Chapter 122: The Awakened Eye
The Rinnegan. One of the three supreme ocular techniques of the ninja world, said to surpass even the ultimate forms of the Sharingan. Its manifestations varied—six tomoe, nine tomoe, or none; its colors could be white, blue, gold, or, as in this case, the iconic, rippling lavender. It was known as the "Eye that Governs Life and Death." Born from the Divine Tree, its wielder commanded Yin and Yang, mastered all chakra natures, and held the potential for both world-creating and world-ending power. The only known wielder in history was the Sage of Six Paths, the mythic founder of the shinobi world.
And now, it rested in the eye socket of a thin, haunted-looking seven-year-old boy from the Uzumaki clan.
Every wielder of these eyes stood at the absolute pinnacle of existence, their strength transcending the mundane scale of "Kage." To see them now, active in this child, ignited a cold, analytical fire in Ragnar. He had to gauge the power at its source.
Inside the hut, Nagato's Rinnegan-pierced gaze was locked on the intruder. His unique perception screamed warnings. This person was danger incarnate. If a fight started here, the fragile shelter he, Konan, and Yahiko had built would be pulverized.
Without a word, Nagato vanished in a blur of motion, bursting out of the hut and into the surrounding forest clearing. It was a tactical retreat to preserve their home.
Ragnar approved. He followed at a leisurely pace, appearing outside moments later. "A reasonable distance. It won't be damaged."
Nagato stood his ground, his red hair mostly obscuring the terrifying eyes. "Who are you? A shinobi?"
"That's irrelevant," Ragnar replied, his arms crossed. "You possess the eyes of a god. Show me their power."
"I… I can't control it!" Nagato's voice trembled, a mixture of fear and desperation. "Don't make me! I don't want to kill anyone!"
His outburst was raw, genuine. The Rinnegan hadn't been born with him; it was a late, traumatic transplant. He had no teacher, no manual. Its power was a sleeping beast within him, only waking in moments of extreme, unconscious rage. And the aftermath was always the same: a field of corpses, lives ended in horrific ways he couldn't remember, and a piece of his own vitality drained away, leaving his small body weaker, more hollow each time.
"I see." Ragnar understood. The eyes were a curse, fueled by negative emotion, a parasitic power that fed on its host's life force. Like the Kyuubi's chakra influencing an Uzumaki's emotions. There was always a price.
He wasn't here to be a savior or a therapist. He was here to measure a threat. A cold calculus informed his next words.
"As you wish. You are correct. I am a shinobi." He paused, letting the word hang. "Of Konoha."
Konoha.
The name was a detonator.
Nagato's entire body stiffened. His head jerked up, the red hair falling back to fully reveal the Rinnegan, now wide with a surge of memory so visceral it was physical pain.
A year ago. The confusion. The fear. The Konoha shinobi in their home. The "accident." The splatter of blood that wasn't an accident at all. His parents, gone. His world, shattered.
Ragnar watched the transformation with clinical detachment. He'd said it deliberately. In the original timeline, Nagato's parents were killed by Konoha-nin. This world was cruel, a place where hard choices were made in shadows. To a child, it was a senseless tragedy that broke his life. To a shinobi on a mission, eliminating potential security risks—even unarmed civilians—was sometimes a necessary, if grim, part of the job. Right and wrong were functions of perspective. Someone had to stand in the light, like the Hokage. And someone, like Danzo in the Root, had to stand in the dark and do the things that kept the light shining. It was a system built on blood and compromise.
Nagato was a victim of that system's ruthless logic.
"Ah… AAAAGH!"
A guttural scream tore from Nagato's throat. The dam holding back the beast broke.
ROAR!
An immense, violent torrent of chakra erupted from his small frame. It was raw, untamed, a geyser of pent-up grief, rage, and the infinite potential of the Rinnegan. The air around him warped and shimmered. His loose robes billowed outwards. His red hair lifted as if charged with static, fully revealing the terrifying, concentric circles of his eyes, now blazing with purple light.
Hatred, pure and black, flooded his heart, directed at the symbol of his loss standing before him—the Konoha shinobi. His reason fought a desperate, losing battle against the tidal wave of power and emotion. To give in was to be consumed, to become the monster of his nightmares once more.
But the Rinnegan fed on such emotions. Hatred was its kindling.
Nagato's struggling expression suddenly smoothed over, replaced by an eerie, blank focus. His hands shot out, palms facing Ragnar.
"SHINRA TENSEI!" (Almighty Push)
BUZZ—WHOOM!
Space itself seemed to compress and then violently expand. An invisible, spherical wave of pure repulsive force blasted outwards from Nagato with him as the epicenter. It wasn't an attack you saw; it was an attack you felt—the fundamental force of gravity itself being manipulated and unleashed.
The ground for meters around Nagato shattered upwards, not in chunks, but as a fine powder, caught in the leading edge of the repulsive wave. Trees bent away from him, their trunks groaning in protest.
Ragnar stood at the edge of the expanding force. He felt an immense, invisible hand press against his entire body, trying to shove him back, to crush him, to repel him from existence.
So this is the power…
"Observation Haki… Full Release."
He activated his Level 4 Haki to its maximum. The world before his eyes didn't just sharpen; it deconstructed. Colors bled away into gradients of energy. The flow of natural energy, the chakra in the plants, the latent heat in the air—all became visible as shimmering currents. In this hyper-perceptive state, Nagato was a blazing sun of unstable, violent chakra. And the Rinnegan themselves were voids—points of absolute darkness that even his Haki perception couldn't fully penetrate.
More importantly, he could see the attack. It was no longer an invisible force. In his Haki-vision, "Shinra Tensei" manifested as a perfect, expanding hemisphere of distorted space—a tidal wave of compressed gravitational potential roaring toward him.
Knowing its form meant he could oppose it.
The essence of Shinra Tensei was force. A fundamental, repulsive force.
And the purest counter to force… was an equal and opposite force.
"Armament Haki… Hardening. Full Body."
Black, vein-shot Armament Haki erupted across Ragnar's skin, not in patches, but as a seamless, full-body shell. He didn't brace; he rooted. His will, the indomitable intent to stand firm, fused with the physical hardening. His feet sank slightly into the earth, not from being pushed, but from anchoring himself against the conceptual weight of the world trying to reject him.
The repulsive wave hit.
BOOOOOOM!
The sound was a deep, subsonic thud that vibrated in the bones rather than the ears. The forest behind Ragnar was flattened in a perfect fan shape as the force deflected around his immovable form, tearing trees from the ground and hurling them away. Dust and debris exploded in a colossal plume.
But at the very center, where Ragnar stood, there was calm. A small pocket of undisturbed space in the maelstrom. The black shell of his Haki glowed faintly under the strain, but it held. The ground directly beneath his feet was the only patch not scoured clean.
He had stopped the Almighty Push through sheer, hardened will and physical power.
As the dust began to settle, Ragnar looked through the clearing haze at the panting, wide-eyed Nagato. The boy was stunned, his borrowed power unable to move this unmovable object.
"Is that all?" Ragnar's voice was flat, a challenge. "Show me more."
(End of Chapter)
✨If you're enjoying this story, consider supporting me on Patreon —
Patreon.com/TofuChan
💕Patreon members get early access to chapters, bonus content, and voting power on future ideas.💕
Every bit of support helps me write more and faster. Thank you so much for reading! 🥰
Bonus Chapter For Every 100 Power Stones
Lets hit the goal of 200 Patreon Members now for 5 Extra Chapters 💕