I'm back and finally have next chapter for "Two". Thanks to everyone for reading this story!

Two
chapter 5: Sage and his princess

Tamaki was walking home with some groceries. It was whole six weeks since Naruto left to train with toads and she couldn't help but feel very lonely. Of course, she ad friends in Konoha, like that Ino girl or Hokage's secretary Shizune, she also had her shop to run but that couldn't help her much... Naruto was her shield from loneliness and pain and without him she returned to her 'broken' self...

Suddenly alarms went on. Tamaki saw human figure flying through the air. It landed somewhere not far from where she was. Several seconds later there was an explosion and Tamaki decided that it was the best time to stop standing in one place and run somewhere...

***

It was another boring council meeting, when alarm went on. Second later ANBU appeared by Tsunade's side.

"Pein attacked our village, Hokage-sama." He said.

"We will cut this meeting short. I need to protect Konoha" Tsunade rose from her seat and sprinted to her office, Danzo followed her.

"Tsunade, it's a good time to use the power of the ROOT. After all it was created to deal with treats like this." Old war hawk said. Hokage sighed.

"OK, order them to evacuate civilians and, if they see the enemy, engage them with extreme caution: we don't know the true extent of his power." Tsunade told him, then she opened her office and looked at messenger toad Fukasaku left there just in case something like this will happen. "Gamasitsu, I need you to tell Fukasaku-dono that Konoha is attacked by Pein." Toad nodded. Tsunade bit her finger and leaped out of the window in her office, flashing through handseals. "Summoning: Katsuyu!"

"No, no, no, toady, you ain't going anywhere." Danzo said as kodaichi appeared in his left hand.

***

"Kiiyaa!!!" Sakura hit giant centipede on its head, making summoned monster crash on the ground dead. Second later it disappeared in the poof of smoke. Animal path of Pein saw that centipede was killed and summoned giant panda to continue crashing the village. Sakura was ready to kill it too, but two Akimichi appeared next to her.

"Sakura, you're needed at the hospital, we'll deal with this." Choji said. "Multiweight!" He called in unison with his father, both increasing in size about forty times. "Meat tank!" Both turned into giant balls and rolled to attack summoned monster. Seeing this, Tsunade's apprentice sped towards the hospital: after all she was medic first and fighter second.

***

"Naruto, Gamasitsu was killed. Something happened in Konoha." Fukasaku called. "Prepare, we are going there in a minute. Ma already went there. She will summon us soon." Naruto nodded, checking if everything was ready for a battle and preparing to enter his sage mode.

"OK, Pa. I'll be ready in several seconds."

"Good. Be ready, Your opponent will be very strong. Pein himself possibly." Pa said.

"Yeah, Yeah, like I ever fought with weak opponents..." Fukasaku sighed: this tadpole's self-confidence would kill him one day...

***

Kakashi watched as his another attack couldn't do anything to Pein. And it was only two bodies he was fighting against...

'How strong this guy is? I barely can hold my ground against two bodies. How Jiraya-sama could fight all six of them at once?..' Deva path pointed at him and silverhaired jounin felt himself dragged towards this body. Gakido path prepared to deliver bone-cracking hit. But suddenly all three combatants were distracted by three big clouds of smoke that appeared on the cliff just outside village walls. When smoke cleared, one could see three big enormous toads - Gamabunta, Gamaken and Gamahiro - standing there. On Bunta's head stood smaller toad - Gamakichi - on whose head there were two more even smaller, about forty centimeters in height, old toads in dark cloaks - Fukasaku and Shima. Also, on Kichi's head stood a lonely man. He was dressed in standard dark-blue chuunin/jounin clothes, red with black flames on the bottom cloak. Man had big scroll on his back... ...His blond hair and six whisker mark were dead giveaway - this was Naruto!

"My real target has arrived. It was nice to fight with you, Copy-cat Kakashi." And then both Pein's bodies disappeared via shunshin.

***

Naruto and elder toads leaped down to the ground. Next second there were six whirls of wind and water in which all six bodies of Pein appeared. Than they took their positions on the battlefield.

From what Naruto could find at mountain Meboku, there were six paths of rinnengan, Pein in this case: Deva or God path, young looking body with short hair and six piercings on his nose; Animal path, female body as blond jinchuuriki deduces - previous was captured by Jiraya and all other bodies were seen by toads before; Human path, man with long free-flowing hair; Gakido path, big bald male body with three faces; then there was Asura path, man with slicked down hair, and finally, Preta path, big, maybe even bigger than Gakido path, man with pretty long ridging hair.

Their formation was like that with Human, Animal, Asura and Gakido realms in the front row, Deva realm just behind them and Preta in the rear. Suddenly Deva path jumped into the air with stretched out hand.

"Get out of here!" Naruto commanded to toads at the same time running through handseals. "Sage arts: citadel wall!"

"Shinra tensei!" Pein's attack hit thick stone wall that surrounded his target moment before, crashing it into pieces, but not harming Naruto ...or three who hid behind the wall. And one of Narutos had a jutsu in his hand that resembled both shuriken and rasengan at the same time. Shadow clones jumped away and real Naruto threw this jutsu into the mass of Pein's bodies. Clones sent kunai with explosive tags after rasengan-shuriken. "Shinra tensei!" Deva path send attack to intercept this jutsu but was too late as it contacted with explosive tags and turned into giant fireball of fifty meters in diameter with three realms - Human, Animal and Gakido paths - in it. Or it looked like that... Fireball started decreasing in size until it was 'sucked' into Asura path's body.

"Kisama!" Naruto cursed. Next second he was forced into defense as Animal path, after summoned Deva path back, attacked him with summoned giant rhino and bull while his clones were busy fighting with Human and Gakido paths.

"Naruto down!" Fukasaku called. "Sage arts: toad croak!" Extremely powerful sound wave passed just over blond's head and threw animals into the air, where Gamaken and Gamahiro were ready to finish them... Gakido path killed shadow clone and attacked original. Naruto ducked under his punch and hit the path's head, breaking both his scull and neck. Animal path immediately summoned destroyed body back while big white and dark-blue head with kanji for "king" on its forehead and opened mouth appeared near Preta path. Animal path threw what was left from Gakido path into head's mouth and it returned three seconds later unharmed and 'alive'... Human path, beaten, but not destroyed was summoned to other... Naruto hit the ground, creating dust cloud. Second later there was rain of shurikens from this cloud, most of them were targeted at Asura and Animal paths.

"Shinra tensei!" with one movement Deva path redirected all shurikens, destroying most of them as they were cloned.

"Sage arts: earthquake!" Naruto hit the ground with both his hands, creating wide network of crack and making all six Pein's bodies lose balance for a second. At this moment shadow clone emerged from under the ground and implanted rasengan into Preta's neck, destroying the body and making the to disappear. This was all that it could do as human path pierced it with blades.

"Bastard!" Deva path yelled. Then Asura and Gakido paths threw it high into the air.

"Everybody, run!" Naruto yelled, again flashing through handseals. "Sage arts: protective dome!"

"Shinra tensei!" There was extremely powerful explosion... When dust sagged, in stead of flat ground there was crater easily three hundred meters in diameter and thirty meter deep with small 'island' in the center with unharmed but heavily breathing Naruto. His sage powers were gone... 'This is my chance!' Deva path directed his flight so that he will land on the 'island'... Naruto removed scroll from his back and opened it. He hit the seals and unsealed... ...his clone in meditative pose and in sage mode. Naruto broke dismissed the clone and was again with sage powers. Animal path summoned Deva path moment before Naruto's fist would connect with its gut. Then Animal path summoned giant four-winged ugly bird, crustacean and cerberus. Cerberus split into seven dogs and attacked toads, while crustacean summoned tons of water as a spurt and made Naruto master mud wall as a defense.

"Aaa..." Bird rammed blond jinchuuriki from behind, if not for the sage powers, it would kill Naruto with this hit, and sent him high into the air. There it caught him by his cloak and brought to the five bodies of Pein. Bird dropped Naruto right into the hands of Asura path and immediately blond felt his sage powers leaving him. "It can absorb sage chakra too?" He asked no one particular, but Deva path answered.

"Any chakra and in any quantities."

'In any quantities... Sage chakra...' Suddenly Naruto got an idea. He stopped all of his movements and began gathering natural energy, which was immediately absorbed by Asura Path.

"What?!" Deva path asked, not understanding what was going on, when Asura path began turning into toad first and then became stone.

"So, Jiraya didn't show this... Natural energy gives one enormous powers, but only if balanced correctly. If there is too much of it, you'll turn into a toad or stone statue." Naruto, again in his sage mode, answered, braking free from statue of Asura path. "Rasengan!" Blond jinchuuriki implanted spiraling ball of chakra into Animal path's gut, destroying it and making summons disappear, before creating some distance between him and three 'alive' paths. Deva path stretched out its hand, but moved it to the side. Naruto looked there and saw that some people were watching the battle from a very close distance. And Pein decided to attack them...

"Shinra Tensei!" For a moment time stopped and Naruto could see who were targeted by this attack. Among random ninja and civilians, there were Tsunade and... Tamaki... If first could use her chakra to stick to the ground, second was blown away and hit the wall of a building, leaving small crater...

"Tamaki-chan!" Red violent energy burst from Naruto's body the very same moment Gakido path stabbed him through stomach from behind with its tail... Then there was explosion of dark-red yokai of Kyuubi... When it died down, there stood a creature with six tails, extremely hot dark-red body made from the mix of blood and yokai and fox skeleton over it. Gakido path's body was burned to ashes... Beast roared and a beam of dark matter shot at Deva path.

"Shinra tensei!" Pein was barely able to block this attack...

"N-Naruto!.." Tamaki, who was barely conscious after that hit, cried as she saw the monster her love turned into. Deva path turned to the girl and readied itself to attack...


'N-Naruto!..' Blond jinchuuriki's eyes snapped open. It was dark. Very dark. There was only dim blood-red light. And he was deep in the water, though he could breathe. He turned around and saw a thick rods of a giant cage. The very same cage in which Kyuubi no Yoko was sealed in his subconscious.

"Shit!" Naruto tried to swim up, but was hit by one of Kyuubi's tails

"No, stupid monkey, you aren't going anywhere!" Bijuu roared. "Today I will be free! I will take over your body!"

"Forget it, fur ball!" Naruto tried again and this time he managed to dodge Kyuubi's tail attack, but demon had nine...

"Stupid hairless monkey, do you honestly think you can defeat me?" Kyuubi roared, trying to catch Naruto with its mouth.

"Shut up! I don't need to defeat you. I only need to be out of your cage!" After numerous attempts blond finally succeeded in dodging all attacks from Kyuubi and swam up, where there still was no water and out of cage. He then dove under the water pressed his hand to the seal, making water flow away. "I will never let you free!"

"No-o-o-o-o!!!" Fox cried in despair, losing control over Naruto's real body.


"Shinra tensei!" A pair of giant blood-red monster arms appeared in front of Tamaki, shielding her from Pein's attack. Then there was another explosion of yokai and now in place of six-tailed monster there stood Naruto with rapidly healing awful chakra burns and stab wound, surrounded by yokai demon-fox cloak. But this cloak was darker that usual and had all nine tails.

'Listen to me, you, shit, I only allowed you this because your will overpowered mine and I want to see, how you will fail now. How you will free me then! You will do it, believe me, hairless monkey.' Naruto heard Kyuubi's roar from his subconscious.

'I will win on my own, bastard fox. You will never be free!' Naruto dispelled 'shield' in front of Tamaki and then took his hands from the ground. "Pein. Now you will pay for attacking my village!" He said in a demonic voice before vanishing from the sight. Moment later he appeared in front of Human path, slicing and burning it with yokai-claws. 'There is chakra flow into this body. And it comes not from Deva. It means... there is real Pein somewhere...' He disappeared again. He reappeared in front of Deva path, blocking his another attack at spectators with his roar; both were sent flying... Naruto used his demonic cloak to stop before he hit anything not yet destroyed, just several meters from Tamaki. "Tamaki-chan... everything all right?" He asked. Girl only nodded weakly. "Don't worry, I will protect you." And Naruto vanished again. Moment later he was in front of Deva path once again, plunging his claws through its chest. "I know, you are only puppet. Wait, I will come to you, Pein."

"I will, Naruto Uzumaki, jinchuuriki of Kyuubi no Yoko." Deva path said before burning to ashes. Naruto summoned all of his willpower and suppressed demonic powers, returning to normal, all of his wounds already healed. He walked back to where Tamaki and others were. He quickly saw Tsunade, healing random civilian, that was hit by Pein's shinra tensei.

"Baa-chan!" He called. "Please, heal Tamaki-chan. I'm going to where real Pein is." Before Tsunade could say something against this, he added: "Don't worry, I will be OK! Promise!" Naruto paused to enter his sage mode once again and as soon as it happened, he ran to the location where he though real Pein was.


Naruto jumped into the clearing in the nearby forest and stopped in front of giant paper-made tree. He paused for a second and nodded: Pein was there. There was someone else too, but than presence wasn't that strong, A-rank ninja, maybe... Blond jinchuuriki let natural energy leave his body, turning his sage mode off, and then reactivated it. He tore entrance into the tree and walked in.

"Pein, I wish to talk." He said and looked around. And was a bit shocked by what he saw. Pein was a man in his forties with long dark hair. He was extremely thin, looking like skeleton with skin. He was half-standing, half-hanging on six cables that went from devices on his arms to the back of his six-legged 'wheel-chair'. Pein had a lot of metal spikes - chakra emitters - sticking out of his back. The only clothe he had was loincloth. By his side stood blue-haired woman in Akatsuki cloak, Konan. She got ready to send dozen paper shurikens at Naruto, but Pein stopped her.

"We will talk now, Konan." His voice was weak. All in all, real Pein was exactly the opposite of 'power'... "So you came, Naruto Uzumaki... I saw your sage mode, you too are Jiraya's student." Blond jinchuuriki looked shocked.

"Pervy sage was you sensei?"

"Yes... Long ago, just after sannin were named, he found me, Konan and Yahiko. He trained us, so that we could defend ourselves..." Pein said.

"If Jiraya was you sensei, why you almost killed him? What is you reason?" Naruto shouted.

"I want peaceful world..."

"But didn't he want peace too?" Blond shinobi yelled. "Why you tried to kill him? Why are you in Akatsuki then?"

"Please,.. don't interrupt me..." Pein said. "Akatsuki's purpose is to collect power of all nine bijuu... Then weapon of enormous power would be created... Weapon powerful enough to cause enough pain to this world to stop wars, even if for a short period of time..." Man paused. "The way Jiraya chose to bring peace to this world, unfortunately, will never work. This world is too immature to understand words... This world understands only power... But with a lot of pain it can mature one day..." He paused again... "And, as you found real me, you can call me Nagato. This is my real name… Be honored, only few know it..."

"B-But if you will do like you say, those who survive your weapon would seek revenge on the one, who activated it. And then someone will seek revenge on them. An so on... There will be no peace this way!" Naruto shouted.

"Then it will mean that world... is still not mature enough and need more pain..."

"This is so wrong! Why are you like you are?"

"You try to understand your enemy's motives... Interesting... Let me tell you my story..." And Nagato told Naruto about his two pains: how his parents and Yahiko were killed. He was about to add something when... "No! No! No!!!"

"Nagato, what is wrong?" Konan asked, but was ignored as Pein looked straight into Naruto's eyes.

"Have you read Jiraya's first book?" Blond jinchuuriki nodded. "Main character there did what we all, me, Yahiko, Jiraya wanted. And his name was... Naruto." Pein paused. "I may not believe in Jiraya's way to bring peace... to this world, I may not believe Jiraya himself... But looks like this is the sign of the prophesy. I have to believe in you, Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto stood there shocked. "This means, I'm passing my dream of peaceful world to you... And I shall do this then..." Nagato took his hands out of devices and did concentration sign. "There are seven paths of rinnengan... I'm the last one: I control life and death..." He did three handseals. "Gedo rinne tensei!" And there was very powerful emission of chakra. "I brought back to life everyone whom I killed today..." Nagato coughed some blood. "Please, if you ever see our teacher again, say him that I'm sorry for taking wrong path..." He coughed again. "There is another man behind Akatsuki, who... wanted that weapon for his own purposes... Your tenant must know him very well as... because of him it is sealed in you... That man is known as... Uchiha Madara. Or Tobi as he calls himself now... You must stop him... He is the true evil." Nagato turned to Blue-haired female Akatsuki. "Konan, remove your ring, we quit." While she did as he asked and gave her ring to Naruto, Nagato somehow disconnected himself from his walking 'chair'... He barely could stand, and Konan helped him. Three of them walked out of the 'tree', which immediately turned into billion pieces of paper and disappeared into Konan, just few of them stayed, transformed into bouquet of paper roses, which flew into blond's hands.

"What will you do now?" Naruto asked.

"There are things that,.. I hope, it is not too late to do..." Nagato coughed. "Naruto, the dream of peaceful world is now yours... Please, make this dream come true... And give Yahiko, Deva path, the burial good man should have." He coughed again. "Let's go, Konan, we still have a life to live." And they slowly walked away... Kakashi jumped into the clearing, where Naruto stood and saw Nagato and Konan far away.

"You let them go?" Copy-nin asked.

"They are no longer our enemies." Blond shinobi answered, showing Konan's ring to Kakashi. "They chose to start new life... And we must give them a chance... Hope, they will never repeat mistakes of previous one..."

***

Naruto returned to Konoha and was greeted by, what seemed, all shinobi of the village and a lot of civilians. Hell, there was everyone, greeting him!

"Welcome back, hero." Kakashi said. "There is someone who wanted you back more than others." And like he said, Tamaki ran to Naruto. She hugged and kissed him with such power, that he fell back on the road... Though he didn't mind it at all...

"You OK, hime?" Young sage asked when they finally broke the kiss.

"Yes... Thank you, Naruto..." She kissed him again. "You saved me... You saved everyone! Thank you!" Their lips connected once more... Kakashi coughed.

"I know, you are happy, but maybe you should find a bit more secluded place if you want to continue?" He asked... Teens looked around and blushed.

"Hime?" Naruto asked. Tamaki nodded and second later they disappeared in the whirl of wind and leaves.


I'm not sure, if this will be the last chapter (lemon scene, chapter 6 by filter excluded) before epilogue... But time will tell, won't it?