"Will you choose to believe in the vague, elusive peace this brat talks about, or let me crush your head and experience a very real death?"
Shengu Xuan's emotionless urging hung like an icy sword over Nagato's already fragile soul.
Death, or... redemption?
Nagato raised his head with difficulty, looking past Shengu Xuan's indifferent figure to the boy behind him, whose eyes were firm and filled with unwavering conviction-Naruto Uzumaki.
Those azure eyes looked so much like that lone patch of clear sky amid Amegakure's endless rain all those years ago.
So much like Yahiko.
And so much like... his former self.
Pain, hatred, destruction... he had spent all these years immersed in them, believing they were the truth of the world. He had thought himself a god who would guide humanity through pain, never realizing that he was the most pitiful mortal of all, bound more deeply by pain than anyone else.
Yet this blond boy before him, despite carrying endless pain himself, still chose to believe, to forgive, and to seek the hardest yet brightest path.
Jiraiya-sensei... can you see this? Your true student is right here.
He didn't become the protagonist of your book. He lived his own life as the most magnificent "Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja."
The corners of Nagato's parched mouth pulled upward with immense difficulty, forming a smile uglier than tears. Within that smile were acceptance, regret, and... a trace of release.
He no longer looked at Shengu Xuan. Instead, he used his last ounce of strength to fix his gaze firmly on Naruto.
"I believe in you..."
Nagato's voice was as frail as a candle guttering in the wind, yet every word reached everyone present clearly.
"I believe you... can finish walking the path that Yahiko and I... and our teacher...