Pre-Chapter AN: Here we go. New chapter. This one really gets us started on the Gaara vs Pain fight, which is going to be the climax of this arc of the story so I'm really looking forward to seeing how you enjoy it. After reading this, you can either wait till next week for the next chapter or read the next two on pa-treon right now and keep reading as I write. For the pa-treon, you can remove the hyphen between pa and treon and google it then search for my username- Oghenevwogaga. Or you could copy the link in my bio and remove the spaces before pasting in your address bar.
Have fun with this- And also, in case you haven't checked out my other story (One Thousand Hands), then please do so. It's set in the Naruto Universe as well and is an SI into an OC Grandson of Hashirama with a Hyuga mother. I guarantee you'll love it.
"Gaara of the Desert, Jinchuriki of the Ichibi no Tanuki" I looked around me, counting the people who surrounded me. Not people necessarily. I'd hesitate to use that word to refer to the glorified puppets that were the Six paths of Pain. It was an impressive jutsu, yes. Even more so to people like me who understood just how puppeteering worked. At least Suna puppet control. He could use. This jutsu of his from miles away. No chakra strings, no way to get access to him unless you had sage mode has on your side.
Doujutsu were just fucking cheating, man. I looked between the animated corpses, counting them. Five. That means one was missing. One with a power that I wouldn't know. I knew the one in the centre was Tendo, but that was as much as I remembered from the anime. Wasn't the one who summoned shit a woman? They all seemed to be male to my eyes. Was that the one missing? The bald one. That was Shurado, right. I remembered the panel of him opening his head to fire some powerful canon from the series, so that had to be him. Was Jigokudō long haired or short haired? And Nintendo? What about Gakido? There was no way for me to tell without fighting them and finding out.
I turned to the boy beside me, and noticed him slowly inching his way so he was hiding behind my form. Smart. I wasn't about to let him get killed. I'd quite liked his character from the anime, and I liked the way he'd betrayed his Kage. Something about the plan just reminded me of myself.
"Surrender yourself to me for pain has come for you" All voices spoke as one. Creepy.
"Do people normally get scared when you do that?" I asked with mirth in my voice. This was fine. This was perfectly fine. Pain was a threat I'd spent years worrying about. In a lot of ways, I'd spent more time worrying about him than Madara. I had a million and one plans ready for the second he showed himself through these puppets of his. I could deal with him.
I just had to find the last one. I summoned Dark Sister to my grip with a single movement and smiled at the silence my words caused.
"Do you think yourself amusing, Ant?" Tendo asked alone this time.
"Not really. I just find this entire thing very comedic. There's a bug I'm chasing, but I can spare the time to deal with you first. So which one of you will feel my blade first?" I pointed my sword right at Yahiko's body when I said that. I felt very confident about this fight. I'd finally figured it out a month ago. The seal that made this entire thing a formality of a fight. And then I had both senjutsu and Bijou mode to lean into if the seal failed. I doubted it was likely.
The only reason I wasn't already attacking was that I needed the Sixth one to show up. Either that, or I needed to know for certain what each of them did. If the sixth one turned out to be the Naraka Path, Jigokudō, then all my efforts could wind up being for nothing because he'd be able to bring the rest of them back to life in virtually no time.
"You will die for your impudence. Normally, this is only a duty to me, but I will enjoy ripping the tailed beast from your body." Tendo said, and the rest of them moved in on the attack.
First things first, I turned behind me and pushed Shikamaru away, sending his body flying into my sand mausoleum that stood where the Hokage tower once did. Sand from my gourd poured over his position to hide and protect him. The one from the left reached me first. I bent down to avoid a powerful punch. When I rose, it was with the intention of slicing through his hand with my blade, but the hand of the large bald man transformed into a blade that clanged against my own. Shurado. It was good to have confirmation.
I jumped backwards to prevent being pincered as the next one appeared on the scene with a metal rod in hand. The metal rods could mess up chakra control, I remembered. Good thing I wasn't planning on getting stabbed by them in the first place. I reached out to some iron sand around me and forced the mass to slam into both of them as they jumped at me.
One of them placed a hand on the sand, and I felt my control over it disappear as it collapsed into a useless clump on the floor. Gakido. Two down, I thought to myself. I ran at Gakido directly. He would be annoying since most of my arsenal was ninjutsu, and he was the one who could make all of that useless.
Another one jumped and landed between me and Gakido, slamming its hands on the floor. The Rhino with purple ringed eyes appeared in a puff of smoke and wasted no time in running right at me. I jumped in the air for a second or so, allowing the beast's charge to miss, before I stopped myself and landed right on its head. Funnelling chakra into Dark Sister, I stabbed down with the blade, allowing wind chakra flow to extend it far enough for it to go straight through the creature's entire brain. I pulled the blade out, deactivating the wind flow as the Rhino began to fall to its death. Another puff of smoke appeared, but this time I dove right in the middle of the dog's two heads, allowing them to snap at thin air as they failed to get at me before I was in front of Chikushōdō.
The body jumped backwards, and I feigned chasing it before suddenly shifting my lower body into sand and allowing to carry me past the animal path and right at my target. Gakido swiped at me with his black rod, and I blocked with Dark Sister, before making a single movement Dragon had taught, using the blade to disarm him of his own. Pain had clearly failed to study Kenjutsu properly. I moved before any of them could interfere and rushed it with a flood of chakra enhanced speed. In less than a second, Dark Sister was in his skull.
"You know more about my technique than you should" Tendo spoke now. There was a malice in his tone that wasn't there previously. He was pissed to see one of his own killed so easily. The others swarmed me to force me away from the body, but I covered it in sand as I jumped backwards with it. They landed at my previous position.
"Universal Pull" Tendo said with an outstretched hand. I felt it then. An irresistible force pulling me towards him. Me and the sand coffin containing one of his most useful paths. I flooded my body with Shukaku's chakra and manifested his seal around my arm before I slammed them on the sand coffin as it flew towards him. As for myself, I wrapped my entire lower body in hyper-dense sand that didn't let me move an inch.
Suddenly, one body jumped to join the others. Over its shoulder was a familiar old body. I guess I wasn't the only one out for Danzo.
With that question answered, there now stood five of them before me. Pain stared at the sand coffin containing one of his bodies, careful not to touch it. Too careful. Too cautious. I guess Zetsu had been watching me for a while. Shame. I made the thing explode either way. When the smoke cleared, I was unsurprised to find the rest of the paths standing unscathed before me. All five remaining ones.
"I will enjoy finding out where you got the information you have" Tendo spoke, and I smiled. Chikushudo slammed its palms on the ground again, summoning both a giant panda and a centipede at once. The panda hung back, while both the centipede and dog charged at me. I could remember from the anime that the dog had some hydrae like power. I just couldn't tell whether that related to splitting its body or its head if it was damaged. It didn't matter, either way. I would just deal with so throughly that neither would be an option. Without even moving, I commanded the sand all around me to rise in one big wave that threatened to swallow both creatures and then envelope the rest of the paths.
I felt the sand scatter to the winds against my will in the face of Tendo's almighty push. But that didn't matter. His technique had a cooldown. Mine didn't. My sand was too scattered to gather before they would be upon me, but thankfully my dear father had been kind enough to leave behind an appropriate amount of golden dust. Enough golden dust to encase both creatures completely. I clenched my fists, intoning out loud, "Magnet Release: Golden Shower", golden dust squeezed in on itself, crushing both creatures back to the summoning realm. I wasn't going to let the other paths of pain get at me, as I just made a cross symbol with my hands.
Two shadow clones formed behind me, and then they both jumped away.
"Whatever aid you summon will share your fate, Gaara of the Desert. You are a powerful shinobi, but you remain just that. A shinobi. I myself am a god" he said grandiosely. The anime really understated how much Pain enjoyed hearing the sound of his own voice.
I reached into my seal for Shukaku, to find that he had gathered a sufficient amount of nature energy, and then I did it. I allowed the natural energy flow into my body in the only form in which I could use it. I wasn't a sage. Far from it, in fact. But that didn't mean that I couldn't use Senjutsu or Sage mode itself. The idea came from Orochimaru and his curse seals. Shukaku was the originator of cursed seals in general, either way. So I had him gather nature energy for me. When I'd first tried just introducing that energy to my system and then consciously balancing it out with my own chakra to form senjutsu chakra, I'd failed woefully and almost got myself killed.
In the end, I decided that it was too risky to attempt to learn it with the time I had, so I allowed Shukaku to balance the nature energy with his own chakra to create Senjutsu chakra, and then that chakra was what was pumped into my bloodstream. It took all my stats to a previously unseen level, removing most of my limits, and making me more powerful than I'd ever felt. It was even better than taking Shukaku's power into myself and executing a bijou transformation. And in my own admittedly biased opinion, it made me the coolest looking sage out there.
The same curse marks that covered Shukaku's form now covered mine. They contrasted heavily with my pale skin and red hair. And then my eyes. The right one turned from teal into a bright yellow that I knew would glow in the dark. While my left eye remained with the sharingan in the centre, but it saw itself brighten just a shade or two, and it gained an additional tomoe. One that looked like a curse mark.
Transformation complete, I could feel Pain's movements without even looking at him. I could feel the plan he was forming to tighten the noose around my head. I reached up and caught the punch aimed at my head by Shurado. He strained against my grip, but I did not allow him to budge. I dragged him into me and lashed out with a devastating headbutt. A headbutt he met with glee. His body strained before my strength, but he was doing a good job of holding on for the ride.
Two more arms formed at his side and punched into my face quicker than I could react. The punches met a brick wall. I didn't budge with Senjutsu enhanced durability. I lashed out with a return punch of my own, enjoying the feeling of bone cracking beneath my fist. The hands in front of my face began shifting into canons. I felt another path running towards me with an outstretched arm, thoroughly covering my only viable path of retreat. Good thing I wouldn't need to be retreating in the end. I couldn't sustain sage mode while shifting my form into sand for some reason, so I can to pick a solution different from my first instinct.
In fact, I ended up going with the option I almost never chose when it came to taijutsu- overwhelming force. I just wasn't strong enough against most opponents to risk it. Now, I was. I slammed my head into his. Once, and then twice. He stumbled backwards and I used the opportunity to separate our hands and allowed dark sister appear in my left hand. I split the first canon in twain as he levelled it at me, and for the second, I pretended to be caught by surprise and allowed him to fire. Of course, there was no discharge from the canon. It was completely blocked by iron sand. The arm and much of Shurado's midsection blew up from the accumulated power.
Thanks for the idea, Shino. I thought with a laugh before I pressed in to take advantage of my position against Shurado. It jumped backwards, allowing the panda to cover its retreat by smashing down on my position with a giant hardened punch. A punch that I caught above me. Sage strength was no joke. It felt like I could lift the panda. And I did. I grabbed a hold of its knuckle, and instead of merely stopping his punch from landing, I heaved and tossed him into the air.
I weaved two hand seals and took a deep breath. "Wind Release: Sand Buckshot"
My sand ripped through the panda, enhanced by wind release, to the point that it just ignored the creature's hardened skin and sent it back to the summoning realm. I felt it then. The second the barrier went up. I also had proof of it from one of my clones, who popped to send the message back to me. The effect was almost instant. All five surviving paths of Pain froze in place. They didn't move. And one by one, they fell to the floor. Not keen on wasting time to find out what Nagato would do after losing touch with all his paths, I walked up to one and plucked out the black rod in its nose. I would keep that for sensing Nagato later.
With that done, I got to work on preparing them for sealing. I'd prepared a special kind of storage seal that rejected all intrusion of external chakra once it was active. Instead, the scroll had a timer set for 72 hours and would release whatever it contained once that time was up. That meant there was no way Nagato would be able to interface with them while they were sealed. In 72 hours, I'd be back in Suna and Nagato would be very dead. It was just the way of things.
I had my final clone drop the barrier once I finished sealing the bodies up. I also took custody of Danzo's body as well. There were still a few intact sharingan on that body, so Pain had somehow managed to kill him without Izanagi coming into play. That meant I had a few sharingan in my custody, as well as Shisui Uchiha's Mangekyou sharingan and Hashirama cells on top of that. I'd come out the undisputed winner of this whole mess. Now I just had to find Nagato and pluck the Rinnegan from his skull before seeking whatever poor fool Danzo saddled with Edo Tensei, killing them, and then putting Orochimaru down for good to bring this entire mess to an end. A perfect ending.
I walked out of the range the barrier had once covered, heading towards the outskirts of the village to begin tracking down Nagato. At least that was the plan. The second I jumped into the air, I felt something slam into me. Something large. And definitely invisible. I allowed the force push me to the ground, and reached out for the invisible creature with my sand. With a hold on it, I did not foresee its mouth opening and a red haired man jumping out with a black rod aimed at my heart. Sage mode still gave me ample time to react, however, and Dark Sister met the rod in a clash of sparks. Whatever chakra I tried funnelling into her to increase her cutting power failed to find purchase against whatever strange metal then rod was made up of.
My eyes met his. The purple ringed gaze of the Rinnegan was narrowed as Nagato looked at me with visible irritation. Like I was a persistent stain on his boot that he couldn't find a way to get rid of. "You killed my paths. Some sort of barrier seal that prevented chakra from entering into it. That means you knew how my technique worked. With no idea of anything, you knew enough to defeat my technique. And just now, you were surprised to see me. Not surprised to see me in general, but to see me healthy and attacking you. You knew of my former state. Your eyes give you away. No lies can survive the gaze of God. Tell me, Subaku no Gaara, was it Madara who prepared you to face me?" What?
He wasn't joking. I could tell from his face that he was actually serious about the question, and that was the fact that made me laugh out loud. A fact that did not please him at all. Lips pressed into a thin grimace, he raised one hand right at me. He didn't utter the words, but I felt like my entire body had just been swatted like a fly by a fly swatter as I was thrown backwards by the gravitational force of the Rinnegan's deva path. I flew through building after building as much of my surroundings were similarly battered. Nothing managed to penetrate my skin thanks to sage enhanced durability, but it was one hell of a trip.
When I finally came to stop, I found him looking at me from above. He was just floating in the air there. I'd actually forgotten that the bastard could fly. The thought of standing up did not cross my mind before he pointed his hand at me again. This time, the force was much more effective, pushing me deeper and deeper into the ground. Basically forming a crater out of my body with me at the very epicentre. How annoying. After the attack had finally run its course, I wasted no time in getting the hell out of dodge and jumping out of the crater. I remembered the detail from the anime.
5,4,3… I tried to count in my head, but I suddenly felt a force pulling me right at him. The fuck? I still had two seconds. I twisted in position. At least his gravity powers allowed me to do that much, and brought Dark Sister to bear. The blade flashed out once I reached him, but he leaned out of the way, allowing me to pass him by and activated another almighty push, sending me to the ground once more. Fuck. Fuck everything. At least, this time, I could tell the attack was much weaker. I rolled out of the way of a follow-up and sent two shuriken from my inventory towards his eyes. A single hand seal turned two shuriken into dozens. He flipped his hand out again and sent the shurinken flying back where they'd come.
That was what I was waiting for. I jumped through the hail, trusting sage mode to prevent me from getting hurt, and got close enough to him that I was able to see his eyes widen in shock. It mattered little, however, because he raised a hand. Surely, Almighty Push, couldn't be spammed like that. I was right, in the end. But I'd failed to consider that he had half a dozen other powers to choose from. His arm became a fucking missile launcher. Fuck me.
Sand poured from my inventory, covering me entirely and shielding me from the explosions. I sent the same sand reaching for him, careful to avoid his grasping hands, but he just almighty pushed everything away with his Deva Path power. That was the most annoying ability he had. It hadn't given me a second to think. A second to even panic about how the fuck he was somehow fully healed and how I'd caused that to happen.
I'd decided to blame Danzo in the end. Everything was Danzo's fault, one way or another. I pulled more sand out of my inventory. I made a platform to stand on since I couldn't transform in sage mode for some reason and I sent more and more sand at Nagato. Whatever he did, more sand came. He summoned a Crane since his powers only allowed him to float but not fly and manoeuvre. He dodged out of the way of the sand and when it got too close, he pushed everything away. The only problem was that it only took me a few seconds to get the sand back. And even worse for him, his pushes were getting weaker. It couldn't be a chakra thing, I knew. So it had to be some sort of hard cap on the power. I could tell when he finally crossed the threshold between irritated and pissed.
He stopped using his gravity powers and instead focused on the crane, trying to get it to outfly my grasping tendrils. Foolish. I had sand aplenty. And thanks to some things I'd learned about magnet release and how it related to my own powers, I could drop the density of my sand as I wished to make it move even faster. I even had Onoki's super heavyweight boulder technique to help. I kept a hand on my platform, and make sure that I had contact with the sand chasing him. It all flowed from my inventory into the platform and then separated in two large masses, connected to my platform by separate tendrils that chased him through the sky. Sensing himself getting bogged down, he turned his missile launcher arm towards the approaching sand again. I created pockets within the sand, allowing the sand to swallow and choke down the individual missile heads without sending everything else into a disorganised mess. He transformed his other hand, sending multiple salvos of missiles at me.
Kakashi's sharingan easily tracked each one as they flew through the air and moved my sand in accordance. He stood still for a second as his arm transformed again, and I took the chance. "_Kamui"_ I aimed to remove his head from his body, but the second the jutsu began, he snapped his eyes right to me and reached towards the origin point of the spaced time distortion with one of his hands. I felt the jutsu vanish with a massive chunk of chakra. Gakido. He'd absorbed it somehow. Fuck.
I kept my sand chasing him, and finally struck gold. A tendril that I'd split off from one of the two large masses latched on to his crane's leg, arresting his momentum. The rest of my sand wasted no time converging on his position. He jumped off the crane and began to fly under his own power. He'd turned his legs into jets that allowed him to fly under his own power.
He turned to me and lifted both hands. Every sense I had immediately went haywire.
A/N; It's a bit of a time jump backwards since Tsunade's stuff happens after all this, but I didn't just want to start with Nagato and Gaara fighting without showing how we got here. Slightly shorter chapter than usual. I think I somehow sprained my wrist or something while I'd been working on this. It hurt something fierce when I tried to type. As I said earlier, next chapter comes up next week or skip the wait and read the next two along with daily uploads on pa-treon. For the pa-treon, you can remove the hyphen between pa and treon and google it then search for my username- Oghenevwogaga. Or you could copy the link in my bio and remove the spaces before pasting in your address bar.