Chapter 3
And, It Was the End of All Things . . . Or Is that The Beginning?
Naruto pulled in a deep breath, allowing his blue eyes to drift closed briefly before exhaling slowly. He stood quietly beside his team; Sakura, Sai, Yamato and Kakashi. Once, it feels like forever and an age ago, it had been Team Seven. He allowed the memories of that time, his memories of Sasuke, to wash over and through him.
They stood at the gates of Fire country's largest and most prosperous village. And, like it or not, it all had to do with the ninja. Fearsome as they were, brutal as they could be, he was a member of that horde. The same group of people was somewhere ahead and to the left, according to Pakun and Kakashi's other nin-dogs, though they were wholly different.
Nervous energy fueled him, as nothing else could and Naruto began to fidget a little. He was not the same twelve year old who screamed his threats and charged irrationally, nor was he the same fifteen year old who allowed anger to override better judgment. But, there were still times when things like being patient and waiting out an enemy to get a feel for his techniques and strategies was lost on Naruto. He'd much rather fight fast and hard, ending the fight as quickly as possible. His time with Fukasaku had given him more than an enhanced strength to his techniques and an understanding of the nature fuelled chakra system. He would profit more from knowledge than a quick battle.
Sai and Sakura were watching him intently, he realized and, feigning cheerfulness, he smiled wide and snickered quietly. He really was nervous, though. He still hadn't gotten to the bottom of that last letter or the strengthening technique, nor had he had a chance to enlighten Kakashi or any of the others about what he's been up to in the last week.
"Naruto, are you okay?" Sakura's question caught him off guard and Naruto stared for a moment before shrugging and laughing it off softly.
"I'm fine, Sakura-chan." Naruto smiled again, widening the grin in a manner much like the fox inside him. "Honestly, you worry too much. It's about time we got around to dealing some major damage to their side, past time."
The look in his eyes played to the hardened resolve he was, even now, relying on. Kakashi glanced back at them from the trees. The rest of his teammates followed without question with Naruto sticking close to Kakashi. It was no longer a matter of being the first out on the field, but his new found understanding of his strengths. He was a close combat fighter, one who they would expect to see first. That didn't mean they would necessarily meet with the real Naruto, though. Breathing out slowly once more, Naruto fed a large portion of his chakra to his senses, stretching them out further than he had in training. The smell of wet leaves assaulted him, the scent of rain hidden in the cluster of clouds to the right, the feel of the sun just above them, the call of a solitary bird; a finch, by the sound of it.
He let all these things wash over him in a tidal wave of sensation and it stayed with him all through the journey through the forest until they sighted the clearing up ahead. Naruto's second scan of the area occurred before they reached the tree-line. Indeed, he had already keyed into seven sets of unfamiliar chakra. Pain, all six of him, and this Konan had not been among the members of the Akatsuki they'd tangled with in the past. That did not matter. The only things spiraling through Naruto's mind at the moment were all the techniques he'd recently learned and the seals to the one technique he hoped he wouldn't need; not yet, anyway. They still had Madara and a few other nasty warmongers to deal with, after all.
"Kakashi," Naruto spoke softly as he perched atop a branch not far from the clearing where he'd sensed the others. "Two on your left, one up ahead and four more interspersed in the crag to the right," Naruto had picked up on a void far ahead of them, on the other side of the clearing back behind a copse of oaks. "But there's something wrong."
"What do you mean, Naruto?" Kakashi was peering at him intently, as if he was trying to crawl into his head. Naruto supposed that really was his intent, in a way; but it didn't mean he had to like it. In fact, he found he hated it.
"There." Naruto said, nodding in the direction of the oaks. Now when Kakashi's attention was drawn to it, it was clear on what was visible of his face that he could feel it as well.
"What?" Sakura asked, quietly. Naruto looked at her. She met his eyes steadily, but licked her lips in the process, obviously nervous. Naruto fought the desire to tell her she should stay back; getting a black eye before the fight even started was not a good idea.
"There's a void about fifty meters ahead of us that shouldn't be there." Sakura looked a bit confused at this answer. So, Naruto continued, "Every living thing has chakra, from animals to plant-life and, as you know, humans. You know also that Ninja have the ability to mold chakra into attacks and defense. But, that void . . . there's absolutely no chakra there which isn't possible even if it was only rock because rock is earth and so is connected to plant and animal life. There are micro-organisms inside earth that would have to mean chakra. There isn't any. I'm worried it means something big and dangerous could be in its place."
Behind him, Kakashi said, "It is nothing we can deal with right now. Our opponents are Akatsuki."
Sakura didn't seem to like that answer, she frowned clenching a fist in irritation, and Naruto got an idea.
"Sakura, remember when we talked about Pain, how he has six bodies?"
"And the real one is not among them?" She said, referring to the message Jiraiya had left. "Did you find out what that means?"
"We have to take them all down, perhaps even at the same time." Kakashi answered when Naruto simply shook his head. Yamato confirmed it as well. Naruto found Sakura's eyes with his own again, and told her, "There is one among them – the fat one - Ma told me he eats jutsus."
Sakura frowned and then widened her eyes in understanding, but Naruto finished anyway. "Since you don't really use them, you take him."
Instead of answering, Sakura just smiled. It was answer enough.
"Are we ready, then?" Yamato asked. Naruto quickly did the hand seals and the clones appeared. He sent several to hide around the area and wait if they were needed, and the rest he turned to his teammates and himself. Better to see first what these people are made of.
Kakashi gave him a look, but let him do as he wished. For that, Naruto was grateful. Clones landed on the clearing. Kakashi gave them a sign, and they all jumped several branches up. From up there, the view was much clearer.
Naruto watched as 'Team Kakashi' appeared in front of the Akatsuki. Some words were exchanged and then the woman, Konan, raised one hand. Under the hem of her sleeve, her skin and flesh broke into what looked like a pile of paper sheets. They swirled around, caught on the wind, in a spiral formation that gave the paper some velocity. A single clone, the one Naruto left looking like him, attacked Konan before she could do anything else.
He found his way blocked by the flurry of paper than felt like blades slicing at his skin. Smiling, the clone whirled in the air and the paper dissolved, shredded by wind chakra Naruto had forced out of every part of his body.
His clone brought out more clones only to see them disappear just as suddenly. Damn, but those paper shuriken are annoying, thought Naruto. Using a technique from his Sage training, Naruto sent Toad oil flying at Konan quickly following it from another angle with Sasuke's signature grand fireball technique.
At least, grand fireball it had been Sasuke's signature technique. God knows how far Sasuke had gone on the road to power, and ultimately, destruction. Naruto wasn't going to let it be the end of his friend, or anything else, for that matter.
Pushing off the limb he'd been clinging to, he called up five clones and transported himself to stand in front of Pain. Kakashi called out to him, Naruto knew even if he couldn't hear him. Sakura, too, wanted to know what he was thinking.
"You're . . . looking for me?" As he spoke, Pain flicked his eyes over Naruto, appraising him. "Right?"
"You've grown much, Jinchuuriki," he replied.
Jinchuuriki, as if he had no name or will of his own. But if this . . . person, thought Naruto was nothing but a demon carrier, that he had nothing aside from the beast within him, he was wrong and he would lose this fight.
"You know, I really hate that word." Naruto said softly, honestly. "I'm not a monster or a weapon, though I can become those things almost as easily as you have." The wind had picked up, answering Naruto's summons.
"Hey, I hear you're the one who likes summoning," this he directed at the tawny headed kunoichi to his right.
"Jiraiya thought you were someone he knew. But, I know different." Naruto said, letting his confidence in the newfound knowledge show.
"Or, at least he does."
Before Naruto could say more, he found himself being forced back by something big and heavy. Naruto looked up and realized it was one of this Pain's summons, a salamander. There was no doubt this thing could use fire.
In the meantime Konan had dispersed the flames, though not without injury. Kakashi and she were now facing off. Good. With his lightning chakra he's a perfect match for her.
Sakura had her work cut out for her keeping the jutsu-eating body busy. They were both slow and strong, but as Sakura's main way of fighting was close combat and his was not, because he rarely had to get so near to an opponent to absorb a jutsu, once he was in Sakura's range, the fight was as good as over.
Yamato and Sai had taken on two of the other bodies. It looked good, Yamato was successfully fending off the ninjutsu user and Sai was flying just above the one skilled in taijutsu, who was stubbornly trying to hit him with a flashy ninjutsu that was faintly familiar.
Naruto was watching them for a couple of seconds through the eyes of a clone above and to the right to make sure the advantage would stay on their side. All the while, the fox was whispering inside his head.
They all need to die, at once. That one isn't what he claims. They are all the same person.
Naruto understood the implications of such a revelation and damned the fox for waiting until it was almost too late to do anything about it. Of course, had the fox told him earlier, he would probably have told Kakashi and Yamato thereby ruining the chance he now had to catch Nagato and all his extra bodies off-guard. Was that just Kyuubi's sadistic sense of humor or maybe he hadn't been sure until they were close enough for Kyuubi to sense something? Never mind, there was no time to wonder now.
"You see, I think Jiraiya was right the first time. You are Nagato . . . all of you." Naruto's voice became clipped, authoritative. "But, that leaves us with a dilemma. Where is the body?"
The Nagato clone narrowed his eyes at Naruto, "I don't care about your delusions or what you think you know about me, or this world. It will all come to be as I wish it. You are going to die soon."
With this the Yahiko clone charged at Naruto and the other two bodies waiting in the wings came after in one seamless movement. Naruto saw this as the appropriate time to use his Rasengan and the new lightning speed technique he'd found in Minato's journal, together with a handful of well placed clones. Catching every single one of them at once, including Konan, Naruto pushed them all back toward the void at the other side of the clearing.
Breathless, Kakashi and Yamato caught up to him.
"Where on Earth did you learn that, Naruto?" Kakashi, even breathless, sounded irritated. "And, how did you discover the truth about Pain and his bodies?" Naruto could understand his frustration.
"I'll explain later, when we get rid of them all. Right now, you need to keep Sakura-chan back with you. We're going to have a lot of injuries soon, I think, and we'll be relying on her to keep us all on our feet and fighting." Kakashi looked like he was going to push the argument, at first, but then settled down.
"Fine," he nearly growled, "But, you will explain." Naruto merely nodded. Of course he would explain it, but there was no time for arguments now. Kakashi would have to trust him and once they saw this through, they could talk for a week. Naruto then turned his attention back to the clearing, narrowing his eyes. Suddenly, he caught it, the sting of chakra in the air; a lot of it, from separate areas. He pushed, concentrated on detaching individual signatures, and his breath caught.
"Sasuke," he breathed. It was Sasuke, out there, in that 'void'. It was his chakra, Naruto knew it so well. Sasuke was here, and he came as a part of an army, a rather large, very intimidating army.
"What?" Sakura asked, having just caught up to them.
"He's here." Naruto told her. "And, there are others."
He caught movement to his left and realized too late the void had come down. They were free and coming for them. Konoha was in greater danger than they all realized. Naruto's pace sped up, heart hammering in his throat, mouth dry, ears ringing.
"Naruto . . . what?" Kakashi called out, and then stopped suddenly. "Oh . . . ," His eyes widened in a fair parody of Naruto.
Sakura felt her stomach lurch at the glimpse of fear she caught there before Kakashi had shut it down. She looked over at Naruto again and felt the funny flip-flopping of fear again. What on earth had he been doing on that mountain to come back like this? He was so different though she could see hints of the same Naruto who constantly cursed, lost his temper often and tended to be in such a hurry, to do what she could no longer always tell. It was a bit sad. She was the only one that seemed to be left behind . . . again. Sasuke had grown, changed. Still silent, but also far past the time when raging emotions he would let build and then let go of ruled him. And, Naruto . . . she wasn't quite sure where he was headed anymore, but knew, in her heart, that he felt the same way about the village and all the important lessons they'd all learned in training about family, teamwork and loyalty as he had when they started on their journey together to become genin.