Chapter 98 - FINAL ARC: Part 2

Genjutsu

Yuji found Jiraiya just starting to stand up when he entered the genjutsu. Jiraiya was visibly shaken, and that was no easy feat. You didn’t get to be a legend without nerves of steel.

Jiraiya wasted no time on small talk. He grabbed Yuji with his good arm, hauling the young man close.

“…Pain…he’s coming. There’s six of him…no, seven. Six that attack. One that is hidden somewhere. There’s…no weakness I could exploit. Nothing. I was completely beaten…You’ve got to…got to get everyone out of here.”

“I’ve sent a clone for medical help. There‘s no time for an evacuation. So I‘ll fight and buy the time.”

Jiraiya grasped Yuji’s arm, halting him.
“They have…one weakness. And it plays to your strengths…”

--

Yuji knew better than to tackle this alone. He relayed his information to clone. Or tried to. Instead, his clone reported that seven figures had attacked the village. Help was en route to Master Jiraiya.

Which means I’m too late already!

Yuji allowed his Ten no Kishootsu power to seep out. His firey wings extended regally behind him, free from their flesh and blood prison. Yuji’s hair darkened to the black of charcoal, and his eyes to dark, shiny obsidian.

He took to the skies. It didn’t take long to see his adversaries. In fact, he almost ran smack into a three-headed dog. What the hell was a dog doing two hundred feet in the air? More importantly, why was it two hundred feet tall with eyes like a demon?

No matter. It was attacking. That was all the fact Yuji needed to take action.

Sensing something, Yuji turned to his right quickly. He just avoided a spear made of…paper?

To his surprise, there was someone else with wings, flying way up here. She was female, with dark, mournful eyes, an expressionless, pale face, and piercings decorating her ears and face.

“Lord Pain will not be denied,” she told Yuji by way of greeting.

Yuji sent a fire jutsu toward the girl. If she was made of paper, then problem solved.

The sheets of paper that made the girl up separated into hundreds of butterfly origami. They clustered and attacked Yuji as one. He flew upward, corkscrewing wildly to dodge the attacks. When the paper did hit him, the cuts were deep, but nowhere vital.

Finally, Yuji was tired of flying away. He decided to take a chance and test the abilities of his opponent. It was horribly nerve-wracking to just let your opponent hit you, but sometimes it was necessary. So Yuji folded his wings around him and let himself fall.

A few of the deadly butterflies hit him but simply burned up into cinders. That meant that fire was a good defense, as common sense would seem to dictate. But in a shinobi battle, where the laws of the universe were tested constantly, you could take nothing for granted.

Yuji moved himself over a bit, using a brief burst from his wings. Then he solidified his chakra and let himself fall to earth. By design, he shot right through the two hundred foot tall dog he’d nearly run into before. He took one of its heads clean off, though to his chagrin two more grew back.

More impressive was the effect his entrance had.

The embattled Leaf shinobi cheered as one when Yuji’s wings peeled back to reveal him. Their response to him touched Yuji. They did care. They loved him. They accepted him. For the first time, he belonged somewhere.

And I was ready to damn these people. But…

He took only a brief moment to see the cheering faces. But all around, he saw those who were injured, and even more who were dying or dead. All within only a minute or two. The Leaf were beyond competent when it came to fighting. So how could this happen? And why?

Yuji let the warm feeling of belonging seep over him, ignoring the mindless rage he’d felt at seeing the injured and dead. He’d even battled back an image of Miko. Seeing her lifeless body again had invigorated him plenty.

Without any further delay, he charged at Pain. He didn’t know or care which one. When the dog creature jumped in the way, he decided he was attacking the ‘Summoning Pain’. That was fine wit him.

After seeing it self-replicate, I think the safest course of action-

“SHOUKYAKU JUTSU!”

-is total destruction. Maybe if I leave no material of the original summoning it‘ll take more time to cast the jutsu again.

The dog-thing from hell exploded mightily, filling the air with an oppressive heat. But when the dust settled Yuji had tackled the ‘Summoning Pain’ and carried him/her away, high into the air.

More to energize the people below him than out of absolute necessity, Yuji made a spectacle of destroying this Pain. He whipped around behind him, holding the arms by the hands that had caused such damage. He stomped on Pain’s back, separated the arms. He threw them in opposite directions, then shoulder-tackled Pain and drove him hard into the ground, pulling himself up at the last second- and taking the head with him.

Yuji more than anyone knew just how fast these guys could rebuild themselves. That was why he scattered the body parts as far as he could. It would buy time- he hoped.

An arm snared Yuji’s coat and pushed him into a wall of a still-standing building. As soon as he felt it’s touch, Yuji clapped his wings behind him, gripping the arm that was in turn gripping him. He hit the wall legs-first, rebounding backward and upside-down. He shot his standard fire jutsu at whoever had grabbed him. This Pain wasn’t one he had faced before, so he wasn’t sure of it’s ability. In case he fell, best to illustrate it’s abilities to the others, he decided, instead of trying and failing to destroy it.

He landed in front of this Pain, beating his wings to keep the moving in case he needed to go airborne again quickly.

Analyzing his enemy, Yuji had to admit he was tempted to underestimate him/it. It was fat, bald-headed, and had a stupid look on it’s face. Yuji knew better than to make any generalizations; as he’d discovered, this Pain was neither slow nor particularly noisy due to it’s size.

While sizing up this Pain, Yuji noticed that the other Pains behaved in interesting ways. The one Yuji had termed the ‘Lead Pain’ attacked more or less as he wished. He was always accompanied by one other Pain. That one was a defense-oriented Pain. It blocked any attacks that were directed toward the ‘Lead Pain’ and another Pain behind it, which was occasionally grabbing people and apparently ripping their tongues out. The last Pain was killing people seemingly only by touching them.

All of them were dangerous. The Pain Yuji had managed to destroy had not yet appeared, and neither had it’s monstrous summon. That was one Pain down, mercifully.

Now the Pain in front of Yuji took priority. Sick as it made Yuji feel to let people die, this Pain had split off from the main group, making itself vulnerable. That had to be taken advantage of.

Yuji fainted a move toward Pain; another elongated arm shot out.

One trick. Okay, now we can-

Yuji didn’t have time to react beyond tucking his chin and crossing his arms in front of him as Pain suddenly shot forward with speed surprising of such a thickly built creature. It’s body barreled into Yuji at top speed, sending him flying backward through three of the remaining standing buildings.
--
--

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had been off by themselves, catching up pleasantly (if a little awkwardly). Their walk took them past all the places where they had memories. Naruto being tied up at the training field. The way they’d bonded during the chunin exams during the ‘Forest of Death’ portion of the test. There was nothing in the forest they couldn’t handle these days.

They were powerful. All of them. Naruto with his Sage training; Sakura with her medical expertise and powerful taijutsu; Sasuke with his mastery of the Uchiha Sharingan and the three major jutsu that went with it. All of them were beyond formidable. And re-united, they felt invincible.

Their walk took them to the main gate of the Hidden Leaf. It was there that they finally realized that a battle was going on.

Master Jiraiya was still lying in the road, his arm not yet reattached, though one of the toads had brought it with them. Shizune and Tsunade were working feverishly, doing all they could to keep Jiraiya stabilized without any equipment outside of their own chakra.

Sakura ran to help. If two medical geniuses were good, a third could only help.

Sasuke and Naruto decided to join the fight in the Hidden Leaf. The three female medics were all capable of taking care of themselves in combat, so they didn’t see the need to stick around to protect them.

As they attempted to enter the village, they found their path blocked by who Sasuke knew to be Konan. With her was a Pain, but it had performed no jutsu.

“Lord Pain,” said Konan into thin air,” I’ve had ‘Animal Path Pain’ repaired. We’ve isolated the nine-tails jinchuriki, as well as Uchiha Sasuke, and additional others. They’re treating Master Jiraiya.”

She received an answer, apparently, because she said ‘Understood’ into the air again. She faced the Leaf Shinobi, blocking their path to the Village.

“Lord Pain is killing the heretics of this village. You will not interfere.”

Sasuke was used to taking charge of a group, and he responded quickly:
“Sakura, protect the healers. Naruto, you’re with me. We won’t give him a chance to use his jutsu!”

For the first time in years, Naruto and Sasuke were on the same side. They attacked together, and it was like Sasuke had never left. They were charging together against an enemy that was, by all indications, stronger than they were.

Haku.
Zabuza.
Orochimaru.

Stronger or not, these enemies would get a fight. Now that Sasuke had his head on straight, he decided that maybe Itachi had a point or two about the Leaf and its people.

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