I don't own Naruto, or any of the characters of the Manga or Anime. If I did I wouldn't have so many damn fillers.
A Price for Peace
Chapter 24: Toad Training
Naruto came to a stop in the centre of the village, just to the side of the large fire pit where they had the bonfire the night before. A minute later a rather disheveled Karin landed beside him. "That was unfair." She huffed
"No such thing as unfair for Ninja Karin-chan." Naruto replied in a carefree, singsong voice.
"I'll remember this." She pouted, crossing her arms. "So where do we start most of the village is still asleep."
"Well I guess we should start by clearing out enough room, and levelling out the floor. My clones cut enough wood already to make the frame for a large house. It won't be anything special but it will be a home, that's all that really matters to me." Naruto said casually looking around the small village looking for a suitable location to start building.
"If that's the case maybe we wait until Cho wakes up, he will know the best place to start building, in the mean time why don't we clean up, you must be at least a little tired from your training, right?" Karin asked.
"Well I guess I am still a little sore. Nothing that is that big of an issue though, In a few minutes I will be back to full strength like nothing ever happened." Naruto mused. He had to admit Karin had a point, it would be better to ask where to build rather than just automatically get to work. "Why don't we go walk around the village and mark path where we can build a wall?"
"A wall? That really necessary?" Karin asked.
"Well it can't hurt can it? I mean it will help prevent unwanted people like those thug mercenaries getting into the village and trying to steal from everyone again." Naruto said.
"I guess you have a point, but if we're here then it shouldn't really matter, should it?" She questioned.
"No I don't think it would, but at the same time that would mean we would always have to stay in the village, or leave it unprotected. At least with a wall and gate, Cho and the others can keep them out." Naruto reasoned.
Karin nodded in agreement. "That would be tough. Alright, but make sure you make the area wide enough so the village can expand later." The pair casually walked down to the edge of the large river that they had followed when they found their new village.
"So how far out do you think we need to go?" Naruto asked. He was standing on the run down old fishing peer, looking in each direction up and down the river.
"Enough to start up some crops for farming and room to expand the village later if more people are allowed to join the village later. With that said if you make it too big then it will be hard to maintain the wall." Karin mused.
"Ah Kami this is confusing, so many things to think about. Let's just do a rough guess for now, it's not like I will start building it right now anyway." Naruto complained, he was never one for waiting long when things needed to be done.
"I guess it can't hurt to mark out a possible path, we can always change it later." The red headed Uzumaki agreed. They both took off on a slow walk looking for a suitably flat area where they could erect a wall. It proved to be rather problematic as the forest was so thick that wherever they decided to build they would have to clear a large area first.
Still their small excursion still had the desired effect, when they finally made it back to the village many of the people who had still been sleeping were now up moving around the village. "Let's go see if Cho is up as well." Naruto said enthusiastically.
Several members of the village waved and greeted the two shinobi as they walked towards Cho's small house. The return of their stolen possessions had really lifted the mood in the village. When they arrived back at the small two bedroom home the afro haired village leader was already outside, sitting in his small garden with a book. "Oh you're back, I was wondering where you both went off to." He called out in greeting.
"We went to look for a suitable place to build a wall around the village to keep unwanted guests out." Naruto said honestly.
"Really, that's a good idea. It has been proposed a few times before, the only problem is the money it costs to build and the fact that most of the village needs to go work in the district capital to make enough money to pay the mercenaries when they come around. With that said from what I have seen of the tow of you I wouldn't bet against you pulling this off." Cho replied.
"We can do it, but we will need to clear the trees from around the village for materials." Karin informed Cho.
"I don't see that being a problem, I think everyone will welcome a clean up. Do you need anything else?" Cho questioned.
"Well now that you mention it, we were hoping you could point out a decent place where I could begin building a house." Naruto answered.
Cho readily accepted to help and it wasn't long before they had chosen a location. With nothing else stopping him Naruto produced a small army of clones that began making small work out of clearing the forest from the selected area. The spectacle soon drew a crowd, almost all of the village that did not have to leave the village for work was soon watching in wonder as Naruto and his clones buzzed about.
Karin felt a little left out, she didn't have Naruto's know how for building or the stamina that he possessed to use countless numbers of clones. Instead she took to checking Naruto's, work making sure the ground was level. In the end once she had discovered that Naruto was surprisingly efficient she sat down and decided to just let Naruto do the work.
To pass the time Karin began some rough sketches of the house in a notepad she had borrowed from Cho. Naruto may have the ability to build but she was sure he lacked the finer points of design. Also if this was supposed to be a home for them, then she wanted it to be a good one.
Her first attempt was ambitious to say the least, she realised this, but only after she had drawn an area for a fourth bedroom. By mid morning Naruto had effectively cleared and levelled a large area, he and his clones all had a satisfied look on their faces. He had sent a few clones to collect the trees and wood that he had cut during his training early in the morning. 'Karin has just been sitting there for ages I hope she's not bored.' He thought deciding to go check on her.
'Who cares, if she wanted something to do then she should have helped with some of the heavy lifting.' Kurama scoffed.
'I think I remember Jiraiya-sensei saying that it was rude to make a lady do heaving lifting.' Naruto replied. The truth was they had been entirely different circumstances but the truth was Naruto didn't mind that she wasn't helping, his clones worked quite seamlessly and effectively, so their was no need for her to exert herself. "Hey you know you don't have to sit and watch, you can go explore the forest or even go check out that large village we passed yesterday if you want."
Karin looked up from her notepad where she had just finished what she considered to be a rather satisfying sketch of a two level home. "Oh Naruto-kun. Sorry I wasn't working, I just figured while I wasn't as good at the manual labour side of the work as you are thanks to your clones I could help in another way. Here look." She said, passing him the sketches.
It took Naruto a moment to register what he was looking at. "Wow." He said in mild wonder.
"What?" Karin said a little worried that he was going to shoot them down. "There no good? I can start again, I shouldn't have made it two stories tall, we don't need that much room for just us. Here give it back." She stammered urgently, reaching for the note pad.
Naruto yanked it away from her grasp. "Are you kidding, this is amazing... Is this the house you want Karin-chan?" He said studying the blueprints. They were really excellent, she had made all the calculations on size perfectly to fit the area Naruto had cleared.
Karin's cheeks went a light rose as she nodded her head. "I thought it would be a nice home, but don't you think it might be a bit big? It's almost twice the size of Cho's home."
"Who cares, if this is what you want, then I'll make it. Believe it!" Naruto declared confidently his foxy grin proving to be infectious as Karin beamed back at the blonde. "Alright guy's we have plans for a house so let's get to work!" He called out receiving an enthusiastic chorus back from his clones.
Naruto didn't stop for hours, and his speed was impressive. Upon getting the blueprints off Karin Naruto divided his clones up giving each group a separate job to maximise efficiency. 'You really are something else.' Karin thought as she sheltered from the early afternoon heat. 'At this pace he will have the frame work up by the end of the day.' She marvelled.
Most of the crowd had finally dispersed having had their fill of Naruto's impressive multiplication ability. By the late afternoon Karin's prediction proved to be accurate, Naruto stood with a satisfied smile as he stood looking at the completed framework of the two storied building. His jacket was zipped open at the front because of the heat. "So what do you think?" He asked turning to Karin.
"It's hard to tell with just the frame, but I think it will be perfect." She admitted.
"Thank's I did everything to your blueprints. Tomorrow we will need to go somewhere to buy what we need to finish it. I would go today but it is getting a little late, besides there is something else I want to do with the rest of the sunlight today." Naruto said.
"What is it, do you want some help?" Karin asked.
"Just some more training, so you don't need to help." Naruto replied with a smile.
"What more training? After you left yourself in such a sorry state last time. You don't need to push yourself so hard!" Karin yelled. She was clearly worried that Naruto was going to be fighting large numbers of his clones again and was not prepared to let that happen.
Naruto shook his head trying to reassure the red head that he would not end up injured again. "Don't worry I doubt I will be training like that again, it hurts too much. This time I was going to work on learning Fuuton jutsu. I won't get hurt like that again."
"Then you won't mind me tagging along then, just to be on the safe side." Karin demanded.
Naruto shrugged. "I guess not. Who knows, maybe you can help me. What's your elemental affinity?"
Karin nervously shuffled her feet. "Well I... I don't know." She admitted. "That was never high on Orochimaru's agenda for me. I worked on analysing the results of his experiments and healing the survivors wounds. Teaching me how to use offensive jutsu never came up."
"But what if someone attacked you?" Naruto asked, he didn't really want to think about Orochimaru or his experiments anytime soon.
"I had to take care of myself. It wasn't really dangerous, most of the people that survived Orochimaru were in no shape to fight." She answered. Naruto frowned at the thought. "I really had no choice." She said urgently hoping that Naruto hadn't been reevaluating their partnership due to her work with the Hebi Sannin. "It was either do as he said or end up on the other side of those same experiments."
"Yeah, I have seen the results of some of them, so I can understand not wanting to be part of it. Let's go, if you want to come I guess I will introduce you to Fukusaku-sensei." Naruto replied in understanding.
Without further discussion Naruto began to head towards the training grounds he had used that morning. Karin of course was not far behind, but when they arrived Naruto stopped to sit cross legged in the centre of the small clearing his clones had made. "Um, what are you doing?" She asked after almost a minute.
Naruto's eyes remained closed but he answered her. "I need to focus, Fukusaku and Shima have almost as much chakra as I have, it takes a lot of concentration and chakra to summon them both."
'Wow just how big are these toads, I saw Manda once, although that was more than enough to never want to experience it again.' she thought with a shiver. Imagine her surprise, when Naruto finally moved and ran through his hand seals and summoned two elderly looking toads not even large enough to come up to Naruto's knees.
"Wa? Naruto-chan, where have ya summoned us this time?" the toad with grey hair and a small beard asked casually once he had discovered that they were not in any danger.
Naruto smiled happy to see the pair again. "We're on the other side of the insurmountable peaks."
"What! You mean you actually went over those mountains, that was suicide." Shima yelled in surprise.
"Well that was my plan after all. I thought Gamakichi would have told you, when I summoned him while staying on the mountains, with the Snow Leopards." Naruto mused.
"Kichi-chan didn't tell us a thing. Still it is good to see you're alright ma boy." Fukusaku said happily.
"Forget about tha, Why are we ere!? I was in the middle of getting everything ready ta make our dinner. Ya don't look like you're in any danger." Shima questioned.
Naruto paused for a moment, Naruto knew about her temper and her proficiency with her trusty rolling pin. "Well the truth is I need some training and I had nobody else I could ask." He admitted hesitantly.
Predictably Shima jumped up and whacked the blonde with her rolling pin. "What'a bout da other toads. Ya didn't need ta summon us." She yelled. Causing both Naruto and Karin to flinch in a doomed attempt to escape the small toads wrath.
"I needed Fukusaku-sensei, he's the only toad that uses Fuuton jutsu, my element. He also taught Ero-sennin his toad style jutsu, I want to learn them." Naruto replied pleadingly.
Shima's rage was halted by the blondes declaration. "Hm, I guess we didn't fully complete ya training when ya left to fight Pein, and there was no time afterwards, with the war and all." Fukusaku mused while his partner was stuck in two minds over how she should reply. "It took Jiraiya-chan over six months ta learn the toad style Ninjutsu. It will also be much harder outside of Myobokuzan."
"I will do it in a week!" Naruto declared confidently.
Fukusaku chuckled at the blondes determination and confidence. "I don' doubt that cha will ma boy. Alright I will train ya again." He agreed with a hint of pride.
"Alright! Thank you Fukusaku-sensei." Naruto replied happily.
"No need ta thank me Naruto-chan. The question is where should we start?" Fukusaku replied.
"Wait a minute, you only answered the question as to why you summoned Pa. Why am I here?" Shima asked.
This time Naruto audibly gulped, he never considered just summoning Fukusaku, as the two elderly toads were always together. "Um I uh..." Naruto quickly began looking around desperate to find even a poor excuse. His answer came in the form of his red headed companion. "I was hoping you would test Karin-chan. She also doesn't know her elemental affinity, and I have no chakra paper. I thought you might be able to help me out."
Karin was about to protest as the two small toads turned their attention towards her for the first time. "Interesting company you're keeping Naruto-chan." Fukusaku mused.
"This girl, do you know who she is?" Shima asked wearily.
"I know, she was a member of the Akatsuki, but that has never been an issue for me in the past." Naruto sighed, he had heard this too many times before from Kurama to care.
"No I don't suppose those things do matter ta you, do they. So you want me to test tha girl then." Shima replied already assessing the kunoichi.
Karin was a little caught aback, she was not expecting to be dragged into the training session. But if she was being honest then the truth was that she needed it. "No it's alright, you really don't need to go out of your way for me." She replied.
"Well I have been summoned here anyway, I may as well do something useful for Naruto-chan. But we should move out of the way, the training that they will be doing can be dangerous." Shima replied.
Karin sighed knowing that she was not going to be able to get out of it now. 'Well how strong can one little toad be anyway.' She thought while slowly nodding. "Okay, I think there was a good spot just to the south. I guess I'll see you later Naruto-kun."
Naruto waved back while remaining focused on Fukusaku who was already showing the blonde a series of hand seals. Shima narrowed her eyes analytically, studying the kunoichi. "He will be fine, but it may become dangerous for us to stay here, Fuuton is not an easy element to control."
Karin flushed and waved her hands defensively. "Huh? I wasn't worried about him."
"If that's the case then there is no reason to stick around here. Come on girl we have work to do." Shima replied while hopping away from Naruto and Fukusaku. Karin spared Naruto one last glance before following after the small toad. They traveled a short distance until they came to a small clearing that Karin recognised as the place she had found the barely conscious Naruto that morning. "Yes this place will do fine. Now tell me before we get started, why is a member of the Akatsuki with Naruto-chan? Please be aware that your answer will determine your fate." Shima said somewhat ominously.
"I needed Naruto-kun's help, I thought if I could get him to forgive me then I would be spared by the shinobi alliance. When that didn't work I asked if I could come with him. I promise you that I mean Naruto-kun no harm, I would never hurt him." Karin replied urgently knowing that Shima may have some knowledge of what has been happening on the other side of the mountains.
"I believe you, the two of you have been traveling together for some time now. I was just curious as to why you would run off in search of Naruto-chan in the first place." Shima mused.
"I wanted to prove I had changed by helping him defeat Sasuke, but I was a little late for that." Karin admitted.
Shima nodded in understanding. "So you hoped to redeem yourself by helping Naruto-chan. Now all of that is sorted we should get started, I shall be testing your ability in the three main Ninja arts. First off Taijutsu."
"Um I mean no disrespect but aren't you a little small to test Taijutsu?" Karin asked, settling into her stance regardless.
It was never a good idea to question the abilities of the toad matriarch, Shima kicked off with both legs like a bullet, spinning in mid air so fast Karin couldn't keep up, only because of the instincts needed to stay alive was she able to block the blow the small toad landed with her feet. Regardless Karin was stil sent tumbling backwards. "Anymore stupid questions? I taught Jiraiya-chan, don't you forget that."
Karin nodded earnestly, making a mental note not to annoy the curly haired toad ever again. Karin got to her feet and quickly realised that it was not going to end well for her if she stayed on the defensive, she needed to attack.
Unfortunately for Karin, she didn't fair much better in attack. Shima's small size along with her immense strength, and agility made it almost impossible to lay a hand on the small toad. Every small opening that Karin thought she saw was immediately shut the second she moved to exploit it, each time being struck in response. "Foolish girl, you see the openings I allow you to see and move exactly how I want you too. You certainly need a lot of work on Taijutsu, now go again, I will slow down so I can get an accurate gauge on your abilities.
(Meanwhile)
"I don't get why I can't just use clones!?" Naruto whined only to be hit with Fukusaku's walking stick.
"If you practice something wrong so many times it becomes that much harder to fix the problem. Now until you successfully perform alone you can't use your clones to speed up the process." Fukusaku reprimanded.
Naruto grumbled but went back to work, slowly running through the hand seals necessary to perform the Fuuton jutsu Fukusaku had given him to learn. It was slow going, Naruto was not known for memorising things easily. All the same it was no different than the first time Jiraiya had given him the summoning contract, he had to learn all the hand seals that accompanied the summoning jutsu.
"So tell me Naruto-chan, why did you let that girl come with you?" Fukusaku asked after awhile.
"I... I wanted to help her. I couldn't save Sasuke, but I could save Karin-chan. She spent most of her life with Orochimaru so she did what she did out of necessity. So many people died during the war I just wanted it to be over, if I left her behind then I was as good as sentencing Karin-chan to death myself." Naruto explained.
"Sometimes you are too forgiving for your own good Naruto-chan, you wanted to save that Uchiha boy no matter the cost, not everyone can be saved." Fukusaku replied.
"I know, but it doesn't mean I can't try." Naruto reasoned.
Fukusaku nodded and took a seat beside the blonde who was still performing seal after seal slowly getting faster. "Tha's true, but sometimes in showing forgiveness ya end up hurting more people than if ya had accepted that their death. I am not saying that is the case with the girl though." The toad elder said solemnly. "Ah enough of this depressing talk. I take it you are staying around here somewhere?"
"Yeah, a small village not too far south of here has taken us in. I started building a house today." Naruto replied happily.
"A new home then, perhaps we should find you a new symbol to wear other than the leaf of Konoha." Fukusaku mused.
"No, I will always be a Konoha shinobi, until the day that I die. I don't want to throw that away." Naruto said with a smile as he thought fondly on his old home.
It was at that moment that Naruto made a mistake in the hand seals and ended up with a hit from Fukusaku's walking stick for his troubles. "Don't lose concentration, this is just like our meditation training." the small toad warned.
"I was allowed to use clones for the meditation." Naruto complained only to receive another timely smack from the small toad.
"Don't whine you're almost ready to perform the first jutsu." Fukusaku said firmly.
(Meanwhile)
Karin panted heavily, quickly scanning her body to make sure all her extremities were still there. If she thought Shima was tough with her Taijutsu test she had been proven wrong with the Ninjutsu test. The small toad had what appeared to be a never ending arsenal of devastating jutsu that Karin had no counter for. She hadn't been taught how to defend herself properly by Orochimaru as it didn't serve his purposes for her.
"You are sevearly lacking in Taijutsu and Ninjutsu, not much better than the average Genin." Shima sighed a little disappointedly. "For the most wanted person in the elemental Nations you seem to lack a lot of the skill you would need to survive if ever confronted."
Karin sighed and nodded in agreement. "I only followed Sas- the Uchiha because I thought I loved him. I was such a fool, I saw what he became and didn't care then he betrayed me, he was willing to kill me for nothing." She fumed. Her anger was building. "I wish, I wish I could see him one last time just to let him know that I hate him, I'm glad he's dead." she said honestly.
Shima didn't say anything, in fact the whole world seemed to be completely still, not a sound could be heard. Shima was frozen in place, as Karin approached the toad. She reached out to try and nudge Shima to see if she was faking it.
"Wait Karin-chan don't!" Naruto yelled as he landed in the clearing.
"Naruto-kun, whats going on?" Karin asked urgently.
"I think it's some jutsu, everything is frozen. I'll go look for who's responsible." Naruto replied.
Karin sighed and felt her tension leave her in Naruto's presence. The next moment made her breath leave her. Naruto's eyes widened and he collapsed with several kunai in his back. "No!" she mouthed soundlessly. For a moment she scanned the area then remembered something. 'Genjutsu!' she placed her hands together quickly. "Kai" Naruto's body disappeared and so did Shima who was now sitting in the branch of a nearby tree.
"Interesting." Shima mused once confident that the Genjutsu had been dispelled.
"What was interesting about that, why would you do that?" Karin replied a little distraught.
"I didn't choose what you saw, you did. You saw the person that you care about most die. I did not expect it to be Naruto-chan." Shima replied.
"Who else would it be, Naruto-kun is all I have, I love him." Karin replied before she could stop herself.
Shima's eyes widened. She had guessed that the red head cared for Naruto but she wasn't expecting a confession. "Well this is... unexpected. Does he know?" Shima asked. Karin who had sported a heated blush could only shake her head in response. "Why not tell him?"
"How can I, after all I have done, I don't deserve his love." Karin replied close to breaking down in tears.
"Nonsense! Don't be so foolish girl, Naruto-chan will not care about your past." Shima replied.
"But what if he rejects, me I have nowhere else to go. He's all I have." Karin said a little desperately.
"Even if he can't return your feelings then he won't send you away. Naruto-chan is not like that. I will not tell you what to do but you shouldn't act defeated before you try anything." The toad suggested.
Karin nodded feeling a little better, somewhat hopeful even. "Thank you Shima-sama, I can't tell him yet, but maybe soon I will be able to find the courage." She said sincerely.
"Very well, and I will keep this to myself. Now your Genjutsu wasn't bad, you were able to easily recognise the genjutsu once you thought about what you were seeing and dispelled it without much trouble. But your Taijutsu and Genjutsu could use some work. I can only teach you the Toad style which doesn't seem to suit your style, but we might have something in our storage that can help you. You also may want to try your own summons, often each summoning clan has their own taijutsu style, as well as several signature Ninjutsu." Shima replied.
"How do you know I have signed a contract?" Karin asked genuinely surprised.
"I am one of the Toad sages, we can feel it in your chakra, granted you have a summoning contract that in all my years I have never seen." Shima answered with a chuckle. "Now let's get to work on your Taijutsu, but I warn you this will be hard work."
Karin hesitated for a few moments and slowly nodded getting into a defensive stance. "Alright I'm ready."
(With Naruto)
An hour almost passed with Naruto doing nothing but performing hand seals. But now he seemed to have the hang of it. Quickly speeding through the set he took a deep breath in before spitting out three blasts of compressed air in rapid form that blasted large holes in the three respective targets.
"Woah." Naruto said with a low impressed whistle.
"Not bad Naruto-chan, I think that will do for today, Ma and I can't spend forever away from Myobokuzan. There is no telling what will happen if we leave Bunta-chan and the grand old Geezer unsupervised." Fukusaku said.
"Alright let's go get Karin-chan and Shima-Baachan." Naruto agreed. The forest was much thinner thanks to Naruto's clearing that morning, so they could see Karin and Shima from a fair distance. The pair were involved in a rather one sided spar. They arrived just as Shima kicked Karin in the chest sending her flying. Naruto quickly intercepted the kunoichi grabbing her protectively out of mid air and landing safely. "Hey are you alright?" he asked glancing down into her scarlet eyes.
"I am now." she said causing Naruto to blush slightly.
'Ah stop she's just thanking me, I need to stop thinking like Ero-sennin.' Naruto reprimanded himself.
"Ah Naruto-chan it seems you and Pa are done." I apologise if I went a little overboard towards the end. Karin-chan needs a lot of work, this is the fastest way I know how to improve." Shima said.
Once Naruto was positive that no real harm had been done to the red haired beauty in his arms he sighed and accepted the apology. "I'll summon you both tomorrow at around the same time. But please hold back, I don't want to see Karin-chan get hurt."
"Oh Naruto-chan, you have a soft spot for the girl huh, I remember how protective Jiraiya-chan was of Tsunade-chan." Fukusaku mused. Shima whacked him once. "Ahh, what was that for?"
"You're embarrassing them you old fool." Shima replied. True both had rather prominent blushes that had actually gotten worse when Shima pointed it out. The two started bickering that quickly turned into a really loud croaking match until they both disappeared in a puff of smoke.
It wasn't until then that Naruto realised he was still protectively holding Karin. He quickly set her down and created some distance. "Sorry" he said slightly embarrassed.
Karin looked down with a hint of a blush still on her cheeks. "It's alright, you did it to help me after all. Why don't we just head back to the village. It will be getting dark soon and I would like to clean myself up before dinner."
End Chapter!
Just noticed that the amount Naruto x Karin stories have doubled since I started writing this fic. I'm glad that people are moving away from Hinata and Sakura pairing. Too many poorly written fics for those two. Granted there are some really good ones too, but they are hard to find and I prefer obscure pairings anyway as they often need some sort of craft to make them believable.
Closing in on them getting together, still searching for the right catalyst to make a believable transition that would work in a story. It might be what is holding me back from rushing the plot which I don't mind. Would rather have a stretched out fluffy chapter than one where too much happens with no substance.
Thought this would be a good chance to use Fukusaku and Shima, I really like them as characters. Maybe because they remind me of Yoda, the little green master that turns someone average into someone kick ass. Actually when I think about it there are a lot of similarities with Star Wars. Jiriaya is ObiWan Naruto is Luke, Fukusaku is Yoda, Obito is Dath Vader, the Ten Tail Tree is the Death Star,Oh and all the white Zetsu are Storm Troopers... Quick someone make a Meme!
Spoiler
Kakashi why you have to be so slow! You could have killed him already and we wouldn't have to deal with what ever BS reasoning they are going to have for keeping someone responsible for genocide and attempting to end the world alive.
Why do people always take this option. For example Superman, Lex Luther has some uncanny ability to continuously get his hands on Kryptonite yet you don't just snap his neck and get rid of him, he would have such a peaceful life without that guy. Some people are too dangerous to be left alive, you do that and what happens?.. Anakin Skywalker kills all the younglings that's what.
I get the theme of everything has been forgiveness, but there are some things that can't just be forgiven. You need to be held responsible for the things you do, Nagato at least committed suicide to make amends. I am more interested in seeing what Orochimaru has planned, he was always a better written antagonist than the Akatsuki.
Wonder what's going to happen to the other Bijuu now? Hope they help Naruto, but more likely Madara will pull some plot hole jutsu to lengthen this never ending arc by another 30 chapters.