Chapter 20 : When it Rains, it Pours

Within the large body of water that surrounded Amegakure No Sato, a small toad stuck its head out of the water. This was not so strange. Amphibians of all kinds were often found near or around the water, and considering how much precipitation Amegakure received there were far more toads there than there would be anywhere else.

However, while there didn't seem to be anything remarkable about this toad, what it did next would easily be something that stepped out of the bounds of reality. Where if anyone that was not a shinobi had been watching, they undoubtedly would not believe what they were seeing.

The toad opened its mouth, almost as if to croak. Before the creature could even make noise, however, a large hand, followed by an arm came out. This was soon followed by a head full of white hair, another arm, a body wearing a red and green Kabuki outfit, and a set of legs. When the man's body was all of the way out, Jiraiya of the Sennin stood up.

"Amegakure," the man muttered, an unusually somber expression on the man's face. "I never wanted to come back here."

Amegakure was a small, yet highly industrialized hidden village located in an unnamed country. Its architecture was composed of several metallic skyscrapers with rowed ducts connected to them and mazy power lines surmounting. A number of smaller villages also surrounded Amegakure. As its name suggested, it rained almost constantly due to a storm above the village.

It was a place that held many bad memories for Jiraiya, memories of several of his many failures, of his loss against Hanzo, the deaths of his three students. There was a lot about the village that would haunt the Sennin until he died.

Straightening his back, Jiraiya, the Gama Sennin of Konoha and one of the most powerful men in the world began making his way into the sprawling village.

XXXXXXXXXX

Pain's head snapped up as he looked out at the falling rain. His eyes narrowed.

"Pain?" asked Konan, seeing the look on his face.

"Someone has managed to infiltrate Amegakure," Pain said. Konan had to fight hard not to let her eyes widen or her emotions show on her face. She didn't think it was Naruto. He had already infiltrated Ame, and they could see each other via Hiraishin kunai. But that didn't mean she didn't worry. Pain continued on unmindful of her feelings. "Judging by their chakra and the fact that I didn't feel them until they entered suggests they are skilled."

XXXXXXXXXX

Jiraiya unsealed a plain tan traveler's cloak from a seal hidden in his vest pocket. Putting it on he threw the hood up and walked out from under the small overhang he had used to stay out of the rain. As he wondered where the best place to start gathering information would be, he came upon a little shop with an old lady selling pork buns outside.

He grabbed one of the buns off the stove the old lady had on. "Ack!" he quickly began tossing the hot bun from one hand to the other in surprise. Though he supposed it shouldn't be, it had been on a stove after all. It was supposed to be hot.

When it finally cooled down enough so that he could hold it in one hand he reached into a pocket with the other and pulled out some money.

"Baa-chan, I'll take one of these," he said to the old lady, holding the money out to her.

"Anytime," the old lady said as she took the money. As her hand closed around the ryō she eyed him warily. "You know, I haven't seen you around here before. You're not from around here, are you?"

"That obvious, huh?" said Jiraiya with a jovial smile and a laugh. "Well, I'm actually a writer, you see. I do a lot of traveling for a magazine I write in about regional specialties." Jiraiya gave himself a mental pat on the back at picking this particular persona to adopt when he saw the woman's suspicion melt away and a smile to take her face. As a spymaster, he had to always come up with false jobs and such in order to keep suspicion off his back. It helped that he was at least partly telling the truth, he was a writer after all.

He took a bite of the food while the old woman spoke. "Oh, I see. So, what do you think of my pork buns?"

"They're excellent," Jiraiya commented honestly. They were good. "Just like the rumors say, these pork buns are quite amazing."

The old woman smiled and nodded. "Right, right?"

"I would love to introduce these into our magazine," Jiraiya continued. He looked at the woman and smiled, slightly sheepishly. "If that's ok with you, that is?"

The old woman suddenly gained a flustered look. "Really? You want to place my food in a magazine?"

"Of course," Jiraiya said. He bent down and cupped his hand to his mouth so he could whisper in a conspiratorial fashion. "And once I write about them, you'll be flooded by customers. Everyone will want one of your pork buns."

"R-really now?" The woman looked rather excited by the idea of having so many customers. "You would be able to do that?"

"Of course," Jiraiya said. He looked around at the surrounding area, he couldn't see very far due to the rain and the large buildings blocking the other parts of the city out. "It sure is peaceful here."

"Yes, it is," the woman agreed. "This village is no longer suffering, all thanks to Pain-sama." The old woman put her hands in a prayer sign, "All praise him."

"Pain?" Jiraiya muttered with a frown. It was disturbing to see the signs of utter devotion on this woman's face as she spoke of pain. She looked as if she was speaking of Kami himself.

"Yes, Pain-sama," the woman said with a smile.

Jiraiya's frown increased. "What happened to Hanzou No Salamander..." his voice trailed off when he noticed the looks he was getting from the citizens around him. They all held expressions of scorn and suspicion. While attracting attention at all was bad while infiltrating a village, the last thing he wanted was for people to actually be suspicious of him.

"Sorry to bother you, baa-chan," he said lightly as he placed his hood over his head again and walked off.

XXXXXXXXXX

"I see," Madara replied. Unlike Naruto he didn't bother changing stances, opting to stand with a casual demeanor that let the blond know that the ancient Uchiha didn't see him as much of a threat.

Well, Naruto would just have to change that.

Flicking his wrist Naruto let the tri-pronged kunai sail from his grasp. He flashed to it almost immediately after, his throw having been so hard and so fast it only took a second to reach Madara's position.

A spinning blue ball of chakra appeared in the blonde's hand, which he rammed into Madara's chest. However, the powerful Rasengan didn't even touch the former Uchiha leader. Instead, it went right through the man as if he wasn't even there.

Naruto frowned as he dodged the sickle and chains that Madara had summoned, most likely through a seal somewhere on his person. He threw his kunai again, flashing several feet away before tossing both kunai, one near Madara and the other into a tree. The blond flashed to the one near Madara and attempted to attack him, this time using a wind blade in an effort to cut the man's head off.

Once again his jutsu went right through Madara and he was forced to flash to his second kunai as the man attacked him in return.

It has to be some kind of Jikūkan Jutsu, Naruto concluded as he analyzed the phasing ability of his opponent. He could be sending his body to a separate yet connected dimension, thereby making attacks phase through him...

The question was whether he was phasing his whole body or just parts of his body, and what kind of limitations such a jutsu contained. He couldn't imagine that this ability didn't have some kind of cost, or perhaps a limit on the number of phases he could do in a certain amount of time.

Perhaps it was time to put Madara's abilities to the test?

Naruto jumped into the air, using chakra to boost his height. At the apex of his jump, he flicked his wrists, launching the two kunai from his grasp. Those kunai soon multiplied into dozens.

Hundreds. All of them heading down for the forest floor below. They covered the ground, the branches; every single area was littered with tri-pronged kunai, spaced apart by fifteen feet to grant Naruto maximum usage. No matter where Madara tried to go he would not be able to get to the edge of his kunai field in time should his abilities run dry.

Smirking, Naruto disappeared in a yellow flash.

Soon enough flashes began to appear all around Madara, they were constantly in motion, flashing from all sides in an attempt to hit him. The attacks moved so fast that the Uchiha found he couldn't even tell which flash was Naruto and which was simply an afterimage. They came in all at once, at the same exact instant. Making distinguishing between flashes impossible. Not even the famed Sharingan was of any help here.

However, his phasing ability wasn't all Madara had. While Naruto was flashing around him the man disappeared within a vortex, reappearing several meters away. The blond shinobi was quick to flash to the man, not wanting to let up and possibly give the man an advantage.

He hadn't realized that in keeping up the pressure his advantage had been lost. Though he figured that out when he tried to continue flashing around Madara and got a foot in the face for his efforts.

The blond flipped around, landing on an adjacent branch and using chakra to stick his feet to the bark. "Your Sharingan can see my chakra signature when using the Hiraishin," Naruto stated with narrowed eyes. He could almost feel the smirk the man was likely carrying on his face.

"Correct. I might not be able to discern which is the real you when you're flashing around me like previously. But dealing with a single Hiraishin attack is easy if you know how to do it."

Naruto grit his teeth, not liking the smug tone in the man's voice. "Well then, I guess I'll just have to step up my game."

"We both know there is no stepping up," Madara said mockingly. "You've been fighting me as hard as you can since the beginning. You and I both know anything less than your best effort will end in your defeat." The blond frowned at the way the ancient Uchiha called his bluff but didn't comment further.

Flinging the two kunai into his grip Naruto once again disappeared in a yellow flash.

XXXXXXXXXX

Jiraiya smiled as the beautiful young waitress placed some Dango and red-bean paste on his table. "Here you go," she said cheerfully as the white-haired hermit wondered if he could convince her to help him come up with material for his books. He grinned at her and was about to go with the old try and true 'upfront and ask them' routine. Tried because he had tried to use it many times, and true because it never failed to leave him with a rather large handprint on his face... or worse.

However, a small hanging ornament caught his attention. He could tell rather easily that it was made from paper, the origami ornament was done up in a white angel. "Excuse me miss... but what's that?" he asked, pointing to the ornament.

"Hmm?" the waitress looked at him curiously for a moment, then turned around to see where he was pointing. A smile came to her face. "Ah, that's our angel," she said, and once again Jiraiya noted the same tone of devotion from this woman as the old lady. "Don't you know? There's a rumor that says if you place an origami of her in front of your shop, you'll have good fortune."

"Good fortune, huh?" Jiraiya mused out loud. As he began to eat he couldn't help but wonder what was going on. This country was nothing like what he had expected. He had been expecting a country torn in two with civil strife, if not outright war. And yet Amegakure was completely unified. How could this be?

It looks like I'm going to need to do some more searching, he decided with a sigh. Maybe I should interrogate one of their shin...o...bi... his thoughts were derailed as he saw a rather garish pink sign for a brothel that red Come-Come Pub War. Above the name were two hearts being pierced with an arrow.

Jiraiya's eyes widened and his hands came up and made grasping motions, already imagining the beautiful, nubile flesh they would be feeling. "Maybe I should interrogate them for some information instead!"

XXXXXXXXXX

"Oh, Jiraiya-kun, you must be joking!" laughed the blond woman wearing a rather revealing kimono. She poured some sake from the bottle she was holding into the white-haired hermit's cup. "Did that really happen?"

"I assure you every word I said is true," Jiraiya confirmed, right before he took a long gulp from his glass. His cheeks were currently flushed red from all of the alcohol he had been drinking, and he was feeling a nice buzz.

"Wow! That must have been a fierce battle," she said in an impressed voice. It was hard to tell whether she was really impressed, or if she even believed him. Call girls like her were trained to please the men they served, which included feeding a man's ego. Not that Jiraiya particularly cared if she was being honest in her admiration or not.

"Not as fierce as this battle, Tezuna-chan" Jiraiya said as he rather blatantly stared at her chest, which was almost Tsunade-sized. "You know, your name is very similar to another girl I know. She was a lot like you, an amazing and beautiful woman. Seeing you makes the long trip I had to make to get here all worthwhile."

"Oh, so you're not from around here?" asked Tezuna.

"No, I had come here seeking work," Jiraiya said. "I heard there might be some decent-paying work for a mercenary like myself. I believe the person hiring was called Salamander No Hanzou -"

"Shhh!" Tezuna hissed as she placed a finger to her lips. "You shouldn't talk about someone like Hanzou here."

"Hmm? Why not?" asked Jiraiya, looking rather confused.

Tezuna looked around to make sure no one was within hearing range, before leaning towards Jiraiya to whisper in his ear. "If people here think you're a comrade of Hanzou, they'll kill you."

"Really? That sounds rather dangerous!" Jiraiya exclaimed.

"The new leader, Pain-sama, is very strict," Tezuna said. "If anyone gives him a reason to be suspicious of them he will kill them without mercy. At least, that's what my hubby said."

"What!" exclaimed Jiraiya. "You have a husband, Tezuna-chan?"

"Yes, but he's just a village genin so we don't make much income, so I have to work too," she explained.

"Ouch, sounds like you have your work cut out for you," the white-haired man said. However, on the inside, he was frowning in thought. This Pain was obviously very powerful if he could invoke such reactions from the people in his village. That no one even seemed to know who the man was, was also a cause for concern. From what he had gathered no one had ever seen Pain in the village, and his 'angel' was the people's only connection to the enigmatic leader of Amegakure. For someone of Jiraiya's caliber, finding such little information on a person was disturbing, to say the least.

Jiraiya focused his attention on Tezuna some more, asking some general questions about her before asking about Pain.

"According to my hubby, the rain is falling because of Pain-sama's technique," she told him. "With that technique, he is able to see what everyone in the village is doing."

That kicked started the man's brain. "That sounds like a pretty powerful technique," Jiraiya said. "It's kind of disturbing that someone could invade another's privacy so thoroughly."

Tezuna nodded. "That's why it's best to mind our tongues."

"Tezuna-chan!"

Tezuna looked up to see one of the workers calling for her. She stood up and bowed to Jiraiya. "Forgive me, Jiraiya-kun. I'll be right back."

As she walked off the flush from the alcohol Jiraiya had consumed disappeared as did his act. His eyes narrowed in thought. If this 'Pain' really has a technique like that, then he already knows I'm here. It's likely he's been watching me from the beginning. That was a disturbing thought. He had believed he had infiltrated the village successfully, but if the man could actually watch him somehow using the rain then he had been caught the moment it touched him.

XXXXXXXXXX

Naruto grit his teeth as he used the Hiraishin to dodge another of Madara's Kamui's. He and the ancient Uchiha had been fighting for nearly half an hour now, and neither had really landed a hit on the other. Naruto had suffered several nicks and cuts that had already healed thanks to Kyuubi, and Madara's Akatsuki cloak was cut in several places, but that was the extent to the damage either of them had received.

In the shinobi world, combat was fast-paced and brutal, every second counted because a single second where you're not on your A-game is a second in which someone can slip a kunai between your eyes. Most shinobi battles don't last more than fifteen minutes, and the longer battles are normally the ones done between genin who don't know more than the basic academy jutsu and have maybe one or two tricks up their sleeve.

As ninja progress in rank and ability the amount of time those battles take lessons. Most battles between Jonin-level ninja don't take more than five, maybe ten minutes at the most, if the two trapped in combat are of equal or similar strength. That was why the battle going on between the two currently in the clearing was so unusual.

The battle currently happening between Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto and Uchiha Madara was not only remarkable in just how long they had been fighting, but in the speed with which they fought. The Hiraishin, probably the most famous Jikūkan jutsu to ever grace the Elemental Nations, a jutsu that was made famous for the decimation of somewhere around one-thousand Iwa ninja during the Third Great Shinobi War. A jutsu that Naruto used to replicate that feat during the time he spent in Kiri, helping his fiancée Terumi Mei, the now Godaime Mizukage in Kirigakure's Civil War.

And the space-time abilities of Uchiha Madara, a man whose skill was legendary, and whose prowess in war and the art of combat was unparalleled; a man who was said to only have one equal in Senju Hashirama, the founder of Konohagakure No Sato and leader of the Senju clan.

It was a battle where the speed being used by the two was so great that no one else would have been capable of keeping up with it, save maybe the Yondaime Raikage; a battle in which every millisecond could mean the difference between life and death. There was no room for mistakes in combat on this level, and both Naruto and Madara knew that.

'Fuuton: Kami Oroshi (Wind Style: Divine Wind From The Mountain)' Naruto gathered a vast amount of wind chakra into his hands and unleashed it in a powerful vortex that flew towards Madara at insanely high speeds. They would have struck had Madara not gone underground and used his whack-a-mole jutsu to appear on a tree several meters away.

"You'll have to do better than that, young Namikaze," Madara taunted.

"Don't act so superior, Madara," Naruto said with a frown. "I may not have hit you, but you haven't done much damage to me either."

"True, true, I suppose we're in a bit of stalemate then," chuckled Madara.

"Not for long!" Naruto growled as he began gathering lightning chakra into his left and water chakra into his right.

'Ranton: SutoRyuu No Tama (Storm Release: Storm Dragon Bullet),' the blond shinobi thrust out his hand and launched a condensed ball of water that had electricity crackling inside it. The ball began to morph as it moved, the lightning moving to the front as it took the shape of a dragon head. The crackle of the lightning made the dragon bullet sound like it was roaring at Madara as it crashed into the man.

Or at least it seemed to crash into him.

"Oh my! What a powerful attack," Madara said. "Truly, you are a powerful shinobi."

"Don't patronize me, Madara," Naruto said with narrowed eyes.

"Oh but it's so fun!" Madara chuckled. "That's quite a scary look, Naruto-kun. You really should be more careful with who you glare at."

Naruto's lips thinned into a small line. He despised how this man was mocking him even as they battled. It was like Madara didn't even deem him a threat.

Using the Hiraishin Naruto appeared less than two feet from Madara, two fingers extended outwards and pointing at the Uchiha.

'Raiton: Gian,' a lance of white lightning shot from Naruto's fingertips and pierced through Madara's body.

Before the lightning attack even hit, however, the blond shinobi had already flashed to another seal behind the ancient Uchiha.

'Ranton: Senkou Shikyo (Storm Release: Lightning Death),' a white beam with the same diameter as Naruto's finger shot towards Madara, piercing him through the head.

Once more Naruto was gone in a flash and reappeared right in front of the Sharingan-wielding ninja.

'Fuuton: Shinko Renpa (Wind Release: Serial Waves),' Naruto took a deep breath and then exhaled an untold number of wind blades. He moved his head up and down, sending a stream of unending blades through Madara's body just as the two other attacks hit.

None of them even touched Madara. "My, what powerful ninjutsu you have," the Uchiha complimented, though the mocking tone it was in let Naruto know what the red-eyed man really thought. "Had I been anyone else I dare say those attacks would hurt."

'Damn it!' Naruto thought as he flashed away. 'Nothing I do even seems capable of hitting him! What the hell kind of jutsu is he using to avoid my attacks?' Even as skilled as the blond was in Jikūkan jutsu he could think of nothing that allowed attacks to simply phase through them. It was like the man was a ghost.

"Well, seeing as how you're done, I believe it's my turn now."

Naruto's eye widened as Madara appeared right in front of him, and he was just barely able to dodge the kunai that came his way. He attempted to grab the Uchiha by the hand and pull him into a kick. However, all that happened was his hand phased through Madara's wrist and he was sent flying backward with a kick.

Flipping around Naruto landed on a branch and glared at Madara. 'He's pretty fast even without manipulating space and time. I need to be ready.'

Naruto watched as Madara appeared right in front of him again. While the man seemed to have gained quite a bit of speed, it was nothing the blond couldn't handle and had only surprised him because he had not been expecting it.

Naruto flashed behind Madara and launched a wind blade through the man's body. It phased through as always but the blond refused to let that bother him. He flashed again and sent a beam of Ranton chakra at Madara, a much larger beam than the small one he had fired last time. This one was around ten feet in diameter and when it struck the place Madara had been standing, the entire area disintegrated. The beam flew through the tree, literally vaporizing the trunk. With that part of the trunk gone, the top of the tree had nothing holding it up and it soon fell down to the floor below with a loud crash.

"Oh my! Now that was scary!"

'Nothing I do seems capable of affecting him,' Naruto thought with narrowed eyes. 'Without understanding his jutsu I can't figure out what weaknesses it has. Damn.'

Naruto wasn't quite sure what to do in this situation. While he had been in some tough battles, no one had ever pushed him this far, and no one had ever had a technique he couldn't break down and analyze. It was frustrating and made even worse by the fact that the man he was fighting didn't seem to be taking this battle seriously.

'Maybe I should go for something with a more area-wide effect.'

The battle soon began to take a step in a new direction as Naruto began using a combination of Hiraishin and powerful ninjutsu to keep Madara from doing much more than letting the attacks phase through him. It was the only weakness he had really discerned, Madara could only move so much when using his phase ability. Naruto didn't know why, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

While the battle was going on the blond ninja began releasing more and more of his chakra into the atmosphere. An act that did not go unnoticed by Madara.

'What's this?' the ancient Uchiha wondered as he watched the boy saturate the surrounding area with his chakra. 'What is he up to?'

'Almost done,' Naruto said to himself. Overhead the sky began to darken, the rain started pouring down and lightning could be heard within the storm clouds that had suddenly formed overhead. Naruto's eyes began to take on a fierce blue glow, lightning crackled inside of them as he began gathering more and more chakra.

"You should have taken me more seriously Madara," Naruto said in a tone that quite literally oozed with power. It was as if the chakra he had gathered was so massive it affected his tone of voice and speech. "Now you're going to regret it."

Madara watched curiously as Naruto jumped into the air...

...and stayed there.

'What!' a shocked Madara thought as the blond shinobi continued floating in the air, his hands raised over his head as if attempting to make an appeal to Kami. There was a pulse of chakra, so thick and powerful it was visible even without the Sharingan. It spread out across the area, pushing out exactly two kilometers before stopping and creating a light blue dome that encompassed the area ground below and the storm clouds above Naruto.

Great hailstones ranging from the size of pebbles to that of large boulders began crashing into the clearing. Dozens of trees were hit with these mammoth-sized stones, which tore through them like a scythe tore through wheat.

The wind began to pick up, growing into a fierce hurricane-like storm in less than a second. Trees were whipped every which way as the wind lashed out at them, cuts began appearing on the bark as the wind began taking on a sharp quality. Then, as if the gods themselves had decided to try and smite Madara, four large tornadoes came crashing down into the clearing. They tore up the land, gouging out deep craters of earth and stone, which was then funneled into the tornadoes and swirled around them in motion with the wind. The attack, which many would only believe was an act of nature was awe-inspiring in its power and fury.

Then the lightning came down. It crashed into the clearing, tearing the world asunder and sending a massive shock wave through the earth. Where the lightning struck sparks would cascade across the land in all directions, consuming and destroying everything in their path.

With a scream that seemed to shake the very heavens themselves, Naruto let out the rest of the chakra he had been gathering.

The entire world became blinded in a flash of white light.

XXXXXXXXXX

Pain stood on the open balcony, letting the rain hit him as it fell. His eyes roamed over the village. "Konan, when I stop the downpour, I want you to use your ability to stop the intruder."

Konan did her best to still her fast-beating heart and nodded. "Leave it to me."

Pain ran through several hand seals and began releasing his chakra. "It's done."

"Right."

XXXXXXXXXX

Jiraiya almost smiled as he saw the Genin he was waiting for walk into the bar he had built using a transformation toad. When Tezuna had left he had taken the opportunity to follow her and discovered her husband was coming back from a mission of some kind. Since he had not had any luck in getting the kind of information he had wanted from civilians, he decided the best way was to get information from Amegakure's shinobi.

He had given himself a basic disguise. He now had short black hair, along with a goatee and sunglasses. Have such an elaborate disguise might be an unnecessary precaution, but he couldn't be sure that Pain didn't know what he looked like and sent that information to the shinobi under his command. He wasn't going to take any chances now that he knew how dangerous the man was.

"Welcome," he said as the Genin and his partner hung up their raincoats and sat down. "What can I get for you two?"

"Get us some snacks and some Sake," the Genin with light brown hair said. "It's not Sunday, is it? Isn't that when Pain-sama normally uses this jutsu?"

"Pain-sama must've had something important come up," the other Genin, one with dark brown shoulder-length hair said. "Maybe he's leaving the country for something."

"But it's never rained this much on other days of the week," said the man that Jiraiya had decided to call spiky.

The other Genin, who had just been dubbed scraggly, by Jiraiya, shrugged. "Maybe he needs to put a lot of power into this jutsu so it lasts."

"But if it keeps up like this..."

"Oi! Watch your mouth," the scraggly Genin said angrily. "Pain-sama is working constantly for everyone in the village! Just bear with it for a while."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," the spiky-haired Genin replied. He then looked over at the disguised Jiraiya and frowned. "Why haven't you made us anything yet."

"Sorry, sorry, it just takes some time to prepare," Jiraiya said. "You see, this is our grand opening today, so I've got a special 'Grand Opening' service today."

"Really!" exclaimed an excited scraggly. "What kind of service is it?"

"The Club Frog Special Torture Service." At these words, a puff of smoke enveloped Jiraiya and he was returned to his normal spiky white-haired form. The two genins quickly leapt to their feet, but before they could do anything the pair was engulfed in a large cloud of smoke.

Screams soon echoed from inside the bar, which began to morph and shrink until it turned into a small toad. The toad quickly hopped into the surrounding lake where no one would be able to find it as Jiraiya began to interrogate the two genins.

XXXXXXXXXX

The attack done by Naruto had not gone unnoticed. The entire team that Tsunade had put together had all stopped to look at what could only be a contained version of Armageddon. "What the hell is that!" shouted Kiba.

"I don't know," Hinata mumbled with wide eyes. "I can't use my Byakugan on that, there's so much chakra I'd go blind if I did."

"My Kikouchu tells me that's all Naruto's chakra creating that...that...attack," Shino said. Truly attack did not do the massive done of well-contained annihilation justice, but there wasn't anything else the Aburame could think of to call it.

"You're telling me that's all Naruto!" Kiba shouted. The look of dumb wonderment on his face would have been priceless and something Shino would have used for nice blackmail material had the situation not been so unbelievable.

"That is exactly what I am saying, Kiba-san," Shino replied in the same monotone voice he always used.

No more words were spoken as everyone watched in a mixture of shock and awe at the dome, which had now become a pure white that no one could see through. A few seconds later the dome had cleared; allowing them to see what had come in its wake.

"T-there's nothing there anymore," Sakura stuttered with wide eyes. "Everything that was within that done is just...gone."

"Hinata, can you see anything?" asked Kakashi.

Hinata tried activating her Byakugan, only to gasp in pain and turn them off a second later. "No, there is still far too much chakra saturating the area." She blinked several times as if trying to get rid of spots that appeared before her eyes.

Kakashi sighed. "Let's not stay here. Whatever Naruto did, he did it to give us enough time to capture Sasuke without interference. Let's go!"

XXXXXXXXXX

Naruto floated back down to the ground. As soon as his feet touched the now decimated ground he was forced to a knee as he gasped for breath. His entire body felt like it was on fire. His muscles were twitching spastically and every millimeter of movement sent jolts of unrelenting pain through his body. Even with his impressive pain tolerance, all he wanted to do was bitch and moan about how much pain he was in.

"Fuck! I didn't think it would hurt this much," Naruto hacked up several globs of blood. He grimaced when he noticed the blood was charred black. "Well, damn."

'Kyuubi, damage assessment.'

There was a large sigh from the Great Beast in his mind. 'You have fried most of your nervous system, your veins have been charred beyond belief, and your muscles all look like they've been placed in a deep fryer.' A chuckle escaped the creature's throat. 'You should be good in a few hours. I have to admit, that was a rather impressive attack brat. Almost reminds me of my own force-of-nature abilities.'

'Gee, I feel so happy that I'm being compared to a furball with a chip on his shoulder,' Naruto said in a sarcastic tone. He chuckled when he heard a grumble of 'impudent whelp' in his mind. The blond felt Kyuubi's chakra begin flooding his body and sighed in relief. While the Bijuu's chakra may be poisonous to anyone else, to him it was the ultimate painkiller. He could feel all of his damaged internal organs being mended together and knew it wouldn't be long before he could move again.

A flash of instinct, a warning of imminent danger was all that saved him from being impaled by a sickle. Not to say that Naruto got away unscathed. He had only managed to roll to his feet and turn around before being impaled through the shoulder.

Naruto grunted and bit his tongue hard enough to taste blood as he found himself staring at Uchiha Madara. "That attack was quite deadly," the Uchiha said, and for once his voice was entirely serious. And with good reason, as the man's left arm was gone entirely, his mask was cracked and half of it had fallen off, revealing the left side of his age-lined face. He was also missing his right leg below his knee and his remaining hand only had three fingers. "Had I been any slower that would have killed me."

"How are you still alive!" shouted Naruto as his frustration boiled over. "That was my strongest attack! There's no way you could have survived that!"

"Oh contraire my dear fox. I am quite... resourceful. Surviving that attack was hard but not impossible for one such as me."

Naruto snarled as he grabbed the sickle and sent as much lightning chakra as he was able. Due to the damage, he had sustained he ended up getting hurt too, but it completed its objective of getting Madara to let go of the weapon and jump away. Though how he was able to move so nimbly when he only had one leg was beyond the blond.

Naruto grunted as he pulled it out and threw it away. He stared at Madara as he prepared for another round. If he were honest with himself, the blond knew he would not last for much longer. Not unless he got at least an hour or two of rest so he could recover from the damage he had done to himself. Not that he was going to be giving up anytime soon.

"It seems we are at a stalemate," Madara replied.

"Maybe -" Naruto stopped mid-sentence before smirking. "Actually Madara, it seems I'm going to need to reschedule our little playmate for another day. I've got to go. You know how it is, places to go, people to see. But don't worry; I'm sure we'll meet each other again real soon."

With that Naruto disappeared in a yellow flash, leaving behind a frustrated Madara who finally let loose a scream of pain from the loss of his limbs.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Report!" Naruto ordered as soon as he appeared next to Kakashi in a bright flash of yellow. He didn't let anyone see just how much it hurt to even speak.

"We have Sasuke," Kakashi said, holding up the Prisoner Transportation scroll. "As well as the corpse of Itachi."

"So Sasuke won?" Naruto already knew Sasuke would win. Itachi had not gone to meet his younger brother to kill him but to sacrifice himself to him. But he had to keep up appearances...for now.

"Yes, when we got there Itachi was dead and Sasuke was unconscious," Kakashi said with a nod. "It looked like they had both been through one hell of a battle." The one-eyed man then looked the blond up and down. "Though I don't think either of them was as beat up as you."

Naruto would have chuckled had doing so not hurt so much. "Yeah well, that Tobi character was harder than I thought."

"I'm sure, that must be why you destroyed two kilometers of forest," Kakashi said with an eye-smile.

"It was," Naruto replied, he didn't have the strength to rise to Kakashi's bait right now. "It looks like our mission is complete so let's head to Konoha."

"Hai!"

XXXXXXXXXX

Outside the toad, the rain in Amegakure had stopped. Pain turned to Konan. "Do it, Konan."

"Hai," she said, bringing her hands into a single hand-seal. Cracks soon appeared on her face and the sound of peeling was heard. Konan spread her arms wide as her body began to peel apart into some sheets of paper. Hundreds of thousands of sheets floated into the air as Konan's body disappeared and became paper. The small purple flower that she had kept in her hair since she was little was the last sheet to float off and flatten itself.

Then the sheets began to fold themselves until thousands of butterflies now floated in the air. The small origami butterflies flapped their wings and began to disperse, heading off to search for the intruder. Konan did not know who it was, but she could only hope it wasn't someone allied with Naruto.

XXXXXXXXXX

Jiraiya frowned as he walked down one of the many streets in Ame, thinking about what he had learned from interrogating the low-level genin.

It seemed no one really knew much if anything about Pain. All they had were rumors and hearsay. No one even knew what he looked like, and some thought rumor of Pain's existence was just a myth. Everything the people heard, whether they were orders, speeches, and even religious festivals were all given to the populous by proxies or the 'angel'.

Because of this, Jiraiya couldn't even tell if Pain existed, or whether he was simply a front for the true person acting behind the scenes. Maybe this angel was the person who was really in charge or even someone who didn't truly live in Amegakure. Unfortunately, all he had to go on was what he knew, and that wasn't much.

Even more disturbing was that he had heard the Civil War that had supposedly been going on had been over for over a decade. Even worse was the rumor that Pain had crushed Amegakure all by himself, including Salamander No Hanzou, a man who was said to be just as and maybe even more powerful than Sarutobi Hiruzen had been in his prime.

That was another thing Jiraiya had trouble grasping. Hanzou was a legend for his prowess on the battlefield. He had even been the one to defeat Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade and had given them the title of Sannin. Even more concerning was the knowledge that Hanzou had become extremely paranoid during the later years after the war. From what the genin had said Hanzou had always been surrounded by an elite unit of guards to protect him at all times, and even children were searched for weapons when he went out. That anyone could defeat not only Amegakure's forces, but Hanzou all by themselves was a frightening prospect.

However, that wasn't even the worst thing he had learned about Pain. No, the worst was the man was not only powerful but completely merciless as well. He had killed not just Hanzou, but Hanzou's parents, his wife, his child, distant relatives; anyone even remotely related to or allied with Hanzou was killed. Then he had burnt their homes, several living districts which to this day were still demolished as a warning to those who might show resistance.

Jiraiya knew now that the only way to get anywhere was to find this 'Pain' and fight them himself.

As he entered a new road his eyes widened as he saw several hundred sheets of paper flying at him. Despite being surprised, however, he wasn't an S-ranked ninja for nothing and reacted so quickly that no one would have known otherwise. His hands went through several seals in less than a second and blew out a large fire bullet. "Katon: Endan!"

Konan was forced to move back as the fire bullet flew towards her. She reached the end of the road and backed up against the wall as the bullet exploded in front of her. The fire and smoked caused by the technique cleared a second later to reveal she was completely unharmed, and a large paper wall had blocked the attack.

"I came here looking for Pain, and instead I end up finding you," Jiraiya smirked at the beautiful blue-haired woman. "Not only have your techniques improved, but you've turned into one hell of a woman, Konan."

Konan said nothing as she stared at the man who had been her sensei and was the current sensei of her lover. She had been surprised when she first saw that their intruder was none other than Jiraiya. Though she supposed she shouldn't be. Jiraiya had a spy network almost as vast as Madara's, it was a reasonable assumption that Amegakure would eventually become suspect for holding Akatsuki.

One thing Konan knew was that they were now in a bad way. The whole reason she and Naruto had agreed not to inform Jiraiya was that they both knew he would come looking for Nagato if he found out they were alive. But Nagato was no longer the man he once was, he was now Pain, a man who had lost his heart long ago and could no longer see that his goals had shifted from bringing peace to revenge.

Jiraiya was unaware of her thoughts as he began speaking again. "I thought you were dead, but instead, you're just a bunch of paper. So, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you're this 'angel' people keep talking about?" When Konan still said nothing Jiraiya grunted. "So who is Pain?"

"That's none of your business, sensei," Konan said as she played her part and began floating in the air. Jiraiya tensed, wondering if he was about to have a fight on his hands. The woman who only had half a body at the moment floated up higher into the air and several thousand sheets of paper began forming out of her back, creating two large angel wings.

"So, that's supposed to make you an angel?" asked Jiraiya with narrowed eyes. "Doesn't look like much. Does that shape bring you any benefits?"

Konan said nothing; however, she did begin launching several thousand paper shuriken at him. Jiraiya reacted quickly and began blowing out a stream of fire to counter her attack. As the two tried to overpower each other, Konan slipped a sheet of paper behind Jiraiya and stuck it on his shoulder.

The white-haired Sennin's eyes widened as he felt something slap on his shoulder, thinking it was a paper bomb he took pealed it off quickly and was just about to throw it away when his eyes caught sight of it. They widened as he saw that it wasn't a paper bomb, but a message.

What the hell do you think you're doing here, sensei?

Jiraiya blinked in surprise, and it was only his instincts that managed to keep him from getting impaled by more paper shuriken. Or was it?

These shurikens aren't getting close to hitting me, he realized with a frown. Being a ninja of his class, Jiraiya could easily tell when someone was trying to actually hurt him or not. And he could tell that Konan was trying very hard to make it look like she was trying to kill him, but she actually wasn't. It was like she was putting on a show for someone else's benefit. What was going on here?

Deciding to play along for now Jiraiya blew out several dozen large fireballs that sailed towards Konan. At the same time, he slipped the sheet of paper in between the fireballs, having used the split second to scrawl a quick message using his chakra. Konan caught the message on one of her wings and discreetly read it.

I'm looking for information on Akatsuki. I didn't expect to see you here. You've grown quite beautiful my dear.

Konan didn't know whether to scowl or smirk. It seemed Naruto was right and Jiraiya really was a pervert, even in battle he was trying to compliment her. She responded to his compliment with more paper shuriken, this time aiming closer to him – more specifically his male bits – causing the man to pale. She almost let her impassive face fall in amusement, but shook her head and once again slipped a message through the attacks.

You shouldn't have come here sensei. This village is much more dangerous now. I suggest you leave while you can.

Jiraiya frowned, even as he sent some oil towards Konan, which coated her form liberally and made it impossible for her to use her paper jutsu. He went through several hand-seals and his already lengthy hair extended to ridiculous lengths. It quickly wrapped around Konan, binding both her wings together so she could not try to use them to escape.

As Jiraiya's hair wrapped around Konan, a small strand of it discreetly slipped his reply to her last note on one of her angel wings, at an angle where she could read it.

I can't leave. I have to find out information on Akatsuki, and I'm guessing you know about it. Who is your leader? And what happened to Nagato and Yahiko?

Konan growled in frustration as she read her former sensei's reply. This man was going to make it incredibly hard to get him out alive. She wasn't really sure what to do; neither she nor Naruto had planned for Jiraiya coming here to look for information. They both knew it had been a possibility but had assumed that the man wouldn't do anything for a few more years. And by that time they had hoped Akatsuki would be defeated.

She was just about to use one of the more powerful jutsu Naruto had taught to her, what he called an 'ace in the whole' jutsu. Her lover had not wanted her to rely on just her paper jutsu, feeling that paper was too easy to counter once someone realized its weakness. Thus he had taught her five jutsu from each element, and five non-elemental jutsu. She was preparing to use one of the wind jutsu he had taught her when a familiar voice made her freeze.

"It's been a long time, Jiraiya-sensei."

Konan's eyes widened as Pain appeared crouched on a cliff of metal pipes several dozen feet away.

Damn it! I thought I had more time! She thought to herself. With Pain here, things were going to swiftly go downhill. Even using just one of his paths he could defeat her, and while Jiraiya may be able to beat one; this particular path was extremely difficult to face in combat. Mainly because it was damn near impossible to actually fight it up close.

Considering the situation she was now in, it was a wonder she could still keep most of her impassive mask on.

Jiraiya looked at Nagato, for that was the only person it could be. He had long orange hair in a ponytail, with one bang parting off to the left in a style reminiscent of Naruto's friend Ino. He had several stud piercings along his jaw and neck, and two on each of his cheeks, which were connected by a thin strand of metal that went through his nose. He was wearing the traditional Akatsuki robes.

Narrowing his eyes, Jiraiya said, "Your appearance has changed quite a bit. But I still remember those eyes..."

He remembered the very first time he saw those eyes, the legendary Rinnegan, back when he had been training the three Ame orphans. Nagato and Yahiko had been attacked while he was away, when he returned, the ninja was dead and Nagato was in a state of shock and had gained the most legendary of all doujutsu.

"So you are the one they call Pain, Nagato. It seems you didn't grow up as I had expected. What happened to you?"

"You don't need to know that," Pain said. "You're just an outsider, after all."

Jiraiya frowned, "It seems you've changed, Nagato."

Pain clapped his hands together, "Kuchiyose No Jutsu!" A large summoning seal away spread out on the pipe wall behind Pain. There was a large burst of smoke, and a large crablike creature scuttled out. Jiraiya's eyes widened as it stopped at the ledge and shot out a foamy substance from its mouth.

Konan let it overtake her, knowing that at the moment she would be no good. It washed off the oil and she made a hasty getaway until she could come up with a plan to get her and Jiraiya out of this mess alive.

Jiraiya on the other hand jumped into the air and flipped himself on the wall to dodge the foamy liquid. "Foam huh? I should have realized he would exploit my greatest weakness. Washing away my oil with foam."

The giant crap disappeared in a puff of smoke and Pain began manipulating his hands like he was conducting an orchestra.

The crab summons burst out of the foam, its left pincer-claw making grasping motions as it attempted to crush Jiraiya with its pincers. However, Jiraiya wasn't S-class for nothing and swiftly began making hand seals.

"Ranshishigami No Jutsu (Raging Lion's Mane Technique)!" as he called out the name of his attack, Jiraiya's hair expanded from all sides. It quickly wrapped around the crab summon's arms, legs, and torso.

The Gama Sennin stamped a foot on the wall and his hair constricted. By using his chakra, Jiraiya had hardened his hair follicles to the same density and hardness as steel. While the crab's outer shell may have been tough, even it wasn't strong enough to withstand Jiraiya's attack as it sliced through the outer shell and into the creature's fleshy interior.

The crab burst into smoke as it was de-summoned by the attack. Out of that smoke came more hair, this time in the shape of a large mouth. It crashed into Pain and slammed the path against the wall. The amount of force the attack generated caused the pipes to bend out and the wall to crack. Konan watched overhead, the only sign that she was worried being the way her teeth bit her lower lip.

Jiraiya flexed his chakra and the hair began to recede slightly, enough that he could now see Nagato inside of his grip. "Nagato! I have a few questions I want to ask you!" he said in a tone that suggested he wasn't taking no for an answer. "What happened to Yahiko?"

Konan winced at the memory the boy's name brought. She shook her head however and quickly replaced it with the memory of the man who was very similar to the bright and excitable boy. She looked over at Pain whose face was impassive as always.

"Ah, I do recall someone by that name, yes," Pain replied. The tone in his voice suggesting he didn't care about the name, causing Jiraiya to grunt angrily. "He died a long time ago."

"What? He died?" Jiraiya nearly joked. He looked at his old apprentice and frowned. "What happened to you Nagato? Your old self would've never been so callous."

"Happened? Nothing happened," Pain said without inflection. "There was just war. There was too much death here. That death caused pain and that pain made me grow."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Through pain, even a foolish child will grow up," Pain continued. "Through pain, words and thoughts are controlled too."

Jiraiya scowled. "Are you saying that casting aside feelings for your friend makes you a man?"

"Sensei," Pain said chidingly. "You are still a man. But caught within infinite pain, I transcended humanity."

"What?" Jiraiya said in a harsh whisper.

"That's right," Pain said. "I went from being a man to a god. By becoming a god, my words and thoughts become the laws of nature. Sensei, you are still just a man. Trying to comprehend my words is meaningless. As a god, I now comprehend that which I could not as a man. And because I am a god, I can understand that which was previously incomprehensible. Simply put, I've evolved beyond man."

Konan had heard Pain say things like this a hundred times before. In the past, she had always believed his words were absolute; she had been in awe of him and believed he truly had become a god. To accomplish what he had in such a short time, to create such a grand goal, to find the means, and have the will to go through with his plans. Surely, someone who can do so much and have such a grand plan must be a god?

Her time with Naruto had tempered that awe. She had seen the havoc Pain had truly caused, some might have believed that everything he had done was for the sake of peace. But she knew better. Pain was taking revenge on the world for causing him pain; a child lashing out at the thing that created him. And he was merciless in his revenge, he had no compassion for others, he did not fight for the sake of others, and did not care who he had to kill to get what he wanted. He said he wanted peace, but how can there be peace when the man creating it did not have the compassion necessary to help those who would be ruled under this peace?

For all his power, Pain was not a god, but a simple man who had lost sight within his own delusions. And while it broke Konan's heart, she knew there was not much she could do now.

Except insure that Pain died so that Nagato could rest in peace.

Jiraiya kept his face blank as Pain finished his monologue. "And what are your intentions now?"

Pain closed his eyes. "To cleanse this world in meaningless strife. That's the work of God."

"If that's your goal, why are you collecting the Bijuu?" asked Jiraiya.

"You're going to die anyway... that is the only reason I will tell you my goal," at Pain's words Jiraiya's eyes widened. "By using the sealed Bijuu, I will create a new forbidden jutsu. With only a single use of that jutsu, even an entire nation can be wiped out in an instant. It's the ultimate forbidden jutsu weapon. I will give this jutsu to the nations. Eventually, they will use it. Hundreds of millions of people will die in an instant. After witnessing the display, they will be terrified, they will all know pain. That terror will act as a deterrent. The conflicts will vanish. You could say the current world is still not moving towards a state of equilibrium. Pain will force the world to grow up. Like the old me thought, for the world to move forward and grow up, divine help is necessary. This world is still but a mere child."

Konan's lips became a thin line as she listened to Nagato's words. Being able to actually hear his plans without the illusions of Pain's perfection in her mind, she could now see what Naruto saw. A weapon like that would not bring peace, not unless Pain was seeking the peace of the grave. If he gave weapons of such devastating power to the elemental nations, they would use it. Whole nations would be extinguished; an untold number of people would die.

And when those who survived, those who had loved ones killed at the hands of that weapon, they would rage. They would hate, and they too would use the weapon and wipe out the nation that attacked them. The hatred would spread, as more and more nations used the weapon to destroy their enemies in revenge. Soon after the world would become a sterile wasteland, nothing would exist after that. There would be no war, but there would be no one left to enjoy the peace Pain's weapon brought.

Apparently, Jiraiya thought the same thing as well, because he actually began to laugh. "You think...you think that by destroying the world, you'll make it grow faster? That is the lamest, most idiotic thing I've ever heard! You won't be making anything grow! You'll just kill this world and everyone in it! I guess in a way you'll create peace! If the peace of the grave is what you're looking for!"

Pain just shook his head. "You just can't understand, sensei. You are still just a regular human."

"And that's how I know I'm right!" Jiraiya shot back. "Because unlike you Mr. 'I've transcended humanity' I still am human, and as a human, I understand other humans. You create that weapon, people will use it, and when the few people who see that weapon used, and realize that their loved ones are dead. They will grow terrified and angry, and then they will use that weapon in retaliation. As more and more people use the weapon they will destroy the world, leaving it nothing more than a graveyard. You're a fool, Nagato. That's what you are, and I'm ashamed of how you've become."

Pain's eyes narrowed. "It matters not what you think. Only my will, the will of god matters." Pain quickly disappeared within a Kawarimi and appeared several feet away. "Over here sensei. To me, you're an insignificant child whose growth was stunted."

"Another summon?" Jiraiya said as he saw Pain standing atop a massive chameleon, "I have to admit, hearing a kid like you telling me that I and the world need to grow up. It's rather funny coming from a brat like you. You say you're God, but I'm no longer a human either." He said as he made hand-seals for his own summoning jutsu. The smoke amassed around him, "Flooded by anger I cry tears of blood! The Gama-Sennin of the Legendary Sannin! The Gama-Youkai of Mt. Myouboku! The great Jiraiya-sama -" his speech was cut off as he fell face-first onto the surface he had been standing on.

Still floating in the skies above until she could come up with a way to get Jiraiya out of this fucked up situation alive, without revealing her position as a spy, Konan felt like face-palming as she saw Jiraiya fall flat on his face. And this is the man who trained Naruto-kun and me, she thought lamentingly.

"You really haven't grown up at all have you?" Pain said with disdain. "You're still just as clumsy and childish as ever."

Jiraiya pushed himself up until he was on his hands and knees. "Damn it Gamaken-san, don't move around so much when I'm striking my pose!"

The massive toad had clothing on that was very similar to Gamabunta except his was magenta in color. He had horns on his head, black markings going down his face and he held two objects in each hand, a shield in one and a sasumata in the other, "Don't blame me, it's your fault you tripped over your own feet like a clumsy idiot."

"No respect," Jiraiya muttered as he rubbed his face. Soon Pain and his massive chameleon came charging forward, "We won't be able to go easy in this fight. We'll need to use everything we have on this guy right from the start. I'm going to use Sennin-mode for this."

Gamaken looked up at the summoner on his head in shock, "What? Jiraiya, are you really going to use that so soon? Is this guy really that powerful?"

"He's likely gonna be one of the toughest opponents we'll ever face." Jiraiya said, "That's why I'm summoning the Two Great Sage Toads. Though it's going to take a while before I can gather the chakra to do so. I won't be able to split my hands during that time. I'm going to need you to buy me some time, think you can do that?"

Gamaken nodded, "You've got it Jiraiya. I'm not that strong, but I'll give you my best!"

In the skies above Konan watched as the battle began to progress. She had to admit, despite being much older now and still acting like a complete fool, Jiraiya was still a very powerful ninja and seemed capable of holding his own against most opponents. Was he facing her, Konan had no doubt she would not be able to win.

However, it was becoming obvious to her that Pain was on a whole other level. It was going to take considerable skill just for him to make it out alive.

Jiraiya watched as Nagato and the chameleon summon disappeared. His eyes narrowed. "I wonder where the hell he found this summon? Gamaken-san! It looks like we're going to need to use that barrier jutsu to find him."

"Right, it looks like we're in for a tough battle," Gamaken said.

It seemed that Pain had figured out his plan however since he switched out his chameleon summons with a three-headed dog that went on the attack as soon as it appeared. Jiraiya had to channel more chakra to his feet to keep from falling off as Gamaken began jumping and dodging the attacks. Through some fancy footwork on Gamaken's part, they managed to pin the dog to the wall by stabbing it with the giant toad's sasumata. Jiraiya cheered, "I don't know why you keep dissing yourself Gamaken-san, you're actually pretty good."

Whatever celebration Jiraiya might have done was cut short as the three-headed dog somehow managed to split itself into three more dogs.

"What the hell!" he yelled, only to watch in growing horror as the dogs split even further, becoming six dogs. "Now that's just not fair!"

Gamaken soon began to battle with the now six one-headed dogs, jumping around as he used his Sasumata and shield to fight them off as he jumped from wall to wall. He managed to beat most of the dog summons away, however one managed to get through. The dog hit Gamaken and sent him flying through the wall.

"Are you alright, Gamaken-san?" asked Jiraiya as his summon managed to hang onto one of the poles. "Think you can move without jostling me so much?"

"I'll try my best," Gamaken said.

"That's all I can ask for." Jiraiya frowned as he looked at the now dozen-headed dog, the former dogs having melded together. "I really have no clue what we're dealing with here. I wonder if these dogs are bound to some kind of self-replicating summoning technique? Either way, I think we should get out of here for now." The pole Gamaken was holding began to loosen and fall. "Let's fight them in a location of our choosing!"

"Right!" Gamaken leapt away as soon as he hit the ground. Heading off as the dog split one of its heads and went off after them.

As they were running Jiraiya's eyes widened as he caught sight of a still camouflaged Nagato hanging off a wall. Unfortunately, he could do anything due to the dog chasing after him.

Gamaken moved quickly, luring the dogs into a place of their choosing. They soon managed to lure the dogs into a dead end. Jiraiya smirked. "Well, it looks like we're trapped, Gamaken-san." He eyed the dogs as they prepared to attack. "They'll likely try and split up again so get ready!"

The dogs did split up, making an attempt to attack Jiraiya and Gamaken from all angles. However, the large toad summons had some pretty slick moves up its sleeves. Spinning his sasumata, Gamaken was able to deflect all of the dogs. When the last one attacked Gmaken, the large toad bashed it across the top of its head, smashing it into the ground. He jumped up and began looking for a place to recuperate from the wounds he received at the dog's hands.

However before they could get far, a giant drill-beaked bird came at Gamaken who lifted his shield to block. It kept him from taking immediate damage, but it didn't keep him from being slammed into a wall hard enough that the pipes on it burst. Jiraiya winced as he was jostled around, "Whenever I plan to attack he hides! This really sucks." Jiraiya tried his best to think up a strategy to fight because if he kept going like this he wouldn't even live long enough to use Sennin-Mode, 'I don't understand. With the Rinnegan Nagato is capable of using all six chakra natures, so why is he just using summons?'

A massive ox rushed at him and Gamaken, "Gamaken you can return home now, I'm ready!" Gamaken returned to the mountain of the toads just as the ox plowed Jiraiya into a wall, kicking up a cloud of smoke. However, it ended up with the ox blown away as if it were a lightweight.

"Kid, why do ya always summon us to annoyin' places like this? No wonder Bunta is always so angry at you!" An elderly voice came from the hole that Jiraiya and the ox had made in the wall.

"Don't be like that, Ma. You know Jiraiya always has a reason for summoning us." Came another elderly voice from inside of the wall.

"For cryin' out loud, be quiet, Pa!"

"Sorry for summoning you both here Fukasaku-sama, Shima-sama," Jiraiya said apologetically.

Shima spoke again, "But brat, didn't you always say you disliked this form because it made your face ugly and chased away the girls? That's why you only use it when fighting the other brat."

Jiraiya chuckled, "Naruto would be pissed to hear you call him a brat. Besides, there's no choice but for me to just deal with it. I am fighting an opponent with the Rinnegan after all."

"The Rikudou's eyes! To think it really exists!"

"Well in that case it can't be helped!" Jiraiya's form could be seen from the shadows of the hole in the wall with two small toads on both of his shoulders. "Looks like we've got to fight with you."

Jiraiya's smile was grim as he walked out of the hole for Pain to see his new form. "I'm glad I can count on you two. It's good to know a guy has friends."