Chapter Nine: The War Begins
The group of Konoha's new ninja, consisting of the past few years' academy graduates along with the rookie nine (minus Naruto, plus Team Gai), looked on in horror as one of Pein's bodies had a sword extending from its hand, and that sword had impaled Naruto through the chest, stopping inches from Tsunade's own chest. Konohamaru ran forward, tears streaming down his eyes, and Hinata came quickly afterward.
"Naruto-nii-chan! Don't die! You can't die, you're the strongest person in the world!" Konohamaru lightly pounded on Naruto's shoulder, trying to stifle his crying.
Hinata just looked at Naruto, tears welling up, her heart in the process of breaking, "Naruto-kun…"
In the blink of an eye, Naruto pushed them away, and another sword impaled him as he blocked Pein's aim once again, this time defending Konohamaru and Hinata. All of Konoha's ninja looked on even more terrified, as blood covered most of Naruto's clothes, and more flowed out of his mouth, coating his chin and neck.
Somehow, Naruto managed to yell at them, "GET OUT OF HERE. All of you," he motioned to Tsunade and Kakashi as he said that, "I can take these guys on my own, just get back to the village and stop the rest of Akatsuki, and send Sasuke, I'll try to save Itachi for him."
Tsunade wouldn't have it, "Are you insane!? You have two swords in your chest and you're bleeding liters of blood every second, you'll be child's play for them!"
Naruto growled in response, and fifteen new Naruto's popped into existence, each one picking up two comrades, although two of them had to use both arms for Kakashi and Tsunade, and leaping away, ending any attempts at knocking sense into Naruto.
Naruto turned back to Pein and Itachi, and grunted as he pushed the two swords out of his chest. To Pein's satisfaction, the wounds began to heal, although slower than he had thought they would. He smirked as he addressed Naruto, "So, you do still have the nine-tails inside you. Good, then the rumors of the Kyuubi having died are false."
"Wrong again, Pein." Naruto spat, "The Kyuubi is dead and gone, and so are all the other Bijuu, the spirits you captured should be worthless at this point. The only reason I can heal is because some of the Kyuubi's chakra still resides in me, and it can regenerate itself to a certain degree, not enough to really help me in a fight, but it can heal me just like it always has, just slower than the Kyuubi did. That should be more than enough, though, to take you out."
"Stop trying to bluff your way out of this, vessel. Your ludicrous stories are beginning to get on my nerves." Pein's voice, for once, showed emotion. Itachi flinched at the malice that had been accumulating in Pein's voice during his last statement.
"You never were one to listen, Pein. Fine then, believe me or not, but regardless of what happens here today your plans are over. I dare you to try to use the power of a Bijuu right here, right now." Naruto smirked as he challenged Pein.
Pein only frowned, before biting his thumb and going through the handseals for an obscure Summoning Jutsu. "Inanimate Summoning Jutsu!" He slammed his palm onto the ground, and the all too familiar sequence of kanji flowed from his hand, forming the required sequence and shape to summon. The giant statue began to form, just as it had the last time Naruto and Pein fought. Pein's five bodies and Itachi jumped up onto the still-rising statue's platforms, and began their plan. Naruto didn't bother to try to stop them, he wanted Pein to realize for himself that his plans were now worthless.
It didn't take long for Pein and Itachi to notice that something wasn't right, and Pein growled in frustration, before punching the statue's great face. The statue shattered instantly, and Itachi and Pein jumped down, as the statue began to sink back into the earth. Pein howled in anger, and screamed at Naruto, "Damn you! Do you have any idea what you have done?! That was the only hope we had of ending war and fighting in this world once and for all!"
"You mean to tell me that you planned to stop violence in the world, by capturing the nine spirits of the Bijuu, and using that power to make people cower in fear?" Naruto questioned in a slightly mocking tone.
"You ninja are all alike, none of you can understand the world as it is. The only way to stop violence is to show the world that you can be more violent than they can. But since you just keep insisting on ruining my plans, so be it. I'll take away everything you hold dear!" Pein yelled out the last part, before he (his main body) was surrounded by his four other bodies, and they began to glow a bright white. The lights seemed to fuse, and then the bodies surrounding Pein began to spin around him. The Pein Rocket began to levitate, before shooting up into the sky, knocking Itachi and Naruto backward and through several trees. This volent action knocked Itachi unconscious after all the fighting he had gone through with Tsunade and Kakashi.
Naruto, however, remained conscious, and saw Pein's rocket gaining altitude steadily. After several minutes, though, the rocket began to arc, and Naruto realized it was starting to descend. He leapt into action, and used his immense speed to arrive back in the village in mere seconds. He wasted no time in creating an army of Shadow Clones, which he instructed to find any villagers or ninja still in the village and evacuate them, immediately. It took almost ten minutes, but the sheer mass of clones managed to find all the shinobi and civilans of Konoha and get them outside the remains of the walls of Konoha. Naruto then performed a jutsu he had never shown anyone before, he made a barrier.
As Konoha's population began to struggle in the hands of the Naruto clones, everyone ceased moving as a giant blue barrier began to form a bubble over Konoha. As they watched the bubble forming and getting closer to finishing the dome overtop of Konoha, the Konoha inhabitants finally saw the giant white rocket that was Pein. As Akatsuki's remaining foot soldiers looked on, some of the higher ranking ones realized that their leader was sacrificing his self, and quickly relayed the information to the rest of his comrades. As the news spread, Akatsuki's morale evaporated, and the cloaked nukenin began a hasty retreat. Konoha's population paid them no attention, as they watched as Naruto's clones began to climb the barrier Naruto was creating. Several Hyuuga activated their Byakugans all around the barrier, scouring the area for the real Naruto. They finally found him, standing atop the Fourth Hokage's rock head, and the Hyuuga who were watching all gasped in awe and fear at what he was forming in his hands.
Naruto's army of clones had finally managed to all get onto the barrier, and each began to form its own Rasengan. The ones near the back began to climb onto others, and the sheet of clones began to form a dense cylinder, leaving an area about the size of Pein's rocket in the center, right over the Hokage Monument, where the real Naruto was standing. Naruto pulled open his barrier, and leapt up into the sky, before reforming the opened area. He landed in the center of the open area, right as the highest Narutos began slamming Rasengans into Pein's rocket. Naruto growled in frustration as the Rasengan's were being repelled, and then dispelling themselves and their clones. He groaned from strain, as he hoisted his own Rasengan over his head, and began to disperse his clones as soon as they contacted Pein with their Rasengan.
The Hyuuga watched in awe, relaying what they saw happening to their confused comrades, "He's formed a giant Rasengan, and I'd dare say its nearly the size of the Fourth's head. Now he's collecting the chakra that is dissipating from the failed Rasengans and pulling it into his own Rasengan!"
What happened next, though, shocked and scared every Hyuuga that had their Byakugan active, including Hanabi and Hinata. "H-he's opened the Gates! One…Two…Three…Five…Six…Seven! He has Seven of the Celestial Gates opened!" The population of ninja stood, watching in awe and horror, mouths agape as the winds began to pick up and swirl around the dense mass of chakra that stood atop the barrier. The words Hinata spoke next tore Tsunade's heart apart.
"H-he-he's pulling chakra out of his muscles to increase the size of his Rasengan! No! He's pulling even more from his heart and vital organs… And now from every cell in his body… Good God… He's taking every last ounce of chakra he has to power up his Rasengan!"
This confused most of the younger (aka non-ANBU or Jounin) ninja, and it was evident. Tsunade let tears fall as she sighed and began to explain, "People have two sets of chakra, one set, the set that ninja use in order to perform jutsu, is the surplus that we don't need in day to day life to move and survive. However, the other set, is the set that sustains our bodies and keeps us alive. The second set is normally never needed for ninja, and most can't even access it if they wanted to. This is a good thing, because what Naruto is doing right now… Is certain death…"