Naruto dodged the sharp-pointed root that sped through the air in his direction. The instant he landed another root wound its way up from the ground, ensnaring his right leg. He created a rasengan and began boring his way through the root.

"It's useless, Naruto," Pein said as he walked toward his target. "Just come with me."

Tsunade stood atop her slug companion and glared down at Kisame, who had changed some of his chakra into nearly three feet of water covering the pit left by the tree.

"Heh. Using your pet slug to escape. How weak," Kisame taunted.

"I am not a pet!" Katsuyu protested angrily.

"Don't let him get to you. He's just trying to make you lose control," Tsunade scolded.

"Right. Sorry, Tsunade-sama," Katsuyu replied. She took a deep breath and sprayed the area below her with highly corrosive acid.

Kisame barely managed to avoid the acid in time. Once he was out of danger he leapt up and landed on top of Katsuyu, swinging his sword at Tsunade as he landed.

Kazehana was confused. She knew she had the location right, but for some reason she had teleported to the top of a giant tree. Her confusion was quickly overridden, however, when she heard the sounds of battle...and the voice of her subordinate.

She dashed over to the end of a thick branch to see Naruto throwing one sugikon bomb after another, dodging his opponent's attacks at the same time.

Naruto threw a fistful of bombs at Pein and then heard a loud thud behind him, followed by a torrent of fire igniting the bombs. The resulting explosions threw Pein backwards. He managed to flip in mid air and land on his feet.

Naruto turned around and when he saw Kazehana he grinned. "Kazehana!"

Kazehana grinned. "Looks like I came back just in time. Who's this guy?"

"The leader of Akatsuki," Naruto answered seriously.

"A dragon," Pein said in interest. "You never cease to surprise me, Naruto."

Kazehana stood on her hind legs and spread her claws wide. Lighting crackled and popped in front of her as she built up a charge.

"I didn't know you could do that," Naruto exclaimed.

"I learned a lot while I was gone," Kazehana said with a smirk. She thrust her arms forward, shooting lighting at Pein.

Pein threw up a wall of wood which the lighting scorched black.

Naruto used a giant chakra hand to shove sugikon against the wall and Kazehana's lighting ignited it. The wall shattered into thousands of splinters but Pein had vanished from sight.

Naruto looked around nervously. "Where'd he go?" Suddenly he and Kazehana were surrounded by a dome of wood. "Damn it!" He knew he couldn't use his sugikon rasengan in there. He'd wind up killing them both. He made a normal rasengan and began tunneling. It wasn't long before he broke through but another dome immediately formed. He gritted his teeth. "Kazehana. Get behind me!"

Kazehana did as instructed. Naruto pushed out a huge burst of chakra in front of him, praying that it wouldn't backlash and hurt his friend. The wall was blown away in one shot. Kazehana and Naruto separated so Pein couldn't trap them both at the same time again.

Tsunade threw punch after chakra charged punch and Kisame dodged them all. Damn this bastard is fast, she thought in frustration.

Kisame brought his sword down and managed to graze Tsunade's leg.

Tsunade clenched her teeth in pain as the blood dampened her pants. She healed the wound as she dodged to give herself time complete her work. Once she had pieced her skin back together she brought her leg down toward the top of Kisame's head.

Kisame leapt backwards to avoid Tsunade's foot but suddenly there was a hand crackling with lightning sticking out through the front of his chest. He coughed up blood and the hand withdrew. As Kisame dropped to the ground Kakashi turned off his raikiri. Tsunade walked over to him with an approving smile.

"About time you showed up."

Kisame lifted his head with much effort. "I'm...not done...yet..." he croaked out.

Tsunade rolled her eyes and slammed her chakra charged fist into the back of his head. The ground underneath him cracked inward on itself. "Yes, you are," she said flatly.

Oturan watched Pein fight, waiting for an opening so he could safely talk to him.

Kazehana shot downward, lighting coming from her hands and flame shooting from her mouth. All of it was aimed at Pein. At the same time Naruto used his chakra hands to encase Pein in a sugikon shell. The resulting explosion was even larger than the last time they had used that attack because of the addition of the lightning. When the dust cloud cleared Pein, bloodied but still standing, was at the epicenter. It was obvious from the multiple wood shards littering the ground that he had managed to create a shield just in time to avoid death.

Oturan saw this as his moment and ran to Pein. "Father!"

Naruto's eyes widened at the site of this newcomer. It was like looking into a warped mirror. "Who the hell are you?!" he asked in shock.

Pein stood straighter. "This is your replacement," he said as Tsunade and Kakashi came rushing over.

"What?" Naruto said.

"Oturan is the clone of you who will receive your niji chakra once I've captured you."

Naruto's eyes flattened into a glare. "Like hell."

"Oturan, go back to your hiding place. This battle is not yours," Pein commanded.

"Father...wait." Oturan shifted uncomfortably under Pein's gaze. "I don't think these people are evil after all."

"We've been over this..." Pein began.

"I know, but I met woman with a baby in the street. I thought I could save the baby from the evil of the village but when she begged me to give back her child I...I didn't see evil in her eyes. What I saw was love. Evil can't love, father. I've always believed that. And if she's from this village and she can love then what about the rest of them?"

Pein sighed. "There are many kinds of evil in this world. I thought I made that clear. A person can believe they're doing the right thing but actually be doing evil."

"So then we could talk to them about what is right. We don't have to hurt anyone!" Oturan insisted.

"We'll talk more about this later. Right now just get out of harms way," Pein said.

"He's right, damn it!" Naruto said. "We're not evil! I don't know where the hell you got that idea but it's crazy. I know tons of good people in this village. Sometimes they make wrong choices, sure, but that's not evil. That's just human."

Pein clenched his jaw. "Enough of this!" He made a hand and arm of wood which grabbed Oturan and moved him back to the Hokage monument. The hand smashed into the ground on top of the monument, pinning Oturan. A second hand sped toward Naruto which shattered when Tsunade punched it.

"Get away from my son!" Tsunade growled.

Pein created more wooden hands that headed for all four of his opponents. Tsunade destroyed the one headed for her with her fist and the others shattered the hands with various jutsu.

Sharp ended roots shot up from the ground and one of them managed to pierce Kakashi's shoulder. He cried out in pain.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled. He gritted his teeth and turned an angry gaze at Pein. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" The streets were instantly filled with clones.

"Do you really think increasing your numbers will allow you to defeat me?" Pein's hands flashed through a set of seals. "Moku Goramu no jutsu! (A/N- Wood golem technique)" A loud creaking sound was heard throughout the village as giant creatures made of wood stepped out from all four sides of the giant tree.

Kazehana began blowing fire at the constructs, but while it was scorching them the fire didn't seem to be catching so she switched to lightning. One bolt ripped off a giants hand.

Sakura arrived on the scene and began healing Kakashi.

Naruto used his father's kunai and teleported behind Pein but his rasengan hit a bunshin. "Damn it!"

Tsunade punched through the lower leg of one of the giants and it came crashing down. She smirked. "The bigger they are..." She turned to her comrades. "Go for the legs!" she yelled.

All of the Narutos used chakra hands to grab the giants by the ankles and yanked backwards, toppling all of them at once. The victory was short lived, however as the giants began to right themselves. The damaged sections of their bodies were regenerating with incredible speed.

Naruto had an idea. The more he thought about it the more her thought he was bat shit crazy but he didn't see another option at that point. He got rid of his shadow clones. "Everyone back up!" he yelled. Once they were out of the way visible chakra covered his body. As it increased in size he was lifted off the ground and soon he was at the center of a giant body made of chakra. In one sweeping motion he grabbed all the sugikon in the area. The resulting ball he crushed around Pein was thirty feet in diameter.

Naruto made sure to press the sugikon in tight enough this time so that Pein couldn't make a shield. He turned to Kazehana. "Light it!"

Kazehana didn't like this plan. Even if the village survived the blast the chance of Naruto coming out of it was extremely slim. Heck, the chances of her coming out unscathed weren't all that great either. "You can't!"

"We don't have a choice here! LIGHT IT!" Naruto commanded.

Kazehana clenched her jaw, took a deep breath and let loose with everything she had.

((Peeks out from RPB)) Okay. Yes. It's a cliffy but at least the chapter's out right? ...Right? ((Sheepish grin))

I'm well aware Kisame died easy. And I'm sorry for that but I just wanna get this fic done with at this point. I still love Naruto. I do. But the last third of Shippuden really killed my desire to write about it. Kishimoto dropped the ball...badly. My only solace is that NaruHina is official.

The next chapter may be the last. And there won't be a third book like I was originally planning. Honestly the only reason I'm completing this one is I promised. And I don't go back on my word if I can help it. My next project is a large Supernatural fanfic. I hope you guys will check it out if you're fans of the show.

If you like this story please check out my original fantasy novel "The Triple Psi" Book 1 of the Bloodline of Atlantis series. It's available for only $3.99 on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and now Etsy. Just run a search for the title.

The first 7 chaps can be read on for free. If you read it and like it please do me a big favor and post about it on social media. I really need help getting the word out! Thanks, guys. ((hug))