Sasuke

When I saw smoke coming from where Konoha should be, I began to internally panic. Madara had never said anything about what the other Akatsuki members were going to do, so I had assumed that they would be preparing like Madara had said. I had forgotten that he still had to acquire the Nine-Tails, but who did he send? If it wasn't us, the only other members of the Akatsuki who were alive were Zetsu, who never really fought or anything, Kisame, who definitely couldn't do this much damage to the Leaf Village, or the other two.

It had to be them, Konan and Pain, the most powerful Akatsuki members other than Itachi.

"No…" I breathed out, I knew Pain had a Rinnegan, which was literally the most powerful dojutsu in existence, meaning he might already have his hands on Naruto and could've killed a lot of people. My eyes widened and I began to panic, what if he had killed Kakashi and Sakura, just to get into Naruto's head? I quickly bit my thumb and summoned Garuda, my hawk. "Keep this safe, I'll get it later," I told my summoning while handing Itachi's eyes to him. The huge hawk nodded before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

I approached the village and saw no guards at the gate, they were probably trying to stop Pain and Konan. I jumped onto the nearest building and looked around. My home, Konoha, it was in shambles. Houses were destroyed, some had even collapsed onto its residents. A bunch of restaurants and stands were destroyed as well, their remains scattered over the streets. I spotted a toppled building on the ground that seemed familiar to me, and I almost immediately recognized that it was the place I lived after the Massacre, while I was on Team 7.

I spotted a picture frame lying on the ground and picked it up. It was our team photo, and the frame had been broken apart, but it was still clear as day. Kakashi was smiling through his mask while ruffling mine and Naruto's hair, looking happy as could be, Naruto and I were avoiding eye contact with the camera as well as each other just because we couldn't stand each other, Sakura was smiling happily just like Kakashi, just enjoying life.

This photo meant something to me, though I could never express it to my teammates and sensei. I did care for them back then, I tried my hardest to protect them, I was just never any good at conveying my emotions. Hell, I still wasn't any good at it. But being a part of that team did give me joy, even if I held a stoic face the entire time.

I gazed at the photo but snapped back to reality, realizing that this was no time to reminisce. I stuffed it into my pocket and leaped to where I sensed multiple chakras battling. Among them, I noticed Naruto's, but it was barely there. I noticed Sakura's as well, but even her chakra seemed to be faint, meaning she was almost out. I couldn't sense Kakashi's though, which worried me, so I sped to the field, feeling so much panic running through me.

I landed close to the battlefield and saw Naruto pinned to the ground by 4 rods, unconscious, almost dead. I saw Neji, Hinata, Shikamaru, and Sakura fighting 4 men, who seemed to just be toying with them. Pain had 6 paths if I remembered correctly, and from the looks of it, only these 4 were left. I saw Konan lying unmoving near an unconscious Kakashi and Tsunade, that was one less problem to deal with, however all of Konoha's top Shinobi had been taken out. The 4 remaining Paths of Pain strike Shikamaru and Neji back before one of them hit Hinata across the face with a rod, sending her flying into a nearby piece of rubble. All three of them were barely conscious and bleeding profusely, they were at the end of their lines.

Then I saw a truly horrific scene, the 4 Paths surrounding Sakura, who was protecting everyone else as they prepared to kill her. My heart stopped and an overwhelming feeling of desperation took over my body. This was not going to happen, I refuse to let other people hurt those around me, not anymore.

I was tired of this, tired of everyone around me dying and suffering, like I was some sort of disease, like anyone who cared about me was cursed with a cruel fate.

I summoned all the emotions I was feeling, all the rage, all the desperation, all the sadness, but most importantly, all of the denial. Denial of the fate that awaited everyone around me. Denial of the fate of the Hidden Leaf.

Fate wanted everyone dead and the Hidden Leaf.

Fate's taking a backseat now, I'm taking over.

I leaped into action, landing in the middle of them right when they brought their rods down to stab Sakura. I roared in agony, feeling a sudden, searing pain shoot through my body. I winced and closed my eyes as an incredible amount of power surrounded me. I could feel the energy around me as if it were tangible as it encompassed me, filling every cell in my body with both immense pain and power beyond belief.

I opened my eyes to see Sakura looking up at me with a shocked expression on her face. When I looked around, I was shocked to see a glowing purple rib cage surrounding me. The Paths of Pain looked even more shocked than the both of us, staring at me incredulously. I looked and saw that their rods had broken upon contacting this strange rib cage that I had managed to summon. Then, it hit me, this was an ability of my Mangekyou Sharingan, one that Itachi had used in his final fight against me.

I had just summoned my very own Susanoo.

"S-Sasuke?" I heard Sakura murmur, still looking at me as if she couldn't believe her eyes. I looked down at her with relief and a newfound fondness that I had never before experienced before turning my attention to the threat before me. I know that Itachi could summon an entire humanoid covered with armor, so I think I have to keep conjuring up more of my Susanoo until I can reach that state. I focused my chakra and summoned an arm of the Susanoo, which I used to grab the nearest Path of Pain I could see. The other three jumped back, still staring at me with a confused expression.

I knew that the Susanoo was made up of my chakra, it was like a warrior that fought for me, and by extension, was me. That meant that I could control this spectral being, as it was basically an extension of myself. Itachi had used it in our battle to seal away Orochimaru and relieve me of my curse mark. This newfound power of mine would be an extension of my will, and it was time to put it to good use.

I crushed the Path of Pain in my giant purple fist, literally crushed him. The path's body parts and rods fell to the ground in a heap, all dismembered and gross. I'm pretty sure it was the Animal Path, so there was no need to worry about summons anymore. I turned my attention to the other 3 paths and observed them. I recognized the leader of them, Pain himself, easily the most powerful Path. He had multiple rods on surrounding his nose while the others looked different. One had really long hair and had two rods on each cheek. The other had a rod covering the entirety of the tip of his nose, which looked really disturbing. Pain himself would obviously be the hardest to take down of the three, so taking out the other two Paths first would be the best strategy, but I would have to conserve my power. I'm pretty sure I can defeat Pain one-on-one, but only if I had enough chakra left after taking out the other two.

"Sakura, take a break and restore your chakra," I told the pinkette who was still at my side.

"But, Sasuke, what're you doing here?" She asked.

"I'll explain everything to you later, I promise, but right now, you need to get everyone you can to safety," I answered. She nodded and exited my Susanoo, leaving me to finish the fight. I turned my attention to the remaining Paths, who seemed to be sizing me up. I launched my attack on them, quickly using my Susanoo arm to sweep at them, but they were pretty fast. They avoided my attacks and retreated further back. I summoned another arm of the Susanoo giving me two arms and a rib cage before continuing my assault. I tried to grab at the Paths like before, but they were too quick for my Susanoo. One of the Paths took off his cloak, revealing a machine-like man, complete with razor blades and cannons, as well as missiles built into his arms.

These guys are weird.

The Path released a beam from one of its cannons, which struck my Susanoo, cracking the armor, but not breaking it. However, the pain that was already burning through me intensified, causing me to drop to one knee. I coughed out a couple drops of blood and wiped my mouth before standing again. The Susanoo was powerful, but it wasn't without its disadvantages.

I took a deep breath and focused my chakra as I summoned the chest and neck of my Susanoo increasing its power a little bit as the Path fired multiple missiles at me. The Susanoo proved to be durable, taking all the damage from the cannons and missiles yet still standing strong. I was already feeling great amounts of pain from summoning the spectral being, but I resolved to complete the Susanoo's body, so I summoned the head of the Susanoo, completing its basic form. My body started to become acclimated to the pain, meaning it wasn't as distracting as it was at first.

It was a completely purple being, with two horns on the tip of its head fit with glowing eyes and an evil grin, this thing looked like the devil and it kind of freaked me out yet satisfied me as well. I attacked again, using the Susanoo to punch the Path with all of the crazy weaponry a couple hundred feet away. However, Pain smirked at me for some reason. I glared back with my Mangekyou Sharingan activated, but why was he smirking when I had just launched one of his Paths away?

I realized too late that the third Path was nowhere to be seen. I turned around and saw the Path right behind me, grinning evilly before putting his hand onto my Susanoo. I felt no pain, but I knew what he was doing. The Path pulled and I saw my very soul being wrenched out from me in the form of chakra. I fell to my knees, feeling my body weaken and my Susanoo start to crumble. Susanoo protected me from most physical and ninjutsu attacks, but sucking out my own soul was more of an astral attack, one that my Susanoo couldn't defend against.

I felt myself grow weaker, I could feel the chakra drain from my body steadily, but I knew that I wasn't dying there, not a chance in hell. I closed my left eye and blood started pouring from it, a telltale sign of the technique Itachi had used against me. "Amaterasu!" I opened my eye and before the Path could move out of the way, black flames engulfed him. He kept stealing my soul and he almost got it out, but my Amaterasu burned his whole body all the way through and he fell moments later, dead. My energy returned to me as I gasped in shock at the cold feeling it caused in me. I had killed the Path and gotten my soul back, but I had lost a good bit of chakra doing so and Amaterasu hurt my eye whenever I did it, so I would have to defeat the remaining two Paths at a disadvantage.

"You will die here, Sasuke Uchiha," Pain told me before clapping his hands together. A sphere formed and flew high into the air before releasing a huge amount of energy and staying suspended in midair. The ground started to break around me and I felt myself being sucked towards the sphere.

"What the hell is this?" I wondered, analyzing land mass that began to form around the small sphere Pain had summoned. The small sphere was key here, the one Pain had formed. If the sphere was the center of everything and I could destroy it, then there would be no gravitational pull attracting any mass towards it and this technique would be rendered useless. At least, that's what I hope will happen.

"Chidori!" Lightning filled my left palm and began to make a chirping sound like that of a bird. I raised my hand and pointed it at the sphere Pain had created and changed my chakra flow. "Chidori Sharp Spear!" A long spear made of my lightning chakra formed in my hand. I stabbed it through the center of the sphere. It began to show signs of falling apart, but it was still pulling me towards it. I hit it with one more burst of lightning, shockwaving it into almost exploding. However, it was still intact, so I used another Chidori Sharp Spear, except this time I used Amaterasu at the same time. The combined power of the jutsus caused the sphere to finally fall apart as the pieces of earth fell to the ground, along with me.

While soaring to the ground, my view of Pain was obscured because of the pieces of earth falling with me, but I could make out a blue glowing light, one that I recognized. The other Path of Pain fired a large beam at me, destroying everything in front of me. It might've hit me if not for Susanoo. The skeleton took the full impact and cracked slightly, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that I was running low on chakra, mostly because the Path that tried sucking out my soul had taken a lot of it. I landed on my feet and immediately ran towards the Path that fired at me. I used Susano'o to deflect another beam shot at me before dodging a couple of missiles fired at me.

"Chidori!" My left hand immediately lit up with sparkling blue chakra and I advanced towards the Path while deactivating Susanoo to conserve chakra. I avoided another barrage of missiles aimed at me before ducking underneath to avoid the spinning blade that the path tried to tag me with. The Path tried to grab me with one of its 6 arms, but I swiftly removed them with one swing of my sword. I raised my hand and slashed Chidori right across the Path's neck, removing his head from his body. He fell to the ground, motionless, leaving only Pain. "Chidori Senbon!" I fired off multiple needles made of lightning chakra at Pain, but he countered.

"Almighty Push!" He yelled out as his jutsu stopped my Senbon.

"Fire Style! Fireball Jutsu!" I sent a huge fireball his way, but he countered it again with the same jutsu.

"Almighty Push!" His manipulation of gravity was powerful, and his reaction time was also a great strength of his.

"Fire Style! Majestic Destroyer Flame!" I spewed a massive amount of fire, taller than Konoha's tallest building, and wide enough to canvas a house. Yet, as powerful as my stream of fire was, it couldn't get past Pain's Almighty Push. I was panting now, my chakra was depleting and Pain was proving difficult to take down, at this rate he would outlast me. But I had a plan, similar to the one I had used against Itachi, though it would require me to wait a little.

"Sasuke Uchiha, you are a formidable foe, but what lengths will you go to in order to win?"

"The hell are you talking about?" I spat at him, why was he concerned about the lengths I would go to in order to win? All of the sudden, Pain made his way to an unconscious Rock Lee, Neji, and Tenten, a rod in his hand.

"This is what I'm talking about," he said.

I moved as fast as I could, covering the small distance between us in less than a second and catching the rod Pain was about to bring down upon Lee's head in order to kill him. But it was Pain's plan for me to do that, because I was in range.

"Almighty Push!" He yelled, throwing me and Guy's team back. The only difference was, those three landed harmlessly, while I landed on a fallen building with a rogue piece of rebar jutting out. It pierced my stomach, drawing blood. I gasped in pain as I tried to remove it from me, but it was stuck well.

"Oh, Sasuke, how unfortunate," Pain taunted before stepping on me. I grunted in pain while clawing at his foot to try and get it off of me, but it was futile, I didn't know what else to do, I was relying on the plan I had set in motion but I couldn't fulfill it while Pain was stepping on me and a piece of rebar was through my stomach, causing me to lose blood quickly. I had an idea, a dangerous one that could get me killed, but it was an idea, regardless.

I grabbed Pain's foot and gave him a bloody smirk. His eyes widened and he tried to free himself, but I broke his leg, effectively holding him in place. The pain I caused him by breaking his leg gave me the opening I needed.

"Chidori Stream!" Electricity pulsed through me and shocked Pain, whose foot was still held in place by my hands. He roared in pain (oh the irony) and desperately tried to free himself. I lifted my leg up and put as much effort into kicking him as I could. I sent him flying back and turned my attention to the steel pipe protruding from my body. I balanced my palms and my feet on the ground before putting all of my strength into lifting myself up and off the rebar. It hurt like hell, and I grunted in pain throughout the whole process, but it worked.

I was still losing blood though, and the medics were still busy getting everyone else out of harm's way and healing others so I did the only thing I could to keep my blood from escaping my body. I used Chidori, right on my own open wound.

I roared in pain, but kept my hand there. I was in so much pain that I began to writhe in agony, but the blood flow had stopped, and my wound had been cauterized and cleaned of any bacteria from the rebar thanks to the heat Chidori had generated.

My whole body ached, and I basically had no chakra left, but my next jutsu wouldn't require any chakra. I leaped to the highest point I could find, which happened to be a half-collapsed building. I watched Pain get to his feet while Sakura, Hinata, Neji, and Shikamaru cleared the area of the rest of the Konoha 11, including Naruto, who was bleeding profusely from his wounds.

I had to buy a little more time so that they could get even further away, so I unsheathed my sword and threw it right at Pain. He couldn't dodge it in time thanks to his broken limb, so he used Almighty Push, exactly what I was hoping for. Once he blasted my sword away, I launched myself right at him and kicked him right on his chin, sending straight up. I jumped and met him in midair, backhanding him to the ground and finishing with a well-placed kick right to the midsection as the orange-haired man hit the ground.

The good old Lion's Barrage, the move I used to win my match in the Chunin Exam Preliminaries. Even now it was a useful technique against an enemy of Pain's caliber. He was incredibly powerful, I had to admit. To take on the entire Leaf village without breaking a sweat deserves a little commendation. Still, the Village did manage to take out two Paths and Konan, so they made my job easier. I should've ended this fight sooner, though, but I had lost a lot of chakra when my soul was literally removed from my body, otherwise I would've had plenty of chakra right now and Pain would've never gotten the drop on me. I shouldn't have dropped my guard, that was a careless mistake on my part.

I leaped away from Pain before he could use an Almighty Push on me and landed on the same half-collapsed building as before. I turned my attention to the skies when a few droplets of rain began to fall. The clouds were gray, and the few droplets of rain soon turned into a steady drizzle. I trained my eyes on Pain, watching as he paid no heed to the rain, merely shrugging it off and glaring at me. I smirked in satisfaction as everyone had cleared the area, leaving Pain, a bunch of destruction, and me standing on top of a collapsed tower. I needed the highest point for this to work, and that's exactly what I had.

It was from the heat my Majestic Destroyer Flame and Amaterasu had created, that's why the clouds formed and the rain began to fall. Lightning would appear in time. I had done it against Itachi, this same jutsu, and it had almost killed him. But with Pain it would be different, I knew it would, because he wasn't Itachi, he wasn't going to dodge this. However, the weather was taking a little bit of time, enough so that Pain could clap his hands together and form another one of those spheres. It would be a race against the clock that I wasn't sure I could win since I was at the mercy of the weather.

My mind started racing to formulate a plan for this. I knew there was a way to counter this without chakra, I just had to find out what that counter was. However, right when I had an idea, a huge chunk of a building flew towards Pain, who had to switch jutsus in order to keep from being squashed like an ant.

I guess that's one way to counter it.

I looked to the direction of where the debris came from and was shocked to see Sakura there. Since when can she can do that?

Thunder boomed from the sky, and my look of confusion turned calm, it was time. Pain stared up at me, confused at the relaxed expression on my face.

"What're you planning?" He called out.

I simply raised my hand and caught the first bolt of lightning that the clouds produced, taming it in my hand.

"Your death," I told him, and watched as his expression grew from one of confusion to shock at the sight of lightning in my hand. And when a huge dragon-like creature made out of lightning emerged from the sky and roared, his expression went to fear. I beckoned the lightning downward with a single movement of my arm. "Kirin will be the last thing you see," I whispered. The lightning came down, striking so fast that Pain didn't even know it. It came down with such ferocity that the entire surrounding area was demolished, disintegrating everything in one fell swoop. Thankfully, everyone had made it outside of the blast radius, so the only casualties would be Pain and his plan. The dust cleared, and strangely, everything was quiet, peaceful, almost, as if there was no attack in the first place. I jumped down and stood there, gazing down at the destroyed Akatsuki cloaks that lay before me in tatters, as if it was foreshadowing future events.

I felt a sharp pain in my stomach and fell to my knees, panting and completely worn out from the battle.

"Sasuke!" I turned and saw the entirety of the Konoha 11 staring at me, completely dumbfounded. Even Naruto was staring incredulously, as if I were a ghost. I got up to address them, but my wound from earlier began acting up again. Cauterizing it with Chidori wasn't enough to keep it contained for the long-term. I coughed up blood and my eyes began to ache, the aftereffects of using the Mangekyou Sharingan for the first time, I guess. For the first time activating it, I think I did pretty well, all things considered.

"Are you ok?!" Naruto half-yelled while leaning on Kiba, who was holding him up. Good to know that his voice was still as obnoxious as ever.

"I'm fine," I muttered before spitting out some more blood.

"You need medical attention," Shikamaru said.

"He's right, that's a nasty wound you suffered," Neji observed. I nodded and let Shino take my arm and sling it over his shoulder while supporting my weight. I coughed again, spitting out more blood, and I could feel my consciousness slipping away.

"Don't, I have a ride," I told Shino, taking my arm away. I took some of the blood from my stomach and summoned Garuda, who saw my condition and immediately understood what to do.

"Woah, since when can you summon a giant hawk," Naruto wondered, staring admirably at Garuda as he flew away and to the hospital. I lost consciousness shortly after the hawk took off.

Sakura

"So, what just happened?" Neji asked as we stood there, wondering why Sasuke had just saved the Leaf after willfully leaving it years ago.

"Is he back for good?" Hinata wondered aloud, already asking the question on all of our minds.

"I don't know, I didn't know if him or his brother were still alive after we went to the Uchiha hideout," Shikamaru said.

"Well now he's back, so that's a good thing. He saved the village and Naruto, not to mention he got even hotter," Ino commented dreamily, staring off into space thinking about the man in question. All the while, I stayed quiet, because I didn't know what to make of this entire situation. I wanted him to be back more than anything, of course, but it all seemed so...farfetched.

He appears without warning and saves the village, but what happened to everything about his revenge? I saw the destruction at the Uchiha Hideout after him and Itachi had fought, so does that mean Itachi's dead? Does it mean he's done with his vengeance? All these questions swirled around in my head, overloading my brain with thoughts and various scenarios. I came back to reality, when I saw a villager stagger out from inside a building, realizing that first, we would have to deal with the aftermath of this attack. A good chunk of the village had been completely torn apart, and the death toll would probably reach the hundreds, that was how catastrophic this attack was. As a medic, I would probably have to be in the hospital around the clock, healing combatants and injured civilians. We were so caught up with Sasuke coming back and saving the village that we had forgotten about the aftermath, of how we would recover from this whole ordeal.

"We should start getting people to the hospital," I told our group, who agreed and began to use their remaining energy to get some of the injured Shinobi and civilians to the hospital, where there were hopefully enough medics to do the job. I spotted Kakashi-sensei staggering to his feet and reaching down to grab the unconscious Hokage next to him. I was overwhelmed with relief when I saw my two teachers had survived the attack and immediately went over to help them out.

"Sensei?" I approached Kakashi-sensei and observed his condition to see if he needed immediate treatment or not.

"I'm fine Sakura, I can summon my hounds to take me to the hospital, you heal Lord Fifth."

"I don't think I have enough chakra for that."

"Then take her to the hospital, she's more in need of treatment than I am. I'll take Shizune." I nodded and lifted Lady Tsunade's body off the ground before carrying her in the direction of the village hospital. I could see the full amount of destruction Pain had inflicted onto the Hidden Leaf while carrying my mentor, it truly haunted me.

"Sakura, what exactly happened? Did you and Naruto defeat Pain?" Kakashi-sensei asked me. I forgot that he was unconscious the whole time, so he didn't even see what had happpened.

"No, it wasn't us."

"Really? Who saved us then?"

"It was...Sasuke," I told him.

"What?"

"Sasuke killed Pain."

"You mean, he's back?"

"Yeah, he left for the hospital on his giant hawk a few minutes ago."

"Ok, I'm not sure if you're playing an elaborate prank on me or not, but I'll see it when I believe it."

"What? Why would you think I'm lying?"

"Well, to be honest, I didn't think Sasuke would ever come back to the village."

"Why, sensei?"

"I didn't think he could face us."

"What does that mean?"

"I mean that Sasuke doesn't even consider himself worthy of living. He thinks of himself as less than human because of what happened to his clan and his inability to do anything."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I could see it in his eyes. He had given up on happiness at such a young age, he knew that no matter how strong he was, he would always be an incomplete person. I saw it in his eyes, Sakura. I only...I only..." He trailed off as we approached the hospital.

"Sensei?"

"I should've realized it sooner. I should've recognized it and helped him more. Only when I arrived at the Final Valley did I realize that he was crying out for help everytime he looked at me. He was silently begging me to tell him what to do, and I didn't realize it. I failed him as a mentor, it's all my fault that this happened."

"That's not-" I began.

"Don't!" Kakashi-sensei yelled, slamming his fist onto the side of the wall of a nearby building. We walked in silence for a couple of minutes and entered the hospital, which was crowded, as expected. A couple of nearby nurses took Tsunade and Shizune from us almost immediately.

"Sakura, you're needed upstairs," one of them told me before scurrying off. Kakashi-sensei nodded to me and exited the hospital to gather more wounded. I made my way upstairs, reflecting back on how Sasuke came back.

If Sasuke hadn't shown up, well I would've been dead because he saved me and there probably would've been even more carnage. He had fought with such tenacity and ferociousness, I saw him endure so much to protect the village against Pain after hearing him denounce it only a short time back at Orochimaru's hideout. He had changed, his eyes were different, not just his Sharingan. His Sharingan had an odd looking pattern residing in them, something like a kaleidoscope, probably the Mangekyou like Kakashi-sensei. Yet, his regular eyes struck me much more than his Sharingan.

They were still onyx, yet they held a new light that I had never seen in hm before. It was indescribable, but Sasuke seemed a lot different, way different than the person Kakashi-sensei had just described. He seemed a lot stronger than before, that was for sure. Probably had to do with his new Sharingan, that must've been what gave him the power to use that purple demon-like warrior, the one he used to save me.

"Sasuke…" I breathed silently as I went to help injured civilians and ninjas.

I had to forget about him for now because I had to focus on my job, but it was hard to do that.

I wanted to hear it from him, I needed to hear from him that he was back.