Away from the ruins of what was a few minutes ago the proud village of Konoha, two shinobi faced off in what they thought was the fight of their lives. The wind blew through their cloaks, making them flap in the wind as they sized each other up, the next attack they would go in for the kill, this battle had already dragged on for too long. The blonde one glared at his ginger haired opponent. He had attacked his home… all his friends… they were practically his family, and the man before him acted like it was nothing. To Pain, no… to Nagato… this was only a mission. Capture the Kyubi and bring him to his leader, the all powerful Madara Uchiha. He couldn't afford to fail, Madara didn't take failure kindly. Nagato sighed and focused to control his deceased friend's body, leaving the others be to conserve his energy.
Naruto took a step forward and the God realm copied. "You'll pay for what you did," Naruto growled.
"I highly doubt it," he retorted. Naruto narrowed his eyes; he would have to conserve chakra to perform another Rasen Shuriken. Pain looked at the ruined village, guessing at the kyubi's host's hesitancy. "Do you understand a bit of my pain now boy?" he asked, "Can you possibly understand the pain I felt when your country held its wars in mine? Making me lose my home and family?"
As expected, Naruto got angry. "It's not our fault!"
"It is…" he replied. Naruto lunged for him, anger clouding his mind.
"Shut up!" he cried.
"The truth hurts doesn't it?" Pain ridiculed blocking his attack. Naruto glared at him, Pain simply threw the boy back letting Naruto hit a big pile of boulders. His attack was not to kill him; Pain needed him alive to extract the Kyubi from the boy's body. He just needed to weaken him first, knock him unconscious to be sure he didn't cause any problems. Nagato's real body was straining, blood leaked from his pale thin lips. His partner… his living friend Konan looked at him with great concern.
"Nagato you can't take much more stress…" the blue haired woman made herself say as she dabbed up the blood with a rag.
"I almost… have him…" Nagato coughed. Konan sighed and nodded, she knew as well as Nagato did that Madara would punish him for failure. All she could do was be by his side and care for his injuries.
Pain advanced on the Kyubi's host. Naruto looked at him slightly dazed. Pain kicked him so he lay on his back. "I will leave what remains of your precious little village if you come with me now." Naruto growled and glared at the pierced man with red in his eyes, the Kyubi was threatening to be unleashed again. Acting quickly he aimed a punch at Naruto's head. Upon contact Naruto's eyes widened in pain, then fell shut as his body went limp as he slipped into unconsciousness, a nice clean finish to a long hard fight. Pain then leaned down and peeled off the blue and white slug that had attached itself to Naruto, and then squished it.
Nagato panted as the mission was complete, now all he had to do was bring him to the base.
"Nagato… please, Zetsu can get him, we need to get you out of that machine…" Konan said gently.
"No… I need… to finish…" Nagato said coughing again, but even he knew he was spent. As if he was called Zetsu phased through the floor looking upon the couple with his golden eyes.
"Madara is growing inpatient. Have you captured the Kyubi?" he asked.
"Yes…" Nagato replied.
"I'll go collect him then," Zetsu said before he went back from whence he came.
Nagato was a bit unsettled that Zetsu saw how much the mission had exhausted him. It would do him no good to show weakness. Konan sighed and helped Nagato returned to the base.
Madara watched over the land of rains from his perch. He expected only Zetsu to return with the Kyubi host. Nagato was a bit hardier then he looked. He expected the almost skeletal man to perish trying to capture the Kyubi, but exhaust the Kyubi enough that all Zetsu would have to do was pick him up. He sighed annoyed; this was not according to plan.
"Sir?" Zetsu asked, after having locked Naruto away for later extraction.
"Yes Zetsu?" Madara asked.
"Why did you try to get rid of Pain? He was the leader of the Akatsuki, and he has served you well," Zetsu inquired.
"He is getting weak, and I fear that he would be very prone to a change of heart. Either he will die on a mission that I am counting on him to succeed in and end up failing me, or he will betray me. Anyway you put it; he is now a weed that needs to be removed to not affect the rest of my plans. If I tell him to leave, he will tell the world of the Akatsuki's secrets. I cannot let that happen, thus giving him a difficult mission that should have killed him. He has served his purpose, now he is a potential hazard," Madara explained, already working on a new plan that will rid him of the man who called himself a god.
"What of Konan?" Zetsu asked. Madara shrugged.
"I'm uncertain of her fate at this time; all she really does is assist Nagato. If she keeps her loyalty to me she may live… otherwise… well, she'll join her partner. We'll see what happens after Nagato meets his demise," Madara answered. Zetsu nodded, not wanting to be either of the doomed partners.
"You are dismissed Zetsu, I have planning to do," Madara said. Zetsu nodded and took his leave.
Konan sighed to herself and she wiped Nagato's sweaty brow. He can't take anymore of this life, she thought to herself as she watched him take a well deserved rest. She heard the door open and looked at it seeing Madara.
"…To what do I owe the pleasure sir…?" she asked, wondering the man was too high and mighty to simply knock before entering.
"Just seeing how your little patient is doing," he shrugged. Konan kept herself from glaring.
"He is simply exhausted, he'll be better in a couple of days... there is no need to call him my patient…" she replied.
"Well I give him a simple assignment and he almost dies, I'm beginning to question how durable your 'god' is," Madara ridiculed.
"Sir with all due respect the Kyubi is the most powerful of the tailed beasts, it would prove as a challenge," Konan stated, getting upset with the fact that the ancient Uchiha was being so disrespectful towards her partner. Madara simply shrugged again. If she could see his face beyond the mask, it would probably be a face of sheer disinterest.
"Well I can't simply over look it could I?" he replied.
"Please sir… you're over working him…" Konan said, "He'll be stronger if you allowing him a few days of rest…"
"I have an organization to run Konan, not a charity. Have him well by tomorrow," Madara ordered.
"Please sir I need more time than that, he needs more time than that," Konan pleaded. She instantly felt his glare but she ignored it as she tried to earn Nagato the rest he deserves. "Haven't we served you well? Hasn't Nagato acted as a good stand-in in your place so you could do as you pleased? A little more than a day, two days… that's all I'm asking Sama…"
Madara sighed, "Fine, two days… that's it. Then I have a new mission for him," Madara stated leaving the room. All Konan could do was sigh, ever since Madara had revealed his true self to the rest of the Akatsuki he had begun to grew harder on Nagato, and he had been rough on him before then. She wished that they could leave the Akatsuki and live a peaceful life like she had originally wanted to, but then he came in. Now it was fighting battles to realize Madara's desires to rule the world, and Nagato had done so many things to his own body so he could create the six paths of pain. It was too far for either of them to turn back.
Two days later Nagato found himself walking across a vast lifeless valley. There was a band of ninjas who had their hands on information that was valuable to the Akatsuki. For some strange reason Konan wouldn't wake to his calls, so Madara insisted Nagato went alone… in person. It was only a band of second rate ninjas, Nagato could handle them easily.
Upon finding their hideout Nagato made quick work of them, then began his search for the documents that Madara had described. Nagato stepped around the dead bodies of the men he had slathered and checked every nook and cranny of the hideout, but found no documents relating to the Akatsuki. That was strange… Madara never made that kind of mistake before…
Sighing Nagato decided to shrug it off and return to base to inform him, hopefully Konan would be up as well. But as he stepped out of the hideout he stopped. A bit a ways from his position he thought he could see the man he was going back to report to. Against the sun set sky he did in fact see a figure with a black cloak and red designs.
Suddenly Madara's swirly mask was before him, "Defeated them did you?" he asked, it seemed strange to Nagato that he had sounded disappointed.
"Y-Yes… I'm returning to the base now…" Nagato replied.
"No Nagato… You're never returning to the base," Madara stated as the rest of his body materialized before him. Nagato looked at the immortal confused.
"Why wouldn't I return to the base?" he questioned, feeling suspicious of the aura beginning to surround the other.
"Because, I shouldn't have sent you to a bunch of amateurs to do what I should have done myself," Madara sighed annoyed.
"Done your…? … You were trying to get rid of me?" Nagato asked completely off guard.
"You have served your purpose, and frankly I didn't want to be the one spilling your blood, I hoped you would have just died after capturing the Kyubi. But of course you had to survive and screw up my plans," Madara replied.
Nagato stared at the man in disbelief… but then he glared at him in anger. "My life is that of a pawn to you? After all I've done?!"
"Like I said… You served your purpose, now die," Madara said as a kunai knife slid out of his sleeve and he went in for an attack at his throat. Nagato recoiled then pulled out his own kunai and let it clash with Madara's advancing one, Madara chuckled. "You think you can take me on boy?"
"I'm not going to just lie back and let you kill me," Nagato growled pushing him back. Madara backed away.
"You'll die if you fight me back or not," Madara stated, "You don't have your other bodies, nor any weapons but the ones in your pouch."
"I have my rinnegan, and it seems you brought nothing but what is in your pouch as well," Nagato observed.
"I need no more than that to take care of you," Madara stated. Nagato took out shuriken and threw them at the other.
"I know how to hit you, that's all I need," he declared as Madara phased through the metal.
"It won't be that easy," Madara chuckled evilly.
"I know."
"Then I think the time to talk has ended."
"It most defiantly has, even if I die… I'm taking you with me!" Nagato cried as he aimed an attack at Madara. Madara sighed and let him phase through, if Nagato was going to make such mistakes this would prove to be uninteresting. Then he felt pain in his ribcage, Madara widened his eyes and looked to see that Nagato had managed to strike inside him while phasing through the older man's body. Growling he gripped the wounded area and glared at Nagato. Nagato let himself show a self satisfied smirk. "It's not going to be as easy as you think," he said.
"Mind yourself boy, I have yet to make a move," Madara stated. Nagato braced himself as Madara lifted his mask and cast some hand signs. "Fireball jutsu!" he called as a huge fireball blow out of his mouth and sent it racing towards Nagato. Nagato quickly dodged it making hand signs of his own.
"Summoning jutsu!" he called as there was a huge cloud of smoke, then it dispersed showing him on top of a huge brown dog with one of his chakra receivers in his snout. The dog barked and growled as it drooled looking at his target.
"Oh look a puppy," Madara said sarcastically backing away before one of the dog's paws could crush him. The dog gave chase and went on snapping and trying to harm his opponent. Nagato hanged on and watched, waiting for his opening. Madara turned and made more hand signs. "Amaterau" he said letting the black flames come forth and let them hit the canine. Shrieking the dog stopped in pain, Nagato quickly got off and let the dog disappear.
"So that's your game…" he growled, going in for another attack. All through the night jutsu's and summons were thrown between the two eye users; Madara had lost his mask in the conflict. Nagato was quickly losing chakra, he knew Madara had to be weakening too, he phased through his attacks a lot less often and was getting slower at dodging. Nagato started coughing violently and spat up some more blood into his hand, he was reaching his limit…
"Heh…" Madara panted as he smirked at him. "You don't have long… before your body gives up…"
"I'm not going… unless I take you with me… don't make me say it again…" Nagato panted back.
"Give it up… I'm not losing to a boy," Madara said regaining his breath.
"Get use to the idea," Nagato said advancing on him.
Madara growled, "Playtime is over," he said grabbing Nagato by the neck when he got close enough then slammed him into the ground. Nagato spit up more blood. "Good bye Nagato," he said applying more pressure to his throat intending to crush it.
"NAGATO!!" cried a voice. Both men looked towards the owner. Konan over looked them in the destroyed valley. Her hair was messed up and she was panting. Madara looked surprised to see the woman; she shouldn't be out of the genjutsu he placed her under. Nagato took his chance and stealthily grabbed his last kunai and plunged it into Madara's exposed throat.
Madara let out a gurgling cry of pain as he looked back at Nagato with sheer surprise and hatred. Nagato tried to pry Madara hand off his throat as more blood dribbled out both of their mouths. "No… you…" he managed to gurgle out as his lungs filled with blood, making him struggle to breathe. It was Madara's turn to cough as he struggled in vain to cling to his life.
"Die… you... bastard…" Nagato cursed. Madara's blood red eyes looked at him.
"You'll… be... with me… soon enough…" he managed to say before he collapsed letting go of the other's throat.
Nagato was too occupied with Madara to notice that Konan had made her way down to help Nagato away from the dying immortal. Konan looked at Nagato in horror. Stab wounds and burns were present all over his body, and blood soaked his clothes. Anyone could see… not even Nagato could survive his injuries… He was dying and fast…
Salty tears fell in rivers down Konan's cheeks as she held her dear Nagato's dying body close to her. "N-Nagato…" she managed to say, but any words that begged him to not leave her remained frozen in her throat. The desire to tell him how much she cared for him and how much she needed him almost choked her. Nagato simply looked at her.
"I-It's alright Konan… I know… I'm dying…" he managed to whisper to the woman who captivated his heart. Konan's eyes widen a bit as her tears fell faster, as they fell from her face and landed on Nagato's they drew another path down the cheeks of the rinnegan user as well.
"N-Nagato… please… I-I don't want to b-be alone…" Konan almost begged, even though she knew it would be of no help. Madara had fatally wounded him; she was losing her Nagato no matter what she said to him.
"Konan…" Nagato breathed, "Y-You're strong… you can live… without me…"
"Please, re-reserve your strength… don't talk…" she replied. Nagato weakly shook his head.
"No… m-my strength is fading fast… I'll be gone soon… I-I can't… leave these words unsaid…" he wheezed. Konan bit her lip, to keep herself quiet while listening to his final words. "Konan… you know… you're everything… to me… s-so was Yahiko… The three of us… like family… E-Even after… Yahiko's death… we were so close… y-you were by my side… always… even when I made the horrible mistake… of deciding to serve that man… I-I wish… I hadn't… b-but I did… and this is how I'll make amends… for the things I've done… All I could have ever asked… was for you to be by my side… in the end… Please… live your life for me… I-I love you…" he breathed. Konan watched his body relax and heard his life breath pour through his lips in a long sigh. She was speechless for a minute.
"N-Nagato…?" she whispered. Only dead silence greeted her. "Nagato?" she asked, he couldn't be gone yet… he just can't!
She felt pattering on the back of her head, Konan look up and saw it had begun to rain in that valley of the dead. The fresh water of the rain mingled with Konan's tears and wiped them away like a gentle hand caressing her cheek. Konan continued to quietly sob in grief for her Nagato. She let the rain soak her to the bone, she longed to scream and cry out at the loneliness and misery beginning to surround her. Even as she tried to find a spark of hope to help her grant Nagato's final wish, she only found more fear and sorrow. The earth bound angel longed to have her friends back, longed to be with them and once more be able to smile. But they were both dead and gone, and Nagato had wished for her to live for them. Misery and grieving wrapped her in a cold blanket. The angel had lost her god, and didn't know which way to turn. All she knew was it was too late to turn back…