"Lord Hanzo, the leader of the Akatsuki has arrived."
Outside Hanzo of the Salamander's office, Tianyu knocked on the door, his earlier smile gone as his tone became formal.
"Let them come in."
Hanzo's hoarse, low voice came from inside the office.
Tianyu gently pushed open the door and stepped aside. Looking at the three of them, he lowered his voice.
"You can go in on your own. I'll escort you only this far."
Yahiko nodded. He exchanged a glance with Nagato and Konan, took a deep breath to calm his nerves, and stepped into the office first.
Nagato and Konan quickly followed.
Once the three of them had entered, Tianyu quietly closed the door and withdrew.
None of them noticed that on a tall building not far from Hanzo's residence stood two figures observing the scene.
One wore a white spiral mask.
The other was a strange being with half his body submerged in the ground, his form divided into black and white halves.
"Obito—"
"Call me Madara."
The moment Black Zetsu spoke, Uchiha Obito interrupted him sharply. Black Zetsu could only change his words.
"Very well… Lord Madara. Are we just going to watch from out here?"
Obito snorted softly.
"What else can we do? That's Hanzo of the Salamander."
"If we get any closer, can you guarantee he won't notice?"
Black Zetsu fell silent.
He really couldn't guarantee it.
It wasn't that Hanzo's sensory ability was particularly extraordinary, but the ground beneath Hanzo's residence was saturated with toxic substances.
Even Zetsu could not infiltrate it silently without being affected.
Black Zetsu asked again,
"What if Hanzo discovers the Rinnegan on Nagato?"
"Wouldn't that be even better?" Obito chuckled darkly.
"With Hanzo's knowledge, he certainly wouldn't fail to recognize the Rinnegan."
"With Nagato's current strength, he may not defeat Hanzo—but if he overexerts himself, escaping alive should still be possible."
"This might allow Nagato to experience a little pain."
Black Zetsu thought of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path that Nagato had summoned the day before and finally relaxed.
"Then do as you wish."
Inside Hanzo's Office
"Lord Hanzo!"
Upon seeing the figure seated behind the desk reviewing documents, Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan all bowed respectfully.
"So you are Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan. Please, sit."
Hanzo set down the documents and looked up with a smile, gesturing to the three chairs prepared across from him.
"Th-Thank you."
Yahiko cleared his throat and sat down opposite Hanzo, trying to suppress his excitement.
Nagato and Konan followed suit.
As Nagato lowered himself into his seat, he took the opportunity to glance at Hanzo through the strands of hair hiding his eyes.
That single glance made his body tremble.
A chill shot up his spine straight to his head.
Nagato bit his lip, forcing himself to suppress his reaction so that no trace of it appeared on his face.
After they had all sat down, Hanzo looked at Yahiko and spoke directly.
"When I learned that an organization seeking peace had arisen within the Land of Rain, I became very interested in you."
"That's why I took the liberty of inviting you here."
Yahiko quickly responded,
"Lord Hanzo, you honor us! Being invited by you is our privilege."
"No need to belittle yourselves," Hanzo said, shaking his head slightly.
"I'm merely someone who walked this road before you."
He then continued,
"I heard from Tianyu that the Akatsuki's philosophy is 'creating peace without relying on extreme violence.' Is that correct?"
Yahiko nodded.
"Yes, that's right."
Hanzo leaned back slightly.
"Could you explain it to me in more detail?"
"Of course!"
Yahiko immediately became animated.
"I believe that many wars and conflicts in this world are unnecessary. In many cases, both sides could resolve their disputes simply by sitting down and communicating."
"But I also know achieving that is extremely difficult."
"There are strong nations and weak nations. The strong rarely listen to the voices of the weak."
"So the ideal situation would be for every country to possess a certain level of power—enough that they could sit down as equals and negotiate."
"Eventually, they could form a shared alliance to maintain order."
"That power wouldn't be extreme violence used to start wars."
"It would be power used for balance and protection."
Yahiko might have been naive, but he was not completely unrealistic.
He understood that endless compromise would only invite bullying.
Simply hoping everyone would restrain themselves with morality alone was equally unrealistic.
Therefore, a balancing force was necessary.
Because everyone would fear that power, they would hesitate before starting wars.
Only then would negotiations truly become possible.
After Yahiko's death in the future, Nagato would inherit this philosophy.
But Yahiko's death would push Nagato toward a far more extreme interpretation.
Nagato would come to believe that only by making everyone experience the pain caused by that power could they truly understand pain—and thus fear it.
Hanzo smiled faintly.
"An admirable philosophy."
Yahiko's face lit up instantly with excitement.
But before the smile could fully form—
Hanzo added calmly,
"However… it's still too immature."
"Ah?"
Yahiko froze.
Confusion and a trace of unwillingness appeared on his face.
"Lord Hanzo… is there something missing in my thinking?"
"Your idea is beautiful," Hanzo replied.
"But reality is far more complicated than you imagine."
Hanzo asked,
"Do you know about the time when the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, distributed the tailed beasts to the other villages when the One Country, One Village system was first established?"
Yahiko shook his head blankly.
As a civilian orphan, he had never had access to such information.
Hanzo explained,
"You may see today that each of the Five Great Shinobi Villages possesses one or two tailed beasts."
"But in truth, most of those tailed beasts were originally distributed by Hashirama Senju."
"At the time, Hashirama likely hoped that by giving each village such power, they would fear each other and hesitate to start wars."
Hanzo paused before continuing.
"But what happened instead?"
"The power of the tailed beasts only brought greater destruction and casualties."
"Your idea is very similar to Hashirama's."
"But reality… is far more complicated than either of you imagined."
To be fair, Yahiko's ideals were far more practical than the later, almost abstract philosophy of the so-called Child of Prophecy, Naruto Uzumaki.
Still—
they remained too idealistic.
Yahiko's vision might have worked for achieving peace within a single nation.
But to bring about world peace…
was another matter entirely.
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