Nagato stiffened and murmured, "From the sound of it... she cares deeply about the Land of Rain."
Remembering Konan saying just now that Sarada would flee to Konoha to save herself in a crisis, he gave another defiant snort, but could find no way to argue.
Konan nodded gently, her gaze softening as she voiced what she had kept in her heart for years.
"What about us, then?"
"You, me, and Yahiko. We've spent our whole lives trapped between hatred and peace for the Shinobi World. Haven't we worried far, far too much about the world as a whole?"
"When it comes down to it, the grudges between the great nations and the conflicts among the Five Great Shinobi Villages have nothing to do with our Land of Rain."
"Why should we sacrifice ourselves and the Land of Rain worrying about peace for the entire Shinobi World?"
Nagato froze completely.
He understood the deeper meaning of Konan's words in an instant, but his mouth opened without a word coming out. For a long while, he had no idea how to respond.
His decades-long obsession, Yahiko's dying dream, the hatred he bore for the Land of Rain, the goal etched into his bones for decades-all of it began to waver at once.
Watching his dazed, conflicted expression, Konan let out a soft, helpless sigh.
"Nagato, stop forcing Yahiko's grand dream onto yourself."
"Maybe we took the wrong path from the very beginning."
"Rather than chasing some elusive peace for the entire Shinobi World, steadily making the Land of Rain a better place-the home the three of us protected together-is what truly matters."
Nagato sank into a long, profound silence.
As he watched the young woman on the Sky Screen, who cared only for her homeland and not the rest of the