Talking Nagato and Konan around

"Hahahahahahaha!"

Pain burst out laughing.

Pain laughed madly.

As though he were mocking his own wretchedness, venting his anger and hatred!

"Pain..." Konan checked on him worriedly.

Feng Yao gave no response.

He simply watched Pain quietly. He knew Nagato needed to vent.

Anyone would find it unbearable to suddenly learn that their entire life had been orchestrated.

His parents had died horribly, his friend had been killed, and the Rinnegan he regarded as his power belonged to someone else. He was merely a vessel used to nurture those eyes.

Everything he had done had been guided by someone else, serving someone else's ends. The ideals he believed in and the goals he pursued were like a joke.

It was already something that he hadn't fallen apart.

Sigh, Nagato was a pacifist at heart. His methods were just rather extreme.

Pain stopped.

His expression became impassive, but those deep purple Rinnegan gleamed coldly.

"Come with me..."

Pain spoke. Konan's expression changed, but she did not stop him.

It was a deep, secluded underground chamber. Nagato sat up above, pale as jade and thin as a rake, his red hair draped over his shoulders. He looked like a decrepit old man.

This was Nagato.

Nagato was laughing madly, tears streaming down his face.

"Nagato..."

Konan's eyes were sorrowful.

"Hahaha!"

"So the world Jiraiya and Naruto talk about really is a lie! Only pain can bring peace to the Shinobi World!"

"I'm going to... I'm going to haul rice!"

Nagato had lost faith in the world of mutual understanding that Jiraiya and Naruto spoke of.

In his anger, Nagato wanted only to make the world feel pain!

Seeing this, Feng Yao knew he could not let Nagato keep going down the wrong path.

Sigh, what a miserable Shinobi World.

Sure enough, education was a century-long undertaking. My country hadn't lied to me!

"Enough, Nagato. Stop with your extremist thinking."

"The world Naruto talks about is right. It's just that all of you have overlooked other factors!"

This time, Nagato and Konan were dumbfounded.

Wait, an Uchiha was calling us extreme?

"What factors?"

In the end, although Nagato was still furious, he calmed down. He wanted to hear Feng Yao's thoughts on peace.

So did Konan. She could not help feeling lost. Could peace really be achieved?

Did peace truly exist in this world?

"Thought, power, and institutions!"

"What do you mean?" Pain asked.

Konan also looked at Feng Yao curiously.

They understood power, but what did the other two mean?

"We've actually always lived within a system. I call it the ninja system."

Feng Yao did not begin by discussing thought. Instead, he stated a fact, speaking slowly. "Within the ninja system, we spend our entire lives trapped in a carefully designed snare. War is fundamentally about the unequal distribution of resources!"

"On the surface, it's the ninja of the Five Great Nations fighting to the death. Behind the scenes, though, it's really the nobles of the Five Great Nations maneuvering against one another."

"Meanwhile, ninja are indoctrinated to obey the daimyo, carry out missions, and kill one another, trapped for life in a cycle of hatred."

"Within this system, ninja are imprisoned in their thinking. They never think their own village or country is wrong. They only think their suffering was caused by other countries. To protect their own country and village, they go out to kill the enemy, ultimately becoming mired in hatred!"

At this, Nagato and Konan were both deeply shaken, because they had experienced what Feng Yao described.

Nagato and Konan had also always believed that great nations bullied small ones, and that the suffering of small nations was caused by the great nations.

But now, from what Feng Yao was saying, that did not seem to be the whole story.

"Ninja are professional killers."

"Yes, that's true. But after gaining chakra, why are we still called ninja? We have all sorts of powers. We can build houses and reshape the terrain. Why do we still have to obey a bunch of ordinary people?"

"The truth is, the nobles, who are ordinary people, placed shackles on the ninja who possess power: the ninja system!"

"From then on, ninja became tools of the nobles, never to rebel!"

"Yet you don't realize it at all. Instead, you take it for granted!"

"All ninja live their entire lives within this ninja system, caught in eternal hatred. This is why peace is so difficult to achieve in the Shinobi World!"

"In the future, Naruto eased this hatred, but the ninja system and noble system still existed, as did the imbalance in resources."

At this point, Feng Yao paused.

In the future, Naruto had indeed made many efforts toward peace, but unfortunately, he had not broken free of these limitations either.

This was a societal problem. In such a warped world, without an outside force to break the cycle, it would probably continue forever.

"To achieve peace, we must break free of the ninja system's constraints on thought, tear down the noble system, and liberate people's minds!"

Nagato and Konan were profoundly shaken. This was the first time they had heard such treasonous words, yet they felt they made so much sense.

"And to tear down the noble system, the first thing we need is power!"

"With power in hand, the nobles' resistance is nothing but a paper tiger."

"Finally, there are institutions."

"Do you know the greatest flaws of one country, one village?"

He did not wait for Nagato and Konan to answer.

"First, ninja are reduced to tools of the nobles. I've already explained that very clearly."

"Second, the daimyo and nobles control territory, finances, administration, and diplomacy. They reap the benefits of war while almost never setting foot on the battlefield.

"The Kage and ninja hold military power and bear all the casualties and risks of war, while those at the top divide up the credit and resources."

"This creates a warped structure where 'those who risk their lives hold no power, and those who hold power risk no lives.'"

"Third, it directly turns conflicts between countries into conflicts between ninja villages. This is the direct cause of hostility!"

"Taken together, this entrenches a fate in which nobles hold power and ninja risk their lives, turning conflicts of interest between countries into hatred between ninja!"

"So, to achieve peace, the One Country, One Village System must be abolished!"

Nagato and Konan were utterly bewildered.

What on earth was this guy talking about?

Such sophisticated vocabulary, such profound ideas. Was this guy really an Uchiha?

But they understood his point: the One Country, One Village System deepened hatred between ninja.

And the root of it was the noble system, or rather, class.

"So what exactly is your goal?" Pain asked.

Konan looked over, her gaze complicated.

In truth, Nagato and Konan had already guessed what Feng Yao intended to do.

For a fleeting moment, they actually saw Yahiko in Feng Yao.

"Unify the Shinobi World, dismantle the noble and ninja systems, and establish an entirely new, unified nation!"

"Without distinctions of region or social standing!"

"Liberating people's minds is how we get the entire Shinobi World to embrace unification!"

"Dismantling the systems is how we build an entirely new national system!"

"Commanding power gives us the confidence to protect what we've achieved!"

"Only then can we end hatred and achieve peace!"

Nagato and Konan actually felt their blood surge as they listened!

Nagato and Konan stared blankly at Feng Yao.

"Is that you, Yahiko...?"