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Madara
Ryuu stepped out onto the spikes around the Island just as Konan landed on the end of the same spike, looking him in the eye.
"Akatsuki?" Motoi, who had followed Ryuu asked, drawing a pair of kunai.
"Not anymore," Ryuu stated. "She's a friend. And it's only a clone. What's wrong?"
"We suspect Madara may be coming after us in Amegakure soon," the Konan clone stated. "We may be able to stop him without you, but we would feel safer with your help."
"I can understand why," Ryuu nodded. "Okay. I'll be there soon."
Konan nodded and fell away into sheets of paper which folded themselves into paper airplanes and flew away. Ryuu returned to the others, explaining in brief where he was going and why to Yamato who cleared him to leave and promised to pass the information on to Tsunade for him. Then, Ryuu was sprinting across the water in the direction Motoi had directed him for a straight path to Amegakure while using the Body Flicker Technique. When he finally reached dry land, he slowed to normal speed to regain as much energy as he could. He desperately wanted to be on time. But given his luck, he doubted he would be.
"My clone has delivered the message," Konan stated. "He's on his way."
"Good," Nagato nodded, right hand, running over his left arm as he had developed a habit of doing any time he was debating something, which Konan noticed.
"What's wrong?" Konan asked.
Nagato looked up at her then down at his hand and shook his head, forcing the hand back to his side.
"Nothing," he lied.
"You're lying," Konan stated. "I know you better than that Nagato. What's wrong?"
Nagato looked up at her for a moment before returning his gaze to the floor.
"Why do you not hate me?" Nagato finally asked.
"Why would I hate you?" Konan asked.
"I...I failed to save Yahiko," Nagato stated. "I used his body as my puppet instead of giving him a proper burial. I made you remember what you had lost every time you saw his body. I fell into darkness and made both of us murder so many innocent people. How could you not hate me?"
"Nagato," Konan sighed, sympathy written all over her face as she reached out, placing a hand on the side of his face to make him look at her. "Nagato, please look at me."
He raised his head and she saw the tears threatening to spill out of his eyes.
"Nagato, I could never hate you," Konan promised, smiling reassuringly. "You are the most important person alive to me. You and Yahiko were all I ever loved. All I had. When you made him the first Pein, it was your way of trying to keep him with us, and I was grateful for it, even though his body was a puppet. When you changed the Akatsuki into what it was under you, you wanted to bring Yahiko back. I will never hate you for trying to bring Yahiko back, no matter what we did. But Nagato, Yahiko has long since moved on. Please, let him rest. I don't want to lose you again to the desire to bring him back. I can't. I love you too much."
"You..." Nagato trailed off, eyes wide but his brain not understanding.
"Yes Nagato," Konan smiled. "I-"
She was cut off by a massive explosion on one side of the room that sent both flying. When they stood, Madara walked out of the smoke, watching the pair calmly. Nagato glanced at Konan then turned and fled, Konan hot on his heels. As they fled through the village, Madara would appear at random points in their paths but seemed to make no attempt to catch them, seeming all too happy to allow them to lead him way from the village. Finally, they arrived on the massive lake outside the village and stopped, Madara appearing in a spiraling vortex a short distance from them. Nagato stepped forward and reached to the collar of his Akatsuki robe, which both he and Konan continued to wear in remembrance to Yahiko rather than loyalty to Madara, and gripped it as Madara dropped a katana out of his right sleeve, catching it by the grip. Nagato snorted in amusement and hurled the cloak over his head, his six arms spreading out for the first time in a long while and one of the hands sprouted several jagged blades from its forearm. Madara raised the sword and sprinted forward and Nagato met his charge, swiping at him with the bladed arm. It passed through Madara as Madara reached toward Nagato's left eye with his free hand. Nagato extended blades on another arm on the opposite side of his body as the other and swiped at Madara again. This time, Madara blocked the blades with his sword just in time for Nagato to blast him away with Shinra Tensei. Madara landed on his feet, cracking his neck and standing. He charged forward and Nagato sent another blast at him, but this time, it passed through him harmlessly. When Madara reached Nagato, Nagato blocked his sword, forming one of his free hands into a cannon and blasting Madara at point blank with a blast of chakra that blasted straight through him and continued into the sky, parting the clouds in a massive circle. As it was, however, Madara's sword began to pass through Nagato's blades. Nagato stepped aside just as the blast finished and Madara's sword arced through the air where he had been. Nagato leapt skyward, forming three more cannons and beginning to fire at Madara rapidly, the blasts all crashing down in the water. Finally it cleared and Madara began to walk toward Konan and Nagato again.
"He's becoming rather annoying," Nagato growled.
Nagato retracted his blades and reformed his hands then generated a chakra disruptor in each hand and charged again. Madara drew a second katana and met his charge. As the two dueled, Konan began to fire Paper Shuriken at Madara from all sides, forcing him to defend against all sides at the same time as fending off Nagato. Finally, Madara jumped and spun, using a Fire Style Jutsu to burn all of the shuriken then fired it at Nagato. Nagato absorbed the jutsu just before Madara removed the arms on one side at the elbows then grabbed him by the throat. Just as Nagato began to spiral into a vortex centered on Madara's exposed eye, Konan appeared behind him, slashing at him with a kunai. He turned intangible and Nagato began to fall as the kunai passed the through him. Just as it cleared, Madara blocked all three of Nagato's remaining chakra disruptors and kicked Konan away. Then, he lunged forward, crashing his fist into Nagato and launching him. Nagato crashed into a large pipe sticking out of the ground and Madara landed over him, slashing the arms off then driving the katana through Nagato's chest, just right of his heart, pinning him. Then, Madara turned on Konan and leapt forward. As he did, Konan held her hands out, creating massive spinning shuriken out of paper and hurling them at him. They passed through harmlessly and he grabbed her by the throat just as the shuriken separated into individual shuriken, forming a massive swarm that flew back at Madara. He turned, the shuriken passing through him and swarming around Konan as she leapt back. Madara turned back toward her as she held her hand out. Madara raised an eyebrow just as the water below him began to part, revealing a massive chasm of paper that began to cave in, dropping him into it.
As he began to fall, he held a hand to his mask, beginning to teleport himself away, just before several paper bombs latched onto him. He growled in frustration, stopping his teleportation as the tags passed through. When, they were gone, he was about to teleport again when more and more tags began to fly at him, all passing through but drawing his attention to the walls. All of them were paper bombs. countless tags, all under Konan's control and all flying at him. He swore as they began to pass through him and explode, all of them being powerful enough to kill him. He shouted in rage, closing his eyes and gripping the eye hole, snapping the top half of his mask off, revealing another Sharingan.
"Die Madara," Konan ordered as she fed her trap a constant supply of chakra to keep it going.
Ryuu stopped as a massive series of explosions began to go off, the ground shaking with the force. He growled and headed in that direction as fast as he could without using energy on the Body Flicker Technique. After roughly ten minutes, the explosions ended and he arrived on a massive lake. On it, Konan was standing somewhere near the center, exhausted, Nagato was pinned to a pipe with his arms, all six of them, removed and a sword through his chest, and Madara was behind Konan with a length of sharp pipe through her own chest. She began to stagger away as Nagato shouted to her, telling her to run but instead, she turned, forming two massive disk of paper and sending the first at Madara. Madara leapt over it and she sent the second at him as the first circled back. When they collided, Ryuu was shaken out of his shock at seeing both defeated and sprinted forward. Madara leapt out of the mist kicked up from the water and Konan sent a swarm of paper shuriken at him. He blocked them with the pipe, the end of it being cut off halfway through. He spun the pipe then deflected the rest, landing in front of Konan and lunching for her, leaving the pipe and reaching for her throat. Just before his hand connected, Ryuu's feet collided with the side of his head, launching him away. He flipped several times then landed on his feet, skidding a ways before stopping and glaring at Ryuu, who stood and drew both of Fu's kunai. Madara stood, leaping to Nagato and ripping the katana free then sprinted at Ryuu. Ryuu created a clone who hurried to Konan first, trying to keep her alive, as her wound was extremely grave.
Ryuu blocked Madara's first slash and spun, slashing at his only open Sharingan. Madara ducked under it and Ryuu's eyes widened as he realized Madara couldn't escape. He grinned, kicking him away and activated his Mangekyo Sharingan.
"It's over Madara," Ryuu growled. "You're finished."
He used his Left Mangekyo Sharingan to use Amaterasu but just as he did, Madara darted left, only his right arm being engulfed in flames. Madara slashed the arm above the flames, removing it and allowing it to burn away. Ryuu smirked and formed his Susanoo, which towered over them on its legs for the first time ever. Ryuu was floating in the center of its chest and grinning from ear to ear. He held his right hand out and the Susanoo's chest opened, green chakra needles blasting out and at Madara. He tried to block one, which shattered his sword, before he ducked and darted forward then sideways. As he ran, he hurled several kunai at Ryuu which hit the Susanoo harmlessly before the paper bombs exploded.
"This is your first time fighting against a Susanoo isn't it?" Ryuu grinned. "Then allow me to show you mine's true power."
His Susanoo raised its hand, forming its drill in reverse grip before the drill began to spin and it drove it downward into the water, which began to spiral around it. Within seconds he had created a massively powerful maelstrom that Konan and Nagato were only safe from thanks to Ryuu's clone using its own Mangekyo to fly. Madara, on the other hand was whipping around the drill in a dark streak in the water. After another minute, Ryuu added his Fire Chakra to the drill and a massive fire tornado erupted to life in the center of the maelstrom, boiling the water instantly and sending a massive cloud of scalding steam into the air that no one was safe from. After a moment, it cooled and Ryuu healed his burns while the clone did the same, halfway done Konan's stab wound. Just as he finished, Madara surfaced, dragging himself out of the water, dripping, bleeding where the flames had burned some of his skin off, and barely capable of standing from the boiling water burns over his body. When he was on his feet, Ryuu floated to the ground, Susanoo evaporating as Ryuu switched back to his Level Three Sharingan.
"You...bastard," Madara spat, chips of his heavily damaged mask beginning to fall away. "I'll...kill you...yet."
He staggered backward a step and then fell just as a coffin shot out of the water, opening in time for Deidara to catch Madara before the coffin closed and sank into the water again.
"Damn that bastard is resourceful," Ryuu growled, walking over to Nagato and Konan, healing Nagato's chest and reattaching one of his arms so that Nagato could repair the rest of them before helping his clone with Konan, who had lost consciousness from blood loss.
"Will she be okay?" Nagato asked.
"She'll be fine," Ryuu promised. "She just needs a lot of rest. So do you. It'll take Madara a few days to recover fully after that but you need to have help if he attacks again. I'm going to stay with you but you need to get your village moving. We need to go to the Hidden Leaf where you can have backup at a moment's notice. Unfortunately, you may not exactly be welcomed there."
"Agreed," Nagato nodded. "We well take what we deserve. It is better that I die with your village's hands than at Madara's. If I die, however, I need you to make me a promise. Destroy my Rinnegan. Madara cannot get his hands on it."
"I will," Ryuu nodded. "Now, we should get back tot he village."
Nagato nodded and the two of them headed back to Ame, Ryuu carrying Konan as Nagato was too tied, barely having the energy to run on water.
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