Naruto Immersive Replay, The Curse of the Sharingan

Page 214

You call them naive fools while simultaneously shielding new members of Akatsuki from fatal blows.

The clearest image is captured at dawn.

You stand opposite him, saying, "If I die, the chieftain will be returned to you."

“Tanuki…” Yahiko unconsciously uttered the name.

A violent headache struck, and the scene before my eyes began to distort and collapse! Konan in my arms became unreal, Nagato's worried face became blurred, and the landscape of the Land of Rain peeled away in large patches like a faded oil painting!

He remembered!

Peace is nowhere near as smooth as it seems! The Akatsuki's initial ideals were brutally shattered by naive reality!

He was trapped by Hanzo and Danzo's scheme, and it was that girl, who was both a madwoman and the sun, who suddenly appeared and, with absolute force, disrupted the deadly situation, pulling him back from the brink of hell!

You mock their unrealistic fantasies, yet you clear obstacles for them with the cruelest methods; you sometimes infuriate them, and sometimes you silently handle all the bloody aftermath in the dead of night.

You taught them, in that mad way, how to survive in a dark world, and how to truly "save" them!

You changed Xiao, you changed the fate of all of them!

That's the truth! Full of bloodshed, betrayal, and pain, yet with a burning heat and a real touch... the truth!

And this month's "Read the World"... this world without you, a world of false peace and inexplicable tragedies... is a complete lie!

Yahiko collapsed to his knees in agony, clutching his head tightly as if it were about to split open.

"Yahiko?!" Nagato exclaimed in alarm, trying to help him up.

Yahiko suddenly looked up, his eyes no longer filled with confusion and pain, but with a cold, chilling clarity that had been rebuilt from the ashes.

He shoved away Phantom Nagato's hand, staggered to his feet, and looked around at the world that was rapidly collapsing.

The rain continued to fall, but it became unreal and viscous. The distant Rain Village swayed like a mirage.

“She’s not here…” he murmured to himself, feeling as if a piece of his heart had been ripped out, leaving an empty, drafty feeling that hurt more than any wound. “None of this… is real.”

His raccoon dog, the woman who pulled him out of the abyss of despair, then drove him half to death with anger, and finally bravely protected the real "Shin-Akatsuki" they had built... is not here.

You are in the Valley of the End, perhaps tense, perhaps injured, waiting for him.

A false peace, false allies, a false savior title... none of them are as important as a single hair on your head.

Chapter 206 Redemption in Tsukuyomi (4)

"I'm going to find her." His voice was soft, but it carried a resolute determination, as if even mountains of knives and seas of fire, or the cycle of reincarnation, could not stop him.

"Even at any cost."

Yahiko closed his eyes, no longer looking at this illusory world, and condensed all his chakra, all his will, and all his longing into a sharp blade, stabbing fiercely into the core of this Tsukuyomi illusion!

"You must wait for me, Tanuki!"

With his roar, the illusion of the entire Rain Kingdom collapsed like shattered glass!

Countless fragments of memories scatter, leaving only an endless, cold darkness, and a heart burning fiercely in despair, beating only for one person.

【Nagato's Tsukuyomi World——】

Cold raindrops pounded on Nagato's headband, sliding down his gaunt cheeks like endless tears.

He was standing on a muddy open space on the outskirts of Amegakure.

Beside him was Yahiko's energetic voice, filled with undisguised excitement.

“See, Nagato! Hanzo is finally willing to negotiate with us! Our efforts have not been in vain!” Yahiko slapped his shoulder hard, the heat almost burning his cold skin.

Konan stood a little further back, her blue-purple hair wet from the rain and clinging to her cheeks. She nodded gently, her eyes sparkling with hope. "Yes, the Land of Rain... perhaps peace can truly be ushered in."

Nagato's heart clenched suddenly, a sharp, ominous premonition like a venomous snake tightening around his breath.

The scene before him perfectly mirrored the most painful nightmare from the depths of his memory: the same place, the same people, the same hopeful words, and what followed...

"Shuashuashua——"

Countless figures emerged from the surrounding rain like ghosts, the cold kunai and the faint glow of explosive tags flickering in the gray sky.

Hanzo the Salamander stood on high ground, his eyes beneath the mask cold and indifferent. The elite ninjas beside him, like a pack of wolves on a hunt, surrounded the three of them tightly.

"Why..." Konan's shocked voice was cut off as two ninjas instantly subdued her, their sharp blades pressed against her slender neck, leaving faint bloodstains.

Several bruises quickly appeared on her beautiful face, and her nimble hands, which were always folding paper cranes, were roughly tied behind her back.

"Nagato," Hanzo's voice came through the rain, cold and devoid of any warmth, "If you want to save this girl and your own life, kill Yahiko. Otherwise, you will all die here today."

The world seemed to be slowed down. Nagato felt his hands trembling uncontrollably as Hanzo's men shoved a kunai into his cold palm.

He looked at Konan, who was being held hostage and whose eyes were filled with terror but who was trying to remain calm, and then looked at Yahiko beside him.

The initial shock and anger on Yahiko's face slowly faded, replaced by a heartbreaking, gentle resolve.

He glanced at Konan, then looked deeply into Nagato, his gaze filled with a complex mix of emotions: regret for unfulfilled dreams, reluctance to part with his comrades, but above all, a sense of entrustment and...relief?

He slowly closed his eyes, a faint, reassuring smile even appearing on his lips, before suddenly lunging forward!

The sound of the kunai piercing flesh was particularly jarring in the silent sound of the rain.

"Yahiko—!!!" Konan's shrill scream tore through the rain and completely shattered the last line of defense in Nagato's heart.

Hope, at this moment, is shattered completely, like a paper crane that has been trampled and can never be pieced back together.

Yahiko's body went limp, his weight pressing down on his arm. Warm blood gushed out, staining his hand and the mud beneath his feet red, a red more glaring than any other color in the world.

Yahiko's last breath brushed against his ear, faint yet clear, "The Akatsuki... is entrusted to you... You must... protect Konan!"

The torrential rain poured down, washing away the blood, but it could not dispel the overwhelming despair.

Nagato and Konan staggered as they held Yahiko's gradually cooling body, their rain and tears mingling together, indistinguishable from one another.

The pain was so sharp it was numbing, as if a piece of my soul had been ripped out, leaving only the howling cold wind piercing my chest.

From that moment on, their world was without the sun.

Hanzo did not keep his promise. His cold killing intent pressed down like a physical force. Back to back, Konan's trembling breath and his own violent heartbeat were the only things they could perceive.

Protection? Hatred? Two extreme emotions collided and exploded wildly within him!

Then, he felt it.

The forbidden power belonging to the Rinnegan awakened with a roar amidst extreme pain!

"Planetary Devastation!!"

He roared, but the voice didn't sound like his own.

The immense gravitational field warped space, and rocks, rain, the screams of enemies... everything was swept into the air, coalescing into that enormous tombstone, a symbol of pain and destruction, suspended above the Land of Rain.

Hanzo is dead; his revenge has been served.

But he could no longer stand up, not only physically, but also with his heart, which had died along with Yahiko.

He transformed Yahiko's cold body into the Deva Path of the Six Paths of Pain. The other five Paths were enemies that their teacher, Jiraiya, had killed.

A cruelest mockery of fate.

Xiao Nan silently helped him complete everything; her eyes were lifeless, only a paper-thin and fragile look remained.

The Akatsuki's goals have been completely changed.

Since love and warmth cannot awaken this cold world, let pain make the world feel fear.

Akatsuki became a nightmare that struck fear into the hearts of the ninja world.

Their power grew stronger, their membership increased, including rogue ninjas and S-class wanted criminals... but none of them met a good end.

Deidara was transformed into art in the explosion, Sasori's core was shattered, and Kakuzu's heart stopped beating one by one... It was as if a curse was cursing this organization born of revenge.

When Konoha was destroyed, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki roared at him, "Should pain be passed on to others?!"

Have you ever seen what it looks like when the sun is extinguished?

But when Naruto Uzumaki said, "I believe in the path that Jiraiya-sensei chose," something that had been frozen for a long time suddenly cracked.

Through Yahiko's eyes, he saw the light in the boy's eyes, which was just like the orange-haired boy who shouted "We will change the world" in the rain many years ago.

"Yahiko..." he murmured unconsciously, "If it were you..."

When the Heretical Reincarnation Technique is activated, life force flows away like a flood.

Xiao Nan rushed over and grabbed his withered hand. Paper cranes poured out of her sleeve like snowflakes, futilely trying to stop the loss of life.

In the chilling stillness where life force was rapidly fading, he handed over the eyes that had brought countless calamities to Xiao Nan.

"Live on, Xiao Nan." These were his last words and his final wish.

He thought that the story could finally come to an end, and that he would bear all the sins and punishments alone.

However, it did not.

He watched with a detached, desperate attitude as Konan fought a fierce battle against the masked man who called himself "Uchiha Madara" in order to protect those eyes and for their last remaining obsession.

The waves formed by six hundred billion explosive tags ultimately failed to engulf the man.

As the paper scattered, like a butterfly with broken wings, Xiao Nan's life force also faded away, eventually solidifying into a broken paper angel sculpture.

"No—!!!" Nagato let out a silent roar, his soul trembling.

From the moment Yahiko died, were they... destined to be beyond redemption? All their efforts, all their struggles, all their changes, ultimately pointed to a deeper despair?

If... if Yahiko hadn't died...

This thought, like the sharpest icicle, pierced the deepest part of his consciousness!

Under intense emotional turmoil, the true memories that Tsukuyomi had forcibly concealed burst forth like a flood, violently destroying the dam of falsehood!

Images flashed through his mind as Yahiko resolutely rammed into the kunai in his hand... but the next second, a pebble hit his knee!

The kunai grazed Yahiko's neck, leaving only a shallow bloodstain!

He saw you when he, Yahiko, and Minami were distributing food in the refugee camp. You were huddled in a corner, your black eyes eerily empty, like a soulless shell.

He was soft-hearted and let Xiao Nan give you his only half of a moldy bread.

You, like a shooting star, suddenly burst into their world of despair, and with the most domineering attitude, changed the fate of everyone!

You stopped that tragedy! You pulled Yahiko back from the brink of death!

It was you who, with your alternating moments of lucidity and madness, taught them how to survive and fight in true darkness! It was you who dragged the Akatsuki from pure idealism into a blood-stained reality, yet miraculously preserved that core warmth—the desire to protect their comrades!

No despair! No pain! No endless tears and separations!

The Akatsuki is no longer a fearsome rogue ninja organization, but... but a clumsy yet real... home shared by all the strong individuals abandoned by the world and left homeless!

It's fake! This world before me—where Yahiko is dead, Konan has sacrificed herself, and it's filled with despair and hatred—is fake!

It is the cruelest illusion woven by Tsukuyomi based on his deepest fears!

"Ah—!!!" Nagato roared, a mixture of pain and relief, and his Rinnegan erupted with an unprecedented light!

The surrounding scenery began to violently distort and collapse! Hanzo, the dead Yahiko, the shattered Konan... all the painful phantoms screamed and vanished!

He could sense that all the tragedies in the Tsukuyomi world were part of the trajectory that was meant to happen in his destiny.

But your appearance, like a powerful golden ray of light, forcefully cleaved through this predetermined path of despair, leading them to a future full of unknowns, bonds, and laughter!

Although that future is also full of thorns and sacrifices, it contains your noisy voice, your gentle smile when you're normal, your crazy actions that make people laugh and cry, and more importantly... the reality that everyone is still alive!

“Tanuki…” Nagato murmured. The shattered world reassembled in his eyes, but it was not a Tsukuyomi illusion; it was a real battlefield where he needed to fight.

You can defy your predetermined fate for them.

Now, it's his turn.

I'll help you! No matter if the opponent is Kaguya, or this damned fate!

Even if the price is... his life, which you already saved once.

The light of the Rinnegan pierced through the collapsing Tsukuyomi space, and Nagato's will, like the strongest steel cable, firmly locked onto the direction of reality.

It turns out that redemption is never a one-person affair.

The rain finally stopped.

Chapter 207 Redemption in Tsukuyomi (5)