Chapter 18

Pain invasion

"This world shall know pain. And through pain, understanding will come."- Pain

Two months. It has been two months since Naruto departed with the ogres. After about three days of hearing nothing from the blond, Tsunade assumed the ox-lion-men have fooled her. She was so mad at herself for listening to them. She was even ready to find a way to their domain, country, dimension or wherever they resided to get him back. It was only Lord Fukasaku reporting in that stopped her. She was surprised when she was given a letter written by Naruto. She was grateful he wrote it, as she would not likely believe him to actually be alive.

Now she was looking out the window. She was relieved to see the village so peaceful. The children running and playing in the streets. Elderly citizens playing shogi or talking about the old times. The owner of Ichiraku's making a delivery almost tripped as the genin team chased after Tora (damn that cat). And to make things better, it was a perfect sunny day. Maybe things weren't so bad?

Even the shinobi couldn't complain about the day.

Former Team 10 was enjoying the barbeque. Shikamaru just looked outside the window dreaming about being a cloud, while Choji devoured tons of meet. And Ino, again, complained about the two being useless.

Anko and Ryu were at the bar drinking. And by now they were so drunk they started flirting- using some dirty words. So dirty, the other customers, not able to bare it, evacuated, pale or green.

Team 8 decided to visit Kurenai at her place. They liked her child, and wanted comfort their former sensei, who was still shaken by Asuma's death. Kakashi was trying to be alone by the gravestone, only to be bothered again by Gai challenging him. Gai's team did their best (well, Tenten and Neji mostly) to get him off to report to the Hokage about their recently finished mission.

And Sakura, along with Shizune and Ganju, were still trying to figure out Pain's secret. It was a pain. So far, they learned nothing about Pain.

Until Ganju noticed something. He accidently cut himself and Sakura used her medical ninjutsu. That's when he noticed one of the rods piercing the corpse's body giving off some readings.

"Wait a minute..." he said, approaching the thing. He intended on channeling some chakra into the rod, when the scanner started to work. "Could it be...?"

"What? What is it?" Shizune asked, getting everyone's attention.

"It could be that these piercings are actually chakra receivers, Shizune." The scrawny man answered. "I'd say we need to run some tests before this place runs down." He said casually, turning to the table, while Sakura gave him a confused look. What did he mean by that?

Outside The Leaf Village

"Got any fives?" one of the guards asked.

"Go fish." One of the other three, the mustached one, said. The guards were playing poker to relax. Nothing was going on, so why not have a break?

Well, on this day, they were not that fortunate. Four metallic rods pierced into their necks, killing the four in the instance. Once they fell, seven figures walked out into the opening before the wall.

One of the figures was Konan, Pain's partner. A brunette beauty with a piercing under her lower lip and a paper rose in her hair. She was pale skinned, judging by her expression collected and average height. Then there were six others. One was a man in about his mid-twenties, with shaggy orange hair and slightly above average height. The second was tall, bulky and bald. The third appeared in his late thirties with short orange hair. Fourth was short and fat with his orange hair tied in a knot. The fifth figure was tall, slim and had long hair. And the final one was a female, slightly shorter than Konan. Aside for all six figures having piercings on their faces and orange hair, minus the bulky one, all of them shared the same eyes- the rinnegan, the eyes said to belong to the Sage of Six Paths, the savior of the Mortal World.

One of the figures stepped forward and eyed the wall. "There is a barrier." He said. Indeed, he could see in the chakra spectrum a huge dome of seals surrounding the village, like a bubble.

"How did Itachi manage to enter the village undetected when he infiltrated it?" Konan asked.

"Itachi was an ANBU. Surely he knew a safe path. Or how to make the barrier recognize him and Kisame as none-intruders." The one in the mid-twenties spoke. "I will deploy Animal Path through the barrier. She will use the Summoning Jutsu to get the rest of us in. That way, the village will be confused about our actual number."

"I understand, Pain. How do you want to approach this?"

"Animal Path, Demon Path and Ghost Path will provide diversion. You will join them, Konan. Meanwhile Hell Path, Human Path and God Path will search for The Nine-Tails' jinchuriki."

"I understand." Konan agreed, watching as Demon Path, the bulky figure, grabbed Animal Path, the woman, and tossed her high into the air, sending her flying above the wall.

As the village sensory ninja detected an intrusion, Animal Path landed on the roof of some building, making hand-seals. "Summoning Jutsu!" she called, slamming her hands against the roof. There was a big puff of smoke. And Konan along with the other five Paths appeared alongside her.

"Split up!" God Path ordered. And the group did so.

Kotetsu and Izumo got the word of the intruder in the village and were immediately on the case. They walked through the village, looking for anyone suspicious. So far they found nothing.

"Don't you think it's kinda weird?" Kotetsu asked.

"Why do you think so?" Izumo asked.

"I mean... why would the intruder try and infiltrate the village by simply breaking through? It makes no sense. Even if we got him as a guess, he'd at least be able to keep a low profile. Now we know to look for a stranger." The black haired chunin reasoned.

"Yeah. I guess..." Izumo thought about it. He could not argue with the way his long-time friend thought about it. It was rather foolish. Suddenly, something caught his attention. "Hey, Kotetsu. What is that?" he asked.

As Izumo's friend looked to where his friend pointed, he saw a bald man in the black cloak with red cloud design jumping down from the rooftop. There was no doubt about it. It was the Akatsuki. The two took their stance, while Demon Path grabbed his wrist and pulled, revealing a metal string-like tool. It was filled with miniature missiles which fired.

Elsewhere, Animal Path landed on top of the hospital. And made hand signs, summoning a giant shrimp. The explosion from both places alerted everyone in the village. They were under attack. But in multiple places? Those who were made aware were reported about one intruder. Could it be there are more? But how? Hinata and Ino ran out of the shop they were just visiting, looking over a new kimono, when they heard the alert. When they looked around, they found smoke rising from at least three places. Then there were explosions.

"W-what's going on?..." Hinata asked.

"I have no idea." The young Yamanaka answered, fearfully. "But it looks like an invasion."

"It would appear our plan has been seen through." A feminine voice commented. The two kunoichi turned to face Konan, who was slowly walking towards them. "I'd better make sure you don't make things complicated." She raised her hand, and layers of paper ripped off her skin, flying towards them.

"Where is Uzumaki Naruto?" Hell Path demanded, choking two ninja- one jonin and one chunin. Both were fighting to free themselves from his grip, but he was too strong.

"F**k...you..." the jonin managed to say.

Hell Path narrowed his eyes. The jonin would not say anything, clearly. But when he looked at the chunin...

"We... don't know... ho-nest..."

"We shall see." The figure in mate thirties said. Purple flames ignited behind him, and a large humanoid figure came forth. The two Leaf ninja were horrified by its appearance. But the worst part came when it opened its mouth, revealing scrawny, clawed hands- dozens of them- reaching for them. The limbs entered their mouths, causing great pain. In a manner of seconds, they were pulling something out. Something that looked like, for the lack of better word, stretch, glowing cucumber. And once it pulled it fully out of their mouths, the two ninja died. "It seems you truly knew not of his whereabouts. Shame." Was the last thing he said, before dropping the two bodies and continuing on. But he was not aware of a strange shadow watching him.

The summoning woman was riding now a giant rhinoceros trough the village, wrecking everything in its path. No matter how hard they tried, the ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village could do nothing to stop it. Animal Path stopped before a green building and scanned it, before preparing another summon. The shinobi of the village watched in horror as a big chameleon-like creature appeared, destroying the building, killing several citizens and ninja at the same time.

"Pathetic." Animal Path said. "It would appear the Leaf does not hold the power it claims to possess. Now... you shall die a just death." She commented, pointing for the lizard to attack. And it shot its tongue. It aimed at Kurenai. The poor woman, and her son, barely managed to escape the falling building. But, the genjutsu master had her ankle injured. She would not manage to escape. She and her son would die... like this?

Clearly not today.

A huge gash of blood spread around as the beast cried in agonizing pain. Its back and belly exploded, as a figure landed on the ground, forming a crater. Dust circled around the new coming fighter, as the lizard fell, before dispersing into smoke. Kurenai was mostly grateful, while still, along with others nearby, trembling in fear. Animal Path was likely confused at the sight of the people fearing one of their own even more than her. They all knew the figure, as he stood up, growling like an savage beast that he was. And the inhuman killing intend bringing the smile on his face, giving him the Venom-like appearance for a second. (A.N.: yes, I mean Marvel Comics' Venom. He keeps giving me the chills)

"So... where's the party?" Kuromaru asked. Despite the fear, all the Leaf ninja were also relieved.

The strongest of them all joined them as the Leaf was invaded by the Akatsuki.

To be continued...

A.N.: Sorry guys. I thought I'll be able to update two chapters per week, but unfortunately I was not able to. More bad news. I won't be able to post the next chapter next week. Why? Well, here's somewhat of a good news. I intend to write the next chapter a lot longer. While normally I write about ten pages-long chapters, I intend to have the next one at least twenty pages-long. And it will focus on Pain attack. I intended to make this part about as long, but did not want to keep you waiting. So, I'll post it as soon as possible. Warning- there will be character deaths. Lots of it and brutal. And I won't say at which part will it end. So, until next time, guys.