Author's Notes:

To celebrate y'all and the fact that you guys gave me motivation to keep at it with my writing even when the words didn't flow right away, here's a little bonus for you! You absolutely deserve it and that makes me want to give you a little dessert this time!

The God has come... While Izumi grapples with her own demons and finds a way to move forward, the Akatsuki's game becomes afoot...

Guys let me know what you think about these bonus detours and side-stories within the verse. It practically wrote itself, so please welcome Keyto, our new, but tragically dead protagonist. Should I keep doing these? What did you think of it? Thanks guys, you are wonderful

I can't go on, I'll go on. - Samuel Beckett

VvV

(Omake: "The Rain God: Sacrifice")

(Amegakure)

The rain never stopped in this land. It was constant. The oppressive thudding sounds of raindrops coming down into the boiling turbulence of the sea, disturbed by it, tumultuous and uneasy much like the land itself.

Two lone sentries, looking over it, safe from the rain in their lookout tower of metal. Another dreary day, like the others before it.

"Hey, Daisuke?" The younger one of them said with a yawn, shivering from the seeping cold and moisture

"Yeah? What?" An older man, Daisuke, replied slowly, never taking his eyes off the horizon. Years of life in Ame had taught him to always be ready. To never expect peace, never take things as they appeared.

"I'd rather go be with my wife…"

The veteran gave the rookie a gruff nod and smiled faintly, knowing that he himself once was like that.

"Wouldn't we all? Listen up. This post is important. I get it, you're young and your blood still boils, it's boring. But, it's still important, no matter how you feel about it. Our country is always at war. Even when it's not, we must assume that it is. Got it? You're defending everyone, your wife included, from an enemy surprise attack. Got it?"

The rookie shuffled, producing a cigarette out of his chunin vest as well as a lighter.

Click. A faint ember and a deep sigh.

"Yes, sir, but…"

"End of discussion." Daisuke cut him off, knocking the young man's cigarette out of his fingers and into the sea, "Knock it off. Good luck driving that stench out…"

"But, sir…" the lad looked down, his eyes following the faint smoldering ember, as it fell gliding down, its glow smothered by the rain, "I mean with Lord Hanzo on our side… Who would attack us? Is that true that he beat all three of Konoha's Sannin by himself? Who would attack us? Besides, there's no large war going on…"

"For now. Don't ever forget that."

"Did you have to do that?" The rookie grumbled, reaching for another cigarette, "These are expensive… And besides… Don't I deserve a little something to take the edge off?"

"You know, Keyto… This just might do it…" Daisuke whispered lowly, his weary voice almost drowned out by the rain smashing against the roof. The young man shuddered. He'd never heard his partner like that. His voice was guttural, almost like an instinctive growl and his hand now rested on the handle of his blade, "Look."

Keyto obeyed without a thought, following the elder Ninja's gaze towards something… or someone below their tower.

There they were. Two distant silhouettes in the rain, almost nothing more than black specks against the raging waves, from the height of the sentry tower.

But upon laying his eyes on them: a man and a woman, clad in black with a pattern of red crimson clouds on the tight wet fabric, Keyto could feel his heart grind down almost to a crawl. He couldn't move… he couldn't think… not with those eyes… The man's eyes, the striking red hair and the uniform with bloody clouds. The scene etched itself deep into his paralyzed mind.

The rain seemingly grew heavier, the thudding of the raindrops more incessant, more immediate. As if it threatened to squash him like an ant. But… Keyto couldn't take his eyes off the two unbidden trespassers. He could swear that… the raindrops were bending themselves, twisting unnaturally out of shape, just to avoid the man and the woman. As if even Ame's unrelenting rain didn't hold any power over them.

"Take me to Hanzo."

The man's voice was deep and commanding, as even the sea and the incessant thudding of the downpour fell eerily silent, as the simple order reverberated through the metal structures of the sentry tower, reinforced by chakra and something… inhuman.

"What the hell… are you?" the young sentry whispered, but the man heard him.

"A God. I've come to bring true peace to this wretched land."

"What are you doing, damn it?!" Daisuke growled, launching himself off the tower hurtling to meet the invaders, peppering them with explosive kunai that hissed ominously against the eerie calm, "Run! Sound the alarm!"

Yet, Keyto couldn't force his frozen muscles to move, not even to breathe.

"A…God?"

"Disobeying God…" the man continued, his voice now almost pouring from the clouded gray sky above, becoming one with the rain and seemingly pouring with it all over Amegakure, "...is a sin. And the retribution for sin… is death."

Keyto was left to only watch helplessly, as the man took a step forward, outstretching his hand towards Daisuke and the hissing projectiles, poised to tear him to shreds. Suddenly, Daisuke gasped, his eyes filling with disbelief and… terror, as both him and his exploding kunai froze suspended in the air, as if it itself had grabbed them, obeying an invisible indomitable will.

Then suddenly Daisuke was thrown back by some force, smashed against the metal railing of the tower, breaking his spine with a disgusting crack as if someone had stepped on a dry twig.

"Wh…what?! Daisuke! Are you…"

Dread oozed its way into Keyto as he slowly realized… he could still hear the hissing of the explosive tags, as all the sounds suddenly came flooding back. The sound of impending death…

"No!" the young ninja tried to jump away. He had already begun falling towards the waves below, just as the blinding flash of white washed over his senses. There was no pain… Even if there was, he wouldn't have had the time to process it, as a part of his body was torn off and evaporated into nothing by the sheer force of the explosion.

A dull visceral rumble settled over the land, shaking the sky and the clouds, as the wrecked sentry tower fumed with angry flames in a mess of jagged metal, bent unnaturally out of shape.

Keyto came to it after he'd already hit the waves, being tossed around by the uncaring sea like a helpless ragdoll. The cold saline burned him with intensity and he could swear, even with his blurred vision he could see a trail of deep crimson in the murky water.

'Damn it… will I die? Like that?'

Then, he heard footsteps. Calm, measured, methodical. The two intruders simply walked past him, on the very same raging water that threatened to swallow him whole.

"Let's go, Konan. We have work to do." the man said, not even sparing Keyto a look, as he took the lead into the now exposed Amegakure.

"Yes."

"It certainly doesn't seem like you need any help here…"

Keyto heard the third voice, a cold man's voice, devoid of any shred of emotion. Gathering his last strength, he looked up, now seeing the third intruder. A man in the same black-and-crimson cape, clad in a mask, from under which a single crimson eye looked on uncaringly.

"Madara?" the man, who claimed to be God seemingly recognized him, "No."

"Very well. I'll go take care of my own things then… we will meet here as soon as everything is ready."

"Understood."

Keyto couldn't believe his eyes as the third one, Madara disappeared into the thin air as abruptly as he'd appeared. And the man and the woman just continued walking away nonchalantly.

'I… I don't wanna… damn! I won't die like this!'

Keyto latched onto the water, emitting what little chakra he could, just enough to hold at least a part of his battered body above the water. Fear coursed through his veins and the relentless raindrops hit his head and his face again and again, as if trying to put him under.

He watched his world gyrate around in a haze of pain and blood loss, debated what he should do or if there was even any sense in doing anything. Sooner or later the sea would claim him anyway. Something would give out… The only question was which it'd be. Either his consciousness, chakra or body. It didn't make any difference to him.

Suddenly, Keito's eyes caught a piece of rubble from the destroyed tower, some flimsy, half-burned wooden beam, floating atop the waves.

'I… I could try to reach it… Float… to the shore… try to survive… They don't… care enough to finish me off…'

He tried lifting his hands out of the water, but it felt like the sea had tainted them, seeped into them, making them heavy and weak. Every moment that he pushed his muscles to the brink, the pain in his wounds seemingly grew more intense and unbearable, driving his already fading mind further into darkness. The plank, however, was almost in reach. He could already almost touch the soaked and jagged wood, as it drifted closer and closer.

Keyto tried to will the frozen muscles to contract. If he just… pushed it a little, stretched his arm a little farther…

'They don't know or don't care… that you're still alive… They won't notice… go! You can still reach the shore and try to survive… Come on, damn it!'

'too… weak… I can't! I can't! I… Even if I reached it… I'll probably bleed out before I even reach the shore… it's useless… I can't… don't make me… move… please just make it end…'

The pain, the rain, the cold. Keyto could feel his consciousness getting muddled like the smeared ink, gradually corroded and eaten away by the water.

His arm collapsed into the cold sea uselessly limp.

'I wouldn't have survived anyway… why try? Why not just end it here? I don't want… this pain…'

'No! No! Damn it! I won't… I refuse to just… die! Yuki… honey… I'm sorry… I have to protect you… Damn it… it hurts… make it stop… please! Just let me die already!'

"Hold it!" Keyto shouted at the top of his lungs, pushing the pain to the back of his failing mind, as he reached into his pouch. He prayed the chunin vest was waterproof. He prayed the tags he carried were still intact, "I… I have nothing to lose! I'll blow us up! You'll never set foot into that village! You'll never hurt my Yuki! You hear me, you bastard?! God or not… I bet you'd still die just like us!"

The intruders stopped. The man's empty eyes focused on Keyto without so much as a shred of emotion.

"An ant may try to defy God. It would still get crushed."

"I will do it! If I'm dying… if there's nothing I can do…. Then I'll… I'll! Aaaargh! I'll do it!"

The man and the woman, whoever they were, simply stood still, staring not even at him, but past him.

Then it hit the young ninja. They were simply waiting.

His hand reached into the pouch, touching the dry paper of the explosive tags.

'Remember Keyto… an Ame ninja is born in the rain, leads his life in the rain and… dies with the rain.'

'All that's left… is a little spark of chakra… They… even they won't escape… I will have protected everyone! So… why are my fingers trembling? Why?'

'Do it! Move! You're dead either way, damn it!'

He tried to bend his fingers, to force them to release the faintest pulse of chakra… for nothing. He couldn't move, couldn't breathe… his world was reduced to nothing more than a blur of shapes… fire, the enemy… the towering village behind him… and the rain. The relentless thudding of the raindrops, battering away without care. Without pause or regard for anything or anyone…

The face of his wife, of Yuki… so warm, familiar, inviting… forever shrouded from him by the wall of cold freezing rain.

'do it… for her… what do you have to fear?!'

"Konan." the man's voice suddenly cut through his pondering, completely constant and unchanged, as he slowly turned around and started walking, his black cape with crimson clouds billowing slowly behind him' "let's go."

Keyto watched the two figures drifting further and further away from him

"I… I told you to stop! You're going… you… you are… stop… please… I need… more time…"

A big wave suddenly hit him from behind, swallowing him in a torrent of cold murky water, tainted with his own dark blood. His body couldn't resist anymore and his chakra gave out…

The young shinobi was left suspended in the seemingly endless void of the sea, only drifting deeper into it, forced to watch as the ripples from the unending rain hit the water's increasingly distant surface.

The water seeped into his pouch, soaking the explosive tags and muddling their ink forever

'Why… Why was I… Yuki… Have I never really wanted… to protect you? Was it ever… about you? Or…'

Keyto could feel the crushing tightness rip his chest apart as his body finally burned through last feeble dregs of oxygen. He could see the vast darkness of the turbulent sea all around him. It was over. His thoughts eroded like the ink of his explosive tags, slowly degrading into the same dark nothing… Both inside and outside.

'I… really I just… I wanted… to live… if I had grabbed that plank… could I have… changed anything?'

'I'm sorry, Yuki… I never deserved… someone like you… I never… wanted to fight for you… I thought I wanted… but what I really… wanted was to just end it all…'

'Yuki… I'm sorry… I… I was… just a coward… I wish… I had another chance…'

Keyto's eyes closed against the murky depths of the sea, never to stir again

VvV

A lonely plank of charred wood bounced and heaved in the water, banging against the bleak gray shore, leaving deep trails in the ashen sand. Purposeless.