After saying goodbye to the Fourth Raikage, A, whose feelings were complicated, Rei Kaguya brought Naruto Uzumaki, whose brows were no longer tightly furrowed, and turned toward the Land of Rain.
When Naruto Uzumaki noticed that the two of them were now heading toward the Land of Rain, he could not help asking curiously, "We don't need to return to Kirigakure?"
"No. The other four Tailed Beasts and Jinchuriki under Kirigakure's control will come to the Land of Rain and meet us later. Right now, we will go meet Nagato first."
"Nagato… huh?"
Naruto Uzumaki, who had already untied many of the knots in his heart, repeated that name a few times. His mood was rather complicated as he let out a long sigh.
"What? You feel like you no longer have the face to meet Nagato?"
Hearing the sigh beside his ear, Rei Kaguya asked in an extremely certain tone without even turning his head.
Naruto Uzumaki choked at Rei Kaguya's words, then gave a bitter smile and nodded, admitting it.
"Yeah. Just as you said, I'm a little… embarrassed to meet him. He believed that I could completely change the shinobi world, resolve the contradictions between great nations and small nations, and completely sever the chain of hatred and pain spreading between people."
"That is not strange. After all, your level of ideological understanding really is not very high. And Jiraiya, the one in Konoha who was good at this kind of humanistic reflection, died early. The fact that they managed to teach you how to properly handle Konoha's internal and external political affairs is already quite good. If under such circumstances you could still build the future shinobi world into a utopia where no one would be hurt, that would be the strange thing."
Hearing Rei Kaguya attack him in such a harsh tone, even though Naruto Uzumaki's mindset and temper had recovered quite a bit, he still could not help shouting at him.
"Hey! What do you mean teaching me to handle internal and external political affairs normally counts as success!? Kakashi-sensei and Granny Tsunade weren't as bad as you're saying!"
"Huh? Don't tell me you think the fact that the shinobi world wasn't changed was only because you alone lacked ability?"
Rei Kaguya glanced sideways at Naruto Uzumaki. While using his ocular power to disperse the dark clouds filling the sky ahead of them, he bluntly gave his evaluation.
"Tsunade does have genuine talent in medical ninjutsu. But when it comes to politics and diplomacy, at most, she is merely passable. If she were truly excellent enough to understand others' hearts and think from their perspective, then how could Nagato have been angered to the point where he did not hesitate to consume his own life to flatten your entire Konoha and make all of you properly experience pain?"
"…There was something like that? Why did Granny Tsunade never mention it to me??"
Naruto Uzumaki stared blankly at Rei Kaguya, who had casually revealed shocking information. He had never imagined that behind Pain using Super Shinra Tensei to blast away the whole of Konoha, there had actually been such a secret that even he, one of the people involved, had never known.
Rei Kaguya merely shook his head and descended with Naruto Uzumaki toward the capital of the Land of Rain, where clear skies were rarely seen.
"She did not mention it to you most likely because she did not think anything she said was wrong, nor did she believe the fuse that led Pain to blow away the entire Konoha Village was a speech she considered only natural… That is a common flaw leaders born in great nations easily possess. Although it does not show as obviously in you, it still exists all the same."
Beneath the gradually dispersing rain curtain, Nagato had already been waiting for some time atop the tallest building in Amegakure.
Looking at Rei Kaguya, who broke through the dark clouds and descended alongside the cold moonlight pouring down, he took the initiative to step forward and greet him.
"You really are good at ordering people around, Rei Kaguya."
"Is being ordered around by me something with no reward and nothing but risk?"
Rei Kaguya lightly punched Nagato, neither hard nor soft. While sensing the increasingly obvious senjutsu chakra in the other party's body, he casually asked back, "Since the Akatsuki and you received my investment, has there ever been a time when you worked for me and did not receive enough return?"
"That is why I was only complaining casually."
Nagato shook his head helplessly. Then his gaze shifted toward Naruto Uzumaki, whose head had lowered without him noticing and whose expression showed that he did not know what to do.
Curiously, Nagato asked, "This is the Child of Prophecy from the future?"
"You can also call him your junior disciple. After all, in their era, he was also Jiraiya's student. Although his father, the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, was also Jiraiya's student, I doubt that is a particularly major issue?"
Rei Kaguya teased.
"Uh… Calling Minato Namikaze my junior disciple is one thing, but if I also call his son my junior disciple, the order of things will be a mess."
Nagato shook his head, then very curiously spoke to Naruto Uzumaki, whose face had grown even redder.
"Although it is somewhat strange for me to ask this, if there is time later, could you talk to me about what I was like in your world?"
"…Can we not talk about that?" Naruto Uzumaki asked in a muffled, reluctant voice.
"…Did that version of me over there commit some mistake that is very hard for you to speak about?"
Nagato narrowed his eyes, and his tone carried a trace of apology.
"No, it isn't for that reason."
Naruto Uzumaki took a deep breath. In the end, he still gathered the courage to look at the young, healthy, high-spirited Nagato. Trying his best not to avert his gaze, he answered, "I just… don't really know how to admit, in front of someone I once made such bold promises to, that I couldn't fulfill my promise and that I'm a big liar."
"You could not fulfill your promise…"
Nagato looked at Naruto Uzumaki, who was biting his lips with a complicated expression. He reached out and patted his shoulder, then asked with clear eyes, "Then, the main reason you could not complete that promise was still because you lacked the strength to do so, right, Naruto?"
"If it wasn't realized, then it wasn't realized. Even if the main reason was that I couldn't do that kind of thing, I still can't deny the fact that I intentionally or unintentionally ignored that promise."
Naruto Uzumaki shook his head and said self-mockingly, "In my world, you once told me that you were a sequel filled with twists, mistakes, and failures, while I was the hopeful and perfect final volume… But looking at it now, I am far, far from deserving that evaluation."
"Hmm. How should I put this…"
Nagato blinked, then comforted him. "In most cases, life is inevitably accompanied by failure. Having everything go smoothly is the rare situation… But no matter what, at your age, you are still far from the point where you can decide whether your life is a success or a failure, right? That promise you made still has a chance to be realized, does it not?"
"Nagato…"
Naruto Uzumaki listened to this unexpected answer and asked a little haltingly, "You… really don't blame me?"
"What would I blame you for? The one who made that agreement with you was not me, after all…"
Nagato looked at Naruto Uzumaki, who seemed to have become a teenager again, with some amusement, then raised his head and looked toward the bright moon hanging in the center of the sky.
"Besides, some things require a person to keep striving and fighting for them until the very end of life before it is suitable to judge their success, failure, merits, and mistakes… Deciding that you are a failure and a liar when you are only in your thirties is a little too early."
"Only at the end of life can one look back and evaluate it… huh?"
Naruto Uzumaki chewed over Nagato's words with an expression as if he had gained something.
But very soon, Rei Kaguya's somewhat impatient voice broke the mood that had allowed him to continue pondering.
"How long are you two going to stay up there? Move aside. I am bringing people over."
Bringing… people over?
Hearing Rei Kaguya's words, Naruto Uzumaki subconsciously raised his head and looked toward the empty night sky, where there was nothing but the moon and stars.
Then, reflected in his blue pupils, he saw a meteor dragging a huge flaming tail, rapidly falling toward the area where the original Amegakure was located.
No.
That was not right!
Naruto Uzumaki activated Sage Mode. Under his greatly enhanced perception, he sensed several rather familiar chakras from that massive flaming meteor.
The chakra of the former Fourth Mizukage Yagura Karatachi and the Three-Tails Isobu.
The chakra of the former Four-Tails Jinchuriki Roshi and the Four-Tails Son Goku.
The chakra of the Nine-Tails Kurama and the Six-Tails Saiken.
And hidden in the deepest part of the meteor, the chakra of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, along with a chakra extremely similar to Orochimaru's.