Time passed slowly.
Far too slowly, in my opinion.
It was the kind of slowness that came with tension- and, really, how couldn't it be?
With the Akatsuki out and about, Nagato especially? That man had made a lot of people quite worried, when he murdered Gaara...
Gaara, after all, was a Kage. Important, known, powerful.
And now he was dead. dead dead dead
Which meant that people were interested in him, interested in finding out about him... A little too interested, if Nagato's apparent reaction had been any indication.
He'd vanished. Suddenly gone, suddenly stopped acting, suddenly hiding in the background.
Couldn't find him!
Not a peep from Nagato. Not even Jiraiya had any idea where he was...
And that meant neither did I.
Not, of course, that I stopped looking. Oh no, there was no way that was going to happen, not after he murdered Gaara, not with him also after the other Jinchuuriki. I'd look -and look and look and look- until I found him, and then?
Well...
Pulse.
I spun.
Shudder.
Three nations away, one hundred thousand Hearts and Souls vanished.
Gedō Mazō.
And reappeared close to Konohagakure.
Too close.
Far, far too close.
My eyes narrowed.
Nagato...
Found you~
What are you doing near Konohagakure, Nagato?
Pulse.
...
What the fuck are you doing, Nagato?!
I vanished.
Lightning flashed as I reappeared, a torrent of electrical energy unleashed almost instantly.
To my complete lack of surprise, Nagato dodged it with ease, my lightning instead torching a log.
I glared at him.
We were in a small plain that dotted the forest surrounding Konoha. His Paths weren't present, but from here, I could see the strings and lines of Charka that flowed from his body to them.
Also conspicuously not present in the clearing was the Gedō Mazō.
Not because he had summoned it elsewhere, no- he'd done something infinitely fucking dumber.
I looked at him, and I saw his Heart and Soul.
I looked at him, and within him, I saw the hundred thousand Hearts and Souls of the Gedō Mazō.
"You realize that you'll not be getting away this time, yes?" I asked, both out of curiosity and to buy time. Time to think, time to gather Darkness, time to ready incredibly destructive spells...
Why?
What was his fucking plan here? He knows I can track the Gedō Mazō, why the actual fuck would he seal that thing inside him?
What trick did he have up his sleeve? What trick did he think he had up his sleeve?
I watched him closely, making sure to keep an eye both on his Heart, and on the Chakra that was flowing from him.
If his Paths did anything...
And since he's here, where's Konan?
Oh.
Over there.
"I didn't intend on needing to." He answered.
If I rip the Gedō Mazō out of him, will he die a slow death like a Jinchuuriki would?
"Bold words." He was definitely planning something.
Inside the seal that kept the rest of me contained, I pulled out a Gummi Block.
If he wanted to try something, I wanted to be prepared for anything...
There! A twinge on the Chakra that flowed from him, two of the strings...
One suddenly shot upwards, leading into the air-
Oh, fucking really?
I vanished again, tracing the string of Chakra and reappearing in the sky; slightly in front of the Animal Path.
The Deidara-lookalike male one, not the short female one.
Below, Nagato himself rushed forwards, heading directly for the village.
If I killed this Path, would Nagato himself be able to use the Animal Path's abilities?
It...
Was irrelevant. If this one survived, all the others would be able to get in without warning.
And speaking of warnings...
I let go of the spell I'd been charging.
An explosion boomed in the skies of Konohagakure, considerable power and acrid black smoke unmissable in the day-time.
Caution bloomed within the Hearts of people within Konoha, exactly my intention. I didn't care if the Animal Path survived it or not, either it did and the explosion would redirect it away from Konoha, or it wouldn't in which case there was no problem anyway.
Now then-
I vanished again, reappearing inside Hiruzen's office.
"Nagato's about to attack." I wasted no time in explaining. "North gate, sound the alarm."
I noticed him rushing into action before slipping away into a Corridor of Darkness again.
This time, however, I didn't immediately come back out.
Instead, my eyes closed-
And opened again to view the inside of the Sage's seal.
Time to get out.
I plunged the Gummi Block downwards, towards the 'bottom' of the seal, really just the side closest to the plaque that the seal was etched on.
It passed through the barrier easily, unobstructed. A moment later, so did I, racing Darkness through the Gummi Block in the form of spiked tendrils.
Tendrils which I immediately used to skewer the plaque that sealed me, shatter the plaque and ruining the seal written on it.
And like that; freedom.
The dimensional bubble collapsed, and I vanished into a Corridor of Darkness, leaving behind a hall of confused Jonin.
I arrived at my destination a moment later, entering the Corridor of Darkness where my Wisp was.
I absorbed it quickly, once again leaving myself with a single body.
Ah~
Alright, time to go.
Twin black orbs appeared in my hands, right before I shot out of the Corridor of Darkness.
Nagato, currently engaged in combat with Hiruzen, leaped to the side as the latter slammed down the Adamantine Staff on his head, missing only by the barest margins as the old man demonstrated why he'd lived long enough to retire.
I spared a quick glance around the village, immediately noting the clusterfuck of Hearts and emotions split into roughly six groups.
Shikaku, Chouza, and Inoichi were off in that direction, accompanied by a number of other members of their respective clans. A thread of Chakra from Nagato told me there was a Path fighting them, but which one, I didn't know.
Tsume, Hana, a few other Inuzuka were fighting, but, again, didn't know who.
An assload of ANBU over there were currently ganging on some unfortunate Path.
That was Kakashi there, and... Kuroko Uchiha, alongside three other members of the Uchiha Clan, and, if I'm not mistaken, that's Hiashi with them, which would mean those other two ninja were probably Hyuuga.
Jiraiya and Tsunade were working together against another Path. Both were considerably far away from the village, possibly to limit collateral.
Actually, everybody was quite far away. Nobody was fighting within the village itself. Early warning benefits?
Shibi and Shino were over there, accompanied by a few more ninja, engaging Konan; who, if the feelings inside her Heart were any indication, was not enjoying her current situation.
Right. Everybody had done the smart thing and had ganged up on all the Paths.
Which wasn't strange at all, considering there were roughly a hundred times as many Jonin as there were invaders. Eight to eight hundred odds were not good odds unless you were bullshit powerful.
Eight?
Only six groups, and Hiruzen's here fighting alone.
Shit, did I actually kill the Animal Path?
Ah, doesn't matter.
With a crackling roar of thunder, I unleashed the lightning upon Nagato.