Hanzo's attention. He wanted to absorb the organization's strength and place it under his own control.
Then another crucial figure appeared and ruined everything.
"Danzo conspired with Hanzo to secure the position of Hokage, while Hanzo conspired with Danzo to preserve his own authority."
Everything fit.
It all fit!
They suddenly remembered that Kaede Kitahara's diary had said Danzo was connected to this incident.
Now the truth was clear.
Danzo really had been involved.
"That damned old bastard again!"
Tsunade slammed her fist down and split the table apart.
"And Jiraiya, that idiot! He saw Nagato's Rinnegan, so how could he just leave him out there? Why didn't he bring him back to Konoha?"
Tsunade was furious enough to explode.
One of them was vicious and scheming, while the other never thought things through.
"So it was him again. He really deserves to die."
Uchiha Sasuke burned with rage.
Every time he saw Danzo, he remembered the destruction of the Uchiha Clan.
Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Kenji had carried out the massacre, but Danzo had been the one who forced the Uchiha Clan into that desperate position.
Everything might have turned out differently if Shisui had been allowed to change his father's and the clan's minds.
But Danzo had destroyed that plan before it could even be attempted.
At last, everyone understood what Kaede Kitahara had meant.
Saying Danzo was responsible hadn't been an attempt to blame him for everything.
It was simply the truth.
"To me, your organization has become an obstacle. Yahiko, as its leader, you will die here. If you resist, this woman dies."
Hanzo spoke down to them from above.
He had captured Konan and used her to threaten Yahiko, forcing Yahiko to commit suicide.
Worse, he tried to make Nagato kill him.
The sight made everyone frown.
Tsunade was especially furious.
How could Hanzo stoop to something like this?
His actions brought shame upon the Sannin as well.
They had once considered it humiliating that all three of them had fought together and still lost to Hanzo. At least Hanzo had seemed like a true hero worthy of their defeat.
To the three of them, the title of Sannin had been born from humiliation.
To the rest of the world, however, it had become proof of their strength.
But now everything was different.
After seeing Hanzo force Yahiko to kill himself through such despicable means, they could no longer find the slightest trace of heroism in him.
Being given the title of Sannin by a man like that only made the humiliation worse.
Only now did Jiraiya learn what had truly happened after he left.
Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato had endured all of this.
No wonder they had become what they were.
Could Jiraiya have let go of such hatred in their place?
If Konoha were destroyed and Tsunade were killed before his eyes, could he abandon revenge?
The murderous intent radiating from his future student Naruto hadn't been false.
Kaede Kitahara's diary had always mocked Uzumaki Naruto for lacking killing intent. Killing Intent Naruto had even become a running joke.
Yet even such an optimistic, cheerful child had failed to control his bloodlust after his village was devastated and both his teachers died at Deva Path Pain's hands.
To save Konan, Yahiko willingly threw himself onto the weapon in Nagato's hand.
The leader of Akatsuki, who had once carried such a passionate dream of peace, died just like that.
Even after Yahiko's death, Hanzo had no intention of sparing Nagato.
That finally drove Nagato beyond the brink and awakened the true power of his Rinnegan.
He summoned the Gedo Statue.
The terrifying beast appeared from nowhere and wiped out the attacking members of Konoha's Root in an instant.
Consumed by rage, Nagato linked himself to the Gedo Statue.
With overwhelming power, he slaughtered the remaining shinobi of Amegakure as well.
Not even Hanzo the Salamander escaped the Gedo Statue's attack.
"Yahiko died, and afterward I took his place as the leader of Akatsuki. I should have grown stronger, yet nothing changed. It was exactly the same as when my parents died. I was wrong. I finally understood how worthless the answer I had once believed in truly was."
Nagato's voice remained heavy.
"He saved my life. He was my dream. He was the irreplaceable friend I would have sacrificed my life to protect."
"Yahiko's death was my second pain. After that, countless more companions died."
"More and more people continued to die. The people of the Land of Fire drowned themselves in the illusion of peace, while Konoha's mission payments became funds for war. Countless citizens of the Land of Fire knew they were contributing to war, yet they continued preaching their hypocritical peace."
"The peace enjoyed by great nations exists only through the sacrifices of smaller countries. Your peace is violence against us."
"As long as people live, they will hurt others without even realizing it. As long as humanity exists, hatred will continue to exist."
"True peace does not exist in this cursed world. Everything Jiraiya said was nothing more than fiction."
"I've told you my story. Now let me hear your answer."
Nagato's words plunged everyone into silence.
For the first time, they were being forced to see the world from the perspective of the smaller countries.
Those nations had become battlefields for the great powers, helpless beneath wars they had never chosen.
Nagato had once been such a kind child.
He had wanted to bring peace to the world.
But he hadn't possessed enough power.
He had been forced to watch his friend die, the companion who had dreamed of peace beside him.
That pain had twisted him into what he was now.
There was no doubt that Akatsuki hadn't begun as a terrifying criminal organization.
It had been founded upon a sincere desire for peace, and its members had worked toward that dream.
But the darkness of the world had broken them again and again, until a monster was finally born from that darkness.
And part of that darkness had come from Konoha.
Everyone had seen that Konoha shinobi were among those who attacked the three members of Akatsuki.
They wore the uniforms of Anbu, but everyone knew who they truly were.
Root.
Again and again, every darkness seemed connected to Root.
The transformation of Akatsuki.
The destruction of the Uchiha Clan.
And so much more.
After hearing Nagato's story, Uzumaki Naruto simply took out the book Jiraiya had written.
"You may be right. I think I understand you now, just as you said."
Pain twisted Naruto's face.
"Even so, I still can't forgive you. I still hate you."
"Then let us settle this."
Nagato spoke calmly.
"But Pervy Sage believed in me. He entrusted everything to me. So I'm going to try believing in what Pervy Sage believed with all his heart."
Uzumaki Naruto's voice turned cold.
"That is my answer."
"So I won't kill either of you!"
"You'll believe in what Jiraiya-sensei believed?"
Nagato stared at him.
"I see. So that is your answer? You expect us to believe you can bring peace to the world and simply wait for it?"
"Don't make me laugh. After everything that has happened, can you still believe Jiraiya's words?"
"True peace does not exist! As long as we remain trapped in this cursed world, such a thing can never exist!"
Nagato's roar carried through the diary and reached Jiraiya's ears.
After witnessing the entire story, even Jiraiya could no longer tell whether the things he had once said were true.
Could his dream ever be realized?
Or had it been nothing more than the ramblings of a fool?
"Then I'll break that curse."
Uzumaki Naruto showed no hesitation.
His conviction never wavered.
"If true peace exists, I'll seize it and never let go."
"I will never give up!"
Nagato froze.
Those words had come directly from Jiraiya's book.
"Pervy Sage truly wanted to use this book to change the world. At the end, he wrote about the student who inspired him to create it."
Naruto stared at Nagato.
"That student's name was Nagato!"
Uzumaki Naruto's words shattered Nagato's resolve.
He remembered the conversation he had once shared with Jiraiya-sensei.
It was a memory from so long ago.
"That's why my name is a precious gift Pervy Sage left me. I can never give up and disgrace the legacy my teacher entrusted to me."
"I'll become Hokage, and I'll bring peace to Amegakure too."
"Believe in me!"
Uzumaki Naruto finally spoke the answer within his heart.
"Naruto, how can you be certain you will never change?"
Nagato asked one final question.
"No matter how much pain comes for you in the future, can you truly promise that you will remain the same?"
"Can you believe in yourself that completely?"
"I have my own pain too. I don't know what kind of pain will come for me next."
Naruto's gaze remained steady.
"But if that pain makes me stop believing in myself, then the main character will change, and it will become a different story."
"The legacy my teacher left behind would become a different book."
"Then it wouldn't be Naruto anymore."
"I can't write books the way my teacher did, so the sequel will be the story of how I live."
"No matter how painful it becomes, I'll keep moving forward."
"That is Naruto!"