Not Sick Chapter 21
Breaking Point
In the thick rain of Amegakure, two parents were doing their best to kill their son. Unable to penetrate the Susano'o with simple attacks, Mikoto and Fugaku had begun to test the scope of the defense. Sasuke remained stationary, tensely watching his parents.
Mikoto darted in again, her hands wreathed in fire. The fireball broke against the Susano'o's chest.
"There's so much more I want to tell you, Sasuke."
Mikoto rolled under the Susano'o's counter attack, barely avoiding the powerful strike. The rain, going strong, was blown away in all directions by the force of the punch.
"I wanted so much more. I wanted to spend more time with you. I wanted…" Mikoto sighed. "I wish we could have been a family for longer, Sasuke."
Sasuke, secure with the Susano'o, stared at her with burning eyes. "I know," he said carefully. "But there's no time. You can't-"
"She's well aware," Fugaku said, coming from behind the chakra armor. His blows glanced off, and he leapt back, considering. "We cannot remain in such a pitiful state: you'll need to send us back soon."
"But before you do… could you do me, do us, one favor?" Mikoto asked. Her Mangekyō began swirling, and Sasuke watched it, wary. A silver orb fell into existence, right in front of the Susano'o's chest.
"Sasuke!" Mikoto's tone changed, replaced by something like terror. "Watch out!"
Sasuke leapt back, but the orb followed him, gliding through the rain like a marble, hunting for him. It crashed into the Susano'o's chest, and immediately Sasuke felt a drain: his chakra began pouring into his mother's jutsu. The Susano'o wavered, on the edge of collapse. A small hole formed in its ribs.
A hole through which Mikoto immediately glared at him, her eyes still whirling angrily.
Sasuke glared back, waiting for her jutsu to take ahold of him. The milliseconds seemed like hours. His father's voice came to him from behind.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no-!"
"No!" Mikoto yelled. Sasuke flinched, and the world flickered.
And was replaced by heat and light. Sasuke spun. The Susano'o was still up, the hole in its chest rapidly filling: it hadn't vanished in the frozen time of his mother's jutsu.
There was a wall of fire before him, melting away the concrete it raced over in its eagerness to devour him, reducing the bridge to shattered glass.
Sasuke smirked.
'Even against that…'
The Susano'o flared, the skin sheathing the floating ribs. It burned his eyes, but the pleasurable sensation of chakra filling them soothed the pain.
'Let's see just how good this armor is.'
He should have dodged. He may have made it, with a substitution and a shunshin. But now, with his new eyes, Sasuke felt almost unstoppable. The Susano'o had taken Juugo's fury with barely a scratch. What was a firestorm in comparison to that?
His father's jutsu struck him, and rolled right over him. It was a thick wall of fire, meters wide and deep. Sasuke broke a sweat, but the true intensity of the heat didn't touch him: he was insulated within the guardian.
'Amazing.' He looked around at the storm consuming him. There was nothing out there but dancing fire: through the purple chakra of his guardian, the lashing light seemed to dance and contort, beating itself fruitlessly against his protection. The Susano'o was barely straining. 'So this is the power Itachi has.'
A whisper of a whisper drew his attention. Even through the fire, deafening, like the sound of most violent tide in history, Sasuke could hear muffled words, spoken beyond the storm. It was his father's voice, deep and sorrowful.
"Fūton!" it shouted. His father was trying to warn him.
Sasuke froze. Something inside him instinctually poured more chakra into the armor, an action he didn't fully understand how to accomplish by himself.
His father had been noted amongst the clan for two things. His Sharingan's perception… and his affinity for wind jutsu. Jutsu he used to fan his own flames.
Stupid. Stupid. He should have dodged. But it was too late now.
Sasuke turned inward, pouring more and more chakra into his armor. He could feel himself running dry: soon, he wouldn't be able to maintain the armor at all. He had to end this as soon as possible.
Even if he wanted to spend as much time with his parents as was safe, he was quickly reaching the point of no return.
"Tatsumaki no Jutsu!" Fugaku finished, and then the storm that had become Sasuke's world became an inferno.
The Susano'o began melting, and Sasuke grunted in effort, trying to maintain it. The guardian's skin ran in rivulets down its ribs, and then the ribs themselves became little more than drooping hoops, the purple aura that suffused them fading.
Sasuke gave one last yell of effort, and then the Susano'o dropped, dribbling away to nothing. The inferno finished passing over him at the same time, but the tail end of it remained, filling the world with an ungodly heat.
Sasuke's hair did not catch fire. His shirt, however, did.
"Sasuke!" There was his mother again. His nightvision was ruined: in the second or two it would take to return to him, Amegakure was reduced to nothing but shadows. He was surrounded by a thick, warm steam as well, all that remained of the fire. He could feel his parents approaching him. "Are you-"
"Fine!" Sasuke shouted back. He whipped off his flaming shirt, and rushed forward. The darkness pulled back, revealing both of his relieved parents. His mother's eyes were spinning again. His father blinked at the sight of him emerging shirtless from the steam and smoke created by the ferocious blaze.
"What?" Fugaku said, before Sasuke dove forward and wrapped his flaming shirt around his mother's head, bringing them both to the ground under his weight.
He could feel the Susano'o welling up in him again, but until it was back he couldn't afford for his mother's eyes to freeze him again. In his current state, it would likely be certain death. Right now, it was probably just enough to accomplish his plan.
His brother had managed it, after all. And now, with his eyes, Sasuke should have been capable as well.
Fugaku attacked, and Sasuke parried the blow with his sword, focusing on keeping his mother's face obscured with the other. He secured the shirt there, not caring of the mild burns his hands were sustaining in the process, and then turned to go after his father, driving him away with a series of kicks and flashing sword slices.
Mikoto stumbled to her feet, tearing at the clothes wrapped around her head, and Sasuke used the brief opening to spin away from his father and cut his mother's head from her shoulders. It fell to the bridge, still wrapped in his burning shirt.
"Well done," his father noted, taking a blow to the shoulder. He caught Sasuke's upswing, holding his son's guard above his head, and then drove a snap-kick into Sasuke's chest, sending him tumbling backwards The younger Uchiha rolled to his feet and spat, grinning. Even being struck by his father was something he'd never dream would happen after Itachi had taken him. "But only temporary, of course. Is your plan ready?"
Sasuke nodded. "If you follow me," he said, and then disengaged, sprinting up the nearest building. Once more, he was heading for the rooftops, closer to the storm raging above. Fugaku watched him go, blinking as a flash of lightning made it seem like his son was teleporting up the wall.
"Fortunately," he mused to himself as his wife pulled herself back together and ripped their son's shirt from her head, "I don't have a choice." Then both he and Mikoto sprinted after their son, tearing up the wall at unnatural speed.
Sasuke reached the roof in what seemed like an instant. The rain against his bare torso revitalized him: the cold made him feel more alive. The Susano'o, coursing beneath his skin, emerged again. Off in the distance, he heard two sharp cracks, almost like a pair of sonic booms, but ignored it: the sound was inconsequential at the moment.
The Uchiha panted. He could feel that hollowness, just below his sternum, that told him that chakra exhaustion was imminent. He'd probably only be able to hold the armor for a minute or so.
A sly grin curled Sasuke's lips.
'A minute will be more than enough.'
His parents arrived almost immediately.
"This is it," he called to them, before hesitating. "Mom… what was that favor you were going to ask?"
Mikoto smiled warmly. "Just one favor, Sasuke. Something you can promise me before we go." She and Fugaku began circling their son. "Promise me that you'll forgive Itachi."
Sasuke froze. The Susano'o shifted around him, its aura dimming. "You… want me to?"
"How could I not?" Mikoto asked sincerely. "You two are my sons."
"He-!"
"He did his duty, Sasuke," Fugaku cut in. "An ugly thing. And the way he handled you afterwards was deplorable, from what I've heard. But you two are brothers, and the last of the Uchiha. You must stand together. You represent a power unlike this world has anymore. United, you will be truly formidable."
"That's what this is about?" Sasuke shot back. "Power?"
"It's not that. You two are family," Mikoto said, as if that explained the whole thing. "Just give him a chance, Sasuke."
Sasuke stared at the both of them. They were standing still, apparently defying Orochimaru's orders for this moment. Fugaku trembled, on the edge of attacking.
"You don't understand," Sasuke murmured, "what he did to me." Then, he sighed. "But I can't send you back to the afterlife with an empty promise."
Sasuke raised his chin high. "I swear to you, mother, father: I will try to make amends with Itachi. Just…"
"That's all I needed to hear, Sasuke," Mikoto said thankfully. "Please, just try."
"I will," Sasuke promised. He raised his right hand, blood still thinly running from it. "Now… it's time to send you away."
The storm above began shifting. The clouds whirled, drawing themselves towards Sasuke.
"Will you tell us your plan then, Sasuke?" Fugaku said. "I'm curious how you intend to put us down."
Sasuke strained: the storm above wasn't just mindless weather and energy. There was something guiding it: a thick, willful chakra. He pushed it aside, his direct attack dominating its long-held but thinly-spread hold. The clouds began moving faster. The thunder and lightning, almost omnipresent since Sasuke's exit from his cell, ceased.
"It's simple, really," Sasuke said to his father, not letting his inner strain show. His Susano'o flared, drawing itself up higher around him. The flesh returned, and it was fully equipped once more.
"Simple how?" Mikoto glanced up. The rain was beginning to peter out.
"Well, your eye can only be destroyed by a non-chakra based attack," Sasuke gritted out. "And since I also need to disable the two of you at the same time for the attack to be effective…"
The Susano'o raised one of its arms as well, mirroring Sasuke. Fugaku's eyes widened, almost imperceptibly. He followed his wife's gaze upwards.
"You're turning the storm against us," he breathed out, pride almost suffocating him. Mikoto turned to him in disbelief, before looking at her son with an amused expression.
"No chakra in a bolt of lightning," she chuckled.
The rain fully stopped: the entire energy of the storm was concentrated in one place, directly above the building Sasuke and his parents stood on. Sasuke's hand, frozen above his head, trembled.
"Mother, father." His parents refocused on him.
"However the circumstances," he said, blinking once, heavily, "I am truly glad I was able to see you again."
Mikoto rolled her eyes and laughed, ignoring the brief trickle of tears she and Sasuke shared. "I'd give you a hug, but considering…" She smiled gently. Fugaku's mien relaxed just slightly.
"We love you, Sasuke. More than anything in the world."
Sasuke swallowed. "I love you too." The sky crackled with ozone. The time had come.
"Good luck," Fugaku said, hugging his wife close. Orochimaru's programming reasserted itself a moment later, and both he and Mikoto charged forward, side by side.
"I'll see you on the other side," Sasuke whispered, before biting his lip and roaring to the sky, his frustration, directionless rage, and undeniable sorrow boiling over.
He brought his hand down.
"Tajuu Kirin!"
The storm froze for a moment, wracked with internal lightning. Then, there was a great flash of light, a deafening crack, and more than a dozen lightning strikes swept for the Uchiha.
Fugaku and Mikoto were instantly vaporized by the blast. Sasuke, secure within the Susano'o, bit his lip hard enough to draw blood as the armor buckled beneath the attack, finally shattering with a keening howl.
The building exploded, and Sasuke fell.
"Such insipid aspirations."
Pain flicked a hand out and struck Neji aside, sending the Hyuuga skidding across the ground. He stepped forward, towards Naruto. The Jinchūriki was visibly shaking.
"You came here for a friend," the Path said, staring into Naruto's eyes. The blond was frozen, seemingly catatonic. Another Path strode past the two of them, headed for the halved body of Yahiko. "And you brought others along. It seems like everything you do is inspired by them."
The Path that had walked by bent down, and both halves of Yahiko's body vanished, spirited off to be repaired.
"So I wonder… what will you be if they are taken away?"
Something red flashed across Naruto's eyes, and his hands, even with holes punched through them, tightened into agonizing fists.
"You'll never-"
Pain immediately stabbed one of his rods through Naruto's gut, and he sunk to the ground, clutching at the black metal feebly. Cold, thick chakra began filling him.
"It's no use," Pain informed him. "You're exhausted, beaten, bleeding. Your struggle is at an end." He bent down, bringing his face closer to Naruto's. "And with my chakra filling you, all you can do is watch."
Neji, having struggled to his feet and bleeding even more heavily from his mangled arm, staggered towards both Naruto and Pain. One of the newly arrived Pain's moved to intercept him.
"You didn't come sooner," the Hyuuga snarled. The heavily pierced man that had interceded himself between Neji and Naruto cocked his head. "Why? Just to make Lee think he had a chance?"
Pain snorted. "Hardly. I can only control six Paths at once. But your friend put up an interesting fight. I had no idea he could push himself to such lengths."
The Path stepped closer to Neji. "Such a shame he had to go out like he did, though."
"He died accomplishing his dream, and protecting his team! It was his choice!" Neji shouted, standing tall, useless tears escaping down his cheek. His useless arm was almost as pale as his shirt. The other was raised in a ready-stance.
"It was a poor one, then," Pain noted. "I believe you're about to make a similar mistake."
Neji charged, his fist lighting with chakra. A lion's face roared into existence, snapping angrily, and he swung at Pain.
The body danced back, casually watching the Hyuuga attack as Naruto struggled with the rod in his stomach. Neji roared, sweeping low, and Pain leapt over the blow, whirling over Neji's head. The Hyuuga tracked him, his Byakugan flaring on and off.
Neji didn't turn with his opponent. Instead, he spun towards Pain just as the man landed.
"Kaiten!" the Hyuuga shouted, and chakra poured out of his body, taking blood from his arm with it and splattering it in a concentric circle around him. Pain hopped back, barely avoiding the sphere of destruction, his face twisting into a frown.
Which was when Neji burst from the chakra sphere with an expression of pure rage on his face and sunk the Lion Fist into Pain's gut, doubling the man over.
Pain grunted, blood spurting from his mouth.
"Impressive," he admitted. Neji snarled, sounding like nothing more than an animal. There were tears freely running from his eyes. The Byakugan was still deactivated.
Pain looked up at him with a flat expression.
"But you've forgotten about the others."
One of the Paths buried a chakra rod buried itself in Neji's back.
Neji choked, shaking. The rod punched through his chest, carrying with it a welter of blood.
"Neji!" Naruto shouted. He slowly began to pull the rod from his own gut, his entire body trembling with effort as blood poured from his impaled hands. "Shit shit shit shit."
The Path that had snuck up on Neji pulled the rod from his back, and the Hyuuga collapsed to his knees, then forward onto his good hand. He lay there, letting out thick, wet coughs, blood splattering across the ground and dripping in great spurts from his chest.
"As I thought," Pain said, standing up straight. A rod dropped from his sleeve.
"Don't you fucking touch him!" Naruto screamed. Pain ignored him.
"A poor choice," the man finished.
Neji stared up at him, his eyes slowly going blank. Then he grimaced, the pain vanishing and being replaced by spite. He bared his teeth. They were like Lee's had been: covered in blood.
"Maybe," he said, turning his head just slightly away from Pain. Towards Naruto.
He stared into the blond's eyes, ignoring the man looming above him.
"But it was my choice."
"No. No!" Naruto shook his head.
Pain didn't spare the Hyuuga another word. He just stabbed another, longer rod into Neji's heart, and the Hyuuga dropped like a stone, his eyes glazing. Naruto stared, his face frozen in terror.
Neji hit the ground, and didn't move.
The Deva Path emerged from nowhere, fully healed. Yahiko's pale face stared down at Naruto without a hint of pity, his eyes flat.
"As I said. You can do nothing but watch… as I take them apart one by one," Pain declared, and Naruto looked back to him, his eyes wide, almost animalistic.
Something red flickered through them, and Pain raised an eyebrow.
"You're fucking dead," Naruto snarled.
"Am I, now?" Pain asked with a mocking lilt. He pointedly glanced at Neji and Lee, both lying still on the cold concrete. "I think you've mistaken me for someone else."
Naruto exploded.
Thick red chakra poured off of him, kicking up a gale that pushed away everything around him. Pain's hair blew back, and he crossed his arms, unimpressed, as Naruto raised his head. The blue of his eyes had been replaced by a deep scarlet, and the pupils had become slits.
He pulled the chakra rod from his gut with a wrenching, squelching sound, and tossed it to the side, his whole frame hanging loosely.
"You don't get to take them!" he declared. A tail of bubbling chakra extended from his back, and he fell to his hands and legs, assuming a fox-like stance on all fours. His nails grew out, becoming more akin to claws. "You don't get to take anyone else!"
He charged, and Pain effortlessly dodged to the left, a matador facing down a fierce bull. Naruto whirled, slashing at the man with his claws, and Pain ducked them contemptuously, kicking out. Naruto leapt over the hit, coming around in a spinning kick that would have shattered Pain's skull…
And the man seized the boy's foot and slammed him into the ground, not caring that his hand was burning at the mere touch of the chakra cloak.
Naruto choked, blood pouring from the wound in his gut. It mixed into the cloak, coloring it a darker red.
"You think you can stop me?" Pain asked, almost sounding amused. "You can't stop me any more than you could stop the sun from setting."
"The fuck does that mean?" Naruto snarled, kicking free and scrambling away from him. Pain watched him go, his hands remaining at his sides… but his fingers flexed idly, and every bit of the man's body hummed with the intent to do violence.
"I wonder, Naruto… why do you think I call myself a god?" Pain asked, circling around the Jinchūriki. The other Paths just watched, standing with their arms crossed and forming a rough ring around Naruto and the man who had once been Yahiko.
"Because you're fucking crazy," Naruto hissed. "Because you think you're always right, and because-"
"Interesting," Pain cut him off. Naruto snarled, his chakra-tail whipping madly. "I could see how you'd think that." He stopped circling, and began slowly walking forward.
"But you couldn't be more wrong."
Naruto attacked, roaring. Pain met his wild slash with a raised arm, knocking the claw away casually.
"I don't call myself a god because I think I'm a deity, Naruto," Yahiko's body said, before he buried a fist in Naruto's chest. Naruto gagged, spitting up blood, and Pain pushed him away, sending the blond stumbling backwards. Smoke rose from Pain's hand, ignored.
"I call myself a god because I cannot be stopped."
"You can't be that fucking arrogant," Naruto snarled. Now, he was the one circling Pain. A second tail of chakra was whirling up out of his back, joining the first.
"You misunderstand," Pain said, curling his smoking fist. "I have no illusions of my mortality. Jiraiya-sensei could defeat me, as I am now. You could have, even, given more time and preparation." He straightened up, breathing deeply.
"I cannot be defeated because I'm more than just a man. I'm an idea."
Naruto stared at him.
"What?" he whispered.
"Do you think I called these bodies "Pain" because I was feeling overly dramatic?" the man asked, spreading his arms and taking in the other bodies. "I chose that name with purpose. After I slew the cowardly old man who ruled the village before me: the man who took my friends from me." Naruto twitched as Pain continued. "The people here will tell you I have always been Pain, but they are mistaken. Before, I was just Nagato."
Pain's fist tightened. "But I changed, Naruto Uzumaki. I realized that a man couldn't change the world. Not on his own. If you want to spread change, to bring peace, you can't be something as simple as a man. You have to be an idea."
Pain took a step forward. "God. A god of pain. Nothing more than an idea. Something people take on faith. Most of the people in this village haven't even see me: merely felt my presence. But an idea, and a faith, will push people to do anything: it will allow them to leave behind their homes, their belongings, their very lives, just on the promise that their god will use what was once their home to accomplish something impossible."
"You… you're not making any sense," Naruto whispered, looking around. Looking at the village Pain had emptied, just to set an arena for the two of them. The Kyuubi's chakra flared, and his eyes flashed. "None!"
"I am a god because I am an idea, Naruto." Pain took another step forward. He was barely a meter away. Every molecule in Naruto's body ached to tear him to pieces, but something kept him from attacking. "And I am the idea that pain is what will bind this world together: that people can only understand each other through that hate and the agony that a shared pain can bring."
Pain smiled, the lips of Yahiko's body peeling back. "I am an idea that has already taken root in every citizen of Amegakure. In Konan. And soon enough…"
He took one last step, into Naruto's reach. "In you."
"Never," Naruto snarled.
"Are you sure?" Pain asked. "Even when I kill your friends…"
Naruto stiffened, turning his head. The Paths that had formed a rough circle around him and Yahiko had dispersed, slowly moving towards the prone forms of his friends.
"You think you won't understand what drove me to become this idea of Pain?" the Deva Path asked, watching him with crossed arms.
"It's not going to happen! I'm not you!" Naruto shouted. The denial tore up the concrete before him, sending a shockwave straight at Pain. The Rinnegan widened partially before Pain was blown back, executing a perfect backflip and sliding comfortably to his feet.
Naruto turned and bolted towards the closest Path: the Asura, steadily making its way towards Shikamaru and Chōji. The Path didn't turn, even as Naruto leapt for its back, a crimson Rasengan whirling into his hand.
And then, he froze, hanging in the air. Gravity had given up on him. Slowly, he was drawn backwards.
"You're not me, huh?"
Naruto couldn't rotate to face Pain. All he could do was watch the Asura Path as it drew closer and closer to Chōji and Shikamaru.
"We'll see, won't we?" Pain said. The Asura Path stopped over Chōji, reaching down. One of its hands curled back, the wrist dislocating, and a barrel poked out. The Path leveled it at the Akimichi's head. Naruto could see the corner of a the smirk on its face. He thrashed in mid-air, chakra boiling off of him.
"Chōji!" he screamed. Ino's teammate remained insensible. "Wake up!"
Choji's didn't. The barrel of the Asura's Paths arm-cannon began to glow.
Which was when a length of shadowy spears, thick as a man's forearm, punched through the Asura Path's head.
Both Naruto and Pain watched in disbelief as Shikamaru Nara pulled himself to his feet. He shook with exhaustion and his hands trembled, but they stayed linked in front of him in a simple seal, and as his shadow shrank back to his feet he bared his teeth.
"If you think I'm just going to lie around while you kill my team, you got another thing coming," Shikamaru promised. The dark spears rose again, arraying themselves behind him like snakes set to strike, and his teeth shined in the dark. "You're not touching any of us."
Pain raised an eyebrow. "You're all so stubborn," he observed. Naruto dropped to his feet, twisting to face Pain.
"Shikamaru!" he shouted. "You've gotta get-!"
The Asura Path twisted, convulsing. Shikamaru glanced at it, his face twisting in disgust, and the body's face twisted two-hundred and seventy degrees to look at him.
"Nice try," the man said, oil burbling from the hole in his temple, and then the front of his cloak fell open, revealing a hole in his chest.
A hole filled with wires and a single large tube, with a seal painted over it.
Shikamaru's eyes went wide.
Naruto barely saw what happened next. The Nara's shadows lashed out, wrapping around Chōji's foot. The Akimichi stirred, trying to roll over.
The Asura Path swelled cartoonishly, its whole frame expanding.
Shikamaru strained, and the shadows around Chōji's foot whipped up. The Akimichi was flung away, high and far, spinning off into the village. One of the Paths watched him go with mild interest, while the rest focused on the Nara.
And then Shikamaru leapt away with all the speed he could muster, his shadows pushing him onwards as if they were extra legs.
He almost made it. With the exception of two broken ribs and a concussion, the Nara was mostly intact. And when Shikamaru put his mind to it, he could be fast. Naruto had seen him outrun the wind itself, three years ago.
But then the Asura Path exploded.
And Shikamaru just wasn't quite fast enough.
He vanished in a flash of light and a thunderous rumble.
"Shikamaru!"
Naruto caught a glimpse of something. A leg, or an arm. Whatever it was, it was supposed to be attached to something.
It wasn't.
He turned on a dime, the Kyuubi's chakra leaving burn marks across the concrete.
"You bastard!" he roared, charging Pain again.
And again, the man sidestepped. He slid around the enraged Jinchūriki, striking him in the back of the head as he passed. Naruto stumbled to his knees. The third tail was just now emerging. Jiraiya's seal, recently re-strengthened, was finally unravelling with ludicrous speed, and it was taking with it what little sense Naruto had left.
Shadow clones, summoning, the Rasenshuriken…
Naruto didn't give any of them the barest hint of a thought.
All he wanted to do was tear the man who was tormenting him into as many tiny pieces as he could.
"Look, Naruto," Pain said almost conversationally. The blond raised his head, panting.
"These bodies are the mortal weapons of my will," Pain said, staring him in the eyes. "They are sent out when I require someone to die." The Rinnegan flashed, looking at something over Naruto's shoulder, and the Jinchūriki spun. "And that Nara was not the last."
Sai was being lifted into the air by the only female Path present. The woman watched him with cold interest as the artist's eyes fluttered open. Naruto broke into a sprint, tearing up the concrete under him.
"What?" the Root operative had time to say before the woman drew a rod and stabbed him through the chest. He threw up a gout of blood, and the Path tossed him away, leaving him to bleed out on the cold floor.
"No!" The Path turned towards the sound, and was struck by a scarlet streak that bowled her backwards, leaving behind a snarl of intestines and a forlorn hand.
Naruto tore the woman to shreds, leaving her little more than a bloody stain on the ground, and then bent over Sai, shouting his name.
"Idiot." Sai coughed blood into Naruto's face, mixing it with Naruto's own in the rapidly expanding chakra cloak. "Don't worry about me!"
Naruto looked back, and found the Deva Path lifting the last living member of Team Gai into the air. He'd drawn her to himself with his gravity jutsu.
"Nagato!" he shouted, pulling away from Sai. "Nagato, stop!"
Tenten hung limply in Pain's hand, her hair thick with red. The head-wound she'd sustained trying to stop herself from being torn away by the Shinra Tensei was still bleeding freely. Pain drew another rod, and smiled.
"I wonder, Naruto, do you hate me yet?"
"Yes."
It wasn't Naruto that spoke. Pain jerked his head back towards the kunoichi he held above the ground. She was staring at him, her eyes wide and manic. She'd seen Neji and Lee's bodies. A hatchet fell from her sleeve into her hand, and the Rinnegan widened.
Tenten cut off the arm holding her, and tumbled to the ground, stumbling away from Pain. The rest of the Paths turned towards her, observing her curiously. Pain himself cocked his head, looking down at his detached limb. Blood sluggishly pumped from the stump.
"Naruto, run!" Tenten shouted. She winced, blood running down her face, and pulled a tanto from her other sleeve.
Naruto made a sobbing noise, moving away from Sai.
"I can't-!" he gasped.
Tenten shot him a look, taking her eyes off of Pain for a moment. "Moron!" she hissed. "Do you want to make Lee's-"
Pain's chakra conductor made a thick, bloody sound as it punched through Tenten's chest. The man had moved so fast Naruto had barely seen the motion. Tenten looked down, blinking, then back over her shoulder.
"You son of a bitch," she hissed in the Path's face, before slumping, the color draining from her. Pain stepped back, pulling the black metal with him, and Tenten crumpled.
Naruto watched her hit the ground with a blank expression.
Then he ran right at Pain, howling like he had been the one stabbed, the sound echoing through Amegakure's streets. The speed of his passage rolled Sai over, and the boy choked on his own blood. Thick waves of chakra blew off of him, rattling the air and blowing up furious winds.
Pain watched Naruto come at him with shining eyes.
"You see!" Pain said, even as Naruto tried to take his head off. He slipped back, just out of reach, and kicked Naruto's hands up, laying him open for a roundhouse to the chest. His missing arm had already stopped bleeding, the stump coagulated.
"You understand now, Kyuubi?" Pain drawled, as Naruto spun back towards him, his movements feral. "Pain and fear, they both lead to hate. And hate is the only real way people can understand each other in this sorry world. Do you feel it, in your blood? That urge to murder me? Can't you see how I would turn that towards freeing the world from the Villages keeping it stuck in an endless cycle of-"
"Shut up!" Naruto thundered, blitzing Pain. The man's content expressions faded as the blond buried a fist in it, blowing the Deva Path backwards. He hit the ground and tumbled, but Naruto was already after him, sprinting on all fours.
"I don't care about your philosophy, or peace, or any of that shit!" Naruto roared, making his best attempt to stove Pain's face in. The man held him back, barely, burning his remaining hand on the Kyuubi's aura. The second tail was emerging. "You think any of that matters, after you killed them?!"
"And I'm about to kill another," Pain pointed out flatly. Naruto's head snapped away from him, towards where Shino lay impaled on several jutting rebars. A Path was there, talking quietly with the Aburame.
Naruto broke from Pain, sprinting towards Shino. But before he could reach him, the Path already there gently laid his hand on Shino's forehead. The Aburame jerked, but it was no use. There was a surge of chakra, an invisible silence, and then Shino slumped, breathing his last.
Naruto screamed, and ripped the Path that had taken Shino from him into three pieces, crushing the man's head like a grapefruit in his claws. As the chunks of the man struck the floor, he turned back towards the Deva Path.
"How immature," Pain muttered, before raising his hand again, pointing it at a nearby cafe.
Naruto broke into a sprint once more, racing back towards the Deva Path, but skidded to a halt once he saw who had flown into Pain's hand.
It was Hinata. Bleeding from the mouth, breathing shallowly, and barely conscious. She was still wearing Naruto's Sage cloak, wrapped around her body.
Naruto stared at her. His three tails waved behind him, and he bared his teeth, sinking lower to the ground. His skin rippled, and for a moment, his eyes flashed a blank white.
"Drop her," he growled. For the first time since Pain had killed Lee, he didn't sound desperate. Now, he sounded dangerous.
Pain cocked an eyebrow. "Interesting. I remember you two, you know. It was very dramatic, the way she came to save you during our first meeting." He raised Hinata just a bit higher, careful to keep from choking her. "She said she loved you. I wonder, have you reciprocated the feeling?"
Naruto's hesitation told Pain everything he need to know.
"Adorable," he deadpanned, tightening his grip slightly. "So… what will happen if you lose her?"
Naruto took a step forward. The chakra across his body flowed violently. Flakes of his skin were beginning to peel away, like paper in a strong wind. The chakra cloak was growing thicker, traces of his blood darkening it.
"Naruto…"
Both Naruto and Pain paused, shifting their gazes to the source of the quiet voice. Naruto sucked in a breath.
Hinata lifted her head.
It felt like a sack of bricks. Every breath she took was heavy, labored. She was barely holding on to consciousness.
The world was blurred, and Hinata coughed. Pain's technique had hurt, but Ino had ensured that Hinata had avoided the brunt of it. The Yamanaka was back there somewhere, wheezing like a dying woman, unable to get off her back. Hinata wished she had enough chakra to use any of the basic medical jutsu she knew before she'd been dragged away, but that was immaterial now.
What mattered now, more than ever, was Naruto.
He was there, before her. Pain was holding her above the ground with his single remaining hand, and she could see the Jinchūriki more clearly than anything else.
He was crying, crouched on all fours like an animal. A bloody red cloak of chakra had formed around him, whirling nearby puddles and sending out small gusts of wind. Three tails extended out behind him, whipping about of their own.
He was on the edge of breaking. And then, none of this would matter. Pain would have won, in every conceivable way.
Hinata couldn't allow that to happen.
She just hoped that Pain let her talk.
"This isn't your fault," she said quietly.
Naruto stared at her.
"How can you say that?" he whispered. Around him, the Kyuubi's cloak flared.
"We chose this," Hinata said, shifting. Pain's throat around her neck was uncomfortable, but he wasn't tightening his hand. She could see him watching her out of the corner of her eye,
"Neji…" She stopped, trailing off and holding back something that sat like a stone in her gut. "Neji was right. We chose to follow you here. You can't take responsibility for that. You can't. You can't..." She trailed off, coughing.
"Hinata-" Naruto took a step forward, and Pain tightened his grip. Hinata choked, and Naruto stopped, his face twisting in fury, revealing his elongated fangs.
Pain loosed his grip after a moment. Hinata glanced at him, and he stared back, his eyes blank. Evidently, he was curious what she had to say.
"Listen to me, Naruto," she said, looking back to the blond. "This is the most important thing I'm ever going to tell you."
She let out a shuddering breath. "You can't give up here. No matter what happens to us." Hinata bit her lip, all too aware of the hands around her neck. "All of us…" She looked around, at the crumpled bodies of Tenten and Sai, still steadily bleeding, at what remained of Shikamaru, and finally, at the distant, crucified form of Shino. She started crying, tears leaking from her blank eyes.
"We were your friends. We didn't follow you here because you wanted us to. We followed you here because we wanted you…" She sniffed, giving up her composure. "Needed you to be safe!"
Hinata took a deep breath, before piercing Naruto, still crouched on all fours, with a rock-steady glare.
"And if you throw that away… if you give up just because we're gone, or tell yourself that you're the reason we died…" Hinata cried hollowly, before finding her voice. Her back straightened, and her shuddering breathing evened out.
She shouted, her voice utter conviction. "I will not forgive you!"
Naruto hesitated, unable to tear his gaze from the Hyuuga heiress. Pain, still holding her, was watching the girl with surprise… and something close to respect.
"You're not dead yet."
Pain turned towards the voice, and Hinata with him.
Sakura Haruno made a crater when she landed, right next to Sai.
Hinata watched her with wide eyes. The medic looked angrier than Hinata had ever seen her. She was bleeding from the mouth, and her hands and arms were covered in small scrapes and bruises. But she came back to her feet with a lethal grace: she was either running on adrenaline, or had healed herself with her medical jutsu.
"And I don't plan on seeing it happen!" Sakura shouting, already running her hands over Sai. The light of her medical jutsu was feeble, but there. She glared at Pain, her face twisting into a snarl, before glancing at Naruto behind him.
"Naruto!" she shouted. "Keep Pain busy! I'll get everyone: I can still save some of them!"
'Some.'
Hinata looked back to one of her teammates. Shino hung limply. Pain had just touched him, and he'd… left.
'Shino's gone.'
Hinata turned her head.
'But Kiba...'
The Inuzuka and Akamaru were still laid out, unconscious. They still had a chance, and so did Ino, and Sai. Sakura could save them.
Pain dropped her.
Hinata made a startled noise as she suddenly started falling. Her Byakugan, inactive due to her low chakra level since Pain had grabbed her, activated on reflex, and the world expanded. With the rain finally gone, Hinata could see practically everything.
It took her a second to hit the ground. A lot can happen in a second.
Naruto charged Pain, and Sakura took off, leaving a steadily breathing Sai behind and heading for Hinata herself. Two of Pain's bodies came to intercept her, one sprouting a variety of weapons from its back and palms. The Asura Path had reconstituted itself, none the worse for wear from the suicidal explosion that had torn Shikamaru apart. The other two homed in on Naruto, who was desperately trying to tear the Deva Path apart.
Hinata hit the ground, and bounced. In the middle of the small jump, Sakura took a blow to the chest from the Pain with many weapons, tearing off one of her sleeves. The medic returned the blow, and the man lost an arm.
Naruto was surrounded, Pain stabbing at him from all sides with metal rods filled with thick, malicious chakra. The blond roared, swatting at them with his chakra tails and clawlike hands. He fought without strategy: there were no clones, or swirling Rasengan. Just pure rage and air-crushing, concrete shattering power. But Pain pressed in, undeterred.
Hinata stopped moving, then began to roll to her feet. Her whole body screamed in exhaustion, but she couldn't stay on the ground. She had to help. This was their chance.
Sakura broke past the two Pains, leaving behind one without a hand and the other with a shattered kneecap. She herself was bleeding from three slashes and there was a single, deep stab in her bicep, but she was still moving. She stretched out a hand for Hinata.
"Take-!" she said, before one of Pain's bodies clumsily tackled her from behind. Sakura twisted, kicking the man away, but the second body, the one with a missing arm, struck out with a buzzsaw at Sakura's extended leg.
The medic jumped, leaping off the saw and executing a backflip, sprinkling her blood across the concrete. She was going to land right in the middle of the battle between Naruto and the four Pains: if she did, she could break up the fight, allow Naruto to attack unhindered, and buy the Konoha ninja a chance to regroup.
Hinata saw everything in slow motion. Sakura spun, bringing her fist around in preparation for a dynamic entry that would crush Pain's main body to the ground.
Then the man spun, the eyes of the other bodies warning him, and his only hand came up, pointing at the descending medic. In the same moment, Naruto was hamstringed from behind, one of Pain's rods burying itself deeply into the back of his leg.
Sakura saw the attack coming. Hinata could see her eyes goes wide.
"Sakura!" Naruto shouted, sounding bestial. He was crying, his tears evaporating in his chakra cloak before they could leave his eyes.
"Shinra Tensei," Pain said, sounding almost bored. The ground under him cracked, and the full force of gravity hit Sakura like an invisible city-flattening hammer.
Sakura went flying, flipping head over heel, almost straight up into the sky. Both Hinata and Naruto watched her go with horrified eyes. The medic was screaming, whether in pain or frustration Hinata couldn't tell. The sound quickly faded.
The Byakugan could see for about a kilometer. After that, the world cut off, reduced to greyish blurs. Pain's chakra was still hanging in the air, reducing the range slightly, but for the most part Hinata could see reasonably clearly.
Sakura, thrown by Pain's jutsu, passed beyond her range in about four seconds. The medic disappeared into Amegakure's clear sky, lost to the moonless night, and neither Hinata nor Naruto could find any glimpse of her.
Both Hinata and Naruto looked away from the Tsunade's vanished student, and back at the man who had thrown her.
Pain didn't speak. He just surged forward, attacking Naruto again. The Jinchūriki leapt to meet him, snarling, and then stumbled. Pain's rod was still buried in the back of his leg.
Another one of the rods slammed into his shoulder, knocking him to the side with a spurt of blood. He crashed onto the other shoulder, grunting. His chakra cloak left burn-scars on the concrete. He rolled, turning over, as Hinata broke into a run towards him and other Pains.
She could feel chakra rolling through her arms again. Jūken was viable again: she had barely enough chakra for several attacks, but she might be able to buy Naruto an opportunity.
Naruto finished turning over. He tried to leap to his feet, but the rod in his leg still slowed him. He lashed out with one hand, but one of Pain's bodies hurled a rod, and the black metal punched through Naruto's hand knocking it back and throwing him further off balance.
Pain charged in, one of his dark rods held before him like a spear.
Hinata blinked, mid-sprint. She could see one of Pain's other bodies watching her, but ignored it.
That was it.
If Pain landed that blow, he would win.
She could see in perfect clarity the exact area Pain was targeting. The rod would stab through Naruto's lower sternum, avoiding the heart and puncturing one lung before striking one of his lower thoracic vertebra. Hinata had no doubt that with Pain's fearsome strength, the attack would punch right through the bone.
And that would be the end of it. Naruto would be crippled, unable to move anything below the neck, but alive. Pain would take him away, and drain him of the Kyuubi. And then, countless people would die.
All the friends Hinata had left would die. Her family would die.
She couldn't reach. She could break the man's neck with a Jūken strike, but his momentum would carry the rod into Naruto's spine anyway. She didn't have enough chakra for the Hakke Kuushō, even if she were able to do it reliably. Diverting the strike was out of the question as well: an inch in any direction, and it would pierce Naruto's vital areas, doing more damage than Pain intended with his paralyzing strike. The Kaiten would do just as much damage to Naruto as it would to Pain, and Hinata would be completely out of chakra almost immediately.
All of this went through Hinata's head in an instant, before she realized there was only one real option.
Pain's attack would land no matter what. The most she could do was minimize the damage.
And the only way to do that…
Hinata dove forward, past Pain. She saw the Rinnegan widen, just slightly.
She passed over Naruto, curling her body to put as much of herself between him and Pain as possible. The boy blinked, opening his mouth.
She felt the rod brush against her back, against Naruto's warm red cloak. Right over her heart.
Schlick.
The impact pushed her forward with sudden, brutal speed. The metal buried itself deeply into her body before punching out her chest in a spray of blood. It sliced into Naruto's sternum, only penetrating two or three inches, and stopped in his lung, not reaching the spine.
Hinata slammed to the ground, on top of Naruto. It didn't hurt. Not at all. The world was going gray already: the only color in it was the blond in his hair and the blue of his eyes.
Blue. The awful red chakra had vanished. It had burned her for a moment, and now it was gone. Suddenly, inexplicably. Naruto's eyes were blue again.
They looked utterly horrified.
Hinata took a breath, blood dripping heavily from her mouth.
"Naruto?" The word sounded less like his name, and nothing like a question.
'At least I get to see his eyes.'
"Hinata?" Naruto asked, his voice faint. He looked confused.
Hinata opened her mouth, and more blood came.
There was so much she wanted to say.
'I wish I'd known you longer.'
'I love you.'
'I forgive you.'
'Never give up: don't lose your way.'
'Thank you for saving me. Thank you for saving Neji.'
'Thank you for being you.'
All this, and much more, wanted to burst from her lips. But all that came was arterial, near-black blood.
Finally, tremulously, as if the words were lifting the weight of the world, struggling out from under some enormous burden, Hinata spoke.
"Naruto… I'm sorry," she said, looking into Naruto's sky-blue eyes. She smiled one last time.
'I'm sorry that I'm dying for you.'
And then, Hinata Hyuuga died.