Pharix wondered how the Pein Invasion would change now...you're about to find out =)

Battle for Konoha

"Tsunade-sama!"

The shout startled her out of her reverie, remembering that last flash of memory before all had faded into black in Ame – six pairs of eyes burning with vengeance, and six voices screaming the same sound of pain.

"Yes? What is it?" She brought her mind back to the present, focusing her eyes on her assistant in front of her.

"Jiraiya-sama is back, with urgent news."

"Send him in." Her teammate had been off gathering information on Nagato and what he intended to do. She also personally suspected it was to keep from tying her up to a bed for the rest of her natural life as punishment for scaring the crap out of him.

The raven bowed out of the office, and moments later Jiraiya entered, Naruto following him.

"You can't be here," Tsunade told the blond bluntly. "This is top secret."

"No, he should be here, this concerns him," Jiraiya contradicted her firmly, his voice tired. His clothing was travel stained and ripped in places, white hair hanging down his back in a tangled mess.

"Oh?" She steepled her fingers in front of her mouth and regarded the two males in front of her. "Then report."

"Nagato – known as Pein – has lost his mind," Jiraiya began. "He has disbanded Akatsuki, and from what I heard, called them all incompetent fools. He has given up hunting for the Kyuubi, and none of the former members have any desire to."

Naruto punched the air at that. "They gave up? That's great!"

"Not so great," the toad sage responded solemnly. "Instead he's fixated on a new target; Konoha. He's on his way here now."

Tsunade started. "Now?"

"I have maybe six hours on him," Jiraiya nodded wearily. "All six of his bodies – Paths, as they are known – are on their way here. We have to prepare."

"Shizune!" Tsunade barked, and the door to her office immediately swung open. She didn't wait for her assistant to acknowledge her. "Alert all ANBU, tell them there is a dangerous enemy outside our walls. Send all jounin here, immediately!"

"Hai, Tsunade-sama!" Shizune affirmed smartly, disappearing from the door again.

"You two," the Hokage pointed at both males in front of her. "Stay for the briefing. We have to keep Pein from entering Konoha if at all possible."

Five and a half hours and lots of questions later, many of the villagers were being evacuated by the genin of Konoha, while ANBU and jounin manned the walls, other jounin patrolling the inside of the village, in case one managed to slip through.

It wasn't hard to see where the bodies passed; from her perch on top of the Hokage Tower, Tsunade could see a trail of destruction in the distance, wending its way towards her village. Jiraiya stood next to her, hands clasped behind his back.

"You can't fight this one," he remarked off hand, not looking at her.

"I know," she said just as casually, although she was itching to. It may be selfish, but she would rather fight and die than have to live with the desolation that would occur after whatever fights ended.

Jiraiya studied her out of the corner of his eye. He had known her for five decades, and in that time she had made him laugh, cry, shout, and about every emotion in between – some with more frequency than others. But he loved her. "Love really is blind," he whispered under his breath.

"Did you say something?"

"No…I should get to the wall, make sure they're doing fine," he abruptly changed the subject. He didn't wait for her nod to go, but disappeared off the roof.

"Sir! Six enemies approaching quickly!" an ANBU snapped out the moment Jiraiya arrived at the walls surrounding the village. "Preparing defensive maneuvers!"

Jiraiya gave a tense nod, keeping his eyes on the approaching figures. One was distinctly in the lead, a man with long orange hair held in a ponytail at the top of his head. He sped towards the wall, seeming to not even see the obstacle.

"Release!" Jiraiya barked, and from seven different positions on the wall various jutsu and weapons shot forward at the figure. It dodged all easily and kept coming, the other five relentless behind it. "Keep them all away!"

More efforts were aimed at the five orange haired figures in the back, lessening the barrage on the first. He leapt over the wall and all on it, dodging yet more attacks.

"Intercept him!" roared the Sannin, and obediently four men broke off to chase and subdue the interloper. The other five outside the gate suddenly halted. When some forces would have left the wall to engage them in combat, Jiraiya motioned them to stay.

"Sir?" one of the ANBU questioned.

"Trust me," he replied grimly.

Naruto chased the intruder into their village with a dog-minded intensity. There was no way he was going to let anyone hurt his village or those who inhabited it.

The man he was chasing didn't return any attacks they fired at him, but seemed to be uncannily good at dodging wire and other traps that were set in his path. He gestured to Neji, who was to his right, and the jounin nodded and moved accordingly. Two seconds later a barrage of attacks meant to cut any chakra to the body were unleashed, and the orange haired man stumbled.

But then Neji recoiled, dodging a wave of flame, and retreated next to Naruto. "I closed the tenketsu, but it seems he is receiving chakra through those piercings in his face. I can't stop it."

Kuso. Naruto nodded his thanks to Neji, then glared at the back of the man they were chasing through the village. How do we stop him?

It seemed they didn't have to. The man came to a sudden stop of his own accord in middle of the empty street, and ran through a series of hand seals.

That looked like summoning…

With five puffs of smoke, the other five enemies appeared next to the original.

Jiraiya was readying his forces to combat any moves their opponents would make, when they suddenly disappeared. "What –"

"Sir!" A jounin pointed towards the center of the village, where the four figures of the men he had sent after the first infiltrator suddenly flew into the air. They were followed by three of the Paths who had just been outside the walls.

"Kuso. Twenty of you, stay here in case it's a trick! The rest of you, come with me!" Jiraiya took off, followed by about fifty of Konoha's finest.

Tsunade watched from her tower with dismay as the Paths gained access to her village. They were grouped in one of the main streets, and she could see four shinobi trying to fight them. And failing miserably. They were extraordinarily fast, and seemed to have no blind spots she could see. Whenever an attack looked as though it was going to hit one, another intercepted it and sent an attack back, or the target jumped out of the way.

"They are death," came a whispered voice from behind her, carried on the wind.

She spun around defensively, immediately at the ready, and saw no one there.

"You are responsible for the death they deal," continued that voice, and she looked around, trying to pinpoint the source. "Without your actions, this would not have happened."

A figure was falling towards her now, from the top of the cliff that rose behind the building she stood on. The same cliff the Hokage Monument was carved on. It landed with a thump, a person clad in a black cloak, with odd metal rods sticking out of his back like a porcupine. She wasn't sure how he was able to move, except he took steps towards her.

"Who are you?"

"I am Pein. I am death. I am Nagato. I am your destroyer!" Lank red hair hung around his face, and his eyes held a demented gleam, accentuated by their rings. "You killed her, so you must die!"

Tsunade eyed the figure, even as one hand crept towards the kunai holster on her leg. "Konan?"

"Yes, the angel!" he howled, throwing his head back and bearing his teeth in a rictus grin. "The one…"

"It was me or her. You were a shinobi, you know how it must end."

"With your death!" His eyes were wide, unseeing. "She protected me…and you killed her for it!"

"She swore to protect you, and I swore to protect my own! She knew why we fought, and put her life on the line anyway!" Tsunade paused, then added, "She loved you."

Suddenly his head snapped back down, and his eyes glared at her with a fevered gleam. "Love? Love? What is love? Love only causes pain! You have caused my pain! You killed her!" A scream of complete unadulterated rage and pain issued from his mouth, loud enough Tsunade flinched back. He slammed his hands on the ground, crouching with black spikes from his back sticking up in the air. "Kuchiyose: Gedou Mazou!"

She felt the building under her feet rumble, and saw cracks beginning in the cliffs she was facing. Two large hands forced their way out of a crevice that formed between the Nidaime and Sandaime Hokagefaces, then the cliff was yanked apart, and a truly monstrous beast reared its head. It wore a piece of white cloth covering its eyes, and what looked like tree stumps grew out of its back. The thing planted its hands on either side of the monument and loomed over Nagato where he stood.

As Tsunade watched in fascination, a rod of the same black metal that was found on all the other protruded from the creature's chest and shot towards Nagato, fusing with all the rods sticking out of his back.

Jiraiya ducked under a massive fist from one of the Paths, as Naruto launched another rasengan at the attacker.

"How long…can we keep this up?" the blond panted, landing next to the Sannin. "Even in sage mode…" his eyes were oddly slitted, a benefit of his time spent on Mount Myouboku. Two Paths were dead, but many more of their own jounin were heavily injured, unable to fight anymore. He and Jiraiya were the two heavy hitters left.

"As long as we need to," Jiraiya grunted back, then ran through some hand seals. "Katon: -" he didn't finish as the Path collapsed to the ground as though its strings had been cut. "What?"

"The Hokage Monument!" Naruto shouted, eyes drawn to a large figure that now crouched over the Hokage Tower, protruding from the Monument. Rods of metal extended from it, all meeting at one point.

Tsunade could see the bones sticking out of Nagato's skin already, and whatever flesh he had left was swiftly receding. But he let out another yell, and a long serpentine dragon rushed out of his summons' mouth; purple and glowing. She didn't know what it could do, but didn't want it to hit her so she could find out.

As the dragon headed straight towards her, jaws bared, she jumped up and to the side, barely missing the spikes on its back as she pushed off one of the ribs that surrounded the roof of the Hokage Tower. The dragon shot past, tail whipping behind, and she landed in front of Nagato, out of range of the creature, and wary of the dragon. Tsunade shot a kunai at him, but was deflected by some – thing – that also came out of the monster's mouth. She didn't dare get close to punch him as she didn't know its capabilities.

"I will take your soul," he hissed, eyes fixing on hers, and she saw the dragon come roaring back, passing her open window. Papers flapped out of it, brought along and pushed by the breeze the dragon caused, and brushed past the woman.

One flew straight at Nagato, right at his face. He froze, eyes following its path right until the moment it plastered itself across his features. The dragon stopped in its tracks, hanging in the air as though confused.

The Hokage refused to let that opportunity pass. In an instant she crossed the roof, one fist drawn back and all of her chakra channeled into it. She slammed it into the left side of his chest, snapping brittle bones with ease.

"No…" the paper fell away, and Nagato once again looked directly at her. "I came…to get my…revenge…" his voice was raspy, fading. The dragon behind her moved forward once more, but this time his control was jerky. The rods in his back crumbled and broke off from the monster, which disappeared in a huge puff of smoke, along with the dragon. "Konan…"

Tsunade watched impassively as the redheaded man collapsed forward onto the roof of her residence, and the rods in his back all crumbled and disintegrated, leaving only a much emancipated body dressed in a black robe.

"To protect…" she muttered, looking at the person Konan had fought to protect. "Would you have rather seen him live on like this, or to join you? I know which I would choose."

"You killed my student."

"I had no choice."

"I know…" Jiraiya sighed. "It shouldn't have come to this. He was supposed to save the world…not destroy himself for vengeance. It's my –"

"It's not your fault, Ero-sennin," Naruto interrupted him, coming up behind the two where they stood, looking over the ruined village.

The Paths had wreaked havoc on the village before being cut off by Nagato redirecting all his power to defeating Tsunade, mad as he was. There were fires everywhere, and the husks of burned down buildings. The Hokage Monument had been cracked into pieces, with only half of Hashirama's face still intact out of the five that had once resided there.

"He chose his path, you didn't choose for him," the blond continued. "You did everything you could to try to set him on the right one."

All Jiraiya gave in response was a mute nod; it was obvious to both blondes he still blamed himself. "Konoha has burned to embers…"

"But like a phoenix we shall rise again…" Tsunade offered.

"Following the Will of Fire," Naruto finished.