Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
August 14, x790.
The next two days pass quickly. During that time, Alfonzo cooked a feast to celebrate the victory Fairy Tail gained over the Akatsuki. The following day, the guests attending Amar'e's birthday party arrived, and they had a great time enjoying the games and attractions set up on the island, the food prepared by Sixth Sense Restaurant and Lounge, and having a few drinks with friends and allies.
The next day, Alfonzo, Elicia, Mavis, and Irene made their way towards the forest east of Magnolia to check on the three prisoners who were not currently locked up in the guild hall's prison. Namely, Itachi, Nagato, and Konan.
Though, Konan should have probably been locked up in the prison, considering the fact that she was not heavily injured during her fight with Elicia. In order to keep Nagato stable after he woke up, she was allowed to stay with him.
"Ugh… Where am I?" Nagato, who just woke up from unconsciousness after Alfonzo's rather excited knock on the place he was hiding, asked in a groggy tone as he opened his eyes.
Yet, instead of getting a response, Konan, who was sitting next to his bed side, pounced on him and hugged him tightly.
"Huh? Konan?" Nagato asked in a confused tone. "What's wrong? What happened to me?"
"I'm glad you're okay." Konan said quietly while burying her face in Nagato's chest. "When I saw how hard you slammed into that tree as your walker was destroyed, I thought I'd lost you."
Hearing Konan's words, Nagato's memory of the battle from a couple of days ago were quickly jogged. When he finally finished replaying everything that happened that day from his perspective, he could not help but smile helplessly. He had been knocked unconscious by Alfonzo without even seeing him with his own eyes.
A moment later, however, Nagato's thoughts were interrupted by the voice of an old lady… A grumpy old lady that seemed to hate humans.
"Stop being so dramatic, girl." Porlyusica, who entered the room while making her rounds on her two patients, said in an annoyed tone. "He was never in danger of losing his life. If it had been anyone other than Alfonzo had done it, though, things might have been different."
Hearing that unfamiliar voice, Nagato, who was still trying to piece together what happened, turned to look in Porlyusica's direction. When he did, he immediately planned to attack her so that he could extract some information from her. So, he raised his hand and pointed its palm at her.
*Bang!*
Yet, even faster than Nagato could react, he felt a swift, sharp strike to his head, causing him to pull his outstretched hand back to cover the spot where he was hit. However, to his absolute bafflement, he did not feel as though he had been injured. Though, the pain he was experiencing was immense.
"Don't bother, Boy." Porlyusica said bluntly while looking at Nagato with even more annoyance in her gaze. "Even if you weren't wearing those anti-magic bracelets, you don't have the powers those fancy eyes granted you anymore."
Turning to look at Porlyusica again, Nagato did not immediately react to what she said. Instead, he looked at the broom that was not in her hand a moment ago with confusion. But it did not take too long for him to finally register her words.
"What?" Nagato asked in a dumfounded tone.
"Well, to be more honest, you don't have those fancy eyes anymore." Porlyusica continued. "But that's just semantics at this point."
While Nagato was not surprised that he was wearing anti-magic bracelets, as that was common when a wizard or shinobi was captured. The fact that he did not have the Rinnegan's powers anymore thoroughly confused him. However, when he heard that he did not have the Rinnegan anymore, he had a full-blown panic attack.
"No, how is that possible?" Nagato shouted in a frantic tone. "You would dare deprive a god of his eyes? What blasphemy is this?"
*Bang!*
"Stop shouting!" Porlyusica shouted back as she once again hit Nagato in the head with her broom. She then turned to glare at Konan, who was looking at the whole situation with a surprised gaze. "Was he the one you were getting the medicine for, girl?"
Still in a state of shock, Konan could only nod her head blankly in response to Porlyusica's question.
*Bang!*
In the next instant, faster than even Konan, who was more or less healthy, could react, she, too, was hit in the head by Porlyusica's broom, joining Nagato with a hand covering her head.
"Why didn't you tell me he was this bad when I told you I would stop giving you medicine?" Porlyusica asked angrily. "This is why I hate humans."
"But you said---" Konan started to say, trying to defend herself.
*Bang!*
"I'm sorry." Konan replied with her head lowered and her hands covering a forming bump on her head.
"Wait!" Nagato shouted once again, just seeming to realize something.
*Bang!*
"I said stop shouting." Porlyusica said in a much sterner tone. "Humans never learn anything. That's why I hate them."
After saying her piece, Porlyusica reached into one of her pockets. Then, she pulled out a medicine bottle before tossing it to Konan. After seeing that Konan caught the bottle easily, she turned around and left the room.
"I'll be back in a few minutes." Porlyusica said without looking back. "By the time I get back, you had better have fed him some of those pills and explained the situation to him."
"Yes ma'am." Konan replied while lowering her head once again.
Then, without a response, Porlyusica left the room. Nagato, on the other hand, turned to look at Konan with confusion.
"Konan, if my eyes were removed, why can I see?" Nagato asked, still sounding a bit frantic.
Hearing the panic in Nagato's tone, Konan could only sigh audibly. She then, before explaining anything, stood up, walked over to the sink, where there was a small cupboard hanging above it and took a glass. Then, after filling the glass and pouring out two of the pills in the bottle Porlyusica gave her, she handed both to Nagato.
"Take these." Konan said as Nagato took the glass and pills from her. "Meanwhile, I'll explain everything that happened after you were knocked unconscious."
While Nagato swallowed the pills with a few sips of water, Konan starts recounting what she heard from Alfonzo and Elicia while they were on the way to Porlyusica's house after the battle. And what she heard was shocking to say the least.
First of all, the Rinnegan Nagato was so proud of and declared himself a god for, were not even his. In fact, they belonged to a legendary shinobi from a past era named Madara Uchiha. To make things even worse, Madara, through Obito and Zetsu had been using him as a pawn to complete Madara's Eye of the Moon Plan, which would result in the entire world being placed in a [Genjutsu].
This [Genjutsu], the [Infinite Tsukuyomi] would place everyone into a dream where they lived in their ideal world, ending all conflict on Earth land. And although this plan would achieve the goal that Nagato was fighting for, to end all wars, it would completely strip away the people's free will.
Even worse than that, Nagato would have ended up as a sacrificial pawn, giving up his life to revive Madara with the Rinnegan, just so that Madara could reclaim his original pair of eyes to complete his plan. In the end, Nagato would not even be able to see the world without war he dreamed of.
After telling that story, Konan told Nagato what happened after they arrived at Porlyusica's house.
The first thing Konan saw after arriving at Porlyusica's house was Porlyusica treating Itachi, who had contracted some kind of almost incurable lung disease. Meanwhile, Sasuke, Itachi's younger brother was watching Porlyusica work while sitting on tenterhooks.
Seeing that Porlyusica was busy, Alfonzo brought Nagato into the room they were in now. Then, after Porlyusica was finished tending to Itachi for the moment, she diagnosed Nagato's condition. Meanwhile, Alfonzo explained that the Rinnegan was too much for Nagato's body to bear because they were not his own eyes and the magic power drain was slowly killing him.
Agreeing with Alfonzo's assessment, Porlyusica decisively removed Nagato's eyes before leaving him to rest.
The next day, while Alfonzo and the others were attending Amar'e's birthday party, Porlyusica made a pair of eyes that could replace the ones she took from Nagato. And although they did not have all the abilities of the Rinnegan, or any of the other bloodline eyes that could be found in shinobi clans, they were better than any eyes that humans could be born with.
As for the Rinnegan, Porlyusica took them so that she could study them, as she found them interesting.
"After that, today came and you woke up." Konan said, bringing her recounting of events to an end.
Nagato did not reply immediately. Instead, he just stared at Konan with a blank expression. Clearly, he was struggling to process everything he had just heard. And the things that hit him the hardest were the facts that the Rinnegan were not his and that he had been manipulated for most of his life.
"This can't be real." Nagato muttered. "Then, does that mean I was never a god? Also, does that mean that my parents were killed for this Madara's ambition?"
"More than likely." The voice of an older man said from the room's doorway.
Snapping their heads in the direction of the voice, both Konan and Nagato were surprised to see Jiraiya standing there with a solemn expression on his face.
"Sensei…" Konan and Nagato muttered in a daze when they saw the tall figure of the man who taught them how to be shinobi after he found them at the end of the Second Great Ninja War.
"Long time, no see." Jiraiya said, trying to smile at his former students. "I have to say, when I taught you all back then, I never thought things would end up like this. Maybe, I put too much pressure on you by entrusting my dream to end war on your shoulders."
"No, it's not your fault!" Nagato cried. "Honestly, that's what all three of us wanted back then. But when Hanzo forced me to kill Yahiko, everything changed. I got desperate… Desperate to see Yahiko's dream become a reality."
In fact, neither Nagato nor Konan really had the dream of ending war in the world. Instead, they had the dream of supporting Yahiko, whose body later became Nagato's Deva Path of Pain, to fulfill his dream to end war.
"*Sigh* Yes… It was a tragedy what happened to Yahiko." Jiraiya said while clinching his fist in grief. "And it's all that damned Danzō's fault."
Hearing that, both Konan and Nagato lowered their head in anger.
"But at least he's been taken care of." Jiraiya said, trying his best to smile through the grief. "He tried to put his hands on things that did not belong to him one too many times. And during the last attempt, he finally met his end."
Konan and Nagato exchanged glances upon hearing that. Then, they both turned back to look at Jiraiya, who was still trying his best to smile.
"We heard about that." Nagato said, a curious glint in his eyes. "But there wasn't much information to be found about the authenticity of that event."
"You can thank my Sensei for that." Jiraiya said while smiling wryly. "And if it were up to him, Danzō would have never lost his life in the first place. But Sensei knew that the Village Hidden in the Leaves could not afford to offend the ones Danzō provoked. Or rather, the force they belonged to."
"What force?" Konan asked curiously.
"*Sigh* Fairy Tail." Jiraiya said while shaking his head before showing the guild mark on his palm. "Just like you, he found out just how powerful Fairy Tail's ace was after trying to kidnap him and his wife, who was pregnant at the time."
"Alfonzo Marcus…" Nagato muttered, a shudder of fear accompanying his words.
Glancing at Nagato, who was clearly scared by what he encountered during his fight with Alfonzo, Konan eventually turned her attention back to Jiraiya.
"Then, I guess we owe him our gratitude." Konan said softly. "Instead, we attacked his home and family."
"Fuckin' right you do." Another male voice said from behind Jiraiya.
Immediately, Jiraiya, Konan, and Nagato turned to see the owner of the voice, Alfonzo coming towards the room with Elicia, Mavis, and Irene accompanying him.
"But you can think about that later." Mavis said while smiling cheerfully as she entered the room. "Instead, the real question is, just what should we do with you? Capturing a group of such notorious terrorists would really bolster the guild's reputation."
Seeing the cheerful smile on Mavis' face, not to mention the sadistic one on Irene's, made not only Konan and Nagato start to sweat nervously, but even Jiraiya, who was about as soft-hearted when it came to dealing with the people he was close to as his sensei, Hiruzen Sarutobi, couldn't help but worry about what would happen to his former students.