[Author-Notes: Sorry for another late chapter. I've been feeling pretty demotivated about a lot of things, not just writing. There are parts of this chapter that I know people might complain about, but oh well.]

May 1st 2005:

Massive splintered jagged bones jutted out along the forest from a clearing in the western section of Konoha. Time-worn piles of cut trees encircled Sukuna and his team. Sukuna touched one of the enormous blade-like bones next to him and turned back to his teammates.

"What the hell happened here?!" Suigetsu scanned the forested surroundings in shock. "Kimimaro, aren't these your bones?"

"Yes." Kimimaro was lost in thought. "This was where Sukuna and I first battled. Orochimaru wanted me to kill him and take his corpse back to him so that he could experiment on his bloodline limit."

"That's how you met?" Utakata lifted an interested eye-brow. "I've never asked this. But how did Sukuna recruit the two of you?"

"I beat the crap out of both of them." Sukuna grinned. "Kimimaro managed to make way more of those massive bones you've seen, but my Domain-Expansion destroyed a whole bunch of them."

"You wanna have a rematch?!" Suigetsu shook his fist in annoyance. "Besides, your bloodline limit is cheating! You can summon freaky creatures from the shadows, reattach your limbs, regenerate organs, control blood, and make invisible slashes! I would have beaten you otherwise."

"Someone sounds salty."

"Oh, shut your trap!"

"Why did you bring us here, Sukuna?" Kimimaro cut in, looking at his team leader. "You're not the type who goes down memory lane much."

"True." Sukuna seated himself on a flat-surfaced stone, unsealed an apple from a storage scroll, and bit into it. "Like Suigetsu mentioned, I can summon 'freaky creatures' from the shadows." He flipped his apple into his other hand. "But there's one I haven't tamed yet."

"I've never understood that ability of yours." Utakata leaned against a large bone shard. "When I first saw them, I assumed they were animals you got from some kind of summoning contract. The more I learned about your abilities, though, the more I realized it wasn't that."

"Yeah." Sukuna chewed the apple in his mouth. "My 'mutated chakra' isn't really chakra. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to sign a summoning contract in exchange for summoning whatever animals."

"So what is this tenth creature of yours?" Kimimaro asked him. "And why haven't you tamed it yet?"

"I'm not sure myself." Sukuna responded. 'I was kind of procrastinating on it. But I know I'll have to tame Mahoraga. Pain will make his move.'

'Even with Mahoraga, though, I'm not sure if I could beat him.' Sukuna finished his apple. 'But I'm done with hesitation and fears of what-ifs.'

Hopping off of the stone, Sukuna took his teammates into the middle of the clearing and gestured his hand at Utakata. "Prepare some barrier seals." Sukuna glanced at Suigetsu and Kimimaro. "You two stand guard. Utakata will have to maintain the seals and I don't want any distractions from those guards the village assigned us."

"No matter what — don't disturb me."

Utakata pulled out several scrolls, a pot of ink, and a quill from a leather pouch attached to his waist. Unrolling his scrolls, he dipped his quill in ink and illustrated a few seals onto them. Once the scrolls were set around the clearing, Utakata cast a hand-sign and summoned a domed yellow barricade over Sukuna. Heading out of the clearing, Kimimaro went to stand between a few trees. Suigetsu wandered off.

'Perfect.' Sukuna performed a hand-seal. A Curtain enfolded the entire clearing and forest. 'Just for extra measure.'

He lowered his hand, curled it into a fist, and flexed his clawed fingers. Closing his four crimson eyes and opening them, Sukuna positioned one hand over his second hand. "With this treasure, I summon Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga…"

(-)

The Six Paths of Pain and Konan stood outside of Konoha's walls. Black-Zetsu emerged from the soil and peered at them with his eerie yellow eyes.

"The six-tails settled into the village yesterday." Black-Zetsu rasped out. "But the nine-tails has been taken elsewhere. I've not seen nor sensed any sign of him around the Leaf."

"How futile." Tendo-Pain murmured. "Hiding their primary Jinchuriki from us will not save them from feeling the pain that their foolish actions will result in."

"Do not be so foolhardy." Black-Zetsu grunted. "We do not have time to spare to wait for the six-tails to reform if its vessel is killed…"

"That much we understand." Konan answered. A chilly breeze swept through the area and her Akatsuki cloak fluttered. "Attacking the Hidden-Leaf might be able to lure Naruto Uzumaki out of his hiding place."

"You must first ascertain where Naruto Uzumaki has been taken." Black-Zetsu said. "Konoha will not be cowed if you give them no reason to be."

Tendo-Pain levelled his Rinnegan upon Black-Zetsu. "There is no creature in this world that will escape my divine wrath." He walked onwards. "Pain is what binds us and it shall be pain that ends them."

(-)

Kimimaro teetered when a massive shock-wave exploded from the southern and eastern sections of Konoha. Regaining his balance, he glanced into the clearing and abandoned his post at its entrance.

'What was that?'

Countless more shock-waves and sonic-booms spread across Konoha and destroyed numerous parts of it. Civilians fled their homes and Shinobi of all ranks escorted them into the emergency bunkers. A gigantic centipede with ringed purple eyes snaked through the streets.

'Those eyes!' Kimimaro stopped in shock. 'I've seen them once!'

In his younger years, Kimimaro had grown curious about some of Orochimaru's research topics and had snagged an old book from a table in his laboratory. The huge centipede had the same eyes that had been illustrated in Orochimaru's book. 'The fabled Rinnegan?!'

A few Konoha-Chunin surrounded it, performed hand-signs, and trapped the creature in a rock cage. However, it took seconds for the centipede to break out of its cage and squash them to death. Chunks of flesh and bone were splattered along a road, but the centipede just scuttled on and on and crushed more buildings under its robust frame.

Kimimaro zig-zagged between the pieces of rubble being flung around in every direction and focused on the centipede. 'Who summoned this creature here?' Planting his hand on the earthen surface, Kimimaro transmitted chakra into it. 'Bracken-Dance!' Gargantuan shards of thorny bones rose upwards and impaled the centipede's head.

"You must be Kimimaro Kaguya." An emotionless voice called out. An orange-haired woman with black iron studs of some kind on her cheeks stood on a high pile of rubble. She wore an Akatsuki cloak and her Rinnegan-accentuated eyes glowed. "You work with the six-tails and Ryomen Sukuna…"

'Akatsuki?!' Kimimaro hopped onto one of his humongous bones until he was on equal footing with Animal-Pain. 'Could she be the leader of the Akatsuki? Utakata was never able to find out their identity.'

"Would you happen to know where Naruto Uzumaki has gone?" Animal-Pain stared at him and her face remained blank. "And where is the six-tails? I know that the Hidden-Leaf is also harbouring that one."

"Who are you?"

"Pain." She drawled, slapping her hand on a brick from the pile of rubble she was on. "I realize that you will refuse to answer my questions. Know this, Kimimaro Kaguya, you will taste true pain and suffering soon…"

Smoke materialized in the air until it was swept away by a ginormous rhino with the Rinnegan. It trampled over any remaining buildings, charged through the bones from Bracken-Dance, and trumpeted.

"I've tasted my own share of pain and suffering." Kimimaro covered his arm in a bone gauntlet, then enhanced its size. Stabbing the rhino through the eye, he killed it and flipped towards Animal-Pain in a blur. 'How does Pain fare in close quarter combat?' Instead of confronting him in direct combat, Animal-Pain summoned a huge crustacean.

It scuttered in between them and shot its massive pincers out at him. Twisting sideways, he dispelled his bone gauntlet. 'It will cost me some chakra, but I'll use Bracken-Dance again.' The crustacean reached a second pincer down towards him, but a blade was thrown and it cut through the pincer like a knife against butter. Suigetsu appeared beside him, unsealing another blade from his scroll.

"Why'd you ditch your post?" Suigetsu's mouth curved into a crooked smile. "Didn't Sukuna assign you the job of guarding that clearing?"

"He told us to both guard it." Kimimaro replied in a dry tone. "Have you taken stock of the situation?" He and Suigetsu separated, flanking the crustacean and splitting its focus. "The Akatsuki leader is called Pain!"

"There are more of them!" Suigetsu's left arm dissolved into a hurricane of water and blasted the crustacean backwards. "And they all have the same weird purple eyes! Kakashi Hatake is fighting one of them! Anbu are fighting a few others and Jonin and Chunin are handling the rest of them!"

'More?' Kimimaro leapt higher into the air, coated both arms in a spiky bone shell, curled into himself, and drilled down into the humongous crustacean. Trembling, it cracked and perished. Uncurling, Kimimaro landed on a large roof-top half-buried in the soil. "The Hokage?!"

"Healing!" Suigetsu turned towards Animal-Pain, but she had already summoned a second massive centipede with the Rinnegan. "Some passing Anbu being deployed told me that she's preserving her chakra for her slug summon Katsuyu to make sure there aren't heavy losses!"

"How many of these damn animals can this lady bring out?!" Suigetsu clenched his teeth, rounding on the centipede and hurling his chakra-enhanced blade at its back. Scurrying over it, the large centipede skittered towards him and lunged forward. "Not on my watch, you overgrown bug!" He aimed his index fingers at the animal and pummelled it with water bullets. The centipede slowed down, then slumped against a mountain of debris. "That sure took some chakra…"

"Where is the six-tails Jinchuriki?" The Animal Path of Pain body-flickered onto the top of a watch-tower, overlooking them with her Rinnegan. "His death will serve a better purpose on behalf of this accursed world."

"Philosophical much!" Suigetsu cackled. "We got to this stinking village just yesterday and we already gotta deal with you band of psychos!"

"Where is Utakata of the six-tails, Suigetsu Hozuki?" She tilted her head at him. "Your resistance to answer me shall be fruitless in the end."

Kimimaro cropped up behind her, opening his finger-tips and firing off pellets of serrated bones at the back of her head. Animal-Pain wove underneath them — however, Suigetsu had unsealed a third blade from a scroll in his pouch and it submerged into her shoulder.

Animal-Pain's unblinking eyes peered at the blade jutting out from her shoulder and she pulled it out. Suigetsu raised his fore-arm, redirecting her sudden roundhouse kick downwards. Kimimaro rolled down, unsheathed a knife-like bone from his arm, and aimed it at her head.

'She's quite proficient in Taijutsu.' Kimimaro mused — Animal-Pain had snatched his knife-like bone from him and had crushed it. 'Utakata still has to maintain that barrier for Sukuna, but taming that tenth creature of his isn't as important as repelling the Akatsuki.'

Holding Suigetsu's blade and Kimimaro's knife-like bone in both hands, Animal-Pain blurred towards Kimimaro and stabbed them at him. A protective layering of bone coated Kimimaro and fended off her stolen weapons. Animal-Pain was knocked through a heap of debris by a merciless punch to the nose. Kimimaro stalked forward, activated the second stage of his Curse-Mark, and transformed. Malformed chipped bones sprouted from his body and his tail dotted with bones flicked from side to side. Suigetsu retrieved his blade, landing beside him.

"You haven't used that one in a while!" Suigetsu chuckled. "Must be a special occasion."

'I'm always hesitant when it comes to using this ability.' Kimimaro flexed his fingers. 'It reminded me of an older, less fulfilling time of my life.'

"Orochimaru's Curse-Mark, is it?" Animal-Pain said — and, like a puppet, she paid no mind to whatever damage had been dealt to herself. "He himself was a former member of the Akatsuki, but all he cared for was his immortality and pursuit of learning all Jutsu. His end at the hands of Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, and Ryomen Sukuna was fitting…"

Amidst the rubble and wreckage from the obliterated section of the village, Animal-Pain patted the ground and summoned a giant bird with a spiked beak. Kimimaro stamped his foot on the remains of a time-worn weapons shop, kicking up pieces of debris around the bird.

It screeched, flying at them and opening its large beak. Kimimaro jumped on some of the rubble, then pulled a rope-like bone from his back. Wrapping it around a talon, Kimimaro relied on his enhanced physical power from the Curse-Mark and wrestled the bird into the dirt.

"Your ability is such a pain, lady." Suigetsu scowled. "It reminds me of Sukuna's shadow one. Also, what the hell's up with your eyes? That ain't no Ketsuryugan or Sharingan or Byakugan. Trust me, I'd know."

"The Rinnegan." She answered. "Eyes befitting for one of the divine."

Kimimaro dragged the massive shard of bone around his hand out of the dead bird, looking at Animal-Pain and disappearing. Suigetsu grinned, following after him and engaging her in combat.

She materialized two black rods from her palms, but Kimimaro swatted them out of her hands and kicked her into Suigetsu's blade. Spinning mid-air, Animal-Pain summoned a Rinnegan-highlighted centipede betwixt them before she climbed onto its head and took out extra black rods from her palms once more. Kimimaro lifted his bone shard, parrying each of the rods thrown at him in quick succession.

"Yeesh!" Suigetsu skidded backwards, performed five hand-seals, and conjured an arm out of water — it throttled the centipede and flung Animal-Pain off of her animal's head. "How many of those summons do you have?"

"More than enough." She declared in a blank tone, sprinting at Suigetsu and punching his face. However, it melted into water. "I had forgotten about the Hiden Ninjutsu of the Hozuki-Clan — the Hydrification-Technique."

"Yep." Suigetsu chortled, liquefying himself into a puddle and slithering onto a higher vantage point in the battle-field. Returning to his usual state, he stood on a broken wooden logo of some restaurant. "Taijutsu is pretty much useless against me!"

Kimimaro dashed at her, sacrificing his bone shard and instead drawing out a sharpened bone from his shoulder to bisect the Animal Path of Pain. The make-shift blade tore into her and she stared at him with emotionless eyes. A second passed—and a blur intercepted his second strike and thwacked him into a pile of rubble. Konan hovered above him and Kimimaro rose to his feet in an instant. Turning to Suigetsu, she covered him in a bundle of paper and trapped him.

"You think this can hold me?!" Suigetsu yelled from inside his paper coat, but realized his liquefaction had failed. "What the hell…?"

"The Hydrification-Technique has two weaknesses." Konan told him from her position above them in the air. "Lightning-style Jutsu will incapacitate its users, but the users of the Hydrification-Technique can also be rendered useless if they are trapped in a sealed container of some kind." She cast a hand-sign and seals blazed from the papers that surrounded Suigetsu.

"Master Jiraiya's sealing Jutsu lessons were not wasted on you." Animal-Pain said, rolling her diced arm. Summoning a giant crustacean, a massive rhino, and a huge centipede, she addressed Konan. "That will distract him in the meantime. I intend to have the Naraka-Path consult him about where nine-tails and six-tails are. But I suspect they might not know. Let us be off, Konan." Animal-Pain and Konan vanished in a swirl of paper and flash of speed.

'The Naraka-Path?' Kimimaro mused. 'Suigetsu did tell me that there are more of these Pain(s). Just how many could there be?' He maneuvered around the gigantic animals in the area. 'Utakata is in one of the most isolated parts of Konoha. The bones from my Bracken-Dance should hide him from Pain.' The crustacean trotted towards him and its pincer snapped down at him. Flanking him, the rhino careened towards him and the centipede scuttled onwards. Chakra flared out from his feet and he smiled. 'Pain underestimates me if they think these can withhold me for long — Bracken-Dance!'

More and more towering bones emerged from the ground, skewering the massive creatures around him and stopping them in their tracks. Kimimaro headed onto the wooden logo where Suigetsu was bundled up in papers emblazoned with seals. "Suigetsu — can you hear me?"

"Yeah." Suigetsu writhed from inside his paper cloak. "Get me out of this thing!"

Kimimaro analyzed the seals. "Utakata should be able to decode these. My knowledge in the sealing arts isn't adequate enough. I'll see if I can get Utakata to—."

"—I was correct. You do know the location of the six-tails at least." The Naraka Path of Pain's voice murmured from behind Kimimaro. He was a broad-shouldered orange-haired man in an Akatsuki cloak. Black iron studs ran along his face in a diagonal pattern. "Where in the village is he?"

'So they can't find Utakata?' Kimimaro composed himself. 'He must have cloaked his chakra from Pain's senses.'

Naraka-Pain held the corpse of a Leaf-Jonin in his right hand. Tossing the deceased man aside, he fluttered towards Kimimaro and extended his hand out for his neck. "Let the King of Hell judge your honesty, Kimimaro Kaguya…"

Bones sprouted from under them, but Naraka-Pain rotated around them and grabbed Kimimaro's shoulder instead. Kimimaro used him like a foothold, kicking himself away from Naraka-Pain and skidding across mountains of debris until he reached the village surface.

Tailing him, Naraka-Pain went in to grab his neck but was blown back a little by a sudden blast of wind. Asuma Sarutobi appeared beside Kimimaro, spitting out his cigarette. Wind-natured chakra leaked from his two chakra blades modelled after trench knives. Naraka-Pain stood up, unharmed.

"Man." Asuma mumbled to himself in annoyance. "These Akatsuki fellas sure are durable, aren't they?" He looked at Kimimaro. "You're one of Ryomen Sukuna's teammates, ain't you? I'm surprised you'd be willing to fight in the defence of the Hidden-Leaf."

'Asuma Sarutobi.' Kimimaro had seen this man's entry in the Bingo-Book. Shrugging, he said. "I don't care much for your village, but the Akatsuki is targeting a good comrade of mine."

"Comrade, huh?" Asuma snorted. "You'd fit right in here."

"Asuma Sarutobi." Naraka-Pain said. "It is illogical to oppose me. I have already slew Kakashi Hatake and countless other Leaf-Shinobi."

"Kakashi?" Asuma widened his eyes, but regained his composure. "It'd be ill-fitting of me to let you live regardless, Pain of the Akatsuki."

"Why must you Shinobi of the five great nations be so stubborn in your beliefs?" Naraka-Pain said. "You cause so much despair, mayhem, and destruction everywhere you tread. You inflict so much pain, but you have never understood true pain and suffering yourselves…"

"And what about the suffering you've inflicted here, eh?" Asuma growled. "Don't act so high and mighty! You've killed so many already!"

"Yet this is just the consequences of your own actions, Asuma Sarutobi."

Asuma charged forward with Kimimaro and the two of them blurred across the landscape. Naraka-Pain twisted through their attacks, leaped over a stream of high-pressure wind, and struck Asuma in the jaw. Kimimaro lunged at him, gathering shards of bone into his hands and morphing them into a large spiked bone mace to crush him.

It caved in his shoulder — but, like Animal-Pain, he remained expressionless and kicked Kimimaro backwards. Asuma transmitted more chakra into his trench knives, slashing at Naraka-Pain. Parrying his strikes, Naraka-Pain conjured a black rod and impaled his neck in one swift motion. Asuma stumbled, falling into a pile of debris and staining them in blood. Naraka-Pain headed towards Kimimaro.

Getting to his feet, Kimimaro glanced at Asuma's corpse for a second and refocused on Naraka-Pain. Two more black rods had materialized in his hand and Naraka-Pain peered at him with his glowing Rinnegan eyes.

'His damaged shoulder hasn't hindered his movements much.' Kimimaro slammed his hands on the ground. Giant bones from Bracken-Dance grew from the dirt, though Naraka-Pain managed to elude all of them. 'All of these Pain(s) are too agile and graceful.'

"A shame I couldn't ask Asuma Sarutobi where the nine-tails was taken." Naraka-Pain proclaimed. "Six-tails, Kimimaro Kaguya, is also one of the last of the Tailed-Beasts that I seek alongside nine-tails. Once I have gathered every Tailed-Beast, I will create a world of no pain. This world will have no suffering, no destruction, and no despair. You claim that you've tasted your own share of pain and suffering, but have you? You are the last of your line, the last of your family, and the last of your clan. Think of how much pain they have sown and felt."

"I don't care about your ideals." Kimimaro wrapped his tail around Naraka-Pain and drove him into chunks of brick and stone. Letting him go, he pulled a sharpened bone from his shoulder. "Everyone experiences at least some deal of pain once in their lives."

"You might be correct about that, Kimimaro Kaguya." Naraka-Pain responded. "But that is not true pain. I will ensure that every single one of you knows what that feels like. But — for now — I seek the six-tails and nine-tails. Since you refuse to tell me where the first one of them is being harboured, I will have to take matters into my own hands." A black rod sprung out of his palm and he shot forward.

"Those bones of yours offer you much protection." Naraka-Pain blurred around Kimimaro, popping up next to him and behind him in search of any weak spots in his bone-made armour. "And that Curse-Mark you procured from Orochimaru only serves to enhance your impressive power." More and more rods smashed into Kimimaro's bone armour, creating cracks in it.

'He's getting faster.' Kimimaro turned around to face him, but parts of his armour got destroyed. A black rod dug into him, cutting off a chakra-point and disrupting his Curse-Mark. 'Damn it.' He knelt after more rods sunk into his flesh and cut off his other chakra-points. Kimimaro's body transformed back into its regular state.

Naraka-Pain walked up to him and all Kimimaro could see were his Rinnegan eyes.

"Do you understand the futility of it all, Kimimaro Kaguya?" Naraka-Pain asked him. "Taste this defeat and savour it. Your pain is but a rainfall in the ocean of suffering that this hellish world has become. Or maybe it has always been that way — even during the time of the mythical Sage-Of-The-Six-Paths. Shinobi strive for war. In peace, they crave it. In times of turmoil, they loathe it."

Naraka-Pain unsheathed one more black rod from his palm while Kimimaro's Curse-Mark flickered for a second. Kimimaro's chakra-points restablized at the perfect moment and he slapped his hand on the ground and transmitted chakra into it. At the same time, Naraka-Pain's hand blurred and embedded the rod into Kimimaro's skull. However, a massive blade-like bone sprouted from underneath Naraka-Pain and split him into two. Kimimaro fell onto the dirt, dead.

(-)

Utakata sensed Kimimaro's chakra signature fade and opened his eyes in shock. Deep focus was one of the most foundational stipulations of maintaining a seal barrier as finessed and powerful as his one. Sukuna remained in the barrier — but Utakata was unable to see him in it because of the barrier's blurred tint.

'Why did Kimimaro's presence disappear so fast?' Utakata thought, creating dozens of Water-Clones to maintain the barrier on his behalf. 'Has something happened out at the village?'

Sprinting out of the forest's clearing and escaping the influence of Sukuna's Curtain, Utakata breathed in shock. Hopping onto the top of a lamp-post, he saw the obliterated portions of Konoha and the corpses of Shinobi and civilians alike. Women, men, children, Genin, Chunin, Jonin, and some Anbu were scattered along every street in puddles of blood and crushed bones and mangled limbs. 'What is all of this…?' He balled his hand into a fist and scanned more of Konoha.

Chakra enhanced his eye-sight well enough for him to spot Shikamaru Nara in the distance. Heading to the area where he was in, Utakata landed beside him. It was on flat pieces of timber that Kimimaro and Asuma's corpses had been placed. Two slugs — lady Tsunade's summoning, Utakata realized — fussed over their bodies to no avail.

"Utakata, right?" Another Nara said. Shikaku — Shikamaru's father — had also body-flickered into the area. "I'm sorry about your friend. If he had been alive, Katsuyu might have been able to heal him…"

'Kimimaro.' Utakata felt numb — he had known Kimimaro, Suigetsu, and Sukuna for some time. When Sukuna had recruited him into his band of misfits, he had been unsure about them at first. Over time, however, they had become his friends. "What happened here?"

"It's the leader of the Akatsuki — Pain." Shikamaru looked away from Asuma's corpse and stared at him. "He has multiple bodies and what we suspect is the Rinnegan. But, thanks to the intel we recieved from lord Jiraiya prior to his death, we've been able to decode a message from him — the real one is not among them. Whatever that really means…"

"His abilities?" Utakata asked him. "What are they?"

'Not to mention the fact that he might have the Rinnegan — a Dojutsu people believe to have once belonged to the legendary sage…'

Katsuyu — rather, one of her fragments — spoke up. "Magnetic-based Jutsu that can attract and repel with a five second wait time. The ability to summon all kinds of enormous creatures. He can augment his body with all sorts of weaponry. He can absorb chakra and thus Ninjutsu. Of course, we know he must have a few more abilities."

'So many.' Utakata shook his head and calmed himself. 'We've only gotten here yesterday and the Akatsuki have made their move. It's obvious enough to know their main goal by coming to the Hidden-Leaf is to extract Saiken from me and the nine-tails from Naruto.'

'I would like to stay in this seal over the Gedo-Mazo.'

'Saiken? You've decided to speak after all this radio silence?'

'Don't misunderstand me, Utakata.' Saiken sighed. 'I don't have an issue with you. You're kinder and less demanding than my old vessels, but I don't care much about you humans. This 'Pain' could do what he pleases and I wouldn't mind much. But his intentions of stealing me and my fellow Tailed-Beasts doesn't sound pleasant.'

'What is the Gedo-Mazo?'

'Wouldn't you like to know?' Saiken chuckled from inside his seal. 'Call it a hunch, but I suspect that is where the other Biju have been taken.'

'How helpful of you.'

Utakata grunted. "Where is the variant of Pain that killed these two?"

"Here." Shikaku pointed down at the bisected body of the Naraka Path of Pain and the towering bone that had split them. "Your friend was the last of the Kaguya-Clan, wasn't he? It looks like he was able to end this one."

'Kimimaro.' Utakata gritted his teeth, then heard a sudden shout over two mountains of rubble. 'Suigetsu's voice? It's muffled, but I can hear it.' He jumped towards the source of the sound and saw a body bundled up in papers on a wooden sign that acted as a logo for some destroyed store. "Suigetsu?"

"Utakata! Took ya long enough!" Suigetsu yelled. "Some lady who could morph into paper sealed me in here!"

'These seals are only somewhat complicated.' Utakata charged chakra into his palm, decoded the seals emblazoned on the papers, cast a hand-sign, and dispersed them. 'That should it.'

Once Suigetsu had escaped his paper prison, Utakata took him over to the area where the others were with Asuma and Kimimaro's bodies. Suigetsu crouched down in front of Kimimaro's body in a sudden daze, glancing at Katsuyu in negligible distaste and checking his neck for a pulse. "I—I didn't think he'd lose…"

"Not so." Utakata gestured at Naraka-Pain's remains. "He got one last good shot in."

Suigetsu broke out into maniacal and vengeful laughter. "I knew that bone-headed bastard wouldn't go down without a fight!" He lost his glee a moment later, though, and he looked a little fearful but downtrodden. "What the hell should we do?"

"I'm not so sure myself." Shikamaru gazed at Asuma's corpse again. "Pain is a monster — most of our Shinobi are able to keep his bodies at bay, but, sooner or later, it won't be enough to keep him away. I suspect he's trying to keep as many people alive as possible to find out Naruto's whereabouts."

"Bad news!" Katsuyu's fragment trembled. "A different fragment of mine has told me that Pain has discovered that Naruto is at Mount. Myoboku! She's not sure about this, but she thinks that another one of Pain's abilities is the power to extract information from a person's head. It leaves them dead afterwards, however."

"Damn it!" Shikamaru gritted his teeth. "Utakata has come out into the open too! We were hoping he'd stay hidden long enough for us to make some kind of way to transfer him to safety and stop Pain from stealing the six-tails from him! But now he's also got Naruto's location!"

"Oh man!" Suigetsu shouted. "Utakata — we have to get Sukuna! Screw his damn warning about not disturbing him no matter what! I bet he can give Pain a good smack down! Kimimaro's already dead…" Grinding his teeth together, he muttered. "I really want to rip that Pain bastard to shreds. We survived Orochimaru and fights with other Jinchuriki and even escaped skirmishes with a few of the Kage! He couldn't just die like that to one of those Akatsuki psychos…"

"And what do you think Sukuna would do against someone that monstrous?" Shikamaru rounded on Suigetsu in an irrational burst of fury. "He'd just be killed like so many people here! I know you hold him in high esteem, but he's a maniac who abandoned his friends and the village!"

"Shikamaru." Shikaku put a hand on his son's shoulder. "Calm down. I understand that the loss of Asuma is weighing on your mind, but battling with allies won't help us."

Utakata was silent this entire time until he saw one of Pain's bodies float into the air. An incredible discharge of chakra was being built up around him and Utakata glanced sideways — the remains of the Naraka Path of Pain had vanished in a puff of smoke. "EVERYONE — MOVE!"

Tendo-Pain — the Pain made from Yahiko's body — floated high above Konoha and stared at it with his emotionless Rinnegan eyes. "You villages have caused enough pain — now feel my pain!" He murmured. "Almighty-Push!" A massive telekinetic chakra pulse rang across the village — timbered homes, brick towers, forests, copses, parks, schools, different kinds of districts in Konoha, warehouses, storehouses, every sort of building, fences, and bridges were all obliterated in one fell swoop. Giant chunks of bricks, stone, wood, soil, and dirt flew everywhere. Dozens of Shinobi were crushed and countless civilians who hadn't gone to the emergency bunkers died.

Enormous dust clouds rolled across the ginormous crater with an unfound depth that the Hidden-Leaf had become. Mountains of debris and rubbles stretched out along the ruins of the village like no tomorrow. Utakata dispersed the dust cloud in front of him, dematerializing the shroud of chakra from Saiken that he had coated himself and others around him in fast enough to keep them safe.

"Is everyone alright?" Utakata called out, but his attention was on the destruction around them. 'Incredible…How the hell do we match up against this kind of power?'

"Yeah." Suigetsu coughed and analyzed the village. "What the hell…"

"The entire village." Shikamaru growled. "He destroyed it! He destroyed my home…"

'The barrier holding Sukuna.' Since Sukuna had no chakra, he was undetectable by Sensory-Ninja. Utakata widened his eyes. 'He might have been killed. If the Water-Clones I left behind fell, then Sukuna might have been caught unaware by Pain's sudden attack on the village. Is he dead? I can't check up on home in all this chaos.'

'If Sukuna is dead, I'll have to be the one to stop Pain.' Utakata stepped onwards. 'Kimimaro sacrificed himself for my sake. He could have fled instead after realizing he was going to die to Pain, but he spent his last moments ensuring that the Pain he fought would die…' He took in a deep breath. 'I will damn myself to the hell in the Pure-Lands for my weakness — the weakness of letting a friend die on my behalf. I don't know what the Akatsuki leader wants with the Biju and no longer do I care. I am what I am — a human sacrifice, a scorned bastard, and, last of all, I am the Jinchuriki of the six-tails…'

'Saiken…'

'Yes?' Saiken tilted his head from inside the seal. 'What is it?'

'I don't intend to live after this fight. Lend me every last scrap of your chakra and you'll have your freedom at last, though it might make it easier for the Akatsuki to capture you.'

'Please.' Saiken puffed out his chest. 'I'd escape those lunatics anyday!' He slithered in a circle in contemplation. 'Your offer does sound appealing. If you do die, I'll be out of this stinking seal for good!'

Monstrous volumes of chakra leaked from Utakata's seal and rattled Suigetsu, Shikaku, and Shikamaru. Submerged into a blue cloak of chakra, Utakata blurred forward and travelled like a snake into the crater.

"Utakata!" Suigetsu shouted. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"He might be our best shot." Shikamaru murmured. "A Jinchuriki will have enough power to stop Pain."

Shikaku huffed. "Maybe…"

Tendo-Pain landed in the middle of the enormous crater, then stretched his hand out. Utakata bent his hand the other way to divert the course of the Almighty-Push. Materializing a chakra-arm, he knocked him across the terrain. Howling in rage, Utakata slithered behind him and released a tidal wave of acidic bubbles from his mouth. Tendo-Pain maneuvered around them and levelled his Rinnegan-accentuated gaze on his feral opponent.

"Six-tails." He said, expressionless. "I see you have fallen into that ever comforting abyss of despair and hatred. Kimimaro Kaguya was a friend, was he not? I, too, understand the pain of losing a comrade. Only through experiences like these can humans reach an understanding. Relinquish the six-tails to me and your suffering will have found its purpose."

Utakata frothed at the mouth with corrosive chakra, sliding across the battle-field and firing off a barrage of bubbles. Tendo-Pain pushed his hand into them, but they popped and unleashed an explosion on him. Flying into chunks of soil, Tendo-Pain stood to his feet and remained undamaged. Utakata outputted more of Saiken's chakra, falling deeper and deeper into his rage.

From the mountain of bricks and stones and wood that had been the Hokage-Tower, Tsunade and her Anbu subordinates watched Utakata and Tendo-Pain battle. She had transmitted most of her chakra into Katsuyu's fragments for them to heal any surviving Shinobi and villagers. 'That's Sukuna's companion.' She knelt in pain, touching her forehead where its symbol had faded. 'We'll have to rely on him…'

(-)

Konan fluttered above the western section of Konoha — the only section that had recieved minimal damage compared to the other ones. A clearing dotted with tall stout bones reached her line of sight. However, she sensed sudden pulses of chakra from it.

'What?' Konan stared into the clearing from her position above it — there was no-one in it. Flying deeper into it, she felt a light weight in her mind fade and landed on a sward and only grew more shocked. Unlike where she saw nothing in the clearing from her high vantage point, she saw a domed blurred yellow barrier and clones of the six-tails Jinchuriki struggling to maintain their physical manifestations and the barrier seal. 'I didn't see any of this when I was floating over it? Was this where the six-tails was hiding from us until he emerged to see his deceased friend? So he hid himself with some kind of illusion.' She passed the flickering Water-Clones and peered into the blurred barrier. Ryomen Sukuna fought against a massive creature with malformed features and a wheel on its head from within the barricade. 'This barrier must be blocking him out from the outside world.'

Heading towards the Water-Clones of the six-tails Jinchuriki, she summoned a chakra transference seal to help them maintain their shape. After giving them a basic amount of her own chakra, she went to the scrolls used to set up the domed barricade. Reinforcing their seals with elaborate applications, she calibrated them so that the barrier was strengthened. 'I've ensured that this barrier will keep him trapped even after he has finished his fight with that beast.' She dispersed in a hurricane of paper. 'Nagato will have no distractions in our pursuit of taking the Biju…'

(-)

Utakata had lost himself to his rage. Each of his chakra-enhanced strikes were devastating and left a sea of craters wherever he hit, but his technique was unrefined and allowed Tendo-Pain to control the flow of the battle. An Almighty-Push slammed into Utakata and he rolled into a mound of boulders. Tendo-Pain walked towards him.

"So much anger and so much wrath." Tendo-Pain uttered. "Yet you still linger, six-tails. Your wrath serves no purpose here. Relinquish yourself and all in this accursed world shall be fixed in due time…"

A large bubble enfolded Utakata, carrying him into the air. Tendo-Pain flew after him before chakra-arms poked through artificial holes in the floating bubble and pummeled him with punches. Tendo-Pain crashed into the soil. Utakata left his floating bubble, rolling at Tendo-Pain and shooting out a wave of high-pressure water in his direction.

Tendo-Pain leaped over it and the soil beneath scattered into a cobweb of humongous cracks. "The raw power of this one is dangerous." He spoke to himself. "But you are reckless with your movements, six-tails. Your pain will not help you in this battle. It will only guide you to doom."

Utakata screamed — it was a hoarse rasping scream of utter revulsion and hatred. A Tailed Beast Bomb formed above his parted jaws, flashing with monstrous chakra. Tendo-Pain stared at him in silence. All of the chakra Saiken had given Utakata was charged into this purple orb of calamitous chakra and it was fired off.

The Tailed-Beast-Bomb was small because of its compacted power, but it left a trail of razed ground and destruction as it skidded towards Pain in a distortion of speed. Sonic-booms and shock-waves exploded across the ruins of Konoha and everyone shielded themselves.

"Utakata." Suigetsu groused, hiding behind a slab of timber jutting out from the dirt with Shikamaru and Shikaku. "You crazy bastard…"

"If he can maintain that type of power against the other bodies of Pain that retreated from the village, then we might stand a chance." Shikamaru's mouth crumpled into a grim smile. "What do you think, dad?"

"Yes — Pain won't be able to withstand such power." Shikaku nodded. "So why is he not making any move to get away from it or stop it…?"

Off on the southern side of the destroyed village, Inoichi, Ino, and Choji waited with bated breath alongside Shiho — one of the members of the Hidden-Leaf's Cryptanalysis department. Amidst the ruins of the Hokage-Tower, Tsunade gritted her teeth in anticipation.

Utakata's Tailed-Beast-Bomb smashed into the middle of the enormous crater where Tendo-Pain stood. The crater deepened in that spot and more and more and more cracks spread through the ground. Dust clouds trundled along the inside of the crater. Utakata's blue chakra cloak faded and he collapsed to his knees. Burned out, he flopped onto his stomach and stared ahead to see Tendo-Pain's destroyed body. There were no remains, however, and Tendo-Pain flipped off of a rampart encircling the destroyed village and returned to his damaged spot in the middle of the crater's clearing. 'HOW?!'

Suigetsu gaped, stunned. Shikamaru cursed. Shikaku lowered his head. Choji's gaze grew demoralized. Ino shook her head in disbelief. Inoichi pounded his knuckles on the dirt. Off to the eastern portion of Konoha, Kiba scowled in dismay and Akamaru whimpered. Shino pressed his lips into a thin line. Hinata felt disbelief. Even more surviving Shinobi from other parts of the obliterated village — like Aoba, Konohamaru, Izumo, Kotetsu, Kosuke Maruboshi, Ebisu, Genma and Iruka — grew shocked.

"Impossible!" Shikamaru lurched out from his protective hiding spot. "How did Pain have enough time to get outside of the village?! We would have seen it!"

"Utakata!" Suigetsu tensed his muscles, preparing to move down into the battle-field. A hand clamped down on his shoulder. "What?" He snarled at Shikaku. "I don't have time for this, old man."

"He won't kill your friend." Shikaku said. "Remember that Pain wants the six-tails inside of him." Removing his hand from Suigetsu's shoulder, Shikaku scratched his chin. "He'll be safe for now at least. But it's a shame that his attack didn't take down that Pain. Just how on earth did he escape its range?"

"Impossible!" Utakata struggled to move. Chakra burned inside his system and weakened him. "How did you move away from it so fast?!"

"The Animal Path of my Rinnegan." Tendo-Pain replied. "Animals are not the only things it can summon to its location…"

'The Animal Path summoned him out of the range of my Tailed-Beast-Bomb?!' Utakata trembled. 'I can't move — damn it, I just gave Pain the perfect opportunity to capture me! It can't end like this.'

Tendo-Pain dragged Utakata towards himself with Universal-Pull. Black rods materialized from his palms and he stabbed Utakata with them and hurled him into a hillock of rubble. Utakata shuddered, clenching his jaw in rage. Although he was unable to move, he managed to make his hand twitch and cast a hand-seal. Saiken's last dregs of chakra poured out from his seal and Utakata closed his eyes.

"He's dead?" Tendo-Pain's unblinking Rinnegan eyes overlooked him. "No matter — the air here is tainted with large remains of the six-tails' chakra. We will be able to collect enough to reform it faster." He spoke. "Utakata of the six-tails — I hope you understood what true pain was in your final moments. Everyone will someday learn that all suffering and pain must be shared, comprehended, and felt…"

"He's gone. First that bone-headed bastard and next that know it all." Suigetsu mumbled, numb. "And that Pain bastard keeps gloating about pain and suffering." He stuck his tongue out in disgust, then clicked his teeth in loathing. "I'll kill him — let's see how much pain that Pain can take."

"Kill him?" Shikamaru was incredulous. "Are you serious? You've just seen him destroy the entire village and elude that dense sphere of chakra from your friend? He was our last chance."

"Naruto." Shikaku said. "He went off to Mount. Myoboku, didn't he?"

"Yeah?" Shikamaru raised an eye-brow, confused. "He went there to train and hide from the Akatsuki. Of course, none of us were expecting its leader to plunge into the village."

"Pain knows he's there either way and the six-tails Jinchuriki is dead, along with Asuma-Sensei and so many others." Shikamaru's tone was bitter but contemplative. "Utakata was our last bet. But we still can't give up."

Suigetsu was about to head off onto the battle-field, but Shikamaru stopped him with his Shadow-Paralysis Jutsu.

"Oh no you're not!" Shikamaru grunted. "Too many lives have been lost!"

"Let me go, you moron!"

"You're the moron." Shikamaru scoffed. "You'll die against him."

"Indeed. But the pain of that death would connect us." Tendo-Pain loomed behind them and his ringed purple eyes glowed. "Suigetsu Hozuki — I see you escaped Konan's sealing formula somehow."

"You bastard!" Suigetsu shook in anger. "You think you can just gloat and prattle on about ending pain when you call yourself Pain! Look, I'll admit I don't care much about this stinking village. But you still killed Kimimaro and Utakata…" He broke free from Shikamaru's Shadow-Paralysis and aimed an index finger at Tendo-Pain. "So I'll return the favour."

Almighty-Push dissolved Suigetsu's water bullets and shoved him, Shikamaru, and Shikaku into a distant mountain of rubble.

Tendo-Pain leaped back into the crater and murmured. "It is time I left for Mount. Myoboku. I had thought the nine-tails would have heard of my presence here, but he has not appeared yet." He paused. "Oh?"

Out of nowhere, a demonic presence was unleashed upon the village. An ominous outline with four blazing crimson eyes slammed his feet into the crater and generated a series of dust clouds and small sonic-booms. Ryomen Sukuna analyzed the corpses, the survivors, and the destroyed sections of the village in silence for a second. "So." Sukuna's lips twisted into an unhinged grin. "You're Pain."

"Sukuna!" Suigetsu grinned. "Where the hell has he been?!"

"Him." Shikamaru groused. "After what happened, I don't think too many people will put much hope in that psycho."

Kiba shook his fist. "Sukuna might be able to make a difference — that bastard's always been the tough sort."

Shino breathed out. "All we can do is believe."

Hinata intertwined her fingers. "It was his teammate who just died…"

"I'm not sure how well Sukuna will do against him." Ino mumbled. "After everything we've seen Pain do."

"That kid again." Inoichi murmured. "We'll see."

Shikaku folded his arms. 'Ryomen Sukuna…'

'That brat's always had an ego.' Tsunade snorted, despite the situation they were in. 'It's nice to see some things haven't changed much.' Most of her chakra had been spent on Katsuyu, but she felt herself regaining some of it. 'Even then, it might not be enough chakra…'

"Ryomen Sukuna." Tendo-Pain declared. "I have killed Kimimaro Kaguya and Utakata of the six-tails. They were your teammates, were they not? Do you not feel your heart aching to avenge them? Do you not feel your blood calling out to you to slaughter me? That is the pain that binds us and that is how the cycle of hatred will flow evermore." He canted his head. "However, I intend to establish a new order."

"Blah. Blah. Blah." Sukuna moved his hand like a mouth. "I've dealt with too many pests screaming at me about their goals. You're not worse than Doto — he couldn't stop screaming about Koyuki's necklace."

"About Kimimaro and Utakata." Sukuna's crimson eyes glowed and his demonic presence fell upon Tendo-Pain. "I'm not sure if they died satisfied with themselves or not. All that matters is that they died for their own ideals. Other than that, I'm not worried."

"Their ideals were futile." Tendo-Pain declared. "I have heard much about you, Sukuna. Some call you a demon and others call you a menace. But I have no care about your whims — it is the nine-tails I seek."

"We arrived at Konoha just yesterday." Sukuna laughed. "I didn't think my luck was rotten enough for you bastards to make an appearance."

"And how about you bring out the whole menagerie?" Sukuna said. "One versus one ain't much fun." He then disappeared in a red blur.

Sukuna slammed his elbow into Tendo-Pain's outstretched knuckles before a telekinetic pulsation crushed his arm. 'He's incorporating Almighty-Push into his strikes. Like Divergent-Fist, he can create a simultaneous or second impact with his blows if he channels Almighty-Push into them.' It snapped Sukuna's arm apart, but he knitted his bone and flesh back together. Sukuna struck Tendo-Pain's sternum and his cursed-energy flared obsidian. 'Black-Flash.'

Tendo-Pain staggered backwards — Sukuna transmitted Cleave—Spiderweb through his foot and cracked the soil even further. Balance lost, Tendo-Pain teetered a little. Sukuna cut into the five second interval it took Tendo-Pain to launch more of his Jutsu and drove a barrage of blows into him in swift succession. 'I have to keep him on the back foot.' He mused. 'Pain hasn't summoned his counterparts yet. He's testing my strength and prowess for now.'

Dismantle severed Tendo-Pain into two—but he disappeared in a puff of smoke and floated back into the battle-field whole again. The Animal Path had summoned Tendo-Pain out of the village, Sukuna suspected, and the Naraka Path had been used to restore his form.

'Any damage Cleave or Dismantle deals to him will be rendered null if he can just keep healing like that.' Sukuna clicked his tongue. 'Nagato has enough chakra to maintain this type of strategy for a long time.' He leaped towards the outside of the village walls, but Tendo-Pain hovered above him and drove a nasty punch into his abdomen.

Crashing into hills of debris, Sukuna regained his footing and focused on Tendo-Pain. 'When the hell is Naruto getting here? Pain doesn't have much reason to fight me — he only has the goal of getting the Tailed-Beasts.' Universal-Pull dragged Sukuna towards Tendo-Pain's palm and he conjured black rods to impale his chest. Dismantle cut his hand off at the wrist, but Tendo-Pain soldiered on like a marionette with no strings. Sukuna clasped his hands and Piercing-Blood blasted into Tendo-Pain and propelled him backwards. Landing next to the spot where Tendo-Pain had been, Sukuna grinned at him in mockery.

Tendo-Pain went to his feet — however, a second Black-Flash was driven into his chin and he rolled upwards. Stopping mid-air, Tendo-Pain noticed Sukuna flying towards him with Nue's assistance. Lightning crackled and flashed. Nue shot off a bolt of electricity at him. Spinning, Tendo-Pain dispersed it with an Almighty-Push that had enough power to smash Sukuna and Nue back into the soil. Nue liquified into shadows and Sukuna climbed to his feet. Blood and bruises faded from Sukuna's flesh in the blink of an eye.

"Your healing is instantaneous." Tendo-Pain said. "Pain must not be easy for you to feel if you are blessed with such regenerative capability."

"Hah." Sukuna grinned. "It took being stabbed in the chest by Kimimaro to awaken my Reverse-Cursed-Technique."

Sukuna slammed his hands on the soil and a tidal wave of Spiderwebs dissolved the ground into earthen chunks. Tendo-Pain wove through them—but Dismantle slashed into his legs and he knelt. Animal-Pain summoned him out of the battle-field and Naraka-Pain healed him. Hopping onto the village walls, Tendo-Pain hovered down into the battle-field.

"That's already gotten old." Sukuna scoffed. "You'll run out of chakra to keep doing that."

'Who am I kidding? Nagato is a chakra monster. Hell — it's one reason Madara's Rinnegan was implanted into him. And also because he was an Uzumaki.'

"Your bloodline limit isn't chakra, is it?" Tendo-Pain murmured. "My Rinnegan sees a negligible flame of revolting energy inside of you, but I struggle to perceive it in its entirety. All I see are flashes of what they are. This 'mutated chakra' of yours has no spiritual or physical attributes. How strange."

'He can perceive my cursed-energy to a small degree?' Sukuna blinked in curiosity. 'Mahoraga could also perceive my Cursed-Technique, but that was a little different than this I think.' He scoffed. 'Neither the Sharingan nor Byakugan can see cursed-energy at any level. Leave it to the Rinnegan.'

Sukuna blurred forward, planted his knuckles into Tendo-Pain's face, and launched him through knolls of brick and stone. Tendo-Pain appeared in front of Sukuna and Almighty-Push crashed into his chest. Bones crunched, a heart beat faster, and skin peeled away. Reverse-Cursed-Technique healed him in seconds and he bashed Tendo-Pain across the terrain.

"I was correct — you have not felt pain in some time, have you?" Tendo-Pain stumbled back. "You are a nuisance, Ryomen Sukuna. That should have incapacitated you at the very least or killed you. Yes, pain will not come easy to you."

'Yahiko's body is pretty much a puppet here.' Sukuna thought. 'We've been going back and forth to no avail. Til he damages my head in some severe way, my Reverse-Cursed-Technique will function without fail. And Pain's Animal Path and Naraka Path will summon him out of the battle-field, heal him, and send him on his merry way. I'll keep healing and so will he. I'm guessing he doesn't want to risk me dismantling his Naraka Path. If the Naraka Path goes down, I can destroy his puppet bodies with a few Dismantles. So he won't bring the Naraka Path and Animal Path into the battle-field.'

He flexed his clawed fingers. 'Pain knows my 'mutated chakra' isn't chakra. I faced off against Samehada already and it couldn't absorb my cursed-energy either. I suspect Kisame told him about that. I don't see the Preta Path anywhere. Nagato is playing it smart.' Sukuna grunted.'And he hasn't even tried to leave for Mount. Myoboku, so he wants Naruto to come here and see what happened to Konoha.'

'A Domain-Expansion would destroy everything here.' Sukuna mused. 'But Pain could fly out of its radius and I'd have to face him with a burnt out Cursed-Technique.' Sukuna's natural instincts flared at him.

Smoke built up in the battle-field and Naruto Uzumaki stepped out from it in a light woolen crimson cloak embellished with a pattern of black flames. Two orange patches marked his yellow eyes with horizontal slits. Unlike in Canon, he had arrived alone.

"Took you long enough." Sukuna's grin was crooked. "This bastard is more tenacious than you when it comes to a pack of Ramen."

"Yeah—Yeah." Naruto elbowed his friend, growing serious and scanning the village. "Wrinkled ol' Fukasaku sent some scouting toads to check up on Konoha and they saw all this…destruction." He shook his head. "I can feel so many chakra signatures now, but so many that I should be able to sense aren't in the village anymore. Kakashi-Sensei and Asuma-Sensei for one. And two of your friends." Composing himself, he stared at Tendo-Pain's undamaged body. "No damage? Really?"

"He can heal."

"Like you?"

"Around the same level, but my method of healing is faster."

"Joy." Naruto grunted, then addressed Tendo-Pain. "So you're the one who killed Pervy-Sage, huh?!" Naruto's eyes flickered red.

"He was my teacher too." Tendo-Pain uttered. "He took me and my friends in, sheltered us, and taught us the ways of combat. But he also taught us about his fantasies of true peace. Only pain can make true peace and that is what I shall do."

"Fantasies?" Naruto's eyes flickered an even deeper red. "I can tell you weren't ever a real pupil of Pervy-Sage! Don't talk to me about peace after all of this!" He gestured his hand at Konoha's destruction. "Sukuna." Moving forward, Naruto said. "You scared?"

He had asked Naruto the same question prior to their fight against Doto Kazahana, Sukuna recalled with a vicious grin. "Of course not." He scoffed, transmitting cursed-energy into his muscles. 'It's time for a classic Jujutsu jumping.'

Tendo-Pain waited in silence. Naruto fell into a stance. Sukuna clenched his fists.