The Ideal of Peace

Hesitate.

Sakura Haruno hesitated.

On an island a hundred miles away, Nagato was also hesitating over a certain decision.

"I must... launch another attack."

"No, no!" Konan shook her head violently, vehemently objecting, "Nagato, you can't use that kind of technique anymore!"

She held Nagato's hand, looking directly into his eyes, but the man gazed into the distance, his gaze seemingly transcending time and space, landing on the girl who stubbornly endured the Super Shinra Tensei and refused to be defeated.

Nagato remained silent, just like the silent Deva Path Yahiko on the battlefield.

"Konan," he suddenly spoke.

Do you still remember our dreams?

Nagato gasped for breath as he spoke in a low voice.

"To break the cycle of revenge and achieve true peace, we need to use absolute power to suppress the entire world, thereby leading it into an era of stability and peace."

"In this process, we cannot retreat at all and must remain absolutely strong. Because once we retreat once, there will always be people in the future who are lucky enough to break the boundaries of peace and challenge our authority. In that case, peace will never be achieved."

"Therefore, no matter the cost, I must kill Sakura Haruno here, then take the Three-Tails and the Nine-Tails, completing a crucial step in my plan!"

He seemed to be trying to persuade Konan, and also trying to persuade himself.

"But your body—" Konan said hesitantly, frowning.

"Don't worry, Konan..." Nagato gasped, straining to speak, "I won't fall until our dream comes true!"

He started refining Chakra again.

"Whoosh," "Whoosh"--

Cold sweat quickly streamed down his forehead.

His breathing grew heavier, and Nagato's body became increasingly thin; with each breath, his ribs became more prominent.

Dark red blood flowed from the man's mouth, nostrils, and even his eyes and ears. Bleeding from all seven orifices, Nagato had pushed himself to the limit.

Konan looked at him with heartache, but she was powerless to do anything.

The brief Chakra refining process seemed to her to be incredibly long; finally, Nagato stopped.

He slowly and laboriously raised his head; the weaker his body became, the brighter his eyes shone, as if his will were shining.

"Peace is just around the corner..."

Nagato said with unwavering determination.

On the other side of the battlefield.

"It has been a long battle. Senjutsu, a mysterious clone with the Mangekyō Sharingan..." Pain stood high in the air and said slowly, "I must admit, you have surprised me time and time again, causing me to misjudge."

"That's why I missed two chances to kill you."

"But there won't be a third time!"

"For our ideals, for lasting peace, even at a price, I will kill you here!"

Sakura Haruno frowned.

She looked up at Pain as if he were a madman. "Kill me, and the world will be at peace?"

"This is just the first step," Pain's icy voice came from above. "Kill you, then seize the Three-Tails and the Nine-Tails, and then the remaining Tailed Beast. When we gather all the Tailed Beast, we can use their power to create incredibly powerful Tailed Beast weapons, weapons capable of destroying a country and a village in an instant..."

"You're trying to imitate the peaceful era created by the First Hokage, aren't you...?" Sakura Haruno quickly understood his meaning and said sharply, "The so-called Tailed Beast Weapons are nothing more than another First Hokage controlled by you!"

"You can understand it that way too!" Pain nodded.

"But the difference is that Hashirama Senju to birth, aging, sickness, and death, while the Tailed Beast are not!"

"Another difference is," Pain continued, his voice suddenly turning icy, "That I will use it to make the world feel real pain!"

"And this terror and pain can effectively curb the ambitions of those who wage war, thus bringing peace to the world!"

"Even if time passes and people forget this pain and terror, we can use these eternal Tailed Beast weapons to create new pain and terror, and bring peace back to the world... This is my wish."

Sakura Haruno scoffed.

"What a grand ideal!" she said dismissively. "But who deserves to be a victim of the Tailed Beast weapons? You, who have caused slaughter throughout the world, what right do you have to be the god who judges the world!"

Pain simply shook his head calmly. "Is it true that anyone stronger than anyone else can become a god of peace? Isn't that what your leader did?"

"So you're going to kill me," the girl said in a low voice.

"Yes," the man in the sky said, "Indeed, my parents were killed before my very eyes by Konoha Ninja, and my clan and country were destroyed and ravaged by Konoha. That's why I hate Konoha and its Konoha Ninja..."

"But I will kill you, not because you are Konoha Ninja, but simply because I must be invincible in the world, and you stand in my path, hindering my progress."

Sakura Haruno lowered her eyes.

Having lived two lives, she could understand Pain's ideals, but she would never agree with his views. In another timeline, Earth did maintain a long period of peace under the threat of nuclear winter, turning hot war into cold war, but this was a balance maintained by multipolar forces, which was fundamentally different from Pain's balance of terror.

To be honest, she felt quite sorry for those small countries. After all, her homeland in her previous life had also experienced similar turmoil, years of war, and immense suffering, but in the end, it survived and rose again to become a major power or even a superpower.

Therefore, peace is never something that can be obtained through the charity of others, but rather through one's own relentless efforts. Pain's delusion of bestowing peace upon the world is utterly unrealistic, nothing more than a childish fantasy of an older man with delusions of grandeur, and could even lead to a more terrible situation at any time!

She opened her mouth, about to say something, when suddenly a thought struck her. In the instant she turned her head, she saw a flash of golden light disappear in the far distance.

That was... Sasuke's Railgun! She remembered that light!

It only has that one move that allows it to fly extremely far, its tracks visible from two or three hundred miles away.

"It seems... the Chakra reaction has disappeared. It looks like it's over over there too," Pain said leisurely, glancing in that direction.

The Chakra response disappeared? Sakura Haruno's heart skipped a beat.

Who died?

What exactly happened?

Sakura stared intently at Pain, desperately wanting to get more information from him, but the latter nonchalantly turned his head and looked back at Sakura Haruno.

"Well then, it's time for us to end this."

As he spoke, he suddenly raised his hand.

A surge of Chakra descended upon Pain once more.

He once again unleashed the Super Shinra Tensei!

Sakura Haruno no longer hesitated.

She took a deep breath, reached into her underwear, and fumbled to pull out the last scroll.

"You're right, it's time..."

"Let's settle this once and for all!"

[I revised the following part several times, but I'm still not satisfied, so I'll just post it like this for now.]