"You know, I feel like I should have seen this coming," Tobi mused idly, taking a step forward. As he did so the blade slid cleanly out of his chest, revealing it hadn't so much as nicked his robes. "Of course, the betrayal I saw a mile away, it was simply a matter of when. I had thought it would be when you were more desperate. In fact, I was planning a whole situation with your brother to force your hand… guess I don't need to now. Maybe just for fun?"
"I will never forgive you for what you did to the Uchiha, or my village," Itachi responded cooly.
Tobi clapped loudly, "Says the man who murdered them everybody!"
The Uchiha prodigy's eyes narrowed. "I stopped a rebellion that would have torn my village apart. You murdered women and children, innocents."
The masked man gave a dramatic sigh. "Well, I just hate to see a job half-finished." He straightened up, sending a sideways glance towards Naruto. "I note our resident Hokage seems less than confused about this plot-thickening turn of affairs?"
"Sometimes, people do trust me to actually think situations out and not just react on emotion." Naruto shifted his shoulders and sent an apologetic look at his old teammate. "Some things, the Hokage needs to know."
"Hiruzen informed you of my request then?" Itachi asked, eyes softening at the lack of hostility from his oldest friend.
"And I'll honour it, you can be sure of that."
"Urgh," Tobi cut in, "Somebody save me from the diabetes already. Could we, maybe, get back to the killy-stabby stuff?"
"If you insist," Itachi said, sheathing his tanto in a smooth motion and looking across at Naruto. "I assume you have been developing a plan to deal with this one?"
The redhead mimed weighing something in his hand. "Gears are turning."
"Then you won't mind if I go first?"
"Oh, by all means. Sounds like you've wanted to kill this guy a lot longer than I have."
Itachi simply turned to stare murderously at that taunting orange mask.
"You have no idea."
The tension of the standoff seemed to lock everybody's feet in place. It shattered when both the Asura Path and Animal path bolted in opposite directions. Kakashi immediately tried to head off the Asura Path, knowing that, with his explosives, he could cause some serious damage to the village. He didn't know what the other one could do, or if it was worse, but he would always take the known variable. Thankfully Gai seemed inclined to think the opposite and made off after the Animal Path.
The other two Paths didn't seem too enamoured with this idea and Kakashi was forced to backpedal away from the Preta Path. He didn't know if the man could absorb Chakra from people as well as techniques and didn't want to find out; he wasn't much of an endurance fighter as it was and the Sharingan was already eating into his reserves. Likewise, Gai suddenly found himself engrossed in a fight with the Naraka Path, the pierced man using his improbable strength to power through the Green Beast's skill.
They were fast. Kakashi's Sharingan spun wildly as it tried to track the beefy man's movements. In Taijutsu alone they seemed evenly matched. Of course, if Kakashi's bag of tricks was as shallow as hand-to-hand, he would have died years ago. He diverted a punch to the side and, using the same hand, suddenly speared his arm forward. It took a lot out of him to get his Raikiri going that fast, and it showed. He was too slow. The orange-haired man leaned back, letting the deadly technique slice through his robes.
He retaliated by reaching out to grab Kakashi's outstretched hand. Thankfully he was fast enough to dodge that, skipping back a few steps to take stock again. This was going nowhere, Kakashi was all about his Jutsu, using them to change the environment and force his opponent into a disadvantageous position to be finished off. This guy's ability to absorb Chakra was throwing a wrench into his normal style.
So, time to do something he'd normally never do.
"Gai, a little help?"
The reaction was instantaneous. The air was filled with the roar of unrestrained energy as Gai suddenly cranked it up to eleven, unlocking the next three gates in less time than it took most Shinobi to go through a string of hand seals.
"Yosh! Keimon: Kai!" Now wreathed in an intense blue aura that caused dust to swirl around him chaotically, Gai leapt backwards into the air. His fists became blurs as he pounded the air over and over again. "Morning Peacock!" For a moment, it looked like the entire Uchiha clan had returned to rain fire from the sky as an uncountable number of fireballs ripped through the air at the Preta Path.
Kakashi smiled grimly as the man fell for the trap, immediately stepping forward to absorb the technique. His rippled eyes widened in shock as the fireballs, the result of pure friction as opposed to any Jutsu, tore right through whatever bubble was absorbing the Chakra and slammed him into the ground. Gai just kept at it, the momentum of his punches actually keeping him in the air as he rained fiery doom down on the stocky man.
Also as Kakashi predicted, the Naraka Path attempted to use the Taijutsu-master's moment of distraction to attack. A black rod slid from his sleeve, but just as he was about to hurl it at Gai it warped and twisted. The distortion in the air spread to the rest of the man's arm and before he knew it, it vanished with a sick ripping noise.
"Kamui," Kakashi muttered, voice wavering slightly as he felt his body begin to give out. He'd used too much Chakra and the Mangekyo Sharingan had pushed him over the edge. Luckily, Gai had finished up. Nothing was left of the Preta Path but a few smoking strands of fabric. He didn't even have to touch the ground to target the Naraka Path, kicking off the air with a small sonic boom and slamming right into the remaining Path with the force of a wrecking ball.
"Leaf cutting square!"
Kakashi tracked his flight through a few buildings before losing sight of him. His eyes went blurry and he could already feel his consciousness slipping. He didn't hit the ground though. Instead, he found Gai, looking just as harried as him from using six of the gates, lowering him gently to the street.
"A most youthful fight my friend, teamwork won us the day and now we must trust our comrades to finish the rest of them!"
Kakashi found just enough energy to lower his headband back down over his eye.
"Sorry Gai, did you say something?"
Pein frowned when his connection with the Naraka Path cut out abruptly. He no longer had the ability to revive his bodies, and the Preta Path was gone too. He couldn't afford to let this drag on for too much longer, his bodies were weaker alone than as a unit. Re-focusing on the current situation, he sent a mental command to the Asura Path and began walking back through the buildings he had crashed through a moment ago.
"Tsunade of the Sannin, I had not expected you to interfere. No matter, you will die just as easily as your teammate."
The blonde sneered at him, hefting the enormous sword on her shoulder with absurd ease. "I never thought I would agree with Orochimaru on anything, but maybe we should have left you brats to die where we found you."
Pein's eyes narrowed at the memory. "Yes, you probably should have."
Tsunade looked up suddenly as a faint whistling began to grow louder. Black shapes fell from the sky around her, smashing into the ground with cratering force before exploding violently. That proved too much for Gamabunta and the abused toad finally returned to Myoboku to recover. Incidentally, Tsunade suddenly found herself unarmed as the boss' tanto vanished with him.
Suddenly Pein was in front of her, those steely, rippled eyes completely emotionless as he made to impale her with one of those black rods. She stepped back and tried to back-hand him but he weaved out of the blow's path with almost contemptuous ease.
"You are slow, Slug Sannin. Retirement has done you no favours."
Tsunade snarled and lunged at the man, but once again he easily moved out of the path of the deadly blow. This time though she pivoted with far more grace, sweeping low to break the Deva Path's legs. Instead, she met an impenetrable wall of force before she was thrown back into a building. She was back up and charging again without hesitation, leaping forward with a battle cry and foregoing the blows altogether. If she could just grapple Pein, then she could break his back effortlessly.
She got a black rod through the arm for her troubles, immediately throwing her Chakra system out of balance. She ripped the thing out a moment later, placing a glowing green hand over the wound and closing it with an afterthought.
"Your control over your Chakra lives up to its reputation," Pein commented off-handedly. "Most would be unable to perform jutsu for a while after being scratched by my Chakra rods."
"Barely a bee-sting," the Slug Sannin growled, bringing her hands together in a ram seal. The weight of her Chakra immediately began to press on the surroundings, her body visibly glowing with golden light. The small blue diamond on her forehead began to grow outward in artful, twisting lines.
"Yin Seal: rel-"
A hand was suddenly laid across hers, making her pause and the yin seal to retreat back to its innocuous form.
"That's enough Tsunade, get back to the medical area, they need you more there."
Tsunade smiled sadly, running a finger down the red lines on Jiraiya's cheek. "You hate using this technique."
"Of course I do," the man announced with his usual bluster. "What am I without my rugged good looks?"
Tsunade gave him a lingering look before nodding and running off back to the main medical checkpoint, leaving the transformed Jiraiya alone again to square off with his former pupil.
"I thought you had taught us everything Sensei; this is new," Pein intoned, taking in the white-haired man's newly bulbous nose, tiny eyes and elongated face tattoos.
"Well, a good teacher has to have some secrets," Jiraiya announced grandly, before coughing into his hand. "Plus, I really hate how this technique makes me look."
"Well that's because ya' never finished the training ya' dumb tadpole," the elderly-looking toad on his right shoulder complained, whacking him upside the head with a scaled-down walking stick.
Right, the man also had two elderly toads protruding from his shoulders.
"And watcha' talking about Jiriaya-boy? I think you look plenty handsome like this, you humans got eyes too big for ya'," the other toad, that looked grandmotherly for lack of a better term, said.
"Okay, okay, I know where this argument goes," Jiraiya interrupted before the grandfather toad could retort. "Can we just focus on the guy trying to destroy my village?"
"Well why didn't ya' say so Jiraiya boy, you know how Ma likes to yap on."
"What was that Pa?"
"Um, nothin' dear, let's get on with this then!"
Pein had been watching the surreal interaction with stoicism. He knew that no matter how goofy Jiraiya acted he was no less attentive to his surroundings. He was also taking the opportunity to get a feel for the man's new form. The sheer power he felt radiation off the Toad Sage was incredible; he would have to put more attention into this than he previously thought.
"Right, better put this ugly mug to use then," Jiraiya said as the chatter from the peanut gallery died down.
"I think there's a lesson I'm long overdue in teaching you, Yahiko."
The Human Path had been led on quite the chase, discovering that most every trappable inch of the house had been rigged with something. If it hadn't it was because there used to be a seal there; if he didn't have the Rinnegan, those would have been more dangerous. Currently he'd had senbon, kunai and shuriken launched at him from a variety of creative angles, all poisoned of course. Three separate flashbangs had gone off, which had been irritatingly effective in leading him into further traps. A smoke bomb had been rigged with an aerosol poison as well as some manner of irritant that, if not for a judicial application of Chakra, might have seriously damaged his eyes. There had also been a number of oddly precise fire traps.
It was only after enduring five minutes of this controlled chaos did he realise that the woman was using traps that wouldn't damage the house or the possessions within. He had determined if he couldn't find her, he'd draw her out. The response was… unpredictable. The moment he had smashed one of the many pictures lining a nearby table, an innocuous little canister was thrown at him. He tried to kick it away, but touching it only set it off. After the fact, ears ringing and front severely burned, he theorised the canister had contained a number of rolled-up explosive tags.
There wasn't much left of the room he'd been occupying.
The message was clear, she would destroy the house before being drawn out.
The Human Path's face twisted into a grimace. If she wanted to play that way, he was more than happy to comply. A mental command was all it took to have the Asura Path rain explosive ordinance on the house, obliterating the roof and filling the building with a noxious smoke.
One of the walls behind him gave a shuddering groan before giving out and collapsing inwards. The Path gave it an idle look before picking his way through the debris to find his target.
Tears of blood ran down Itachi's cheek as he stood at the centre of the clearing. Black flames littered the grass, burning intensely, but never spreading. He had always hated the unnatural feeling of Amaterasu; the pretentious name didn't help. He had always preferred subtlety in his work; the irony of his Mangekyo's power was not lost on him.
"You doing all right there, Itachi-kun?" Madara called out. To Itachi's eyes he was a fuzzy black figure with an orange blob for a head like some indistinct scarecrow; the comedy of the image did nothing to lessen the threat he felt from the man. Madara, even if it wasn't the Uchiha patriarch, was a dangerous individual, capable of manipulating even the absolute power that was Pein. If for nothing else, that made him a priority target.
The Uchiha didn't answer, mind working tirelessly to examine every angle of the man for weakness. He had long enough to examine him while in the Akatsuki, but despite knowing that his technique had a five-minute clock, he had found no way of forcing him past it. Naruto's idea had been good, but Itachi knew Madara had essentially an endless supply of Zetsu clones at his disposal. The Gunbai was new, able to redirect improbable amounts of force and what looked to be most Jutsu, including the black flames of the Mangekyo.
"How is that plan coming on?" He asked Naruto. The redhead had been oddly quiet during the exchange, his expression a mask of focus. Had he known any better he might have assumed the Hokage was trying to enter sage mode, but Naruto had never received Senjutsu training.
"I need about half a minute," Naruto announced, his hands coming up and running through seals Itachi actually recognised. He was surprised he still remembered them, it had been a long time since had seen Naruto actually use the hand seals for the Hiraishin; he couldn't imagine what his former teammate hoped to accomplish. But if there was anybody he trusted more…
"Then I believe I have one last thing to try." Itachi already regretted this course of action, but it may be the only thing that would work on Madara's space-time technique. It started slow, a swirl of visible red Chakra around his feet, but that was enough to tip the older Uchiha off apparently.
"Finally pulling out all the stops Itachi? It's about time."
The Chakra grew, congealing and solidifying into an enormous figure around the Uchiha prodigy. Muscle wrapped around bone, sprouting armour to complete the gruesome visage of his Susano'o. The sword of Totsuka blaze to life in his right hand, and it was his hand; the Susano'o was as much an extension of his body as his eyes were.
"But will it be enough?"
Itachi took a step forward and the sword fell, leaving a fiery arc in its wake as it sliced through the air towards the masked man. Madara stood his ground, slamming his hand down and calling up a blazing orange barrier around his body.
"Uchiha flame formation!" The barrier only stretched a few feet above the man, but it encircled him completely. It was clearly strong enough to stop his Susano'o though, just. The blade pressed in on the barrier, straining it but not breaking it. Itachi knew that if this came to a contest of stamina he would not win; already he felt the ache using the ultimate technique of the Mangekyo put on him. Instead, the Yata mirror swirled into being on his Susano'o's left arm, which he immediately used to bash the flaming barrier.
The reflecting mirror lived up to its name, shattering the jutsu and dissipating the Chakra so thoroughly that Madara reeled back. Itachi used the opportunity to lunge forward again. This time he managed to spear the man on the ethereal blade. For a moment hope swelled in him, that the strain on his eyes, those precious hours taken from his life, hadn't been in vain. Madara's body began to blur, warping as it was pulled along the sword towards the glowing gourd at its base. If he could just seal the man in the bottle this would all be over.
It was too much to hope for though and as soon as Madara realised what happened his body swirled in on itself, appearing across the clearing in the same manner, unharmed.
"Wow, that nearly worked," the man mused, not sounding all that concerned with his near-brush with defeat. "Scary."
"I'm sorry," Itachi said, the Susano'o fading around him as he staggered backwards. It would take him a few minutes to recover before he would be useful in this fight again.
"Don't apologise," Naruto replied with a grim smile. "That one moment where he was forced to teleport was all I needed, just one moment of tangibility."
Itachi was uncertain of what his teammate meant until he noticed the redhead had finished his chain of hand seals. For a moment Itachi felt the world… change. There was no other way to put it. It was akin to the feeling of being trapped in a Genjutsu where everything was exactly the same, but he knew that wasn't the case. If his eyes weren't lying, Naruto had managed to split his Chakra into its Yin and Yang components.
The Yang was channelled harmlessly out of his body, the grass visibly growing beneath his feet. The Yin on the other hand…
"Okay, this seems unfair," Madara muttered, forgoing the childish voice as he looked down at the Hiraishin marker that had not been on his chest a moment ago.
Anko groaned as she staggered out of the ruins that used to be her bedroom, coughing into her hand. Her eyes were watering from the dust, but thankfully she wasn't injured. A hand instinctively strayed to her stomach, panic rising up her spine before it was relieved by the faintest of kicks.
"That's my girl," she whispered, glancing around to take stock of the situation.
She barely managed to turn before a hand wrapped around her throat, lifting her off her feet with ease before casually slamming her into the wall. The breath was knocked out of her, and with the strength of the grip on her neck, it stayed out. A pair of steely ringed eyes bored into her own.
"Where is the Sanbi Jinchuuriki?"
The Hand loosened enough for her to draw breath and answer, which she used to gratefully gulp in a lungful of air and promptly spit in his face.
"Same place you can go fuck yourself."
The hand promptly tightened again, cutting off her airway. The Human Path didn't bother to ask again, simply holding her there as she struggled for air.
Finally, when her face had begun to lose its colour and she could see darkness creeping into her vision, he said, "I don't need to ask. I do so out of respect for the innocent life within you. Where is the Sanbi Jinchuuriki?"
Again, his hand loosened; Anko's gasping was a lot less graceful this time.
"My fiancée… is going to… destroy you."
This time she thought he might have crushed her windpipe when he tightened his grip again. She flailed against him, even manging to stab him with a senbon. It might as well have been a light breeze for all the damage it did him.
"I will only ask once more. God's patience only extends so far."
If Anko retained the control to roll her eyes she would have, as it was she was only semi-conscious at this point and the hyperventilation when he relaxed his grip was more reflexive than a choice.
"I change my… mind. I'm… going to… kill-" She was cut off when Pein's patience reached its limit.
"Very well." With that ultimatum, he placed a hand atop her head, almost tenderly. In the next moment he… pulled. There was a sickening ripping noise as something pale and translucent was drawn up out of Anko's body. She felt an odd lifting sensation, as well as a terrible coldness that seemed to suffuse her entire being.
Then, like an elastic band, the world snapped back into place. She hadn't realised how utterly wrong all of that felt until it was over and she could draw in long, sweet lungfuls of blessed, real, air. The Human Path had staggered back, blinking in confusion as he raised a hand up to his cheek. He jerked back again and this time Anko could catch the silver blur that raced across her vision.
"Don't…" A silver streak and Pein reeled "…hurt…" He was forced a knee as something fast took him in the side of the knee "…my…" a crack echoed in the house as Pein was hit in the face again, nearly flooring him "…Nee-chan!" This time Haya stopped in front of him, using her full momentum to driver her shoulder into Pein's face, sending him flying across the debris-ridden floor. She was like a wild animal, hair flying about her like a mane as she jumped on to his chest, hitting him over and over until her fists made little blurs in the air.
Anko looked on with a weak smile, staggering to her feet. It transformed into a mask of horror as Haya was suddenly flung back, backhanded across the room with the same ease as somebody swatting a fly. When the Human Path got back to his feet it was thoroughly dishevelled and far less stoic. The orange-haired man was now scowling as he stalked across the room towards the silver-haired girl.
"My patience is gone. I will have the answers I came for."
Anko could only croak despairingly as the man picked up the shaking little girl, moving to place his hand atop her head.
Only he couldn't. He looked down at the arm but it simply hung limp at his side. In the next moment he felt the strength leave his fingers, allowing Haya to drop to the floor to scurry back to Anko. His vision blurred and eventually his legs gave in, leaving him prostrate on the floor, helpless as Anko stalked over, grabbing one of Naruto's old tantos out of a nearby bile of rubble.
"What did you… poisons should have no effect on me."
The purple-haired woman wore a pained smile as she awkwardly made her way over, clutching her stomach protectively. "It wasn't a poison, it was a paralytic, a damn strong one, and you took enough to down a boss summons."
Pein merely scowled up at her, before control of his facial muscles slipped him too. "This is not ower, nobothy cab den Goth…" he slurred.
Anko allowed herself a small amused smile before her face became cold.
"And nobody fucks with my family," she snarled, before embedding the sword right through his chest.
The first thing Pein noted was that Jiraiya was absurdly strong in this form. The first blow he had tried to block nearly broke his arm which, with three of his other Path's taken out and the other three similarly empowered, was nearly unthinkable. The black rods had come out quickly by that point, a necessity for redirecting the incredible power Jiraiya possessed.
The old Sannin suddenly jumped, hand raised to the sky like he was trying to grasp the sun. In the next moment it looked as though he had succeeded, a titanic rasengan swirling into existence above his palm. The noise of the thing was deafening, even before Jiraiya pointed it down and allowed it to drop like a bright blue meteor.
There was no room to dodge, the spiralling sphere would encompass the entire market place. He raised a hand and summoned his eyes' power for a similarly grandiose display of power, stopping the attack in its tracks. A quick mental command had the Asura Path turn its attention away from its systematic destruction of key targets in favour of suddenly launching itself at Jiraiya's back.
He should have known those two toads were more than simply decorative. The swivelled on the old Shinobi's shoulders, one of them spitting out a spray of what looked to be oil, which the other swiftly ignited. The Asura Path didn't stand a chance and Pein had already abandoned it before he felt the connection sever.
He used the sudden influx of Chakra to destabilize his own technique, similarly distorting the gravity around the rasengan until the chaotic energies within suddenly found release. Despite Jiraiya's newfound control – it was the only explanation for how he was able to sustain such an enormous mass of Chakra that far from his own body – even he was unable to corral the unstable Jutsu.
The explosion could be seen across the entire village.
It was too soon for another Shinra Tensei, so Pein was left to defend against the blast the old-fashioned way. He was no worse for the wear, but his cloak was in tatters. It was as he was shrugging it off – so that it wouldn't restrict his mobility – that Jiraiya burst out of the dust cloud. Immediately one of his black rods was in hand, aimed to impale the man on his own momentum.
Jiraiya dodged the first with almost precognitive reflexes but was too close to avoid the one that slid out of Pein's other sleeve. He put his hand in the way, and against a lesser weapon his skin might have been enough to stop it – whatever else this form gave him, he seemed far more durable – but Pein's chakra rods were no mere sticks. They speared right through the man's palm, to the clear surprise of the toads on his shoulders.
Jiraiya ignored their surprised exclamations. The moment the rod has pierced his skin his had paused, a tear suddenly rolling down his cheek. He stood there, staring at the Deva Path with those beady frog-like eyes.
"Nagato… what have you done?"
Pein's eyes merely narrowed. "That form is truly impressive sensei, for you to glean so much. However…" He brought his other hand up to impale his old teacher only for the man to easily swat it aside now that he wasn't dealing with the sharp end "…I already told you that there is only Pein."
He kicked forward and despite an impressive showing of flexibility from Jiraiya, there was only so much you could move when one of your hands was speared in place. The Toad Sage went skidding back, hardly looking phased by the blow as he casually pulled the rod out of his palm and threw it aside.
"I will stop you Nagato, and finally get a straight answer out of you, for all of this."
Pein nodded slowly. "I know you will try, Sensei."
"Well," Tobi drawled, pulling at the front of his robes where the Hiraishin marker refused to fade away, "as interested as I am to know how you accomplished this particular feat of impossibility…"
"An application of pure Yin Chakra," Itachi said, sounding impressed despite himself. "A Ninjutsu variation on the Kurama clan's Kekkei Genkai in order to place an illusionary Hiraishin marker and force it into a modicum of reality. Fascinating." When Naruto gave him a sideways look he shrugged. "I was given special dispensation to train under one of their Genjutsu masters when I was younger; being the heir to one of the most powerful clans in the village had its allowances." He glanced back at the redhead. "Does it function as a normal marker? And where did you even get the idea?"
"I had the pleasure of meeting the Kurama heir, Yakumo. Lovely girl, she had reason to be… grateful, after our meeting. She was more than happy to help with a little project of mine."
Itachi nodded slowly. "Slow to apply, but if refined…" the thought of such a technique was mind-boggling. The placement of Hiraishin markers without the need for physical contact. He wasn't sure of a force that could withstand Naruto, if the Namikaze could master it.
They were interrupted by Tobi clapping slowly. "Wonderful. A marvel of our age. Truly you are the next… well, me," he deadpanned. "Still doesn't quite solve the problem that you can't hit me."
The man paused when Naruto's smile turned vicious. "Oh, but you gave me plenty of time to think on that. It's the funniest thing actually, before all of this I happened to be chasing down a certain rogue Root leader, Danzo, maybe you know him." Based on the slight shift in Tobi's posture, he did. "It seems he'd been planning for a while on how to deal with me, or more specifically my father's, and by extension the Nidaime's technique. He was in the unique position of both being the Nidaime's student, with access to many of his notes, and a Fuinjutsu-user of no small skill. Turns out that he had managed to cobble together a type of barrier seal that disrupts space-time techniques, all of them in fact, the very same seal that my clones should have finished placing around this clearing just… about…"
The smile had taken on a predatory aspect, which Tobi could see all too clearly now that Naruto had flashed right in front of him, the tanto he had swiped off Itachi's back reared back to strike.