"You're a threat." Nagato's voice grated like steel, hard and even. What an irrational, unreasonable man. It was his loss, really. It wouldn't end in defeat for Sasuke. Still, he didn't want to fail his first mission by engaging in combat with the leader of the village.
"Calm down," How ironic. He was usually getting told that, not saying it to others.
"Why fight me? I'm here on a simple mission. My perceived strength alone shouldn't be grounds alone to start a fight. After all, I'm a Konoha ninja." That seemed to pacify the man. He yanked his fist back.
"Fine. I'm watching you. You provoke me in any way, and I kill you." Fine by him. He'd have to watch every thing he did for threatening connotations, but it was better than conflict. He turned around again, and walked out. He didn't realise he was holding his breath. He exhaled.
Outside, it was lashing down. Rin, Obito and Kakashi had hopefully delivered their stupid scroll and were at the inn. Sasuke was sopping wet, the rain having matted his hair and chilled his skin. He didn't care, though he might catch a cold. He was just thankful to have avoided the conflict.
The inn wasn't a comfortable place, not as much as it should be, but it beat being out there in the frosty rain. The three Chunin hadn't yet made it, so Sasuke resolved to reading a book while he waited. Time passed. An hour, then two, and then three. No sign of them.
Sasuke bit his lip in a dilemma. He could scout the village to track their whereabouts, but Nagato might see that as a provocative action. However, if they were in trouble...Sasuke could not, under any circumstance, allow any harm to come to them. He leaped out the window, closed his eyes, and tried to sense chakra like how Karin taught him.
Three faint, fluctuating chakra signatures appeared at the corner of his field of vision. Fluctuating? Sasuke tried to quell the panic that rose. Fluctuating chakra signatures always meant that one was either deeply distressed or engaged in battle. He didn't even hesitate before rushing out to help the three Chunin.
It took him two minutes to get there. Two whole minutes. They could've died in that time - but they didn't. They were alive, and once Sasuke lept in between them to interrupt the battle, Rin began patching up her teammates' (thankfully) minor injuries. An Ame ninja, probably Jounin, had attacked them for whatever reason.
He might've been drunk. The alcohol stench was so strong he smelt it from several feet. Drunk shinobi were either unpredictably strong, or pathetically weak, which stemmed from their lack of regard for their own lives. In other words, they were so stupid that they were strong. Chakra capacity reached its peak when under the influence, for reasons unknown.
Sasuke barely had time to think before the man charged him. Reflexively, Sasuke hit a pressure point, successfully knocking out the drunkard. He stared in horror as the man collapsed. As the rain beat down heavier, he finally remembered the details of that jutsu. Nagato could see wherever the rain went. He knew.
Sasuke tensed his shoulders, preparing for battle. He turned to the Chunin.
"Go back to the inn. Stay there." His voice was so commanding that they unanimously agreed, rushing towards their inn at their fastest pace - which was to say, not very fast. And certainly not faster than Nagato. The orange-haired man had somersaulted onto a pole, wearing his Akatsuki cloak.
He glared at the three Chunin, daring them to move, rooting them to their spot, rendering them speechless. This was Sasuke's main worry: that he'd have to fight Nagato in front of them.
"I had no choice. You know that. Let them go." Something flickered within Nagato's eyes - the Rinnegan was on full display now. That might as well have been an open threat.
"Really? Right after I told you not to provoke me?" Sasuke clenched his teeth.
"This isn't about that stupid guy. You just wanted to fight." He was certain of this. Nagato would've overlooked any other ninja, but not him. If Nagato wanted to fight, then Sasuke was gonna damn well give him a fight.
"S-Sasuke, what's going on?" Somehow, in his fright, Obito managed to get out those measly words. Sasuke would answer him with the truth, not bothering with reassuring pretences.
"This," he gestured to Nagato, "is the leader of Ame. And he wants to fight. Try to stay out of it."
"So," he activated his Sharingan, boring his crimson gaze into Nagato's Rinnegan, "Ready?" Nagato hurtled himself at him, wielding several knives in his knuckles: a fairly benign way to start a fight. Sasuke didn't have time to play around. Straight away, he went for an A-rank lightning jutsu, the perfect counter to the rain. Nagato hissed, not expecting that.
Nagato deactivated the jutsu just before he got electrocuted. All-sightedness was more of a burden in this case, being distracted by all those sights. Sasuke figured this fight would be easier than he thought, with Nagato only possessing one body: Deva Path.
The Deva Path moved at a blinding speed. The two engaged in a fierce taijutsu battle, both wielding pathetic kunai, slashing and striking. They were evenly matched in terms of taijutsu, but Sasuke had no doubt that he outclassed him ninjutsu-wise. Plus, he had foreknowledge on his moves, which almost secured a win, as long as no unknown factors-
Stab. What the hell? Nagato was in front of him, so - Konan! He had disregarded her completely. Now, there was a paper knife in his arm, courtesy of Konan's surprise attack.
"Sasuke-san!" The three Chunin looked absolutely devastated. Nagato swerved to the side, foolishly making Sasuke think he was abandoning the fight, but instead, he grabbed Rin tightly.
That was low. Nagato brandished a knife, holding it to Rin's carotid artery, daring Sasuke to move. Sasuke halted his next attack. But Nagato didn't consider the other two Chunin, or perhaps underestimated them. Obito shouted, swinging a kunai and charging at Nagato. Sasuke briefly noted the red tinge to Obito's eyes, but had no time to congratulate his student.
Kakashi had dragged Rin away while Nagato was preoccupied with Obito. It was a second's window of time, but they made do with it. Kakashi, as quiet and arrogant as he was, was still extremely talented. Unfortunately, Nagato knocked all three out, probably for the best. If things went well, Sasuke would defeat Nagato and Konan and then they can all go back to Konoha.
Konan flew above him, readying her next attack. He still had a knife in his arm. Sasuke ignored the pain. There was one way that he could end her instantly. Sasuke barely hesitated to use it. It would be Nagato's fault if she died anyway.
"Amaterasu!" He whisper-shouted the jutsu, eyeing Konan, just as Nagato charged towards him.
She burst into onyx flames, whimpering in agony. At first, Nagato halted and seemed to redden in anger. Then, he stilled, realising that his only friend was in peril.
"I'll stop it before she dies. As long as you," Sasuke stopped himself from saying 'forfeit'. Nagato dictated Ame. He started Akatsuki. He played a crucial role in the beginning of the Fourth Ninja War. The first step to preventing that would be to get rid of Nagato.
Nagato stared back at him, panicked, "As long as I what? Let her go!" Konan and Nagato were both loose ends. He couldn't let either live. By now, Konan was blazing. Not even screaming. She was dead. Nagato roared in fury.
"Nevermind. Let's kill each other, here and now!" He could detect his faint surprise mixed with unadulterated rage. Sasuke didn't want to fight before, and now he did.
"You killed her! I'll kill you!" Maybe it wasn't a good thing to get Nagato this mad, but Sasuke could handle this immature, teenage version of Nagato/Pain, even though he killed Konan.
"This was your fault," he stated, his voice calm, "I didn't want to fight. She'd be alive if you hadn't started this."
"My pain!" Nagato was furious, and probably about to use some draining, destructive jutsu that could kill them all. Yet, Sasuke laughed. He clutched his stomach, guffawing, keeling over in laughter. It pierced the air, maniacal and deranged. For a second, Nagato's anger dissipated.
"Do you think you're the only one who has suffered?" Was this what Sasuke sounded like? This guy was more broody than him! Telling everyone to call him Lord Pain and that! Pain wasn't limited to Pain. They lived in a fearsome, rough world where it was kill or be killed. Sasuke could guarantee that 9 in 10 ninja experienced some form of pain. Nagato was an ignorant blight.
"You think you're the Chosen One or something? Well," he grinned, "That Rinnegan isn't even yours!"
Now he was confused, but recovered soon, probably taking Sasuke's truth as a weak jest.
"You're low, trying to perturb me!" Something was fucked if Nagato was trying to say Sasuke was low. He started forming hand signs, but before that, Sasuke summoned Susanoo, stabbing Yahiko's body through the gut. He approached the corpse, plucked out a piercing, examining it.
As he suspected, it was used to channel chakra into. This must be done from a high point, like the tower where he had first met Pain. It was the highest point in the whole village, which was saying something, since Ame was highly industrialised.
He scooped up the three Chunin, wondering what to do with them while he left to fight. Leaving them alone might be stupid, but taking them along was stupider. He settled on leaving them in the inn, surrounded by protection jutsu. At least, no ordinary Jounin could traverse his jutsu. Just in case they woke up before he came back, he patched up his arm as best as he could and left a note.
Leaping out the window once again, Sasuke practically flew to the tower at his top speed, which was quite fast. He channeled chakra to his feet, scaling the side of the tower with ease. Nagato couldn't fight, and he had destroyed his only body. This time, he was certain that he wouldn't have to exert himself.
He guessed right. Nagato was there, with his crimson hair and his painfully skinny body. He was essentially torturing himself for power. The Rinnegan was draining that way, even to an Uzumaki. He was weak, and very, very easy to kill. Nagato already looked exhausted.
"I was supposed to bring forth a new era of peace. Instead, I got defeated by the likes of you."
Sasuke scoffed, "Peace? Please! How did you plan on accomplishing that?" It was a rhetorical question, but Nagato must've figured he'd answer anyway.
"I'd spread Pain. That way, everyone would finally be sick of the fighting, and stop. Peace." That was twisted. Just because Nagato was unhappy, he wanted everyone to be unhappy.
Pure selfishness. He had lost somebody, and decided to take away everyone's loved ones from everyone. Sasuke remembered one of the stories he heard about Nagato; that he had killed Hanzo as revenge, and then Hanzo's relatives, no matter how distant nor how young. Nagato had slaughtered babies just to fulfill his revenge for Yahiko.
"You completed your revenge, yet you still want carnage." Nagato shook his head.
"There is one more person I need to kill," his eyes burned with pure rage, "Danzo." Sasuke laughed again, this time, it was bitter. The irony. They were both victims of Danzo!
However, he refused to acknowledge that this man was anything like him. He was bitter, because he lost one person, and went on a killing spree because of it, wanting to destroy the world. Sasuke wanted to say he was better than him. His revenge ended with him. He wanted to change the world, not destroy it. And, most importantly, he didn't go around slaughtering innocent children!
"You make me sick," he spat, his tone dripping with venom. Nagato was about to huff before Sasuke plunged a knife into the man's bony abdomen. With that, the battle ended in his victory.