章 862: 39
Chapter 38: Violence Parade in the Downpour
Fukasaku sighed, "You really need to learn how to use Sage Mode on your own Jiraiya-chan."
"Yeah, yeah." Jiraiya said as he emerged from the shadows of the hole in the wall, "You know I wish I could, but I'm still just a tadpole compared to you two." Jiraiya now had a larger, more bulbous nose with warts, he now had a goatee, the lines on his face were far thicker, his eyes were toad-like, and-.
Fukasaku looked around, "So where's this guy with the Rinnegan now? I don't see nobody."
Shima shook her head, "Maybe our sight is failing us in our old age."
Jiraiya kept his eyes peeled around himself to keep watch for an attack from the still undetectable Pein, "It's not your fault. He's hiding inside of a summon of his that can blend in with the surroundings, more or less making itself invisible."
Shima looked at Jiraiya oddly, "You mean like a chameleon or something?"
The human in the odd team spoke, "I've already put up a detection barrier with Gamaken, but-."
Shima cut him off and made a hand-seal, "That ain't gonna get us nowhere! If you're looking for a living creature we'll find it in no time!"
"Don't strain yourself Ma, you'll give yourself more wrinkles." Fukasaku cracked, getting an angered growl out of the female toad, "By the way Jiraiya-chan, I realize that you need us because this guy is so tough, but why are you fighting him in the first place?"
Jiraiya shrugged, "Well… he's a former student of mine."
Fukasaku looked at Jiraiya in shock, "Well it obviously ain't the Uzumaki boy or you'd be up the wall right now… Which means-." His eyes widened in realization.
"He's the destined child?" Shima asked incredulously, "Then why are you fighting him?"
Jiraiya didn't rightly know how to respond to that, "Unfortunately he didn't grow up to be the man I hoped he'd become, plus I'd heard rumors that he died and convinced myself that this 'Pein' couldn't possibly be my student."
Fukasaku shook it off rather quickly, "Well whatever the case if he ain't turned out right we gotta kill 'em!"
Shima scoffed, "That prophecy was just the senile old fart rambling on and on, just like always! Anyways enough of that, let's get 'em!" Shima stuck her tongue out, at the tip of it appeared to be a face with sharp teeth that seemed to be looking around before pointing in a general direction, "Found 'em."
The tongue stretched and shot out before wrapping around what seemed to be air, "Gotcha!" The tongue started excreting a corrosive chemical that exposed Pein's chameleon as it slammed it into the ground, "Pa!"
Fukasaku's tongue leapt out of his mouth with speed and force and was hard enough to cut through the pipes along the wall, the chameleon itself, and the ground beneath it. The chameleon dispelled in a puff of smoke, "So that's the Rinnegan… they're definitely the eyes that the legends described. What a wretched sight. So he's the destined child."
Jiraiya nodded as Pein clapped his hands together, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!" In a puff of smoke, two more men kneeled down on opposite sides of Pein. One of them was large and bulky, with orange hair tied into a short ponytail. The other one was a tall, slender man with long orange hair. They both had multiple piercings all over their faces and wore scratched out Ame hitae-ates along with the Akatsuki cloak.
Shima looked on determinedly, "This is the one that will cause the destruction of the world…"
Jiraiya's face reflected the emotion on the faces of the two toads on his shoulders, "…Yes, and it's my duty as his teacher to stop him here."
XxX
(Naruto vs. Konan)
The rain had long since stopped and Naruto simply stared at Konan while sitting on the roof almost like a fox as she continued to fly about the skies. At first she tried minor attacks with paper weaponry, but Naruto's three tailed cloak kept him protected while he gathered power for his fourth tail and the use of the Kitsune Trigger. Eventually he got sick of just sitting and waiting and decided to take some target practice, focusing wind chakra at the ends of his tails and throwing them out at Konan in an attempt to shoot her down and wear her out before he finished gathering power.
'What is he doing?' Konan asked herself as she navigated her way around Naruto's ranged attacks, 'The Kyuubi is supposed to be a being of pure malice and anger. There should be no way that he can bear holding back and keeping from fervently pursuing me while using its chakra. But he's just sitting there waiting. He's playing right into the hands of my plan, but I can't help but feel a sense of foreboding over this.'
"How do you feel kit?" Kyuubi asked Naruto as he continued forcing more chakra through Naruto's system gradually so that when the actual fourth tail took form Naruto didn't lose immediate control and blow the entire gameplan to hell.
'Good and pissed. And don't give me that shit about how it's supposed to feel like that, I already know that.' Naruto grumbled to the demon in his mind as he shakily took the soldier pills in his supply pouch and popped them all at once, 'Don't tell me when the tail is going to manifest. If you tell me my control will slip and then instead of the controlled precise force the trigger will give me I'll be all berserk and reckless.'
"Can do punk." Kyuubi said, focusing on steadily generating more and more power, "Give that bitch hell, I'm not going to have my container be taken down here by some lady that throws paper… I still have to eat you and gain my freedom. I'd rather not get pulled out of your body just to be used for something else."
Paper rose from all sides of the skyscraper Naruto was currently seated upon, so much that it was easily blocking his sight of Konan. Mixed in with normal papers were clearly a lot of explosive notes. Konan looked at the dome of paper and explosive notes that she had built up around Naruto, "Let's see if you're really as powerful as your biju would make you out to be." She made a hand-seal and had the paper swirl all around Naruto, edging ever closer to the jinchuuriki.
'My ass I'm letting her blow all of those up on me!' Naruto angrily thought to himself before letting out a massive roar that unleashed a shockwave of his chakra in all directions, blowing all of the paper and hidden explosive notes away from himself, scattering them all over the skies.
Konan looked on in shock as the papers flew all about. In addition to floating in the air, many of them stuck to other buildings nearby. She gasped in horror when she realized that she had activated the explosive notes when she sent them at Naruto in the storm to confuse him. In a matter of moments explosions rocked buildings all around, sending flaming debris falling from the upper levels of the village to the city streets below, where the citizens had no idea what had happened and were not prepared for the dangerous repercussions of Naruto and Konan's battle.
Konan looked down in abject horror at what had just happened, and taking her eye off the ball would cost her when Naruto fired another ball of wind chakra from his tail that hit her head on, pulverizing her paper wings and sending her, luckily for her, flying onto the top of another building.
Konan stood up and heard the efforts of the people below attempting to help those injured from the last move of the battle and the attempts of those trying to evacuate the civilians from the area before even more happened that could endanger them. She glared over at the glowing red figure of Naruto and even at the long distance the two stood at she knew he was glaring right back at her with his red eyes.
Konan clinched her fists and shouted across the area at Naruto, "This is what we're trying to prevent. This senseless destruction, can't you see that? Once we take the Kyuubi from you and all of the other biju from their jinchuuriki we can begin to guide the world towards peace by showing them the futility of war."
Naruto stayed silent until he shouted, his gravely, increasingly demonic voice penetrating her ears, "I'm a weapon, plain and simple. No matter why I was placed with the Kyuubi, no matter why the Yondaime Hokage did it, after it was done it was all on me to be Konoha's protector, and to protect myself from people like you that would use the Kyuubi's power in a more destructive way than I would. Since I knew what a shinobi was I knew what my job was, and the knowledge of the Kyuubi only made the point of what I was supposed to be even clearer."
"You're a seed of war." Konan said, "You were born and immediately placed with your demon. You are simply destruction incarnate, you don't understand, you'll never understand."
Naruto bared his sharpened teeth, "You're right I don't understand you stupid bitch! Having a group like Akatsuki pointing weapons of total destruction at everyone and maintaining a peace that way isn't peace at all, it's a proxy truce. It's no different whatsoever than the way things are now! It's not real!"
Konan's face showed no inflection of taking in Naruto's words, "Then we will make them understand that the only peace that will work without doubt is the peace that will be orchestrated by Pein-sama."
Naruto growled and felt himself losing control of the Kyuubi's power. This came right before the feeling of his own skin burning off of his body occurred. It took everything Naruto had to not drop his concentration when his body was engulfed in the intense chakra.
Konan let herself smirk, 'A berserk jinchuuriki is easier to bring down than one attempting to fight like a shinobi. He has fallen right into the first step of my trap.'
Naruto then lifted his head to the heavens and let out a deafening roar that shook everyone within earshot to their core. If they hadn't been brought to their knees by the oppressive aura of the Kyuubi beforehand it was an afterthought at this point. With the last of his free will, Naruto inhaled deeply, drawing in the chakra from his body revealing raw, red skin from the Kyuubi's chakra burning him.
After inhaling all of the chakra, Naruto painfully swallowed it all and fell to the ground writhing in pain at what he had done to himself, "I hate doing this!" Naruto shouted as more screams of pain followed.
'What is he doing?' Konan asked herself until she remembered Zetsu's report on his battle with Orochimaru's underling Kimimaro Kaguya all those years ago, "No!" She quickly fashioned herself a pair of paper wings and flew at Naruto in an effort to stop him as she saw his body undergoing a transformation. Just before she could reach him with a paper sword in her grip she was thrown back by a flood of chakra erupting from Naruto's body that caved in the roof of the building he had been on.
Konan righted herself in the air as the dust and debris from Naruto's finished transformation billowed from the building he had destroyed the top few floors of upon completing his preparations. Some of the wrecked building shifted around as Naruto stood back up to reveal his form to Konan. Naruto was sizably bigger, he was just as big if not bigger in stature and size than Jiraiya, that was the least noticeable thing about him at the moment. Red fur had grown all over his body, the appearance of his head became that of a fox with glowing red eyes, his hands grew longer claws than usual in his jinchuuriki cloak. His spine pushed down out of his skin and pants and instead of splitting into two tails the way it did the last time it split into four tails that grew skin, muscle, nerves, and fur over them.
Naruto was panting heavily following his transformation before speaking in a deep, warped voice, "Gaara never had to tear his own body apart to use his best jinchuuriki powers, Yugi-chan never had to do it either, but nothing can ever be simple or straightforward for me can it?" He said disdainfully before looking at Konan who was staring at him in shock, "Sorry to keep you waiting, you must have been bored."
Konan got over Naruto's new appearance rather quickly, "So you have full control over the Kyuubi? That is very impressive. I only know of two other jinchuuriki with that amount of control over their biju."
'She thinks this is full control?' Naruto thought to himself, 'This isn't even close, can't she count the tails? This is just a bastardized excuse of partial control because I can't go past four tails. How much of this form does she know about? Her info must be shoddy.' Well it was shoddy. Zetsu had been watching his fight with Kimimaro right until Naruto fired the Imari when he hightailed it out of dodge to keep from being blown to burnt and crispy bits. Seeing an Imari must have been all he needed to see to be able to report back that Naruto had full control. His defeat of Sasori almost an entire year later must have been enough to keep that mindset amongst Akatsuki.
Naruto let out a snort at Konan's comment and took a few steps back before running forward, picking up speed, and launched himself through the air at Konan. Getting over the shock of seeing a humanoid fox flying through the air at her, she had seen stranger things in her time, Konan took a higher position, letting Naruto miss her with his attack and land feet first on a wall, "Are you going to actually try anything or are you just going to keep running?" He asked. Naruto tilted his head to the side in a curious manner when she didn't answer, "You're waiting for something…"
Of course she had to be. She wasn't actively engaging him the way she had been before he started drawing on more and more of the Kyuubi's chakra. They were in Amegakure, their home base so there had to be something here that could handle a jinchuuriki like him and that's what she was waiting on. Pein won the civil war. Everyone here in the village was with them. When it really came down to it, Naruto wasn't just fighting Konan, if it was really put out in front of him to see, he was fighting everyone in the village. They had to know something or someone was attacking them after what had been going on.
"So you finally get it." Konan said when she could make out a look of realization on Naruto's face, "I don't know what possessed you to come here, but we knew you were here the second you walked into the rain upon your arrival. You walked right into our hands. Pein-sama controls the ninja of this village. Right now, preparations are being made to restrict your demon's influence and power, they will be complete soon. You cannot defeat an entire village on your own, simply surrender."
Naruto began letting out loud barking laughs that confused Konan, "You idiots… I'm a jinchuuriki. Has Ame ever even had one from any village attempt anything against them before, let alone the fact that I hold the strongest one of all. Danzo-jiji trained me from the age of four, just for things like this. To infiltrate enemy villages with my stealth and obliterate it from within." Konan's eyes widened, getting a vulpine smirk from Naruto, "You don't think I can? You'd better call off your shinobi before I tear this village apart with my power. Oh, wait, that's what you all wanted the biju for in the first place right? How about when you have it happen right here in your own home? Would that make you want to stop fighting? Let's find out!"
Naruto let his body drop from the side of the skyscraper and fell to the ground below, using his tails to slow his descent. He narrowed his eyes once he neared the ground and found that there were multiple smatterings of Ame ninja preparing to head up multiple skyscrapers in an attempt to overwhelm him. Naruto's body hit the ground with a resounding crash, cracking the earth below him and getting everyone's full attention. He lifted his head and saw all of them with weapons drawn, debating over attacking him or running away until one man cried out.
"Capture the jinchuuriki alive! For Pein-sama's ambition! It is the will of God!"
At hearing those words Naruto couldn't help but chuckle to himself, the Kyuubi had to as well as he was intently watching Naruto's battle. The Amegakure ninja had to take him in alive, and they were apparently fanatical enough to follow Pein's orders to the letter because he was 'God' and they would not ruin their God's plans even at the cost of their own lives, because they were working for something greater than themselves.
Naruto didn't have that kind of restriction.
He let out a massive roar that threw all of the inspired Ame shinobi backwards. Threw them down the streets, threw them through open shops and stands, threw them through window, threw them against the walls themselves, those were the least lucky of them all, the impact of their heads against the sturdy material never stood a chance.
Naruto looked up at Konan who was flying around, low-altitude, and Naruto had a new strategy. Forget the fight.
He gave her an even stare after seeing those that were still alive from his first attack getting back up shakily, "This is what you wanted the jinchuuriki for, right? Let's see how much of this you can take, and we'll see if your 'God' will save you and these ninja from me." Naruto looked at his razor-sharp claws and began running through the Ame shinobi that hadn't yet recovered enough to pose a threat to him in battle. The better ninja were able to recover faster while Naruto had been cutting a path through their comrades, but the level of skill in Ame, despite their 'God' of a leader was not up to par when compared to Konoha ninja.
Naruto thought to himself while he grabbed the arm of a man that tried to stab him with his kunai when he got too close and gripped it tightly, hearing the man yell out once he felt Naruto's enhanced strength break the bones. Naruto spun around and used the man to smash into two more shinobi that had come to the man's aid. They must have been genin.
Naruto threw the man at another advancing group of Ame ninja. He had more trouble before when he tried this in one of Orochimaru's bases, and there were more ninja here. He saw Konan attempt to work her paper into the overall battle, but channeling some wind chakra to his tail and whipping them around kicked up a small whirlwind that served a double purpose of knocking her troublesome paper techniques away and disorienting the troops around him.
Konan grit her teeth at the scene, 'His wind element is the natural weakness of my paper… This is not good.'
'Fighting those damned spiders in the Forest of Death may have sucked at the time, but it was amazingly good practice for this!' Naruto thought to himself as he backhand swept an opponent's feet from under him before delivering a crushing side kick that sent the man back first into a post, clearly breaking his back. A torrent of water from an attempted enemy jutsu filled the street and almost crashed headlong into him, but he jumped into the air and entered a building by obliterating a window with his body.
"He's inside! Trap him now!" A man cried out as more than a dozen others ran inside the building Naruto entered to bring him down. The streets around the building were flooded with Ame ninja surrounding the building awaiting any sign of Naruto so that they could complete the capture or cut off his retreat.
Konan hovered in the air around the building, thinking of any possible way to get to Naruto and bring him down. She was not going to fail. This was the most important step in their plan, and she wasn't going to let Naruto stand in the way of the peace they had been working so hard to bring.
XxX
(Jiraiya vs. Pein)
Fukasaku got a good look at the men that Pein had summoned to his side and thought that his old age was really beginning to get to him, "How can there possibly be three people with the Rinnegan?" He asked. It was true. All of the men in addition to their attire in battle had in common the distinctly patterned eyes of the legendary kekkei genkai.
Jiraiya narrowed his eyes, "There has to be some trick to this jutsu." Jiraiya smirked confidently, "Alright time for me to really get started! Prepare for the full-on Sage Mode pre-fight ritual!" Jiraiya stood in a grand gesture with the two toads still atop his shoulders, "Prepare for the force of my almighty ninjutsu, backed with the ultimate senjutsu! Behold the brilliant glow of my angelic halo! The Gallant Jiraiya-!"
Both Shima and Fukasaku punched Jiraiya in the face to get him to stop, "Stop yelling in my ear damn it!"
Jiraiya snapped in anger, "Why the hell does someone always have to ruin my poses?" Jiraiya sighed in resignation before rushing forward and throwing a kick that nailed the long haired man in the face and sent him crashing into a wall.
"Very nice sensei." Pein said. The debris generated by Jiraiya kicking the one man into the wall injured his eyes.
"I know." Jiraiya said, "I'm the one that did it after all!" Jiraiya, Shima, and Fukasaku all inhaled deeply before exhaling at the same time to form their attack, "Senpou: Goemon (Sage Art: Bath of Boiling Oil)!" Jiraiya released a massive amount of oil that was ignited by a fire jutsu from Shima. The flames were fanned and heated by a wind jutsu from Fukasaku, sending a burning wave of oil at Pein and the other two.
The large man with Pein jumped in front and absorbed the attack, leaving himself and Pein unharmed by Jiraiya's attempted collaboration jutsu. Jiraiya kicked off his geta revealing his now webbed feet to go with his webbed hands, "Then let's try this…" Jiraiya launched himself at Pein and the man protecting him from harm. In one hand Jiraiya formed a massive Rasengan twice as large as his own body, "Chou Odama Rasengan (Super Great Ball Spiraling Sphere)!"
A barrier formed around the large man's body right before Jiraiya's massive Rasengan made contact and began to shrink as the chakra was drained from it. Jiraiya looked at it in shock, "He can absorb that just like he did with the oil?"
The injured man with long hair attacked Jiraiya from behind, prompting Jiraiya to Kawarimi to safety and position himself behind the attacking man who he launched a punch at. A punch that was caught and blocked, "No way! He can't even see my attacks with his wounds and he still-?"
Fukasaku dropped a smoke bomb, shrouding them in smoke and obscuring the vision of the combatants. Jiraiya appeared behind Pein kneeled down, "Senpou: Kebari Senbon (Sage Art: Hair Needle Barrage)!" Jiraiya fired a massive amount of hair needles at a continuous rate, set on turning Pein into a pincushion.
Pein backed up to get himself some room and quickly summoned a massive panda to block Jiraiya's attack and take all of the damage. Jiraiya had come in from his blindside and still was unable to land a blow, 'How is he doing that? They can form such near perfect defenses without even speaking or making eye contact. That was my fastest and most ranged attack and even then he had it all worked out without even seeing me move.'
Fukasaku spoke up, "Them guys ain't just regular old clones eh?"
Shima was next to talk, "That's what you meant by saying that there was some trick to 'em, eh Jiraiya-chan?"
"Did you notice it yet?" Fukasaku said, getting a puzzled response out of Jiraiya, "When we got behind that guy earlier we were in his blind spot. The whole time the other guys were watching very carefully. They didn't make a sound, didn't look at each other, didn't look like they gave off any signal at all. Don't you see Jiraiya-chan, it's the eyes. If all three of them are watching the same target…"
"Then all three see the target from all three different points of view… so that's it." Jiraiya said, finally getting the gist of what the older toad was trying to say, 'If I can't get a surprise attack off with my ninjutsu then at this rate even with Sage Mode these guys will kill me. They're that strong and it's three on one. I need to find Naruto.'
"Jiraiya-chan we should retreat for now." Fukasaku said quietly. Jiraiya let out a grunt of understanding before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
Pein stood still for a moment before speaking, "He's trying to hide in the pipes."
Jiraiya was beating a hasty escape through the pipeline of Ame, "Damn it even if one of them actually is Nagato there's no way that three different people all have the Rinnegan. What does this all mean? Which one of them is the real Pein? And what is he?"
Fukasaku tried to give Jiraiya a look of reassurance, "I dunno yet. But give me a little more time and I'll have this all figured out. All three of those boys share the same field of vision, they can see from the same vantage point, that's one of their powers."
"So what?" Shima said, "What does that even do for 'em anyway?"
"Well basically…" Fukasaku started, "It's like sittin' in a security booth and watching video from three different cameras. You can see everything the cameras see at once. So if one of them could see the target, the other one could see it as well, even if it ain't directly in their line of sight. That's how they're attacking and defending with perfect timing." The old toad shook his head, "That's three times the field of vision of a normal person, and unlike the Byakugan they can cover each other's blind spots without forming seals or using chakra. That's one hell of a combination."
Jiraiya shrugged, "Well then I guess we have to split them up. I know I can win one on one, maybe I can get Naruto to handle the rest if I can find him. That is, if he was able to beat Konan and is still in fighting shape… But even with help, with those eyes he would be prepared for a counter to a strategy like that, and he is the leader of Akatsuki. He wouldn't have even undertook this venture in the first place if he didn't truly believe he had the power to do battle with the Kyuubi or at least its jinchuuriki." He let out a sigh as he continued to retreat, "Anyway taijutsu is out, and the fat one absorbs ninjutsu."
"Then all you got left is genjutsu." Fukasaku commented.
"Meh." Jiraiya said distastefully, "I hate genjutsu as much as Naruto does himself, I've never been much of a user. But on the other hand, you two…"
Fukasaku spoke thoughtfully, "If he really was your old pupil he would know you don't use genjutsu… that could be a major advantage.
Shima suddenly yelled abruptly, "No way! I ain't having none of it!"
"W-What?" Jiraiya said in confusion.
Fukasaku and Shima bickered while Jiraiya continued to run until he finally had enough of being left out of the loop, "What are you so upset about?"
"I ain't singing no duet with Pa at my age, it's too embarrassin'!"
Jiraiya sweatdropped, allowing Fukasaku to elaborate, "Our most powerful genjutsu is a song that attacks the victim's brain through their sense of hearing. That's why I wanted you to hide, because the sound would give away our position immediately, it also only works when our voices combine into the right melody and that takes time. We'll have to take him down before he can find us."
Jiraiya's face turned grim, "If this thing turns ugly and gets even more dangerous I want you two to get off of my shoulders and return home immediately."
Fukasaku looked at Jiraiya in shock, "No way in hell Jiraiya-chan! The outcome of this fight is going to affect the future of the entire world!"
"Hey…" Jiraiya said in offense, "I have a plan. It's a bit of a gamble though."
XxX
(Naruto vs. Konan)
It had been minutes and no sign of either Naruto or the pursuit force sent into the building after him were in sight. No one had come back outside at all. Was he really that hard to find in there? He was nearly seven feet tall and was a massive humanoid fox. How hard could it be to locate him inside of a building?
Suddenly, Naruto jumped out of a window on the tenth floor, covering an absurd amount of distance with one jump, but there was a victorious look on his face, "Boom."
Konan flew away swiftly, "Get away from the building now!"
Every floor, tenth and below, went up in a colossal explosion, a force five times the power of a normal explosive note blew up on every floor below the tenth, catching countless ninja that had been surrounding the building in the destruction… and that was all before the entire building came down.
Naruto watched from a distance, holding on to the side of another building, as the towering structure he had once been inside of fell, "That was a really bad strategy. They wouldn't have cornered me in there anyway." A paper shuriken flew at him, forcing him to move his head as it nicked his cheek. He looked over to see Konan looking at him in abject fury, "What? I'm a 'seed of war' aren't I? This is the only thing I'm good for according to you, you were just the one stupid enough to make an enemy out of me. You had to know it would come to this… trying to use me and the others as active weapons. You're just upset that it's happening here, in your home. Your little master plan isn't so good when it's being practiced on you is it?"
"It doesn't matter." Konan said, "No matter what you do you won't leave here today. You will be beaten, you will have the Kyuubi extracted from you. Because no matter how much of a monster you may fight like you can't compare to a-."
"God?" Naruto finished her statement for her blithely, "I haven't seen him yet. If this Pein guy is God then he would strike me down wouldn't he? He wouldn't let me do this for very long if he were would he? He would know I was here and tearing Ame apart right? This guy is no more a God than I am."
Having had enough of the banter, Konan attacked Naruto again with her paper sword. Naruto swatted her in the arm with his tail, revealing her to be a paper clone, but this was largely useless at the moment as the clone transformed completely into paper and began latching onto Naruto, completely covering him again, 'Damn it I can't use Danzo-jiji's wind jutsu in this form, it takes more control than I've got like this!'
Konan wordlessly made a hand-seal, revealing a few of the sheets to be explosive notes that began burning down before exploding on Naruto, sending him falling from the side of the building he was on to the ground, smoke flying off of his body from the explosions, 'Ugh, if she knew fuuinjutsu she would be damn near unbeatable… Thank you Ero-kyofu for neglecting to teach her that much at least because you gave her one hell of a base to work from.' Naruto thought to himself as he picked himself up off of the ground.
As he made his way to his feet he quickly found a water whip wrapped around his neck, choking him, before two more wrapped around both of his arms. Naruto glared at the Ame ninja who had taken advantage of his predicament against Konan to attempt to capture him.
"Hold him for the Angel to finish him off! Don't let him escape!"
Naruto let out a snort and jerked one of his arms harshly, yanking one man off of his feet towards him right at his feet where Naruto delivered a stomp to his back that finished him off. With both hands free, Naruto grabbed on to the whip around his other arm and used it to propel that attacker into the one that had the whip around his neck. Things could have been going far worse all things considered, but things were looking bleak at the moment. He needed to find Jiraiya and get the hell out of Ame before their luck ran out.
Unfortunately at the moment, He was still stuck in the middle of the enemy with an S-rank missing ninja trying to do whatever she could to pester him and capture him. Like in one of Orochimaru's bases, only now it was an entire village and there was nowhere to really hide, not only that, but he wasn't alone. He wasn't leaving Jiraiya behind, and he had no idea what Jiraiya was into, if he was fighting then the old pervert was most definitely in the middle of a battle of his own. Maybe he was being assaulted by multiple opponents like he was, he had to get to him and see what they were to do from this point. He was still the commander of this mission, and Naruto was his underling.
Naruto used his tails to furiously whip away Konan's paper before using them to throw more long range wind chakra balls at Konan, "I need more ranged attacks…" He said to himself and Kyuubi before taking off through the streets to search for Jiraiya, Konan hot on his heels and keeping up her ranged attack.
Konan had an almost indiscernible smirk on her face as she continued to attack Naruto… he didn't know it, between the fighting he had to do on the ground and the attacks he had to worry about from the sky, but Konan couldn't bring him down here in the middle of the city, not on her own, not without utterly destroying it. That was never her plan. She never wanted the people of the village to get involved in taking him on, they did that of their own volition. In reality she was corralling him, because with her view from the sky she knew where Pein was. After he was through dealing with Jiraiya he could finish off Naruto too. All she had to do was get him there and Pein could and would handle the rest.
Because as the Rikudou Sennin proved back in his heyday, even a demon was no match for a God.
XxX
(Jiraiya vs. Pein)
Pein and the other men ran through the underbelly of Amegakure, pipes strewn all about and narrow halls and pathways rampant when a strange song began to sound out, "It sounds like frogs… Genjutsu?" He said before getting a direction of the sound, "He's there!" Pein ran through a doorway into a narrow hallway where he saw Jiraiya, but when he attacked he got a rather rude awakening, 'A Kage Bunshin?'
A clone was dispelled before Jiraiya showed himself from behind them once they passed his position with his cheeks puffed out widely, Fukasaku and Shima still on his shoulders croaking, "Katon: Dai Endan (Fire Release: Big Flame Bullet)!" It fired a blast that covered the entire hallway in flames. The large man moved in front of the blast to run interference and block it.
'Yes! I knew that would work, the fat one would absorb the jutsu just like I knew he would! The original one only used summons and the fat one only uses that absorption jutsu. They all have one unique technique, but that one technique is all they can use!' Jiraiya thought excitedly to himself as he was beginning to figure the entire thing out, 'Only one of them can see me right now!' The large one was looking at the attack he was blocking, the long haired one was blinded from earlier, and the pony-tailed one, Pein, was the only one looking at him.
Pein and the long-haired one jumped over the remnants of the fire attack while the fat one worked to absorb it. The long-haired man stuck himself to the ceiling, getting a smirk out of Jiraiya, "Doton: Yomi Numa (Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld)!" The ceiling ended up pulling him into it, keeping him stuck there helplessly, "Looks like its one on one again!" Jiraiya said to Pein.
Pein quickly tried to make a move, but Jiraiya was all over him before he could do anything, "Enough! No more summoning for you!" Suddenly all of the enemies found themselves unable to move, getting Jiraiya to explain, "This is a genjutsu that paralyzes your nerves and your mind. All three of your bodies can no longer move an inch."
"Jiraiya-sensei I had no idea you were able to utilize such an incredible genjutsu." Pein said as in his mind he and all of his bodies were surrounded by four toad samurai sealing them all in an illusionary cube of water.
Jiraiya smirked, "Never underestimate your enemy no matter who it is. I taught you that years ago Nagato." He said before taking on a reminiscing look, "Nagato you followed the wrong path. I wanted you to rise above the pain you felt, to conquer it, not use it to lead the world to ruin." He let out a bitter laugh as he remembered words that told him he would teach a student that would save the world or destroy it, "For a while I thought it would be you. *sigh* Goodbye Nagato."
The illusion ended when in the real world Jiraiya drove a massive stone sword through each of their chests, "And now it's finally over." He then noticed Shima and Fukasaku coughing, "Are you two alright?"
Fukasaku nodded, "That song really dries your throat out."
Shima rubbed her throat, "It ain't easy getting the harmony with Pa right. That's why we don't go around using that jutsu at everyone's beck and call. It gives you a sore throat and makes your jaw all slack… not to mention the wrinkles."
Jiraiya sighed and turned to leave, "Sorry about that. But you'll have plenty of time to rest now. I still have to find Naruto and hope he managed to get himself out of his own mess."
"Didn't you just tell me not to underestimate my enemies Jiraiya-sensei?" A new voice said from behind Jiraiya and the toad elders, but the inflection was familiar.
Jiraiya turned his head to face them down, but ended up getting smashed through the wall and out of the hallway to end up falling onto the surface of the water outside of Ame's limits. Jiraiya grit his teeth in pain as he faced down the area he had just been attacked from.
"K-Kiddo, your arm!" Shima said, looking down from the shoulder she was set on. Jiraiya's left arm had been severed from that one single attack from his assailant.
"What in the hell just happened?" Fukasaku asked as he looked at their new attackers, "Their faces are completely different from the other three… He must have summoned them before we caught 'em in our genjutsu."
There were now six enemies. In addition to the three he had been fighting somehow having been revived he was now fighting a bald man with no neck and piercings all in his head, a slightly burly man that looked slightly aged with spiky orange hair and piercings all through his face, and a younger man with spiky orange hair and, just like the rest, piercings all in his face… and they all had the Rinnegan.
"It's time…" The youngest looking one with orange spiky hair said, "For you to witness the Six Paths of Pein."
"S-Six?" Fukasaku said somewhat startled by the turn of events, "There are six of them? But we just beat three of them!"
Shima looked at them all angrily for the wounds inflicted on Jiraiya, "The new three must have used some technique to heal the old three. But there ain't no jutsu that brings folks back from the dead just like that! Are they even human?"
The youngest one spoke up, "The name Pein is shared by all six of us."
"How can there be six people with Rinnegan?" He asked loudly before he got a very good look at one of the people, "No… that face… it can't be. Y-Yahiko? But he just said that you were dead! And your eyes!"
'Yahiko' looked down at Jiraiya from his elevated position coldly, "You can still see Yahiko in me? How funny. I suppose only his teacher would recognize what was left of him. But make no mistake sensei, Yahiko is dead. The man standing before you is Pein, no one else."
"I'm sick of your bullshit!" Jiraiya roared at him, "How the hell can all of you have the Rinnegan? You didn't have it when I was training you, that much was definite! So are you Nagato or Yahiko? Who the hell are you?"
"We are Pein." 'Yahiko' said simply, "We are God!" They all shouted in unison before launching to attack.
XxX
(Naruto vs. Konan)
"Get off of me!" Naruto shouted as he swiped his claws through another group of Ame ninja trying to take him down. For every one of them he wound up putting down it seemed that another was more than willing to throw themselves at him in an attempt to leave him wide open for Konan. And with the odds of probability on their side she ended up getting more than a few decent shots at him. Using the Kitsune Trigger bolstered his strength, speed, ability to recover from damage, and brought his overall bloodlust to palpably high levels, but he sacrificed the use of the vast majority of his ninjutsu and the protection of the chakra cloak in exchange for the control over the Kyuubi's chakra to give himself a boost of his natural attributes, and despite the fact that his wounds would heal quickly for the most part he still took the damage.
Naruto let out another yell as he felt Konan's paper shuriken rip into his back. She was sniping him, slowly picking him apart from out of his reach as the Ame ninja engaged him and attracted his attention. He was no longer fighting the unified mob he had been running through at the start, the ones that still chose to face him were the most stanch believers in Pein and Konan and were willing to do what they needed to for their God's Angel to take him out.
He jumped at her, missing wide again, but ended up whiffing her with one of his tails as he brushed past her, knocking her from the sky. Naruto turned back around to see her hit the ground and saw his chance, that was until a wall of Ame shinobi took up defensive positions in front of her, setting up walls of water to give her time to recover.
Naruto grit his teeth, picking the paper shuriken out of his back so that the newest of his ever present wounds could heal up. Fine, if they wanted him to fight an army that was okay with him, he was supposed to be an army killer. Naruto opened his hand and formed a sphere of raw demonic chakra before placing it in his mouth and swallowing it, 'I hate this move! Why do I have to do it like this? You never complain about your Imari tasting like crap!' Naruto screamed in his mind at Kyuubi.
"Because you can't handle my full power and you need this as a shortcut. Just like with the original intent of the Kitsune Trigger, the Imari is a far cry from my true power, but it is a shortcut that allows you to harness it for what you need it for, which should be good enough. You're supposed to more or less throw it back up anyway so quit complaining and fire it already." Kyuubi said as he rolled his eyes at hearing Naruto bite back his dry heaves.
Konan remembered the description of this attack before from Zetsu's description of Naruto's fight with Kimimaro, 'He's going to use that here in the village!' She shouted to the amassed ninja standing in front of her, "Get away now! You can't block this attack! It will kill you all!"
'Too late. This is what you wanted, the Kyuubi, well take all of the power of the Kyuubi that I can give you!' Naruto thought to himself as he started the process, "Imari (Menacing Ball)!" Naruto shouted as he fired off a beam fronted by a ball of destructive chakra that immediately obliterated everything in its path in a hell-storm that annihilated the village in front of it on a wide scale.
XxX
Jiraiya sat inside of what appeared to be the stomach of a toad on an island of sorts surrounded by corrosive stomach acid. He had suffered a stab wound through his body from some sort of strange sharpened rod by an injured body of Pein that was there with him. It was the one with the ponytail that he had been fighting at first.
"I can't believe he charged right into the toad gourd barrier." Jiraiya said in an exhausted voice, "I can't believe I got one."
"Are you sure you're alright kiddo?" Shima asked him worriedly.
Jiraiya nodded, "I'll manage." He said before a strange sensation flowed through his body, "My chakra's going crazy! I can't control it!" Jiraiya hunched over in pain with the rod sticking out of his body.
Fukasaku looked at it intently and ripped it out, "It's this thing! It ain't enough that they all look weird and there are six of 'em, they have to use crazy weapons too. These boys ain't people, they're something else."
Jiraiya looked at the unmoving Pein body in front of him, "I guess this one is the real Nagato after all." He said to himself before the Ame hitae-ate on its head slipped off to reveal a scar on its forehead that gave Jiraiya a flashback to many years ago, "No! I remember now! This isn't Nagato, it can't be!" The toads on his shoulders looked at him in confusion, "I fought this man before a long time ago. Right after I began travelling due to the Great Sage's advice I was attacked by a man from the Fuuma Clan and I wound up giving him that scar on his forehead."
"So what is he doing here?" Shima said impatiently.
Fukasaku held his head, "The more we learn about Pein, the less we understand."
Jiraiya's face looked grave, "If the prophecy as true then I need to know the truth. I have to fight them again. I can't allow you two to be hurt because of me. Please return home."
Fukasaku would have none of it, "Are you insane boy? If ya go out there then you're toast! There's even more Rinnegan eyes out there than before and he ain't likely to fall for that barrier trap again. He ain't figured out what's going on yet! We need to run!"
The entire place began to rock and shake violently as if an earthquake had hit. Jiraiya shook his head determinedly, "You're probably right. If I leave this barrier then there's a high chance I'm not going to walk away from this one, but it's my chance to find out his true identity, and Naruto is still out there. If he can't get me then he'll just go after him! Naruto's still either fighting or trying to find me, he wouldn't just cut and run without me I know it! Without me out there he'll be overwhelmed and captured! I need both of you to take this corpse back to Tsunade with everything that we've learned on this mission."
"If that's all you want then Ma can handle that herself." Fukasaku said, still not willing to leave.
Jiraiya was about to dispute him when Shima spoke up, "Ya'd better not be late for dinner!"
Fukasaku smirked, "We won't be. Me and Jiraiya-chan'll be there right after we finish up here."
XxX
(Right Outside Amegakure)
Pein and all of his bodies looked back at his village, or more accurately a massive trench ripping right through his village. Jiraiya had somehow escaped his attack and had managed to take down one of his bodies, one he hadn't been able to locate yet. If that weren't enough, moments later he and the rest of the bodies had to either dodge or get vaporized when a tiny, scaled down version of a Bijudama (Tailed Beast Ball) blasted through the edge of the village, leaving the aforementioned trench that was 1/8th of a mile wide and had destroyed everything in its path, blowing buildings apart, bringing them down, it was a complete debacle.
"Kyuubi jinchuuriki…" Pein said lowly, as there was only one person or thing that could produce such an attack that was in Ame's vicinity. While he and all of the bodies surveyed the damage caused and waited for Naruto to show himself in some manner, Jiraiya surfaced from the water behind them with Fukasaku on his shoulder, who had summoned a massive shuriken that Jiraiya threw at the bald Pein body.
It knew it was coming due to the sight of another body and dodged accordingly. Jiraiya got a good look at them all and realized something, 'I knew it! They're all shinobi that I've met before! That has to be it! I know your identity now Pein!'
Jiraiya's train of thought was cut off when the bald Pein body attacked him and with pure hand-to-hand skill, the same one that took his arm, smashed Jiraiya in the throat and sent him to the ground, impaling him with their rods, 'Fuck! I need to tell Fukasaku-sama! I need to tell him to find Naruto and get him out of here! But my throat!'
"Ero-kyofu!"
A rush of balls of air flew at the Pein bodies surrounding Jiraiya's body forcing them away for Naruto to land and kneel by his side. Naruto was panting heavily due to the toll the battles and the use of the Kitsune Trigger had been taking on him, "Ero-kyofu it's me, Naruto! Kami, what did they do to you?" He asked Jiraiya getting no response from him.
"Pull those rods out of him boy!" Fukasaku shouted to Naruto, ignoring his appearance for the time being due to more important happenings going on at the moment.
Naruto quickly acted and pulled them out, "It's going to be fine, I'm getting you out of here." Naruto turned to Fukasaku, "You should leave now. Ero-kyofu can't fight anymore and I don't know how to fight with you."
Fukasaku shook his head, "I'm not leaving you or Jiraiya-chan like this. I know you're his pupil as well, just like this Pein fella used to be."
Naruto's eyes panned upwards at the bodies of Pein looking at him, "Which one is Pein? I see four different guys over there."
Doing some quick deductions, Fukasaku shouted to Naruto in warning, "No! There are supposed to be five! We got rid of one!"
It came too late for Naruto to react defensively as a blade, the same that had been driven into Jiraiya had been shoved into Naruto's back that pierced through his front by the young, spiky orange haired Pein, "Hello Kyuubi jinchuuriki Naruto Uzumaki. I have to say that it is certainly nice to finally meet you."
Naruto gasped desperately as he felt his chakra disrupted by the weapon sticking out of his body, an image of strange swirl-patterned eyes in his head. His Kitsune Trigger form receded back to normal as his control over the form slipped. He dropped to his knees, clutching at the blade sticking out of his chest when Pein spoke again, "You will survive this wound. It isn't fatal. How fitting it is that all of Jiraiya-sensei's surviving pupils meet here."
Naruto looked up into the eyes of Pein and saw the pattern that was flittering through his mind. All the while his body felt utterly broken. He was completely exhausted and his wounds from the fight with Konan and the Ame ninja force were reopening.
"The Rinnegan…" The Kyuubi uttered inside of Naruto's mind, "I will not allow this pretender to yoke me under his will! I will not be his slave!" It roared, pushing whatever it could chakra-wise into Naruto's weak frame, "Do not let him defeat you here! Get up!"
Naruto slowly pulled the blade out of his chest and threw it back at the single Pein, javelin-style. Pein dodged it effortlessly and began dodging Naruto's sluggish attempts at engaging him in taijutsu.
Naruto's first punch was blocked by Pein who delivered a backhand strike that sent Naruto reeling backwards, but still barely standing. With a roar, Naruto came back in once more only for the young Pein to move and allow the bald one to deliver a bone-shattering punch right to Naruto's body that destroyed his ribs and sent him to the ground in a heap. He grabbed Naruto by his spiky blonde locks and pulled him up to eye level where Naruto spit blood into his eye, getting him to drop him back onto his feet where the Konoha jounin turned to wind up getting socked in the face by the fat Pein.
Fukasaku watched Naruto take his beating, the rest of the Pein's jumping in and ping-ponging him back and forth between each other, while staying by Jiraiya who was still holding on, 'He's just taking it all. He can't even fight back anymore and still he won't go down.' He looked at Jiraiya who had only one eye open as it all unfolded in front of him, 'He's a lot like you in that respect Jiraiya-chan. He won't give up."
'What is this?' Naruto thought weakly to himself over the sounds of the Kyuubi yelling at him to fight back, to do something. Naruto stumbled towards the blinded, long haired Pein with his fist weakly cocked back, only to get kicked in the back before taking a fist to the body that doubled him over the arm, 'They beat Ero-kyofu… they beat me… I was never even in the fight against this guy.'
"It is futile." Pein said to the damaged jinchuuriki, "You are the living embodiment of destruction. No human is meant to wield the power you hold, you will never find a way to become stronger than me. On the other hand I can and will use the power inside of you to bring peace to this world. It is my duty as its new God."
Naruto blinked weakly before he pushed himself off of the fist driven into his body towards the seemingly main Pein, collapsing against him. He weakly pulled himself face-to-face with Pein where with one of his eyes swollen shut he glared at him, "You're no God…" He said before doing something that he attributed to a death wish the last time he had done so.
The last time he had done this he had been freshly unsealed and had done it as a legitimate battle plan in order to fight Itachi Uchiha. It was so outlandish and out of left field to attempt in battle that it actually worked and distracted him. There was no strategy here. There was no logical reason for him to want to do this. It would not help him win. It would not inspire him to keep fighting any harder than he was already attempting to. Doing what he did to Pein right then and there had no purpose whatsoever except that Naruto just wanted to spit in 'God's' face. Literally.
Naruto hocked a loogie that was 85% blood that splattered all over Pein's face. So surprised by that course of action as no one had ever done that to him in his entire life. Every single Pein stood in abject shock, letting Naruto push himself back off of him and use the last of his chakra to form a spinning blue orb in one hand, "Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!"
"Shinra Tensei (Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God)!" Pein roared in pure malice as Naruto's body was violently jerked away from attacking by an unseeable force. The force of Pein's angered attack was so intense it not only threw Naruto, it tossed a few of the other bodies of Pein away, it threw the small outcroppings of land amid the water surrounding Ame away and it sent Naruto, Fukasaku, and Jiraiya's bodies flying into the air.
Fukasaku sat atop Jiraiya's body as it lifelessly flew through the air and saw Naruto's doing much the same, "Naruto!"
There was no emotion in Naruto's eyes, no life. He was not dead, he wasn't even unconscious, 'I couldn't win. I wasn't strong enough.' His eyes drifted over to Jiraiya who was no better off than he was, and because of Naruto he had to take even more damage. And once they fell from the sky Pein was going to catch him and extract the Kyuubi and leave Jiraiya to drown. He had lost, 'I'm sorry Ero-kyofu… I'm sorry Tsunade-baachan… I'm sorry Danzo-jiji. I'm sorry everyone. I just wasn't good enough when it mattered.' Naruto shut his eyes and never heard the shouts of 'Naruto-senpai' before he lost consciousness.
XxX
(Konohagakure no Sato)
Hamako had moved all of Naruto's things into the new house she had purchased for him and was in the middle of setting things up for his return when the correspondence tattoo she had placed on herself and Naruto began to throb numbly.
It wasn't any kind of code as what normally occurred when he would speak to her. It was a steady feeling, not in any kind of pattern nor did it have any legible form. She moved to the window and looked outside at the rain pouring down in the village, 'What happened to you Naruto-sama? And are you alright?'
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