Apologies for the late release, the laptop that my college gave to me decided that deleting my entire document was a better plan than saving it, so I had to start again from scratch. Fortunately in doing so it seems I managed to get another 800 or so words into it. All the same, that doesn't make up for the aggravation of breaking the rule of updating I've tried to maintain since the start of this series. Well with no further ado, here comes the prelude to the final few chapters in this trilogy!
Seven paths leading in a single direction
It wasn't safe to stay there, not with the presence of those people. The danger was too much top handle head on; the only option was to create distance. All through the valley explosions of dust, water and earth could be seen, caused by large explosions or oversized creatures. Whatever conflict was going on down there, it was far too scattered to be the result of a one on one fight. A multitude of battles had to be going on for destruction on this scale to be occurring.
Pure fortune guided Naruto from his previous situation, one that threatened a hasty end to everything he had done. The six paths of Pein and the original had surrounded him, with Hyuuga Neji and Uchiha Sasuke releasing threatening auras from behind. What he wanted was to track down that woman and her companion, yet by the look of things getting out of the area would have been hard. Yet that luck came in the form of Uchiha Sasuke, who turned on Neji and attacked him, yelling out "bastard" in the meantime. With that disruption Naruto managed to escape, and was now in the process of running as fast as he could.
It wasn't easy to run from someone with six bodies and six fields of vision however. He had needed to create enough Kage Bunshin to distract the realms while maintaining enough chakra to fight back if the need arose. It was true that he didn't quite know the limits of the Kyuubi's power yet, but now was not the time to find such things out. On this occasion he chose to play it safe, taking the advice he had heard so often and attempting to learn more about his opponent than the opponent did of him.
Now he fled through the dry forest, leaping from branch to branch in a pattern erratic enough to ensure his movements wouldn't be predicted. Not far behind him the Preta realm gave chase, keeping close even with its heavy bulk. That was enough to tell Naruto to be careful; he prided himself on his speed and strength, yet this walking corpse was following him without the slightest sign of strain. To test his paranoia even further he felt one of his Kage Bunshin disappear, and learned to be wary of giant pandas.
The Preta realm continued to chase him diligently, its silver eyes locked onto the blond boy's back. This chase seemed like it would have no end, and so he took measures to change that little belief. From his sleeves slid out a pair of small black rods, which he hurled at Naruto like they were kunai. The dark darts shot through the air, striking the tree Naruto had just reached and deciding the target's path for him. Naruto sharply turned to the right, heading towards the river not too far away. But as payback for being led like a dog, Naruto whipped around mid jump and threw his hand out.
Preta realm reached out with its hands, just as a gale force of wind shot by, scarring the trees around without throwing a single hair out of place upon its target. The Preta realm then looked at Naruto once again, its eyes narrowing in something of a suspicious manner. "Isn't that the Jutsu I myself taught you?" it asked, its hands returning calmly to its sides. "Quite insolent for you to attack me with it. Is that your way of saying you won't give in no matter what?"
Naruto burst from the trees and landed on the river, scattering ripples out in all directions. His jaw tightened at the memory of that day, one of the only times Pein took a personal hand in his training. The fruits of those labours had been a Jutsu that Naruto had favoured since then, almost like a treasure. That's why he felt pain right now. How long had Madara been in control of Pein's body? Had he ever really known Pein at all? Of everything that happened to him since the first time he left Konoha on that fateful night, how much of it had been part of the play set out by some demented puppeteer?
Hastily he shook his head from left to right, before hurrying his pace along the cold river. He couldn't afford to think like that, to let himself succumb to Madara's whim. It was him he was fighting, not Pein. Madara was his enemy, and Pein was the person he wanted to save. Remembering this, he grabbed hold of the Suijin and came to a sudden stop, slashing around with magnitude force. The great sword struck another of the Preta realm's black rods, causing a spark as the temperature of that spike suddenly increased in temperature.
"This is an unusual sword you possess." Preta realm said, studying the Suijin with its Rinnegan eyes. Through them he saw things that were indescribable to most people, yet yielded invaluable information to him. Naruto too learned a good few things, though his understanding was not aided with the help of his Doujutsu. "To think that Kisame would fall to you, that the Samehada would choose you over him. This sword is a traitor to Akatsuki. I shall make sure that it is properly destroyed."
Naruto chose not to listen to Madara's goads, but from the back of his mind he thought he heard something that was almost a growl. He looked to the Suijin, wondering perhaps if the blade still possessed an individual consciousness even after being fused. But then his eyes turned from the blade to the rod that blocked the blade, and suddenly a memory from before came to his mind. "These rods… that snake!" he blurted out, the image of that giant white serpent pinned to the wall of Orochimaru's base returning to him. His stare turned back to the Rinnegan, eyes widening in shock at the revelation that came to him. "You do know about her!"
The Preta realm offered no response, but its hand suddenly snapped out to grab. Naruto leapt back and avoided the grapple, turning away and resuming his flit. He needed time to think; both about what he had just realised and what he learned of the Preta realm's skills. Looking ahead he saw the end of the river, and the waterfall that birthed it. He aimed for that place and with the overweight Pein in tow, he began to leap from wall to wall and ascend the cliff.
"The Suijin couldn't consume his chakra… that was because he was trying to consume mine!"
This thought was all good and well, but as he reached the top of the falls and leapt higher into the air, he came to find something else to distract his crucial thought process. He recognised the land before him as the place where he had left the rest of Yoinokuchi. Yet no matter where he looked there was no sign of his comrades. This was a troubling thought to him; did they see the commotion going on down there and decide to investigate? It would be bad if they involved themselves and lost to Madara, worse if they ran into Neji and Sasuke.
He landed on the ground, a good distance away from the edge of the cliff. The Preta realm wasn't so stylish, instead simply vaulting over the rock and landing at the precipice of the descent. With the gap between them there was nothing to gain from haplessly running in. Both knew that the opponent had learned something valuable, and were waiting to come up with counter strategies for defending against such a thing. Well that seemed to be the case, but then Naruto spotted a small black object from far behind the Preta realm flying into the air. That thing arced through the air at a high speed, before landing on the ground next to the Preta realm.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
Smoke exploded around the animal and Preta paths, smoke Naruto used to back off even further. He expected some sort of huge rhinoceros or a giant ugly bird, but what he got was so much worse. As the rest of the paths of Pein appeared before him, he realised he had given himself away in that small display of the Suijin's power. In a fit to learn what he could in return, he dispelled the surviving Kage Bunshin. Unfortunately the things he learned did not bode well for him.
"So you really did see Tsukirite then." the Deva realm said, taking the foremost position of the other paths. These words of confirmation struck Naruto like a wrecking ball, almost physically moving him back. The coolness of which the Deva realm said this was reminiscent, but not identical to the manner Naruto remembered of Pein. The only thoughts going through his head then was why Madara would be willing to let someone like Tsukirite do as she liked. "Then that would explain why you have Orochimaru's eyes. Yes, it makes sense that it would be you, since you are here now."
His words made no sense to Naruto, but it didn't seem as if he intended them to in the first place. Speaking simply for the sake of telling something; was that the sort of person Madara was? Naruto couldn't tell himself, but by the flickering flames returning to his eyes it was clear he wasn't in a mood to talk, as was the dark red chakra that soon covered his body once again. Madara had a response to this as well though. It came in the form of the Deva realm lifting its hand into the air, outstretching its fingers towards Naruto.
"Bansho Ten'in."
Naruto's already taught face was pushed even further by the shock of being lifted from his feet and into the air. He didn't have time to analyse this Jutsu, for he was being pulled towards the intercepting Human and Preta realms at great speed. Seeing only one choice to save his own skin he adjusted himself and pushed his hands behind him, causing a burst of wind that increased the propulsion rate by a vast majority. He managed to slip past the two assaulting paths and even the one responsible for taking him from his feet. But there was no way to avoid the Asura realm up ahead, who reached up to the eye patch it wore and swiftly tore it off.
In a smooth but speedy instant, the cloak of the Asura realm flew up into the air. From beneath that shot out six prosthetic looking arms connected by six artificial shoulders. The hands of these arms fired in rapid succession, grabbing Naruto first by the neck, and then by the arms and legs. Naruto choked from the intense grip this realm had, its smiling face staring at him with one Rinnegan eye and one yellowing Sharingan.
The flaming iris and slitted pupils of the oppressed Jinchuuriki stretched past human capacity, making the line between physical characteristic and chakra effect unclear. But there was a more important point than that; the Deva, Preta and Human realms were closing in on Naruto's back, black rods drawn from their sleeves. Naruto could not hear these silent movements; he could only see them in the reflection of the Asura's silver eye. In the moments he had left, the last traces of Naruto beneath that chakra cloak disappeared, leaving his oversized eyes glaring at the oncoming paths from their corners.
CHI-CHIKT!
The black rods were shattered prior to impaling their target, not by any human means at all. The places were the spiked ends of those weapons struck white bone that grew from Naruto's back; a spine, shoulder blades and ribs that spread around to Naruto's front like a suit of armour. The Asura realm stared stonily, the smile momentarily disappearing as a fox's skull grew over Naruto's head as a bony helmet. The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki's blazing eyes glared from the sockets of the skull, as the fox's jaws opened wide and began to gather chakra.
Hastily so the Asura realm hurled Naruto aside, a move that was only half wise. As the whirling mass of carmine chakra and growing bone spun through the air the gathered chakra fired out in a constant beam of energy. Though the paths of Pein managed to dodge these spinning lasers of death, the cliff on which they stood on was not so fortunate. The red rays of chakra sliced through the ground like a hot knife to hotter butter, causing the entire cliff itself to shatter and fall to the canyon below.
The six realms fell down this distance, boulders surrounding their entirety of angle and direction. Each of them easily maintained themselves, but all the same they whipped around with their eyes scanning the descending debris. No matter where they looked, those faint slipstreams of demonic chakra stayed in their line of sight for the barest of milliseconds at a time. It seemed that Naruto had succumbed to instinct, yet not thrown strategy aside either. But the one inescapable detail that Madara couldn't deny was that with each fleeting glimpse the Jinchuuriki seemed to possess more tails.
"Enough of this." said the Asura realm, the situation failing to erase the smile that had returned to its face. These words barely escaped its lips before the other realms attached themselves to boulders, then subsequently leapt in any direction that distanced themselves from Pein's largest realm. Upon the Asura realms bald head, thin lines became defined as fractions of it split apart, opening up to reveal a mechanical device where a brain ought to have been. From this cavity a blue light began to shine, before an incredible explosion of said light burst from the crown of its head and blasted out ruthlessly.
THROOOOM!
The huge boulders that used to be the cliff, and rocks so large they couldn't simply be called such, corroded instantly to dust like the passage of time in an entire second. The Asura realm landed on the floor of the canyon, surrounded by the cloud of grit crafted by its own hand. The sound of granite raining from on high cast all around, whispered curses of the deceased land. Straightening up, the demon path turned its eyes over its horizon, scanning for any sign of the affected target.
The dust cloud behind it scattered suddenly, with a swish of seven tails. The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki stood on all fours, his digits turned into dark claws and the Kyuubi's skeleton complete over his body. Hot steam came out of his jagged mouth with every exhale, the tails curling through the air of their own accord. The guttural growl that escaped the seven tailed form's mouth sounded nothing human, perhaps indicating just how much of the Kyuubi's will Naruto was willing to unleash.
The gathered dust finally allowed visibility, even if it took its time in doing so. From where Naruto remained shadows appeared, shadows that defined themselves as being the other realms surrounding their target. The Asura turned to complete the three hundred and sixty degree view of Naruto; a perfect circle around this trapped beast. The Kyuubi's snarl could be heard from the depths of its jaws, rising into the air in spite of a still expression. Those evil looking eyes glared out all around, showing bestiality and intelligence at the same time. The paths of Pein moved.
The Human realm earned Naruto's attention, running at the boy straight on. To either side broke out the Deva and Preta realms closed in, the former leaping high into the air while the latter remained inconspicuous. Behind, the Animal realm ran through a short series of seals, before planting its hands upon the ground. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" it called out, its voice making Naruto whip his head back in shock.
Doing so led to his undoing, as the ground beneath him exploded and a giant centipede rose into the air with him upon it. Before he could counter or leap off however, the huge bug disappeared in time to the Deva realm reaching the height of its jump; directly above Naruto. "Shinra Tensei!" it called out, its outstretched hand aimed down at Naruto. The boy felt his gravity increase tenfold, and was pulled down into the pit created by the centipede without any ability to resist. The Preta realm quickly hopped in after him, just before the Human realm performed an aerial axe kick the shattered the ground around the pit and buried the two inside.
The rumblings died down, and the five realms stepped around the filled pit with their eyes upon it. The Preta realm was totally blind down there, but from its power Madara knew full well what the situation was. The seven tailed form of the Kyuubi was pinned down both by the Preta and the boulders, unable to move as the chakra was pulled out of its body. The power the realms felt was incredible, tempting and fierce. The smile upon the Asura realm's face for once seemed to have feeling behind it, a genuine pleasure at the success of Madara's action. Naruto was losing consciousness.
Or so he thought.
The ground behind the Asura realm erupted suddenly. The attention of the other paths quickly turned to it, the closest of which whipping around. Yet the movements of Pein's bodies were much to slow to do anything more than comprehend what they were seeing. The earth tore apart as Naruto burst out, without so much as his eyes powered by the Kyuubi's chakra. Around his arm was a whirling white Shiroken, propelling itself straight towards the Asura's head.
"That eye is where it all started!" Naruto thought, as every sharpened tooth in his mouth became visible from the grimace upon his face. He remembered the day he learned Pein's true nature, the Sharingan that didn't belong of the other realms. With the power of his eyes he could see that that unnaturally given eye was the centre of Madara's foul mental energy. He was willing to bet this shot on it, the only remaining power he had after creating the Kage Bunshin decoy buried beneath them. All for this one chance. "I'll destroy it with all I got!"
The Asura realm's expression flattened as the tip of the Rasengan pierced the Sharingan, tearing it apart instantly. The white blade flew on through that body's skull, ripping the flesh and mechanics apart as if they were paper. In but a single moment the Asura realm had been beheaded, and fell to the ground in a heap. The Shiroken faded away from Naruto's arm, and he was provided with a full view of Deva realm raising its hand, and saw its lips move in a single phrase. "Shinra Tensei!"
The force hit Naruto as strongly as his own Fuuton: Reppushou. His glare became nothing more than a simply stun look as he was taken off his feet and thrown back through the air. "Was I… wrong?" he asked himself, while flying like a rag doll. That had been the last of his strength; the Preta realm had successfully taken all that was the Kage Bunshin. As his back neared the ground and he anticipated Pein, only one thought came to his forlorn mind. "Did I screw up again?"
He hit the floor and rolled through the dirt, his limbs and head cut and bruised by the stones and branches on the valley floor. A gasp of pain shot out as his back struck a tree, forcing him into a seated position. His eyes were barely open, their conception barely equating to anything. Up head he could see the paths of Pein, but in the state he was in the world was spinning, cruelly tricking him into thinking that the universe was swallowing them up.
A pair of thuds struck his ears, much closer than anything that made sense. He blinked to himself and looked up, realising in shock that his vision was perfectly fine. What he had thought to be the world spinning around was in fact the appearance of the person who had disappeared at the start of this tiresome battle. Pein's real body appeared before him, carrying the unconscious forms of Hyuuga Neji and Uchiha Sasuke splayed on the ground to either side. Naruto struggled to get back to his feet, refusing to be taken down on his behind. He stood with his back against the tree, looking at Madara as defiantly as he could manage.
"You… idiot!" Pein's voice snarled, his face contorted to Madara's whim. The Sharingan blazed furiously on his right, the crimson iris sitting atop a silver sclera. Pein's body strode the few yards towards Naruto, grabbing him by the collar of his cloak. The other hand lifted into the air and curled into a fist, threatening to leave an indent in the bark right behind Naruto's skull. "I already told you it's pointless to resist!"
Naruto refused to bat an eye at Madara's roar, and instead waited in anticipation for the coming punch. He wanted the Kyuubi so bad? Well that was too damn bad, cos the only way he was going to give up was when he was dead! It was this defiance he gave to Madara, the perfect opposition. That was the trigger that certified the end, as Pein's fist launched straight for Naruto's face.
CRACK!
The cold, crisp air carried the scent of water and frost, a depiction of winter prior to its arrival. Puddles carried with them an inherent calmness, embraced by the touch of ice that crawled in from each side. The silence in the air was like that of a missed heartbeat; an eternal moment containing absolute nothingness. This white moment settled in comfortably, before closing its eyes to enter a deep, deep slumber.
Naruto blinked, his eyes wide and his lips parted. Just inches by his head the bark of the tree had cracked, the guilty fist embedded in the crater it created. Madara's Sharingan eye glared at Naruto with the same level of shock shared by the boy saved from that devastating punch. He could make no sense of his failed attack, and as such was subject to a moment of fear that rooted itself in his psyche like a vicious wolf choosing its den. The crimson eye whipped around for any clue to its predicament, before settling on Naruto's. There, in the reflection of those yellow eyes, the horrifying answer came.
The Rinnegan glared at the Sharingan from the corner of its vision.
"Im-impossi-" Madara began, before Pein's face contorted suddenly against his will. The fist by Naruto's head pulled out from the bark and the other released its grip on the cloak, as the owner of these extremities backed off several steps. His hands flew to his face, his feet tripping over scattered rocks from the fallen cliff and causing him to drop on his back. He writhed as if in pain, throwing himself from one side to the other. Steadily his expression turned more and more to hatred, but the strain to the muscles became less and less. Soon it was little more than a curl to the lip, but one that released so much killer intent it was suffocating. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"
Suddenly he became still, his arms gripping his face almost to tear it off. But he didn't move, nor did he make a sound. Naruto looked upon him with a bloodless face, still trying greatly to comprehend what he had just witnessed. He stumbled forward, as the change in mental energies gave him a flicker of hope. He passed Hyuuga Neji and Uchiha Sasuke, before coming to a stop right next to the original Pein's body. He stared at that face, and realised in this short time he had failed to get a proper look. Even now hands hid the appearance of the person he most admired, the person whom he had never properly met before.
Thud!
Naruto jumped from shock, his neck snapping in the direction of the sound he had just heard. Over there, by the filled pit created to trap him, the Animal realm fell to the ground. Soon after this the Human realm too collapsed, dropping to its side and hitting the very bed of rocks it itself had created. The final to fall was the Deva realm, who stared right at Naruto with blank eyes and a gape. That body, the one Naruto had most associated with Pein, fell first to its knees, and then to the ground. For the moments that came after that, Naruto found it rather hard to breathe.
He jumped again then as he felt something grasp onto his cloak. Looking down with a startled face he realised he had been grabbed by the hand of Pein. But rather than pull him to the ground, or stage some attack, the person who took hold of Naruto's clothes used the grip to pull himself up. Naruto watched this person uncertainly, but what the Nehangan was telling him gave him hope further. "… Pein?" he asked, looking at the hung head of Akatsuki's leader.
That very person paused at Naruto's voice, looking around to see the boy staring at him uneasily. A good few seconds passed, before Pein's hand rose to his face and lifted his hair. There both of his eyes were revealed, neither one of them bearing the slightest sign of possessing a Sharingan. "I am indebted to you, Uzumaki Naruto." Pein said, as he let his hair fall back over his right eye. He looked on as Naruto desperately tried to fight himself, but the glimmer in his eyes was undeniable. "You have my deepest gratitude."
The grin Naruto tried to hide forced itself upon his face, to an extent that strained his already beaten muscles further. The knowledge alone that he hadn't failed was enough to render him totally elated. However from this situation he couldn't stay in a good mood. There was one thing he needed to know, something he had to understand first. "What happened?" he asked, his smile falling and taking on an even more embarrassing look of worry. His earlier concern that he knew nothing of the real Pein remained within him, niggling at his insides.
Pein blinked slowly, looking at Naruto with a serenity the boy couldn't achieve no matter how he tried. But in that serenity there was a tone of shame, one that left him unable to continue looking Naruto in the eye. "In a rapacious bid for further power I took something that I should never have desired in the first place." he explained, saving face with as grand a response as he could manage. "I took the eye of Uchiha Madara in order to gain his power and knowledge. I was arrogant to believe it would be so simple as to control something like that."
He kept his gaze out toward the smoke trailing above Konoha, soon drawing Naruto's attention to that very same point. Suddenly he recalled the reason behind all this distress, and with it came another question to his mind. "Hey, you know about that woman right?" he asked, looking again at Pein. For some reason he felt great ease, did being able to rely on Pein really make it that easy for him to relax? "Madara mentioned something about her, and Orochimaru."
Pein gave a slow nod in response to Naruto's query, though he kept his attention on the place ahead. He didn't answer immediately, but when he did he didn't hold back anything. "That woman is the one responsible for the creation of what is known as "kekkei genkai"." he explained, speaking from the knowledge he had gained in the incarceration of his own mind. "She is an entity consisting totally of Yin energy, while her companion is complete Yang. Those two are the ones responsible for creating the Juubi, that which the nine Bijuu came from. I would wager that the reason they have come like this is that they intend to create another."
This information did little top alleviate Naruto's worry, nor did it make all that much sense to him. But he recalled the Juubi from the stone tablet years ago, the terrible legacy that monster left behind. If that was what that woman wanted, what she used him and the other doujutsu wielders for, then there was no doubt in his mind about what he had to do. Steeling himself for what was to come, he stepped ahead and began to make his way to Konoha.
"Wait." Pein said, turning his eyes to his rescuer. Naruto came to a stop, but didn't look away from his destination. He could feel Pein's gaze boring into his skull, as if trying to read the very contents of his mind. It was a little uncomfortable to tell the truth. "What that woman wants is to bring a new Juubi to this world. If she succeeds I can take control of it like the Rikudō Sennin before me. Like this Akatsuki will succeed, and the Jinchuuriki will no longer be its target. If you stop this from happening, we will have no choice but to do as we intended to from the very beginning."
Naruto listened to the words of the one person who could convince him of just about anything. Hearing him say such things, confirming most of what Madara had said, it stung like ice in Naruto's heart. But even so he didn't let himself fall to his emotions, not when doing so would weaken his resolve. Instead he clenched his fists and bowed his head, containing his explosive feelings within his volatile body. "If we let her have her way, all that will happen is that history will repeat itself, and nothing will change!" he exclaimed, keeping his voice as steady as he could. "All that anger… all that fear… just how much pain do you think this world can handle?"
That question carried out through the entire vicinity, echoing out through the canyon walls. Pein looked at Naruto through distant eyes, listening to a question that he himself had never asked. "Without pain people could never hope to understand peace." he said, with a calmness that Naruto couldn't manage if he tried. "Mankind can never be allowed to realise they have attained peace, for in doing so they lose all desire for it. To maintain peace a constant stream of pain must come their way, so that they will always seek the peace that will free them from suffering. So to answer your question, there is no end to the pain this world must go through, if it means maintaining peace."
This explanation brought with it the greatest weight of Pein's beliefs, a weight that far surpassed whatever Naruto's simple mind could process. However his fists unclenched and his body relaxed, nowhere near as tense as it was a moment ago. "You know why people are different from animals right?" he asked, his voice steadier yet by no means without its tension. He looked up at the smoke over Konoha, and saw the destruction that one person alone had caused. "People are selfish because they can think of themselves. But they're worse because they can think of the future. I hate them for that, because it's easier than forgiving them. But like that, I'm not so different. It's easier to see the bad stuff than it is the good. But if she wins, then all we'll have to look at is the bad stuff, you get what I mean?"
He listened out for an answer, hoping that Pein would have something to say that would get rid of this discomfort he was feeling. Yet as he waited with no reply he just felt worse and worse, until all he had was the resolve to follow through on his words. However just as he made his first step, he blinked in surprise as Pein strode past him, moving towards Konoha at a much quicker pace. This time it was him staring at Pein's back, but without anything intelligent to say.
"You're… going to help?"
Like Naruto had before, Pein came to a stop. Unlike Naruto though, he turned his head over his shoulder and let the swordsman see his silver eye. Together they stared for many moments, before Pein decided to answer Naruto's question. "If she is allowed to succeed, the world will see pain so great that it will be impossible for them to even think about a thing like peace." he said, with just the faintest of glints appearing in his otherwise stoic expression. "That was what you wanted to say, was it not?"
Naruto stared back at Pein in silence, caught off guard by this sudden change in intention. Did that mean what he think it meant, that he had managed to convince Pein of his way of thinking? That seemed almost impossible to him, yet at the same time it was a reality he was in no way willing to let go. "Yeah!" he called out, breaking out into another grin. With his resolve totally restored and his mood bolstered considerably, he rushed to catch up with Pein and make it to-
"Stop."
Once again he was interrupted mid step, but this time he was grabbed by the hem of his cloak. He looked down by his legs in surprise, staring at the barely conscious Hyuuga Neji in quiet wonder. "That woman… the one you spoke of…" he Neji breathed, looking up at Naruto through a beaten face. He seemed to have ridded himself of his previous conceitedness, perhaps in the face of being beaten so shamefully. "Is she the one who is responsible for all of this?"
Naruto's yellow eyes met with Neji's white ones, searching them for something he never thought he'd find. With some gathered uncertainty he looked over to Pein, who also had his attention locked on the Hyuuga. Both of them were in agreement that Neji was no threat; that he was barely clinging to self awareness as it was. As such, Naruto felt no reluctance when he crouched down, bringing himself closer to Neji's level. "She's the reason Orochimaru came for you, and probably the reason you're here." he replied, wondering just why he was telling such things to his long term rival. "She manipulated all of us to do this."
Neji listened to Naruto's words, anger clearly welling up in his eyes. But he contained himself, stuck in the awareness that he was a threat only to insects right now. Instead he fixed his gaze, a much more penetrative look than merely staring into Naruto's eyes. "Then she is the dark cloud that has been shaping my destiny?" he asked, his words totally rhetorical. The clenching of his teeth indicated a decision, as did the shine appearing in his white eyes. "Then accept my assistance, and rid us of that dreadful woman… Ninigi!"
Once more Naruto was caught in a daze, but this one brought him to lack nothing. He could see the trail of mental energy between his and Neji's eyes, and felt a slight invigoration that told him he was being granted something he couldn't yet perceive. After mere moments of this unclear clarity, the trail between them disintegrated, along with the shine in Neji's eyes. The Hyuuga defector's eyes closed, and finally he embraced the sleep his body demanded.
Naruto straightened up, his face still caught in a confused expression. He turned his gaze over to Pein, only to see the Rinnegan still focused upon Neji's form. Under scrutiny however, Pein soon looked back at Naruto, and with the shared gaze they came to a decision. Together the two of them headed towards Konohagakure, to bring an end to a plan that was years in the making.