She turns, and when she sees it's Temari standing there in front of her, she wonders why she's not wholly surprised.
Perhaps she's still just numb.
"Hanabi...are you alright?"
She knows the Suna woman shouldn't be there. But she is. And Hanabi can't really bring herself to care.
She is more surprised when she sees another ninja, one she can recognize distantly, as the Tsuchikage's nephew appear behind them, reaching his uncle's side with a shout of the man's name.
Yoshihiro groans, half his face covered in blood and cuts, a chakra burn standing out at his temple. "Toyohiza?" His speech is slurred, his eyes clouded. She doesn't know if he's concussed or dying from Kisame's attack. Probably both.
"Did you get her?" He asks and his nephew nods before looking to them. "Temari-san." He calls, and Temari offers her a worried look before making her way closer and kneeling at the man's side. "Yoshihiro-dono."
"Heh." He laughs, and the sound is bloody in his throat. "Glad to see my nephew did what I told him for once."
"Why did you free me?" She asks, getting right to the point. The old Tsuchikage might not have that much time left.
"This is where I would get cheeky; shrug and ask 'Why not?'" He laughs again, his chest jerking with the effort. "Truth is girl, I got you out to avoid this." This time, his chest jerks with wet, rasping coughs even as he weakly gestures towards the destruction around them.
Temari waits until its subsided, listening patiently. "You're the only one that can."
"I already tried to get Naruto to stop." She confeses, her face tight with something akin to anger, or grief. Probably both. "He won't listen to me." She looks around, the sight of her village, in flames, half buried in the sea of dunes makes her face darken. "I don't think Gaara would listen to me either at this point."
"You have to make them!" Yoshihiro growls before descending into another fit.
Hanabi finally moves, stepping closer, listening. Toyohiza fusses over his uncle as the man moves to sit, telling him to rest, to not aggravate his injuries.
"You make them listen. Otherwise everyone will die here."
"How can I?"
"I'll help."
Temari turns, and looks on her. Little Hanabi, barely reaching the older woman's chest. She feels foolish just for saying it. But she stands her ground, knowing full well she could be making another mistake, stepping into yet another battlefield she might not be ready for.
No one says anything. And the silence between them is broken only by the sound of the crackling fires and distant screams.
Then Yoshihiro laughs, addressing Temari. "You heard her."
But the Suna princess shakes her head, looking like she's about to protest before Yoshihiro raises his hand, placing it on hers, the weight of his armor resting on her forearm. "You have to try girl." He whispers, the levity gone from his face. "You can't just let everyone die without trying.
Hanabi watches, sees the girl biting her lip, afraid, worried. But eventually, she nods.
Yoshihiro pulls his hand away from her. "Good."
"Come on Uncle, lets get you out of here." Toyohiza moves to help the older man up, but the Tsuchikage halts him with a stare.
"No boy. I won't be leaving this place."
The younger Shimazu looks sad, his face crinkling with dissapointment as he shakes his head. "You're the Devil Shimazu. You-"
"-Will die on a battlefield that is hell on earth, as befits me." He sighs. "Go boy. You are the leader of Iwagakure now, until they can elect a new Tsuchikage." He looks to his nephews eyes, the boy he'd loved as a son now a man grown into his own...he just needed to realize it. "Go...my men continued North Toyohiza, find them, organize them get them out of here and save as many as you can. And above everything else, after all of this is over. You go back home, kiss your daughter and your wife...and you keep the peace. This is my last order to you. Do you accept?"
With tears brimming in his eyes; he nods. "Yes uncle."
"Good...now...you all know what you have to do. So get moving...all of you."
The desert winds scratch at his face, kicking up sand, carrying smoke and lifting ash. Naruto stares at the man across from him, wondering dimly why it was he was not wholly surprised.
He should be surprised. He had no inkling to believe the former leader of the Akatsuki would make an appearance here.
But he wasn't.
This was after all, the final battle. The last true war this country would ever see again for a very long time if he had anything to say about it.
Warrior's had been summoned here.
Shinobi however, were drawn here.
Like moths daring the certain death of an open flame.
He spares a glance towards where his sister had fallen, marking the spot in his memory then back behind Pein, where the Kazekage is only now barely picking himself out of the rubble.
"Your death stands before you." The Akatsuki leader says, his words carried to Naruto's ears by the wind, so soft was his voice.
The Hokage smiled, a strange little smile behind the safety of his metal mask. "Does it?"
Nothing more was said, with a quick crouch, Naruto slams his hand onto the ground and in an instant countless snakes swarm across the village street, hissing and screeching as they attacked their would be prey.
Just before they reached him, Pein brings one hand down to his knee, and then lifts it quickly.
The effect was as though some angry giant had punched through the earth, sending countless snakes flying in every direction. Tossed about the air, they fell moments later atop crumbling houses and burning streets, dispelling before, or as they struck the ground.
Then, thrusting forward his other hand, Pein pushed. And Naruto was sent sailing down the road.
The Hokage grunted, catching his feet quickly with chakra as he skid several yards more before coming to a stop.
He shifted his grip on his sword, placing it across his back a second before the sound of ringing steel met their ears.
The Hokage craned his neck to look over his shoulder glaring at the obsidian black blade, then at its wielder. "Were it so easy."
The sky over their heads was rapidly darkening with black clouds, and thunder rumbled in, rolling over them as the hiss of distant, approaching rain reached them.
In a burst of speed the two were moving, blades flashing with great, rending sparks that set Naruto's teeth grinding as their weapons struck each-other again and again.
"Fuuton: Shoha!" He thrust his free hand right into Pein's chest, the concussive blast sending the Akatsuki leader flying.
Then, with a sudden, forward lurch Naruto followed right after him, literally pulled off his feet as he sped forwards.
He cursed, awkwardly holding his blade as his entire center of balance was thrown off, careening towards Pein with unrelenting speed.
They passed right by eachother with a single clash of steel, the force of their swing and momentum sending the impact straight up the Godaime's arm before he finally righted himself, the gravitational pull finally dissipating as he lands in a semi crouch, his back to his enemy.
He, spun, drew and tossed a kunai a few feet infront of him, bringing his blade up in the same motion to block Pein's black sword as it extended almost a dozen feet between the two of them, emerging from the man's sleeve, seeking his flesh.
The seals on the kunai glowed for an instant, and a dark cloud of smoke obscured the both of them.
Fuuton:Daitopaa
A funneled gust of wind tore straight across the street, banishing the smoke to reveal nearly a hundred small pellets being propelled towards Pein.
Once more, with quiet disdain, the God raised his hand and each of the projectiles was sent right back towards their owner.
Wherever the small balls struck an explosion followed, enveloping nearly an entire city block in fire and smoke.
Pein's dark eyes stayed fixed on where he'd seen Naruto, his mouth set in a grim frown.
Then he turned raising his hand to the sky.
And the descending Naruto was suddenly rushing down at dangerous speeds falling like a lead brick. He crashes into the earth with a leg crushing smash just beside Pein. He barely has the presence of mind to raise his weapon in time to avoid getting scalped.
Then he was sent flying again, this time smashing into the side of a building as Pein pushed him away.
He pulls himself free with a grunt of discomfort, shingles splinters and half broken pieces of wood crumbling around him. He finds Pein still standing there, glaring at him with purple ringed eyes.
The black clouds finally rolled over them, fully blocking out the sun as thunder roared and ice water fell from the sky, onto the ruins of Sunagakure.
The air choked her, clogged with dust and gravel, it was too hot and too thick, the pressure on her chest felt like it was crushing her. Bits and pieces of masonry, wood and tubing dug into her back.
She groaned, pain throbbing through every nerve; from the tips of her toes to the tips of her fingers, she tried to move, bringing her arms to try and push the debris off of her but just the attempt at bending her elbows had been enough to take her breath away.
The weight above her shifted, and Akina opened her eyes to see billions of grains of sand, hissing as they rolled over her, cocooning her. Her breath was stifled and hot in the confinement for the instant it was around her. Then, it fell away to reveal Gaara standing above her, the darkening, cloud covered sky serving as a backdrop to his bloody red hair.
Then the sky started pelting her with rainwater.
'Its cold...'
"Can you move!" He yelled down at her, she wondered why until the sound, and the tremble of an explosion reached her. He cursed, glancing up before back down to her.
She feels razors sliding through her spine as she shakes her head. Fire down her throat as she speaks. "Back...something...in my back."
Not hesitating, he reached around her, sliding one arm underneath her body as he rolled her onto her side. She felt, dimly, her spear slide free of her hand. She would have screamed if the pain itself hadn't seemingly choked her.
She felt his hand grip something and with a sudden yank, he pulled it out. The pain from that was almost a comfort as every fiber of her body soothed with relief. She gasped, like a drowning man come up for air.
He let her roll onto her back again, holding up an obsidian black spike, almost a rod really, nearly half again as long as a kunai knife.
He tossed it aside, glancing up again as a crash reached their ears with the ringing sound of steel on steel cutting through the air.
Gingerly, like moving an aching, overworked muscle, she rolled over, finding her strength again when she pushed herself up onto a crouched position, grasping at her spear as she finally looked up.
The fighting was fast paced, she could barely follow their movements as the two blurred from one motion to the next. A block here, a lunge their, a parry here, a counter there, their weapons moved so fast between the two of them they barely even seemed to make the metal kiss before they were moving onto their next block or strike.
Then, faster than a heartbeat she saw Pein's sword lash out punching through Naruto's armor and into his chest as her brother pulled away with a snarl, bleeding and growling from behind his mask as he took to the rooftops before Pein yanked him back down with a wave of his hand.
The demon king fell with a crash, forced to defend himself as Pein kept up the pressure, with Naruto's wound still bleeding.
She felt a hand on her shoulder, but didn't look away even as Gaara began to pull at her "Come on"
She stumbled after him, his insistent pulling tugging her away before she caught herself, planting her feet before she spoke a simple- "No."
He turned to face her, teal eyes narrowed as he waited for her explanation.
"You go. You have to. There are people you can save. This entire city is being ripped apart by Manda, either rescue them before it finishes what my Brother ordered it to do. I'm staying."
"Staying for what?" He said his voice low, the implications so thick there she could almost see them hanging in the space between them.
She couldn't help the wince his words brought, biting her lip somewhat guiltily as she realized she really didn't know the truthful answer to that.
Her brother had to be stopped.
He had to be stopped. Pein could do it. If anyone in the world could stop Naruto, it was him.
But then who would stop Pein.
She wanted her brother stopped...
He deserved to die for all the things he'd done. For what he was doing now.
So where the hell was that determination she had just moments ago?
Why the hell couldn't she just accept the fact that he was just a beast and butcherhim like one?
She'd had it before...
She'd had it in Kumo, when all he was was her families murderer, and not her twin sibling.
Why the hell couldn't she just...pick that back up again.
Somewhere, a small part of her laughed.
Still such a little girl...such a stupid little girl that wants to save him. To believe that she can.
Why couldn't she just kill the little girl too?
Gaara's face softened, and she saw him turn to face her completely and there she saw the Kazekage she'd grown to know in her time here. Not this, hard faced, man with the mistrustful gaze she'd seen since the northern wastes.
"You saved me." He said. "I was unconscious for god knows how long and I woke up to find you getting one of those Rasengan attacks through your chest fighting him...I...I know...you're not helping him...I know that but..."
"I'm going back there to fight." She said.
"Which one?" He shot back. Then, he shook his head, and held up his hand. "No...Go. Do whatever it is you think you have to. If we're both still alive when all of this is over, we'll talk then."
He kicked out at Pein's chest, feeling the blow connect solidly and pushing the Akatsuki leader back almost a full six paces, stumbling to regain his feet.
Naruto hoped it would grant him a second or two respite. His wound still bled and Pein's attacks were relentless and fierce. He had never fought someone of this much skill.
Conversely, he could most likely assume that the same held true for Pein himself.
His respite was cut all too short, before Pein had even fully found his footing Naruto felt his feet leave the ground. Tugged forward by irresistible force, the Hokage cursed as he was forced to cross blades again, deflecting one blow as he sailed past his enemy then digging in his feet and rounding back with a violent spinning motion.
Pein backed away, the edge of Naruto's scimitar nearly cutting at the bridge of his nose before he lashed out again with his hand and Naruto was now sent careening towards the other side of the city street to slam into the wall of a building.
Where another black sword drove itself into his stomach.
He grunted, the pain disproportionate to the injury as every muscle in his body screamed as though it were on fire.
One hand fisted around the blade, gripping it as he pulled to yank it out.
He heard the wail of metal striking metal, glancing up he found another of Pein's swords halted mid slash by a familiar spear.
She twisted the weapon harshly the sudden interference surprising Pein enough to allow her to drive him away if only for a moment.
With a final, harsh yank he pulls the blade from his body snarling as the pain vanished. He straightens, stepping forward to stand at his sibling's side.
Pein's face remained blank and Naruto knew that, even with her here, this fight was far from won.
Beside him, Akina spared her brother a glance looking at his face for the briefest instant before returning her eyes to her...their enemy.
"Move! Move!"
The ground was going out beneath their feet as they sprinted, buildings and cobblestones crumbling down into black abyss before the five jumped, lunging out of the sinkhole's path.
The toad sannin breathed heavily, his heart pounding away a staccato rhythm in his chest, joining the pounding vibrations throughout his body as Sunagakure fell, to be crushed beneath the endless tides of roiling sand.
'I'll kill him myself.'
He wasn't sure how, he wasn't sure when. But he knew that, should he leave this battlefield alive, he would not rest until Naruto Uzumaki was dead.
"What the hell are we gonna do!" Kidomaru yelled, peering out of one window to even more ruins.
"We're getting the hell out of here." Sakon answered.
"How? You all saw what I saw, that snake destroyed the entire outer wall of the city, we're cut of-"
"There must be some parts that haven't been damaged to such a degree." Jiraiya interrupted, standing up, tossing a soldier pill into his mouth. "Alot of that sand cloud Manda kicked up was probably pockets of air or gas rising up to the surface. We have to try to find some area, any area still stable enough for people to escape."
"And if it's all destroyed?" The spider ninja shot back.
"Then learn to fly chicken shit!" Tayuya answered for both of em. "I ain't stickin around. So lets move and see if we can find a way out of this before that purple scaled bastard brings the whole place down. I say we do what the old frog says and try to find some way out."
Jiraiya nodded. It wasn't much of a plan. It wasn't a plan at all, but they had to try. "We're not putting all our eggs in one basket though." He said, mostly to himself. "Split up." He ordered. "Two and two, I'll go alone. You pick up anyone you can. Suna, Konoha, it doesn't matter anymore! You just get as many people out of here as you can!"
Pein's elbow smashed into his chest, pushing the air from his lungs, and driving him through the beam of a building's porch. He coughed, scrambling to stand as he saw Akatsuki's God slam his sister into the ground with a savage throw. He rushed forward, throwing shuriken as he did.
The sheer speed of the projectiles would have normally ensured them finding their target. But Pein was of course, far beyond normal, deftly dodging the stars as Naruto closed the distance between them, a Rasengan forming in his hand to drive it through the Akatsuki's chest.
His wrist was locked in a bone crushing grip, and Naruto grit his teeth as Pein glared at him with contempt before he kicked at the blond Hokage. His foot drove the air from Naruto's lungs as it pushed into his stomach, and an elbow across the face dazed him as Pein threw him through the wall of another building.
Naruto didn't even allow the dust to clear before wind blades were flying across the air, seeking out Pein as the Akatsuki leader dodged these as well, flipping and twisting his body like a gymnast until the attack was spent.
When he landed, he didn't even need to look as he blocked Akina's spear, batting the weapon aside with his forearm before he grabbed the middle, twisting it, and her until he had her in a hold, the haft of her own weapon digging into her throat, before he spun them around and threw her again.
Right into Naruto, the illusion around his body dissipating with the physical contact as he caught her, throwing her again where she found her footing before they both rushed him at different angles.
He dodged her lightning spears, the small little projectiles zipping past his face and head with mere millimeters distance as he blocked Naruto's blow and countered with a brutal hammer fist to the Hokage's face, blocking his immediate spin kick as well before pushing him off.
She reached him, no longer launching spears of lightning at him rather gathering the electric energy into her hand, her fist crackling with electric currents not unlike Kakashi's Chidori as she punched him.
The God tilted his head, avoiding her blow as he grabbed her by the elbow keeping her in place before he dodged Naruto's clawed upper cut, holding them both he twisted under their arms, holding the limbs high in the air by the spot just below the elbow before he literally threw the both of them like they were mere shuriken themselves, sending the two spinning through the air. Their bodies plowed through the building infront of him, all but demolishing it as the thing collapsed under its own weight.
The siblings groaned, both slowly extracting themselves from the debris.
"I think we're loosing." Akina thought aloud, picking herself up on wobbly legs.
"I think you're right." Naruto, surprisingly answered, and the youngest of the Yondaime's children looked to the eldest, finding him painfully pulling a wooden spike, about three inches long and half an inch wide from his side, the red, spreading stain of blood covered up by the black of his armor and the red of his cloak.
How can he be this strong?" She groaned, shaking her head to loosen the cobwebs. "He wasn't this powerful when we fought him before. And there were five of him then.
"Six." He corrected. "Temari killed the last."
"Same difference." She reached her feet, watching Pein through the rubble of the house. "One of him still shouldn't be this powerful."
"Not unless his power was divided evenly amongst the six, and now that all those are dead its been returned to the original." He speculated, standing up as well.
She looked to her brother calm and implacable as ever. "You are not telling me that we're fighting someone who has the strength of six Kage level ninja."
He nodded once, what she could see of his face reflecting a grim, countenance.
She could only hope that he was wrong about this. Otherwise...
"Get ready." Her brother snarled, and it was the only warning she received before she had to defend herself again.
He fell against the alley wall, his shoulder resting on it as his knees shook, wondering for the hundredth time what the hell she'd done.
He knew something was wrong just an instant after his Chidori had pierced her chest. He'd felt his arm go numb, then the sensation of pinpricks, then fire in his veins. Then nothing, at least at first.
But her satisfaction had been there, plain to see in those clouded, dying eyes.
His death had come for him and she could care less about hers.
So now here he is. Half standing, half slouching on some alley wall, cold and wet with rain, dying as his breath is too thin, his muscles too weak, his sight too dark.
And in pain. The pain was there, a discomfort that was growing, like a pulled muscle, everywhere and getting worse, it wouldn't resemble a pulled muscle soon, perhaps a broken limb, or a deep slash.
He wondered what her poison was. But it was only a fleeting thought. His enemy had been Tsunade. More than likely most professional medics would scarcely have a guess at its name.
He knew it was most likely directed to the chakra coil system. The feeling had been immediately after his Chidori, when the Tenketsu along his arm were wide open. She must have slipped something in through there just before he'd pierced her heart.
He would put that level of control beyond almost anyone.
But she was a Sannin, and the best damn medic in the world. So she could do it...
It would probably be slow too.
'Perhaps I shouldn't have killed Shizune after all then she would have just used a quick poison.'
His black humor was cut short as another spasm of pain ripped through him, bringing him down to his knees, panting, his chest heaving.
'I can't die yet...I...there's still...things I need to do. I can't...I have to...'
Finally, he caught his breath, pulling himself up, to his feet before stumbling forward.
The power of Pein's swing brought the black blade crashing into his own with such force that he felt the impact literally crawl up his arm, his barely healed shoulder throbbing with the pain as he was sent skidding back.
Pein turned with the same movement, parrying a spear thrust, and then another before pulling Akina close, his hand rising to slam his forearm into her throat in a clothesline that knocked her flat on her back before he kicked her in the ribs, sending her like a skipping stone down the road before he turned on Naruto again.
The Godaime was struggling visibly against the Akatsuki leader's strength, deflecting and blocking clumsily as Pein continued to slash and strike again and again with punishing force that was would be purely inhuman even if he weren't injured.
Finally, he managed to reach out, mid swing, catching Pein's sword arm by the wrist and holding him firmly in place as his own sword plunged for the man's stomach.
Pein's free hand emerged inches from his face. He thought he was about to be pushed away again when suddenly foreign chakra invaded his coil network.
It was like his entire bodily system was suddenly thrown into reverse, his stomach heaved as though he would vomit, his nose and mouth could not suck down air, every muscle seized and relaxed only to seize again. His body and mind rebelled and in a sudden, natural reflex he called on the Foxes Chakra, purging Pein's hold on his system in an instant.
He caught himself, pulling the demonic energy back, only for his limbs to loose all strength, Pein yanked himself free of his hold and his black sword found Naruto's flesh again, this time plunging into his left bicep as the Godaime fell back like a limp rag doll.
Then Akina was there again, her spear a blur in her hands as she shouted out a battle cry, the red shroud of the Kyuubi's chakra enveloping her and the weapon in burning energy.
He struggled to rise, his body feeling lethargic and pitifully weak. The cold of the rain that drenched them seeped down to the marrow of his bones, his muscles felt like bits of string.
But rise he did, forcing one knee under him, then lifting himself onto his feet just in time to see Pein grab Akina by her throat, ignoring his blackening skin and cooking meat as his flesh burned. He was aiming to crush her larynx
He forced his chakra to move, pushing it through his system as though it were caught in knee deep mud. He formed his handseals and sucked in a breath as he poured every scrap of Chakra he could into his lungs.
Fuuton: Daitopa
Like the fist of an angry wind god the great breakthrough surged forward, demolishing houses and blowing away crumbling cobblestones, uprooting whatever trees in the village still existed. The fires directly in its path guttered out while the ones at its far edges spread as much as they could across soaked wood.
Pein managed to throw only the merest glance in his direction before he was swept fully off of his feet, releasing his sister as Akina dug in her spear and the red Chakra claws to keep her tethered to the ground.
When the attack died away, he wondered how much time he'd bought them. A minute? Seconds?
He would need more than that to heal.
Akina grabbed at his arm pulling him as the Kyuubi's chakra died away. "Come on!"
She pulled him through the demolished, ruined city, turning this way and that way past burning shops and mud squelched roads. The the rain pounded at their backs until she finally seemed to consider one of the many ruins adequate enough before pulling them both inside.
Where he promptly collapsed.
He would have fallen outright if she hadn't caught him.
"Na-Naruto!"She pulled, and he just barely summoned up the strength to, push himself against a crumbling wall, the rain water trailing down from its side and seeping onto his cloak.
She knelt in front of him, her still red eyes searching his blue ones. "What's wrong with you?"
He breathed closing his eyes, silence was his answer before he felt her hand ghosting over the injury at his chest, at the more recent one in his bicep and the other at his stomach.
"You're still bleeding." She breathed, shocked. "Why are you still bleeding?"
…
"Goddamnit answer me Naruto!"
He sighed, opening his eyes again to peer at her confused, frustrated, and...was that worry he detected?
"I did not escape our last encounter with the Akatsuki unscathed...sister." He said, watching her listen with rapt attention. "With your seal designed the way it is, and the Kyuubi trapped within you, and shielding you from the most toxic of its power. You've probably never experienced it to such an extent. But its power damagesyou. Sometimes permanently.
His head fell back, his hood cradling his skull against the harsh surface of the wall. "I used too much of its power that day...and the damage it caused is more severe, and more permanent than what I would like."
"You..." She paused, the words feeling like stuffed cotton in her throat. "You can't use the Demon's power."
He stared at her dead in the eye.
"With the damage I have sustained, the damage it will inflict. There is a simple truth I've come to accept in these recent months. Should I ever call on its power again to any significant degree. I am going to die."
She watched him.
He sat there, grim faced and stoic as his blood slowly trailed its way down to the floor.
'I am going to die.'
He said it so simply, so matter of fact that it left her just as stunned as the actual implications of the words.
"How can...you just say that? Like...its just that simple."
"Just that simple?" He asks, but by his voice she knows its rhetorical. He turns his eyes to something slightly behind her and she turns, looking just past her foot where she's crouched.
A primrose peeks out from the ground there, stark white against the muddy backdrop of the ground.
"Nothing is ever simple sister."
She looks back to him, his blue eyes are weary but still as sharp as ever as he keeps them fixed on her.
This is what they'd been working for wasn't it? This is what half the world...maybe the whole world, now wanted.
They wanted him dead.
No...not just dead. Dead implied something other than potential violence in his end.
They wanted him killed.
And now they potentially could kill him.
He was still a powerful ninja, he had been effectively beating both Gaara and her with these limitations but now he was not that...indomitable, unconquerable figure that he'd always been to everyone who even whispered his name.
I am going to die
And he just told her this as if he did not think she would kill him. As if he did not think she would try.
She eyed the blade of her spear, and when she looked back at him she could tell he'd followed her gaze, staring at her with a look that was entirely his own. Curious. As though her next choice was truly the most fascinating thing in the entire world right now and did not for all intents and purposes hold his life at its hinge.
He closed his eyes, leaning back once more against the crumbling wall.
Was that resignation? Was it surrender? Defeat? Mocking? Confidence?
She threw her hands forward.
He opens his eyes to see her green healing chakra glossing over his injuries.
She swallows, looking at her work, not meeting his eyes.
She hears something, it takes her a second to realize its a laugh.
Now she does look up, but her hands still glow and this time she sees something almost tender in his eyes that makes her gasp when she sees it.
"What a tragic pair we make."
He chuckled some more, but the joke was entirely lost on her.
She heals him until the blood stops, until the skin is unbroken and his body released from its injured, weary lethargy.
When he stands its with old strength; his arm flexing as he tested the healing. He looks at her when she stands, his blues meeting her bloody reds.
The silence between them stretches out. She doesn't know what else to say...so she smiles.
"Still doesn't change anything huh?"
He doesn't answer, turning his eyes to another direction, then, he reaches down and grasps his sword from where he dropped it.
He turns to face her, looking like he's about to say something when instead he lurches forward, shoving her to the ground. "Down!"
There's a deafening crack that sets her teeth on edge, then the roar that deafens her as she plants herself on the ground, using chakra to lay there until whatever it was had died away.
When the dust finally settles and all she can hear is the tumbling crashes of debris hundreds of yards behind them.
She stands, with Naruto doing the same at her side to find Pein's hands slowly falling back down.
"Kazekage-sama." The kunoichi gasped as he descended into the melee. She's bloodied, they all are and she's cradling a bleeding arm that could have been broken as well.
Sand rose beneath their feet, rushing forward in a wave that forced the encroaching Konoha ninja back. A few were caught, but more escaped. He didn't care, they wouldn't be stupid enough to come back with him here.
He turned, finding the kunoichi again. "Who is in command here!"
"I am sir." A stout man, jounin, came forward, stepping over the ruins of a collapsed home and negotiating his way through his bleeding and exhausted comrades. He had the features of a Kumo native.
"Report."
"Kazekage-sama, they broke through the center line and entered the main tower courtyard after the...the ground started to just get ripped out from under us. We fell back to our positions but those were overrun just minutes later, we've been fighting through the streets, trying to get to the last rally point ever since, but..."
He didn't have to finish. It didn't matter. The ground had opened up into a chasm, a million and one enemies stood between here and there, the last rally point had been overwhelmed already, it didn't matter.
"Here are your new orders. I want everyone to spread out, gather as many people as you can find, as fast as you can find them. The civilians have been evacuated through the caves so look for fellow Shinobi, wounded as well. If you find someone you can't carry back, come back for help. If you find no one in three minutes running distance, get back here, immediately."
"A counter attack sir?"
"No." Gaara answered, shaking his head with a frustrated growl. "We're evacuating the village."
The reactions were varied. Some relieved, others displeased, some conflicted. The dunes would hold more chance for their survival than this place.
A city was nothing more than bricks, concrete and steel. It could be built up again, better than before.
But it needed people to do so.
Pein was standing mere inches from his face, his fist cocked back with chakra blossoming around his hand, wrist and forearm.
The Hokage backed pedaled, the fist coming down and exploding against the dirt street with an obscuring cloud of grit and rock.
He saw the Rinnegan wielder turn, his other hand rising with an uppercut like motion. Spikes of rock jutting out from the ground as Akina advanced, forcing her to back away and skirt out of reach.
Naruto formed his handseals two fireballs shooting out of his hands to Pein's back only to watch them promptly vanish, taken by his chakra absorption technique.
He turned right back around to face him, one hand shooting out and launching the same two fireballs right back at him.
Naruto jumped, rising over the attack before hitting the ground and jumping again only to feel the now familiar tug of gravitic forces yanking him back to the ground.
He landed on feet that quickly buckled beneath the pressure, his sword rising over his head to block the swing that would have cleaved him from collarbone to hip.
Another black sword emerged from Pein's other sleeve, sliding into his grip. The man swung, only to once more meet the edge of Akina's spear instead.
Pein backed away, the look of annoyance on his face a palpable thing as he drew back both swords and formed his handseals. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
Two hounds, both with Rinnegan eyes lunged at them, snarling and barking, white drool oozed from the sides of their mouth as their fur bristled like razor blades.
Naruto's free hand shot out, as he stepped infront of his sister catching one by the throat and crushing its larynx while his sword cut the other in two. Both beasts vanished with puffs of smoke.
Both of Pein's hands rose again, ready to push them back once more before the Hokage felt his sister snake her arm around his waist, the demonic chakra shrouding her other arm into a claw as she dug its tips down into the earth.
The push of gravity came like a warhammer to their chests, pushing but for once neither sibling moved anywhere and Pein's eyes grew alight in their fury.
The force abated, and the siblings rushed forward.
Pein's swords were back in his hands, deftly blocking and parrying the initial wave of strikes before once more, he pushed them away, this time succeeding but it was harried and unfocussed with much less power than his other pulls and pushes.
A rasengan swirled in Naruto's hand, its blue glow soon becoming opaque as a layer of wind chakra formed around it, four swirling blades spinning and growing rapidly at its side before he threw it right at him.
Pein's expression grew grim, the wind Rasengan swallowing up the distance before it visibly slammed into Pein's chakra barrier.
The Akatsuki leader grit his teeth, struggling for a moment before he threw his hands up, the attack changing course and shooting up to the sky where it exploded spectacularly.
Not strong enough to absorb that then.'
Pein attacked them then, rushing to Akina his sister did a backflip to avoid his upward slash landing on her feet, she looked up in time to see that Pein had taken to the air one hand pointing down towards her, no doubt intending to push her against the ground, possibly breaking half the bones in her body depending on how much force he used.
Naruto was moving before that though, his foot lashing out, kicking his sister none too gently in the ribs and sending her clear out of the attacks' perimeter as he himself backed away just before he felt and heard the attack's effect!
He threw out his shuriken, Pein landing an instant later where he blocked all three. They exploded violently before even touching the ground.
He heard the Akatsuki ninja's grunt of pain through the obscuring cloud.
Then he was shoved back, it wasn't unfocussed this time.
Smashing through the walls of a building that quickly collapsed over him Naruto decided that he was truly beginning to loathe Pein's power over gravity.
Akina, standing just behind Pein attacked again as his back was turned to her, her spear wailing with dancing electricity, white lightning jumping over her body as she swung and stabbed.
Pein dodged, the lightning jumping from her spear to strike at him regardless, he grunted, this time blocking with a chakra shrouded blade, only for the lightning to rise and jolt his wrist and hand
This continued for several more strikes until the smell of burning fabric and worse, burning meat began to stink the air and Pein threw his hand out behind him and then rushed it towards her.
She thought he was going to throw her, instead she saw a virtual mountain of debris hurling forward behind him, aiming straight for her.
She moved to flee, stepping back once when she felt herself collide against something.
"Down."
She recognized his voice, instantly obeying, she fell down as the air behind her shimmered with an unnatural distortion, only to reveal Naruto standing there, two burning, fiery Rasengan's swirling in his hands like small typhoons.
Pein's eyes grew wide with recognition, he'd been so focused on Akina he hadn't even noticed Naruto behind whatever Genjutsu he'd placed over himself.
Through the orange light of the swirling flames she could have sworn she saw her brother smiling beneath his mask.
Then the world was fire.
The heat fell over her like the harsh winds of a hurricane, it barreled through and consumed everything in its path. The debris Pein had been hurling at her was obliterated in an instant, Pein himself lost amidst the inferno.
And then her brother cupped his hand again, another Rasengan forming in his hands. He coated this one with Wind Chakra.
The explosion buffets her, high above nearly knocking her clear off her fan, even at this distance. The shockwave punching her like a physical blow. Hanabi's added weight to the fan doesn't help her keep balance, but somehow she manages.
"We can't go down there!" The Hyuuga screams, fighting to be heard over the ringing in their ears as Temari backs away. "The'll rip us to pieces!" Her veins are bulging around her eyes and Temari knows that the little princess is seeing more than she can right now.
And what she sees alone is enough to unnerve her.
"Is my brother alright!" She yells back over her shoulder and Hanabi shakes her head, Temari feels her heart plummet before listening to the girl speak.
"Naruto-sama isn't fighting the Kazekage he's fighting some other man!"
She's caught for a moment, wondering who exactly that could be. Who in Suna could make Naruto use this kind of power. But it half clicks in her head that the person didn't have to necessarily be from Suna.
At Hanabi's feet had been the unmistakeable body of Kiri's Monster. Kisame.
Akatsuki?
She thought to the last time Naruto had fought Akatsuki, wondered if her brother had already been beaten, wondered a lot of things. Only one thing came to her voice however.
"We need help."
Hanabi nodded, now speaking at a more normal tone as the ringing subsided and the explosion began to die away. "Let me see if I can-"
She looked over her shoulder, finding the girl squinting, forcing her eyes to see those few extra yards to see if she could see something.
"There." She pointed, and Temari brought their path downwards.
Something was wrong. He knew something was wrong, the power, the chakra, it was fading too quickly.
'No.' He thought, equal parts frustration and disbelief.
But no matter how much he willed it, he couldn't stop what was happening, right before his eyes what had once been a towering inferno, engulfing everything he could see infront of him was sucked away in just a scant few seconds, leaving only Pein standing there, half crouched with visible effort, but a smile was on his lips.
It wasn't that he couldn't absorb the wind rassengan.' The demon king glowered, furious at his carelessness. 'He just wanted me to think that he couldn't.
Pein shoved his hands forward, and then Naruto's world turned white.
The first explosion had shook the ground at their feet.
The second had all but knocked him off his feet, along with the ground from under them.
He can hear more of the village falling away, he sees a house tip over and fall into the abyss.
He grits his teeth, now with nearly three dozen ninja around him all but a scarce handful of them injured.
They all tense, some of the younger ones scream in fright, as the entire northern side of the village lights up like a second sun.
He looks towards it, green eyes narrowed. Wondering if the so called Devil King was finally dead or had claimed yet another victim.
Was Akina dead?
He hoped not. Despite their differences, despite whatever misunderstandings or issues of wounded trust had brought them to this point...he didn't want her hurt or worse.
He focused, closing his eyes as he forced the sand beneath them to rise, arcing up like some fish as it dipped back down, forming a wide, clear bridge between this spot and beyond the chasm that cut them off from escape.
As his ninjas passed one by one he couldn't help his impatience, his growing need for them to just move.
These were his people. They were his responsibility. He had to save them.
But this was his home and he was doing nothing to stop these people from destroying it.
All he was doing was picking up shards of shattered glass.
And it was infuriating.
But a city could be rebuilt. It was nothing but bricks, concrete and steel.
It needed its people to rebuild it.
So he would save its people.
Dragging his eyes back towards the now fading second explosion, they saw something that should not be there, making him gape like a fool.
No...it can't be!'
He feels a weight on his chest his sight still dimmed but growing clearer as the ringing in his ears subsided. He noticed her hair first, then her face, twisted in pain.
Sister. He recognized her, then his eyes fell to the quickly vanishing shroud of Kyuubi chakra hovering above them.
One hand fell to her back where he immediately recognized the sensation of blood seeping through the metal of his gauntlets.
Pulling himself out from underneath her he finally got a look at her back, charred black and raw from a massive burn her shirt was for all intents and purposes gone as she lay there.
She shielded me. He deduced.
One hand ran through her hair, as he sighed through his nostrils.
'Fool girl' he thought, though there was no disdain behind it.
She managed to peel open her eyes, though they were clouded and unfocussed. "Na...Na."
"Rest now." He said. "Your wound is severe. Even with your healing you will not survive should you exhaust yourself."
She didn't seem to hear him, slipping in and out of consciousness, she was struggling to stay awake.
His hand ghosted over her eyes with a mild genjutsu. "Sleep sister."
And so she did.
'What a tragic pair we make.'
"You survived." The voice was irritated, regarding him like an insect that refused to properly die beneath the boot.
Naruto stood up, his grip on his blade still firm as he squared off against his enemy.
"Of course I did." He said "A failed god can do no better than his whore of an angel."
Pein attacked him, vanishing for an instant before reappearing right in front of him in a burst of speed. Naruto brought his sword to bare, the ringing sound of steel clashing against steel reverberating through the street once more.
He pushed the Akatsuki nin off, then charged after him to attempt his own attack. Pein dodged the sword strike with almost a casual contempt before he countered with a sword thrust.
This time, Naruto did not block, nor did he dodge. He took the blow as he attacked himself, surprising the Akatsuki ninja as he stepped fully into the attack while he swung again and was rewarded with a deep slash across Pein's chest.
Pein cursed, hastily backing away, his sword hand cradling his bleeding chest wound as his other hand lashed out to push Naruto away.
Naruto fought through his own pain, pushing his body to its limits to ignore whatever properties the black sword had to cause such agony.
He vanished from Pein's sight dodging the push as he rushed at Pein from a completely different angle.
Pein cursed, again, meeting Naruto's charge with his own he struck out with his long black sword, only for Naruto to leap over him with a somersault, his own blade flashing down to cut at the back of Pein's neck as the Rinnegan wielder rolled forward.
When he turned back around he found the demon king already ontop of him, his sword held in both hands as he cut down with all his might. Pein's sword shattered with a sound of crumbling glass as Naruto's blade cut him once more, slicing down from the man's right shoulder to his right hip blood fountained from the wound, coating him in the dripping, warm liquid. Pein rolled back, gaining some distance while he formed more handseals.
Naruto moved to follow, when suddenly there was a virtual army of summoned animals between himself and his opponent.
He cut through them one by one, his blade finding their flesh in seconds, some dispelled, others died instantly, their immaterial links to the summoned realm severed same as their bodies.
But he saw more clouds of smoke around him, as Pein summoned two creatures for every one he cut down. Seeking to stall him.
Naruto glanced at a shadow overhead, and he jumped, cleanly severing the head of the hawk summon that had been diving to claw his eyes out with those talons on his way up.
He twisted his body so his feet were to the sky, his head to the ground as he manipulated the earth to form a thin platform at his feet, landing there, he jumped off, straight down towards the seething mass of beasts below.
His fist came down and from beneath rocks jutted out like spears, skewering creatures and bludgeoning them with stones that shot out of the sand with bone shattering force.
Naruto glanced up, just in time to see the injured Pein making his way into a strange portal of purple fire its grotesque head framing a pair of Rinnegan eyes at the apex of the archway.
Naruto cut through the remaining animals, sprinting towards his enemy with all of his speed until Pein once more lifted his arm and the Godaime was thrown back.
He landed on his feet, panting heavily as Pein entered the archway, only to reemerge again seconds later, with no sign of his previous injuries.
The demon king snarled, growling somewhere low in his throat in pure frustration before he charged again.
He struck once, then again, and again. His three blows finding only Pein's sword as the Akatsuki leader moved once more with the grace of an uninjured man.
His hand struck out again and this time Naruto jumps straight up, drawing out a kunai with a thin chain he threw it, the thin links of metal coiling around Pein's outstretched arm as the Godaime yanked him forward to stand just beneath his descending form.
This time, Pein's block was not so smooth, it was clumsy and very nearly broke beneath Naruto's powerful downward sword swing.
He kicked at the blond, attempting to shove him away only for the chain to grow taught, yanked by Naruto's hand as he pulled Pein forward, slashing at the man's stomach.
He moved to block, both arms gripping the blade and Naruto pulled once more on the chain, one hand flying off the black sword's grip. When steel met steel it did break through Pein's guard, the edge of Naruto's sword cutting right into Pein's side in a shallow wound.
Pein grit his teeth, pulling at the chain with all his strength and finally one of the links snaps, and Naruto is once more shoved back several yards.
Doton: Doryudan!
The rock dragon flew through the space between them, lunging at Pein with a roar, seeking to crush him beneath its mass and weight.
The rinnegan wielder scowled. "Enough!"
The dragon's head shattered like porcelain, Pein ran along the length of its body, charging at Naruto with more speed than what he'd previously demonstrated.
Before he'd even had time to raise his blade Pein's black sword had already bit into his flesh.
It was like blocking the winds of a hurricane, Pein's blade was striking three places almost at once, Naruto had never witnessed anything like it and though he was able to keep the worst of the attacks from striking at vital areas his blood was soon drenching his clothes
When the man finally pushed him away, it was actually a relief, even as he felt his back smashing against some piece of debris or other.
He moved to stand when he realized his body wasn't listening.
'Hmm.'
Pein was walking towards him now, his eyes set on his wounded prey.
'Do it.' He thought, glaring at his attacker. 'One chance is all you'll ever have.'
As the distance closed, and those unnerving lilac eyes glared at him with threatening promise Naruto almost found the urge to smile, though the reason escaped, even him.
"Dynamic entry!"
The shout came a split second before the white blur of a kick almost slammed into Pein's face, driving the man back with a grunt.
Naruto instantly recognized Lee, the vibrant glow of his chakra indicating he'd opened at least the first three of his chakra gates.
Pein barely had time to straighten before he backpedaled quickly to avoid the slash of twin swords cutting down from over head, then rolling to the side as a diminutive Hyuuga landed behind him, nearly catching him in the violent vortex of a Kaiten.
Then a shadow was cast over the Devil King, his head falling back and rising to the sky to an impossible shadow. 'No.'
She lands infron't of him, worry creasing her brow, marring her features as she looks over his wounds. "Are you alright?" She asks him.
He's not. He is exhausted, his body does not respond anymore, his chakra even less so, the burning power brimming within the seal just barely held in check by the remnants of his dwindled energy.
And she's here.
She shouldn't be here. She should be back in Konoha, under guard, safe. Not here, not infront of Pein when he can't even move.
"You need to leave." He says.
Her eyes soften, and he knows she can see his...his concern...She's not supposed to, its not even supposed to be there. But she does see it. Because it is there.
"I will." She says. Once we're done here."
"Stubborn fool..." He coughs, and she barely pays him another glance as she stands and turn, just in time to see Lee rush forward.
This time the Akatsuki leader is prepared for the Taijutsu master's flying kick, side stepping before raising his own foot in a forward kick that slams into Lee's chest, smoothly springing from the foot still on the ground into a somewhat awkward, twist kick that connects with Tenten's shoulder blades as he flips over her, landing in time to lean away from Hanabi's palm-strike and countering with an elbow that breaks through her hasty block and connects solidly with her temple.
Lee returns, and for all his speed, his eyes are not as fast, Pein vanishes from his fight an instant before his fist connects with the man's face, reappearing behind him, Lee doesn't even realize it until he's being sent careening down the street to skid down the length of the road.
Tenten barely even move's to attack before Pein's infront of her as well, the heel of his foot driving itself into the bun haired kunoichi's stomach and knocking her, winded and spitting out colored saliva to the ground.
Turning around, he crossed his arms infront of his face just in time for Temari's closed fan to smash into his limbs with bone jarring force. His foot lashed out, striking her in the stomach then raising his leg to smack his knee into her forehead when she doubled over.
He didn't even turn to look before giving a quick backhand that knocked Tenten down again while simultaneously using his still raised foot to kick the desert princess across the face.
He turned and caught Lee's kick with one hand pulling him up, and over before throwing him into Hanabi, then grabbing the recovering Tenten by the hair and tossing her as well before pushing all three with a strong burst of his gravitic control.
Naruto cursed, snarling between his teeth as he tried to make his body move again as Pein turned and stomped his foot down on Temari's stomach, pinning her to the ground as he held his open palm over her face.
It was just there, the force that would grant him the power to move again, just within reach roiling beneath his skin.
All he would have to do was reach out.
Then the sands came.