Beta By: RedCommander72. Thank you so so much for being such an amazing beta. Merci beaucoup!
A/N: If any one finds any mistakes, let me know(politely).
1.11 Attack on Hidden Leaf -2
Kakashi Hatake was not having the finest day. To be fair, when you need to fight a corpse which is more powerful than yourself, you simply can't have a good day.
On top of being a strong opponent, Pein in the ass had a poker face. See, if you hit a guy and they don't even show any reaction in their faces, then half of the satisfaction of hitting the guy goes away. Same thing was happening to Kakashi.
For the love of everything bloody and gory, the guy needs to show some reaction. Like right now!
Kakashi pouted, but thanks to his mask no one saw it. At the current situation, no one would have cared either way.
Genma was fighting beside Kakashi, he jumped up and caught a random flying shuriken, then jumped back down.
"Yo, Kakashi. Think you can get a direct hit? This machine bastard just magnets all my weapons. Does the son of a bitch know how costly kunai and shuriken are these days?" Genma growled with a dark look on his face.
Kakashi did a quick scan of his fellow leaf nin. Although Genma was covered in dust, debris, minor cuts and burns, they didn't seem life threatening.
Kakashi was about to answer when a messenger chunin swooped in.
''Kakashi-taicho, two of the paths have been sealed. The team lead by Gai and one ANBU team have gotten their mark, Lady Tsunade asked me to find out if you needed back up." The chunin also handed out two small version of Katsuyu to Kakashi and Genma and the slug quickly went inside their vests to try and heal their respective wounds. The messenger chunin seemed to have something else to say, but he was showing reluctance. Kakashi was not in the mood to deal with shy chunins and Genma was also sharing the sentiment. In their defence they were fighting a pretty frustrating enemy.
"Listen here kid, either speak up or scam!" Genma told the chunin in a mildly annoyed tone.
For a moment the chunin looked like he was about to cry, but hastily managed to finish the rest of the message.
"Gai-taicho told me to tell you that he won and now he is ahead of you, Kakashi-taicho," the chunin gulped and Kakashi's face became dark, well the parts which were visible went dark.
The chunin quivered and rightfully so. He was sure the next words would earn him a face full of chidori. If he survives the day, the chunin vowed to definitely clean his room and never complain about his nagging mother ever again. This must be karma, just like his mother told him, this was definitely karma.
Kakashi, who was used to Gai's antics asked, "What else did he say?"
"He said," the chunin gulped yet again, was it him or was the air was getting drier? The chunin opened his mouth to finish his sentence when a loud poof of smoke covered the east side of the village. Kakashi immediately felt the surge of familiar chakra in the air.
Shit! What the hell was she doing here now of all times?
Kakashi's already darkening mood took a major hit.
"Listen Lady Katsuyu," Kakashi began. "I need to finish this quickly, please hold on tight."
He tightened his gloves and came out of the fallen debris he was hiding behind. Genma too felt the chakra and quickly asked the chunin to run back and joined Kakashi.
"Listen my good fellow. My student, who is not supposed to be back, has come back. So," Kakashi's sharingan changed its shape rapidly, "die quickly."
Genma was stunned when the machine-like parts of the enemy's body fell, scattered all over the ground. He wasn't sure when and what Kakashi had done, but the path was down. However, before Genma could bask in their victory. Kakashi's body fell to the ground with a thud sound.
The sealing team had moved to seal away the path's body and the medical team came quickly towards Kakashi. Genma impatiently watched as the medical team did their first aid and checked the fallen Jonin.
"Severe chakra loss. He needs to rest. If he tries to get back up to fight now, he will die," one of the medics explained quickly.
Genma could only watch with concern that his friend was carried back to camp. Genma tightened his gloves and took to the roofs, the fight wasn't over yet. He was running low on chakra as well, but he was determined enough to keep fighting for his village and his fallen comrades.
Line break...
Itachi was low on chakra. He already had to fight one of the paths, which was a tough task on itself, now he was facing the Pein with Yahiko's corpse. Lady Tsunade have been fighting this path and the path who could summon animals with her team. However, Itachi could see that the Hokage starting to show signs of fatigue. Thankfully, three of the six paths have already been sealed.
Only half of the undead zombies to beat up then. Cool!
Itachi suddenly felt a surge of chakra near him and the air of the field grew heavy. His instincts screamed danger. Itachi looked up and saw the remaining third path landing nearby, now the three paths have decided to attack all at once. This wasn't a good development. Itachi tried to remember which team was assigned to that particular path, but none came to mind.
"Itachi stay back, you can't over use your eyes," Katsuyu, Lady Tsunade's trusted summon told him urgently.
"Is there any back up approaching us yet?" he asked, shielding himself for a little while.
Katsuyu shook her head. "I am afraid not, but that doesn't mean we are losing, the plan is still going well. We can defeat them."
"Yes, I know we can Lady Katsuyu. We have t-"
Itachi's words died on his mouth as he felt his gravity change suddenly. With horror Itachi realised that he was caught into one of the worst jutsu the Pein had- All mighty pull.
All the strategies Shikaku had made were flawless except for one, he had mentioned it explicitly that no one, absolutely no one should get suck in one of Pein's jutsu.
"You should pay attention to your battles, Uchiha!" Yahiko's corpse spoke in a monotonous voice.
Itachi's eyes widened when he noticed that Lady Tsunade and the other shinobi were fighting desperately with the summons and the third path. Their plan's success deepened on making sure that no more than two paths were at one place at the same time. Pein was obviously a smart individual, he knew that as a group it was quite difficult to defeat him.
This situation didn't look good, only way they all could get out of this alive was for Itachi to use his eyes. Although he was advised against it, Itachi saw no other choice. It was either his Hokage or his life. If he was destined to die today, so be it. In the other dimension, he had already died after all. Maybe he was living on borrowed time and now it was finally his time to let go.
Itachi activated his Mangekyō and tried to make a break for it.
Time seemed to have stopped for him as Itachi brought forth his Susanoo. His body was going upwards in a blinding speed while the attack on his Hokage was relentless. The only way he would even have a chance to survive would be the Susanoo's shield and he planned to use Amaterasu simultaneously for Lady Tsunade's attackers.
However, before his body could get plastered by Pein's jutsu, a huge surge of chakra filled the battle filed.
Two blurs of white and blond light attacked Yahiko's body from both sides. If it wasn't for his Mangekyo, Itachi would have completely missed the arrival of Jiraiya and Naruto together. Both in their sage modes. Pein was unable to complete his all-mighty-pull and Itachi found himself airborne. On the spot, Itachi did a nice little aerobic twirl and landed on his feet.
Oh, sweet Earth gravity! He was happy to be on land again.
His Susanoo was still on, so it was easy for him to see Naruto colliding with Pein. She pushed Pein away from Itachi and the others in a rocket speed, attacking him with her signature blue Rasengan. Within seconds, Pein in form of Yahiko was over four miles away from the other two paths.
Jiraiya landed in front of him with a thud sound.
"You okay?" The Sage asked.
Itachi was relieved to see the Sage back on his feet, nodded his head in response.
"Good, follow her. Don't get in between the fight though. She should be able to take on him. I will go help Tsunade now," after saying this the Sage sped towards the Hokage.
Naruto taking on that Pein alone?
Now Itachi wasn't an unreasonable guy by any means. However, when it comes to a certain blonde and Sasuke, Itachi who is usually a smart and reasonable guy, tended to lose reason and half of his oh so loveable IQ! This time there was no exception either.
No matter how exhausted he felt, Itachi followed the yellow haired, newly made sage for the next part of battle.
Line break...
Naruto was quite angry with Granny Hokage. The woman forgot the tell Naruto that they were in danger or something? Was the woman going insane in her old age? No matter, Naruto planned to take out all her frustration in the Pein guy right here.
"I was looking for you nine tails," the dude had the gall to say.
Naruto huffed. "The name is Naruto Uzumaki, got it? Naruto. Not nine tails. Do you think my parents were stupid that they would name me nine tails?" she demanded. In truth she had no idea who her parents were, but when you gotta bluff, you gotta do it right.
"I have no intension of remembering your name, you shall be dead soon anyway," the guy said without changing his expression at all.
Naruto's mood worsens. "No thank you, I am going to beat you up, stupid idiot, dattebyo!" With a battle cry, Naruto began her assault.
And what an assault that was. The fight was magnificent. Hand-to-hand combat where Pein nor Naruto relented. Punches and kicks were thrown without any frugality. Naruto knew, this guy was one of those who would take a mile if given an inch, so she kept her offence. Both parties were quite evenly matched. Pein was surprised by the sheer physical and the ambiguous nature of the attacks the girl was throwing at him. Naruto on her part, was impressed by the reflexes and momentum Pein seem to have rule over.
However, Naruto was so focused on her combat that she failed to acknowledge that her sage mode was running low. Their fight went on for a while, but soon her sage mode completely faded away. Naruto suddenly found herself on the short end of defence.
She quickly made an army of clone and stepped back. To her surprise Pein was waiting for her to go on a defence and wiped away all her clone in a single painful blow. Now, only her physical body was left. However, everyone who knew Naruto would vouch that she was one unpredictable ninja. Pein soon found himself with a face full of a rasenshuriken and a grinning Naruto who had suddenly gained back her sage mode. Although taken completely by surprise, Pein managed to dodge the attack.
"I never knew you would be this strong, host of the nine tails," Pein stated calmly.
"Yes, me either," came a voice not far from the two fighting ninjas. Itachi soon emerged from the back of a bolder, looking very relaxed, like he hadn't just walked into a death match.
If Pein had a way to show emotion, he would show mild annoyance at this moment. But since he just had to look like he had constipation, Pein just took a step back in response. Now all three of them were standing in a triangle formation.
"You are one rude ugly bastard; you know that right?" Naruto voiced what everyone on the village and who are reading this fic were thinking.
"...I don't follow."
"Oh, let me make you follow, you meanie!" Naruto growled out. Itachi had a varied range of emotional response to this comment. He was mildly impressed, mostly floored, and slightly taken aback by Naruto's rather strong words. Since when his usually soft-spoken friend using such colourful words?
"First, you decided to take out your daddy issues upon Jiraiya sensei. He didn't deserve it. Secondly, you decided to destroy a whole village filled with people and children because you have a 'pain' fetish. In midst of all that you decided that you need to remake the world because apparently you can't process grief and have emotional balance problems. Dude, you need to get a therapist. I can recommend some toads if you like," Naruto took a deep breath, but her arrows of words were not done.
Itachi had the most ridiculous look on his face, he couldn't believe his ears and eyes. What the hell happened to Naruto? What on earth those toads feed her anyway?
Pein on the other hand was mostly thinking what on earth a 'daddy issues' was.
And since Naruto wasn't done, she continued, "Dude, above all, who in their right mind would name themselves Pein? You nuts? You could have named himself anything. But no! You had to go and take the name Pein! Pain in my cute butt more like!"
"...what?" Pein asked, very much confused and at a complete loss.
"I think," Itachi cleared his throat, " Naruto wants to say that you are a bad guy because you were unable to process certain incidents in your life. If you could do so, you will get better?" He wasn't sure why Naruto was behaving in such an uncharacteristic manner but since she seemed to be trying to buy some time, Itachi like the faithful guy he was, decided to help out.
"Why do I... -ack!" Pein in the form of Yahiko fall and the corpse lost the connection with the host body promptly.
Naruto grinned and did a little feast pump. "Yes, I got him 'Tachi!" she declared happily.
Itachi looked a little bewildered, "How?"
Naruto excitedly looked at Itachi's eyes. His beautiful, beautiful dark eyes and all her excitement went poof.
Shit!
How on earth could a guy who looked dead in his feet, manage to look that handsome. This must be illegal.
Shit! Shit! Triple shit!
Since Naruto suddenly froze, Itachi swiftly crossed the distance between them and came to look at her more closely. "What is it? Are you okay?" he asked with growing concern.
"Yes," Naruto answered avoiding his gaze and turned away from him. Itachi felt a little pang in his heart for her dismissive behaviour. Things were not right between them; he wasn't even completely sure why there was this sudden wall between them. Itachi was ready and willing to tell her how he felt, but if the girl wouldn't even look at his direction, what was he supposed to do.
"We should get going, I will explain everything in a minute," Naruto answered and took off. Itachi followed her with a heavy heart. Was he getting rejected even before confessing?
Itachi might not know the answers to his dilemma, but the author here sure does(hopefully!). Thus, the author encourages the readers to review so that the author feels loved enough to continue this fic. Arrigauto!
A/N: If you guys are still reading this, we would be deviating from the canon events very soon. Thnak you for sticking with me. Love you all.
Omeka: (this is little something which is not edited, so sorry for the bad grammar and spelling)
"So," Saskue looked at Sai with a very serious face. "You knew about Naruto's feelings from that time?"
Sai nodded. "You apparently knew about Itachi's."
Both the dark-haired, pale boys sipped their respective tomato juices. Sai at first wasn't sure about tomato, but soon found the sour and salty flavour addicting. Both of them had made into ANBU last month and were celebrating with their new teams when the topic of most famous couple in the ANBU history came up. All the ANBUs around them were listing to Sai and Sasuke's conversation with concentration.
"Hey, wanna bet when they will get married?" Hayate suddenly spoke up, his face red and eyes tipsy. He was drunk.
"I will open the bank account," someone from the crowed volunteered. Almost instantly a lot of hands came up with cash ready to be deposited.
Sai and Sasuke watched with fascination how smoothly a whole betting pool was established. They soon joined in; the whole thing seemed fun away way.
Much later, Hayate will wake up and realise, he had yet again created a betting pool over the lives of two brilliantly strong ninjas, and this time it was in front of a lot of non drunk witnesses.
