Kisame peered down into the massive hole in the ground that contained the (now completely dismantled) gigantic skeleton of some poor creature from ages past. Black fire was spreading over the bones, enhancing the sinister look of the whole scene. His suspicions about their source were confirmed when Sasuke jumped away from the rubble and out of the hole, straightening his stance and sheathing his sword. Even from this distance, where Kisame crouched hidden in a tree, he could see the Eternal Mangekyo gleaming in his eyes. The kid had really gone through with it, just as Itachi predicted he would.

It didn't much look like he was needed here. Sasuke had busted himself out just fine, and Itachi had specifically said not to approach unless he needed help. For some reason, Itachi seemed set on avoiding Sasuke for as long as possible. Giving a mental shrug, Kisame decided to shadow the kid for just a little longer to see where he was going.

For a while, no one moved or said anything. Tobi's mind cycled through his options again. His frustration was almost to the snapping point, but he tried to stay calm. An aggressive move here would not work. He couldn't beat Itachi and Nagato alone. His attempt to throw them had no effect, implying there was something they knew that he didn't.

He hated to admit it, but retreat seemed the only option at the moment. Without the Rinnegan, their plans fell apart like a fragile house of cards. He had to be careful.

Separate them, capture Nagato and rewrite his control tag, or use a genjutsu powerful enough to get him to reveal the Rinnegan's location—

Tobi's thoughts came to a halt when the air in the room shifted. Everyone's attention snapped sharply to the floor next to him, where a blob was emerging. It stretched and grew and molded itself into Black Zetsu.

"What is taking so long here?" Zetsu said, seething with anger. "You need to get back. Sasuke has—"

A red-hot burst of fire licked the air and Tobi twisted out of the way. Black Zetsu sunk back into the ground and the stone floor turned charred, cracking under the heat.

Itachi ran through another set of hand seals too quickly to see and sent a burst of smaller, homing balls of flame where Black Zetsu reappeared on the angel carvings.

Sensing his only opportunity, Tobi dashed toward the distracted Nagato and made his mask intangible for long enough to breathe out a large fireball of his own. He counted on Nagato to react by absorbing rather than dodging it, and that was exactly what happened. Nagato put up his hands and absorbed the fire easily, but the moment it blinked out of existence, Tobi grabbed his outstretched arm.

The space between them bent and crumpled for a fraction of a second after Nagato's purple eyes locked with his one visible Sharingan. Nagato's face pulled into a snarl.

"Shinra Tensei!"

Being completely solid while trying to pull Nagato into the other dimension, Tobi was hit with the full force of the attack and went flying backward into the bed of paper roses. He looked up in time to see Nagato leaping toward him, a mechanical arm bursting from his shoulder. Nagato landed in a low crouch at his feet and took aim at him with a glowing cannon attached to the end of his robotic arm. A high-pitched whine came from the device as it steadily grew brighter.

Tobi took that as his cue to leave. He'd missed the chance, and they would be on their guard now. He sunk down through the crumpled roses and didn't return.

Nagato stood with a sigh and his extra arm shrank back down smoothly into his body.

"He fled."

"The other one, too," Itachi said, walking back over to the memorial. "Hopefully we were able to stall them long enough for Kisame and Sasuke to leave without much trouble."

"It sounds like your otouto did something," Nagato chuckled. He jumped down to the floor lightly. "Should we go above? There might be a message from Konan by now."

Orochimaru was walking back toward Suna's Administration building. Naruto didn't know why the snake Sannin was so determined to go after Yamato of all people, but it would be too late soon.

"Wait!" Naruto mouthed, but all that came out was a strained-sounding breath. His fingertips twitched as he made an effort to reach out.

"Naruto! Are you alright? What happened?" he heard Baki's gruff voice close by, and a cluster of other voices further back, some murmuring, others barking out orders. Reinforcements. It was about time!

"Orochi...maru," Naruto whispered hoarsely. He couldn't point, but there was no need. Just as he'd started to say it, Baki spotted Orochimaru walking away.

"Stop right there, Orochimaru!" Baki stood from where he'd crouched beside Naruto.

Orochimaru stopped and turned, face pulled into a feral smile. "Things aren't going as quietly as I had hoped, are they? It can't be helped. Suna won't be able to react quickly without a head." he turned to them and bent his neck backward, inhaling deeply.

Oi, Kyuubi, Naruto thought experimentally, uncertain as to how to 'talk' in his head. Can't you do something about this poison?

He wasn't sure if the thought reached or not. There was no response.

Orochimaru tossed his head back down with a wet snarl and a blade shot from his mouth. It shot with shocking speed toward Baki, who stepped aside, but Orochimaru followed the movement with his head and buried the sword deep into his stomach.

"Baki-occhan!" Naruto cried faintly.

"Taichou!"

"Why you—"

The other shinobi started throwing jutsu and shuriken at Orochimaru, but he jumped into the air while withdrawing the sword. He spun gracefully, and with that momentum flung a barrage of snakes from his shirt sleeves. Everyone standing in the front stepped back.

Suddenly there was a hurricane of fluttering white.

A great burst of wind went through them, stirring up a cloud of dust and sending a wall of flat paper slips through their group without nicking a single person. The paper squares folded themselves into shuriken and whirled into the snake barrage, exploding whenever their sharp edges dug into scaly flesh. Everyone backed up further and put up their arms to guard their faces. A reddish-brown smoke bloomed from the impact and momentarily blanketed the area, the work of several tossed-in smoke bombs. Ripped-up shreds of reptilian flesh rained to the ground.

Naruto felt a soft hand on his arm, pulling him into a sitting position.

"Sorry I'm late," Konan said, her voice barely audible over the continuing explosions. "Can you stand?"

"I... don't know..." Naruto tried to move his arms and legs more, but they were still very sluggish. He braced his hands against the ground to stay upright. "Orochimaru got me with some kind of poison. I think I can sit up like this, though." It was a relief to not be in the dirt anymore, at least.

"We need to get away from here quickly." Konan's sharp golden eyes flickered toward where Orochimaru was, concealed behind the smoke.

"No," Naruto tried to say it loudly for emphasis, but his body still wasn't up for shouting. "I'll be fine. He said it would wear off before long. He's trying to go after Moku-oji, so worry about that first. Go to the top floor, in the Daimyo's room."

Konan looked over where a medic-nin hunched beside Baki, palms glowing green over the wound in his stomach. Baki was conscious, though his face was twisted in pain, and his breath came out in sharp gasps.

"Can you send someone to retrieve Yamato-san? I can hold Orochimaru here for some time," Konan said.

Baki turned his head toward her and nodded slowly.

"What—no, you should go get him!" Naruto protested. "That's where Orochimaru is going! If he gives you the slip—"

"I can't leave you behind here," Konan said with finality. "I understand your concern for Yamato-san, but my top priority is your safety. I am sure he would agree with that, as well."

"Send three of the men to search for Yamato," Baki said to a shinobi kneeling by his head. "Look out for the Guard. It's possible they're on the other side, and they already have him."

Naruto felt a jolt. Why hadn't he told them right away? "Baki-occhan! Orochimaru was pretending to be—"

"We know," Konan said. She gave a small smile. "We were putting our theories together when he decided to make his move."

"Go now! The smoke is clearing!" Baki growled, waving a dismissive hand toward his shinobi. They snapped to attention and the chosen three disappeared without argument.

"To be honest, there is a chance Orochimaru has gotten away by now," Konan warned. But she stepped forward and positioned herself in front of Naruto, Baki, and the handful of Suna shinobi.

The brown haze was clearing. They could just see the faint outline of something huge before it lunged at them. Konan burst into a whirl of paper as the giant snake's nose hit the ground where she had been standing. Its tongue flicked out angrily and it snapped at the fluttering leaves of paper floating higher and higher, swaying drunkenly in its attempts to see or smell the enemy.

Konan appeared half-formed in the sky, paper wings rearing up from her back in a way that looked more threatening than angelic. Sharp paper knives shot from them and stabbed the snake's eyes. Its head thrashed wildly, mouth open, revealing rows of sharp fangs.

"I don't see him near the summon!" One of the Suna shinobi yelled. "Look around! He must have run off!"

It had to be true. Orochimaru was nowhere to be seen. The snake he summoned spat angrily at Konan and struck out at her, crashing into a building when it missed.

"Taichou, if this keeps up, the village itself will be at risk," the same shinobi said tersely. "We don't have the forces to repel an internal attack."

There was another huge explosion overhead, and a strange, piercing shriek from the snake summon. Blood and debris fell down, littering the surrounding area. The great snake fell back, brushed against another building, and rolled off its rounded surface to fall into the street, dead.

Konan materialized and landed lightly in front of them. "Bad news," she said grimly. "There are more summons spread throughout the village. I could see at least three from up there, and there could be even more. Orochimaru wants to cover his escape by giving us bigger things to worry about. He's going for the village's infrastructure."

Baki tried to sit up, but the pain made him wince.

"Lay back, taichou," the medic-nin said urgently, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I've managed to stop the bleeding, but you need to go the hospital. You'll bleed to death if your wound re-opens."

"We need to evacuate!" Baki commanded. "Sound the evacuation siren and have all able-bodied civilians assist. Find some volunteers to man the gates and perimeter posts. Give them flares. Round up the shinobi we have left and organize a counterattack against the summons!"

"Sir!" they said, and all left except for the one medic-nin.

"Orochimaru..." Naruto growled thickly, clenching his fists against the sand. He hated the snake Sannin, and he hated his own powerlessness.

Baki looked at him, then at Konan. "Get him out of here."

Naruto looked up as quickly as he could and nearly lost his balance. "What?"

Konan remained unruffled. "Are you sure about this? The Hokage hasn't had time to answer our request."

"I'll send word that he is with you. It's better than the alternative, and we can't be certain Orochimaru won't be back for him."

Konan nodded and pulled a scroll out of the tool pouch she wore. She held it out, and a paper plane large enough to ride on poofed into existence, suspended in the air. Naruto barely had time to marvel at it before Konan's thin, wiry arms scooped him up behind his shoulders and under his knees.

"W-wait! Oi!" Naruto said as loudly as he could, partly embarrassed at being carried by a girl, partly mad at being told to leave. "But what about the village? And Moku-oji? I can still—"

"Even if you weren't currently paralyzed by the poison, you would not be able to face Orochimaru yourself," Konan said. "Not without using the Kyuubi, and even then he would probably still kill you. You need to face facts. It's better we leave, so he has less a reason to stick around. That is the best way you can help the village right now."

"But…" Naruto trailed off. He could say nothing that would convince her. He still couldn't even move.

Hey, fuzzy bastard! Naruto called in his head. Konan hopped onto the paper plane with him in her arms and set him down securely in the deep middle crease. Couldn't give me a hand back there, could you? You could at least try to get rid of the poison. Are you even listening? OI!

Shut up, came the growling reply, surprising him. I don't bow to you. Besides, the Ame woman is right. You can't go against Orochimaru without my power, and I have no desire to risk being absorbed over something so stupid.

Stupid?!

Aa. I'm only interested in getting us back to our own time. Now we have a free pass to Ame, which is our only lead right now toward finding a way. Idiot.

"We're going to move now, so hold on." Konan sat in front with her back turned to him.

"Er, okay." Naruto lifted his hands with difficulty and held on to the crease corners. He felt a sensation like his stomach dropping down to his feet as the paper plane lifted straight up vertically without any headwind, moving fast, but not fast enough to dislodge them.

The village was dark, but more and more lights were winking on in homes and buildings as the population woke from its slumber to find danger. Naruto felt he was leaving part of himself behind down there, too, as they rose higher and higher in the air. Running away at a time like this went against everything he believed in.

"I promised myself I would never run away, not even if my life was in danger," he said in a subdued voice.

Konan looked over her shoulder at him. "There are times when retreating shows more wisdom and courage than staying to fight. Unlike here, if Orochimaru decides to come after you in Ame, we'll be ready for him."

The village was shrinking rapidly underneath them, but they could still see the three or four giant snakes rampaging through the streets. The plane stopped rising smoothly and started moving horizontally.

"The thing is, I don't think he will." Naruto brought one heavy, unsteady hand to his head.

"What do you mean?"

"He put a… kunai in my head. It had a tag on it like a paper bomb, only it must have been a seal or something, because it didn't explode. He said it would let him control me if I didn't come to him when he called for me. When he brings people back with the Edo Tensei, they don't have control over themselves. Whatever he did to me is supposed to be like that. I think."

Konan cursed and turned all the way around to face him. "We thought the jutsu that brought you here might be based off the Edo Tensei, but I didn't realize it would be to this extent."

"What do we do?" Naruto asked, a tinge of his anger at Orochimaru coming back. "I don't want to be controlled like one of his zombies!"

Konan tilted her head to one side thoughtfully. "We might be able to overwrite the control tag. Don't worry."

"He was confident enough to just leave me there. What if he starts controlling me, and makes me attack you or something?"

"I can take you on," Konan said with a touch of amusement. "So can the others. All the more reason to leave Suna. Orochimaru probably expected Baki-san to refuse to let you come with me. He didn't know we were negotiating behind his back."

"The others?" Naruto asked. He had been so focused on getting to Ame that he hadn't given a lot of thought to what he would be doing there, beyond a vague notion of investigating Pein.

"Yes," Konan said. She looked back at Suna, watching as it got farther and farther away on the horizon. "Itachi and Nagato."

"Itachi and…" Naruto's eyes widened. "But—that means—you mean we're going to see Nagato? He's just there? That means—he can send me back to my own time! He's the one with the Summoning Contract, right? So he should be able to undo the jutsu that's keeping me here!"

Konan looked very serious and lowered her eyes regretfully. "No."

"No? What do you mean, no?" Naruto demanded. "That's what Madara told me. Was he lying?"

"No, he wasn't lying. Orochimaru had Kabuto resurrect Nagato, who in turn summoned you. We are fairly certain he is indeed the contract holder."

"Then what's the problem?"

Konan sighed and shook her head. "Unfortunately, Nagato was being entirely controlled when he summoned you. He has no idea how to release it. He doesn't remember how it was done in the first place. It's probably a sequence of hand seals, but we don't know which ones, how many, or in what order. Most likely, only Orochimaru knows."

Naruto felt what little strength he had drain out of him, and he slumped back. "So then… we have to face Orochimaru before I can go back, after all."

"We may be able to figure out the seals on our own," Konan said gently. "But the process of figuring out the counter is often more complicated than inventing the jutsu in the first place, especially since we don't have the written formula that was used to initiate it. It would almost be easier to defeat Orochimaru and put him under genjutsu to find it out."

Naruto hung his head. "Just when I thought I was about to go home…"

"You will go home," Konan assured him. "We'll figure it out, one way or another. You have us on your side."

The stars looked so close. They were finally out of the desert, flying a little lower now there were more clouds to get in their way. But even though they had dropped down a little, the clear sky made the stars look close enough to touch.

"Konan-nee?"

"Yes?"

"Will the Land of Wind be alright? I mean, Orochimaru killed their daimyo and attacked Suna. And Gaara and all the others… what are they going to do? I mean, the war hasn't even started yet and they've already lost so much."

"Gaara-dono is Regimental Commander of the Allied Shinobi Force," Konan said quietly. "The people of Suna are very strong. They will do what they need to in order to see this war to its completion. And it has already started. It began when Madara attacked the Five Kage Summit. Maybe even before." She saw Naruto shiver. "Are you cold?"

"A little," he admitted. He extended and moved his arms experimentally. "I think the poison is finally wearing off."

Konan unrolled a scroll. There was a small puff of smoke, and a beige-colored cloak appeared. It was made of heavy, slick material, and it had a hood.

"I brought this for you to wear, since I suspected you wouldn't have brought rain gear with you to the desert. It will be warm. You'll need to put it on before we get there, anyway. It's a bit rainy where we're going."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Naruto was unsure if she was trying to joke or not. He pulled the rain cloak around his shoulders and snapped the buttons that kept it closed in the front. It had a high collar, providing a double layer against the wind and rain whenever the hood was pulled up.

He saw Konan standing up in his peripheral vision, and nearly choked when he saw she was pulling on a very familiar black coat patterned with blood-red clouds.

"K-Konan-nee?"

"What?" Startled by his tone, she looked around.

"I thought you said you weren't in Akatsuki anymore!" Naruto yelled.

"Oh." Konan paused, then knelt to pack the wrap she had worn in Suna into her scroll. "I didn't mean to startle you. I usually wear this all the time, but it would have been too warm in the desert. And it probably would not have helped me with Suna's council."

"So… you're not still in Akatsuki, right?" Naruto ventured.

"I told you, Akatsuki was originally ours," she said firmly, rolling up the scroll and tucking it back in the pouch underneath her coat. She sat back down, facing him. "Madara may have twisted it for his own purposes, but to me it will always be the embodiment of our dreams. It was supposed to represent a dawn of peace for Amegakure. For the world. Though I spend most of my time on Ame these days. It's best to start small." She gave him an open-mouthed smile, the first he'd seen from her. "Protecting you is the best thing I can do for the world, anyway."

Naruto blushed to the roots of his hair and rubbed under his nose with a nervous but pleased laugh. "'Cause I'm the greatest! And I will definitely be Hokage someday!"

"I have no doubt."

Greatly appeased, Naruto leaned forward interestedly. "So, I get Madara made Akatsuki into something bad, but I still don't really understand how I play into all this. I know Nagato was Pein, and you and him decided to go against Madara in the end. But if he was turning it into something you didn't approve of, why did you go along with it? I'm having a really hard time connecting the Akatsuki you're telling me about with what I know from my time and here."

Konan looked out at the passing landscape, looking troubled. She stayed that way for so long that Naruto thought he'd brought up something he shouldn't have.

"Sorry," he said. "But Pein destroyed my village, and killed my teacher. It's not that I don't want to understand, I just… don't."

"No. It's true. By all rights, you should hate us. We were manipulated by Madara, but it doesn't change what we did. The older you has already heard the story, but maybe it's time you heard it, as well."

"You'll tell me everything, right? No taking that back."

"On my honor," Konan said solemnly. "No take-backs."

She started to tell him the story of how she, Yahiko, and Nagato found each other in the war-torn country around Amegakure. How they came to be trained under Jiraiya, and how they started defending Ame under the banner of Akatsuki. Naruto made comments, and asked her questions about their training days and the missions they went on together in Akatsuki, but he got very quiet when she told how Yahiko died and Nagato became confined.

"Everything changed after that, of course," Konan said softly. "With Yahiko dead, we were easy prey for Madara. Nagato had been in contact with him for some time without telling us. At first, he saw that Madara was evil. But his heart so desperately wished for an end to war that he started fooling himself into thinking Madara's answer was the right one. He never fully abandoned Yahiko's ideals. They just got twisted around like everything else."

"And you?" Naruto asked.

Konan looked to the side, curling her arms around herself. "It was loyalty to Nagato that made me support Madara's plan. But I started to believe in it, too. I was tired—tired of fighting and grieving. He offered an easy way out. It was a solution that included everyone in the world, too. All that would have to be sacrificed were the jinchuuriki, a miniscule subset of the population. And if anyone got in our way, they were too foolish to live in the world we were going to create."

She looked at Naruto, gauging his reaction. He pressed his mouth into a hard line.

"You have every reason to hate us," Konan repeated. "We were wrong."

"Yeah. But… I understand it."

Konan gave a small smile. "Should I go on?"

He nodded.

Konan continued telling their story until they were in the outskirts of Ame.

She warned Naruto about the incoming wall of rain, and he quickly pulled up his hood.

"Can you stand now? Rain will start collecting, and it won't be fun to sit in."

She offered her hand. Naruto pulled himself up shakily. He still felt weak, as if suffering from chakra exhaustion after a long and hard battle, but he could stand. He leaned slightly, stretching his back, which felt very nice after sitting for so long.

He looked out for his first view of Ame.

They sailed over choppy waves at a breathtaking height, level with some of the highest towers in the city. He had never seen anything like it in his life. The tall, slim towers pierced the bottom of the low clouds with their sharp points, indistinguishable from the blackness of the night sky except for the lights that shone through windows.

"Whoa. I've never seen buildings this tall before!"

"There are very few places like it in the world," Konan said with a tinge of pride. "Much of the land around here is not suitable for building on. You can find smaller settlements in the surrounding areas, but this was mostly built on a platform over the water. Building up instead of out was the best way."

"I remember there being some Ame guys in the Chuunin exams, but going by their outfits I would have guessed they lived underwater. Then again, you practically do."

Drips of rain had been falling on them for a while, but it got heavier the closer to the village they got. It fell thick and fast, and would have soaked him in an instant if he wasn't wearing the cloak, but it wasn't as cold as he had been expecting.

"I think I know the diving suit look you're talking about," Konan said amusedly. "It isn't because of the rain. Facemasks were in vogue for a long time around here because of the extensive use of poison gas during the wars. Even well after the last war, people were cautious. Poison was a favorite tactic of Hanzo's."

As they flew closer, Naruto could see more signs of habitation. The pillars holding up the city had ladder rungs in them that led down to floating docks and small fishing boats. Buoys with little lights on them bobbed up and down, and Naruto thought he could see larger boats nesting underneath the platform. If there was anyone out on the water at this late hour, he couldn't see them because it was too dark.

It was clear now their destination was a certain tower in the heart of the city. They flew in between buildings and rose even higher to meet a wide, covered balcony that jutted out of it. The space between the balcony's roof and its rails was roomy enough for them to fly under, even while standing. They landed smoothly on the balcony, and Konan dismissed the paper plane with a poof of white smoke.

"What is this place?" Naruto asked, craning his head to look at the gracefully carved rafters of the balcony's covering. It resembled an elaborate gazebo suspended from the side of the tower more than anything.

"This was once Hanzo's home," Konan said. "It was abandoned for a while after his death, but I had it repaired and started living here myself. Hanzo hated for anything to go to waste, so it's only fitting. And a lot of the security measures he put into it are still intact, which makes me rest easier."

Naruto pushed his hood down and yawned. It was probably near morning already, and the excitement of traveling and of Orochimaru's attack was giving way to sleepiness. "I really wanna look around, but I'm tired."

"Welcome back."

They turned. The sliding door that led inside was open, and a man with medium-length red hair stepped out. Hair covered half of his face, but Naruto immediately noticed his purple, ringed eye. It made his otherwise harmless-looking appearance unsettling.

He was exactly as Konan had described. Naruto glanced over at her nervously.

"I'm home," Konan said calmly. "Was there any trouble?"

"Aa, a little bit of trouble, but nothing too serious. Hello, Naruto—or maybe I should say nice to meet you."

"You're… Nagato?"

Nagato nodded and smiled a little awkwardly. He didn't try to approach; he just stood in one spot uncertainly, like someone afraid to do anything lest they bungle their first impression.

Naruto didn't know what he expected to feel, finally meeting him face-to-face. Since the very start of his trip to the future, he had heard about the things Pein had done, heard about his own future self's heroic victory against him. Up until very recently, he had taken it for granted that getting Nagato's help would involve defeating him again.

The person in front of him… didn't seem like that at all. Naruto thought he'd feel the same anger or fear he felt toward Orochimaru when meeting him, but he didn't. Even after hearing the story from Konan, he still had a hard time believing this was the same person who caused so much destruction.

"Where is Itachi?" Konan asked Nagato.

"He did not want to startle Naruto by showing up too suddenly. Apparently they have a bad habit of meeting that way."

Naruto laughed, scratching the back of his head. "Yeah. I think I'm fine now. This is probably the weirdest thing I've done since coming to the future, but I'm already here, so I might as well dive in. Let's go say hi to Itachi!"