Author's Note: Please Read Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far. Everyone gets a piece of my delicious zucchini bread, healthy and sweet and all yummy that it is.
There's more to go around if anyone wants to review again or bring a friend. Please?
You can find the previous songs, and any others I suggest, on Youtube. Trust me, it's all I've been doing while writing. There is the same warning as before for this chapter, both about the violence and about Sakura.
So, there's nothing else but for you to read, enjoy and review while I sneak out the back to rub my hands together nervously and watch.
Chapter 5
Ravaged Minds and Sweet Treasured Lives
It was no use. The fat guy was too great an enemy for her, and that endless army wasn't something she could handle unless she had back-up; but, she was doing well for herself, even so. Of course, she'd been constantly checking up on her teammates. But, this Konan woman almost seemed untouchable. Whatever Sakura did, she was always out of reach - flat-faced, calm and light as breeze.
If I could only land one hit, Sakura thought, bouncing of the tree that appeared seemingly out of nowhere on her right to redirect the power of her spring trying to hit Konan with her right, chakra-powered arm. One hit.
From the more convenient higher position, Konan saw her and reacted in time. Turning just enough to get a better angle, she skinned a rough looking sheet from her left underarm and used it like a fuma shuriken, throwing it down at Sakura.
It's just paper, Sakura's brain insisted. She watched in fascination as the white, thin layer approached, caught in mid-leap and unable to do anything without something to support her changing the movement; it all happened that quickly. It can't hurt you.
Only, Sakura knew better than that, and she had a still bleeding slash on her leg to remind her with the dull, everlasting ache that it was not just paper and that it can hurt, even kill. Nothing else to do, Sakura braced herself, and then the power of the attack blew her away several feet until she hit something rough and hard with her back.
Naruto sprinted to a place a bit further into the woods where he could sense Sakura's chakra. A panic was slowly overpowering him, and only the fact that he was also afraid for the wounded Yamato behind him was stopping him from using his newly gained knowledge of high speed to simply appear there. What was she doing all the way out here? Had she been fighting someone, and they, following each other blows, ended up there? Had they lured out of the sight of friends?
He concentrated and could feel that Pain's bitch, Konan, near Sakura. Forgetting all about Yamato, Naruto sped up. It was already too late, though. By the time Naruto could see Sakura's pink hair and not just feel her, Konan was gone.
The figure against the tree was not moving. Naruto narrowed his eyes a little, not able to recognize the white object that was covering a part of the familiar outfit. He got closer, until the scene was horribly clear in front of his eyes.
Sakura was pinned to the tree with a big white sheet of paper, nearly cut in half. That shouldn't have made sense, but it did, because Naruto could still feel the remainder of Konan's presence and he could see it clearly in his mind, her shurikens and paper white face. She will die for this, Naruto thought, and felt the demon in him laugh in delight at the venom in his determination. Of all the things she has done, Konan will die for this very one, from my hand.
Sakura's entire upper body was bent forward, and the blood from a cut on her head was dripping on the white, blossoming into patterns that looked so wrong, but maybe that was because it was Sakura. She was taking the glove off her right hand when Naruto, after running what seemed like an eternity, finally got close enough to hear her ragged, pain-filled breathing.
"Sakura," Naruto half whispered, as if not to startle her. It failed, because she snapped her head up and leveled her surprised eyes with his, though he could see they were beginning to glaze over with shock.
"What are you doing here?" She tried to say scornfully, attempting to use that tone she often used with him when they were younger, but it came out weak and broken in the middle. Naruto's stomach clenched.
"You're hurt." Naruto stated, wondering if he should take that thing out of her despite what he knew about how dangerous that could be. It was so deeply imbedded, almost cutting her in half. Even if he managed to not hurt her even more, the increase in bleeding alone would kill her, to say nothing of the shock. Damn it, Naruto cursed to himself as he swallowed thickly.
"Let me help you," he croaked out loud.
Sakura gave him a look that clearly said he was not to do anything. She managed to take the other glove off on her own.
"Go back. I'm a medic-nin, I can handle this." Her voice was strained and Naruto could see the furrow in her brow and the sweat on her forehead from concentrating so much. Losing so much blood had paled her already lily skin even further.
The gaping edges of the wound, slippery with his friend's blood, her abdomen swelling slightly, probably from internal bleeding and the organs he knew had to be shifting, all but ready to come spilling out once the paper blade was removed, none of it seemed real to Naruto. However, the wound was there and it was mortal. It hurt like hell; that was very obvious from the shaking of Sakura's hands and the croak in her voice. Naruto couldn't do anything about it, but he didn't want to leave her.
He had no choice. The battle was still roaring behind him. And even though this moment, secluded and lost among the trees with Sakura's too bright eyes and bloody hand, seemed unreal, Naruto knew he had responsibilities back on the battlefield. This was happening because of him, they were here to steal his power and many people were about to die if he didn't hurry.
Naruto came as close as he dared. Sakura was trying to gather enough chakra on her right hand so she could use medical ninjutsu, but Naruto interrupted her, placing his palm against her unpleasantly cold cheek. She widened her eyes at him for a moment, before a stab of pain made her close them and bend forward.
"I love you," Naruto whispered, without ever planning to say it at all, "so much," he breathed. Not like this. Please, not this way. Sakura opened her beautiful eyes now full of tears and gave him a smile. Naruto, wanting to do anything but that, smiled back. Then, he leaned over to conquer the little bit of space that was left between them and rested his lips on her forehead for a moment, before kissing her eyes and finally, her icy lips. It lasted a single moment, and then Naruto turned and left her behind, not fighting the tears or the rage that blossomed from that hollow place in his chest.
Naruto halted and sprung out of the tree he was perched on to land on the damp earth. Suddenly, all thought of catching that damnable excuse for a human, Konan, seemed a far distant ache in Naruto's mind. If he'd given himself time to process the reason, there would undoubtedly have been guilt in there as well. He should be after the bitch that had stolen Sakura from him. But, this new presence was something he could not pass by. He had felt a familiar resonance, one he could never have forgotten even had he not been allowed to come across it ever again. Shifting his gaze to either side and behind him his eyes tracked the forest area looking for a sign, any sign. Blowing out a breath, he headed back up to the trees intent on finding either Sasuke or Pain by the usual means. Sighting some type of white and black cloth he immediately recalled Sasuke's changed battle dress from Orochimaru's lair. Sucking in a breath he sped up his pace until he was within mere feet of the object. The cloth, painted in part by a reddish brown stain Naruto new all too well was caught on a low hanging branch of a lilac bush. Naruto could smell the sweet, cloying scent of the flowers though they were no longer in bloom.
Heading in the direction of Sasuke's scent while trying to stay in contact with his clones and the newly formed Kyuubi who were still fighting was becoming increasingly hard and his reserves began to dip lower. His muscles had begun to tire and the strain of keeping his chakra at the level it was at drained him further. Sensing another chakra level, much stronger than his own, Naruto slowed his progress. No, there was more than one signature. God, not now, not when he was this close.
Leaping a low slung branch to catch another two meters ahead with his hand, he pulled himself up to sit atop it as he tried to catch his breath. It stung in his chest and his whole body began to sizzle and ache with the pressure from Pain's chakra. He gasped as he caught sight of one of Pain's wretched dead clones holding Sasuke by the front of his yukata. Blood seeped out from Sasuke's mouth slowly and Naruto felt a pain reverberate through him. Sasuke sputtered and then spit in Pain's face, an action that pulled Naruto back to another time he'd seen Sasuke that angry. Only severe pain could bring such anger. A pain that Naruto could not fathom, but would gladly have taken the burden of if he could have. Inhaling deeply, Naruto stepped out from his vantage point on a thin branch of a nearby oak. Pain did not even glance at him as he spoke.
"So, the great Kyuubi wielder, Konoha's most unpredictable ninja, has finally arrived. Are you here to try to quell this young man's rage or to send me to my doom?" Pain's remark was caustic and sarcastic. Naruto narrowed his eyes feeling his determination and anger fuel his drive to rescue his friend and keep his village safe.
"No, I'm here to kill you and save my friend."
Pain threw his head back and let out a roar that Naruto would have sworn rivaled Kyuubi in his true form.
"You amuse me, little wind rider. Naruto-chan . . . I can call you Naruto-chan, right? He does not want to be saved, but neither does he want to play by my leader's rules. A shame, as it would have been a glorious game."
"Whether he wants it or not, whether he thinks he needs it or not, I will help him." Naruto hardened his gaze but relaxed his body willing himself to calm down; he was sure would not last long. Sasuke made a disgusted sound from the back of his throat and sneered at Naruto.
"I told you it was no use. You and all your little playmates mean nothing to me." But, Naruto caught a hint of something he could not explain in Sasuke's eyes and decided to press the issue while he built up enough chakra to attack.
"Sometimes, what a person wants is not what they need, and sometimes, what they need, they cannot always see."
"Spouting philosophy now?" Sasuke leered.
"You shouldn't quit your day job, not that you're any good at that." Pain had kept his gaze on his hand around Sasuke's throat, tightening it a little each time the boy spoke.
"Pathetic child. If you had only done what was required of you, you would have avenged your clan and been able to die in peace. Now, you've made the leader angry and none but a suicidal fool would do such a thing."
"Shut the hell up, asshole. I won't be used, not by Itachi and least of all by that arrogant freak you worship." Naruto listened to this exchange with only half an ear as he was concentrating on placing a few clones within two strides of Pain's other bodies that he'd located across the field. They had just hacked through a squad of Konoha ninja, a fact that had Naruto wanting to pound those bastards into the ground a thousand times over. His comrades' blood was soaking through the underbrush like rain to permeate the soil below. Their cries of pain and fear and their intense grief for fallen friends . . . Naruto wanted to shut his connection to his clones but knew he needed it, just for a little while longer. He closed his eyes breathed out once, slowly, and moved.
It was almost graceful; well, as graceful as Sasuke thought Naruto could be. He moved as if the air was like his very skin. He had not even known Pain had moved to parry Naruto's furious attacks until he suddenly found his throat clear of the agonizing pressure from Pain's hand. A fluid series of kicks in a style vaguely reminiscent of Silat warriors had Naruto spinning on his hands to force chakra from his feet. The cutting wind curved through branches and sliced at Pain's clothes. Dropping to one knee, Naruto swept his dominant leg out to catch Pain's ankle and as Pain lost his balance then sprung up to catch the man's hand to throw him to the ground. Locking the wrist, Naruto then turned Pain's body so that he was facing the ground with his arm painfully trapped behind him. Naruto wrenched that arm forward until Sasuke heard a sickening crack. This, this could not be Naruto. When had he gotten so strong? Was really only a few months ago that Sasuke had met with him at the lair? Sure he had gotten taller and broader and that temper and infectious smile had toned down a bit. Sasuke shook his head and continued to muse as the battle raged on in front of him. Perhaps he really is still as different to Sasuke as before, but there were both subtle and grandiose changes that had Sasuke wondering what else he might have missed out on. He shook his head again. Now was not the time to be entertaining flights of fancy.
Naruto forced his breathing to stay in control as he swiveled around for another set of wind chakra techniques, this time through his lengthened and sharpened kunai. Damn it, he'd lost sight of Sasuke. Somewhere in all the sliding, shifting movements he and the Yahiko-Pain he was fighting had moved to a secluded glade and Naruto could no longer feel Sasuke's chakra. He prayed it was because he was concentrating on the battle in front of him as well as the one he could vaguely hear in the background.
Turning his head, he caught Sasuke in the corner of his vision reclining against a tree and panting heavily. Just what did his friend get himself into? Turning back to face Pain, he spat at his feet at the feeling of his own familiar anger surging forward.
"I'll tell you this once. Sasuke is no toy and he is no experiment. He is his own person allowed to make his own choices even if I think they're the wrong ones. You can't have him . . . or anyone else here." Naruto added the last part almost as an after thought, the sting of guilt ripping at his heart as Sakura's face, pale, cold and dying, swam into his mind.
"I'll stop you, even if takes every breath I have, every power I can conjure."
"You're still living by some fairytale ideal where the world is as bright and happy as you can make it. You are a ninja and still you see the world the way it can never be unless it is made that way by force," the Yahiko clone informed him.
"You're right. The world is not all about peace and love and light. There is real pain and there will always be death. As a ninja I could die in any battle from here on, but not today, not with you."
The Yahiko clone threw his head back and laughed.
"You cannot be serious," he scoffed. "Though, it doesn't matter if you are. My will shall be realized no matter what you do."
"Oh, I'm more than serious," Naruto intoned.
"I may not always understand why you bastards end up the way you do, or care. But, if I only looked at what's in the past, what evil they have done and what they were instead of what they could be and what they could still accomplish given the best chance, I would be like you. And, you are nothing more than a pathetic shell of humanity, not worth thinking about or talking to. Now, shut the hell up and fight."
Naruto had no real concept of the world as Pain saw it, he was sure; and really, he didn't know if he believed anything he'd just said, but if he had understood, then it was fine. As long as Sasuke heard and understood that anything could be forgiven, put right, while there was still time and breathe left to him. He would make sure of it.
The clash of ringing steel rent the air. Biting winds had joined Naruto's effort to keep Yahiko busy, pulling at his clothes and slowing his movements while buoying Naruto's. Naruto wondered, with the part of his mind that was busy predicting the next movement of his opponent, how it was even possible that he had so many problems controlling the wind in the beginning. It was so easy now for him to use it to his advantage.
He was doing well, managing to land several potent blows into the flesh of this body, but that was until Yahiko transported himself in front of a panting, chakra-exhausted Sasuke.
Naruto only had a moment to form a strategy in his head before he reacted. But, for Naruto, sometimes a moment was all it took for him to see a solution.
Using the lightning speed technique once more he pivoted and streaked past Yahiko with barely a second to spare. Yahiko's summoned sword, sharpened by lightning chakra skewered Naruto from behind, shattering two ribs, puncturing his lower left lung and slid on through the muscle wrapping around the other side like so much tenderized meat.
Shit, that hurt.
It still hurt; searing and branding through the muscle and bone surrounding the entry and exit; running along his entire body, the current finally reaching his already overworked heart, made it beat frantically out of rhythm. White flashes hazed Naruto's vision until Sasuke's face was no longer carved into the graying sky.
But, Naruto's ears seemed to be working just fine.
"Just like a poor, pathetic, misled puppy trained to recognize a human as pack leader instead of the fuel to stave off hunger," Yahiko sneered in his ear.
But, Sasuke was the important thing right now. The graying light shifted, parting so that Naruto caught a glimpse of his face and a strange, confusing expression before the white lights returned. Naruto finally realized Yahiko was forcing lightning chakra through the blade much as Sasuke did when using his Chidori Nagashi with his own Kusanagi sword. Only Yahiko wasn't as strong or as good with the skill as Sasuke; Naruto could tell.
Coughing, hacking and sputtering as he fought to breathe, Naruto tasted blood in his mouth before it forced its way passed parched lips and onto the forest floor, not that he could see much of it. Indeed, for one gloriously mad moment Naruto had the desire to lean down in order to put his face closer to the rich earth and inhale its heady, rich scent.
"Why?"
The question caught him by surprise, well, not so much that it had been asked, but because of who had uttered it.
Naruto lifted his head up to meet Sasuke's wavering form and tried to find the other man's eyes to focus on. God, he wished his eyes would stop betraying him. Even more, he wished Sasuke would not tease him so. He was so tired.
He rasped and choked again, only managing to laugh in his own head; such a stupid question.
"S-stupid," he managed through panting, heaving breaths, never seeming to catch enough air.
"What?" Sasuke was speaking, but Naruto found it so hard to focus. He could hear Kyuubi in his head, barking something unintelligible. Naruto ordered him to be silent and wait. A little more and they might be able to finish this now, before anyone else fell into their hands or through them onto the blood soaked miasma that had transformed the soil to gritty, slippery sludge.
"You . . . ask why . . . when . . . you . . . should know," Naruto gasped.
Sasuke's face swam into sharp focus suddenly, so suddenly it almost hurt to see it.
Yahiko was trying to force the blade up into the remainder of his lung with all his weight; at least that's what it felt like he was doing. It was all Naruto could do to pool wind chakra to encase the blade, negating the lightning technique that had been slowly torturing him to death. That had made it a little easier to breathe, which made it easier to think.
His mind clearing, Naruto sent a message for Kyuubi to stand ready. His clones had sent word that they had all five of Pain's other bodies contained in separate areas of the battlefield. They were running on chakra fumes, but it would be enough; it would have to be enough.
Sasuke's narrowed gaze caught Naruto and he felt like it held him there, enspelling him more powerfully than Pain's sword technique.
And he isn't even using the Sharingan? That thought whisked its way out of his head as soon as it had hit at the look he was getting from Sasuke, whose pursed lips and furrowed brow gave the impression he had no mouth.
"There are bakers in Konoha."
Sasuke blinked at this and then narrowed his eyes again as if he was expecting some kind of hidden agenda.
"And musicians, barkeeps, waitresses and seamstresses and teachers," Naruto continued as he snaked a rapidly numbing hand around to hold the sword from behind.
"None of them . . . have anything . . . to do with war," he gasped again as a fresh wave of lightning chakra tried unsuccessfully to break his wind barrier.
"Will you kill them, too? The ones that know nothing of our world but depend upon us to keep it that way? This one," here, Naruto gestured behind him at the abomination that chose to call itself after the very thing it promised.
"This one will enslave, imprison or kill anyone he feels deserves it. Domination, subjugation and death are all he knows from his past. That isn't about to change, not for him. To change, you need to stop doing the same thing as before, or stop it from happening to someone else. Even I know that." Naruto voiced the last part at a bare whisper forcing Sasuke, and thereby, Pain to lean in a little more.
Lifting his weight onto the balls of his feet, Naruto grasped the sword in his right hand tighter, feeling it bite through his flesh, and in one continuous move slid away from the point and pivoted to face Yahiko.
Forcing wind chakra into a shield to cover the lightning thrumming through the sword, he encased Yahiko in the same way. The difference was that his wind blades, that both worked as a barrier and a weapon, were stronger than Yahiko's lightning. Sending the go ahead to Kyuubi and his clones, he merely waited and watched.
The fox demon's blood-freezing scream ripped at the angry shouts, screams of pain and sounds of ringing metal until all was temporarily hushed. A vaporous cloud engulfed the now white and red furred Kyuubi, covering him in an amorphous fog.
"Was that your plan? Is that all you have left?" Yahiko scorned him again. Temper flaring his nostrils and narrowing his eyes, Naruto smirked.
"No, you're forgetting something."
And with that, streaks of silvery white light burst forth from the fog surrounding Kyuubi coalescing into six gleaming, glittering foxes each streaking towards their predetermined targets with mad fervor.
All six of Pain's bodies had only a moment to process what was happening. It was not enough for a defense, not enough to run; there was nothing.
The silver-white miniscule versions of their thousand year old master standing proud and indestructible behind them had all the speed and power of their larger and far more fearsome ruler.
They obeyed without thought, without conscience, stalwart soldiers created by Kyuubi long ago to keep the balance of power in the Underworld in his hands. Opening their mouths impossibly wide to emit an eerie and ethereal light, al six souls, or rather pieces of souls, were stretched, pulled and gathered into six hungry maws outlined by teeth designed for tearing.
Jaws snapped shut audibly and the hush that had fallen over the gathered ninja persisted right up until Pain's wasted bodies hit the compacted dirt.
A collective roar sounded from the gathered Konoha and Suna ninja that spurred them forward with seven ancient, angry God-Beasts leading the way. Kyuubi picked his way to Naruto's side as the soldier foxes dissipated into mist and were carried away on the wind Naruto had released from Pain's cage. This must have been what Kyuubi had meant when he had spoken of subordinates. Naruto had not understood every part of Kyuubi's plan to use them to take out every one of Pain's bodies, and had he not seen it with his own eyes he would not have believed it possible. Pain, a master of that very limiting and caustic emotion, had fallen, and Kyuubi, one of the most hated and feared of all the former demons had caused it. Naruto wasn't sure what taking all their souls to hell might mean for him, but he was too weary to wonder about it further.
"Well done, human. That was almost good," droned the impossibly dark voice of the old Guardian God of the Underworld.
"Shut it, you. We're not done," was Naruto's short reply.
He turned to meet Sasuke's eyes once more but found them hidden under a layer of his blue-black bangs.
"Sasuke?" he questioned.
Sasuke shook his head and turned to rejoin the throng of warriors. Naruto hoped it would not be the last time he would see his old friend before the battle ended, but there were still two more members of the Akatsuki to deal with. His injuries were healing slower than they ever had before but Naruto had no time to wonder about it. His chakra reserves would have to hold out, at least until the last two members, most importantly that twisted psychopath, Uchiha Madara, were taken care of.
He turned to Kyuubi and uttered only three words.
"Find me Konan." Kyuubi nodded silently and turned away to dissolve into thick red smoke. No doubt he was searching while hidden under or in between the Realms of the Living and the Dead. Naruto sighed heavily and began the process of removing all of Pain's heads to take back as proof that he'd been eliminated. He would burn the rest so that not even the carrion birds would have anything left to feast on. He smiled bitterly.
Bet that old pervert is laughing his ass off at this right now. How about it, Jiraiya?
The only answer he received was a gentle caress from an east wind but he took it as a sign in the affirmative. This time he truly smiled, and then set to work.