A man stared off into the distance as he stood within the busy space of Pain's Tower. Chunin level ninja scurried left and right within the central radio hub that Pain had installed within the tower to serve as Ame's number one radio centre, so as to keep himself updated instantly. The amount of radio traffic within the past hour had intensified to a level only seen in war, which is why the man had come down from the upper levels to personally see to the situation - and no one dared to disobey as another chunin hurried over and deposited yet another report on his desk. With a swift, downward look at the paper and its bold heading, the man sat down at his desk once more to read it.
*URGENT*
TAILED BEAST ATTACK CONFIRMED AGAINST THE LEAF VILLAGE. THE NINE TAILS HAS BEEN CONFIRMED TO BE AT THE SCENE, OVER HALF OF THE LEAF DAMAGED THUS FAR IN ATTACK. REPORTED CASUALTIES IN THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS. MINATO NAMIKAZE NO WHERE TO BE SEEN, HIRUZEN SARUTOBI AND JIRAIYA OF THE SANNIN REPORTED TO HAVE ENGAGED THE TAILED BEAST. MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW.
As the man put down the report, his face was finally thrown into light unlike where he stood in the shadows previously. His face was much different to any other on the planet, with apart from the crop of semi-spiky orange hair atop his head, his face seemed to be a swath of metal - definitely not piercings, for the metal imbedded within were short rods. With six short metal pieces in his nose and seven in each ear, it made for a defining look that seemed to amp up the intimidation factor. However, speaking of such, the most intimidating feature on his face had to be his eyes - with a look of utter disdain that seemed to somehow convey the magnitude of power this man held, his eyes were something to behold. A deep purple entirely filled the eyes, with concentric jet black rings spaced evenly apart so five filled each eye with a solid black iris at the centre.
Standing up from his desk in a prompt fashion befitting the nature of the situation, he strode over to a peculiar looking woman who sat at a table which was pushed up against a metal bank of electronics, a thick black wire extending from said electronics to feed into a pair of headphones she was wearing. The woman was decked from neck to toe in a full metal armour suit that gleamed a dull white on its surface, apart from a black stripe that went down the sides of the arms. Upon seeing her master approach, the woman quickly stood from her chair to attention and snapped the national salute - the gloved metal left hand impacting the right shoulder, fingers curled inward to provide a flat surface against the armour as her fist pressed against the shoulder.
"Sir." The woman snapped out professionally as she took off the headphones and awaited her orders.
"At ease, jonin." The Deva Path spoke as he regarded the woman, who was actually an elite jonin, then relax her posture and drop her arm back to her side. "I require an immediate message to be drafted that I can only trust my elite organisation with. A message of condolence must be sent to the Leaf, along with a reassurance that any information we have will be passed on. However, explain that due to limited resources and finances due to a particularly costly civil war, we can offer no actual help to the Leaf. Include some apologies that sound sincere, then sign it in Hanzo's name. Get your best graphologist on that."
The elite jonin, whom had been writing down what Deva had been ordering, gave a nod of her head as he concluded. "Yes sir." She replied.
"Very good." Deva stated in response before he turned round and began walking out of the radio room, chunin who were running about doing their duties having to forcefully stop in order to make way for their leader. Striding past the open metal door that gave access to the radio room, the Deva Path continued on into corridor. A simple corridor decorated with a simple navy blue carpet with dark wooden panels lining the walls, the occasional painting hung from the wall to give it a more tasteful atmosphere.
Deva looked over to his right as he walked down the corridor, before looking ahead once more. "Come out, Zetsu. What is it you have to report?"
Two big leaves, just like those on a venus fly trap, emerged from the floor followed by the upper half of a body that was dressed in that of a black cloak. They suddenly parted open to reveal a most disturbing face, that of a complete distinction in colours on the opposing halves of the face - one a complete white, and one a complete jet black with glaring yellow eyes on both.
The strange man called Zetsu gave a bow to Deva before speaking. "Lord Pain, Madara asked for me to send for you, he wishes to meet you in your office."
Deva just regarded with eyes of apathy, as Zetsu stared right back. "Very well." Deva spoke after a moment's pause. "I will be there momentarily."
Zetsu only gave a nod before melting through the floor once more, not that Deva gave it much thought as he himself then disappeared. Standing up from his crouched position, as well as wafting some of the smoke from the summoning, Deva looked to his right with his eyes without turning his head to see the Animal Path staring right back at him. Giving it no thought, Deva looked ahead once more before opening the wooden door to his office.
Before stopping one step into the office as the Deva Path just looked at the scene before him. He allowed his eyes to roam around the office for a moment, out the windows that allowed a magnificent view from the second to last highest floor of the building; before focusing on the subject of interest. The three walls around him were cluttered with posters and papers, ranging from maps on the wall of each and every nation along the left wall to the right wall which was cluttered with Pain's own notes stuck next to printed sheets containing numbers and information. Posters and other large sheets were stuck along the wall with the doorway, an Ame recruitment poster having been put up above the door itself. Nestled along the left wall were several filing cabinets as well as a desk with stacks of paper already on it shoved against the wall. The entire back wall was made up of several large panes of glass, currently featuring a dark view of the angry rainstorm outside, lashing against the windows with the lights of Ame's skyscrapers penetrating through the cacophony. And in the middle of the room, bleeding onto the normally plush chair facing his desk, was Madara Uchiha.
Or at least he would be if his orange mask wasn't lying cracked and broken upon Pain's desk, leaving the man's true face exposed.
"You are not Madara Uchiha." Deva commented, getting a contemporary glance from the mysterious Uchiha bleeding in his chair, before he went back to trying to bandage up a gaping wound in his leg.
"No, I am not." The Uchiha muttered out. His black cloak that he'd been wearing was shredded and ruined, leaving much of the torso exposed. Scars and cuts littered the exposed flesh, much of it bruised and damaged. His hands were black and scabbed, flesh burnt with chakra burns - which explained why he didn't try to heal any wounds with medical ninjutsu. There was a nasty wound punctured right through his thigh, most likely from the downward stab of a sharp kunai, but the worst wound was most definitely in the back. It was like a wide drilling motion on the back, scars and burnt flesh spiralling round an ever deeper wound that actually showed bone in the centre - most likely the move that had finished the fight. Pain was somewhat impressed that he'd crawled back in that condition.
"Your chakra is all but gone." Deva idly stated, viewing how nought but dregs and slithers ran through the chakra network of the man, with not enough left to produce even a normal clone. Whatever finishing move the man had pulled, it had drained everything from him, leaving enough barely for him to sustain himself with - let alone use offensively. "Judging by your present state, as well as the signature signs of a spiral attack only the likes of which the rasengan has; you fought Minato Namikaze. Which would make you the perpetrator of the tailed beast attack against the Leaf tonight."
The man gave a wheeze, causing some blood to drip from his mouth which brought no discernible reaction from the Deva Path. "Heard about that, did you?" He muttered out, voice quiet and hearse like it pained him to talk.
"Uchiha, the radio waves are practically alive." Deva stated, unimpressed. "It is undoubtable that the entire continent knows by now." He went around the desk and sat down at the head of it, just plainly staring at the man.
"Oh." The Uchiha let out, disinterested as he let out a hiss as he wrapped another length of bandage around his thigh.
"So who are you really?" Deva asked, uncaring of the man's state as he merely pried for more information.
The Uchiha began tying a knot in the bandage. "That is none of your concern." He softly let out.
"I will get an explanation for what's in the bag at your feet, though." Deva demanded, his special eyes seeing straight through the desk to view something only he could see at the moment. "There is a live chakra network within it."
"Oh, now that is." The Uchiha spoke, grunting as the very motion of lifting the bag pained him. Placing a leather black bag on the desk, Deva's face remained unchanged as the bag began to writhe and muffled cries start to emanate from it. "That's the latest jinchuuriki of the nine tails that Namikaze created."
Deva took a glance once more at the bag, viewing the weak chakra traces within actually containing flickers of red now that he focused. "I see." Deva spoke, before bringing the bag to him and opening it up. "I had best get medical attention for them, whoever they are."
"Who cares?" The Uchiha scoffed. "Just kill them, extract the beast from the boy."
Deva quirked an eyebrow. "Boy? I thought only Uzumaki women were chosen to contain the nine tails." Deva stated as a question, but not listening for an answer as he reached in with both arms, and grabbed a bundle of cotton. Withdrawing the bundle from the bag, the crying momentarily ceased as the baby within the white towels was exposed to the office light as Deva unwrapped it from around the baby's face. "Those characteristics look familiar." He murmured as the appearance of the hour-old baby was thrown into light.
The Uchiha scoffed once more. "Of course he would, he's the offspring of the Namikaze and that woman he always went about with, Kushina Uzumaki."
Deva's eyes quickly shot a surprised glance at Deva before looking at the baby once more. Undoubtedly, the cobalt blue eyes and distinctive angular nose as well as the general shape of the face had been claimed from Minato Namikaze. The hair colour though was all Kushinas - light red hair sprouting from the top of the baby's head as the natural fuzz of an infant; showing off the strong inheritance of Uzumaki genes from her side. Even the natural pudginess of the face seemed to resemble her a bit. It seemed the only thing the baby boy could truly call his own were the birth marks on his cheeks - six whisker marks in all, a thin black line that angled in such a way that when the face scrunched up to cry, it gave off animalistic vibes.
Deva looked back at the Uchiha who was now tending to a burn on his arm. "It was not part of the plan to take the jinchuuriki now."
"It has no consequence on the plan now." The Uchiha stated as he wiped blood up with spare bandage. "Plus I couldn't help myself. You should've heard the bitch scream for her 'Naruto'. Heh, serves them right..." He trailed off with a mutter and a far-away look in his eyes.
"Naruto Uzumaki, huh?" Deva muttered to himself as he stopped listening to the Uchiha's ranting after picking up the baby's name. Staring into the baby's eyes, he slowly brought the boy to a cradle in one arm as the crying started to dim in volume - and Deva looked into the Uchiha's eyes. "My nephew."
The Uchiha opened his eyes wide in shock. "What-" He was cut off however, as a size 12 boot caved in the door to the office, literally throwing it off its hinges as a brute of a man forced his way into the office. The Uchiha quickly made to stand up, but found himself quickly paralysed in his blood-caked seat. The culprit was quickly revealed to be Pain, as a a metre length piece of chakra rod was summoned by the Asura Path in the doorway and thrown straight into the Uchiha's torso, piercing straight through a lung. It had the combined effect of crippling the enemy and causing great imbalance in the chakra control of the victim - not that the man in the chair needed that in his pitiful state.
Deva was stoic as an agonised wheeze escaped the Uchiha, not having the lung capacity to scream as he withdrew his chakra powered hand from the control seal under the desk; leaving the paralysis seal on the two chairs in front of the desk powered for an hour more. "So, Uchiha." Pain spoke through the Deva Path as he stepped round the desk, baby still cradled in one arm and now falling asleep. "This time I will not ask. This time I will pry to see who you really are."
The man, paralysed to the chair, could only move muscles not directly not affected by the seal that kept him forcefully in contact with the seat - such as the muscles in the face. "You dare betray me?" He whispered, not even being able to fully utilise the muscle in the mouth to shout like he wanted to nor use his full lung capacity.
The Asura Path in the doorway, a hulking seven foot being that wasn't even a corpse anymore as his footsteps suggested due to all the metal that now made up the being under the skin moved aside. Instead, a woman much shorter than the previous Path, draped in the typical Akatsuki cloak, stepped through and walked over to the paralysed man in the chair. Orange dyed hair draped to the Human Path's shoulders, rinnegan eyes looking past the metal embedded in the nose to look down upon the stuck figure before him. "Oh, I dare." The corpse smoothly replied in a feminine voice.
Her hand was quickly placed upon the man's head, the only signs of resistance being the contortions in the man's face as everything else was paralysed. The Path's eyes closed as she delved into the man's very soul and memories, before finding all that she sought - and more.
"The infinite dream project..." Deva murmured as he scanned through the memories of the Uchiha. "And people called me mad."
"Pain!" Came a shout from the doorway, causing the Deva Path to look over to the now open doorway of the office to see a blue haired woman standing there. Draped in the Akatsuki cloak too, the amber eyes of the woman was open in alarm and focused on the scene in front of her, which surprised her greatly. "What's happening?!"
"In a moment, Konan." Deva stated as he turned back to the Uchiha in the chair. "I must first deal with our manipulative partner here, one thought-to-be long dead Obito Uchiha."
Obito only gave a splutter in response as his face trembled once more, blood flowing from between his lips.
Deva moved himself to stand in front of Obito, staring directly into the dark depths of the man's broken eyes. "You threatened me and my village, planned to use me and my village, my sole remaining companion and then manipulate it all - for what? As I see it now, you never cared for peace, but rather the delusions of your mind - you must be as insane as Madara Uchiha was, the man you claimed to be, Obito Uchiha. All to twist the world to one of your shaping, and to see some girl again." Pain's rinnegan eyes narrowed as he spoke, glaring at the wheezing, broken man before him. "And yet, I find some part of me seeing something similar in you to me - for we both were shaped by the deaths of our closest friend, wish to change the world; set it ablaze so as to remould it to our desire."
The Human Path whose hand was clamped on top of Obito's head pushed his head closer to the seat as the man twisted his face once more, keeping the connection between Pain and Obito secure as Pain scoured the man's memories. "But that is where the similarities end." Deva continued to speak. "And the differences begin. I have to commend you - where you saw failure in your loss in Konoha not being destroyed, you took some token out of it to aid you later. And you gave me an excellent opportunity."
Pain looked deeper into Obito's pained eyes, that despite struggling to even breathe as the Human Path forcefully compressed his skull down, Deva could tell he had his complete attention. "And this provides much opportunity for me with the Akatsuki. Not only will this be easier to move about in the unrest this will cause, but it will be easier to acquire assets too. We have still yet to acquire ten members, and yet there are multiple S ranks waiting to be recruited. And the best part is the fact that with you gone, the Akatsuki shall do my, and mine only this time, bidding."
"Goodbye, Obito Uchiha." Pain finalised, cold rinnegan eyes glaring into bloodshot coal-black ones. "May you find more success and peace in the pure world than here, for now it is the time of Pain."
With that, the Human Path tore out the soul of the depraved Uchiha with a simple movement upwards of the hand, the translucent purple figure that was sucked into the Path's hand seeming to give the final death screams before they were silenced forever.
All was quiet in the office as the Uchiha's head slumped to the side, the body of Obito Uchiha now turning colder by the second as the warm blood spilled slowly out and stained the chair even deeper shades of crimson. Konan suddenly gave a gasp and turned to Deva, whose eyes flickered to her.
"What was that about?" Konan asked, shocked at the sudden violence that had occurred within their own base of operations.
"It is simple." Deva stated, eyes showing more emotion to Konan than they ever had to the dead Uchiha. "The Uchiha had overstepped his boundaries one too many times, acting as if he controlled us and daring to demand things from me even when he was crippled. His arrogance was his undoing." Deva was about to exit the room when he looked back at Konan. "Oh, and be wary of Zetsu. Do not trust him at all. The things I saw of him from that man's memories were... considerable, to say the least. He is to be classed as a potential enemy."
Konan only gave a nod as the Deva Path stepped round the chairs, and stopping in the doorway as the Asura Path and Human filed out before him, carrying the dead Uchiha and blood soaked chair respectively. It was only then that she saw a bundle of cloth in the Path's arms, the whiskered face of a red headed child poking out as he soundly slept, having fallen asleep during the encounter that had never actually gotten loud. Deva made a small gesture with his head, signalling Konan to walk with him as they both fell in step with the two Paths ahead of them. The Animal Path, a shorter woman than even the Human Path with short shoulder-length orange hair and wider rinnegan eyes, hurried past the procession of three corpses and one woman.
"I have mobilised all the Paths." Deva answered Konan's unspoken question as her face showed off her questioning state in that moment. "I did not lie in the office. This has indeed provided us with a great opportunity. This act of ravaging the strongest of all the villages will have at the very least unsettled the powers that be. Iwa and Kumo will see this as an opportunity to finally catch up to Konoha's strength after the third shinobi world war, which shall once again begin some sort of standoff between the major powers. The Leaf shall have to deal with more emboldened neighbours, the Sand will have to deal with securing their border and providing assistance to the Leaf. Troops shall once again march to begin confrontations as the strength of the powers that be are more evenly matched - and someone will inevitably want to begin something to strengthen themselves on this changed landscape where before nobody would challenge the Leaf who was the strongest."
Konan gave Deva her full attention. "And what will you do?" She asked, tone neutral.
"I will take advantage of the chaos." Deva answered. "We must move quickly before the Leaf initiates a full scale lockdown, there are several things I wish to have that this is a perfect moment with to reclaim. Which is why I wish to speak with Sasori, who is currently fulfilling a mission in the Land of Fire."
"What are those?" Konan questioned, wishing to satisfy her curiosity of what Pain had planned.
"Information of locations, jinchuuriki and other such things that the Leaf have. Anything to improve our troops. Jutsu. Weapon schematics. Maybe even to raid their finance in their vulnerable state." Deva gave her the answer, the only person her fully trusted in the world at that moment. "But most of all, I want the sharingan eye from Kakashi Hatake's skull."
The four of them reached the staircase at the end of the corridor, the Human Path moving on down the steps with the bloodied furniture as the rest of them stayed behind. "Hatake's eye?" Konan asked in surprise.
"That is where you come in, Konan. Take the Uchiha's hold over us with his one original sharingan, the power it held. Now imagine if we had the full power of it at our disposal. You will go with the Asura Path and take the sharingan eyes out of Obito Uchiha's corpse using your medical knowledge, and keep them preserved. Take blood and DNA samples from the body, and then hand the body back to the Asura Path." Deva ordered, getting a nod from Konan who took a step towards the hulking being. "Thank you, Konan."
Deva quickly turned on his feet and walked back down the corridor a bit, the swish of his cloak behind him accentuating his movements. Idly gazing at the baby in his arms, Deva merely wrapped the towel tighter around the baby as he pondered on his minute surprise that Konan didn't question the baby - but then again, Deva had expressed his urgency of the situation.
Stopping at an inconspicuous wooden door on the right side of the hallway, Deva smoothly opened it to reveal a half-used storage room, the back wall lined with boxes but leaving a lot of space in the middle of the room. Perfect for his needs.
Holding his left fingers in a half-ram seal, Deva flared his chakra and pulsed it through the seal he'd just formed. The results were instantly seen as the world turned pitch black, Deva standing on a darkened patch of wooden floor that eventually just merged into the black background filled with thousands of pinpricks of white light.
Before suddenly, Deva was on top of a grey piece of stone. Murky silence filled the cavern he stood in, the gentle dripping of water running off of stalactites resounding gently around the cavern. Standing in an underground cavern that held only very dim light levels from two sources of permanently burning fires that were raised somewhat in the air of the cavern to provide an illuminating light source, with Deva standing even higher above those.
Pain knew better about what he was standing on than the low light levels revealed - that of the corpse of the ten tailed beast, and he was stood on one of its left hand fingers as the fires burned in the corpses palms.
A flare of chakra beside him alerted him out of his musings, as much like static on a television, an image on the giant finger to his right flickered into life. An incorporeal projection showing the varying colours of the rainbow that coalesced and shifted as the image occasionally flickered, the image revealed the form of a short person the size of a teenager. The hair on the person's seemed to be uncared for as it flopped in all directions much as if it belonged on a mop, the fringe reaching down to the sides of the person's eyes, of which were a dark colour; but unable to tell through the projection. What was clear though, was that they were also robed in the Akatsuki cloak, the red clouds on it shifting colours as the projection flickered.
"Lord Pain." The figure spoke, a smooth voice sounding out. "What is it require of me?"
"Are you still close-by to the Leaf, Sasori?" Deva replied with his own question, the baritone deeper voice emanating from the Path contrasting to that of the figure in front of him.
"Yes, Lord Pain." The figure revealed as the missing ninja Sasori of the red sands spoke. "I take it you have heard of the recent attack on the Leaf?"
"Yes." Deva answered, rinnegan eyes looking directly at the image in front. "You will put on hold whatever mission you have now in favour of sneaking into the Leaf Village whilst it scrambles to recover in the immediate aftermath. Once within, you will acquire whatever information and knowledge you can, with the priority being on of course knowledge of the jinchuuriki, their locations and identities; as well as any techniques that can help out a soldier on the battlefield. Useful weapons, only of their schematics however, will also be favoured. Money is also to be attempted should you pass a financial institute. In short, bring me assets from the Leaf, Sasori. Stay as long as you like within the Leaf to achieve this once you have sneaked inside."
Sasori dipped his head in acknowledgement. "Of course, Leader."
"I have two special objectives that are to be prioritised above all else, though, Sasori." Deva spoke, eyes neutrally gazing at Sasori whose own gaze turned curious. "I want you to bring me two things. One of them is the sharingan eye from Kakashi Hatake, a B rank ninja on the cusp of becoming A rank. And the other is simple - bring me an infant boy from one of the clans. I would favour clans such as the Inuzuka and Aburame who have already had their clan heirs born, over more major clans like the Nara and Akimichi. You will not question these orders, Sasori, and should you comply to a quality standard, then I shall grant you a reward of your choosing so long as it is... feasible." Deva concluded.
Sasori's curiosity was higher than ever, but he knew better than to speak when Pain had even ordered his silence on questioning the matter. "It will be done, Leader."
"Good." Was all that Deva said before he forcefully cut the connection to Sasori's projection, the rainbow figure immediately dissipating into nothing as Sasori resumed consciousness in his own body. Deva himself only lingered a moment before turning and walking away, the dim surroundings falling away to reveal a brightly lit storage room once more as Deva approached he door.
Moving through and back-tracking to the stairs, Deva actually went down them this time as he quickly thudded down several flights, the stomps of the combat boots he wore causing the baby in his arm to wriggle but not awake.
Emerging into another corridor, Pain quickly swept through and re-entered the radio centre he'd started in. The busy atmosphere within the room had died down to calmer levels, not that Pain hadn't already guessed that as the conclusion to the tailed beast attack lay right in his arms. Walking straight over to a row of chunin sitting at a bank of monitors, some listening into headphones as overs poured over reports and made comments in pencil on them.
The radio centre in Pain's Tower was not just the central command post for all of the forces in his nation, but also served as a listening post to high-end foreign communications. It made sense to Pain, as he had ordered decoders and listeners to be on standby within the room at all hours of the day; the most guarded building within the country would serve as an excellent place to intercept and decode the highest levels of enemy communications. With what he'd been planning, it was worth the cost - especially as it had already proven its worth in being able to mostly plot the major formations of troops within the Lands of Fire, Earth and Wind next door to them.
The jonin he approached was sat at an individual desk to the chunin who were sat at conjoined banks of monitors. With two blue stripes on each shoulder of the flak jacket he wore, the man at the desk could be identified as the jonin commander of Ame, or the fifth most powerful person within the nation. Currently, the man was going over reports on his desk before he looked up to see who approached him - standing up and putting his fist to his right shoulder as his leader approached.
"Jonin commander, this is indeed a fluctuating circumstance that is about to begin with a major attack against the most powerful nation. I want the border guards against the Land of Grass and Stone to be at least doubled, and the major nations that surround us to be tripled. I want extra accommodations and barracks to be constructed for at least twice the guards already there at the border, with the remainder of the guards at the major nation borders having to sleep within temporary accommodations." Deva spoke to the commander, who held his salute firm. "I also hereby grant you full permission to use as much expenditure as you need in the allocation of training and practice missions for field experience for the troops - I want the quality of our troops to be upped considerably at a shorter time. I want more soldiers in my army, with higher quality - is that understood, commander?"
"Yes sir." The commander spoke as he dropped his salute and nodded.
"Good." Deva replied. "I want a full report on our troop movements and how you will conduct training and field mission allocation by next week, 12 o'clock. Discuss this with the other troop commanders for better ideas. Also, war-time identification protocols are to be used effectively immediately, I want those implemented as soon as possible. I will not have my nation infiltrated. Go now."
The man nodded to his leader before running over to a jonin who was in charge of broadcasting to troop barracks within the city they stood in. Deva paused as Pain thought before suddenly turning to a chunin who gave off an expression of slightly horrified shock at such a legendary man consulting them.
"You, chunin. Get a genin team to deliver supplies for two infants to my office at once. When you and the genin get there with the supplies, I will pay you an appropriate reward for it and your silence on the matter." Deva ordered. The consequences for breaking said silence did not have to be discussed.
"Yes sir." The chunin managed to get out stably before dashing out of the room to complete their assigned mission promptly.
Deva watched the chunin run out of the room, past the amused guards at the door before striding over to his own desk, which was unlike the rest of the room which was crammed with desks with chunin and a few jonin working at them as well as banks of technological equipment; all of which was fashioned in a central way to allow wires from each desk and tech rack to run to the centre of the room. There, a metal support beam stood in the centre of the room and was seemingly clogged in wires, colours running up it and occasionally overlapping it as it all merged and disappeared into the roof of the room, up tot he powerful transmitters on the roof.
Instead, Pain's desk had a good bit of space around it with only one simple monitor and printer placed upon it. A tidy income tray was placed upon it as it received few reports - only the most important ones for his eyes only went to that desk or his main office upstairs if he was working there. Taking a seat at the desk, Deva gently placed the bundle in his arm upon the desk to reveal the young infant inside. Pausing only a moment, Pain carried out his self-assigned task and exposed the torso of the child, before placing a chakra-lit upon the chest region. The baby gave a shudder in discomfort from both the poke and sudden contact with cooler air, but still carried on sleeping regardless.
Deva watched as the seal containing the great beast was displayed before his very eyes, the ancient language of kanji appearing in their fresh black ink state upon the skin. Watching as more was revealed past the point of his finger, Pain realised he had guessed somewhat correctly - instead of the six trigrams seal Mito Uzumaki had designed to hold the nine tailed beast within a younger Kushina Uzumaki, here upon his nephew lay an eight trigrams seal. It had obviously been improved by either Kushina or her husband.
However, Pain frowned mentally as the seal stopped advancing before he had expected it too, the large circular seal not being as big as he expected it to be, less kanji than he had anticipated. Sensing something was amiss, Pain utilised his decent knowledge in the sealing arts to go over the different formations of kanji. Whilst he did not have the sufficient knowledge to completely decode such a complex seal made with thousands of individual small kanji, he could spy the different formations of kanji and correctly interpret their functions in the seal.
The larger kanji within the spiral itself was the main formation of the seal, that group of centimetre long kanji surrounding an even larger kanji that read 'contain', belying its own function. The much smaller kanji that made up the circle itself had varying functions, with the entire spiral holding interlinking 'storage' kanji for the extreme amounts of chakra stored within, the four spikes set on the corners of the circle holding the larger, centimetre long kanji once more that acted as 'distribution' formations to place the tailed beast chakra within the baby's own chakra network.
The Deva Path himself frowned as he expeditiously tried to work out was wrong or missing, keeping his chakra-lit finger on the main formation to keep the seal exposed so he could study it whilst making notes on a blank piece of paper next to him. Once he had worked out the larger and more important formations within the interconnecting seal, he studied his notes as Pain thought before even the Deva Path's eyes widened.
That Uchiha fool.
Deva dived his free hand within the drawer of the desk, withdrawing with haste a bag of sealing equipment including brushes and ink. The amount of chakra being sent through the finger increased subconsciously as Pain worked to improve the seal himself using his own rudimentary knowledge of the art. Withdrawing a thin brush from the bag and then scooping out an ink pot with his free pot, Deva stared at the seal once more as he thought and analysed which defensive formations would be best used in conjunction with such a complex seal. It was a miracle the seal hadn't broke already.
Obito Uchiha had obviously snatched the baby from a weakened Namikaze's arms before he'd even finished the seal, having obviously been satisfied at seeing the Fox sealed away. Whilst the Namikaze had managed to finish the first circle of the seal which held the containment and distribution formations of kanji to correctly store and integrate the Fox's chakra essence and being into the boy's body; Pain guessed that the man had been given no time to apply a second circular seal of defensive mechanisms to keep the Fox from accessing the mind of his host or from just escaping by overloading the seal.
Poising an ink dipped brush over the seal, Deva was about to begin his own array of sealing defences when the world went black and the Deva Path slumped back into the chair - brush flying from his hand and clattering onto the floor.
He blinked. He was majorly surprised by that, having not expected to be suddenly jolted from his chair like that and now sitting on a smooth, black surface that continued for as far as he could see. The red curtain of hair over his left eye was momentarily lifted to see if it continued the other way too, and with a cursory glance he confirmed it in fact, did. Glancing up, he was reminded of the communication jutsu he developed as the entire sky above him seemed to be a replica of the night sky, just a black canvas occasionally disrupted by interspersed, twinkling white stars.
Nagato Uzumaki stood up as looked ahead, before narrowing his eyes and turning his head to the right.
"Nine tails." He spoke simply.
"Uzumaki." Came a just as simple reply, though the deep, dark and vivid tone that the voice carried with a minor animalistic reverberation on the words made that intimidating, even for Nagato.
Turning around fully and looking up straight into the crimson eyes of the Fox, Nagato regarded the tailed beast before him. Standing at over seventy five metres tall, the Fox was a huge being that dwarfed Nagato to such an extreme that the Fox's own clawed hand was just bigger in height than he was when it was placed flat against the floor. The fur colouring was that of a burnt orange that covered him from snout to each nine, waving tails; the drawn-back long ears hosting a black stripe that ran down from their insides to completely cover the outside edges of the eyes. The eyes were of a feral, widely slit shape, the eyes themselves a white background with crimson irises, the snout below closed firmly but undoubtedly was home to an array of sharp canines and teeth. The nine, arching long tails that waved sporadically behind the beast were actually longer than the being himself, Nagato noted. Currently the being was sitting, only looking down at the man in curiosity.
"I take it you called me here, Fox?" Nagato questioned, starting off a conversation he never knew he'd be having. Considering the fact that they had planned to take on the human hosts containing the tailed beasts with at least two S ranks at a time, Nagato did not even delude himself with good winning chances against an actual tailed beast by himself, let alone the strongest one at that. The best thing to do was to stall time and figure out a way out of the mindscape where they obviously were, the physical representation of a person's mind that was forcibly activated to act as a place to hold the tailed beast stored within the host.
The Fox lowered his head downward, not a lot for him but it was in fact many metres down as he arched his back to look straight into Nagato's eyes. "Indeed I did, Uzumaki." The nine tailed fox's rumbling deep voice carrying a tone of neutrality as he confirmed Nagato's question, before the Fox pinned the man with a curious stare. "Tell me, Uzumaki, what happened. The reason I have not yet escaped from this seal is due to being in that Uchiha's custody and I did not wish to be enslaved again. I do not sense him anymore, but tell me what happened to him and why my host is suddenly in your care instead of the Leaf or that accursed Uchiha."
Nagato narrowed his eyes slightly, but not enough to be taken as a threatening action by the opposing being. He had no idea of the Fox's game. He was ridiculously hard to read, his facial expression only showing curiosity as no trace of any emotion was carried in his generated voice. Yet, supposedly, the Fox was a hateful being of anger itself manifested on Earth. He did take note of the 'sensing' part though, it providing a possible answer to how the Fox knew he was an Uzumaki or that the Uchiha was gone.
The Fox raised an eyebrow, the black markings around his eyes stretching as the face contorted. "Now, don't be like that, Uzumaki. I'm being most polite for somebody who's a part of the very clan who's locked me away for more than a century. At least return the generosity, hmm?" The nine tails stated as he raised his head back up to stare at Nagato in apathy this time, clearly awaiting his answer.
"Fine." Nagato stated, reschooling his own face into a neutral pose and hoping his eyes gave nothing away. It wasn't like he was going to engage in any hostility or adverse actions with the being before him, anyway. "The Uchiha lies dead, slain by my own hand. He overstepped his boundaries with me, and so I took advantage of his weakened state. The reason you are not in the Leaf is because the Uchiha teleported away with you and your host; who happens to be my nephew."
The Fox gave one slight nod in acceptance, giving Nagato the brief thought of whether the Fox could even sense if he was lying - something not even the Second Hokage, supposedly the best sensor in history, could not do. "You make it sound as if you and the Uchiha were partners, Uzumaki." The Fox did not phrase his statement as a question, but given the way a tail curled around his body, he was awaiting him to respond.
"We were." Nagato spoke, still releasing no information that could compromise him. It was not like the Fox could do anything with the information against him anyway, for either he'd seal the Fox away properly or the being would crush his conscious mind whilst he was here.
"Hmmm." The Fox dipped his head a bit, the curiosity back in his eyes. "Not a lie, but not exactly truthful either. Perhaps one bossed the other around, perhaps you killed off the Uchiha to assume the reins?" The nine tails shook his head slightly in amusement before regarding Nagato once more, who was briefly shocked at his thoughts being correct. "That is of no matter. What does matter, to me at least, is if you two had any intentions of using me or stealing my power?" The curiosity may have been prevalent, but the solid edge in the Fox's eyes spoke volumes to Nagato.
A thought of lying occurred to Nagato, before the ability of the Fox to sense his lies surfaced. "Yes." He stated, revealing his first compromising piece of information as he tensed his body, covertly channelling his chakra to see if he could exit that way.
The Fox didn't bat an eyelid, however. "Calm down, Uzumaki. I didn't expect anything less after being delivered to you by the Uchiha, nor from your clan. You can't escape a mindscape anyway without the host's permission, and since I doubt a baby is going to let you out you'd have to ask me, the only other being who lives here without a single sealing block in my way from accessing host privileges of the mindscape." Standing up to his full height of seventy five metres and towering over Nagato who leapt back, the Fox only gave a guffaw before then lying down onto the black ground with his arms crossed under his head. The nine tailed beast's right eye closed as his left focused on the rinnegan user, tails splayed out many metres behind him. "So get comfortable, Uzumaki. Think of it like a powerful sharingan genjutsu - you can't escape it until the user decides to let you go. Even if you have the rinnegan, it won't help here."
Nagato didn't feel any less alarmed, but he slowly moved out of his tense attack stance - but enough poise was kept in the legs for a quick get away. "You're different from what I expected." He remarked simply.
The nine tails only curved his left eye in amusement at that. "Aren't all of you humans biased, though? My reputation is only based off of when you humans met me, and given that as far as my mind can reach back - well over a thousand years now - that you humans only ever attacked me, I'd say that's quite a biased and uninformed opinion you have there. You, on the other hand, did unfortunately meet my expectations. Which were low, I assure you."
Nagato said nothing in the face of that, having not expected himself any less. It wasn't like he cared, anyway. "I see. And yet you decided to be generous with someone who you expected to be like that?" He asked, eyes subtly scanning the darkness for any signs of a way out. He'd try overloading the mindscape with chakra if it wasn't for the fact that this was his nephew's mindscape.
The nine tails blinked at him. "What did you want me to say? Everything gets tiring after a while, Uzumaki. Being an immortal on a planet with no other such beings makes it that way." The Fox paused to scratch his snout before settling back down upon his arms in a comfortable position. "Let me put it this way - I've been locked up in two Uzumaki women for roughly a century now, with that old bitch Mito holding me for nearly eighty five years. Mito never talked to me once then, nor never used my chakra once then. My next host, one Kushina Uzumaki, talked to me only twice - one to tell me to shut up and stay put whilst listing some bullshit justification, and another time to steal my chakra. So I've had little to do. Talking to somebody is a refreshing action, I assure you, no matter the person. Even if it is just about what you expected or wanted of me."
Nagato listened whilst still thinking up how to get out, but it looked to be either overloading the mindscape or gaining this 'permission.' He sighed as he looked up at the tailed beast, only caring to get out. "Look, Fox, as pleasant as this is for you, will you grant me this permission or not?" He asked, straight to the point.
The Fox made a sorrowful expression with his eye that looked extremely fake. "Not even going to indulge an old being with conversation? How cruel." The Fox quipped sarcastically, before sighing himself. "Fine. But I'll ask you one last question, Uzumaki - what will you do with me really? Will you let me go, or will you seal me away?"
Nagato knew a crossroads had been reached. He had no doubt that either he let the Fox go peacefully at the cost of his nephew dying for his chakra system had largely adapted now to carrying such amounts of dense chakra which would kill him to remove now or go missing. Or, he try and seal the Fox away - all on a massive risk that he could find his way out of here, and apply long sequences of kanji to the seal before the Fox just decided to leave the seal; right in the middle of the hidden village. His hidden village.
"I can't let you kill my nephew." Nagato spoke carefully and slowly, the Fox just gazing at Nagato with no reaction present as of yet. "But perhaps we can reach a compromise."
The Fox just stared. "... Go on." He spoke.
"My organisation is in need of tailed beast chakra for the need to develop techniques. If you can provide chakra at a later date, then I will leave the seal undefended so you have more freedom in here." Nagato offered, falling silent to await the verdict of the Fox. He didn't know if that's how the statue where they would seal the chakra would take it, but he'd take what he can.
Silence overlaid the mindscape for a few moments as the Fox merely looked at Nagato, thinking, before opening his mouth. "Not bad, human. An interesting proposal, the first any of your species has made me. Whilst I can tell that's not all there is to what you need, we can discuss that later. I just have a condition of my own - to let me out of here."
Nagato narrowed his eyes, but the nine tails continued. "Leaving the seal intact, of course. You see, I can assume a smaller form - if I had less chakra. Now that's never happened before as I continuously regenerate chakra I use, but with the seal acting as a limiter I can leave most of my chakra within the seal and be able to explore the outside world once more. I've always wondered what human food tasted like, too." It seemed the Fox was completely serious now, as if this was an opportunity for him too.
Nagato opened his mouth, then closed it in thought. Looking back up, his eyes narrowed a bit again. "How can I trust you?" He spoke out, his voice almost hissing the distrust he held. "You can't just expect me to believe you'll stay on your best behaviour until needed."
The Fox just gave him a half-lidded look. "You'll have to decide that one for yourself, Uzumaki." The nine tails responded dryly. "It's not like you humans have ever given me a chance to prove myself. Besides, look where a thousand years of continuous violence with your species got me - defeated and sealed. I've realised that my pride was an anchor, and now I'm trying to use reason, not violence. I don't know what your intentions are, and I couldn't care less so long as it doesn't harm me."
"Look, I'll even be good friends with your nephew - kind of guaranteed since I can't exist far beyond the range of the seal, anyway. I'll teach him and what not, finally something to do. Just give a bored fox a chance, hmm?" The nine tails stated, staring at the Uzumaki before him now with an unknown look in his eyes.
Nagato sighed again, raking his hand through his hair as he partly wondered why the fox was making him decide when the being was in charge of the mindscape here, supposedly. "You definitely aren't what I expected." He muttered.
The Fox took amusement from that. "To be fair, much of what you are isn't what I expected either. I'd ask about the rinnegan, but hey, some things are too personal, I get that."
Nagato stood up straight and looked at the Fox. "Fine. It's a... deal. We'll have those conditions where you can leave the seal in a smaller form so long as you promise quantities of your chakra later."
The Fox snickered. "What a professional relationship we're going to have."
Nagato looked at the Fox. "What do I call you then?"
"Like I said Uzumaki, some things are too personal." The Fox spoke, facing away from him.
Nagato just nodded. "Fine. Now let me out of here please."
The Fox turned an eye to look at him before closing it to sleep. "Very well." With that, Nagato Uzumaki disappeared from the mindscape.