Not Sick Chapter 27
Seven Orphans
The tallest building in The Village Hidden in the Rain was also one of the oldest. Though what was old for Amegakure wasn't truly old at all; unlike most of the other villages, Amegakure's seat of power hadn't stood for over sixty years, but a mere thirty. It had been constructed at Hanzo the Salamander's command, when the man had finally begun his descent into paranoia and madness.
Secured at the top of the tower, nearly two hundred meters above the rest of the village, Hanzo had imagined himself safe from all but the most dedicated intruders. The tower was the third highest construct in the Elemental Nations: the only buildings overtaking it were a rarely-visited temple in the Land of Earth and the palace of the Land of Lightning's Daimyo. It had been constructed out of concrete and steel, proof against Ame's harsh weather, and its foundations had been augmented with a variety of seals: seals for detecting intruders, seals that made the material impossible to cling to even with chakra, seals that burst open in a hail of razor sharp knives and choking poison gas if they were improperly handled. During Hanzo's regime, they had been reinforced monthly by an entire corp of Shinobi.
None of this had been enough to even slow Pain when he had come for Hanzo as a god of revenge striding through the soaked streets of Amegakure. The man who had named the Sannin had died with a whimper, his defenses worthless, and Nagato Uzumaki had taken up residence in his tower-fortress. Moving there had been for the potent message, obviously, but also for purely practical reasons. From Amegakure's highest point, Pain could exert the most control over his Paths should they ever need to defend the village.
It was a monstrous testament to the engineering of Amegakure's people, and to Pain's own ingenuity: he had made a few improvements with his control of the fundamental forces of gravity. The tower was pure black, unmarred with neon or protruding pipes like most of Amegakure was, and it pierced the cloudy sky like a needle. Its seals were maintained solely by its owner. Rust sporadically colored its sides like barnacles on the skin of a corpse, and broad disks of metal jutted outwards at seemingly random intervals. It was an impregnable, formidable fortress in the dark, and Amegakure's god waited at the top, lord over all he saw.
When a Rasenshuriken and a bolt of ever-burning black fire struck its base simultaneously, all that grandeur vanished in an instant, along with the bottom thirty feet of the building.
The tower fell, and Pain with it.
The building tilted, and in a room at the very top, Madara Uchiha charged out of one of the walls. Several things happened as he sprinted forward atop the thin pool of water coating the room's floor. Konan turned towards him, shock clear on her face. Nagato grunted, his neck creaking as he twisted his head towards the Uchiha.
And Itachi, who had been waiting for this moment in the shadows of the room's corner, acted.
A flare of black fire burst in the darkness, and Konan whirled, paper splitting en-masse from her body. The black flames crashed against the sudden wall of paper shielding Nagato's face, and the crackle of burning paper fought the rumble of the collapsing tower. Madara continued pushing forward, one of his hands reaching out. He went straight through Konan as the floor reached a thirty-degree angle, his fingers curling into a claw. Nagato stared at the oncoming hand in disbelief. The tip of Madara's fingers brushed the Uzumaki's brow.
An enormous orange fist crashed into the masked man's chest and sent him hurtling backwards. He soundlessly slipped through the wall, and was gone from sight.
Itachi breathed out. A heartbeat later, Konan struck him with about four exploding paper clones. The ethereal ribs surrounding him took the blow, but the pressure wave threw Itachi through the concrete wall behind him and out of the tower with a flat "krump." Suddenly, he was much colder.
The building kept falling, drawing closer and closer to impact. Itachi watched it go as he let the ribs of the Susano'o fade. Out here, in the darkness of Amegakure's cloudless midnight, it was almost peaceful; certainly more peaceful than waiting in a standoff with Madara.
Itachi was falling, but he wasn't worried. Casually, he drew a spool of wire from one of his sleeves.
The first move had been made. Now, everything was going to get that much more complicated.
The impact was a deafening crash, the roar of rended metal and shattering concrete. The tower landed on its side, splitting in four different places and crumbling in on itself. The ground under it jumped, cracks racing along the street in every direction. The third tallest building in the world shattered, Hanzo and Pain's work undone in an instant. Great clouds of dust rolled up, obscuring the wreckage from sight.
Nagato Uzumaki wheezed, blood leaking out between his teeth. A cloud of paper caught his armature as it tumbled to the ground, and the whole mass slammed to a stop. The redhead jerked, groaning, and then Konan set him on the ground. The metal met the ruined concrete with a quiet clatter, and Amegakure's angel floated down beside it, razor sharp wings protruding from her back. Her head swiveled unnaturally, scanning for the two Uchiha. Nagato himself was still having trouble understanding what had just happened. Itachi had certainly been trying to kill him; the black flames were proof of that. But had Madara been waiting that whole time for Itachi to make his move?
The building's collapse itself had been mostly inconsequential. Nagato marveled at that. Konan had saved him, and was impervious to physical damage herself. But of course, Naruto must have known that. Which meant that just like last time, dropping the building had been a-
An orange blur burst out of the cloud of dust, not fifteen feet from his face. Nagato rocked back, a jolt of fear shooting up his spine.
Naruto Uzumaki was covered in dust, blood, and grime. His jacket was little more than an orange rag, and a multitude of small cuts covered in arms and face. He was carrying a Rasengan in his right hand, and it was tinged red: not from the Kyuubi's chakra, but because some of the blood leaking from Naruto's hand had mixed into it. Every inch of his skin was burned and charred, flaking off in places. His body was coursing with Sage Chakra, probably the only thing that was keeping him going.
And he was angry. So horribly, intensely angry that it physically hurt. Naruto's desire for murder made more blood trickle from Nagato's nose, and he gritted his teeth, watching a violently rotating death approach.
Nagato suddenly realized he had failed.
"No."
Konan smashed Naruto to the ground with a paper hammer, and the Jinchūriki was suddenly prone, his Rasengan futilely screeching against the concrete. Nagato's last friend floated forward, her face twisted in a fearsome frown.
"You won't be-"
That was when the second blur emerged from the dust and kicked Konan's hammer into loose sheets. Nagato's other failure: the boy who had caused this whole catastrophe.
Sasuke Uchiha wasn't angry like Naruto was. His face was eerily calm, even. All he was wearing was a pair of grey-drawstring pants, and his body was covered with scrapes and bruises, with two trails of dried blood prominent beneath his eyes. The hole the Deva Path had stabbed in his hand had stopped bleeding, and the Uchiha was still holding his sword, the blade bloodied.
But he had a promise in his eyes. And while Naruto's promise was plain for anyone to see, Nagato couldn't help but believe that Sasuke's was more personal.
If Naruto didn't rip him apart for what Pain had done to his friends, Sasuke would for what he had done to Naruto.
'This was all a mistake.'
Sasuke drew his sword back, his arm cocked like a gavel about to descend, and his sword sheathed itself in electricity. He released the throw, and the steel leapt forward like a spinning lightning bolt. More of Konan's paper sped in front of the blade, trying to catch it, and the chokuto tore through the attempted defense as if it weren't there. It was set right for Nagato's heart.
He watched it come. It seemed that no matter what, whatever was going to kill him was going to be spinning.
Konan came out of nowhere, catching the handle mid-spin with her bare hands. She twisted, hurling the sword back at the Uchiha, and he caught it without missing a beat. The lightning faded, and he took a step forward. Naruto was scrambling back to his feet with a snarl.
Nagato's friend raised her hand, pointing to the sky.
"Begone!" she proclaimed, and what was left of the tower's top exploded.
Explosive tags: hundreds and hundreds of explosive tags, attached to the rubble and hidden beneath the ground. They all detonated simultaneously in a wash of heat and pressure, their entire payload directed up and out, away from Nagato. The sound was a thousand times louder than the building falling, almost as loud as when the Kyuubi had first awoken. Nagato blinked away the flash, staring through the sudden flames. The Rinnegan saw what others could not.
Naruto had been sent flying. One second he was there, and the next he was gone, torn away by the monstrous force of Konan's explosives. Nagato was under no illusions that he was gone for good. In Sage Mode, Naruto wouldn't be so easy to stop with mere explosives. Physical trauma would be insufficient.
Sasuke on the other hand had stood his ground, a skeletal guardian of viciously cold chakra blunting Konan's tags. He was moving forward, disoriented by the force of the blast, but still functioning. Konan hadn't bought much more than time, but right now time was the most valuable commodity Nagato could hope for.
Konan swept forward, flanked by half-a-dozen paper clones. All of their arms transformed, slimming into razor blades and incredibly long needles. Sasuke raised his sword, and the guardian dropped away. He began to cut through them like wheat.
Why had he dropped the technique? He must have been getting tired. If Konan could outlast him, perhaps this night could be salvaged.
"It's not going to work, you know."
Nagato blinked as Sasuke cut another Konan down. The real one swept back, peppering the Uchiha with a flurry of explosives, and the ethereal ribs rose again, laughing off the impact.
"Excuse me?" Nagato croaked.
"Your plan." Somehow, Sasuke found times to lock eyes with him, even as he kicked one Konan into pieces and fended off another with a single hand. "It's not going to work."
Nagato frowned. Not another one. "What could you possibly know-"
"I know enough." Another dead clone. There were only two left now. Sasuke's voice was as sharp and precise as his sword. "And I know that your plan isn't going to do what you want." The Uchiha smiled. "It doesn't matter if you believe me or not: you'll be dead in a couple minutes anyway. But before you die, you should know." Another clone down. Konan was watching, waiting for an opening. "Indulging in a necessary evil to accomplish something greater doesn't lead to peace." He cut the last clone in half with a bloodied hand covered in lightning. "It just creates more people like me."
"People like you?" Pain asked. Sasuke stopped, staring at him and Konan. He was probably stalling for Naruto to return; Konan was tense at Nagato's side, ready to begin the offense. Staying back to make sure he wasn't struck down by a quick attack was hampering her.
"People in search of vengeance," Sasuke answered. His smile seemed more a grimace; it was just a tightening of the muscles around his jaw, nothing else. "I'm not one of them, anymore," he said softly. "But I was. And I know I'd have scorched the world to cinders in search of my revenge. I could have set a fire that would always burn."
Sasuke's eye bled. The Amaterasu came again, and Konan interspersed herself, the voracious fire spreading over the back of her cloak and flaring out around Nagato like a halo. The woman snarled in pain: the fire was burning her even through her paper body. Sasuke charged, and his right eye wept blood.
The fire coursed over and around Konan, intent on Nagato. Nagato watched it come in horror as his friend was submerged in the flames. They danced and cackled like devils, feasting on the fireproof paper that comprised Konan's body. It was a vision out of hell. The first drops of rain began to fall, Amegakure's clouds having finally returned, no longer fearing the Kyuubi's rage. They sizzled out of existence meters away from Konan.
'A fire that would always burn.'
The words echoed through Nagato's head as he watched his friend combust. They raced to his lips, cracked and bloody, as they formed to speak. He didn't even know what he was going to say.
"Enough of this."
It happened so quickly that Nagato nearly missed it. The black fire around Konan whipped away, flying back towards a different target. Sasuke turned, eyes going wide and his sword coming up.
And Madara Uchiha thrust forward with the tanto that had suddenly appeared in his hand, bringing it within an inch of Sasuke's heart.
The tanto stopped. Itachi Uchiha was suddenly there, his hand firmly clasped around Madara's arm. The blade trembled, and then Madara dropped it, twisting his shoulder and kicking out. He struck the falling tanto with his heel, sending it rocketing towards Sasuke, and heaved Itachi over his shoulder in the same moment. Sasuke's brother flailed, the thin string wrapped around his hand flashing in the dim light.
Sasuke jumped, spinning into a horizontal position, and the tanto shot under him, harmlessly embedding itself in Konan. His sword spun with him, ready to slice Madara from head to toe.
The older Uchiha completed his twist and slammed Itachi down on top of Sasuke. The brothers went down in a tangle of limbs and steel, crushed to the dampening pavement.
Madara suddenly made a choking sound, and Nagato narrowed his eyes, focusing. There was a wire wrapped around the masked man's throat: the same wire Itachi Uchiha had tied around his hand. The Rinnegan could see in perfect detail how the man's bodysuit gave way under the thin steel. Drops of blood beaded around the indentation on the back of Madara's neck.
Then, the wire slipped through, and Itachi and Sasuke collapsed. Madara had become intangible too quickly for Itachi's attempted decapitation to take effect.
Both the Uchiha rolled in separate directions, attempting to come to their feet. It was suicide to stay on the ground. Madara pursued Itachi, leveling a brutal kick at the man's back.
Nagato watched the whole thing with a painful distance. It was incredibly surreal; a moment ago, he'd been watching Konan burn, watching Sasuke Uchiha kill her, and now that very man was fighting for his life.
And Nagato didn't feel anything.
He expected a kind of joy, however dull. But there didn't seem to be any point. He was already beaten. The Uzumaki felt it in his bones. In trying to contain the Kyuubi, enact his dream, he'd run down his clock. He'd poured more into Pain than he ever had before, and now his life was more in Yahiko than himself. Yahiko, who was lying cold and dead somewhere else in the shattered and melted hellscape that Amegakure had become.
All this, this yelling and rage and fighting, it was all a waste. The main event had already passed. Now, these three and Naruto were just battling over who would have his corpse.
Nagato almost wanted to laugh.
His head drifted to the left, and his eyes fell on Konan. She was kneeling on the ground, her wings reduced to ash. Their remnants were quickly being washed away by the rain, running in blackened rivulets across the crumbling ground. Her amber eyes were locked on the developing melee, and unlike Nagato's, they were filled with a terrible anger.
She was still fighting for him, his last and only friend. She wouldn't lay down her arms until his dream was accomplished, or she was dead.
Konan raised her hand, ready to render an angel's judgment.
A shadow leapt from the floor and enveloped her, dragging Konan to the ground. Nagato watched in horror as a sickly black tar seeped from the ground, encasing Konan's struggling form. She broke into a swarm of birds, or at least attempted to; the shadow stayed stuck around them, forcing Konan to maintain her shape. She thrashed, unable to escape.
"None of that," cooed a dripping voice, and Nagato recoiled instinctively in disgust. He recognized that tone.
"Zetsu?" he murmured. The shadow ignored him, constricting around Konan. Beyond them, Madara was still doing his best to kill Sasuke and Itachi.
"Madara has commanded it. Just watch," the black mass whispered, and Nagato did.
Sasuke's blade slipped through Madara's mask, and the man buried his fist in the Uchiha's side. The world immediately began to distort, swirling away, before Itachi's kick drove itself through Madara's suddenly ghostly torso. Sasuke cursed and skidded backwards, keeping his chokuto in a defensive posture.
Madara's touch was deadly. Sasuke didn't know where he would end up if he were sucked into the swirling void that formed around the man's eye whenever he touched him or his brother, but it could be nowhere good. So far, they'd managed to keep sufficient pressure on the ancient Uchiha, preventing him from utilizing his time space jutsu, but the defense couldn't last forever.
And, Sasuke noted with gritted teeth, they still had no way to harm him. He slipped through every single attack effortlessly.
Madara didn't speak. He just turned and went after Itachi. The masked man fought like a machine, his blows mechanical and precise. His fists struck out, and Itachi avoided them, knowing that they could become grasping hands that would suck him out of existence in a moment. Sasuke made eye contact with his brother. They stared at each other for a heartbeat, silently forming a strategy.
Sasuke had an inkling of Itachi's plan. His hands started moving into seals almost on their own. One came up to cup his lips, and out roared a gargantuan fireball, twice as tall and three times as wide as any of the combatants. Itachi went into a backflip, and Madara glanced back at the jutsu. He didn't move to avoid it: the attack was going to go right through him, like everything else did.
But it did delay him for a second, and it did give Itachi just enough time for him to weave two seals.
"Suiton: Suidan no jutsu!"
The torrent of water shot from Itachi's mouth right through the back of Madara's head. The man barely had time to react before the water and the fireball collided. The area was instantly filled with boiling steam, obscuring everything. The only things clear were three Sharingan, pinpoints of red and black amongst the grey. Sasuke could see partway through the steam, the Sharingan rendering what was invisible into vague shadows, echoes of reality.
But in a battle between high-level shinobi, echoes weren't nearly enough.
Itachi's shadow suddenly vanished, the steam rolling undisturbed where he had been. Madara turned, suddenly on the defensive. He didn't advance on Sasuke; instead, they stared at each other for an awkward moment. Madara was remaining intangible, waiting for Itachi to attack. Neither of them could make a move.
But as the moment dragged on, it became clear that attack wasn't coming. Madara blinked. Sasuke could see the indecision, however quickly it vanished. Staying intangible drained Madara's chakra, so he couldn't do it forever. But as soon as he attacked, Itachi would strike.
Sasuke grinned. Fighting with his brother was much less stressful than fighting against him.
Madara finally pressed forward, striding amongst the steam towards Sasuke. The chokuto came up, but as ever, Madara didn't seem to care. He spoke, sounding almost disappointed.
"What happened to you, Sasuke? What happened to the avenger I had such high hopes for? What happened to wanting your family back? Why are you throwing your revenge away like this?"
The youngest Uchiha blinked, his sword dropping for a moment, before he shook his head and brought it up once more. "I saw my family again," Sasuke gritted out, "and they showed me what a fool I was being."
Madara blinked. "But-"
"Edo Tensei." Itachi's voice echoed through the steam, coming from every direction. Madara's eye narrowed.
"Orochimaru," he muttered. "Convenient." He turned back to Sasuke. "What did they tell you? It must have been good, if you and your brother are side by side instead of at each others' throats."
The younger Uchiha just responded with a shrug.
"Hmm." Tobi sounded disappointed. "Fine then." He paused. "I hope it wasn't about Naruto. He is the most pathetic of you, after all."
Sasuke attacked. His initial slice passed right through Madara, but the man didn't take the bait: he was waiting for Sasuke to overextend himself. Sasuke decided to oblige him. He flipped into an axe kick, removing his guard for a moment.
Madara just backed up, and kicked out with a roundhouse as Sasuke landed. His foot shot straight for Sasuke's throat, ready to stave in his windpipe. Grimly, Sasuke watched it coming. He was completely open; Itachi had to intervene now. The steam was beginning to fade.
His brother chose that moment to make his appearance. Itachi Uchiha emerged from the mist like a specter of death and drove a kunai right into Madara's head before the man had any chance to react.
The blade slipped right through. Two sets of Sharingan widened. Madara hadn't deactivated his intangibility for his attack: it had been a feint. His foot continued swinging around, spinning his body; Madara's palm slapped down, solid once more, on Itachi's chest.
"Got-" he started to say as Sasuke's brother swirled out of existence. Sasuke landed, ready to leap forward and interrupt the process. He could already tell it was going to be too late. Itachi was all but gone. How could-
Itachi exploded. The mist was dispelled instantly, and Sasuke was tossed backwards, barely keeping his grip on his sword. Chips of concrete buried themselves in his arms, and the detonation had singed his hair, but he was mostly unharmed. Madara had taken the brunt of the blast.
A shadow clone. To the Sharingan, it had looked as real as day. Sasuke groaned, rolling forward onto his feet. Finally, he looked back, wondering why no attacks had come from that direction.
The paper woman was being drowned by a shadow as Nagato looked on helplessly. Sasuke blinked. He certainly hadn't been expecting that. He looked away as quickly as he'd glanced back. The real threat was still in front of him.
Madara was lying flat on his back, stirring. Itachi came striding out of a nearby shadow, finally revealing himself. The masked Uchiha had been torn to ribbons by the clone's detonation; sickly white fluid spilled from his ruined left arm and leg. His right arm was all but destroyed, the shining white of bone clear amongst the torn skin. Madara's right leg was the only part of his body that had seemingly escaped the explosion; his torso was burned down to the ribs in multiple areas, and more of the white fluid, along with no insignificant amount of blood, was leaking from his stomach and gut.
His mask was cracked, revealing a hole where the left side of his jaw should have been. Some of his wild black hair was escaping through fragmentations in the front.
Itachi stood over him, but Sasuke stayed where he was. He turned so he could keep an eye on both Madara and Pain.
Sasuke's brother didn't immediately speak. He stared down at the wrecked man, a kunai falling into his hand. He bent down, placing the blade to Madara's throat.
"I suppose it ends here," he murmured, and Madara spat blood. "And I didn't even need to use it. You disappoint me, Madara."
Madara wheezed through flash-burned lungs. Sasuke watched incredulously.
His brother had just defeated Madara Uchiha. And with a simple exploding clone, of all things. It was ludicrous. Unthinkable. He'd done it in less time than it had taken Naruto to return from his explosive-tags assisted fight, without using his Mangekyo. It was like a dream.
"No!' Pain called. Almost begged. "Don't!"
Itachi slit Madara's throat, and the man died with a gurgle. He stared at the body for a moment, and then slowly pushed himself back to his feet, lifting his head to look at Sasuke. The rain intensified, and Pain let out a groan.
Sasuke's brother smiled at him. When he spoke, it was in a voice of pure relief.
"It's done."
Sasuke started to smile back.
The shadow strangling Konan laughed.
The body at Itachi's feet vanished.
Itachi blinked. So did Sasuke.
In the time it took their eyes to slide back open, Madara appeared in front of Itachi, whole and unharmed. Impossible, illogical, ludicrous. The brother Uchihas' minds stuttered at the sight. Madara's arm shifted, becoming a gnarl of razor roots. He stabbed forward.
Sasuke's mouth opened, a pointless warning rising from his chest. There was an orange flicker around Itachi as his Susano'o began to snap into existence. The roots blunted themselves on the half-formed guardian before breaking through, crashing into Itachi's chest and driving him back. Itachi grunted, off-balance, and still in the midst of that frozen, impossible moment, Madara slid forward and buried his foot in Itachi's side.
Itachi jumped away, pushed by the attack, and barely in time. Mokuton razors replaced Madara's foot. The roots expanded inside Itachi's body, ripping out another couple inches and cutting him deeply, before his dodge carried him away, leaving him with a horrendous wound instead of a fatal one. Blood poured down his torso from the hole in his side, soaking his cloak, and Itachi coughed up a welter of deep red. Madara viciously withdrew his foot, wet with blood, and Itachi collapsed, grasping at the wound.
"Iza-?" he started to say in a distant tone, and then he fell over.
Sasuke charged, a scream of rage on his lips. Madara turned to face him, and an enormous shuriken leapt from his glaring eye. There was a spark of lightning, and Sasuke cut the projectile in half with his bare hand, his blitz not slowing at all. The chidori remained in his hand, sparking angrily and screeching louder than its namesake.
"You thought it would be that easy?" Madara hissed, stepping right through Sasuke's chidori, and then Sasuke himself. Sasuke spun back, sword first, trying to disembowel the man, but the sword slid right through his chest. As soon as it cleared and Madara began to move again, Sasuke's eye spat a burst of Amaterasu. The black flames moved through Madara as well. He seized Sasuke by the throat, lifting him into the air.
"Pathetic. The both of-" he growled. Sasuke's right eye bled, and the Amaterasu that had missed Madara suddenly made a sharp turn and splashed against the man's back. Madara howled, throwing Sasuke to the floor and swirling out of existence. He returned before Sasuke was even fully to his feet: his cloak was gone, and the Amaterasu with it.
Madara kicked out, and Sasuke caught the blow… only for Madara to slip through his hands a second later. This was hopeless; fighting the man alone was impossible.
But Itachi…
Sasuke surged to his feet with a lateral swipe, but this time, Madara didn't let the strike simply pass through him. He clapped his hands together, seizing the sword mid-swing. Sasuke began channeling lightning into the blade.
"Enough!" Madara declared. He twisted his arms in a full body motion, and Sasuke's chokuto snapped clean in half. Sasuke watched most of his sword twirl away in astonishment.
When Madara's hand shot out and seized the whirling shard of steel, Sasuke knew he wasn't going to be fast enough to get out of the way. He was already too fatigued, while Madara was mostly fresh. He just didn't have the edge in speed anymore.
The ancient Uchiha drove the top half of Sasuke's sword towards his chest, and with the Sharingan's perfect perception, Sasuke had plenty of time to think about it. He realized in an instant that he had two options.
The first option was dying. It wasn't exactly appealing. He decided on the second instead. His arm shot up, and Madara drove the broken sword-half right through it and into his chest, impaling his forearm. Sasuke choked, falling backwards with an inch of steel scraping past his ribs and pinning his left arm to his torso, and Madara leveled him with a brutal kick to the shoulder. Sasuke lost his grip on the remnants of his sword. The younger Uchiha spun to the rain soaked ground with a grunt and lay there, twitching in agony. His sword clattered to his side a moment later.
Madara took a step forward, stomping down on Sasuke's pinned arm. He yelped, trying to roll away from the attack, and Madara stalked after him, his visible eye gleaming in satisfaction.
"Finally," he muttered, kicking out at Sasuke again and earning another growl of pain. "Now, all that's left is-"
Naruto hit Madara like an orange missile. He led with a Rasengan, and the whirling blue sphere drove a bloody divot in Madara's back as the Jinchuuriki bore him to the ground. Sasuke blinked.
His friend had finally returned from his explosives-assisted flight.
Madara went intangible almost immediately, and Naruto passed through him, leaving a horrific bloody spiral imprinted in the man's back; it almost looked like the symbol printed on the back of a Leaf flak jacket. The Rasengan struck the ground, throwing up an explosion of ruined concrete and splattered water. Madara regained his solidity, reaching out for Naruto's foot.
Sasuke scrabbled for his broken sword. His Susano'o sparked around him, unable to rise. Sealing the Kyuubi had finally caught up with him. Madara's hand latched around Naruto's ankle; his eye began emitting a distinctive rupture in space.
That was when the kage bunshin Naruto had launched himself with caught up and kicked Madara in the back of the head.
The Uchiha sailed away, losing his grip on Naruto. Mid-flight, he swirled out of existence. Naruto snarled at the empty space, sounding like nothing more than a wild animal. He jerked his head towards Sasuke, then Itachi, and finally Nagato and Konan. His face twisted in confusion at the shadow constricting the paper woman, before he shook his head. The pigmentation around his eyes had vanished, and his pupils had returned to normal. His Sage Mode had run out. By all rights, he shouldn't even have been standing; blood was running from his nose and mouth, and flaps of burned skin were still dangling from his forehead and cheeks.
Instead of collapsing like he should have, Naruto withdrew a kunai from his thigh and hurled it at Nagato's face. The redhead glared the projectile down… before Madara appeared in a twist of reality and caught it between two fingers.
"None of that," he growled. Naruto took a step forward, bloody teeth bared, and Madara vanished once more. Sasuke watched from the ground, more blood running freely down his chest. His fingers brushed the hilt of his shattered sword. Somewhere off to his left, Sasuke's brother groaned. A fire lit in Itachi's hand, and he brought it down towards the gaping hole in his side. The smell of sizzling flesh filled the air, quickly drowned out by the now pounding rain.
The smell, and the sound, made it so that the next time Madara appeared, Sasuke almost noticed him too late. The masked man appeared amongst the pouring rain, just behind Naruto, his kunai raised.
"Naruto!" Sasuke's warning fought the thunderous rain, barely winning, and Naruto spun with his arm raised, catching Madara's wrist. The Jinchuriki kicked out and knocked the masked man back a step or two, but Madara didn't retaliate. Instead, he tossed the kunai backwards. Not at Sasuke, or Itachi. Rather, the knife struck the flat edge of Sasuke's sword.
The steel leapt into the air, twirling sideways through the rain towards Madara as Naruto took another step forward. There was a kunai in his left hand, and his right was raised for a haymaker. Sasuke watched what was left of his chokuto fly away, his whole frame trembling in rage, and his left eye bled. Itachi, who mostly had finished cauterizing his side, let out a long, deep sigh.
It almost sounded like "Now."
Tobi caught the whirling blade without a hitch, spun, and drove it through Naruto's side, just below the ribs. The blond fell back with a gasp, his kunai clattering from spasming fingers. He reached down towards the sword, snarling, before the masked man ripped it out his side. Naruto howled, falling to his knee as blood poured down his stomach. A second later, Tobi kicked him in the face.
It was only after Naruto smashed to the ground, spreading yet more blood across the concrete, that Tobi noticed his right arm was covered in black flames. Sasuke's desperate Amaterasu had covered the hilt of his sword in the potent fire, and it had promptly begun to spread up the Uchiha's arm. The masked man barely reacted; his left hand straightened out, forming a crude scalpel, and he cut his arm off in a single vicious motion. It splashed to the ground, vaporizing the water around it and spraying pale white blood.
Tobi stared at his lost arm, then down at Naruto. The blond was retching blood, clutching his side as blood poured out between his fingers. The masked man flexed his remaining hand.
"Worth it," he rumbled.
He turned around and found himself staring into a Sharingan.
It wasn't Itachi or Sasuke's. The both of them were still on the ground; Itachi was slowly bleeding to death, his hands clasped over his chest in a strangely peaceful position, while Sasuke was struggling to one knee, more and more of his life pouring from him with every movement.
It was just a single eye, containing a crimson circle with four harshly pointed growths. The pattern was spinning, rotating so rapidly the four points were beginning to look like one. And it's owner…
A crow. Sleek and black, hanging in the air, and glaring at Tobi with its single almost-oversized eye. The bird spoke. It spoke in Itachi Uchiha's voice.
"Koto-"
Tobi's own Sharingan went wide. He tried to activate the Kamui.
Too slow.
"-amatsukami."
The Kotoamatsukami, long ago gifted by Shisui Uchiha in a time of utter desperation, was cast in an instant. One of the most powerful genjutsu in the world, beamed directly into the masked Uchiha's eye, and carrying with it a single implacable order.
Defend Konoha.
It struck, and Tobi reeled back. Shisui's chakra weeded in through his eye, racing down his optic nerves, intent on his brain. It moved as fast as thought: for a shinobi of the older Uchiha's caliber, that was very fast indeed.
But here, it was a bit different. The chakra coating the nerves, speeding their signals along and ensuring that they reached their destination faster than any electrical impulse had a right to, was Tobi's chakra; the chakra moving along them was Shisui's. It crept through them like salmon up a stream: fast, but not quite as fast as it could be. The opposing chakra fought it, slowing its progress.
Which was why Tobi had just enough time, five thousandths of a second or so, to very deliberately raise his left hand, extend two fingers, and drive them up to the knuckle into his own temple. His mask shattered around the offending appendages, revealing more of his tousled black hair and the top of a series of concentric rings, ridges pressed in the skin of his face.
The chakra stopped. So did all signals to and from Tobi's right eye. The world went pitch black; all Tobi had left was the sound of Amegakure's rain, pouring down around him.
He waited in the dark.
Waited to see if he was still himself.
The crow vanished in a swirl of feathers, winging away. Tobi stood for a moment, blood pouring from his temple and coating his hand. Sasuke finally made it to a single knee; Naruto groggily raised his head, not understanding what had just happened. He stared at the older Uchiha, the pain in his side turning everything red and black.
The masked man laughed.
"You blinked, Itachi," he chuckled. Naruto couldn't see Itachi's face, but the man stiffened a little at the words. Tobi laughed again; it was the kind of sound that made Naruto think of a room full of corpses.
"Now," he said, still giggling slightly. It was relief, Naruto realized. That was laughter brought by relief. "To kill the lot of you." He turned towards Naruto, staring at him with an unseeing eye. "Except for you of course, Naruto. You finally get to accomplish your dream."
"Like hell," Sasuke groaned. Tobi turned back to him.
"You'll be first," he said, striding forward. He didn't walk like a blind man. Naruto's vision flashed red. This time, it wasn't in pain. He pulled himself up more, hissing as the hole in his side sent pulses of cold fire screaming across his torso.
Like hell this bastard was going to take Sasuke from him, along with everyone else.
'I'm sorry.'
Like hell.
Somehow, he got one foot under the other.
"Madara."
Nagato's voice stopped Tobi in his tracks, and both he and Naruto turned to look at the redhead. The man looked absolutely terrible. Soaked to the bone, his ribs clear against his pale skin, and his eyes narrowed, the Rinnegan hardly shining out. He looked the image of death.
The Rinnegan darted to Konan, still struggling beneath Black Zetsu's shadow. "Release her."
Tobi didn't look at Konan. His newly acquired blindness made doing so pointless. Instead, he just tilted his head up.
"I can't," he said flatly. Nagato stirred, blinking heavily. He looked as though he were on the edge of a very deep sleep. Naruto watched him with hate-filled eyes, willing him to drop dead.
'Don't let yourself be eaten by your grief.'
'I'M SORRY.'
Naruto shook his head. Nagato finally spoke again, his husk of a voice nearly masked by the rain.
"Why?" He sounded broken.
Tobi didn't get a chance to respond. Itachi, his voice little more than a whisper slicing through the rain, cut him off.
"You are a pawn," Sasuke's brother said. Nagato looked at him, even the tiny motion carrying with it endless exhaustion. Tobi didn't turn; he just stood there, Itachi's words slipping past him, and he did nothing to deny them.
Nagato frowned, his pale forehead crinkling. "What?"
"You are a pawn." Itachi whispered. "And now, he seeks to remove you and Konan from the board."
Nagato looked with a dry, painful wheeze from one Uchiha to the other. "Is this true?"
Tobi stared back at him, his Sharingan slowly swirling. Naruto stared at both the Akatsuki's leaders: one a fraud, and the other hidden behind a mask.
"Of course," the masked man finally said, and Nagato's eyes dimmed. "You were my pawn in bringing about true peace to this world."
Nagato frowned. "That…"
"He wants peace just as you do, Nagato," Itachi said. Naruto, almost against his own will, found himself paying attention to the Uchiha's steady rasp. How could 'Madara' of all people be fighting for peace? "But he has a different solution."
"Yes," Tobi said. "The Infinite Tsukuyomi: a perfect world, laid over this one. No more war, no more death." He took a step forward: everyone else instantly went on guard. "No more lost loved ones, no more pain. Everything in it would be perfect."
Naruto started. A perfect world. The pain in his side started to seep away as something unidentifiable filled his chest.
How was that possible?
"Then why didn't you tell me about it?" Nagato asked. His eye shifted to Konan, still constrained by Black Zetsu, and he pursed his cracked lips, a smoldering anger building behind the Rinnegan's rings. "You know we would have helped you. Such a perfect world… if it did work, would be a certain peace. A definite answer. Why didn't you tell me?"
"You had to die for it to exist," Tobi said languidly. "You would never see it."
Naruto stiffened.
"And that matters?" Nagato croaked, one of his bone-like hands curling into a fist. His knuckles grew even whiter, protruding like knobs from his stretched-thin flesh. "I would gladly have given my life for such a thing-!"
"It would be a dream." Itachi cut in, and Tobi finally turned to him, raising a hand in warning.
"Itachi-"
"An illusion, cast upon the world." Sasuke's brother delivered the whispered proclamation once more, like a hammer upon a stubborn nail, and Nagato snapped his gaze to him.
"An illusion?" Nagato looked back to Tobi. "You want to put everyone in a perfect illusion?"
"Of course," Tobi affirmed. "Others bring strife. Pain. Alone in a perfect world, there is nothing that can harm you. Everyone would live forever in a blissful existence. There would never be death, not for their bodies or in the dream. An eternal paradise."
Nagato stared at the masked man in confusion. "But… that's not peace. People can't just live in a dream. It's not what they'd..."
Tobi blinked. "Want?"
Nagato nodded uncertainly, and Tobi laughed. "Do you think they want to be burned, blasted apart, reduced to cinders?" He leveled his stump at Nagato. "That is the consequence of your plan, Nagato!"
The redhead shook. "But it is their own choice. I am simply giving them the tools to reach peace themselves, through their own trials!" He finally raised his voice, his lips cracking. "An illusion? You would take away that choice!"
Tobi marched up to Nagato, bringing his face not a meter away from the redhead's. Behind him, Naruto was reeling. He had no idea what to think of any of this. Instead, he was entirely focused on getting back to his feet. Sasuke, a couple feet over his shoulder, was doing the same.
"What do choices matter?" Tobi hissed. "What would what they want matter?" He drew his forearm-less arm once more, pointing at Nagato's eyes.
"People want lots of things! Some are good, and some are bad. Some people want power, and some people want peace. Some people want to be alone, and some people want to be surrounded by others." He glared back at Naruto with a single spinning eye, seeing nothing. "Some people want to be friends-" he shifted the Sharingan to Sasuke, who'd finally gotten his other foot under him, -"and some people want to be avengers." He looked back to Nagato, gifting him with the same mad look, and Amegakure's god curled his lip in disgust.
"But a world like ours robs them of that," Tobi said coldly. "No matter what, someone, somewhere will be unhappy. In the end, everyone is doomed to a futile life, since dreams will only carry you so far before reality reasserts itself, and you're forced to wake up." He chuckled. "Forced to face the fact that your friends are gone, consumed by a crusade they, or you, didn't fully understand, that your blindly misguided revenge has devoured half your life, and that peace is impossible."
Naruto flinched, baring his teeth, and finally found his feet. He and Sasuke slowly stood, both in agony, but unable to bear staying on the ground. Tobi continued.
"If I am offering people a chance to remain in that dream of theirs forever, what does it matter if they say they don't want it?" he spat in Nagato's face. Then, he took a deep breath, backing up a pace.
"I know what people like you truly want. And it isn't reality. So if they won't save themselves, I'll do the job for them."
The arrogance made Naruto grind his teeth. He couldn't understand how someone could believe they could choose the fate of the rest of the world, deciding to trample on everyone who got in their way. Who-?
'You're right. Those little people and their little dreams, why should I care about them? I have my own dream!'
Zabuza Momochi spoke from beyond the gulf of three years time.
That was… old.
Stranger yet, that…
The missing-nin's words, so hopeful at the time, gained a sinister cast as Tobi's rang over them.
Naruto blinked.
What was this?
This was the man who had killed his parents. Good as killed them, at least. Who'd been responsible for Gaara's death, who'd played Pain like a divine puppet. He was responsible for the Akatsuki. Even for the horrible loneliness Naruto had been prey to his whole life.
And here he was, standing right in front of him, telling him that he'd done it all, all these horrible, unforgivable things, to save him. Save everyone.
Naruto wanted him dead.
It was a physical compulsion, as sure as gravity. He was drawn forward, his mind full of visions of Tobi with his eyes gouged out, his throat crushed, his chest pulped. Of him begging to die.
And yet...
'Let me show you my pain.'
Nagato. Team Gai and Hinata and Shino and Sakura and Shikamaru and Sai and Ino were dead because he wanted to save the rest of the world. Jiraiya had almost been in the same category.
Was this a genjutsu? It almost felt like one. But… not quite. Naruto felt trapped in his own skull. It could have been the internal damage. Perhaps the drum playing Hinata's words (i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry) over and over in his head had finally broken something.
There was a distance. Inside himself. Maybe he was passing out. Naruto could barely make sense of what was going through his own mind. It was all jumbled, like a stack of scrolls haphazardly piled on a desk, and he was just racing through them, tearing the fragile paper in his haste, tossing them around, desperately searching for something he could feel just beyond.
Hurting some to save others. It made sense, in a sick way. Naruto wasn't good at math, but it made sense to him. If three people died so ten people could live, that would be seven more people alive than would be dead if no one had been sacrificed at all. And that was exactly what Nagato and Madara were doing.
And it felt… wrong.
Was he being an idiot? Or was it just because they always demanded he be the one to sacrifice so that others could live? Was that selfish? If he gave up his friends and his life, the world could be saved.
But…
No.
Naruto blinked for the third time.
That was the thing. It wasn't saving the world.
Nagato didn't want to save the world. He wanted to scare it so bad that it would never resort to war again. Wanted it to know there would always be a hammer hanging over its head, ready to smash it if it acted self-destructively. If it made more orphans.
And when Nagato was gone…
'Eventually, even those who have witnessed this weapon will fall back into old ways of thinking. Ancient hatred will be rekindled, and humanity will go to war once more. But this time, I will not be there: I will not need to be. The shinobi of the world will use the weapon themselves, and with that they will inflict such a lasting pain that peace will reign, however temporary, for many years after. Justice, for the crimes of all, will have been done in mere moments, and whoever would be left would be clean of past sin.'
He believed that when the Bijuu weapon was inevitably reused, another cycle of peace would begin. That such a resurgence of destruction, again and again, would maintain over the years, reducing suffering.
Naruto smiled in a horribly broken way. He finally saw his problem with Nagato's plan. Not the problem he had with dying so thousands of others could be murdered. The problem that had niggled at him, even as he'd discussed it with Jiraiya.
It had taken talking to Nagato, in the crazy bastard's his own village, and him promising to-
succeeding in
-murdering Naruto's friends for him to see it.
'The central conceit of your fantasy is that you believe people want to change.'
Nagato had said that. But Nagato...
Nagato thought people could change. He deeply believed it. He'd thought Naruto would understand him if he experienced pain, and he had hoped Naruto would agree with him. He thought pain could teach any lesson; construct any bridge. That with a shared connection like pain, people could move on.
He believed in humanity.
Naruto nearly burst out laughing at the irony.
Nagato truly thought that the world didn't want to die. That it would recognize the path it was on. That when ten thousand dead became twenty thousand, and then thirty, forty, fifty, one hundred, the weapon would stop being deployed. The shinobi of the Elemental Nations would finally realize their mistake.
Naruto wanted to believe that too.
But then there was Madara. Madara, who had murdered Naruto's parents, built the Akatsuki, enabled Nagato's dream.
Madara, who wasn't so different from Zabuza Momochi, who'd stood on that bloodstained bridge all those years ago and declared his dream more important than anyone else's. Zabuza Momochi, who wasn't that different from Naruto himself.
'I'll be the next Hokage!'
How many people dreamed of being Hokage? How many dreams was Naruto putting below his own when he said that?
It was the same thing. The exact same thing. The only difference was the scale, and the intent.
Maybe this was what his father had been talking about, masked by all the hurt and rage.
There was always someone else who believed their dream more important than the last. And there was always someone who dreamed of saving the world. And their dream destroyed the dream of the one who came before them.
'We both want the same thing, right?'
Naruto, Madara, and Nagato. They were all asking the same question. They'd just found different answers.
Except that Naruto had lost his, Nagato's wouldn't work, and Madara's… Madara's would work, but it would throw away everything. It would never give anyone a chance to seek real peace, and trap in a pristine fake universe.
Nagato thought people could change, so he would level the world and help them start anew. Madara didn't think people could change; he thought that he was the only one who recognized their mistakes, and so he believed tossing away the key to the world was the only option.
If they wouldn't save themselves by embracing his plan, they would be imprisoned for their own good.
Was it better for people to die searching for the answer to themselves, or for them to be kept safe? To Naruto, the answer seemed obvious. But he realized, for the first time that night, how someone could latch onto the other end of the question.
For nearly ten seconds, there was nothing but the rain. Naruto silently struggled with himself, and Tobi stared expectantly at Nagato.
"You fool," Nagato finally whispered. Tobi rocked back.
Nagato's voice was quiet and rasping, but it pierced through the rain like a dagger. "Don't insult me, Madara." The Rinnegan shone like a sun in the dark. "Do not insult me with your nihilistic idiocy." He reared up in his armature, and despite his protruding ribs, despite the blood running across his lips, and despite his matted, dulled hair, Nagato had never looked more Amegakure's god. "I want to fix the world!" he thundered, the voice emerging from him surely far too loud for such a frail frame.
"You just want to run away from it." Nagato bared his teeth. "But I am no child, and I don't plan on fleeing to a dream! I will accomplish my goal, the Akatsuki's goal, or I will die trying!" He spat blood across Tobi's mask.
The masked man stared straight ahead. He grinded his teeth so hard that one of them audibly cracked right down the middle, and Naruto twitched. "I," he muttered, unable to wipe away the blood marring his mask, "am surrounded by idiots." He turned to the shadow strangling Konan. "Zetsu. Take the Rinnegan." He tilted his head back towards Naruto and Sasuke, who both stood haggardly, their clothes stained with blood and rain. "I'll finish this."
Naruto's vision was narrowing down into a red and black tunnel; his injuries and exhaustion were finally starting to bring him down. But still, in his head…
'I'm sorry.'
The drum was still there. He wasn't going to lie down. Not until that voice was silent. He slumped forward, his expression flat, his hands clutching the whole in his side.
"Sasuke," he wheezed, blood dripping from his mouth. The Uchiha's eyes twitched towards him, and Naruto looked back with a fierce grin. "He's blind, and he's got one arm." His vision shook just a little, before he pushed back the distortion by force of will. "Think we can take him?"
Sasuke stared at him, then at Tobi, standing there with blood marring his cracked mask, his right arm missing above the elbow, and his remaining hand buried in his own temple. Then, he stared down at himself. Both of the younger Uchiha's hands had holes through them, and blood ran freely down his palms, as well as his torso. The rain washed it into a dull brown. His chest wound made his breaths produce an uncomfortable sucking sound, and his eyes were narrowed in exhaustion. The Mangekyo had vanished; Sasuke had returned to the ordinary Sharingan, unable to keep up with his eyes chakra drain. And his sword was broken.
Naruto's friend looked back up at him.
"Just don't bleed out," he muttered. For the first time in what seemed like forever, Naruto grinned.
"You got it," he rasped. He couldn't die now.
Not just when he was starting to understand.
The first thing that happened was Black Zetsu catching on fire as he squirmed up towards Nagato. The Amaterasu hadn't been meant for him, but the Rinnegan; Zetsu had interspersed himself, sparing the dojutsu. The shadow screeched, splitting apart and bolting into the deeper darkness of Amegakure. Itachi Uchiha fell back, letting out a sound like a death rattle. He flirted with unconsciousness for a moment, before deciding he would be better served staying awake.
The second was Tobi stepping forward as Naruto and Sasuke broke into a pained run right at him.
"C'mon," the blind man hissed. He didn't waste any time. As soon as the sound of Naruto's footsteps was close enough, he leapt into a flying kick. The blond ducked, and the foot sailed right over his head… only for Tobi's following knee to crash into his cheek and hurl him to the ground. Naruto clumsily rolled, coming back to his feet with a pained grunt and more blood gushed from the hole in his side. That side of his pants was completely red, despite the rain. He was beginning to feel lightheaded.
Sasuke came in from behind, a vicious punch aimed at Tobi's kidney. The masked man turned, sweeping low, and kicked Sasuke's feet out from under him.
As Sasuke fell, Naruto charged in from the side and levered Tobi with his shoulder. Instead of passing through the man as he expected to, the body-check sent Tobi sailing away. He hit the ground and tumbled with a growl, and Naruto blinked.
He'd hit him.
The revelation struck Naruto like one of the distant bolts of lightning echoing through the village. "Sasuke!" he shouted. "He can't use his jutsu!"
Sasuke didn't respond. He just nodded and moved in like a predator, head low and hands like knives. He went after the man just as he rolled to his feet. For a brief moment, Tobi held his own; he deflected two of Sasuke's strikes, and responded with a strike to the younger Uchiha's solar plexus. But Sasuke didn't fall back; he took the strike head on, spitting blood as one of his ribs fractured, and responded with a brutal straight kick to the masked man's gut.
Tobi fell back silently, and Naruto stumbled to Sasuke's side.
"Listen," he gasped. "I gotta idea."
Sasuke looked at him incredulously. "You?"
Naruto coughed up a dollop of blood. "Just keep him occupied for a sec."
Sasuke didn't question it. He just nodded, and charged back in, ignoring the pain in his chest and hands. Behind him, Naruto put his hands together, focusing the last of his reserves. This was going to hurt.
Tobi snarled, and Sasuke went into a roundhouse kick, putting himself between the man and Naruto. For just a second, the blond was obscured. The masked man didn't care; he couldn't see anyway. Distantly, he heard a puff of smoke.
Sasuke's kick that was a bit too high. His foot went just over Tobi's head, and the older Uchiha grinned under his cracked mask. Bits were beginning to flake off, revealing more of his cheek and mouth. He jumped back and kicked high, aiming for Sasuke's chest, ready to knock him out of the air and shatter his ribcage for good.
Sasuke grinned.
A kunai flashed by his side, and Tobi leaned just slightly to the side as his foot soared upwards. The knife skimmed along the upper sleeve of his bodysuit, cutting a thin line in it. Droplets of rain fell like blood, and a peculiar light gleamed off the knife. Sasuke realized it was the glow of his own reflected Sharingan.
Of course, Sasuke's Sharingan saw something else as well.
"Ah," Tobi said. His foot made impact with Sasuke's chest, and the Uchiha crashed down, cracking the concrete under him and eliciting a gasp of pain. Tobi raised his foot, ready to crush Sasuke's chest or throat; whichever he could.
The kunai exploded in a flash of smoke. Naruto emerged, his chakra nearly exhausted by the simple trick. He spun in the air, maintaining the kunai's momentum, and brought a screaming Rasengan down in a crushing arc towards Tobi's back.
Which was when the hand buried in Tobi's temple warped, roots and bark whirling from it, and wrapped around Naruto's throat, bringing him to a crashing halt. Tobi's fingers remained stuck in his own temple, but his left arm had split at the elbow. The world started to narrow down, and Sasuke cursed. That had been the last shot.
"You-" the masked man started to say, deadly satisfaction leaking off his voice.
Naruto exploded into smoke, and the roots were suddenly strangling nothing.
The Rasengan in his hand went in a puff of smoke as well… and the real Naruto Uzumaki emerged from it, foot cocked back.
Sasuke would have laughed if he didn't feel incredibly hollow. A henge within a henge, and disguised as a jutsu to hide the chakra signature from the Sharingan. Begrudgingly, he couldn't help but call it clever.
He saw, in extremely gratifying detail, every facet of Tobi's face stretch in horror and anger. The world was a tunnel for him now, quickly swirling down the drain: all that was clear was the Uchiha's face, and Naruto's foot.
The kick connected.
The remnants of Tobi's mask exploded, reduced to dust by the force of the hit.
Naruto screamed, every ounce of the last few hours pouring out of him and into his strike.
Tobi's head snapped back, his sodden black hair waving in the air. Blood crawled, dream-like slow, from his mouth. The tooth he'd previously cracked in his rage went with it. There was a ripple in the air, exploding away from the man's face, and it carried the blood and rain with it. He hit the ground like a sack of bricks.
The hand he had buried in his head came free, slamming into the concrete hard enough to crack it.
Sasuke's Sharingan deactivated. Naruto crashed to the ground with a groan.
They both lay there for what seemed like an hour, staring up at the rain and blinking as it struck their eyes.
Then, Tobi started screaming.
His fingers had moved away from his optic nerves. The hostile chakra Itachi had inserted was no longer being obstructed. Neither was Tobi's vision, but at the moment, he didn't seem to care.
"Oh god," it started. Just a mutter. He rolled over, staring at Naruto with a single horrified eye. The other was closed. His face was young, unfamiliar; he certainly wasn't Madara Uchiha. Rings, almost like the Rinnegan, were pressed into his skin around his open eye. "Oh god." He looked away, up at the sky. "Oh god!"
He reached up with his hand, covered in his own blood and a smudge of grey matter, into the rain. "Kakashi!" he shouted. Naruto and Sasuke stared, barely able to move. "Kakashi! I'm sorry! I'm-!"
A shadow flowed over him: Black Zetsu had returned, though had been lessened by Itachi's Amaterasu.
"Madara," he hissed. "Madara. More are coming. Ignore the others. You need to retrieve the Rinnegan now."
Tobi twisted his head with a furious grin. "I am not Madara!" he shouted in the shadow's face, and the thing recoiled. "Not that hateful thing! I'm Obito! I am Obito Uchiha, of the Leaf!"
The shadow blinked. "No." It said it again, deeper, more hatefully. "No. You are Madara. You've just forgotten." Naruto reached out with a trembling hand, and the shadow slapped it away. It flowed over Tobi, no, Obito, covering him in itself. The man shouted, and the shadow poured itself down his mouth, his nose. It seeped into his tear ducts, masked his ears. "Don't worry. I'll help you remember."
Then, Obito stood up with shaky legs, stumbling towards Nagato like some sort of twisted marionette. Naruto crawled after the shadow-infested man; Sasuke stayed flat on his back, breathing shallowly. Itachi was so still it was impossible to tell if he were unconscious or dead. Obito shuffled past Konan; the woman was lying unconscious on the ground, her lack of oxygen having finally felled her.
The shadow's puppet jerked, his remaining arm twitching at his side. His head was lolling back and forth, unable to settle on. More white fluid was leaking from his truncated arm.
"Nnaaggaattoo," Obito said, his voice echoing, alien, and completely inhuman. "Tthhoose eyess Naagatto. I neeed thosse eyes." He reached the redhead, and Nagato reared back in horror as shadows leaked from Obito's mouth and eyes. A shaking hand reached out, writhing with darkness and stained with blood. "Wonn't hurt a bbit."
Obito's hand settled around Nagato's left eye, cupping it almost tenderly.
"Zetsu-!" Nagato shouted, and then the shadow tore out his eye. Amegakure's god screamed, hands coming up to cup his face. They withdrew from the armature with a thick sucking sound. Nagato tried to snatch at Obito's withdrawing hand, but the shadow was too fast, even slowed by Obito as it was. The Rinnegan was out of reach.
"Ah." The thing's voice had stabilized. "Now for the other."
The shadow reached in for the second Rinnegan, and Nagato flinched back, baring his teeth. Naruto felt like he should have felt some joy at the sight. Instead, there was only disgust.
Then, the shadow cocked its head. Naruto looked around, distantly confused. There was something filling the air, competing with the rain. A faint sound. Naruto looked back to Sasuke, just to be sure, but his friend was still lying on his back, breathing shallowly.
He could swear that he was hearing a thousand chirping birds.
"What-"
Kakashi Hatake burst out of the rain and darkness, his hand cloaked in lightning.
The shadow turned Obito's body towards the sound, its sick yellow eye widening. It brought up its lone hand on reflex, before immediately withdrawing it and its precious cargo. Instead of trying to deflect Kakashi's attack, it just leapt thirty feet straight up.
Kakashi blazed by beneath the shadow and its puppet… just in time for a volley of white needles to pierce through the rain and bury themselves across Obito's body. The Uchiha started bleeding profusely, but the shadow driving him didn't care.
Its entire concern was on avoiding the gargantuan Rasengan just a couple inches from its face.
Obito went intangible, and the shadow along with him; Zetsu had finally figured out how to command his Sharingan. The Rasengan passed through, and the shadow caught a glimpse of who was carrying it. Jiraiya of the Sannin looked rather extraordinarily angry. So did the toads attached to his shoulders.
The shadow passed through him as well, reaching back with a clenched hand. Its knuckles settled on Jiraiya's back. Perhaps-
"Shannaro!"
An impossible force struck Obito from above, and suddenly he and the shadow were plummeting towards the ground at something far more than terminal velocity. Black Zetsu blinked. Most of Obito's ribs were paste, along with several of his vertebrae. His remaining arm was suddenly dislocated.
Unbeknownst to the shadow, something else had been pulped by the punch. It wouldn't realize this till nearly a minute later. As it was, two options were presented to it.
Stay here, and die retrieving the second Rinnegan.
Or…
"Time to leave," it whispered to Obito. The man screamed inside his own head.
Obito and Zetsu struck the ground in an explosion of concrete and water, about ten feet from Nagato. Sakura Haruno landed a moment later, panting in rage.
But when the water and debris cleared, the shadow and its puppet had vanished.
Sakura growled in frustration, and Kakashi came to her side, his Raikiri fading. He stared down at the crater Obito's impact had left.
"Gone." It wasn't a question, but Sakura nodded anyway.
"I got him, though," she muttered. "He probably won't get far." She turned, and her eyes finally fell on Naruto. The blond was staring at her like he'd seen a ghost. Sakura herself went pale when she saw how much blood was staining her friend's jacket and pants.
"Sakura?" Naruto whispered. Behind him, Sasuke twisted just a bit at the name. Sakura took in both their injuries and bit her lip.
"Jeez," she said, striding forward and fighting her tears. Green chakra started pulsing around her hands. "Hold still, you idiots." She bent over Naruto, and he smiled up at her in relief. The voice in his head grew just a bit quieter.
"This is probably going to sting."
Jiraiya huffed, turning towards Nagato with inhuman eyes. His one-time pupil stared back, his breathing unsteady. Without a word, the Sannin started walking forward, his lone hand curling into a fist.
"Wait." The wheeze stopped him in his tracks, and Jiraiya turned, confusion flashing across his face. Naruto stared up at his master as Sakura's chakra played over him, stopping his bleeding. He struggled up onto an elbow, ignoring his teammates protest. "He's mine."
The Sannin watched his student with empty eyes. "That's not your job, Naruto," he sighed, shaking his head. He glanced over his shoulder. "He's my student. My responsibility." He turned, looking away from Naruto. "I'll finish this."
"But-!" Naruto shouted, hacking up blood. Jiraiya didn't look back.
"He's hurt you too much, Naruto," the Sannin ground out. "You can't do this. Not now." He lowered his head. "You won't come back."
Naruto shut up. One of the voices in his head briefly triumphed over the others.
"Don't become just another man looking for revenge.'
Jiraiya let out another sigh, an exhausted, pathetic sound, and continued approaching Nagato. The rain pounded down, lending a rapid staccato to accompany the man's heavy footsteps.
"Sensei."
This time, when Jiraiya stopped, he didn't look tired, or broken. This time, he looked enraged.
"Don't," he said through clenched teeth. "Don't, Nagato. The time for that is long past." The toads on his shoulders stared at the man who had been Pain with fierce, unforgiving eyes. "This is over. You've lost." He started shaking. "You just haven't stopped breathing yet." Kakashi watched the confrontation with a pitiless, glaring Sharingan, his face expressionless; Sakura was focused on keeping Sasuke conscious. She looked to the Uchiha's brother, her eyes worried; Itachi's injuries were severe.
Nagato didn't look Jiraiya in the face. He stared at the ground, unable to meet his former master's eyes. "I know," he rasped out.
Jiraiya twitched. "Then-?"
"I've failed." Nagato finally met Jiraiya's eyes. He was tired. So tired. "The Akatsuki is finished." He frowned, the last spark of resistance in his frame surging. "But I'll be damned if my dream is finished with it." The Rinnegan filled Jiraiya's vision, and he started, unable to tear his gaze from Amegakure's broken god.
"Let me talk to him, Sensei," Nagato hissed, more blood leaking from the corner of his lip. "Let me talk to Naruto Uzumaki."
"Before I die, there's something I must say."