The steady sound of rain was the first thing I heard. It wasn't the gentle rain that lulls you to sleep. No. It was the rain of Amegakure, the rain of sorrow. It pounded the ground relentlessly, and with each drop, it seemed to erase my consciousness, plunging me into darkness.
Suddenly, a cold, damp feeling enveloped me, and a heavy breeze pulled me from my trance. I opened my eyes.
Everything was blurry, hazy, but clearly… I wasn't home.
My chest rose and fell with difficulty, I was short of breath, and a sharp pain shot through my head. I looked around, but all I saw was a gray landscape, covered in rubble and ruins. The place reeked of death, of destruction. The village was devastated.
The rain… It always rains here, doesn't it? I thought to myself, but something didn't add up. Something inside me screamed that this place wasn't just a backdrop, but reality.
With difficulty, I got up. My vision was still blurry, but I managed to make out two figures watching me, frightened. A boy with red hair and sad eyes, and a girl with blue hair, equally fearful. They were both in front of me, looking with a mixture of bewilderment and curiosity.
"A-Are you okay?" the girl spoke first, her voice trembling slightly, almost as if she expected me to collapse at any moment.
"Who are you?" the boy asked, his tone firmer, though he clearly didn't understand what was happening.
I tried to speak, but my throat was dry, as if I'd been in a coma or something. The world was still spinning, but suddenly, a wave of understanding hit me like a punch. Yahiko… That was the first word that appeared in my mind. Yahiko… that was my name. Or at least, the name of the person who now inhabited my body.
I looked at my hands. My hands. They weren't the eyes of an adult. They were the eyes of a child. Of a teenager. Of Yahiko.
I couldn't believe it.
I knew it. I knew it.
This wasn't my world.
This wasn't my body.
I was in Naruto's world.
And if that wasn't enough, I realized something even more terrifying: I was Yahiko, the founder of Akatsuki, the boy who would die in this very war. And worst of all, if I thought about it, things were already starting to march toward the dark future of pain and despair. Nagato... Konan... it was all going to end badly.
But I couldn't let that happen.
I was here. In his body. And I knew what I had to do. I had to change fate.
"Are you... okay?" The blue-haired girl looked at me with even more concern. There was no answer. I was overwhelmed, but I managed to realize something even more important: I couldn't tell them I wasn't Yahiko. If they found out I wasn't "the real Yahiko," things could get dangerous, especially with Nagato.
"I'm fine..." I said, trying hard to sound convincing. But my words sounded hollow, as if they weren't mine. As if they came from a deeper place, a place I didn't understand.
"Are you hungry?" asked the red-haired boy, who seemed to carry an air of responsibility about him.
I looked around the village. It was clear there was little to eat here. The ruins were proof that the people of this place had struggled and suffered for a long time.
"No. I'm fine," I replied. I didn't want to appear weak.
I knew what was happening here. I knew how it would all begin. I knew how Nagato would lose his way, how he would become Pain, the monster who would destroy the village. Yahiko would be killed, and then Nagato would take control. The cycle of pain would be almost irreversible.
But I couldn't let that happen. I, like Yahiko, could change all of this. I could find a way to stop the pain before it destroyed everyone.
It was my responsibility.
"I need to think…" I whispered to myself, trying to organize my thoughts. Somehow, I had to save Nagato and Konan from their dark futures, I had to prevent all of this from becoming a tragedy. But… how?
Soon after, I stood up completely. I didn't feel so much pain anymore. My mind, though clouded, was focusing.
It was time to act.
Konan and Nagato were watching me, but now they knew that the old Yahiko was… different. Perhaps the same fate had already touched them, but now, I was going to change it.
"Come on, we have to move. We don't have time to lose."
I couldn't help but smile at Nagato and Konan, though the smile wasn't entirely my own. It was Yahiko's smile, but imbued with a greater purpose: a different future.