Chapter 60 - Arc VIII: Death of the Flesh- Chapter 10

Yuji was certainly surprised that his enemies chose to just walk through the door. Even worse was the fact that he recognized more than one of them, despite having never seen them.

“Pain…”

The ‘chief’ Pain, whose name Yuji did not know, was at the forefront of a group. With it was a very similar looking fellow, with orange hair and piercings. To the right of the ’chief’ Pain was a gaunt looking female with purple hair and a piercing on her chin.

Their collective chakras were oppressive. Yuji could feel it. And yet, he didn’t feel helpless yet.

“Go,” he whispered. A small toad popped out of his vest pocket. The female of the group threw something at it, but it disappeared just in time.

The lead Pain spoke up. “A useless gesture. You will know pain.”

“Why?” Yuji asked, his hands on his weapons. “Why would you keep targeting us? She’s no longer the priestess.”

“The boy. Now.”
This from the female. Her voice was cold, but not without a small touch of caring. Yuji noticed her glance at the head Pain frequently. A weakness?

“Not now or ever,” Yuji replied instantly. Then he gasped and spun quickly, his swords flashing down on the other Pain’s arm. The arm had reached through his barrier jutsu and grabbed for Miko. As the swords cut through it, the arm fell to the ground. Yuji, possessed by a killing instinct, didn’t stop there. His kodachi cut through the being’s head and neck. At the end of it, he used a fire ninjutsu to singe the body.

“Are you alright?!” he called in to Asuna.

“I..he had…my soul…” she called out faintly.
He grabbed me right through the barrier! That barrier shouldn’t be penetrable by simple human flesh! That man is no human. He’s…I don’t know. Something else. Something that I can’t pinpoint. I never had any visions regarding this person. But what does that mean?

Before Yuji could ponder that, paper trapped his arms to his sides, forcing his weapons out of his hands.
“’the hell-!”

The girl had turned into slips of paper. And one of those slips was aiming for his neck like a shuriken! Yuji threw himself to the ground, narrowly avoiding the kill shot. Several more of the odd papers came toward him on the ground. He rolled quickly. With his arms trapped, he couldn’t perform ninjutsu- and yet, he could feel the familiar sensation in his chest. He drew in a breath, then blew it out as hard as he could.

A small tornado blew the papers off, and tossed them around like leaves. Then an explosion engulfed the girl, scattering her paper body all over. The loose bits of paper caught fire and burned quickly.

I can do my new attack?

Yuji caught the lead Pain moving his arms. He remembered all to well what that meant. He focused his chakra and shifted his weight to a low stance, just like he taught Shoki.

“Almighty Push!”

Yuji grunted, but held his ground. As the force of the blow died down, he saw the lead Pain roaring in after it. With his stance so settled, Yuji couldn’t dodge. So his only options were ‘block’ and ‘strike’. Pain’s hands and feet were incredibly quick, and it was all Yuji could do to block, never mind counter. And in two seconds, Pain could attack again.

WHAM!
Yuji fell down hard, having run into something from behind him. He rolled over quickly and kicked, then scrambled to his feet to keep moving.

“!”

The other Pain had pulled himself together-literally. His hand reached out. Yuji automatically moved to block him, but heard Miko’s shout.

“Don’t touch him with your bare hands!”

Yuji pulled up short, skipping back instead.

“Universal Pull.”

Before he could fully react, Pain had pulled Yuji backward onto one of his black swords. It pierced Yuji through the back and stomach. Suspended in the air by the sword, Yuji coughed up blood.

“Your effort was impressive,” the head Pain intoned, “but futile. We will have the boy now. And you will die, knowing the pain of defeat.”

“I…already know that pain!” Yuji coughed out. Blood cascaded down his chest, both from the wound and from his mouth. It was a gruesome site, seeing him held up there by that ominous looking sword that jutted out from both sides of him. “But I won’t know it because of you!”

The other Pain was advancing foreword. Only now could Yuji make out the figure of something behind him. It looked like a demon. Yuji could hear the screams of souls coming from it. The hand reached for Yuji’s chest. He could feel something pulling at the inside of his body, but not touching him at the same time.

Now or never!
Yuji’s hand reached into his stomach and pulled. He made sure the effort was explosive. Both Pain’s tumbled backward, while Shoki and Miko were free of harm from the blast.

Holding his palm to his wound, Yuji closed it. He stepped forward lightly once, then hit his top speed a stride later, pushing the lead Pain through a wall and outside. Pivoting, he spun and used his fire jutsu again. It his the other Pain squarely in the chest, driving him out of the house the opposite way. Facing the lead Pain again, Yuji stomped his foot down across his neck. Or tried to.

“Almighty Push!”

Yuji didn’t have time to lock his feet this time, so he crossed his arms and took the blast. With his heightened chakra, he withstood it easily, and didn’t fly too far. Well within Pain’s five-second window, Yuji kicked out with fire-laced chakra to reverse his momentum, and sailed back toward Pain.

“Shadow Clone Jutsu!”

Making one more Shadow Clone than usually possibly for him, Yuji and his twin approached Pain. The clone pushed Yuji away and flew into Pain, two kunai in each hand. They began a struggle.

Yuji aimed for the other Pain, landing just shy of him, he took a swing. Pain moved to block it, but Yuji was gone; he had taken his back with a Body Flicker.

“Earth Style: Mud Wall!”
“Fire Style: Burning Earth Jutsu!”

The earthen wall came from under Pain, and rocketed him upward, trapping him against the unforgiving wood of the ceiling. The fire jutsu sent a jet of flames up the mud wall. With nowhere to go, Pain was incinerated. Amazingly, Yuji’s control of his chakra kept the house from going up in flames.

Yuji sagged, a little exhausted, but still ready to go.

“Yuji, let the barrier go!” Miko called. “It didn’t keep him out anyway. You need the chakra!”

Yuji let the barrier go, agreeing with that sentiment. He let himself rest for a moment, his clone still battling Pain for the time being.

“How’s your wound, sempai?” Shoki asked, looking at the cut area on Yuji’s back. There was strangely little blood for such a devastating wound.

“It’s healed. I can hear Sakura yelling at me now. Something about how I shouldn’t use fire to sear my wounds shut…”

Miko rolled her eyes, but said nothing, as there was clearly no alternative. She could also hear Sakura admonishing Yuji for the stunt, though. It would have brought a smile to her face, were the situation less grave.

“If we run, they’ll catch us,” she said simply. “We need to stop them here. And now. Before more people get hurt.”

Yuji ran a hand through his hair, a worried expression on his face. “That might not be possible. But I’ve got an idea. You two run for it, while I hold him off.”

That was met with two resounding ‘no’s’, as Yuji expected.

“Then we fight,” he said plainly, nodding in expectance of their disagreement with his suggestion. “Right…how?”

Shoki looked up at the Pain on the ceiling, still being roasted by Yuji’s continuous jutsu. He thought about all the things Yuji had said and done, and all the things he had learned from Miko.
“There’s three of them, and three of us. If I mess with his eyes, then Yuji can finish him. And Miko can keep the girl off our backs.”

Yuji frowned instantly. “The girl? She’s dead- isn’t she?”

“No. I can feel her chakra.” Shoki pointed solemnly to the corner. The paper-girl had reformed.

Miko tugged at Yuji’s sleeve. “You can’t let your promise get in the way now. For Shoki’s sake…take care of him instead. I’ll fight the girl.”

“But- I can’t do that!”

Miko showed Yuji her finger. On it was the ring he had given her.
“I accepted, Yuji. If we get through this, I’ll marry you. We may not feel romantic love toward each other, but there IS some kind of love. Now, please…as my husband…take care of my little brother.”

Yuji was absolutely dumbfounded by that. He’d never expected to hear a request like that! He’d never expected her to accept his proposal, for that matter. Why would such a pure being deign to be with him, the opposite; someone so far from perfection? He didn’t understand her reasoning at all, despite how happy he was to hear it. So, in spite of his shock, he agreed. Paper-girl hadn’t been much of a threat so far. So, reluctant as he was, he allowed Miko to do as she wished. Up until the point of letting her die, of course!

Shoki looked to Yuji, seeing him only slightly rattled, despite the chaos. He matched Yuji’s expression and determination.

“Shoki…you ready to fight?” Yuji asked quietly. Wide-eyed, Shoki nodded all the same. He wanted to fight so bad he could taste it.
“Good. Use the ‘neutral chakra’ we talked about, and use your jutsu. This won’t work for long, but hopefully we can do enough damage to hold out or ward them off.”

“Right. I’ve got your back, senpai.”
Shoki clasped his hands together, letting his chakra flow. As he did, he silently whispered the jutsu he had honed for use against Pain:

“Awasekagami (Opposite Mirrors).”

Shoki’s body began to fade. His legs first, then his arms, and finally his gray hair became a vapor. The vapor floated low to the ground, becoming a heavy mist. The mist began to settle, then move across the grass.

Yuji maintained his justu on the second Pain while aiming for the chief Pain. His clone had lasted up until a second ago. Now it was only Yuji out there.

“You are a mystery, ‘Yuji’,” Pain stated simply. “By all accounts, with the depth of the Akatsuki research confirming it, you should not exist. You do not exist. And yet, you appear as a roadblock to my cleansing of this world.”

Yuji didn’t know why, but he decided to show some bravado. “ ‘Heaven’s Temper’ will always appear as a roadblock to the evil of the Akatsuki. Be it Naruto, Shoki, the Fire Daimyo, or Lady Uzume, I will always descend upon you and ruin you.”

“A champion of justice.”

Yuji felt the first of the bloody red ‘X’s’ appear over his left eye. He lowered his eyes, letting the blood flow as he looked up from under his bangs.
“No. I’m no champion of justice. My soul is host to many sins. Envy among them. But I do my part to repent by protecting the purest of souls, and protecting the most honest of relationships, and by serving the sanctuary to both those things. I will not retreat!”

Yuji coated his hands and feet in the dregs of his firey chakra, then allowed his ‘neutral’ chakra to flow. He charged Pain, swinging mightily. Pain withdrew his odd black sword, parrying, expecting to slice Yuji’s hand off. Yuji blocked with the back of his hand and threw the back of his fist upward, sending the sword toppling end-over-end into the distance. Yuji’s foot then met Pain’s stomach, lifting him into the air. They proceeded to attack and dodge and block almost as one, as if trapped in a vulgar dance. Pain spun Yuji, then stabbed for his back. The bottom of Yuji’s foot blocked the blade. He pushed off it, spun around, and punched Pain hard, sending hurtling to the ground. A mushroom cloud of dust rose up as Pain hit.

Blood was dripping down Yuji’s face now. The rest of his body was covered, but he could tell the red ‘X’s’ were forming all over. He looked up, closing one eye to block the blood flow into it. As he felt the blood coagulate and force his eye shut, he had a thought:

I’ll never be this powerful again. But please…
Yuji felt a strange new power now, confirming his belief that he’d never be this strong again. He had stayed up in the air longer than possible for a normal shinobi. The fire of his chakra had protected him again, granting him an odd ability.

A pair of long, firey-red wings were extended out from Yuji’s back. He instinctively knew how to use them. He took aim from up in the sky, spotting Pain’s form.
…Please, let this be enough!

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