AN: I'm alive! Not much of a note today. Only one rec: Fox, Hawk, and Flower, by Duesal Bladesinger. Very good Naruto poetry about Team 7.
Now, let's get on with this. We're reaching the depths of the night. From here, everything gets a lot more interesting.
Not Sick Chapter 14
Dreams and Deals
Tobi laughed.
"Of all the people I expected," he muttered, cupping his mask as if trying to hold in the chuckle, "you would be the last."
"Oh?" The voice slithered down the corridor, slipping along the pipes and damp concrete walls. "Did you think that I really hadn't taken precautions for this?"
Tobi shrugged, leaning against the wall, uncaring of its slickness, and crossed his arms. "I suspected. There was something wrong with the boy's chakra… it must have been your mark. How did you manage to hide it, I wonder? From your own teammate, even?"
The darkness didn't answer, and Tobi pulled himself away from the wall, sighing.
He narrowed his eye. "I expected Itachi to arrive first. But for some reason, he hasn't, and with you here… that complicates things."
"Hmm… so Itachi is coming too, is he?"
Orochimaru slipped out of the shadows, smiling widely. Someone wearing a heavy cloak, with skin as unnaturally pale as the Snake's and round, overly cleaned glasses that gleamed even in the dimness of the tunnel, trailed behind him.
"Perfect," the Sannin hissed. "Both of them here at once."
Tobi cocked an invisible eyebrow. "You seem confident. His eyes will likely be even more powerful, you know."
The snake's grin didn't fade. "Oh, I know. As I said…" He spread his arms wide, gesturing mockingly. "Do you really think I haven't taken precautions?"
Tobi didn't laugh again. He just stared, his eye lazily rotating. Orochimaru looked back, smirking. The masked man made a thoughtful sound. "Do you know who I am?"
"Madara Uchiha," the Sannin shot back.
"And that doesn't surprise you?"
The smile faded slightly, but Orochimaru's slit eyes still gleamed with inner amusement. "Certainly. Though I'm more interested in how you've managed to maintain your strength for so long, Madara," he said.
"Some mysteries are best left unsolved, then," Tobi drawled back.
Orochimaru's rasping laugh filled the corridor. "I don't doubt it has something to do with that Sharingan of yours… I've never seen anything quite like it."
Tobi didn't respond to that. There was a moment of silence as both S-ranked ninja watched each other, ready for anything.
Orochimaru broke it, crossing his arms and cocking his head. "So," he chuckled, half at a joke only he could understand and half as a challenge. "Are you going to stop me?"
Tobi just watched him, his single eye shifting back and forth between Orochimaru and the man at his side.
"I can't just allow you to take Sasuke," he said deeply, pondering something. "He might be valuable to me."
The cloaked man at Orochimaru's side swept back his hood. "'Might be', Madara-sama?"
Orochimaru glanced at Kabuto, one corner of his mouth turning up. Tobi just stared flatly.
"'Sama'?" he intoned.
Kabuto nodded. Tobi couldn't tell if the smile on his face was genuine or not.
"Of course. You who helped found the Village Hidden in the Leaves, who survived the wrath of Hashirama, and who leads the Akatsuki from the shadows…" The man's smirk widened. "What else to address such a man as you but with 'sama'?"
Tobi shifted, drumming his fingers against his palm.
"You're remarkably well informed," he said quietly.
Kabuto just grinned cheekily, exposing his fangs. "Hardly. Itachi is, however, and he told little Sasuke everything… while my master listened carefully, of course."
Tobi grunted. "How irritating. Did you have something to say then, little snake, or were you just going to praise your 'master'?"
Kabuto's grin didn't shift. "It seems simple to me, Madara-sama," he said. This time, there was definite mockery in his tone. "Sasuke may be skilled, true… but he cannot yet compare to one of the Sannin. And if my master comes into possession of him, combining his knowledge with Sasuke's strength…"
"Then I will have lost an asset, and gained nothing," Madara interrupted. He turned to Orochimaru, completely looking past his companion. "Somehow, I doubt you would swear allegiance to me, Orochimaru, for the simple payment of Sasuke Uchiha."
"Hmm?" The man smiled. "Could we not have an alliance?"
Tobi waved his hand, as if brushing aside the words. "Our goals are incompatible. Your pursuit of the Sharingan has interrupted my searching for the Bijuu before: there's no reason to think you've changed."
"Hmm… true," Orochimaru admitted easily. "But I would prefer not to fight you, Madara: I doubt it would go well for either of us."
The masked man inclined his head thoughtfully. "You could believe that, yes."
Orochimaru rolled his eyes. "Let's make it simple, shall we?" He took a step forward.
"You're expecting Itachi Uchiha to arrive soon, yes? To save his brother?" Orochimaru's grin was returning.
Tobi nodded carefully.
Orochimaru's tongue flickered out, unnaturally thick and long. "Then I shall remove one of your burdens, and deal with him for you. I assume you don't want him alive?"
Tobi laughed lowly. "Capturing Itachi Uchiha alive would be impossible at this point anyway," he said with dark amusement.
"Perhaps. Nevertheless…" Orochimaru took another step forward. "Do we have a deal? I deal with a problem, and you give up a tool in payment."
Tobi watched both of the snakelike figures, weighing his options.
Sasuke… had not been what he'd expected. His Uchiha hatred seemed to have burned out. It reminded Tobi uncomfortably of himself.
But while he had been given a goal to cling to, a dream for a perfect world to accomplish, Sasuke had given up. His passions were ashes.
Why? Had his brother really influenced him so?
It made no sense. By all rights, Sasuke should have despised Itachi. And yet he protected him, however subconsciously.
Tobi was very wary of things that made no sense. Variables outside his control were variables that would come back to ruin his plans later.
Itachi was one of these variables. As was Orochimaru and his slippery disciple, at least at the moment.
But if Orochimaru did, in fact, remove Itachi Uchiha from the board, and take Sasuke with him…
He'd gain power, certainly. But nothing that would approach the might of a real Uchiha. And there would be far less pieces to worry about. Maybe the snake and the crow would even tear each other to ribbons, and remove themselves from this mockery of a game simultaneously.
The Moon's Eye Plan was nearing completion anyway. The Kyuubi would be subdued soon enough: Pain could be relied upon for that. Then, all that would remain would be the Hachibi and Rokubi. Perhaps Orochimaru could even be convinced to acquire one of them, in "gratitude".
Tobi's mouth slipped up in a grim, invisible smile. He took a deliberate step to the side.
"He won't be happy to see you," Tobi said, gesturing grandly past himself.
Orochimaru chuckled hollowly. "I'm sure he won't be the only one."
Tobi spun away, vanishing into the darkness, and the Sannin strode forward, intent on his prize.
Sasuke Uchiha would be his.
A small dark shape, a patch of black blacker than the shadows surrounding it, watched the impromptu meeting break up, a red eye cocked curiously. It silently spread its wings and vanished in a flurry of feathers, and then the tunnel was truly empty.
Street by street, Amegakure was being torn apart.
The sound of it echoed throughout the entire village. The unnaturally loud 'crack' of concrete being reduced to so much rubble, the shattering of glass, the rumble of enormous footsteps, the screeches of summons, and, every so often, an odd humming, which would rise in pitch before suddenly vanishing… along with the sounds of one of the unnatural animals.
Naruto Uzumaki had gone to war, and Pain wasn't giving an inch.
There was another shattering sound, yet another window broken. Naruto suddenly found himself in a rather tidy looking cafe.
The image was ruined when an enormous paw crashed down through the roof, crushing most of the establishment's tables. The unreasonably large bear the paw belonged to withdrew its foot and glared down through the hole it had made, its eye gleaming with the distinctive shine of the Rinnegan. It growled, the sound resonating in the Uzumaki's diaphragm.
Naruto stared up into its eye, his horizontal pupils shrunken, and growled right back.
"You can't keep this up. You must know that."
Naruto jerked his head away from the bear, glaring at the cloaked man who'd carelessly stepped through the shattered window frame. The Deva Path stared back, looking supremely unconcerned.
"You can't win. Why keep fighting?" He took a step forward, his hands flexing.
"Your friends are doing the same, right now. They're battling my Angel. And they are losing." The man's pale face shifted into a thunderous frown. "Are you really that selfish? That you would throw all of them away, just for another?"
"I'm not 'throwing them away'," Naruto snapped back, his eyes narrowing. "They all came to help me. They'll beat your Angel, and find Sasuke." He grinned, exposing his unusually sharp canines. "All I have to do is keep you busy."
Pain closed his eyes. "How can you be so blind?"
The walls of the building exploded, and three men, two with distinctive orange hair, burst from the ensuing hail of debris and dust, sprinting right for the Uzumaki near the center of the room.
Naruto took a deep breath, and shifted back, bringing his hands up.
The first Path to reach him sported a buzz cut and a slashed Amegakure hitai-ate wrapped around his upper arm. He held a black rod in one hand, slashing it through the air in a diagonal cut. The other hand was held forward, a subtle blue glow around it.
'The one that absorbs chakra.'
The second was completely bald: didn't even have eyebrows. He just charged in, his fists clenched, his eyes narrowed.
'I still don't know what that one's jutsu is.'
The last was the fat man Naruto's clone had destroyed at the beginning of the fight. He had rejoined it a minute later, none the worse for wear. He rushed towards the blond, his right arm replaced by a spinning drill, and his mouth wide open, something that was definitely not a tongue protruding from it.
'Turns into weapons,' Naruto noted, glancing at the barrel of the definitely-not-a-tongue.
He breathed out, and moved.
The Preta Path slashed at his side, and Naruto's right hand shot out, catching the rod. He didn't stop it, merely changing its direction. As he did, his left foot came around, his whole body twisting up with the motion.
The Human Path brought a fist back, aiming for Naruto's stomach, and promptly had to hop into the air to avoid Naruto's spinning foot. He kept moving forward, one hand open and the other a fist, ready to bring the Uzumaki to the ground.
The Asura Path was five feet away from the brawl, his drill revving. The barrel of his not-tongue was glowing.
Naruto completed his spin, coming to face the Human Path, and driving his left foot into the side of the Preta Path at the same time. He pushed, blowing the tall man back and sending him through one of the cafe's few unbroken walls with an earsplitting crack.
The black rod he had held stayed in Naruto's hand, and he thrust it forward, towards the Human Path's face. The man's flat palm came up and knocked the rod aside, even as he fell towards Naruto.
The Asura Path was four feet away.
Naruto's grip on the rod was loose, and he allowed it to tumble away. His other hand came up and caught the bald Path's punch with a decisive clap. The hand that had held the rod turned and grasped the hand that had blocked it.
The Human Path's eyes widened. The Asura Path, three feet away, slowed down, trying to cancel its momentum.
It was too slow.
Naruto roared and swung the Human Path, smashing it into the Asura Path and sending them both to the ground, shattering the lacquered wood floor. The bald man convulsed, the other Path's oversized drill punching through his stomach and spraying cold blood everywhere as it continued rotating. The Asura Path itself looked like it couldn't decide to be bored or furious.
Naruto took a step forward, intent on finishing off the prone Path, before Pain's hand came up, and Naruto's head with it.
"Shinra Tensei."
The blond was blown back, his coat rippling, and he smashed through one of the few unbroken sections of wall.
The whole cafe rumbled, its foundations ruined, and tilted to the side, crashing down on top of the Asura and Human Paths, as well as Naruto. Pain remained where he was, completely unruffled. The bear summon, looming over the whole collapse, growled and took a step forward, sniffing at the ground.
Pain sighed. "You can't win, Naruto. Give up."
He gestured, and the rubble covering the other Paths was flung out of the way, revealing their beaten bodies. A woman with long orange hair and a delicate smile studded with metal appeared behind him, and approached the bodies unhurriedly.
She bent down besides them, and then both she and the bodies vanished.
Pain watched as Naruto slowly clambered out of the ruin of the cafe, rolling debris off himself and dusting off his coat, which was rapidly accruing unflattering tears.
The bear summon took an experimental swipe at him: Naruto responded by catching and twisting the animal's whole paw, spinning with the motion, and breaking the massive thing with a clean snap.
The beast howled, and as Pain stared, Naruto gritted his teeth and pulled, heaving the animal behind him and sending it flying through the air. It smashed into the side of one of the towers looming along the street, crashing through the concrete and becoming lost in the darkness and protruding pipes behind the facade.
"Give up."
Naruto blew out a breath, none the worse the wear for a building falling on top of him. He turned to Pain, his inhuman eyes cheerful.
"You keep saying that," he continued with a grin, rubbing the back of his head and dislodging a fragment of roofing. "But it's not like I'm going to, you know?" His grin shifted, becoming significantly less guileless. "Why don't you give up, huh? Mix it up a little?"
Pain just continued staring. "Can you really be so deluded?" he asked. "So foolish as to think that you can defeat me?"
He strode to the left, maintaining his distance from Naruto but moving around him. Several other Paths slunk out of alleys along the street: one fell from a nearby roof, leaving a small crater where it landed.
Naruto scanned them. All were present, except for the woman with long hair. The one that kept getting them back up.
He had to kill that one, or else this battle would go on until he dropped from exhaustion. Sage Mode wouldn't last forever: he was going to run out of his initial infusion soon, and then Pain would have him.
He needed to draw her out. Bait her in. Otherwise, there was no way he'd win, let alone survive.
The Paths were circling him, all staying at the same distance. All his routes of escape were cut off: there weren't any summons backing them up, but at these close-quarters the animals had proven less than effective against Naruto's increased strength.
Three clones ready to dispel and give him another ten minutes: thirty minutes total. More than enough time. And he could make four more if he needed to, though Pain would be able to go after them immediately.
So, he had a generous time limit… but the longer he was here, the longer everyone else had to deal with Pain's 'Angel'. If he could disable or defeat Pain, then he could go help them, and then they could find Sasuke together.
But how to bait the medic Path?
Naruto suddenly had an incredibly stupid idea. Or rather, a series of them.
He momentarily wondered why he always seemed to get those when he was fighting this guy, before blinking and refocusing on the problem in front of him.
"Well, yeah," he said. "We had the same master, right? I know all your tricks now."
Pain cocked his head. "And all of yours, I."
Naruto snorted. "Sure you do."
"I know your Sage Mode is some sort of bastardization of Jiraiya-sensei's," the pale man said slowly. The rest of the Paths stared unblinkingly.
It was really goddamn creepy.
"Oh yeah?" Naruto said, glancing around. It would happen any minute now. "What makes you think that?"
Pain narrowed his eyes. "No toads on your shoulders: less deformed features. Whatever kind of senjutsu you're using is different from his."
"Hmm." Naruto scratched his chin. "Maybe you're right. What does it matter? I'm still gonna beat you."
Pain's eyes snapped wide open. The rest of the Paths shifted.
"Why are you so stubborn?" he hissed, taking a step forward. The rest of the bodies did as well, in lockstep. "I thought you believed in Jiraiya-sensei's dream. You want peace for this cursed world, don't you?"
"Of course I do!" Naruto insisted, his smile fading.
"Then why do you resist?" Pain said heavily. "Can't you see that your dream and mine are aligned? You merely have to give up yourself, and our master's goal will be realized."
"They're not the same," Naruto growled, crossing his arms. "Not the same at all."
"Oh?" Pain murmured. "How would you conclude that?" He crossed his own arms, unintentionally mimicking Naruto. "Wouldn't I be stopping the endless cycle of wars that have plagued this world? Wouldn't the suffering of the people decrease without the constant destruction the shinobi system has brought to everything it touches?"
Naruto shook his head. "You want to use the Bijuu as a weapon. You want to kill thousands…"
He paused, trying to wrap his head around the number, and failed. Instead, he just frowned intensely, his grin finally slipping away entirely. "How can you expect to change anything with more death? Spreading more hate?" he said, staring intensely into the Rinnegan. "You'd just be perpetuating the cycle that our master is trying to stop."
"I would not be spreading death, nor hate," Pain said, gesturing widely. "I would be spreading fear. A fear that this world has lacked for too long: a fear of total destruction, of the obliteration of everything precious."
He lowered his hands. "With fear, comes caution. And with the weapon I will craft from the Bijuu, there will never be too much caution. The people of this world will learn to respect, rather than fear, the death that will hang over them for every moment of every minute for the rest of their lives. They will realize that if this weapon is unshackled, if it is used once more... it is not something that they will be able to undo."
Pain didn't smile, but his voice grew distant. "There will be mistakes, of course. Human beings are such foolish creatures. The weapon will be used again, turned to a 'noble cause.'"
He snorted. "As if there is such a thing in this cursed world."
"You're willing to risk that?" Naruto growled, uncrossing his arms and flexing his hands, working out the tension spreading throughout his body. "You're willing to risk-"
"My weapon being reused?" Pain asked rhetorically. "Of course. I'm counting on it."
"Why?" Naruto asked, trembling in anger.
"Human's must be reminded of their mistakes often, lest they forget them," Pain said, tapping his temple with a single finger. "One merely has to look at the current state of the world to see this: despite the lessons of the past, the sacrifices, the 'heroism'… nothing has changed. The Hidden Villages still stand, the smaller villages are ground to dust between them, and ninja everywhere are tools, serving a machine they are born into to die for."
He pointed at Naruto. "You're no different: just another gear placed in this machine of hatred. Can you really believe that we could fix something like this without force? Words have never accomplished anything: violence is all that the shinobi system understands! To tear it down, we must first play its game!"
"This is why you must give up," Pain said, staring intensely at Naruto. "If you surrender yourself, your sacrifice will be the one that matters. It will not be wasted, like the countless before it. You, Naruto Uzumaki, will be the change that brings peace to the shinobi world."
Naruto didn't respond. Not immediately. He just lowered his head and balled his fists, visibly shaking, his knuckles whitening. Pain lowered his hand.
"Do you understand now?" Pain asked quietly.
Naruto raised his head, and the Deva Path actually took a step back. Pain blinked.
"You're wrong," Naruto said, his eyes narrowed in disgust, his whole body jittering with suppressed rage, his elongated canines exposed, his hands clenching and unclenching.
"You're wrong," he snarled.
Naruto took a step forward, and this time all of the Paths took a step back.
"You talk about 'peace', but peace isn't just there being no war. I've been talking with Ero-sennin…" He hesitated, before pushing on, his voice only growing thicker. "I've been talking with our master a lot. I trained with him for the last two weeks, and when he wasn't beating the crap out of me, we were talking about his dream."
"Oh? And how have Jiraiya-sensei's childish dreams developed?" Pain said. He didn't sound impressed, though he watched Naruto warily.
Naruto ignored the jibe. "He told me that peace wasn't just people not fighting. That true peace, the kind of peace he wanted, would be everyone living together, understanding each other."
Pain shook his head. "Impossible."
"Why?" Naruto shot back, slowing down his breathing, trying to calm himself down. "Why is that impossible? What's so impossible about people coming together and-"
"Humans are foolish, humans are petty, and most of all, humans are selfish," Pain said, sounding absolutely self-assured. "These barriers will always exist in this world: they are not something that can be broken down by 'understanding'."
Naruto shook his head. "You can't be right."
"Why?" Pain echoed Naruto. "Because you're unwilling to believe it? Don't you see that as its own selfishness? Unable to admit that maybe, you are wrong? That the world cannot be changed except through violence?"
"No. You can't be right because I've proven you wrong. I've done it."
Naruto smiled grimly. "I understood Gaara." Pain cocked his head, familiar with the name, while Naruto continued. "He was… he was in a real bad way. Completely alone, a monster inside him…" Naruto's hand wandered to his stomach. "But I understood him. He was me, if I'd never had anyone to care for me. If no one in my village had acknowledged me."
Naruto's grim smile gradually shifted, more of his light shining through. "And I changed him. I brought him back: I showed him that he didn't have to be alone. Now, he's the Kazekage."
"Touching." Pain's voice was dry enough to evaporate all the rain in Ame. "But you just admitted you and he were two sides of the same coin: you merely understood yourself."
Naruto shrugged. "Maybe. But it still happened… and he wasn't the only one." He sighed. "I mean… don't you get it? What you're planning isn't peace. You're just putting something else in place of the shinobi system. People won't fight, sure, but they'll be more separated than ever. If everyone's afraid, no one is going to try to change anything. Everything will stay the same. The only difference is that your weapon will replace the wars."
"So long as my weapon prevents even one orphan," Pain said bitingly, "I will consider it a success."
"By creating more?" Naruto asked. He was getting angry again. "How can you justify that? Spreading fear won't help!" He swept his arm through the air. "Fear doesn't change anything! It just makes it easier for people to hate each other! And if there's just more hate, everywhere, then-"
"I don't have to justify it," Pain said calmly. "Gods do not justify their actions: they merely take them." He raised his hand. "And now, it seems we're out of time."
Naruto blinked, his blue eyes going wide.
'Huh?'
Oh.
Sage Mode was out. Pain was taking the bait.
'About time.'
"Banshō Ten'in," the purple-eyed man intoned, and Naruto was yanked off his feet, careening forward. He put an appropriately panicked look on his face, and flailed about… at least until Pain caught him by his throat, stopping him painfully in his tracks, and lifted him into the air.
The other Paths converged, drawing close. Naruto clawed at Pain's hand, trying to get himself some air, kicking his legs futilely. The man watched him expressionlessly.
"So," he said, with a note of finality. "Your Sage Mode does have a limit." He sighed. "Enough of this talking, then. Unless you can 'understand' me, I don't think we have anything more to say to each other."
Naruto gasped, and Pain loosened his grip by the merest of fractions. The blond grinned.
"Well, the thing is..." he wheezed, closing his eyes, "I've always talked better with my fists."
Several kilometers away, a clone popped.
When Naruto opened his eyes again, they were gold.
Pain's went wide. The other Paths, mere feet away, charged from all sides.
Three seconds till Pain could use his jutsu again.
'Did you know, Naruto…?'
Naruto chopped down, Sage Mode lending him the strength necessary to break Pain's grip. He dropped to the ground, winded but angry enough to ignore it. The Paths were pulling back weapons, reaching out glowing palms: one's chest had split open, revealing what could only be called a cannon. Pain himself was dropping back, his hand rising.
Naruto put his hands together in a simple cross.
Two seconds.
'High-level ninja should be able to read each others thoughts simply by an exchange of fists.'
'Kage Bunshin.'
Three clones appeared around Naruto, popping into existence in ready positions. They struck out, natural energy wreathing their fists and feet. Two Paths were thrown back, but the Human and Preta Path remained and landed blows, and the clones they had attacked dispelled immediately, the chakra drained right out of them.
It didn't matter. The clones had accomplished their purpose: keeping the Paths off the original Naruto.
He shot forward towards Pain, the surviving clone at his side, a Rasengan forming in its hand. The orange haired man kicked high, aiming for the armed clone, and Naruto spun beneath the kick, his clone taking the blow and getting thrown backwards.
One second.
'Even without saying anything...'
Naruto stared up into Pain's eyes from under his guard, tightening his fist. The man glared down, furious: he was off balance, having expected the Rasengan-clone to be the real Naruto.
"You-!" he hissed.
Naruto never did learn what Pain was going to say.
Half a second.
Naruto shot up into a building-shattering uppercut.
For a nanosecond, it seemed like Pain resisted the hit: that he employed gravity to keep him rooted to the ground. There was a frozen moment where he and Naruto glared at each other, Naruto's fist driving into his chin, Pain's entire body pushing down, an immovable force meeting an irresistible object.
Then, the natural energy riding behind Naruto's fist landed.
A long, long time ago, Naruto had heard that it was a mark of strong ninja to be able to have a conversation with nothing but their fists. Sasuke had told him that, right before he'd driven a chidori through his shoulder. He'd taken it to heart then, and now, it seemed that he hadn't done so for no reason.
Because in that moment where time held still, and the Rinnegan widened in fury, Naruto knew, without a doubt, that he and Pain weren't just fighting anymore.
They were speaking to each other. Or rather, Naruto was speaking to Pain. It was a very simple message, and one he'd delivered before.
'You're wrong.'
And then, the moment ended, and Pain was gone.
He was thrown upwards so fast that he just flickered out of existence. Even in Sage Mode, Naruto was barely able to follow the movement. There was a distant crack a second later: a sonic boom.
The other Paths didn't stop their attack. They didn't give Naruto time to appreciate the moment.
It didn't stop him from doing so, but he wasn't allowed to do it in peace. He could take a moment after the brawl ended. For now, he needed to keep his plan going.
Pain had been the real reason he hadn't been able to finish the fight: his jutsu had knocked Naruto away everytime he'd managed to gain the upper hand. Now, with him out of the way, going after the other Paths would be much, much easier.
The medic would have no choice but to come out. And then, she'd be done. Pain would be back soon enough: Naruto needed to finish before then.
So, he spun, his hands coming back together, and grinned fiercely.
"Let's go!"
Sakura grunted as the paper sword punched through her arm, sliding neatly between her radius and ulna, effortlessly slicing through her muscle. It continued on its path, whipping past her ear and opening a cut on her shoulder, before jarring to a stop. Konan stared at her, amber eyes cold.
"Impressive," she muttered, before Hinata swept forward, Lions Fist blazing, and punched her head clean off. The Hyuuga gasped, a thin trail of blood running from her mouth, but stayed tall, sweeping her fists around for another blow as the paper woman retreated farther down the wide street they'd battled across for the last few minutes, her head already reforming.
"It's useless, though," the woman said calmly, as the paper sword she'd stuck through Sakura's blocking arm began to hiss. The pink-haired girl seized it and ripped it out in a single vicious jerk, before hurling it at Konan.
She made no effort to dodge: the sword exploded, destroying one of her arms and rendering an angel wing ragged, but Konan didn't even flinch.
"So long as I have chakra, you can't win," she said serenely, watching as a slug wriggled out from under Sakura's short sleeve and ran itself over the wound in her arm, closing it cleanly. Konan inclined her head towards Hinata. "Even your Gentle Fist is useless here. My tenketsu can't be reached: my vital organs are the same."
She sighed as Sakura dropped to one knee, grasping at the deep cut in her side, running a glowing green hand over it. "Just give up. Stop fighting, and I'll let you live. Perhaps even leave Amegakure. You'll live to see the peace that Pain is crafting." She tilted her head, frowning. "If you don't… I'll have to kill you."
"Hah," Sakura panted, frowning. "If you could've, you would have by now." She glared defiantly, but Konan just shook her head sadly.
"If I wanted you dead, I'd simply have covered the street with explosive tags," she said sadly. "The buildings around us, too, to be sure. And the streets near us, as well. It would be a shame to destroy so much for so little, but I could do it in a heartbeat."
"Then why haven't you?" Hinata asked, shifting to stand next to Sakura, her Lion Fist still lit. Crimson ran steadily from a cut on her forehead, and some occasionally dripped from her mouth, but on the whole she looked much better than Sakura.
Mostly because her entire left side wasn't soaked in her own blood.
"Hmm." Konan tilted her head up, staring at the midnight sky. Dark clouds were gathering once more: it seemed like Amegakure's rain would return soon. Sakura was still wondering why it had left in the first place. She pressed her hand into her side, feeling one of her lacerations closing.
"You remind me of myself," Konan finally said.
Hinata blinked. Konan shook her head, a small smile on her face. "Not you." She pointed at Sakura, who was shakily pulling herself to her feet. "Her."
"Me?" Sakura asked, clenching her fist experimentally. It hurt horribly, but it worked, and that was all that mattered.
Konan's grin grew slightly bitter. "Yes. Remarkable, isn't it? That two similar people should end up in such contrasting situations, but both there for the same reason."
"What… do you mean?" Sakura panted, standing stock-still. Hinata, at her side, was slowly lowering her hands. The Lion Fist put itself out.
"You followed Naruto Uzumaki here, to an hostile village, up against an enemy you knew almost nothing about, all to keep him safe," Konan said, her smile remaining. "I… I have followed Pain-"
"Nagato," Sakura said, remembering what Naruto had told all of them before they'd entered the village, about Pain's 'real' body.
Konan stiffened, before relaxing. "Jiraiya," she muttered, before raising her voice. "Yes. I have followed Nagato for the last sixteen years, and for many before that. But while you followed Naruto to an enemy village, I followed Nagato while he fought the world itself."
"Why?" Sakura asked, balling her hands and starting to circle the paper woman, who turned to face her. Hinata rotated in the other direction, flanking Konan.
Konan frowned. "Because," she said, "he's my friend."
Sakura blinked. "What?"
"He's my friend, and he holds within him the potential to keep what happened to us from ever happening to anyone else," Konan said simply. "And if you think that you will stop him, you're wrong. So long as I'm here, I will make sure Nagato realizes his dream."
Sakura stared. Of all the things she'd expect an international S-ranked criminal to say, that would have probably ranked last.
"And that," Konan intoned, "is why, if you won't surrender, you must die."
"You know I won't. That we won't," Sakura said, glancing at Hinata, who nodded back over Konan's shoulder, the Byakugan lending her glare a frightening aspect. "If you really believe what you just said… we're here for the same reason. So you must know…" Her green eyes went hard, and she shifted her feet back. "We won't back down."
Konan sighed, but her posture straightened, and her eyes grew even colder. "Yes. I know." She lifted off of the ground, her wings spreading theatrically. "I'm sorry."
Konan charged at Sakura, speeding low over the ground, trailing paper tags.
The Haruno met her halfway, and punched her upper body into a welter of sheets.
What was left of Konan fell back, sweeping to the left. The tags she'd left behind began to hiss: some of the loose paper left from Sakura's punch flitted through the air, affixing itself to the younger girl's arm. They began to hiss as well.
Hinata sprinted forward, over the sparking tags. "Sakura!" she shouted, and then jumped.
Sakura didn't hesitate. She leapt into the air as well, over the tags, and nearly collided with Hinata in mid-air. The Hyuuga's hands flashed out, tapping the tags along Sakura's arm, and they died ignominiously, the chakra-spark extinguished by Hinata's touch.
They both began to fall, Sakura aiming to get beyond the tags, and Hinata setting her sights on Konan, whose upper body, sans right arm, had just reformed.
The tags went off. The blast, just as much concussive force as it was fire, took Sakura, who hadn't quite cleared the field yet, and threw her upwards, towards the concrete facade of one of the many towers studding the village. She hit the wall feet-first and stuck there, twisting around to find Hinata.
The Hyuuga was beyond the field of tags when they went off, but just barely. The blast didn't throw her up, as it had Sakura: it threw her forward, right at Konan. Hinata twisted, her head dropping and her feet coming up.
Konan turned just in time to get a bicycle kick to the face.
She barely had time to look surprised before her features disappeared again. Hinata let out an inarticulate yell as she regained her feet and shot forward, pounding the paper woman with pointed fingers glowing with chakra. Sheets fluttered away with every strike, Hinata's attacks kicking them up in a flurry around the two women.
Konan folded in on herself, turning hollow, and fell apart in a flurry of paper, coming back together behind Hinata. A sword formed in her hand, and she thrust it forward. The Byakugan saw it coming: Hinata spun, punching the sword aside with the flat of her palm, and sent another towards Konan's chest.
The blue-haired woman swept back, flinging paper shuriken… and the Hyuuga leapt straight up, over the barrage.
Konan frowned, and then her amber eyes widened. She started to turn around, more shuriken folding into existence around her.
She made it about halfway before Sakura came down on her like an enraged comet, crushing her to the ground with a vicious airborne haymaker, and shattering the concrete street for dozens of meters around, forming a rippling crater. Blood from the unhealed slashes covering the Haruno's side and arms splattered the concrete and paper around her.
Sakura didn't care. She pulled back her other hand, channeling chakra to her fist.
The smashed pile of paper she stood over suddenly grew legs, one of which kicked her, hard, in the kidney. The pink-haired girl made a choking sound and doubled over, all of the air knocked out of her.
Which was when the other leg shifted impossibly, coiling and moving beneath her feet, before shooting out and smashing her in the chin.
Sakura went flying, her vision flashing black and red. She hit the ground, tumbling end over end, and ended up flat on her stomach, her mind reeling, with the taste of blood heavy in her mouth.
She pushed a fist under her, trying to shove herself to her feet, ignoring her injuries and trusting in Katsuyu to take care of them. Her entire body trembled, and her head pounded, but none of that mattered: she had to help Hinata.
A paper shuriken buried itself in the back of her hand, and she let out a yelp, unable to support herself under it anymore. She crashed back to the cold concrete, scuffing her elbow (though what was a little more blood?), and glared up at the woman who'd thrown it, unable to summon up the strength to do more than raise her head.
Konan didn't even bother looking back. She was busy with Hinata.
Sakura stared.
She'd never seen her friend fight like she did now.
Hinata's hands were a blur, leaving a lethal blue tracery wherever she struck. Any loose paper that passed through their paths was sliced to pieces: explosive tags sputtered and died, and ordinary sheets were torn into microscopic confetti. She was relentless, chasing after Konan's shifting form, not giving her a moment to collect herself.
Shuriken and razor sharp airplanes spun through the air, and were cut down just as easily. Hinata left a trail of diced paper and curling blue tracery, loose chakra honed to an impossible edge, as she pushed Konan back.
The paper woman struck out with a paper dagger, and Hinata slid around it, effortlessly slicing the hand holding it off at the wrist. Konan spun into a low kick, aiming for Hinata's ankle, and Hinata hopped and over-rotated, hurling her entire body sideways into the air and bringing her foot up high. It wreathed itself in chakra, the distinctive Lion's Fist forming around it.
Konan caught Hinata's ankle with a hand with too many fingers and Hinata stopped right there, one of her own hands shooting down and anchoring her to the ground.
Both woman stayed there a moment, straining. The Lion Fist snapped, burning the air around it, and seemed to glare down at Konan, eager to devour her face. The woman stared up at it fearlessly, before glancing down at Hinata, who was watching her with just as much fierceness as the lion head attached to her foot.
"You're different," she said. Sakura could barely hear the paper woman over the blood pounding through her head. She'd underestimated how many times Konan had cut her: blood-loss was making itself known. Sakura was actually running out of the stuff. There wasn't much Katsuyu could do for that.
Hinata's glare didn't change at Konan's not-question. Konan kicked out, and Hinata's spare hand came up, catching the leg and locking it under her arm.
"Very different," Konan continued. Sakura thought she might have sounded sad. "Why are you here, I wonder?" She inclined her head towards Sakura. "She's here for her friend, and his dream: what about you?"
"Naruto's dream is my dream," Hinata said, kicking down with her spare foot. Konan's other hand came up, blocking it with her elbow, and then they were deadlocked again.
"Ah," the woman said, and this time Sakura knew that she sounded sad; or disappointed. "You love him."
Her left eye distended, the distinctive shape of a paper senbon pushing out of the pupil. It fired down at Hinata's suddenly blushing face, and she jerked her head back, neatly avoiding it… and moving her center of gravity backwards an inch too far.
Sakura barely managed to follow what happened. One second, Hinata was balanced on one hand, pushing against Konan, the Lions Fist on her right foot snapping at the woman's face, and the next, Konan pushed and the Hyuuga slammed to the ground, bouncing with a wet gasp, with a kunai stuck in her leg and a long cut along the length of her cheek.
Hinata didn't stay down, rolling to the side, her hands relighting with that distinct, terrifying slicing chakra.
It didn't stop Konan from moving to her side in an instant and slapping a tag down on the nape of her neck.
Hinata froze, even before Konan said, "Don't move," in a voice that made glaciers seem positively tropical. Her Byakugan could see exactly what was touching the back of her head.
Sakura swore, trying and failing once more to push herself to her feet. Everything seemed too light: she'd lost too much blood, and Katsuyu wasn't replacing it fast enough.
While Sakura thought up more and more inventive curses and wasted more and more blood trying to bring herself to her feet, Konan stared down at Hinata, knowing she could see her perfectly well with her doujutsu.
"I wonder," she said. "Why do you love this boy? A Jinchūriki… it's certainly unusual."
Hinata fearlessly turned her head, glaring up at the woman above her with pale, straining eyes. "Do you really want to know?" she asked, somehow managing to inject both a customary politeness and a threat of certain death into her tone simultaneously.
Konan cocked her head. "Of course." She sounded completely sincere.
Hinata narrowed her eyes. "I love him because he's kind, and because he spent his whole life fighting the village's best efforts to ignore him." Konan stood up, keeping watch on her while she continued talking. "I love him because he can't eat his ramen without spilling a noodle down his collar, and he's loud, and he's stubborn!"
She shook her head, fighting a smile, before her countenance shifted back to something more deadly. "Because he has a dream to make sure people like you never hurt anyone else ever again, and he's never going to give it up."
Konan didn't look away, but her brow creased. She bent down, bringing herself close to Hinata.
"Let me tell you something funny, Hyuuga," she said, and Hinata shifted, unable to figure out exactly what Konan's tone held. Sakura watched, her vision blurring.
"I loved a boy too, once," Konan said seriously. Hinata didn't dare interrupt her: partly because there was an explosive tag attached to her neck, and partly because a dreadful curiosity was filling her chest, weighing her down.
So, when Konan kept talking, Hinata listened.
"He was sweet, and smart, and naïve, and incredibly, so incredibly stubborn, that I couldn't help but smile every time he opened his mouth. When the world beat him down, he swore that he would become its god. That it wouldn't be able to ignore him any longer. That he would change it forever, and ensure that no one ever hurt anyone like he had been hurt." Konan's mouth twisted up into a distinct not-smile.
"He was my best friend; I wish he had been more." She looked away; off towards a horizon only she could see, before refocusing on Hinata. "Do you know what happened to him, Hyuuga?"
Hinata's mouth was dry: her leg felt heavy, the kunai in it cold.
There was a crack of thunder in the sky, distant and muffled, but thunder nonetheless. An immeasurably light drizzle began to fall, the barest hint of rain.
Both of these things nearly managed to drown out Hinata's tremulous, hesitant, "What?"
Nearly.
"He died, of course," Konan said matter-of-factly. Hinata flinched. Konan continued mercilessly. "He killed himself, hoping that it would buy Nagato and me safety." The not-smile returned. "I suppose it did, in a way."
"That's horrible," Hinata whispered.
"It is, isn't it?" Konan said calmly.
She crouched down. "Do you see now why I'm doing this? Why I must stay by Nagato as he realizes his dream? There must be no more like me."
"But he's wrong," Hinata said desperately. "Killing more people isn't the answer. Naruto wants the same thing he does! He wants-"
"Peace, right?" Konan chuckled. It was a wonderful sound, but Hinata couldn't help but shiver at it. "But how will he achieve it? How will he combat the endless hatred that this world has built up?"
Hinata hesitated. "I… don't know."
"And there is the difference between them," Konan said. "Naruto and Nagato may share a dream, but Nagato has a plan: all Naruto has is an ambition, with no experience with reality to drive it forward."
"That doesn't make him wrong!" Hinata shouted. She was past caring about the explosive on her neck.
"Perhaps," Konan shrugged. "But given the choice between a plan and an ambition, I'll pick the plan any day." She stood back up. "This has been interesting…" She paused. "What is your name?"
"Hinata."
"Hinata." Konan rolled the name on her tongue. "That's a nice name." She brought her hands together, into a simple kai sign. "This has been an interesting conversation, Hinata," she said. "Unfortunately, I don't believe we'll be coming to an agreement anytime soon… and I can't let you help your Jinchūriki."
The rain began to pick up.
Sakura screamed something positively horrifying as she slipped in her own blood, unable to rise and trying to find something, a kunai, a rock, anything, to attack the paper woman with.
"Don't you fucking dare!" she roared, her voice breaking. Her face was too pale. "Hinata! Don't let her! Do something!"
Hinata's eyes went wide. She flung forward a hand glowing with deadly chakra. She wasn't nearly fast enough. There was no way she'd reach in time.
Sakura screamed in fury and terror. Konan smiled sadly.
"Goodbye."