38

Chapter 37: Heavy Forecast

Hamako entered the Hokage Tower with her usual serene smile on her face. She had a stack of papers in her arms, letting those around her know this was a business trip, but from the look on her face it was if she were taking a nice morning stroll.

As she neared Tsunade's office she said good morning to the shinobi stationed inside as Tsunade's assistants and the like before making her way to Tsunade's most trusted one, "Hello Shizune-san. I have an appointment with Hokage-sama this morning."

Shizune gave her a smile, "It's nice that you actually make appointments instead of just dropping in like Naruto-kun does. How he never drops in when she's busy I'll never know."

Hamako let out a small giggle, "Naruto-sama is good like that. He doesn't like being formal outside of missions though. May I enter?"

"Yes you can." Shizune said, "Go right ahead."

Hamako bowed to Shizune and headed inside of Tsunade's office. The head of the female kage looked up at her and gave her a smile, "Hello Hamako. How are you today and what can I do for you?"

Hamako bowed to Tsunade and placed the papers she had with her on the desk, "I'm doing well Hokage-sama. I came here today because I want to surprise Naruto-sama when he gets back."

Tsunade looked at her curiously, "Surprise him how? Naruto doesn't really like most surprises seeing as how they try to kill him." She looked at some of the papers Hamako left on her desk, "I assume you just came from the bank this morning."

"Yes I did." Hamako said, "And he will like this surprise. Master has an excess amount of spare money due to his frequent higher level missions, captured bounty of Akasuna no Sasori, and does not have to readily support me due to my work at the Academy. He has a lot of money and as such I suggest a move from his apartment to an actual home. I've been dealing with this on and off for almost a year now."

Looking through more of the papers Hamako carried in, Tsunade got her point, "So I assume you're here because you've decided on something he would like and you're relaying this to me due to him being my shinobi."

A nod from the elder blonde woman came from Hamako, "Yes, it should be something nice for master to come home to after this mission he's currently on. Would you like to visit the one I've chosen after it is made official later today Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade smiled at her, "Certainly. You should come back around six in the evening. I'm sure he'll love it."

XxX

(With Naruto – Amegakure no Sato)

Naruto had a dry look on his cloaked and covered face as he sat quietly on a passenger boat. Other than the man running the boat and the five other passengers aboard, Naruto only had one thought running through his mind, 'I hate the rain, I hate the rain, I hate the rain, I hate-.'

"Shut up right now or I will start singing again." Kyuubi growled in his head. Amegakure no Sato was surrounded by water created by the perpetual rainfall that took place in the village. Just outside of the flooded area lay a smattering of outlying villages, where Naruto boarded a boat intended to come into the main hidden village itself. The boat ride had lasted for around an hour with no canopy over top. Thus the only thing keeping Naruto from the elements was the cloak over his head that he was using to obscure his features, and it was bitterly cold outside as well.

'Sorry Kyuubi.' Naruto thought to his demonic inmate, 'But rain is the precipitation I hate the most, and it's cold as hell too, making it worse… Maybe I should have tried taking the other way in. It might be dryer than this. Fucking rain… I hate the rain, I hate the rain, I hate the rain-. Ugh, sorry.'

"Game face on ningen." Kyuubi advised, "Forget about the weather. You'll be living in it until we're done here. You remember what to do once you get in don't you?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, 'Of course I do. My part of the infiltration was all my plan anyway. It's totally foolproof.'

"How about two-foolproof?"

'Fuck you.' Naruto shot back, 'Me and Ero-kyofu are golden. Once I get in he'll find me. I have no idea how he's going to do that, but once we get in I guess we'll just have to wait and see.' The Kyuubi's laughter rang out in Naruto's head, confusing Naruto deeply, 'What's funny? Nothing's funny about this.'

Kyuubi stopped laughing long enough to answer its jinchuuriki, "You do remember what Danzo told you about basic infiltration in all of the noteworthy villages don't you?"

'Of course I do.' Naruto thought testily, 'You don't forget stuff like that.'

Kyuubi started laughing again, "Then you would remember that Amegakure has a policy of security checks and surveillance to all visitors."

Naruto wasn't getting it, 'So? I can deal with the surveillance, that's rookie stuff, and I don't have any weapons or anything conspicuous on me anyway. Who cares if they have security checks? There's nothing on me that could give me away.'

Kyuubi chuckled a bit more, "Okay then. I guess you're right. Yeah those series of cavity searches should be no problem for a tough guy like you right?" Kyuubi could feel Naruto just lock up after that statement was uttered and let out more laughter.

Naruto grit his teeth under his face cover as the sound of raindrops mixed with the laughter of his inner demon, 'I hate you so much.'

XxX

(Elsewhere in Amegakure)

In the tallest tower of Amegakure, a pair of ripple pattern eyes peered through the darkness of the room they were in, "Konan." The voice of Pein called out, "There are intruders of interest in Ame. Please locate and identify one of them for me, he will be around the western quadrant. If he is who I suspect him to be, you know what to do."

A woman with blue hair and a paper flower in her hair, dressed in the Akatsuki robe, Konan walked out onto the ledge outside into the rain, "As you wish Pein-sama." With that, a pair of wings sprouted from her back as she jumped into the sky and took off in flight.

After the presence of his female partner had vanished from view, Pein shut his eyes, "And about this other presence? Another presence, and it feels so familiar. I hope you enjoy your return to Ame sensei, thank you for bringing me the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. And I hope you enjoy being in the presence of God before your death."

XxX

(With Naruto)

He had lived through the demeaning cavity searches that had awaited him after the boat had docked, there had been one right after everyone got off, there had been one once they had gotten inside the dock building, there had been another one right outside at the gate before they could actually get to town itself. After dealing with that he decided to go on walkabout until Jiraiya found him somehow. There wasn't much he could do except start getting information as long as he didn't have any gear on him, not even a lone shuriken rested on his person.

He had never been so unarmed in the field in his entire life and he had to say, it was rather hard keeping his cool around all of the Ame ninja inside of the posts waiting to search him. He had to keep his fingers from twitching towards his bladeless back, or his pouch-less thigh. Despite the out-of-his-comfort-zone feel he had the entire time, once he got out to the streets he felt much more at home in his little espionage mission.

Amegakure was a very industrialized village, more so than Konoha. There were elevators abound, cable cars all over carrying people between the tall buildings, tons of neon signs and the like. Most of the ninja he saw, instead of using kunai and shuriken as their primary long range weapon, took to carrying umbrellas that would sprinkle senbon in a deadly rain of sorts… original. In addition to that, a lot of them wore oxygen tanks and facemasks that would allow them to breathe underwater.

The village itself was huge. The buildings were more narrow than Konoha's, but they were so much taller. Skyscrapers were abundant in the village, but even then there were so many of them. Still, infiltrating this village felt more comfortable than trying to do so in any of Orochimaru's bases. At least he had free reign to fight and run away if he needed to. It was going to be one hell of a challenge for anyone in Ame to corner him if he was discovered and forced to flee. There were tons of canals that were full to the brim with rainwater and he could see younger ninja down in them… a lot of D-ranked missions in Ame probably had to do with how they dealt with all of the excess rain and flooding.

'Ero-kyofu better not be fucking around on the outskirt villages.' Naruto had left Jiraiya to infiltrate Ame on his own as both of them together would be too risky to attempt. Naruto would be heading through the front door so to speak while Jiraiya ensured Naruto that he had his own way of getting in inconspicuously. He left it at that and sent Naruto on his own way to get in saying that if he didn't beat him there he would catch up soon enough. That was just one of the things they had spoken about before beginning their operation in earnest.

(Flashback – One Day Ago – Just Past Ame's Border)

Jiraiya looked at Naruto as they both trudged through the rain, "You're very strong Naruto. I'm very proud of you I want you to know that."

Naruto looked over at Jiraiya and returned his attention to walking, "Don't say stuff like that Ero-kyofu. You know it's bad luck to say that crap before we do things like this. Save it until after we leave this country and get somewhere safe."

Jiraiya shook his head, "No I'm saying this now. You're one hell of a ninja kid. You're going to be a great Hokage whenever Tsunade-hime decides to cough up the hat to you. Root-trained or not, I know so. And I've said it a million times, but I'm truly sorry about sealing you off when you were younger."

Seeing the sincerity in the man's eyes Naruto couldn't just tell him to stifle, "It's alright. I forgave you a long time ago, you know that. What's wrong with you?"

'Just thinking back to some old pupils kid.' Jiraiya gave Naruto a wide grin, "I've got something I need to teach you once this mission is over. Something that I'm excited about. We'll talk about it more once we get out of this, alright?"

Naruto shrugged off Jiraiya's previous attitude with a grin of his own, "Now that's more like it."

(End Flashback)

"I saw the angel today." A nearby man said as Naruto took temporary refuge under an awning from the rain, "I still can't believe that someone was able to take down Hanzo, but I guess he is God after all!"

Naruto frowned underneath his facemask, 'This guy killed the guy that the guy who trained me wanted to drain of his lifeblood with a spoon but never had the chance. And they call him God… S-rank superiority complex. I really don't want to meet this guy yet. Now where do I go to wait for Ero-kyofu, the bar? No, that's too obvious. ' Naruto started walking around the village again, just seeming like a harmless tourist of sorts as he thought things out and took in the conversations of the people around him.

All the citizens were talking about were the guy they called 'God' and the person they referred to as his 'angel'. The more he heard, the less he liked and the sooner he wanted to leave. But he had just gotten there, they hadn't even gotten to the crux of the mission yet and he still had to find Jiraiya. Maybe after he had a blade or twenty on him he would feel less skittish over the whole matter, but until then he was cold, wet, hungry, alone, and unarmed, miles away from home, in the dead zone of the Elemental Nations. If anything happened he would have one hell of a breakout ahead of him as if Orochimaru's hidden village was a rat's nest, then this village was a hill of fire ants.

The people believed that this Pein guy kept the village safe, that he was God among men, and there had to be some reason for that. Naruto wasn't buying it in the least, but if the guy ran Akatsuki, could beat a legend that inspired terror like Hanzo, and could get people to call him God he had to have something that backed it up.

It was alright. Just don't get caught. Simple. Be cool, be ice. What did they have on him? Nothing. Tons of people came into Ame looking like him, it was raining and cold as hell. Everyone was bundled up.

When Naruto was sick of wandering around he saw a sight that made him grin widely under his cover. A small building that he knew wasn't a regular part of Ame, no matter how well it looked like it belonged there. A cozy looking tavern with lights on and the prices of cheap drinks out front. What kept Naruto from going in, was that he knew exactly what this was, and seeing as how he was the only person on this particular street it was almost show time.

And he was not disappointed when the building turned into small toad, signifying the presence of the man he was looking for, "Smooth Ero-kyofu." Naruto said, "I'm going to assume you caught someone just now in there."

Jiraiya appeared at Naruto's side, grinning, "You know it gaki. How'd you like the cavity searches?" He asked with an amused look on his face.

Naruto gave him a look with the only thing visible being his piercing blue eyes, "I hate you so much right now. The only thing stopping me from leaping out and you and kicking you in the balls right now is that I still need you."

"Don't give me that look." Jiraiya said before holding up a scroll, "Here, I brought you your goodies." Naruto quickly took it from his grasp, "Felt naked without your stuff did you?"

"You have no idea." Naruto replied, "Alright, go shake down your captures, I'm going to change into something better. It's not like if I do my job right I'm going to be seen again so it doesn't matter."

XxX

(A Few Hours Later)

Naruto waited for Jiraiya to return from interrogating his prisoners. He changed into the same stuff he had on for the Yuki no Kuni mission, only he kept his cloak over top due to the weather. He noticed the look on Jiraiya's face as he returned from getting his information and shared it all with Naruto. How this Pein character killed Hanzo in battle, how he eradicated anyone loyal to or anyone who had a relationship of any sort with Hanzo, "So what'd you do with the guy?" Naruto asked after all of their cards had been lain out on the table.

Jiraiya wiped the rainfall from his face, "I sent him to Konoha. He wouldn't say anything more about Pein than what I told you so hopefully they can work something more out of him."

Naruto nodded, Jiraiya was good, but he wasn't an interrogation specialist. It was better to send him to people that could definitely coax the information from him, "So now what's the plan? Where do you need me Ero-sennin?"

Jiraiya pointed up at a skyscraper, "I need you to find me areas of potential interest. Do what you need to do. Find me anywhere that could have anything we need to know Naruto. Send me periodic reports on your progress, don't be afraid to send a toad. With all of this water it should be easy enough for them to stay discreet. I'll be keeping my feet to the pavement for now."

The two Konoha ninja looked at one another before Naruto took on a stone-like face and saluted Jiraiya before vanishing in a shunshin.

Jiraiya watched as the after-trail of his shunshin dispersed, "Good luck gaki." With that he went off on his own to dig up his own dirt.

XxX

Well someone in Amegakure was spoiling for a fight rather soon, or so the stockpiled weapons here and there inside of storehouses all over the village would attest to. No one inside of Ame seemed to be ready for any kind of war, but the kind of surplus that Naruto found was just too much for it to just be superfluous. It had been a few hours since he had left Jiraiya, and he actually had something to arouse some suspicion so he figured then was as good a time as any to check in with his perverted sensei/godfather.

Naruto had taken his place atop a skyscraper as he sat out for a short reprieve. It had been a while since he had to go under the radar like this, he forgot how much energy it expended staying hidden for so long. Good thing it was something you never forget how to do. Before Naruto took to biting his thumb to begin a summoning, he saw a figure in the sky not too much higher than he already was.

As it flew around the area he frowned to himself, "Damn it, this is too soon…" He knew his cover was already blown by whoever this was, but if he could take this person out and go along his way he might have been able to stay hidden. It didn't seem like this person had risen the alarm on his presence yet, that was their mistake.

"The last mistake they'll ever make." Naruto said to himself as his cloaked form stood straight up to address that he knew he was found out. The cold storm wind causing his cloak to flutter about, eventually pushed the hood off of his head to reveal his blonde hair. He pulled the facemask connected to his shirt under his flak jacket down to reveal his whiskered cheeks.

A series of projectiles flew at Naruto from the aerial attacker. Naruto had to say he was jealous of whoever it was, he had mastered his element and he still couldn't fly. But for right then he had to stifle that thought and dodge before he was hit. Naruto moved out of the way of the attacks and as one stuck itself into the roof he was standing on he saw that it was a sheet of paper.

Naruto touched the edge of it to reveal that it was razor sharp. That would have seriously injured him if it had hit him. He turned his attention back to his opponent who had sent out an entire salvo of the paper shuriken for another attack. Naruto drew his sword and sliced through them, 'A long range fighter like Deidara.' He thought as he decided he was going to close the distance in this one even if it killed him. He'd be damned if he was going to let himself get picked apart from a distance this time around, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"

Naruto was joined on top of the skyscraper by ten copies of himself that had immediate orders to cover him while he tried to close in on his airborne enemy. He ran towards the end of the rooftop and jumped into the air at his opponent. "Fuuton: Kaze Wakiokoru (Wind Release: Wind Burst)!" As he started to fall, his jutsu activated and the air bubbles underneath his feet burst, giving him a temporary platform with which he was able to spring at his opponent.

Naruto swung his sword at the enemy, but missed wide and wound up sticking to the side of another building. From his up close attack, he saw that he was fighting a woman, a woman in an Akatsuki robe. Yeah, he was in it now. She flew past him on wings made of paper, she fired paper shuriken at him. She certainly had a strange style of ninjutsu.

His clones had begun to bombard her with weaponry of their own from the rooftop as he watched her navigate her way through the attack with her paper wings. How she was able to use paper in the rain he had no clue. Naruto crouched down standing sideways on the wall and pounced off hard, giving himself enough momentum to carry himself back to the roof with his clones where he immediately began making hand-seals, "Raiton: Kaminari Shuriken (Lightning Release: Lightning Shuriken)!"

The recent amount of weaponry in the air above the female Akatsuki member's head due to his clones missing began raining down lightning around her that she dodged. Naruto kneeled down in front of a wall of his Kage Bunshin, "Draw!" All of them pulled out a fuuma shuriken each, "Aim!" All of them drew their arms back to throw at the woman still dodging the lightning bolts raining down on her, "Fire!" The clones let loose the shuriken that prompted Naruto to begin his own hand-seals, "Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"

The large, mid-air shuriken multiplied in flight and went right for his enemy in a wall of steel. Naruto watched as the woman was shredded in mid-air with the vicious barrage of weapons before narrowing his eyes as the feeling of his clones that had formed a wall behind him being cut down fluttered through his mind.

Naruto immediately leapt to his right with no time to spare as all of his clones were vanquished with extreme prejudice by more deadly flying paper. He turned with his sword at the ready to see the woman standing in front of him on the same rooftop. Naruto spoke, "You know, I thought for a second that I might have put you down with that last one, but that was just a clone the entire time, wasn't it?"

"You're correct." She replied coolly as she slowly walked forward, "I can assure you that the genuine article will not be as easy to defeat Kyuubi jinchuuriki."

"I have a name lady, and I know you know it." Naruto said as he readied himself for anything from her, "I'm not going to ask you to leave me alone, or even to surrender because I know you won't. All I'm going to say is that you'd better be ready for me."

Her eyes showed nothing but stoicism, "I have a name too Naruto Uzumaki. It is Konan. And I never underestimate my enemies. Doing so to you would make me an utter fool." She extended her hand as a sword of paper seemingly formed out of her sleeve right before she dashed forward.

Naruto quickly blocked it and took a retaliation swing that she dodged by jumping back and sending out a rush of paper shuriken at him. Naruto cut through all the ones that were immediately dangerous to him, leaving the rest to turn his cloak to tatters, exposing him to the elements fully. Naruto ripped off the rest of the cloak and threw it at Konan as a weapon of convenience. The remains of the tattered cloak were reduced to ribbons by Konan's paper, but while it still existed it provided enough of a blindspot for Naruto to get to Konan's left side where he lashed out with a horizontal swing of his sword. He cut through a wall of paper that Konan haphazardly put up to stop him and saw her form a massive paper airplane to take off with.

Naruto sheathed his sword and grabbed on to the back of the plane just as she enabled it to take off from the rooftop, bringing him right along with her in her flight. The added unexpected weight of Naruto immediately caused problems for the flight as they were directed into a nosedive shortly after they left the roof. Konan tried pulling up but it was too heavy to brute force upright. Naruto made a set of one-handed hand-seals, "Fuuton: Reppuushou (Wind Release: Gale Palm)!"

Naruto aimed the directional wind to turn the plane upright well enough that it brought them out of the dive. Naruto pulled himself up onto the plane and his presence was answered with a sword slash aimed at his face that he leaned back to avoid as it almost cleaved off his nose. Naruto responded by letting off a punch at her that when it made contact made her body burst into paper and reform behind him, with an attempt to stab him through the body.

Naruto rolled off the side of the paper airplane and pulled himself back up the other side with a kick at Konan that she blocked with a mass of paper, "I thought you guys weren't supposed to kill me."

Konan gave him a hard look, "Don't be foolish. You know that you can survive that with little problems. I won't kill you, but when I'm done you'll wish you were. You will feel pain before your life ends, that I can promise you."

Naruto smirked, "Honey, until you've been tied to a chair at the age of six and 'emotionally conditioned' in Root, you don't know what pain is."

Konan's eyes hardened at the sound of the name 'Root', "But until then, as I said. You'll survive this." After saying that, Konan used the paper that made up the airplane and reformed her wings before flying off, leaving Naruto hurtling high-speed through the air between the skyscrapers with nothing under him.

"Holy shit! You crazy bitch!" Naruto screamed as he continued flying through the air, "If I live through this in one piece I swear to Kami I'm going to fuck you up!" Naruto hurtled through the skyline of Ame until a building finally got in his way, "Fuck! Slow down, slow down, slow down!" Nothing Naruto had in his arsenal could change his trajectory and he was moving too fast for him to use Fuuton: Kaze Wakiokoru to slow himself down or keep himself in the air, so all he could do was soften the impact enough to keep him from doing his best impression of a smashed insect.

"Fuuton: Rasengan (Wind Release: Rasengan)!" Naruto made the two handed, elementally charged Rasengan and brutally punched a hole into the building he was flying at, causing him to crash-land inside of the building.

Konan hovered at the entrance that Naruto had created high up in the building, a motionless Naruto was what she saw strewn out in the rubble in a hallway from his last ditch effort to keep himself in the fight, "You're not defeated yet, don't insult me by trying to play dead. You're probably a Kage Bunshin."

"Boom." The laid out Naruto said lowly before an explosion filled the hallway and came back out through the hole, forcing Konan to fly higher to dodge the fireball made from the explosive note that was attached to the now incinerated Naruto.

Konan was able to elevate a floor, however Naruto crashed through a window from above her, his clothes all beat up from crashing through a building wall, scratches all along his face from it as well, a one-tail chakra cloak covering his body, and a Rasengan in his right hand. The attack hit Konan, took out one of her wings, and propelled them both downward towards the ground.

Konan, luckily for her, hadn't been subjected to the violent jutsu for too long, letting her reform her wings rather quickly. Naruto was still close to her however and used the tail of his chakra cloak to grab her, pull her close, and latch on to her, keeping her from flying correctly.

The direction of her awkward flight pattern led them to a canal where they skimmed the water before the actual impact of them hitting the surface occurred, throwing them apart forcefully.

XxX

(With Jiraiya – Before Naruto and Konan's Battle Began)

It had been hours since Jiraiya had heard anything from Naruto, and he had just come from speaking with his Ame contact, giving him his new orders for the time being. Jiraiya proceeded to go about his own through the shadows of Ame, looking for any sign of the kid as well as waiting for any news from him.

During his search he heard a sound of something crashing and the sounds of people panicking in the streets around him. Jiraiya quickly found the area where the skyscraper was wrecked on what appeared to be the fifteenth floor or higher. Suddenly a massive fireball emerged from the hole and a glowing red figure dropped from a higher floor to hit someone floating in the air. He saw paper flutter from the person's falling body and knew only one person that had a jutsu anywhere near resembling that, 'Konan is that you?'

"The angel is in a fight?"

"Who would be crazy enough to call the wrath of God and his angel after what he did to Hanzo?"

"It doesn't matter, he won't be around long enough for it to matter anyway."

Jiraiya grit his teeth, "Damn it gaki." He muttered before moving towards where he saw them fall. He wasn't doing too badly from the looks of things, but things could change in a hurry. The Akatsuki always operated in twos and while he seemed to be winning against the one, the second member could attack him at any time, "This Akatsuki thing is going to kill either him or me I swear."

Before he could get too far a voice called him, "I would say that your opinion is correct, but you don't need to be told that you're about to die Jiraiya-sensei."

Jiraiya saw a man standing on a pillar nearby staring at him. The man had orange hair tied back in a long ponytail, multiple piercings in his nose and all over his face, a slashed Ame hitae-ate, and an Akatuski cloak. His most relevant trait was a set of eyes with distinct ripple pattern eyes.

Jiraiya stared at the man hard for a long while before finally speaking up, "You've certainly changed a lot, but those eyes. You're Pein, aren't you Nagato?" The man did not respond, "I guess you didn't grow up the way I wished you would. What happened to you?"

Pein narrowed his eyes at Jiraiya, "You don't need to know. After all, you're just an outsider in my village."

Jiraiya shook his head at the man, "You've changed Nagato."

Pein made a few hand-seals, "For the better? Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!" A large crustacean with body piercings of its own appeared in a puff of smoke, "Suiton: Houmatsu Rappa (Water Release: Violent Bubble Wave)!" The crustacean fired a wave of bubbles, much like the jutsu name indicated, that Jiraiya jumped away from against a wall.

"Who do you think you're dealing with?" Jiraiya asked as he made his own hand-seals, "Ranjishigami no Jutsu (Wild Lion's Mane Jutsu)!" His hair extended and wrapped around the summon creature before even more of his hair grew into the shape of a lion's mouth that engulfed the crustacean and kept going towards Pein.

He dodged the initial attack, but wound up getting wrapped up in Jiraiya's elongated hair. Jiraiya looked at the man caught in his grasp sadly, "Nagato there are so many things I want to ask you, like what happened to Yahiko? I know Konan is fighting Naruto right now."

"Yahiko…" Pein said, "I do remember someone by that name. He's been dead for a long time."

Jiraiya almost cringed at his tone, "What happened to you and Konan?"

"Nothing happened. This is just another fight." Pein said calmly, "Too many people have died here, and their pain is what helped me grow up. Even the most ignorant, innocent child will grow up eventually when they learn of true pain. It affects what they say, what they think, and they become real people."

Jiraiya sneered at him, "You think abandoning the love for your friends is the right way to grow up?"

"Sensei." Pein said in the same monotone as before, "You're still just a normal person. But me, living in the center of an infinite universe of pain… have grown into something much more." He closed his eyes, "I have grown from a person into a God. And as God, what I say, what I think, becomes the law of God. But you're still just a regular person sensei, I don't expect you to understand what I'm telling you."

Jiraiya's face twisted into a multitude of emotions, 'I can't believe you're the same child I met all those years ago.'

"Things I couldn't comprehend as a human are crystal clear now that I am God. And now I have also noticed that there are things I can do as a God that I could never dream of as a human." Pein continued as Jiraiya listened.

"What are you trying to do here?" Jiraiya asked.

Pein had a simple answer to that, "I'm going to put an end to this pathetic world and its endless wars. It will be an act of God."

Jiraiya needed to know more. He was in front of what used to be his student, who was now the leader of Akatsuki. He could get the reasoning from the source itself, "What are you after the biju for? Why do you want Naruto?"

Pein quickly decided his reply, "I suppose since you're going to die and since Konan will have the Kyuubi in our possession soon enough I can tell you. Using all of the biju, I will create a new forbidden jutsu. A technique that will eradicate an entire country in less than a second. The ultimate technique. A weapon of unprecedented power and scale."

'Yep, Naruto was right. S-rank power, S-rank ego, S-rank insanity.' Jiraiya thought in response to this plan, "How could you think something like that would stop war? You'll just make them bigger that way! That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life!"

Pein shook his head at the toad sage, "When countries quarrel with one another what is the quickest way to end the dispute?"

Jiraiya snapped at him, "Stop avoiding the question. Answer the question, how could you think of something that damned stupid?"

Pein ignored him, "I will give my weapon to the warring nations, people who have weapons will inevitably use them."

Again, Jiraiya figured that this plan was completely asinine. Yes he was right, the weapon would be used eventually, but that would solve nothing. Whenever the weapon was used, whoever was left would immediately begin starting on something bigger, something more powerful, and when that was created they would use it in revenge. This wouldn't lead to a new world order, it would lead to no world period, "Hundreds of millions of people will die from your idiot idea, and the survivors would be terrified-." He was about to say '-and pissed the fuck off' but he was cut off.

"All the people of the world will learn what true pain is!" Pein said determinedly, "My technique will breed fear and be the ultimate deterrent. The wars will cease quickly. Pain will quicken the world's growth as it did mine. Our world is still in its infancy, but the hand of God has come down to guide it down the path to maturity."

Jiraiya felt like laughing, "You want to help the world destroy itself to help it grow up faster… and you think that's your responsibility?"

"I do." Pein admitted, "I am a God of peace after all."

Jiraiya let out a chuckle, "You've turned into quite the comedian Nagato."

Pein Kawarimied out of harm's way after finishing his explanation, "Over here sensei. To me you're an insignificant child whose growth was stunted."

"Another summon?" Jiraiya said as he saw Pein standing atop a massive chameleon, "I have to admit, hearing a kid like you telling me that I and the world need to grow up. If Naruto were here he would be laughing his ass off right now! You say you're God, but I'm no longer a human either." He said as he made hand-seals for his own summoning jutsu. The smoke amassed around him, "Flooded by anger I cry tears of blood! The Lone Hermit of the Legendary Sannin! The Unstoppable Toad Sage of Mt. Myouboku! The great Jiraiya!" He said before falling face first onto the surface he had been standing on.

"You really haven't grown up at all have you?" Pein said disdainfully.

Jiraiya stood up with a roar, "Damn it Gamaken-san , don't be moving all over the place when I'm getting my pose on!"

The massive toad wearing clothing much like Gamabunta except he had a magenta color, horns on his head, black markings going down his face and he held two things, a shield in one hand and a sasumata in the other (Google it… it's a pain in the ass to explain if you don't know what I'm talking about), "You tripped over your own two feet you clumsy idiot."

"Whatever." Jiraiya said as Pein and his massive chameleon came charging forward, "I'll have to get serious right from the start here… I'll have to use Sage Mode for this one."

Gamaken looked up at the summoner on his head in shock, "What? Are you serious? You're going to-?"

"Yep." Jiraiya said, "I'm summoning the Two Great Sage Toads. I'll need you to buy me some time to set this up Ken-san."

Gamaken nodded, "You've got it Jiraiya. I'm pretty weak, but I'll give you my best!"

Jiraiya rolled his eyes, "Again with the 'you're weak' crap. You're not weak and you're going to show this bastard that right now."

XxX

(Naruto vs. Konan)

Naruto pulled himself out of the canal onto some debris that had gotten caught on something, keeping it in place, "'We've got a mission to infiltrate Ame gaki. You should be right in your element. You might even meet a cute young lady you like there with your track record.'" Naruto said, mimicking Jiraiya, his voice still rather gravelly from using the Kyuubi's chakra, "Yeah I met a lady alright. And she's kicking my ass you stupid perverted toad sage!"

Naruto stood straight up to see Konan fly directly out of the water, her paper wings being soaked not hampering her ability in the slightest, "That really hurt."

Naruto growled, "Duh, that's why I did it. You dropped me out of the air from at least 150 feet. That would have hurt."

"Pein-sama knows that Jiraiya-sensei is here." Konan said, "He's probably dealing with him as we speak. You have no hope of him bailing you out and saving you."

"Who says I need Ero-sennin to save me from you?" Naruto questioned with barbs in his voice before the important part of that statement hit him, "Did you just say Jiraiya-sensei?"

Konan nodded and tilted her head, Naruto believed that was conveying her amusement at his lack of knowledge on the topic, "Yes. He was our sensei a long time ago. Did he not tell you?"

Naruto stood at the ready but he had questions that he wanted answered, "When? All I know is that he trained Minato Namikaze and that was it before me."

Konan nodded again, "That was after he trained us. We were trained during the Second Great Ninja War, a long time before you were born."

"Wow…" Naruto said, "So that would make you like… 40 or something. You're really hot for being 40." He looked at her wondering what she looked like under that Akatsuki robe, "If we weren't fighting right now I would probably be hitting on you."

"Age doesn't mean anything to a demon or a ninja ningen." Kyuubi said off-handedly.

'Shut the fuck up. I'm fighting here. If you aren't going to tell me to dodge something that's trying to kill me, keep it to yourself until the fight is over.' Naruto thought to Kyuubi as he couldn't see any inclination of emotion on Konan's face, but he could sense the killing intent from him trying to guess her age/hitting on her, "How did he train you? Why?"

Konan's temper died down as she decided to explain, "We were war orphans. Ame was constantly used as a battlefield between the larger nations during their conflicts and our families were taken from us. Jiraiya-sensei taught us ninja arts in order to give us a chance to defend ourselves and survive. Me, Nagato, and Yahiko. We wanted to bring peace to Ame. But Hanzo… and Danzo."

"Wait." Naruto said, "What about Danzo-jiji? What happened?"

Konan's eyes hardened, "Hanzo aligned with him and his Root to destroy our group that wanted to bring peace to Ame. He killed Yahiko… but Naga- Pein killed them all and saved me."

And there it was. That was why Danzo hated Hanzo, that was why he always said to stay out of Ame. Hanzo ended up getting his troops slaughtered by this Pein, but Naruto knew why Danzo decided to ally with him for that purpose. Bringing peace to Ame would take away an important buffer nation that no matter what would have kept enemies at bay who tried passing through it attack Konoha during war times. Danzo could have backed Konan and Pein err… Nagato though. It would have ended better. His Root were killed anyway when he sided with Hanzo, and if he had supported them instead, guerilla-style, he could have kept his men alive and maybe stopped all of this from happening. But hindsight was 20/20. Naruto wasn't Danzo and Kami he didn't want to be, what was done was done and it was his problem now.

Konan continued to speak, "Pein-sama will bring peace to the world, and you are a vital key to that peace, as well as its greatest thorn in its side. You won't be any longer after this Naruto Uzumaki. Shikigami no Mai (Dance of the Shikigami)!" Konan sent out a rush of innumerable papers at Naruto that started to engulf his body. His chakra cloak fought them off at first, but eventually they surrounded him and covered his body entirely, "Now you'll remain there until you pass out from lack of oxygen. It is all over."

"Fuuton: Shinkuugyoku (Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere)!" The paper encased Naruto audibly inhaled deeply and exhaled, causing several bullets of air to fly from Naruto's body and cut through Konan's paper, giving him enough room to Kawarimi his way out. Naruto rushed at Konan, now sporting two tails on his cloak, "Thank you Danzo-jiji! The only damn jutsu you have that I can use from your training!"

Konan heard him thank Danzo as rage flittered across her face for the first time, "You would thank that monster?" She said loudly as the launched a seemingly endless stream of her paper at the jinchuuriki. The power of her paper hit him full on and drove him back into the water, moving the water aside as it pushed him towards the depths, "You're Root too… I was told that you feel no emotions, no pain. We'll see about that." She said as she began making hand-seals

"One man's monster is another man's hero! Ask Iwagakure!" Naruto roared as he exploded from the water at Konan, "And I do feel pain and emotion, he never broke me like the rest!" He saw her making hand-seals and noticed that some of the paper that had stuck to his body were explosive tags. He flared his chakra and got them off of his body just in time for them to explode.

Konan watched the fireball and saw Naruto get thrown back into the water coldly, "No matter how strong or fast you are in that form, no one can outrun an explosion."

The water bubbled for a moment before a large red chakra claw reached up out of the water and grabbed Konan. She saw the paper that she coated her body with burning through from the intensity of Naruto's chakra as she saw three tails swirling about when he surfaced again. Naruto whipped her body about violently before throwing her as hard as he could with his chakra claw.

Konan somehow was able to muster even more paper and create more wings for herself to fly herself out of harm's way, 'He's a very powerful ninja. Even without the Kyuubi, but with it his strength is overwhelming. I need to play this right. I won't be able to flat out overpower him or even outlast him as he is. I just have to hold out long enough for my plan to work.'

'I can't hit this bitch Kyuubi! She's too methodical for me! She'll just fly away and try to pick me apart from afar!' Naruto roared to the demon inhabiting his mind.

"You aren't anywhere near Konoha kit. There is one thing you haven't tried yet. How many tails can you use?" Kyuubi asked calmly as if it had a plan.

'I can barely reach four, you know that.' Naruto thought to Kyuubi as Konan gained altitude and took off through the village, 'She's handling three pretty well so far and I can't grab her. Once I lose control at four she can keep picking me apart until I raze Ame to the ground. I don't want to do that though!'

"Four tails eh? The last time you used what I have in mind you only had two at your disposal. You'll be twice as well off now once you activate it." Kyuubi said with a vulpine grin on its destructive face.

Naruto almost froze as he used his tails to swing himself along the skyscrapers through the village in pursuit of Konan, 'You're telling me to use the trigger aren't you? The last time I did that I cracked every bone in my body when I turned it off! I had it on for too long!'

Kyuubi had an answer to that, "You're an idiot… Then don't turn it off until you kill the paper-using woman and her partner or at least until you can be protected by Jiraiya. It's that simple. Once you activate it she won't last long. You know this."

Naruto couldn't respond to that. With two tails the only thing that kept him from slaughtering Kimimaro all those years ago was that he couldn't generate enough force to get past his unbelievably tough Shikotsumyaku kekkei genkai bones to anything vital. He doubted that Konan could take an Imari the way Kimimaro did… that guy was a killing machine. A pity he died really. But the point was, if she was buying time, he would let her. He needed the time too.

With that in mind, Naruto began climbing the skyscraper he was currently attached to, trying to reach the top as fast as he could. From this point forward for him, this fight wasn't about precision any longer. Konan was far more precise in combat than he knew he could be in a head-to-head conflict. The only other option was overwhelming force, and Naruto had yet to meet anyone that could match him when he decided to cut loose, and he doubted he would today.

Naruto reached the top of the skyscraper and saw Konan flying about keeping far out of his range. Naruto simply stood still, tails swinging about, trying to will out his fourth tail, knowing how much it would hurt and how much damage it would do to his body, 'Just keep flying around… I've got nothing but time bitch.' His red eyes rested firmly on her aerial form as he focused on drawing the rest of his power out.

XxX

(Jiraiya vs. Pein)

Pein's chameleon disappeared from sight, alerting Jiraiya and Gamaken, "He's gone… How in the hell did he find this kind of summon?" He put that question elsewhere for the time being, "Since he's disappeared we can only use that barrier jutsu of ours to find him."

Gamaken was sweating, "Yeah, this won't be an easy battle."

Pein knew what he was doing as Jiraiya used a jutsu to extend his awareness to sense Pein's presence, 'That jutsu will detect any slight movement of his opponent.' He suddenly summoned a giant three-headed dog and sent it at Jiraiya and Gamaken. The large toad was forced to dodge by jumping up and grabbing onto an elevated position.

Jiraiya looked down to locate their enemy that was now riding a five-headed dog that was still coming at them, "The more they attack the more appear. What are these? Little dogs with high growth rates? Damn they split up!" He shouted as that indeed did happen. They split off from the main dog and launched at Gamaken who used his massive weapon to bat them away. However he missed one that knocked him off of the skyscraper.

While in midair, a giant drill-beaked bird came at Gamaken who lifted his shield to block. It kept him from taking immediate damage, but he ended up slamming into the ground from the air, cracking the ground. Jiraiya stood on his summon's chest, "Whenever I plan to attack he hides himself! This is seriously weird." Jiraiya thought up a strategy as he was currently not going to last long enough as he was, 'He's supposed to have all 6 elements with the Rinnegan, but why is he only using summons to fight?'

A massive ox rushed at him and Gamaken, "Gamaken you can return home now, I'm ready!" Gamaken returned to the mountain of the toads just as the ox plowed Jiraiya into a wall, kicking up a cloud of smoke. However it ended up with the ox being thrown away as if it were nothing.

"Why do you always summon us in places like this? No wonder Gamabunta is always angry!" An elderly voice said from Jiraiya's hole in the wall.

"Aw don't say that Ma, Jiraiya-chan was forced to do this." Another elderly voice said from inside of the hole.

"Sorry for summoning you both here Fukasaku-sama, Shima-sama." Jiraiya said apologetically.

Shima spoke again, "But brat, didn't you always say this form of yours chases away girls? That's why you hated using it."

Jiraiya chuckled, "Heh, there's no choice but for me to just deal with it. I am fighting an opponent with the Rinnegan after all, so let's go..." Jiraiya's form could be seen from the shadows of the hole in the wall with two small toads on both of his shoulders.