"All conflict in this world begins with human beings failing to understand one another. And that thing in the sky, whatever it truly is, is nothing more than another discordant note in that same endless conflict."
Pain's voice carried an inhuman indifference, cold and lofty, as though he were speaking from a height no ordinary person could ever reach.
"If it dares obstruct peace," he said, slowly lifting one hand toward the heavens, palm open as though he were declaring judgment itself, "then I will make the world know pain. Once that happens, everything will resolve itself naturally."
Konan looked at the back before her.
It was Yahiko's face, Yahiko's body, and yet also not Yahiko at all.
Listening to Nagato's will speak through that familiar shell, hearing those words steeped in obsession and absolute power, she felt the unease in her chest linger. It did not vanish completely. In the end, however, it settled into silent trust.
She gave a faint nod. "Yes. I trust you."
After a brief silence, Pain spoke again, bringing the conversation back to something far more immediate.
"Itachi Uchiha has officially defected from Konoha. He will soon join the organization."
Konan's brows drew together at once. "Uchiha Itachi? The one who slaughtered his entire clan with his own hands? Anyone capable of something like that has to be twisted inside. He can't possibly be stable. If he joins us..."
"The organization needs manpower," Pain replied, his answer blunt and practical. "His strength has value. And if he harbors thoughts he should not..."
A terrifying killing intent flickered through the Rinnegan like a flash of frozen lightning.
"Then I will teach him that the dignity of a god cannot be challenged."
***
A few days later, the ninja world's public opinion exploded completely.
If the appearance of the Sky Curtain had left everyone with a giant, ominous question mark hanging over their heads, then the next piece of news was a thunderbolt that blasted through every country at once.
The Uchiha clan had been wiped out in a single night.
And the man responsible was Konoha's rogue ninja, Uchiha Itachi.
The first reaction from nearly everyone who heard the rumor was disbelief.
"What kind of joke is that? The Uchiha? One of Konoha's strongest clans?"
"Uchiha Itachi? That famous genius? He butchered his own clan? That's absurd."
"This has to be a false report. Or one of Konoha's smoke screens."
No one wanted to believe it. The claim was too insane, too grotesque, too far beyond common sense. It sounded less like intelligence and more like the sort of drunken nonsense people babbled in the back corner of a tavern.
But disbelief only lasted so long.
Spies from every nation began sending back confirmation at any cost.
The Uchiha district in Konoha had become a dead zone. The only survivor, the orphan Uchiha Sasuke, had been placed under the direct protection of the Third Hokage. Not long after that, Konoha officially issued an S-rank bingo book notice for the rogue ninja Uchiha Itachi.
The evidence piled up until doubt could no longer survive.
The entire ninja world went into an uproar.
Yet unlike the mixed and uneasy atmosphere within Konoha itself, the other great nations, after their initial shock, were much more inclined toward schadenfreude and cold calculation.
"Hahaha! Konoha really cut off its own sharpest blade!"
"Who wasn't wary of the Sharingan on the battlefield? Now look at them. Their own infighting wiped the whole clan out for us."
"Konoha's strength must have taken a massive hit this time. That's a blessing from heaven."
"So even the so-called strongest village is rotten all the way to the core."
No one spared Konoha any sympathy.
In the cruel balance of the ninja world, a rival weakening itself was not a tragedy. It was opportunity.
The destruction of the Uchiha clan meant Konoha had lost a tremendous amount of top-tier combat power. It also meant the threat of the Sharingan on future battlefields had dropped dramatically. That single event was enough to shift the balance among the Five Great Nations.
So while leaders everywhere were shocked by Itachi Uchiha's ruthlessness and the terrifying power implied by the massacre, they were also secretly delighted. Some had already begun reevaluating Konoha's threat level. Others were quietly calculating how much profit might be squeezed from the village's moment of weakness.
Konoha had been shoved straight into the eye of the storm.
Internal unrest. External pressure. Suspicion from every direction.
And above all of it, the Sky Curtain still hung silently overhead, as if watching the chaos below and waiting for the perfect moment to unveil its next performance.
***
In the Land of Rain, inside Akatsuki's base, a chill silence filled the cave.
"I've called you all here today because a new member will be joining us," Pain said. His voice echoed from the stone walls, cold and utterly devoid of warmth.
"A new guy?" Kakuzu snorted, his green eyes revealing plain indifference toward anything that couldn't be measured in money. "He'd better not die too fast. Replacements are a waste of time."
From within Hiruko's shell, Sasori of the Red Sand let out a dry, low laugh. "I just hope he's not boring."
The pitcher-plant shape of Zetsu slowly rose from the ground, half black, half white, wearing its usual strange smile.
And nearby, Orochimaru's vertical golden pupils narrowed with genuine interest.
Who could possibly merit Pain gathering the organization in person?
The answer soon arrived.
A figure stepped forward from the shadows.
Short black hair. A Konoha forehead protector slashed through with a deep line marking him as a missing-nin. And most striking of all, those eyes.
Within the dark crimson of his Sharingan, three tomoe turned slowly, radiating a chill so deep it seemed untouched by any living warmth.
"Uchiha... Itachi!"
Orochimaru's snake-like eyes contracted sharply, naked disbelief flashing across his face.
Of course he knew the news. He had already heard that the Uchiha clan had been annihilated, and that Uchiha Itachi had defected from Konoha.
But hearing the rumor and seeing the man himself were two completely different things.
This was the genius he had once coveted so intensely. The perfect vessel. The ideal bloodline. The treasure he had long desired but failed to obtain.
For a brief moment, surprise froze him where he stood.
Then greed flooded his gaze almost shamelessly.
He slid out his tongue and licked his lips, unable to suppress the delighted smile twisting across his face.
"Hehe... hehehe... those eyes. That flawless bloodline limit. How marvelous... truly marvelous..."
He spoke as though admiring an unparalleled work of art, the kind of treasure any collector would lose his reason over.
Itachi remained expressionless.
He ignored the curiosity, scrutiny, and undisguised hunger aimed at him from all sides as if none of it mattered.
But beneath that still exterior, his thoughts were anything but calm.
He could clearly feel it.
Every person gathered in this cave emitted a chakra presence that was dangerous, powerful, and abnormal. The strength of this organization called Akatsuki already exceeded what he had imagined.
Why had so many rogue ninja monsters gathered together?
What was their true purpose?
And just how grave a threat would they one day become to Konoha?
Pain looked at him with the detached gaze of a judge looking down at something beneath him.
"The weasel who wiped out his own kind..."
He had barely begun speaking when everything changed.
Suddenly, Pain's Rinnegan tilted upward toward the cave ceiling, as though his gaze had pierced through layers of stone and reached the distant sky itself.
At the same instant, the atmosphere in the cave shifted.
Not only Pain.
Every member present felt it.
Zetsu's smile stiffened. Orochimaru's eyes sharpened. Even Itachi, who had only just entered the organization, sensed a strange and immense fluctuation spilling down from above.
It came from the sky.
"What was that?" Kakuzu was the first to speak, his voice low and grim.
"Something's happening outside," Sasori said, and even his hoarse tone had grown serious.
Pain did not hesitate for even a heartbeat.
His figure blurred and shot toward the exit first.
Immediately afterward, the other Akatsuki members also moved, each using their own methods to vanish from the cave and rush into the open. Even Itachi followed on instinct, recognizing at once that whatever was happening was no ordinary disturbance.
A moment later, they emerged from the base and looked up.
The giant Sky Curtain that had hung silent for days over the entire ninja world was now glowing.
Its light was soft, but impossible to ignore.
And within that vast suspended screen, the first moving images began to unfold, slowly and unmistakably, before the eyes of the world.