"Normal Dialogue"
'Inner thoughts'
[Year 2025]
~ With Liam ~
Liam slouched deeper into his worn couch, the blue light from his TV washing over his tired face as rain hammered against his apartment windows. The Naruto episode was reaching its climax. The moment when Yahiko would sacrifice himself, a scene he'd watched before but still hit like a sucker punch every time. Thunder crashed outside, mirroring the tension building on screen as Hanzo held Konan hostage, forcing Nagato into an impossible choice.
"Fucking Obito," Liam muttered, taking another swig of his beer. "Manipulative bastard."
He knew how it would play out. How this moment would transform Nagato into Pain, how the cycle of hatred would continue, how the Akatsuki would morph from idealistic freedom fighters into pawns in someone else's game. It was the tragedy of it all that kept pulling him back to rewatch this arc.
On screen, Yahiko smiled sadly at his friends before impaling himself on Nagato's kunai.
"All of it," Liam said to his empty apartment, "all because some Uchiha assholes couldn't let go of their grudges."
Lightning flashed, impossibly bright, seeming to come from inside his small apartment rather than outside it. The television flickered, the image distorting with strange, concentric ripples that reminded Liam of—
"Rinnegan," he whispered, suddenly dizzy. The beer can slipped from his fingers, spilling across the carpet as the room lurched sideways. He tried to stand but his limbs felt disconnected from his body, like he was being pulled through a vortex from the inside out.
[Year 1 bNb, "before Naruto birth"]
~ With Liam ~
For a moment, there was nothing but cold and dark and the sensation of falling.
Then, rain. Not the sound of it against windows, but the feel of it pelting his skin, soaking through unfamiliar clothes.
'What the fuck.' Liam thought. His body felt wrong—thinner, weaker, but thrumming with a strange energy that pooled behind his eyes.
He blinked, trying to clear his vision, and saw a man standing before him—orange hair, a face he knew better than his own neighbours'.
'Yahiko.'
"No," Liam tried to say, but his mouth wouldn't form the words. His body wouldn't respond to his commands. He was a passenger, trapped in flesh that wasn't his, experiencing a moment he'd only ever watched through a screen.
Yahiko's face was calm. Behind him stood Hanzo the Salamander, smug in his victory, with Konan held at knifepoint. Rain ninja surrounded them on all sides.
"You're the saviour of the world," Yahiko said, his voice soft but clear through the rain. "I believe in you."
And then he was moving, lurching forward toward the kunai that Nagato—that Liam—held unwillingly in trembling hands.
"Stop!" Liam tried to scream, but Nagato's voice only came out as a broken whisper. His borrowed body was frozen, locked into this nightmare. The kunai wouldn't drop from his fingers, his arms wouldn't pull back. History was a train rushing down fixed tracks, and Liam was just a new passenger aboard it.
Yahiko's body slammed against his, driving the kunai deep into his stomach. The warmth of his blood spilled over Liam's cold hands. Their faces were inches apart, and Liam could see every detail—the light fading from Yahiko's eyes, the small, satisfied smile curving his lips, the absolute conviction that his sacrifice would mean something.
"Take care of Konan," Yahiko whispered, blood bubbling at the corner of his mouth. His weight grew heavier as his strength failed, his body sliding down until his head rested against Liam's chest. "Create... the world... we dreamed of."
The kunai fell from Liam's numb fingers as Yahiko's body slumped to the mud. Seeing her friend sacrificing himself, Konan screamed, the sound tearing through the rain.
"Yahiko!" Liam cried, finally able to move his new body, clutching at his friend. The sounds around him dulled to a distant hum.
Liam stared down at Yahiko's still face, reality crashing over him in nauseating waves. This wasn't a show. This wasn't a rewatch. This was real, and he was here, inside Nagato's body at the worst moment of his life.
Yahiko's body lay at his feet, growing colder by the second. Around them, Hanzo's men circled like vultures, their faces obscured by rain and masks. Behind them stood Danzo with his Root operatives, silently observing what should have been the birth of Pain, the destruction of the original Akatsuki, the first domino in a chain that would eventually lead to the Fourth Shinobi War.
But Liam knew better. He knew every twist, every betrayal, every senseless death that would follow. He knew about Obito watching from the shadows, ready to manipulate Nagato's grief. He knew about the Infinite Tsukuyomi, about Kaguya, about the hollow peace that would eventually birth the soulless, technology-driven era of Boruto.
And he refused to let it happen.
He looked up at Konan, still on the cliff edge, her face twisted with grief and horror. In the original timeline, she followed Nagato into darkness, devoted herself to his twisted vision of peace, and ultimately died fighting Obito years later. A wasted life. A pointless death.
Not this time.
"I'll save you," he promised silently. 'Not just as a comrade, but as something more.' The thought surprised him, but didn't feel wrong. He'd always admired Konan's character—her loyalty, her strength, her quiet dignity.
A sharp laugh escaped his throat, startling even himself. Here he was, in a body not his own, next to the corpse of a fictional character suddenly turned real, planning both to save the world and get the girl. The absurdity of it all hit him all at once.
But then, wasn't this his chance? To actually matter? To rewrite a story he'd always felt was squandered by its creator?
"I will destroy the corrupted future," he said, loud enough now for Hanzo to hear, though the words meant nothing to the Rain leader. "I will reforge the ninja path!"
Hanzo's eyes narrowed. "The boy's gone mad with grief. Kill him." he said dismissively as he walked away from Konan, leaving her alone to watch the death of her other companion.
A Rain ninja lunged forward, blade drawn. Liam threw his hands up instinctively, panic flooding his system. He had no idea how to fight, how to access Nagato's techniques, how to—
Shinra Tensei!
Suddenly the air before him distorted. The attacking ninja was thrown backward with bone-crushing force, his body smashing into three others before crumpling in a broken heap.
Liam stared at his outstretched hand in shock. The Rinnegan had responded to his fear, dragging knowledge from his Rinnegan even as Liam's mind struggled to catch up.
"The Rinnegan," Danzo murmured. "So the rumours were true."
Another ninja attacked from the side. Again, Liam's body reacted before his mind could process it.
Bansho Tenin!
The enemy was yanked toward him like a rag doll, and Liam's hand closed around his throat, crushing his windpipe with strength he didn't know he possessed.
The power was intoxicating, terrifying and exhilarating all at once. But as the third and fourth attackers came, Liam felt something else: Nagato's body was failing him. Each use of the Rinnegan drained chakra at an alarming rate. His vision blurred, his limbs grew heavy, and a splitting headache threatened to cleave his skull in two.
"Shit," he gasped, dropping to one knee as he repelled another attack. Blood trickled from his nose. Too much, too fast. Nagato's body wasn't conditioned for this kind of power output.
~ End of Chapter 1 ~