"It's an impressive puppet. But, it's a tadpole compared to my snakes. Summoning jutsu." Orochimaru summoned one of his giant snakes
"My snake will eat that puppet alive. Or… oh, I don't know, should I crush it first for easy digestion for the snake. So many ideas." Orochimaru laughed
"Size doesn't matter. Time to show you the Third's secret technique."
"No point. I already know. Iron sand, was it?"
"Exactly. And I think it's been a long time since you've seen it."
"Well, it looks like Lord Orochimaru has the upper hand from here." Kabuto said
"You haven't seen one inch of what master Sasori can do." Deidara said
"Actually, I know more about him than you do. I was his subordinate before you joined. Actually, I think Itachi forced you to join. Yeah, that's right. I remember now. You didn't choose to join. You were forced to. Pitiful." Kabuto said
Deidara glared at him heatedly.
"You don't know anything about me. You're no match for my specialties." Deidara said
"Lord Orochimaru already briefed me on all the members of Akatsuki, even the leader. Your specialties range from C-1 to C-4. C-4 being the strongest, of course. There's really an easy way to dodge all that." Kabuto told him
"You're wrong. C-4 will kill all four of us. It makes an explosion that covers more than 10 miles. There's no way any of us would be able to escape. Even Master Sasori and Orochimaru would be caught in the massive explosion." Deidara said
Kabuto laughed. "Lord Orochimaru can easily summon one of his snakes to hide within. It's really quite simple. And not just that, you have a big weak spot."
"What?"
"Yes, that's right. When you run out of chakra to mold your clay into explosives, you're doomed. But, there's also another possibility. If you run out of clay, what'll you do?"
Kabuto found out Deidara's weakness, but Deidara thought it wasn't much of a weakness anyways. "Who says I'll run out of clay, or chakra? I have massive amounts of both, for your information."
"But, eventually, you will. Now, enough talk. Lord Orochimaru wants to eliminate all traces of the Akatsuki, and, as his right hand man, I'll help him do that, starting right here, with you."
He immediately prepared his chakra scalpels and attacked. Deidara threw several clay spiders at Kabuto. They continued to chase him for Deidara detonated them.
"Detonation!" There was a fairly large explosion
But Kabuto wasn't fooled. He took shelter underground and made Deidara's legs useless. He attempted to finish him off by striking him in the neck, but Deidara managed to detonate several more clay spiders.
"Art is… a bang!"
The explosion blew Kabuto back. He began healing himself before Deidara's legs recovered.
"Impressive. He almost killed himself, too."
Deidara remained on the ground. His legs had not yet recovered from Kabuto's attack.
"Hm. That managed to send him back." Deidara sighed with relief
Sasori smiled. "He's dead. Deidara's clay is lethal."
"Kabuto wouldn't die that easily. He can easily go toe to toe with Kakashi." Orochimaru gave one of his sadistic smiles
Orochimaru's massive snake attempted to eat the Third Kazekage, but he was able to dodge.
"Iron sand!" Sasori tried to immobilize the snake with the Third's secret technique: Iron sand
"Very nice. But how much of that sand does your puppet carry?" Orochimaru gave one of his crooning smiles
Orochimaru summoned another giant snake. "I can keep this going for a long time."
Kakashi and the others finally arrived in the Akatsuki lair.
"A moment too late." said Pain, his eyes signifying something gruesome
The Akatsuki finished the sealing. Naruto was dead. Sakura punched the wall with all her strength, sending pieces of rock flying everywhere.
The only ones left in the lair were Kisame and Konan. Everyone else had left to deal with their own issues, particularly the Akatsuki leader, Pain.
"You!!" Sakura screamed at the two Akatsuki
"Kisame, Konan. I'm sure you can handle them by yourselves. I'm being called." Tobi stood behind Kisame and Konan
He then left from the Akatsuki lair to take care of his own problems.
"Very well. We'll take care of these little munchkins." Kisame's hand reached for his sword
Sasuke was also looking for the Akatsuki lair. He was getting anxious to meet this person. What were his abilities? Who or what was he anyway?
He then finally found the Akatsuki lair. He activated his Sharingan, and saw a person with a Sharingan.
"That must be him!"
Sasuke immediately went to chase him down, ignoring that Naruto was dead. All he cared about now was meeting his third person that talked to him. The entire leaf didn't matter to him now.
Tobi then spotted someone right behind him. "You came a long way just to meet a person, right, Sasuke?"
"So you're the one who killed Itachi?"
Tobi laughed. "You just figured that out?"
"Talk! Who are you?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
Sasuke attacked Tobi.
"You still haven't been able to destroy it? I guess you don't know too much about it." Sasori said
Orochimaru laughed. Snakes started to strangle the puppet. The snakes then threw the puppet right to Orochimaru. Sasori attempted to regain control of it using his chakra strings, but it was too late. With a devastating punch, Orochimaru broke the puppet into a thousand little pieces.
"I'll tell you what happened. When we were fighting, snake vs. puppet, I created a shadow clone. Just one. You never saw it. And I kept that clone in hiding right until now. While you were facing me, that clone came and strangled the life out of that puppet, and then, I sent it flying with a single punch." Orochimaru smiled
"Maybe so. But I never showed you one thing. One puppet I never showed you during our partnership."
He took off his Akatsuki cloak, and revealed his strongest puppet. Himself.
"Even though you've seen me as a puppet, you've never seen my skills as myself." Sasori told him
"I'd really like to see this. This will be good. This also will be the finale." Orochimaru grinned evilly at Sasori
"Definitely."
Suddenly, from the flamethrower nozzles on Sasori's hands, he began to blast fire at Orochimaru. He quickly dodged and hid behind one of the rocks at the fighting scene.
"Well, this is something I never saw. Guess there's more to it than meets the eye."
He then came out of his hiding spot. From the flamethrower nozzles Sasori had on his hands, he began to blast fire at Orochimaru. Orochimaru was able to get near him and summoned more snakes from his sleeve. Sasori tried to burn the snakes as well as Orochimaru. But he knew what he was going to do. He quickly severed the snakes and jumped back from the fire.
"What intense flames!" Orochimaru jumped back and smiled
Sasori then blasted water at Orochimaru. He tried to make the rocks cave in on Orochimaru, but he continued to dodge.
He then appeared behind Sasori, and extended his head. He wanted to immobilize Sasori, but he dodged Orochimaru's attack.
They then stared back at each other, just like they had at the beginning of the fight.
"Let's end this quickly, Orochimaru. I think the Akatsuki want me back now."
"I was just thinking the same thing."
Sasori produced a scroll. A puppet scroll. He then released 100 puppets, each with a jagged object in their hand, ready to slice anything in their way.
"I used these puppets to conquer an entire nation. And today, these puppets are going to conquer you."
"Impressive technique. Summoning jutsu!" Orochimaru summoned the snake king, Manda
"Why are you calling me out here, Orochimaru? You know I don't like being summoned."
"I need you to take care of these little puppets. You can do whatever you want with them." Orochimaru smiled evilly
Sasori commanded the puppets to attack. Manda simply crushed all the puppets.
"Take care of the puppets. I'll get Sasori." Orochimaru jumped down from his snake while Manda took care of the rest of the puppets
The 100 puppets were decreased to no more than about 10. Orochimaru squashed the puppets by himself and headed for Sasori. He released the Kusanagi sword from his mouth and extended his head.
Sasori attempted to jump back, but was eventually stabbed by the sword of Orochimaru.
Orochimaru lunged for Sasori, only to find he transferred his human core into another one of the puppets. And while Orochimaru's sword was stuck in the original Sasori, he could not escape.
One of the puppets then got up off the ground. It turned out to be Sasori, with a sword in his hand. He intended to stab Orochimaru, and had good intentions of doing so.
The sword was stuck pretty deep in the original Sasori. Orochimaru kept trying to pull it out. Sasori then ran with the sword in his hand, intending to kill Orochimaru. But Orochimaru finally devised a plan.
He used the original Sasori as a shield. The puppet barely defended him.
"Clever idea. But, even that won't help you now." Sasori's right hand fell to the ground, and drew out a knife where his right hand was supposed to be
"This will finish you once and for all."
Sasori again ran at Orochimaru, but this time, Orochimaru let the sword exit his mouth. He jumped back from the other sword of Sasori. The sword then exited the original Sasori.
"Finally. I finished him. It took a while. I hope master has finished his battle." Deidara sighed with relief
Kabuto lay on the ground, not moving a single muscle.
Deidara walked away from the battle scene. He did not see Kabuto standing up. He decided to end the fight. Since Orochimaru was probably finished with his battle, Kabuto decided to play dead to give Deidara the appearance he won their battle.
Meanwhile, Kakashi and the others continued to fight Kisame and Konan, while Tobi would shed some light to Sasuke about the Uchiha clan. Naruto was dead due to the nine-tailed fox being extracted out of him. Sakura and Ino took Naruto elsewhere and attempted to heal him, using all of their chakras.
But, eventually, they needed a break to recover. But they did not give up. They continued to try to revive Naruto. They weren't going to give up hope that easily. Especially Sakura. She just wouldn't let Naruto die.
"Now you see, boy, that's what happened to him." Tobi told him
"So he was killed? At the same place?!"
"It was a long time ago. Long before you fought with your so-called friend there. However…"
"However?"
"Never mind. I gave all the information you desired, now if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to go." Tobi disappeared from the vision of Sasuke
Orochimaru continued to try to attack Sasori, but he dodged all of the attacks, until Sasori was finally able to get at part of Orochimaru with his sword. He then fell to the ground.
He attempted to finish him off, but before he was able to, something impaled him from the back through the heart and back out.
"It can't be!" Sasori's movement was immobilized about 2 feet from Orochimaru
Orochimaru then got up from the ground. "You let your guard down at the very end, Sasori."
A shadow clone of Orochimaru's stabbed Sasori in his human core.
"Finally I was able to strike you. This battle is over."
Sasori was dead. Orochimaru had finally won the battle. He walked away from the battle scene.
"It definitely seems as though he improved his skills."
But then, Orochimaru heard a gigantic explosion. Where did it come from?
"Detonation!" A person said
It turned out to be Deidara, using one of his more explosive clay bombs.
"It's finished. He really thought he could end this battle that quickly?"
Kabuto lay on the ground, no pulse heard from him. And this time, it was real.
Pain appeared in the Akatsuki hideout, the place Kisame and Konan remained to fight. The group of leaf chunins immediately were scared into submission, finally being face to face with the all-powerful Akatsuki leader. And this time, it wasn't his hologram.
"Leader."
"So you're leaf ninja? Just like him."
Flashback…
"Who're you?" Asks Jiraiya
"C-can I have some, please?" Yahiko asked
"Where're your parents?"
"They got killed in the war."
"Here, have some crackers."
"Hey Nagato, Konan, come out! He's not a bad guy!"
"We already gave you food! What else do you want?!" Tsunade said
"Teach us ninjutsu…please? You guys are leaf ninja, right?"
"Thank you… this is for you." Konan said, holding out a piece of origami
"Origami… made from the cracker's wrapper. Why don't we just kill them and be done with it? All these kids orphaned by the war have nothing but pain and suffering waiting for them. It'd be much more merciful to just kill them now." Orochimaru said
"Wha-?!"
"Are you off your goddamned rocker, Orochimaru? Look, you and Tsunade go on ahead, I'll take care of them for a while." Jiraiya said
"Huh?!"
"Just until they can fend for themselves. It's the least I can do to make up for all this."
"Time to eat!"
"Wow, so you can cook a whole fish in one shot with a fire technique!"
"Yeah." Said Jiraiya
"Sensei! I remembered that special fishing trick you taught me!" Yahiko told
"What's wrong, Nagato?"
"This… reminds me of my family…. And…"
"Quit crying! You're supposed to be a boy! Everyone will think the Hidden Rain Village is full of wussies."
"The three countries surrounding the hidden rain haven't quite stabilized yet, but this war can't continue forever." Jiraiya said
"I hope that by the time you kids will get better, the other countries will have reached a compromise, and everyone will live in peace…"
"That's crap! They killed all our families! If we're gonna 'understand' each other, first we got to make them suffer like we're suffering! Like when they stop a fight because someone got injured!" Yahiko exclaimed
"But I know that'll never happen, that's why there'll always be wars! It always rains here, and I hate it. It's like the whole country is a big crybaby! I'm gonna change it, and protect everyone!" He finished
"So please, Jiraiya-sensei, train us!"
Jiraiya recalled Yahiko's words, until suddenly, Konan came bursting through the door.
"Jiraiya-sensei, help! Yahiko and Nagato are-!"
"Lead the way, Konan!"
Jiraiya and Konan then went to the sight.
"I brought sensei!"
"Aa—"
"What happened?!"
"Th-the refugees…"
"T-tried to take our money… and food… and Na-Nagato…. He…."
"That's a chunin from the hidden stone. How on earth did they…"
"T-those eyes….!! It couldn't be… this boy, he's…" Jiraiya thought in amazement and shock
…
"That ripple like pattern… How is this possible?! Those eyes… Of the three great eye techniques, they are, without question, the most powerful…"
"The Rinnegan!"
"They were said to be possessed by the sage of the six paths, the founder of the whole ninja world… whose knowledge and skills gave birth to ninjutsu itself."
"They were called a tool of heaven itself… a tool of God that would bring salvation when the world was in chaos, or a weapon that would destroy all creation, and return everything to dust… I always discounted these stories as myths and folktales… but here I am, staring directly at the Rinnegan with my own eyes."
Yahiko and Nagato then helped each other up.
"I've decided to teach you all ninjutsu." Jiraiya said
"N-no fooling?" Yahiko exclaimed
"There's no telling when you'll have to fight for your lives again, like earlier. I'll teach you some techniques so you can fend for yourselves."
"YAAAY!" Yahiko shouted
"Hey, thanks for saving me, Nagato! I'm sorry I called you a crybaby! Next time something happens, I'll save you, promise!"
"Th-Thanks, Yahiko…"
"Huh? But I thought Nagato was tougher than you, Yahiko?" Konan said
"Ha! I'll train my butt of, and make you eat those words, Konan!"
"Good, then let's get started! The first thing you need to do is learn how to draw out your chakra…"
"Yes sir, sensei!"
As Jiraiya was sleeping, he woke up to find that Nagato was not sleeping, like Konan and Yahiko. He then found him, crying alone.
"What's wrong? You can tell me."
"Sensei…"
"Is it about what happened earlier?"
"When… When I saw Yahiko get hurt, I got real mad at that guy… Then I blacked out, or went out of my mind…"
"When I came to, that guy was on the ground."
"I felt so scared, and angry… I must've lost it, and, I k-killed… I shouldn't have done it! We could've found another way to-"
"Nagato! I don't know if what you did was right or wrong, either. But Yahiko only survived because of you. Protecting your friend, at least, was definitely the right thing to do. No one would blame you."
"Being hurt inevitably breeds feelings of hatred towards your attacker. But when we hurt others, we have to deal with their hatred for us, and our own feelings of guilt. But knowing what it feels like to be hurt is exactly why we try to be kind to others. That's what makes us human."
"What… what do I have to do to be like that?"
"You have to grow up."
"… how can I do that?"
"How, indeed? I think you'll need to answer that on your own."
"When Konan and I were alone, crying because we were so hungry, Yahiko came and saved us. He even stole food from other people. I just wanna keep them safe. No matter what kind of pain I have to go through."
A fight then ensued between Konan, Nagato, and Yahiko and Jiraiya.
"Water element! Chaos waves!"
But Jiraiya dodged Yahiko's jutsu. Konan then made her own attack.
"Paper Shuriken!"
But he dodged that too, until Nagato performed his own jutsu to seal the deal.
"Wind element! Cyclone punch!"
Jiraiya blew up into a puff of smoke.
"We got him!" Yahiko exclaimed
"I'm impressed… you actually took out one of my shadow clones."
"Watcha think, sensei?"
"I think I can go back to my village without any regrets."
"Wha—"
"You three have done so well these past three years. Now it's time you lived your own lives."
"Uh oh, don't cry Yahiko, everyone will think you're a wuss, right?"
"Konan. I can tell you'll be a real beauty. Come see me again when you turn 18!"
"You live in a very poor, needy country. I'm sure that a lot of sad times still lie ahead for it, that's why you three have to work together to change things."
Jiraiya began to walk away. "I'd say you three have all grown up. Right, Nagato?"
"Thank you… sensei."
And with that, Jiraiya disappeared from the Rain village.
End Flashback…
"It's been such a long time since I've seen him. Besides, I've heard rumors he died a long time ago."
"Who is he supposed to be?"
"No one. Its just Jiraiya-sensei."
"No way! How did you even?! How can this be? I never heard that Jiraiya—" Kakashi said
"Enough of this. We don't have the time to kill these weaklings. Kisame, Konan, we're leaving. We need to prepare."
"As you wish." Kisame and Konan said in unison
Dust and wind began to fill the Akatsuki lair. The leaf chunins got one last look at the notorious Akatsuki leader before he departed from the hideout.
"We have to go check on Naruto. We have to find where Sakura and Ino took him." Kakashi proclaimed
"Right." They all said in harmony
Sakura and Ino stared at Naruto. No matter how hard they tried, no result came.
"Anything, Sakura, Ino?" Kakashi asked
But he could tell by their expressions it meant a no.
"Kisame, Konan, we're going to round up all the members for a meeting. It's time to discuss our plan." Pain said on the rocky roof of the lair
"Assemble."
All the Akatsuki members appeared in astral projection.
"Let's begin." Pain's Rinnegan eyes shined to the sun that would mark the destruction of the leaf village