Chapter 32 : The War Against Pain

The problem with fighting against a hundred smaller factions was that there was no telling when or where they would strike. Because the smaller nations were scattered across the continent, it wasn't like they congregated in just one area. They could attack from anywhere. They could attack at any time. The only way to fight back was to either defend yourself after they had already attacked or to locate their base and destroy it.

Unfortunately, the hidden villages were called hidden villages for a reason. While everyone knew where Konoha, Iwa, Kiri, and Suna were thanks to their status as major villages, places like Tsuki, Oto, and Taki were well-hidden. Unlike the major villages, minor villages couldn't reveal their location so easily. The major villages would have been able to destroy them if they did.

Two months had passed since Pain had declared war on the Five Great Nations. Of course, the war did not mean daily doses of violence. Half the battle was gathering information on enemy forces and formations, and so both sides had been trying to infiltrate the other side's defenses.

Infiltration was a standard part of shinobi life. Many ninjas were sent to infiltrate places of value, such as acting as the maid or butler for the wealthy, or becoming the advisor to a daimyo, or even pretending to be a prostitute where a target frequents. To a ninja, no dirty trick was too cheap. No price was too high to pay.

That was why Yugao was working in the mansion of a noble living in the Land of Grass. She had come to this land last month for her mission: Locate the Hidden Grass Village, Kusagakure. She'd first worked in a bar for several weeks before hearing a rumor about how the noble who presided over this city, Tanaki Goshuren, had connections to Kusa.

She had managed to become a maid for Tanaki. One of his maids had died of mysterious circumstances. Her current disguise was one that made her look like a plain woman with brown hair, a bland face, and no chest. It might have been easier for her to acquire the information she wanted if she sexed herself up a little, but Yugao didn't like the idea. Even if she and Naruto hadn't seen each other since she had tried to kill him, she didn't want anyone else touching her.

Naruto…

Because she had tried to kill him, Yugao had stopped living with him. She felt guilty. However, she couldn't forgive herself for what happened. She had tried to kill the man she loved. It wasn't something she could just forget about, even if she knew that Naruto would never blame her for it.

Yugao had been working in this mansion for the past week, but she had yet to find a trace of evidence to suggest that he knew where Kusa was. She was beginning to wonder if the lead she had picked up was false.

Maybe I should consider interrogating Tanaki…

If she did that, it would mean leaving evidence of her existence. A ninja was supposed to gather information without anyone being the wiser, which wouldn't happen if Tanaki were to suddenly go missing. Perhaps that wouldn't matter if she could erase his memories after she interrogated him. Sadly, there was no memory erasing jutsu—not that she knew of, at any rate.

Yugao walked down the extravagant hallway in the mansion's east wing, her slippers plodding near silently along the majestic purple carpet. She went up to all of the paintings and dusted off the gold-plated frames. These paintings, landscapes, and portraits were mostly replicas. Having infiltrated many a noble house before, Yugao could recognize the original from a knockoff right away.

"There you are, Akame-san," someone said from her left.

Yugao turned at the voice. A woman walked toward her, long brown hair tied into a bun, which was hidden by a bonnet. She wore a standard maid outfit. The white dress with a black bodice had loads of frills, particularly along the hems and bust. There was a significant dip in the front. Dark-skinned cleavage spilled out. This woman, Idora Makami, was the head maid of this mansion and the reason Yugao had been hired.

"Idora-sama," Yugao greeted with a gracious nod. "What do you need of me?"

"I need you to clean the master's bedroom," Idora said, sighing as she pressed a hand to her forehead. "He's made a mess of things again. Honestly, that boy is so much trouble."

"Did he bring a girl home last night?" Yugao asked.

"Fortunately, no. It seems he was up late last night making models."

The lord of this mansion had two bad habits: he liked bringing girls home and he liked making clay models. The models that he made were generally miniature versions of the girls he had fucked. At least three times a week, he would take a girl to bed, and then the next day he would stay up late creating a model of them. Yugao didn't really understand why Tanaki did that, but she assumed it was sort of like how some men kept the panties of the girls they had screwed as trophies.

"In that case, I shall clean his room right away." Yugao bowed to the woman.

"I appreciate that." Idora nodded her head toward Yugao. "I have to go into town and buy ingredients for tonight's dinner, so I'll be expecting you to pick up the slack."

"Yes, ma'am."

Idora was actually the one who had hired her. Tanaki had not been pleased with her disguise and had called her boring the first time they had met, which was understandable since she had been trying to look boring. However, it seemed as if that was enough to make him not want to hire her. It was definitely a good thing that Tanaki was not the one who hired people. Idora had seen her talent at cleaning and decided to hire her on the spot, much to Tanaki's displeasure.

As she entered the young lord's room, Yugao glanced at the walls, decorated with true original works of art. All of them were nude portraits of women. These portraits had been commissioned by Tanaki. Each one was of a woman that he had slept with. Once done with her surveillance of the walls, she looked about the room, taking note of the ostentatious bed with its canopy and crimson sheets, and then at the expensive furniture arrayed around the room.

Then she looked at the center of the room. A large square sheet had been spread out across the floor. It was covered in dried clay. There were clumps and flakes everywhere. Yugao also spotted the numerous tools that were haphazardly scattered across the sheet.

She sighed and then began cleaning up the mess left by Tanaki. She first washed off the tools. Then she put them in the toolbox, which she set off to the side before grabbing the sheet and folding it so she wouldn't get any clay on the floor. The sheet had to be washed off outside with a hose. Once she finished, she hung it up to dry before returning to Tanaki's room.

Grabbing the toolbox, Yugao went over to the door on the west side of the room. It lead into a large storage closet, which had become less of a closet and more of a creepy fetishes gallery. All of the clay models that had been made were in this room. There must have been hundreds of them, each one fairly detailed. Yugao would have been honestly impressed with how well-crafted they were if it weren't for the fact that each one had been created after thoroughly fucking some woman.

She had only been in this room once before. It was during a tour that Idora had given her. During that time, Idora had said that she was to never enter this room unless given permission. Generally, Idora was the one who cleaned up after Tanaki's messes, but since she wasn't here right now, that responsibility now fell onto Yugao.

Walking over to a shelf in the back, Yugao placed the toolbox down and was about to leave when something caught her eye. It was a small slip of paper that had been wedged between two cracks in the shelf. Blinking, she moved the toolbox again and studied the shelf. Closer inspection revealed that there was a hidden compartment.

Yugao slid her finger along the crack. She soon heard a click as her nail caught something. A lock? Pulling out a nearly paper-thin pick, she repeated the process, this time catching the lock, which opened with a noticeable click.

Inside of the compartment were dozens of letters. Yugao grabbed one, noticing that it was already open. She pulled out the letter and read it over. Her eyes widened. This letter was from Kusa! It was talking about how they were changing locations soon, and it gave the new procedure to go through should someone want to hire them for a mission.

So that's why we could never find Kusagakure. They're nomadic.

She had never heard of a nomadic hidden village before, but it was certainly a clever way of concealing their location. It was hard to find something that was constantly on the move.

Yugao created a shadow clone to search through the contents. She then left the room and got back to work. It would be bad if Tanaki arrived and she wasn't doing her job.

XXXXXXXXXX

It was early in the morning, and Naruto, having risen from bed barely fifteen minutes ago, now found himself standing before Tsunade. The Hokage sat behind her desk. There was an empty bottle of sake sitting on it. Despite the fact that she had probably downed that entire bottle in one go, her eyes were sharper than razor blades.

Naruto wasn't alone that morning. Kiba, Hinata, and Shino were also with him. They stood behind him. It seemed this next mission would be one that he went on with these three. Shizune was also with them, standing beside Tsunade, a folder in her hands.

"We've just received word from one of our operatives that Kusa's location has been discovered," Tsunade began. "Kusa is a nomadic village. In order to keep their whereabouts a secret, they're constantly moving from one part of the Land of Grass to another. The time they move changes frequently, which makes it impossible to know where Kusa is located unless they inform you about their location."

"Must be hard to get clients, then," Kiba remarked. "You can't hire yourself out if no one knows where to find you."

Tsunade nodded. "Which is why Kusa periodically sends letters out to all of their clients, letting them know when and where they are going to be at any given time. It seems that one of their clients was careless enough to not destroy the evidence, and it was found by our operative."

"I assume the reason you called us three is because you want us to find Kusa and begin tracking their movements?" Shino inquired as he raised a hand to his face, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"That's correct," Shizune said. "If we can track their movements, then we can launch a surprise attack. You four are going to be the ones who help us initiate that attack."

Tsunade placed her elbows on the desk and steepled her fingers together. "I don't think I need to tell you how important this mission is. It could help us in ending the stalemate we've been in for the past two months."

The nature of ninja warfare was one in which the two opposing forces would gather information, and then attack using a combination of espionage and outright confrontation. Since the minor hidden villages were so small, they were incredibly well hidden, which meant that gathering information on them was nearly impossible. On the other hand, while the major hidden villages were large, they were also more powerful and had a stronger defense against infiltration. Konoha, in particular, could no longer be infiltrated (unless Tsunade allowed it for misinformation purposes) thanks to the seals that Naruto had created.

"So, our job is to head over to Kusa, locate their hidden village based on the information we've been provided, and then report their movements so we can plan an attack," Naruto summarized.

"That's right." Tsunade grinned. "This is an A-rank mission. Think you can handle it?"

"It won't be a problem," Naruto said. "I just have one question."

"And that is?"

"Was Yugao the one who provided you with this information?"

Tsunade paused. "What would you do if she was?"

"Nothing," Naruto said, shrugging. "It's not like I can do anything about her right now."

Yugao had refused to so much as see him for the past two months. Every time she came back, she only stayed long enough to rest before accepting another mission that took her out of Konoha. She had also gotten really good at avoiding him. He had even tried waiting for her at the Anbu HQ, but all that did was cause her to begin using random hotels as her base. It was beginning to frustrate him.

Really, Yugao. Are you really so wracked with guilt that you won't even let me help you?

"If none of you have any more questions, then feel free to get a move on," Tsunade said. "Your mission begins in one hour."

Naruto, Kiba, Hinata, and Shino all saluted and, at the same time, said, "yes, Hokage-sama!"

XXXXXXXXXXX

It was a five-day trip to get from Konoha to the Land of Grass. Located northwest of Konoha, the Land of Grass bordered the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth. To get there, Naruto and his team needed to cross the Heaven and Earth Bridge, which connected two parts of the Land of Grass together.

During the Third Great Shinobi War, Kusa had been invaded by Iwagakure, who'd used the country as a supply depot to transport and store munitions. Kakashi had once told him about a mission that he had been on with his father. Apparently, his old man and his team had been tasked with destroying the Kannabi bridge, which was located on the opposite side of the country.

Naruto traveled through a massive forest alongside Kiba, Hinata, and Shino. They jumped from the tree branches to move swiftly and leaped onto gigantic mushrooms when there were no trees. Sometimes they would come across rivers, and other times they would find deep ravines that they had to move through.

"Where is Kusagakure supposed to be?" asked Kiba.

"According to the information provided by Tsunade, Kusa should be located in the northwest," Naruto said as he and the others leaped off a mushroom and landed on a tree branch, which they used as a springboard.

"That's close to Takigakure if I am not mistaken," Shino said.

"H-how long will it take to get there?" asked Hinata, who landed on a branch about one meter from Naruto.

"If we keep this pace up, it should only take us the rest of the day," Shino answered.

They ended up reaching their destination, or close to it, in less than half a day. Naruto had pushed them harder than they had expected, setting a hellacious pace, which even tired out Akamaru by the end of it. Kusa was supposedly four kilometers from their current location, which was at the bottom of a small ravine that had a river running through it.

Setting up camp was easy. They made camp underneath a slight overhang. This was to avoid being spotted by anyone who came by overhead. They didn't have a tent to use, but everyone was carrying a sleeping bag. After setting their sleeping bags around a small fire pit created by Naruto, they caught several fish, cooked them, and ate while discussing their plan.

"Tomorrow, we'll head over there and check out Kusagakure," Naruto said.

"We're going to check it out during the day?" Kiba asked, sounding incredulous.

"Yep." Naruto nodded before slurping up some ramen. "It would be too suspicious if we tried to infiltrate the village at night."

"I see," Shino began, once more pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "You plan on having us infiltrate Kusa by disguising us as potential clients."

Naruto snapped his fingers and grinned. "Got it in one, Shino. That's exactly right. Sneaking in during the night is a terrible idea since most people expect that sort of thing. However, if we pretend to be clients looking for a mission…"

"T-that might work in normal circumstances, but what about right now?" asked Hinata.

"What do you mean, Hinata?" asked a clearly confused Kiba.

"W-well…" Hinata poked her fingers together. "Right now, the many hidden villages are at war. Wouldn't a new client coming for a mission at this time be suspicious?"

There was a moment of silence as Naruto realized that Hinata made a very good point. It was true that at this point in time, having a new client might seem suspicious—never mind four new clients. Not only that, but they might not even be accepting missions. There was no telling what sort of protocols or procedures Kusagakure had. It wasn't like anyone had ever managed to successfully infiltrate that village before.

"In that case, I think just Hinata and I should go," Naruto said at last.

"What?" Kiba barked while Hinata squeaked. Shino remained silent, but his glasses did glint as the light from the fire reflected off of them.

"Hinata and I will infiltrate the village," Naruto repeated. "Meanwhile, you two will wait just outside of Kusa's tracking net with one of my kunai. Should a problem arise, you'll stab that kunai into a tree, and I'll hiraishin back with Hinata."

"But how will we know if something goes wrong?" asked Shino into the silence that resulted from Naruto's words.

Naruto smirked at him. "Trust me, if something goes wrong, you guys will definitely know it."

XXXXXXXXXX

It was late during the night when Naruto woke up, though he couldn't explain why right away. He sat up in his sleeping bag and looked around. Nothing seemed out of place—until he noticed that they were missing someone. Hinata wasn't there.

He panicked for a moment before calming down. There was no way Hinata could have been kidnapped. She wasn't a wallflower who would just let herself be taken without a fight, and he would've noticed if someone had tried coming into their camp. She was probably just going to the bathroom.

As he was about to lay down, Naruto realized that his initial assumption was wrong and that Hinata hadn't gone to the restroom. She was sitting over by the river. Her legs were curled into her chest, and her back was hunched. He wondered if she was nervous.

Naruto climbed out of his sleeping bag, stood up, and walked over to Hinata. He sat down next to her, which earned him a squeak.

"O-oh!" Hinata gasped in surprise as she held a hand to her chest. "N-Naruto-kun, what are you doing up?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Naruto responded. "Our mission starts early tomorrow morning, so everyone should be trying to get as much sleep as possible. Are you nervous about the mission?"

"Y-yes. Sort of."

"Sort of?" Naruto frowned. It didn't sound like Hinata was worried about the mission. Then perhaps… "Is it because you're going with me?"

Hinata had, at one point, had a crush on him. She had even confessed her love several months back and been rejected. Now she was going on a mission that kept them in close contact with each other, and soon they would be going to infiltrate a hidden village on their own. That must have been putting pressure on her.

"N-no! Not at all!" Hinata said, shaking her hands back and forth as though trying to deflect dozens of kunai with her eight trigrams technique. "I'm not worried about the two of us going on this mission. It's more like… I'm worried I won't be able to keep up with you."

Wouldn't be able what now? Not keep up? Naruto had no idea where she was getting this idea, though she must have had a reason. He remained silent, hoping that she would tell him what she was thinking.

"Y-you're so strong," Hinata eventually continued. "I don't know if you realize it, but ever since you came back from your training with Jiraiya, all of the genin from the Rookie Nine have been feeling inferior to you." Hinata poked her fingers together and looked away. "And, in all honesty, that makes me really worried. Because you're so strong, I'm afraid I won't be able to keep up with you, that I'll be a burden."

So that was it. This was his first time hearing about this. Naruto wouldn't deny that he was surprised, and in fact, he was pretty damn shocked. He knew that he was a lot stronger now than he had been when he was 12. He knew that he was probably the strongest ninja out of all the rookies who'd gone to the Chunin Exams together four years ago. At the same time, he hadn't really thought about how that would affect his friends.

Naruto looked at the tranquil waters of the river, unchanging as it smoothly flowed through the ravine. Small ripples spread out from the smooth rocks near the shore. Life was sort of like this river—except more violent because a bunch of brats kept throwing rocks into it, or because a ninja used earth ninjutsu to make stakes shoot out from the bottom.

Either way, if life was a river, then a ninja's life was the turbulent flow that happened to the river when shit was thrown into it. Him becoming so strong was one of those rocks being thrown into the life of his friends.

"I might be stronger than a lot of people, but that doesn't mean you're weak," Naruto said at last. "Do you remember the preliminaries of our Chunin Exams? Before then, you were always so timid. After standing up to Neji, you started to change, and now you've become really strong." He grinned at Hinata as she gaped at him with a stunned expression, her face the kind that made him think of someone who'd just been hit with a lightning jutsu. "I don't think you have to worry about slowing me down."

"T-thank you, Naruto-kun." Hinata looked away. Her cheeks were distinctly read.

Naruto chuckled and stood up. "You're welcome. Now, you should probably get some sleep. A ninja is at their best after a good night's rest."

"R-right!"

As he and Hinata crawled back into their respective sleeping bags, Naruto thought about what she had said, that he was strong. It was true that he had grown stronger. However, Naruto remembered how he had nearly died at Pain's hands, how he'd been unable to kill Madara. He might be strong, but…

I need to become a lot stronger than I am now.

Naruto went to sleep, thoughts of training, battle, and ramen on his mind.

XXXXXXXXXX

The next morning, Naruto and Hinata got ready for their infiltration mission, which meant changing themselves into someone else.

While the transformation jutsu was enough to sneak around normal villages, it wouldn't work in a ninja village. Most hidden villages had sensor ninja capable of detecting chakra emissions. They would easily detect the fluctuation in a person's chakra while they were under a henge. What's more, the henge was not a true transformation. A simple touch would dispel it, and while Naruto's transformation was different, Hinata's was not.

That was why Naruto had a clone apply makeup to him and Hinata. He had also brought out several different types of clothing, a couple of wigs, and even an ornate kago with golden designs of dragons. They were going to the village as nobles, so having several of his clones carry him and Hinata on the kago would help them look the part.

"Why do you have all that stuff in your scrolls?" asked Kiba, staring at the pile of various random objects that Naruto had pulled from his scroll.

"Because you never know when something might prove useful," Naruto said.

Kiba picked up a male g-string and twitched several times. "How is this useful?"

"I once used that to infiltrate a nightclub as a male stripper."

"Gah!" Kiba tossed the g-string away and, his face now green, glared at Naruto. "Tell me these things before I touch them!"

"If you don't want to touch something that's been in my ass, then just don't touch anything," Naruto replied mildly.

Kiba was about to come up with a retort when, unexpectedly, a snorting sound issued from Shino. Everyone, even the clones, turned to look at the normally stoic shinobi. Shino was hunched over and holding a hand to his ribs. He looked like he was in pain, but Naruto knew better.

"D-did you just laugh?" asked Kiba.

"I did not," Shino replied, trying to remain stoic.

"You did! You totally laughed at me! This isn't funny, man! I just touched something that's been in Naruto's crack!"

"Don't worry," Naruto quipped. "You aren't the only one who's touched stuff that has been in my butt crack."

"Shut up!"

The clones finished putting the makeup on. Naruto and Hinata stood up, already decked out in their new outfits.

Shaking his arms a bit, Naruto tried to get used to the feel and weight of his kimono. With its swirling designs and elaborate gold dragon motifs, his outfit screamed wealthy. His hakama pants had the same designs. He walked over to the pile of items that he had unsealed, his geta sandals clacking against the rocky ground, knelt down, and rummaged through the pile.

"Let's see… for me… I think this one would work."

Naruto pulled out a brown wig and a hair net. After using the net to keep his hair from sticking out, he put on the wig and stood up. Turning, he spread his arms as though presenting himself to an audience.

"Well, what do you guys think?"

"Whoa," Kiba muttered.

"What he said," Shino seconded.

Hinata clapped her hands together. "I-I don't even recognize you, Naruto-kun."

"Right?" Naruto grinned proudly. "Anyway, Hinata, come here for a moment. We need to choose which wig you'll be wearing."

"U-uh! Okay!"

Hinata stood up, the long sleeves of her silver furisode rustling and swaying. She smoothed out the wrinkles around her chest, which helped accentuate her lithe figure and shapely bust. The obi that she wore, a light purple with silver accents, sparkled ever so slightly as the sunlight hit it from different angles. She stumbled only once as she walked over. Naruto could tell she wasn't used to geta sandals.

Rummaging through his pile of items again, it took Naruto several tries to find something that he thought would look good on Hinata. It had to adequately disguise her. His immediate thought had been to make her a blonde, but he discarded it. Hinata didn't have the makings of a natural blonde. Brown also didn't work. Neither did red.

"Hm…"

Naruto stared into Hinata's eyes. She was wearing contacts right now. The Hyuuga eye was always distinctive because of its milky color and lack of pupils. Right now, the contacts changed her eyes from a milk-like purple to a darker amethyst with a pupil.

"W-what is it?" Hinata asked, trying everything in her power to hide her blush.

"I think I've got the perfect color." Naruto dug into the pile some more and began pulling objects out. Most of it was junk like training weights, rubber balls, pez dispensers, and jenga blocks. Those he tossed. "No… not it. That's not it. That's definitely not it. Nope. Nu-uh. Uh, no. Not it. No wa—ah! Here it is!"

Standing up, Naruto held out his hand. Resting on his palm was a light purple wig. It was short, not even shoulder length, and had a fringe in the front. While it shared the same color scheme as Hinata's hair, it was several shades darker and didn't have the same aesthetic. It should work.

"We'll have to knot your hair and put it into a net, but I think this would work well to disguise you," he said.

"I-if you really think so, Naruto-kun, then I'll wear it," Hinata muttered.

"That's the spirit!"

It didn't take Naruto long to place her hair in a knot. Hinata had some really silky hair. It reminded him of Koyuki, who had the softest hair out of all the women who were with him. He liked to run his hands through her hair, though he wouldn't do that to Hinata.

"There we go," Naruto said as he placed the hair net over her, making sure to tuck in the few remaining strands that escaped. "Put the wig on and let's see how it looks."

Hinata put the wig on. Naruto, Shino, and Kiba blinked at the same time. She really did look like another person entirely.

"Hm… if I hadn't been the one to apply her makeup and choose her clothing, I probably wouldn't recognize her," Naruto said.

Shino pushed his glasses up his nose. "Indeed. This does not look like Hinata at all."

"Nice!" Kiba gave Hinata a thumbs up.

Hinata just blushed.

"Okay!" Naruto clapped his hands. "I think we're about ready. Now I just need to seal this stuff away, make some clones, and then we can get this mission started."

XXXXXXXXXX

Naruto and Hinata rode on top of the large kago. Unlike normal kago, this one was made from peach wood. It was light yet durable, and it was plated in gold. He and Hinata were sitting on several thick cushions while four Naruto clones henged to look like brothers carried them. Fortunately, his clones used the same type of transformation as him. No sensor ninja would detect any chakra emissions or fluctuations.

They were plodding along a forest with no road, which made it kind of difficult for the clones to carry the kago. The floor was uneven so they kept slipping. This naturally caused Naruto and Hinata to lose their balance and fall into each other. Naruto had been forced to wrap his arms around Hinata, but all that did was make her blush, despite how it fits in with their disguise.

"A-are you sure this is necessary?" Hinata asked.

"Positive," Naruto said. "We can't just go into a hidden village as normal civilians. With the Elemental Nations in a state of war, there's no way a village that has remained hidden like Kusa would ever allow a couple of regular people to know of their location. Only someone with a high standing would ever be told. Hence our disguise."

"I-I guess that's true," Hinata murmured.

"Right. That's why I came up with our roles. If we go there as nobles that are friends with the noble Tanaki, then our chances of keeping suspicion off us goes up."

"I-I see." Hinata remained silent for a second. Then she looked at him, and though her cheeks remained red, her eyes were determined. "T-then what should I be doing?"

"Just pretend you're my wife."

"W-w-w-wife?!"

"Don't start blushing now," Naruto admonished. "This is no time to be self-conscious. We have to look like a convincing couple or this won't work."

"T-then I should, um, I should…"

Naruto almost rolled his eyes, though he stopped himself because he knew Hinata wasn't to blame. She had never dated anyone. She was not engaged. She had probably never even kissed yet. To expect her to act like a wife, especially to the guy who rejected her, was asking for a lot.

However, this war depended on their act. It needed to be convincing.

Naruto leaned against the pillows and pulled Hinata against him so her head was lying on his chest, and her body was resting between his legs. Hinata squeaked, but then she put a hand on his chest and the tension slowly eased out of her shoulders.

"Here. Just remain calm. If you can maintain your poise and follow my lead, everything will work out."

Hinata didn't say anything, but she did nod against his chest. Naruto sighed. He needed to keep everyone's eyes on him, keep them from observing Hinata too closely. Everything was going to depend on his performance.

No pressure.

It wasn't long before they came out of the forest and into a large glade with incredibly long grass that was nearly as tall as Naruto. The clones waded into the grass. Up ahead lay Kusagakure, the hidden grass village.

Kusa was not like Konoha. While Konoha looked like a really big city with a lot of trees, Kusa looked like a decently sized village. It wasn't just that it was smaller. There was no wall surrounding it, so Naruto had a perfect glimpse of all the buildings. They were small huts made of wood and grass, easy to take down and rebuild. The huts were also made of organic substances that blended in with their surroundings. Naruto imagined that, should he peer at this village with a bird's eye view, he probably wouldn't have seen anything.

Naruto relaxed against the pillow and Hinata relaxed against him as the clones took them closer to the village. He couldn't sense any movement aside from his clones. That didn't surprise him. Kusagakure was the "hidden grass village" for a reason. Even if he couldn't detect their movement, Naruto knew, instinctively, that there were several ninjas tailing them.

"Hinata, can you see how many people are surrounding us?"

Because they were supposed to be a "married noble couple" and Hinata didn't want anyone seeing her eyes, she pressed her face against his chest as though basking in his scent. Naruto did his best to hide her temples from view as she used the Byakugan. The veins that bulged from there when the Byakugan was activated would give away who she was.

"There are six ninjas to our left and right, and three behind us," she informed him.

"So, nine in total," Naruto murmured. "If they were suspicious of us, there would be more ninja surrounding us. Okay, let's keep up the charade."

They left the grass and came upon clear land. Naruto realized that it was a burn zone. It seemed even the grass ninja, masters at traveling through and hiding in the grass like this, were wary of letting it encroach upon their village. The clones carried them all the way to the Kusagakure. They were stopped by a pair of ninja before they could enter.

"Hold it right there, you two," a woman dressed in a black battle kimono said. The chain mesh underneath her shirt jingled as she stopped in front of them. She had black hair and black eyes, and her skin was so pale it could almost be considered ghostly. "State your business and how you found this place along with the password."

"The password is Red Dawn," Naruto said. The woman twitched as though surprised. He continued. "We're here because we wanted to hire Kusa for a mission. Your village was suggested to us by Tanaki Goshuren."

"Tanaki…" the kunoichi scowled, and, for just a moment, Naruto thought he saw irritation in the woman's eyes. Then she took a deep breath and held it for a second before sighing. "Follow me, erm…"

"My name is Muroku Kuroko," Naruto introduced himself. "This is my wife, Ekine."

"And those four carrying you?"

"Mere slaves I bought on the market several years back." Naruto waved a dismissive hand. "Pay them no mind."

The kunoichi's frown deepened, but she turned around and gestured to them. "Fine. Follow me."

Naruto's four clones grunted as they moved after the woman. As they entered the village, Naruto realized that it was a lot larger than he had initially estimated. From far away, all he could see were the few buildings in the front. Traveling through the dirt road, Naruto could see that the village was a lot longer than it was wide. Hundreds of buildings lay sprawled before them. All of them were made of wood and straw and grass, cobbled together from nature. They didn't look comfortable, but he knew that was a matter of aesthetics.

They soon reached a large building. This one, unlike the others, did not look natural. It was still made of wood, but where the others looked like a bunch of logs piled on top of each other, this one looked more man-made. The walls were smooth and glossy. Even the door looked more opulent than all of the other entrances he had passed.

"Kusakage-sama." The woman knocked on the door. "You have guests who wish to hire our village."

There was a pause. Then… "Send them in."

"Yes, master." The woman turned to them and glared at the two of them. "You may go in. However, do not forget that I won't hesitate to cut you down if you try to harm my master in any way."

Naruto leaped off the kago, and then extended his hand for Hinata to take. Her smaller fingers coiled around his larger hand. Naruto helped her off the kago, and together, they walked inside of the building that supposedly held the leader of this village.

The room they stepped into was quite spartan, but it wasn't barren. There was no carpet. Wooden panels squeaked beneath their feet. Portraits hung from the walls, just a few of them. Naruto believed they were the previous leaders of this village. Most of them were old men around the same age that Hiruzen Sarutobi had been before his death. This room also had a small cot, which sat in the corner of the room.

Tearing his attention away from the portraits, Naruto looked toward the desk sitting on the opposite side of the room. An old man sat behind the desk. His brown hair flecked with streaks of gray. He had wrinkles around his mouth and eyes. He was wearing plain brown robes, but hidden underneath them glinted a shiny chest plate. The old man was taking notes, though he noticed them right away, at least enough to speak.

"Welcome, Namikaze Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata," he said. Naruto suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. "I'd congratulate you on finding my village, but you won't be alive for much longer, so I'll save my breath."

Naruto and Hinata both tensed as a dozen shinobi appeared from the shadows. Because he had been actively suppressing his chakra to avoid detection, Naruto hadn't been able to sense them. He suspected the only reason they hadn't outright attacked was that they were wary. A Hyuuga and the son of the Yondaime Hokage were not people that anyone could just take on. Even a surprise attack was unlikely to work, especially thanks to the Hyuuga's Byakugan.

"How did you know who we were?" Naruto asked as he released his hold on his carefully suppressed reserves of chakra. It flowed through him, circulating along his chakra pathways, enhancing his body.

The Kusa leader studied him for a moment as though debating on what to say. In the end, he answered Naruto's question. "Pain-sama knew that you would begin to try and find our hidden villages at some point. Unlike Konoha, we are true hidden villages, and thus you cannot defeat us unless you can find us. That was why we laid several traps to lure you all here. Had it not been our village, then another village would have been the one to lead you into the jaws of death."

So that was it. All of the minor ninja villages had purposefully planted information in places that were easily accessible for the purpose of leading him into an ambush. His next question would have been how they knew he would show up, but he already knew the answer. One does not keep a powerful shinobi like him in reserve. He also didn't want to be the kind of person who sat in the back. Pain must have known this as well.

Naruto eyed the shinobi surrounding them. There were twelve. Each of them wore black kimono-like battle garments, a mesh suit underneath, and a black obi tied into a bow knot around their waists. Some carried kunai, a few carried katanas. One of them even had a sickle.

"Oh," the Kusa leader said again, "and if you're thinking of calling those two friends of yours, do not bother. They are already being taken care of."

XXXXXXXXXX

Kiba and Shino were hidden several kilometers from Kusagakure. While Shino remained calm and collected, Kiba looked like he was about the start pacing. The Inuzuka clan heir was biting his thumb, brows furrowed as almost unnoticeable growls escaped from his throat.

Shino almost sighed.

Their job was to wait for Naruto and Hinata to return from their intelligence-gathering mission, or, in the event that they ran into trouble, extract the two after receiving the "signal." Shino didn't know what the signal was, but Naruto had said that he would know it when he saw it. He took that to mean Naruto would use a flashy raiton jutsu or something along those lines.

Extraction would be easy if it became necessary. Shino and Kiba didn't even need to move from where they were. All they had to do was stab Naruto's Hiraishin kunai into a tree, and Naruto would instantly appear before them with Hinata.

As these thoughts went through his head, Shino suddenly stiffened as several of the kikaichu that he had used to set a perimeter around them alerted him to multiple presences closing in on their location.

"Kiba."

"I smell them."

The two leaped away from each other. Seconds later, the area where they had been standing suddenly became entangled in vines and roots that sprouted from the ground. Shino pointed his hands at the vines. Hundreds of Kikaichu swarmed out from his sleeves, latched onto the vines, and consumed the chakra being used to fuel them.

As he landed on the ground, he directed his arm toward the area where one of his kikaichu told him someone was hiding. Bugs once again burst from his sleeves. They flew over to the chakra signature his kikaichu sensed, but they didn't get very far because, barely a second later, the entire swarm was cut down in several flashes of light. While this sucked (Shino hated it when his kikaichu died), it did mean that his attacker had to reveal themselves.

She stood before him, clad in a dark kimono that only went to mid-thigh. Fishnet weave was hidden beneath the black outfit, which was tied shut with a black obi. Brown hair tied into a ponytail that trailed down her back all the way to her feet swayed with every motion she made. A kunai was held with a reverse grip in each hand.

A little way over, Kiba was already fighting with his opponent, a male who looked to be made entirely of muscle. Their fight was already getting pretty physical. Kiba and Akamaru hadn't used their Getsuga yet, but Shino figured it was only a matter of time. His fellow shinobi had never been the patient type.

"I see." Shino pushed his sunglasses up his nose and stared at his opponent. "You knew we were here all along, didn't you? I thought it was unusual how information about your village had been so easily acquired. This is your trap."

"If you know that, it should make things easier on you," the woman said. "Give up now and I'll make your death painless."

"I apologize, but the one who dies this day will not be me." Bugs flew from his sleeves and gathered around him, a whirling mass of black. At the same time, hundreds of bugs sprang up from the ground and latched onto the kunoichi, who yelped in surprise. "Give up now, or my bugs will drain you of all your chakra."

Despite what Shino said, the woman didn't seem to have much interest in giving up. Her body shifted, quickly turning green and sinking to the ground as what he thought was a person became several vines looped together. This must be some kind of Kusa replacement technique, or maybe a grass clone? He didn't know much about Kusa's jutsu. They, like other hidden villages, zealously guarded their specialized techniques.

Shino clicked his tongue.

He should have known this fight wouldn't be that easy.

XXXXXXXXXX

Naruto was confused. He eyed the people surrounding him and Hinata, who was standing back to back with him, wondering if everyone here had lost their minds. They knew who he was, which meant they must also know of his abilities. He might not be able to take down every ninja in this village. Even so, he was pretty sure he could decimate at least half of this village on his own before they took him down.

"I'd like to give all of you one chance to back down," Naruto said. "If you don't, then you have to know that this place is going to become a bloodbath."

"I'm sure it will," the Kusa leader said. "You aren't an opponent that I'd normally risk fighting in an upfront confrontation. Fortunately, we don't need to kill you. We only need to stall for time."

What does that mean?

Without knowing what their goal was, Naruto decided that the best thing he could do was defeat everyone there and escape with Hinata. The kunai he had left with Kiba and Shino hadn't been stabbed into the ground yet. They were probably busy fighting. He would need to make an escape route on his own.

"Fine then." Naruto moved his hands into his infamous cross seal. "If this is how you want to do things, then I won't hold back. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Naruto didn't often create mass shadow clones and use them as mobs anymore, partially because it just wasted chakra, but it was also because such tactics couldn't defeat a stronger opponent. In this instance, however, it was fine. He wasn't facing one strong adversary. It was him and Hinata against an entire village. For this, shadow clones were perfect.

The large cloud of smoke that enveloped the room was quickly blown away when fifty Narutos unleashed a single wind jutsu at the same time.

"Fuuton: Daitoppa!"

Every Naruto sucked in a deep breath and expelled a devastating stream of wind from their mouths. The attack tore apart the ground. Ninjas were lifted off their feet and sent sailing. Walls exploded and the ceiling was blown away. Only Naruto and Hinata, who stood in the center of the Naruto clones' formation, were left undisturbed.

At least, that was his first assumption. When several ninjas suddenly leaped from underneath the ground, he realized he was wrong. They must have used the Moguragakure no Jutsu just before his clones unleashed their Daitoppa.

"Hinata!" he called.

"On it!"

Hinata straightened her back and, with a grace that belied her strength, began to move her arms in intricate and seemingly random patterns. Chakra emitted from her hand. The blue light from her chakra created streaks through the air. These streaks crissed and crossed, forming into a net that surrounded her on all sides.

"Shugohakke Rokujūyon Shō!"

While Hinata created her impenetrable weave, Naruto leaped into the air. He soared far above everyone's head. To reach even higher heights, he sent wind chakra to the bottom of his feet, which acted as propulsion and sent him higher.

Down below, a number of grass-based ninjutsu tried to attack Hinata, but they were all cut down, sliced into oblivion by the paper-thin streaks of chakra being emitted from Hinata's palms. This, Naruto knew, was one of her original techniques.

I can't let her do all the work.

Pulling a scroll from a pouch strapped to his back, Naruto quickly unfurled it, bit his thumb, and smeared the blood across a seal inked onto the parchment. The moment he did, several dozen tri-pronged kunai descended from the sky. They impaled the ground for nearly a kilometer out.

Kusagakure was about 10 square kilometers long and 5 wide. The area where his kunai landed was not a significant portion of the hidden village. That said…

This should be enough.

Connected to his kunai via the seal, Naruto quickly activated the hiraishin.

The Kusa forces didn't know what had hit them.

Naruto attacked faster than anyone could blink, faster than human thought or even the speed of light. He appeared next to every ninja within his kunais' radius and dealt with them. A hit to the back. A kunai to thighs. A low powered down Rasengan to the chest. His blows were not lethal. Killing them was not his objective this time. These people were just pawns being used by Pain to wage war. They weren't innocent, but killing them would only bring unnecessary hatred to the world. As someone who shared his sensei's dream, Naruto didn't want this war to end with more countries steeped in hate.

Several hundred Kusa ninja lay on the ground by the time he was done. Their groans of pain echoed across the village. All of them were hurt but alive… for now. That could change depending on this village's leader.

Naruto turned to the village leader, whose wide eyes were staring at the devastation that had been wrought in this part of his village. He eyed the bodies, sweat dripping from his face. Sensing the fear that radiated from him, Naruto knew, without a doubt, that this was his only chance to seek a peaceful… ish, resolution.

"Do you still think you can win?" Naruto asked. He spread his arms to indicate the many bodies lying around him. "Do you really want to keep fighting me? If you do, this is what the end result will be."

"H-how…" the Kusa ninja choked. "How is it that you've defeated so many of my ninja?! W-what kind of monster are you?!"

"The kind who is willing to let you all live if you listen." Naruto didn't let the words bother him. He had been called a monster many times in the past. "Let us leave your village, and we will let you go. Refuse to let us leave, and I'll make sure that my next attack is lethal."

Some, like Danzo, would have called Naruto soft for giving his enemy a choice like this. Naruto didn't agree. Jiraiya wouldn't either. If nothing else, by giving this man a choice, he was allowing the other side to spare themselves from more bloodshed.

The Kusa leader stared at Naruto. He stared long and hard and with eyes that reminded Naruto of a scared kitten. Finally, at long last, the man sighed, his shoulders dropping.

"You… you can leave. We won't fight you anymore."

Naruto nodded. "That's a good choice."

Sadly, before Naruto could leave, a voice spoke up from above.

"No, I'm afraid that you will not be leaving here this day."

Naruto looked up to seen Pain, or rather, Yahiko's reanimated body, floating above the village. His eyes were locked firmly onto Naruto. The sense of triumph seen in those eyes disturbed him, but what was more disturbing was the action Pain was taking.

His hands were aimed at the village.

"This is where you die. Shinra Tensei."

XXXXXXXXXX

Kiba faced off against his opponent the same way that he always did, with brash impulsiveness.

"Let's go, Akamaru!"

"Arf!"

They rushed forward in tandem, using the Jujin Bunshin to attack together. Each attack launched was done with the intent to kill or cause grievous harm. A claw slash to the throat. An attempt at tearing out the jugular. Trying to pierce the chest with a clawed jab.

None of their attacks worked. The man before them was like a rock. Each attack they launched glanced off their opponent's body. Large, imposing, his body had long since turned a dark gray, just like a boulder. Yet even boulders were weaker than this. Kiba would've already destroyed him if his body had the durability of granite.

His chakra must be powerful. Kiba narrowed his eyes. In that case.

"Come on, Akamaru. It's time to finish this! Gatsuga!"

Launching themselves off the ground, Kiba and Akamaru began spinning at a rate so insane they looked like a pair of miniature tornadoes. They zeroed in on their opponent. The man did not move. He took their attacks head-on, and though he skidded across the ground from the power behind their two-pronged attack, he did not keel over.

Let's do this again!

The Gatsuga was a technique that allowed Kiba and Akamaru to attack multiple times. Each time they hit the ground, they bounded off again and attacked from a different angle. They also didn't remain one-dimensional. Kiba would use the trees as springboards, ignoring the way they exploded as he shot off of them like a cannonball. He drilled into the ninja he was facing over and over again.

His opponent still didn't keel over. The only sign of damage was his shredded clothes and the bruises that covered the places where Kiba or Akamaru had hit him multiple times.

It seems like my attacks can do damage, but that strange shell of his is incredibly hard. To defeat him, Akamaru and I will have to drill him in the same spot over and over again.

This was turning into a pain.

"You should give up, boy," the large man said. "My Iwa no Yoroi is impossible for a regular ninja to break through."

"Yeah, yeah. Keep telling yourself that. Ready, Akamaru?"

"Arf!"

Kiba popped a pill into his mouth, crunched, then swallowed. He then tossed Akamaru a pill, which his dog caught in its mouth. The pills were nothing special. It was just a regular soldier's pill. However, regular or not, the temporary boost in power it granted would be useful.

"Shikyaku no Jutsu!"

Crouching down on all fours, Kiba felt his hackles raise. His senses became unbelievably acute. He could hear the rustling of the trees, to the point where he could count the number of individual rustles. The minute shifts in air currents were easily felt. Beneath his hands, he could feel the vibrations in the earth from Shino's battle meters away and also from the numerous animals that were hiding around him. Even his opponent's breath could be felt, heard, and smelled—and boy did his breath smell bad.

"What sort of technique is this?" asked the enemy shinobi. "Have you become a dog? Fine, then, dog. Why don't we play fetch!"

The Kusa ninja wrapped his arms around a tree, and, with a grunt of effort, tore the tree out of the ground, roots and all. He then tossed the tree at Kiba. Of course, even though the tree was moving at an impressive speed, for the ferally enhanced Kiba, it was easy to dodge. He and Akamaru leaped away from each other. The tree slammed into another tree and exploded. They ignored the scene and rushed forward.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

A shadow clone appeared next to Kiba. Akamaru quickly bounded back over to him. Then all three of them performed hand seals and combined.

"Jinjū Kongō Henge — Santōrō"

Smoke erupted from the three of them, covering the entire field. Kiba groaned in discomfort as he felt his body stretch and elongate and combine with Akamaru and his clone. Bones popped with a crack, muscles tore and reformed. This wasn't the henge, a simple illusory transformation. This was something else entirely.

Before the smoke could blow away, Kiba, who was in control of their combined bodies, forced them into a spin. He curled into a ball and rolled along the ground at speeds that were even faster than the Gatsuga.

"Ooiga Gatenga!"

He slammed into his opponent, crushing the man underneath the rotating force of his spin. Despite this, the man hadn't been felled. He had grabbed onto them. His arms were being shredded apart as he tried to stop their fierce rolling. Kiba could feel blood caking his skin. His vision was painted with a red haze as the crimson liquid splattered against the ground. A loud scream erupted from his mouth as the enemy shinobi tried to push Kiba back, but that was impossible. Kiba had combined with Akamaru and his shadow clone. This man didn't have the strength required for such a task.

"ORYA!"

With one final push, Kiba increased the speed and power of his roll. Several loud crunches! echoed through the clearing. Gurgled screaming came from underneath them. Then Kiba was rolling past the man, shattering a tree that he slammed into before he could stop.

White smoke engulfed the area. Kiba disengaged the jutsu, separating himself, Akamaru, and his clone. While the clone dispelled, Akamaru barked and followed him at a trot as he walked over to the downed ninja.

The man was quite dead, obvious enough from the wide-eyed death stare and the fact that he wasn't breathing. His skin had returned to its normal color. Fragments of his ribs jutted from his body, blood dripping from them.

"I see you took care of your opponent," Shino said as he approached them.

Kiba looked up. "Yeah. You took care of yours as well?"

"Of course." Pushing his glasses up his nose, Shino looked at the dead ninja that Kiba had faced. "Unlike you, however, I left mine alive."

"We're a ninja." Kiba shrugged. "Killing is our job."

"True enough. I would have normally killed her, but Naruto wishes to end this war with as little bloodshed as possible." Shino cocked his head to the side. "He has become quite the capable ninja, but he's still Naruto at heart."

Kiba placed his hands behind his head and looked at the sky. "Heh, yeah. That damn Naruto keeps on getting stronger, but just you wait. One of these days, I'll surpass him and become Hokage."

"Keep telling yourself that."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

XXXXXXXXXX

Several kilometers outside of Kusagakure, Naruto fell to his knees and vomited blood. His chest heaved as a thousand stakes pierced his insides, generating a sharp pain with every breath.

He had just used the Hiraishin to transport over 2,000 people in a single instant. The Hiraishin worked on the principles of chakra consumption, which meant that the amount of chakra required to activate the jutsu increased based on the length he was traveling and a number of people being transported.

Normally, a kilometer was nothing for Naruto, whose maximum range was 165 kilometers. However, he had just transported over 2,000 people. Even Naruto, a chakra monster in his own right, couldn't use the Hiraishin to move that many people and not suffer the consequences.

Still, if I hadn't tossed that kunai and used this jutsu at the last second, everyone would have been…

"M-my village…" The Kusagakure leader stared at the remains of Kusa in horror.

Kusagakure was gone. The village that had once traveled across the country was no more. Now it was just a massive crater surrounded by rubble.

Shinra Tensei…

That move must have been the same one that destroyed Kumogakure. From a glance, Naruto could easily determine that it ran along with the same principles of the Hiraishin. It became more powerful when more chakra was used. Who knew such a powerful technique existed.

"H-Hinata…" Naruto rasped.

"N-Naruto-kun!" Hinata was kneeling by his side the moment he called her. Her eyes were quite wide as she stared at the blood gushing from his mouth. "A-are you all right? You're bleeding!"

"I need you to get everyone out of here," Naruto said. He stood up with a groan. It hurt even doing that. It was like a thousand icy needles stabbing into his legs. "I can't afford to retreat now. I've overused the Hiraishin, so I need you to gather these people and escort them away from here."

"But—" Hinata tried to interject.

"You!" Naruto pointed at the Kusa leader. "Follow Hinata out of here. She'll take you somewhere safe."

The man stared at him. "Why are you helping us?"

"Because I didn't save your asses just so you could die!" Naruto barked. "Now hurry up and leave!"

Despite how shitty he must have looked right then, what with the blood and everything, no one disobeyed his orders. Even Hinata only glanced at him once before ushering everyone away. Naruto watched them leave before turning his head toward the sky.

He floated there, his black cloak with red clouds flapping in the wind. Purple eyes with concentric rings stared down at him like a god looking at a bug. Naruto clicked his tongue at the sense of superiority coming from this man.

"Nagato."

"I've come to claim the Kyuubi," Nagato said.

"Is that so?" Naruto looked around and realized with a faint sense of worry that he was surrounded. All five of Pain's other paths were surrounding him. Asura. Human. Animal. Preta. Naraka. "I see you're going all out for this."

Pain descending, landing on the ground with the lightness of a feather. He looked at his paths. Then he looked back at Naruto.

"Against such a strong opponent, I cannot afford to go easy."

"Is that how it is…"

Naruto slid his feet apart, adopting a slightly wider stance than normal.

"If that's how you feel…"

He didn't put his hands in a guard. Instead, he crossed his arms in front of him and curled his fingers inward as though they were claws.

"Then I guess, I will also have to go all out…"

With little thought, the seal that separated him from Kurama turned, and Namikaze Naruto unleashed the full power contained within the seal.

XXXXXXXXXX

Shino and Kiba were surprised when, after traveling toward Kusa, they instead found Hinata leading several thousand people away from Kusagakure. There was a man with her. He was old and wearing ninja garb like those of the Kusa ninjas they had fought. Actually, it looked like there were several ninjas with her. That just made them more confused.

"H-Hinata, what's going on here?" asked Kiba.

"N-Naruto-kun," Hinata started, "he… he's fighting against someone really strong! That person leveled the entire village with a single jutsu!"

"What?!" Kiba shouted.

"It must be the same person who destroyed Kumo," Shino said. "I believe his name was Pain."

This… was not good. Naruto was powerful, easily one of the most powerful ninjas in their forces, but Pain had destroyed one of the five most powerful ninja villages by himself. Shino believed in Naruto's strength. That said, even Naruto would be hard-pressed to defeat an opponent like that on his own.

"Then let's go save that blockhead!" Kiba said, he and Akamaru already preparing to rush off.

"Absolutely not!" Shino suddenly snapped.

"Bwa?" Kiba gave Shino a dumb look. "B-but Shino! You heard what Hinata said! Naruto is—"

"Stronger than all three of us put together," Shino responded calmly. "What do you think you can do against someone like Pain that Naruto can't?"

"Well, that's—"

"All you'd be doing is getting in the way."

Kiba's shoulders slumped. "Y-you don't have to put it like that…"

XXXXXXXXXX

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Saliva dripped from the jaws of three different heads. Muscular legs flexed as massive claws tore apart the earth. Midnight fur, blacker than anything Naruto had ever seen, glimmered with a strange glossiness that made him think of slick blood. As Naruto stared down the giant three-headed dog, he wondered about the kind of karma he must have incurred to face such a beast. The dog howled as it pounced on him.

Naruto split it in half with a single blade of wind. He already knew that this creature split apart when it was hit. Several thousand more wind blades erupted in front of Naruto, cutting and slicing, splitting apart the air and the dog summons. To add insult to injury, Naruto further infused his wind blades with lightning chakra.

The dog summons disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Before he could revel in his victory, the Asura Path pulled out his left arm, revealing a long metal wire with several strange objects attached to it. When those objects launched from its arm and flew at him, Naruto realized they were projectiles.

With his golden shroud of chakra covering him, with Kurama's power flowing through him, Naruto raced ahead of the projectiles. That was when they surprised him. The projectiles didn't just hit the ground. They followed him, chasing after him like Akamaru chased a ball when playing fetch. Thanks to his powers, he easily kept ahead of them, but he couldn't get them off his tail.

I need to do something.

"Why not make them explode?"

"Good idea. Thanks, fox."

"Whatever."

Spinning around, Naruto created two arms that erupted from his back. He formed a Rasengan in both and slammed them into the first projectile.

The results were shocking.

Naruto winced as the projectiles exploded in a violent spray of luminescent fire. Heat washed over his face. The smoke made him wince. He could practically feel the heat singing his skin, burning off the follicles of hair on his arms.

What kind of projectile explodes like this?

He was probably better of not thinking about it, and besides, it wasn't like he had time to think about it. Naruto hadn't noticed it before, but while he'd been fighting those projectiles, the Deva Path, Yahiko, had been aiming right at him.

"Bansho Ten'in."

Naruto felt something tug him toward the Deva Path. He was lifted off his feet and flew forward, his stomach-churning. The world around him blurred. Fortunately, he was pretty used to high-speed movement.

So, this is the Deva Path's attraction power.

Naruto already knew how to deal with this.

He made six hands extend from his cloak. They flew toward Pain, though they never reached him before the Preta Path leaped in front of the Deva Path, arms extended. Naruto cut the chakra before the Preta Path could absorb it. He then shot forward with wind chakra blasting from his feet, appeared in front of the Preta Path, shut off his cloak, and drilled it with a powerful punch.

There was no chakra involved. It was just a physical attack. However, it was specifically because the attack was nothing more than brute strength that it did so well. The Preta Path broke. Naruto felt its chest cave in, bones snapping with a sickeningly wet cracking sound. As the Preta Path fell to the ground, Naruto reactivated the cloak and tried to attack the Deva Path.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Damn it!

Naruto leaped into the air as a large bird with a giant beak tried impaling him. He extended another claw, channeled his chakra to create a Rasengan, and then channeled even more to make a bigger Rasengan. Before the bird had time to move further than fifteen feet away, Naruto slammed the Rasengan into. A massive explosion lit the sky. Naruto was pushed higher into the air. The bird blew up in the explosion.

As he ascended into the sky, Naruto saw Deva soaring toward him. Using Kurama's power, Naruto created a large wall of chakra behind him, spun around so his feet hit the wall, and used it as a springboard. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that Deva was just a distraction until several projectiles slammed into his side and exploded. He cried out and swerved off course. By that point, Deva was above him and already prepared to use a jutsu.

"Shinra Tensei."

Naruto had no idea how powerful this attack would be. He'd already learned that the Shinra Tensei varied in power based on the amount of chakra used. It could simply push someone away, but it could also destroy an entire village. Knowing this, Naruto used the speed granted by Kurama's chakra shroud to avoid the attack.

Rather than leaping away, he leaped up. Shinra Tensei was an attack that expanded its radius the further it traveled. That was why Pain needed to float high above a village to destroy it. Otherwise, it wouldn't become large enough.

With his chakra shroud, Naruto easily outpaced the jutsu. He appeared in the sky seconds before a massive crater, not quite the size of the one that destroyed Kusa but easily several dozen meters wide appeared on the earth.

Naruto wanted to attack Deva. His initial plan was to destroy the Deva path now, clearly the most powerful of them, but before he could, a loud whine filled the air. Naruto turned his head. A dozen projectiles were coming his way.

Damn it!

Gnashing his teeth together, Naruto propelled himself through the air with his chakra. The projectiles followed. They stuck to him like glue. He weaved and juked and rolled and dove, but nothing worked.

I need to destroy them.

He turned around and faced the projectiles. His plan was to destroy them with wind blades.

"Shinra Tensei!"

What?!

Naruto cried out as something slammed into his back, pushing him forward, directly into the path of the projectiles. His gums flapped as he hurtled across the air. He could see the projectiles clearly now. They looked like small ovals made of metal; they were like nothing he'd ever seen.

I need to…

He knew what he needed to do. However, actually doing it was difficult when he was speeding through the air like a freaking comet. With a snarl on his face, Naruto gathered chakra to create several clawed hands, nine in total, which he used to cover himself from head to toe.

The projectiles impacted against his claws, and Naruto winced as he was jostled inside of the barrier, but he didn't get hurt. The explosions ceased. Knowing that he had less than a second to act, Naruto decided on a course of action.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Naruto created twelve clones. Each one had the same golden shroud as him. Since that was the case, it should mean they were also indistinguishable and had comparative power to him as well.

Eleven of them split into twos and went after their chosen target. The twelfth clone disappeared into the distance. Naruto and the clone that he had teamed up with went after the most dangerous path: the Naraka Path. Because it had the ability to restore the broken bodies of the other paths, it currently presented the largest threat. If he wanted to defeat Pain, or at least escape, then he needed to take care of that one first.

The clone charged on ahead while Naruto extended all nine of his available chakra claws. He created a Rasenshuriken on each one, and then, while Naraka was distracted by his clone, he slammed all nine of them into the path.

A massive explosion sent Naruto sailing backward. He grimaced as dirt, twigs, and rocks pummeled him. Up ahead, a giant dome of swirling energy rained destruction upon everything. It expanded, tearing at the ground, decimating the area. The wind howled as though it was a beast crying out to the heavens. When the attack finally died down, a crater that was at least fifty meters wide filled his vision.

Well… that was a lot more powerful than I had expected it to me.

No one was coming up to fight him, so Naruto used this small interlude in the battle to observe his surroundings. It looked like his attack had taken out all of his clones. He couldn't see them anymore. There were also only three of Pain's paths left. Deva was still flying above him. Preta was standing on a small island inside of the crater. It looked like Preta's chakra absorption ability had saved it. Human was also present, though that path was lying on the ground and struggling to stand up. The other three paths were nowhere to be seen.

"You are far more dangerous than I could have imagined," Deva said suddenly. "I had not realized you had mastered Kyuubi's chakra to this extent. You are indeed a pupil of Jiraiya's."

"Aw, stop it. You're gonna make me blush," Naruto said dryly. "It looks like the tables have turned Pain. Now that our situation has come to this, there's no way I'm letting you go."

"We'll see," was all Pain said.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

The battle started up again. Naruto encased himself once more in his chakra shroud and summoned ten clones. While the clones immediately split in half and attacked either Deva or Preta, Naruto rushed over to the Human Path, which had just now stood to its feet.

"Rasengan Barrage!"

Six chakra claws extended from his back, each one forming a Rasengan that he shoved into the Human Path's back. No explosion went up this time. However, the Human Path was shredded apart. Its body tore like wet paper, limbs flying everywhere as blood spewed from the resulting wounds. With Naraka dead, this path would not be restored ever again.

Naruto surveyed the other two battles really quickly. Deva was still duking it out with two of the five clones he had created. They wouldn't last much longer. Preta had already finished his. It made sense. His clones were just chakra constructs, which would be useless against Preta's chakra absorption ability.

I need to deal with Preta first.

That absorption ability was not just annoying; it was the second most troublesome of Pain's powers. With the ability to absorb chakra, no jutsu would work on it. What's more, it could negate any attack that he delivered to the other paths.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

With that in mind, Naruto created one clone. As smoke exploded all around him, engulfing him and the clones, Naruto created another clone, dropped his cloak, and then transformed himself to look like a Rasenshuriken. The two clones already knew what to do. They lifted him up and, pretending that he was a Rasenshuriken, acted like they were molding chakra around him. Then they tossed him at Preta, who stood there and raised both hands as though preparing to absorb him.

"Shinra Tensei."

"Urk!"

Naruto couldn't even cry out as a powerful force slammed into him, smashing him against the ground, which cracked underneath him. He felt the sickening snap of several bones breaking. It felt like his ribcage had caved in. He tasted blood on his lips, coppery and gross. The pressure eased up, and Naruto, realizing that he was in trouble, activated his shroud again.

A hand grabbed his leg. The shroud disappeared. Twisting his head, Naruto looked at his leg to see Preta grabbing onto him.

Oh… this is sucks.

Letting go of Kurama's chakra, Naruto kicked the hand holding his leg, forcing Preta to let go. Pushing through the pain, he pushed himself onto his hands and knees and kicked at Preta's head. It missed. Preta had already moved out of his range.

An unsettling tap echoed behind him. Naruto looked back to see Deva standing on his other side. Now with Preta in front and Deva in back, he was surrounded, trapped, just like a mouse caught between the paws of a cat.

Naruto knew that he was in a bind. If he activated his chakra shroud, then Preta would just absorb it, but if he didn't, then he wouldn't have the strength to fight Deva. Damn it. If only that last clone he had created several minutes ago would hurry up and—

—a flicker went off in his mind, almost like the metaphorical light bulb, except with this flicker came numerous images that were not his own.

His clone had just been dispelled.

Naruto felt the power rush into him immediately after the clone ceased to exist. While his bones didn't mend, his body felt strong, powerful, as if he could take on the entire world with just his fists. He couldn't see the miraculous transformation that his body underwent, but he knew that, should he look into a mirror, his eyes would have had the orange pigment surrounding them followed by the golden bar-like pupils of a toad.

Sage Mode had just been activated.

All right. Now, this is what I'm talking about.

"This battle is far from over, Pain." Naruto slid into a new fighting stance, feet spread wide, hands up in a standard guard position near his face. A grin twisted his lips, feral and competitive. "In fact, this party is just getting started.

XXXXXXXXXX

Hinata didn't know how far they had walked anymore; she had completely lost her sense of time and direction. It was a good thing the Kusa leader, who she now knew went by the name Ikaruga, knew the lay of this land perfectly. He was the one leading them now.

"How much further should we go?" asked Kiba. He and Shino were walking alongside her.

"I-I don't know," Hinata said. "We should be far enough away from the battle that we wouldn't bother Naruto-kun, but…"

"We should inform Hokage-sama about what's happening," Shino said.

"How are we going to do that?" asked Kiba as he hopped over a large tree root.

Shino swerved around a tree, whose branches were connected and tangled like a dozen knots, and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Right now, our only option is returning to Konoha and letting her know what happened."

"But that will take days!" Hinata said. "The battle will be finished by then!"

"I know," Shino said quietly.

Everyone there understood the gravity of the situation. Naruto was battling against the person who had destroyed Kumo single-handedly. None of them knew if he'd be able to survive against someone like that.

"I think… we should have faith in Naruto," Shino started again. "He's strong, stronger than anyone I know. If there is someone who can defeat Pain, it would be him."

"Yeah, I guess you make a point." Kiba clicked his tongue, sighed, and then grinned. "That Naruto, he just keeps getting stronger. I'm sure he can beat Pain."

In the face of such confidence, Hinata could only smile. At the same time, she was worried. Even if she didn't love Naruto as she once did, even if Naruto had rejected her feelings, he still meant a lot to her.

Stay safe, Naruto-kun.

XXXXXXXXXX

Preta was easy to deal with. Sage Mode was activated when someone drew nature chakra into oneself and combined it with their own. Only someone who had mastered the art of drawing in nature chakra could properly use it. Anyone else who tried turned into a frog statue. Naruto had simply used Oodama Rasengan at Preta, and when the path tried to absorb the chakra, it turned to stone. Naruto then shattered it with a single punch.

Now it was just him and Deva.

"Shinra Tensei."

Naruto had already gotten used to Deva's attacks. He only had three, and both the Shinra Tensei and Bansho Ten'in could only be used once every five seconds. So long as he dodged, he would have five seconds with which to attack.

Rushing in, Naruto threw a straight punch, fast and furious, with as much power behind it as he could. Deva dodged. He moved his head aside. However, that did nothing. Naruto, his fist encased in nature chakra, had an extended range. His fist slammed into Deva. The body of Yahiko was sent flying backward, rocketing through the air like a lightning jutsu.

Pain flipped around. His feet struck the ground, tearing the earth apart as he skidded back. Ten meters. Naruto created a shadow clone. Twenty meters. Naruto formed a Rasengan and boosted it with sage mode, while the clone infused it with wind chakra. Thirty meters. A loud, bell-like shriek filled the air. Forty meters. Pain didn't stop moving until he'd already been sent fifty meters from his previous position.

"Rasenshuriken!"

Naruto tossed the Rasenshuriken. Pain held out his hands.

"Shinra Tensei!"

The two attacks collided, resulting in a massive explosion that caused a shockwave to ripple out from the point of impact. Naruto clung to the ground with chakra. It wasn't enough. Rather, the ground couldn't withstand the force of the shockwave, and it, along with Naruto, was ripped into the air and sent hurtling back.

Naruto landed back on the ground crouched like an animal. His feet and hands dug into the ground as he tried to keep from flying back anymore. Up ahead, nearly twenty meters from his previous location, a large cloud of dust and smoke rose into the air.

Damn. That was some attack.

Standing up, Naruto tried to peer past the smoke, to the other side, where Pain was no doubt doing the same. He couldn't see anything. While that didn't surprise him, it was frustrating.

What should I do?

The fight was still ongoing. A small lull in the battle wouldn't change that, and he doubted Pain would try to leave now. His opponent didn't have that kind of power.

What should my next move be?

Naruto was sure that he could win now that he had fought against Pain. Six of the five paths were gone, destroyed, and only the Deva path remained. The Deva path had some obvious and glaring weaknesses. It couldn't use its two most prominent jutsu, Shinra Tensei and Bansho Ten'in, in quick succession. Five seconds. That was how long Naruto had to attack before Pain could use that jutsu again.

If I could use the Kurama's power again, I'd be able to win, but…

Naruto looked at his hands. He was currently still in Sage Mode. Until he ran out of nature chakra, he would remain this way.

Because of how busy he'd been, Naruto did not have time to really experiment with Sage Mode or the chakra shroud. In fact, his battle with Sasuke had been the first time Naruto used that power since defeating Kurama. He also didn't know if he could activate the chakra shroud while he had nature chakra running through him. What's more, supposing he could activate the shroud, would he be able to maintain it? Nature chakra was volatile if uncontrolled. Kurama's chakra was just as if not more volatile. What would happen if those two chakras mixed?

He wasn't sure he wanted to find out.

A large spike in chakra forced Naruto to look up. A large sphere hung several dozen meters above the ground, blacker than anything he had ever seen, like a dark hole.

Naruto felt like a lead ball had dropped to the bottom of his stomach.

That doesn't look good.

It started when the chunks of dirt and giant boulders were ripped from the ground all around him. It was as if gravity itself had suddenly reoriented toward the black hole. Naruto didn't even have time to channel chakra to the bottom of his feet, not that it would have done any good, as the very ground was being gathered into the massive black sphere.

Agony slammed into Naruto as his back hit the sphere. Pain overrode his senses as large chunks of earth and boulders crushed him on all sides. He couldn't move, he could barely breathe, and his ribcage had just collapsed. More and more chunks of the earth sailed toward the sphere, which grew larger with every passing second. Darkness consumed his vision. There was no more space, and the oxygen had become practically non-existent.

I need to do something.

Naruto was in trouble.

I have to think of a way out of this.

But what could he do?

If only I could switch to the chakra shroud, then maybe…

He paused. If he switched to the chakra shroud, then he might be able to break free. On the other hand, he might kill himself by combining three different chakras inside of his body. However, if he did nothing, then he would surely die.

"Kurama?"

"Let me guess, you want my help."

"Yes, please."

"Fine, but I'm only doing this because I'd rather be stuck with you than stuck inside of a statue."

"… Since when did you become a tsundere?"

"Shut up!"

Within his mind, Naruto opened the gate that held back Kurama. He could feel the Kyuubi's presence, the power, no longer restrained. A pair of paws landed on his shoulders. Chakra flooded through his body. He and Kurama worked together, merging the nature chakra with the powerful chakra of a bijuu.

Naruto opened his eyes.

Chakra exploded from his pores.

The ball containing him exploded. Debris rained from the sky, falling to the earth, striking it without mercy. Naruto fell among that debris. He landed on the ground and, zeroing in on Pain's location, he burst forward, becoming a streak of golden light.

The world around him blurred, distorted, like what happens when someone looks through a telescope, except instead of black, all he saw were streaks. Colors faded from his vision as tears stung his eyes. This was different than using the Hiraishin. It wasn't an instant transportation technique. It was just speed, raw, unfiltered, speed.

"Rasengan!"

Pain could not react in time. Naruto slammed the Rasengan into the Deva path, pushing forward, ramming it as far into the path's chest as he could. The Deva Path stood no chance. Its body was flung across the ground, striking the earth and gouging out several chunks, then continuing on the dig a large trench. Every tree in its path was felled. Loud crashes and bangs echoed across the land. A massive cloud of dust rose up, creating a trail starting where Pain had first hit the ground to where he stopped.

Naruto stood there for several seconds, back hunched, shoulders heaving. The senjutsu chakra faded from his body, then Kurama's chakra left as the seal reasserted itself, and finally, exhausted beyond belief, Naruto collapsed onto his hands and knees and coughed up more blood.

"It looks like using Sage Mode and my chakra puts a lot of stress on your body."

"That's to be expected… the human body wasn't meant to contain so much power."

"I suppose not."

Naruto recovered himself enough to stand up and begin moving. He walked slowly toward where Pain had landed. He stumbled several times, following the trench, before reaching the Deva Path.

Yahiko's body was a wreck. It wasn't destroyed, but the limbs were twisted into gnarled pretzels, and its head was bent at an awkward angle. There was a large concave spot on its chest shaped in a spiral.

"He's dead."

"Obviously."

Naruto pulled out a scroll, set it on the ground, and unfurled it. He placed Yahiko's body on top and sealed it. Konan would want to bury her friend.

He stood back up, pocketing the scroll. He looked over to the east. Thanks to Sage Mode, he had been able to locate Nagato's presence. It was that way. Heaving a great sigh, Naruto began the long trek to where his greatest adversary was waiting.

It was time to confront the real Nagato.

`XXXXXXXXXX

Nagato retched as blood spewed from his mouth, splattering against his mechanical walker. The jingling of chords behind him resounded as he leaned over and retched even more. His chest heaved, his lungs burned, and his heart felt like it had been crushed by the icy hand of fate.

All of his paths were gone. Nagato did not feel their deaths, but there was feedback that lashed out at him due to how much chakra he had been forced to expend. Not that his sacrifice had done any good.

Who could have imagined that Naruto would become so powerful, especially not so quickly? Barely four years ago, Naruto's power hadn't even been worth talking about, but now he was fighting against S-rank ninja every day. Even he had not become so strong so quickly.

What happened during that time Jiraiya-sensei had trained him?

He would never get an answer.

"Look at you, Nagato," a voice called from the entrance of the cave that he was hiding in. "You look like a dog who's been repeatedly beaten by its owner."

Madara stood at the end of the cave, by the entrance, his stance nonchalant, deceivingly so. Standing by his side, faithfully silent, was a girl that Nagato had never seen. Red hair. Her left eye was green. The right was covered by an eyepatch.

"What do you want, Madara?" asked Nagato, sounding as tired as he felt. "In case you didn't realize, I do not have time to play with you."

"That's too bad. Tobi came here to play today," Madara said cheerfully.

"Is that so?"

"Hm-hm! Tobi came to play!"

Madara's footfalls echoed through the cave as he walked further in. The girl remained silent as she followed. Despite being tired, Nagato still had the good sense to feel wary. Madara was not someone he could underestimate.

"Then what do you want?" asked Nagato.

"What do I want?"

Stopping in front of him, Madara eyed Nagato through the single hole in his mask. Red eyes. Three tomoes. It was the Sharingan. The tomoe within the single visible eye spun with a malevolence that caused Nagato to feel an unbidden shiver crawl up his spine.

"Why, Nagato, I thought it would be obvious." Madara sounded amused. "I want your eyes, of course."