Well, The burnout has started to leave me, but I'm still going to have to go at this slower than I'd like for a bit. I was hoping to have this story wrapped up by the end of January since that would be the one year mark of the series, but oh well.

On the bright side! While I was burnt out of writing anything for this particular story, I did manage to jot down a few chapters for my next project. I don't know if I have any My Hero Academia fans reading, but if I do keep an eye out for the story set directly after this one.

Now, enjoy this thing I don't own

"Hmm, it has been quite some time since I've heard that name," said the floating man in front of Jiraiya.

At this point, Jiraiya would happily accept the sight before him as a ghost. Yahiko…

"This will likely be the last time, however."

Moving cautiously to his knee as Ma and Pa whispered to each other, Jiraiya asked, "Is it really you, Yahiko? Where's Konan? Is Nagato with her?"

The last name caught the interest of both the Yahiko look-alike and the toads atop Jiraiya's shoulders. "Nagato… I haven't heard that name in an even longer stretch of time…"

The man leveled his eyes with Jiraiya being somehow both dead and full of hidden emotion. That was when Jiraiya saw them. The Rinnegan gazing at him told him all he really needed to know.

"I may be getting old, but of you three kids only Nagato had those eyes. You aren't really your best friend, are you, Nagato?" Jiraiya flicked his eyes back to the crowd of ninja crowding the Hirashin kunai nervously. He had to keep Yah – Nagato talking until he could come up with a plan to get back to his only means of backup and escape.

"Yes, you are getting old, and that is why I will indulge your curiosities. And you may forget returning to the kunai, Naruto will not be joining us."

"Jiraiya," Ma whispered, "will the Hirashin mark on your back reach far enough to Naruto? Or does it have to be the kunai?"

"He's in Suna, Ma. If the Kunai can even reach him it will take a lot of chakra just to get the signal there," the Sannin answered gravely. The tattoo he had would have been lucky to make it halfway across the Land of Fire.

"First, I will ask you to indulge me. Konan asked me to get an answer for her if I ever received the chance."

So she is alive… is she with the Akatsuki as well?

"Why did you abandon us? It hurt Konan and Yahiko terribly, although their love for you never wavered."

Despite being in the middle of a fight, Jiraiya felt his heart ache. That really was the way it went. For better or for worse he had abandoned those three kids.

"We were told you were dead, Nagato… I went back and looked in all of our safe houses after your brush with Hanzo. I was hopeful, but I never found anything."

"I see. Konan will be less upset knowing this. Thank you for easing the burden on her, I will grant you a swift death in thanks."

Fuck, I don't have a plan yet!

"Just Konan? What about Yahiko?"

Nagato took real pause at the words. "This body is all that is left of the child I called my friend. He was indeed killed by the Salamander, so I made the decision to use his body as my first Path to honor him."

It was getting more and more difficult for Jiraiya to look at this objectively. This wasn't some random villain he was pitted against. This was once a child who loved Jiraiya like a father. A little boy with a lot of uncontrollable power, and Jiraiya had failed him.

"Why… whay are you doing this, Nagato?!"

"Nagato died the same day Yahiko did. You may call me Pein, if you so wish to address me in your final minutes on this Earth."

Gritting his teeth, Jiraiya heard it. The plan Ma and Pa had come up with, a powerful audio genjutsu. The other toads and frogs in the nearby stream would help mask the chant, but the distraction would likely increase the time required for them to harmonize. If he could distract Pein long enough…

"Fine. Pein. Why are you doing all of this? This isn't what I taught you kids. This isn't the peace you wanted as a child!"

Oblivious to the growing sounds of nature and singing frogs, Pein answered, "You taught us nothing of the world, sensei. I will call you that in remembrance of what things were, and nothing more. Boys grow into men, and we learned that the peace you were after was part of a constant cycle of war, and all we could hope to do was fall into the cycle and survive. We tried, for years, to do things your way. Yahiko died for the cause. And I… I grew even more. The Pain made me grow, beyond what man can. Boys become men, inevitably. Men, unfortunately, can be forced to become gods."

Another minute or so of the song and Jiraiya could make his move. He didn't know if he could handle hearing of even more of his own failure for that long.

"I will teach this world the Peace you taught us, but in a way that will ensure the lesson stays. Pain. Pain will force the world to grow up, as it did to me. And in fear of further Pain, peace will reign. Shaky it may be, it will be infinitely better than a constant cycle of war."

Jiraiya couldn't help himself, "No, Nagato, peace forged from violence will not last. Maybe mine won't either, but it would last longer than your twisted brand of peace. At best, a new generation would forget your pain, and a new cycle would begin."

"Jiraiya, something you do not understand about gods is that we do not fade. I will not wither, and I will remind every generation of violent fools that I have to, because eventually there will be only an understanding of my peace. All violence will be pointless as long as I am there to quell the uprisings."

Jiraiya felt a single tear slide down his cheek as he heard how far his little angels had fallen. Ma and Pa finished the genjutsu, their song blending well enough into the surroundings that Nagato noticed neither its start or finish.

Jiraiya saw Nagato tense and freeze, obviously trapped in the genjutsu, held within a barrier by four Samuirai toads unti Jiraiya killed him. Killed him. Kill Nagato, Yahiko's image.

He did it quickly, running a stone blade offered to him by Pa deep into Nagato's heart. Into Yahiko's chest. No, into Pein. That was the only real way to live with the deed.

Jiraiya started back towards the kunai, he still needed a quick escape, and since Ma and Pa were basically out of commission Naruto would have to be his best bet. The crowd in front of him quickly cleared away.

They likely hadn't heard the conversation or the song, so they had basically seen Jiraiya run a blade through their god before their very eyes. It was smart of them to back off.

"I knew I could count on you not to disappoint, Gama-Sennin," sasori's now smooth voice cut through the uneasy silence. "I know better than to engage you like this. I myself was no match for that man."

Jiraiya said nothing, his mind and eyes firmly set on the Hirashin Kunai and escaping home to lose himself in drink. Preferably with Tsunade. Yeah, that'd keep his mind from everything, maybe he'd convince her to concuss him, after a pleasurable grope or two…

There was a spray of blood from first Jiraiya's stomach, and then his mouth.

Looking down, Jiraiya saw one of those black rods protruding from his abdomen. Impossible!

His legs were paralyzed for some reason, and there was a painful numbess to the area the rod was impaling him. Wrenching his head back around, Jiraiya saw another person with the Rinnegan standing next to Yahiko's still-moving body. The second man was holding the stone knife, and Yahiko's body looked completely fresh. How? Jiraiya didn't even sense the second man until the last few moments!

"Sensei, learn the meaning of pain."

Two more black rods flew forth, and Jiraiya was in no state to dodge either of them. Knowing what was coming, Jiraiya forced Ma and Pa home, determined to meet his fate head on and alone. His entire life had prepared him to do so.

Each lung was pierced.

Jiraiya was on his knees, panting and refusing to die. His eyes moved back to the Hirashin kunai, his only real hope left. A smirking, foolish woman stepped forward and picked it up, dashing his hopes against the rocks.

"You've done well in securing the kunai, child," Pein said, firing off another rod into Jiraiya's back. He hit nothing that would kill him too quickly, though, and he hoped that everyone present was also learning from the pain.

The impact forced a bloody cough from the old man, and he was looking more and more like he was his age. He was weary, and definitely dying. Blood and saliva dripped from his lips as he kneeled, half hunched over his rapidly reddening knees.

"Get rid of the kunai, I do not want to see it again."

"Yes, sir!"

Jiraiya had to give a single, bloodied smile.

The woman spun on her heel and hurled the weapon away with all her strength.

"NO — god DAMN IT!"

Naruto flashed into what he assumed would be Iwa, rolling his shoulders in a show to make it look like the massive jump didn't just take a bit out of him. Maybe more than a bit.

"This better be good, old man! I left Kurama back with the Sand Siblings to clean things up while I came to see what was…"

Naruto looked all around him. His sensei was nowhere in sight. His kunai was in the middle of a cleared circle, Iwa shinobi surrounding him on all sides. Most of them looked more than a little nervous, and some of them scared out of their minds. A few of them looked murderous. All understandable, really. They DID just witness the use of their most feared jutsu.

"Wow, I didn't know you brought me such a crowd, sensei. Guess I'll have to clean up more of a mess than I thought."

Naruto haf expected to hear Kurama pipe in with a stupid and ill-timed pun.

"Naruto! How nice of you to join us, un!" the blond juinchuriki looked towards the voice only to match eyes with a blond demolitionist. "Party has been pretty boring with the boss taking out the old toad."

Just like that, Naruto's 'good mood façade' was gone. His shoulders straightened, and his eyes adopted the hard look of someone more suited to genocide than rescue missions. "What did you just say?"

The older blond man paused for only half a second before smiling wildly and shoving his hands into pouches at his sides. "Oh-ho! You've got some bite!"

"Deidara, he will kill you if you don't shut up," a doll looking man said, making his way over to his partner's side.

"Oh, no, I'm going to kill at least you two anyway," Naruto managed to avoid snarling. "The lives of everyone else here literally depends on how you answer my questions. Where is Jiraiya?"

Sasori looked like he was about to give a real answer, but Deidara cut him off. "Let's see what kind of art you like better instead, un? Iwa! Kill the son of Minato!"

The war cry that sounded was loud, intense, but ultimately quite short. Naruto threw the kunai that brought him there forward and poofed into three clones of himself. The kunai was blown off course by an explosion, but the feeling of Power let anyone informed know what was coming.

One clone slashed a wide gap into Deidara's throat. Another sunk a fist deep into his abdomen. The third clone's hand appeared around his ankles to drag his corpse under for a quick burial and to keep the battlefield clean.

At least, that was the plan. The kunai the first clone used did slice into Deidara's neck, but it got stuck halfway through. The deidara was a clone made of clay, detonating clay if Naruto was to guess off the intel. The fist trapped in the clone's stomach and hands inside the ankles seemed to agree that this wasn't the real Deidara.

The Naruto with his fist trapped knew the clone would explode. Knowing this, Naruto expanded his entrapped fist via Rasengan, the result sending pieces of the clone flying as deadly shrapnel before it could explode. Sasori had jumped away at the beginning of the proceedings, but a pice of Deidara's clone lodged into his knee joint.

That's about the time Deidara decided to blow up.

The war cry emanating from the surrounding shinobi quickly turned to pained screams, and Sasori cursed aloud as well. Deidara came out of hiding beneath the ground to admire his masterpiece, oblivious to the body parts of his comrades around him.

"Hmm, they were all clones, un?"

Sasori's leg re-attached itself, but he couldn't geta a warning off in time. "Deidara, the Kunai!"

It was definitely too late. Even without Sage mode or Kurama's cloak, Naruto was one of the fasted shinobi alive. The palm of his right hand smashed Deidara's nose back into his skull, his fingers gripping around tightly before the blood could loosen his grip. Real blood. No clay.

Naruto held on tightly, digging his fingertips into the screaming man's temples and jaw. A swift kick to the inside of Deidara's leg broke his knee, and Naruto had the bloody, screaming man kneeling before him.

"You should have answered my fucking question."

Sasori wasn't about to interfere, his desire for longevity telling him it was a bad idea. And these pathetic villagers followed this child as Tsuchikage…

The screaming from Deidara abruptly. Blood poured from his ears and mouth instead of just his nose for a moment, and then his head seemed to explode within Naruto's grasp. Ironic. The remaining blond was holding onto a Rasengan in place of Deidara's head, and the corpse slumped to the side as the. The crowd went silent.

Their Kage killed, nearly effortlessly. All they had now was their god, the god that they followed only because their leader did…

"Sasori of the Red Sands. I do not know if you feel pain or not anymore, but I guarantee that you want to tell me where Jiraiya is."

"You have grown impressive, Naruto. I will tell you the whereabouts of your sensei, but I would like you to tell me if you really think you can take on almost a quarter of a village alongside me. You will find that I am exceptionally hard to kill, if even time itself can no longer manage the feat," Sasori said musically, his younger-sounding voice lilting in the silence of the crowd.

The crowd did seem to bolster at the words, confidence growing at the prospect of finally killing the legacy of the Hirashin. Naruto paid them almost no mind. "I wanted to show you how hopless fighting me was. Deidara, one of the Akatsuki themselves, crumbled in my hand like he was less than the clay he used. It cost me almost no effort. I know you're older than Jiraiya, Sasori. I also know you are smarter than most people today. Tell me, do you know what Sage Mode is?"

Sasori stilled, and as much as a puppet could, felt afraid. Jiraiya's most powerful technique, the First Hokage's Biju suppressing technique. If someone like this jinchuriki had learned it…

"I'll say it plainly for everyone here to understand," Naruto started a slow spin, his eyes still cruel. "No one here presents a threat to me. None of you can kill me. And if you don't tell me what I want to know, I have no problems killing every one of you. I don't even need the Kyuubi's strength to do so anymore."

Hopefully, Kurama was finishing up in Taki because would drag his sorry ass here anyway.

His little speech had the effect he had hoped for, and every person there backed up a step with a shiver. Sasuke was right, intimidation could save you a ton of effort.

"Well said, Naruto. We truly are a cut above the rest, are we not?" a cold voice assaulted the bblond's ears. Naruto turned his face left and slightly upwards, and wasn't surprised that there was a floating ma coming towards him. Onoki could fly too, not too odd here.

"And you think you can make a difference here, Red?" Naruto almost taunted.

"Everything you told my friend Sasori and the shinobi of Iwa…" the man started. That's when he was close enough for Naruto to notice. The Rinnegan. Pein. He had to watch out for that seal… "Is exactly how I would describe your resistance against me."

"Where is Jiraiya, Pein?"

"I'm pleased that you remember my name."

"Where is he?"

"It hardly matters now," Pein said, extending an arm in some half-random direction. The sea of shinobi parted, and Naruto saw a kneeling figure in the dirt, white stained by red. It could have been a trick though…

"Naruto," the floating man said flatly. "I will let you run loose today because we are not yet ready for your contribution to peace. Just know that when the rest of the Biju are mine, your time will come."

Oh, bull fucking SHIT. You aren't leaving here, ass wipe. I just don't know how many bodies you have here.

At that moment, the kneeling figure struggled to look in his direction. All too familiar blood-stained white hair parted and fell around an aged, weary face. Eyes holding onto both pain and regrets enough to break a thousand men locked gazes with Naruto. This couldn't be faked. The unsaid words between the two… Naruto knew. That really was his sensei.

His gaze snapped back to Pein, and his breathing became heavy. His lightly emanating Presence shifted from Power to Rage, and he found himself losing control over the output.

"Now, since you are the problem of these fool ninja that summoned you here, I will take my leave until it is time to capture —" Pein was cut off by the need to dodge.

Naruto had sped towards the man, breaking a seal on his arm to enter Sage mode in the process. Pein tilted his head back to avoid the lightning fast punch, but he was surprised to feel the blow land anyway.

Tears streaming down his face in anger and hatred, Naruto let loose a flurry of attacks on the Leader of the Akatsuki. He really shouldn't be in this close, the threat of the seal tag looming as it was. But the blond wasn't thinking even halfway clearly, the heart-wrenching image of his dying sensei burned into his mind.

A clone appeared to assist the assault on Pein, and the resulting fight left no room for any lesser shinobi to try and interfere. Every missed swing sent up waves of rock and dirt, a missed Rasengan sent dust flying into the air with enough force to reach twenty feet into the air. The only reason the battlefield was even halfway visible was the fact that Naruto was using an occasional Great Breakthrough.

Pein didn't take any of this sitting down. There was no real opening to incapacitate the jinchuriki, but he did get hit with a Shinra Tensei every few seconds or so. Pein just didn't have enough time between blasts to charge up a larger strike, the speed of his opponent bringing him back in close within seconds.

Luckily for the Leader of Akatsuki, there seemed to be an invisible force on his side. Not the gravity techniques he used, no. Every so often a clone would get destroyed by some unseen blow, but only Pein knew that it was the Animal path within the invisible Chameleon summon.

"If he dies, not even the Shinigami himself will save you from me!" Naruto screamed just before he fired off a massive Pressure Damage, scattering the already sparse crowd of Iwa nin.

"You are lucky we have no way to keep you locked up, child. It is the only thing saving you from the wrath of a GOD! Shinra Tensei!" This time, as Naruto went flying away, Pein threw a pair of black rods.

One pierced Naruto's leg, and the other went through his right shoulder. Pein was satisfied for only a second, however, because a clone that was hidden below ground appeared and hurled a Hirashin Kunai at him. In the distraction, the original Naruto pulled out both rods, the wounds not so much healing but refusing to actually bleed. They would heal when he dropped sage mode.

Pein knew what was coming. The clone disappeared, and the original would flash in.

Naruto held a Rasengan in each hand, fully intending to smash them together and create a mind-boggling explosion. It wasn't something he had tried before, but there's no way that WOULDN'T explode, right?

"You're predictable," Pein monotoned. "Your anger has clouded your already pointless skill in resisting me."

Flash.

Smack!

Naruto froze mid-attack, one of those horrifying seals stuck to his cheek. The twin Rasengan faded from existence and Pein turned his back.

"This is the discord that pain brings us. This is the beginning of growth. The child behind me is much more capable when he is not blinded by pain, and if he were one of you who will have the chance to live on in my new world, he would grow from this experience. I forgive the poor soul who made the mistake of summoning him here, and now I leave it to you all to deal with the consequences of that action. Do not kill the jinchuriki, and bear in mind that he is feeling the pain that I know myself."

The gathered crowd shivered, and a few gave a weak cheer. This man, no, this God, was absolutely terrifying. He laid the Namikaze brat low when the entirety of the village would have struggled to do so.

"You… you're right," Naruto spoke, drool and blood dripping from his bared teeth. "My anger made me predictable," the blond struggled to stand whilst putting a hand to his forearm. "I'll have to do better."

Pain saw the seals a second too late, chakra storage on his arm. Would it be enough to break the seal on his face?

All three of Naruto's Nature Chakra seals glowed for a brief second before bursting open. Two times the amount that would be safe to have in his body. The seal used on him stood no chance against the flood of energy, and the now useless slip of paper fell from his cheek.

Naruto could feel the weight of the excess chakra. He feared that he had overdone things and had a nice, long eternity of stone to look forward to. Thinking as fast as his rage-addled mind allowed him to, he poured energy into Kurama's seal on his back.

Every present shinobi leaped back in fear. At the same time that Naruto's face took on the markings of the technique Sasori feared came back, there was a massive explosion of white. It was no boss toad, though. Roaring and standing over the boy protectively was the Kyuubi itself.

"Interesting," Pein said, the only person not to flinch away from the scene, "I had no idea that you had such control over the beast."

There was still an extra seal's worth of dangerous chakra in Naruto's system, but now he had Kurama here to help him. Kurama took notice of the state the blond was in and immediately dove into him, returning to his subconscious.

"I pray to Kami that this works," Naruto growled, everything up to his shins already stone.

"Don't expect me to help you," Pein muttered. Was that… humor?

Naruto drew on Kurama's strength, hoping that the volatile chakra of the biju would balance out. It was a long shot, a last-ditch hope, but it was all he really had.

In a blink, Naruto was wreathed in the familiar gold of Kurama's perfect cloak. The pain of the extra chakra was gone, and he felt… powerful. Even by any standard he had known before.

"Well, good to know that worked. Are we killing this guy now?"

Naruto looked at himself and took in the changes this new mode seemed to give him. He had a robe or cloak made of chakra now, black on the inside while remaining a blinding gold on the outside. Black lines grew from the inky darkness around Kurama's original seal. And Naruto could feel the marks of Sage Mode around his eyes. He had combined the two chakras, and now he felt invincible.

"Let's."

It happened quickly. The Iwa shinobi watching could only tremble in terror as Naruto seemed to teleport, but there was no Hirashin involved. The speed he moved even threw Pein for a loop, and the lone man was defenseless against the furious assault.

"Am I blinded now?" Naruto asked as he drilled a glowing fist into Pein's stomach, the blood that spewed from the offending man's mouth satisfying him to no end.

"Do I still need to grow?" his voice was calm as his fingers sliced into Pein's leg, just underneath his calf and grabbed onto the pair of bones with crushing force. Pein was thrashed into the ground by his leg, his head a bruised mockery of the regal grace it once held.

"Will you beg for the mercy Jiraiya was denied?"