Chapter 23 – Be My Blade
"Water Clone! Now!!"
Yahiko's roar cracked through the cellar like thunder.
Before his brain could even process it, Nagato's combat instinct seized control. Chakra flared; the figure in the wheelchair flickered, the real body swapping out in a hair's-breadth Body Flicker to three metres away, caught at once by a deathly pale Konan.
The next instant, Hell arrived.
"Thud!"
The golden arrowhead slid into the arm of the 'Nagato' still sitting in the chair.
No golden light. No Stand.
"Sssss—!!"
This wasn't an Awakening; it was acid hurled into boiling oil.
Through their shrinking pupils they watched the Water Clone blacken with crawling curses, collapse into a reeking black sludge that hissed and ate a crater into solid rock, belching sickly white fumes.
One second.
One second more and the owner of the Rinnegan would have been that puddle of rot.
"Gulp."
Nagato stared at the black pool, his Adam's apple bobbing, cold sweat soaking his Akatsuki cloak.
A heartbeat's hesitation… and the curtain would have fallen.
Yahiko expressionlessly drew back the arrow, pulled out a white handkerchief, wiped the head clean, then tossed the cloth into the sludge.
Fwoosh—it was ash before it touched the surface.
"The arrow rejected you."
Yahiko turned; his gaze was sharper than the shaft, boring straight into Nagato's Soul.
"The Uzumaki Physique can take it, the Rinnegan is a gift from the gods—the hardware's fine. The bug must be in the software."
He closed in step by step, towering over the wheelchair, voice no longer comforting but blazing with fury at wasted potential.
"Fear? Confusion? We've just pacified Amegakure, we're holding the unbeatable hand, and now your faith collapses?"
"Speak! You've gained the power of a god—only to turn into a trembling coward?!"
Under that barrage Nagato lowered his head, red hair veiling the eyes that once sought to destroy the world.
The air solidified, suffocating.
"I knew I'd fail," he croaked, voice like a broken bellows.
"What?" Yahiko's brows locked.
"From the moment I reached out, I knew I wasn't worthy."
Nagato's head snapped up; in those Rinnegan eyes there was no divinity, only bottomless emptiness and self-loathing.
"Yahiko, remember that night in the valley? You ran onto my Kunai, fell in a pool of blood. I wanted to annihilate the world, make everyone feel that Pain. Even the Gedo Statue screamed under my hatred."
"But you lived."
He stared at his hands and gave a wan smile.
"Not only did you live, you became the perfect 'god'. You drove back Uchiha Madara, outplayed Hanzou, quelled rebellions without my eyes. Even that trash Maeda is your leashed dog, and Konan awakened the ultimate intel Stand."
"Then what about me?"
His voice trembled, steeped in helplessness.
"Strategy—yours. Decisions—yours. Leadership—yours. With [King Crimson] you could rule the world without me.
"I thought I was the saviour. Turns out I'm just a mascot hanging a 'Rinnegan' sign!
"A cripple who can't even find a reason to exist—why would the arrow ever choose him?!"
Nagato finished.
He slumped in the wheelchair, gasping like a drowned man. Konan's eyes were red, stepping forward to comfort him, but Yahiko raised a hand to stop her.
Looking at the friend who had painted himself into a dead end, Yahiko sneered inwardly.
As expected.
If he hadn't transmigrated, Nagato would have become the "Pain" swallowed by anguish. But because he himself had won too easily, the man meant to shoulder Hell now believed he was dead weight.
"Hah…"
A soft, abrupt laugh shattered the heaviness.
Yahiko pulled a chair, sat squarely opposite Nagato, arrogance and mockery etched on his face.
"And here I thought the sky was falling."
He leaned in, predatory eyes fixed on Nagato as though to peel open his Soul.
"So you nearly killed yourself over such petty inferiority?"
"Petty?" Nagato froze.
"Nagato, who gave you the illusion I can solve everything?"
Yahiko tapped his own temple, voice cold and rational.
"[King Crimson] can foresee a meteor, but I don't have the strength to catch it; I can erase the instant I'm hit, yet I can't flatten a mountain with one punch.
"This world is vast; beyond the Five Kage are thousand-year-old monsters hiding in gutters. Schemes and assassinations alone won't shut everyone up."
He shot out a hand, grabbed Nagato's collar, yanking him close until their noses almost touched.
"Listen, Nagato. From today, pour every stray philosophy out of your skull.
"You don't need to ponder direction, or justice, or even an ounce of 'leadership'.
"Leave the dirty, tiring work to me."
Yahiko let go, straightened the rumpled collar, and flashed a cruel, captivating grin.
"You have one job only—be my 'nuclear weapon'.
Nagato shuddered, pupils contracting.
"No weighing right or wrong, no caring who lives or dies." Yahiko's voice dropped to a demonic whisper. "Wherever I point my finger, you use those eyes to grind everything there into dust.
"In this merciless Ninja World, all that talk of mutual understanding is crap."
Yahiko rose, arms spread as though embracing the dark cellar—and the blood-soaked future beyond it.
"Truth forever lies within the range of Ninjutsu.
"And you are the farthest-reaching, biggest-yield, sleep-with-one-eye-open ultimate kinjutsu of the Five Great Nations.
"Our cause has only just begun." He stretched a hand toward Nagato, palm up, offering the final invitation.
"Stop thinking. Turn your Rinnegan, turn your life, into the sharpest blade in my hand."