They coiled up Pein's legs like snakes, barely warning enough for the Akatsuki leader to jump before they snapped taut to crush his limbs as Gaara arrived carried aboard a speeding sand disk beneath his feet.
Pein twisted his body, facing him mid jump as he held his hand forward. Beneath Gaara's feet, a writhing mass of shifting sand shot out like a spear, pointed at the end, though thick as a tree trunk at its base, it buckling in on itself mere feet infront of Pein as sand met with the implaccable force of gravity.
Then the Kazekage leapt out of the sands, just feet from Pein in mid fall, the Rinnegan wielder barely dodged the kunai slash towards his own throat, though he did not dodge the sledgehammer like blow that followed shortly in the wake of Gaara's swiping arm, catching him full in the side and sending him sailing back down to the earth.
Gaara followed green eyes burning as the sand came to his call, rising like twin snakes before he sent them plummeting down after Pein to bury him between tons of silica and earth.
When the Kazekage landed, the pillars of sand crashing down with rumbles that felt more like explosions more sand came to his defense, barely deflecting the razor edged black sword before Gaara lashed out with more sand.
Dozens of whipping tendrils and bolts of sand being shout out of his shifting, writing sand shield each as hard as stone or as sharp as obsidian and Naruto, from his place could see the faintest traces of wind chakra coating some of the blows that Pein frantically dodged with hasty sidesteps and wild backpedals.
Then Gaara was yanked forward, his feet leaving the earth and flying towards Pein receiving the full, unbelievable force of the blow that sent a sickening crack through the air as his neck was twisted in far too wrong an angle.
Then the body crumpled, dissolving into yet more sand and Pein was left staring at empty air before turning around again and blocking the bludgeon of Temari's massive warfan.
He pushed her off, side stepping her quick recovery, then deflecting her third swing before he grabbed her by the arm, twisting it until it released the fan and he delivered a punishing elbow strike into her chest, crushing her to the floor before grabbing her by her shirt and moving to lift her once more, only for sand to slam into him with the full force and subtlety of a stampeding ox.
With a swirl of sand Gaara was standing above her, bloody red hair matted to his forehead, wet with the heavy rain. "You need to leave!" He shouted down at her, and she was, for a moment, struck by how similar he sounded to Naruto. How similar he looked with that concern in his eyes. Different but just as intense. And this time she nodded.
Pein was in an entirely different league. It was like Sakai all over again. She stood, contemplating grabbing her warfan but when an explosion of sand, debris and grit was thrown over the battlefield as Pein pulled himself free of whatever her brother had stuck him in she decided against it.
She rushes over to Naruto, grabbing him and hoisting one arm, over her shoulder she stands him up, her chakra enhanced muscles barely holding them both before he finds his feet again and helps her help him.
Her eyes found Gaara's and she saw it plain as day on his face, the anger, the resentment, the disapproval, his frown was carved onto his face with a knife and his eyes seemed to gouge into her own. The question of 'Why' hanging between them like a bladed pendulum.
He turns away from her, and even though they're in a fight, and he needs to focus, and she knows its stupid she can't help the knife that twists her guts at the sight. She turns to leave, ready to run with Naruto when there's an explosion of ruined buildings, splinters of wood masonry and plaster falling everywhere as Pein rises from whatever hole Gaara put him in.
"One does not escape God's judgement!"
She's yanked off her feet, her grip on Naruto failing, letting him fall to the floor as she's rushed back towards Pein, her body twists, watching as the Akatsuki's sword rushes to meet her headlong, involuntary charge before she's swallowed by sand.
He's not sure how long he's been lying there, on the muddy ground, with the cold, ice rain seeping down from the sky, mind half fogged, flitting in and out of consciousness.
"Naruto-sama"
White eyes...
Hinata
No...not Hinata. Similar, to be sure, but younger, sharper features. Not Hinata.
Hinata was dead.
"Naruto-sama can you hear me!"
He wants to speak but he's forgotten how. So he nods, and this girl, this little child who nearly wears Hinata's face is relieved. She looks up to someone he cant see. "Lee-san help me get him up. We have to get him out of here."
Get him out...no...not get him out...not yet, not without her.
"No." He remembers his voice. Its thin, weak, he doesn't recognize it at first.
"He's half delirious." Someone says, a woman's voice.
"No." He repeats, and his voice is stronger now. "We are not leaving yet. We leave when we're done."
She blinks, and she's standing next to her brother. Her fan rises from the ground a second later, placed in her hands once more.
"Looks like you're gonna have to fight a bit." Gaara says, in clipped tones. "When you see your chance to run, take it."
She nods.
She opens her fan and they both attack at the same time.
Its like falling back into a pattern, she hasn't been gone for the better part of a year. He hasn't been fighting without her, or her without him for longer still.
Crushing sand and cutting wind sail through the air, but the chakra behind the attacks dies away as it approaches Pein, who's eyes glow with an eerie violet glow. Sand crumbles and gusts of wind become mere breezes as Pein closes the distance quickly on two fighters that prefer mid range combat.
She closes her fan, swinging the weapon once more as a bludgeon only for Pein to duck under the blow, placing himself, almost behind her with a long side step as she overreaches herself. She feels his elbow strike the center of her back, right between her shoulder blades, knocking her forward as Gaara attacks him.
He steps away from Gaara's backhand, ducks under his kick and then counters with a solid, high kick of his own, his shin reaching for Gaara's face, close enough, and fast enough to nearly bypass the sand shield entirely as it grazes her brother's temple, cracking the sand armor there.
She stands, using the fan as a pole vault she jumps, both feet aiming for Pein's chest only for the man to vanish before her eyes. When her feet hit the ground she hears Gaara curse just a second before he flies past her, pushed away by Pein's gravity.
She turns, not even looking as she swings the closed fan wide like a massive club.
Pein leans away, the loose sand at his feet making him loose his footing and stumble with his off center of gravity and Temari charges, hoping to capitalize on the opening as she raises the fan high and brings it straight down with all her strength.
He rolls to the side, as the fan's end strikes the ground in a cloud of sandy dust.
She straightens, attacking again, she's only half surprise to see Pein's hand rebuff her next swing with a block that sends vibrations rattling up her arm.
But, again, she's only half surprised. So using the same momentum of Pein's violent block, she twists, leaning just slightly on her fan to do so as she delivers a fast, roundhouse, immediately followed with a sweep of her fan to Pein's legs.
Again, the rinnegan wielder leans back, then he jumps, avoiding the sweep.
She opens her fan and spins again.
The wind buffets him this time, driving him through the air with speed comparable to his pulls or pushes.
Right towards the waiting sand spike.
Temari smiles.
Then she's yanked off her feet.
It takes her a second to realize what's happening, shes catching up to Pein, with her speed the spike would impale both of them.
She just barely mannages to see it crumbling behind the obscurity of Pein's body and robe.
He lands, his feet skidding for half a foot on the ground before he stops himself dead in his tracks and brings his fist to meet her mid flight.
She raises her fan.
Perhaps she was just going that fast, or perhaps Pein's just that strong. But with a crack of wood and the screeching of sundered steel the fan snaps clean in two, his fist punching right onto her collarbone, shattering it with a snap that ripples through her body along with a sudden, fierce agony of a clavicle bone and dislocated shoulder.
She barely even sees the elbow before its smashing her across the temple with a fleshy crack. Her world spins, swimming and churning her gut with a sudden vertigo as she falls.
"Temari!"
She tries to stay conscious. But soon enough darkness claims her eyes.
The rinnegan wielder finds her brother, half caught between that thralled stupor of horror and disbelief, the sand falling around him, descending from mid transportation as he lost his focus.
The rain warns him, the rain and the wind, he side steps, avoiding the visious drop kick of a now familiar nuisance.
He raises his arm, bringing it to block the next powerful blow that would have driven Lee's heel into his chest when his instincts emerge once more to his defense.
He jumps, still receiving the kick that drives him back while his foot avoids the sweeping sword. He sees both of his enemies there for half a second. Lee, dressed in white that is now filthy and gray with wet sand and rain, and the weapon mistress, her hair having come half loose, sticking to her forehead and neck, wet as it was before both vanished in a burst of gray white smoke.
With the Suna princess.
He looks, and sees that Naruto is also gone. He wonders if the other is gone too.
But it doesn't matter. They will not escape him. They cannot escape god.
He turns to the Kazekage, who stands tense and angry.
'You've been left to die Kazekage.'
"Do it." His voice is rough, that familiar tone of gravel but Hanabi feels no reassurance at its strength this time.
Her Byakuugan comes alive and to her sight a million more things are seen that are beyond the normal eye. With a burst of chakra from her fingertips, she does as commanded. Poking at his forehead, the first gate comes undone in a burst of light to her eyes.
He groans, its painful she knows, like a dozen migraines forced into one short timeframe. This forceful opening will be even more damaging than normal.
"The second." He bites out, and she obeys, activating with another touch to his skull.
He can move once more, his energy returning. Its not enough to fight, but it will be enough to run.
"The third."
She hesitates, unsure and he brings his eyes up at the delay, glaring at her with that familiar, impatient stare, as though she were some simpleton.
"Now."
This time she obeys.
The third gate is opened, and a flush has returned to his pale features, his fist clenches, then slowly uncurls, then it clenches again.
His eyes travel to his limbs as they move again, it is temporary, the gates will only be forced open for an hour, perhaps two. That might just be enough for his, still faster than normal healing to recover him enough, perhaps it won't be.
His eyes roam across the ruined hovel they hide in towards its only other occupant, blood soaked, and unconscious, the burns on her back have scarcely healed, blackened, raw meat now a calloused pink and bone white hue.
He stands, and she speaks as he marches over to her. "What are you going to do?"
"What I must." He answers, as if that should be to her satisfaction.
It isn't.
She knows. She can see even without her eyes that something is off. Something is wrong. Something isn't quite fitting into this place, fitting with him.
He kneels, at the woman's side, turns her over, seemingly ignoring her pained whimper as he places her raw, burned back on the floor.
He pauses for half a heartbeat, contemplating what, she does not know.
He pulls his gauntlet free of his hand, the rough metal clinking as he sets it on the floor.
He draws a knife, cutting open his index finger while his still gauntlet covered hand, lifts her shirt and channels chakra down into her.
Then she sees it, like a tethered rope between them suddenly springing to full sight as her seal appears on her navel.
She gasps, and Naruto turns to look over his shoulder, the blue eyes glaring out from beneath that hood giving out a firm command.
'Quiet.'
The pieces fall into place, everything is beginning to make sense as she watches him work, drawing a new seal in his blood over the old, and still she can't quite believe what she is seeing.
There's a puff of smoke behind them, and she is eternally grateful that Lee and Tenten are back. But she sees Temari without even turning around, seeing her injuries in an instant and growing all the more worried for her as well.
"We got her Naruto-sama." Lee says.
Naruto stands, she can see his pulse jump at the sight of the woman, her Byakuugan eyes see his face as though the mask was never there, and his expression tightens, there is concern there, fear, but relief as well.
And this is all happening, too fast, too soon.
He walks over to her as Lee and Tenten set her down, her face is scrunched up in pain, her colar bone already bruising into an ugly purple, yellow color from what little could be seen peeking out from beneath her battle robe.
Kneeling at her side, he does not touch her, examining her distantly. "The Kazekage."
"Still fighting." She answers, because she can see it, and it is a very much welcome distraction.
He barely even nods, and she sees his hand reach down, brushing across the Suna princess' face in a gentle caress, it leaves a careless smear of blood, on her upper cheek. She sees Lee and Tenten stiffen with surprise. He probably notices too.
But he doesn't care anymore does he.
He stands up again, and makes his way back to the other woman, Tenten, Lee and herself sit in the hovel, awkward and out of place as he finishes his work.
When he's done, he stands again, looks to her and beckons her closer. She nearly trips over herself to obey, realizing some time between her kneeling and standing infront of him, that this is also out of character for him. He spoke what he thought and damn anyone who hears or doesn't hear.
But here she is. Standing infront of him as he speaks softly.
"There is something you must do when you leave this place Hanabi."
Gaara isn't sure, how big a fool he is.
He knows he's a fool. That is beyond question.
Its not lost on him that, he is fighting a man he cant win, or that, at this particular moment, him fighting Pein is directly saving the life of a man he would kill himself with his bare hands, not knowing if he truly does have his sister, or merely had two of his hirelings take her to give the appearance as such. Or if he does, that he means to take her away from this place, or kill her himself.
And worse yet, with all of his uncertainty as to what he's doing with his sister, or if he even cares enough to have her. She does care.
She cares for that bastard!
How did it come to this...
He doesn't know.
But here he is, still fighting.
And he knows he is a fool.
More a fool than she is probably.
He feels the kick, one finally managing to slip past the sand shield and break straight through the sand armor, to snap his ribs like twigs, the black sword plunging into his shoulder a second later.
And he knows he is a fool.
A fool with nothing left to fight for. Who fights because there's nothing left to die for.
He laughs...the sound is bitter, harsh, his sand is sluggish, and not because of the harsh rain, the pain is running through his body now, emanating from the dark blade, the sand doesn't come in time to block the next sword, or the one after that.
She is caught, her eyes wide, disbelieving as he speaks.
"But...but what about-" She stops, her eyes seeing the danger before anyone else. "Get down!"
The crash of shattering wood and the sudden cold of pouring, ice rain is like a hammer of some felled god striking down over their heads
When they pull themselves free of the debris, Lee's body having shielded the unconscious Temari from the worst of it, and Naruto, surprisingly having done the same for Akina, they find one more person in their midst, three black, sword like rods running him through at the shoulder, side and hip, just above the knee.
His clothes are drenched in blood now, he looked even worse than Naruto did just minutes earlier.
Hanabi pulls herself up, in time to see Naruto push himself free of the slab of wood that had fallen over him, one hand securing the gauntlet again to the other as he fully stood, up, his eyes finding Pein walking towards them.
Was it luck or providence that had made him toss Gaara here...
The thought was moot regardless.
He turns to them. "Lee, take the Kazekage and go, Tenten, the girl, Hanabi, take Temari."
Lee hesitates, his sense of duty coming to the fore. "But Naruto-sama we can-"
"You will do as I say." Naruto snarls, quieting him instantly as his eyes remain fixed on Pein. "Get Temari out of here."
He notices his slip, they all do. He doesn't care. She moves, pickingthe Suna princess up, awkwardly negotiating her over her shoulder like a sack of grain. Temari was almost half again her weight, it would be difficult, but she'd have to do it.
Pumping chakra through her entire coil system she turned her head to look over her shoulder, and he must feel her eyes because he turns. Letting her meet his eyes directly, despite her Byakuugan still being active.
She had to make sure.
He nods.
"Let's go!" She shouts, and they're moving before she even realizes that she's running.
He watches them leave. And his eyes linger for a moment Temari's head of blond hair. Then he's turning, sprinting over demolished homes and through sheets of icy rain, and towards his enemy
Pein stops in the middle of the road, a virtual hail of throwing knives emerging from the folds of his sleeves. Thin razor wire tethered them back to their wielder.
He stops mid run, waiting as the kunai and razor wire close in, waiting until the window of opening is nearly closed before pushing himself forward in a burst of speed, slipping through the barrage as he leaps between blade and wire.
His clothing and skin open with cuts from the projectiles he hadn't managed to fully dodge.
Like whips pulled taut, the wire suddenly goes rigid, no longer malleable strings they were each fine lines of pure edge. Pein swings them with a harsh brush of his hand and Naruto, caught between them, is forced to jump, twisting his body awkwardly to avoid the weapons again. He feels one tickle at his throat, the sticky warmth of blood trails down his neck soon after.
He sees Pein, his other hand outstretched to pull or push him, stuck in the lull of a fall as he was.
The Demon King beckons the wind, a wild, powerful gust all but shooting him out of the path of Pein's invisible attack.
He lands on the side of a building, nearly loosing his footing at the awkwardness of his landing the already damaged wood is straining beneath his jarring impact before he leaps off its surface. Rising above fire coats his hands before he lets loose a stream of it.
Pein doesn't even move, and Naruto sees his attack collapse, imploding in on itself as its pushed back, only for the gravitational forces to hit him dead in the chest, knocking the wind out of him and pushing him into a tiled roof. The splintering wood digs into his back, the shattering ceramic cutting into his shoulders before he falls forward off its edge, landing on his hands and knees. He struggles to find the strength to push himself upright again.
'Not yet.'
Her breathing hitches in a gasp, and Hanabi finds herself pausing for half a second before she continues running. She places one foot infront of the other pushing herself to escape faster.
"Hyuuga-san?" Lee asks, worried. She was almost angry at him for noticing, but she had known they both would. They were ninja of the highest caliber.
Though, it was Tenten that understood the meaning of her hesitation first.
"Is it...Naruto-sama?"
She heard her unasked question, could see the passage of fear on her face with her Byakugan activated.
Is he dead? She asks.
"No." She answers and hated how her voice pitched just a bit at the end. "No...He's still fighting."
Her eyes can see far, they can see too much...she doesn't want to see him like this...she doesn't want to see him...fall.
But she wasn't a coward...she wasn't going to deactivate her ability. She wouldn't look away if she could help it.
So she ran faster.
Pein doesn't wait for him to find his strength, the self proclaimed God marches over and kicks him across the ribs, knocking him flat onto his back.
Then...he smiles, vanishing in a cloud of smoke leaving only explosive tags.
A block away, the real Naruto is leaning against a wall, breathing heavily as he rests his head against its surface.
When he hears the explosion he knows he hasn't succeeded, all of this was merely formality, a fools run. He would never win by the means he had available to him. He just needed to stall. To make the Akatsuki ninja think he had no other tricks to use until he finally sprang the trap that would destroy the self titled God.
With a crack of wood Naruto barely has time to suck in a gasp of surprise before Pein's hand wraps around his face, punching through the wall at his back before pulling him through the wood and plaster of the wall he'd been leaning against. The Demon King was sent sprawling through the former living room of a home.
"My eyes see all." Pein boasts, stepping into the middle of the room, silhouetted against the light filtering in through the now destroyed wall.
Naruto doesn't speak, he just sends a small trigger of chakra.
And four kunai immediately shoot out of a seal hastily etched onto the opposite wall of the alley he'd been standing in, firing straight through the broken wall towards Pein's exposed back.
Pein turns and with an outstretched hand sends the kunai hurdling away and demolished the opposite wall as well.
When he turns back its just in time to see six shuriken spinning through the air towards him, coated, and nearly overflowing with wind chakra, the normally small throwing stars had cutting edges three times their normal length and width.
Pein's lips curl in distaste, almost disgusted with the notion that he'd been forced to dodge such a simple attack.
Disgusted or not, he does dodge...
Giving Naruto time to finish his sequence of seals.
The explosion throws the ground out from under their feet. The sheer wave of heat that slams into them is enough to warm them instantly, even with the biting chill of the still falling rain and the wet clothes they wore.
"Who was that?" Lee asked. And Hanabi would have found herself laughing at the fact that he'd needed to ask that...if it wasn't for the fact that he genuinely did need to ask that.
Naruto was up against someone that could match his attacks of that magnitude...surpass them even.
"Keep moving!" She shouted back at the two when the quaking subsided, running once again headlong towards the north gate as she picked Temari up, hearing Gaara groan behind them, now flitting in and out of consciousness.
She's shivering in Tenten's hold. The world spins and swims in a blur of colors. She gags and heaves on the stench in the air, thick with blood, the smell of the dead, the dying, the sands falling into the every widening and growing sink hole were belched out from the pit to spread through the air like spores. It scratched at her nostrils and burned her throat raw. Tenten looks down the girl. She sees that. There is surprise in her eyes...now worry.
She's shaking. Not Tenten. Her. She's shaking as if in the midst of a fever dream
"She's having a fit!" The weapon user cries towards Hanabi, as though the Hyuuga had not already seen. As though she hadn't already been witness to what was happening better than anyone else had any right to be.
"Keep moving!" She demands again, the chakra that coated her legs and arms drove her forward even faster as her mind demanded an escape from this nightmare place.
This was never my intent.' He thinks, finishing the last design needed. He regards the thing for a moment, the simple design conflicting with the necessity of its purpose.
It was never supposed to happen this way.' He focuses his chakra into the array, stepping within its boundaries.
'And yet I am prepared for it. As ever a Ninja must be prepared...'
He could never hold back Pein, as he is now. His body is too weak, his chakra all but gone, it's all he can do to simply summon up the energy for this even with the gates open.
He needs more...
He closes his eyes.
He opens them again.
And they're standing here. In this place. Familiar and alien to them both. He sits once more on his throne. Raised to heights by a mound of skulls. Skulls that drip blood from their sockets and grinning mouths. And she is once more standing in clear, waters. Salt water they both know.
And there is a knowing in her eyes.
She knows, and she's shaking her head.
"That is disbelief I see sister." He says. "But is it from horror...or elation I wonder?"
"You can't do this!" She answers indirectly. It makes him smile, though it is a bitter thing.
"It is already done."
"I'll stop you." She is defiant, angry, as angry as he's ever seen her. It makes him smile. Though once more, it is a bitter thing.
"You will try." He answers
She hesitates, and now he sees the fear in her eyes, the uncertainty.
"I have a question for you sister." He says, standing from his throne and making his way towards her. "And answer me truthfully."
Her lips tighten, her shoulders are squared.
"Tell me. What would you do with a bird that refuses to sing?"
The question is strange, her face says as much, he chuckles. Of all the things he could have asked...that was not supposed to be one of them.
It had caught Hinata and Kakashi off guard as well.
"Wh-what?"
"It is a simple question. What would you do with a bird that refuses to sing."
She stares at him, stupefied for the longest time. Then, her face softens, its as though she sees something in that moment. He does not ask what she sees. He does not truly care to know.
She will see what she wishes to see...
That is, in the end, what everyone sees when they look upon him.
That is, in the end, what everyone sees when they look upon her.
What they wish to see.
What a tragic pair we make.
"I would set it free."
This time, his smile is not bitter.
He turns to walk away, back to his throne, away from this place.
"Wait!" She cries, and he's half tempted to ignore her.
But he doesn't. His feet pause mid stride, and he just gives the barest glance over his shoulder.
"Do you ever think..." She pauses, biting her lip. Uncertain. "Do you ever wonder...if things could have been different? If things could have ever been..." She does not finish. She doesn't have to. He knows her question.
"Before I answer." He Says, after a long pause. "There is something I must tell you. Sister."
They just seemed to pass the threshold of what was once the village's encircling wall, guided by Hanabi's eyes to find the safe spots when Ten-Ten could no longer hold onto her.
The blond convulses, her neck twisting so hard the Konoha ninja almost swore she had broken it, her limbs going so tense her tendons seemed ready to snap beneath her skin.
Her already clouded eyes roll up into her head and her mouth opens in a silent scream before her back suddenly arches like a bow.
"Hold her down!" Hanabi demanded, placing Temari down and rushing towards the young woman!
Lee nearly drops Gaara outright in his haste, the Kazekage's pained groan lost to the tumult before he jumps onto Akina's legs, holding them down with all his might as Tenten takes hold of one arm and Hanabi takes the other.
The seal, partially exposed due to her torn, burned clothing glows red hot.
But Hanabi could see more than that. She could see so much more and it was surprisingly difficult to hold back her tears.
She knew what was happening, what was going to happen.
And she was utterly powerless to stop it.
"No!" She heard, and for a moment was at a loss as to who the words belonged to when she looked down towards the woman she was currently helping to hold.
Her limbs still twitched but Akina's eyes were as wide and aware as ever.
Now they only carried horrified disbelief as she shook her head, as if to deny the reality of what was about to happen. She probably wanted to deny it more than Hanabi did on some level.
"I am going to die!"
In a burst of strength, the last bit of energy she had, Akina threw them off, her foot kicked at Lee's ribs so hard the Taijutsu master skidded almost four meters on the sand before coming to a stop, throwing Tenten entirely as she stood, stumbling back to the village her hands clutching at her stomach
"Nnngh" The blond seemed to choke on a word, her teeth gritting as she found her feet only to loose them again before catching herself and stumbling forward.
Were it any other moment, Hanabi would have disabled her with a Juuken, but neither one of them was truly thinking straight right now, the younger Hyuuga simply acted, jumping forward and tackling Akina to the ground, driving her shoulder into the small of the blond woman's back and forcing her to eat a mouthful of sand.
"No!" The pseudo Jinchuuriki wailed like a wounded animal. Wild and desperate, her crystaline eyes sought the village, as though just waking from a dream, as though she could will herself to her brother's side; will herself anywhere but here, in a place where she was forced to simply watch him die.
Hanabi could almost sympathize as she held the girl down through her renewing struggles.
Naruto opens his eyes.
'Fool girl.'
He smiles. He is doing that more often of late.
He presses his free hand down, onto the seal. In an instant, molten fire rushes through his veins, trailing from his arm, up to his neck then down down towards his stomach.
Two of his other fingers glow with green flame and the instant the fire settled in his stomach he struck them onto his gut.
Pure hatred roiled within his mind as he once again heard the voice at the back of his subconscious, roaring in fury!
"NOOOO!"
For an instant, he steps into his mind, standing before the familiar, imposing iron gates that had lacked its real occupant for a decade. He stares at the beast, and Kyuubi smashes itself against the bars, roaring with such palpable anger that the very air seems to taste of it. He struggled and thrashed, but there would be no escape this time.
Finally, it seemed to notice he was there and its hellish red eyes fixated themselves on him as it snarled.
He remained where he was and so did it. Both knew what was coming for them now and both were going to face it.
"I promise boy!" The Beast finally spat out. "I will feast on your bones within the Makai!"
Naruto only snorted as he faded away from the seal space. 'You will try.'
He returned from his mind back to a broken body. Merely standing on his feet he swayed unsteadily as he took a breath.
His senses return to him one by one, first the feel of exhaustion, then the taste of his blood in his mouth, finally his sight of the dark room, the sound of the fires and the crumbling sands and the smell of smoke and burning wood and rain.
Then the sixth sense, that sensation tugging at his mind, danger.
He's outside, waiting for him to emerge. Naruto turns...then forces one foot forward, then another, then another.
The pain, the pain was so intense.
Tears leak from her eyes and she clutches at a stomach with fingers caught between her flesh and the sand. She feels as though it had been lit on fire from the within as that wrathful voice was pulled from her, pried loose from her body and mind.
Its power, the portion she was given remained where it was meant to. She would not die, not from this.
Of course not...Her life was his to take.
She sobbed.
She writhed and moaned on the sands, struggling to keep herself conscious as dark clouds her vision and more pain blankets her chest from where her heart pounded.
Hanabi still pinned her down, the other two dragging Kazekage Gaara and Temari a little further away.
But the physical pain was almost insignificant, almost inconsequential in the face of the sheer helpless frustration, the roiling sadness and the crushing guilt that gnawed at her every thought.
No...no no. She thought to herself. Like a mantra. As though repeating it would stop it from happening. Naruto...
He steps outside to the haze of smoke, fire and soot, the stinging in his eyes vanishing as he steps into the rain. He trails his eyes up from the ground, finding Pein standing on the other side of the street.
"Do your allies have the sense to flee before God?" The leader of the Akatsuki asked, his voice bland and flat. "Did they see that you cannot defeat me? That you will die?"
"My death here is already a foregone conclusion." Naruto admitted, swallowing the blood that coated the inside of his mouth before he continued. "But not before I deliver yours."
The Rinnegan seemed to flash, and Naruto was forced to nearly fall to his side to avoid the black blade that shot out of Pein's sleeve, an impossibly long sword retracting in an instant as Naruto stumbled.
"You can barely stand and you claim to be able to challenge God?"
Naruto breathed again, forcing himself to inhale through his nostrils rather than his mouth.
"The will of the shadow guides me."
He straightened, forcing himself to stand tall as he reached for the golden sealing bracer tucked beneath his gauntlet, the piece of equipment Jiraiya had given him to help subdue the Kyuubi's chakra when the Fox had escaped his rightful seal nearly a decade ago.
"The strength of the Demon empowers me." He undid the clasp, letting one of the two bracers fall to the sands.
He reached up for the other and Pein watched him expressionlessly. He wanted him to fight, he wanted to break the Hokage's spirit, to defeat him thoroughly...
But it would not happen. He resolved. Greater men than he had tried, they'd all failed. He would be no different.
The second bracer fell away and Naruto felt an immediate, burning pulse of red chakra shoot through his body, burning his insides in fire as the seal allowed more and more Chakra out.
Kyuubi howled in rage, he could hear the fox pounding and pounding away at his subconscious, trying to reign back in the power that Naruto had stolen control of.
But the seal was different now, and the control Kyuubi held over the chakra within him, was nigh non existent.
...So here it was...this was the end.
No mater what; the moment he'd removed the second bracer, he'd sealed his fate. He was going to die now, no matter how short or how long this fight went on.
That only meant one thing to him now.
He didn't need to hold back anything.
He looked at the Rinnegan, the weariness momentarily repelled from his body, his stiff muscles loosening, the tiredness burning away to nothing for this short time.
He held up a finger.
"One." He said simply. "Survive this last attack Pein...and you win."
But Pein would not give him that luxury. No boast like that, from a man like him, could be ignored, not even by a God.
He rushed forward, and there Naruto took him.
The shroud of the Kyuubi, uncontrollable and wild parted like a body of water before Pein, spreading out like a blossoming flower before it resealed itself around them like a flytrap plant.
And Pein found himself frozen.
It would not hold him for long, the exercise to solidify pure, raw chakra like this at a distance of three meters would have probably killed a dozen Chuunin outright from the obscene amount it required. As it was, his five tail reserve, normally inexhaustible was draining rapidly.
But pacing one's self means little when the next attack is truly final.
He formed his seals, and Pein began to pull himself free, his own monstrous reserves combating the Jinchuuriki's chakra formed shroud.
The haze of red chakra swallowed him up like a flame, rising high into the air, it surpassed the height of the two story house behind him. Naruto's eyes burned red beneath his tattered hood. Pein's eyes met his without flinching as his dark purple chakra started to crack through the Kyuubi's like some creature prying itself free of an egg shell, the Rinnegan user once more had full control of his limbs.
He broke free. Too soon...much too soon and they both knew it.
Naruto moved to finish his seals but he knew he'd be too late. Pein closed the distance with lightning speed, his sword rising for a single thrust that would end this here and now.
The blade descended, and red hot blood fountained over both combatants.
Pein did not hear his victim's words. But Naruto did. Staring at the dim, clouded sharingan eye of Hatake Kakashi as the man coughed.
"I...hope...this is enough...of an apology."
He laughed once, his humor is lost to Naruto. Then he slumps, and the blond pays it no further thought as the man falls over dead. His fist descends, the extra seconds allowing him the time to finish.
"Kuro no Kin Fuiinjutsu: Hateshiganai Inmetsu no Kama!"
Akina screamed.
No.
Truly, it could not be called a scream.
She shrieked, howled, wailed like a madwoman.
The sound ripped straight out of her chest as though she were undergoing some horrific torture. She clutched at herself, her arms wrapping around her body as every muscle went taut and rigid. Her throat bled with the sound, her vocal chords quite literally ripping themselves apart as blood dripped from her eyes, her fingers clawing at her stomach and ribs as she writhed on the floor.
And though she was right next to her Hanabi did not have the mind to help her.
Her wide, Byakugan eyes were fixated on the village, opened in what could only be described as pure, unbridled horror.
It was a sight ripped from the landscapes of hell itself. The entire world swallowed by red, the silhouettes of buildings and what few people could be seen, moving or otherwise, slowly disintegrating before their eyes. Their flesh burning off their bones, their screams swallowed by an unholy shriek of the very fabric of the world coming apart as the sky above them turned red, then purple, then black as night, the midday sun fleeing this place.
The ground shook beneath their feet, so violently the sands were rent apart with deep, long fissures, the entire desert seemed as though it was being ripped and shredded. Rocks and spikes of jagged sandstone rose where valleys and dips had existed, dunes became flat, then hollowed out and became sinkholes.
Within the storm, Pein tried to hold on, his chakra, all of his power being brought out in an instant, his defenses unable to absorb any of the toxic, demonic energy, lest it kill him anyway. Dark power cackled and clashed against the impossibility it now contended against.
The man once known as Nagato felt his mind straining, like an impossibly tense limb attempting to hold back an irresistible force.
Something gave.
Like a flash-flood of water finding the fatal flaw in the dam, this warped, evil power ripped through his defense. And Pein for the second time in his life, felt weak...like a mote of dust, struggling against a hurricane.
The pain was immediate, blinding and overwhelming. His skin was torn off, the muscles beneath cooking, the nerves beneath that flooding every signal and message with agony, he screamed, and swallowed fire, his fingernails melted, his bones snapped, his blood boiled...
And as his eyes began to cloud, dimming with an agonizingly quick yet eternally slow death Pein remembered...
He remembered a girl with blue hair and the sunny smile for the rainy days.
She sits at the tree, tired and sore. She's breathing heavily from the training, and he want's nothing more than to apologize to her. For this...for every unfair cruelty they've suffered.
The clouds rumble overhead, and the light drizzle now turns into real rain.
He walks over.
She looks up to him. "Nagato?"
"I promise..." He says before thinking. "I'll get stronger Konan. Strong enough so that we can live in a world where you don't have to fight!"He feels foolish for saying it. If anyone would get that strong it'd be Yahiko.
But still, her smile lights up his world and he doesn't feel a fool anymore. He'd do it for her. He'd do anything for her if she'd just smile at him like this again. "Really?"
They were so young back then...
The promises of a stupid, weak boy to the girl he loved.
But even so...
'I tried...I tried so hard...'
And so the God, Pein; dies with the regrets of a boy named Nagato.
And within the center.
Naruto screams... roaring up at the sky as his body is burned alive.
His chakra coils are seared from within, his every organ slowly shutting down as the Chakra necessary for any living thing to survive is denied them.
The lone drop of rain is cold on his head. Too cold.
It trails down down his face, over his cheek until it finally vanishes against his mask.
It feels like ice.
Like the caress of her hand...
And he knows. This rain was not brought by Pein.
'Dry your eyes Yoshino...dry your eyes...no more tears for me.'
Do not cry anymore.
No more sorrow...
It is over. The fighting is over.
My war is done...
No more sorrow...
She must live...in a world with no more sorrow.