A soft, wet sound rang out, thin and clear, like cloth being torn apart by a Lie. Warm red blood flowed out steadily, sliding along the cold black sickle blade before dripping into the dirt and spreading into a dark stain. The blood did not spray but seeped slowly from his chest, soaking and dyeing the cloth red.
pata… pata… Drop by drop, again and again.
"Why?"
Hanzo's hand gripping the sickle trembled, not from fear but from strain. All his strength and will were poured into this act, yet the blade tip, already buried in his chest, could not be pushed any deeper. At some point, Nagato had raised his hand, and Universal Pull locked onto Hanzo's arm.
The man who wanted to die was forcing the blade toward his own heart, while the one who should have wanted him dead was stopping him. Ryuji Hyuga watched in silence, only flicking a glance toward Tobi hiding in the corner, then shifting his footing slightly.
"Do you want to do it yourself?" Hanzo lifted his head and stared into those cold eyes. He clenched the black handle and asked in a low voice, "Your enemy is right in front of you. Do you not want revenge?"
Konan stood frozen in place. Her face, once hardened by hatred, had gone stiff as she stared at the sickle that Hanzo had driven into his own chest, watching the crescent blade slowly soak in glaring red blood.
"I still cannot forgive you."
Nagato's voice sounded like rusted gears grinding together. In those Rinnegan eyes, the detached calm of a god cracked open along a thin line of Lie. Beneath that crack burned a molten rage that threatened to scorch all reason, a feeling that belonged to humans.
"If I could, I would kill you with my own hands right now," Nagato said, his voice forced through clenched teeth. "Just thinking about it makes my body shake, and I cannot stop."
"Then why do you not do it!" Hanzo snapped, his expression just as dark. "Do not tell me you still believe that naive dream Yahiko talked about, that mutual understanding can bring peace."
"I was willing to give my life and Amegakure to you because I knew you would bring peace by seizing the Tailed Beasts and developing a Forbidden Technique that would terrify other nations!"
To Hanzo, Nagato's plan was a realistic path. Even in Ryuji Hyuga's eyes, standing nearby, it was the same. Yahiko and Jiraiya were both idealists who felt guilt over harming others and believed people could understand one another and erase conflict.
One died inside his naive fantasy, and the other knew he lacked the power to change anything, leaving his hopes to the vague Child of Prophecy. Hashirama Senju stood between idealism and realism, hoping for understanding without believing everyone could achieve it, using overwhelming force to end chaos and build a new order for later generations.
Even though later generations failed to live up to his hopes and wars continued after his death, it was still better than an era where children went to battle at five or six years old and the average lifespan was under thirty.
That comparison applied only to great nations, however, as small countries became sacrifices and suffered even more than before. When five war machines collided, the ones crushed between them were always the small states.
Holding idealist thoughts while acting like a realist was Naruto Uzumaki. He believed that understanding and forgiveness could end endless hatred between nations.
Yet when he knelt and begged Fourth Raikage not to execute Sasuke for abducting Killer B, speaking arrogantly about not wanting Kumogakure and Konoha to kill each other, he was silenced by Fourth Raikage's reply, "Wait until I kill Sasuke, then you can forgive me."
In the end, peace was achieved only through overwhelming force, and that world still did not truly change. After Naruto Uzumaki died, the Ninja World would still repeat the same cycle. Having witnessed countless wars and deaths, Hanzo understood this well, just as the later Sasuke Uchiha did.
They knew rationally that after so many wars, the Ninja World was filled with hatred, and people could not possibly understand or forgive one another. The only way was to use overwhelming power to end conflict, establish a new order, and rule the entire Ninja World. This was not an end, but a new beginning.
"As long as you can create so called Tailed Beasts weapons and gain the power to destroy a nation in an instant, those who crave war will hesitate out of fear," Hanzo said. "This will not bring true peace, but if such peace lasts for several generations, when those who hate because of war die off, there is hope for a new order."
Even if a new order could not be built, decades of peace would be enough. Even the once mighty Hashirama Senju maintained peace for only twenty years because he underestimated human desire. If Nagato could achieve several decades, Hanzo was willing to die and hand Amegakure over to him.
"But tell me," Hanzo demanded, staring hard at Nagato. "What are you hesitating over right now?"
"Then you tell me first," Nagato replied, his voice even more hoarse. "Have you ever regretted it?"
Hanzo paused for a brief moment and pressed his dry lips together. After killing Yahiko and destroying the Akatsuki, he had felt regret whenever he saw Amegakure without a successor. He had imagined that if he had kept Yahiko alive and taught him, there might still be hope for peace after his own death.
He knew there had been many choices back then, but under Danzo Shimura's temptation and his fear of death, he chose the worst one. He understood this clearly, but he would not say it. He only wanted Nagato to abandon all illusions about the great nations.
"I have no regrets."
His gaze passed through the distorted air to Nagato's inhuman eyes, and he spoke coldly without fear. "Even if I could choose again right now, I would still kill Yahiko and all of you."
"An Akatsuki clinging to naive fantasies would only drag the Land of Rain into the abyss. Yahiko's negotiations would never gain understanding or peace from the great nations. A Amegakure that loses its will to fight and shows weakness would only become livestock to be carved up."
"The only reason I am here is because I believe you, who possess those eyes, can lead Amegakure to a new future and bring peace to the Land of Rain. Nothing more."
Konan's tightly clenched fists began to tremble again, filled with a sense of powerlessness. She knew that Hanzo was not wrong. The naive girl she once was had died on that rainy night.
"You really deserve to die."
Nagato's tone lost its anger and returned to cold indifference as chilling Dojutsu Power surged outward. Konan swallowed, as if trying to form a sound, but only a thin, stifled breath escaped. The next sound, however, was not the blade piercing flesh.
Clang.
Clang.
A sharp crash of metal burst across the ground and echoed through the space.
The sudden sound made Konan, who had closed her eyes, flinch as she opened them to look. Under the sudden increase of Nagato's pulling force, the sickle blade slipped from Hanzo's hand and skidded away to a farther spot.
"Nagato, you…"
Hanzo frowned, feeling no joy at all, only deep Wang. If Nagato still chose to believe that Yahiko's so-called understanding could bring peace, then he was doomed to fail in leading Amegakure to true peace for Land of Rain.
"Do not misunderstand me. I still hate you and I cannot forgive you, but…"
Nagato cut off what Hanzo was about to say, his voice calm to an extreme level of reason. "You are no longer an obstacle to me now. Killing you would have no meaning, nothing more than self-indulgence."
"I do not need pointless release of hatred. Letting you burn what little warmth and value you have left is the best choice for Akatsuki."
Hearing this, Hanzo and Konan felt their pupils tremble as they looked into Nagato's purple eyes. In those eyes, there was not the slightest ripple of emotion.
They were calm, rational, and detached. At this moment, he truly looked like a being that had cut away human emotion and impulse, a so-called god.
Nagato calmly watched the figure kneeling on the ground, once the hero and legend of Amegakure and even Land of Rain. Although Hanzo never held the title of demigod, his name had long been a legend to countless people, one of the shinobi who stood at the peak in their hearts.
But in Nagato's eyes, this hero had become a new evil dragon after slaying the old one. The hero had grown old, his hand that once held a blade now weak and without belief, frightened by outside noise, hiding in the High Tower in a cowardly and withered state that was hard to look at.
With the coming Fourth Shinobi World War, if such a Hanzo continued to rule Amegakure, then Land of Rain would surely fall into disaster during the war. That was why he ignored Zetsu's warning and came to kill this evil dragon.
It was not only for the hatred in his heart, but also because Hanzo was blocking the path. But now, things were different.