Just as the atmosphere on Konoha's training ground reached a stalemate, with conflict about to erupt!
The images on the Sky Screen hanging high above the shinobi world suddenly flickered violently!
Light and shadow raced backward in a frantic blur!
The bloody battle on the bridge, Karin's grievous injuries, Sasuke's ruthlessness, and the Five Kage Summit all faded away.
The timeline hurtled backward, skipping past Sasuke's childhood and Karin's escape!
It kept rewinding until the images steadied and slowly began playing forward.
Gray skies hung over a gray world, and endless rain fell in a drizzle that never stopped.
Ruined streets, collapsed houses, refugees and corpses everywhere.
A nation plagued by year-round rain and ceaseless war, used by the great nations as a battlefield-the Land of Rain.
At the sight of this painfully familiar scene, Nagato's heart lurched within the Land of Rain!
His once-calm expression instantly darkened, and a heavy gloom flooded his eyes.
He knew this place all too well. This was where his nightmares had begun, the source of a lifetime of suffering.
Sure enough, the view on the Sky Screen slowly drew closer, settling on a dilapidated little house in the Land of Rain.
A family of three lived inside: a gentle couple and a little boy with crimson hair and a tender young face.
It was Nagato as a child.
No one knew that this ordinary family, stranded in the Land of Rain, were survivors of the Uzumaki Clan.
They only wanted to live peacefully in this remote place.
Their lives were poor and difficult. They never had enough food or warm clothing, their roof leaked, and their clothes were worn.
Yet the three depended on one another, protecting and warming each other through a simple, peaceful life.
Compared with the tragic fate of Karin