Chapter 25 : Battle for Kumogakure

The fire was everywhere. Great conflagrations devoured the ruined remains of buildings and the corpses that littered the streets. Many buildings had long since collapsed, either from the explosions of the Asura path or crushed under the foot of the Animal Path's summon. What few buildings had not been turned into rubble and debris looked like a stiff wind would cause them to collapse on themselves.

The amount of damage Pain had unleashed upon Kumogakure in such a short amount of time was as astonishing as it was widespread. Only a few areas of the village had been left pristine. The few sectors that had been lucky enough not to have one of the six paths make landfall in them.

"Everyone hurry!" Shouted one of the many Chunin level shinobi that littered the ranks of Kumogakure's ninja corps. He was waving his hands to go with his actions, directing the numerous civilians that were running frightened through the streets. Working with him were several other shinobi, all of them Chunin as well. "Quickly, this way! We need to get all of you to the shelters!"

It was easy to see the terrified expressions on the civilian's faces. It was even easier to understand why.

While everyone knew of the possibility of the village they lived in being invaded by an outside force due to it's status as a Hidden Village, none of the citizens ever thought it would happen. And why should they? Kumogakure was the most militarized village of the Five Great Nations. They may not produce shinobi of such quality that they become legends every generation like Konohagakure did, but they had more ninja than any other village out there. The idea that someone would attack their village was laughable.

No one was laughing now.

As the Chunin directed the civilians to the shelters that had been erected inside of the very mountain range their village was built on, a dozen of the village's elite Jonin were doing everything in their power to defeat the four-headed dog that had been summoned into their midst. Barring that, they were at least hoping to draw the summon animal away from the civilians so they would be able to flee the scene.

Both of these tasks were much easier said than done. Whatever kind of summon this four-headed dog was, it was incredibly durable. Kunai were too small to do any real damage, close-range weapons like swords were out of the question as well. One ninja tried to be brave and close the distance by jumping on its back so he could stab it with his katana. He paid the price for his hubris by being eaten alive by one of its four heads.

Originally, the dog had only had three heads, but during one ninja's attack where he had blasted it with a powerful lightning jutsu, the dog had grown an extra head. They weren't sure if that meant lightning jutsu aided it or if this was just some kind of freak accident, but they had become wary of blasting it with any lightning jutsu below A-rank.

"Please remain calm and follow us!" The Chunin continued directing his charges across the damaged village. They could not move very quickly. Even running as fast as they could, civilians were notoriously slow. At least compared to shinobi. "We're getting you all to the shelter! Please remain calm and ― look out!"

Ultimately, it was the slowness of the civilians that led to their demise. A stray jutsu managed to hit the dog in one of its eyes, perhaps it's one weakness. This led to the giant summons stumbling right into a building, one which led directly to the roadway that the civilians and Chunin were using to reach the shelters.

The civilians were all killed when the debris and rubble of the now-destroyed building came crashing down on top of them. Their screams were the last thing the ninja helping direct them heard before they were crushed by several tons of cement.

The Chunin was killed when he jumped out of the way, just barely missing getting crushed by a large amount of rubble, only to get crushed under the large paw of the dog summon. When the dog summons lifted its paw off the ground again, it revealed the Chunin's body twisted in an unnatural shape, his head bent at an angle that should not be possible.

Samui tried not to lose her cool as she watched the giant four-headed dog kill a large number of civilians and Chunin like they were nothing. There weren't many things in this world that were worse than seeing your comrades getting slaughtered like they were animals. The knowledge that she could do nothing to stop this monster as it continued destroying and killing everything in its path only made Samui feel that much more useless.

Her feelings were made even worse by the number of corpses that littered the ground. Civilian corpses, not shinobi. These were not hardened warriors prepared to face death at any second, but innocent lives who have never known the true hardships ninja went through every day.

"Dammit!" Karui swore as she saw the same thing Samui and their other teammate saw as they traveled through the streets, trying to avoid the summon's gaze and the debris it threw in all directions as it crashed through one building after another. "What the hell is everyone else doing!? Why aren't they trying to stop this thing!? And just where the fuck are the kami be damned Anbu!?"

"They're probably being held up by whoever is causing those explosions," always the thinker, Omoi was the one who came up with the most reasonable explanation. "I doubt whoever summoned that dog is alone. It wouldn't surprise me if there was a small group that had managed to infiltrate our village and is causing as much havoc as they can."

"You also have to account for the fact that it's only been about fifteen minutes since this thing's been summoned," Samui added with a frown. Her eyes darted left and right, constantly shifting as she kept wary of her surroundings just in case they ran into the one who summoned that dog. "The Anbu will take time to mobilize, especially since one of the first buildings that was destroyed was the Anbu Headquarters."

After hearing this, Karui summed all of their thoughts nicely.

"Shit!"

"In any case, we need to find the person who summoned this thing. If we can find them, we should be able to make them reverse the summoning."

"Right!"

"You don't have to tell me twice."

The search for the summoner continued. Whoever had summoned that thing was very skilled in stealth. Neither Samui nor her two squadmates could find the hide or hair of the person responsible for that creature's appearance. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, made even worse by the fact that Samui was not even sure of what the needle was supposed to look like.

It was a frustrating turn of events, to say the least.

The trio quickly ran into one of the many alley's that dotted the once pristine village, just barely dodging the giant dog's attention. They were getting closer and closer to the summon now, which was making it more difficult to keep from being spotted. The only reason they had not been seen yet was due to the many shinobi that were still trying to ineffectively take the thing down with lightning jutsu.

Speaking of, now that they were closer, Samui could see the lightning jutsu being hurled at the summon. It looked like those Jonin were going all out. There wasn't ninjutsu below A-rank being thrown at that thing. Everything from lances and spears made of lightning to dragons and other animals composed of the lightning element was being launched at the summon to absolutely no effect.

It was like the thing didn't even feel the pain it should be in. What was going on here? That summon should at least be getting aggravated. Why was it just shrugging off the attacks like they were nothing? Better yet, how was it able to shrug off so many jutsu so easily? Were the attacks just too weak to do anything? Perhaps they needed a jutsu above A-rank to truly damage it?

As if the shinobi attacking the dog summon had been thinking the same thing, several moved in to distract the creature while half a dozen jumped onto the roofs, their hands already running the gauntlet of seals for a collaboration jutsu.

After they ran through all the hand seals needed, the group called out the name of their technique simultaneously. Samui could not hear what the name of the jutsu was over all the noise near them, but she could see the effects, see the stream of what was obviously lightning chakra coalescing and shooting off of each shinobi before all the jutsu clashed in the center and grew even larger.

The jutsu unleashed from the combined efforts of the ninja was massive in size; a giant dragon made of spiraling lightning with glowing red eyes that towered over the four-headed dog. It looked like a giant tornado made out of pure lightning that managed to form cohesion and took the shape of a dragon. Even from the distance, she was at, Samui could see the way the chakra spiraled around a central axis like that of a tornado.

Samui knew what the technique was. Rairyū no Tatsumaki. An A rank ninjutsu when used by a single Jonin level shinobi. As a collaboration jutsu, it was probably above S-rank.

If nothing else it made for an impressive sight.

The four-headed dog's snarl was drowned out by the dragon's roar, an earth-shattering sound that shook the very heavens. The powerful roar seemed to carry to all corners of the village and echo for several long seconds after the massive lightning beast finished.

And then the giant collaboration lightning jutsu surged forward. The four-headed dog summon was given no time to do anything much less move as the massive lightning dragon smashed into with the fury of a thunderstorm combined with a tornado.

What happened next was an incredible explosion of epic proportions. Lightning exploded outwards in all directions from where the jutsu struck as a giant sphere of swirling blue energy engulfed the summon in its light. The sight was so bright that Samui and her two teammates had to cover their eyes lest they be blinded.

When the light died down and it was safe to look again, the trio did so and gasped at the sight before them.

Well, Karui gasped. Omoi did too. Samui just stared with a slight widening of her eyes, but you could tell she was just as shocked as her companions.

And why wouldn't she be? The place where the dog summons had been was gone. What had once been a bustling city street before the fighting broke out was now nothing more than a large crater. Samui couldn't judge just how large the crater was, but she estimated it to be at least several dozen meters in diameter.

"Woah..." Karui muttered in shocked awe. "That is one big hole."

Omoi didn't really have anything to add, so he just nodded.

"It looks like they destroyed the summon," Samui noted coolly. Of course, being who she was, everything she said was often spoken in a cool and collected tone, even when she was near the point of freaking out. "I doubt there's anything that could have survived such a concentrated assault."

And she was right. Such an intense and powerful offensive assault was enough to defeat even the four-headed dog summon. It hadn't even been given the chance to split itself before being forced to dispel from the several hundred million volts of electricity traveling through it.

That didn't mean they were out of the woods yet. Several dozen meters from Team Samui's location, another large burst of smoke appeared to hover over destroyed and burnt-out buildings. And from that cloud of smoke, a giant centipede with a dark black carapace and orange-colored skin underneath that shot out. Like the four-headed dog, this summon also had the Rinnegan, as well as a number of body piercings, including one that went straight through the center of its head.

Almost as soon as the giant centipede was summoned, did the thing go on a rampage. Rearing its head back, the monstrous summon crashed itself straight through one of the still-standing buildings it was near. Debris and rubble were soon flung in all directions. Several of the larger chunks smashed against walls that, due to already being weakened under the strain of having the four-headed dog destroy much of the structure already, toppled down as the rest was building collapsed from having nothing left to support it.

Samui turned back to look at her two teammates, a cool look in her eyes.

"Come on!"

"Right!"

The trio dashed out of the alley and into the street proper. Deciding to forgo stealth in favor of getting to whoever had summoned that centipede before they could disappear, Team Samui blasted down the street as quickly as they could go, their legs nothing more than a blur as they ran.

It was this lack of discretion that led to them never reaching their intended target.

It started when Samui felt a very mild yet powerful burst of killing intent directed at her and her teammates. The intent was so subtle that the only reason she sensed it at all was because she was a Jonin level kunoichi. That was the only warning she got before a presence appeared from above them.

"Move it you two!" Samui ordered her squadmates as she followed her own words with actions. Tucking forward into a shoulder roll, the blond-haired Jonin traveled across the ground quickly just as whoever she had sensed landed on the place she had been with a loud smash that seemed to shake the ground.

Spinning about, Samui reached behind her and grabbed the tonto strapped horizontally across her back. Her two teammates landed on either side of her, Karui on her left and Omoi on the right. Both had their weapons drawn.

Unlike Samui, who preferred using a tonto, a short blade made more for stabs and thrusts than slashes, Omoi and Karui utilized long blades. The blades were not quite at the length of a Nodachi, a long sword that was usually just as tall as a person, but they were definitely longer than your average katana. Other than their longer than average length, they were fairly standard-looking blades. Nothing at all special about them.

With their weapons out and ready to be brought down on whoever had just attacked them, the trio of shinobi glared at the dust cloud that had been created by whatever made an impact with the ground.

The thing, for whatever this was could not be human before them was incredibly unusual. It looked human enough, except that it had no neck to speak of and a large piercing on its chin to go along with the numerous other piercings all over its face. Its eyes were purple, both the iris and sclera and running around the eyes was a ripple pattern.

The thing that Samui noticed the most aside from the eyes was its cloak; black with red clouds.

"Akatsuki?" Samui narrowed her eyes. So these were the people after Bee-sensei, Yugito, and Naruto. They must either be supremely confident in themselves or incredibly arrogant to attack them upfront like this.

"So these are those Aktsuki assholes?" Karui looked at the... thing incredulously. "I knew they had to have some issues, but I hadn't realized these people would be so damn freaky looking."

"We should handle this guy with caution," Omoi suggested. "Given that he's attacked the village, even if it was done out of arrogance, he must be assured that he has enough power to back up his assault. Or maybe he's just some kind of distraction and the real mastermind is already heading over to where Bee-sensei is."

"Whatever," Karui scoffed. "If this idiot thinks he and his goons can really take on the full might of Kumo, I say let him! We'll crush him and his friends like bugs!"

Samui frowned as she listened to her teammates. Something told her this battle would not be that easy.

Still, she prepared for a fight all the same.

This was so not cool.

XXXXXXXXXX

The shinobi of Kumogakure were having a very difficult time with this new summon creature. It was bad enough that they just barely managed to kill the last one, which had cost six of them almost all of their chakra to destroy. Now they had to deal with one that seemed even more difficult to kill than that four-headed dog.

Nothing they had thrown at it worked so far. The centipede was impervious to lightning release attacks. At least, nothing they've attacked it with did anything more than mildly irritate it. Not even chakra flow, channeling lightning chakra through their swords, did anything more than leave light nicks on the giant monster's carapace.

One of them had managed to take out one of the creature's many legs, but he had also lost his life in the process. Since then, those few brave ninjas who tried ended up losing their lives long before they could even reach the summon beast. It was almost like the thing was learning the more they fought it.

How were they supposed to beat something like this? Something they couldn't even damage?

"Kumo-Ryǖ Kaengiri (Cloud-Style Flame Beheading)!"

Descending from above, a man with blond hair and holding a sword that was imbued with Fire Nature chakra above his head slashed at the centipede summons left eye. While the carapace that he hit did not even crack or glow red from the heat, the eye was soft and the blade that had been lit aflame easily sliced through it.

There was a loud sizzling sound as the eye burst open like overripe fruit. The intense heat caused the light receptive organ to not only explode but evaporate all of the liquid located inside of the eye itself.

The centipede summoned let out a loud shriek of pain as it reared its head back. Atsui jumped off just as the giant centipede began shaking its head back and forth, bashing it against the buildings around it and destroying them with impunity.

"Now that was a hot attack!" The man shouted. Now that he wasn't a falling blur, he was more easily discernible than before.

The man who shouted in exuberance had shoulder-length blond hair that was being worn in an asymmetrical bowl cut. His eyes were green and he was wearing a sleeveless version of the typical attire a Jonin of Kumogakure wore. The only real difference aside from the sleeveless shirt was that he was also wearing shin guards, bandages around his forearms, and the kanji for Netsu (Heat) tattooed onto his left shoulder.

"How do you like that?" The man continued. It was clear he was reveling in his sense of having managed to damage the giant summon while everyone else was struggling. Equally clear was that he had no real trouble gloating over his supposed victory. "Was it too hot for you to handle!?"

"Atsui-Senpai!"

"That's right!" Atsui grinned largely as the other shinobi stared at him in awe or surprise. Some of them may have also been deadpanning. Not that he noticed this, busy as he was showboating for everyone. "It is I, the man with fire in his veins. Don't come near me or you might get burned by how hot I am."

The number of stares his introduction got was numerous. Even the summons was staring at him with its one good eye.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Unfortunately for him, and everyone else, there was someone who was not staring at him. The one who had summoned the giant centipede. Even more unfortunate, this person decided that the best response to make to Atsui's declaration would be to summon more animals to fight.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Two more large bursts of smoke exploded into existence. Like the after-effects of a nuclear explosion, the white smoke formed two large mushrooms heads that expanded far into the sky before being blown away by a strong breeze. When the smoke finally cleared, everyone got a sight of what had been summoned to fight them.

They promptly wished they hadn't.

The first of the summons was actually one that flew out of the first cloud and smoke and into the air. It was a giant Drill-Beaked Bird. It was an incredibly unusual-looking animal as it not only displayed a prominent and jagged beak that looked similar to a drill, but it also had three distinct legs ― two located horizontally on either side of its body and one below ― as well as three wings. Like all the summons of the animal path, the bird had Rinnegan eyes.

The bird summons screeched a loud, horrible-sounding shriek that echoed across the village and forced Atsui and the other shinobi near it to hold their ears in pain.

Gritting his teeth, Atsui could barely restrain a grimace at the loud noise. His hands were beginning to feel wet, a sure sign that the ear-splitting screech had actually managed to damage his eardrums enough to cause internal bleeding. That was not good.

Looking up, he was just in time to see the large bird summons dive-bombing them. The giant avian swooped in like some kind of demented bird of prey, leveling out only after it was hovering just a few feet over the village. It was close enough that the discharge of air from its flight destroyed several buildings.

Then it began to lay eggs.

Atsui found himself blinking along with all the other shinobi as hundreds of eggs fell out of the bird summons backside. The eggs, strange yellow eggs with white spots, attached themselves to every surface available. Not just the ground but the walls of buildings as well. Several landed near Atsui.

"What the...?"

What was this? Some kind of strange ninjutsu? Perhaps the eggs contained a poison that would be released when they broke? Or maybe they would birth more birds? That's what usually happened when eggs hatched, right?

It only took Atsui a second after the eggs around him began glowing to realize that whatever they did, he did not want to stick around to find out.

Atsui jumped into the air in order to avoid the eggs, which had covered every viable surface on the ground. Just in time too. Several seconds after he became airborne, the eggs all exploded.

Many of Atsui's comrades did not get away in time and were caught in the blast. Those who did manage to get far enough away from the explosions were forced to watch as their friends were annihilated in a hailstorm of fire, their bodies disappearing as they were reduced to naught but ash.

Landing on the ground after the explosions ceased, Atsui and the other ninja of Kumogakure wondered how they were going to deal with this monstrosity. Already the giant avian was coming for another pass, this time with what looked like some kind of dust storm with lightning billowing inside of it trailing behind.

It wouldn't matter. Many of these ninjas would not get another chance to attack the bird summon anyways, for at that moment the second summon made itself known. Stampeding out of the second cloud of smoke as it busted down anything and everything in its path was a large Rhinoceros,

If the bird summons was large, then the Rhino was gigantic on a scale that could compete with the Bijuu. It easily towered over everything around it. Not only was it tall, but it also possessed a lot of mass. From the sharp-looking horn on its head to the long tail that swayed behind it like some kind of pendulum the giant summons had to be at least six, maybe ten times the length of the average building in Kumo.

With its mottled, leathery gray skin and what looked almost like dark gray armor, the Rhino was easily visible amongst the cement bricks that exploded in all directions in its wake.

Its large hoofed feet pounded on the ground, creating large craters each time it moved. The earth seemed to tremble under its weight. The earth was shaking so violently that Atsui, along with his comrades were forced to send chakra to the bottom of their feet to keep from falling over.

Not that this did any real good. The Rhino had started charging them the moment the group of ninja landed on the ground. It plowed through several buildings, smashing its way across the village in its effort to run them over.

As things stood, Atsui was just barely able to get out of the way by making quick use of the Kawarimi to substitute himself with a rock. Many of his comrades did the same thing, substituting themselves with the debris around them to avoid getting trampled by the monstrous-looking Rhino.

A few of the Chunin were not so lucky. One of them had been going through the hand seals for the Kawarimi, but the shaking earth from the Rhino's charge had knocked his hands out of place, forcing him to remake the hand seals. He had not been fast enough, and he had paid the price when the Rhino's large horn gutted him.

The Chunin died quickly, bleeding out as the horn went straight through his stomach and came out of his back, its length stained red with blood that glinted in the sunlight.

With a violent shake of its head, the Rhino threw the corpse off its horn. The body flew through the air and landed on the rubble from one of the many destroyed buildings.

"Dammit! This is getting even hotter than I expected," Atsui was not very pleased with this turn of events. They had managed to get rid of the dog and the centipede, but now they were facing too summons and he had no idea how to deal with these ones. That Rhino looked very durable. Would jutsu even work on it? And what about that bird? It looked like it attacked mostly from a distance if one were to judge by the jutsu it used. Most lightning-styled ninjutsu were short to mid-range attacks due to the fact that the lightning had to travel through air or wind, and would dissipate after a certain amount of time unless someone kept it going with a constant stream of chakra.

Most people did not have the reserves to keep a lightning jutsu from dissipating.

Atsui wished he had a summons of his own. Only something as large as a boss summon could deal with something like this without exhausting itself. It was unfortunate, but while Konohagakure had was known for having powerful summons such as toads, slugs, and monkeys, Kumo was not known for possessing any summoning contracts. That pretty much meant they were shit out of luck.

Life was so unfair sometimes.

XXXXXXXXXX

It was like one of those old western stand-offs. It was a clear day, mostly, if one ignored the cloud of dust and dirt that blocked out the sun at times. The roads were deserted, sort of. There were no people around besides them at least, just the bodies of those who had died. And the hero and the villain were standing just several meters away from each other in a stare-down of epic proportions. All the signs of an epic stand-off were present.

"I'm simply saying we should approach this guy with caution. He's a member of Akatsuki. There's no telling what kind of tricks he has up his sleeve. For all you know, he could be hiding a mechanical body under that cloak. Or maybe he can launch explosives from his hand or something. What would we even be able to do if he had a mechanical body?"

"That's why we need to attack! So long as we don't give the bastard the opportunity to do anything, he can't attack us! Now quit talking, idiot! We're in the middle of battle."

If one discounted the fact that the hero had two bickering sidekicks by her side.

"You two, stop fighting." Samui sighed. Really, she wished these two would just give it a rest at least once. "It's not cool."

As if her words were magic, the two instantly shut up and got back into their combat stances as if they had never been fighting in the first place. Their attention snapped back into focus and was redirected towards the Akatsuki member who, for some unfathomable reason, had decided to let the two's antics play out.

It was easy to see from their stances that Omoi's and Karui's styles were opposites yet complementary in every way. Omoi preferred to take a wide stance with his feet spread apart and knees bent at an angle. He kept his blade sheathed, with his left hand gripping the hilt to ready it for a quick draw. On the opposite end of the spectrum was Karui's narrow stance, her feet coming together and legs straight. Her katana was unsheathed, both hands were on the hilt, which was being held in front of her in a very basic kenjutsu stance that was reminiscent of the Samurai from Tetsu no Kuni (The Land of Iron).

Samui would have shaken her head at how the two seemed to complement each other so well, were it not for the fact that they were about to fight for their lives.

The stand-off did not last very long after the two got themselves in gear. A strong wind rustled through the clearing, kicking up dust and a few leaves that moved into their path. That was the unspoken signal as both Karui and Omoi charged from either side of Samui and made their way towards the strange-looking man.

The 'man' before them responded quickly, but not in the way anyone likely expected. Twisting his head to the left, Samui, Karui, and Omoi watched in shock as the skin bulged before another face, one that was identical to the original face except it was smiling, formed on the left side of its head. This was followed by the same thing happening to the right, only that face was frowning. The 'man' then threw off his cloak, revealing a horrifying surprise underneath.

What looked like a man was actually a machine of some kind. It had six arms with what looked like bolts on the shoulders and a large, serrated blade-like sash around its waist that almost looked like a tail. Seeing what this thing looked like underneath that cloak for the first time had the members of Team Samui pause.

"Holy shit!" Karui swore as she jumped back to gain some distance between her and the machine. "That is one ugly son of a bitch!"

Said ugly son of a bitch seemed to take offense to that. At least, that's what it looked like. Gripping one of his forearms, a loud clicking sound proceeded the thing's wrist detaching from the rest of his arm with only a thick line of metal with several rockets attached to its side.

"This doesn't look good," Omoi murmured as the Asura Path pointed his arm at them. With a hiss of smoke and fire, the many dozens of rockets launched from their places and flew towards the trio of Kumo shinobi.

Samui swore as she, Karui, and Omoi jumped away to avoid the barrage of explosives. This didn't help them much as the missiles followed them where ever they ran, forcing the group to split off and divide the missiles between them.

Karui and Omoi took to the roofs and went in opposite directions. Nearly a dozen missiles followed them, and the two were soon forced to dodge and weave across the rooftops, keeping one step ahead of the missiles as they impacted against the roofs and exploded.

In the meantime, Samui used the distraction the two gave to charge forward and close the distance between her and the Asura Path. It was a risky venture, moving so close to an opponent whose abilities were still very much a mystery.

But it wasn't like there was much else she could do. If she wanted to find out what her opponent was capable of, the only way to do that would be to engage this strange being in combat.

Despite her intentions, Samui found herself unprepared when the Asura Path was blasted forward at incredible speeds from chakra propulsion jets activating on the bottom of its feet. Samui only had enough time to get her tonto up before the serrated blade tried to bifurcate her.

A loud squeal of metal on metal erupted from where tonto met serrated blade. Sparks flew between the two weapons, but only for an instant, as the Asura Path overpowered Samui seconds after the two clashed.

With a grunt of shock, Samui was sent skidding several feet backward. Gritting her teeth, she channeled chakra to the bottom of her feet in order to maintain her balance and hopefully stop herself from moving too far. She succeeded, only to look up just in time to see one of the Asura Path's fists detach from its arm and come flying towards her like one of those segmented rockets he shot at Karui and Omoi.

Eyes widening, Samui made to raise her tonto to deflect the fist, even though she knew she would not make it in time.

Fortunately, she did not have to.

"Kumo-Ryū Mikazukigiri (Cloud-Style Three Days Moon Beheading)!"

Omoi rushed in from the left, his sword sliding out from its sheath at lightning speeds. Gripping the blade with both hands, he swung the sword in a single, large, crescent-moon-shaped arc that occurred at such velocity that the sword actually seemed to form a blurring streak that made the crescent shape of Omoi's weapon visible.

His target was the hand that had just been launched. Most people would probably not be capable of slicing through such a small and fast-moving object, but Omoi was trained by Killer Bee, the resident Jinchurikki and one of the few ninjas who had truly mastered swordsmanship. Something like this was well within his capabilities.

The blade quickly and efficiently sliced straight through the middle of the hand, cutting it in half to reveal the steel and cables underneath. With its circuitry destroyed, the propulsion jets that kept the hand moving forward at such incredible speed sputtered and died. The two halves then separated, one falling down to the ground immediately, the other continuing on as momentum carried it and blowing a small hole through the wall that was miraculously still standing even though the rest of the building was not.

The wall collapsed several seconds afterward as if the hole had been the final straw that broke the camel's back.

Just seconds after Omoi managed to slice the flying hand in half, Karui descended upon the Asura Path with the vengeance of a fallen angel, her sword pointed straight down as she was set to impale the mechanized villain.

"Take this, you bastard!"

Unfortunately for Karui, the Asura Path was already reacting to her presence. Four small triangle-shaped segments split and peel back from his head, revealing the metal underneath the false skin along with a large hole. Blue light began gathering around the hole. It was only after a few seconds of watching the light gather there that Samui realized what was happening.

"Karui! Get out of there!"

The warning given, Karui did not waste any time and began making several hand seals. It was difficult when one of her hands was gripping her sword, but she made due, completing the last hand seal just in time for what came next.

There was no real warning when the canon on top of the Asura Path's head went off. One moment it was building up enough chakra to destroy several buildings, the next there was a large blast of energy that shot from its head and exploded. The light engulfed Karui's form until nothing of her could be seen.

When the light died down, there was nothing above the Asura Path. Everything had been obliterated.

"Kumo-Ryū Omotegiri (Cloud-Style Front Beheading)!"

Appearing in front of the Asura Path, Karui swung her sword in a single, quick, and powerful cutting motion.

The attack would have taken the Asura Path's head off, had it not been for the powerful-looking serrated blade launching itself forward and knocking her sword aside. With her sword knocked away but her momentum not halted, Karui stumbled forward.

It was the perfect opening for the Asura Path, who did not hesitate to waste this opportunity. The blade moved to bisect the dark-skinned kunoichi. Asura had every intention of ending her life right then and there.

He would have too, had the blade not been blocked by another sword appearing from his left. There was a loud 'clang!' as metal struck against metal, followed by a squeal as the two weapons ground against each other.

Omoi's teeth were grit as he channeled chakra into his feet to keep from getting sent flying. He didn't know how such an unusual weapon that did not appear to be all that sturdy (it bends far too much) could be so strong. It was like getting hit with a several thousand-pound bricks!

Still, he did what he could to keep the serrated tail blade from moving. Out of the three of them, he was physically the strongest. While blocking and locking this attack into place was hard, it was not impossible for someone who had been forced to block Killer Bee's sword attacks during training.

Dashing forward, Samui made her presence known as she began using chakra flow to channel lightning-natured chakra through her tonto. The blade was soon wreathed in blue lightning that crackled and popped as it skittered across the metal surface.

With the serrated blade already occupied, there wasn't much it could do against Samui as she reached the machine path.

"Kumo-Ryū Raitoku (Cloud-Style Lightning Thrust)!"

Keeping her body low to the ground, Samui thrust her lightning-coated weapon forward, hoping to pierce this thing's head.

It was not to be. While the serrated blade may have been neutralized by Omoi, the Asura Path still had five arms it could use. Which it did use.

One of the three hands on its right side came up and grabbed onto the blade, heedless of the electricity that was not coursing through its body. While that hand moved the blade off to the side, forcing Samui to stumble forward, another hand came up to stare into Samui's face.

"Kawain no Hiya (Flaming Arrow of Amazing Ability)."

Samui had just enough time to realize her mistake before the fist was detached from the arm and launched at her. The fist struck her with such force that it felt like all the bones in her head had caved into her face. She had never felt anything as excruciating as this before.

And then she was sent flying backward with enough force that her body became nothing more than a blur before it crashed straight through a building.

"Samui!" Her two teammates yelled out in unison. Not that they could do much more than yell, for once Samui had been taken care of, the Asura Path turned its attention on them.

Almost too quick for them to follow, the Asura path had two of its five remaining arms pointed at them. They only had enough time to register this before the fists were detached and sent flying. Omoi was hit in the chest, his entire ribcage collapsing in on itself while the hand going after Karui went straight through her stomach, leaving a bloody trail in its wake as it exited her back.

The last thing either of them saw before their world went black was the Asura Path's head splitting open again to reveal the chakra canon gathering energy to finish them off.

XXXXXXXXXX

Atsui was beginning to wonder if this situation wasn't getting too hot for them to handle. They had a giant bird creating lightning storms and dropping egg bombs on them, a giant Rhino that was rampaging through the streets and destroying everything that the centipede and dog didn't. And that was on top of the new summons that had come out of the woodworks; a giant ox

That's right, a giant bison with thick brown fur multiple piercings located throughout its body, the largest damn horns he had ever seen, and the same odd ripple patterned eyes as every other summon they had been dealing with so far.

It had appeared about five minutes after the Anbu had shown up to try and subdue the other summons and subsequently wiped out most of the Anbu by squashing them flat when it had been summoned. Now there were only three Anbu left of the four squads that had arrived.

Things really weren't looking too hot for them right now.

"The bird is coming back!"

As the cry went up, Atsui looked up into the sky and swore. The bird was coming back, and not only was it laying eggs, but that lightning storm was behind it as well. He hadn't even known that thing could create two different attacks at once.

"Everybody scatter!"

That sounded like a fine idea to Atsui. He had no desire to stay in the line of fire from that thing. He had already seen numerous examples of how deadly that Bird could be firsthand. A good number of Chunin and a few of the Anbu that had managed to avoid getting smashed by the ox had their remains splattered across the ground from those egg bombs.

Hopping down from one of the few roofs that miraculously still stood, the young Jonin made his way out of the area of imminent destruction via giant Bird summons. After making it quickly to the ground, he began to high tail it out of the general area with chakra enhanced speed.

It was while he was running that he ended up hitting a new problem. Though it may be more accurate to say the new problem hit him.

He had been running down one of the main roads when it happened. The building to his immediate left exploded in a blast of fragments and cement shards. Atsui was not only knocked off his feet, but several large shards managed to embed themselves in his arms, legs, and torso. Thankfully, he had managed to cover his face with his arms otherwise his head would have been impaled instead.

Not that this meant much when he landed on the ground several dozen from where he had been originally standing.

Atsui moaned in pain as he tried to regain his bearings, an impossible task to be sure of. His entire body felt like it was on fire. He was tired, he hurt, and there were at least a dozen shards of cement ranging from the size of a pebble to the size of a dagger sticking into various areas of his body. If he didn't get medical attention soon, he would probably bleed out.

A loud snort caught Atsui's attention. Managing to just barely lift his head and show off slightly glazed eyes, the jonin of Kumogakure caught a glimpse of the thing that had been responsible for almost killing him. It was the Rhino. And it was glaring straight at him.

"O... ugh... I feel almost like Samui for saying this but... not cool."

As the Rhino glared down at him, its mouth opened up to reveal a person standing inside of it. Atsui's vision was blurry so he could not make out who they were or even what they looked like. All he could see was black on red.

Now, why did that sound so familiar?

"You are the one who took out my Centipede."

Atsui blinked. The voice was distinctly male. He supposed that was good to know, though just why it was good to know he was about to be killed by a man eluded him.

Come to think of it, there were a lot of things eluding him at the moment; like why he was no longer feeling any pain when just moments ago it felt like his skin had been getting ripped off his muscles and bones. A part of him knew this was not a good thing. Another part was just relieved he didn't hurt anymore.

"You shall know Pain."

Well, that didn't sound good. It sounded even worse than the stamping the Rhino was making as it dug its hoofed foot into the ground in preparation to charge at him.

Atsui tried to move his body as the Rhino charged him, but no matter what he did, his body just would not respond to his commands. In fact, he couldn't even feel his body any longer. All he felt was warmth... man... he was feeling hot...

"Daburu Kuropansa (Double Black Panther)!"

The last thing Atsui saw was black lightning taking on a blurry form as it charged straight for the Rhino.

XXXXXXXXXX

As the shadow clone that had helped him dispelled, Darui watched as the Double Black panthers blitzed the giant Rhino. The two animals made of black lightning, the signature technique that had been taught to him by none other than the Third Raikage himself, crashed into the Rhino with a fury that could not be contained. Thousands of black tendrils of lightning chakra skittered across its surface in a never-ending and impossible to discern pattern that did not follow logic or explanation.

It was interesting to see the effects that black lightning had on living creatures. Most lightning techniques were piercing in nature, and while black lightning had the ability to pierce most armors and materials, that was not why it was so deadly.

Darui looked on in grim satisfaction as the Rhino roared in agony, its body stumbling and spasming as the black lightning boiled the creature's insides. Eventually, the giant Rhino came down with a loud crash, up-heaving earth and sending chunks of debris flying. The giant beast twitched once, twice, then disappeared in a large puff of smoke as it was sent back to wherever it came from.

With a sigh, Darui took a look behind him.

Atsui was still laid out amongst the rubble, his body twisted at an unnatural angle. His right arm was bent in a way that should not be humanly possible unless the joint keeping said arm from moving in that direction had been broken like Atsui's probably was. One of his legs had been crushed underneath what had to be at least several hundred pounds worth of debris. It would take someone of the Raikage's caliber to lift that.

Perhaps the most telling sign that Atsui was no longer amongst the living, aside from the lack of a rising and falling chest to signify breathing was the glassy, glazed-over, and dull eyes and the large pole that impaled the man's chest.

Barely withholding a grimace, Darui tried to think of what he should do now. He needed to take care of the other two summons before they could cause any more damage, then find the summoner and take them out as well. After that, he would need to find Raikage-sama again and help him deal with the leader of this group. And that was not even going into what else he was going to have to do after all this was over.

It looked like he had a tall order ahead of him.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Darui looked over to his left to see another large cloud of smoke arise from where the Rhino had dispelled, his body tensing. He had not realized that the summoner was anywhere near him. Then again, it would be hard for someone who was not a sensor to find the person in charge of summoning all these creatures when he or she could be anywhere.

The cloud was soon blown away Darui was given a clear sight of what had been summoned. It was a giant chameleon with leathery, dark green skin. It had one large, protuberant Rinnegan eye that looked like it was barely being held in by the eye socket, and a strange bandaged cylinder for its other eye. Even more unusual than that and the many piercings on its body were the two wings sticking out of its back and the snake-like tail, which actually had a snakehead with two Rinnegan eyes.

"Where is this guy getting all these summons from?" Darui could not help but wonder about that. Seriously, Giant three-headed dogs that can become four-headed dogs? Centipedes? Rhinos? Ox? And now a Chameleon? How many summoning contracts did this guy have? "This is so drab."

"Darui!"

Darui did not bother to turn as a figure dropped down next to him. The young man stood up to his full height, revealing short blond hair and dark eyes. He was wearing a sleeveless black shirt with a one-strap-over-one-shoulder flak jacket that was the standard issue for all ninja of Chunin and above level in Kumo. Other noted articles of clothing were the Kumogakure headband on his head, his elbow-length arm guards, and red and white Kumo shinguards that went over his shinobi sandals.

"There you are, Darui," the man said. "I've been looking everywhere for you."

"Apologies, C" Darui did not look very sorry. "I was actually looking for you as well, but then I ran into this guy and, well..."

"I see," C said, his attention never really straying from the sight in front of him as he spoke with his partner. "I suppose I can forgive you for not finding me. You were just doing your duty as a Kumogakure shinobi after all."

"Thanks, I guess," Darui began running through several hand seals as he prepared to use another jutsu. In response, the large chameleon and the summoner on top disappeared. "We'd better finish this fight up and find Raikage-sama. Who knows what kind of drab enemies he's fighting."

"Right!"

XXXXXXXXXX

A's Raikage robes swished behind him as he ran through the ruined streets of Kumogakure, his teeth grit and his brows furrowed in a mask of barely contained anger.

And why shouldn't he be angry? Everywhere he looked he saw nothing but death and destruction. Buildings reduced to rubble, bodies laying where they were killed, the ground and few remaining walls soaked with the blood of his people.

But that wasn't even the worst thing. No, the worst thing about all this destruction and chaos was that most of the people who had died were civilians; men, women, and children who did not even know how to fight. Whoever had attacked his village had done so with little regard to innocents and non-combatants.

It pissed him off to no end.

A loved his village. He may not always show it, but the village meant more to him than anything else, even his own life. There was nothing he would not do for his village, whether it was something dirty and underhanded like trying to kidnap the Hyuga heiress during peace negotiations or allying himself completely with Konoha. If it meant keeping his village safe from harm, he would do it without a second thought.

That was actually why he had allied himself with Konoha in the first place. When he had heard from his spies that had been keeping an eye on the ongoing war in Kiri and learned that the yellow flash had made a return in the man's son, Ē knew that he would have to do something to keep the man from becoming a threat to his village.

At first, he had thought about assassinating him, but later on, realized how poorly that would work out. Naruto had mastered his father's jutsu, one that allowed the boy to surpass even himself in speed. He had shown that mastery by decimating a group of nearly five thousand enemy shinobi.

To top it off, the boy had been traveling with Jiraiya. Ē had a lot of faith in his ninja, but even he knew that taking on two Kage level shinobi was suicide for anyone other than two other Kage level shinobi. There was a reason Kage's were known as army killers.

His thoughts were later vindicated when he heard of the failed attempt Iwa made at killing the boy.

So he had decided to do something else. If he couldn't kill the son of the Yondaime Hokage, he would ally Kumo with him. It was a decision that he did not regret to this day.

Of course, none of that mattered now. His village lay in ruins and the one responsible for it was standing right in front of him.

A studied the man who appeared before him, standing there so nonchalantly, his face was completely devoid of emotions. Like a corpse. The man was of decent height, a bit taller than average. He had spiky orange hair, a lot of piercings, and purple eyes with a ripple pattern in them. The Raikage had never seen these eyes before, but he had most certainly heard the legends of the Rinnegan.

"You're the Akatsuki scum who attacked my village."

"And you're the Fourth Raikage of Kumogakure," the man replied in a dead voice. "It's an honor to meet you. Tell me, where can I find the hachibi jinchurikki?"

"Like hell I'll tell you that!"

Activating his Raiton no Yoroi, A became wreathed in lightning. Blue currents of incredible power cascaded across his body, enhancing his speed and reflex synapses to levels most shinobi would never reach.

With the speed granted to him by the Raiton no Yoroi, A disappeared and quickly reappeared right next to the bastard whose face he was going to smash into a pulp.

"Aian Kurō (Iron Claw)!"

A could not explain what happened after attempting to use his Iron Claw. One millisecond he was set to grab the man's face and the next he was lying against the remains of a destroyed wall. Sitting up, he looked over to see that the man before him had not moved an inch from his spot.

What the hell had just happened? Deciding he would need to be more cautious, A stood up and eyed the man warily.

"It looks like I'll be needing to take you seriously."

The man tilted his head as if not quite understanding what A was saying.

"Prepare yourself! For I won't be giving you another opportunity to do whatever you just did!"

A charged up his lightning armor again. He had a feeling he was going to need to go all out from the very beginning if he wanted to have any hope of victory here.

Then again, what else should he have expected from a man who bore the Rinnegan?