Not Sick Chapter 19
Road to Requiem
"He's here."
Sakura glanced at the slug attached to her shoulder, steadily feeding her chakra.
"Naruto?" she asked. The green chakra around her hands faded, and she pulled herself back from Hinata. The Hyuuga winced. Neji, leaning against a nearby door-frame and watching carefully, narrowed his eyes slightly at the sight. His Byakugan was straining.
The Rookies had relocated to the inside of one of the buildings lining the street, away from the freezing rain. They were all there, huddled together in the same room, with the exception of Shino and Lee, who had taken it upon themselves to check the rest of the building for any surprises.
It was somewhat spacious, utterly grey… and completely barren, with the exception of a single, moth-eaten couch, which Sakura, Hinata, and Ino had claimed: if people had lived here before the Konoha ninjas had come, they'd taken everything with them when they'd left.
But it wasn't cold, and that was all Sakura really cared about. The rain had seemed to sap her strength and weigh her down. Even if the room wasn't exactly luxurious, being out of the rain was all the luxury Sakura needed.
"In here?" There was a familiar voice in the entry hall, just outside the room's closet door. "Ah, you're right. I can-"
The wooden door slowly swung open, and a blond peeked his head through, looking around with curious eyes.
Sai, standing next to the door, pulled a kunai up to his throat.
Naruto shifted his suddenly wide gaze to Sai.
"Whoa!" he said, pointedly not making any sudden moves. "What-"
"Katsuyu." Sai's voice was terse: his hand was trembling, a minute amount of blood running down the kunai. Sakura had been able to heal the cuts there, but low on chakra and time, they had reopened under stress. "Show her."
"What, you think I'm a henge or something?" Naruto snorted. "Get real. Pain doesn't use that kinda stuff."
He took note of Sai's face, paler than normal, and looked down at his hand. Naruto's eyes somehow got wider.
"Jeez, Sai!" he said, his voice raising itself a little. "You're bleeding! What the hell are you doing?"
As Naruto objected Katsuyu, small and white, crawled out from under his jacket and onto his neck. Sai glanced at her, and then his hand relaxed. The kunai clattered as it hit the floor, and the pale boy brought his hand back, grimacing at the pain shooting through it.
"It's nothing," he flawlessly lied to Naruto's face. Sakura watched him with concern.
"Ugly took care of it." Sai gave one of his fake smiles, and Naruto fractionally relaxed.
Sakura became much less concerned.
Kiba, sitting crosslegged besides her, snorted. Akamaru yelped in agreement.
Naruto took a step into the room, his waterlogged cloak leaving water dripped across the floor. He shivered and pulled it from his shoulders, wringing it out as he walked towards Sakura.
"So, what'd I miss?" he asked, unsuccessfully attempting to conceal an edge of guilty concern. "And where're… Shino and Bushy Brow?"
"They went to check the rest of the building," Tenten spoke up from besides the couch, looking up at Naruto. She looked beaten and bruised, but her eyes were anything but tired. Her weapon scroll was laid out in front of her. "Make sure there weren't any surprises, or entrances that Neji couldn't see."
Naruto didn't point out that Pain could easily create an entrance: he was sure everyone in the room knew that just as well as he did. Lee and Shino had gone off to instill some sense of normalcy, not because it was practical.
"And you didn't miss much, Naruto." Chōji made himself known. He was sprawled opposite Tenten, watching her go through her weapons with interest. He held his right hand limply, occasionally clenching it. "Just some paper lady. And a couple of Pain's bodies."
Naruto twitched. "Yeah. The 'Angel', right?" Chōji nodded. The single overhead light in the room cast his face in a deep shadow as he did.
The Jinchūriki took a deep breath. He was just as tired as any of them: the subdued atmosphere of the room was getting to him.
"You're all okay?"
Neji, who had remained silent along with Shikamaru since Naruto had entered the room, stepped forward. "Most of us are fine," he said, the massive bruise marring his forehead mocking him.
Shikamaru, who had been lying flat on his back next to Kiba and Akamaru, raised his head slightly. "Yeah. Pain might have slipped past you, Naruto," he drawled, "but you definitely kept his attention. I got the feeling he was still mostly focusing on you: his bodies weren't quick enough to do much damage before we managed to put them down."
"But it didn't stick?" Naruto asked, shaking his coat to get rid of the last bits of rain clinging to it. Shikamaru nodded, the bags under his eyes an almost vivid purple.
"That medic of theirs. She kept getting them up. If it hadn't been for Ino…" he trailed off.
Naruto's eyes shot towards the couch, and the people seated there.
"She's still out?" he said, walking over, before stopping. "Hinata? Are you…"
"Hinata-sama took the worst of it," Neji cut back in, and Naruto shot him a stricken look. The Hyuuga's mouth was a severe line: Naruto couldn't tell if it was a disapproving look aimed at him, or Neji himself. "She was forced to battle a Path that negated her Jūken. She managed to defeat him, barely, but-"
Sakura cut off Neji with a fierce frown. Naruto's shoulders had slowly slumped as the Hyuuga had gone on.
"It's just chakra exhaustion," she explained. Naruto turned to her, already starting to hide his concern. "And a couple broken ribs. She'll be fine with a little rest."
"Oh." Naruto couldn't even manage a false enthusiasm at that news. He bent down next to Hinata, taking to his knee. "Hinata? Are you-"
"I'm fine, Naruto," she said quietly. Her eyes closed. "Just tired." A minute smile crept across her face. "But I'm glad you're here."
Naruto blushed. It was slight, but definitely there. "Heh." He rubbed the back of his head. "I'm glad too. Pain's not someone to mess with, huh?"
Hinata nodded, her exhaustion obvious, and Naruto's grin faded away once more. He hesitated, before looking down at the cloak in his hands.
It was still a bit damp, but no more than anything else in the room. The blond stood up, and whipped the cloth around. It settled over Hinata. She stilled for a moment, startled, and then relaxed, reaching out weakly and drawing it around her.
Naruto watched for a moment, nodded, and then turned to Sakura.
"I messed up," he said flatly.
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, startled.
"It was stupid to come here," Naruto admitted. Somewhere else in the room, Shikamaru shifted.
"Naruto… what about Sasuke?"
"Ino's still looking for him, right?" Naruto gestured to the blonde, prone on the couch, next to Hinata. "Hopefully, she'll find him soon. She's already figured out where Pain is. So…"
Shikamaru stood up. "So?"
Naruto sighed. "I'll go after Pain," he declared. "Alone this time. You guy's all get out of here. Use Katsuyu to get in touch with Pervy Sage and Baa-chan. They'll be mad as hell, but they can make sure you guys'll be alright."
There was a grey silence. Kiba frowned.
"Dumbass," he growled.
Naruto slowly turned to look at him. "Kiba-"
"We already did this, you moron!" the Inuzuka declared. "Hell, I bet you've done this a couple times now, the way you carry on! Always trying to be the first to die! Well, we're not just gonna ditch you 'cause-"
"We have already done this!" Naruto shouted, and Kiba snarled in annoyance, stepping forward. "We did this the first time we met Pain!"
"And?" Kiba shouted back. "What makes you think this time is any different?!" He whirled towards Hinata, comfortable under her new cloak, and leveled a finger. "She's right, you know! She was right then, and I bet she's right now! We're your comrades, idiot! We'll lay down our lives for you!"
"I don't want anyone to die for me!" This time, Naruto's shout managed to shut Kiba up. Akamaru whimpered.
Naruto stalked forward, seizing Kiba by his lapels. He lifted him off the ground, Kiba's sandals barely touching the floor beneath him.
"Listen to me," Naruto snarled in his face. Kiba just snarled back, but he let Naruto speak.
"Pain wants to kill you guys. All of you." Naruto swept his other hand around, taking in all of the dead silent people in the room. "He doesn't want to do it because you're in the way! You got no chance of killing him!" Naruto grit his teeth. "He wants you dead just to prove a point. He wants you all dead because he's positive it will make me just like him."
Naruto shook Kiba. "I don't care if he's right or not!" His eyes were watering. "I don't know if he's really that hurt, that he believes that shit, or if he's just crazy! All I know is that if you stay here, you're going to die! I can't protect you all!"
"Who says we need-!" Kiba started.
"Kiba."
Kiba jerked his head towards one of the unoccupied doorways. Shino and Lee stood there, their green adding a hint of color to the room. They had been drawn by the yelling.
"He's right about one thing," Shino continued, stepping forward. "We cannot hope to defeat Pain. If he continues to hound us, we will surely all die. The only reason he hasn't returned is because Ino has reduced his capability to fight."
Naruto breathed out, and dropped Kiba, turning to the Aburame.
"You get it, right Shino?" he said. "I can't let you guys die. If that happens…"
He paused, then shook his head violently, lowering it. When it came back up again, there were open tears in his eyes.
"All of you…" he whispered, his voice hoarse. He looked around, taking in everyone in the room.
"Chōji. Shikamaru. Kiba. Lee, Sakura, Tenten, Ino, Neji, Shino…" Naruto took a shaky breath. "Hinata."
He spread his arms. Everyone was staring at him now. Sakura's mouth had dropped open.
"All of you are my friends," Naruto declared, baring his teeth. He remembered a distant pain, his whole body broken and aching, crawling forward on his chin, tears streaming from his face. "And a long time ago… I swore I'd never let my friends go. That I'd never let anyone hurt them. You."
His eyes narrowed. "And I never go back on my word."
He breathed out, trembling. "That's why you have to leave. I don't… I can't break my promise."
"You are a selfish fool."
Naruto spun around just in time for Neji to slap him.
The Uzumaki stumbled backwards, his hand instinctively coming up to his cheek.
"Hey, Neji-!" Tenten jumped up, and Lee opened his mouth. Neji's raised palm stopped the both of them in their tracks. He stared Naruto down, uncaring of the teen's tears.
"Don't speak such nonsense," Neji continued. He took a step forward, and Naruto winced.
"It's not-"
"Liar," Neji declared. "You're afraid that we'll die, but you're too obsessed with yourself to see that we aren't." He continued forward, and Naruto backed up. "You wish to render everything we have done, everything we have sacrificed, all the pain Hinata-sama has endured…"
Naruto flinched, and Neji hammered home the final world.
"Meaningless," the Hyuuga hissed. "Are you really so blind that you would throw that all away, just to ensure that you wouldn't suffer a guilty conscience?"
He snarled. "Wake up. This is reality, not some dream. Shinobi die: it is what we are born to do. Fearing that-"
"I'm going to change that!" Naruto burst out, his fists clenching. "I don't want this to be that world anymore!"
"You'll change it because you're afraid?" Neji asked, his face twisting in disgust.
"I'll change it because it's right!" Naruto declared. Neji blinked. "I'll change it because people shouldn't live in fear that someone stronger than them will kill all their friends just to prove a point! I'll change it so the world isn't the kind of place where people like Sasuke's brother or your dad don't have to give up everything, just to save one person!"
Neji rocked back, and this time Naruto was the one staring him down.
"And I'll do this or die trying, but I'm not going to let my friends be the ones to die in my place!" he shouted. "What's the point of making a new world if none of you live to see it?!"
Naruto's question echoed through the dead building, pressing his friends into a deep silence. The Uzumaki took a deep breath.
"Anyone got anything else to say? 'Cause-"
He paused, his eyes widening. Everyone in the room stared at him. It looked like he was listening to something only he could hear.
"Oh shit."
"Naruto?" Sakura asked, alarmed. She stepped forward.
Naruto cursed again. "My clone. He got my clone. But-"
He spun towards her. "I killed her!" he declared. "The summoner! I got her with my Rasenshuriken! There was no way she could come back from that!"
"Naruto, what-" Sakura started.
"There's a chameleon running around out there!" Naruto interrupted her. "It just took out one of my clones! Now… damn it, now Pain's gonna be back up. He didn't get far enough!" He snarled. "But I got the Pain that summons animals! So…"
He turned to the rest of the people in the room, frustration boiling off of him.
"How the hell are there summons?"
Ino's feet melted.
She toppled, hitting the surface of the endless ocean. It scalded away her skin, exposing blood-red muscles and boiling fat. Her hands desperately pushed at the water, trying to get her back to her lost feet.
They slipped beneath the boiling liquid, and the rest of her followed. Suspended in an acidic limbo, Ino screamed.
This was inevitable. Ino thrashed, the divine voice bursting her organs. The ocean was turning red.
As soon as you had the audacity to invade this place, Pain continued, the ocean pressing down on Ino, crushing her pulped, melted body into a huddled ball of savaged meat, you doomed yourself to this fate.
The ocean flash-froze, turning to ice and preserving the smashed, fleshy remains of the mindwalker in an infinite, subtly distorted plain. A Rinnegan, vibrant and false, slid into existence, looking down from the warped reflection that was the sky.
Tell me, Ino Yamanaka. There was a dreadful finality to the hinted question. Was this what you wanted?
The ocean shattered. Ino, her body whole again, leapt from the red ice, winging into the sky. The Rinnegan pulled back, flashing in shock.
"Yes," the blonde hissed, hooking her hand into one of the eyes ringed.
Clever, but pointless, the eye rung. You'll never-
"Don't you ever shut up?" Ino growled, and then she pulled.
The ring she was grasping spooled out, unwinding into her hand.
The ocean vanished, along with its mockery of a sky. The bloody ice vanished. The Rinnegan vanished. Ino vanished.
'Hey Nagato, careful. You might burn yourself if you don't do the signs right.'
A tall man, his red haori soaked and familiar, stood with his arms crossed, ignoring the rain filling his long white hair.
"He'll be fine, sensei." A boy with orange hair. The same hair as Pain. "Right, Nagato?"
The boy's name branded itself in Ino's mind. Yahiko.
"I will be god of a new world!" Determined grin. Shining teeth. He looked a bit like Naruto.
A sober, blue haired girl. The Angel who had nearly murdered Hinata. "The pillar-"
Ino shuddered. Existence flickered on for a moment, before she plunged back, away from it.
The images came faster.
"I couldn't do it, Konan- Too far-"
"I have… a plan."
A balcony. It was the Village Hidden in the Rain, but the rain had ceased. Impossible. Thousands of paper cranes. "I may have to push myself-"
"He's in the village."
"And someone else. One of sensei's teammates-"
Orochimaru. A man with glasses.
(kabuto? how)
A forbidden technique. Something like Pain's own. Animated corpses.
An explosion. Flashes in the night. The rain outlining three figures…
Ino snapped into focus.
Sasuke, tall and torn, blood dripping from one of his hands. A silent purple guardian stood around him, death mask leering. A man and a woman their faces cracked and pale, watching him carefully. The woman was grinning, and the man was standing stoic, his arms crossed. Crimson Sharingan gleamed in all their eyes, six points of red light in the Amegakure abyss.
"Oh my god."
ENOUGH.
Ino shuddered, the voice tearing her back into being.
She shot from the sky. The ocean had returned, no longer frozen. She struck the water, skipping along it like a stone.
You want to stay in here? Now, Pain didn't sound arrogant. Now, he just sounded angry. She had transgressed.
"The most dangerous moment is if you make your target do something they don't want to do."
Her father's words followed her across the ocean.
"Reveal a secret, or kill a comrade, or even say something they normally wouldn't. At that point, the mind will buck. Unless you keep a tight hold, you'll be expelled."
She hadn't kept hold. Pain was pushing her out.
Ino relaxed, preparing to return to her own body. She had the information she needed now: Sasuke was out in the village, fighting two other Uchiha. Impossible, but true. She knew exactly where he was. Her image, skipping across the ocean, flickered.
No.
She froze, stopping mid-skip. Aqua water hung suspended around her.
You don't get to leave, Yamanaka. It's not that easy.
Ino fell, rocketing into the water like a bullet. She punched through the liquid, and the ocean exploded up in a funnel around her. The water wrapped over, consuming the world, and Ino was alone, held in a dark bubble.
You are finished.
The bubble rushed downward, and then pressed in on her, sinking into her skin. Black spiraled everywhere. Ino opened her eyes.
Truly opened them. She was seeing once more.
She wasn't with her friends.
The Rinnegan stared back at her. This time, it was real. She could feel rain on her shoulders. Real, pounding, freezing cold rain. Both of her arms were restrained, pulled uncomfortably behind her.
Pain stared at her, his face twisted in anger.
"Now…" he said, a black rod sliding from his arm and falling into his hand. "I think we've had enough of this game, Yamanaka. Wouldn't you agree?"
Ino's eyes went wide. She struggled, but the hands holding her in place didn't shift. Where was she? How could this-
She looked down. Down at the Akatsuki cloak she was wearing.
Oh that bastard.
He'd shoved her into one of his Paths. He was holding her there, within one of his bodies, his mind pressing down on her. And while she was here-
"Anything done to you will follow you back. Chakra feedback is dangerous, you know." Her father had sounded lighthearted, but he'd looked serious: he had been talking about a matter of life and death, after all. "So if you're using the Shintenshin, you must treat the body you're in as well as your own… or there will be consequences."
Pain pulled back his arm.
Ino struggled harder, but it did her no good. There was no way for her to escape.
Well… one way.
She had to break free. Not from the Pain's holding her; from Pain, the mind pressing down on her.
Thoughts move quickly. Very quickly.
But Pain was just as fast. His arm plunged forward, his newly created rod extended, ready to impale her through the chest. Ino jerked to the left, desperate to escape.
She had to break free. Had to fight him off.
Had to-
The rod smashed into her chest.
Ino screamed. The metal pushed through her, piercing her left lung, gouging her ribs, and punching out her back in a splatter of blood. It hurt like nothing else in the world: like cold fire impaling her, racing along her veins and filling her with spiked ice.
She pushed, the pain fueling her. Pain's grip on her wavered. The world darkened.
The man with ringed eyes slowly withdrew the rod. The feeling of it scraping against her bones was excruciating. Ino wavered, on the verge of passing out.
'Not here.' She bit her lip. Cold, thick blood sprung, only running because of the rain pounding against it.
'Not now.'
She flared her chakra one last time, and as Pain finally withdrew the pole from her chest, broke his hold.
"Brave," the man said. Ino fled, slipping away, the world darkening around her.
"But you and your friends are already dead."
Ino coughed, blood splashing across her chest. She heard a distinctly Hinata-like meep just past her legs. She was laid out on a couch.
The entire room started, all jerking towards the blond. And then-
"Ino!" she heard the scream, and turned her head towards it. Even the subtle movement was agony. Sakura was there; all of the Rookies were there. The medic rushed forward, her hands already gleaming with green chakra.
"Sakura." Ino hacked up more blood. "Ack-"
"Don't move!" the medic ordered. Her hands descended, scanning for damage. "What happened?!"
"He… stabbed me." Ino pushed the words out: it felt like they were stuck in her throat, catching on painful spurs. "He pinned me in one of his bodies. My lung-"
She wheezed again, and there was a moment of furious silence as all of the Konoha ninja took in what Pain had done to her. Chōji stood up, a murderous look darkening his face. Shikamaru echoed it, pushing himself away from the wall.
"Naruto." Ino muttered, turning to stare at him. Sakura shot her an admonishing look, but didn't interrupt. "Naruto… you're here. Sasuke-"
"What?" Naruto asked, rushing forward. He dropped to one knee. "Are you okay? Did you see him?" he demanded.
Ino nodded. "He's out… there," she said, with less effort than before. She could already feel her lung inflating. Sakura had sealed it up, though blood still poured freely from the hole in her chest and back. "He's fighting."
"Pain?"
"No!" Ino shook her head. She could taste the blood in her mouth, coppery and thick. She spat at Naruto's feet, not caring. She needed that taste out of her mouth.
"I don't know who he was fighting," she went on. "I didn't recognize them. Two people, a man and a woman." She took a deep breath that cut itself off before its completion.
"They both had the Sharingan."
Naruto's face twisted in confusion.
"Impossible." Shikamaru spoke up. He and Chōji had both drawn closer, hovering around her in concern. "They're aren't any Uchiha left besides Sasuke, Madara, and Itachi. If they weren't any of them-"
"I know…" Ino took a fuller breath. The pain was fading. "What I saw. They were Uchiha."
The Nara mulled that, falling silent. Sakura spoke up to fill the gap he'd left.
"Your lung is fine," she said, relieved. "The exit wound is a little tricky, but it's clean. If you try to fight with it though, there's no way it won't collapse again."
Ino levered herself up, and everyone backed away. She took another breath, ignoring the lance of pain in her chest.
"Thanks, Forehead," she almost chuckled, the thrill of the close call washing over her. "Without you…"
"It's what I'm here for," Sakura smiled.
"Enough." Shino cut in, his voice flat and grim. He stepped forward, commanding the attention of the room. "We have to move, immediately." He looked at Ino. "Sasuke is fending for himself?" His brow furrowed. "And… did you locate the true Pain?"
She nodded, and the Aburame immediately turned to the rest of the Rookies. "Then we need to decide now, whether to retreat or press the advantage. Why? Because we know Pain's location. If we attack him, we could end this all now. But we are injured and low on chakra: it would be more tactically sound to retreat and call for reinforcements."
"You guys get out of here." Naruto stood up. "I'll go after Pain and keep him occupied."
"You'd be captured," Neji pointed out.
"Then you'll just have to rescue me, huh? Just make sure you bring along some serious help!" Naruto said, a bit of his distinctive grin creeping onto his face. "I'll go see if I can find Sasuke. If he really is fighting two Uchiha, I bet he's making a lot of noise. The two of us can probably-"
Neji jerked his head up, his mouth dropping slightly open, and Naruto paused. Hinata blinked, and activated her Byakugan alongside her cousin.
The Hyuuga's eyes widened.
"Scatter!" both of them shouted, and each and every one of the ninja in the room hurled themselves away from the center of it.
They barely made it. There was a concussive boom, and the middle of the ceiling exploded downward, as if a huge weight had been laid upon it. Five stories worth of concrete and carpeting fell into the room with the force of a meteor, blowing dust and debris everywhere.
"He's here!" Neji shouted, darting to below the hole. He stared up unblinkingly into the first drops of rain: the building had been gutted, and the weather outside was pouring through the gap.
The jōnin's hand flattened out, and he pulled it back. "Hakke-"
"Neji!" Hinata shouted, her voice rasping. "Don't-"
Something came down through the hole, moving so quickly that to Ino it was nothing more than a black and red blur. Neji attempted to complete the Hakke Kūshō, doubtlessly hoping the Vacuum Palm would blow the blur away.
He wasn't fast enough.
The Human Path, the same body Ino had been trapped in, hit Neji like a god-thrown spear. Leading with one of his dreadful black rods, the man punched his weapon through Neji's outstretched palm, piercing it in an explosion of blood.
Neji screamed, a low and shocked sound, before the Path completed the stab and buried the rod deep in the Hyuuga's shoulder, pinning Neji's hand there like a grotesque butterfly. The Path and the Hyuuga both fell, Neji's back hitting the ground as his scream continued.
And then the Human Path was crouched over the crippled jōnin, staring at the rest of the Rookies. Neji, his right arm pulled up at an awkward angle and his hand stuck to its corresponding shoulder, kicked at the Path from the ground.
The Path blocked it casually, but the other Konoha-nin didn't give him the opportunity to do much more. Tenten and Lee both attacked simultaneously. Lee was snarling, his normally jovial features turned enraged.
The Human Path dodged Lee's series of roundhouse kicks, before Tenten hurled several kunai, each trailing a line of spiked chains. The Path couldn't dodge the both of them at the same time.
The chains wrapped around him, pinning his arms at his sides, and the spikes dug into his flesh, securing them there.
Then Tenten pulled, and the man came apart like wet tissue paper.
"Neji-!" the Kunoichi growled, stalking forward even as the slurry that had once been the Human Path crumpled. Ino blinked. The whole thing had taken barely a moment.
As Tenten moved towards her crippled teammate, something else came down through the hole.
The Deva Path hit the concrete and crumpled it, coming to rest on a single knee just a couple feet from Neji. Everyone in the room froze.
Naruto stepped forward. "Pain…" He shook his head. "Nagato, don't-"
"I've had enough, Naruto," the man said with a dreadful finality, rising to his feet. "There's nothing more for us to talk about."
The man's arms came up, his body forming a cross.
There was no shout, or visible signal. Pushed by the same gut feeling, every single capable ninja in the room charged at Pain. There was no plan of attack besides putting him down as quickly as possible.
Too slow. Far too slow.
Shinra.
Ino, still on the couch, turned over and interceded her body between the still prone Hinata and Pain.
Tensei.
The room exploded.
"Idiot," Jiraiya spat, crushing the blond boy's neck with his single hand. Naruto choked, watching his sensei with betrayed eyes.
"I'm the only one who proofreads my novels!" the Sannin declared, turning and slamming the copy into the dirt. "And if you were really my apprentice, you'd know that! If you're going to mimic someone, at least do some research first!"
The blond thrashed, his throat gone. Slowly, his skin went pale, a ghastly, inhuman white. His clothes and hair followed, until he was just a white lump, wholly failing to imitate a human being.
"Zetsu?" Jiraiya breathed out. He stared at the corpse for a moment, just as still, before turning to two of the masked men watching him. "Go to the hospital," he ordered. "To Sasuke Uchiha's room. Don't trust the people there. If they resist, try not to kill them. Bring them here: I need to ask them something."
The ANBU bowed and rushed off, and Jiraiya turned back to the body. He crouched, turning it over and beholding its flat yellow eye.
"Jiraiya!" A familiar voice washed over him. Normally, it would have calmed him, but now it just made the anxiety twisting in his stomach worse.
Tsunade sprinted towards him, her robe flapping out behind him. Jiraiya wished he were in the right state of mind to enjoy the way the action set certain parts of her into motion.
The Sannin skidded to a stop, staring down at the pale body the author was leaning over.
"What-" she asked, her face twisted. "I heard you and Naruto-"
"You heard right. Somewhat," Jiraiya admitted. He looked away, back at the body.
"Naruto's gone."
"Then that's-!" Tsunade said with dawning comprehension.
"A copy," Jiraiya confirmed. "A decoy. We have no way of knowing how long Naruto has been out of the village. He might have been kidnapped as soon as he left your office, for all we know. This one said he was spending time with his old teammates, but I doubt it."
"That's impossible!" Tsunade declared, obviously shocked. "Who could have done something like that? He couldn't have been taken without a fight."
Jiraiya opened his mouth, his face grim.
He was interrupted. A man sprung into existence to his right and Tsunade's left, a shunshin carrying him to them in a gust of leaves.
"Hokage-sama!" The man was bent to a knee, already prostrated. He wore simple white robes and an ornate, pointed hat. "I bring urgent news!"
The Sannin shared a meaningful glance. The messenger's uniform marked him as a member of the Sealing Corp; the men and women responsible for Konoha's defenses.
When a member of the Sealing Corp showed up bearing "urgent news", it usually meant all hell was about to break loose in the village.
"What's happened?" Tsunade asked. The man swallowed, almost audibly, and the eye-rolling Tsunade leveled at him was almost audible. "Get up!" she commanded. "I can't stand people coming before me in such a pathetic state. Now, quickly: tell me what's happened."
"There's been a breach, Hokage-sama," the man said, scrambling to his feet. His goatee, stark against the white of his outfit, moved up and down in a manner Jiraiya found mildly distracting as he spoke. "The barrier has been bypassed."
"What?" Tsunade asked, her eyes sharp. "When?"
"Almost an hour ago," the man admitted. He looked completely ashamed. Jiraiya jerked.
Naruto had left the office just over an hour ago.
Tsunade's nose crinkled. Now she was undeniably furious. "And I'm only being informed now?" she said softly, stalking closer to the man.
"It was barely anything," the sealer explained, not backing away from his Hokage despite her intimidating stare. "An echo, a ripple in the system. It would have been ignored on any other day."
"But?" Tsunade ground out.
"But one of the older men recognized it," the man continued, cringing. "Jōnin Yominako. He's nominally retired, but we still bring him back in regularly. No one knows the barrier like he does. And he said that he'd seen that echo before."
The man took a shaky breath. The sun was nearly set behind him: only a sliver of its light peaked over Konoha's walls, casting long shadows from all of the shinobi there. They stretched out, grotesque parodies of their owners.
"Only twice before, but he'd never forget it," the messenger said. "The night the Kyuubi attacked, and the day the Uchiha were slaughtered."
Tsunade stood stock still, watching the messenger with wide eyes. She didn't react to his words.
"Ma'am?" he asked. "I said-"
"I heard you," the Hokage said faintly. She turned to Jiraiya, ignoring the man in white.
"'Madara'," the Sage said grimly.
"Madara," Tsunade agreed. She didn't put the same emphasis Jiraiya did on the name: it was clear that to her, the Senju's ancient enemy-turned-ally-turned-enemy might very well have been on the prowl. As she spoke, the sealer retreated, his message delivered.
"It's the teleportation technique of his," Jiraiya said, ignoring the man's departure. "He slipped into the village, and took Naruto."
"But how could he have?" Tsunade argued. "Silently? Naruto wouldn't have gone without a fight. Someone must have seen, or heard! Someone should have raised the alarm."
"I have a theory about that," Jiraiya said, his voice hard.
"Oh?" Tsunade asked.
As if on cue, two familiar masked faces reappeared. The ANBU Jiraiya had sent off had returned.
With company.
"Shisou? Jiraiya-sama?" Sakura Haruno looked between the two of them, cartoonishly alarmed. "What's going on?"
Sasuke Uchiha remained silent and surly, the bandages wrapped around his eyes dark in the fading light.
"Jiraiya?" Tsunade said. "You had them brought here."
"I had these two brought here," Jiraiya said, stalking forward. He turned to the Kage.
"What I'm not sure of is if I had Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno brought here."
"What? What are you-" Tsunade looked at the pale body Jiraiya had left behind, and the realization suddenly dawned on her.
Sakura followed her gaze, and shock flashed over her face. "Jiraiya-sama?" she asked, looking back at the approaching Sannin. The ANBU holding her arm tightened his grip.
"What the hell is that?"
"You don't know?" Jiraiya said. "I could have sworn it was your comrade."
Sakura stiffened. "What?" she said. She began struggling with the ANBU. "Are you crazy? That thing's not even human! Shisou, are you just going to let him-"
"Sakura." The girl stilled, staring at the Hokage. Tsunade's lips thinned. "How many fish did you kill when I first started your training?"
"Tsunade-sama?" The girl pursed her lips. "How am I supposed to remember something like that? It was only a couple-"
Tsunade seized the girl by the throat and lifted her into the air, tearing her from the ANBU's grasp. The man didn't resist.
"Where is she?" the Hokage demanded, shaking the imposter. Sakura choked, kicking futilely and clawing at Tsunade's hand.
"She didn't kill a single one," Tsunade said, openly furious. "Where is Sakura Haruno?"
Sakura paused. Slowly, her mouth slid open, revealing tombstone teeth. The smile, malicious and clearly not human, gave Tsunade pause.
"Not a single one, huh?" Sakura's tone shifted higher, into something nearly whiny. It slipped from her throat like an eel. The smile was still growing, stretching across half her face. "She's really talented."
Not-Sasuke shifted. The ANBU behind him drew a kunai and laid it against his neck in a single motion too fast to see, and the imposter froze.
"Where?" Tsunade squeezed, but the smile didn't vanish.
"It's too late!" Not-Sakura laughed, and a chill ran down Tsunade's spine. "They're both long gone. If only you all had been a little faster…"
"Gone where?" Jiraiya spoke up.
"Why should I tell you?" Not-Sakura whined, shifting in Tsunade's grip. "You're not exactly being gracious hosts-"
Tsunade squeezed, and the girl's head popped off. Pale ichor with the consistency of milk flowed from the stump, and both the body and the head crashed to the ground a moment later, undergoing the same color shift that Not-Naruto had. Eventually, it too became a disgusting mass of white flesh.
Tsunade turned to Not-Sasuke.
"And you?" she huffed.
The thing didn't answer for a moment. Then, it shrugged.
"You won't be able to do anything." It spoke in the same voice that Not-Sakura had. "Pain will already have taken care of him."
Tsunade blinked. Behind her, Jiraiya cursed viciously.
"He kidnapped him, didn't he?" the Hokage said. "Madara didn't take Naruto."
She turned to Jiraiya. "He took Sasuke."
"Got it in one!" Not-Sasuke congratulated. "Seems your apprentice isn't the only smart one!"
"To Amegakure, no doubt. And that moron chased after him. Why didn't he come to..." Jiraiya ran his hand over his face. "Crap. He knew we wouldn't let him go after him." He sighed. "There might still be time. I gotta-"
"Don't be an idiot. There's no way you're going alone," Tsunade interrupted brusquely, turning to address the ANBU. "Kill it."
The man nodded. Not-Sasuke didn't have time to look startled before the kunai at his throat sawed inwards, severing his spine. Tsunade ignored the toppling body.
"You," she said to the man with pale blood on his hands. "Go find Kakashi Hatake and Mokuton no Yamato. Bring them to me. And you," she said to the other ANBU, "We don't know who else Naruto might have taken with him. Make the rounds: check on the status of anyone in his class or age group. The former genin teams eight and ten. And Gai's students as well."
The men bowed and vanished, moving through the streets of Konoha so quickly that any passing civilians were sure there was just a strong breeze passing through. Tsunade turned back to her teammate.
"Jiraiya," she said. "Call your toads. We need to set up a reverse summoning as quickly as possible. I'll get in touch with Katsuyu: perhaps she knows what Sakura is up to."
The Sage nodded, biting deeply into his thumb and laying down the summoning array. Tsunade did the same.
As puffs of smoke spread from underneath them, the sun finally finished setting over the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
The Shinra Tensei shattered the building like a dropped egg, and flattened the Konoha shinobi like a particularly angry hurricane. Rain for dozens of meters around froze, before scattering away from the blast, creating a surreal horizontal shower.
The world became sound and fury, and the Rookies flew.
Some of them were lucky. Kiba and Akamaru, Chōji, Shikamaru, and Tenten were all merely struck head-on by godly wrath. They joined the wave of rubble that had become the building, sailing out in Amegakure's night, and after a period of weightless confusion, hit the ground.
Tenten rolled, coming to her feet, while everyone else slid across the concrete, leaving narrow channels in the cold ground. Chōji was instantly knocked cold, sliding bonelessly and coming to a stop at the base of a support beam several blocks away. Shikamaru ended up next to him, two of his ribs smashed and the world reduced to hazy pain. Kiba and Akamaru struck a different support beam on their way out, crushing it with the impact of their bodies, and flopped to the ground much closer than Shikamaru or Chōji had, completely insensible.
Tenten, who despite regaining her feet had kept flying backwards due to the ludicrous amount of residual energy the Shinra Tensei had given her, pulled a sword from her back and slammed it into the ground, attempting to bring herself to a halt. The blade stuck, but the sudden stop jerked her hands off of it and she fell backwards, slamming her head into the ground and shattering a decent amount of concrete. She rolled to the side clutching her head, bleeding heavily from the scalp, and trying and failing to shake off the hit, but was unable to get back to her feet once more.
Sakura, who had been in the middle of a leaping punch, was sent high into the air, emerging from the shattering building like a particularly pink skyward missile. She tumbled end over end, before finally hitting the fifth floor of the closest standing building: a disused apartment block. The medic crashed through a concrete wall and tumbled across a living room floor until she dented another. She came to a stop, leaning against the wall, almost looking like she were taking a nap, before she slid down and slumped to the side, blood leaking from her mouth.
Sai was instantly stunned by a stray piece of concrete sent flying by the Shinra Tensei that slammed into his face, breaking his nose and forcibly hurling him from the waking world. His insensible body flopped through the air, and his ungraceful landing, while luckily avoiding any real hazards, left him bruised and battered, breaking his left hand. His notebook slipped from his open bag, lying in a puddle on the ground next to him.
Rock Lee took the wave of gravity head on, straining against it for a moment before violently being flung straight back, as if someone had pulled a long and tense rope attached to his spine. He destroyed three walls, one of which was wooden, before embedding himself in a fourth, his body making a clear outline of its stretched frame in the rock-hard material. He slumped from the indentation to his knees, on the edge of keeling over.
Then he took a deep breath.
Neji, his hand still pinned to his shoulder, went flying through the air like a broken windmill, whirling end over end. He landed well, before the agony in his right arm struck him and he fell to the ground, writhing and biting back a hiss of pain. His Byakugan instinctually remained active.
Ino and Hinata went together, the blonde shielding the injured Hyuuga. They both crashed through a single wall into an abandoned diner, shattering a table. Ino took the brunt of the impact, and she made a horrible, wracking sound, somewhere between a cough and a scream, as she felt her injured lung deflate again, and her damaged ribs snap. She rolled back from Hinata, convulsing, as the Hyuuga feebly tried to rise; her chakra was still almost completely depleted.
Shino had the worst of it. The Aburame didn't bounce off of anything on his way out of the erupting building, and his tumbling over the ground, desperately trying to gain a foothold, didn't steal much, if any, momentum from him.
Which meant that when he struck the support beam and rebar filled fragment of another building, destroyed by Konan seemingly years ago, he struck it with almost all of the force the Shinra Tensei had imparted on him.
The concrete shattered, but the two rebar bars that punched through Shino's gut and left shoulder did not. The Aburame hung against what remained of the fragment, standing impaled and unable to fall like some sort of horrible scarecrow. Kikaichū flooded from his wounds, trying to stem the bleeding with their own body mass. He was unable to pull himself free, his muscles tearing and more blood flowing at the slightest movement.
Shino didn't make a sound, even as he continued his fruitless struggle to get back to his team, and his friends.
Naruto took the Shinra Tensei just like his comrades had, the hastily made clone at his side popping in the attack. He began to fly backwards… and then froze.
The blond stared at his foot, and the hand wrapped around it, in complete disbelief, before shifting his gaze to the pitiless ringed gaze of the man who had seized him.
Pain had nearly outran his own jutsu, just to grab him.
Unnoticed by the both Naruto and Pain, Naruto's necklace, an old gift from his Hokage, ripped itself from his neck and soared away. The Shinra Tensei carried it rather far: it skidded to rest next to Ino as she shifted in agony, moaning. One of her hands slapped down on it, and the Yamanaka's paused for a moment, not understanding what she was touching. It was cool to the touch, not cold like everything else. Almost… soothing.
Thirty meters away, the Deva Path twisted, ripping Naruto from the force that compelled him backwards, and slammed him into the ground as hard as he could.
The Jinchūriki choked, concrete erupting around him from the strike. His vision blurred, but not so much that he couldn't see the Akatsuki's leader strike like a peeved snake, black rods springing from his hands.
Naruto rolled, tucking in his arms and choking on air. The first rod missed him and buried itself up to Pain's hand in the ground, but the second caught the teen on the right forearm and slammed him to a halt. Naruto barely had time to scream in pain before the Deva Path jammed another rod through his left hand and pinned it to the ground.
Pain went to work as Naruto futilely kicked at him, darting about and stabbing down more and more of his black rods. One went through Naruto's right hand, securing his arm, and another through his thigh. A moment later, Pain was finished.
Naruto lay writhing, crucified on the ground, his limbs pinned. Pain stood over him, glaring down. The whole thing, from the first Shinra Tensei to Naruto's crucifixion, had taken less than two seconds.
"Now…" the Akatsuki's "leader" said, almost whispering, "for your friends."
He raised his arms again. There was a three second pause as his jutsu recharged: a pause filled with nothing but the sound of the rain, Naruto's struggling, and the distant groans of several of the Konoha ninja.
The four Paths of Pain remaining appeared next to him, shunshins bring them into place to complete the formation. The Animal Path was there as well. Apparently, the Rasenshuriken had not been enough to put her down for good. The Naraka Path bent down, taking in the remains of the Human Path with a grim look.
"Banshō Ten'in," Pain intoned.
The Rookies began to drag themselves towards him, against their will. Shino groaned as he started to pull away from the rebar impaling him. Sakura drew dangerously close to a five-story drop. The rest of the Konoha ninja, the ones who were conscious at least, just found themselves being inexorably dragged closer to the man who had just decimated them.
Ino struggled, along with Hinata.
Unnoticed by anyone, the rain began to lessen, coming down less furiously than before.
"You brought this on yourself, Naruto," Pain said calmly as his jutsu slowly pulled the Rookies towards him. Shino was halfway along the rebar. "Now, I can show the true meaning of-"
He paused, and in the same eerie motion, all of the Path's turned away from Naruto, looking in the opposite direction. They'd heard something, even through the rain and thunder.
It had almost sounded like-
"Third Gate… the Gate of Life."
All ten Rinnegan went wide. Naruto's mouth fell.
"Open."
Rock Lee struck the Path's of Pain like a cannon shot. They scattered in every direction, trying to escape the green dervish with devil-red skin.
The second Green Beast spun to a stop, his back to Naruto. His hand, slightly trembling, came up in a blatantly challenging gesture, and the other settled behind his back.
"I have… held myself back," he gritted out, glaring at Pain. "To use this technique means I will no longer be able to fight, even if I am victorious." The slowly vanishing rain steamed off his body, instantly evaporating as it met the heated boy's skin. One of the Path's ignored its opponent and looked up in mild curiosity at the retreating storm clouds.
Lee breathed out, and the trembling suffusing his body stilled. He spat blood, his shining teeth marred with redness.
"But it is now or never!" Lee shouted. Naruto stared at his back in apparent awe. "What you did to Neji…" He glanced back. "And to Naruto! Unforgivable!" He settled himself, one of his feet sliding back. "I will come at you with all my might! You, and your corpses," he spat the word like a curse, "will not harm my friends!"
There was a stilled moment.
"Wha-," Pain deadpanned.
Rock Lee attacked.
This took a while. My apologies. College was kicking my ass. But I'm on break now.
Expect me to take advantage of the time.
Oh, and Merry Christmas.