Nagato's heart began pounding uncontrollably.
Stand on my own feet...
Awaken Wood Release...
Come infinitely close to the Sage of Six Paths...
Every phrase was like a devil's whisper, striking hard at the most vulnerable, most yearning parts of his heart. He lowered his gaze to his unfeeling legs, then recalled the white-clad figure outside who had annihilated the Six Paths of Pain with overwhelming force.
Intense humiliation and resentment churned in his chest, mingled with a craving for absolute power.
But he had not lost his reason. He stared intently at Obito. This man had been using him from the very beginning. Could everything he described really come without a price?
"What do you want, Madara?" Nagato stared him down. "You've gone to such lengths to make me stronger. What's in it for you?"
Obito fell silent for a moment, a complicated gleam entering his lone eye. He knew that no grand plan, no tempting power, could be as effective as a single sentence right now.
He turned his head, his gaze seeming to pierce the wall and settle on the blue-haired woman in another room, who silently watched over Nagato and took care of everything that might trouble him.
"Don't you want... to walk up to Konan on your own two feet and protect her?"
"Don't you want... to fulfill the dream you shared with Yahiko with your own two hands?"
Yahiko...
Konan...
Those two names were like the sharpest of keys, instantly piercing every defense and precaution in Nagato's heart. His disability was an enduring source of pain. His inability to protect his companions himself, to fulfill his dearest friend's dying wish with his own hands, was the deepest shadow on his path to "godhood."
That white-clad "god" was still outside. At any moment, he could find