Chapter 20

Fire extinguished and the heavens weep

"There is always someone to challenge the king."- Toshiro Hyuga

"Now this world shall know pain." Pain said as he levitated above the Hidden Leave Village. He was focusing his energies. He would crush this pathetic settlement with one strike now. The Leaf shinobi would pay for their crimes against him, his home and family. Justice would finally be served. Finally he opened his grayish eyes, scanning the village below. The other bodies and Konan were already moving out of the village, the former soon dropping to the ground like dead.

In the village, there was confusion from the majority of people. Kiba and his mother were proudly claiming to have won. Hinata, Ino and Sakura, were confused on Konan's sudden retreat, not believing the heavy storm clouds above the village to be the source of it. The ANBU who were guarding Shizune took her now dead body, wanting to report to Tsunade that the enemy was now in possession of information on Naruto's whereabouts. And said hokage was looking up at the sole figure high in the sky.

Then he gave into the planet's gravitational pull. He was falling, fast. The wind hitting against his face. The world turning into a blur. The ground was coming so fast. Many would fear. But not Pain. No. he planned for this. He has gathered all the chakra he needed for this one attack. And just inches above ground...

"DIVINE REPULSION!" He roared.

And an unbelievable force pushed back everything around him. The buildings, the trash, the people, the dust... everything. There was nothing that could withstand such force. It was like a powerful wind, ripping all things around. What was once a magnificent jewel in the Fire Country was now destroyed. A crater grew in its place, bigger and bigger each second passing. Nothing but a huge thunderous echo and a huge cloud of dust... that's what was left of the Hidden Leaf Village.

Then the thunder hit. And another. And the drops of rain begun to fall, hitting the crater. Tsunade managed to pull herself out of the debris. She coughed a few times. She was in pain, yes. But also a bit dazed. If it wasn't for her regenerative jutsu and Katsuyu, split and attached to nearly every villager and ninja, there would be likely no living soul by now.

"Are you alright, Lady Hokage?" the ANBU operative in a hawk mask asked, removing some of the debris.

"Y-yeah... *cough* I'm fine..." she said through some grunts. Tsunade was aching all over. That attack was unbelievably powerful. She never though one man could perform an attack like that. But she could not afford to pull her into despair.

Yet, when she got out, when she got up on her feet, the sight of the destroyed village shocked her. There was one huge crater. She could still hear the pebbles and stone rolling down as the wind blew. She ignored the cold drops of the rain. She would weep along with heavens later. As much as she wished to, there was still the monster responsible for all this to deal with.

Luckily, the majority of villagers and shinobi survived Pain's last attack. But not unscratched. Shikamaru had a broken leg. It would not end his ninja career, but he was in no shape to even stand up. Ganju had a rod piercing his lung and was dying. Though he merely laughed at it, commenting: "So... that's... what it... feels... l-likee..." and he was no more. Ryu had only a few scratches, but when he found his father, who was seriously wounded, both by Pain and the last attack, he gave into emotions. He ran up to his father and begged him to talk to him. If it wasn't for Anko, who suggested to move him, the Niigetsu Clan's heir would have done nothing. Hinata and Luckily wasn't hurt. But she raced towards the Hyuga compound, to check on Hanabi. After Gold's, aka Hitashi Hyuga's attack six years ago, it was heart breaking to learn she was not really Hanabi's sister. Yet, the younger girl still, for all her tough and prideful act, was trying to stay close to Hinata, still considering her sister. And Hinata did not want that bond broken. Hitodama also suffered greatly. Her arm was broken. And she could tell some of her ribs were broken. But she still pushed the large piece of wall back, saving two young genins from getting crushed. But she was then unable to move on her own.

Pain finally landed in the middle of the crater, looking around at his handy work. The village that did him wrong was now broken. The rain finally got strong. The thunders echoed. This was the end of an era. The downpour would wash out what's left of this settlement. He looked around. Yes, this was it. This village now knew pain.

Tsunade appeared right before him. Pain merely looked at her, uninterested. He could tell the Fifth Hokage was in no actual shape to fight. But he had to give her credit for her spirit.

The busty woman took a step forward, breathing heavily, ignoring the rain, ignoring her ANBU, ignoring the pain. "I... am the Fifth Hokage." She spoke, fighting the pain. She used up nearly all of her chakra to protect the people of the village. She was worn out. Yet her anger gave her the power to ignore it to the extend. "How dare you... ruin the precious jewel build by my grandfather and uncle?" she was mad. Her grandfather, Hashirama Senju was the founder and the First Hokage of this village. This settlement was his legacy. And now it was no more.

But Pain was not touched. "The same way as you and others dare to make my home into a battlefield for your puny and meaningless wars. Not that you care. The only ones you great nations perceive as innocents are your own citizens. Anyone else is considered no more than a cockroach." He said, with an accusing tone. "But that is also your idea called patriotism. The sick, narrow idea by which you dare consider outsiders beneath you." As other Pains appeared behind God Path, Tsunade gritted her teeth.

"HOW DARE YOU!?" she shouted. "There are some who understand patriotism poorly." She said, thinking about Danzo, who, without question, wanted the world under Leaf's control. "But don't speak of it like a bad thing. Not all of us are extremists."

"This conversation is over." God Path said, leaping back and landing in the line of Pains. Then all six, in perfect synchronization, performed a sequence of hand seals. Tsunade and the Hawk took a step back. What was Pain planning?

"It would seem you understand a little more about pain. But you are not the one I'm after." All six Pains spoke. Then pressed their hands against the ground. "Summoning: Dead Emperor's Earth-coated Army!" they shouted.

There was no puff and smoke. There was no whistling sound of summoning. No flash. There was nothing. But after a few seconds, the was a rumbling noise. And soon the ground started to shake. Due to her weakened state, Tsunade could not hold her balance. If it wasn't for Hawk, she would be kissing dirt now. Then the ground exploded, revealing a huge demonic figure with the rinnegan before Pains. And soon after, something akin to several dozen terracotta statues begun to pop up. The statues representing warriors of the old days, in heavy armors and with weapons, all with their back to the figure. Tsunade did not like the sight one bit. She had a bad feeling.

The being soon opened its mouth, launching dozens of green streams out. Only to have them enter the statues, engulfing them in light. Nothing happened for a while. Then there was a twitch. A crack. And finally one of the statues' eyes glowed, before the clay fell off, revealing the rinnegan. Then the whole statues cracked and dust fell. Tsunade hoped it was the statues disappearing. But no. What she witnessed was far worst.

One of the statues now had an appearance of Kakashi Hatake.

That bastard. How dare he? He brought the dead ones back as his army to finish off the Leaf.

"Kill them." God Path ordered. And the army dispersed, to kill any and all survivors.

Two chunin managed to climb out from the collapsed building which was once a library. The two were trying to secure some documents in case the enemy tried to take them. However, when they were about to scan the area, two terracotta warriors appeared behind them and stabbed them, instantly killing them.

Sakura finally managed to focus after Katsuyu let go of her. When she looked around, all she found was destruction. What's more, there were terracotta versions of certainly dead Leaf ninja attacking the survivors. Even civilians. This was horrifying. She could see Iruka trying to help Choji get his father away, only to be attacked by two Terracotta Hyugas. Then there was Kiba and his mother, Tsume, and their dogs, attacked by terracotta jonin. Tsume was able to hold her ground but Kiba, who was more heavily inured, needed assistance. Shino and other Aburame just got out from the rubble, only to be attacked themselves. The most nightmarish scene however was down in the crater. Tsunade and the ANBU operative with her were attacked by Terracotta Kakashi and Terracotta... Shizune.

Pains decided not to stick around anymore. The warriors would disappear when they were done. This was their victory. And Tsunade was in no shape to keep up with her opponents.

'How...? Why...?' Sakura started to ask herself, as her own tears started to run down her cheeks, hidden by the rain. "How could it come to this? Naruto. Please. Come back quickly. We need you! NARUTO!" She cried.

And as she cried, Tsunade tried to block another punch from Terracotta Kakashi, who was able to make her lose her balance. He charged his Raikiri, only for Hawk to engage him. But as he did that, driving the puppet away from the hokage, Terracotta Shizune attacked. The busty blonde had no time to react and was kicked in the face and sent flying. Tsunade tried to get her footing, but she was too exhausted. Plus the rain made the soil slippery. She could only roll away. She pained all over. The pain, it was unbearable. The medic ninja looked up to find the terracotta version of her older apprentice dashing over to her. The female hokage was about to deliver a super strength powered fist, but the pain stopped her. She grunted. This was bad. Her genjutsu was slowly breaking. She would turn into her true wrinkled self soon. And her body was hurt more seriously than she thought.

Shizune was right before her, ready to deliver a poison-coated senbon to her. Tsunade could only look around as the world slowed down. This army Pain summoned... it was killing everyone. He had no intention of sparing a single soul- man, woman, child, civilian, noble, shinobi. She could see death, by the hands of those Pain has killed since arriving.

Was this the end?

A lightning hit. And a poof of smoke. And when Terracotta Shizune's senbon had just touched Tsunade, a blur hit Pain's slave, sending her/it flying towards Pains, passing by between them. Effectively stopping them. God Path turned around with his usual emotionless expression. Then quickly all turned to face the figure who appeared. Tsunade looked up and was at awe. She could see the silhouettes of the Fourth Hokage and Jiraiya beside her rescuer, though it was the man himself who got her attention.

Naruto. He wore his usual orange pants with a kunai holder and a pouch along with black shinobi sandals. His left arm was still wrapped in bandages from his biceps down to his gloved hand. But what was different was he was wearing an orange sash over a black sleeveless keigoki under a red Haori with black flame design at the bottom and kanji storm on the back. There was one more thing Tsunade noticed about the blond boy. The forehead protector. She has not seen him wear it since he returned to the village. Now it was there. The same as Jiraiya's, but more bandana-like in length of the clothe, and with Hidden Leaf's symbol on it.

Naruto had his arms crossed and his left leg still up after kicking Terracotta Shizune. Finally, he brought it down. Tsunade wanted to speak, but couldn't find words for it. There was definitely something different about Naruto now. He was more confident. Focused. Pains did not seem affected however by this.

"Naruto Uzumaki..." God Path spoke, analyzing the young adult. Then some would say he smirk, though he did no such thing. "You have saved us the trouble of looking for you."

Demon Path launched at the blond with blinding speed, ready to restrain the jinchuriki. This would be easy.

"Naruto! Run!" Tsunade called. She wanted to move, but couldn't. Damn it. Pain was already so close when the world slowed down, again. Was this it? Pain has captured Naruto, hasn't he?

"No." Naruto said simply, finally opening his eyes. And punched Demon Path straight in the face so hard it send him flying, leaving some screws, springs and cogs behind, flying pass Pains. All eyes widened and looked at the defeated Pain, who kept flying on and on until he hit the stones. Then turned to face Naruto, who was now changing. And it shocked them.

Naruto's hair has grown much longer and quite spiky (think SSJ3). And some features grew, making Naruto look as if he had grown four horns: two growing backwards by the sides of his head and two upwards as if they were part of his forehead protector. His stumble turned into full beard, making his facial features even more sharp, along with his teeth sharper. There were also 6 bone spikes growing from his collar bones, two from his upper arms and four from his four arms- though they merely grew bigger on his left limb. Aside for the obvious gain to his muscle mass, the most noticeable thing was about Naruto's eyes. His brows became a little bushier, appearing like small horns, but it was the eyes themselves that were most noticeable. The sclera turned as gray as the stormy clouds themselves. The iris remained blue, slightly turning darker. And his pupils changed into nine golden points, joint by a small current of electricity.

"Raiju... KEITAI!" Naruto finally roared. There was no doubt about it. Naruto was no longer that little boy who would cough up blood every few hours and be in need of a medical care. No longer that kid who would complain about the little things. No longer the brother who lost his sister and blamed the village for it. No longer the boy who'd consider himself beneath humans.

There, before her, stood a proud man who accepted his bloodline. Who mastered his power. Naruto... was now... a fully grown and trained... Asura.

She smiled. Naruto would give Pain hell.

"There is no need for the Hokage to deal with the likes of them." Naruto said, not taking his eyes of his opponents. "Nor is there a reason for me to hold back from going 100%. Just go and rest up, granny."

"Naruto..." Tsunade was about to speak, when a blur appeared next to him. To her horror, it was Terracotta Kakashi with his Raikiri. He was about to strike Naruto.

The blond barely managed to dodge, before kicking the figure in the chin and punching a hole through its chest. Naruto watched as Terracotta Kakashi looked at the hole, as if inspecting it. Then tried to punch Naruto, only to be smashed by a shakujō. Goryō stepped forward, crushing Terracotta Kakashi's head.

"Naruto. You handle Pain. We will handle this puppets." The head of Ogre Clan said, looking back at his sisters and a few toads. The group nodded and dispersed. All except for one orange big toad.

"Gamakichi!" Naruto called. Naruto met this toad while fighting Gaara years back. He wanted to summon Gamabunta, but failed miserably. Gamakichi was all he was able to summon. Yet, the two became real good friends. And when Naruto got to gain chunin rank, it was thanks to a little prank the two did on their opponent. But now that toad was bigger than a horse.

Gamakichi leaped over and landed next to Tsunade. "Take Granny Tsunade to safety." The blond instructed."

"Alright." The toad answered, slowly picking up the woman.

"Granny. Tell everyone to stay as far away as possible." A thunder hit, somehow making Naruto's aura more intimidating. "I can't afford for their safety if they get caught in a crossfire or in the blast range."

"Alright... but take Katsuyu with you." She said, picking up the piece of her slug summon that was with her. "She has intel on every Pain." Without letting his eyes off of the Akatsuki, Naruto reached back and Katsuyu crawled under his clothing. Then Gamakichi leaped away.

"W-what's happening." Sakura asked in disbelieve. She was about to get killed by the Terracotta Leaf ninja, when an ogre broke it along with two other coming her way and leaped away to the next group. Next to way was a wounded Hyuga, who used his byakugan to take a look around. What caught his attention was an enourmous chakra. He looked in its direction and found...

"I don't believe it." He said. "It's Naruto. No doubt about it. But he's different somehow. He's so strong I can't tell in whose favor is the power gap."

Sakura surprised to hear that. Has Naruto really changed that much? Only time would tell.

"Summoning Jutsu!" Animal Path called, sending a giant Rhino against Naruto. The blond looked at it charging, before bracing himself. And once close enough...

*CRASH*

There was a huge cloud of smoke. Rubble flying everywhere. But then the rhino was being forced back. Naruto kept pushing, putting quite a bit of muscle into it. Then he tossed the damn animal into the air with a loud roar. Then turned to Pains and dashed. Hungry Demon Path moved to engage him.

"Naruto!" Katsuyu spoke. "Your ninjustu will not work against this Pain. He will absorb all the chakra-based attacks."

"Then I have to do with taijutsu." He said, entering the same stance his sister taught him nearly six years ago. He was able to work the style on his own a bit. But with the ogres he improved greatly. Despite the ogres being creatures of brute force, this taijutsu style was more about grace and building momentum to make the attacks even stronger.

The two engaged. Naruto spanned and tried to punch H.D.P. in the face, who easily dodged. That was merely a distraction. The blonde intended to kick him. Surprisingly, he blocked it.

"The Pains are visually linked." Katsuyu explained. "They share each other's visuals, thus making the blind-spot attacks impossible."

Naruto smirked evilly. "Then will use the one thing where eyes won't matter." He leaped away a small distance, taking a deep breath and focusing his energy. Then dashed at his opponent and delivered a straight punch. Hungry Demon Path managed to jump back in time before the fist touched him. Yet...

*POW*

H.D.P. was hit. He was sent flying with ridiculous force. Body fluids spilled out of his mouth as he was passing by the other Pains. God Path couldn't help but be shocked.

"I thought we dodged that attack." He murmured to himself.

Goryō smashed another Terracotta ninja. These guys just kept on coming back? Strange. But it did not matter. They were able to hold Pain's puppet back from the mortals. He looked back at the battle below in time to see Naruto's final attack on H.D.P. He smiled. 'In Asura form, Naruto doesn't absorb natural energy, mixing it with his chakra like in senjutsu. He is able to draw the natural energy from his surroundings, in a sense being its manifestation, and uses it to enhance his already impressive physical capabilities. Simply put, the world itself is Naruto's punch. There is no way block something this big.'

Naruto straightened himself. He took a deep breath. Pains looked at him carefully. Two of his bodies down. This was proving more challenging them he had expected.

Then their eyes met. And for some reason, for the first time, in a long time, Pain felt what no god should feel.

Fear.

To be continued...

A.N.: Hey guys. Yeah, I'm back. And I will at the very least finish Pain Invasion Arc. After that, we'll see. What got me back? The Last: Naruto the movie. I am so hyped up for this movie. I WANNA SEE IT SO BADLY! If ANYONE saw the movie, I AM NOT LISTENING TO SPOILERS! YOU HEAR ME YOU BACK STABBING KAGUYA'S FEET LICKING MAGGOTS?! Ja ne.