Brilliant fireworks bloomed one after another in the night sky, bringing Konoha's joy and festive atmosphere to a crescendo.
Yet beneath all that laughter and merriment, certain corners of Konoha remained shrouded in silence and shadow.
Konoha's prison, for instance, held prisoners who were either exceptionally dangerous or had unusual identities, along with research materials and items that could not be made public.
A man with striking red hair moved silently through the dim corridors.
A Shuten-doji mask concealed his face, leaving only a pair of purple Rinnegan visible, glimmering with complex emotions in the shadows.
It was Nagato.
After secretly infiltrating Konoha with Obito, he had come alone to this heavily guarded, forbidden place.
His objective was clear: find Konan.
He passed one cold, sturdy cell after another, his purple Rinnegan swiftly scanning the figures inside through the mask's eyeholes. Some were numb, others wary, and still others asleep.
There were high-ranking rogue ninja from enemy nations, subjects of forbidden experiments that had spiraled out of control, and political prisoners with sensitive identities...
But he never saw the familiar figure he sought.
"Fireworks?"
Nagato stopped at a corner with a ventilation opening, through which he could faintly hear the noise outside and see scattered flashes of fireworks.
He raised his head slightly and gazed through the narrow opening at the colored lights blooming intermittently in the distant night sky.
Beneath his mask, an almost imperceptible trace of wistfulness and longing surfaced in his purple eyes.
Those lights represented the bustle of everyday life, the joy of peace, the warmth ordinary people could reach out and touch...
These were all things that he, Yahiko, and Konan had dreamed of as children, gazing up at the sky from Amegakure's crumbling streets, yet had seemed forever beyond their reach.
But that faint