Meanwhile, atop the tower.
Pain and Konan stood as though a paralysis jutsu had been cast on them.
His Rinnegan and her cool eyes stared unblinkingly at the stage.
Those lyrics, that melody, that sense of struggle and pain, yet unwavering resolve, yearning for flight and light.
Like a key, they unexpectedly unlocked a dusty box deep within their memories.
"If I spread my wings and fly, I said I would never return..."
"My destination is that blue, blue sky..."
"Before I could remember that pain, I began to understand anguish..."
"These feelings I have for you now become a thousand words..."
Konan's lips trembled as she murmured almost unconsciously, interpreting the lyrics that struck so deeply at her heart.
"Breaking free of restraints... never turning back, even through pain... longing for the sky and the light... turning feelings beyond words into the strength to move forward..."
Before her eyes, she seemed to see the gloomy skies of the Land of Rain, Yahiko's warm smile, and the faces of their companions who struggled amid war and poverty, desperate for change.
This song called "Blue Bird"
It sang of every soul fumbling through the darkness, longing to break free of its cocoon and fly toward its ideal world!
Especially... the organization named "Dawn"!
Beneath Pain's eternally cold mask, Nagato's true body, far away in a tower in Amegakure, involuntarily began breathing faster.
What he "heard" was more than music. It was a powerful spiritual resonance, unsullied by worldly cynicism, purely pursuing "hope."
It was utterly different from the "peace" he now firmly believed must be achieved through an understanding of pain and the oppressive might of the Rinnegan.
Yet... inexplicably, it stirred the softest part of his heart, the part he least wanted to remember, the part belonging to "Yahiko" and