Mito silently watched the mother and son reunite, a faint smile crossing her face.
The Nine-Tails had already told her.
The moment Nagato saw his mother, the faint, unstable malice lurking in his heart vanished without a trace.
That was the power of the Impure World Reincarnation.
The boundary between life and death also created an information gap.
The living went through all kinds of hardships, never knowing the simple hopes their deceased loved ones still held for them. In the end, they often filled in the blanks themselves, allowing obsessions and misconceptions to take root.
Nagato had shown signs of that.
Tomie was an even more extreme example. She had driven herself into developing a Bloodline Disease.
"My son... you've grown so much..."
"I never imagined I'd get to see you again. And your eyes..." Fusō gently stroked Nagato's red hair, letting out a quiet sigh from the bottom of her heart.
After Mito had revived them with the Impure World Reincarnation, communication between the two women had been effortless.
A person's reputation carried weight. Mito's name was legendary throughout the Uzumaki Clan. Back in the day, Uzushiogakure had regarded her as the person most likely to stop Uzumaki Ashina.
Even after she married into the Senju Clan and settled in Konohagakure, many Uzumaki still clung to the hope that Mito might someday persuade her father to abandon his research into that forbidden technique and lead the Uzumaki Clan into Konoha.
Anyone with even a little strategic awareness understood how vulnerable the Land of Whirlpools was.
An island nation isolated offshore was incredibly easy to ambush once war broke out.
Meanwhile, Konoha—always the first village to come under attack—would rarely have the freedom to send reinforcements.
Not to mention that the Uzumaki Clan had always been coveted throughout the shinobi world.
"You must properly thank Mito-sama, my son..."
Holding Nagato's hand, Fusō spoke with complete sincerity.
"If Mito-sama hadn't risked everything to protect our clan back then, your grandfather and grandmother would have died at the hands of those madmen from the Kaguya Clan. Then there would have been no me... and no you."
Uzumaki Hana—Fusō's mother and Nagato's grandmother—had told that story countless times, always to express her gratitude for Mito's life-saving grace during her bloody battle against the Kaguya Clan.
"Thank you very much, Mito-sama!"
Nagato immediately turned toward her and bowed deeply.
"You two should spend some time together."
Mito smiled softly.
"Fusō, you should also take a walk around the village. See it with your own eyes. Seeing is believing, while hearsay can be misleading. Even what I tell you should be weighed with your own judgment."
"But keep an eye on the time. With the current limitations of the Impure World Reincarnation, your soul won't feel anything unusual outside your body's protection for the first three days. After that, though, you'll gradually begin to feel a burning pain."
Still holding his mother's hand, Nagato suddenly realized, after Mito pointed it out, that her skin was ice cold.
This wasn't resurrection.
It was simply the effect of a certain technique.
Was this the reason people used to misunderstand Konan?
Some claimed Paper Release was inherently evil... because it had once been used together with this technique.
Nagato pushed the strange thought aside.
Was this really evil?
To him, it felt almost sacred.
It allowed loved ones to reunite.
Even if only temporarily, it could heal countless regrets.
Especially for those who had never gotten the chance to see each other one last time... or say goodbye properly.
For a while, Nagato couldn't make sense of it.
He quietly buried the question in his heart.
"Thank you, Mito-sama..."
"I've carried your kindness in my heart ever since I was a child," the red-haired woman said earnestly as she stood and bowed deeply.
Mito let out a soft sigh.
"We're all family. Why speak as though we're strangers?"
With that, she turned and left, giving the mother and son some private time together.
Konohagakure.
Arm in arm, Fusō and Nagato strolled leisurely through the village beneath the warm afternoon sun.
This was already her second day exploring Konoha.
Yet the amazement on her face hadn't faded in the slightest.
Konohagakure, which had already surpassed the capital of the Land of Fire to become the most prosperous city in both the country and the entire shinobi world, had left Fusō utterly overwhelmed.
Her reaction was even stronger than Kakuzu's or Nakamaro's had been.
After all, those two had seen the world.
One came from a wealthy clan in a Great Hidden Village, while the other had traveled throughout the shinobi world without ever worrying about money. For them, it had simply been a matter of adjusting to the difference.
Fusō was different.
Uzushiogakure itself had never been particularly well developed under Uzumaki Ashina.
After leaving the village, she had ended up in Amegakure—a place whose natural environment and economy were only marginally better than Sunagakure's.
Moreover, most of her memories came from the period between the First and Second Shinobi World Wars.
War.
Poverty.
Decay.
Those were the images that defined life in her mind.
And now, without warning, she had arrived in today's thriving Konohagakure.
To her...
It was no different from heaven.
"My son, look at this flower shop!"
"Nagato, is there anything you'd like to eat? Mito-sama gave your mother a little spending money..."
"What an incredible ninja tool shop! They even have hot springs where injured shinobi can recover for free!"
Fusō chattered excitedly the entire way.
Although her son couldn't see, she tried her best to describe everything as vividly and accurately as possible.
Nagato listened with a gentle smile.
He was just as curious about what Konoha looked like now to leave his mother so awestruck.
Every time they passed another new building, he could feel her unconsciously tightening her grip on his hand.
And so they wandered through the village together, while Nagato quietly listened to his mother's descriptions of Konoha.
His emotions gradually grew more complicated.
First...
A village as prosperous and powerful as Konoha had still been willing to lower itself and cooperate with Amegakure.
Surely that would allow the Land of Rain—the country that had known nothing but tears—to enjoy a far better future than before.
And Konoha wasn't remotely like the arrogant great power he and Yahiko had imagined.
Putting himself in their shoes, Nagato even found himself wondering...
If I were a Konoha shinobi... would I have gone out of my way to help Amegakure?
...Probably not.
Second...
He had lost his eyes.
Even as an Uzumaki blessed with extraordinary sensory abilities, a blind shinobi could never function as he once had.
Besides...
He wanted to see today's Konoha with his own eyes.
And someday...
He wanted to see the future Amegakure as well.
The two eventually arrived at the entrance to the Uchiha Clan compound.
A massive public information board stood there, displaying the Hokage's various policies from recent years, each one neatly categorized and explained in detail.
Of course, there was also Isshin's latest brainchild—a series of clever loyalty slogans.
Things like:
"The Uchiha's tomoe are the strongest shield upon the Hokage's ceremonial robe!"
Fusō's attention was immediately drawn to them.
She stopped in front of the bulletin board and began reading it carefully.
As always, it started with Konoha's welfare policies for shinobi...
But when she reached the section on prosthetics, her entire body visibly trembled.
Isn't this exactly what Nagato needs?
My son... could see the light again...
'There's even dedicated assistance for members of the Uzumaki Clan? A house within Konoha's Third Ring... training subsidies...'
Fusō murmured to herself.
'And they're even calling on every Konoha shinobi to look for surviving Uzumaki while out on missions and do everything they can to persuade them to return and settle in Konoha...'
She suddenly felt dizzy.
This Konoha...
It shared the same name as the one she remembered, yet it was practically an entirely different village.
When she fled Uzushiogakure under Uzumaki Ashina's rule, and while that forbidden-jutsu fanatic was still alive, Konoha had essentially refused to accept Uzumaki who wished to relocate there.
Doing so would have been almost the same as sheltering defectors.
Ashina would have seen it as the younger Hiruzen trying to poach members of his clan.
It had been an incredibly sensitive issue.
"My son, have you been receiving these benefits too?"
"Take your mother to see your home! And you don't have to worry about your eyes anymore. The village has prosthetics..."
Mito had already given Fusō a brief overview of what Nagato had gone through over the past several years.
She knew he had become a member of the Akatsuki and had even nearly ended up standing against Hanzō.
The reason she spoke so confidently was simple.
As his mother, she had already made up her mind about his future.
It might be considered deceiving him...
But she had less than a single day left with her son.
There wasn't enough time to persuade him little by little.
"Mom... I'm not a Konoha shinobi."
Nagato smiled bitterly.
"I've already been incredibly fortunate that Lord Hokage saved my life and allowed me to receive treatment in Konoha. I don't dare ask for anything more..."
"My son, how can you not be a Konoha shinobi?"
Fusō tightly gripped his hand as she hurriedly said, "The Hokage is searching the entire world for surviving Uzumaki! He already said anyone with our red hair who comes here is one of Konoha's own!"
"But... I'm a shinobi of Amegakure..."
A trace of bitterness appeared on Nagato's face.
"My companions are all from Amegakure as well. Our dream is to make Amegakure a better place... to let our country stop crying."
"If you truly don't care about Amegakure, then I personally wouldn't mind. My clansmen are here in Konoha, its ideals are admirable, and Mito-sama is my direct relative..."
"And..."
Nagato sighed.
"Actually... I also have a connection to Lord Hokage."
Fusō's eyebrows shot up in delight.
Her son's luck was unbelievable.
Something this good had actually happened?
Nagato slowly began recounting how he had met Jiraiya.
As a Konoha shinobi, Jiraiya had remained stationed in the war-torn Land of Rain for three whole years.
During that time, he had taught them the ninjutsu and survival skills they needed to stay alive.
Those teachings had become the very foundation upon which they later built the Akatsuki.
Fusō was left utterly stunned.
If Nagato hadn't told her himself, she never would have believed any of it.
Was that really something a shinobi would do?
Even the kindest shinobi wouldn't go that far.
As the Hokage's disciple, Jiraiya was undoubtedly a powerful shinobi whose every move drew attention.
Yet simply because a few children asked him to, he had stayed for three entire years, teaching them countless precious ninjutsu.
Fusō had lived through the ravages of war.
She had even grown up in Uzushiogakure.
She only needed to think about it for a moment to understand how much pressure Jiraiya must have been carrying back then.
"Did Jiraiya-sensei ever come back to see you afterward? Did he ever ask you to do anything for him?"
Fusō couldn't help asking.
If there hadn't been some sort of exchange of interests involved, the whole story felt almost like a dream.
There wasn't even a word for philanthropist in the shinobi world.
But in Fusō's eyes...
That was exactly what he had been.
"No..."
Nagato shook his head.
"We heard bits and pieces about Jiraiya-sensei from time to time. He traveled throughout the shinobi world, but he never came back to see us."
"Nagato!"
Fusō's tone suddenly turned stern.
Nagato instinctively shuddered.
A long-forgotten memory buried deep within him instantly resurfaced.
When he had made mistakes as a child...
His mother had always scolded him in exactly this voice.
"Do you understand just how great Jiraiya-sensei's kindness toward you truly was?"
"In Amegakure, shinobi have killed each other over a single ninjutsu!"
"He didn't just teach you the Five Nature Transformations, priceless combat skills, and years of hard-earned experience..."
"He even gave you an identity that connected you directly to the Hokage."
"I know exactly what you're thinking."
"You think that without your companions, you might have died long ago. And you're right."
Fusō firmly grasped both of Nagato's shoulders.
"But let me tell you something."
"If Jiraiya-sensei hadn't taken you in and taught you the skills you needed to survive..."
"You and your little friends would all have died."
"And even if you hadn't..."
"You would have lived lives far worse than death. At that point, death would have been a mercy."
Nagato's heart trembled.
His mother's words reminded him of the day they first met Jiraiya...
And of what Orochimaru had said back then.
At the time, Orochimaru had argued that they should simply be killed to spare them from the suffering of growing up in such a chaotic era.
Nagato had never forgotten those words.
But he had never imagined...
That his own mother felt exactly the same way.
Which meant...
Orochimaru had been telling the truth.
He hadn't been making excuses.
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---