An Angel's Wrath
Naruto watched as Kenshin slowly changed the form of his knives. Agni's blade that had been a mere red, changed into a blood red color, its edge shimmering silver. Rudra also went through a metamorphosis, as its blade had become rectangular, and was comprised of only the edge, giving it a hollow appearance.
"Whoa…" breathed Naruto.
"How did you do that?"
Kenshin glanced at the blades, and simply said,
"They do that when they're excited…"
Pein paced the room back and forth, the distance devoured by his slow stride.
"May I ask, why do we go through all this trouble to capture the Nine-Tails, when we need the Eight-Tails to complete the statue? The statue would break if we tried to seal him now…" asked Pein to his companion.
Zetsu stepped out of the darkness, and answered,
"Who said anything about sealing him?"
Pein raised an eyebrow, slightly puzzled.
"What do you propose we do to him when we have him then?"
"We control him, making the hope of Konoha into its worst nightmare, and when we have the Eight-Tails, we snap him out of it, and tell him of his deeds. He would be so devastated, he would beg to be sealed." replied Zetsu.
Pein noticed that the black side's eye was twitching slightly.
Zetsu melted into the ground, and Pein was alone with the prisoners. He glanced over to the stone door.
He watched it, and waited.
It won't be soon before long…
Kenshin and Naruto had reached a massive stone door. He tried to push on the door, but it did not budge. Kenshin felt along its surface for a latch to open the door.
Naruto paced nervously behind him.
"How much time do we have left?"
"An hour and a half." replied Kenshin, almost a whisper.
Naruto ran a hand through his hair in frustration.
"Move!" he yelled.
Kenshin was shoved aside, and Naruto prepared a Rasengan.
"Are you crazy?!? You might compromise the structural stability of the cave!" yelled Kenshin.
"Huh?" said Naruto, uncomprehending.
"YOU MIGHT DESTROY THE FREAKIN' CAVE!!!" shouted Kenshin in response.
Naruto summoned a Shadow Clone, and had him shape the chakra.
"WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!" replied Naruto, screaming as well.
The Rasengan fully formed, he rammed it straight into the door.
The door shuddered, and blew off its hinges and fell onto the cave floor with a cacophonous crash.
Kenshin walked through, and felt something under his foot. He glanced at it, and saw that it was a large silver latch.
Kenshin kicked it aside, and kept walking, Naruto close behind.
The two looked dead ahead, and saw a lone figure, clad in the Akatsuki robes. He stood in the gloom, in the center of the chamber.
It was a man, seven piercings on his lined and aged face. Two piercings on each cheek, two on his chin, and a bar pierced diagonally through his nose, his orange hair tied into a long ponytail.
It could only be one man.
"Pein…"
The man, the Human Path as he was called, finally saw his quarry. He said to the two…
"Welcome to your demise."
Kenshin strode forward, and said,
"WHERE IS SHE?!?" he yelled, hands gripping his knives even tighter.
Pein just smiled.
Kenshin rushed forward, and crossed his knives, scissors-style, underneath Pein's chin.
"Tell me where she is, or you'll have a weight taken off your shoulders!" He threatened.
Pein continued to smile, and said in a low voice…
"Shhh…you'll wake the dead with your racket." He muttered as he looked straight up.
Kenshin followed his gaze. Naruto looked up as well.
And then they saw them.
"You bastard…" breathed Kenshin.
The two girls were dangling high over a large chasm, invisible in the darkness. The drop would be fatal.
"Naruto…" said Pein "You must make a choice. You can only save one, for if you chose Hinata, Sakura will fall, and if you chose Sakura, Hinata will fall into the dark abyss…but we can let them both go.."
"How?" asked Naruto desperately.
"If you allow us to, indoctrinate you. To make you know the means to achieve peace. To become one of us."
Naruto watched helplessly as the Human Path pulled out two kunai.
"Make your decision, or I will simply cut them both, and watch them fall."
Kenshin gripped his knives tighter, and as Naruto observed, he seemed to be concentrating.
He sorely wished he had access to that leisure right now, for a moment to stop and think.
He barely caught Pein's next words as he was thinking.
"Time's running out, Genin. I'll count from one to ten, that'll give you enough time. When you don't have an answer yet, you will watch them fall."
"One…"
Naruto thought hard.
If he saved Hinata, he would sacrifice a teammate. If he sacrificed Hinata, he could lose an ally, namely Kenshin...
"Two…"
…If he allowed himself to be another meat puppet for Pein, he would never be able to become Hokage, never be able to protect those that were dear to him…
"Ten…" said Pein as he threw the twin Kunai at the wires holding the girls.
"Wait, no…Don't!!!" said Naruto.
Beside him, Kenshin made his move. He spun his knives, and threw them at the kunai, deflecting them effortlessly.
He then rushed at Pein, and socked him right on his chin, sending him reeling back.
"You dirty son of a…"
Kenshin didn't let up, and kept pounding Pein's face till his face was a bloody, broken mess. The hole that looked like his mouth was smiling.
"What're you laughing about?" asked Kenshin menacingly.
"Naruto was supposed to make the choice, not you."
Something grabbed Kenshin from behind, and had him in a bear hug. It was the Preta Path He felt his power ebbing out of him. Naruto was being beaten up by the Naraka Path and the Asura Path.
Pein stood up, and brushed himself off.
"You don't have the right to go against the will of a God." He said, ending his words by spitting out his teeth.
Kenshin saw blackness creeping at the edges of his vision. He also began to feel a rage bubbling deep inside him.
"Now, you will know Pain."
He pulled out another two kunai. Kenshin glanced over to his own knives, lying about three feet away, far beyond his reach.
"Shit…" he muttered breathlessly.
Pein threw them, and it cut the wires. Gravity took hold of the two girls, and they were sent into the abyss.
He looked up just as Hinata's pale face disappeared into the chasm, ebony hair flowing upward.
"NOOOO!!!"
Pein, in Preta Path, felt a massive surge of energy from the strange shinobi. It filled his arms, and suddenly, they blew up.
The impact blew Preta Path backward, and slammed him straight into a wall.
Kenshin, free of his captor due to the explosion of the latter's arms, ran straight at the chasm, and at its lip, he jumped off.
Pein, Human Path, simply sighed.
"One down, one to go…"
He approached the two others, Naraka and Asura, and they ceased.
Naruto was unconscious, but alive.
Pein in Naraka Path muttered,
"…These chakra-suppressing knuckledusters actually work."
The Asura Path, his face ever smiling, was only silent…
Kenshin unfurled his wings, and bent them back, making him more aerodynamic, speeding him up.
He reached Hinata first, and then went for Sakura…
The Naraka Path went over to the Preta Path, and carried him on his shoulder. The head Path, Deva Path, passed the two, and went over Naruto.
"We finally have the Nine-Tails." He said as he stood over Naruto's unconscious form.
Deva Path gave him a kick, convinced that he was unconscious, and not faking, he and the others left, leaving only the Human Path.
"We can pick him up later." Deva Path muttered.
"Watch him just in case."
Human Path sat down, and watched Naruto.
When the last path had finally left, Pein heard it.
A great heaving of wings…
From out of the chasm, he saw an angel rise, his four wings radiant, and his gilded mask aglow. He set the two girls down, and as Pein watched, he saw the two wings on his left side slowly vanish, and the ones on the right side began to grow darker, till they were shimmering ebony.
His mask's jawline slowly turned jagged, becoming into teeth, the wide collar of his jacket grow two sharp points resembling ears. His jacket grew three coattails. And his hands and feet grew segmented armor, his hands turning into claws, his shoes becoming boots, with talons protruding from the toe.
Pein watched as the angel, now a monster, breathed in deep, and let out a great roar, shaking the walls of the cave, resonating through the tunnels.
Kenshin grabbed the left edge of his mask, and shattered it, exposing the upper left side of his face, revealing an eye that had black sclera, a white iris, and in its middle, a black tempest.
"What are you?" breathed Pein.
"Now, you will know pain." The creature simply said.
It ran toward him on all fours, and proceeded to cut him up. He slashed him and ripped him.
"How dare you involve innocents!" he said as he ran his claws on Pein's chest.
"How dare endanger someone I love!" he said as he jammed his claws into his shoulder, and slammed him into a wall.
"This is unfair…" said Kenshin to no one in particular.
"If I'm gonna kill you, I'll do it with my own technique, and not by using the Tempest Wolf's power…"
He pulled out his fingers out of Pein's shoulders, and slowly reverted back.
He stood, and formed a Rasengan in both hands. He waited for Pein to get up.
As Pein stood, he saw the Rasengan in the angel's left hand slowly become conical, and clouds of grey formed around the Rasen Spike, and crawled up his arm, engulfing it in a storm cloud. Streaks of white lightning split the cloud, which had begun to resemble a lance.
The right hand Rasengan slowly turned grey, and it formed a translucent shuriken, its edges defined by lightning emanating from the Rasengan.
Pein breathed in deep, and accepted his fate.
He went into a battle pose, and prepared for the worst…
Naruto woke up, and saw as angel stood before him; with its back to him, facing Pein. He saw that he had a cloudy lance for a left arm, and in his right hand, was a technique he was familiar with.
Rasenshuriken…
"Prepare to die, Pein…" muttered Kenshin menacingly.
He rushed straight at Pein, and vanished.
Pein stood, wary of his surroundings, sensing for his opponent's chakra signature.
Suddenly, he felt a tornado blast out of his back.
Impossible! He thought to himself.
"Tempest Lance!!!" roared Kenshin.
Pein felt himself pushed diagonally upward, zigzagging straight into the ceiling as Kenshin vanished and reappeared out of nowhere, striking him like lightning.
The tornadoes suddenly stopped, and he felt himself hanging in mid-air. It felt like he was floating.
Kenshin reappeared in the cave floor, and threw the Rasenshuriken.
"Eye of the Storm! Shuriken!" he said as he let go of the shuriken.
Of course! thought Naruto.
I could've thrown it!
The shuriken flew upward, and grew in size as it approached Pein.
It struck him, and in an instant, Pein was vaporized.
His piercings and his forehead protector fell to the ground. Human Path was no more.
Kenshin let out a breath, and muttered…
"Summoning Jutsu, Divine Gate…Konoha." He said after he performed the handseals. After this, his hands dropped beside him.
He gazed into the gate, and saw that it was nighttime already, somewhere in the forest. He saw the gate a fair distance away.
He also saw a small spark of light, steadily growing. He kept the gate open, and just looked through it, resting…
He was so exhausted; he had never used his new skills so extensively. The missions he took a few weeks ago utilized skills taught to her by Hinata, things like the Shadow Clone Jutsu, and the Substitution jutsu, but the skills he used now were very new to him, techniques he had never used before, their power unfamiliar.
He rifled through his pockets, and pulled out two things: Detective Fedora's Deus Ex Machina, and a shiny red apple.
He placed the letter beside him; he pulled of his mask, or the remaining three-fourths of it, and placed it beside him as well.
He took a crunch out of the apple, and sat back. He closed his eyes, and ate.
He didn't notice the letter slowly, bit by bit, vanish into thin air, leaving only a scrap of paper, and on it was…
Good luck, kid…
Detective Fedora