Confusion

"Those who do not understand true pain can never understand true peace."

― Nagato Uzumaki

Konohagakure

Today was a dark day for the villagers of the hidden leaf. With the force of a calamity, the leader of the Akatsuki, Pain, had attacked their village, and just like a virus, the six paths of Pain had spread throughout it. They have trashed the village so far, quiet village, with an omnipotent strike, leaving the once major potency in peril. He hoped to find the last piece he needed to complete the ritual with the Gedo Statue. If he succeeded, the world would get to finally taste firsthand, the pain he wrought. The only pathway to true peace.

But all the chaos he had caused in that now dystopian village was not enough for him. Those people who were accomplices of the major countries who destroyed his village, not satisfied with what they did in the past, dared to cross him again. Even now, as a God, they dared to ignore his words and refused to deliver him the key piece to pave the path of peace he was hoping to create. Their Hokage dared to thrown blasphemies towards him, pointing and speaking profane words about how the pain of the five great nations was greater than theirs, which infuriated the Deity to no end. He was decided.

The village hidden in the leaves/Konohagakure no Sato's sins would not be overlooked. Through the lifeless body of the Deity, Yahiko/Tendo/Deva path, lied its archon, Nagato, who motioned his former friend's body far into the skies.

"Now this world shall know pain. Shinra Tensei!"

Those were the words of the self-proclaimed Deity. Like a prelude to a catastrophe, the villagers were blinded by a celestial light. Fortunately for them, instead of death coming from the sky, once the light vanished, Pain was nowhere in sight and the force of the Shinra Tensei had been disrupted midway, causing minimal damage and delaying their doom. The God had disappeared in thin air. A phenomenon that would be left unexplained to everyone in the shinobi world. It seemed as though, Fate decided that Pain had a much greater purpose reserved for him. 

 Unknown Forest

When the Deva path recovered his vision, all he could see was a forest. He wished he knew how did he end up in a forest since he supposedly had just destroyed Konoha, a green scenery was the last thing he would expect to see...

 While gathering his thoughts back in place, it only took a moment to realize that the see the imagery he previously could see from 7th Rinnegan was unavailable and that the outer path was now under his control. He then understood that it could only mean it somehow was no longer connected to Nagato. (Looks like Nagato's Wi-fi has disconnected. Time to use wireless connection XD) 

The Deva path took a moment to experience that freedom. Freedom he had not felt since the days that body had belonged to Yahiko. Not only he was no longer bound by his puppeteer's threads, but he also felt that he was stronger than ever. The possibilities were limitless. He gave out an inaudible laugh. With the exemption from the red-haired Uzumaki's control, Pain was free to enlighten the world through pain.

"I'm neither Yahiko nor Nagato... I'm my own being. I'm God. I'm Pain and nobody else". Pain stated to himself firmly, without a trace of doubt. And even though Pain was only a name given to the six bodies that once belonged to the deceased teen Shinobi, the failed farmer, the scholar, the Fuma shinobi, the mercenary puppeteer, and the priest, he would keep the memories of those past lives forever within his being, for those were fundamental pieces in forging the God that he is, Pain.

'But still, what is the meaning of this...? I'm sure that I was in the middle of Konoha, it was supposed to be just dust everywhere. There should be just a colossal crater where I would land, not a forest...' Pain thought, confused by the situation he found himself in.

When Pain recovered from the surprise of his newfound freedom, he took a better look around and saw that all the other paths were in the same location as him, but all knocked out from the exhaustion of chakra he had to transfer, focusing it all on heaven's realm to release the Chaotic Shinra Tensei. He had also noticed that the Asura path was still destroyed after the Akimichi attack.

"If I'm all here, does that mean I'm in the outskirts of Konoha? But where is Konan's paper clone? She was supposed to be watching over my other bodies while I performed the Shinra Tensei... whatever all I need to do is go back and capture the nine tails. My objective stays the same. I still need more power to supply the statue and complete my plan". The Deva path stated.

Except for the Asura path, all the paths recovered.

'I got no time to lose. I should take care of this if I intend to return to battle... 'The Naraka path thought, restoring Asura's path using the king of hell.

After chewing a bit, Asura comes out from the king of hell's mouth, good as new.

"Excellent, now I just need to return to Konoha". All the Pains thought in unison. Then, they all started to jump through the trees, advancing at incredible speed.

After minutes, Pain was starting to get annoyed, there was no sign of the Konoha yet? Something was wrong. Surely if he was where the other paths were left, he wouldn't be far from Konoha but... 

Finally getting out of the seemingly unending forest, they sighted a village in the distance.'Is that a village? But it's not Konoha...' Pain thought, eyeing the new environment.

? Village

Pain decided to approach the village to gather information, and he spotted an old man working on a rice field.

The old man was surprised to see 6 people with dark cloaks with red clouds approach him and already was starting to feel intimidated by them, their appearance, and especially their eyes were frightening.

"W-what do you want!? I have nothing of value for you to steal!" the old man stated fearfully.

"I do not wish to steal you anything... but information. Tell me, which way to the leaf village?" Pain asked in a commanding tone.

"Lea... leaf village? what are you talking about...? there's no place with that name around here". The old man replied nervously, confused by what this sinister-looking man was talking about.

This confirmed Pain's suspicions, either he was very far away from the leaf, or... no, he didn't want to believe in such a possibility just yet, he would gather more information first before jumping to hasty conclusions.

"Tell me, old man, which way to the nearest major civilization?"

"You just have to follow..." The old man was interrupted by the loud sound of a bell in the village.

"What's this about?" Pain asked, annoyed that they were interrupted.

"Oh no! It's those bandits again!" The old man stated fearfully.

"Bandits?" Pain asked curiously.

"Yes, you should get out of here right now, It's a risk for ou people every time they come here. Now if you excuse me, I have to find my wife and my grandchildren! " The old man said, leaving hurriedly.

Near the entrance of the village, we could see many people gathered.

"The bandits have come, everyone, protect our village! Oh god, please help us!" The village elder started to pray.

"Ha! Praying won't help you at all!" A fat man dressed in an elegant piece of armor said, which was none other than the chief of the bandits; accompanied by his henchman.

Pain frowned. He was just watching everything from the top of some trees. He decided not to interfere just yet, he would wait for the right moment to strike.

"You have already collect taxes this month! We don't have any more to offer! Please, spare us!" The elder pleaded, making all the bandits chuckle.

"Hahahahaha! If you don't have the money, you will have to pay us with something else! How about..." the fat man eyed the busty women that were near the elder, giving them a lustful smirk, licking his lips and all the women hugged each other, afraid of this disgusting man. "How about you give us all the women and liquor you have in your village!? The bandit chief demanded and all his men cheered, reading themselves for some fun.

"No! Please, anything but that!" The elder pleaded harder which made the lawless scum deepen their chuckles.

"Men, what do we do when someone doesn't obey our demands?"

"Kill! Kill!Kill!" All the bandits shouted while pointing their spears to the sky.

"Exactly! Now go, take all their liquor and all their women!" The chief ordered and his henchmen gave a battle cry, but when the bandits were going to attack the villagers, part of them was turned into meat confetti by a missile that exploded, causing smoke to blind their chief's vision.

"W-wha... what was that!?" The chief screamed, surprised at the sudden explosion. All the villagers were paralyzed. It was as if God had answered their prayers.

"I've seen enough." Pain stated simply, the smoke finally clearing, showing an angry Deva path, scaring the bandit's leader.

"Y-you! who are you!? another rebel!? or are you from... the re-re-re-revolutionary army!?" the bandit chief asked gagging while his legs were trembling. He feared that this day would come.

"Oh... It seems that all those claims from before were all just pretense, you are just a coward..." Pain stated while eyeing the fat man, sending him a shiver through the spine.

'Th-these eyes... It was as if they were looking straight into my soul...' The bandit chief thought fearfully.

"Scum like you has no place in this world. Know pain!" The human path grabbed him by the throat and extracted the soul from his body, much to the bandits' fear, and despair, as now they had no leader and had to deal with these monsters.

"Wha-what did you do to our boss!? the bandits asked, all afraid of the 6 figures in front of them.

'I see... so this is what this is all about...' Pain thought while clenching his fist in anger while releasing his grapple from the Chief's soulless body which fell into the ground with a thud. The information he received from the soul extraction was invaluable to his understanding of the new environment. Apparently, he was no longer in his homeworld, or at least, not in the same continent. A fact that was still hard for him to believe. This new world was inhabited by different races divided through various regions and the most noticeable civilization was the Imperial Capital that was located in the center of the continent. 

The bandits, seeing the distraction from the paths, decided to flee in different directions of the forest but Asura just lifted his arm. "There's no escape," He said, firing homing missiles that created huge consecutive explosions, killing all the bandits.

The village elder was baffled. What in the world just happened!? He could only assume that this was the divine intervention he prayed for. "T-thank you, God! We are eternally grateful!" The villagers thanked Pain while bowing their heads.

Pain just raised his hand signaling that all that wasn't necessary.

"Get up, I was only clearing the trash". Pain stated.

" I cannot thank you enough for ridding us of those criminals. They work for the Prime Minister of the Imperial Capital and always come here every month to demand abusive taxes! We call them bandits because that's what they truly are. If there is any way I can pay you back, I'm at your disposal, my lord"The village elder stated.

"There is. What is the best road to the Imperial Capital?"

"Uhh... I wouldn't recommend you to go there but since you are so strong, I guess it won't be a problem as long as you don't cause a ruckus in there. Just follow the forest northward of here and you should at some point, sight a dirt roadway and then you should be good but be careful, there is a lot of Danger beasts lurking underground who like to ambush passersby there" He also offered Pain to stay in the village and celebrate with them but he refused and started to leave.

"Wait! Can we at least have your name, please?" the village elder pleaded.

"We are Pain, we are God!" Pain stated, leaving the village at blinding speed.

 Little did he know that his actions in that village and his last statement would cause all sorts of rumors among the common folk that would soon spread through the continent and would greatly contribute to his ascension in a near future.

Road to the Imperial Capital

After a while of running through the forest, he reached a dirt road the village elder told him about, he sighted a cart moving towards the opposite direction he was heading to.

 But he felt a thirst for blood coming from underground. The two carters were surprised at the six sinister-looking men who were running at incredible speed in their direction but when they were about to collide, a giant creature spawned from underground, forcing Pain to halt and frightening the carters.

 The giant creature that was at least the size of a two-story-sized building, and according to the information he had, was a Danger beast, an Earth Dragon to be more precise. When Pain decided to give the creature a beating of its life, a boy appeared out of nowhere, and in a few strikes with his sword, the boy killed the beast. 

The two men who were riding the cart, upon seeing the boy's incredible feat, went to greet him.

"That was incredible, boy!" One of the carters said.

"You took a class one Danger beast by yourself!" The other carter said.

"Oh, it was nothing, kind of like taking candy from a big scaly baby! The name is Tatsumi and by the way, the whole capital is gonna know my name before too long".

The guards were apprehensive after hearing the boy's statement.

"So, you're also going to the capital, isn't that right?" The deva path said, stepping into the conversation.

The two men turned around and instantly felt nervous by the intimidating stares of the six figures in front of them.

"Yep, I'm going there to make a name for myself, and who are you guys?" 

"Call me Pain. Now, what were you two going to tell this boy? If it is about the capital, I'm also interested to hear about it too".

Having saved their lives, the pair of carters decided to retribute, telling them about the true nature of the Capital.

"Oh, well the capital isn't some perfect dreamland, sure it's the big city but it's overrun with monsters even more vicious than this earth dragon here".

"I don't get it, how can the city be full of danger beasts?" Tatsumi asked not understanding the real meaning behind the carter words. The boy's naivety made the pair sweatdrop.

"Not those monsters, I'm talking about humans, but with the heart of monsters, the damn place is crawling with them". This statement picked the interest of Pain.

"You mean that they are corrupt" Pain clarified.

"Exactly".

"Thanks for the warning guys, but there's no way I'm turning around and go back now you see, me and my friends, we have a mission to make a fortune and save our village from poverty". Tatsumi said, puffing his chest with pride.

"If you're going to the capital, we will go with you". Pain stated, surprising the boy ' This boy shows promise... maybe he could be a useful ally?' Pain asked himself.

"Well ok, I don't mind some company".

"Do you know anything about the leaf village? or about shinobi?"

"Leaf village? I never saw a place called that in the maps and shinobi? what is that?" Tatsumi asked with a confused expression.

'So my suspicions were right. At first, I couldn't believe it even after the intel I got from that bandit but this more than confirms it. Somehow I'm not in the elemental nations anymore... I guess going to this capital is the best thing I can do for now' He thought, determined.

"Well, we should get going, there's a long way for us to walk". Pain stated, starting to walk down the road.

"Ok!" Tatsumi agreed, anxious to arrive at the capital. He still needed to find his friends Sayo and Ieyasu who got separated from him.

During their walk, uncomfortable from being followed by six sinister-looking people, Tatsumi decided to speak up.

"Uh... Why do you all dress like that? why the piercings? What's up with the eyes? Are you a masochist? Why do you all speak with the same voice? And Dafuq with the preconception with baldy over there; why is he the only one without cool-looking orange hair? " Tatsumi asked curiously, trying to break the ice.

"You ask too much". Pain replied bluntly, frustrating Tatsumi. Yes, this would be a loooong, silent walk to the Capital.

They traveled towards the capital, where Pain would see that Konoha was far from being the worst he will ever see from humanity.

End of Prologue