Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
CHAPTER 43
Nagato breathed deeply through his nose, trying to deny the quickening of his heartbeat, the thin slick of sweat that coated his palms, the hair that rose on his arms as goosebumps rippled across his naked torso. The sense of foreboding that was climbing up his spine was forcefully smothered. He refused to acknowledge these feelings. He was a god. He was not scared of anyone. He was incapable of failure. He was unbeatable.
But he was coming.
He was a chakra thunderstorm rolling in from the distance. Footsteps pounding the earth with the rumble of thunder. Eyes flashing with deadly white electricity. The gust of his swift passing blowing away trees with gale force. Icy rain flowing through his veins.
He was coming.
Impending. Building. An unavoidable, unstoppable, force of nature with the destructive potential to educate Earth on the power which gods could mete out upon their realm.
He was coming, and Nagato had no idea exactly who he was.
The Kyūbi jinchuriki, certainly. But also, something…more.
Nagato stretched out his senses again, seeking Konan, his truest companion and most faithful servant. His lip involuntarily trembled when, for the first time in his memory, he failed to touch upon her chakra. It means nothing, she is just fighting further away than I thought.
Denial was an easier pill to swallow compared to the bitterness of truth. Nagato had imbibed on the delirious drug of unreality for so long that there was nothing left within his mind but his own warped fiction. There were no other options besides his plan, no other possible outcomes except his success. We will be successful, Konan and I will reign over them and they will have to bow under our shared pain…
But then, where is she? And why is that man still coming?
By all rights that man should have been dead. In previous battles Tendo's chakra rods had quickly drained the energy from every single jinchuriki Nagato had commanded him to impale. Even now, carefully hidden deep within the bowels of his high tower in Amegakure, three bodies hang in suspended animation. Lifeless human shells crucified upon the wall of his innermost chamber, his Holy of Holies. Skewered with his chakra rods as they channeled their energy to him, feeding his already enlarged Uzumaki level chakra bank.
The jinchuriki of the Nibi, Yonbi, and Gobi were reduced to nothing more than the demon containers that they had been doomed to become. Their constant flow of demonic chakra fed Nagato's power and network, operating as his own personal endless chakra repository. Their life energy enabled him to maintain the massive jutsus that could cover the entirety of Ame in sensory rain, animate his Six Paths, and fight the likes of the most powerful shinobi in the world. Because of them he was the most formidable ninja in all the universe, nigh to Kami's own level in godliness and wisdom.
Yet that man was still coming! Despite the destiny that Nagato had selfishly claimed. Despite his threats, his display of power, his destruction of Konoha, his slaughter of the rebels, despite his everything…
He was still coming!
The rods that ringed Nagato's back like a macabre mane of black metal spikes hummed with his building anger as he sucked more and more chakra into his body through the connection with the catatonic jinchuriki captives. How dare that man defy ME? A god amongst men. The holder of the most Blessed Eye. The Redeemer of the Earth. That insolent nine tails jinchuriki has no idea with whom he is dealing.
Confidence infused through Nagato's brain along with the heady rush of power, amplifying the twitching of his hands as they raised to produce two long chakra rods, his unfailing weapon. Closing his precious eyes to concentrate, Nagato's nostrils flared with his deepening breaths as he endured the might of the approaching sensory avalanche that was headed straight for him in brazen challenge.
The palpable aura of chakra from the incoming jinchuriki had started as a boulder of rolling anger, but now was growing into a mountain of surging energy. The impending collision of his vast enormity into Nagato's flimsy paper tree would be enough to leave any other shinobi quaking in terror.
But Nagato was not a normal shinobi. He was never afraid of what he could plainly see, and his blessed eyes saw everything. Schooling his snarling features, which threatened to contort bitterly under the poisonous influence of the potently demonic chakra rush, he forcefully opened his eyes wide in a gaping soulless stare that sought to penetrate the layers of paper, forest, and landscape that was rapidly diminishing between himself and that man.
"I see you," Nagato hissed as he strained to bring the stampeding jinchuriki's turmoil into sharper sensory focus, "no one can escape my—"
The declaration died on his lips as a sudden abyss opened up within his mind when the surging tide abruptly evaporated from his senses. Every nerve that was braced for impact, clinging to sanity under the beating chakra of his enemy, unexpectedly recoiled and ricocheted within a cavernous emptiness.
He was…gone?
Nagato's barely denied fear and anticipation that had been building up as he watched the swirling chakra hurricane stampede over the forest whilst nailed in place to his throne, suddenly morphed into a near panic as the massive maelstrom simply vanished. The yawning void in his mind left by the loss of such an overwhelming sensory stimulation was rapidly filling with a rushing terror of a level which Nagato did not know he was capable of feeling.
A heartbeat, a breath. It was too quiet.
A heartbeat, another. Has time stood still?
Inhale, exh—
The earth EXPLODED.
The sounds of shattering glass and crashing boulders shook the air as Nagato's throne of chakra rods was splintered by a mighty blow that surged from below him in a blinding yellow light like magma erupting out of a volcano. His pale skin burned under the searing heat that instantly flooded the air and scorched his lungs. The paper of the tree ignited, filling the sky and his eyes with smoke. Ashes fell from above as tears fell from his face, and amidst the chaos his first coherent thought was that he couldn't remember the last time he had cried.
The world slowly began to come into focus once more, despite the murky smoke that obscured his surroundings. Nagato blearily tried to take stock of his injuries as he laid on some random patch of scarred earth. His emaciated hand shakily lifted to his face, his head lolling awkwardly to the side as he gently touched the salty water that dripped down his sharp cheekbone. Gray-ringed eyes studied his long, slender fingers as they slowly smeared the clear liquid between his fingertips with the fascination of a forgotten reality.
Looking up through the sheen of tears he realized he was very vulnerable and exposed without his tree or his Konan, and scrambled to his feet in an undignified display of weakness. His gut lurched at the smell of his own singed hair, and the buried memories of his childhood threatened to rear its ugly head as the charred forest loomed around him. Konan, he desperately reached out in his mind in search of her protective presence. I need her. Until I can reestablish my connection with the jinchuriki feed I do not have enough chakra to fight at the necessary level.
Ever since he had "acquired" Yahiko's body from Tobi all those years ago, Nagato had poured all of his efforts into training his mind, trusting the three underlings to protect his person in all ways physical. The trio of Konan, Tendō, and Tobi had acted as his eyes, ears, and hands, building the Akatsuki up from the antipolitical faction of his dreams into the anarchist sect of his fantasies. While the Akatsuki had grown his body had wasted, and now he cursed his emaciated muscles as he struggled to his knees and opened up his senses in search of Konan's comforting presence.
The desolate state his senses revealed of the current situation made Nagato's already rapid heartbeat skip with incredulous fear. He was miles away from Konan's destroyed paper base. The entirety of Konoha was just a faint blip on the radar of his mind. He fell to his knees, her name slipping from his lips in a hoarse whisper that he thought only the trees and dirt which cratered beneath his feet could have heard.
"Konan…"
"She's gone."
Snapping his hand up reflexively to bat away the gritty voice that hissed directly in his ear, Nagato's arm was caught in a vice-like grip that emanated the warmth of a hot ember. The man who was unseeable and insensible to even the godlike Akatsuki Leader ripped him to his feet and threw his body like a rag doll discarded by an unimpressed child.
"There is no use looking for her, nor any of the rest," the glowing being growled as he stalked Nagato through the trees. Nagato shook his head forcefully as the words seemed to come from every direction, and squinted at the man as one would try to peek at the blinding sun.
"They all are gone and soon your plan will be as well," the man declared. "I am ending the pain. I am ending the hate. I am ending you."
Nagato was unable to deny the verity of his words, sensing nothing but barren holes remaining where the familiar chakra signatures of Konan and his Akatsuki once blazed. But he had trained his mind to never accept defeat, and so he was compelled to fight back with the crazed desperation of a man who refused to believe he could fail.
"You cannot end my plan, because you cannot end hatred," Nagato sneered, digging shaking fingers into the damp autumn dirt as he tried to knead the remaining chakra in his gut to produce even a single rod with which to defend himself. If I could just reconnect with the captive jinchuriki, he thought wildly as his mouth rambled on. "Hatred is as eternal as the unending rhythm of dawn and dusk. As relatable as breathing. Everyone knows pain from the day of their birth to the day of their death. Joy is rare. Love is easily lost. It is pain that binds us together time and time again. And it is through pain that I will end it all."
"Just like there are many paths to pain there are many paths to peace," the voice rebutted immediately, and Nagato's bare regained stance faltered under the near celestial weight of the statement as he struggled to stay upright. The glowing yellow man clenched his teeth as though forcing himself to continue with his next words.
"Give up your plan. Repent of your hatred and I will spare you. Follow me, and I will show you a path to peace that does not leave a trail of your friends' bodies behind you to mark your progress."
The voice and light converged into a presence that could be felt deep in the hollow of Nagato's bones, and he reeled under the incomprehension of such an entity. Awe filled his mind, but he refused to give in to the idea that this man was closer to being divine than he himself.
"I will never follow anyone again!" Nagato screamed into the forest, into the light that seemed to be surrounding him like a fallen star. "The world of shinobi is built on deceit, mortared with greed, and painted in blood! I am the fire that burns away the cities of corruption and levels us all to the ground! I am the god that will rule over the masses with a fist of iron and the Eyes of Destiny."
Finally straightening with a rush of frenzied madness, Nagato pulsed all the chakra of his body into his eyes. His greatest inheritance. They had been ripped out the last Uzumaki to survive the devastation of Uzushio and passed down from one generation of hidden refugees to another. Until the precious treasure of his people was finally implanted into his own head just as his grandfather took his last breath. Nagato could still remember the pain and the pride that had throbbed in his tiny body every time his parents told him of the destiny he now held. The purpose of his blessing. The power of his will. He would not forget their pain.
"The future is broken," Nagato hoarsely continued. "Humanity is broken. The only answer is to wipe away the governments of the earth and start anew. I will erase the history of this world and rewrite the origins of existence."
Nagato fully opened his eyes for the first time since the comforting enclosure of Konan's paper tree had been ripped away. His flat, soulless Rinnegan eyes sought out the source of the heretical accusations, ready to eliminate the false prophet from this life and the next. Turning to face the coalesced power that stood still behind him, Nagato's heart froze in his chest.
Two of the purest, bluest, clearest eyes he had ever seen gazed back at him with a glare that swirled with equal parts animosity and pity. The undeniable, unbelievable, sight of an original Rinnegan spun like whirlpools in a stormy ocean.
The man who could roar like a hurricane yet echo like an empty canyon spoke with the authority of being Kami's True Chosen, a Scion. "You think that by wiping the slate clean it will never become blemished again?" The gritty voice growled low as a demon while speaking with the virtue of saint. "That a new evil will never arise? Do you truly believe that all this pain will not spur on a new generation of hatred?" Nagato flinched as the man shrouded in golden light leaned into his face and snarled in disdain.
"Because I have seen it! I have watched how pain can rot away into a stew of hatred that sours the soul and poisons the mind and body. There is no instant solution! No magic answer! Dedication and persistence are the medicines that can outlast this pandemic that taints humanity. By showing one another respect and treating everyone with the same compassion that we ourselves would desire, we can create bonds stronger than deceit! Bonds that will last generations, and form the foundation for a New World. A world of peace that remembers pain, and actively seeks to leave it behind, not stab it into every facet of the future for the satisfaction of their grudges."
Nagato clapped his hands over his ears, slamming his eyes shut as he desperately tried to block the heresies spewing from that man's mouth from being blasted into his mind. But the words echoed in his soul, blurring the mantras of his own convictions, and he cried out to Kami as he hunched his shoulders, stubbornly clinging to his ignorance.
"I will not listen to anyone but Kami! Kami alone knows my heart and will condemn your blasphemies! I will never recant! I will never stray! I am Pain! I am—"
"I see you," an ethereal voice whispered coldly into Nagato's soul. It was so soft and yet so clear that Nagato knew instantly that it was not of this world. Weightlessness overwhelmed his senses as Nagato felt his entire body thrust up into the atmosphere and then hover in suspense, like a breath waiting to exhale, as all of creation paused for Kami's Final Verdict. Her answer was swift as the fall of the axe.
"You are accountable. You are guilty. You are finished."
From the heights of his heavenly judgment Nagato looked down to Earth at the man who now stood atop the trees and stared skyward at him in solemn stillness, shining in a splendor of yellow chakra that was building up around him like hungry flames. The Uzumaki is unable to deny the truth any longer, as his body soared higher and higher into the stratosphere.
Nagato sensed the scissors of fate pressing against the red thread of his lifetime. He could only wonder, in honest discomposure, how it was that a god like himself had come to such a cursed end, at the hands of a demon container?
"Who are you?" Nagato whispered into the rushing wind as he watched the Earth shrink away beneath his dangling limbs. The question carried to the golden shrouded man's ear as he raised his open hand to reveal a black orb floating above his palm. The dense ball of chakra rose above the trees and his whiskered face twisted into a genuine smile of humble pride.
"I am the son of Namikaze Minato.
The Disciple of Jiraiya the Sannin.
The Toad Sage of Mt. Myoboku.
The Emancipator of Kurama.
The Scion of the Rinnegan.
The future Hokage of Konohagakure.
The Deliverer of Kami's Judgment on this Earth.
I am Namikaze Naruto."
His raised hand snapped shut with a finality that severed the ties of fate, and the shinobi's blue Rinnegan swirled as he uttered the jutsu to end it all.
"Chibaku Tensei."
The earth leapt to obey his command, and in the blink of an eye Nagato was being pummeled by chunks of rock and dirt as the black orb which had spawned from Naruto's hand shot through the air and crashed into the doomed man's chest like an kunai lodging deep into a tree. The growing satellite consumed Nagato's body even as he desperately reached out for an escape from the sealing jutsu.
Naruto watched with grim resignation, but no satisfaction, as Kami's Will was fulfilled one boulder at a time. Morbid fascination and a sense of responsibility kept him from tearing his eyes away from the gruesome display, and it was only because he refused to blink that he noticed the way the atmosphere began to swirl beside the small, but enlarging planet.
The swirling ripples suddenly gaped open and a scar faced man with a single glowing Sharingan leaned out the black hole into the gray sky. His unnaturally white arm stretched out a hand towards Nagato's groping fingers, as the former Akatsuki Leader fought to keep his face free from the smothering crust of his growing earthen tomb.
"Tobi!" Nagato shrieked in panic as he thrashed fruitlessly against the drowning jutsu toward the outstretched arm. "Help me!"
The resurrected man smiled cruelly at the mangled savior of his twisted second existence, and his red eye gleamed with malicious mirth at the fantastic heights of the haughty Uzumaki's shame. Tobi lurched out over the last few inches that separated the former partners from each other, but it was not Nagato's desperately reaching hand that he grasped. Nagato whimpered as the cool flesh of Tobi's artificial fingers pressed against the ridges of his eye socket, uncaring of the tears that poured from the gray-ringed Rinnegan.
"You won't be needing this anymore will you?" Tobi crooned with sickening sweetness, as he stripped the dōjutsu from Nagato's stricken face.
Nagato's scream of pain and fury was cut off as a final chunk of debris slammed into his bloody face. The entirety of the newly formed planet was then wrenched into the stratosphere by unseen celestial hands.
In the aftermath of the disorienting gravitational shift Naruto's growl of frustration was drowned out by the rushing air as he leapt up to attack the newly appeared Akatsuki. Tobi lingered in the doorway of his tear in space, gleefully admiring the stolen Rinnegan he now held in his hand. Looking down at Naruto's charging golden body, he simply smirked, and with a jaunty wave of his human fingers, disappeared into his dimension.
The cool autumn air was charged with an unearthly energy, making Sasuke push even harder through the thick canopy of trees towards the screaming chakra signature of his childhood teammate. His basic three-tomoe Sharingan was catching glimpses through the boughs of the forest of what seemed to be a miniature planet growing in the sky, as he raced farther away from Konoha and closer to the source of the massive outbursts of chakra.
Having assured himself that all local threats were neutralized, he had left the Konoha in the care of the shinobi ranks, plus Karin, and went in search of the other two holder's of Kami's Divine Dōjutsu. Hinata's chakra had been easily visible but calm, while the enemy that she had lured away from the Village was no longer detectable at all. He had little doubt as to the winner of that battle. So Sasuke had chosen to seek out the other Scion of their threesome, who's chakra was raging like a thunderstorm out in the distance.
Before he could reach Naruto's side, a sudden wind vacuum pulled Sasuke straight up into the air, nearly sucking him into the atmosphere like a tornado. He twisted nimbly and sunk his sword deep into a thick tree trunk and hung on as gravity seemed to have shifted its allegiance to a heavenly source, threatening to unearth the entire forest beneath him. But just as quickly as they had inverted, the forces of nature settled once more. With renewed fervor Sasuke flew through the raining leaves and twigs towards the now much smaller chakra signature of his teammate.
He landed on the tree branch at his destination, his body shifting gracefully to absorb the bending sway of the thin boughs. Letting his Sharingan fade away to save chakra, he glanced around in search of Naruto. Suddenly he was sharply smacked square in the ass by a snapping branch when the irate blond, who was completely unaware of his arrival, descended out of the sky and crashed awkwardly into the same tree.
"What that fuck?!" Sasuke snarled as he danced and spun, clawing at his branch like a cat scrabbling for purchase. "Dammit Dobe! You're the best sensor in the whole damn world, did you not see me standing here?!"
Naruto's red face glared out at the Uchiha from the tangle of orange and green foliage as he yanked on his spiky yellow hair in frustration. He had been so infuriated by the last second trick of that ugly scar-faced fucker with the one eye that he had no idea that his fellow Scion was even headed this way.
"Don't gimme that Teme," he bit out in annoyance while painstakingly dragging himself out of the brambly limbs. He was way too distracted by what had just happened to try and put up with Sasuke's snark.
"Besides, s'not my fault you can't dodge a stupid stick," Naruto mumbled as he spit out a chunk of bark and stood up. Crossing his arms with a grumpy huff, he stuck his bottom lip out in a pouting scowl that creased his eyes shut. Which was a mistake, as he was promptly knocked on his own ass when Sasuke swept his feet clean out from under him with the same "stick".
"OW! That hurt!" Naruto screeched, immediately bouncing up, one fist clenched and ready to fight while the other rubbed his wounded pride.
"Kiss my ass!" Sasuke snapped back from his now steady perch.
Naruto jabbed his finger at the torn sleeve of his shirt where his ANBU tattoo was visible on his exposed shoulder. "You can't tell me what to do," he grinned haughtily as he lifted his chin, "I outrank you!"
"Then it looks like you've kissed a lot of asses before mine," Sasuke smirked loftily, and Naruto's face got even redder.
The two faced off from their respective tree branches. Glaring at one another just like they had on the schoolyard sparring grounds years ago.
"SASUKE!"
"NARUTOOO!"
A few miles away, high above the forest, Kakashi sighed as he slid his hitae-ate back over his Sharingan and slumped into his place atop Sai's chakra bird. "That's them alright. At our two-o'clock."
Sai's black hair whipped around his exposed face as he guided his ninpō towards the indicated direction. As the clouds dispelled with their descent he was able to see—and hear—the two grown men fighting like rowdy punks on the forest floor.
The bird hovered over a nearby tree and the two shinobi landed easily on a sturdy branch, gazing down at the inglorious sight that met them. Two of the three most powerful shinobi in the world were pulling hair, biting, pinching, twisting, and punching each other, all while hurling creatively juvenile insults between attacks. Sai was thoroughly confused by this violently opposite display of what he had thought would be a joyous reunion between long lost friends.
"Commander," he asked as Kakashi leapt to the ground and he followed suit. "Why are they fighting?"
"Don't know. Doubt they do either. They have a very love-hate relationship thingy. It's hard to explain," Kakashi shrugged at Sai's frowning face over the lousy explanation, and simply placed two fingers to his masked lips and blew out an ear piercing whistle.
Instantly the two fighting men froze in their efforts to maim one another and blinked up at their sensei, who was doing a damn good job of giving them a threatening glare with only a single eye.
"Boys," Kakashi said with deadly calm, "save the make-out session for later. You can hug it out after we save the world."
Sai snickered at the lightning fast speed with which the two combatants repelled away from each other, one glaring at Kakashi and the other spluttering in offended disgust. Sasuke heard the pale shinobi's snide chuckle and immediately zeroed in on the uninvited witness to his humiliation.
The Uchiha's black eyes sized up the ANBU with the large scroll, small smile, and vast amount of exposed midriff. Putting his most unimpressed expression on his face Sasuke turned to Naruto, who was violently brushing leaves out of his hair.
"Who's the whore?" he asked in a flat tone with a jerk of his chin in Sai's direction.
Not waiting for the choking Naruto to spit out an answer, Sai coolly stepped forward. He had read that bullies often respected you more if you didn't show them any fear, so he quickly pieced together a gutsy response based on what little he knew of this man.
"You must be Sasuke," Sai interjected with an insultingly small wave of the hand. "Perhaps you are speaking of the screeching red haired woman with the glasses? I believe you left her back in the Village."
Kakashi 'eeped'. Naruto's eyes bugged out of his head. Sasuke seethed.
"YOU WILL NOT INSULT MY—"
Sasuke's enraged threat went unfinished when Naruto jumped on his back and clamped a hand over his mouth while Kakashi flashed over to the Uchiha's side and pinned his arms down before he could pull his sword.
"Dammit Sai! That was brilliant, but super unhelpful!" Naruto bellowed as he and Kakashi tried to restrain the furious man. Sai frowned and walked closer, a look of mocking confusion on his face as he tapped his chin in thought.
"Hmm, you are right. I apologize Uchiha-san," Sai said with a fake smile that fooled no one, but it at least made Sasuke stop writhing long enough for the artist to look him in the eye. "What I should have said was…kiss my ass."
Complete pandemonium broke out as the current and former members of Team Seven disappeared in a cloud of dust kicked up by their flying fists and driving feet. The mayhem continued unabated even after a flash of yellow light marked the arrival of two new shinobi.
Minato blinked in confusion at the unexpected brawl that greeted him and Hinata after he had transported them to the site of the tri-pronged kunai that Kakashi always carried. She had seen with her Byakugan that the four men were all together, but not that they were practically mud wrestling instead of comparing strategies on how to protect the known world from untold evil.
The pair watched in unamused silence as they waited for the chaos to die down, until finally Hinata snorted with impatience and cracked her knuckles. Minato's mouth twisted in a small grin as he watched the petite girl stride confidently up the tumbling throng of limbs, activate her bloodline, and swiftly stab her chakra laced fingers into the incoherent mess with a speed that was unseeable to the naked eye.
The limp bodies of four shinobi collapsed beneath her. Splayed out and staring up at her in chagrined humility as Hinata planted her hands on her hips and tapped her foot.
"Are you all quite done?" She asked calmly, but with a smile that was scarily sweet.
"Yes ma'am," four voices mumbled in unison.
With the chaos finally at an end, Minato approached the pile of elite shinobi masquerading at squabbling school kids, running a finger under his nose to disguise his immense entertainment. But his blue eyes still gleamed as he patted Hinata on the shoulder in a signal to undo her paralyzing tenketsu strikes.
Sasuke was slightly put out to realize that he hadn't exactly been mourned laboriously by his teammates and instead seemed to have been replaced by this joker with disturbingly similar physical attributes to himself. But he would rather lick Orochimaru's boots than admit such a sentimental thing. Seeking to regain some dignity by bringing Naruto down a couple notches, he relocated his verbal ire to the always provokable blond and his oddly whiskerless clone.
"Since when did you make your clones prettier than yourself, Dobe?" Sasuke grumbled as he slowly stood up and brushed off his clothes after Hinata had released his chakra points. "Is your ego slipping along with your sensory skills?"
Naruto's head fell back on the dirt in exasperation and Hinata giggled as she moved over to Sai and poked at his paralyzed limbs.
"The Yondaime was notoriously handsome in his past life," Sai nodded sagely as he sat up. "The same is certainly true in his second life."
Now the "clone" was the one blushing and spluttering, leaving Sasuke more confused than satisfied with the results of his verbal jab. Turning to the only person whose sanity he could trust, Sasuke raised a quizzical brow at Hinata as she gave Naruto's gut one final jab and helped him to his feet.
Genuinely smiling for the first time, she politely gestured at the blond man standing beside her who had finally managed to cool his pink features. "Sasuke, may I introduce the Fourth Hokage, and Naruto-kun's father, Namikaze Minato."
Sasuke's left eye twitched. Then he blinked once, very deliberately. Slowly turning to face his recovered teammate, he stared flatly at the widening grin on Naruto's face.
"How?" Sasuke demanded.
"Rinnegan," Naruto said, pointing smartly at his eyes.
"Where was he?"
"My Seal," he answered, pointing to his gut.
"When?"
"Started at The Waterfall," Naruto proudly announced, jabbing a thumb toward the general direction of Uzushio.
Sasuke pinched his nose. "Who else?"
A blush tinged Naruto's cheeks. "My Kaa-san."
"And the Village?" Sasuke was rubbing his temples as he tried to absorb all the laws of the universe that this unpredictable shinobi had thrown out the window.
"Clueless."
"Not anymore," Sai stated in that inappropriately cheery tone that baffled an already emotionally stunted Sasuke. "Minato-sama and Kushina-sama went crazy on Pein's Summons during the battle. Everyone saw them."
Five pairs of eyes drilled into the Yondaime, who merely grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head in a way that made the hairs on Sasuke's neck stand up with its uncanny familiarity.
Sasuke sighed with a tone of strained long-suffering before allowing his own Eternal Mangekyo to blink open on his forehead as he fully assessed the resurrected man.
Minato's chakra was pure and stable. The honesty and earnestness that shone through his eyes held no malice or manipulative intentions. His body was healthy and whole. Now that Sasuke looked closely, he was an identical match to the portrait that had always hung in the Hokage Tower. Even under the scrutiny of his Divine dōjutsu Sasuke could plainly see that the soul which stood before him was genuine and just.
Bowing deeply in a show of utmost respect, Sasuke looked every ounce the regal Clan Head of what was once one of the most powerful families in the shinobi world. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke, son of Fugaku, brother of Itachi. I apologize for mistaking for one of the Idiot—er—Naruto's clones. It will not happen again, Yondaime-sama."
"It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Uchiha Sasuke," Minato bowed somberly in return. The amusement faded from his face as he rubbed the back of his neck again, but this time in exhausted resignation. Gesturing for the group to prepare to leave he took a deep breath, his shoulders straightening with the determination and dignity of his title.
"Because we all have a lot to discuss on our way back."
The heat radiating back from his katon blazed over Tobi's face, making tears leak from his new eye and mix with the blood running down his scarred cheek. Zetsu's screams of shock and pain finally ceased to echo in his ears as he put the pathetic creature out if its misery. The overgrown failed creation experiment Nagato left behind had maxed out his limited potential in Tobi's opinion. Why the overzealous Uzumaki had thought it was a good idea to try and fabricate a human out of earth and water jutsu had always escaped his comprehension. The thing's final stab at anything close to usefulness had been fulfilled when Tobi had ripped a hunk of the green haired monster's white flesh off to use as a stem cell base for his newly implanted Rinnegan. He had figured that it had worked for the rest of his maimed body, so it should be more than enough to secure the precious dōjutsu.
The pain of the implantation had been sensationally gratifying, sending tingles of power rippling over Tobi's remaining human flesh in waves of goosebumps which his numbed body rarely unleashed. The giddy little high had been prematurely ruined by the incessant screeching of the involuntary donor of the white flesh, who had ranted on and on about Tobi being a 'sacrilege' for stealing Leader's Eye.
Pathetically pointless loyalty.
The tantrum had forced the new holder of the dual kekkei genkai to obliterate Zetsu once and for all in a ball of fire that had made the pipes in the dank basement of Pein's Tower glow as red as his Sharingan.
"Fucking tree," Tobi grumbled over the sizzling remnants of Zetsu's melted flesh. Blinking away the unwanted moisture in his new left eye he spun around and swept down the darkening corridor deep within Amegakure's tallest tower. As he stalked down the damp labyrinth to the "hidden" room that Nagato had treated like some kind of shrine, Tobi couldn't repress the wide grin that crept across his face as his anticipation ramped up for what—or rather, who—was awaiting his unexpected arrival.
The thick iron door flew open with a ferocious clang, but the three figures that hung from Nagato's decaying chakra rods upon the wall did not so much as flinch at the deafening sound. Tobi wasted no time, chakra lighting the tips of his fingers as he approached the first crucified jinchuriki, who was barely alive. Years of having her chakra syphoned away had left her weak and emaciated.
The Mangekyo flared crimson as Tobi reached out to sink his hand into her seal, the same way he had ripped the kyūbi from Kushina's weakened body all those years ago. As his glowing fingers brushed against her sallow skin, it was he who flinched in surprise when the blond woman's hoarse voice hissed through the heavy air of the empty chamber.
"Kami…curse you," she whispered, the hatred plain to hear even in the soft sound. The cords in her neck strained with the effort to raise her head and grind out the first words to pass her lips in what seemed like a lifetime. But the glare of her narrowed eyes sliced into Tobi's swirling Mangekyo with the sharpness of a freshly ground blade.
Recovering from the slight slip of his self-possession, Tobi let the chakra dissipate from his hand and instead leaned in closely to stare into her glowering face. He had to admit, it was extremely impressive that the Nibi Jinchuriki was even able to see straight, let alone speak. Amusement at her valiant display of pointless resistance made the urge to play with his prey overwhelming.
"Too late, my dear," he murmured in a tone of derisive pity. "The gods and I had a falling out a long time ago. They have forgotten about my quasi-existence, and I have basked in unabated blasphemy ever since." He took in her haggard appearance, the blood that had crusted upon her pierced wrists and gut, the dull blond brain that draped across her broad, if bony, shoulders. The high cut of her cheekbones and square set of her jaw testified to a stern beauty that must have once made the demon container all the more intimidatingly glorious in her prime, and Tobi tilted his head in scrutinizing admiration. Once upon a time, she must have been quite breathtaking.
But life had a way of twisting what was beautiful, and spitting upon the potential of those who aspired to greatness. Wouldn't he know better than anyone what it was like to have the hope of a bright future doomed to hell by fools who called themselves gods?
The woman seemed to harbor much less sentimental thoughts towards him. Her eyes glittered dangerously with the energy of exploding fireworks while her dry mouth was barely forming words with her cracked lips.
"Kami will not…endure such evil," her regal features twisted with disgust at his shameless admission of his profane lifestyle. "You will not…succeed."
His sudden barking laughter rang through the windowless chamber with more volume than the slamming door. "There would have to actually be a god for them to care about little old me."
Spreading his arms out wide, Tobi threw his head back and hollered up to the heavens in a mocking plea for attention. "Oh ye powerful and ancient gods of perfect justice and omniscience! Do you see me? Do you hear my pathetic little cry? Do you know my plans and the intentions of my sadistic heart?"
Tobi's crazed voice chanted insultingly as he beseeched the Unseen to acknowledge him. His hands waved wildly through the cold air like a child throwing a tantrum when ignored. "If you EVEN EXIST, I challenge you, I DARE YOU, to come at me with all you have! Right here, right now!" Tobi spun around the dimly lit cavern, the red and silver glow of his eyes reflecting off the metallic walls.
"Come on! SMITE ME, oh powerful Kami!" The reverberations of his screams died away to leave nothing but the hollow splats of water dripping through the pipes of the empty building as Tobi froze with his back arched and arms open in dramatic celestial appeal.
But no booming thunder, no flashing lightning, no echo of eternity penetrated the deep basement that dwelt closer to hell than heaven. Only the harsh rasps of the woman's labored breathing punctuated the staccato of the unearthly silence.
Tobi's hands fell limply to his sides, his head lolling forward to fix the doomed jinchuriki with a sardonic gaze. "She must be busy," he sneered, making a show of appearing disappointed at the lack of reply.
"Or…" he lurched forward, fiercely seizing her face with his hand, both of his eyes swimming with waves of chakra that he thrust up into his building dōjutsu. "There is no god! There is no Supreme Being who watches over us at night. No one sitting upon some imaginary high throne, untouchable and unattainable. Arbitrarily passing judgment upon us peons whenever she remembers we exist."
His free hand flexed with anticipation as chakra glowed across the tips of his fingers. Tobi mercilessly stabbed the woman's abdomen with his open palm, slamming her skull against the concrete wall from the force of the blow. Her wasted body choked and coughed as it caved and heaved under his penetrating hit.
"The only power in this godforsaken world is chakra," Tobi breathed into her gaping face. "And the only supreme entity is the person who can mold it to their own intentions with the greatest success." The fūinjutsu sealwork began to spread from his hand and over her body, her grimace intensifying under Tobi's vice-like grip on her jaw.
"And once I absorb all of these bijū, no one will be more powerful than I!"
With a surprising surge of strength, the woman thrashed away from his hand despite her trapped position. "Justice does not need to be…instantaneous! The wrath of the gods…will haunt you…"
"How inspiring," he mocked again, panting out the words between breaths as the burning demonic chakra danced along his pathways. He continued to taunt her for the stubborn way she fought this lost battle. "Y'know that little speech was so wonderful I think I'll throw away all my years of diabolical planning on a whim for your precious sake."
The air thickened with chakra, making it impossible to breathe as power surged and boiled around them. The Nibi was slowly being sucked into Tobi's body, causing his network and body to stretch and morph with a glorious pain that had him groaning like a lover finally satisfied after a lifetime of pining. Euphoria flooded his mind, making him feel like he was the same weightless red cloud that had once adorned his black cloak. His blissful moans tangled with the screams of the blond woman's dismay.
Heaving with ecstasy, Tobi dropped his sweaty forehead to her clammy one, his hot breath fanning across her tear streaked cheeks as the last dregs of her consciousness drained into the abyss of his jutsu.
"Go ahead then, woman," Tobi sneered as he watched the light fade from her eyes. "Go tattle to your precious god. And when you get lost on the road to heaven…haunt me."
