Not Sick Chapter 26
Breaking God
"Naruto."
Naruto's eyes rasped open, and he coughed.
Shit. Everything hurt again. Outside of the seal, his body couldn't pretend that it wasn't suffering from severe burns and broken bones. And he was cold. The temperature grated against his burns like sandpaper on an open wound. He felt hot and dry, hollow and covered by an awful ache that had sunk into his skin.
He ignored it. The sky above Amegakure was completely clear: the heavy grey clouds had gone, replaced by distant, cold stars. When had that happened? When he'd…
Had the Kyuubi done that? How the hell-
"Naruto."
Sasuke's face blocked out the cloudless sky, and Naruto stared at him. He was shirtless, his hair buzzed up by lingering static. His Sharingan had changed, replaced with a sickle-and-starburst pattern: twin tracks of dried blood led from it down the rest of his face, joining the brown morass of congealed gore that covered most of his jaw and chest.
Despite all that, he looked as alive as Naruto had ever seen him. And because of that, Naruto didn't really mind the fact that he was glaring at him.
Sasuke was here. It was almost impossible to believe.
"Can you stand?" the Uchiha asked.
"Sasuke?" Naruto croaked, wincing. His voice sounded as awful as he felt. "How long-"
"Less than ten seconds." Sasuke frowned. "Did you…"
Naruto blew out a breath, trying to move his leg. It twitched, sending a snarl of fire up his thigh, but didn't do much else. "We… talked."
Sasuke didn't smile. He really didn't. There was just the tiniest twitch below his eyes and around the corners of his mouth. His odd new Sharingan spun minutely for a minute, and Naruto watched it, unconsciously wondering if that was what Itachi's eyes had done.
"Not every day you get to meet your parents."
Naruto blinked. "You-!"
'My mother sends her regards, Kushina.'
"How did you know?" Naruto choked, trying to rise again. He gave up after a moment, flopping back to the concrete. Sasuke stretched a hand out, and Naruto stared at it. He slowly reached out, half expecting Sasuke to pull it away.
He didn't.
"You weren't the only one to have a reunion tonight." Sasuke's hand tightened around Naruto's, and he pulled him to his feet. The blond hissed as every ounce of his body protested the action, but didn't let himself fall again. He staggered up, sagging against Sasuke for a moment.
It took about five seconds for what Sasuke had said to actually penetrate Naruto's pain. He pulled back, nearly falling over but catching himself at the last second, and stared at Sasuke with wide eyes.
"No way," he murmured. Sasuke shrugged. "How-?"
Sasuke shook his head. "There's no time right now. Pain will be back any second. The Kyuubi hurt him, but he still has several bodies left." His eyes hardened. "Can you fight?"
Naruto winced, pasting an entirely unconvincing grin on his face. Every inch of him burned. His skin was raw and unevenly crisped, and he was sure most of his ribs were broken. Just standing up made him feel out of breath.
"I can fight."
"Hn." Sasuke looked him over for a moment. Then, he kicked out.
Naruto cursed and jumped back. Or tried to. He couldn't manage to get himself all the way off the ground. Sasuke's sweeping kick took him in the ankle and he toppled sideways, crashing to the ground.
"Oh you bastard," Naruto spat out, his whole body on a new kind of fire.
Sasuke looked down at him, and raised an eyebrow. Suddenly, Naruto wasn't quite as glad the Uchiha was there.
"I don't think you can fight, Naruto." He shook his head. "Not against Pain, at least." He looked back. "It's too late. Stay down."
Naruto's eyes narrowed. He let his arms fall to his sides, his whole body gradually relaxing. His eyes slipped closed.
Just as the darkness behind his eyelids replaced the slate sky, an unwelcome voice swept over him.
"You subdued the Kyuubi."
Naruto didn't open his eyes. He kept absolutely still, letting the weakness drain out of him. Sasuke was right about one thing, at least. There was no way he could take on Pain right now, even if he was weakened.
So he didn't let any of the words that were building in him burst out. He just kept still, and let Sasuke do the talking.
"I did."
Sasuke's answer sounded like a wearied statement delivered to a particularly dull child. Water was wet, fire was hot, Naruto was annoying, and Sasuke had kept the Kyuubi from turning Amegakure to ash.
"Incredible." Pain glared, his Rinnegan shining despite the utter darkness of Amegakure. It seemed lit from within. "The Sharingan truly is that powerful, then."
To that, Sasuke didn't respond. He tilted his head back just far enough to catch Naruto in his peripheral vision. The blond was lying flat on his back, as still as a brick. Apparently, he'd decided that Sasuke was right.
Sasuke's lip twisted. Naruto never decided that he was right. He was planning something. Knowing him, it would probably be moronic.
It would also probably work.
Turning to focus entirely on Pain, Sasuke decided to keep an eye out for whatever Naruto might be preparing. He'd probably need the help.
There were four bodies facing him. Three men and one woman, all with orange hair, covered in strange black piercings-
The bodies charged, streaking forward in flashes of red and black. Pain wasn't waiting. Sasuke blinked, and reversed the grip on his chokuto. Right to it, then.
He needed to keep them away from Naruto. Which meant going on the offensive-
Now.
Sasuke sprinted forward, his sword flashing and his chakra rolling. One of his hands came up, forming a series of seals with lightning speed. Snake, ram, monkey, boar, horse...
The Paths split up. Two moving forward, and the other two coming in from the sides to flank him. Sasuke did his best to keep all of them in his field of vision.
He finished the seals, and spat a volley of fireballs, each about the size of his torso. The air was suddenly crackling with fire, obscuring his form. Sasuke drew back his arm.
Two of the Paths dodged the hail of fire, slipping through the blazing projectiles; one was skimmed, but barely slowed. The other two of the Paths simply powered through the flames, holding up their arms. One of them pushed the fire into oblivion, blowing apart the chakra with a surge of gravity. The other absorbed the flames, a soft bluish glow forming around her hands.
But when the fire was fully absorbed, the chokuto Sasuke had hurled into the midst of the now-dissipated flames became clear. The woman's Rinnegan went wide.
Sasuke sword hit the Path in the chest going somewhere around six hundred meters per second, and blew her off her feet with a hair-raising shockwave. She tumbled backwards, the blade buried up to its hilt in her heart, and after a brief roll came to a halt, the sword sticking up out of her like a gruesome signpost.
Sasuke turned, and found his vision entirely obscured by a rapidly approaching foot. He ducked backwards, and felt the wind of the kick ruffle his already chaotic hair.
He didn't bother straightening: Pain's follow up kick was already on its way. Instead, Sasuke continued falling backwards, moving into a handspring and attempting to gain some distance. He could feel Pain coming after him: the man with orange hair took one step, two, reaching out with a clawlike hand. If he was trying to grab him, nothing good could come of the contact.
Sasuke completed the first tumble and fell into another, both of his hands making firm contact with the ground. They rooted themselves there, his chakra bonding to the concrete, and then the Uchiha kicked out, driving his foot into the bottom of his opponent's arm.
Pain was slower than he should have been. Sasuke's kick knocked his attack into the air, over the Uchiha, and then Sasuke pushed up. The concrete under him broke, his hands left the ground, and he shot up over Pain's head.
The Path turned, tracking him, but it was too late. Sasuke's hand hooked up under his chin, seizing Pain around the throat, and then the Uchiha twisted and slammed the man into the ground.
Pain bounced, eyes wide, and then Sasuke came down on him knee-first. The man's ribs broke with an unnaturally loud crack, and he spat blood.
That was when a rocket-powered fist smashed into Sasuke's side.
The impact was a purple flash: the Susano'o rose, half manifested, at the very last moment, dulling the blow. The ethereal ribs shattered under the impact, and Sasuke was thrown off of the Path, bouncing once before regaining his feet and sliding backwards, fragments of concrete exploding out of the way of his feet.
The Pain that had punched him came on, one of its arms breaking in half and revealing a claw the size of Sasuke's chest, sparking with red lightning. Its other arm had folded back, and a blade of pure rippling purple energy was protruding from the elbow. As it sprinted forward, its cloak fell open, revealing dozens of weapon barrels.
The barrels began spitting supersonic balls of silver wrapped in explosive tags. Sasuke could see them coming for him, the Sharingan capturing every rotation they underwent. He dove to the side, barely dodging the first volley, and then broke into a sprint, circling the Pain. The Path tracked him, and the ground behind Sasuke was torn up by a steady sequence of detonations that sent a truly deafening sound ringing through Amegakure as well as chips of rubble flying everywhere.
He turned towards the Path, bringing his hand up, two fingers extended. A spear of pure lightning leapt forward. The orange-haired man flipped into a cartwheel, the spear grazing his claw but otherwise leaving his unscathed… and then Sasuke's eye bled, and the Path's chest caught fire.
The man exploded, the suddenly destroyed tags in his torso releasing their payload early. When the brief flash of black fire and smoke cleared, there was nothing left but a tattered cloak and a steadily spreading pool of oily blood around a ragged pile of meat and machinery.
"Shinra Tensei!"
Sasuke barely had time to turn before the unseen pulse smashed into him and sent him flying forward. He twisted, bringing the spear of lightning around. But Pain was too far away: the spear fell short, and Sasuke let it shrink back into his hand. He hit the ground and rolled head-over-heels, coming to a stop on his feet next to the skewered corpse of what had been the Preta Path.
As he pulled himself back up, Sasuke reached over and ripped his sword from the woman's body. There were two Paths left now: the primary body, and the one whose ribs he had broken. They were standing side by side, watching him warily.
"Truly impressive," Pain said, somewhat begrudgingly. "Even weakened as I am…"
Sasuke took stock. Naruto was to his left, and Pain's right. The blond was still lying stock still… and was slightly closer to Amegakure's leader than Sasuke was to him.
Pain realized it at the same time. The Path with broken ribs suddenly bolted for Naruto. Sasuke made to go after him, and Pain intercepted him.
Sasuke brought his sword up, aiming for Pain's chest. The man stepped back, his left leg sliding away, and then clapped both of his hands down on the chokuto, stopping it cold. Sasuke released his grip, moving into a reverse-kick… and Pain took the blow on his knee. He twisted his hand, sending the sword twirling upwards, and in the same motion drove a straight kick into Sasuke's gut.
Before Sasuke could be forced away by the kick, Pain's other leg snapped around into the Uchiha's kidney. All the air shot out of Sasuke's lungs, and he fell to the ground with a smack, scrambling forward. Pain's leg shot out once last time, punting Sasuke onto his back a couple feet away.
"Enough of this," the man said, striding forward. His hand negligently stretched out, and Sasuke's sword whirled perfectly into it. "I'm tired, Uchiha. More tired than I've ever been."
Sasuke coughed, looking over. The purple swirl of the Susano'o began to rise around him once more. Pain's eyes narrowed.
"But I can still finish this," he proclaimed, and then he leapt into the air. Sasuke growled, tracking him. As Pain reached the apex of his jump, the Uchiha's eyes bled again.
The black flames touched Pain for a moment. But just a moment.
"No!" Amegakure's god thrust his hand down, and the flames disappeared, snuffed by the Shinra Tensei. Sasuke could "see" it coming, a faint ripple in the air ten meters around.
But even if he could see it, he was far too slow to do anything about it.
Sasuke gritted his teeth.
The rage of an angry god struck him head-on. The Susano'o exploded: skin melting away, ribs shattering and spewing shards of purple chakra in a wide aura. The ground for twenty meters around was pushed downward, creating a crater two feet deep and sending out a wave of rippling concrete. At the epicenter of the force, Sasuke was crushed to the ground, pinned by something he couldn't possibly begin to fight.
Pain fell, Sasuke's sword held in the man's hand like descending spear. The Uchiha couldn't move: his limbs refused to obey him, still convinced they were planted in the ground by Pain's jutsu. His head was crushed to the side: he couldn't even land another Amaterasu on the madman.
He couldn't look at Pain, but he could see Naruto, just over the lip of the crater. The other Path had reached him: its hand shot down, ready to seize the Jinchūriki's throat.
And then, for the first time in a minute, Naruto moved.
His hand came up, nothing more than a blur, and fastened around the Path's arm. Then, in one fluid motion, he spun to his feet, carrying the man off his own. He was slower than he could have been, but much faster than his injuries should have allowed.
The Sharingan saw, in perfect detail, the orange pigmentation around Naruto's eyes, the way the pupils had become horizontal bars.
And, somewhat more gratifyingly, the way those eyes narrowed when they locked with Sasuke's own.
Naruto completed his spin, and hurled the Human Path right at the Deva.
The man saw it coming, and he spun in midair. The other Path passed just under him, and then Pain completed his fall. But his spin had taken the blade he was wielding out of alignment: instead of burying itself in Sasuke's heart, it pierced through his palm. Pain remained atop the blade, balancing on one hand.
The invisible pressure vanished: the sudden pain broke the spell, and suddenly Sasuke could move again. His right hand was pinned, but his left was not.
So when Pain leapt off the chokuto and drew back his hands, black rods springing from them, Sasuke had something to knock them away with. Both of the rods buried themselves just above his head, and he kicked upwards, knocking Pain over and away.
Sasuke ripped his sword from his hand without a second thought and rolled forward to his feet, buying more distance. He looked back just in time to see Naruto charge Pain, screaming at the top of his lungs.
Pain raised his hand at the sprinting blond with a grimace. He was sluggish, tired, but still determined. Sasuke turned and ran forwards as well.
Naruto put his hands together in a simple seal.
"Shinra-"
There was an explosion of smoke, and suddenly there were three Naruto's flanking the real one. To Sasuke, it was almost nostalgic.
"Tensei!"
All four Naruto's braced at the same time, backing up the original. The Shinra Tensei hit them like a wave against a pebbled beach: they skidded backwards, all popping after a moment, but not losing much distance. Pain's jutsu was far weaker than it should have been. He'd put too much into his previous one, intent on finishing Sasuke.
Now, he had two opponents, and even less energy than before.
Sasuke reached Pain first. He swung high and kicked low, and the man slipped through both, parrying the blade with another one of his black metal poles. It barely mattered, though.
Both Sasuke and Pain could tell it was already over.
Naruto arrived in the next moment as pure fury and noise, the Rasengan he held screaming for Pain's death. The Deva Path ducked the jutsu, attempting to jump back, but Naruto refused to let him go. The Rasengan faded, and then Naruto was powering punch after punch into Pain's defenses, battering the man's arms and legs.
Sasuke watched for a moment, and then turned to go after the other remaining Path, his sword singing. Naruto could handle himself.
Naruto's hands were tearing themselves apart. Every single movement felt like drawing knives across his bones, but his hands in particular were suffering.
Even with Natural Energy coursing through his body, bolstering his strength and letting him fight in the first place, his knuckles were red and raw: the skin newly grown, and untested. Every punch he landed ripped the fresh flesh farther open, spilling more and more of his blood.
But Pain was bleeding too, and there was a lot more of his blood on the ground then there was of Naruto's. Unlike the blond's, it wasn't red and dripping, flowing across the soaked concrete in discrete red channels. It was thick and black: it fell and stuck like tar, leaving a trail of coagulated filth as Naruto pushed Pain back.
And Pain was slow. Naruto was as well. Compared to their fight less than an hour ago, this one moved at a painful pace, like two children playing at something their parents had effortlessly done.
But Naruto was only slowed by the agony coursing through his body with every step and punch and kick. He was pushing through it, gritting his teeth and suppressing the burning and the feeling of something tearing. Discomfort didn't matter: pain didn't matter. All that mattered was winning this fight.
Pain couldn't push through what was slowing him. Pain was slowed by exhaustion, and frustration.
And fear.
Naruto could see it. He spun into a full-body haymaker, abandoning the roundhouse he'd been feinting towards, and as his fist leapt forward he could see, with perfect clarity, the way Pain's Rinnegan watched the fist coming. The way they squinted just slightly, stretching dead lines in the man's face.
His fist hammered into Pain's face, snapping the man's head back and sending him flipping sideways in a poor attempt at a dodge. Naruto bared his teeth.
He could see it. Naruto didn't know fully how, but now that he had, it couldn't have been more obvious to him.
"You've lost."
Pain didn't respond. He just circled Naruto, glaring at him. His cheek bled freely, a scrap of skin torn from it: a hint of bone peeked through, a flash of white to accompany the vibrant purple of Pain's eyes. More coagulated, dark blood dripped towards his throat, leaving a grisly trial. Another black rod dripped from the man's arm into his hand, pushing itself out of the skin of his bicep. Naruto growled.
"I made a mistake," he said, and Pain's eyes narrowed. "But I'm not going to let you win. You'll never have the Kyuubi."
"Then there shall never be peace." Even beaten and bleeding as he was, Pain's voice still demanded some authority. His cheekbone visibly shifted as he spoke. He stopped circling Naruto. His left arm was held loosely at his side, mostly broken: a shard of bone poked out of the elbow. The wound on his face continued to bleed, and more ichor dripped from scratches and gashes covering his forearms and legs. His cloak was more than rags than clothes.
But despite all of that, his eyes still pierced Naruto to the core.
"There won't be your peace," Naruto hissed. "There won't be thousands of people dead: there won't be fear everywhere. The world won't be a place where everyone lives afraid that you'll decide to kill them next."
"There's no other way, Naruto." The Rinnegan seemed to pulse, the motionless pupils looking as if they were slowly rotating. "You don't have another plan, do you?"
Naruto rushed forward without a word. He didn't bother making more clones. This was going to end now.
Pain raised the rod with his single functional arm.
And then, he smirked. Naruto felt the anger that had been holding itself in the bottom of his stomach break out, coursing through his body. The pain vanished entirely. There was only one thing left.
"Come on, then," Pain said. He deflected Naruto's first kick, striking it to the side and bringing the rod around in a throat-cutting slice. Naruto ducked, and then drove a fist into Pain's side. The man gagged and doubled over, his face and Naruto's inches from each other.
His grim smirk didn't vanish.
"You see now, don't you?" Pain said. The rod flashed out, and despite Naruto's Sage enhancement, it dug itself two or three inches into his stomach. The blond winced. Pain's hand withdrew and fastened around the fist buried in his stomach, tightening there with an iron grip. They remained face to face, less than a foot away.
Pain's chakra began pouring into Naruto. That almost familiar, sluggish feeling. Like being filled with cold tar.
But this time, Naruto pushed back.
He was already exhausted, just from this brief skirmish. But if Naruto was exhausted, then Pain was on the edge of unconsciousness. The Rinnegan twitched as Naruto fought the chakra pouring into him.
"It's futile," Pain snarled, his hand crushing itself around Naruto's wrist. "Submit."
"No," Naruto growled back. Like two tidal waves against each other, their chakra clashed. Both Naruto and Pain began to glow, just the tiniest bit: the excess chakra burning off of them manifesting as heat and light. The ground around them cracked just the tiniest bit, miniature fissures racing in every direction.
"Your friends are dead!" Pain said, shifting his feet. They left a furrow in the concrete as they slid back. "Your village will think you a disgrace! That thing you carry could bring this world peace, but you're too frightened to use it! And you have no plan!" He wheezed. "Submit!"
"No!"
Naruto pulled his fist back. Pain was pulled along by the hand he had locked around it, and as the god snarled in frustration, Naruto headbutted him with all his strength. His hitai-ate left a bloody imprint in the shape of a leaf in the man's forehead, and Pain staggered backwards. Naruto's hands quested down, wrapping around the rod in his gut.
"I'm not going to just lie down and die!" he said harshly, glaring at Pain as the man shook his head, splattering more droplets of black blood. Naruto's chakra surged, finally pushing the last of Pain's from his system. The rod began to glow internally with a green energy. "And I'm not going to let you get away with this!"
Pain's chakra shattered, and Naruto's poured into the void. And into the rod as well.
There was a trail there. A tether of thick chakra, pouring from the metal and streaming across Amegakure. Naruto followed it, his hand crushing prints into the rod. The black metal was beginning to deform, steaming from the energy pouring through it.
Naruto followed the tether, and suddenly he was there. A haggard and pale man, held in a spider-like armature, blood pouring from his nose and mouth, his breathing ragged and pained. The man was shirtless, and his ribs pushed up through his skin like snakes beneath a carpet. His arms, stick-like, trembled. His head came up, his mouth widening in sudden surprise and fear, revealing bloodstained teeth.
The Rinnegan glared out of his sagging eyes, and Naruto ground his teeth so hard his jaw shook.
"Found you."
The metal in his gut crumbled away to nothing, flaking into non-existence as he held it. The wound sealed itself in a matter of moments. Pain blinked.
"Did you just-?"
Naruto sprinted forward, slamming his fist into Pain's stomach. The man coughed and sagged forward, as if Naruto had beaten an empty bag: there was nothing left to give.
"Impossible... you didn't really feel Pain, Naruto," Pain wheezed. "You were just a-"
Naruto drove his fist in deeper, and then lifted Pain into the air over his head. The man vomited blood.
"Enough!" Naruto roared, and then he swung Pain down to the concrete with a deafening crack.
The man hit with a monstrous sound, like a strike of long-departed thunder. The ground under him exploded, and his ribs with it. The front of his cloak was suddenly soaked black, and Pain coughed up a chunk of flesh, his eyes fluttering. One of the chakra rods in his arm jiggled and came loose of its own volition.
Naruto ripped his fist away with a disgusted grunt, and Pain's hand fell to the side with the dull slap of flesh on concrete.
"I am done," Naruto declared, standing up over Pain. He barely realized it, but it was the same position that he and Pain had been in not two weeks ago. But now, it was the teen above the man.
Pain coughed. "Still so… immature."
Naruto placed his foot on Pain's throat, and the man's voice cut off.
"I've had enough, Nagato." There was a deadly quiet in that voice: it made Pain pay just a bit more attention. "Your bullshit, your peace, your village…"
Naruto sagged, closing his eyes. "I just want this to be over."
The Rinnegan stared at him. For the first time, it wasn't filled with casual disregard, or slowly swelling anger. There was something else there.
"Naruto-"
Naruto pressed down, hard. The Deva Path's throat broke, smashed flat, and his last words trailed off with a soft wheezing. Pain stared up for another moment, and then his head turned to the side, the unlight in the Rinnegan going out. The last of the air in his lungs slipped out as a soft sigh.
Pain sagged, finally going still.
Naruto stared down at the corpse, watching for any sign of movement. Blue chakra sparked in his right hand, a malformed and incomplete Rasengan attempting to sputter into existence.
Then, the orange around Naruto's eyes faded. His pupils slipped back into circles, and he blinked.
Naruto's eyes rolled back into his head, and he fell face-first over the body at his feet.
"Hn."
Naruto cracked his eyes open, staring up at the sky.
Huh. Deja vu.
Sasuke was standing over him again, blood trickling from his mouth to join the rest across his body. His right arm hung slack, bleeding from cuts and bruises: the hole in his palm was practically invisible, but it made the rest of his hand slick with red.
Sasuke sword was held loosely in his other hand, and the blade was sticky with black blood. He looked tired: the Sharingan had faded from his eyes, leaving behind the familiar flat onyx.
But there was still a bit of a grin in them.
"Guess you could fight." He reversed the grip on his chokuto and drove it into the concrete at his feet, anchoring it. Then, his now free hand reached out again.
Naruto stared at him. "Didn't we just do this?"
Sasuke snorted. "If you want me to stop helping you up, quit falling down."
Naruto gritted his teeth, and took the Uchiha's hand. He hauled himself to his feet, and then staggered, all the pain and exhaustion striking anew. For a moment, he caught sight of the Path that had gone after Sasuke in the corner of his eye. The man was in three pieces. At least that explained why there was so much blood on Sasuke's sword.
Then, Naruto shook his head.
"We have to go," he said. Sasuke frowned.
"You found him?" Naruto stepped back, and Sasuke tapped his temple carefully without comment. "I saw what you did: overwhelming that projection of his. Did you trace his chakra?"
Naruto nodded. "He's probably already relocating. If we want to catch him, we need to go now."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Can you move?"
"Sure." Naruto took a step away, and promptly came as close as was humanly possible to falling on his ass.
Sasuke snorted. "Sure." He reached down, casually pulling his sword from the ground. "You want to go now? What about the others?"
Naruto twitched, and closed his eyes.
What about the others? Who was left? Kiba, Choji… Ino if she were lucky. Sai had probably bled to death by now.
"No," he decided. Sasuke face didn't change, but there was a definite question in his eyes.
Naruto just shook his head. How could he face them, tell them to their face that it was his fault that their teammates were dead? He couldn't handle that, not right now.
Later. When Pain was dead. Then, he could face them. After he'd done his best to make up for his mistake. Now, it was too raw.
"No," he said again. "Just us should be enough. And we have to go now."
Sasuke shrugged. "Alright. If you really want to go alone."
Then, he swept forward, and heaved Naruto over his shoulder.
"What the hell-!" Naruto beat his fist on Sasuke's back, leaving a spatter of blood. Sasuke just shifted his weight.
"You think you're walking there?" Sasuke gritted. "Don't make me laugh, moron. The way you are now, it would be quicker to crawl. There's no way we're going at that pace."
"Put me down, you jackass!" Naruto struggled for all of a second, before the shooting pain in his arms paralyzed him. He hung limply over Sasuke's shoulder, and then let out a tremendous sigh. His hands came together, and a shadow clone wordlessly popped into existence behind the two of them. It carefully settled into a cross-legged position, wincing with every motion, and then became utterly still.
"You are not taking me the whole way," Naruto growled as Sasuke began walking. He was sure the Uchiha was bouncing his shoulder precisely so it would dig uncomfortably into Naruto's chest.
"Good," Sasuke shot back. Yep, that shoulder-jab was definitely intentional. "You're a lot heavier than I remember, dumbass."
"You wanna say that to my face?!"
Naruto could imagine Sasuke's expression pinching in irritation. "Just… tell me the way, idiot."
Naruto did.
"Hmm."
Tobi stood on one of the few remaining towers in Amegakure, watching an Uchiha limp away from the remains of the Paths of Pain with an Uzumaki in tow.
He was at an impasse. Normally, the situation would be simple.
They were both there. Vulnerable. Exhausted. If he attacked now, taking the Kyuubi would be child's play.
And yet…
"Damn you, Itachi," he muttered to himself. Under the mask, there was a bitter, almost respectful grin. He shifted.
"If you want to play that kind of game, I'll oblige."
The Uchiha began to swirl out of existence, one speck of black leaving Amegakure's skyline. The endgame was about to begin.
"Let's see which one of us blinks first."
AN: Well, I didn't want this to end on a cliffhanger, but it was basically nigh-impossible without the chapter ending up 20,000k words. Which would be... clumsy. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed it. We're finally closing in on the end of the Amegakure Arc: next two or three chapters should be pretty interesting.
Serendipity, out.