"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."
Ryuji 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," Ryuji Hyuga said gently, calmly correcting her words. His expression did not change at all.
"Who is that person?" Nagato suddenly asked.
"My lord," Ryuji 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.
Ryuji 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? Ryuji Hyuga did not know, Nagato did not know, and perhaps not even Hanzo himself knew the answer.
Ryuji 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.
Some civilians even recognized him, yet from their mouths he learned that people he had once saved had starved to death by the roadside three years ago. They did not die in battle, but starved alive.
Hanzo did not dare to stop walking and could only keep moving forward, almost like fleeing in disgrace. He walked until he entered this cave and saw those eyes.
The eyes of a god that controlled life and death. Hanzo knew that what Land of Rain had become was already the limit of what he could achieve.
But Nagato, who possessed those eyes, had more possibilities and could do far more. So he wanted to try.
"I already learned everything from 'Shadow'."
Hanzo did not try to defend his mistakes and looked straight into the Rinnegan as he spoke each word clearly. "Colluding with Danzo Shimura to kill Yahiko was my fault, and it was also my order to eliminate Akatsuki."
He admitted everything completely and calmly, without excuses or deflection. His tone carried no decoration, only acceptance.
Then Hanzo paused, as if recalling something, and gave a self-mocking smile. "I once met a samurai. When all his companions fled for their lives, he knew he was no match for me, yet he still charged forward with his blade."
"I defeated him, but his resolve to face death moved me. I told him that a person's end is not death, but the loss of belief, and that I would tell the world he was a hero."
"But what's laughable is that when faced with fading vitality, weakening power, constant threats, and fear of death, I gave in."
"Day after day of barely surviving made me weak and timid. I lost my old beliefs and ideals and became the coward I despised the most."
The samurai he spoke of was the current general of the Land of Iron, Mifune, from the time when Ao was still active. That was why Hanzo did not kill him back then, but spared him out of respect and admiration.
There was no need to tell Nagato any of this, and Hanzo did not want him to think he hoped for mercy in the same way he once spared Mifune. A mistake was a mistake, and he needed no excuses as he faced death without fear.
"I'm not saying this to beg for your forgiveness. I know that all of your suffering was caused by my own hands."
Hanzo's tone and expression were utterly calm. "After I die, you can leave my body in the wilderness, or erase my reputation and let countless people curse my name."
"Do whatever you think has meaning."
"I have only one request."
Facing the silent Nagato and the dazed Konan, his upright posture slowly lowered. His movement was deliberate and heavy.
"I have already given my will to someone I trust, so you can take over Amegakure openly and legitimately."
Hanzo spoke softly. "After my death, please lead Amegakure, and lead this country that has suffered so much, toward the future Yahiko once described to you."
"I can no longer do it, but you, who possess those eyes, certainly can."
That was the truth. Part of his attitude came from his past mistakes, but more than anything, it was for the country he cared about.
Silence followed, as if time itself had stopped. The cave fell into complete stillness.
Looking at Hanzo, who had lowered himself almost into the dirt, the ripples in Nagato's Rinnegan froze. He had imagined countless ways Hanzo might react when faced with judgment.
Desperate resistance, excuses, begging for mercy, or ugly behavior. He had imagined them all.
But he had never imagined this.
This was not the Hanzo he had known at any point. It was neither the proud and powerful Hanzo of the past, who would never bow, nor the old and cowardly Hanzo who would never choose death.
At this moment, Hanzo was simply an old man willing to pay the price for his past mistakes and face death calmly.
Konan stared at Hanzo with bloodshot eyes as memories of that storm-filled night surged back. She remembered Yahiko pushing Zetsu as he lunged toward Nagato's raised Kunai.
She remembered the faint sound of the blade tearing into a heart. She remembered her own terror and collapse, the desperate cries of Zetsu, and the hatred that now controlled Nagato.
"What is this supposed to be?"
Konan's trembling voice broke the silence, filled with indescribable confusion. She looked at Hanzo and nearly shouted, "Then go die!"
As her words fell, Hanzo moved.
His motion was extremely fast, carrying a calm sense of release. He gripped the Kusarigama in his hand, the weapon that once represented his power and pride.
It was a tool that had taken countless lives. Now, with all his strength, he drove it toward his own chest in a motion that looked almost like an embrace.
A wet sound echoed through the cave.