Night fell on this side of the planet. The moon was at its highest point and the air was slightly humid. Near a river stood Toru, who was looking at his reflection in the water. He covered his eyes with one hand and then looked at his reflection in the water as he slowly removed his hand from his face. Nearby there was a torch illuminating the darkness, but Toru was struck by the faint purple glow in his eyes.
"They look just like Nagato's. So this is why I can see again. I still can't figure out why I have these eyes. I have to come to a conclusion, but it will be difficult without having prior information. Still, I can take my time to get used to these eyes."
Toru was taking the situation with a cool mind, that is, calmly. Even though he didn't have an answer to his questions, he decided to look for that answer.
"Somehow or other, I feel like I've changed since I talked to Konan."
He mentioned that he liked sad stories, to which Konan listened carefully, but he had a horrible feeling in his chest., which prevented him from continuing. He knew very well what it was that stopped him from talking, he knew it too well. But what could he do about it? He thought nothing, but the answer was simpler than it seemed.
No one knows, not even Toru himself. He is just someone who, despite having regained his sight, was still blind as far as his own emotions were concerned. Toru is so broken that he doesn't even know what he wants and longs to find an answer to this, "Who am I and why do I exist?" He is blind, even though he can see. And most likely he will not be able to really "see" what is in front of him.
Over time, that will only continue to make the hole in his heart bigger, leading to an emptiness that cannot be filled.
Stretching his muscles a bit, he looked at the moon for a few seconds. After that, he took off his scarf and cloak, leaving them on a rock.
"I remember well what Nagato was doing. I just have to use it as a reference" He stood up straight and spread his hands, still with the Rinnegan active in his eyes. He took a breath of air, closed his eyes and... "Banshō Ten'in!" He snapped his eyes open and was surprised to see a stone float up and hurl itself at him. The stone was so fast that it ended up hitting Toru in the face. This knocked him to his knees. "Uh... it hurts..." He touched his forehead against the ground and tried to bear the pain. He never imagined that the control the user must have over these techniques was very high. A beginner couldn't do what someone like Nagato did. "This is going to be harder than I thought..." He stood up again and this time extended a single hand forward. He glared at a stone across the river and narrowed his eyes. "Banshō Ten'in!"
Bam! In Toru's face again. History repeats itself.
-Village of the Ōkami clan-
Hours passed and the sun was born on the horizon, announcing the beginning of a new day. Light streamed in through the window and Konan awoke to feel the warmth of the sun on her face. She sat up in bed and looked at her surroundings.
"So it wasn't a nightmare..." It was almost unreal to think that she survived thanks to Toru being there with her. The image of that boy with the Rinnegan in his eyes also popped into her head. "I should..." She tried to get up from the bed, but when she saw the Akatsuki robe on the table, she raised her eyebrows slightly and a slight smile formed on her face. Even though Nagato and Yahiko weren't beside her, she still had Toru. She still had hope.
She got up from the bed only to get on her knees and offered a prayer for Nagato and Yahiko.
'I will be the pillar that holds the bridge that will lead us to peace. I promise...'
After that, she stood up and took the robe from the table. She put it on and breathed in the fresh air of that forest. But she realized something.
'Hm...' The robe... 'It smells like him...' Inevitably she thought of Toru. These thoughts for him had been growing larger as time passed. She had a hard time understanding this feeling, but she knew well what it was about. "Something like that can't be" Shaking her head, she opened the door and stepped out of the hollow tree that functioned as a house.
Stepping out, she found the giant wolves interacting with each other. Almost immediately she recognized Okaminaru among them.
Okaminaru looked at Konan with a slight frown. She approached ignoring everything around her and stood squarely against the human woman.
"You must know where Toru-dono is, right? I tried to visit him a few minutes ago and couldn't find him. I assumed he would be with you, but that doesn't seem to be the case" She tried to be as unfriendly as possible. Okamitsuki told her that she should treat Konan kindly, since she is Toru's partner.
"I don't know, I was on my way to visit him" She had just woken up, it was obvious she didn't know. "I'll go look for him."
"I guess I'll do the same" Okaminaru looked at Konan one last time with a slightly angry expression. She thought it was Konan's fault that Toru ended up on the verge of death. Though then she seriously thought about it and remembered that she trained alongside Toru. Both of them would literally leave each other on the brink of death. Though that was in a different situation than a real life and death battle.
Anyway, she tried not to get mad at Konan and went out to look for Toru.
In the distance, Okamitsuki looked at this and smiled slightly. She knew what Toru was doing, she saw him last night training relentlessly.
'Those eyes that brat has really are special, huh...'
***
The sounds of explosions and loud bangs were heard the closer she got to that river. There was dust among the trees, like a cloud of mist. She covered her mouth and nose with the sleeve of her robe and squinted her eyes. She approached slowly, until she could break through the forest and find what she was looking for. However, when she saw the place, she was inevitably shocked and confused.
Everything was wrecked, there was a gigantic crater and basically everything was desolate. The sight was much like Konoha during Pain's invasion, only to a lesser extent.
"This could only be..."
She recalled that scene of Toru with the Rinnegan in his gaze, staggering, tired and injured from fighting Madara. She unconsciously became worried after remembering this and her gaze wandered all over the place looking for him, but found nothing. She descended into the crater and searched for clues, but it was more of the same. She could only realize that there was something above her because of the shadows that were generated.
Taking advantage of this, she looked up and there she could see it.
There was Toru, floating in the air in a strange way. There were large rocks floating and orbiting around him. His cloak and scarf were moving in rhythm with the wind and that glint in his eyes made Konan understand the situation.
"Toru, you..."
In one night, this boy learned to control the Rinnegan. However, there was something she noticed. Toru's face was stained with blood as were his clothes. He had bumps all over his body and his clothes were quite worn out.
***
"Ha~..." He exhaled a small cloud of steam. With his hand outstretched, he looked straight at one of the stones and opened his palm. "Asshuku... [Compression]." He clenched his hand into a fist and then... Boom! The stone compressed and exploded. The force of the compression was so much, that the stone literally turned to dust.
He sighed after doing this. He felt pain all over his body, for while practicing he received many blows from stones coming at him with murderous intent. In fact, Toru's body was sore from that very thing. Again and again, trial and error, he practiced as much as he could, as much as his body could take. He focused so much on learning to use these new eyes that he forgot the pain he felt, forgot everything around him and, for some strange reason, this made him feel relaxed. When he came back to reality, though, he found this. Everything was destroyed and he had wounds all over his body. It was a restless night for Toru, but in the end he got what he wanted.
"I must continue to consider my chances. The fact that I managed to awaken a Rinnegan still doesn't make sense. How? Why? I still have to think, but... my body... I can't take any more..." He closed his eyes and plummeted to the ground.
***
She watched as Toru came falling from the sky. She immediately dove to catch him. She spread her paper wings and in a second she found Toru in her arms.
"How many more times must I catch you, huh...?" she said wryly, remembering all the times she had to catch Toru from imminent falls.
"Uh... Thank you, Konan. I didn't see you, how did you find me? No, wait, let me guess, you followed the rumbles?"
"No need to answer, right?"
"Exactly..."
Toru closed his eyes after that. Using a dojutsu he had just unlocked still left him exhausted. All the destruction he caused expended most of the chakra his body could store, resulting in this.
Konan nodded her head after seeing Toru. With her wings, she carried him back to the Okami clan's village.
-Minutes later-
"You didn't sleep at all. Rest and recover a little," Konan said.
Toru, sitting on the bed, scratched his head and replied relaxed.
"I'm fine like this. Nothing is going to happen to me if I don't get a night's sleep. I know it's harmful, but I need to find out how I got these eyes. You knew Nagato better than anyone, how did he awaken his eyes, do you know anything about the Rinnegan?"
Listening and questioning Toru's own questions, she remembered what Madara told her in Amegakure. The powers of the Rikudō are obtained by mixing the dna of the two primordial clans, Uchiha and Senju, hence the Izanagi. Konan knows well that Toru is a distant relative of the Uchiha, so that may be one of the factors that led him to awaken the Rinnegan, since, these eyes are also one of the many powers of the Rikudō, but the dna of the Senju clan was also needed.
She decided to tell Toru all this and he understood. He found the answer to his questions.
"I see. So that's why..."
Well, this was one of Toru's suspicions. He had heard it from Danzo's mouth before he had thrown himself at Sasuke, but in reality he wasn't sure if this could be a possibility. He felt a little disgusted that that "Uchiha" part that dwells within him had caused him to awaken this dojutsu. But there were still loose ends to this theory, there was something else Toru didn't know, something that wasn't entirely clear to him. Still, he decided to leave this matter as it is until more information comes up.
"I guess you don't know this" Memories from two years ago flashed in his mind. "I stole blood from my master, Yamato, who possessed the Mokuton of the Shodaime Hokage. I tried to make his blood compatible with mine and thus transplant a small part of that blood into my system in order to obtain the Mokuton, but something went wrong. Instead of obtaining the Kekkei Genkai from the Shodaime, I felt that my body could store more chakra than I ever could before, that is, I gained large reserves of chakra because of that, but I did not obtain the Kekkei Genkai, I failed to obtain it. In fact, although I almost died in the attempt, I also benefited from that same mistake. My clan members are supposed to be distant relatives of the Uchiha, meaning that even though so much time has passed and the Uchiha blood has been diluted in ours, we still have a small part of that clan's dna. If what Danzo and Madara say is true, then that would be the explanation in my eyes."
...
...
To be continued...