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  He guessed her identity through a thick mask—he possessed abilities simir to Nagato's Rinnegan; and he'd id bare the very pn Nagato had beeiculously crafting in Amegakure for so long.

  Kona as if the bck cloak with red clouds she wore offered no security whatsoever, as if she were transparent, pletely exposed to Gojo Kaigetsu…

  Clearly in a dangerous situation, Konan heless took the initiative—

  "Konohagakure, for its own gain, has ignited tless wars in smaller vilges! Heh—a Konoha like that, I wish I could just destroy it!"

  "Good! If you succeed in killing me, iroying Konoha, then who will rule this Shinobi world? Nagato? With that pair of eyes of his?" Gojo Kaigetsu tered, his voice calm yet pierg.

  "We won't rule over any nation. We'll distribute the ultimate on to all the Shinobi vilges. We will let them rule themselves. Uhe mutual deterrent of mutually held ultimate ons! Peace will eventually e!"

  "And if these Shinobi vilges, uhe deterrent of the ultimate on, still have flicts? If a Shinobi war breaks out, who will maintain order? Will you, restraining yourself with the 'ultimate on,' do it? ato?"

  Konan was about to speak, but theated. It only now dawned ohat, of the Five Great Vilges, only Gojo Kaigetsu had risen to an Elder Advisor position as a—in.

  When it came to a battle of wits—she was no match.

  "Only a Ruler use their will to judge right and wrong, to carry out so-called justice. It's not Konoha being the ruler. Even with the threat of the ultimate on, new rulers will iably emerge."

  "By using the ultimate on to tear the entire Shinobi world apart, redug the Shinobi world to the level of tens of millions of years ago even if a bitter battle occurs, it will certainly happen! A final battle will surely happen!"

  "We—the Shinobi of Konohagakure, have always lived in this kind of bck hole in the Shinobi world. Between heaven and hell, we have nht to choose. We only have the fate of being chosen by the Shinobi world! And I, Gojo Kaigetsu—My heart is like a tree. The more the tree yearns for the light above, the more its roots must reach down, into the mud, into the darkness!"

  "This is my, Gojo Kaigetsu's Will of Fire! Sineone must step forward ahe darkness, and some vilge must shih light, only Konoha has this responsibility, this obligation, and… this awareness!"

  After this impassioned decration, Gojo Kaigetsu's tone softened slightly:

  "Putting aside Konoha's position and takihousand steps back, if Yahiko were alive and knew what Nagato was going to do, what would he think? Clearly, the inal purpose of establishing Akatsuki was to protect peace, so that more people could live happily and peacefully in an era of peace. However, the peace you are pursuing is at the cost of being built on screams of suffering. If he were alive, could he really uand you?"

  "No—"

  Konan's trembling body gradually calmed down, and she subsciously looked around, denying it.

  "Nagato—he's already w hard not to sacrifi people."

  "But the Shinobi world is being more and more chaotic because of [Akatsuk's as, because of Nagato's will."

  "He's w hard to create peace. He's w very hard!"

  "But Nagato is making the Shinobi world more chaotic! Do you know that Nagato sent Akasuna no Sasori to kill the Fourth Kazekage? His daughter cries and calls for her father in my arms every night?!"

  "Is he really going to create peace?!"

  "Shut up!" Konaions suddenly became agitated.

  If Konoha hadn't schemed to kill Yahiko, perhaps the Shinobi world's timeline would have ged because of it. Nagato would still be the sunny, cheerful young man with bangs c his eyes, following Yahiko, usiler methods to create peace.

  Instead of pursuing peace through methods built on the pain of everyone.

  A ninja's battle of skill was her, Konan's, defeat, but in this sed battlefield of words, Konan… didn't want to lose again!

  If she lost again, the ninja way she had always upheld would cease to exist. The reason she had fought for so long… would instantly colpse.

  But…

  Hatred couldn't be resolved. Nagato's idea of using the ultimate on to suppress the Shinobi world was just suppressing hatred. This hatred would eventually erupt one day in silence, bringing with it the awareness of destroying the Shinobi world, erupting like a volo.

  "You just said… 'not sacrifig i people', right?"

  "That is to say, Nagato has already do, and you, you know about it, right?"

  Gojo Kaigetsu seized upon the loophole in Konan's words, his tone deepening.

  "People live to overe fear and uo find peaind. Doing such things just to pursue peaind is nothing. But, Konan-san, looking at Nagato depriving ued people of their lives… you really find peaind?"

  "Everyone wants to overe unease and fear in order to live with peaind! Whether it's for fame, fortune, power, or to trol others, it's all for peaiing married or making friends is also for peaind! Striving for others, pursuing love and peace are all actually excuses for one's own peaind!"

  "It be said that we Shinobi, living in this ninja world, are all just trying to find 'peaind'!"

  "So, Konan, what is your peaind?!"

  Gojo Kaigetsu abruptly straightened Konan's head, f her to look directly at him. "If killing me bring you peaind, then do it."

  "You are not dodging, are you actively seekih? You are also fused, right! You also believe that the peace built on the lives of tens, hundreds, or thousands of people is simply a false peace, right?!"

  "Answer me, Konan!"

  'Mouth-to-mouth bat, who hasn't do?'

  'The theory of peaind—activate!'

  Gojo Kaigetsu's gaze was intense, as if to pierce Konan's eyes, directly pierg into the softest p Konan's heart.

  "If… this is what you believe is peaind, if the temporary peace brought about by the blood and cries of so many people make you spend the rest of your life with peaind… then do it!"

  Gojo Kaigetsu proudly puffed out his chest, taking out a sharp kunai and pg it in Konan's hand.

  "You don't think that the major vilges are the pnners of war, the creators of pain? As a Konoha Advisor, I am one of the most deserving of death."

  "Now, you use this kunai to kill me, to pursue the peace you want! But let me tell you, Konan, even if I die, I will crawl out of my coffin and tell you—times have ged!"

  "Even if I die, Konoha will have tless others like me! My ninpo has been implemented in every er of Konoha! After I die, and Nagato lives, Shinobi wars will iably break out and tless lives will be lost! If I live and Nagato dies, Konoha will walk the path of peaceful unification of the Shinobi world!"

  "Suna, Kiri, these examples are there for you to see!"

  "Nagato has the eyes, and so do I! Nagato has great ideals, so do I! The funds that Akatsuki o create peaagato 't give them to you, but I ! Nagato o use poain to create peace, I don't!"

  "The only thing I 't give you is a decade-long bond of friendship! But what I give you is a peaceful afternoon, where a family of three who have avoided Shinobi wars lives a peaceful life and happily strolls!"

  "Do you wao live, ato to live, make your choice!"

  As if he had fotten that Konan had just been trying to kill him with her paper release.

  Gojo Kaigetsu grabbed Konan's wrist, letting the kunai rest against his chest. Just one more inch, and it could pierce his heart!

  This tactic of retreating in order to advance, Gojo Kaigetsu was all too familiar with.

  If it weren't for the fact that Konan's seemingly airtight ninja way had been pierced by Gojo Kaigetsu's nimble fingers, he wouldn't have used su extreme method to force Konan to make a choice, expanding that crack that could only fit a fio ohat could fit a tongue.

  The gap in a Shinobi's will is incredible.

  "Stop it… stop it!"

  "You kill me! Kill me!"

  Konan begged, c her mask with her hands, unwilling to let Gojo Kaigetsu see her current expression.

  She reversed the grip, putting the power to wield the kunai ba Gojo Kaigetsu's hands.

  Konan was at an impasse.

  No matter how unwilling she was, she had to… admit it in her heart, her narrow, delicate, fragile ninja way had been forcefully breached by Gojo Kaigetsu, opening a path to her heart.

  Her vision shifted through time, and she arrived in Konoha.

  Konan saw—

  The little girl who had bought her milk tea with a sweet smile; the housewife with the gentle hairstyle; the pregnant woman with a happy smile on her face… These were peace!

  But, because of Akatsuki's plot to murder Rasa, Rasa's daughter had thrown herself into Gojo Kaigetsu's arms, g and calling for her father… This ain, not peace!

  Life was what she wanted, and peace was what she wanted. If the two couldn't be obtai the same time, then Konan would rather sacrifice her life to chohteousness. Life was what Konan wanted, but there was something she wanted even more than life, so she did not do anything to stay alive; Death was what she hated, but there were also things she hated more thah, so some disasters, she did not avoid…

  Or, as it is also said, she was willing to die for her ideals.

  As the sayi, if she heard the truth in the m, she could die tent in the evening!

  This robably the only way for her to enter Konoha, to step into the world depicted in "Iki"…

  "No…"

  Konan's spirit was broken.

  "Konan-san, you're willing to die, but not admit my views. It means that in your heart, you think Nagato is wrong, and I am right!"

  "The battle is over. It's my win~"

  Gojo Kaigetsu smiled lightly, preparing to end this and move on to the step.

  He had pushed her far enough; it was time to de-escate.

  came the traditional part of the process.

  Don't uimate his intelligework; he had already sent the female Guardian Shinobi who was skilled in the legendary ninjutsu, "Execution by Kiss"—to Yūkaku-jō, to act as Edo Teand-ins, carrying out the first stage of business cooperation.

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