Did You Feel Pain?

With the Phosphorus Corrosive Insects about to burrow into his brain, Uchiha An wasn't the least bit worried.

He wore an unnervingly strange smile as he looked down at Aburame Torune, who lay on the ground. Meeting Torune's eyes, full of hatred and anticipation, Uchiha An suddenly burst into laughter.

"Hahaha..."

"I've been keeping this under wraps all this time, just waiting for a moment as wonderful as this!"

"As Danzo's right-hand man, did you really think I wouldn't plan how to kill you?"

"Come on, take a look at the gift I prepared just for you!"

Laughing wildly, Uchiha An had Susanoo pluck the Herb Gourd from its back. He aimed it at himself, channeled Chakra, and sucked in hard.

Torune watched in despair as a purple mist drifted out of Uchiha An's body and toward the Herb Gourd.

The stream of mist, made up of Nano Poison Insects, writhed and struggled like a living thing. But under the pull of the Sealing Power, it was helpless to resist and was sucked into the Herb Gourd.

Uchiha An's skin quickly changed from purple back to its normal color.

When Uchiha An had first activated Susanoo's second form, the Herb Gourd had been strapped to the back of the giant made of energy. Torune had seen it long ago, but Uchiha An had never taken it off or used it. So Torune had no idea what the gourd was for.

It had never occurred to him that the Herb Gourd was actually a Fuinjutsu tool!

His trump card, the killing blow he'd pinned all his hopes on, had been so easily thwarted by his enemy. Torune was devastated. He spat blood several times, then finally could hold on no longer.

Though the Phosphorus Corrosive Insects had still inflicted tremendous damage on Uchiha An as they entered and left his body, the tissue corroded by the poison rapidly recovered under the effects of his Dojutsu.

Uchiha An canceled Susanoo and looked at Torune, who was barely clinging to life at his feet. He burst into laughter again.

"Hahaha..."

"That's the feeling!"

"Give you hope first, then leave you in despair!"

"There's nothing more satisfying than this!"

"This is what revenge feels like!"

"Hahaha..."

A flash of hatred crossed Uchiha An's eyes. He raised his foot high, aimed it at Torune's head, and brought it down hard.

With a splat, Torune's head burst beneath his foot like a rotten watermelon. Brains and bone fragments sprayed everywhere.

Looking at Torune, whose brains had been smashed across the ground, Uchiha An still wasn't satisfied. He lifted his head and fixed his gaze on the remaining Konoha shinobi.

But before he could act, the sound of something cutting through the air suddenly reached his ears. A Kunai flew toward him.

A flash of yellow light followed, and a figure in gold and red suddenly appeared. He raised one hand, a head-sized Rasengan spinning violently in his palm and shrieking as it tore through the air. Then he brought it crashing down toward Uchiha An's head.

A moment earlier.

Namikaze Minato flashed to Akimichi Choza's side. He quickly searched him for medicine, gave him some basic treatment, then patted him on the shoulder and said quietly, "Hang in there a little longer."

Then he bent down, picked up a pouch of Kunai from the ground, and fastened it to his waist. He also picked up a short sword and swept his gaze across the Akatsuki Organization members watching from a distance.

His eyes paused for a moment on Orochimaru and Uchiha Itachi's unmistakable Sharingan, then moved on. He glanced at Uchiha An, who was busy fighting Aburame Torune, but didn't intervene. Instead, he looked up at Pain in the air.

"I'm Namikaze Minato. Enough people have died today. Can we end this battle here?"

Pain found it strange that Namikaze Minato, a dead man, had suddenly "come back to life" and was now residing in a child's body. But the Ninja World was full of all kinds of strange Ninjutsu. The Rinnegan could even bring people back to life, so Minato's "pseudo-resurrection" wasn't anything extraordinary.

He lowered his gaze and asked coldly:

"Have you felt pain?"

"Do you understand the value of peace now?"

Namikaze Minato frowned. This kind of cryptic talk gave him a headache, but he still nodded and replied:

"I've always known the value of peace, and I never want war to break out anywhere."

"Konoha has never invaded another country of its own accord. We've always worked to preserve peace in the Ninja World."

"Lies!" Pain shouted, cutting him off. "You say you've felt pain and understand the value of peace. Then answer me this: after what happened today, will Konoha retaliate against Amegakure?"

"Well..." Namikaze Minato was at a loss for words.

He knew perfectly well that although Konoha had always pursued a policy of peace, the only ones it was willing to make peace with and negotiate with were the Five Great Shinobi Countries.

So many people had died in Konoha, and their enemies weren't one of the Five Great Shinobi Countries, but a small village like Amegakure. Neither Konoha's leadership nor its ordinary shinobi and citizens could accept that outcome.

Even if it was only to deter the other four great nations and stop them from thinking Konoha was weak and trying to invade, Konoha would have to retaliate.

But if the people who had killed them weren't from Amegakure, but from one of the Five Great Shinobi Countries, then given Konoha's usual policy of appeasement, they'd probably just issue a condemnation and let the matter drop. The people wouldn't find that unacceptable, either.

But Amegakure was different!

To put it bluntly, a small country like Amegakure didn't deserve that consideration!

Amegakure had once stood on equal footing with the Five Great Shinobi Countries for a time. But that was because of Demigod Hanzo of the Salamander. He had earned his reputation through sheer force of arms.

That was what had made the other countries reluctantly acknowledge the Land of Rain's standing. But as Hanzo of the Salamander grew old, the Land of Rain had returned to the place it was meant to occupy, with shinobi from the Five Great Shinobi Countries bullying it at every turn.

Minato had once been Hokage, and he understood the conflicts within the village very well. So he knew that even if the blond enemy before him might be stronger than Hanzo of the Salamander had been, Konoha could never agree to negotiate without first fighting him.

It didn't matter that he was already dead. Even if he were still alive, there would only be one choice in this situation.

They had to win the fight first, then negotiate.

Minato was a straightforward man by nature and didn't want to deceive Pain with words on this matter, even though Pain was his enemy.

Faced with Namikaze Minato's silence, Pain knew what the answer would be.

"So don't talk about how the people of Konoha love peace and hate war!"

"You simply take it for granted that the pain and death caused by war won't fall on your side!"

"And you don't really care where that pain and death falls!"

"Those who have never felt pain can't understand the value of peace!"