End of Pain

Killing his leader would be easier said than done of course. The man's abilities were both illusive and legendary, his eyes the rumoured inheritance of the sage's power, control over his city so powerful people called him God and his helpers' angles. That wasn't to mention the large number of S ranked missing surrounding him, high powered allies in higher places.

Itachi had come prepared though. He spent a large amount of his adolescent and the rest of his adult life cataloguing and documenting the powers and weaknesses of each Akatsuki member. Of course, he would only need to kill the few in the base, defeat pain, and he would be done. By his estimation, Madara was off manipulating people behind the scenes, black zetsu was with him, Sasori had been killed trying to invade Suna, Hidan and Kazuku were dead, and so the only ones he had to fight were Deidara, Konan, and Pain.

Deidara was easy, Konan was unpredictable but he would beat her eventually, even if he did have to use Izanagi, and Pain was the wildcard. However, he was smart enough, and his eyes strong enough, to know that the puppets were controlled by a main body, one he had never seen before, from his estimations lying at the top of the Akatsuki tower. Convenient considering their main base was a few floors from the peak.

Despite that, he knew he had little chance. Still, Akatsuki was stronger than he could handle. He had hoped when Sasuke killed him, he'd be able to use his eyes and the mangyeko to kill them, but alas, he had to settle. Most likely, his partner would outlive him, and fall soon later. It wouldn't be an easy fight, and even with that struggle he would still lose, but Itachi didn't care anymore.

Kisame came from behind, opening the door for his increasingly frail body. He wanted to tie up loose ends of course, but the rinnegan of legend, that he knew of a fact Pain had from his conversations with Madara, would save him. He would be given life, and life was a powerful thing. Once he had it, he could find Uzumaki, and end him. Fix his mistake.

Itachi still didn't trust his partner, but he could predict him, understand him, and that was good enough. For so long Itachi had wanted to bring down Akatsuki, but he was always too weak, to apprehensive rather, to go for it, but with the man by his side and his plan, he knew he had a chance. If he failed here, he knew Sasuke would go unavenged. In no world was he going to let that happen.

They entered the elevator both, and the heat seemed to rise, tension and paranoia filtering through his thoughts as the cage rose and rose. Pain was strong, too strong for him to win against through ordinary means. All he had was a chance, that he would have to take advantage of, attack the leader where he was most vulnerable.

The door entered and they left soon after, entering the lodging area for the multiple Akatsuki members. Itachi always hated staying here, too musty and dangerous, but he put up with it for the purpose of the mission. Deidara was as expected sitting like normal on one of the bare chairs dotted about, but surprisingly Konan was stood, waiting for them. Perfect posture and haughty appearance like always, unageing and unchanging.

"Pain is taking care of an intruder."

An opening. He needed to play it cool then.

"Does he need any assistance?"

"Our God explicitly told me he wanted to handle it himself."

Interesting. The fake Itachi, the liar, would ask, and so the real one responded in turn.

"Who is it?"

The blue haired woman hesitated. Itachi's well trained ears heard an explosion, well across the city.

"Jiraiya. The sannin."

Even Deidara looked stunned at that. "That guy? Let's hope Pain wins, yeah?"

It was an opportunity, the best one they were ever going to get.

All it would take is Deidara being taken out, Kisame holding up Konan, and Itachi finding the source of Pain's power, and he could win.

There was silence, as the tension of the room raised and raised. If nobody was keeping secrets, It would be a confusing display of 4 people waiting around whilst their leader was in a fight, but Konan had probably suspected him for weaks, Deidara didn't ever trust Itachi, and Kisame knew a fight was going to happen. Itachi flexed his hands, the joints aching, failing alongside the rest of his body.

It was now or never.

Chakra flushed up from his core, near his heart, hurting and searing as it slammed into his eye, the sharingan blossoming into a kaleidoscopic pattern, pain and power shooting through. In an instance, flame was made in its vision, igniting black fire across Deidara's face, melting skin in mere seconds a horrendous scream billowing from the mad bomber's mouth.

Before the solitary line of blood had even begun to drip down his face Konan had tossed a lethal array of card shaped razors at him, too fast for him to dodge. Before they could hit though, a blade deflected them, Kisame standing in front, an unsaid statement that he would take care of the older woman.

Itachi thanked him with a pat on the shoulder, rushing as quickly as his burning lungs and worn out chakra system let him, body flicker after body flicker in an imitation of his long dead cousin, one after another, smashing through the glass at one end of the building, ducking under more of Konan's attacks, flipping onto the side, and flickering up more and more.

The Amaterasu took it out of him but dealing with Deidara first was needed. He was unpredictable, and danger close could have hurt the rinnegan Itachi wanted. Konan was more of a threat, but could be dealt with, and easily distracted considering her fervour for her 'God'. He was getting more and more tired by the second, but he would live. He had to.

In the reflection of the glass he was stood on, Itachi caught a flicker of movement, his body forcing itself to contort and flip out the way of another attack from the angel, paper lance smashing through glass and barely missing him. She was there, flying above, manoeuvrability much better than his, so to limit her movement, Itachi resorted to launching a great fireball at her. Kisame, following them both from below, fired a water bullet aiming at the same place, such that when Konan inevitably dodged they impacted together, creating a cloud of steam. As strong as Konan's mobility was, soaked paper is harder to manipulate through, especially when it is saturated with chakra. She would struggle to follow now, so Itachi turned, completing his accent, smashing through the metal wall with an excessive display of strength, trusting Kisame to handle Konan.

His body rushed into the opening, allowing him access to the hold where a red haired figure was leaning over, attached to a confusing machine, spikes of metal poking through his body painfully in a grotesque statue of sorts. For a moment Itachi thought this another puppet of Pain, that thought was dismissed when he saw his face, the glow from his eyes stronger and more lifelike than the Deva path's body had ever been.

With the Uchiha caught in shock and confusion, the figure managed to slowly raise his hands, pulling Itachi towards him using gravitational manipulation, several spikes lengthening to pierce the interloper's body. Itachi summoned his Susanoo, the Yata mirror managing to block them as the powerful forces glanced of each other with a painful ring. Right next to the Uzumaki now, Itachi unsummoned his Susanno, banking on the frailness of the man applying to his reactions too, as he simply cut across the neck of the man, killing him instantly.

The blood dripped down, a clear sign of success, as the man's eyes wilted, purple glow fading from his steel ringed eyes. Itachi was tired, but he could recognize how lucky he was to have won in that way he did, possibly even fast enough to save Jiraya's life.

Then a shrill, anguished scream of "No!" came from behind, high and sad and ear piercing. Itachi should have put up his Susanoo the moment the woman vocalised her pain, but it was too similar to his memories of that blood soaked night of familiar betrayal, and he was punished for his foolishness by a chest full of razor sharp cards the moment he completed his turn, only managing to deflect a few from his neck with his tanto. Konan, had her hand outstretched, aimed at Itachi, her attack hitting true, her love avenged.

Then soon after, her grief was ended by Kisame swiping Samehada across her head, cleaving her top half to bits, leaving only her legs and abs kneeling on the cold steel floor. The man was scratched but mostly fine, far away from the near death Itachi was feeling. Kisame rushed to his partner, pulling the younger man's body towards him.

"Idiot, getting hit by an attack like that." The man's voice was detached, as if he was talking to Itachi when they had first become partners, not holding the near dead 20 year old's near corpse.

Itachi would have let himself die, but he was so close to winning that he needed to try something that would probably have killed him anyway.

His body shimmered as almost the rest of his chakra brimmed to the surface, and a solitary eye went blind, before he disappeared from Kisame's grasp. The fish man was stunned, believing himself to have been entrapped by one of Itachi's genjutsu, before being startled by a hand on his back.

"You're right."

Itachi stood, alive and well, in front of the man who was just holding him.

"W-What?"

Itachi walked calmly to the body now leaking blood like a waterfall, pulling the head up, getting a clear look at the rinnegan both with his one barely working eye.

"I shouldn't have gotten hit by that. Now this is going to be more difficult."

Then he ripped the right eye from its socket, depositing it in a preprepared bag, doing the same with the left before holding it to his eye instead, tossing the bag back into sealed storage, and standing up, the orb still floating in his hand.

"This was your plan all along, wasn't it?"

The Uchiha nodded.

"My only option really."

Kisame shook his head and smirked. "This'll let you live, then?"

"The rinnegan is said to even be able to restore the dead to life." Itachi stated, before he ripped his blind eye from its socket.

…

Itachi, Kisame noted, was interesting. Since he was young the fishman had always know how to read in between the lines, and he could tell Itachi was always hiding something, though he could never figure out what. He figured, and he assumed this was by design, that it was a sadism, a psychopathic glee in killing, which would be the entire reason he did anything, but as time went by he noted how calm and collected and cold the boy and eventually man was, and how it didn't fit with the image of a person blood running so hot he'd kill his entire clan for bloodlust.

It made more sense when Kisame realised the man was sick. Terminal, and he hadn't went to a medic. The two could have found Tsunade when they found out a few years ago but Itachi said no and that was that. When Kisame realised it was because he wanted to die, he though the Uchiha weak. When he realised that he tortured his brother so he would be the one to kill him, he realised how strong he really was. Living with that burden for so long is so ridiculous, just so your loved one can end you and grow stronger from it.

Still, even now, he was hiding things, talking to Madara in secret like he always did. The plan he made, elaborate and insane and brilliant, would continue to annoy him until the complete thing was explained to him. He needed to know.

Itachi returned, hand covering one eye and an eyepatch covering the other. He walked as if he wasn't blind, the ninja planning for even the circumstance where he is deprived of his most powerful weapon, his eyes. Insanity.

"No more lies Itachi. Tell me what you are planning, now."

The man smirked as he removed his hand, revealing the rinnegan placed in its socket. His face looked more flushed with life, his body stronger. He looked like he was in his prime.

"Simple Kisame. We kill Naruto Uzumaki."

…

A/N: Another chapter. Again, this was cut from the last chapter because it would have been too long.

ALSO 100 FUCKING REVIEWS AYO. Honestly the entire reason I made this fanfiction was to see if I could actually make it to 100 reviews, and I have, so that's pretty good. Thank you all for deciding to stick with me during this whole thing.

Anyway, to the actual chap, Itachi wins because Pain was busy fighting Jiraya, and got attacked where he was most vulnerable. In a one-on-one fight, Itachi would lose easily, but this wasn't a one on one fight, it was Itachi bullshitting as quickly as possible. If you are wondering why Nagato didn't just shinra tensei Itachi, he would have killed himself. It was a misstep done because he was both unused to fighting with his own body, panicking, distracted, and didn't realised Itachi's strengths in the moment. Itachi still got his eye taken away, which is pretty bad, but hey, it will be important in the future. Very.

Also yes, Itachi with rinnegan. The idea is he uses it to heal himself, as his proximity with Sasuke makes him more compatible, and gains a huge power boost as well. Disclaimer is that he is still on equal grounds as Naruto because he has:

Great physical strength

Great jutsu ability

Special techniques

Good combat ability

Healing factor (now stronger because of kyuubi assimilation)

8 gates

Wood release

9 tails chakra cloak

Sage mode

Which makes him really strong straight up. In fact, since Itachi's chakra is still limited, he is straight up more powerful than Itachi, but in exchange Itachi has more robust abilities and is smarter, meaning he is more effective at using those abilities. Which is fun.

If you think Itachi should have lost, I do to, but Obito was busy (IMPORTANT) and everyone was occupied (most with being dead, Konan with kisame, Pain with jiraya)

A bunch of things that happened here will be important. Just imagine it. Also, next chapter will be the battle. Which will be long. As in multiple chapters long.

Anway review read thanks blah blah blah, cya.