Fallen Angel, Completely Fallen
A locked room.
The wall lamp cast a dim, yellowish light.
Konan's fingernails dug into her palms, and her knuckles cracked as she clenched her fists.
She didn't say anything.
But Naruto heard it—her heart rate suddenly jumped from 68 beats per minute to 102.
My breathing became erratic.
The steady, long inhalations and exhalations turned into short, vibrato-like gasps.
This is a person whose faith has collapsed, trying to find something to hold onto in the ruins.
"Impossible."
Konan finally spoke.
Her voice was so hoarse it almost didn't sound like her own.
"You're just a twelve-year-old brat... what makes you think you know all this... what makes you think you...?"
Naruto didn't rush to answer.
He took something out of his pocket.
White paper.
Three days ago, when Konan Kashi left, she slipped the paper into his bathrobe pocket.
He held it up, facing the light of the wall lamp.
The piece of paper spun once between my fingers.
"You ask me why?"
His voice was soft, yet carried an unsettling certainty.
"I'd like to ask you—if you truly only consider me an enemy, why keep this around?"
Konan's pupils suddenly contracted.
She stared at the piece of paper.
His own Chakra residue was still on it.
She left it.
She... stayed on her own initiative.
Why?
At the time, she told herself that it was a token, a reconnaissance tool to facilitate future tracking and location.
But at this moment, when Naruto looked at her with that almost pitying gaze, she suddenly couldn't deceive herself with that reason anymore.
You know the answer in your heart.
Naruto crouched down, bringing his eyes level.
He casually tossed the piece of paper onto the edge of the bed.
"You were already wavering from the first time I pressed down on the back of your neck."
"Shut up."
"For the first time in thirty years, you've met someone who leaves you completely powerless to resist."
I said shut up--
"Nagato can't give you a sense of security."
Naruto's voice was low, but his breath was as precise as a knife.
"He couldn't even protect himself. He was kept in a bottle like a battery, while you... shielded him from the wind for thirty years."
Konan's back suddenly arched.
The chains are taut.
The metal ring collided with the sealing array, producing a crisp sound.
"That's enough..."
The sound shattered.
Not cold-blooded shattering.
It's the kind of collapse where all the supporting structures crumble together after being penetrated from the inside.
Her shoulders were shaking.
His jaw was clenched so tightly that blood seeped from his lips.
Thirty years.
For thirty years, she stood in the torrential rain, bearing everything for Yahiko's legacy, for Nagato's peace, and for that false future.
And now someone told her--
What you're carrying was fake from the start.
The person you're protecting was someone else's pawn from the very beginning.
Half of your life has been a joke.
Tears welled up in her closed eyes.
Silent.
Scalding hot.
Naruto looked at her for three seconds.
Then he stood up and walked to the bedside.
"Click."
The golden chains were unlocked.
On my wrist.
On the ankle.
They all loosened and retracted into the sealing array.
Konan was stunned.
She instinctively raised her wrist.
The skin on my wrist, still warm to the touch from the chains, was now free.
The Chakra circuits began to slowly recover.
She can leave now.
It can be used to make paper.
It can fly away.
We can escape back to Amegakure.
"Why..."
"You are no longer my prisoner."
Naruto stood by the bed, backlit by the wall lamp.
Beneath her tousled golden hair, her azure eyes held no wariness, no scheming, but a calmness that defied her comprehension.
"You choose."
"Go back and continue being a puppet for those two rats."
"Or stay."
He reached out his hand.
Palms facing up.
"I'll help you remove Nagato from the chessboard. I'll help you turn the peace that Yahiko truly desires into reality."
Konan stared at that hand.
Generous.
The fingers have distinct knuckles.
You can feel the warmth of my palm even through the air.
What are you after?
Her voice was as hoarse as sandpaper.
"What's a twelve-year-old kid trying to achieve?"
Naruto tilted his head.
The corners of his mouth slowly curved upwards—not a gentle smile, but the kind of smile a predator gives after its prey has stopped struggling, finally revealing its true colors.
What's the point?
He bent down.
He rested his right hand on the pillow beside her ear.
They were so close that she could smell his dry, hot breath.
"I love you, my angel sister."
He gently brushed his fingertips across the undried tear tracks on her cheeks.
The movements were extremely light.
The force, however, cannot be deflected.
"You're so good-looking, so good at fighting, and you even manage the money for an entire organization—"
His breath brushed against her earlobe.
"If not you, then who?"
Konan's brain completely stopped functioning in that instant.
Thirty years.
For thirty years, no one had ever spoken to her in that tone.
Yahiko considered her a comrade-in-arms.
Nagato regarded her as his right-hand woman and the pillar of his faith.
Nobody... saw her as a woman.
Her fingers moved.
Extremely, extremely slowly.
It landed in Naruto's palm.
In my mind.
A system notification sounded.
[Ding--Target: Konan (Angel of God)'s affection level has drastically changed!]
[Current Affection Level: +20 (Complete Dependence After Faith Collapse)]
[Cumulative Favorability: 95]
[Trigger conditions: Extreme period of faith vacuum + positioning as the sole savior + demonstration of trust by voluntarily breaking free from constraints]
[Congratulations, host, you have achieved an SS-level bond - "Fallen Angel, Unwavering in This Life"!]
[Bond critical hit rewards are being distributed...]
[Gained: Perfect Sage Mode! (No need to collect Natural Energy, always active, zero side effects, perception range covers a radius of 50 kilometers, all attributes of Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, and Genjutsu are boosted by 3!)]
Naruto's smile deepened even further.
He looked down at the blue-haired woman who had finally stopped struggling.
The warm light from the wall lamp reflected in his amber pupils.
And a kind of almost devout reverence that she herself was probably not yet aware of.
"Are you sure you don't want me to pay any extra price?"
Konan's voice was soft, tinged with a fragile, tentative quality.
Naruto's thumb slid from her cheekbone down to her jawline.
"Cost?"
He leaned down and gently pressed his forehead against hers.
"Sister, you yourself are the greatest price to pay."
The wall lamp went out.
Only the sound of their intertwined breaths and the faint glow of golden Chakra flowing in the darkness remained in the secret room.
It was a long time.
Scorching hot.
It wasn't until a very long time later that everything returned to silence.
Early morning.
Amegakure.
The top floor of the tower.
The torrential rain lasted for three whole days.
Deva Path Pain stood by the window.
The concentric lines on the Rinnegan spun again and again.
The door behind me was pushed open.
"Nagato"
A member of the Anbu knelt down.
"We've searched a 300-kilometer radius around Hidden Leaf... but haven't found any trace of Konan."
Nagato's thin fingers gripped the armrests of the wheelchair.
Metal deforms silently under the fingertip.
"... Seventy-two hours have passed."
His voice came from the life support system, hoarse and weak, yet carrying an emotion that made the entire tower tremble.
"Who... is that person?"
No one could answer him.
The rain outside the window intensified.
Meanwhile, in the secret underground chamber of the Uzumaki Estate in Hidden Leaf, a woman with short blue hair was curled up in the arms of a boy, a thin blanket partially covering their intertwined silhouettes.
Her breathing was even and steady.
For the past thirty years --
This was the first time I slept without dreams.