Tobi brought the Gunbai up on pure reflex, just diverting the sword from a lethal blow to his heart. In the next second it was brought around again, leaving a keening sound in the air as it split the space between them. Throat, lungs, kidneys, femoral artery, brachial artery… Naruto wasn't pulling his blows, he was going for the kill right from the start. Each swing, lunge and parry came closer and closer to meeting its mark as Tobi back peddled wildly.
He couldn't even use his Gunbai's ability as Naruto wasn't using any Jutsu, just pure unadulterated speed and Kenjutsu technique. It became too much when the chain connecting the weapon to his person was suddenly severed. He looked down to find the severed links burning with black fire, some of it spreading to his cloak. He immediately tore it off, and the distraction cost him as Naruto caught the handle with his blade and flicked it out of his hands, wheeling around to strike at his visible eye.
The entire clearing seemed to still for a moment when the mask cracked, splitting down the middle and falling in two separate pieces to either side. Naruto took the moment to observe his adversary… only to find him wholly unremarkable. There looked to be some strange scarring across the right side of his face, but other than that he looked like any other Uchiha, Sharingan included. Unremarkable, until one considers that he should have been standing next to one of the three remaining living Uchiha.
"Itachi?" Naruto asked, keeping his blade trained on the man; with confirmation that he was an Uchiha he didn't want to lower his guard for an instant.
"He seems familiar."
Tobi sneered, much of his mystique having vanished with the mask. Now he was just another shinobi, angry at the world; he summarily discarded his childish persona. "I would only be familiar, wouldn't I, Itachi-kun? Even as a child you were an arrogant brat, too absorbed in the praise being lauded on you to notice anything below your nose."
He turned to Naruto, meeting the redhead's eye with a piercing stare. "And I'm disappointed in you Naruto-kun, or should I call you Hokage-sama? You know I once changed your diapers? Look what you grew into, perpetuating the same broken cycle that destroyed your entire family."
Naruto's eyes hardened. "Not all of it. I healed, made a new family, accepted my loss and moved on. If you knew me as a child then…" realisation dawned on him suddenly, a friendly face in big orange goggles that he used to think were so cool, a sullen boy with a shock of silver hair and big brown eyes framed by silly blue marks.
"…Obito?"
Tobi scowled. "Oh no, Obito Uchiha died a long time ago, crushed under a rock and left for dead by the people he thought were his friends. He died again when his 'friend' shoved his arm through the woman he loved. He died for the last time when the village he respected forgot all about him, just another name on a shiny black rock. I am a legacy, decades in the making, and I will bring this entire, corrupt, broken world down on its head."
"You're even more insane than I believed," Itachi intoned softly, staring at the man with a mix of pity and a calm alertness.
"Maybe," Obito granted with a lopsided smile, "but you two aren't the only ones that can stall for time."
Naruto felt it first, the subtle tug in the back of his mind that connected him to his Hiraishin tags. He shouldn't have felt those as long as the barrier seal was up, which meant somehow Obito had managed to…
The plant things, he must have had them destroying the seal. He hadn't known because none of his clones had dispersed; he didn't have time to wonder how he had managed that. Acting on instinct he immediately flashed to the one he had placed on Obito, only to appear a few feet away, where the man had discarded his cloak.
There was something else though, itching at the edge of his awareness….
"You see, I'm so many steps ahead of you it's almost dull watching you dance about like puppets on strings."
The redhead's foot twisted at the same moment the tree behind Obito burst into black flame, the Amaterasu harmlessly passing through his body just as Naruto's Rasengan did.
"And now we're back to this tired old game. Well, it was fun boys."
Even as the man talked and Naruto squared his stance, there was still that feeling, like something just out of sight, gears that refused to mesh.
"I gave Pein the task of locating the Jinchuuriki, but I should know better than to delegate. I think I'll handle this personally, perhaps starting with your sister." His body began to twist and distort, twisting in on itself.
And it clicked, the presence was deeply familiar but… old. It was something Naruto hadn't felt in a long time, something he likely didn't even realise he was feeling at the time. The distinct sensation of one of his father's old markers, reactivated when the suppression field went down…
…on Obito's back.
It was over in a blink. One moment Obito was swirling away, the next his body snapped back into normal reality, a sword impaled clean through his heart.
Sharingan eyes went wide as a hand came up to grasp impotently at the red-stained blade.
"B-But the marker, I-I… that's…"
Naruto leaned in, no satisfaction in his voice as he whispered in the lost Uchiha's ear.
"A gift from my father."
A strange sort of look pulled at Obito's face for a moment as he reached forward, eyes unfocused. For just a moment he smiled wistfully.
"So many steps ahead, as always, Sensei."
Then he fell forward, dead.
Naruto took just a moment to breathe, not quite enjoying the moment, but relieved that this at least, was over.
"Did you know him well?" Itachi asked, moving up beside him.
"Sort of? He was part of my dad's old Genin team." He grimaced. "Kakashi's the only one left, I thought the other two died when I was really young. But yeah, I sort of remember them coming over to the house occasionally." He squatted next to the dead Uchiha, turning him over so that the scarred half of his face was concealed. "I remember Obito being so bright and cheerful, always goofing off. I can't imagine what happened to him to turn him into… this."
"Sometimes…" A new voice called out, as a figure walked out of the treeline, hauling something big over their shoulder "…all it takes it time."
Immediately Itachi and Naruto tensed, eyeing the newcomer warily. They had shaggy black hair and wore a shapeless, well-worn cloak. However, the most prominent feature was the demonic mask they wore, with a single eyehole.
"Woah, woah!" He called, letting the bundle, which turned out to be a person, drop to the ground unceremoniously. He put his hands up, slowly moving to take it off. Naruto and Itachi didn't relax for a second. "I'm gone for all these years…" He slowly removed the mask, surprising both of his old teammates with the face beneath.
"…and this is the welcome I get?"
Pein couldn't make sense of what he was seeing. His eyes tracked Jiraiya perfectly, he dodged every titanic blow the man dealt out, and somehow the hits still managed to land. It was like some invisible, unpredictable force was dogging the man's body, half a second out of sync with him. He raised a hand to blast the man back and Jiraiya simply jumped over the wall of force, leaping into the air like his senjutsu's namesake.
The Sannin breathed in, chest expanding to ridiculous proportions, before spitting out a tidal wave of viscous oil. It was swiftly followed by twin gouts of flame, to ignite it, and wind, to fan those flames into an unbearable inferno. The conflagration quickly swallowed the ground, incinerating everything in its path. The only avenue left to the Deva Path was to take to the roofs, where he was immediately met by Jiraiya bringing down a smaller, but no less enormous rasengan.
Again, Pein caught the spiralling sphere with a wall of force, only to get slammed in the side by another huge toad, this one holding a shield and a sasumata. He corrected his ungraceful flight through the village, only to get blindsided by Jiraiya in the middle of the village's main avenue. Again, he dodged the man's vicious haymaker, only to get caught by that invisible force that followed his fist. All the while, his old mentor wore a grim visage as he mercilessly tore into Pein without any of his prior restraint.
And Pein had grown tired off it. The next time Jiraiya charged forward he didn't simply level a Shinra Tensei at him, he forced everything back. The ground, the nearby buildings and even the Toad Sage, were pushed outward from him, leaving a neat crater almost ten feet deep at its centre.
"This has gone far enough. Nobody else shall stand in the path of God. I will make the world realise that without pain, there is no understanding. Without pain, there can be no peace." His eyes narrowed dangerously. "I will make the world know pain."
Konan's normally implacable calm had been thoroughly trodden on. In her mad dash to get back to Pein she had been completely blindsided by a trio of nightmarish pests. They were relentless. Clearly, she had been marked as some kind of high-priority target to have monsters like these after her. The skills she could attribute to skilled ANBU operatives, but these were just kids. She wouldn't be surprised if they were still a genin team.
She had thought the Uchiha to be the main threat, Itachi's little brother if she wasn't mistaken. That alone would have been grounds to be cautious around the teen – despite appearances, Itachi Uchiha unnerved her – but he seemed to be the one tasked with keeping track of her. The Sharingan was an adept tool for that, as well as predicting where she would go and directing his teammates accordingly.
The pink haired one – and how she regretted thinking that was a ridiculous look for a kunoichi – seemed to be tasked with hemming her in. Whether this involved changing the landscape into tactically placed walls, or simply collapsing buildings on her – with Jutsu or sometimes just brute force – was apparently up to her discretion. She was irritating, but would have been manageable if she wasn't so damn resilient. Konan had trapped one of the streets with explosive tags and the girl had simply charge right through, healing her burns on the fly.
Then there was the sword girl. If it was the Uchiha's job to direct her, and the medic's job to distract her, this was the one clearly meant to finish her. The fact that she could follow Konan into the air by stepping off it had caught her so by surprise that the girl's lethally wind-shrouded blade nearly managed to find its mark. That wasn't the extent of it either, the girl could also use it at range, sending nearly-invisible blades of wind at her with strokes of the blade.
It was all Konan could do to avoid the little monsters.
She swooped low, diving into an alleyway. The sheets of paper that currently composed the outside of her body peeled away, forming a perfect, if hollow, clone that continued on in her place. The Uchiha had already seen through this trick once by tracking her Chakra signature, so she dispersed into individual sheets of paper that immediately plastered themselves along the alley, adopting the colours underneath in a perfect camouflage. Even sensors couldn't find her when she was like this, her Chakra was too diffuse.
Sure enough, the purple-haired girl streaked past after her clone. Instead of setting up a trap for her she allowed the girl to pass, she would find a nasty surprise if she managed to destroy her clone. The inside of it was entirely lined with explosive tags that could encircle and obliterate just about anybody. Just to be sure she sent a flock of her homing cranes after the Uchiha to make sure he was distracted.
She reformed a moment later, when the trio had moved on; for now at least, they were relentless beyond all belief.
"Having trouble?"
Konan nearly jumped; it was only her years of similar experiences with Pein appearing out of nowhere that allowed her to simply turn with a raised eyebrow.
"They are merely children."
The Animal Path observed her for a moment from within the mouth of his chameleon summons; that explained how he was able to sneak up on her. "So were we, once."
"Were we really?"
Pein didn't humour her moment of introspection, his eyes tracking the trio of chuunin. "The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki has trained his students well. There are many powerful individuals in this village."
"Too many?" Konan questioned with what approached disbelief; she had never seen anything that was a match for Nagato.
"Nobody can defeat God," Pein shot back almost reflexively. "But it is time to end this. Searching out the individual Jinchuuriki has become untenable, if need be we shall deal with the beasts in person."
"You mean-" But it was already too late. The Animal Path slammed his hand into the ground and they disappeared in puff of smoke. They reappeared on the very outskirts of the village, well outside the wall.
Konan could only watch on as way off in the distance a lone figure began rising up over the village, body silhouetted against the sun.
"This world shall know pain," Nagato said, before the Animal Path slumped over, inert.
"I'm going to default to you on this one," Naruto muttered, glancing across at Itachi without taking his eyes off the ghost in front of him. "This is a Genjutsu, right?"
"That hurts," Shisui shouted indignantly, poking his chest, "right here."
The Uchiha heir seemed just as stunned, even throughout the reunion with Naruto he hadn't displayed this much emotion. "If it is, whoever cast it knows Shisui as well as we did."
Naruto took a moment, staring at the supposed dead man before shrugging. "Good enough for me." He was across the clearing in a flash, picking his old teammate up and spinning him around. "Shisui!" He put him back down, grinning broadly… right before he slugged the man right in the face.
"Ah! What the hell?" The Uchiha complained, clutching his face and glaring up at the redhead with his one good eye.
"We should be asking you that, you ass! Where the hell have you been all this time? We thought you were dead… we saw you die."
"I'm more curious why you chose now to return," Itachi said, walking up to the pair a little more sedately and leaning forward almost tentatively to hug his friend.
"Well, long story about that… and yeah, for all intents and purposes you did see me die."
"Kotoamatsukami?" Itachi ventured, looking thoughtful.
"Yeah, actually."
"But why the charade? Didn't you trust us?" Naruto asked, sounding genuinely betrayed.
At that, Shisui scowled. "You can thank him for that." He kicked the bundle at his feet, flipping it over and revealing Danzo bound on the ground, blood leaking from the under the bandages across his right eye.
"Oh good, I worried he'd get away in all this mess," Naruto mused tonelessly, glaring at Danzo like a particularly bloody piece of meat.
"Yeah well, that's me," Shisui muttered, "clearing up your guys' messes since time immemorial." When he received two flat stares he wilted sheepishly, coughing into his hand. "But, yeah… explanations." He sobered slightly, meeting Naruto's eyes. "I assume, that since you became Hokage you know all about the mess with the Uchiha?"
Naruto nodded grimly, glancing across at Itachi who refused to meet his gaze.
"Well we were both caught up right in the middle of that. The old man wanted to settle everything peacefully, but Fugaku wasn't having it. Danzo on the other hand…" he gave the older man a kick for good measure "…saw a different way of settling everything; namely, my eyes. I refused, something like that wouldn't actually help anything. It'd be like putting a plaster over a stab wound; a temporary fix at best."
Itachi put it together first, how they had found Shisui that night by the river, the state of Danzo's face now…
"He tried to take your eyes by force."
Shisui nodded solemnly. "He blindsided me and managed to get one before I could get away, I couldn't let him get the other."
"So you faked your death," Naruto summed up. "With the only credible witnesses that had political protection from Danzo's schemes." He looked down with a scowl. "And we had to believe it was real, because if Danzo had access to that technique… we wouldn't even know what we might tell him."
"For what it's worth, I really am sorry."
"But what have you been doing all this time?" Itachi asked.
"Waiting," he said, some of his old humour returning. "I'd gotten really good at the whole hermit schtick too. But then somebody…" he sent a sidelong glance at Naruto "…had to get embroiled in a war. I figured I'd put myself to use and clean up before you could really put your foot in it."
The Hokage put a finger to his temple and shook his head with a wry grin. "I never was able to work out why all those Iwa troops pulled out of Kusa without explanation."
Shisui nodded. "Then I got word down the grapevine that something big had gone down in Konoha, only to find out Danzo was public enemy number one. I've been camped out on the border ever since, waiting for my chance to catch the bastard." He reached into the satchel at his waist and pulled out a small jar containing green liquid. A Sharingan eye floated innocuously in the solution. "Don't suppose you guys know a good eye doctor?"
The redhead grinned. "At least three actually, I'll put in a word when all of this is over with and you can finally come back home." He was brought-up short by Shisui's serious look.
"Naruto, I… I don't think I can come back just yet. I've just finally started to realize what a difference I can make out there. It's amazing how much you can do when everyone thinks you're dead." He let a small smile slip back onto his features. "Besides, I've really caught something of a traveller's bug. Don't get me wrong, I'll definitely come back one day, can't leave cousin Sasuke to re-build a clan all on his lonesome, just… not yet."
Naruto paused a moment before nodded, letting out a breath he didn't realise he was holding. "I… think I understand."
"I'm afraid the situation is a bit more cut and dry for me," Itachi added. "Like Shisui, my work isn't done. The disease isn't debilitating yet, and there is a lot I would still like to do, a few members of the Akatsuki left to hunt."
"Do you know how long you have?" Naruto asked.
"Two, maybe three years if I don't exert myself." All three of them shared a wry smile; Itachi Uchiha did nothing but exert himself. "But I have time enough."
Again, Naruto nodded, unsure how to feel when faced with the prospect of losing his two best friends for the second time. "Just remember to ask for help when you need it."
"Of course," the Uchiha replied with one of his mysterious little smiles, "that's what teammates are for, are they not?"
"So, I suppose the only thing left to do is deal with this clown," Shisui muttered, prodding the bound Danzo with his foot.
"Might be harder than you think," Naruto groused, feeling a deep temptation to simply kill the man here and now where there were no witnesses that would care, "even despite his actions recently he still has a great deal of political clout across the village, and pinning something on him specifically will be a nightmare for… what?" He trailed off at the sight of Shisui grinning.
"I shouldn't worry about all that too much, just tell the interrogators to take a look at his right arm, I think they'll find it sufficient evidence for whatever they need."
"And on that note," Itachi cut in, gazing out over the mountain to where a single figure could be seen rising up over the village. "I believe there are events that demand the Hokage's attention."
"Oh, I never did get to congratulate… and he's gone." Shisui sighed, turning to Itachi. "He's gotten all precocious without us around, hasn't he?"
Itachi didn't answer, simply staring out over the panorama of the village, somewhat battered and harried as it was, with a small smile.
Pein had a magnificent view as he rose higher over the village, one fit for a God looking down on his dominion. In a moment, all of this would be gone, obliterated under his singular power. The Jinchuuriki would likely die, or not; it made no difference to him. Either way they would be far easier to capture. The Bijuu were brutes, mindless and slaves to their baser instinct. It would be child's play to subjugate them and feed their energy to the Gedo Mazo.
"This will be the start of a world at peace, the first major step in securing a world that has true understanding. They will know fear, they will know sorrow… and most importantly, Konoha will be the first to know pain. Shin-"
"Funny…"
Pein never even saw it coming, one moment he felt the power building up inside him, rippling under his skin at the chance to be unleashed. The next he felt something smash into his back without mercy, sending him hurtling towards the ground.
Naruto bounced once on his bastardized version of Fuu's technique, watching Pein's body crash back into the village in a large cloud of dust, then he let himself fall.
"…I was thinking something similar."
He vanished in a flash of red, reappearing right above the recovering Deva Path with a large Rasengan already primed to deepen the small crater his body had made. He used the momentum of the technique to flip back onto his feet, watching the orange-haired man slowly regain his feet.
"We've met once before, but as a guest of the village, I feel I should give you a proper welcome."
Pein raised his hand but Naruto was already gone, the wall of force hitting nothing but the building behind him. He reappeared next to the man, teleporting to the hiraishin marker he had place all those months ago when he had first met the Akatsuki leader.
"Welcome to Konoha, I'm Naruto Namikaze, the Godaime Hokage, and here's the tour." He grabbed the shaky man by the cloak and suddenly vanished. Only the birds could follow what happened from there as Naruto appeared and disappeared hundreds of times across the village in a few seconds, turning the streets red from his after images.
Every single instance of his technique's use was met by a brutal kick or punch, channelling the full momentum of his instantaneous travel and directing it right at the punching bag in his arms.
"On…" knee to the gut "…be…" slammed into a wall "…half…" elbow to the temple "…of…" slammed into the ground "…my…" kick to the knee "…vill…" punch to the throat "…age…" kick to the stomach "…I…" roundhouse to the ribs "…ask…" punch to the face "…that…" thrown through a wall "…you…" knee to the spine "…kind…" elbow to the chest "…ly…"
The reappeared back where they started. Pein hadn't even finished folding in on himself from the brutal blow to his torso, still in mid-air. Naruto now stood beside him, rasengan swirling to life in his palm and a hard set to his eyes.
"…piss off."
The ball of pure Chakra came down like a comet, slamming the puppet body into the ground and carried on, drilling right through without mercy. What little glass had managed to cling to the nearby window frames finally gave up and shattered, leaving a light tinkling noise to go with Naruto's heavy breathing.
He was suddenly very tired, the day's events finally catching up with him. It was rare he performed quite that many teleports in such a short amount of time and it was trying.
"Jeez kid, overkill much?" Jiraiya commented as he walked over, still bearing the marks and physical changes of his Sage mode.
"Yeah, well, when I come from my own fight to find somebody had managed to cling on this long… in the middle of my damn village, I'm not going to treat them with a light touch."
Jiraiya just nodded grimly, moving forward to gently close Yahiko's eyes. "Probably for the best, I'm not sure there is such a thing as overkill for this one."
"You knew him?"
The older man sighed. "I thought I did, a long time ago. But it's not ever yet, these were just puppets. I still have to deal with their true leader."
"Need some help? I still have some energy left in the tank."
The Sannin gave him a sideways smile. "Thanks kid, but some things a teacher needs to do himself, you know?"
The redhead nodded, watching Jiraiya take one of Pein's many piercings out. "Yeah, I can understand that." He winced slightly when the man proceeded to stab himself with the sharp rod, immediately looking off to a specific direction outside of the city. "So, being a Sage makes you some kind of sensor?"
The Toad Sannin gave the Hokage a tired grin. "Oh, now you're curious about Senjutsu?"
Naruto shrugged, but Jiraiya had already moved on, sprinting off in the direction his senses informed him, leaving the young Hokage to his own devices. Lacking anything better to do in the sudden lull, he took to a nearby rooftop to survey the damage. It wasn't as bad as he feared, although a lot of Genin teams would be pulling D-ranks over the coming weeks.
He smiled lightly at the sudden calm that descended as Shinobi began to flit about, getting a better read on the situation.
Konoha had survived worse.
There was still a great deal left to do though, and his job was far from done. It would be almost idyllic if he could wrap everything up with a good fight, but he was a warrior second, a leader first. The thought of the paperwork that would accompany this mess was nearly enough to put a downer on his mood, but right now he had a family to go find. He wasn't worried on that front; Anko, even pregnant, could take care of herself.
Yeah, Konoha would be just fine, and so would they.
Itachi hunted in silence, tracking the oh-so subtle traces left by the Zetsu clones. They were extremely hard to track, but his Sharingan hadn't deteriorated quite that far. It had been a mostly fruitless chase up until now, just the ordinary clone variety that would have died in a few days without direction. This one though, this one was dangerous.
He found it limping away, having the misfortune to have latched on to one of the injured clones. It was an ugly thing, half black and half white, almost perfectly down the middle. A gruesome smile stretched across half its otherwise featureless face.
"Zetsu," Itachi announced greeted almost casually, catching the creature unawares; it must have been quite panicked to be so out of sorts. To its credit, the thing managed to compose itself, turning with dignity despite its limp.
"Itachi, how strange to meet you all the way out here." It took a step forward as if to raise its arms placatingly, only to suddenly lurched forward, the arms extending into long, thick roots that grasped at the Uchiha scion.
Itachi stood still and allowed himself to be enveloped, which should have been the first warning sign. It was also the only warning sign as, without fanfare, the Uchiha's clone exploded, taking much of the roots with it. Zetsu reeled back, hissing with pain and turned to flee, only to come face to face with another Itachi, this one with a tanto raised. Zetsu was prepared this time though and roots burst from the ground with sharpened points, impaling the Uchiha.
The unnatural creature grinned as he saw real blood drip from Itachi's mouth, assured of his victory.
Meanwhile, Itachi watched on stoically from the other side of the creature as it laughed at its illusionary victory. He pondered for a moment the best way to do this and settled on something that felt poetically appropriate. This creature had been a factor in the destruction of the Uchiha, so Itachi in turn decided on a very Uchiha-like solution.
There was barely even ash left when Itachi was through incinerating Zetsu; the thing hadn't even escaped the genjutsu before it died.
Even Uchiha had mercy.
Shisui stood atop the mountain, watching the sunset with both eyes for the first time in too many years. It had been simple to henge into an ANBU and drop off Danzo with T&I, they were too busy with the clean-up to scrutinise him too closely. Then it was just a matter of getting his eye fixed. Sneaking into one of the medical camps had been easy enough, although he stayed as far from Tsunade as he could.
He still had his old hitai-ate, and was fairly certain nobody would remember his old mug, so didn't feel the need to risk a henge. A nice pink-haired girl had healed him up, not even asking why he was holding his own eye in hand, simply giving him the treatment before moving onto her next patient. A bit clinical, but he couldn't fault her handiwork. Experimentally he cycled through the stages of his Sharingan before reverting to his normal dark eyes. Just being able to blink normally again was heavenly.
Sometimes it was the little things.
With a last, longing look at his village, wreathed in the light of the rising sun, he turned and strode off. Konoha had a long road of recovery ahead of it, but he was certain Naruto could handle it. If he couldn't, well, he had him and Itachi working in the background. And now that he had both eyes back, there was a lot of work to do.