Haven't had time to do review responses lately, they'll come back next upload!
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Konan
The Kages. The Summit. This isn't good.
The Land of Iron was a bitterly cold place, and was definitely an unusual place a meeting of shinobi. For the remaining Kage to have willingly walked into the home of the Samurai told her many things, among them that their trust was so mangled with each other that a formerly neutral party now had to intervene.
But why, Sasuke? What do you hope to gain?
His motives were unclear. Pain had allowed him and his team to perform how they desired. Obviously he had wanted to go to Konohagakure for revenge- had that somehow branched out into a desire for a global hatred for shinobi?
That was a sure danger sign he was growing unstable. She wondered if Nagato would eliminate the boy just as easily as he had Naruto Uzumaki if it came to it.
Like in Amegakure, water fell from the sky, but in icy flakes that chilled and wet her skin. Her paper ninjutsu would definitely be weaker out in the open snow.
She landed in the snow, and with her remaining arm extended her hand. Several paper birds extended, shivering in artificial chill. She smiled at the small, beautiful creations she had made, then sent them searching. They would recognize the chakra of anyone familiar-
Danzo.
Could Sasuke be after him? The new Kage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves? He was definitely responsible for many dark events in Konoha; could he have done something to offend the young Uchiha?
Danzo.
Yes, he had done many dark events, hadn't he?
She forced herself to calm down, focused her chakra through the birds she had sent out. Like many eyes and ears they went through the snow, towards the building the Summit was occurring in, a large dome shaped structure. The birds flew about, sensing-
There. Four bodies were over on the right side of the building, at a side entrance. Two unidentified chakra signatures were fading out, probably the guards standing watch. They were about to enter the Summit, and that was something they did not have time for.
No-
Something else was on the exact opposite side of the building. An equally familiar signature, but alone and with a chakra as large as all four of Taka put together.
No, Kisame! She silently cursed herself and Nagato; Kisame had been sent to make fake assassination attempts on the Kages by him, and here they were all grouped together! And poor Kisame, knowing how dangerous it was, was still following through with his Leader's orders.
There was little choice that could be made now. One or the other, who was more valuable here?
Stupid, stupid question. They both have incredible value to us right now.
She felt very uncomfortable with herself. What was life supposed to be to her and Nagato? There was a time when she, Yahiko, and Nagato had saved lives to truly save them, when Akatsuki had been about helping others and helping them live.
Wasn't she only saving them so that they would die later on, under the fire of an all-powered Tailed?
She bit her blue lips, then held up her hand into a hand sign. Her left side began to slough off, flitting off into many pieces of paper. She multiplied the amount, more and more, thousands if not millions of slips of paper piling into another body in mere seconds-
A second Konan, and paper clone stood next to her.
"I'll recover Kisame," it said.
"And I will get Sasuke," the original said. "We will meet back at this spot after."
They jumped away to recover their comrades.
XXX
Nagato
XXX
Pain stood before him, six strong. A replacement for the Human Path, taken by another Amegakure chunin who had eagerly complied to serve, had joined. Once more, the Six Paths of Pain were here.
His brow furrowed. He remained motionless in his walker prison, he looking at himself through six pairs of Rinnegan. Looking upon himself as if through a mirror, taking in the fragileness of his own red-headed body. The irony of God being locked in a cage...
They'll be coming soon. Those two...
Certainly he had his plan for taking care of them. He had to, if there was any hope of allowing Konan to carry on his will; Yahiko's dream.
The Pains turned away on his command and jumped from the great painted mouth, down, down, skimming along the structure of the tower into the area where the Gedo Statue lied dormant, kept in limbo by whatever the two beings had done to it.
A large space, barren space otherwise. The Pains all stood in a small circle and sat cross-legged on the cold ground, though he did not truly feel it. He withdrew his chakra from them until only small slivers of control and consciousness remained in them. It all returned to his main self, still high in the tower, and he drew himself into a meditation.
It must happen. There is no other way to stop them.
The Reverse Creation. Gyaku Sakusei.
He took a deep breath and harnessed the chakra within himself. He felt it inside himself, ready to be manipulated and molded to how it needed to be. The question was not, however, whether he knew how to use it.
It was if he could.
He shuddered. If Madara could entrust Obito, so I can entrust Konan.
She was educated, she served him, he could assure himself that she believed in him utterly, fully. It was why he allowed her to go and do these errands for him. He could not allow their previous friendship to interfere so heavily, even though sometimes he truly wanted it to, and noticed when she tried to let it be so.
There's no room for that here. Now, it's fight or die.
All at once, power surged back into the Pains. They jumped to their feet and spread about, except for the Animal Path, which did the hand signs for a summon jutsu and at once caused a great plume of smoke erupted. The large dog, sprouting many heads whenever critically wounded, appeared, snarling viciously but quickly quieting as it noticed that no enemies were around, only the six bearers it new to serve.
The Animal Path did a brief hand sign, then slammed a hand on the dog's side, breaking the summoning seal on it and yet keeping it trapped in real-space.
It howled viciously at the betrayal; it wasn't stupid, it knew what was coming. It swiped viciously at the Animal Path, catching it by the arm and sending it spinning away. However, the Path landed surely on its feet. The Six Pains gazed down upon the free creature, which eyes them all with frenzied eyes.
"Time to train," Nagato said through Yahiko, the enunciation sounding awkward. He ignored it, and the Pains leaped forward as the dog finally braced itself.
XXX
Konan
XXX
Her main self found the bodies of two samurai, dead, leaning against each other by the door. She forced it open in a flash and went through a long hallway, aware that there were sounds of violence coming deeper within the building. She increased her pace, distantly aware her paper clone was also entering the building. Her paper birds followed her in, providing a greater sensory view if she needed.
A battle was erupting in an arena-like reception hall. Sasuke and his teammates were battling several Land of Iron samurai, cutting them to pieces. He fought with a sort of controlled rage, she recognized it very easily, the most recent example being Raon-
Cycle of hatred will always repeat. Nagato's voice, speaking so calmly and with assurance. It made her hesitate; was she here for Sasuke, or to perhaps get a shot at Danzo?
"You!" a high pitched feminine voice snapped her out of her thoughts, but it was only Karin, the female teammate of Sasuke's group. She was also on the balcony like viewing of the battle before, staying out of harms way. Insults fanned through Konan's mind so high was her intolerance, but instead she demanded, "What the devil are you all doing here? The Kage Summit? This what you decided to do in your free time?"
Her face turned as red as her eyes. "We're here on your orders, smart one! Or rather Madara's, so who are you-"
"What? We didn't tell you to come to the Kage Summit! We haven't had any communication with you since we split you off!"
Karin rolled her eyes. "Well duh it didn't come from you! You're just his little messenger girl-"
Konan took a daring step forward, suddenly oblivious to shouts and death below.
The other held up mocking hands. "Alright, girl to girl talk not working out?"
"Karin-"
"I meant you're one of his messengers! Madara told Sasuke what Danzo did to his older brother, and so we headed out over here!" Karin paused, expecting another interruption, but Konan had no words for her. "So we're out here- on Pain's orders! Did he think we couldn't pull it off? He really shouldn't underestimate Sasuke like that-"
Konan swore. Madara had escaped, it was obvious. And he was still going to defy Nagato?
Cycle of hatred. She smiled grimly despite herself. Nagato's words were ringing truer than ever; Sasuke was still dead set on revenge, though now he had a rather interesting target. He should know better, who knows what Nagato is capable of. Next time, Pain won't spare him.
She brushed past Karin, who tried to go after her. Konan jumped down into the throng, and quickly cursed herself for not having stayed focused on what was going on. The Kazekage, whom Akatsuki had sealed before but somehow remained alive, had arrived along with his personal bodyguards, as well as what looked like a single Iwagakure shinobi. Sasuke stood in front of Jugo and Suigetsu, looking battered but strangely alive.
Konan moved towards them, her approach causing the violent Uchiha to eye her. "Stay out of this," he said coldly. His tone, she noted, was a much more vicious, relentless thing. The wavering hesitancy to seal his former teammates back in Pain's Tower was utterly absent, replaced by an almost repulsively hostile attitude.
"You weren't supposed to come here," she said flatly, still walking so she would stand between him and the gathered shinobi. "Madara was revealed to be a-"
"Stand aside, Akatsuki," the Kazekage called to her. "Our quarrel lies with Sasuke, though we would much rather broker peace."
"Peace?" Sasuke laughed metallically, sending an odd chill through Konan. "As long as Danzo of the Leaf lives, there can be no peace."
So Madara knew something that had convinced Sasuke risking his life to attack the most powerful shinobi - besides Pain - was worthwhile, if only to kill Danzo. Part of her desired to know what, to increase her own loathing for the old man, but she flung it aside, bearing Pain's mission in her mind. Her focusing had taken her away from being attuned to the paper clone that was searching for Kisame; she could only hope it was having much more peaceful progress.
The Kazekage nodded at them. "Danzo has indeed been implicated in treason. He attempted to manipulate the samurai Mifune into making him leader of an armed shinobi alliance." The pale green irises swiveled to Konan, drabbed in the Akatsuki cloak. "An alliance against the actions of the Akatsuki."
Her own eyes narrowed in defiance, but inside she felt a deep wave of apprehension. Things were out of order; not even the entire Akatsuki would have been able to fight off entire legions of jonin. The whole point of their operations was to remain covert enough that the abduction of tailed beasts wouldn't catch the attention of the great nations, before they could mobilize.
And now they were mobilizing. They had the tailed beasts, but now this unseen obstacle of the two beings barred their path. She remembered Nagato had asked Kisame to make a cookie trail back to Amegakure- was he intending to have the village destroyed as consequence as he failed?
"Get out of the way, Gaara," Sasuke said quietly, his wild laughter replaced by sudden deadliness.
"I don't want to hurt you, Sasuke Uchiha," Gaara said in return, not flinching beneath the others gaze. "But I will put the lives of the rest of the shinobi over yours if I have to."
"Your loss."
Konan whirled on him. "Sasuke-"
A great rumbling sounded behind the Kazekage and his entourage. Together, they all looked as from the hallway they'd entered, a small trickle of water emerged. Konan stared, knowing what was coming right efore it did. "Get up onto the balcony!" she snapped, spreading her wings.
The wall behind the Kazekage exploded into a mad rush of water. Kisame was visible in the blue mass as a wild speck. The rest of the Kage followed; she saw that Danzo, however, was not among them.
The Mizukage shot a thin jet of water at Kisame that cut through the wall easily, making him jump out of way, Sharkskin catching what aim was true and absorbing it.
"I think the jobs done!" he shouted at them. "Sorry, your paper clone caused things to go a little awry-"
"It doesn't matter!" she called back. She scanned the now flooded room; the Kazekage was busy helping the rest of the shinobi stay afloat of the torrent on piles of sand. The Mizugake's blue dress was shredded and bloody; no doubt Kisame's faked attempt. The small, elderly Tsuchikage looked unharmed but angry, flying above the water, eyeing them.
Sasuke was still in the water, standing on it while his others had fled to the balcony where Karin was at. The whole building was no doubt threatening to collapse with the violent water jutsu Kisame had unleashed, but Sasuke stood defiantly, as if daring one of the Kage to make a move.
And she'd had enough. "We're falling back, Sasuke. Now. There are things more important!"
"You aren't going anywhere, Akatsuki," the Tsuchikage snarled from across the arena-like chamber. "You dare to kill my guards, and harm the Mizukage? You criminals have overstayed your welcome on our continent."
"I want Danzo-"
Kisame leaped down next to Sasuke and tried to grab him. The Uchiha, however, sidestepped. A purple aura enveloped him, and Kisame stepped back, unsure of what he was looking at. Konan, also, did not know what to make of the glow. A power of the Sharingan, perhaps?
We don't have time for this! "Madara!" she shouted aloud, hoping by some chance he would hear. But nothing was forthcoming; he had sent Sasuke down a path of destruction, knowing full well it was out of his depth-
And intentional or not, he was going to get the rest of Akatsuki killed as well.