"Lord Hanzo, must we truly do this?" an Amegakure Jonin asked, a hint of reluctance in his voice. After all, these were children willing to lay down their lives for the Land of Rain.
"…"
Hanzo of the Salamander remained kneeling where he was, seemingly not having heard the question. Or perhaps, he too was asking himself: was this truly worth it? He came from a samurai background; though he now identified as a ninja, the samurai's pride still deeply influenced him.
"Say no more. Lord Hanzo has his considerations." A more pragmatic Amegakure ninja pulled his comrade back, speaking in a low voice.
Where you stand depends on where you sit. People in different positions view the same matter from entirely different perspectives. His comrade wasn't wrong; if they sided with Konoha to slaughter their own compatriots, then they would have truly knelt. Lord Hanzo also wasn't wrong; if he didn't agree to Danzo Shimura's proposal, the advantages Amegakure had painstakingly built during the Second Shinobi World War would instantly crumble, and the situation in the Land of Rain would only become more dire than it already was.
"Let's go."
As they departed, the spacious room fell into silence.
"Hngh…"
The veins on Hanzo of the Salamander's hand, gripping the hilt of his kusarigama, bulged visibly…
Naruto and the young man before him stared at each other, eyes wide. After a long moment, Naruto asked, "So, you're the Light of Dawn?"
How should he put it? After spending several days traveling, before meeting them, he had imagined the leader of the Akatsuki organization would be some older, cunning schemer with the nation's well-being at heart.
"That's right, we are Akatsuki." Yahiko, with his short, deep-yellow hair, crossed his arms and nodded emphatically. "Well? Want to join us? Let's work together to achieve peace in the shinobi world!"
"…" Naruto shifted his gaze to the two ninjas flanking him, a young man and a young woman.
The male had the same blood-red hair as his mother, Kushina, but for some reason, he kept the upper half of his face deeply buried within his crimson locks, making it impossible to discern his expression.
The girl's long, purple hair was quite striking. With her lovely features, in Konoha, she would undoubtedly be the dream girl of countless boys. The beauty mark beneath her lower lip was like a finishing touch, lending her beauty a unique distinction.
"Hello, my name is Konan. He's Nagato. And as for him," Konan, seeming to sense his awkwardness, introduced everyone present, "he's currently the leader of our Akatsuki organization—Yahiko."
"Are you here to join Akatsuki?" she also asked.
"Your philosophy of peace deviates somewhat from my own," Naruto replied, politely declining.
"You're pursuing peace too?" Yahiko looked at him with pleasant surprise. Peace was something most people yearned for, yet few would actually pursue it as an ideal. "Can you share your thoughts?"
"Through some kind of large-scale weapon of mass destruction, coerce all shinobi villages into signing a peace treaty," Naruto stated his initial idea. Absolute peace was too ethereal; a relative peace under the threat of mutual destruction seemed much more reliable. Humanity's boundless desires fundamentally dictated that true peace was simply unattainable.
Yahiko: "???"
Konan: "???"
Nagato: "…"
"Hold on." Yahiko's entire demeanor shifted; he looked at this 'kindred spirit' before him in disbelief. "What kind of peace is that?"
"Is it not?" Naruto rubbed his chin. "To hang a Sword of Damocles over all the shinobi villages, to curb large-scale wars and break them down into smaller, localized conflicts. That's the most reliable form of peace I can imagine."
"But that's not peace at all!" Yahiko grabbed Naruto's shoulders, his tone earnest. "True peace is built upon mutual understanding between people—a world without oppression, without conflict!"
"Oppression can only lead to greater oppression!"
"That's why I said our philosophies don't quite align," Naruto said helplessly.
"Then why did you come looking for us?" Konan, also finding his concept of peace hard to accept, inquired.
"Hmm…" Naruto pondered for a moment, then replied, "Think of it like a steel ingot. It needs a blacksmith's constant hammering to gradually be shaped into tools for cultivation. Ideals are the same. My ideal is just a rough draft; it needs to absorb the essence of other ideals, drawing from the strengths of many schools of thought, to be continuously refined."
"If I really did create a Sword of Damocles and forced every village to sign a peace treaty, what would I do then? The path ahead is pitch black. I need a guiding light."
"Hey, hey, hey!" Yahiko leaned in, scrutinizing him from head to toe. "Your ideas are really dangerous! Leaving aside everything else, if you actually created such a weapon, one question: who would control it?"
"Initially, it would probably be me," Naruto sighed. This was precisely what troubled him. People change. When one person holds the power of life and death over all shinobi villages, faced with the temptation of taking whatever they desire, could their original intentions truly remain unchanged? On this point, Naruto didn't even have confidence in himself, even though he could face death without flinching. Some forms of erosion were far more terrifying than death.
"I've also considered whether to distribute such power equally among all the shinobi villages," Naruto continued, "but my experiences in the Land of Rain led me to abandon that option." The First Hokage had thought along similar lines, distributing the nine Tailed Beasts equally among the Five Great Shinobi Villages to create mutual deterrence and maintain the hard-won peace in the shinobi world. But the result… The Land of Rain was merely a more prominent example of the tragic consequences of that Tailed Beast distribution, not the only one.
As he spoke, Naruto couldn't help but rub his temples.
"Take your time to think it over. We're all still young, after all." Yahiko, who also understood the hardships involved, sighed and patted Naruto's shoulder comfortingly. "By the way, we still don't know your name."
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto said.
"You have the same surname as Nagato!" Konan exclaimed, her curious gaze darting back and forth between the two. Having been personally taught by Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, towards the end of the Second Shinobi World War, they were no longer the inexperienced, utterly clueless youngsters they once were. They naturally understood the significance of the name 'Uzumaki.'
"But isn't the Uzumaki clan's hair always red?" Yahiko asked, slinging an arm around Nagato behind him, puzzled.
"For certain special reasons, I took my mother's surname," Naruto explained.
"Want to come in and sit for a bit?" Yahiko scratched his head. "It might be a bit crude."
"I'd be honored," Naruto smiled. His purpose in coming here was precisely to gain a deeper understanding of how this 'savior' organization, spoken of by the people of the Land of Rain, actually operated.
Following Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato, he entered an underground cavern. From the general state of its interior, this base appeared to have been established in a natural cave, subsequently expanded using Earth Release ninjutsu.
"Nagato, you…" Naruto turned his head to look at his clansman beside him. He was just about to ask why Nagato had chosen to join Akatsuki when he inadvertently caught sight of the purple, ripple-patterned eyes hidden beneath his long, red hair.
"The Rinnegan?!!" He instantly lost his composure.