Author's note – Kishimoto Masashi owns Naruto while Guyver is written by Yoshiki Takaya.
I make no claim to either, I am merely playing in their sandboxes.

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Chapter Fifty-Five

Sage

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Orochimaru cursed as he pulled himself out of the husk of his previous body. Without even sparing the bisected corpse a second glance, he lunged back into the fray.

Sasori crashed into a wall, the impact causing several springs, cogs and other miscellania to scatter around his feet. Pulling his shredded robe off, the puppeteer lunged forwards, his unbroken arm firing senbon that simply ricocheted off Naruto's armour. Hidan's eyes crossed with pain as a trio of the rebounding senbon stabbed his groin.

"Dammit!" He whispered as he dropped to his knees. "And I'd only just pulled my damn scythe out!"

"Stop firing the senbon!" Kukazu shouted as he charged up a lightning technique, then he ducked forwards as Naruto kicked Zetsu into the air. "Got you!"

His electrically charged hands slammed into Naruto's back just above his kidneys…

…and Naruto simply took one step forwards to absorb the impact before delivering a spinning backhand that sent Kukazu through the wall of a nearby building.

"The hell?" He grumbled as he pulled himself back to his feet and staggered out through the hole that his passage had opened. "He's weak to Raiton… what happened? Why didn't it work?"

"Because he has developed a counter." A voice replied and Kukazu turned to find Jiraiya winding up a punch.

"Oh cra…"

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Naruto ducked under a barrage of snakes, then a body hurtled past him and slammed Orochimaru into a wall.

"Starting without me?" Jiraiya laughed as the toad on his right shoulder used its tongue to parry the slowly-regrowing Samehada. Jiraiya punched out and Kisame sidestepped the blow, only to be thrown away be the force of the apparently-missed strike.

"How did you do that?"

"There's a reason I'm known as the Toad Sage." Jiraiya grinned as he stamped hard on the ground, causing the earth to shatter and Zetsu to be expelled from it at high speed. Naruto grabbed Kukazu and hurled him at the airborne plant-man, then turned and delivered punch-kick combo that shattered Sasori's body.

"Most of my weaponry is useless against him." Sasori admitted as he pulled himself out of the shattered puppet that he had been using. "I need reinforcements. Dance of a hundred puppets!"

A cloud of dust marked the appearance of his crowd of puppets, only for Naruto to bisect almost half of them with a blast of his head-gem.

"Shit, he's tough." Hidan growled as he hurled himself into the fray. "Once I get his blood, I'll… hurk!"

Naruto withdrew his arm-blade from through Hidan's heart and kicked him away, then he hissed with pain as a fireball hit his left shoulder, causing the armour to deform and partially melt.

"I thought so." Orochimaru gloated. "You've changed your vulnerability by pumping futon chakra through that armour of yours, but it leaves you vulnerable to katon."

"As clever as always, Rochi-chan." Jiraiya growled before spitting out a large amount of toad oil at Sasori's remaining puppets. The oil combined with a blast of wind and a fireball from the two toads, engulfing the advancing puppets in a wall of searing flame.

"No!" Sasori shouted as the flame dissipated to reveal only a few chunks of wood and half-melted pieces of metal. "You'll pay for that!"

Jiraiya glanced at him, then stared. "What the hell did you do to yourself?"

"I attained one-ness with my art." Sasori said as the blade-wings on his back extended, then he seemed to freeze as a red beam of light lanced through the cylinder set into his chest.

"One down."

"You killed Sasori?" Orochimaru gasped. "How?"

"His brain, heart and a few other organs were all that was left of him." Naruto said, blocking Hidan's attempt to stab him. "The cylinder held his remains with a special seal so that he would not die. I destroyed the seal and his organs."

"Good work!" Jiraiya shouted as he used a Rasengan to strike at Madara, only for his attack to pass harmlessly through the masked man. "Shit! That's one of the Mangekyo's powers!"

"Itachi told you of them?"

"Nah, Fugaku did as part of his rehabilitating the Uchiha into Konoha." Jiraiya stated, using the Rasengan on Zetsu instead, causing the black-and-white being to scream in pain as his chest was shredded.

"Die!"

Jiraiya spun round and a stone sword appeared in his hand, positioned to block Kisame's downwards strike, then Kisame spun sideways, barely avoiding being impaled on the spearlike tongue that shot from Fukasaku's mouth.

"Art is a blast! Katsu!"

Jiraiya was hurled into the air by the explosion, but he turned his flight into a somersault that let him land on his feet.

"Forgot about you." He grunted and Deidara smirked, then used the mouths in his hands to spit out small clay birds that flew towards Jiraiya.

"Hari Jizo, Hari Jigoku!"

Deidara scrambled behind a semi-ruined wall as a veritable wall of hair senbon slashed towards him, striking and detonating all of the clay birds before slamming into the wall, knocking entire sections out.

"Shit!" Deidara screamed. "Someone do something!"

A red beam lanced through the wall, missing the scrambling ninja by a hairsbreadth.

"I meant someone on my side!"

The ground suddenly swallowed the explosives expert, just before Fukasaku's tongue slashed through the spot he had been hiding in.

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Naruto blinked in shock as the man he had stabbed through the heart (again!) picked himself up.

"That fucking hurt! I'll sacrifice you to Jashin yet!"

Naruto tried to step back, only to find roots wrapping round his legs once more, then something hit his back.

"Art is a blast! Katsu!"

The world turned white as pain lashed through him.

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"Nooo!" Jiraiya yelled as the shaped charge that Deidara had slapped onto Naruto's back detonated, sending a spike of plasma through Naruto's torso. Madara vanished, then reappeared with a large pot that Shima recognized.

"That's the Kohaku no Johei!" She gasped.

"The Kyuubi will be ours!" Madara cackled as he pointed the pot towards the dying Naruto. "Finish him off and release the Kyuubi!"

Deidara flung a large glob of clay into the hole carved into Naruto's torso.

"Katsu!"

The explosion ripped Naruto apart and Madara braced himself, then he frowned.

"Where is the Kyuubi? Zetsu?"

"I don't know! Its chakra is fading!"

Madara lowered the pot and strode to where Naruto's severed head was lying just outside the crater.

"Damn you, Minato!" He howled as Zetsu joined him. "Damn you! With two of the Biju no more, the Eye of the Moon plan cannot be finished! The Mugen Tsukiyomi will not…"

Madara's sentence was cut off by a blast of pure power that scythed down from the skies. Squinting against the sudden overpowering light, Jiraiya saw the ninja evaporate under the force of the blast even as a second one engulfed Zetsu. As the beams faded to reveal only deep glassy craters, jiraiya looked around to see that the only Akatsuki remaining was the motionless body of Sasori.

"Jiraiya! Where's Naruto?" Hinata demanded as she dropped to the ground, her chestplates closing over the lenses that had generated one of the destructive columns of light.

"He's… here…" Fu half-whispered as she touched down and dropped onto her knees, picking up Naruto's helmet. "…brother…"

"Naruto!" Ino cried as she joined Fu, followed almost instantly by Hinata. "Naruto! No! Nononononooooo!"

Jiraiya lowered his head, tears trickling down his cheeks.

"…naruto…"

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Pein blinked as a snake appeared in a cloud of chakra smoke, then it opened its mouth and disgorged five familiar people before it vanished once more.

"That was… disgusting!" Kisame grumbled as he slowly rose to his feet.

"Three others with the Armour had appeared and Jiraiya was out for vengeance." Orochimaru countered. "We had enough trouble with an irritated Jiraiya and one armoured adversary, a vengeful Jiraiya and three Armour-users out for our blood would be too many."

"Where are Tobi and Zetsu?" Konan asked worriedly.

"Dead." Kakuza spat. "I saw their bodies destroyed. Even the idiot Hidan would have died in those blasts."

"I'm right here, you fucker." The scythe-wielder complained.

"What now?" Orochimaru asked as he shed his damaged body for a new one.

"Tobi and Zetsu were the ones who knew the techniques required…" Pein said slowly. "Without them… the plan as it is cannot continue. What happened to the Jinchuuriki?"

"Dead, and he took the Kyuubi with him." Kisame grunted. "That's two gone."

"With the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki deceased, Konoha will be on the warpath." Pein stated. "Leave. I must consider this turn of events."

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Jiraiya quietly walked over to the trio of grieving Kunoichi, Ma and Pa having returned to the Mount Myoboku to carry the sad news to the rest of the Toad Clan. Fu looked up as Jiraia offered a small sealing scroll.

"We should take him back." He said sadly and Fu nodded. Jiraiya unrolled the scroll and Hinata slowly placed Naruto's head on the scroll before Ino nudged Jiraiya aside and supplied the chakra to seal Naruto's head into the scroll. Fu rolled up the scroll and handed it to Hinata, who placed it in the front of her jacket.

"I need to pick up Tsunade and Shizune on our way back." Jiraiya said quietly. "I refuse to have my godson's last mission go down as a failure."

"We'll come with you." Ino replied as she hugged Hinata and Fu. "We'll do all we can to help. For Naruto."

"For Naruto." Hinata sobbed.

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"Dammit, Jiraiya!" Tsunade shouted as soon as she saw her former team-mate. "How dare you do that to me! And what's with the girls, you trying to fulfill your old dream of having a harem?"

Jiraiya slapped Tsunade and she stared up at him in shock as she sprawled on the floor.

"My godson just died." He ground out. "You are going to come with me to Konoha even if I have to use a slave-seal on you and don't think that I won't!"

Tsunade turned almost white as she stared at Jiraiya.

"Shizune, get your things and hers." Jiraiya snapped and Shizune jolted into action, vanishing into the hotel. "Tsunade, get up. Now!"

Tsunade meekly rose to her feet.

"Anything else you want to whinge about?"

Tsunade shook her head.

"Good." Jiraiya growled as Shizune reappeared. "We're leaving. You try anything and I'll slap the slave-seal on you so fast, you won't know what happened. Understood?"

Tsunade nodded almost frantically and Jiraiya snorted before striding off. Taking a deep, jagged breath, Tsunade followed him and Shizune ran to catch up. A moment later, Hinata, Ino and Fu took escort positions around the duo.

"I've only seen him like that once before." Tsunade said quietly. "We were fighting Hanzo and both Orochimaru and myself were down due to Hanzo's poison. He went head-to-head with Hanzo long enough for me to heal myself and Orochimaru and rejoin him… To have him look like that at me…"

Tsunade shuddered.

"What happened to Naruto?" Shizune asked and all three Kunoichi looked down.

"Brother is dead." Fu whispered sadly.

"We got two of the bastards responsible." Ino added fiercely. "The others managed to get away."

"Naruto-kun had already killed another of them." Hinata stated. "But we were too late…"

"Fu saw the one who killed him." Fu growled. "Fu and Chomei will kill him for what he did to brother."

"His name is Deidara." Jiraiya supplied without turning round. "He's a former Iwa Explosion Corps operative who went rogue and joined Akatsuki. He uses Bakuton, a combined element that's a mix of Doton and Raiton. His hands are the result of a stolen kinjutsu that let him turn his own chakra into explosive clay."

"The same clay he used to kill Naruto-niisan." Fu stated and Jiraiya nodded.

"Correct. But he didn't do it alone. The plant-man… Zetsu, set him up to do it while Madara was ready to seal the Kyuubi. You put a stop to that. By the way, which of you killed whom?"

"I killed the masked man." Hinata stated.

"I took out Zetsu." Ino supplied.

"Fu tried to kill Orochimaru, but he escaped."

"He does that." Tsunade agreed. "It was one of the things he was renowned for."

"Next time, he won't." Hinata promised with her voice ringing with vengeance.

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Authors Afternote: Yup, Orochimaru's in trouble now…