AN: Chapter title: Darkness.
Kisame Hoshigaki smiled at what he sensed outside, the chaos to soon envelope the newest compound the Priestess and her daughter had been moved to.
"Hmm. Looks like this won't be so boring after all."
He could smell the blood in the air as the assassins made short work of the guards in their path. His sharp teeth were on full display as he rose from where he had been sitting cross-legged on the floor all day. Miroku hardly stirred as he rose, the woman still asleep with her daughter in her arms.
One his back, Samehada began to squirm.
The blade could taste the Chakra filling the air, wanted more of the strange Dark Chakra this cult used, seemingly, without end.
'There's about six of them. Trained for assassination. Skilled enough to get by all the guards they couldn't just kill.' His grin only widened at what it all promised. The alarm would be raised sooner rather than later, would drive all the guards left alive to rush to the Priestess.
Two of them would likely be responsible for keeping away any reinforcements, would likely give their lives to make sure no one could come save the Priestess or her daughter before it was too late.
That left at least four for him, four fresh meals of the Dark Chakra Samehada had already developed a taste for.
"But, before I can stretch my legs." He had to keep Pain off his back, keep Miroku and Shion alive if something slipped by him. He only needed a few hand seals for what he had in mind, took in a deep breath. "Suiton: Suiro no Jutsu." It was tricky but the Water Prison would do its job, would keep anything from reaching them. Worst case scenario, it was programmed to turn into a Water Clone and deal with what assassin managed to slip past him.
With that done, he drew Samehada from his back and headed for the door with a smile.
Without fear, the man in black stared down the closest to God walking this Earth.
His inner sanctum, his fortress, had been breached by this single figure. No matter the warriors sent to kill him, no matter their enhancements, no matter their fanaticism, they had been powerless to even slow Pain down. All who had approached him had fallen. One after another.
The man who had made himself an enemy of Pain didn't rise from his seat, merely watched as the six figures bearing the moniker of Pain entered the room.
Despite the situation, that a force of only six had laid siege to the last of his strongholds in the Land of Demons, the man showed no fear. He didn't offer any words to his attacker, his future executor. A glance over the room was all Pain needed to see why the man was so confident.
The Rinnegan showed what would be invisible to the eyes of a mortal. A powerful barrier was in place, surrounded the man in black on all sides and above. If he proceeded any further, he would become a victim of the barrier. Beyond the barrier, dark snakes made entirely out of a corrupt Chakra approached the bodies of Pain from all angles.
It was a rather excellent death trap.
For those lacking the power he held.
"You are the man they call Yomi, are you not?" The Deva Path spoke up after taking in the room. There was no need to be concerned with either the barrier or the Chakra snakes.
The man bowed his head in acceptance of such a thing. "I am the current bearer of that title." He spoke the words with near reverence as his dark eyes focused on Pain. "And you're the God from the Hidden Rain, the one Priestess Miroku called upon to save her." Those same dark eyes locked with the Rinnegan.
Even from only one perspective, the man facing God seemed amused.
"I wonder, with that look in your eyes, are you arrogant or foolish?"
The man, the bearer of the title of Yomi, gave his answer to such a question when he beckoned Pain forward. An invisible seam opened in the barrier protecting him, allowed one of the bodies of Pain to enter.
"I am neither. Merely a humble servant." Yomi remained relaxed where he sat. "I fear no man, no death, in service to the Great Ruler."
The Deva Path entered the barrier, was unperturbed when it closed behind him. He took the seat offered in front of Yomi. The two could look the other in the eye, both able to gain a measure of the other.
Yomi's dark eyes shined with a vile strength evenly met by the Rinnegan, by the one who controlled the six bodies before him.
"Your power would be in great service to the Great Ruler." Yomi's words were answered by a scoff from the man he spoke with.
"You speak to me as if we are equals." Pain's voice lacked accusation or amusement. He stated a simple fact. "We are not. You are a servant of a power greater than your own."
Yomi answered with a shrug. "If you insist on such a thing." His eyes didn't break away from the puppet in front of him, gazed far beyond what was before him. "You clearly have a high opinion of yourself and of your mission. But not the one you've undertaken here." The man's smile revealed more of the darkness inside of him, that inhabited his body. "Your mission and my mission. We could work with each other to achieve both."
"My mission is one of salvation. Of peace. I will create an era of prosperity for the world." Pain spoke another fact. "Yours is one of only destruction and endless suffering. You hold no greater goal, no true divine mission. I aim to spread true justice in the world while you only seek chaos." Even diluted by speaking through another, the disgust he carried at the man in front of him transferred over. "You are exactly what I seek to destroy in this world."
"Chaos. Justice. Both are the same. By the time this is over, we'll both have the blood of countless on our hands. I don't bother with falsehoods. I don't lie to myself. All I aim to do in this life is to serve my master." Yomi's eyes were no more. Only a vile darkness mimicked such a thing, the beacons of power they served as evenly meeting the eyes beyond the room.
Meeting the eyes of Nagato, the man behind the moniker of Pain.
"You've interfered with my plan to see Priestess Miroku dead, see her entire line ended, and see my master, the Great Ruler, freed. But you have only stopped my plan. My Clan has tirelessly endeavored to see the Great Ruler's Body and Soul reunited since our beginning, our quest to see such a thing made manifest. No matter how long it takes, the Great Ruler shall reign supreme in this world with us as his eternally devoted servants." Yomi no longer spoke to the mere puppet before him.
"Your Clan will try this again."
Yomi's smile pulled apart his face as power not his own ate away at his form. It was a ghastly grin that stretched, literally, from ear to ear. Whatever empowered him, whatever power he wielded, it was as destructive inside of him as it was when used against others.
It was the purest of poisons, a toxic energy like no other. And he seemed to all but relish its presence within him.
"Of course. It is our sole ambition after all. The only ambition we hold on this dreadful world. We are his humble servants from our birth to our death." Dark power leaked from a dying man. "When I die here, another will take up the title of Yomi. He will lead our Clan, he will see to the restoration of the Great Ruler no matter the cost."
"You are a Clan of maniacs."
"And you are a False God." That ghastly smile widened. Dark Chakra filled in for the torn and ripped skin. Even as it did so, more of his body was sacrificed to it. "One too cowardly to stand before me. To face me with his true body. The Great Ruler has no need for one so dependent on mere puppets such as these."
The Deva Path was commanded to rise.
Yomi, the current bearer of that name, rose with him.
Dark Chakra consumed a decaying shell.
The barrier containing the two fell away.
The snakes of Chakra were never a threat to Pain, had gathered solely to throw themselves into the waiting body of Yomi. His body continued to burn away, a transformation of some kind taking place in the moments following.
The Deva Path moved away from whatever came next, seamlessly dropped into the formation that put the Preta Path at the forefront of any attack.
It was the correct decision to withdraw as six eyes saw as the Dark Chakra that consumed Yomi erupted outward, as the barrier of the Preta Path formed a cone of protection. All else outside of such a thing was victim to the destructive power, was destroyed as the Dark Chakra tore over it.
The man that served as the center of such destruction only laughed.
The madman laughed as his body was twisted, as whatever power that fueled him tore him apart.
He laughed as he lunged for the Deva Path with no heed of his own survival. Living past this encounter was never his intent to begin with.
His attack was repelled with one hand, the creature that was once a man thrown far back through the walls of his fortress. The Asura Path stepped forward next, twisted its hand and pulled it away. A long silver thread connected the two pieces now, lined with explosives that erupted forward. They pursued the creature once known as Yomi relentlessly, each impact releasing a devastating explosion that further demolished the hideout. The other bodies followed after the trail of destruction, a black rod coming to each of their hands as they did so.
The creature was already rising, Dark Chakra replacing more and more of its former flesh and further twisting it away from being anything close to resembling a human form. Claws of the dark power were bared and their owner launched another attack, acted without heed to his own survival.
The black rods were durable enough to clash with the claws, the Human and Animal Path intercepting the creature's attack. The Asura shot forward, propelled with feet turned into thrusters. Hands shifted, flesh pulled away until only a collection of blades existed. They began to rotate as their owner aimed to skewer the creature, end the battle here and now. On either side of the creature, the Deva and Preta Paths drove the black rods in their hands into the creature's twisted body. It roared.
Not in pain. In something closer to animalistic joy, savage exhilaration. The Asura Path slammed into it, dozens of blades wholly skewering the creature's body. One hand had aimed to rip through where the creature's heart should be and the other had been aimed to target the rest of what passed for its organs.
Again, the creature only roared.
Dark Chakra came to its command, was unleashed as a devastating blast from the mouth.
The Asura Path was consumed in the blast but the others had already retreated. Pain had expected such a tactic.
"This power…" Even from a distance, even when diluted from the source, it made the man behind the identity of Pain sick. It was a perverse thing, something born from things unspeakable, empowered twisted servants of such a dark power. Still, he forced himself to focus. "I can't allow this in my world." The pain it would bring, the sickness it would cast on the world, it couldn't be let loose.
A God needed to stop this.
Samehade didn't cut. It didn't slice.
It shredded.
One of the attackers fell with a scream as he became victim to the peculiar nature of the blade. His armor had been shorn off and his flesh had suffered the same.
Kisame left him to bleed out on the ground. His focus moved towards the Dark Chakra fueled bombardment of Fire, Wind, and Lighting Release techniques coming towards him. The one on the floor had been the Earth Release user judging by how Samehade took its time chewing up the Chakra, seemed pleased but a little bit disgruntled at the same time.
Earth Release was too crunchy it seems, the Dark Chakra only just offsetting the normal distaste.
The attacks from the Dark Chakra using assassins aimed to overwhelm him and strike the two behind him. Even with his modified Water Prison Technique, the Lightning Release would probably kill them.
Luckily, they never had a chance of going far.
Samehade was hungry. The blade had been starved, ravenous for the Dark Chakra these cultists used so freely.
The bandages were already beginning to unfurl, the sword growing larger and larger in his grasp as it finally had the chance to sate what was near maddening hunger. Its teeth closed around a fireball and swallowed it, the wind blades and lightning bolts no different. All of them were consumed by the ravenous blade.
"Huh." Kisame released the hilt of the blade as it began to thrash, as it began to grow larger and larger. It was filling part of the room, was growling and snapping its teeth as it clearly hungered for more. "I almost feel sorry for you." His grin said anything but that.
Samehade snarled as the blade charged forward, as one unfortunate assassin found the teeth of the blade chomping down on around half of his body. He screamed but it was useless as Samehade began thrashing its trapped prey around, as blood spread quickly to cover the floor. The other three were frozen in horror.
They had likely never seen a man eaten by a sentient sword before.
Kisame allowed Samehade to have fun with the meal in its jaws. He went through the few hand seals required for his next technique.
He breathed out a torrent of pressurized water, slammed one of the attackers into the reinforced wall with enough force to crack it and snap their neck. Samehade noisily finished the first victim of its feast, seemed tempted to lick at the blood staining the floor.
"Get that one before he gets cold." Kisame shifted Samehade's attention, the ravenous blade blitzing past the two stunned assassins for the one that wasn't quite dead. At least by the screams as Samehade started from the bottom up. The other two seemed to understand continued battle was pointless. It was time to flee, to escape, to live to fight another day.
If they remained, they would simply be another meal for the hungry sword.
They also didn't seem to reason that running was worthless.
Kisame Hoshigaki was thorough. All of these assassins would die.
Just like Pain ordered, Miroku and Shion would be safe. For now.
By the end of their battle, Pain would stand alone in the crushed remains of a once hidden stronghold. The Human Path frowned at the results of his interrogation.
"His soul…it wasn't present in his body." He drew his hand away from the crumbling shell, whatever power had fueled his body now leaving it nothing but a charred husk. The skin had been all but melted away, bones revealing themselves to be warped and misshapen as they broke through what remained. Everything about his opponent was simply wrong.
Especially the twisted grin on what was left of his skull.
"So this is the power of Moryo." A dozen eyes examined the lingering Dark Chakra across the ruined battlefield. Even now, it lingered in the air, poisoned the ground. Everything about the power of Yomi, about Moryo, was nothing short of corruption incarnate.
It could not be allowed to exist.
"Everything it touches is at risk of being destroyed." The Preta Path stepped forward, set about removing the most dangerous pockets of remaining Dark Chakra. Even outside of its pervasive influence, it could lead to another possession akin to Yomi if someone unprepared was to stumble upon it.
It would take time.
The Deva Path departed with the Animal Path, the other four would remain to ensure no members of the cult remained.
Far away from the battlefield, the man behind Pain eyed the white bird that had flown into his hideout towards the end of his battle against the monstrous Yomi.
It had unfolded into a piece of paper, landed before him as it had been commanded by its creator.
It spoke of Naruto Uzumaki, of the thousands of clones he possessed and commanded. It spoke of trouble.
"Foolish boy. Are you so blind that you can't see the senseless pain you'll spread like this? This world doesn't need more of your kind."
Perhaps he would need to personally see to Naruto Uzumaki sooner than he thought, forego Madara's intent to avoid the Hidden Leaf until the time was right.
This. This couldn't be allowed to stand.
AN: 5/5 for this update. 1-3 months for the next.
PM/review/adopt this story if you want.
Peace.