Well, I'm back!

Actually I was planning to post this chapter 2 weeks ago. However, an unexpected problem occurred to me: my old laptop broke down. BRINGING MY HALF FINISHED DISSERTATION AND THIS STORY TOGETHER WITH IT. I had to spend quite a lot of effort to salvage whatever I could from it, and luckily for me, I managed it. And there you go.

By the way, in the last chapter's review, someone asked me if Naruto has the "constant Sage Mode" as Fuu did. And my answer is, why do you think he couldn't? The reason he didn't use that in the Jonin exam fight was because he explicitly told the Tailed Beasts to stay out of the fight, and his skill with Sage Mode already allowed him to enter the Mode anytime he needed without needing too much time to prepare so he didn't need that skill too much. And besides, I can tell you, it is not wise to always stay in the augmented super mode all the time, if you think about it.

Anyway, please enjoy chapter 36!

Chapter 36: Grown

"Kisame."

Zabuza looked at the Kirigakure missing-nin with a glare full of disdain. The shark man grinned back at him with a smile full of sharp teeth.

"Zabuza. It's been a long time."

The Kirigakure loyalist's eyes didn't leave the missing-nin an inch. He knew how powerful the Monster of the Hidden Mist was, and if he thought he could ignore him even for one second, he would be a fool. He growled.

"Are you here to stop us from reaching where you Akatsuki are extracting the Six-Tails from Utakata?"

Kisame grinned, and raised Samehada up a bit. "You got me."

Then without even a warning, he kicked the water surface and launched himself at the group like a bullet. Samehada was swung in a wide, horizontal arc, absolutely aiming to maim at least three members of the group. But before it could reach even a strand of hair on Karin's, the first one standing on his way, head, it was stopped by the blade of Kubikiribocho.

Putting all of his power into his arms, Zabuza swung his sword with a mighty strength, throwing both Kisame and his sword away. He yelled back at the Konoha group.

"You all go ahead! Leave Kisame to me! Your mission is to go and rescue Utakata!"

"Do you really think that I would let them get away?" Kisame sneered while regaining balance, and immediately flipped through hand seals. A horde of sharks made of water burst out from under the surface and rushed the group with the ferocity and power of torpedoes.

But they couldn't even touch the group of shinobi. A horde of… something also made of water from below Zabuza also lashed out and intercepted the barrage coming from Kisame, so fast that no one could even see it coming, or realize what the attack was.

Except for Itachi. With his Sharingan in action, he could see it as clearly as a film in slow motion.

"Water Dragons Dance…" he mused. "I've only seen this jutsu performed once by Lord Third, but even his wasn't even this powerful and fast…"

"And he doesn't even seem to lose that much of chakra, either…" Neji, standing next to him, also said in awe. "He must have mastered that jutsu to the level of Lord Second himself…"

From the other side, Kisame also showed a slightly surprised expression. "Oh? It seems you also gained some power after all, Zabuza."

"I didn't accept my position as the captain of the new Seven Swordsmen for nothing, Kisame," Zabuza answered. "I know that before I was weaker than you, so I also pushed myself to the limit to be worthy of the name Captain. I'm not someone who would sit still to receive what I don't deserve to bear."

"Then it means I will have to kill you before I can get to them, huh," the Monster of the Hidden Mist grinned menacingly and brandished his sword.

"Indeed. And you're free to try," The Devil of the Hidden Mist also brandished his own sword and answered when the Konoha shinobi nodded at him and started moving.

"Is it wise to leave Zabuza alone with Kisame like that?" Gai asked worriedly when the Konoha task force was on their way again. "I mean, I faced that Kisame guy before, remember? And he was one of those very rare people who managed to force me to use the Seventh Gate…"

Before anyone could answer, Itachi cut in.

"I don't think you should worry about that. Isn't your mission right now tracking down and rescue the Six-Tails jinchuriki from the Akatsuki? Even Zabuza himself said so, remember?"

The other Konoha shinobi looked at each other in worry. "Even so…"

"Don't worry," Itachi reassured them. "Zabuza hasn't shown everything he has yet; from what I saw about him, he must be at least as strong as Kisame himself. I'm sure he would be fine."

And there is something wrong with that Kisame, too…

Naruto couldn't sleep that night.

Without Karin, the Uzumaki house seemed to be strangely empty. It was understandable; after all, he had just come back to Konoha for three days, and yet his jonin exam and the mission to Sunagakure already took almost all of his time to spend with his family. He didn't at first, but now he realized how badly he missed his sister.

And now Karin was on her way for her own mission too… against Pain… Nagato, of all people…

He looked at the alarm clock standing on top of the drawer next to his bed. It was 7 o'clock in the morning; usually Karin would have barged into his room to pull him out of his bed at this time. He sighed and climbed out of the bed, and dragged himself into the bathroom.

And immediately, a shampoo bottle landed on his face, knocking him to the ground.

"OW!"

"You really got the nerve to peek on me when I was bathing, huh, Naruto," Kurama, walking out of the bathroom with only a bath towel around her body like usual, looked down at her jinchuriki lying on the ground, clutching his nose in pain.

Then she blinked when Naruto just sat up with a sigh.

"You're worried about Karin and the others, right?"

Naruto sighed heavily. "Yeah…"

"Don't torture yourself about that," Kurama said, gently rubbing his hair. "Gai and Anko are both powerful shinobi, and they have Fuu with them too, you know? Not to mention the Hokage already sent Itachi after them as backup; you know what that man can do, right? That team is more than a match for Pain or anyone in this world."

"Actually, that's not what I'm worried about."

Kurama blinked. "Then?"

"What if they couldn't get to Utakata-san in time?" Naruto looked at her. "Remember the last time with Gaara? He actually died; had it not been for that old lady, he would have stayed dead. If our teams cannot get to them in time…"

The Tailed Beast blinked again. That was indeed a very reasonable fear, and she didn't have any answer for that.

"There is nothing we can do about that for now."

The two looked up to see Isobu and Gyuuki walking towards them. It was the turtle man who had just said.

"I had been in Kirigakure for quite a while; I know that Utakata. He's not going to let Saikyo be extracted that easily. Besides, even if the worst happened, we wouldn't be able to do anything now. The best we can do is to hope that our force arrives on time."

Then Isobu smiled. "Come now, Naruto, believe in your friends a bit, will you? There is no point sitting there and be worried. It's not gonna be good for your health."

Naruto punched the ground in anger. "Damn it… if only I had mastered the Flying Thunder God Jutsu like my dad…"

Kurama stared at him. "Are you kidding me? That jutsu cost your dad nearly ten years to recreate and master. The fact that you can use it right now already shows that you are more than just prodigious; I was sealed in his girlfriend's belly, I know that for sure. What else are you even asking for?"

Naruto looked at Gyuuki with deadpanned eyes. "Well, maybe it would be easier if you just told me the concept of the jutsu in the first place. You knew it all the time, right?"

The seal grandmaster just snorted. "So now Naruto Uzumaki wants to take shortcuts to become stronger quickly? Don't forget; it was you who insisted that you would figure the jutsu out by yourself. Besides, figuring out about the seal is one thing, but the concept of that jutsu is something totally different. As you already knew, it isn't a sealing jutsu at all; the 'seal' on your dad's kunai is just some fancy thing your dad thought of to hide the real meaning behind it. I just know the concept, not how to use the jutsu itself. And even if you knew the concept, there's no guarantee that you would be able to use it properly. Remember that time when you nearly cut yourself in half when practicing it? Luckily Jiraiya knew enough medical jutsu to patch you up; had he not been there…"

"All right, all right, I get it," Naruto cut in, annoyed. He knew if he didn't, the seal nerd would babble about it all day. He still shuddered whenever he reminded himself about that day, anyway. Besides, he also realized that he was being hypocritical. "But still… it's just… I hate sitting in one place feeling useless like this. If only there is something I can do…"

He suddenly jumped when Gyuuki's right hand clapped his shoulder. The ox-topus man gave him a huge grin.

"You should just relax yourself first, Naruto. Let me tell you a secret: During the time we stayed at Kirigakure, I and Jiraiya already decided on a plan. Even if the Akatsuki could get their hand on Utakata, they wouldn't be able to extract Saikyo from him that easily."

Right at that time, the doorbell rang. The blonde sighed, standing up. "I'll get the door."

After Naruto disappeared behind the room entrance, the two male Tailed Beasts looked at Kurama. "Maybe you should have just dressed up first," Isobu said in a deadpanned tone.

Kurama just glared at him.

Naruto blinked when he realized who was behind the door. "Sakura?"

The pinkette gave him a cheerful smile. "Yep, it's me! And anyway, I'm not here to play; this morning Tsunade-sama told me to come get you to the hospital as soon as possible, so I thought I would bring you with me on my way to work!"

Naruto blinked again. What was so urgent that baa-chan would tell Sakura to come get him this early in the morning?

Then he remembered. "Ah! Must be about the arm!"

Twenty minutes later, the pair were standing in the laboratory next to Tsunade in front of the bubbling tube with the replacement arm.

"So, are you ready to receive the arm yet?" Tsunade looked at Naruto.

Naruto nodded. "Duh. If I hadn't been ready, I wouldn't have come here, believe it! So who are going to do the operation?"

Besides him, Sakura spoke up. "Anyone else but the three best medics of Konohagakure: me, Shizune-sempai, and Master herself?"

"Then I have nothing to worry about!" Naruto answered cheerfully. "I'm ready anytime!"

The legendary medic nodded. "All right then. But in order to do the operation, we have to sedate you first. So…" she raised a syringe up, and Naruto's eyes widened.

"Oh no, no, no, no, there is no way I would let that thing come near me again!"

Tsunade sighed. "I knew this would happen. Sakura?"

"Huh? Sakura, what are you… HIIIIIIIIIII!"

Four seconds later, he fell to the ground, with a syringe stabbed deep into his right butt cheek. Sakura sighed.

"This is just pathetic."

Naruto groggily cracked open his eyes. "Ugh…"

"Welcome back to the land of the livings, Naruto," a familiar cheerful voice rose next to him. "The operation was a total success."

Naruto groaned, and pushed himself up from the bed with his left hand. "Sakura, next time if you dare doing that, I don't care if you are my best friend; I swear I will strangle you with these bare hands."

The pinkette rolled her eyes. "Oh please, I couldn't believe you are still like that after three years of training. Naruto Uzumaki, jinchuriki extraordinaire, jonin of Konohagakure, master Sage, blah blah blah, is afraid of needles?"

Naruto glared at her. "You won't be able to say that if you stay and train with Haku-chan for three months, I assure you," he said, and shuddered. "Seriously, why are nearly all of my female acquaintances sadists with pointy needles?"

Sakura deadpanned. "Nope, they're not."

"Name one who isn't," Naruto challenged.

"Hinata."

Naruto glared at her again. "You're so unfair."

Sakura just answered him with a cheeky smile.

Naruto looked at his new arm. From what he could see, it looked rather normal, beside the fact that it was covered wholly in bandage. The annoying thing was…

"I can't feel anything. And… I can't move it either. Is it supposed to be like that?"

Tsunade, who had just walked into the room, winced and answered for Sakura. "Well, you kinda got too familiar with your artificial arm already, right? You spent three years with it after all, mind you. So obviously you would need some time to be able to control the new arm properly again, since you cannot do the same thing as you did with your fake arm to it. And it would take some time for your brain to reconnect to and accept the nerves and everything inside that new arm, too…"

Naruto groaned. "It would take me weeks like before, wouldn't it?"

"Might be even longer, depending on how well you adapt to it," the legendary medic answered. "But yeah, you would have to stay in the hospital until the day after tomorrow for me to finish diagnosing all the changes you have after your body accepts that arm. Do you feel anything strange in your body right now?"

Naruto frowned. "Beside the fact that I cannot move my right arm to save my life right now, nope. Is there anything that is supposed to happen?"

Tsunade blinked. "Not even a single feeling of discomfort?" she pressed.

When Naruto shook his head, she frowned. "That's weird. Your body seems to accept the arm a little bit too willingly for some reason. Even if I did create it using mostly your own cells, I still had to include some cells from my grandfather in order to complete it… I know I said that there won't be anything dangerous happen, but the fact that there is totally no rejection from your body is just too strange. It's just like that arm is a part of you in the first place…"

"Maybe because I have the Kyuubi inside my body?" Naruto guessed. "Anyway, since the operation was successful, there is nothing left to worry about, right?"

"This is not something to joke about, Naruto," Tsunade glared at him. "Do you know what would happen if the information that your body can accept my grandfather's cells freely leaked out? A lot of people in this world crave the power of Wood Style, but it is incredibly difficult and dangerous to implant the cells of my grandfather into a human body. Now if someone knows that your body can harbor his cells freely without any drawback, what do you think would happen? Remember Orochimaru? And it's even worse now, since there are now five Orochimaru instead of one. Who knows what that crazy bastard would do?"

Naruto blanched. That was actually something he had never thought about.

Seeing Naruto's face, Tsunade waved him off. "Oh, stop it with that face. I know you can take care of yourself. What I mean is, do not let the information that this arm contains my grandfather's cells leak out. And be constantly vigilant when walking around; you cannot know when enemies would jump you, after all. Now, what you should be worried about is getting familiar with that arm until you can use it properly like your old arm. It would take some time, but I know that after you manage it, it will help you a lot."

After Tsunade closed the door into the room behind her, Naruto sighed, and dropped his body back on the bed. "So this means I will be out of commission for at least a week, huh. That sucks."

"Oh, suck it up," Sakura snorted. "This is not the first time you have to do it, you know."

"And that's exactly the problem!" Naruto wailed. "Karin-neechan is out for mission at the moment; who is going to feed me during that time like before?"

Then his mouth twisted into a mischievous smile. "Unless you want to feed me in her place, Sakura…"

Sakura just waved him off nonchalantly. "Nah, don't worry. I'll just file a D-rank mission hiring Hinata to nurse you until Karin is back, paid by you."

Naruto glared at her again. "You really are evil, Sakura."

"I really still cannot comprehend this," Tenten exclaimed. "I know the Uzumaki clan was famous for their advanced sealing jutsu, but what kind of jutsu is able to make a whole island disappear?"

Right now, the Konoha task force was standing at the island where they were supposed to go to. The problem was, there was no island there.

"It's not only that," Karin shook her head. "Watch."

She took a deep breath, then took off running forward, and disappeared from everyone's view.

"What the…?!"

Before anyone could realize what had just happened, the Uzumaki girl once again popped into view.

"What happened?" Lee asked, confused. "Where did you go, Karin-san? Did you just… teleport?"

Karin shook her head. "Obviously not; I'm not Naruto, you know. When I ran into the border of the island, I was immediately transported to the other side. It means space around the island was bent and warped so much that it literally separated it from this dimension. Watch again."

She once again walked towards where the island was supposed to be, but instead of running headfirst into it, she just bent her body forward. And everyone gasped when the upper half of her body disappeared from view.

Neji activated his Byakugan, and winced. "She's right… her head and chest are at the other side, five kilometers away."

"That's just creepy," Tenten shuddered.

"So this sealing jutsu is so powerful it managed to create a space-time distortion… Wonder how the Akatsuki managed to get their hand on it…" Gai muttered. But surprisingly, Itachi shook his head.

"Actually, space-time sealing jutsu, while rare, are definitely not something unheard of; I remember even Hokage-sama has something like that installed in his office in case he wants to have a completely private conversation that no one can overhear. I think it has the basic concept similar to this one: separating the office into a different dimension. Even the concept of a normal storage seal is like that; sending the item you want to seal into a hyperspace which only the holder of the seal can access. I guess this one is just that jutsu used in a very large scale; much larger than the one in Hokage-sama's office."

Karin turned towards the Uchiha in shock. "How do you know about that?" she asked.

Itachi just chuckled. "Trust me, a lot of the supposedly incredible things in the ninja world are just simple things souped up by those so-called geniuses to make them look better in the eye of other people. My deceased friend Shisui gained the name Shisui of the Body Flicker just because he could use the Body Flicker jutsu in a flashier way, that's all."

"There goes those secret advanced sealing jutsu of the Uzumaki…" Karin confirmed with a sigh. "Basically, as far as I understand, this sealing jutsu is indeed based on that concept, although in a way larger scale than that normal one in Hokage-sama's chamber. It doesn't even need constant influx of chakra from the user to maintain its effect. Breaking it is a big problem. Let's see…"

She unsealed Uzumaki's Hidden Sealing Arts, which was sealed inside a tattoo of a sealing array on her right hand, flipped through it and grimaced. "Just as I thought… Seals in such a large scale are usually created and maintained through a series of sealing talismans, as it is very hard, possibly nigh impossible to make a sealing array large enough to cover something as large as an island. If we can find those talismans and destroy them, we will be able to break the seal and enter the island."

"It's always useful having an encyclopedia about sealing nearby, huh," Anko said, amused.

"All right!" Karin snapped her book close and resealed it, then looked at Neji. "If what I know about this is true, the talismans should lie somewhere at the border of the boundary field created by the jutsu; Neji, please use your Byakugan to check the area in a radius of ten kilometers from here, even underwater, to find if there is something resembling a sealing talisman or not! You can do that, right?"

Neji nodded, and activated his Byakugan. One minute later, he closed his eyes.

"Found them."

"All right, they are all in position."

Karin nodded, then said into the microphone of the earset she was wearing. "Good. On the count of three… one, two, three!"

Vortexes of water exploded upward from underwater, at the places where the sealing talismans were at. A few seconds later, the water surface returned still.

When the island, which were about five kilometers large in radius, with a mountain peak at the center, faded into view again, Anko looked at Gai. "You know, I suddenly feel glad we thought about using shadow clones for this."

The taijutsu master nodded in stunned silence.

Tobi frowned under his mask. "The Konoha group has just managed to get past the dimensional barrier. They are going to arrive at our place soon."

"How long more does it take to finish the extraction?" Pain looked at him.

"We need about one more hour to completely extract the beast from the jinchuriki," the masked Uchiha answered. "But if what I calculate is right, Konoha might only need half an hour at most to arrive and break into this place if no one is intercepting them."

The leader of Akatsuki didn't say anything for five seconds. Then, at the sixth, he opened his eyes and said.

"So that means we only need to hold them back for an hour, right?"

"I found it!" Fuu exclaimed. "The chakra signature of Utakata-san is at the center of the island! And some… thing is sucking it out of his body really fast… we have to be quick if we still want to rescue him alive!"

"Yosh!" Lee pumped his fist. "Then what are we waiting for?"

Veins bulged up at the corners of Neji's eyes. "There is some kind of cavern at the place Fuu-san said. Whatever they are doing must be happening inside that cavern…"

Pushing more chakra into his eyes, he said, "I'll try to look inside that cavern, to see if there is anything happening in there first…"

The Hyuuga's view stretched even further, piercing through the rock, reaching into the deepest parts of the cave. Then he saw something. A lone man, wearing the signature black coat with red clouds of the Akatsuki, walking in a dark corridor, obviously heading outside.

Orange hair… body full of piercings…

Then the man looked up, and Neji immediately understood fear.

"Aahhh!" he screamed, and stumbled back, his Byakugan deactivated. Beads of sweat rolled down his cheek.

"What's wrong Neji? What happened?" Gai immediately caught his student and asked urgently.

"That… that man with the rippled eyes…" the Hyuuga stammered when trying to push himself up. "His killing intent was so terrifying… just one look into his eyes…"

Itachi grimaced. "So Pain is here… this might get nasty really soon. Even with all of us going at the same time, we are going to have a hard time against him. The Rinnegan is not something we can joke about, so you guys need to prepare yourself."

What the Uchiha had just said sent chill into everyone's spine. Finally, after a few seconds, Anko said.

"You are the only one with the experience of fighting the Rinnegan here, Itachi. Do you have anything you can give us about it?"

Itachi nodded with a grim face. "The Rinnegan grants its wielder the access to six different Paths, with different abilities. From what I saw during my fight and from Jiraiya-sama's information, those abilities are absorbing jutsu that use chakra, reviving the dead, extracting souls from living bodies, creating weapons from chakra," – Tenten's eyes gleamed dangerously when hearing this – "summoning unkillable creatures and controlling gravity. It also grants the user the ability to see chakra and look through genjutsu like the Sharingan and the Byakugan, but whether it has any special jutsu for each wielder like the Mangekyo Sharingan or not… I don't know. Also, the wielder can split those powers to six different bodies, so basically, one single Rinnegan wielder alone is already an army by himself."

Anko bit her lips. "Damn. That Pain might actually be able to take on a whole village alone if that's the case. No wonder how he could crush Kirigakure that easily…"

Juugo looked upward. The sun was moving closer and closer to the zenith. "And we're almost out of time, too…"

"If only we had Zabuza-san here with us now…" Fuu also said in worry.

After a particularly nasty clash of the two gigantic swords, the two swordsmen jumped back a few steps, leaving a distance between them.

"What's wrong, Zabuza?" From the other side, Kisame taunted. "Aren't you the master of Silent Killing? I haven't seen you using it against me yet. Or did the Great Devil of the Hidden Mist become so soft that he doesn't dare use his famous skill anymore?"

That, usually, was an insult to the pride of Zabuza. Basically, taunting someone using their fighting style is something that is considered taboo among warriors in general, and swordsmen in particular. But…

"Heh, your skill in taunting is still as bad as ever. After all… you are not worth using Silent Killing on."

Then with a sudden powerful movement, he brought his sword down on the water surface. Water climbed up, then came down on Kisame's head with the size and power of a tidal wave. It doesn't matter whether the shark man could breathe underwater or not; if this wave lands on him, it is going to hurt.

This is not a ninjutsu using chakra; Samehada cannot absorb it…

Kisame immediately launched himself backward, narrowly avoiding the incoming tsunami. The tidal wave crashed down with a violent "BANG", sending water everywhere, temporarily blocking his view.

"There!"

Then his eyes widened when he saw Zabuza dashing through the water screen with a neck-breaking speed, the tip of his sword aiming at him. Even though Kubikiribocho was well-known by the beheading edge, the round tip was also sharpened to the point it could cut a rock in half easily with just a thrust. If Zabuza managed to land the attack, he would be killed for sure, no question.

He immediately withdrew Samehada and held it on the way of the other swordsman, blocking the incoming attack. He winced when the two swords collided; the force coming from the charge was so great it managed to push him back even though he was standing firmly on the water surface.

Before Kisame could do anything to strike back, Zabuza had, with a very quick and precise movement, flipped his sword and delivered an upward slash from below. At this close range and with the immense length of Kubikiribocho, there was no way for Kisame to avoid being cut vertically in half.

Except for…

It seemed Kisame already realized it, because he immediately channeled chakra, reinforcing his sandals and leapt up… onto the edge of the Executioner's Blade. Then, using the force coming from the upward slash, he launched himself into the air. With that jump, he knew he would be able to make a bit of distance between them when he landed, enough for him to prepare a ninjutsu strong enough to overpower Zabuza.

But… to his horror, Zabuza's eyes gleamed. Then, the Devil of the Hidden Mist disappeared from view.

What…?!

"Over here."

From… behind…?! But how…!

The giant blade once again descended on his head. But…

"You underestimated me, Zabuza!"

In the middle of the air, Kisame spun. The momentum of the movement sent Samehada crashing against the descending blade of Kubikiribocho. The two blades once again collided with a deafening "CLANG", but that was more than enough for the shark man to stop the other swordsman from taking his life.

"No. It was you who underestimated me."

Kisame's eyes widened when the force pushing down on him and his sword suddenly tripled in intensity. And with a brutal swing, the Akatsuki member was sent hurtling down to the sea. He crashed at the water surface, sending a huge wave everywhere.

"Guh…"

Then he found his body unable to move, thanks to the four water clones of Zabuza surrounding him, casting the Water Prison Jutsu at the same time at him.

The real Zabuza landed on the water, and walked towards the restrained Kisame, who laughed maliciously.

"You really have become stronger, eh? The loser of the Seven Swordsmen… But you are still weak. If only I didn't have to spend half of my chakra fighting that accursed Kakashi yesterday…"

The Devil of the Hidden Mist glared at the Akatsuki member. "You are right. Maybe I'm still weak comparing to you at full power. But a fake like you do not have the right to say something like that to me."

The giant Executioner's Blade came down again, and this time, it met the target.

Zabuza scoffed at the two halves of an unknown shinobi which were sinking down slowly while harnessing Kubikiribocho back onto the holster on his back and walking away. "Next time, if you want to know how strong I actually have become, bring your real self here and face me."

The real Kisame opened his eyes upon the destruction of the human clone he sent by Pain's jutsu.

"That Zabuza is actually getting better, huh…"

After discussing for a few minutes, the Konoha team decided to go along with their original plan. They would go straight to where the Akatsuki was doing the extraction and rescue Utakata before they could complete it.

They knew that Pain was on his way to intercept them. But they already had a good idea of what to expect about their enemy, and as people always say, preparation is one of the keys to victory.

Pain had six different bodies which he used for combat. All of them had shared vision, and could use the abilities granted by the Rinnegan to both support each other in attacking and defending. If they were allowed the work together in tandem, they would be unstoppable. So, the best thing they could do was to try their best to separate them from each other, taking away their advantage of having connected vision. It would be much easier for them to take care of the bodies after that by utilizing the specialization of each member of the team. Gai and Lee were both taijutsu specialists whose Strong Fist didn't require chakra to work, so they could take down the Preta Path easily. The Human Path needed to touch the body of its target to work, but someone like Neji could neutralize it either through the Rotation technique or just simply avoiding it altogether by the 360o view of the Byakugan. The Asura Path could create weapons from chakra, but Tenten and Karin, both masters of using weapons in battle and holders of powerful sealing jutsu, could counter it. The giant summons of the Animal Path might cause trouble, but Anko also had her own giant summons in reserve, and could call them out to fight against the enemy summons. And together with the superhuman strength, speed and firepower the Sage Transformation gave Juugo, the two could break through the enemy summon formation and destroy the summoner before it could do anything bad. And they could also take down the Naraka Path easily, as without the King of Hell, it didn't have any other way to defend itself or attack back. And Itachi believed that together with Fuu, they could handle the Deva Path if they had to fight it alone.

It wasn't a perfect plan, but right now, it was the best thing the Konoha task force could come up with. The only thing they could do right now was praying all the gods above that the plan would unravel just as they thought.

"Incoming!" Neji suddenly shouted, and thrust his palm forward. The Vacuum Palm lashed out and met its target, a rocket launched from nowhere, in midair. It detonated, sending everyone stumbling back a few steps. They immediately regained balance and slipped into fighting stance.

"He's here."

As if answering Itachi, three figures landed on the ground in front of them. The Konoha shinobi tensed up, ready for battle.

Wait a second. Three?

"So you finally came back, traitor," the one standing in the middle, the same body which had held the Deva Path in the battle three years ago, said. "Very good. Today you are going to die here, by my hand."

The gears in Itachi's head started spinning furiously. Why did he only send three bodies to intercept us? Has he become so powerful after three years he thought that he didn't have to send everything he has against us? Or is he just arrogant? No… it can't be, after that horrible loss against Hokage-sama…

"We'll have to see if you can do it or not first," Despite thinking that, the Uchiha still threw a taunt at the Akatsuki leader. "Oh, and by the way…"

Something from Itachi's hand flew at the middle Pain in a blinding speed, and was stopped abruptly before it could touch him, sending the content everywhere around.

It was a bowl of ramen.

"Seriously?"

Itachi said in a very deadpanned tone. "Oh, too bad. It seems I won't be able to get a tip this time."

Konan glanced at the masked man who was standing on the middle finger of the opposite hand.

No, she did not forget what Naruto Uzumaki had told her the last time they met in the prison room. Since then, she had done a lot of secret researches about that masked Uchiha, in order to find out more about him and warn Nagato before it was too late.

But that was the problem: secret. Because she couldn't do a large-scale investigation without tipping him or Nagato about what she was doing, it was impossible for her to find out much about the mysterious Uchiha, even after three years. Hell, she didn't even know if he really were Madara Uchiha or not. He had never shown his true face to anyone in the Akatsuki, and the only jutsu he'd ever used was that wormhole jutsu and the ability to turn himself intangible. And from what she knew about the man named Madara Uchiha in history, those jutsu were never shown in the list of what he could do. But it could always be because Madara Uchiha in his prime had never found a need to use those jutsu, as anyone who had faced him in the past had been forced to run away or died under his hand, except for the First Hokage. The mystery about his identity made the masked man even more dangerous.

But it didn't mean that Konan did not manage to find out anything about him. At the very least, she knew about the 10-minute limit of his intangible jutsu, and had been preparing a plan to kill him by exploiting that weakness. Even if the worst case happened and he managed to survive, she had also devised a plan to bring Nagato and escape from Amegakure. Even if that meant she had to abandon the village into the hand of Tobi, protecting Nagato and the Rinnegan from him must be prioritized. If the Rinnegan falls into his hand…

What she was worried about right now was the change in Nagato's personality. For some reason, he had been more and more ruthless and cruel than the Nagato she had known in the past. Did Tobi do something to him? Or maybe it was because of the influence of the Rinnegan? Or maybe it was just because of the loss to the Third Hokage three years ago which made him so bitter and hungry for revenge?

She didn't know. There was only one thing she was absolutely sure right now: this was not the time for them to escape. She needed to be patient and force herself to follow Tobi's orders for some more time. After all, Nagato was only the Leader of the Akatsuki in name; the one who was really pulling the strings behind them was the masked Uchiha, and there was nothing they could do about it.

Yes. She needed to be patient and wait for the chance.

"This is not gonna be easy for us at all, huh..." Anko let out a chuckle.

Indeed she was right. Even standing over there, the chakra and killing intent coming from the three Pains were so great and menacing the Konoha group could even feel them from a distance. The aim of the Akatsuki leader was clear: he's not going to let them pass until the extraction was complete.

"Fuu-san! You know where they are now, right? Let's follow the plan!" Itachi yelled at Fuu, and the jinchuriki immediately understood. Wings spread out from her back, and she took to the sky.

In front of her appeared a shining ball of light. Continuing to glow brightly, it started to lengthen into the form of something with the shape of a rod. Fuu raised her right hand and grabbed it.

Immediately, her body started glowing. No, not her body, it was her clothes which started glowing in an orange light. Bathing in the same light, they started to transform. Layers by layers, the new outfit took shape around her body: a snug sleeved leotard hugging her upper body tightly, showing off her curves, with a short skirt together with a frilly waist cape covering her lower body. Guards formed around her forearms and shoulders. A ribbon took shape right in front of her breasts, and the wings on her back glowed and turned into orange energy while also growing larger and broader, like that of a giant butterfly. Her short green hair also grew longer and automatically twisted itself into a braid which reached her butt, ended with an orange bow. The weapon on her hand, now without the bright light, finally revealed its true appearance: an almost two-meter long staff with a sharp blade-like tip in the shape of Chomei's middle tail, with six smaller glowing wings made of the same energy as her wings sprouted from the sides of the energy blade, symbolling the seven tails of the Tailed Beast, and at the same time giving it the appearance of both an elegant staff and a very mean-looking spear.

All of those were accompanied by a lot of spinning and sparkles.

"Regalia of the Soul: 7th Tail: Hyperia: Spear of Light, set up~!" the weapon on Fuu's hand declared cheerfully.

Tenten blinked. "Is that… a magical girl transformation?"

Anko couldn't do anything else but facepalming.

"What the hell did Jiraiya-sama teach this girl during those three years…?"

'Geez, this is still so embarrassing...'

'Oh, come on, Fuu-chan! You know that this is the most effective way to utilize my power, and also the proof of our bond, right? You should be proud of it~!'

'I know, but why do I have to dress like this every time I use the Regalia? It's so embarrassing!'

'What are you even embarrassed of? The beautiful, frilly outfit is what makes a magical girl, it goes together with the rod! You can't be a magical girl without it~'

'…for some reason I feel like this is just what you pull to force me to become your dress-up doll, huh.'

'…uhhhh… enemy ahead?'

Fuu sighed. Sometimes it was impossible for her to deal with her Tailed Beast's antic. Besides, the enemies were right ahead, and this was not the time to think about things like this.

Gripping her weapon tightly, she started flying towards the mountain in the center of the island, where the Akatsuki were doing the extracting ritual.

Pain didn't have to look up to know what was happening. The middle body raised its hand, obviously planning to use gravity power to pull Fuu down to the ground.

Itachi's eyes narrowed. Focusing chakra into his feet, he prepared to charge. He could not let Pain stop the jinchuriki girl…

But Gai was quicker. Chakra suddenly exploded next to Itachi, and the Blue Beast of Konoha, with a single leap, closed the distance and launched a devastating kick at the Pain who was preparing for the jutsu. Not expecting the sudden strike, and not even having a second to react, the best Pain could do was to reverse the jutsu he was preparing to pull Fuu down to push the incoming taijutsu master away, but even that couldn't stop him completely. Gai and the body which casted the jutsu stumbled against each other, separating it from the other two bodies.

As a cue, the other members of the Konoha force also sprang into action.

"Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld!" Anko yelled, slamming her feet down after finishing some hand seals. The favourite trapping jutsu of Jiraiya, taught to her by the Hokage just a few weeks after she was promoted to jonin, immediately turned the ground into a swamp under the feet of the two Pain bodies, which started swallowing them down. Before they sunk too deep, however, the Pain with summoning jutsu managed to call out three giant birds in a puff of smoke. Two of them took off chasing after Fuu, while the last one grabbed both sinking bodies and pulled them up.

…right into the range of Neji, who was now charging up a double, full power Vacuum Palm.

"Haaaaa!" With a loud shout, the Hyuuga thrust both his hands forward, and the two condensed blasts of chakra shot out from his palms, aiming straight at their hearts. If this attack landed, it would take out both of them in one shot, as even though Pain used the Rinnegan to control those bodies, the fact that they could use chakra meant that they were alive. If they were killed like a normal human, they would be disabled and become useless.

Immediately, the left body twisted itself into the way of the attack. Both blasts struck it, but they were absorbed by the Path quite easily without dealing any damage.

So that is the body with the ability to absorb jutsu…

The identity of all three bodies were confirmed; now it's time to launch their attack.

"Now, Lee!"

Chakra exploded behind him. Faster than anyone could blink, Lee appeared on the air right behind the two Paths, his body cloaked in the blue aura of the first four Gates simultaneously opened. With a deafening battle cry, he threw a punch with his right hand, and they landed on the supposed Preta Path with a force so great it was ripped off the talon of the bird holding it and hurtled away. The bird squawked in pain and disappeared in a puff of smoke, dropping the Animal Path on the ground right in front of Team Anko. Not even stopping a second, Lee rushed in again and continued his relentless barrage on the Preta Path, which had to try its best to dodge and scramble away.

It's worth saying that during the three years Naruto and Fuu had gone away for their training, every single remaining one of the Konoha 15 had also pushed themselves to the limit, and all of them had already advanced to levels they couldn't have dreamt of before. However, it's safe to say that none of them could ever push themselves harder than Lee.

Unlike his friends, Lee didn't have natural talent in anything. He couldn't use ninjutsu or genjutsu like Sasuke and Sakura, didn't have a smart brain like Shikamaru, didn't have humongous chakra reserve like Naruto, Fuu or Juugo, didn't have good enough handwriting to focus on sealing jutsu like Tenten or Karin. He knows for a fact that it is simply impossible for him to catch up with them in those aspects. So, he had focused everything he had on the only thing he was good at, which was taijutsu. Just like before.

However, this time he had a different reason for it. Before, what he had wanted was to prove to everyone that even a talentless person like him could someday surpass true geniuses with sheer hard work. However, after hearing the story about Naruto, that goal had changed. While seemingly noble, it was still just a selfish and childish wish of a boy who wanted to show everyone he wasn't useless. But right now, Lee wasn't a childish boy anymore. He was a man whose friends needed his help, and what he needed to do was to provide them with the best thing he could do. And he would not let them down.

"Leaf Hot Wind!"

Lee's spinning kick advanced towards the Path like a literal fire typhoon. The force and the heat roared around the taijutsu specialist, threatening to evaporate everything on his way.

But to the surprise of the Leaf shinobi, the Preta Path suddenly slammed his hands together into a bird hand seal.

"Argh!"

Something suddenly emerged around the body and tossed the three members of Team Gai away violently. It was like a tornado, which pulled the three shinobi along with its spin and threw them away with the momentum… just like…

"Isn't that… your Rotation technique, Neji?!"

The Hyuuga, now managed to stand up after being tossed painfully to the ground, gritted his teeth while eyeing his enemy cautiously.

"It is similar… but it isn't the same! It was him creating a wall of wind around himself to act like a barrier to protect him… a tornado! It was an elemental ninjutsu!"

What…?!

What did he say…?! Pain is using ninjutsu?!

Itachi, on his way to assist Gai who was fighting what he thought to be the Deva Path, was startled. Never before, even during the time he'd been in the Akatsuki, had Itachi seen Pain using any other technique except for the ones granted by the Rinnegan.

He cursed himself. Now that they were talking about it, he remembered that Jiraiya-sama mentioned that Pain was supposed to be one of his old students, and the Toad Sage must have taught him jutsu during that time. And for some reason, Itachi chose this time to forget about it.

Damn it… things are starting to get out of my hand…

At the same time, Team Anko was having to deal with the Animal Path.

Right now, Anko herself was engaging in a taijutsu duel with the Path. Even though she had only been a jonin for three years, she had proven that the Third Hokage's decision to promote her straight to a jonin without an exam was for a reason. The style of taijutsu she learned from Orochimaru, while being something she loathed so much because it reminded her of her past with the Snake Sannin, was still something very effective and powerful. There was no opening for her enemy to exploit, and each strike coming from her was delivered with a precision and power more than enough to disable the enemy at any place she struck.

But that was if she could manage to strike any place. The enemy she was facing was Pain, the leader of the Akatsuki, ex-student of the Toad Sage Jiraiya, and the wielder of the legendary Rinnegan. According to legends, the Rinnegan allowed its wielder to easily master any jutsu, as the vision given by those eyes were so vast and clear it could see through all jutsu without any effort, even taijutsu. That might be the reason why none of her strikes could reach their target until now; while powerful and precise, her taijutsu style lacked speed comparing to Lee and Gai's Strong Fist. Her strikes were all dodged and blocked by her enemy quite easily.

Have to try something else…

From Anko's left sleeve, a snake lashed out and immediately coiled itself around the Animal Path. It bared its long, sharp fangs and tried to bite the Path's neck. This snake was of a special species whose venom could completely stop the function of a human body in only three seconds after applying; if this attack could land, the Animal Path would definitely be disabled.

However, the sudden attack couldn't land on its target. Right before the fangs could sink into the target's neck, they were stopped by some kind of armor suddenly forming from nothing around the Animal Path's neck and shoulders.

What…?!

A sharp steel blade formed behind the Path like a tail, cutting the snake coiling around it to shred and allowing it to backtrack from Anko.

She heard Karin exclaiming behind her.

"Forming weapons and armor from nothing… But how?! That body is supposed to be the one which can summon animal, isn't it?!"

So that's how it is… right now, those bodies aren't just holding the abilities of one single Path each! That body over there holds the Animal and Asura Paths, and who knows what the other two can do…?

It meant they were right now facing Pain at full power, with each body possibly having both incredible defensive and offensive techniques from the Rinnegan, without any plan to hold back. They were screwed.

"Argh!"

A loud "whoosh", and Itachi saw Gai being hurtled towards him, courtesy of a Shinra Tensei from the Deva Path. He deftly caught Gai right before the flying taijutsu master could crash into him and bring both of them down.

"Damn, he is a youthful enemy indeed! He even managed to dodge my attacks with five Gates opened!"

Itachi cursed under his breath. Gai was one of the fastest shinobi of Konoha, and with his Gates opened, he might as well be the fastest. To think that Pain had improved himself to the point that he could dodge hits from Gai with five Gates opened…

All the plans they had made were going down the drain. Time to go with no plan at all.

His irises morphed into the pinwheel shape of the Mangekyo Sharingan. The ribcage armor of his Susano'o appeared and in a blink of an eye, gained its complete form.

The Deva Path glared at the ethereal chakra body which was formed around Itachi without any hint of fear. "This jutsu again…"

The ethereal soldier swung the Totsuka Sword downward. Even without using its sealing power, it was still a giant, very powerful weapon made solely of materialized chakra. The blade crashed on the ground, sending a gigantic shockwave at the Deva Path, who immediately raised a Shinra Tensei shield to block. The attack couldn't harm Pain, but still left a trail of destruction when it ran past the Path, forming a deep crack on the ground behind it.

Finally, the shockwave died down, and the Deva Path dropped its own jutsu.

…only to see Gai appearing right behind it in a blink of an eye.

Shinra Tensei still hadn't finished cooling down. And Gai's fists were both glowing with chakra.

Immediately, the Deva Path thrust his right hand towards the taijutsu master. And Gai suddenly felt himself fifty times heavier. It was obvious that during the three years gap, Nagato had trained very hard himself, and had figured out quite a few more tricks with his Rinnegan. This trick is one of them: controlling the gravity of his enemy, making them heavier and slower, very effective against taijutsu users like Gai.

But…

"You think that is enough to stop me? SEVENTH GATE: GATE OF WONDER, OPEN!"

A fist landed on the Deva Path's lower jaw, sending him flying.

Impossible…! How could he still move that fast with his weight multiplied by fifty times?!

An advice for anyone who wants to use gravity to manipulate your enemy's weight during battle: it might slow your enemy down, but if, for some reason, he's not slowed down, there are chances you might eat a fifty times more powerful and painful punch to the face.

The Deva Path flew across the air… towards the tip of the Sword of Totsuka being held out menacingly by Itachi's Susanoo. This is going to be the end for the Path… Yahiko's final memento, his body.

Immediately channeling chakra, the Deva Path manipulated gravity again… but this time, on his own body. Suddenly being fifty times heavier, the Path lost his momentum on the air and fell to the ground, barely avoiding the incoming blade of the Sword of Totsuka. He crash-landed quite painfully, but something like that couldn't hurt him, not to mention he couldn't feel pain at all.

And the cooldown of his jutsu had also finished.

"SHINRA TENSEI!" he bellowed, thrusting his hands to the sides. Itachi and Gai were thrown away brutally once again by the invisible force, much more powerful than they had faced before. Even Itachi's Susano'o armor was also cracked by the sheer pressure of the attack.

"Krgh…!"

The battle, which had been in the Konoha shinobi's favor, now returned to a stalemate with just one single attack. The three shinobi just stood there and glared at each other; none of them dared to move a muscle.

Then a sudden surge of chakra from the center of the island, together with a quake drew their attention away from the fight.

The three members of Team Gai were thrown away once again by another barrage of jutsu from the Preta Path.

Even though the jutsu Pain had used were just common low-ranked ones, the power coming from them was so great it could rival those with high ranks they had faced before. It was obvious that the leader of the Akatsuki had prepared himself for this battle for quite a long time. And this way of jutsu spamming reminded them about how people like Naruto usually fought.

"Heh, this guy is hard to play against, indeed," Neji grinned in a way that was very out of his stoic character. "Just like Naruto himself."

Had anyone been standing at Nagato's control place right now, they would have seen him developing a very large twitch on his forehead.

"Even if you're trembling before the might of God, we're not going to let you run away. Wind Style: Gale Palm."

The burst of wind once again lashed out from the Preta Path's palm with the force of a truck. Neji tensed up, and he started building up chakra, preparing for his Rotation…

But before he could even launch the defensive jutsu, Lee had appeared in front of him and threw a punch. The power of the punch was so great it created a shockwave which clashed against Pain's jutsu and nullified it with an explosion.

The taijutsu specialist stood tall before his teammates; chakra was flowing out and crackling around his body like a blue flame, even stronger than before. He raised a hand at the Preta Path.

"Before we continue, I want to ask you something. What are you fighting for?"

The sudden question made the Preta Path halt his way. "Isn't it clear already?" he answered. "We are the ones who are fighting for peace. With the power of the Rinnegan, the world will understand true pain, and only from that can true peace be created."

"That is a load of bullcrap."

Even Tenten and Neji could only stare at their teammate in shock. They had never heard him curse before.

"You said you were fighting for peace, and yet you went and razed Kirigakure to the ground, killing hundreds of people in the process. That's the action of a mass murderer, not that of a peacemaker in any way."

Pain scoffed. "You are just like that Naruto Uzumaki. You of Konohagekure do not have the right to talk to me about peace. You were the cause of all the Shinobi World Wars…"

"Uh, hello?" Tenten butted in. "Sorry to burst your peace bubble, but as history recorded, none of the Shinobi World Wars were started by Konohagakure. The First Shinobi World War started because the four other Great Villages were afraid that Konoha would dominate the shinobi world by having all nine Tailed Beasts in our possession and decided to gang up on us, which led to the division of the Tailed Beasts to different countries in the world by the First Hokage in order to retain the balance of power. The second one was started from a conflict between Kumogakure and one of Konoha's allies, which forced Konoha to join the war to protect our friend. And the third war was started by the action of Iwagakure when they infiltrated Kusagakure to lay siege to the border of the Land of Fire! Konoha has more than enough rights and reasons to talk about peace, as we were always the ones who got invaded first! We only retaliated because it was the necessary thing to do if we didn't want to be destroyed!"

Pain seemed to be unnerved a little, but he immediately regained his confidence. "It doesn't matter. What matters is, humanity cannot understand each other. They always strive for greater and greater power, and thanks to that, they are always afraid of someone becoming more powerful than them. They always oppress others out of self-interest. That is the reason for all conflicts in this world. The only way to stop that cycle was someone with absolute power, who can make humanity understand the true horror of war and conflict. And that someone was Pain, the one who holds the eyes of God."

"The more you explain it, the more stupid that reason of yours becomes," Neji pointed out. "If that's the case, then you might as well go and kill off every single person in the world. Humankind develops themselves through their competitive spirit; it has been one of the traits that make a being human. The way to make peace is to stop humankind from causing pointless and useless bloodshed just for their own sick pleasure, to make them understand each other in a peaceful way, not to oppress them in a life full of fear, like you are trying to do."

Those words actually managed to put Pain at a loss for word.

"I guess trying to convey my great plan to you is useless," Finally, he said through the Preta Path. "You are already tainted too much by the darkness of this world, so I have no choice but to destroy you, here and now."

"You are welcome to try."

Lee walked up. On his hands were the two sets of weights he always wore on his legs. He had taken them off since god knows when.

"I am just a normal shinobi without any talent. I cannot use ninjutsu or genjutsu, and not the best at taijutsu, either. I don't know anything about those 'saving the world' philosophy of yours. I just know that, I have people who I cherish, and from your declaration, you are threatening not only theirs, but also the lives of many other people on your way to achieve your so-called 'peace'. And that is something…"

The two sets of weights left his hands and fell to the ground.

"…I will use all the power I have to stop!"

The ground shattered as if taking a full power punch from Tsunade. Debris and dust flew everywhere, and the Preta Path had to jump back to avoid being buried in the collapsing surface he was standing on.

He could… wear this much weight on him and fight like nothing? Even though he could not show expressions through the Paths, Nagato's mind still got numb in shock. Is he… even human?

From within the cloud of dust, everyone heard the voice of Lee, loud and clear.

"SIXTH GATE: GATE OF VIEW, OPEN!"

"Sixth wha…?"

Before the words could leave the Path's mouth, his lower jaw had already been shattered thanks to a punch coming from Lee, who had appeared in a blink of an eye in front of it without it being able to move a muscle to react. The body flew backward in a brilliant arc, but even before he could crash into the ground, the green abomination had already appeared behind him and sent him flying again, in another direction.

Nagato snarled inwardly. He tried to send commands to the body to focus chakra for a jutsu, but to his horror, he couldn't do that at all.

No, it's more like… the chakra was sent to the body, but whenever a little bit was built up, it was immediately dispersed when a punch from Lee landed on the body. It was just like… the taijutsu user was punching so hard and fast the chakra was beaten out of the Path.

This is ridiculous…! How can it be…!?

Lee's mouth formed a small smirk.

"Gai-sensei! Please teach me how to fight against ninjutsu specialists! You are winning against Kakashi-sensei, who is a master in ninjutsu; you must have had some special art to deal with him! I need that to have a chance if I have to fight against specialists like Sasuke-san or Naruto-san!"

Gai laughed boisterously when he heard the request coming from his protégé.

"A very youthful passion, Lee! But if that is your reason, I am not going to teach you."

That declaration took Lee aback in surprise. Gai-sensei had almost never refused any request for learning from him.

"Why, Gai-sensei?"

The sensei of Team Gai looked at his student with a stern expression. "Because such a thing isn't supposed to be used on your comrades. It is something you use for the sake of the ones you cherish, to protect them, to help them, not what you use to fight them for meaningless purpose. If you don't understand that, I will never teach it to you."

Lee's face brightened. "I understand, sensei! I swear I will only use it to protect my friends and comrades!"

"That's the spirit!" the taijutsu master laughed again. "Very well! The trick for this is that there is no trick!"

The answer coming from the taijutsu master was so unexpected Lee could only blink.

"Eh?"

That's right… The best way to fight someone who specializes in ninjutsu and genjutsu is to attack them so fast and hard they don't have the time to mold chakra or form hand seals for their jutsu!

"Oraoraoraoraoraaaaaaa!"

Not even being able to do anything, the Preta Path could only raise his arms to try to block the relentless punches aiming at it as much as possible. The barrage of punches was getting fiercer and harder, to the point that the air around Lee seemed to be caught on fire.

Finally, Lee's attacks managed to get past Pain's defense. The Preta Path was sent flying across the air, his back slammed into the ground painfully. Lee rushed in, ready to deliver the final blow…

…and the Path's eyes gleamed dangerously.

What…?!

His instinct screamed at him that he was in danger. But he couldn't stop; he was moving too fast, in a straight line…!

Before Lee's fist could land on the Preta Path, his head had already been seized by his two powerful hands. Immediately, he felt all his strength leaving his body. He tried to struggle, but everything was in vain; he couldn't move his body at all. It was just like his soul was trying to leave his body.

Is it going to end for him… just like this…?

A flash of light blinded him.

When he finally managed to look again, he was separated from his opponent. And both of the Path's arms were lying on the ground.

Tenten was standing next to him, brandishing her Sword of the Thunder God.

"There is an easier and better way to stop your enemy from using jutsu, Lee," she glanced at him with a smirk. "And that is not allowing it to have any hand to make hand seals."

"That's right," the voice of Neji appeared behind the Preta Path. "And now…"

In a blink of an eye, 128 tenketsu of the Preta Path's body were shut down by the Hyuuga's Eight Trigram: 128 Palms. He collapsed on the ground motionlessly and uselessly, unable to move anymore. Even though the Preta Path could absorb chakra by forming an absorbing barrier around himself, without being able to mold chakra, it is impossible for him to do that.

It is ironic; a being which dominated others by rendering their chakra unusable was defeated by not being able to use chakra.

"All right," Tenten said cheerfully. "I call dibs on the final blow!"

Saying that, she raised the Sword of the Thunder God, ready to deliver the final impale on the Path lying on the ground.

And a surge of chakra, followed by a quake originated from the center of the island thrown her off balance.

All those time, Fuu was also having trouble on the sky.

The plan was, while the others were holding Pain back on the ground, Fuu, with her ability to fly, would separate herself from the group and go straight to where the Akatsuki were performing the extracting ritual to rescue Utakata. Right now, she was the most powerful member of the group; if she couldn't do that, no one could.

The problem was, right now the flying enemies she was dealing with didn't want to let her do what she needed to do.

She had been trained in how to fight while flying during the training trip with Jiraiya and Naruto. Unfortunately, neither of them had any real experience in aerial combat, nor any summon which could fly to assist her during training. Therefore, the best they could do was training her in aerial maneuver and against anti-air attacks from the ground. She didn't have any real practice in dogfighting, especially against multiple enemies.

And now, with the assault from the two giant eagles from both sides, she couldn't find any way to break away from them to go to her intended target.

She twirled upward on the sky, twisting around to try to find a way to break away from her two hunters, but whenever she thought she had managed to gain a little distance between them, the two birds would also accelerate and close the distance immediately.

This is just ridiculous! Birds aren't supposed to fly like that!

One of the birds slammed into her waist hard, knocking her down from the sky. Fuu was sent hurtling down the ground, but luckily for her, she managed to regain her balance before crash landing into the forest below.

"You want a fight?" she growled. "I will give you a fight!"

"Fuu-chan!" the staff on her hand scolded her. "Magical girls do not growl like that! You have to keep calm and maintain your cuteness, focus on your goal to befriend all of your enemies…"

Fuu really wanted to cry. What the hell did she do to deserve this?

But this wasn't the time. If she didn't destroy these two creatures soon, it would be too late to go for Utakata-san, and…

"Here goes!" she yelled, and swung the staff on her hand forward.

"Lightning Style: Thunder Barrage!" the staff declared cheerfully. And around Fuu, hundreds of daggers made of electricity appeared in a blink of an eye and started launching themselves in an incredible speed towards the two predators. They squawked angrily and swerved away, one upward and one downward, to avoid the incoming missiles, but the daggers suddenly changed direction in the air and kept following the two birds doggedly. Soon, the projectiles reached their targets, and one by one, they lodged themselves into the body of the birds. They squawked in pain. One of them crashed into the ground and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"All right!" she cheered.

"Wide Area Protection!"

Fuu blinked. "Huh…"

Then she squeaked in surprise when a blade of wind crashed into the hastily raised chakra barrier in front of her. It didn't cause any harm, but had Hyperia not reacted promptly, she would have been cut in half by the wind blade sent from the wing of the remaining bird.

"Damn! So even that didn't work…!"

She swerved in the air, avoiding another wind projectile coming from the bird. She knew that if she didn't manage to at least make this annoying creature disappear, it would be too late for her to stop the extraction ritual from being completed, ripping the poor Six-Tailed Saikyo from Utakata and killing the jinchuriki.

Then she saw wind starting to gather around the body of the bird like a small typhoon. With a shiver, she knew what it was going to do.

And an inspiration, no, a madness suddenly popped out in her head.

Holding it with both hands, she pointed the sharp tip of Chomei's staff form at the monster bird.

"Oh, I like your idea~" the staff on her hands giggled.

The bird let out a loud screech, and with the vortex of wind surrounding it, it charged at Fuu with the speed of a jet fighter. If it managed to land a direct hit, no matter how durable the target might be, with the wind roaring around, she would be torn to shred.

And Fuu did something no one could ever expect. With the tip of the staff pointing forward at the incoming predator bird, she charged right at it in a similar speed.

Pain's faces couldn't show expressions. But if they could have, the only expression they would have shown right now would be a "wtf" face, as the real Nagato could see everything his bodies and summons saw.

The two flying objects were getting closer and closer. There was no way to avoid a direct collision now.

"Blossom Shield!"

A five-petal blossom made of orange energy burst into life at the tip of the staff on Fuu's hands right before the girl and the bird collided with each other. The bird crashed into the shield with a deafening explosion, but it didn't even budge; behind the shield, Fuu was also pushing forward, and the two forces with the same power gnarled and ground against each other, none of them even budged an inch.

And Fuu finally found what she was looking for.

The best way to deal with a storm was to attack it in the eye.

"Shooooooooooot!"

The beam released from the staff tore through the shield and crashed right into the predator bird which was staying right at the center of the tornado. It was so powerful that the tornado was dispelled, no, was blasted away and the bird itself was sent crashing through the forest below into the ground at least ten meters before dispelling itself in a puff of smoke.

"All right!" Fuu pumped her fist in triumph.

"Fuu-chan! Do you feel that?!"

Fuu blinked. Why does Chomei of all people sound so scared?

Then a humongous surge of chakra from the center of the island swept across them, nearly knocking Fuu off the sky.

"Yo, Naruto! How is your arm?"

Naruto scowled at Jiraiya, who had just jumped into his hospital room through the window. "Can't you just enter the room through the door, Pervy Sage?"

The Toad Sage just grinned cheekily. "Nope. That would make me soooo uncool. So, how do you feel about that arm? I heard that Tsunade-hime spent a lot of time and effort on it when we were gone training."

Naruto looked at his right arm, in bandage and was flopping around uselessly at his side. "Well, yeah. But I still cannot do anything with it. Baa-chan said that it would take a lot of training to get used to it, just like before…"

Then he remembered something. "Oh, by the way, this morning Gyuuki told me that you had a plan in case Utakata got captured by the Akatsuki. What is it, Pervy Sage?"

Jiraiya's face hardened. "So he told you about that, huh…"

"Hey, don't blame him," Naruto quickly defended the Tailed Beast. "He just told me that to stop me from being worried about that mission, you know. But seriously, what did you two do?"

The Toad Sage sighed. "I guess it's no harm to tell you about that, actually. It's just that Utakata himself asked us not to tell anyone about that in case it reached the Akatsuki's ear. It was him who came to ask me about that in the first place after all."

Naruto's curiosity perked up. "So what is it?"

Jiraiya sighed again. "Well, it is…"

Good. It is nearly completed. Only a few minutes left…

Suddenly, Utakata's unconscious body started shaking.

"What's happening?" Konan asked, startled when she saw the strange phenomenon. "Is that supposed to be in the sealing process?"

"No," Tobi answered. It seemed he was just as surprised as her. "Nothing like this is supposed to…"

Without any warning, a sudden surge of chakra burst out from Utakata's body. And to the Akatsuki's surprise and shock, it started to implode. No, it's just like… his body was absorbing chakra from everything around it, even from the Akatsuki members. The extraction process was also halted forcefully as the chakra started running backward into Utakata. The apparitions of the other members of the Akatsuki flickered and disappeared from the fingers.

"Ggh… Wh… what the hell is happening?!" Konan gasped in panic, struggling to keep the sealing jutsu from being disrupted while her chakra was being sucked out of her body.

"Do not stop!" Tobi barked; he was feeling both angry and afraid. "We're nearly finished; only a few more minutes! We cannot let this go to waste!"

"Easy for you to say!" Konan snapped back. "How are we going to do that with only two people and having our chakra sucked out like that?!"

It was the absolute truth; the extraction takes quite a lot of chakra to maintain. The less people synched with the statue, the longer it would take to complete it. With their chakra being drained constantly second by second like this, the sealing process would take forever to complete… that's if it were able to complete at all. They might be sucked dry of chakra before they could even do anything.

Damn you, Naruto Uzumaki… once again, you threw a wrench into my plan!

"So, basically, you added a feature in Utakata's seal that locks up all access to Saikyo-chan when her chakra is drained out enough, and a seal that functions like a Reverse Four-Symbol Seal which only drains out the chakra from the area around him?" Naruto stared at the Sage in disbelief. "But that's too dangerous! Modifying a seal is one thing, but adding another seal on top of a seal that contains a Tailed Beast is reckless and might cause disastrous result! And not to mention the kind of damage it might cause to Utakata and Saikyo-chan if that even works out! His body might explode with that second seal activating!"

"I know that," Jiraiya nodded. "But Utakata himself insisted, and I couldn't find any way to refuse him. Besides, I asked Gyuuki-sensei about that too, and he also gave me some advices. The only reason it could succeed was because Utakata's seal was too simple, and his Tailed Beast was very docile. I also had to borrow your phoenix brush to complete it, so it might be considered one of my masterpieces in sealing."

"So that's the reason why my brush disappeared for a week!" Naruto screeched in outrage. "How dare you take it without telling me anything! I had to tear up our luggage looking for it!"

"Hey, hey, to save people's lives, anything works, doesn't it?" the perverted sage defended himself. "Besides, you should be proud that your master managed to do something thought to be impossible like that!"

"Well, you better hope that someone manages to stop them before things go too far," Naruto muttered.

On the ground, the three Pain suddenly halted their movement in just a fraction of a second. The chuunin might not, but the experienced jonin and Itachi immediately realized the problem.

Was that because of what Fuu has just done…? This is our chance to take the advantage!

Anko immediately did a backflip, making some distance between her and the Animal-Asura Path. From both of her sleeves, dozens of snakes poured out and swarmed towards the Path, which were forced to jump backward to avoid knowing that it couldn't destroy all of them.

And falling right into her trap.

"Karin, now!"

From underground, chains made of chakra burst out and immediately wrapped themselves around the Animal-Asura Path, tying it up and locking it in place.

"Adamantine Attacking Chain, success!" the Uzumaki girl declared triumphantly. During the three-year gap, she had practiced a lot with her Adamantine Attacking Chain technique, and had developed it to the point that she could create the chains to restraint targets anywhere within the radius of ten meters around her. And those chains, made of chakra from a full-fledged Uzumaki, was nigh impossible to break.

And Juugo was rushing towards the chained down Animal-Asura Path, both of his arms morphed into cannons which were blazing with nature energy right now.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

With a loud howl, he rammed both blazing cannons at the Path's stomach. And a bright beam of light exploded out, tearing through the body and taking a vast of trees behind it away before continuing its way into the sky.

The blast died down, leaving a pair of legs wearing a half-burnt cloak on the ground.

Everyone in Team Anko held their breath. Did they do it?

Then Anko's eyes widened when she saw what was inside the leftover. Completely nothing. It was just an empty shell.

"It was the Empty Cicada Jutsu!" she yelled. She had learnt about this technique during the time she was Orochimaru's apprentice, and only saw the Snake Sannin performing it once or twice, as he preferred his special Substitution Jutsu more. "The enemy can be anywhere around us now; you two, be careful and stay vigilant!"

The three shinobi immediately tensed up. What is going to happen now?

Under them, the ground started shaking. Then, without warning, beams of energy erupted from the surface, and had it not been for Karin's Kagura Shingan and her reacting in time to pull them out of the way, the three Leaf shinobi would have been vaporized.

"Underground!" Juugo yelled, and slammed his hand-cannons down on the surface. The ground underneath crumbled into a ton of debris, revealing the Animal-Asura Path hiding under, who leapt up and away from the three shinobi.

Shit… this bastard is even more dangerous than I thought! And this is just one body…

"Something wrong seems to be happening with the extraction process," Fuu said, directing her Sage sensor ability towards the center of the island. "For some reason, it seems like Utakata-san's body is absorbing all the chakra in the radius of ten meters around him, even the chakra from the sealing vessel, but I cannot sense Saikyo-chan's chakra inside his body! If this continues, his body might explode from chakra overload!"

"There is no way we can get there in time before he drained out that vessel to the last drop!" Chomei answered in a panicked voice. "What should we do now?!"

Drain to the last drop? Wait, that's it!

"Hyperia… get ready to go full power."

The staff stopped her rant midway, and after a few seconds…

"Are you suuuuuuure?" she asked in a scarily happy voice. Fuu nodded, and swung the staff upward before pointing her towards the mountain peak.

"I'm sure. Let's blast that vessel with an attack so powerful it has to dispel itself before Utakata-san can suck it dry and destroy himself."

"All right, my master~! Starlight Br…"

"You are not Raising Heart, and you are not shooting Starlight Breakers," Fuu cut her staff short in a very deadpanned voice. She closed her eyes, and started focusing. Around her, a series of mirrors appeared from nowhere and started recalibrating themselves in the air.

The most powerful ability of Chomei is the power to control and manipulate nature chakra freely, and her jinchuriki would also be able to get access to Sage Mode more easily and efficiently. However, no matter how skilled the jinchuriki is with Sage Mode, there are still three steps necessary in order to enter the stage. First, absorbing nature chakra into the user's body. Second, combining nature chakra with the user's own chakra to form Sage chakra. Third, using the Sage chakra to use jutsu. Without all three steps, it would be impossible to use Sage Mode for battle.

However, the power of Chomei's Regalia form had rendered all of those drawbacks void. With the Tailed Beast's inherent ability, it is not necessary for Fuu to absorb nature chakra into her body to make Sage chakra anymore. Instead, the staff form of Chomei would manipulate and process pure nature chakra outside of her body. Because of that, and thanks to the perfect sync between the Tailed Beast and her jinchuriki, the jutsu used by Fuu were now formed and executed much faster and stronger than before, without even having to make hand seals, giving her maximum advantages against enemies on the battlefield.

Another advantage is she can take nature chakra from any source around her. From the land, the sea, the air… And the most powerful source of nature energy anyone living in the planet could find is, obviously, the sun.

And the technique she was going to perform was going to use that very same source of power. Hyperia, the Spear of Light, named after Hyperion, the Titan of Heavenly Light, is naturally the best weapon to utilize this technique.

Sunlight started gathering at a point in the exact center where the mirrors faced each other into a ball of bright, yellow light. The ball kept growing and growing… until it became a humongous sphere the size of a house made of pure sunlight. Floating right next to it, the jinchuriki could feel the intense heat coming out from the sphere of light, and the power contained within it.

Fuu directed her Sage sense towards the cavern within the mountain, where the sealing statue and Utakata's unconscious body were playing chakra tug-o-war. The mirror system disappeared, and she pointed the sharp tip of Hyperia at the sphere of light towards the direction of the mountain peak.

"Target acquired. Firing lock is cancelled. Ready to fire."

"Feel the mighty power of the sun! Hyperion…"

"…BLASTER!"

The beam of pure, undiluted sunlight shot out upon Fuu and Chomei's chorus towards the cavern with the power of a wave-motion cannon blast. It pierced through the rock like a piece of butter and hit the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path right at the chest. The statue, while not completely destroyed, still took a severe burn mark at the chest and toppled over, crashing into the ground and made half of the chamber collapsed before disappearing in a huge burst of smoke, dropping Tobi and Konan from its fingers. Being the only targets left, the sealing jutsu on Utakata's body immediately switched to the two Akatsuki members, who were the only people in the chamber now.

"Gah!" Gasping when she felt her chakra being drained at a much faster rate than before, Konan collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily. Tobi snarled; he jumped at the woman and grabbed her before disappearing in a vortex, pulling her with him. Without a target, the absorbing jutsu died down, leaving Utakata's body on the ground, unconscious but definitely alive.

The three Paths of Pain suddenly stopped fighting. They turned their heads towards the direction of the sealing cavern simultaneously. Then, without a word, the Animal/Asura Path abandoned the fight and made a dash towards the Deva Path, who raised his hand and with a Banshou Ten'in, pulled the other body towards him much faster than anyone could react. Reaching the Deva Path, the Animal/Asura Path did a backflip and landed on the ground before slamming his hand on the ground, summoning the Human Path before Tenten's sword could pierce through it. The Sword of the Thunder God only stabbed the ground harmlessly.

"I will accept defeat this time," the Deva Path growled at the Konoha shinobi, who were preparing to charge him once again. "But the next time, you will all suffer defeat under my hand. And you are not going to leave this place without a scratch, either."

Itachi's eyes widened. "Everyone! Get behind my Susano'o, quick!"

Hearing Itachi's voice made the Konoha shinobi understand what was going to happen without even having to think. They barely made it behind the chakra construct before Pain could unleash his jutsu.

"SHINRA TENSEI!"

A third of the island was wiped off in an instant. Even Itachi's Susano'o, a powerful construct made of pure chakra, couldn't completely withstand the force of the blast and started crumbling. Only with his pure willpower did the Uchiha manage to hold it together until the attack stopped.

And when the jutsu finally stopped, Pain was nowhere to be seen.

"Damn it…"

Inoichi removed his hand from the White Zetsu's head and opened his eyes with a sigh.

"Nothing?" Hiruzen looked at him questioningly. The Yamanaka man shook his head.

"Nothing. I couldn't find any memory at all, except for ones about the battle at Sunagakure yesterday. They have everything of a normal human, except for the fact that they don't have a soul. It's just like they have just been born for one single day, and their purpose in life was to fight in that battle."

"Not even a glimpse about the Akatsuki?" the Hokage pressed on. And just as before, Inoichi shook his head.

"What a waste of time," Aoba Yamashiro clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Now what should we do about these two?" he looked at the two White Zetsus. "Keeping them here would just be a waste of resources."

"Actually, I found something kinda intriguing when I poked around inside their mind."

Hiruzen looked at Inoichi. "Like what?"

"I don't know if it's something worth mentioning or not, but when I was wandering around their minds, I found really small traces of memories that I know do not belong to them. They were just some vague images, but… they were completely different from anything I know… like, things which are out of this world. Tall buildings that reached the sky, machines which could fly like giant eagles, and many other things. But I don't know if I was just hallucinating or not, because those memories disappeared as quickly as they appeared. And they don't seem to have anything related to what we're looking for, so…"

The Hokage frowned. "That was indeed something intriguing. Unfortunately, they don't make any sense to me. What does that even…?"

Suddenly, the door to the T&I Department snapped open. The ANBU member wearing the cat mask burst into the room, breathing heavily under her mask.

"H-Hokage-sama! T-trouble! The… the Chamber of the Sealing Scroll… it was broken into… by Orochimaru!"

Everyone's eyes widened. "WHAT?!"

Definition

Regalia of the Soul: 7th Tail: Hyperia, the Spear of Light

Classification: Ninjutsu, Tailed Beast Skill, Senjutsu

Rank: EX

Class: Offensive, Support

Range: All

Named after Hyperion, the Titan of Heavenly Light, this is Chomei's ultimate form, and Fuu's Regalia of the Soul, the proof of her unbreakable bond with her Tailed Beast. She achieved this during the three years of training with Jiraiya and Naruto, after mastering the Weapon Projection Jutsu Naruto taught her. This weapon has the shape of a large spear with six wings made of energy at the base of the blade, symbolizing the seven tails of Chomei. The weapon allows Fuu to manipulate and utilize pure nature chakra from the environment around her without having to absorb it into her body to make Sage chakra, effectively reducing the time she needs to cast jutsu and at the same time, increasing their power to a level normal senjutsu cannot reach. The only drawback of this is that Chomei always forces Fuu into a magical girl outfit every time she uses the Regalia, which embarrasses her so much.

Lightning Style: Thunder Barrage

Classification: Ninjutsu, Senjutsu

Rank: A+

Class: Offensive

Range: Long-range

One of the jutsu Fuu can use with her Regalia. Utilizing lightning-based chakra, missiles made of electricity appear around her and shoot themselves towards the target she is aiming for. Being made of lightning chakra, they can paralyze enemies when hit, and they also have target-seeking ability.

Hyperion Blaster

Classification: Ninjutsu, Senjutsu

Rank: S

Class: Offensive

Range: Long-range

The most powerful bombardment jutsu Fuu can use when wielding her Regalia. This technique utilizes the mighty power coming from the most powerful source of nature chakra: the sun. In order to use the jutsu, the user needs to go through two steps: First, the user must form a series of mirror in front of her with Creation of All Things in order to focus the energy of sunlight into a single point. The process takes a few minutes. Second, when the focused energy reaches the maximum level, it would be shot at the target in the form of a pure, undiluted beam made of sunlight. The power of this technique is so massive it could actually damage the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path with a single hit, a feat that not even a Tailed Beast Bomb at full power could do. Fuu usually calls this jutsu "the rage of the sun".