Chapter 21 : A Friend's Betrayal

Jiraiya and Pain stared at each other, a classic standoff between two powerful forces just before the epic clash. While not much had changed about Jiraiya as a whole, there were several differences that Pain was able to take note of. The most notable being his nose, it was much larger now and was covered in warts. The other changes included his eyes, which had red rings around with a black bar that ran horizontally across them in place of a pupil. The final difference was that he had a pointed beard that looked just like the toad on the man's right shoulder.

'He went through all that trouble just to summon two toads?' Pain frowned as he looked at the toads, then began to analyze Jiraiya's new look. 'No, there's something different about him as well. It looks like Sensei has gone through some kind of transformation. How interesting, whether it's Orochimaru or Jiraiya, these Sannin always have unique abilities.'

"Jiraiya-chan, I can't see the descendant of the Six Paths," Pa said from his place on the man's right shoulder. He looked around with a frown. "Where exactly is he?"

"Hmph!" Ma scoffed as she too looked around the area. "Jiraiya-chan's eyesight must be going with his age."

"No, he's here," Jiraiya said with a frown. He was tempted to mention that ma was much older than he was, but that would have just earned him a smack with her ladle later on. "However, he's hidden in a summoned creature that can make itself invisible."

"Oh, then it must be a chameleon-type summon."

"I've erected a probe barrier."

"That won't work against these types of summons," Ma said with a shake of her head. She brought her hands into a hand seal. "You've got to be more forceful. Let's drag them out using the Kurīchā no kenshutsu (creature detection)."

"Don't get overexcited, Ma," Pa spoke up with a frown. "You'll get more wrinkles that way."

"Oh hush up, Pa!" was the reply he got.

"Still, I'm not sure why you went so far as to summon us, Jiraiya-chan. Is this guy really that much of a threat?"

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed and a frown marred his face. "The man we're fighting happens to be a former student of mine."

Both toads looked over at Jiraiya with shock etched upon their features. It looked almost comical, their faces being surprisingly more expressive than those of a human's, their mouths and eyes stretched and widened to proportions that a human simply couldn't reach.

It would be Pa who broke the silence.

"I never knew you had another apprentice besides Minato-chan and Naruto-boya!" Pa's eyes widened further as he leaned into Jiraiya's ear. "Then is he... the one?"

Jiraiya didn't seem to register Pa's words; however, just because he had no physical reaction didn't mean he had not heard what the elder toad had said.

"I shall now tell you. In my dream, you, who are solely perverted, will still manage to become a splendid ninja. And in time you will have your own disciple. That disciple will become a ninja who will bring great change to the ninja world. That is what I saw in my dream."

"Great change?"

"Either great stability or great destruction. The likes of which the world has never seen before. One of those two."

"So this boy is the Child of Prophecy!" asked Ma, sounding surprised as she looked at Jiraiya. "Then why are we fighting him?"

"No," Jiraiya shook his head. "He is not the Child of Prophecy. At first, when I had first seen his eyes I had been positive that he was, but now..." the white-haired perverted hermit smiled. "Now I know that he is not. Perhaps he could have been, but he has gone down the wrong path."

"Then it's..."

"Yes," Jiraiya answered. "It's him."

"If that is the case then it's our job to destroy the descendant of the Sage, much as it pains me," Pa concluded. "If he is not following the right path, then we cannot let him live."

"Whatever the case maybe we should get started," Ma declared. "I want to be home in time to make my stew..." Jiraiya grimaced at the thought of Ma's stew, filled with bugs and nasty creepy crawlies of all kinds. "... so let's get started!"

Ma leaned forward and opened her mouth. What came out was not a tongue, at least, not one anyone besides maybe the other toads had ever seen. It looked vaguely similar to an eel, with a long pink tube-like body and a face with closed eyes and sharp, shark-like teeth. The difference between this tongue, thing, creature, and an eel were both its color, a light pink that was very much the color of a tongue, and the wart-like protrusions that ran along its body.

It slithered out of Ma's mouth, growing longer by the second. When it reached a length of three or so feet, it began to sniff around, nostrils flaring in its attempt to track the summoned chameleon by scent. The creature stopped a moment into its tracking, pointed in a specific direction, and with a cry of "Found him!" from Ma, it rocketed forwards at surprising speed.

Pain had no time to tell his summon to move as the fleshy appendage with the face wrapped around the chameleon. The thing tightened its hold and made it impossible for the summon to move, then, from the large wart-like bumps it began emitting a yellow gas. The chameleon let loose a strangled cry as it not only became visible, but the tongue managed to wrap itself around the creature's neck and begin strangling with.

"Gotcha!" Ma cried. Her tongue began to reel in, tightening its hold and drawing the fleshy appendage taught. With a great heave that should not have been possible in a being so tiny, Ma lifted the chameleon into the air and then slammed it back down onto the ground. "Pa!"

"Right!" Pa's cheeks bulged as Ma gave him his cue. He threw his head backward, then forwards, releasing a small, yet highly concentrated beam of water. It hit the wall of the building behind the chameleon, carving a path through the metal as Pa brought his aim lower, until it hit the chameleon, cutting the creature in half. The chameleon's death screams died as its blood splattered everywhere, then it disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving its blood to rain down on the ground.

"So that's the Rinnegan, huh?" Ma said with a solemn look. "It certainly looks like the one found in the legends."

"What a nasty-looking pair of eyes," Pa commented. "I can see now why you would not want him to be the Child of Prophecy. Though his eyes are that of the Sage, he does not seem to possess the heart for what you require."

"I made my choice a long time ago," Jiraiya said. "Even before I knew Nagato was alive my choice was set."

"Then all that's left for us to do is take him out."

The expressionless face on Pain did not change at the loss of his summon creature. Indeed it did not look like he even cared. His face remained passionless, dead as if he had cut himself off from the world and all that it possessed. He might as well be a corpse for all the emotion his face showed.

Whether or not the man Jiraiya had once trained held the capacity for emotions anymore became a moot point when a second later Pain clapped his hands together. "Kuchiyose No Jutsu."

Two summoning seal arrays appeared on either side of Pein, long lines of kanji that spread out along the ground. There was a flash of light from the center of each, and then a puff of smoke as Pein summoned not a pair of creatures, but two bodies. Human bodies.

Both of the bodies were completely different from each other. The one on Pein's left was fat, with two piercings moving vertically across the bridge of his nose, a spiky piercing on each cheek, and a strange rod-like piercing that went through his ears and stuck themselves in the side of his face. Along with his piercings, the man had an odd spiky beard just under his lower lip, and Rinnegan eyes.

The other man was skinny, especially when compared to the fat one. He had lines going down his eyes, and two piercings on each cheek, along with two more on his chin and one barbell piercing on his nose. Like the other human that had been summoned, this one had a pair of Rinnegan eyes.

Jiraiya frowned in confusion as he eyed the three Rinnegan bearers. "I don't understand. How can there be three Rinnegan users? Is this some kind of special jutsu?" The more he thought about the situation the less sense it made. The Rinnegan was a near mythological dojutsu, Jiraiya had considered himself lucky to even see it once. Yet here he was, looking at three people who all bored the Rinnegan. "This has to be his technique, which means there's some kind of trick to it."

"This is getting bothersome," Ma complained as she looked at the three men before them. "I had been hoping to finish this quickly; I was making dinner you know."

"Focus Ma," Pa snapped. "We can't be getting all whimsical when we have an enemy that needs to be faced is standing before us."

However, Ma seemed to get irate at being reprimanded. "What was that, Pa!"

Jiraiya quickly headed off any argument the two might get by saying, "Now, now you two. You can have your lovers squabble later. Right now we have to focus on beating this guy. It's time we made our move."

"I hope you know I'm getting you back for that lover's squabble comment," Ma said, making Jiraiya pale. "However, you are right; we should get rid of this guy before we do anything else."

"Alright then! From this moment on, let Sage jutsu prevail! Look to the skies above, upon halos and heavenly canopies! Jiraiya the gallant –"

CRACK!

"Quit yakking in my ears!" came the shout from the two toads as they smashed their fists into Jiraiya's face. Both of the man's cheeks were smashed together, squishing and conforming they forced the white-haired Gama-Sennin's face to take on the general shape of a fish, with puffed out lips that flapped and gaped, a squished cheeks, and wide eyes.

Jiraiya felt like crying as his posturing was once again interrupted, this time by his own companions. "Is it too much to ask that they allow me to enjoy the small pleasures I can derive in a life and death situation?" he asked himself lamentingly. He had put all that effort into making the most awesome and heroic poses for occasions like this. Why couldn't they just let him have his fun?

No one appreciated him.

"Let's just get this over with," Ma decided to turn back to the task at hand. Namely kicking the ass of one – three – Rinnegan users. "I want to finish this guy off and be home in time to finish dinner."

"Ma, this guy is a Rinnegan user," Pa said, glaring over at the toad on Jiraiya's left shoulder. "Dealing with him is far more important than dinner. We're facing the ultimate ocular jutsu, you need to stay alert!"

"Shut up Pa! I don't care what kind of jutsu he has! Don't belittle a housewife's dilemma of what she should cook every day, you old geezer!"

"How dare you use such a tone with me! I'm just looking out for you!"

"I don't need looking out for! If anyone needs to be looked after it's you!"

Jiraiya sighed as the two toads began yelling at each other from their perch on his shoulder. "Not even a second ago they were complaining about me yelling into their ears," he sighed at the hypocritical pair, not that they even heard it over their bickering. "I'm beginning to wonder if I might have been better off on my own."

While the pair of toads bickered and Jiraiya lamented, Pein had decided he was done waiting for the battle to begin. He sent the Human Path to attack. The reanimated human corpse launched itself forward at an impressive speed, easily surpassing those of Maito Gai with his weights off. In spite of this, the Path stood no chance as Jiraiya literally seemed to disappear and reappear within a second flat. By the time the Path was just a little over a quarter of the way to Jiraiya, the white-haired sage had reappeared directly in front of the Path and launched a deadly kick that caught it flush in the face.

The Human Path was launched back, sent flying through the air before it hit the dirt, where it skidded along the ground, rolling and tumbling until it smashed into the cement cliff that the other two Paths were on. There was a loud explosion from the impact as dust and rocks were kicked up from where the path hit, obscuring the area until the smoke dissipated naturally. When it did, the other two Paths were able to see that the Human Path was lying on its back in a crater made by the force from Jiraiya's kick.

It was an impressive display of strength.

"Not bad..." Pein acknowledged his sensei's fighting prowess.

Jiraiya put his leg back down and crouched low. "Now that the fight finally seems to be underway, do you think you two could put aside your spousal differences? Just a suggestion."

"I guess we have no choice," Ma said with a sigh. She put her hands in another seal in preparation for her jutsu. "Boy, you provide the oil. Pa, you provide the wind. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am!"

All three of them, toad, ninja, and...toad, went through a single hand seal before sucking in a deep breath, then blowing out their respective jutsu.

"Senpo: Bāninguoiru no o furo!"

The three each launched their separate jutsu, Ma shot a large stream of fire out of her mouth, Jiraiya shot out oil and Pa blew out a stream of wind. All three attacks held a similar conical shape that increased in size the farther they got from the trio, before merging into a single attack. The oil quickly spread across the ground, with the fire lighting it up, meanwhile, the wind fanned the flames and increased the intensity of the jutsu. The wind also served to help direct the flow of the attack, causing crests and swells within the oil. Before long, a giant wave rose up in front of the three Paths, set to burn them all to cinders.

Unable to deal with this new jutsu, the Animal Path jumped backward, while the Preta Path moved in front of the trio. It held out its hands, a light barrier of chakra forming in front of it as the jutsu came crashing down, set to sweep the three paths away. Smoke and steam rose up into the air, obscuring Jiraiya's vision of the events taking place on the small cliff. Frowning, the Gama-Sennin jumped into the air and landed on one of the large poles that were running vertically from the ground and looked into the steam as he tried to get a clear view of what happened.

Ma and Pa looked just as interested as they too, leaned forward a little to see what had happened with the paths.

"Did it work?"

As the smoke cleared Jiraiya's eyes widened. Down below the three paths were standing, completely unharmed. "All of the oil vanished?"

"It must be one of their jutsu," Pa concluded. Jiraiya figured out the same thing, though he was still unsure of just what that jutsu was. What could cause a combination jutsu that was more powerful than the average S-rank to disappear like that?

Jiraiya frowned for a moment before deciding on a course of action. Kicking off his sandals the white-haired Sennin got down on all fours. As his hands set down on the ground both them and his feet began to grow, not only getting larger but also becoming more toad-like in appearance, complete with warts and everything.

"Since our jutsu didn't work how about we find out how well he can fight in close combat?"

"Sounds like a good idea."

With his decision to change his pace Jiraiya blasted off the ground at speeds so high it created a large explosion from the point he left. Holding out his left hand a spinning blue orb of chakra appeared in his palm. It was only about the size of a baseball but that soon changed as the Gama-Sennin pumped more and more chakra into the attack. The Rasengan grew, its size increasing to easily three times that of a human. It was a feat that he was capable of thanks to his sage mode.

With a thrust of his arm, the attack was rammed directly on top of the Preta Path. Normally, this would be the part where a large explosion of chakra occurred and the recipient of his jutsu was utterly incinerated by the sheer power the attack possessed. However, Jiraiya was not only disappointed but also utterly shocked when he saw the fat human corpse begin absorbing the jutsu through his hands.

"He's absorbing my entire jutsu!" Jiraiya's shock was absolute as he watched large chunks of the blue orb getting absorbed into the Preta Paths hands. "I've never seen something like this before. A technique that can absorb jutsu so completely. Is this another ability of the Rinnegan?"

"Behind us!"

Jiraiya soon found that he didn't have time to worry about the inner workings of the Preta Paths Jutsu as the Human Path appeared directly behind him. Thankfully he had Pa watching his back; the elder male toad pulled a purple ball out of his robes and threw it at the ground. There was an explosion of purple smoke that quickly covered the small area around Jiraiya, blocking the view of the Human Path and confusing his senses. In an attempt to use the smokescreen to his advantage, Jiraiya appeared behind the Human Path and threw out a strong right jab that had strength on par with his teammate Tsunade's.

The Human Path didn't even bother turning around as he caught the punch in his left hand.

"What?" Jiraiya would have blinked had the act not possibly granted Pein a new advantage. "He not only blocked a punch while I'm in Sennin Modo, he also did so without even looking!" That took a lot more than just a killer sixth sense and quick reflexes. Jiraiya's speed and strength were enhanced far beyond those of a normal shinobi's. Even Gai would have trouble fighting him with six of the inner gates opened while he was in this form, and Naruto had to be in at least a five-tailed state just to keep up with him.

There was something seriously wrong here, but Jiraiya couldn't figure out what for the life of him.

Outside of the smokescreen, the Human Path watched the two silhouettes inside. A frog jumped out from the smoke, drawing his attention to it. Less than a second later it was made clear that the frog was just a distraction as Jiraiya appeared directly behind the Human Path and crouched down low.

"Senpo: Kenbari Senbon!" Thousands upon thousands of senbon needles formed from his hair and were launched at the Human Path. As they sped towards the reanimated corpse, the Path went through several hand seals, his fingers a blur. There was a puff of smoke that covered the area behind the path for but a moment, before clearing to reveal he had summoned a large Panda that ended up taking the attack for him.

He did so without even turning around.

Opportunity missed Jiraiya jumped back, as far away from all of the paths as possible. As he glared at the Human Paths back he began trying to discover why none of his attacks thus far had worked. "I don't understand, so far all of my attacks have been completely negated with minimal effort. Had he dodged that attack I could have gotten him with another, but instead he summoned that Panda, and all without even turning around." The Human Path turned around and looked at Jiraiya and as if on some unspoken signal, the other two hopped back onto the platform. "They've managed to block all of my attacks without even using verbal signals or eye contact. Even if all three were sensor-type shinobi, they would still have to see the attack in order to block it."

Something was definitely wrong here.

"Kibari Senbon is my fastest attack, and it has the widest attack range. The only way to get away from that attack unscathed is to block it as he just did. And he did it without looking." Jiraiya glared at the three Paths, all of which were staring at him with dead eyes. "These are no ordinary clones."

"Jiraiya-chan, I think I've discovered the trick they are using," Pa said. Jiraiya spared the elder toad a glance.

"Are you sure?"

"Hai, do you remember during our encounter with the long-haired one? You had managed to get behind him and attack from his blind spot, yet he still managed to block your attack. Did you notice how whenever you would attack one of them, at least one of the other guys would be watching?"

"Yes, I did notice that," Jiraiya confirmed. He had not found anything particularly unusual about it when in combat it was folly to take your eyes off your opponent. Even leaving your enemy unguarded for a single second could swing any engagement into the hands of the person you were facing. It wasn't unusual that they would all do their best to keep an eye on him. "I don't see what you're getting at. They didn't give each other any hand or eye signals that I could see."

"Yes, but look at their eyes. All three of them have the same eyes," at Pa's words Jiraiya's eyes widened as he finally picked up on what the elder toad sage was saying. Pa looked at the three humans in contemplation. "Suppose the three of them can share what they see with each other."

"Enabling their eyes to share visions with one another," Jiraiya frowned as he thought of just what that would mean. "If that's the case this battle will be much harder than I expected." With the combined abilities of the three paths, along with their ability to share images between themselves, they literally had all of their bases covered.

"They can nullify all of my ninjutsu, the one with the long hair is strong enough that he can go toe-to-toe with my strength while I'm in Sennin-Modo, and the one with the pony-tail can summon various creatures that can act in both offense and defense." Jiraiya quickly ticked off the skills he had seen from the summons thus far and was not only impressed but beginning to realize just how disadvantaged he was. "On top of all that they can see what their comrades see, making it impossible for me to sneak upon them. Yep, I'm screwed if I keep fighting them all at the same time."

He needed to somehow separate them from each other or hit them with an attack that would kill them all in one go. Both of those were next to impossible as far as he had seen. With their ability to share each other's vision it would take a lot of effort to separate them, and with the fat one's ability to absorb his ninjutsu none of his attacks would work either.

It was beginning to look more and more like a hopeless case.

XXXXXXXXXX

Watching the battle from above, Konan felt anxiety wash over her. She would admit to being surprised at seeing Jiraiya's Sennin-Mode being used and had even been impressed with the strength the jutsu had shown thus far. Just like Naruto had told her it allowed the user to far surpass their physical limitations. It was truly a fearsome technique.

However, even with his Sennin-Mode powered up the white-haired hermit had still been unable to land a single hit on any of Pein's Paths. It was moments like these that showed just how hopeless a situation really was. Even with the incredible boost in strength and abilities, Jiraiya was still unable to land a single hit on Pein.

Konan knew she had to do something to help get Jiraiya out of this situation. He was not only her teacher but Naruto's as well; on top of that, he was the blonde's godfather, his sole remaining link to his parents. She would never be able to forgive herself if she just let the events playing out here take their course when she could have stopped them from happening.

But was she really ready to go against Pein? It was one thing to spy on him, at least when spying she had never actually raised a hand against him. It might have made her feel guilty, betraying him as she had, but Konan had been able to tell herself that it was for his own good. Fighting against him would be another matter entirely.

It was one thing to go behind the back of the man you once claimed was your best friend, and quite another to stare him in the face and let him know just how far the depths of your betrayal went.

And yet, she knew that she couldn't just stand there and do nothing.

In the end, it came down to a choice of which side she was willing to stand by.

Naruto and the light he represented, or Nagato and the growing darkness that Madara had cast over her friend.

XXXXXXXXXX

As Jiraiya and his two toad companions continued their face-off against the three Paths, the white-haired Sennin tried his utmost to think of a way to pull a victory from his ass.

It was very unfortunate that he wasn't like Naruto had been back in the day when he somehow pulled Deus Ex Machina devices out of his metaphorical ass to beat his opponents.

"Jiraiya-chan, I think it may be best if we fall back for now," Pa suggested.

"I think you may be right." While it rankled Jiraiya to just up and retreat like this he knew a hopeless situation when he saw one. At the moment there were still too many unknown factors to plan for every possible scenario. Not only that, but even if what they had seen so far was all Pein had to offer, it might still be more than enough to defeat them. As of now, nothing Jiraiya thought up sounded like a viable attack option against the man... men, they were facing.

It was just as he was about to escape into the pipes that the rhythm of combat changed in a way no one would have expected.

Several thousand paper shuriken soared down from the sky, peppering the vicinity of the three Peins. The attack came as a major shock, both to Jiraiya and Pein himself, who was unable to react for several seconds, allowing his paths to get several deep cuts in their bodies and clothes. It was only after the Preta path got one deep cut across his face that literally split the skin from his left jawline to his right hairline that Pein reacted.

The Animal Path went through a multitude of seals and summoned the giant crustacean once again, allowing his Paths to hide under it while it took the barrage of paper shuriken instead. The hailstorm of sharp paper lasted for nearly a full minute before ending. When the hailstorm stopped Konan materialized in between the two, forming from several thousand pieces of paper.

"Konan," Pein said, whether he was truly surprised or not his voice did not show it. It was just as dead as always. "What are you doing, Konan?"

"I'm doing what I have to," Konan said. She looked up at him pleadingly, "I'm here to ask you to stop this. Please stop this. Stop fighting Jiraiya, stop trying to gather the Bijuu, nothing good can come from what you're doing."

While none of Pein's Paths reacted in any way that would betray their emotions, Jiraiya gave a reaction that was much more prominent. His eyes widened and his jaw actually became unhinged. At the same time, his mind tried to register what his eyes were telling him but kept coming up blank as Jiraiya had one of his first 'what the fuck' moments in several years.

"Konan, you know what we are doing is the only true path to peace," Pein said. "You've always agreed with my ideals and have always done your best to support me in them. Because of our friendship, I will give you this one chance to repent. Return to the headquarters and we will talk, continue defying me and I will show you true Pein."

Konan grits her teeth and looked away from the Animal Path, which seemed to have taken up the job of spokesperson for the three of them. She squeezed her eyes shut and willed the tears that threatened to come out back into their tear ducts.

She was not surprised that he would threaten her like this, after what she had seen Pein do and what she remembered seeing what he had done to Amegakure from Naruto's perspective, it had become plain and clear that the man she had once known was dead. But hearing him threaten her like that, without even a fluctuation in his voice, hurt far more than she was willing to admit.

"So this is how it is," she muttered in a low whisper. "You've become so blinded by what you think is right that you would even strike down your best friend."

"It is because you are my best friend that I will strike you down, should you choose to defy me," Pein answered. "It means that you have lost sight of our goals and become corrupt. I would be doing you justice by letting you die before your memory became tainted."

"You've truly changed, Nagato," Konan paused, and then shook her head. "No, I can no longer call you that. The Nagato I knew died a long time ago. I had deluded myself into thinking you were the man I had known for so long, never wanting to admit that the kind and compassionate boy I had known and considered a part of my family had died the same day as Yahiko."

A single tear fell down her cheek before she looked up at the three paths with a glare.

"I can't delude myself into thinking I might be able to save you anymore. I had always hoped, prayed that I would be able to pull you away from this path of destruction, but I see now it was a fool's dream. However, I won't let the sacrifices you, me, and Yahiko went through be in vain, I won't let you destroy the peace we all wanted. If need be... Pein... I will fight you."

For a long moment nobody moved, they scarcely even breathed. Jiraiya stood behind Konan, watching her back as she stared down at her longtime friend. To say he was confused would be similar to saying Tsunade was slightly vain, or that Naruto liked ramen. He was currently undergoing one of those moments where your life is flipped on its head, then kicked with enough force that it kicked your teeth in. He couldn't even be sure of what was going on right now.

Then the moment was over as the Animal Path said, "So be it."

Bursting into action all three paths went on the warpath. Wings shot out of Konan's back and with a great flap she launched herself into the air, another flap launched several thousand paper shuriken at the Human Path. They would have hit their target dead-on, however; the Animal Path was already acting and had sent the crustacean to block the attacks.

Thanks to that the Human Path was able to reach Jiraiya unimpeded. It began a taijutsu battle with Jiraiya, throwing a left jab at the white-haired man. It was not blocked; instead, the Sennin had deftly dodged to the left, using some fancy footwork to sidestep the attack. He had then grabbed the path's wrist as it was passing by, and then he yanked. With the added forward momentum from the man's punch, combined with a powerful pull from a Sennin-Mode enhanced Jiraiya, the man was easily sent flying forward. Right fist cocked back, Jiraiya was just about to let loose with a mighty punch –

"Behind you Jiraiya-chan!"

– When Pa's voice forced him to make a split-second change in his plans. Instead of smashing his fist against the Path's face, he rotated on the balls of his feet, spinning around one-hundred-and-eighty degrees as he tossed the reanimated corpse at whatever was behind him.

The thing behind him just so happened to be the crustacean the Animal Path had resummoned. It had been bearing down on him and looked like it was about to snap him in half with one of its powerful claws. With the Human Path getting thrown in its field of vision the large summon creature was forced to stop its attack.

This small lull in the summons movements gave Konan a chance to launch her own attack it the large crustacean. She sent several hundred paper bombs at it, attaching the small slips into key points on the creature's body, the joints, eyes, and plating on the underside. With a hand sign, all of the paper bombs exploded, destroying the creature outright and sending it back to the summoning world.

Unfortunately for Konan, this gave the Human Path, which had recovered a chance to attack her. The reanimated corpse jumped into the air, its impressive strength allowing it to easily reach her height. It came down behind her, planting both of its feet on her back and kicking her, hard.

With a loud cry of surprise, Konan was sent spiraling down, making every attempt she could at regaining control. Before she could regain control of her flight, or go splat against the concrete, Jiraiya managed to jump up and catch her, before falling back to the ground.

"Thank you," Konan said as he set her down.

"You can thank me by telling me what's going on," Jiraiya told her.

"I will if we manage to make it out of this mess alive," Konan replied just as readily. She eyed the three paths as they began a new attack pattern. The Animal Path had summoned the three-headed dog; the Human Path was running along the wall to attack from a better angle and at a higher altitude. Meanwhile, the Preta Path stood back, watching silently.

Not only was the attack pattern one that did not have any major holes that could be exploited, Konan knew they could not waste time-fighting anymore.

"However, if we are going to get out of this then we need to leave now."

"Easier said than done," Jiraiya muttered, but quickly ended up going through a set of hand seals. "Ranshishigami No Jutsu!" Once again Jiraiya's hair hardened and grew at a quick rate. The large strands of hair spread out in separate chunks and tried attacking each of the paths individually in an effort to disrupt their pattern. It worked, but only somewhat.

The Animal and Preta Paths, not being truly made for combat purposes were forced to jump away from the attacks, which followed them as they backpedaled. However, the outcome soon changed when the two got together. At that moment the Preta Path stepped forward and used its absorption abilities to render the hair useless. Jiraiya's long hair quickly retracted after that, no longer having the chakra to maintain its form. If nothing else it had at least forced the two Paths away.

His other attack had not been so lucky. The Human Path seemed to rely solely on taijutsu, it was both fast and strong, easily on par with his own strength in Sennin-Modo. When those abilities were combined with it using the fields of vision granted to it by the two other paths, the Human Path was capable of dodging the attacks long before Jiraiya's hair actually reached it.

Jiraiya didn't even bother attacking the dog. Prior experience with the summoned creature had taught him how bad of an idea that was, and so both he and Konan were forced to dodge the three-headed animal as it rushed in to attack them both.

While Jiraiya jumped back and began backpedaling across the ground as the dog tried to pounce on the pair, Konan flew higher into the air, twisting in an aerial display before launching a barrage of paper shuriken at the Human Path. Said path had been closing in on Jiraiya and had been about to double team the Sennin with the dog summons, with this move forced the reanimated corpse back and allowed Jiraiya to make space between himself and the dog.

Konan flew back down to Jiraiya as they were giving a small amount of breathing room. "We should probably split up," she suggested. "Head back down the way you came while I take to the air. Head northeast until you reach the lake, that's where we'll meet up."

"I guess I really have no choice but to listen to you," Jiraiya said as he eyed the Paths and the dog. "Alright then, let's do this! Kuchiyose No Jutsu!" Biting his thumb, the white-haired Sennin spread his blood across his hand, went through a series of hand seals, then slammed his hands into the ground, creating a large cloud of white smoke.

The smoke cleared to reveal a huge toad, easily towering over buildings and trees. He had an aquamarine skin tone and yellow eyes with grey markings around them and two distinct, circular markings on his shoulders. He also carried two huge katanas on his back, which were his main weapons with an orange sash around his stomach.

"Gamahiro, I need you to help me make an exit from this place!" Jiraiya called down from his place atop the toad's head.

"Eh? Jiraiya-san, and Fukusaku-sama and Shima-sama? What are you two doing here?" asked Gamahiro as his eyes moved to stare up at the two elder toads.

"Never mind that, Gamahiro-boya," Pa said. "We need to concentrate on making an exit."

"Right, I don't know what's going on but I'll do what I can to help."

With that said the pace of the battle had once again changed. Gamahiro pulled out his swords and bull-rushed the largest enemy in his path, namely the three-headed dog. Before the large summons even had a chance to move the sword-wielding toad brought both swords up in a cross slash that sliced through the beast with ease.

Unfortunately, the attack did nothing more than making the dog split into three separate dogs, but the attack had done its job in allowing Gamahiro to reach the entrance that Jiraiya and Gamaken had made before the white-haired hermit had gone into Sennin-Modo.

The three Peins watched them go, both Jiraiya on his toad and Konan, who had shot straight up into the air and was now flying away.

The Animal Path went through another set of hand seals and summoned a giant drill-beaked bird. The bird quickly flew off to chase after Konan while the dogs went after Jiraiya.

XXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, within the chamber where the three Paths had come from, the three unopened stasis pods cracked open with a hiss of steam.

XXXXXXXXXX

Konan found herself in a tenuous position as she barrel-rolled out of the way of the bird that Pein had sent to attack her. The large summon just barely missed, she could actually feel the creature's feathers brush against her cloak it was so close. Not only that but the feathers were sharp, as she soon found out when the parts of her cloak that the bird's feathers touched were cut straight through.

As the bird finished flying past her, and before it could turn around to make another attempt at ramming her through, Konan sent a barrage of paper shuriken at it. Several thousand shurikens flew straight at the creature, though it did try to dodge the bluenette had taken its movements into account beforehand and launched her shuriken in a wide-scale barrage that made it impossible for the creature to get past. Disappointingly the attacks didn't do anywhere near the damage she had hoped, merely left a few small cuts along with the creature's back and wings. Not enough to dispel it, and since the summons was actually a reanimated corpse much like the paths, it didn't feel any pain that it might have if alive and therefore, there was no true disruption in its flight that Konan could take advantage of.

In an effort to lose the summon Konan began to descend back down to the city below. The bird had an advantage in the open air, it was much faster than she was. But she was more maneuverable. It stood to reason that if she could make her way into the twisting streets and skyscrapers of Amegakure, she should be able to lose it.

At least she hoped so.

Of course, it went without saying that the summon had no intention of letting her get into the city. It dive-bombed her, speeding down with a loud screech as the air was rent in front of him. There was no time for her to even dodge as the creature's beak drilled straight through her.

Yet rather than blood and gore being the end result of the violent confrontation, Konan's body burst into paper, letting the bird pass right through her and scatter the many sheets into the air. The many thousands of paper slips folded themselves into airplanes and quickly took off in all different directions, making it impossible for the summon to decide which slip to follow.

Konan could only hope this trick would be enough to fool Nagato, at least long enough for her to meet back up with Jiraiya.

XXXXXXXXXX

While Konan had been duking it out in an aerial battle with the bird, Jiraiya was once again having a running form of combat toad vs. dog style. The battle between Gamahiro and the dog summons was even more vicious than the one that Gamaken had been involved in. The two summons, or the toad and the half a dozen dogs that had split from the one, battled it out as they raced across the large city of Amegakure.

Gamahiro had quickly realized that hopping onto the platforms in an effort to gain the higher ground would not work, as the dogs all seemed capable of communicating with each other long distances and getting one or more of them to attack whenever he tried to get up. Jiraiya had hypothesized that if the three humans Pein had summoned could share vision, and then it stood to reason the summons did as well. They all had the Rinnegan after all.

Thankfully Gamahiro had yet to be injured beyond a few scrapes, courtesy of his talent with a blade. Unlike Gamaken who relied on defense and endurance to get through tough battles, the large blue and green, dual-sword wielding toad was all offense. He raced through the streets without much thought, taking turns only when directed by Jiraiya or one of the elders, and slicing at anything that got in his way.

This was not just limited to the dog summons, Gamahiro had sliced several pipes and buildings straight through in his effort to not only escape the dogs chasing after them, but also disrupt their ability to catch him by using the area to his advantage by causing as much collateral damage as possible. It wasn't as effective as it would be on any other opponent, summon or otherwise, thanks to their shared vision. However, he had managed to catch several of the furry little beasts unaware and smash a building on them.

Not that it did much as the summons simply multiplied. Jiraiya had to wonder how many times they could split before reaching their limit. At least count he had been able to observe at least a dozen and a half dogs running all over the place, and unfortunately for him, they still seemed capable of splitting even more.

"Gamahiro!" Jiraiya called from his place on the large toad's head. "These dogs are throwing us off course and trying to herd us in! We need to head farther north! Try to find a spot where we only have to deal with them one at a time!"

"That sounds a tad difficult but I'll do what I can!"

Springing into action Gamahiro used his powerful legs to hurtle himself along the ground. As he moved through one of the many large streets of Ame two dog summons turned a corner in front of him and charged. The large toad, swords in hand, didn't slow his pace at all as he ran towards them.

When he neared, the dog that was more towards his left jumped, its muzzle a vicious snarl of teeth and a foaming mouth. Gamahiro deftly used his right foot to hop to the left, the sword in his right hand flashed as he slashed the dog in half, initiating another split.

The second dog was now right in front of Gamahiro. It leaped towards him and opened its maw in preparation to clamp down on the toad's neck. However, the summon from Mt. Myoboku had no intention of letting the creature bite it. Bringing both swords up in a crossguard that formed an X in front of him, the large towards rushed forward and slashed the blades down. The speed with which he pulled of this particular maneuver was so quick that all anyone saw of the swords was a bright flash of silver, and then Gamahiro was past the dog and continuing his run through the city.

This did not deter any of their pursuers, however, and several more dogs along with the ones that Gamahiro had just sliced up began following them.

"I think we need to use something that packs some more punch," Ma suggested as Jiraiya turned his head to look at the dog summons following them. "Something that will sweep them all away in a quick blaze. Jiraiya-chan, Pa, you both know what to do!"

"Hai!" The two shouted as they figured out what jutsu the elder female toad wanted to use. Jiraiya turned around and all three went through a series of hand seals.

"Senpo: Kasai no torento!" Once again Jiraiya ended up spitting out a large stream of oil, while Ma shot out fire and Pa wind. However, unlike the last attack which created a massive wave of fire, this one did something different. As oil spewed out of Jiraiya's mouth in a constant and steady stream, the wind from Pa shot out in the pattern of a whirlwind, or a tornado. It caught the oil in its grasp and forced it to take on the same flow. Meanwhile, the fire struck the oil, instantly igniting the flammable liquid, which soon turned into a roaring blaze as the wind fed even more power into the flames. Soon enough the attack took on a spiraling torrent of white-hot fire that looked like it came straight from the sun itself.

It blazed its way along the path the dogs were on, lighting up the entire street. Several of the summons tried to get out of the way, but the attack was far too large, while not as widespread as the Bāninguoiru no o furo, the attack still had a wide range. It acted as a funnel, small at the starting point but growing larger the father out the attack got. None of the dogs were spared as it blazed past them. They all howled as they were burnt, their bodies dissolving into ashes.

"Jiraiya-chan, perhaps we should use the pipes to make our way to the destination point," Pa suggested.

"I think that's a grand idea. Out here we're not only outnumbered but the playing field also puts us at a disadvantage." Jiraiya looked down at the large toad he was on top of. "Gamahiro! We're going into the pipes; I want you to do what you can to lead the summons away! However, don't push yourself! If you get hurt, dispel!"

"Hai! Good luck, Jiraiya-san!"

XXXXXXXXXX

"Are you sure we can trust this woman, Jiraiya-chan?" asked Pa as the human he was on ran through the pipes of Ame.

"Hmm... I honestly don't know," Jiraiya admitted. "When I first got here, it was her who attacked me. But at the same time, she didn't actually try to kill me, she used our combat to slip messages to me via her paper. She had tried to warn me away. Also, she is now fighting with us against Pein and I can't really see a reason for either of them to set up such an elaborate deception to defeat us."

It was painful to admit, but Jiraiya knew he would not have won the battle against Pein as things continued as they had. If the fight had progressed any further he would have lost.

"On the other hand, she is with Akatsuki and was Nagato's best friend. If she is betraying him, it would mean that something major has happened to her that forced her to change her mind. I can't possibly think of anything that might have the necessary emotional impact that would convince someone to do that."

"I suppose we have no real choice but to trust her then," Pa mused to himself. "In the meantime, we should analyze the six paths and see if we can't come up with a strategy to defeat them. Especially if this does turn out to be a trap."

"Do you have any idea's Fukusaku-sama?" asked Jiraiya.

"No, not yet. But if we look over what we know so far something might come to us. Let's take a look at what we know. While all of those men look different, they all possess the same eye. All three of them have the Rinnegan of the Six Paths."

"I'm still not sure what to make of that," Jiraiya admitted with a frown. "The Rinnegan is supposed to be a mythological dojutsu that no one has seen since the Rikudou Sennin. Discovering that Nagato possessed the legendary eyes of the Six Paths was shocking enough, but now there are at least two more that we know who has the ocular jutsu."

"I suppose the question we should ask then is which one is the real Pein? Though I'm not sure if that would even matter. The problem is all three of them possess eyes. We don't know who, or what Pain is. However, we can make a small deduction on their abilities."

"Their vision is linked, and they share images. That seems to be the main ability those eyes hold."

"So, what does that mean?" asked Ma. She was never much of a thinker when it came to situations like these. She was a housewife through and through.

"Think of their three eyes in a manner similar to those of a set of security cameras. In the same way that three security cameras can show different angles of the same image, those three are able to see three views at one time. So if just one of them can see the target, then the other two can counter with the ideal attack, with perfect timing, without having to see their foe."

Pa paused to let the knowledge sink in.

"In other words, their field of vision is three times better than a normal shinobi's. And unlike the Byakugan, they can always guard each other's blind spots, without weaving signs or manipulating chakra."

"No wonder their combination seems so invincible," Ma exclaimed, finally understanding what the other elder toad was getting at.

"Which means if we want to defeat them, we would have to split them up and fight them separately," Jiraiya concluded. "I'm positive that in a one-on-one battle we would win. Since they all share visions, fighting as a team is probably their standard mode of attack. Unfortunately, taijutsu seems out of the question, and ninjutsu will just be absorbed."

"Which means we would have to go with genjutsu," Pa concluded.

"Yeah, genjutsu..." Jiraiya sighed. "I'm just as bad at genjutsu as Naruto, worse even, since I don't have his ability to use fuinjutsu to create genjutsu."

"Then maybe it is a good thing that we're meeting up with that girl," Pa said. "Ma and I have a genjutsu that we can do, but I would rather we use it as a last resort."

"I agree with Pa, there's no way you can convince me to use that jutsu!"

"Eh? Is there something –"

Jiraiya's question was interrupted when a large explosion took place just a few feet in front of him. From the smoke came the Human Path. It closed the distance to Jiraiya far too quickly for the Gama-Sennin to use any of his jutsu, starting up a taijutsu battle by throwing out its left leg in a high kick. Jiraiya ducked under the kick and attempted to grab the leg so he could throw the path into the wall, but the Rinnegan user retracted his foot much more quickly than the white-haired hermit thought he could. At the same time he lashed out with his right foot, throwing a kick that would have hit Jiraiya's mid-section, but because he was ducking, ended up being aimed right at his face.

It was only thanks to his years of training that Jiraiya was able to react quickly enough to save himself from being smashed in the face with a foot. Crossing both arms, Jiraiya blocked the kick. He was forced to channel chakra to his feet when the attack threatened to launch him in the air. Then, when he was assured he would not get sent flying, he grabbed the leg with both hands and heaved, swinging the Human Path around in a full circle before tossing him into a wall.

The force of his throw cracked and cratered the wall of the tunnel. The Human Path did not get up as it was lodged into a human-sized crater in the wall.

However, Jiraiya learned too late that this was all a distraction. A very different path than the ones he had encountered thus far appeared behind him. This one was a tall, bald man with an unusual body shape, possessing a very thick neck, no ears, and a large jaw. Like all of the others he had been fighting, this man seemed to possess Nagato's Rinnegan. It was the only body to not have orange hair, simply because it had no hair at all. It had a vertical ring piercing on its nose, six spike studs all around its head, three studs on the top and bottom of each of its six arms, an enormous cylindrical stud on its chin, and two vertical studs on each of its upper cheeks. The body had three faces, each with a different expression, and two of which appeared from the sides of its head only when it removed its cloak in a fight: happy, angry, and neutral. It also had a long, saw-like "tail" that stretched from his back over his head.

"You should never let your guard down, Jiraiya-sensei."

Jiraiya's eyes widened as he tried to move into a defensible position, but was only able to turn around as one arm latched onto his left arm, and a fist was shoved into his gut.

The power behind the punch was enough that Jiraiya was sent flying backward, into the wall with enough force that the entire area of impact exploded outwards and the Gama-Sennin was sent flying out of the tunnel he had been in.

Jiraiya's feet hit the water and he skidded along the surface, his feet created small trenches in the liquid before he slowed to a stop.

"O-Oi! Jiraiya-chan, your arm is missing!" Ma shrieked as the Gama-Sennin grabbed at the now missing right arm.

Jiraiya really wanted to say something sarcastic and witty to the blatantly obvious remark. But the pain wasn't allowing him to think properly. "I'm well aware of that."

"What's going on!" asked Pa.

"This one has a different face than the others we've gone up against so far," Jiraiya said. "He was probably summoned after Konan intervened."

"Jiraiya-sensei!"

Speaking of Konan, said woman flew down the moment she saw him on the water's surface. She touched down, her feet just a few inches above the water as she gaped at his arm, or lack thereof. It was the most expressive he had seen her face since they met again.

"Y-Your arm is missing!"

"Yeah, no kidding," Jiraiya grits his teeth. Were his mind not so scattered from the pain he probably would have wondered what it was that made people point out the obvious.

"Are you alright?"

"I'll live, so long as I can get this fixed up before I bleed to death." Jiraiya then looked out at the area he had just come from, and both his and those of the toad elders' eyes widened when they saw not three but six paths standing along the wall. "What the – what is this?"

"Those are the six paths of Pain," Konan answered as she looked up at the six bodies, her eyes only focused on one of them. "They are the reanimated corpse of people Nagato used for his Paths. They are Pein, all of them."

"Wait, what?"

"They are Pain. Those people were corpses that Nagato used his Rinnegan's abilities on, reanimating them and gifting them with the Rinnegan. They are all connected to him and he to them, he controls their movements and actions via a series of chakra receivers that not only grant him that ability but give them his abilities."

"Now I see," Jiraiya said in understanding. "None of those are Nagato. The real one is controlling them from somewhere else, that would also explain why they all have the Rinnegan and only one set of abilities."

Konan nodded at his words but did not turn to look at them. "Nagato granted each Path one of the Rinnegan's abilities, between that and their shared vision they are nearly invincible. Able to see any attack and counter it, they are the perfect weapon for the Rinnegan."

Jiraiya looked at all of the paths as they stood there. Then they stopped, his eyes widening as they landed on one of them he recognized right off the bat. "Konan is that...?"

"Yes, that is the corpse of Yahiko," Konan shuddered as she spoke. She felt a spike of pain at seeing her friend's corpse being used in such a way. "In some twisted sense, Nagato felt that using Yahiko as one of his Paths would make it like Yahiko was still fighting with us."

Jiraiya stared up into the eyes of Yahiko, or at least the eyes his body now possessed, as they too stared back at him without expression or emotion. It was unnerving, seeing someone he remembered as such a rambunctious kid, almost Naruto-like in manner, with such an expressionless face.

"Konan, I will give you one more chance to return to me," Yahiko, the Deva Path said. "I understand that you might be feeling pressure from what we are doing, but you know as well as I that all we do is to ensure peace."

"I don't believe that," Konan shook her head vehemently. "I can no longer believe that Pein. We aren't creating peace; our ideals were lost with Yahiko. All we're doing now is creating more tragedies."

"Do you truly believe that?"

Konan closed her eyes. "Yes."

"I see..." a pause. "Then you, along with Jiraiya, shall know pain."