Returning Angel

The distinct sensation of warm fluid pouring over her arm stirred Konan from her slumber. Warmth was the last thing she expected since she'd been captured and put in that ice box but she was grateful for it.

There were more oddities than the warmth running down her arm. Konan felt wrapped in a coat of thick leaves, softened and heated for her sake but more importantly, she felt her body move without her thinking. She gave a moments pause of thought to what could arrange these effects but found no answers other than fear and confusion. She opened her eyes.

It was dark in whatever wrapped her up but there was a single hole for the light of the world to gleam into. Her eyes became saucers as she saw herself bounding from tree trunk to branch and to the ground. Sound filtered through slowly as the muffled sounds outside her mobile prison became all too familiar whirls of shinobi tools.

She breathed in deep, heard something around her giggling loudly as it used her arms to grasp and swing off a tree branch. The momentum carried her backwards and her puppeteer planted her foot in the unsuspecting blank mask of a shinobi giving pursuit. The impact cracked through the white ceramic and carried on with force until a burst of warmth split open at her foot. Blood soaked.

By now she already knew who her puppeteer and perhaps, saviour was but it didn't mean she was all too grateful. She growled within him and began wresting her limbs from his control, "Zetsu! Let me out, now!"

"Ooohahahehe, you're awake, that was sooner than expected." the plant mass of a man chortled, he struggled against her will but managed to lean away from a decapitating sword streak. He threw their bonded body in a backflip kick the assailant dodged and pressed forward, manifesting a wooden stake that shot out from their palm and through the ROOT-nin's mask. 

Yet more kept up the chase, she glimpsed three racing towards them with tools and hands pressed in hand signs. Konan groaned, she didn't have time or energy to deal with Danzo's fodder, "Let me out now, Zetsu!"

The plant man chuckled as he lurched forward and stomped his foot through the fallen ROOT-nin's gut, "Not yet. Madara's instructions wer-"

"I don't care about Madara! Let me free before I destroy you myself!" Konan wailed within him, she spoke and forced her muscles to to fight against Zetsu but his response was swiftly wrapping her up in more vines and roots, tightening his grip around her. She began to mould the chakra required to tear Zetsu's body apart but immediately thought better of it as their assailants unleashed a jutsu.

"Earth Release: Tearing Earth Turning Palm!"

The ground beneath their feet trembled as it split and moulded in on itself like dough. Zetsu wasted not a second getting away from the grinding chasms and leaped up to higher ground, but even the trees were being swallowed and grinded up to splinters, shattered against the turning of the earth.

"Zetsu, lookout!" Konan yelled a moment too late as the ROOT-nin successfully manoeuvred them into an airborne trap. A hammer as large as their body smashed against their side, Konan's pinhole world turned into a spiral of green and brown as hers and Zetsu's body went through a series of concussive crashes through the foliage.

To her amazement she felt little to no pain even at her left side where they'd gotten smashed. Zetsu rose up, his tenderized left arm split open to an array of spikes, setting hers free in the process. "We take care of them first." He said, glee staining his voice as though they hadn't gotten thrown through the forest.

But Konan couldn't argue, fighting against him now would only serve to put her in unnecessary danger as well. Once Danzo's fools were buried she would see about breaking free from his hug.

The three ROOT-nin were hot on their heels and leapt out above them, instantly releasing a barrage of small but red hot fire balls on their head as they did. Zetsu sprung to action, dodging and weaving around the fireballs while Konan continued to mould her chakra, though with a new purpose in mind. 

From the corner of her vision, she saw the hammer-wielding shinobi charge, taking advantage of Zetsu's disjointed rhythm. With reckless determination, the man swung the massive weapon overhead, aiming to crush them both in one decisive strike. 

Zetsu spun on his heel, ignoring how the earth caved under his weight thanks to the Earth Release user's Jutsu and intercepted the hammer mid-swing, halting its momentum with a blast of pressure. This time Konan felt the force reverberate down to her bone, the chakra enhanced strike not one to joke with, but her task was set. 

Her free arm fractured into a storm of paper that formed a wall against the Fire Release user's attacks, while simultaneously allowing an opening for Zetsu's wooden spikes to snipe out through. 

Three were burnt up and slowed down enough to deflect but two more staved through the Fire Release user's thighs. At the same time Zetsu split his head open as the sinking mud drew them in, with Konan's head free she immediately released a hail of [Wind Bullets] from her lips, each punctured through the hammer the Bukijutsu user stubbornly wouldn't let go. The fourth bullet shattered the heavy weapon and sent the fool skirting away to safety, but it was too late. The Angel was free.

In a dazzling explosion of white paper flowers, she erupted into the sky, her presence washing over the battlefield like a storm. Her mind zeroed in on finishing off the Fire Release user and with a flick of her wrist she skewered him against the tree he pathetically limped away to.

Zetsu wrapped himself up and accepted his fate, sinking through the ground only to erupt twelve metres away with a ROOT-nin caught in his array of spikes, blood dripping down his wide open mouth.

Konan's paper bombs chased down the Bukijutsu user and to his credit he scurried far away and pinned many of her paper bombs to trees with tools before they could explode in his face, but all it took was one and the chase was over.

With the scene clean of Konoha garbage, Konan gathered herself and returned to Zetsu. She felt stronger than she thought she should be considering it couldn't have been long since Zetsu freed her from Jiraiya's chakra eating seals. She suspected the plant man had something to do with her renewed strength but those were unimportant thoughts.

"Where is Jiraiya? How hasn't he given chase?" She expected to be faced with her old teacher once more, a secret part of her wished for it, another, freer opportunity to open his eyes to the folly of his beliefs and the sin of the village he swore loyalty to. Not to mention the scum that hung at his side.

Zetsu crunched and crushed the skull of the Earth Release user in his stomach of teeths, his head rolled back and he grinned a bloody smile at her, "Madara wanted to have a chat with the Sannin and Danzo, don't worry, he has more important fish to fry."

Konan narrowed her eyes at the plant being disgusted as she was, she wouldn't let it show and so she looked for the direction of her home and began moving when Zetsu added, "Madara would appreciate your cooperation against Konoha, there is…an operation underway. If you're inclined on meting out justice to the foods that dared invade and slaughter so many of your people." He giggled, his stomach continued to consume the ROOT-nin, his shoulders disappeared already.

Konan snorted at that, "Tell Madara he can pursue his vengeance himself. The plan he asked never included any of this. I will return to Nagato, he needs me."

In more ways than one, they needed each other. Amegakure had suffered a strike from Konoha it hadn't experienced since the Second Shinobi War. Nagato would certainly revive all the brave fallen that defended their nation but they needed their Angel to guide them. And she needed to see if anything had changed since he fought Jiraiya, she doubted. Their teacher wouldn't have looked so pathetic in front of her if he managed to convince Nagato of anything.

"Bwahahah, suit yourself," Zetsu cackled as he waved her goodbye, "But remember, recruitment starts now."