Chapter 28 — Bring Him into Akatsuki
Production. Conflict. War.
Those were the three words echoing endlessly in Pain's mind.
Late at night, standing atop the highest tower in Amegakure, Nagato stared into the unending rain that drenched his metal body.
His thoughts, however, were still fixed on the words and diagrams Oda Nobunaga had written upon the walls earlier that day.
What began as a debate had left him shaken.
Through that strange man's logic — the logic of production, scarcity, and imbalance — Nagato had come to an unsettling realization.
Perhaps the dream he inherited from Yahiko — to force peace upon the world through divine violence — was nothing more than a temporary illusion.
Because if war was not born from hatred but from need, from the simple inability to feed and sustain every nation and tribe…
then even a god's peace would crumble the moment resources ran dry.
Could I truly feed the whole world, he wondered bitterly, as I now feed the people of the Rain?
The rain whispered its answer — soft, endless, and cruel.
It washed down his cloak, his piercings, his unmoving face…
and in its reflection, his Rinnegan eyes seemed darker than ever.
---
"Pain, Kakuzu's here."
The door creaked open.
Konan stepped inside, with Kakuzu trailing behind her — the latter looking both annoyed and cautious, his stitched face twisted in its usual irritation.
Konan's gaze softened for just a moment.
She alone could sense it — the turmoil behind Nagato's stillness. The questions he dared not speak aloud.
But Kakuzu, of course, had no such tact.
"Well, well," he drawled, crossing his arms, "if it isn't our glorious leader. Standing out here in the rain like some tragic hero."
He snorted. "Careful, Pain. If you catch a cold, who's gonna feed your entire damn country then?"
The sarcasm was biting. But underneath it lay something else — pain of another kind.
Because the longer he thought about it, the more Kakuzu realized where all his hard-earned money had gone.
Straight into Amegakure's starving bellies.
His five hearts ached just thinking about it.
"Kakuzu."
Pain's voice cut through the storm like thunder.
He turned — slowly, mechanically — and the six rings of his Rinnegan locked onto Kakuzu.
A second later, reality itself shuddered.
The air trembled. The invisible wave of repulsive force exploded outward like a collapsing mountain.
"—Tch!"
Kakuzu had expected this. He'd even prepared a counterseal, thinking maybe he could absorb part of the impact.
But against Pain's almighty push, all preparations were meaningless.
The blast sent him crashing into the steel wall behind him, hard enough to dent it.
A wet sound escaped his throat — one of his five hearts ruptured from the shock.
Only one? That was restraint.
Pain could have annihilated him completely.
"Pain!"
Konan rushed forward, spreading her paper wings to shield the fallen Kakuzu.
Her eyes flashed with anger — not because Pain had attacked, but because she knew Kakuzu was, in a way, right.
The money was gone. All of it — poured into keeping Amegakure alive.
Every grain of rice, every drop of oil, every coin stolen from Kakuzu's bloody hands was now feeding their people.
But that truth didn't make it easier to watch her comrade bleed.
Pain stood motionless, the rain still falling on him in cold, unending sheets.
His voice, when it came again, was quiet — distant, but not without feeling.
"Don't mistake my silence for doubt," he said. "But the world is changing."
He turned his gaze toward the distant horizon — toward the dim lights of the city below.
"Today, I met a man whose words struck deeper than any blade. His reasoning… his vision…"
A pause. Even Konan could sense the gravity of what he was about to say.
"…They might reshape the world itself."
Konan's breath caught. "You mean—?"
"Yes." Pain turned, the faintest glimmer of purpose behind his emotionless eyes.
"Oda Nobunaga."
He stepped past her, his sandals ringing against the steel floor.
"What kind of man is Oda Nobunaga?"
Pain's voice, low and sharp as thunder beneath the rain, sliced through the tension.
His Rinnegan eyes locked on Konan, then shifted toward Kakuzu, who was still dusting himself off after being hurled into a wall.
"You didn't betray us, did you?"
The weight of godly authority returned in an instant.
The air trembled with his chakra, and even Konan felt the subtle pressure that made breathing just a little harder.
Pain's steps echoed against the cold steel as he advanced. Each footfall was a warning.
Kakuzu straightened, his cracked mask twitching as he glared back.
"Hmph. I didn't betray Akatsuki," he growled, his tone edged with both pride and resentment.
"And I didn't tell Oda Nobunaga a damn thing about us."
He paused — just long enough for Pain to stop walking — before adding,
"As for what kind of man he is…"
Pain waited.
Konan's gaze flickered between them, her unease thick in the silence.
Kakuzu hesitated, then spoke slowly, choosing his words like a man defusing an explosive tag.
"He's not a fool. Not some power-drunk warlord either. He's… a clever man trying to stay clean in a filthy world."
"A 'good man,' maybe — the kind that can't help but struggle against the rot around him. The kind that's too smart to be idealistic, yet still too soft to give up on ideals."
He exhaled heavily, eyes narrowing.
"A good man in a bad world — the worst kind of person to deal with."
Pain was silent for a long time, then simply murmured,
"Is that so…"
And just like that, the god's interest faded.
He turned his back and waved a hand dismissively.
"You may go."
Kakuzu didn't need to be told twice. Muttering curses under his breath, he brushed past Konan and disappeared down the hall, still clutching his chest where one heart had stopped beating.
---
Once they were alone again, Konan finally stepped forward, her voice cautious but tender.
"Pain… what's wrong?"
She could see it — the distant look in his eyes, the flicker of something she hadn't seen in years.
He didn't turn around. The rain drummed softly against the tower's iron roof.
"Konan," he said at last, his voice quiet, almost human, "do you know who he made me think of?"
Konan froze.
Her mind immediately went to the same place his words had come from.
"…Yahiko?"
There was a long silence. Then, softly,
"Mm."
"Investigate Oda Nobunaga," Pain said suddenly, his voice firm again, but not cold.
"I want to know everything about him — his history, his alliances, his motives."
Konan blinked in surprise, but said nothing.
As she turned to leave, Nagato's fists clenched unconsciously at his sides.
Kakuzu's words — "a clever man fighting in a corrupt world" — rang in his mind like an echo from the past.
Isn't that what Yahiko was, too?
A fool with a dream too big for his body.
A man who spoke of ending war through violence — yet trembled when blood actually spilled.
A man who wanted to become god, but when he realized he could not, handed that dream to him.
"You should've done it yourself, Yahiko…"
Pain's voice was barely more than a whisper, lost beneath the falling rain.
Konan, still standing near the door, frowned slightly as if she'd caught only fragments of what he'd said.
"You're thinking of bringing Oda Nobunaga into Akatsuki, aren't you?"
Her tone carried both disbelief and worry.
Given everything — Pain's restraint earlier, his fascination with the man, the command to investigate rather than eliminate — the conclusion was obvious.
And it terrified her.
Bringing a daimyō into Akatsuki? It wasn't just unthinkable — it was suicidal.
Pain finally turned, his face composed but eyes burning with quiet resolve.
"Yes," he said.
"Oda Nobunaga's power may be nothing remarkable. But his mind — his understanding of the world — that is something Akatsuki lacks."
He stepped toward her, his voice deep and calm.
"You heard him, Konan. The way he dissected war, not as sin or madness, but as necessity. His reasoning was flawless. Even I could find no weakness in it."
He clenched a fist slowly.
"Our original plan cannot bring true, lasting peace. I want to see what he would propose… once he witnesses Akatsuki's power for himself."
"If he can show us a new way — a way to end this world's cycle — then perhaps…"
"Stop."
Konan's voice cut sharply through the storm.
She knew where that sentence would end.
If Nobunaga's ideas proved worthy, Pain would do as Yahiko once did — hand over everything.
His leadership. His legacy. His dream.
And that, Konan could not bear.
---
Pain turned away again, his expression unreadable.
"...I understand."
He let the sound of the rain fill the silence before speaking once more, quietly but firmly.
"Don't let Madara or his pet know about this. Not a word. And keep all investigations secret."
The rain outside intensified, as though echoing his resolve.
A god's voice faded into the storm — not commanding this time, but contemplative.
"Let's see if this man can truly bring light to our world… or if he'll drown in the same rain as the rest of us."