DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO, FAIRY TAIL, OR ANY ASSOCIATED CHARACTERS
Apologies for the shortness of the last pair of chapters. I suppose I could have condensed them into one, but I felt that they needed to be separate. This one jumps around a lot, and is just setting up for the next arc. For those of you missing the action, not to worry, it will resume next chapter. Anyways, read, review, and as always, enjoy!
Chapter 29
"Seriously, come on, Sasuke, we've been walking for hours," Suigetsu complained.
Sasuke didn't even bother to turn around. "We stop when we reach the Leaf."
Suigetsu grumbled as he sipped on his water bottle. In truth, his legs didn't hurt from the walking. Rather, it was his back, and the Executioner's Blade that was strapped to it. Seriously, he had no clue how Master Zabuza had lugged this thing around on his back for days on end. The guy must have been some kind of monster. What's worse, Suigetsu never wanted to meet the guy that had taken such a monster down.
"Man, you absorb Orochimaru and suddenly you're mister big shot, huh? And now you're dragging us along on your personal vendetta?"
"Don't talk to Sasuke like that, Suigetsu!" Karin yelled, smacking the water boy on the back of the head.
Karin Uzumaki wasn't exactly the type of shinobi that Orochimaru liked to go for, she was far too boisterous for his taste. Though he supposed that she did have a useful healing ability, which was probably why Sasuke picked her in the first place. Come to think of it, Jugo's clan had some insane powers, too, the guy was just too much of a teddy bear when he wasn't using them. Seriously, the guy currently had four birds nesting in his hair.
Speaking of the big guy, Jugo turned around and gave a half smile to Karin and Suigetsu. "Just calm down, guys. We're here for Sasuke, after all. Let's just try to get along."
In truth, Suigetsu sometimes had no idea why Sasuke picked him for his little team. Sure, he was the most powerful out of them when it came to a water based fight, but all they'd seen since they started this little journey was either desert or forest, neither of which have very high concentrations of water. It was all he could to to stay hydrated.
"The three of you can stay here and rest for all I care. All that matters is killing Itachi. I'm ready, even if I have to break him out of jail to do it," Sasuke declared without turning his head.
"You think the Leaf ninja will let you just walk in and take him?" Jugo asked.
"That's what you're all here for. You cause the distraction, then retreat when I have him."
"Oh, great, we're the bait. We're probably just gonna take Itachi's place in prison," Suigetsu surmised.
Karin couldn't help but agree with Suigetsu. Sure, Sasuke had always been cold, but he hadn't killed anyone in cold blood, save Orochimaru, as far as she knew at least. But Sasuke had grown colder ever since he'd heard of Itachi's capture at the hands of the Leaf. At first, he'd been extremely angry because he thought that Itachi would have been executed immediately, robbing Sasuke of any chance he had of getting revenge. When that turned out not to be the case, the Uchiha had simply retreated to the comfort of his own thoughts to prepare himself for the coming operation and battle for revenge.
Still, it didn't make Karin shy away from her feelings. She felt something for Sasuke, at least she thought she did. As they walked, she was forced to watch Sasuke's chakra grow colder and colder, as if it knew something that she didn't.
The latest smack on the head had Naruto doubled over in pain, which only added to Jiraiya's enjoyment. Neither he nor Fukasaku had the heart to tell Naruto that the slightest touch would rid his body of the nature chakra. It was purely for their enjoyment that the elder toad continued to lay into Naruto like he was disciplining a small child.
The knots on the head of the jinchuriki looked like someone had been stacking fruits of progressively smaller sizes. Jiraiya winced between spurts of laughter, remembering his days of training, when Fukasaku had done the same to him. Except back then, the old toad had been twenty years younger, and hit much, much harder.
When the pain had finally subsided, Naruto sat up and looked at his two masters, an idea having formulated itself in his head. "Hey, wouldn't there be an easier way to do this training?"
"There are no shortcuts when it comes to Sage training!" Fukasaku adamantly stated.
"But Kakashi-sensei came up with this really cool way of training where I can cheat and skip the time!" Naruto protested. "He said that by using shadow clones, I can share my experiences and use the knowledge together or, uh, something like that."
Jiraiya gave Fukasaku a small shrug. "Why not?"
Fukasaku relented. "Alright, but only four. Any more and I won't be able to cover all of you."
"Alright!" Naruto celebrated. Crossing his fingers, four clones of himself appeared, forming a pentagon around Fukasaku. The elder toad spent the next hour rotating and smacking any clone that dared show signs of frog transformations, like a game of whack-a-Naruto. They had to reapply the oil every now and then, ensuring that the first stage wouldn't be too difficult.
Once Fukasaku began to tire, he passed the rod along to Jiraiya, much to the Sannin's delight. If it was even possible, he seemed to hit much harder than the small toad did. Though Jiraiya didn't get to enjoy for as long as Fukasaku did. Just as he was bringing his hand back to smack the latest Naruto that showed signs of frog transformations, he stopped. The transformation had halted itself, only forming warts around Naruto's eyes, which were outlined by the orange pigmentation.
Jiraiya smirked to himself, nodding in satisfaction. The kid had completed this first part much faster than Jiraiya ever did. Fukasaku grinned as well. "Hey, great job, Naruto-boy, try lifting one of them stone statues now."
Naruto opened his eyes and nodded hi understanding. He walked over to the same toad that Fukasaku had lifted earlier. Crouching and placing his hands underneath the stone, he began to strain against the weight. Gradually, it began to separate from the dirt beneath, until it was above Naruto's head completely. The blonde dropped it several seconds later, turning back to smile widely at his two teachers.
"Hey, I did it! Does this mean I'm a Sage now?"
"If it did, there would be many more Sages, Naruto-boy. No, that was only the first step. The next is to do the same training, but without the help of the oil."
"Did you have to do all this, pervy sage?" Naruto asked Jiraiya.
The Sannin nodded. "Sure did! Took me a lot longer for that first step, though."
Naruto visibly brightened. "You mean I did this faster than you did?!"
"Yep!" Jiraiya proclaimed. "But don't get too excited. The next phase is harder, and the third phase is something I never could master fully."
Naruto set his jaw in pure determination. "Let's get to it!"
The past few days in the Leaf village had been nothing short of happy. Today was no different. The shops were all bustling with activity, and it was nearly impossible to walk from one side of the street to the other without bumping against someone. It was days like these that brought in extra revenue for the village.
Despite the happy moods of the villagers and most of the shinobi that guarded them, three individuals were less than happy. In fact they had been for the past week, ever since the death of their friend. Tsunade had summoned the three wizards several times, but they never showed. It would have angered her beyond reason if she hadn't known that they blamed her and Jiraiya for Gajeel's death.
It was just lucky that she had a few choice individuals that could get through to them. It was clear that Laxus had allowed Shizune to grow close to him, so Tsunade was using that. Her faithful assistant had been charged with comforting Laxus, as well as making sure that he didn't do anything stupid.
The same went for young Tenten. Tsunade was more than surprised the night that Tenten had delivered her report on Team Guy's most recent mission. The weapons specialist had arrived, clearly agitated about something. With a bit of prying and manipulating, Tsunade had discovered her feelings for Gray. As such, Team Guy had been held back from all missions until Tsunade was absolutely sure that Gray was calm.
Finally, it came down to Natsu. He was the most difficult out of the three to control, much to Tsunade's annoyance. He and Naruto were kindred spirits in many ways. If she thought that the blonde would help Natsu, she would have delayed his Sage training for a few weeks. But since she was almost positive that Naruto would want to join Natsu's proposed raid on the Rain village, she sent him and Jiraiya off anyways.
Luckily, Kakashi had informed her of his talk with Natsu. He didn't go into much detail, because his past was his closest guarded secret besides what was underneath his mask, but from what she could glean, Tsunade was positive that Natsu had been convinced enough. Just as a precautionary method, though, she assigned Kakashi to keep an eye on him.
It wasn't like she didn't know what the wizards felt, rather she knew it better than most. In fact, there were very few people in the Leaf village that she could say had felt the same amount of Pain as her, and the list was short enough to count on one hand.
All of these thoughts rolled through her head as she stared out the window at the village she was responsible for. She often wondered if she was the best choice for Hokage. Orochimaru was clearly not a viable candidate. Other than the fact that he was dead, he was a power-hungry monster that had no hesitations when it came to experimenting on others.
Jiraiya, on the other hand, Tsunade often wondered if he would have been the better choice. After all, the village elders had turned to him first. Then again, he was only serious when he wanted to be, and the old man loved traveling and peeping at girls far too much to be tied down by the mantle of Hokage.
Even if it was a horrible thing to say, she was glad that Jiraiya hadn't died on that mission. If he had, the list of people that she cared about would have grown much shorter. But she was also holding out hope that Gajeel would still be alive. Having witnessed both his and the other wizards' abilities firsthand, she knew that they were a group overflowing with tenacity and toughness. But he hadn't returned to the village yet, which only left two alternatives.
Either the dragon slayer had been taken prisoner, or he was dead.
Gajeel wasn't sure how much longer that he could keep this up. He'd lost track of time in this strange world that he'd been stuck in. It could have been weeks, days, or even hours, he had no idea. That Madara Uchiha guy was something to be feared, he knew that much.
On the sparing occasions that the masked man would appear to him, there was always some sort of torture involved. Several hours ago, the man had appeared in his swirling manner before dropping a tray of food at his feet. Just when Gajeel reached for it, the food had disappeared in that same swirl.
When Gajeel turned his angry gaze on Madara, he'd been met only with a blank stare from behind the mask. Madara said that he would have to change, whatever that meant. At least he was getting drinks daily. It seemed that Madara was only torturing him, not trying to kill him.
The time alone had given Gajeel plenty of time to reflect, which was not always a good thing. Early in his life, after Metalicana left him, he was so bitter. That bitterness had carried all the way to the very moment that the little dwarf Makarov had inducted him into Fairy Tail. Though Gajeel had been misguided early on, he still smiled every time he thought of the memories of Fairy Tail.
He hadn't seen any of his other guild mates for months, but the memories remained vivid. He remembered Elfman's constant rants about being a real man, as well as Mira's constantly sweet personality. It wasn't something that he deserved, but she was like that to everyone. He remembered Juvia, and the bond they'd formed when she asked him to join Fairy Tail with her. He remembered Cana's insanely annoying drunken rants, and the Thunder Legion's constant nipping of Laxus' heels. He remembered Lucy's incredible ability to shed tears at will, but also her kind heart and warm smile. He remembered Happy and Lily, even little Wendy. He remembered Jet and Droy constantly fawning over Levy.
Ah, Levy She was the one who'd consumed his thoughts the most since coming to this strange world. He'd first realized his feelings for her after the Grand Magic Games, when he'd found her sitting alone in that hallway of the palace. But he'd pushed the feelings to the side, telling himself that he wasn't good enough for someone like her. But in his current predicament, he would give nothing to hold her small frame again. Some part of him knew that he would never see her again, but he didn't want to listen to those thoughts, even if they were the truth.
He smiled to himself at the memory of her blue hair, but that quickly vanished when he heard the sound that heralded the arrival of madara behind him. Before he even had the chance to turn around, he was hit with a searing pain across his entire back. Flames licked against his back, with no shirt between to soften the blow. He doubled over in pain as the flames subsided, listening as the sound resumed again, and Madara disappeared once again.
The pain was intense. He'd never been burned like this in his life. He wouldn't have even had time to use his iron scales, even if he knew the attack was coming. When he'd adapted to the pain finally, he managed to turn his head and see a tray of food laying on the ground. He almost had half a mind to starve himself to death and save himself from the punishment, but his growling stomach convinced him otherwise.
So this is my life now, huh? Gajeel asked himself. Am I to live out the rest of my days being used as a personal torture dummy?
Then Madara's words rang in his head again.
You have to change.
It had been trivially easy to infiltrate the measly defenses around the Leaf village. Their Hokage might have implemented more patrols, but they were so weak that it was a waste of chakra for Pain to kill them himself. Instead, he allowed Konan to simply suffocate them to death, something that Hidan had loudly disagreed with.
"Come on," Hidan complained, throwing his head back in a sigh. "That's the third patrol of these guys, and you haven't let me destroy them for Jashin once! You know, he can abandon me if I go too long without causing a little destruction. I mean seriously, it's been months since I've gotten to rampage! Not since that Two Tails."
"Hidan, SHUT UP!" Kakuzu yelled.
The silver-haired immortal growled underneath his breath at his teammate. "Some partner you are. You're supposed to take my side. Hmph."
"Aww, what's wrong, is little Hidan pouting because he can't murder? I'm not surprised. That ritual you use is so out of style. True art is an explosion," Deidara proclaimed proudly.
Hidan grinned as he thought of his comeback. "At least my art doesn't leave me with fewer limbs."
"Why you-"
"Enough," Pain said, silencing his subordinates. "An entire village awaits us. Cease your bickering and focus on the capture of the Nine Tails. When Kisame arrives with the Eight Tails, we shall seal them together, and the first phase shall be complete."
When Pain had finished his order, they were all alerted to rustling in the trees around them. Hidan, Kakuzu, and Deidara formed a triangle, pressing their backs to one another as they observed the five newcomers. They bore striking resemblances to Pain, with the same orange hair and bodily piercings.
"Hey, uh, leader, why do these guys look like you?" Hidan asked nervously.
Pain regarded them with his only facial expression: complete boredom. "They are Pain," he said, as if the others were supposed to know that already.
"Right," Deidara said sarcastically.
The three relaxed somewhat, but were still a bit tense. One Pain was enough, but he had six. Any thought of killing Pain on any of their parts was now completely gone. Konan seemed to be the only one unaffected by this revelation.
"The Leaf village is protected by a sensor barrier that warns of intruders," she said.
Pain nodded. "Yes."
"Kisame and Itachi got in without incident," Konan pointed out, her tone also seeming to ask how.
"Itachi was former ANBU, he knew the barrier codes to slip in undetected," Pain said matter-of-factly.
"Hey, speaking of Itachi, what do we do if we find the guy?" Hidan asked. "I mean you said the Leaf village imprisoned him, right? So should we break him out?"
Pain turned the cold gaze of his Rinnegan to the follower of Jashin. "If any of you encounter Itachi, eliminate him. He has been an eye sore for far too long."
"What's your plan?" Konan asked quietly.
"We shall confuse them, keep them blind to our true numbers until it is too late. Deidara, take Chikushodo directly over the center. After that, focus your explosions on the most populated areas. Keep them focused on saving the civilians," Pain ordered.
Deidara raised an eyebrow in confusion until one of the five new bodies of Pain stepped forward. This one was the smallest of the six, and was also the newest, thanks to Jiraiya and Gajeel's takedown of the previous Animal Path. The missing ninja of the Stone shrugged and formed one of his trademark birds before making a hand sign to enlarge it.
"Kakuzu and Hidan," Pain began, turning to face the immortal duo. "The two of you will storm the main gates once the attack has begun. Wait for the screams to start. As for the rest of us, we will split into two teams. Diversion will be Shurado, Chikushodo, and Gakido. The hunt will be Tendo, Jigukudo, and Ningendo. Konan, you're with the hunt."
"Understood," Konan nodded.
Pain turned to Deidara, giving a small nod. "Begin."