Dawn's Sage
Chapter 25
"Hold on a second." said Kisame, pointing Samehada angrily at Nagato. "Can we go back to the part where you kill us all for a second? Because if you said what I heard, you and I are going to have a problem, god or not."
"Akatsuki has no place in the world of peace I will create. The purpose of creating Akatsuki was to use it until I had no further need of it, and then dispose of it." replied Nagato simply.
"Well, I don't take kindly to people killing comrades." said Kisame as he lowered Samehada and sprinted forward. "I just got done avenging a fallen comrade, and it felt pretty good. But I'd rather not have to do it again." Jumping up, Kisame brought Samehada down with all his might. At the last second, the black liquid around Nagato moved in between them, stopping Samehada dead in its tracks.
"Your paltry weapon is nothing before the chakra of the Ten Tails." said Nagato. Kisame just smirked.
"Bad move trying to block me with chakra! I'll eat it all!" Kisame adjusted his grip and pulled, dragging the length of Samehada across the pitch black chakra shield. To his shock though, the legendary blade didn't manage to steal any chakra from the barrier. Kisame was forced to twist his sword awkwardly to block the three black spikes that shot out from the black shield and attempted to impale him. Samehada got in the way though, and the spikes failed to penetrate the legendary blade, instead launching Kisame backwards.
Skidding to a stop, Kisame swung his sword like an oversized club to smack away the black orbs of chakra into the ground as they came flying at him. "What was that?" asked the shark man incredulously. "Samehada didn't get any of that weird chakra."
"Fuck if I care, but I know this!" shouted Hidan as he ran at Nagato, dragging his scythe along the ground as he went. "There's only one god, and that's god damned Jashin!" Hidan jumped up, and swung his scythe downwards at the self-proclaimed god.
"Fool." said Nagato simply as the black chakra of the Ten Tails flowed around him to catch the scythe. Rather than simply be stopped like Samehada had been, the blood red scythe disappeared into the black chakra and kept going as if the barrier wasn't even there. When it would have emerged from the black shield, it simply didn't, and Hidan was left holding a short spike. Nagato raised his hand menacingly, and a black rod shot out of his sleeve. A simple twist of his wrist snapped the rod, and the Ten Tails jinchuriki brought the weapon down.
"That idiot." said Kakuzu emotionlessly. Despite his berating of Hidan, his right hand shot out and caught the immortal zealot, yanking him out of the way. The trip back to the group of betrayed Akatsuki members wasn't gentle, and anyone other than Hidan would have likely been incredibly injured after being pulled along the ground. "If anyone in this world can kill you, it's him, and we'll need everyone alive if we want to stand any chance of winning."
Hidan sat up sharply, covered in cuts and bruises. "Well that still hurt you fucker! And that son of a bitch destroyed my scythe, too!" Nagato calmly pulled the black rod out of the ground that it had impaled in place of Hidan.
"Konan, Zetsu. Take them out." he commanded simply, not giving the other members of Akatsuki any breathing room.
Konan took to the skies silently, looking a bit sad, and Zetsu saluted happily, or at least half of him did. "Aye aye, sir! Will do." said the bicolored man as he slid into the ground.
"We need a plan if we don't want to all die here and now." growled Kisame as he prepared Samehada to block any incoming attacks. "One thing's for sure, we'll need as many of us as we can spare to take on Pain. Two of us need to keep Zetsu and Konan at bay in the meantime."
"I'll take care of the angel." said Deidara as her clay creation began to hover above the ground. "That stupid paper crap isn't anything even resembling art. Besides, I'm the only one who can fly." No one objected, and Deidara took to the skies to confront the only other female in Akatsuki in a battle for aerial supremacy.
Naruto reacted suddenly, shattering the ground with a single punch and taking the others off guard. Zetsu in particular was surprised by the attack and barely managed to get out of the way before sinking back into the ground. "I can see through Aloe Vera's hiding techniques. He isn't a front line fighter, so I should be able to help you out once I'm done."
"Fine by me, but there won't be much left for you." replied Kisame tersely as he spun Samehada around a bit. "I'm not going to go easy on this traitor." Blue spikes emerged from Samehada's hilt as the blade slowly began to merge with its owner.
Kakuzu discarded his Akatsuki cloak in a single fluid movement as the threads that lurked under his skin burst out, segmenting his arms and placing the remaining Lightning Style mask over his shoulder. Kakuzu's speak was surprisingly understandable as he spoke around the mass of black threads fanning out of his mouth. "I wonder, how much a god is worth?"
Hidan stood up and wheeled his arm to loosen it up. "Well this poser isn't a damn god, so don't get your hopes up too much Kakuzu. I suppose the leader of Akatsuki should be worth a bit though… TO JASHIN!" shouted Hidan as he raised his ruined scythe to the skies.
"My art is eternal." said Sasori as he pulled out the scrolls that contained his two Kazekage puppets. The sand would make the movements of his favorite puppets jerky, but without the Fifth Kazekage controlling the sand, it would likely fall out during the course of battle. "Its perseverance in the face of you trying to destroy it will prove the worth of my art." In dual clouds of smoke, the S-Ranked puppeteer was flanked by the weaponized corpses of two other S-Ranked ninja.
"As long as I can have those eyes for my research." said Orochimaru as he bit his thumb and ran through the hand seals that made him a snake summoner. "Besides, I haven't accomplished my goals yet, so I'm afraid you'll have to be the one who has to die." When the smoke cleared, Orochimaru was standing atop a giant purple snake with four large horns.
"I don't see a hundred sacrifices here Orochimaru." complained Manda loudly. "Give me one good reason not to eat you right here and now."
"You're right of course." conceded the Sannin nonchalantly. "Now that I think about it, you probably wouldn't have been much help against this opponent anyway."
"You'll pay for insulting my prowess later, but for now I'll show you the power of the snakes." Orochimaru grinned before spitting up a smaller snake. This snake in turn spat out a double sided blade that Orochimaru caught out of the air. Nagato looked on at the five S-Ranked ninja in front of him that were prepared to kill him with supreme confidence.
"Perhaps you could provide enough of a challenge to at least let me get a decent warm up. But know this. If you insist on fighting me, your deaths will be even more painful." With his 'warning' out of the way, Nagato manipulated on of the black orbs of the Ten Tails volatile chakra into a solid black shakujo that likely held the same disintegrating properties as the corrosive chakra. "Now then, your deaths shall usher in an era of peace the likes of which this world has never seen."
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Konan and Deidara sized each other up, each with several of their creations flying around them. "So I get that Nagato is crazy now, but why are you following him?" asked Deidara as several of her clay birds were hit by paper shuriken. The four pointed paper did little to affect the clay creatures, but Deidara had no doubt they would be as lethal as any metal weapon.
"World peace was the dream of Akatsuki's first leader, and the goal that Nagato follows as well. This is the only way, and I will support that bridge to peace." With that, Konan launched another wave of paper shuriken at Deidara. The sheer number of origami weapons was too much for her suicidal birds to catch in their bodies, and Deidara dove sharply to avoid the paper shuriken.
"Oh, so you're just crazy too. Good to know, yeah." deadpanned Deidara as she sent her birds flying towards Konan. The blue haired Akatsuki member swung her arms down and launched six more shuriken, one at each of the birds, and hit them all dead on. These bits of paper began to sizzle before exploding violently. The clay pieces of art were too volatile to survive an explosion without giving into their own unstable tendencies, and they all detonated a safe distance away from Konan.
Gritting her teeth, Deidara dodged to the right and avoided more paper shuriken that exploded shortly after passing her. "I was going to kill you for trying to kill me and my friends, but now it's personal. You'll pay for ripping off my art!" Tossing out two small four winged birds, Deidara sent her next attack at Konan. The paper counterattack was expected, and the faster pieces of art easily dodged the wave of shuriken.
The mobile bombs exploded in Konan's face, and she remained as emotionless as ever as she exploded into a flurry of paper and reformed several meters away. Deidara flipped off of her mount to avoid the barrage of paper weaponry that embedded itself into the clay sculpture Deidara had been riding. Deidara stopped her freefall by creating another large bird to fly on, this one a simple hawk, and sent her previous mount hurtling towards the paper angel.
More exploding tags took the bird down, but the chakra held inside it was able to cause an explosion that Konan had to turn to paper to dodge. Reforming her torso and wings, Konan looked around frantically for Deidara, though it didn't show on her face. "You think that paper crap is art?" Konan looked down, and her eyes widened as a large hawk barreled into her neck and carried her high into the air. "I'll turn you into real art, yeah!" Deidara immediately popped more clay into the mouth on her hand as the hawk exploded high in the air.
The explosion scattered the sheets of paper that made up Konan's body, and she took longer than usual to reform. Deidara put the time to good use, pumping as much chakra as she could into the clay she was chewing. It was obvious that it would take a masterpiece to finish Konan off for good, and even though chewing the clay with a tongue that could actually taste made her want to gag, it was a small price to pay for ending this fight. And now that they had enough altitude, the chance of anyone else getting caught in the blast was almost nonexistent.
Konan reformed above Deidara, who seemed to be intently chewing on something. Bursting into a maelstrom of paper, Konan descended on Deidara. The mad bomber seemed to panic, looking around frantically for a way out. Nagato's right hand fluttered into existence behind Deidara, but kept her right hand flying around. Forming her right arm into a spike of chakra enhanced paper, Konan stabbed forward, hitting Deidara right in the heart with little resistance. The blonde jerked, falling slowly backwards as the paper user formed fully.
Konan berated herself for letting her guard down as the Deidara she had stabbed turned stark white and quickly reached behind her head to grab the blue haired origami master. Melting into a more fluid clay, the clone melded around Konan into a solid ball of white clay. As Konan tried in vain to free herself form the clay clone trap, the real Deidara rose up from inside the bird. Opening her mouth as if to talk, Deidara instead spat out a deluge of clay as if she were throwing up. The clay messily covered Konan up entirely, leaving no hope of escape.
Wiping any stray clay from her lips, Deidara smirked in victory. "This is real art!" With her last quip delivered, Deidara fell backwards off of the hawk, activating her C4 on the way down. Looking up as she plummeted to earth, Deidara saw the large poof of white smoke as her C4 'exploded' and saw Konan leave quickly before diving after her. Creating an eagle to glide on, Deidara formed a basic seal to focus her chakra on detonating the C4 for real.
Konan was in the process of pursuing Deidara when the 'dud' bomb form earlier took effect. Her hands were the first thing to go, dissolving not into paper like usual, but a fine dust instead. The decay traveled up the Akatsuki member's arms as she looked on in horror. By the time she would have reached the mad bomber responsible for her fate, Konan was no more. Deidara's eagle turned and wheeled towards the others that were in the process of fighting a god, intent of assisting them in any way possible.
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Naruto soon learned that just because he could sense Zetsu didn't mean that the plant man wouldn't run away. Channeling as much chakra as he could to his legs to increase speed, Naruto caught up to the underground spy. Punching the ground into chunks, Naruto grabbed the venus fly trap and threw him bodily into the air. Running through some hand seals to end this quickly, Naruto inhaled deeply. "Sage Art: Vegetable Slicer!" The blades of sharp wind Naruto exhaled chopped the white Akatsuki member into hundreds of indistinguishable bits. The impromptu name change to the technique was an indulgence on his part, but the results were as impressive as ever.
"You really shouldn't let your guard down like that." Naruto jumped away from the voice behind him as the speaker's chakra slowly began to stand out from the ambient chakra around them. "And you shouldn't warn out opponents like that. Now that clone died for nothing. We have more." Standing there, perfectly untouched, was Zetsu, in all his multicolored glory. Looking more closely at the chopped up plant, and sure enough, there were no pieces of black. More stark white clones began to rise out of the ground, only appearing to Sage Mode's sensory abilities as they stepped out of the ground entirely.
Not wasting any time with talk, Naruto began to tear the Zetsu's apart. Luckily, the clones were much easier to kill than the original, who stood calmly as the clone army was ripped to pieces. Once about half of the weak warriors had fallen, Zetsu finally spoke, albeit to himself. "Your clones aren't doing much other than finding new ways to die. Would you like me to step in?" Raising the white arm up to his chin in thought, Zetsu carefully responded. "I suppose you could help a little, but don't go finishing him off right away."
Clapping his hands together, Black Zetsu began his attack. Naruto wasn't at liberty to watch closely, as he was still crushing skulls and punching Zetsu clones into orbit. "Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence!" The scale of the technique was infinitely smaller than when Zetsu had used it against the Three Tails, but it was no less powerful. The roots of Zetsu's lower body dug into the ground and burrowed towards Naruto, leaping out of the soil intermittently like dolphins.
Naruto threw a Zetsu clone at the tree roots to gauge their power and eliminate another clone. The White Zetsu clone was mowed down and pinned to the ground by a root thicker around than he was. Blanching at the thought of that happening to him, Naruto brought his hands together in a single seal. "Sage Art: Majestic Flame Devastation!" The wall of flames went flying at the oncoming trees. The two met and pushed against each other, battling for dominance. In an impressive feat, the wooden trees actually withstood the inferno, though their forward progress halted.
"Wow, that was impressive!" said Zetsu as he popped out of the wood and lunged at Naruto. The sage had plenty of time to react and snapped the sharpened stick that Zetsu was using in half as he dodged to the side. Twirling the weapon, Naruto plunged it into Zetsu's forehead, hurling the Wood Style user back. Zetsu slowly stood up, a remarkable accomplishment considering the spike embedded in his face. Reaching up, Zetsu pulled the spike out and dropped it to the ground. "Man, that hurt! Then maybe you shouldn't rush in like that."
Naruto was confident in his ability to win, as he could always fall back to the Nine Tails chakra if he truly had to, but Zetsu's healing factor was beginning to become worrying. Naruto extended his senses, trying to see if he was far enough away from the other Akatsuki members to safely use the Nine Tails chakra. Deciding it was safe, Naruto prepared to grab hold of the volatile chakra of the most powerful Tailed Beast.
Just as he was about to don the golden aura, Tendrils of wood shot up out of the ground, taking Naruto by surprise. He had taken for granted Sage Mode's ability to sense incoming attacks, but the Wood Style was close enough to Natural chakra of the earth that the techniques almost blended in perfectly with the surrounding soil. It was painfully obvious in the air, but by then it was too late. The wooden tendrils held Naruto by the wrists and ankles, stretching him out like a prisoner to be interrogated.
Zetsu approached him, one half menacingly, the other half downright giddy. "It's ben forever since I've had Natural Chakra! This is going to be fantastic! Your Sage Mode will mesh nicely with this body. IT will make taking out your allies even easier." Naruto simply grimaced as Zetsu's white half placed a hand on his chest and began to siphon his chakra. Zetsu's main body could absorb chakra at a much faster rate than his clones, but it would still be quite a while before Naruto was out of chakra completely.
Naruto tried to break out of the roots, but Black Zetsu kept the roots supplied by chakra to prevent them from breaking. Everything seemed to be going well for Zetsu and red marking began to appear around his eye, though Black Zetsu seemed unaffected. Then things went south quickly. White Zetsu's flesh began to elongate in random places, taking on a darker tint to resemble actual tree bark. Zetsu's eyes widened in horror as the tree like growths began to consume more and more of him. The white hand that had been draining chakra recoiled and tried in vain to hold the transformation back.
Black Zetsu pulled back as well, separating himself from his other half as White Zetsu completed the transformation into a large tree. Without the roots being held together by a constant supply of chakra, Naruto was easily able to break out of the Wood Style trap. "I suppose in the end, you can't even depend on yourself." muttered Black Zetsu as he looked at the tree that used to be his left side. Black Zetsu turned to Naruto, who was trying to regain the chakra that White Zetsu had stolen. "I'll only warn you once, don't underestimate me."
Black Zetsu made a single hand seal, and his lower body transformed into tree roots that began to attack Naruto. Naruto flipped his way through the roots, dodging the tendrils that tried to grab ahold of him. He was largely successful, though one root did manage to nab his ankle. Taking advantage of the grip, Black Zetsu smashed Naruto into the ground again and again. Sage Mode was easily able to withstand the attack, and Naruto whipped out a kunai in between hits to cut the root.
Naruto landed on one hand, flinging himself to the side to avoid any more Wood Style trees. Skidding to a stop, Naruto decided to end it here. Black Zetsu stared ahead as Naruto formed a single hands seal, and his roots closed in on their prey. A split second later though, and Naruto was gone in a flash of gold. In addition to his biological limitations, Black Zetsu didn't have time to widen his eyes before Naruto reappeared directly in front of him, apparently on fire and holding an orb of pure black chakra that seemed more massive than it actually was.
"Impossible… we sealed the Tailed Beasts!" exclaimed Black Zetsu before Naruto rammed the miniature Tailed Beast Ball into his gut. Black Zetsu could feel the Wood Style body that he was inhabiting begin to fall apart, and even the will of Madara that was his very essence started to fade.
"Guess you missed one. Don't worry, it'll be our little secret." said Naruto before releasing the chakra. Instead of slowly grinding away, the Tailed Beast chakra was channeled in a massive beam that vaporized Zetsu entirely. Naruto let the Nine Tails Chakra Mode fade, and looked down at his tattered Akatsuki cloak. Throwing it off, Naruto donned his red and black Sage's cloak before running off to try and kill a god.
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Kakuzu ran through some seals as the mouth on the mask over his shoulder opened with a sharp crack. "Lightning Style: False Darkness!" Kakuzu had no hope of this actually killing Nagato, that would be too easy, but it was intended to size up the god before him. With hardly any effort, Nagato swept the black chakra of the Ten Tails in front of the beam of lightning, which hit the chakra and didn't emerge.
"That's a stupid name for a technique." grumbled Sasori, before launching a wave of fire out of his palms. The flames disappeared the moment they touched the corrosive chakra as well, but it did keep Nagato in place. The best thing about having the flamethrowers on his palms was that Sasori's fingers were still free to control his puppets, albeit with less control than normal. "Secret Red Technique: Golden Darkness!"
The sand of the two Kazekage puppets he had wove together and flew towards the former leader of Akatsuki, both black as pitch and as bright as the sun at the same time. The stream of mixed sand came in from both sides, aiming to take advantage of the flames that were keeping the Ten Tails Chakra busy in the front. Unfortunately, the massive attack that would have sent armies running in fear was defeated by Nagato simply raising his hand, stopping the sand for a split second before it was sent flying away.
Sasori had to cease the onslaught of flames in order to better control his Kazekage puppets. The alternative was not having the control over the Gold Dust and Iron Sand he needed to prevent accidently poisoning his allies as they moved in to attack. Kisame and Orochimaru came in from the right and the left as the stream of sand parted around them without leaving so much as a scratch. Kisame had fused with Samehada, and the chakra eating properties that protected the legendary sword from being destroyed by the liquid black hole around Nagato before protected him now as he battered away at the shield with his forearms.
Orochimaru meanwhile, tried to hit Nagato through the deadly chakra with his own legendary sword. Kusanagi was able to cut anything, and it was covered by a poison deadlier than anything even Sasori had ever created. Unfortunately, the liquid Nature of the chakra mean that the cuts left by Kusanagi were about as permanent as a cut in the ocean. This also left the sword unable to really defend against much, and Orochimaru was constantly backpedalling in an attempt to not be erased from existence.
"FUCKIN DIE ALREADY!" shouted Hidan as he threw what remained of his scythe's handle like a spear. Hidan pulled on the cord attached to the spike as the black chakra came up to eat the rest of the Jashinist's weapon, stopping the spike less than an inch away from its demise and yanking it back to his hand. Hidan kept running though, taking advantage of the window presented by the window Nagato opened to retain some visibility.
Kakuzu was impressed by the thought that had apparently gone into Hidan's plan, and the bounty hunter was downright floored when it worked. The scratch healed almost instantly and Hidan got his arm cut off for his troubles, but the immortal zealot had managed to procure a drop or two of blood. The cord to his weapon had been severed by the black chakra closing in along with Hidan right arm, but he had apparently even thought that out as well, and Hidan whipped the severed cord to wrap around his arm and pull it back with him as he retreated. Orochimaru and Kisame did likewise, not eager to remain in the line of fire for longer than needed.
The former Hidden Waterfall ninja felt the need to congratulate his partner for once. "That was… surprising well thought out. End it now though, we don't have time for your rituals." Hidan grinned at the praise and raised the spike high into the air, still held by his severed arm.
"Praise to Jashin, for allowing me to strike down this blasphemer in his name!" Just as he was about to bring down the bloodied weapon and ingest the blood for his ritual, a laser of pure chakra enveloped the detached limb and weapon. When the beam faded, any blood on the weapon was gone, and the scythe handle itself was melted down slag. The Akatsuki members looked up to see Nagato's hand reverting back to the five digits and a palm that they all had from a small cannon that had no doubt been responsible for destroying the blood.
Hidan brought down the slag and frantically started chewing on it, apparently hoping to get some blood out of it. Unfortunately, some of the melted weapon was still molten. "Oh sweet Jashin, that BURNS! Kakuzu put my arm back on, I'll show this bastard what happens when he burns my mouth!" Any other day, Kakuzu would have objected, or done an intentionally shoddy job, but these were dire straits, and a thread snaked its way over to sew the severed arm back on as lightning continued to fire over his head to try and keep Nagato at bay.
Sasori attempted to use his sand to exploit any openings, but between Orochimaru, Kisame, and now the rearmed Hidan, there wasn't much room for his sand to go on the offensive. Instead, the puppeteer opted to use his sand defensively, blocking the black rods and acting as platforms for the other three close range combatants to maneuver with. It was largely unsatisfying, and he actually found himself wishing for the other to fall back so he could stretch his collection.
Nagato was caught off guard for the first time in the fight when Manda burst out of the ground beneath him, attempting to swallow Akatsuki's former leader and anything that was too close. Nagato raised his hands up as the jaws of the serpent closed around him to force the snake's jaws open. Manda dislocated his jaw to keep it from being ripped off, and the leader of the snakes fell to the ground, leaving Nagato inexplicably hovering in the sky.
The god clapped his hands together, slowly pulling them apart to reveal a miniscule black orb. The sphere floated in the air as Nagato gently descended back to the ground, where Manda was wrapped around the entire area, leaving no escape. Suddenly, Manda began to feel lighter and lighter before being lifted off the ground entirely. Looking up, the small black orb of condensed gravity was pulling every bit of loose rock towards it, and even some rock that wasn't loose at all.
The Akatsuki members were stuck to the ground with chakra, but the ground they were anchored to didn't have that advantage. "Aim your strongest attacks at the center!" shouted Sasori. "If we can destroy the weak point, we can escape this!" Sasori started the barrage with a wave of gold dust and iron sand. Kakuzu followed up with an electrified blast of water, and Kisame launched a frenzy of sharks made of water. Manda struck out with his own body, and Orochimaru's sword elongated to ridiculous proportions to stab at the black orb of death.
The attacks all collided in a magnificent explosion that Deidara would have been proud of, and the pieces of rock that the Akatsuki members stood on stopped rising for a second before falling back to earth. Once they landed, the landscape was even more devastated than it had been before. Nagato seemed mildly amused at the destruction of his technique. He ran through some familiar hand seals and slammed his palms on the ground, summoning a giant two headed dog and an equally enormous rhino in a cloud of smoke.
The rhino barreled towards the recovering Akatsuki members, who were trying to catch their breath and their chakra after escaping the miniature moon. The rhino was dispersed in a cloud of smoke before it could reach them however, by a massive purple viper falling from the sky. Manda broke his fall with the other massive summoned, and began to square off against the dog, a little singed and sore, but otherwise no worse for wear. The dog went in biting, but Manda slithered around the straightforward attack and wrapped himself around the dog, holding it in place. Manda's mouth opened wide as he sunk his fangs into the creature, injecting it with his deadly venom.
The poison was deadly to anything, even when diluted, and would have no doubt killed any regular summon. The two headed hound had a trick though, and the attack caused it to simply grow another head and split into three separate dogs. The added mass stretched Manda's coils thin, but he managed to hold onto the dogs, who continued to nip at any part of him they could reach. The leader of the snakes could feel himself being pulled back to Ryuchi Cave as the injuries sustained by diving into a barrage of high leveled ninjutsu began to take effect. At this point it was only stubborn pride keeping him on the battlefield.
Kisame noticed the struggle, and rode towards the struggling summons on a wave of water. The smaller wave was the product of a technique designed to increase the mobility of his fused form and keep the even fishier ninja hydrated. Nearing the battle of giants, Kisame ran his rough skin against each of the dogs, draining them of all the chakra that had been used to summon them. His blue skin bulked up slightly with the massive quantities of chakra he had absorbed, and Nagato's puppies disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Sensing his battle was over as well, Manda returned to his home as well. The Akatsuki members faced off against the man who had led them for years, back to square one in this fight. Just as they were about to recommit themselves to the offensive, Nagato's black chakra moved to block an incoming wave of water. They all looked up to find the attacker, and were greeted by the sight of an exhausted red toad. The most interesting thing though, was the fact that unlike everything else in existence, the black Ten Tails chakra seemed unable to absorb the Water Bullet, instead blocking it like any other shield.
Orochimaru's golden snake eyes widened at the sight, realizing that they might have a way to actually harm him other than Kusanagi and Samehada, which hadn't been doing much so far. A hand seal had him Body Flickering to the toad's location while the other Akatsuki members kept on the offensive. Kakuzu and Sasori provided ranged support for Hidan and Kisame, and pulled the close range combatants out of the way with sand and threads whenever things got too close. "Tell me little froggie, was that technique just now fueled by Natural Chakra? And where is Jiraiya?" asked Orochimaru, dispensing of any urge to mess with his former teammate's summons given the urgency of the situation.
"Wait, Jiraiya's here?" asked Gamakichi in surprise. "That jerk still owes me candy from last time." Gamakichi looked up into Orochimaru's glare, and decided to just answer the questions. "Y-yeah, that was Natural Chakra. It ain't Sage Mode or anything, but I'm pretty good at drawing it in real quick for a Water Bullet and stuff." Orochimaru's grin was downright disturbing, and Gamakichi nervously spoke up again. "That was the last of my chakra though, so I'll just… I'll just be going now."
Orochimaru ignored the puff of smoke behind him as he turned to survey the battlefield. The Sannin wasn't able to handle Sage Mode in a stolen body, a fact he had discovered only after taking a new body to prolong his life. Luckily, the mad scientist in him had discovered a way around the limitations of his body. Jugo's bloodline allowed him to do something impossible, gather Natural Chakra constantly. It wasn't great enough in volume or mixed correctly to enter Sage Mode, but he was far more in touch with nature than anyone else in the world. Unfortunately for him, when the Natural Chakra stored became too great, it was released, giving Jugo great strength and reverting him to a more violent personality to better empty his reserves of Natural Chakra.
By utilizing Jugo's blood, Orochimaru was able to create his cursed seal. Any body he took from then on was still unable to use actual Sage Mode, but Jugo's slightly less powerful transformation was easily accessible. He had never really had reason to care that it was run off of Natural Chakra until now, but the ability to make his techniques immune to the liquid black hole surrounding Nagato was worth it. Concentrating on the black mark hidden beneath his most recent body's skin, Orochimaru allowed the transformation to take over. "Let's see how the 'god' deals with a technique that transcends snakes to become a dragon god." mumbled Orochimaru.
Nagato's battle paused as the combatants looked up to where the toad had been a second ago to see the massive eight headed white snake that dwarfed even Manda. Kisame and Hidan wisely got out of the way as the snake barreled down on Nagato with a speed that a creature that size should not possess. All of the black orbs around Nagato fused together to form a massive sword of deadly chakra shaped like a double helix. The pitch black sword swung horizontally in an attempt to cut off all of the snake's heads in one go, but the white serpent reeled back to dodge. One of the mouths near the middle opened wide to reveal Orochimaru fused to the bottom of the snake's mouth. His cursed seal was ridiculous compared to the others, even Jugo's but Orochimaru never was one to give the best toys to others.
Orochimaru brought an elongated sword of Kusanagi down at Nagato, who simply moved to the side to avoid the downwards swing. The black blade stabbed outwards to sever one of the snake's heads, and Orochimaru winced in pain as the feeling came towards him. The loss wouldn't translate to losing any parts of his body when he transformed back, but it still hurt. Two of the mouths next to him opened wide and launched a massive fireball enhanced by a wave of wind. The Collaboration Technique roared past the Ten Tails chakra that tried to block it, intent on incinerating Nagato.
The red head was obscured by the inferno, which died down far more quickly than it should have. When the flames disappeared, Nagato was left standing with one hand outstretched as if he had stopped the technique with one hand. Three of the remaining heads on the snake struck out with the speed of lightning, only to be rewarded with a black sword severing them in a spray of blood. The snake was four heads down, and only had four left.
Orochimaru grit his teeth and prepared the best technique he could under the conditions. The three remaining heads that wouldn't kill him if they launched a technique fired off blasts of water, lightning, and wind so massive that they put Kakuzu's attacks to shame. The three combined into a fast moving wave of paralyzing death, and was quickly absorbed into Nagato's hand once more. This time though, Kisame and Hidan took advantage of the fact that such a devastating technique was only a temporary distraction. Hidan lost his other arm this time as Nagato attempted to react in time, but both he and Kisame landed solid blows against the self-proclaimed god that would have ended the fight against any normal opponent, draining chakra and gaining precious blood that Hidan promptly licked off of his black spike.
Unfortunately, Nagato was not a normal opponent. Hidan stood up to start drawing the ritual circle in his own blood so he could just stab himself and end this. Before either he or Kisame could react though, Nagato had recovered from his injury and moved incredibly fast right behind Hidan. Placing his hand solemnly on Hidan's head, Nagato inhaled deeply before yanking something out. It appeared to be an outline of Hidan made entirely of chakra, and the Jashinist fell to the ground immediately upon its removal.
Orochimaru noticed this and struck out with all four remaining head of the Eight Branches Technique, trying to end the fight while Hidan before Nagato could return any attention to the Snake Sannin. One quick turn and slice was enough to separate the remaining heads from the body, which writhed in pain before becoming still. Orochimaru ejected himself from the mouth of the white serpent midair at great speed. Its purpose served, the black sword melted back into the orbs of Ten Tails chakra that hovered ominously behind Nagato's back. "I believe you've pushed me as far as you will. I grow bored with this attempt to fight me, as if you were even close to my level, and will end it at once. Suffice to say, you won't be alright."
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A/N: Twenty fifth chapter up! Wooo! Just to vent a bit, I won't be able update next week, due to the one extracurricular I participate in having state competition next Saturday. So wish me luck after complaining about my schedule slip. Review Time. I'm kind of sad that Nagato had to be the big old villain, but the climax would be kind of anticlimactic if "Nagato dropped a meteor on everyone and then Akatsuki ruled the world. The End." I'm glad people think the plot is unique, as that was prioritized above good when I started out. I still aim for good, but I just enjoy coming up with original stuff. The reason Akatsuki was able to work together with some semblance of teamwork instead of running immediately is that Nagato has made it clear he's going to take over the world. Nowhere to hide, and fighting will be plausible with allies of their caliber. The reason behind Nagato deciding to kill everyone instead of leaving some of them alive is simple. Kisame is a killer who wouldn't turn on his comrades in a million years, as that was his reason for joining Akatsuki in the first place. Kakuzu and Hidan are both way too violent and greedy. Orochimaru shouldn't be trusted for a heartbeat. Deidara is a mad bomber, and Naruto is more attached to her than Nagato. Konan and Zetsu though, are loyal enough that he was willing to let them live. That said, I hope you enjoyed, and reviews are always appreciated. See ya!