A/N: Hello, welcome to the new chapter of Kid of the Hunt. I hope you enjoy it so far, please leave a comment if you do so.
"Thrill of the Hunt: Rhino Stampede!", Naruto called first.
The earth around everyone started shaking madly, while the horizon was filled with the grey animals.
"Tsunade-sama, let's go! We have to go get the others!", Shizune yelled out, pulling them away.
"No, I will stay! I'm a Sannin, I'll be damned to leave Naruto behind! You go and get them!", Tsunade countered. Shizune saw it in her eyes that Tsunade was far from the point of being able to be convinced.
Naruto attempted to draw his swords, but came to realize that they were gone.
"Damn it. Well then, let's get old school."
The Akatsuki and the Desert Hunt, plus Tsunade and Danzo, began to engage in a heated group battle, while having to jump from the backs of the incoming horde to avoid being stomped to death.
Naruto, who exchanged punches with Pain, saw Danzo being pressed on by Kakuzu. Quick to act, he jumped off a Rhino to kick the former Taki-nin into his back. The man fell down due to Narutos momentum and was quickly stomped, over and over, by the sheer infinte horde of animals
When the Jinchuuriki turned around, he was greeted by a fist from Pain straight to the face. Dizzy, he smashed into the ground and was nearly squashed. His ability to connect with the animals though saved him, by making them run around him.
Karin, who captured Itachi in her chains, was looking straight into his Mangekyou Sharingan, and Naruto knew what that would mean.
Jumping, he delivered a bone-crushing axe kick to the Uchiha. Unfortunately, the damage on Karin by Tsukuyomi was already done. 'Itachi' dispelled into dozens of crows.
"Baa-chan, help Karin please, Itachi used..", Naruto started, but was interrupted, by a kick into his stomach from the reappearing Uchiha. The force pushed out all of the air out of his lungs, and sent him flying backwards.
Tsunade immediately left her battle with two of the other Paths of Pain, to go to the girl Naruto just stood by.
The other three paths, minus the leader, intercepted her, but had to avoid being hit by the magma that Roshi send their way.
Gaining back control, Naruto yet again landed in the horde and directed them around him.
'This is way too messy. We need to scatter.'
His clones and him each threw one dagger into one of two directions. He sent his clones into fights with the Akatsuki directly, and the moment they were hit, they disappeared in a yellow flash, so now the enemy was split up.
"Gaara, Deidara, Danzo, Roshi and Han, you come with me! The rest goes over there. Baa-chan, please help Karin now!"
Everbody watch out, Black Zetsu is missing!", Deidara yelled, following his leader.
The horde disappeared into the distance, so the field was clear.
Naruto and Danzo charged the Six Paths of Pain, Deidara and Gaara attacked Hidan, while Roshi and Han attacked Kakuzu.
On the other side, Kankuro and Utakata attacked Kisame, while Fuu and Killer Bee attacked Itachi.
Naruto and Danzo vs Pain
The Sage and Hokage faced the Six Paths of Pain.
'Time to test my new abilities.', Naruto thought.
'Everything, all of nature, is a part of you.', Naruto repeated Hashirama's mantra. He brought his hands up to rise above his head, and trees shot out of the ground. A small forest was created, and the eight fighters jumped from tree to tree.
"That's... that's not possible!", Tsunade spoke bewildered.
"Mokuton Hijutsu: Jukai Koton!", the sage yelled, while a particular massive vine wrapped itself around an unfortunate path. Naruto jumped from tree to tree like a monkey, while yellow kanjii glowed on his right hand. He punched one of the paths into the ground, and while he crashed down, Naruto tried to charge a Bijuu Rasenhuriken. In this moment, he noticed that he wasn't able to tap into Kyuubi's chakra. He knew it was there, but there was no accesw to it.
'What?', Naruto thought, relying on a normal Fuuton: Rasenshuriken. But the surprise was enough to be distracted, so another path punched him in the gut and sent him flying towards the ground as well.
When Naruto opened his eyes and saw the Deva path flying towards him, he revealed that he already charged his signature move.
Reappearing above the path lying down in the crater, he thrusted his technique into his stomach. Throwing a kunai out of the forest, Naruto used the Hiraishin to escape the explosion.
"Danzo, destroy it!"
"Fuuton: Daitoppa!", the war hawk shouted, blasting wind into the trees. Together with the Rasenshuriken, the tress were thrown around, falling or flying away.
'Kyuubi, what's going on? I will need your chakra!'
"My chakra is sealed away, kit. You can summon me with your chakra but not directly tap into my power. Rhaast used my chakra to summon me, that's why I disappeared when the chakra was sealed."'
'Sealed...the Five Pronged Seal. Ero-sennin blocked your chakra, I remember.'
Naruto concentrated on the seal and to work on dispelling it, when he heard a voice from the destroyed forest.
"Benshou Tennin!"
Danzo jumped in front of Naruto to get pulled towards the Deva path himself, colliding his blade, which was enhanced with wind chakra, with the prominent chakra rods from the Akatsuki.
Meanwhile, Naruto was able to work on the seal.
"Fuuinjutsu: Kai!"
Immediately, he felt a surge of power, but was interrupted by the voice of one of the paths.
"Nature's chakra. Very impressive for such a young man. Thank you for letting me absorb it."
Naruto felt the energy leaving his body, the green marks on his face slowly dissipating.
'The impure and the spiteful cannot survive something as pure as nature. If at heart your are hateful, nature will rip you apart and leave nothing behind.', was one of Hashirama's other mantras.
Naruto now pushed more nature's chakra into the path, whose arms started turning into wood.
His eyes widened: "What?"
"For someone who lectures others about cycles of hatred, you sure are hypocritical when I see how nature gets back at you.", Naruto states, immediately getting back his power while the path was turned into a wood statue.
The sage saw Danzo fighting the remaining for paths, trying to dodge the multiple chakra rods in each of their hands. He then summoned vines to.shoot out of the ground, wrapping themselves around two of the paths, while the Deva and another path jumpes away.
Naruto threw them together so they slammed their heads into each other.
"Rooooar!", Naruto, now with the power of Kyuubi filling him again, yelled when he absorbed both the energy from nature and his bijuu. His first signature move, the Rasengan, quickly grew in his hand, but became far greater than usually.
"Senpo: Bijuu Oodama Rasengan!"Another crater, and two more corpses.
'4 are dead, and 2 corpses left. Now, here it goes.'
"Such fury. Is that the power of someone willing to defend the world, no matter what the obstacles are?", the Deva path asked Naruto.
"The world?", Naruto asked through gritted teeth. "This world took everything from me! And still, hating this world just doesn't feel right. The world takes from me, but I take from it to, and will still take from it. I cannot and will not expect this world to offer me anything, so I take my destiny into my own hands, no matter how many obstacles you put in my way! Because to rise above every obstacle the world throws in your way, and protect those precious to you, that's my nindo, dattebayo!"
Tsunade, watching from the side, saw a glimmer of hope when she recognized that the Naruto she grew to love hasn't died completely. She remembers what he last told Sasuke before he 'died', and to see he at least had his fighting spirit again.
She froze when she saw Naruto's look towards her, looking melancholic and almost apologetic.
"I'm sorry, baa-chan. I know you have a bad taste left in your mouth from this, but I...I can't help it. I just need to see them." Naruto told, tears rolling down his eyes.
"What do you mean Naruto?", she asked.
The young man standing in front of the two corpses clasped his hands together, and breathed. He put a tagged kunai on one corpse, and an folded apron on another. Then he uttered the cursed words of a jutsu.
"Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei."
As tears rolled down from the Fifth Hokages face, hand in front of her mouth to muffle her sob, she saw the corpses being pulled into the ground and tombs rising out of the same place.
"What have you done?", Danzo asked, eye wide.
"My parents keep masks from the Uzumaki clan in our home, one that can pull souls from the belly of the reaper. The Shiki Fuujin wasn't the first time I encountered the Shinigami.", he replied.
The tombs fell open, and two people with cracks all over the body, and white eyes. A tall, blonde man and a redheaded woman.
"Mom, Dad!", Naruto couldn't contain his excitement.
The reanimated shinobi turned around to see the young man.
"Is that you, Naruto?", Kushina asked hopefully. Minato simply had a bright smile on his face.
The Yondaime though was confused when he saw a Suna and a slashed Konoha headband.
"Naruto!", Kushina yelled, hugging him as Minato did the same.
"But, but how are we here? What happened to Konoha?", Minato asked/yelled when he saw the giant crater.
"I will explain it all later. For now, we need to fight the ones who destroyed it.", the young man replied, nidding towards the two remaining paths.
"Yahiko?"
"Minato. It has been long. Show me if you're willing to destroy me to fight for your world. Shinra Tensei!"
Naruto and his parents dodged the blast of gravity. Minato gripped a few of his tagged kunai, while Kushina shot out chakra chains to hold the two paths.
The Deva path easily dodged, but the remaining one was not so lucky. The chains brought him to his knees, along with Mokuton vines wrapping around him to strangle the fifth path. Before the three ninja could attack, they were intercepted by Kisame and Itachi.
"Heh, those two were the best you could do kid? Their chakra was very tasty!", Kisame laughed. Naruto looked behind to see Kankuro, Utakata, Fuu and Killer Bee on the floor. He saw they were recovering, but it wpuld take time. Gaara and Deidara were too busy with Hidan, and Han and Roshi looked like they wouldn't last much longer, onlyntheir experience with Akatsuki keeping them alive.
"I'm sorry to do this, Yondaime-sama.", Itachi muttered.
"Itachi?", Minato wondered, but shook it off. He attacked him, Kushina charged Kisame and Naruto attacked Pain.
"Laughing Monk Jutsu!", Naruto yelled, two arms of wood shooting out of the ground.
"Shinra Tensei!", Pain countered, destroying the wood in its path. Naruto put up a wall of wood in front of him to block the rest of the technique, and dispelled again.
Naruto threw a kunai and replaced himself with it, starting to exchange punches with the First Path. Naruto hit a nasty punch in the liver, while Pain drew a chakra rod to cut Narutos upper left leg.
The young man wanted to jump back, but immediately was pulled to Pain, clearly underestimating his ability to recover from blows as well.
"Benshou Tennin!", he yelled, pulling Naruto's throat into his open palm.
Immediately, he started to choke the boy.
"Enough of this.", Pain told, ramming a chakra rod through Naruto's stomach.
"NARUTO!", Kushina yelled, trying to engage Pain, only to be intercepted by Kisame. Itachi caught Minato's kunai, so he had to reappear in front of him instead of going to Pain.
Naruto gurgled on his own blood which left his mouth as well as his stomach. Pain gripped the rod from behind Naruto, to stick him into the ground. He then used other rods to fixate his extremities.
"W-why? What have ever done to you?", Naruto asked barely being able to breath.
"...", Pain did not say anything, only prepared another rod.
"Why did you destroy the village? What have these people done to deserve it?"
"In the last Shinobi War, ninja from Konoha used our land, Amegakure, and turned it into a slaughterhouse. The only thing I do is end this place, the root of the hate from the entire world. If hate is to stop in this world, it has to be pulled out of it, all the way down to the roots. You're having your reason to fight, and I have mine.", Pain concluded, only to dodge a critically hard punch.
In front of Naruto, now stood the blonde form of Tsunade, hands glowing with chakra.
"Baa-chan, no! He's far too strong, stay away from him!"
"To protect someone who is precious to you, that's your nindo. I have failed to protect you, Naruto. I was there when you were born, yet I failed. I will not make the same mistake again.", she said, her voice filled with an unbreakable resolve.
She ran towards Pain and threw out punches like wild. Her strength was incomparable, but she lacked speed and was therefore not able to hit the Deva Path. He barely moved around, and in one motion where dodged, he managed to ram a chakra rod through her stomach as well.
"N-no, baa-chan!", Naruto said, vision blurry.
"Argh!", the Godaime coughed up blood, looking in the horrified eyes of Naruto.
"I'm sorry, gaki. No, you're not a boy anymore. You're more of an adult I could ever be, you already were when we met. I am so sorry that I wasn't there for you. You have pulled me out of my misery, brought a spark of life into me again, and gave me hope for this village. I couldn't even tell you who your parents were, and see when you are in pain." She said, eyes glistening from tears and pride.
"I love you Naruto. You are a sunshine for everyone in your life, and I am sorry I couldn't tell you sooner.", she finalized, making the Uzumakis eyes go wide.
Without mercy, the orange head stabbed a rod through Tsunade's chest and made her go silent.
Ba-thumo
Ba-thump
Ba-thump
"NOOOOOOOO!", Naruto yelled. The chakra rods were blown away from his body, and immediately, he grew out tail after tail, until he grew out eight tales. His skin was covered in red, and additionally, a skeleton was forming around his body.
The form jumped forward at an insane speed, and punched Pain straight in the face. The Akatsuki flew back and crashed into a rock, immediately destroying it into a million pieces.
Naruto charged a Bijuudama, while Pain shot back his Shinra Tensei. It wasn't strong enough though, and the power of the attack forced him back.
The Akatsuki saw and wanted to attack Naruto together, but were stopped this time.
In front of Itachi, the form of Sasuke, Mangekyou Sharingan already spinning. Kakashi and Sakura stood in front of him and Kisame, assisted by Team Gai. Hidan and Kakuzu, who joined each other again, were blocked by Team Kurenai and Team Asuma.
Jiraiya and Shizune ran to Tsunade. Karin, who now was able to at least stand again, went over to Tsunade as well.
The Akatsuki each looked around to see the Jinchuuriki and their team up again, making themselves ready for the second round.
"Now, I will be your opponent.", Sasuke told his brother. Kakashi pulled up his headband, standing next to his old teacher.
"S-sensei?", Kakashi stammered.
"Hello, Kakashi. It is unfortunate to meet you again to go into a fight, but I fear we have no choice."
Danzo made his stick glow with wind chakra again after his joined fight with Itachi and Kisame.
Sakura made her hands glow with chakra, Gai and Lee opened three gates each. Neji and Hinata activated their Byakugan, the other Jinchuuriki each released their demons entirely, so that only Naruto was yet to transform fully. Even Kankuro and Deidara got ready again.
"Now, this is the end for you!", Gaara/Shukaku yelled, with the Kyuubi-possessed Naruto releasing a mighty roar of approval.