Chapter Thirty-Six

The return to the lodge was anything but joyous for Hinata. In the past several weeks, the rustic location had been a refuge from preparing for three combined weddings in two weeks, a much-needed chance to train up, and a place to spend alone time with Naruto. Now, the serenity of the site was shattered as the troubles of the outside world found their way here.

"Grandpa, you know it has to be either Pain or Obito!" Hinata's voice shook at the horrible thought of either spreading havoc

"Or Madara," the aged sage said grimly. The though did not sit well. While investigating the stone tablet, she and Naruto had discovered several alterations added centuries later. At least one such entry included the location of Madara's remains. However, when teams when to investigate, the site had recently been disturbed, and no remains were found.

"Fuck it, I'm not staying here while others die," Tsunade said.

"Lady Tsunade," Mom spoke up, "You could put the twins and yourself in serious danger in your current state!"

"And I could be putting the lives of hundreds or thousands at risk if I'm not there!" Tsunade grit her teeth. "Dammit, I once turned my back on the world and my village; I'll be damned if I do it again!"

"I'm going too, then!" Jiraiya said, crossing his arms.

"Jiraiya, you're not fully healed, yet!" Hinata protested. The man still didn't have full faculty of his arm, much less all his fighting abilities.

"Grandpa," Naruto said fiercely, "then you can't stop me from going!"

"Nor me," Hinata stared first at the Sannin couple, then her mom, "I won't shirk my duty as a clan leader or as a shinobi!" Hinata protested.

Akemi stared with penetrating eyes, the same eyes she'd used to size up how difficult a birth would be or how serious an injury was. "My patient is going, and my skills are likely going to be in demand," she smirked, "I love my family and my village. I guess love makes us do things… irresponsible."

Hinata felt the corner of her mouth tighten in a smile. Disobeying direct orders from a Hokage. I never knew Mom was like that. "All right, gear up and we leave in five minutes!" Naruto shouted. Everyone scattered, and Hinata ran for the room she shared with Naruto.

"I'll get the Toad Sages together; we're going to need backup!" Jiraiya headed outdoors.

"Tsunade, with me," Akemi said, "I'll be with you to try and protect the babies throughout!"

Hinata and Naruto stripped out of their clothing and donned their ANBU gear with reckless haste; they didn't even bother closing the door behind them. As Hinata slid the while kitsune mask over her face, her mind wandered back to Father, Hanabi, and Neji. They have to be all right! Naruto slipped his mask in place. Outwardly, the mask hid his face but not the strong resemblance Naruto had to his father. Minato, Kushina, you've been there for me since the beginning. Let this be the time I'm there for you and your family! "Ready?" she asked.

"Ready," Naruto nodded as they ran for the outside.

Minato had prepared for many worst-case scenarios when he heard the distress signal from Inoichi, but nothing had prepared him for what he found when he teleported back to the Hokage's office. "Kushina! Kids!" he hurried to his wife, Konohamaru, and Hanabi.

"We're all right," she said, embracing him. Aside from some fragments of safety glass in her hair, Kushina was uninjured.

"Dad! It's Pain, isn't it?!" Konohamaru exclaimed.

Minato stared out the shattered windows of his office. A lone figure still hovered over the eastern districts of the village, now mostly a collection of rubble. Pain, or this form of him, was just as described by Jiriaya. The real one is not among them, but he has to be nearby. There are at least six of them and we know each can see what the other can. Minato again turned his attention to the now ruined easter districts. Hundreds of buildings were shattered, and easily thousands were now injured or dead. If he can do that again, we're in deep shit!

"My thoughts exactly!" Inoichi spoke in his head. "The chakra signature he's sending off indicates he's trying to build an even larger blast!"

"A larger one!" Kushina gasped.

"Enough to obliterate the entire village!"

Can you trace his chakra signature to his source? Minato hoped there might be a way to bypass the song and dance and deal with Nagato directly.

"The chakra signature is bouncing around like a pinball game. I need either fewer of them or a more direct link to trace to the origin point!" Inoichi called out.

"In any case, we can't let him set off another blast!" Minato prepared to head out across the village.

"Lord Fourth, something is wrong," Hanabi protested.

"You're damn right it is," Minato began planning his next series of teleportation jumps, feeling the various markers he'd hidden throughout the village were intact. "Kushina, get Hanabi and Konohamaru to the shelter at the Hospital!"

"Lord Fourth, he's baiting us," Hanabi said. "He's baiting you, I think, Lord Fourth!"

"What do you mean?" Konohamaru asked.

"Yes," Minato turned a concerned look to the girl, "what do you mean?"

"If he'd just meant to destroy the village in one go, he could have done it without consequence before you got here." Hanabi said, "He's waiting, trying to draw you out."

"He's waiting, but is it for me or Naruto?" Minato said, again staring across the ruined distance to his target. "In any case; we can't wait to find out. Kushina, gets the kids out!"

"I'm recalling Naruto!" she said.

"Don't he might be the target!" He vanished in a flash.

Several quick jump later, he was where Pain should be, except the target was gone. "You're unwise coming here by yourself," a stony voice call from somewhere unseen.

"Hello, Pain," Minato called out, "or should I say, Nagato?"

"So," his opponent laughed without humor, "you figured it out."

"Why don't you come out; we can talk. We can be reasonable," Minato said.

"Talk?" Pain mocked, "The great Lord Fourth who took on a thousand shinobi wants to talk?" You hardly sound like the man of legend I expected."

"Life is full of disappointments," Minato discretely drew one of his marked kunai, "In my advancing age, I've come to realize if we did a lot more talking and a lot less fighting, this world would have a lot less suffering in it." Minato sensed the attack coming, and he tossed his kunai. He barely managed to teleport out of the way of the black spikes cutting though where he'd been a mere second earlier.

As he landed, he saw Pain again. "You're fast." His opponent said.

"I'll take that as a compliment; you're pretty quick yourself," Minato said.

"If you wish to banter on, I'll issue you this ultimatum: hand over your son!" Pain's voice was without affect.

"What could you possibly want with Naruto?" Minato asked, careful not to take his eyes off the target as he again reached for another kunai. So, they still don't know about Hinata.

"The time of this world grows short; only after disaster can it be cleansed."

"You mean your buddy Obito?" Minato said, "I used to teach him, just like how Jiraiya once taught you!"

"He was a stupid old fool!"

"I could say the same about your boss," Minato winked, "Obito was never all that bright; I can't believe Madara would actually trust him with something so important." Pain's Rinnegan eyes grew wide with surprise. "Oh yeah, that's right, we know all about what he wants to do, the eye of the moon. He's being played, ya know!"

"Enough of this shit!" Pain threw a series of spikes at Minato. He ducked the first, teleported out of the way of the second and third, but the fourth one obliquely grazed Minato's chest as he teleported back. The long, sharp rod carved a narrow, and thankfully shallow, bloody rivulet across his chest. That was too close! Minato went on the attack, teleporting to the marked shuriken from earlier. He teleported just over Pain's shoulder and struck with a forward crescent kick.

Pain moved quickly, effortlessly out of the way. Minato followed with two hand swipes and a tossed kunai, and Pain dodged each as if he knew they were coming and where they would land. The Rinnegan lets him pretty much see everything. That's going to be a problem! Even more annoying, Pain vanished from sight. Minato jumped back to the Kunai he'd thrown earlier, barely missing another attack from pain as the hellish form cut through where Minato had been seconds earlier. He's distracted, now!

Minato charged forward only to have pain hold his hand out. An unseen force hit Minato like a brick wall. "Fool," the unseen force grasped Minato tightly. "I'll say it again, hand over your son, or your precious village will be wiped off the face of the earth." Minato struggled again the force field around him, unable to move. He focused on the marker on a nearby building and teleported. Thankfully, Pain couldn't stop him from jumping marker to marker with the force field.

Brute force isn't going to work here, use your head! Minato reached into his pocket and scattered his kunai around in a wide arc. He jumped kunai to kunai, dodging attacks from Pain's spikes in between as Minato ducked and dodged. Minato marked bits of rubble and remains of buildings in between jumps and evading attacks.

"If the theatrics are meant to impress me, they aren't!" Pain shouted, throwing another spike.

The battlefield was ready, and now it was time to test Minato's theory. He jumped behind Pain and swung with a fist. Pain reacted, but Minato jumped again, coming of to the man's left side. This time, Minato threw one of his remain kunai. Pain dodged it, but he didn't anticipate Minato jumping to the flying blade as it sailed past. Minato got in a clean kick to Pain's face, and the target staggered backwards.

Pain swiped at him, but missed as Minato warped to a marker at Pain's ten o'clock position, this time planting a solid fist into Pain's face. Pain again staggered slightly. He raised his hand trying to trap Minato in the forcefield, but Minato leapt behind Pain, beginning to build energy for a rasengan. One clean shot and this is over!

Pain began moving his hands as Minato jumped. When he came out, Minato was facing the wrong direction as all his kunai were being scattered by Pain's forcefield. Shit! Minato jumped again, barely avoiding crashing into a wall with his rasengan. He jumped to one of the fixed points he'd marked earlier and wound up for the attack.

Minato stopped mid-stride as the sensation of a cold, bony finger pressed through his left leg. Pain shot up from his leg to his core and beyond. As Minato fell, he caught the sight of dozens of metal spines protruding from around the rubble where he'd marked for his Thunder God technique. In the blink of an eye, Minato fell flat on his face, and he lost his grip on the rasengan. Oh fuck! The explosion of wind-release chakra through him and pain in opposite directions. As he was thrown and rolled, debris and rubble slapped Minato's body unrelentingly. At least several times, he felt the sharp, cold impact of spikes piercing his back and arms as he rolled. Finally, he hit a solid mass of concrete and came to a stop.

Minato tasted blood in his mouth, and his head was spinning. Get up! Get up! His mind rebelled at the harsh reality of what his body had just endured. Minato struggled to his feet. Pain had taken some damage, but he was clearly far less injured. "I asked you nicely; I guess I'll have to get your boy's attention another way!" Pain raised his arm toward the village, and Minato could feel the unfathomable level of chakra building. Holy SHIT!

There was one chance, and one chance only. Minato warped to the closest marker near Pain what was in the path of the chakra burst. As it came at him, Minato activated his Thunder God technique. Instead of warping himself, he warped the space around the chakra blast. It's like channeling a goddamn tsunami! Minato ignored the pain of the spikes and the extreme drain on his chakra reserves it took to divert the attack. Thousands would die if he didn't protect the village.

The act of diverting the blast harmlessly skyward left Minato with the sensation of being drawn and quartered as the blast wave pulled at him. The whole process lasted maybe a few seconds, but it might as well have been an eternity. Exhausted, Minato collapsed to his knees as the blast abated. He almost didn't' register the sensation of being jerked up into the air and body slammed into the ground.

As Pain pulled him off the ground again, Minato's blurring vision gave him a glance the surviving portions of the village, thankfully intact. A thin, blood-crusted smile followed as pain threw him around like a ragdoll. Pain smashed him on his back, and Minato felt something inside go. It's a good day to die!

Pain's unrelenting assault ended suddenly. Through his fading vision, he saw the puff of smoke of someone using a summoning seal. Naruto! Several Toad Sages appeared in his vision. "Son… be careful…" Minato slumped back as everything went dark.

Kushina had snatched a tactical radio and its earpiece and tuned to the emergency channel. As expected, the airwaves were flooded with chatter above civilians being evacuated and the desperate calls of rescue teams trying to extracted the injured and wounded. Judging by the already crowed emergency room, the worst had yet come.

"Mom, we have to recall Naruto!" Konohamaru exclaimed as he ran back in from the rooftop. "It's going bad!"

Kushina ran up the stairs past her adoptive son. She spilled out onto the roof where Hanabi stood watching the battle in the distance. "Sensei!" she called out, not taking her eyes off the fight.

"How is he?!"

"Whomever he's up against is almost as fast as he is, and he's already managed to wound Lord Fourth quite badly." Hanabi broke her gaze, "Lady Kushina, we have to summon back big-brother Naruto and Hinata."

Kushina was being torn apart by duty to her Hokage and duty to her family. A Hokage's first duty is to the village, but my first duty is to my husband! Would he insist on you following that order if he knew things were going to go this bad?! Kushina made the hand seal and summoned Kōsuke. "You rang, ma'am?" the small toad messenger said.

"I need you to summon back my son!" Kushina said desperately.

"Heh," Kōsuke said as a large puff of smoke burst a short distance beyond the hospital. Naruto and Hinata stood atap Gamakichi and Tsunade, Akemi, and Jiraiya stood atop Gamabunta. "Ask and you shall receive!" the small toad said.

"Mom!" Naruto dismounted from Gamakichi and ran up to hug her. "What's happening!"

"Pain is attacking the village!" she said as she pointed to the battle occurring in the distance.

"Lady Kushina, Lord Fourth is in real trouble!" Hanabi said as a massive blast of chakra shot skyward.

"They're after Naruto," Jiraiya said.

"I'll draw him off," Naruto said, turning to Jiraiya, "Can you rescue Dad?"

"Dammit I'm going with!" Kushina protested.

"If you're going, so am I!" Konohmaru exclaimed.

"Son…"

"Dammit, he's my Dad, I'm not leaving him! Family doesn't abandon family!" the boy shouted.

Naruto exchanged a hard glance with her, "I'll draw him away, take the others and get dad!" Naruto disappeared in a flash.

"Naruto, wait!" Hinata yelled.

Inoichi, is there any reason to believe the enemy monitoring our radio traffic?

"As far as I can tell, yes, why?" he responded.

Kushina tuned to the tactical frequency, "All units, this is First Lady Kushina," she stared out to the eastern ruin, "Divert away from the damaged zone to the east, Naruto is going to need room and we can't have friendlies getting caught in the way. Concentrate on the others approaching the hospital!" A series of acknowledgements came over the radio.

"Tsuande, can you and Jiraiya maintain a barrier around the hospital?" Kushina asked.

Tsunade exchanged a look with Jiraiya and then Akemi, "Yes." She nodded.

"Just get my son back here safely," Jiraiya said, "Then we'll go hand help Naruto together!"

"Come on!" Kushina leaped down from the hospital roof, followed by Konohamaru, Hanabi, and Hinata. Even in the sections of Konoha relatively intact, debris, rubble, and discarded belonging littered the street. Kushina felt her heart breaking as they passed the badly damaged Hokage's Mansion and Academy. Each block further east became progressively more destroyed as damaged homes and business went from suffering superficial damage, to those with major loss of structural integrity, and finally to the wasteland of buildings reduced to rubble as they got closer and closer to their destination.

The sound of battle began shifting away, thankfully, as they approached. "Over there, I see him!" Hanabi shouted as she ran ahead. Kushina's heart bounced in her throat as she struggled to keep up. She stopped cold as she saw her husband lying lifeless, a series of metal spikes protruding from his body. Oh my god! "Minato!" she ran to his side. An already alarming puddle of blood was pooling beneath him, and blood was streaming from his mouth, nose, and ears.

"All units," Kushina called into the radio with her voice cracking, "Lord Fourth is dead."

Author's Notes: Hi everyone, and thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed. As is the case lately, my work schedule has been insane, and I've bene having to keep the chapters shorter than I like. Next week, Naruto takes on Pain and the heroes struggle with the consequences of Pain's assault. Until then, stay healthy, stay safe, and stay classy. See you all next week, and thanks again for reading.

-Adam