Not Sick Chapter 15
Gauntlet
Konan froze.
Completely and totally. The blue-haired woman became a statue, standing with its hands clasped, her back straight, her Akatsuki cloak fluttering in the light breeze brought by the now pattering rain.
Only her eyes stayed alive, darting down towards Hinata, and then to Sakura in her peripheral vision, who had somehow managed to make it to one knee, though she was swaying horribly.
"What?" she said, somewhere between surprised and confused.
"Jeez."
The languid voice came from a nearby roof, and every single woman in street craned her head towards it. Well, Sakura and Hinata did: Konan just jittered slightly.
"That was way too close… pretty troublesome."
"That's all you have to say?! Hinata's head almost gets blown off, and all you got it 'troublesome'?!"
Despite her exhaustion, Sakura didn't think she'd ever smiled as brightly as she did right then. She'd never have imagined being so happy to hear Ino's voice.
Shikamaru shrugged. "It didn't, though. So… troublesome."
Ino's frustrated grunt was music to Sakura's ears. She finished lifting her head, and found her blonde friend standing on a balcony railing about three stories up: the Yamanaka stood with her arms crossed, staring down at Sakura. Her face was a bit pale, and there was a thick stream of dried blood running from her nose, but she looked fine besides that: definitely in much better shape than Sakura herself.
Shikamaru was next to her, his hands clasped identically to Konan's. A stretch of darkness, a shadow barely visible in the dimness of the street around it, extended from his feet down to Konan's.
"Holy shit Forehead. What happened to you?" Ino tried to sound boisterous, but her voice shook just a little too much to pull it off.
Sakura looked down at her blood-soaked tunic and shrugged. "Looks worse than it is. You know," she wheezed. "Papercuts."
Ino broke into a choked laugh. "You need some help?"
Sakura pulled her other foot under her, catching a glimpse of Katsuyu clinging to her hand. "Yeah, that'd be... great." She tucked her head in, addressing the slug on her palm. "Why didn't you tell me they were coming?" she whispered.
"I didn't want to risk you alerting your opponent," Katsuyu said. "I hope you'll forgive me, Sakura, but-"
"Yeah," Sakura said carefully. "I probably would have done something stupid if I knew help was coming. Thanks, Katsuyu."
Slugs couldn't blush, but Katsuyu did her best anyway.
Ino jumped down, right in front of Sakura. Hinata was slowly getting up, pulling the tag from the back of her neck. "What do you need?" the blonde asked, concern leaking into her voice despite her best efforts.
Sakura winced, the world spinning as she finally stood up. "Erg… blood." The world flipped over for a second, and Sakura's legs suddenly felt hollow. She only stayed on her feet by anchoring herself to the ground with her chakra. "Yeah. Definitely blood. You have any soldier pills?"
Ino nodded, reaching into her pouch and tossing Sakura a small, dark blue orb. The pink-haired girl almost fumbled the catch, before stuffing the thing in her mouth, swallowing without ceremony.
She screwed up her face. "Tastes terrible."
But it had worked, because the world stopped spinning, and she could feel her legs again.
Ino laughed in relief, feeling something hot and wet in the corner of her vision. "Yeah."
Chōji joined them, cracking the street slightly as Hinata limped over, followed shortly by Sai, who landed without a sound. The airborne insertion team was reunited.
"So," Sakura said, as she turned to Hinata and bright green chakra sparked in her hands. "What now?"
Shikamaru, still up on the balcony, groaned, a drop of sweat running down his temple. "Decide quick," he said shortly. "I'm not going to be able to keep this up."
"We gotta kill her," Ino said, unsheathing a kunai and striding towards Konan. The woman's eyes focused on her fearlessly. "My Shintenshin didn't work on her: she just dumped me in one of those clones of hers. There's no way we'll get anything out of her that way."
"Maybe… we could ask her?" Hinata said, her leg slightly extended towards Sakura, who was sealing the kunai wound there.
Ino stared at her. "Ask her?"
"It seems unlikely she would respond to our questions," Sai said. "Even if she is not sealed to secrecy-"
"I'm not," Konan suddenly spoke up. The Konoha shinobi turned to look at her. "But you won't be getting anything out of me."
Sai stepped forward, in front of Ino. "In that case, I will-"
"Don't be so hasty," a rumbling voice said, coming from all around the street.
Each of the ninja dropped into a ready position. Shikamaru just sweated harder: Konan had begun resisting even more viciously at the sound of the voice.
Something pure black pulled itself from the street, slapping its hands down on the concrete. It glared at them all with a single malicious yellow eye, its mouth open and revealing a grin full of eerily square teeth.
"And don't think it will be so easy," the black thing said. "You're not done yet."
Sai and Chōji rushed forward, Sakura behind them, and Hinata fell back towards Shikamaru. Ino sprinted at Konan, her kunai gleaming.
The black thing reared up, firing something wooden at Shikamaru, and then sunk back into the ground, disappearing from view right as Chōji's palm slammed down on top of him.
The Nara cursed, leaping off the balcony towards Hinata, keeping his hands together and the Kagemane in place. Ino was only a couple steps from Konan, who continued to watch her with unblinking amber eyes.
If he released the shadow jutsu, Konan would be back in the fight, and that wouldn't be good for any of them.
Which was why when Black Zetsu squirmed out of the wall on the other side of the street and fired another couple things that could only be described as wooden spears at him, Shikamaru said something that would have made his mother lock him in his room for a week, chūnin duties be damned, and his father approach him later in the day and ask him to "Please teach me how to come up with something like that".
Shikamaru unclasped his hands, drawing two kunai and deflecting the spears.
And then, the street exploded into a storm of paper. Ino shrieked, Sakura shouted, Chōji grunted, and Sai silently began slashing at any sheet that drew close to him.
Zetsu just laughed harshly, sinking back into the building as Shikamaru watched intently through the flurries of paper, and the fight began again.
The street was pockmarked with craters. So were the buildings lining it.
Patches of dark blood were splattered about: discarded metal rods, eerily black, littered the cracked and crumbling concrete. There were no roaring summons, or whining Rasengan. Everything was completely silent, but for the light patter of rain and the distant, muted crack of thunder. There wasn't a hint of movement.
But that didn't mean it was abandoned.
"Naruto."
"Hmm?"
"He's coming back."
Naruto opened his eyes, the pupil horizontal once more. There was a small cut just below his eye, running along his cheek, but it was closing with unnatural speed.
"I know. I can feel him."
He tilted his head towards the slug on his shoulder. "You should go: meet back up with the other you."
"Of course," Katsuyu murmured, and then she slipped away.
Naruto took a deep breath, recentering himself, and spread his consciousness out once more. He shifted his crossed legs.
Sitting on a pile of bodies wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, but it was the easiest way to ensure that Pain would have to come to him.
Amegakure sprawled out around him, cold and dead. The rain had started coming down again, but this rain was different from the thick, chilling stuff that had greeted his friends and him. It was light, and tasted mildly chemical, but it wasn't as heavy as the first stuff had been, and for that Naruto was glad.
He focused, his brow twitching, and pushed against the freezing chakra all around him. It barely gave: it was like struggling against the inside of an unbreakable plastic bag. He could force the cold back, feel a bit beyond the confines of Pain's chakra, but it wasn't nearly enough to find Sasuke.
But it was enough to feel Pain coming. Him, and the medic Path. They were both headed this way.
Naruto sighed and clambered to his feet, stepping on the Human Path's face as he did. The pile of bodies shifted at the change in his weight, and he hopped off of it, landing soundlessly.
The rain began to pick up.
"So, what're you gonna do now?" he said, directing the question at nothing in particular, but knowing Pain would hear him. He gestured at the heap of 'dead' Paths behind him. "You want these guys back, right?"
The equally dead city didn't answer. Naruto crossed his arms, frowning.
"Did you think about what I told you?" he asked. "Are you afraid I might be right?"
Still no answer. Naruto tapped a foot.
"'Cause I mean… I got a little time to think after I killed all of… you? I guess? And I mean... that's really why you're doing all this, right? Why you did all you have?" He slowly reached up and scratched the back of his head, his frown intensifying.
"Because you're afraid."
The silence was an answer all its own.
"I don't even really know what you're afraid of, honestly. But I think I can guess."
Naruto uncrossed his arms. "Something happened. Pervy Sage told me about you guys, about how he had three students from the Land of Rain. Konan, Yahiko… and Nagato, a kid with the Rinnegan." The blond shifted from one foot to the other, building up into a pacing motion. "He told me how you guys were all best friends, and how when he left, he was sure that you'd end up changing this place for the better."
Naruto's pacing picked up. "But then, he heard that you died. All of you. And he was sure that it had all been for nothing…"
The pacing stopped. One of Naruto's fists clenched.
"But you're not. Well," he amended, "Yahiko is. You're wearing his body: Ero-sennin says its 'cause you always wanted him to be in charge." Naruto let out a strangled laugh. "Makes sense, I guess."
"But now… you guys might as well be as dead as him. Because you've changed. You're scared of something… I think you're scared of whatever killed Yahiko. And you're letting that fear make you do things you're gonna regret."
"And what would you know about something like that?"
Naruto stiffened, and then carefully shrugged. Pain's voice was seemingly coming from every direction… and unlike before, he sounded unmistakably angry.
"It's not me, mostly," he said. "A lot of this is Pervy Sage. We've been talking, you know? He doesn't… he doesn't get why-"
"And he never will."
Yahiko's body stepped out from a nearby alley, and Naruto quickly turned towards it. Pain's fists were clenched, and his eyes narrowed. His spiky orange hair was being pushed down by the steadily escalating rain.
"Men like Jiraiya," the man hissed, "who consign themselves to live in a fantasy where their actions can have meaning, where they can delude themselves into having a purpose and not wasting both their time and others chasing impossible dreams…" He paused, and his hands relaxed. His voice gained a clarity it hadn't had before. "They are a waste."
Naruto glared, but he didn't charge. The cold had pushed in: Pain's chakra had grown more intense, keeping his senses from even going beyond the street, and until he knew where the Medic Path was he couldn't afford to leave the bodies of the other Paths unguarded.
"You know you're wrong," he said, gritting his teeth. "If people like our sensei really were pointless, then you never would have gone after the messed-up version of his dream. You would have just laid down and died."
Pain stared at him, eyes flat. Naruto took a step forward.
"C'mon," he said. "This is pointless. What we're doing right now. Even if… even if…"
Naruto snapped, his canines elongating slightly, and a flash of red shot through his golden eyes. "Even if one of us wins this fight, we're both going to lose anyway! We want the same thing! Why won't you just help me? Help us?! The world's already changing! People are fighting to keep their comrades, their friends, safe! It's not just about being selfish, or the village! And with you and Pervy Sage and me-"
"We could do what?" Pain shot back, taking a step of his own. The rain pounded down, the sound rippling across the city. Distant thunder boomed, but neither Naruto nor Pain noticed it. "Spread understanding?" He shook his head viciously. "The central conceit of your fantasy is that you believe people want to change. That they recognize they are leading themselves down a path that can only end in their death."
His hands curled into fists, and he took another step forward, his voice rising. "But humans! Are! Fools! They must be shown this, and there is only one language that everyone in this cursed world speaks!"
"Fear."
"That's bullshit!" Naruto roared. Pain raised his hand, and Naruto glared back fearlessly, a snarl curling his lip. "You say I'm living in a fantasy? There's more to the world than people being scared! If that were true, would I even be here?!"
"Of course," Pain said calmly. "You're afraid of losing your friend, aren't you, Naruto?"
"Of course I am!" Naruto shouted back. "But that's not the only reason! I'm here because I can't just let people like you walk all over everyone else! Just because you think you're right, doesn't mean you should be allowed to force everyone to think like you!
"You mean like you're trying to make me think like you?" Pain asked, his mouth curling in amusement.
Naruto bared his teeth, and gave in.
He sprinted forward, one hand drawn back for a haymaker.
Pain didn't even flinch. He just spoke, his stance cruel, and his voice bearing final judgement.
"Banshō Ten'in."
The force picked Naruto up and slammed him into the street, hard. He slid along the ground, digging a furrow in the concrete, and came to rest right in front of Pain. The orange-haired man promptly stomped down on top of his head, driving him further into the ground and keeping him pinned as cracks shot out around him.
"It is not something you can fight," the man said, stomping down again. "It is not something you can defeat. It is not something to be understood."
Pain stepped back, and Naruto raised his head, his face bloody. "Fear is a decree. Of what you can do, or must do. It is that simple."
He stood over Naruto, glaring down at him with gleaming eyes. "Do you understand, Kyuubi? Or are you so blinded by our master's delusions that you'll fight me to the bitter end?"
Naruto stared at him in silence for a moment, his eyes wide. He glanced down at the ground.
A smile pulled itself across his face.
He looked back up at Pain, the rain washing away some of the blood from his face.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he said.
"Of course I'm going to fight."
And then, he dispelled in a puff of smoke.
A shadow clone.
Why was it always a shadow clone? Did the boy not know any other jutsu?
Pain made a noise somewhere between a growl and a sigh, and looked over at the pile of dead Paths Naruto had collected. Wordlessly, the Naraka Path appeared at his side, her hair matting itself in the steady rain, and strode forward, beginning the resurrection process.
He needed to hurry. If the Jinchūriki had placed this clone here as bait with the bodies of the Paths, then he was doubtlessly planning an ambush… or perhaps even springing it at the moment. And with only the Deva and Naraka Paths combat capable, Pain was more vulnerable than he would like to admit.
There was another crack of thunder, and the Animal Path rose to her feet, the hole in her chest melting away, and her cheek shifting back into its proper shape with a grotesque crunch. Two more Paths followed her: the Human and Asura. The Preta remained low, the Naraka bent over it.
There was another crack.
And then another. And another.
It wasn't thunder this time.
What was…
Pain turned, his mouth falling into a frown, and then he froze. He stared up into the sky, the Rinnegan widening. The other Paths turned with him, and as the Preta Path hauled himself to his feet, the entirety of the Six Paths of Pain gazed up at Amegakure's skyline, their normally unflappable composure slipping.
Another cracking sound.
The sound wasn't the sky venting its fury.
One of Amegakure's towers was tipping.
It was a slow thing, barely noticeable at first. It reminded Pain of Yahiko, slowly leaning to the side, looking completely ordinary until he had reached the point of no return. Until the knife in his heart had proved too much, and he'd fallen like a stone off a cliff.
Just like the tower was now. Something was billowing up from the base: dust, and lots of it. The foundations had been vaporized.
Clones. The boy's damnable clones. He'd sent them out with that equally damned Rasengan of his. Big ones, judging by the necessary damage to bring those skyscrapers down.
Pain's hand curled into a fist. The tower was tipping towards him.
He could dodge. Maybe. There was still time to move out of the impact zone, though the damage to the village would be-
There was another, deafening crack, echoing across the whole village.
Three Paths snapped their gaze to the right. Across a bank of apartments, another tower was falling.
Pain gritted his teeth.
Another crack.
And another tower with it, this time behind him, looming over a once bustling marketplace.
Three towers, each nearly sixty meters tall, each about forty meters away, all falling towards him from different directions. Forming a rough triangle, in fact.
Two Paths watched a tower each. All of them had the same thoughtful expression on their face.
Pain considered the situation, as the towers leaned farther and farther down, drawing ever closer to the inevitable collapse. The roar of what remained of their foundations tearing themselves apart grew more and more monstrous, echoing across the sky, mixing in with the closing thunder. As far as ambushes went, it was certainly a well thought out one. If all three hit, the rubble raining down would prove troublesome even for him.
How many could he stop? One? Maybe two, if he were fast enough.
But then the village would be in danger, and not just him.
No. It would be best to just protect himself, and hope the damage didn't spread itself too dramatically.
The Paths rushed to his side, and Pain closed his eyes. He took a relaxed breath, and raised both of his hands towards the sky.
There was a final, deafening crack, and the towers began plummeting in earnest.
Pain opened his eyes, and grimaced.
"It was a good attempt, Naruto," he muttered, as the skyscrapers grew ever closer. The sound of thousands and thousands of pounds of air being pushed to the side subtly overwhelmed his senses, and a shadow blacker than the night preceding it drew across the Paths of Pain.
The man that had been Yahiko shifted a foot back, his fingers tensing.
"But it's not enough."
The towers were seconds from impact.
"SHINRA TENSEI."
"Hinata?" Ino glanced at her friend, breathing heavily and wiping a stream of blood from her forehead. The Hyuuga was staring off into the distance, her eyes straining, her mouth slowly sliding open. "What is it?"
Hinata turned, and her voice shook. "I can't r-really see… but I think-"
A sound that defied classification exploded across the village, so loud that for a second, Ino thought she might never hear again, or that she had imagined the concept of 'hearing' in the first place. It was a roar and a crack and a shattering and a boom and everything inbetween.
Every unbroken window on the street shattered simultaneously, a high, sharp sound which paled in comparison to the one that had preceded it, raining glittering shards of glass down on the concrete. The ground shook, cracks snaking along the street, and bits of roofing tumbled from all around, breaking into more and more rubble on impact.
Every combatant paused, looking around in confusion. The ground rumbled, and Sakura stumbled to the side: Sai caught her by the arm. Zetsu slunk away into the ground in the moment of distraction, his eye gleaming bright yellow for a second before vanishing.
Konan glanced away from the Shikamaru and Chōji, up into the sky.
"What…" she murmured, before sprouting wings and flitting upwards in an instant. Ino couldn't see what she saw, but she could see the woman's mouth fall open in surprise.
And she could hear the shocked whisper.
"Nagato?"
"The fuck was that?"
Kiba looked around, holding one hand up against his ear, and carefully took a step forward.
Behind him, the exit from Amegakure's underworld collapsed with a sizable din. The sound seemed pathetic compared to what had come before, but it was still loud and sudden. The Inuzuka flinched.
No one answered him. Tenten and Lee looked to Neji: Shino just stared up into the night sky. There was a subtle buzzing noise filling the air around him. Akamaru just barked quietly, his tail hung low, and shook his head.
Neji himself glared off into the distance, his Byakugan straining. He was frowning harder than Kiba had ever seen.
Kiba didn't care.
"No, seriously," he said, drawing level with Neji. Tenten carefully inched away from him: he still smelled like a dozen years of waste. "What the hell was that?"
Neji cleared his throat.
"I can't see well enough to be sure… but it seems," he said, trying to sound unruffled and doing a poor job of it, "that Naruto has done something rather rash.
"Should we be worried?"
The man shifted the hunk of bandages hung over his shoulder, glaring out into the rain.
His partner slowly pulled back, his hand drawing away from the doorframe.
"Whatever it was, it's over now," he said calmly.
He turned and strode off. "Come: we're running out of time."
Three followed after him, and the house was dead again, with nothing but the tinkling of glass filling its narrow halls.
The world had become nothing but furious sound and choking smoke. Visibility was a dream of the past: the sound of rumbling debris and crumbling concrete ruled the night. Rain, the one thing that would haunt Ame even when everything else was gone, pattered down, cutting tracks in the drifting clouds of dust.
Pain blinked. The particles were no issue to the Rinnegan, but it was still uncomfortable.
The blood running down his forehead was also rather irritating. He brought a hand up, curiously wiping it across the top of his head. He had been tagged by a chunk of concrete, apparently, and the head wound was bleeding freely.
He looked around, and suppressed a shrug. Considering the scale of the destruction, a cut on the scalp wasn't much to worry about.
There wasn't much to see, but that spoke more than the devastation would have anyway. Several of the Paths were pulling themselves from beneath slabs of concrete: the Preta Path was sporting a broken arm, the worst injury, while the rest were merely scuffed and bruised.
Pain frowned. That ambush had utterly flattened the center of the village. His jutsu had saved himself and the rest of the Paths from any major damage, but all around them, for six or seven hundred meters, buildings had been torn down, streets ripped apart, glass broken beyond repair, underground pathways pulled to the surface by the tremors produced by the towers.
He could feel it, even if the dust and rubble kept him from seeing the whole of the wreckage. His chakra still filled the village, and every aspect of the desecration was perfectly clear to him. The heart of Amegakure had been reduced to so much piled concrete, smoke, and ashes.
The frown deepened.
'He will pay for this.'
Pain glanced around, considering.
Had this been it? And impressive effort, of course, but it was… missing something. Had Naruto really believed that he could have been laid low by a couple of collapsing buildings? Was the boy really that deluded?
No. He was naive, but he wasn't stupid. There was something more to this.
But what could possibly follow up something so destructive-?
Pain, and the Paths alongside him, froze.
There was something filling the air.
It wasn't the rumbling of the distant thunder, or the creaking of the shifting rubble, or the occasionally shattering glass. It was completely unnatural, unlike anything in the world. And it was getting louder.
A high-pitched, painful, horrendously ominous keening.
Pain shifted, and the Paths spread out. Whatever that noise was, it couldn't be good.
They all scanned the dust. The sound refused to come from any one direction: it seemed to be approaching from everywhere.
And then, the obstructing clouds of powdered concrete and pulped wood burst aside, and someone orange and red careened out of them, traveling at something approaching the speed of sound. An oversized shuriken composed of blinding white chakra spun with unbelievable speed in their hand, vaporizing raindrops that struck it, and the air screamed at its passing.
The Rinnegan went wide, and Naruto Uzumaki's canines flashed in the light of his jutsu.
Pain reached to the Path to the right of him: the Preta. His hand clamped down on his arm.
Naruto's arm drew back, and his mouth opened wide.
"Fūton!" he snarled, flinging his arm forward, and sending the keening chakra on its way.
"Rasenshuriken!"
And the blinding shuriken flew.
The Heavenly Push was out of the question: after saving himself from the falling towers, Pain wouldn't be utilizing that particular ability for at least a minute.
So instead of raising his hand and blowing both the boy and his shuriken away, Pain turned and heaved, and the Preta Path flew up to intercept both.
Naruto's eyes widened, but it was too late: the shuriken flew faster than him, cutting a path through the rain, and right into the Preta's outstretched hand. A blue glow sprung into existence, and the keening dimmed, the jutsu draining away. In a moment, it was gone.
The blond fell forward, striking the Preta Path out of the sky with an airborne haymaker… and then Pain surged forward and launched a straight kick directly into his face.
And Naruto vanished in a puff of smoke.
Pain actually grunted in frustration. Shadow clones, always shadow-
He froze, his leg remaining up in the air. The Preta Path hit the ground and bounced on the slick rubble, its other arm breaking.
And the keening returned.
Pain didn't spin. He could see through the other Path's eyes. And so he saw with perfect clarity as another Naruto, the real one this time, he was sure, burst from the dust behind him, another Rasenshuriken screaming in his hand.
Tricked. Tricked. A decoy after a decoy. The towers falling, the first distraction, only to obscure and possibly slow him down. The armed clone, the second, with a higher chance of succeeding at actually harming him, but still intended to divide his attention.
And now, all the Paths with a chance of interrupting the Rasenshuriken were occupied, or out of position, with another bearing down on them.
Pain didn't make a noise. Neither did Naruto.
The Paths moved, and Naruto threw the second Rasenshuriken.
The keening grew unbearably louder, and then... vanished.
There was a terrible silence, and then the world went white.
Naruto panted, pulling himself to his feet. He couldn't feel the natural energy thrumming through his body anymore. Those Rasenshuriken had completely drained him.
And with the chakra he'd spent bringing those towers down, he was down to one clone gathering the stuff.
He puffed out a breath. Without Sage Mode, Amegakure became even more muddled. His sensing was gone.
But so was the dust and debris. Naruto looked around, propping his hands on his knees and taking deep breaths, feeling the rain pound on his back. Katsuyu seemed to be enjoying it.
He couldn't see Pain or any of his Paths anywhere.
Where the orange-haired group had stood, there was a perfect, spherical depression cut out of the mountain of rubble. There was a puddle slowly forming at the bottom. The Rasenshuriken had completely vaporized everything caught in its field of effect: the explosion of wind chakra had shredded the pile of concrete, rebar, wood, and anything else in it at the molecular level.
Naruto unconsciously rubbed his right arm, remembering a mind-numbing burning, before shaking his head and taking an unsteady step forward.
Could he really have taken out Pain in that one hit? Had he gotten all of them?
It seemed too good to be true.
Naruto pulled himself up, and cupped his hands around his mouth.
"Oi! Nagato!" he shouted. "You there?"
He listened. Thunder made itself known in the distance, and the omnipresent rain still pattered down, uncaring of the destruction, but there was no response.
"What, really?" Naruto asked no-one in particular. "That was it?"
For a second, it seemed like it had been.
But then-
"Of course not."
Naruto sighed, shuffling to face his left, where the voice had emerged from.
"Thought so." His voice was ragged, but there was undeniable humor in it.
Pain strode into view, cresting a pile of rubble twice as tall as Naruto. He stared down at the blond, one of his eyes twitching. The other Paths moved in behind him… sans one.
The summoner was nowhere to be seen.
And neither was Pain's left hand. Where it should have been, the arm abruptly ended, a neatly carved stump that slowly dripped dark, viscous blood. Pain didn't seem to care.
"Shit," Naruto chuckled tiredly, straightening up and evening out his breathing. "I didn't even get your medic. But where's the other lady, huh?"
Pain's arm twitched. His glare intensified. So did Naruto's smartass grin.
"I can't help but feel you're not taking this seriously, Naruto," the pale man said calmly. The other Paths glared with him, but Naruto just grinned back.
"What, me?" he said, rubbing the back of his head. He paused. "... Maybe a little."
"Why?" Pain asked, something unidentifiable working its way into his voice. "I stole your friend, remember? I tried to kill our master." He cocked his head to the side. "I've tried to kill you. Your other friends are fighting for you right now. Why would you act so… foolishly?"
Naruto's mouth flattened at for a moment, and he took a step to the side. The Paths turned with him.
"It's… it's you, really," he finally said, struggling to elucidate the words in between his brain and his mouth.
"Oh?"
"It's just…" Naruto swept his hand to the side. "You and me… we could have swapped places easily. This fight, what we've been saying." He smiled grimly. "We both want the same thing, right? We're just trying to get it different ways, 'cause of what's happened to us, y'know?"
He took a step forward, pointing up at Pain. "And all that… it makes me think…" He shook his head. "No. I know that I can change your mind. You said I only changed Gaara because he and I were the same? Well, so are you and me!"
All of the Paths blinked simultaneously, and glanced at each other.
"You think you can change me?" Pain said incredulously. He took a step forward, and his voice lowered. "You want to change me?"
Naruto nodded. "You're gonna call me a fool, right?"
"No." Pain shook his head. "I believe the term idiot is now more appropriate."
Naruto shrugged. "If you want to think that, sure," he said. He put a fist to his chest. "But we've been fighting for a while now. I know you."
Pain stared at him, and Naruto stared back.
The man didn't look away for nearly ten seconds, and neither did Naruto.
But it was the blond whose brow furrowed in concern, and not Pain's.
"You really think you can come to understand me?" the man finally said, barely whispering. Naruto had to strain to hear him over the now pounding rain. "You think that if you understand my pain, my fear, you will be able to change my mind?"
The Jinchūriki wordlessly nodded, his eyes narrowing.
Pain took a deep breath, and the other Paths all turned, presenting their backs to Naruto.
"Very well, then," he said coldly, and the other orange-haired men and women took off into the night, disappearing amongst the rubble in an instant. Naruto watched them go, his face falling in confusion. Pain waited till they were gone, and then spoke again.
"If that's your intent… let me help you as best I can, fellow student. Let me show you my pain."
Naruto blinked, and took a faltering step forward. "What're you…"
"What do you think I'm doing?" Pain asked rhetorically, folding his arms. "I'm helping you understand my pain."
Naruto frowned, something stabbing him in the back of the mind with the urgency of a shining sword. "Then where are they-"
"To your friends, of course."
The words hit Naruto like a Shinra Tensei, and he nearly stumbled to his knees, a flash of red across his eyes leaving him staggering and panting.
"What?!" he shouted, staring up at the man above him, who simply regarded him coolly, his arms still crossed. "You can't! Why would you-"
"I lost everything," Pain said, staring down at him, the Rinnegan gleaming. "It is why I am here today: why I had the truth of this cursed world revealed to me." He smiled mirthlessly. "My friends, my family, my brother, my teacher's dream… all ripped away, or revealed as nothing but naive lies."
"So, Naruto Uzumaki… please. Let me help you. When the same has happened to you..." Pain's eyes flashed, a distant crack of thunder and its accompanying lightning playing across the devastated ruins he and Naruto stood amongst. "Surely you will understand me?"
Naruto clenched his fists, his canines biting into his lower lip. "Stay away from them."
Pain didn't say anything, just watching him with cold eyes.
Naruto snapped, launching himself up at the man, a slight red aura playing around him. "I said stay away-"
Pain kicked him in the face.
Naruto saw it coming: he just didn't have a hope of dodging it.
As Naruto hit the concrete and painfully bounced, he realized the difference between fighting Pain with Sage Mode, and without.
Natural energy had given him sensory abilities, a kata based around taking advantage of them, increased reflexes, durability… it had made him faster and stronger, in every way. Fast enough to be slightly quicker than any of the Paths with (the exception of the bald bastard), and strong enough to bring them down in one or two well placed hits.
But now… Pain was fast. Far faster than him.
And he was strong.
Naruto spat up blood, feeling his face burning. His tongue felt like it was swelling up.
He staggered to his feet, ignoring the pain. He'd had far worse, and right now, it barely mattered.
"Nagato," he growled. "Don't do this."
"Don't presume," Pain said, hopping down from the pile of rubble, "to understand me. And don't presume you'll be able to 'change my mind.'" He clenched his remaining hand. "I will show you my pain, whether you want it or not."
Naruto glared at him, hunched over, his mouth dripping blood. Pain stood tall, staring back imperiously.
"Fine," the blond said. "I'm ending this, then."
He blinked purposefully, and his final clone, a couple kilometers away, popped with a sound that was utterly drowned out by the thunderstorm gathering around it.
Ten minutes of Sage Mode. More than enough to bring down Pain, and stop the other Paths before they could make it to his friends.
Naruto charged, drawing a fist back. He didn't bother making any clones: he wouldn't need them for just Pain.
And then the man brought his stump up, the bleeding having mostly stopped.
Naruto's golden eyes went wide, and he shouted, frustration and fear boiling off his voice.
"No!"
Amegakure's god didn't care.
"Shinra Tensei."
Naruto hit the ground, bounced twice, skidded. His coat tore itself off, the ruin he had subjected it to finally loosening it. He got up, ignoring the missing clothing, and charged again, yelling incoherently.
"Shinra Tensei."
That time, he bounced thrice. The sage rolled to his feet and charged again, drawing three kunai and throwing them viciously at Pain's face and gut. The man leaned his head to the side, one knife ruffling his hair, and caught another with his remaining hand, unflinchingly allowing the last knife to bury itself in his arm. His stump remained extended the whole time, still pointed at Naruto.
The blond drew back for a punch.
"Shinra Tensei."
Naruto didn't bounce that time. He flipped, hit the ground, and stopped cold, the impact ruthlessly knocking the air out of him.
Which didn't stop him from yanking himself to his feet and putting his hand together in a familiar, simple sign.
"Clones won't help you, Naruto," Pain said, his voice smooth.
Naruto didn't give a damn.
"Kage Bunshin!"
Three clones appeared at his side in a puff of smoke. Pain watched them carefully.
One charged, his teeth bared. The other two extended their hands, placing them over Naruto's outstretched palms. Rasengan swirled into existence, their humming achingly familiar.
Pain didn't move. The clone was six feet away. The other two shifted their hands to grip Naruto arms, and took a half step forward, heaving their creator straight forward, his Rasengan extended in front of him.
"I won't let you!" he shouted.
One second until the Shinra Tensei could be used again.
The clone dove forward into a tackle, with Naruto right above and behind him.
Pain moved.
His foot swept out, tangling into the clones and punting him into the original's path. It bent around the Rasengan, curling in the air, and made it over, managing to avoid an unlucky death. Naruto continued forward, his eyes locked on Pain.
The god leapt backwards into a handspring, twisting his entire body in the air, avoiding the closing Rasengan by the barest of inches. Bits of his cloak were chewed apart: both glowing orbs were left right in front of his face, still moving forward.
Until Pain twisted, his foot coming out from under him, and kicked Naruto in the stomach as hard as he could.
All the blond's air left him in a moment, and his arms faltered, the Rasengan shining a bit less brightly.
Pain pushed, kicking up in the same motion, and sent Naruto flying straight up. Then, he somersaulted to his feet, his hands pushed into the sky.
"Shinra. Tensei," he pronounced, and the Heavenly Push sent Naruto so high so quickly that what little air he had left vanished from his lungs, and he tasted the cold dampness of the storm clouds overhead as the world returned to the familiar, rushing, wet darkness that it had been upon his entrance to Amegakure.
And then, there came a moment of clarity, an eye in the storm at the apex of his flight.
Wind rushed around him, rustling his clothes and stinging his eyes. Thunder boomed, much closer now than ever before. The scent of ozone filled the air: lightning, striking sporadically at the towers of the village below.
A moment of peace in the maelstrom, and Naruto couldn't help but think, suspended up there at the freezing tip of the world as the sky raged around him, and gravity began to reassert itself.
He wondered where Sasuke was: what he was thinking. Naruto had been in Amegakure for almost half an hour, but he was no closer to finding his friend. Neither were his other friends, and with the other Paths after them...
He couldn't win here. He couldn't beat Pain, the Deva Path, by himself. His jutsu was too powerful to fight directly, and the streets offered too many opportunities for cover. He'd have to move the battle to the rooftops to stand a chance, but even then…
For now, his friends would be on their own.
Guilt, cold and slimy, wormed up into his chest and began to pull him back down towards earth, away from the thundering darkness.
His fault. His fault they were here, and his fault Pain was going after them. Trying to prove something.
Trying to prove his pain over Naruto's beliefs.
The realization shot through him like one of the lightning bolts emerging from the clouds around him.
And it made him tighten his fists, made him grit his teeth. Made his mind boil, made the seal on his stomach itch… and filled his heart with fire.
Pain was wrong. And to prove that...
Naruto Uzumaki turned, the apex of his brief flight passing, and plummeted towards the ground, his face set in fury, his hands balled at his sides. He cut through the rain, sliced through the clouds, and then, the village returned, the mass of rubble he'd turned part of it into.
Pain was down there, staring up, waiting for him to come back. Naruto knew it as surely as he knew Sasuke was out there, waiting. For him, or for someone else, but waiting nonetheless.
Naruto fell.
To prove Pain wrong, he'd have to win. It was the only way.
"Katsuyu!" he shouted. He felt the slug wiggling on his shoulder.
"Tell them he's coming!" he shouted, the wind tearing at his lips.
Naruto bared his teeth, the ground coming closer and closer.
"And tell them…"
Closer. The sound of the rain rushing by him drowned out everything else. He could barely hear himself.
Tell them what?
"Tell them…"
Naruto hit the ground, blasting away the rubble for meters around him and throwing up a cloud of smoke, less than ten meters from Pain. He rose from the hastily made clearing snarling, his legs aching, his hands burning, and his eyes focused on the cloaked man who watched him intensely. The words came to him, a spot of certainty in the chaos around him.
"Tell them I'll be there as soon as I can."
Pain held up his remaining hand, motioning Naruto forward.
The blond grinned, his guilt melting away into something more manageable, and obliged.
His friends would be fine.
He'd make sure of it.
AN: As if I'd make you sit on that cliffhanger for too long. Even I'm not that cruel.
I gotta apologize for the last chapter being so slow to come out. RL has been kicking my ass lately, and motivation was scarce. Hopefully, the next one will be out sooner.
Seems we're finally making progress. I hope you enjoyed the chapter: it was definitely great fun to write.
Next time on Not Sick... well, actually, I'd hate to spoil anything.
Serendipity, out.