Nagato felt as if countless red-hot iron rods were being churned through his mind. In his struggle, the device restraining him snapped apart, and blood immediately poured from the wounds.
"Huh? What's going on? What's going on?!"
Although Tobi's faceless head showed no expression, its frantic circling made its panic obvious. When Nagato spat out a mouthful of hot blood, staining both his body and the cold device beneath him, Tobi rushed in and out of the cave, unable to find any enemy.
"Damn it! Didn't Zetsu tell me to watch out for enemies? Where are they?!"
Seeing Nagato's already pale face grow even whiter, it jumped in place and shouted, "If Nagato dies, Madara Uchiha will definitely feed me to wild dogs and turn me into poop!"
With no time to think further, it leaped onto Nagato's device. Its spiral body unfolded like a blooming flower and wrapped tightly around the bleeding Nagato.
At that moment, Konan appeared inside the cave, immediately catching the smell of blood and seeing Nagato wrapped by the White Zetsu. "Damn it! What are you doing?!"
Her suspicion was instantly confirmed, but fearing she might hurt Nagato, she did not dare use Ninjutsu. She rushed forward with a furious shout.
When she tried to pull Tobi off Nagato, her wrist was suddenly caught. Then she heard Nagato's strained voice, heavy with pain.
"Calm down, Konan. This White Zetsu is helping me."
"What?"
Startled, Konan forced down her anger and looked more closely. Only then did she notice that Nagato's labored breathing and trembling body were actually beginning to ease.
Nagato could feel a powerful vitality suppressing his injuries and dulling the pain within his soul. His body, long deprived of life, slowly filled with strength again, and even his Rinnegan felt far more stable.
"White Zetsu can do this too?"
There was no joy in Nagato's heart, only a deep chill. As if sensing his unease, Tobi loosened its hold and revealed his skeletal body once more.
"Ahaha, it's finally over!"
Tobi hopped away, scratching its head and speaking innocently. "As long as you're fine, Nagato-sama. Otherwise Madara Uchiha would really feed me to wild dogs and turn me into poop."
Nagato said nothing and did not stop it, only casting a cold glance its way. He was not yet sure whether this White Zetsu could interfere with him in return, and his conflict with Amegakure and Hanzo was not truly over.
pata… pata…
Clear, unhurried footsteps echoed through the cave. The distracted Konan immediately stepped in front of Nagato, her pupils tightening as she stared toward the dark entrance.
Hanzo and Yunchuan Hyuga emerged from the shadows, their gazes locking at once onto the gaunt figure standing within the strange device at the center of the cave.
"Nagato, so you really are the true body of Pain?"
Hanzo looked at Nagato with a complicated gaze, and the anger born from nearly dying finally faded away. In that moment, what remained was only exhaustion and a heavy sense of reality.
At first glance, Nagato barely looked like a living person, more like a skeleton forgotten in a dark corner and worn down by centuries. His body was so thin it was unsettling, with lifeless pale skin clinging tightly to sharp bones as if all flesh and blood had been drained by some unseen force.
His ribs stood out clearly, his collarbones sank deep like carved lines, and his arms were as thin as dry branches in winter. They looked as if they might snap with the lightest touch.
Even his legs had been crippled by Hanzo's Explosive Tag trap back then, leaving him almost unable to walk. He could only move while restrained within a crude device.
His dry red hair hung down like withered vines, making his face resemble a skull covered by a thin layer of skin. Beneath the red hair, his eye sockets were deeply sunken, forming two dark hollows.
Yet within those sunken sockets was a pair of "Sage Eyes," flickering with an eerie light in the dim cave. They were unmistakably the Rinnegan.
These legendary "Sage Eyes" were set into this withered body, like forcing divine power into a container already on the verge of collapse. The contrast made the sight even more disturbing.
"Hanzo, you still came in the end, but..."
Nagato's Rinnegan slowly turned toward the figure beside Hanzo, yet even those eyes could not see through the shadows covering that person's face. Still, Nagato sensed a familiar presence from him.
The pain deep in his soul had not faded, and the fear remained vivid in his memory. His body trembled slightly without his control.
"Good evening, Mr. Nagato."
Yunchuan Hyuga stepped forward, his tone polite and carrying a faint smile. "You may call me Shadow. You should have already met my lord, so please allow me to offer you his apology in his place."
As soon as he spoke, Hanzo instinctively glanced at his own palm, while Konan froze for a moment before anger rose on her face. Her reaction was sharp and immediate.
"So it was you!"
Since the one who caused Nagato such suffering was not Madara or Zetsu, then it could only be Hanzo and the man in front of her. That realization burned clearly in her mind.
"No, no, Miss Konan, it was my lord, not me," Yunchuan Hyuga said gently, calmly correcting her words. His expression did not change at all.
"Who is that person?" Nagato suddenly asked.
"My lord," Yunchuan Hyuga replied with a smile.
Nagato felt his head start to ache again, but he also understood that this man had no intention of explaining further. He snorted coldly and said, "So you're here to die?"
As he spoke, the ripples in his pupils slowly spread, and a powerful presence once again rose from his body. He was prepared to fight with his life on the line, and hatred surfaced in Konan's eyes as well.
At that moment, Hanzo suddenly nodded. His reply was brief and firm. "Yes."
Nagato's Chakra faltered for a split second, as if he were stunned. He quickly realized that Hanzo was answering the mocking question he had just thrown out.
"I came here to die."
Hanzo's voice was low and clear as he raised the blade in his hand and pointed it at his own heart. With that action, he confirmed Nagato's guess.
Yunchuan Hyuga looked at Hanzo and, for some reason, recalled the scene from the original story where Hashirama Senju stabbed himself with a kunai in front of Madara Uchiha to repay a life owed for Tobirama Senju. The thought made him smile faintly to himself.
The Hashirama of the past and the Hanzo of today, how much was real and how much was false? Yunchuan Hyuga did not know, Nagato did not know, and perhaps not even Hanzo himself knew the answer.
Yunchuan Hyuga had already told Hanzo what those eyes truly meant and had explained Nagato's plan to use fear and tailed beast weapons to force peace. Hanzo understood better than anyone the limits of ordinary shinobi.
On the way here, he had seen far too many things he once ignored. He looked toward the towns and saw stone houses that were once busy and full of craftsmen, now broken and decayed.
He looked toward the riverbanks and saw places that once held life and joy, now submerged by the same rivers that once brought prosperity. He saw harbors that used to be crowded with ships reduced to ruins by war, and the few remaining wheat fields flattened to the ground.