68

Chapter 67: The Root of All Pain

When you're raised to do one thing, when your entire childhood development is centered around achieving one significant far-off task decades in the future, the gravity of your situation doesn't set upon you at first. How could it? You can be told that something is all-important, and that you should take it seriously every day, but as a child yet to hit double-digits in age how much can it weigh on you?

This doesn't really occur until you grow, until you gain a practical understanding of your situation and of just what you are slated to do. As time carries on, things settle into your psyche more and more and the pressure builds. But that's not really strange. That occurs with almost every facet of your life; as you grow older you begin to see just how important even the mundane things in your existence are when you gain the knowledge needed and truly look back on things.

No, what really brings about the crushing weight, the pressure of your own situation, is when you know that you're shooting for the absolute top, and that there's no one else in position to take it except for you. When you learn firsthand just how vital your future is to the prosperity and overall wellness of the people around you that you love, and even people you've yet to meet.

That sort of realization doesn't easily set onto you over time. It hits you all at once. One day you wake up, you eat breakfast and stare out through your bay window over the village that you call your home, and you think idly to yourself, 'Someday soon, this entire village is going to be my responsibility to take care of.'

…And then you pause. You freeze everything, because that's a fucking terrifying thought. It was for Naruto.

Not because he didn't think he could do it. Too many people believed that he could. Danzo, Tsunade, Jiraiya, Maki, Sai, all of Root, Gaara, Yugito, all sorts of people amongst his friends; they all thought he was capable of it.

Not because he wasn't prepared, because he knew he wasn't prepared and that wasn't the point. That wasn't the problem. Everything he didn't know yet, Tsunade had already declared she would teach him as she groomed him for a few years to take things over in the aftermath of the war.

It was the simple gravity of that idea. The idea that he would be in charge of everything. That he would be responsible for every man, woman, and child within the walls of his hometown. That no matter what, for better or for worse, the buck would stop with him.

No matter how important things had been in the past, Naruto had been able to break it down and somehow compartmentalize it. He would tackle things as they came, even if they progressively grew in importance and difficulty. As long as he could keep a straight-head outlook of handling things one step at a time as they were in front of him he could take anything. It was why he was able to deal with the progressively more horrifyingly powerful people he'd been taking on since he battled Kimimaro, how he'd kept from feeling in over his head no matter what mission was thrown at him.

As things stood, even if he had resigned himself to do battle with Nagato, or Pein, as far as Naruto was concerned it was the logical next step to take. At this point in the war the only thing left to do was take him down and force Ame to surrender. Even with the importance of that battle, Naruto still justified it as being in his wheelhouse because he was a soldier. An extremely important soldier, but still a soldier whose duty it was to battle Konoha's enemies.

Then Tsunade dropped the to-be Hokage-in-training news on him and took him from being a wartime commodity to the man who would be king.

He wasn't saying that he didn't want it. He definitely wanted it. She just could have been a bit more subtle about it. In that vein they were definitely more than likely related somewhere down the family line, even if it did so happen to be rather distant.

Finishing dressing for the day as he looked out onto his village during the sunrise, Naruto finished wrapping his hands and looked back at his bed where Hamako still slept peacefully. She hadn't left his side when he was at home since he had returned from Mt. Myoboku. Such a brave little thing, the poor girl almost lost what had become her home for the second time during the attack of the White Zetsus.

Naruto stroked the slumbering seal master's cheek and gave her a lingering kiss of departure on the lips, leaving her smiling as he departed his home for the day, 'Get all the rest you need Hamako-chan. Sleep for the both of us, because I ain't got the time.' There wasn't enough in the day.

While battle plans were being lain out for the final push on Amegakure, Naruto still had some affairs to attend to and some well earned high-fives to hand out all around to the people that weren't supposed to get them.

XxX

(Just Outside of Konohagakure – Hidden Root Base)

Hand still stinging from the palm being slapped in an elevated gesture of a job well done, Sai dryly lowered it and stared at it before blankly looking at Naruto who had delivered the high-five, "…And what was that supposed to represent?"

"It's supposed to represent that you did a kickass job Sai." Naruto said, acknowledging the copious healed wounds that were bandaged on Sai's person. He still hadn't fully recovered from the battle, as he had played an important role in the shadows, "And you're telling me you got the original? The white and black bipolar one? You're sure you killed him?"

Sai nodded emotionlessly as the director of Root and the to-be Hokage walked through the well-lit hallways of the underground clandestine stronghold, "Maki-san was my backup. While you were battling Tobi, he followed at a safe distance to observe or interfere if necessary. After the battle was completed he was prepared to attack the retrieval team that recovered your body in the end."

"And that's where you took him down?"

"That's where I clashed with him. He did nothing to impede the progress of your retrieval team." Sai gave his after-action report by the book, "Several times he attempted to escape, as he was not very skilled in direct combat for a member of Akatsuki. The black half split from the white half just before I killed him. He would have gotten away had it not been for Maki-san's distance support genjutsu attack."

At the time of the battle he requested that she keep it subtle so that Zetsu would believe that Sai was the one casting them instead of someone else. With that formula, the battle went smoothly until the Black Zetsu abandoned the White Zetsu, as if it were more important. Maki amended the gameplan and ensnared the Black Zetsu long enough for Sai to catch up and defeat him as well in a second, slightly more grueling battle.

And they burned the abominations to ashes. Any boon that could have been garnered for Root and Konoha in general wasn't worth keeping something so dangerous so close. Sometimes, Pandora's Box was best left closed.

Eventually reaching what used to be Danzo's office, the two of them entered to see Maki awaiting their arrival, leaning against the desk, "Naruto-senpai, Sai-senpai. Good morning." She greeted with a slight smile, "So, is there anything in the works yet for the attack on Ame?"

After Naruto shut the door and shut off the light, Sai flicked on a projector and began showing a series of microfilm slides compounding what they knew of the situation, "Here is the situation thus far from what intelligence we've garnered." The first slide was an overall map of the whole continent with updated battle statistics, "Kiri is setting themselves up on the mainland, but they'll be concerned with taking Konoha's place on the eastern front."

While Konoha was pulling out of the northeast, Kiri would replace them in the occupation and final attacks alongside Kumo so that Konoha could send a good number of ninjas home for a rest and more of them could be committed back west for the end of things.

It was obvious. Replace the battle-weary fighters with the fresher ones. And Kumo wouldn't be left holding things up on their end either. The C.N.F. enemies had been whittled away enough in that region that Kiri could handle the lion's share of the remaining combat situations with Kumo assistance.

The next slide focused on the west, "That leaves the endgame to Konoha pretty much." Naruto said, punching into his palm, "Iwa sent 1000 of their baddest and got smashed, so we're not worried about them doing anything to us. With Suna, we can't ask them to commit too much to this because Iwa could still try to be opportunists and attack them while everything's coming together."

Knowing Gaara though, he would be more than willing to send enough of his ninjas that were chomping at the bit to take a chunk back out of Amegakure's ass after Pein's attack and the subsequent invasion attempt that was rebuked.

"We have three potential points of reaching Amegakure through their country. Three different borders that they have to worry about covering since they don't know how we'll approach." Sai explained, pointing things out on the projected map with his ink creations, "Four if we choose to snake around the back and go in through the Kaze no Kuni side."

North. South. East. West. It didn't matter, because all roads led to Ame. They could hit them from any cardinal direction, or all of them if they so wished.

They could try and play things sneaky and attempt a feint on a few sides to divert attention from the true attack. They could simply turn things into a horrid battle of attrition. Naruto didn't like that option however. He knew for sure Tsunade would avoid that option at all costs and he didn't blame her because he'd have avoided it as well, so it was more or less off the table.

In the middle of the meeting, Maki raised her hand, actually getting Naruto to chuckle a little at how cute she looked, almost like a grown-up kid in school. He had to actually point at her instead of saying words to grant her permission to speak just to keep from openly snickering.

"Question. Why are we going through this information and trying to process it ourselves?" Maki asked rather astutely, knowing fully what the score was supposed to be for Root when it came to how things were run, "Shikaku Nara is the man that is creating the major invasion plans, and Naruto-senpai will be included in them without a doubt, so even if we made a plan here there's no reason to believe we could even use it." Not to be negative about anything, she was just being realistic about it was all, "Why are we going over this ourselves?"

Naruto didn't have any problems with that question. It made plenty of sense on the surface, and despite their extremely sensitive and high-ranking positions in a clandestine organization they were still teenagers that would of course not understand everything about their responsibilities. In all honesty and actuality, Maki had a point, because it sort of seemed like they were wasting their time.

Nothing they said really mattered in the primary grand scheme of things, because the jounin commander was the man with the plan and would be the one setting things in stone. That wasn't any of them. That was Shikaku Nara. The three of them were Root. No one else outside of the organization would know what they came up with, why they were doing it, or that they were even doing anything.

They would not be working with conventional forces, and they didn't have enough on their own to stage any functional invasion. Root was the blackest of the black-ops, not a main combat force. They took out Takigakure relatively easily in a single night raid due to Taki's lack of knowledge on their existence and their tunnel vision on the battlefield instead of shoring up their own homefront defenses. That shit wouldn't work on Ame. They'd already tried it under different circumstances and failed.

So why were they going over all of this? Why did Naruto and Sai even set up this meeting to begin with knowing all of this? There was a good reason for that too. Good by Naruto's reasoning. Not necessarily Maki's once she found out what was up. And not by anyone else's reasoning either if they were a logical being in the slightest.

"… We're going over this ourselves because I think I'm going to be in charge of how I get to handle Pein." Naruto told her, being purposely vague as to exactly why they were trying to work through the logistics of approaching Ame when there was someone else smarter and better equipped for the job than they were already performing that task for the regular army.

Curious grey eyes blinked on a girl who simply did not get what that had to do with studying the borders of Ame-held territory, "I'm sorry, but I don't understand why that matters senpai. You still need to be in close proximity to Amegakure before you even begin to worry about how you're going to fight that man."

It was going to be a battle just to get close enough to worry about how the final approach was going to be made. If anything, she was expecting them to actually start with the area directly around Amegakure itself since that was where Naruto would realistically be given rein to take control of his own destiny.

Both Naruto and Sai looked at each other, the latter gesturing with his head to tell her what they had worked out as a plan and the former rolling his eyes at having to do it himself. Seriously, Sai was technically the one that was her boss until Naruto became Hokage. He could have opened his mouth at any time to try and help this all go down easier. Why did he want Naruto to explain everything?

More than likely, it was because he got a kick out of watching Naruto trying to justify the stupid and/or reckless things that he meticulously planned on doing in advance to the woman that was supposed to have been conditioned from childhood to be his spouse. That was definitely why. That bastard was smiling! Sai didn't smile unless he was fucking with somebody!

In his endeavor to understand human relationships, Sai seemed to develop something of a perverse joy in picking on his direct second-in-command Maki, and the only effective way he'd ever found to do so was to use Naruto. He was the only subject that could rile her up, thus Naruto was Sai's weapon of choice to use on the poor girl.

-Which also made it doubly entertaining for him when he could guide Naruto into consciously goosing himself and making Maki break emotional protocols.

"Okay Maki-chan, err… have you ever heard of the term HALO jump?"

"I don't think so. Should I have?"

"Not really, but don't worry, because there's a reason for that! That's because Sai-kouhai and I kind of just invented it a few days ago." There was no humanly way possible to make that introduction sound any more suspicious.

That was the sheepish way that Naruto spoke when he knew that whatever he was about say next wasn't going to go over well with his loved ones. Maki didn't even need to hear anything else come out of his mouth before she already knew that this explanation was going to be stupid and/or reckless.

"Please senpai… by all means, go on." Her tone couldn't have been any frostier if it had been Danzo himself speaking. Even her body posture, appearing as if she didn't care about the idiocy she was about to hear, was something that would have come straight from him.

Naruto Uzumaki, the man that had killed the puppet master of Akatsuki in perhaps the largest-scale battle fought in Hi no Kuni in the last twenty-plus years, was about to get shaken down by a five-foot, 90 pound Root ANBU kunoichi. And he knew it too.

Sai was a psychological terrorist. They hadn't even really started the real purpose of the meeting and he already knew that this was going to be a 'fun' conversation for the childhood partners to have. Yes, it was just a casual explanation from one to another, and he just so happened to be a present bystander with no stake in the proceedings whatsoever.

-Setting aside the fact that he had just as much responsibility for the overall creation of the HALO jump concept that Naruto did of course.

…

…No one had the right to judge him.

That fight with the original Zetsu combined with the amount of time Sai had spent coordinating Root to assist the village in battling the White Zetsu Army was difficult, and the only thing he got at the end of the battle and a few days of healing afterwards was an explanation of how a lame-ass high-five was supposed to work from Naruto? Fuck him. In return, he could have fun explaining to his handpicked political wife the science of why what he'd just brought up was a tactically effective method of achieving their objective, and more than just an extravagant form of suicide.

Watching that mismatch was his reward for a job well done.

XxX

(Amegakure no Sato – Pein's Tower)

The entire village was set on fortifying itself in preparation for what was certain to be the coming invasion of the enemy. One had already tried and their God had rebuked the fools before they even came within pointing and shouting distance of Ame.

It wasn't that difficult a task to do, mostly just a matter of ensuring that emergency escape procedures were set, and that the outer banks of the village were ready to turn back an enemy. Due to being surrounded by the large lake around their village, and long plains around that, it was a place where they would be able to see an approach coming from anywhere, even if the attack could come from anywhere.

There were plenty of nasty places on the way to the village that could bog down and deter an assault force altogether. It wasn't just luck that kept Amegakure from being conquered despite the number of wars that had been fought between the other greater nations that had ravaged their lands.

"Don't worry about anything." Nagato said to Konan, able to see her staring out over the village from his mechanical command chair, "I won't let anyone get close to our home, and with your jutsu as a last resort, no one will destroy this place."

"You have a plan?"

"I do." Konan's heart swelled in the hopes that Nagato had retained the leadership traits that one would expect from someone that all of their faith had been placed in, "We will destroy them, break the back of their attack. Nothing in the plan has changed."

And her heart sank.

With everything that had happened since Yahiko's death, the whirlwind of events in the rise of Akatsuki, and the last two years of their plans coming to fruition, she had missed a point that was extremely notable now that everything was on display on a larger scale.

Nagato didn't have the true qualities of leadership that one needed in a ruler meant to lead a hidden village. It was as simple as that.

Tobi, Madara, whatever you wanted to call him, he really had been the one in charge. All of the plans for Akatsuki that had been more intricate that splitting up the members into groups and selecting which biju to send them after, all of the plans that had truly been lain out to get their power and shake up the landscape to set the foundation for them had been facilitated by their masked benefactor.

-The upheaval in Kiri that led to them getting not only setting up a situation where they could later get to the Sanbi without taking on a hidden village, as well as resulting in their obtaining the services of Kisame Hoshigaki: Tobi.

-The failed attempt at obtaining the Kyuubi which resulted in perhaps the finest Hokage in generations dying, a superpower in the ninja world losing significant power in one night, and what eventually set the stage for the extermination of the Uchiha Clan (further weakening Konoha) and the inclusion of Itachi Uchiha in their ranks: Tobi.

There were other incidents over the better part of the last seventeen or so years that would also make great examples of this. Nagato had been an executive that had power over the rest of Akatsuki, and the simple concept of the task of capturing the biju, despite its importance and danger, was an operation that any of the members of Akatsuki could have had overall control of. Other than telling who to go where and when, being the leader of Akatsuki didn't mean anything.

They had all been bodies, tasked with collecting the biju in Tobi's stead. Nagato was the figurehead leader directing the remainder of them with the illusion of possessing real power in Akatsuki, as Tobi had never once tried to control how he did things. All paths led to him collecting the biju. How he got there never mattered because he knew Nagato would do it regardless.

When the scope of their operation expanded past just nine or ten people that had been somehow coerced or cowed into joining the organization, after Nagato had achieved one of his dreams in killing Hanzo and taking over Ame, it became slowly, shockingly apparent that Nagato was not adept in being responsible for that many people.

The immediate aftermath after he'd taken over had masked this as far as Konan's eyes had been able to see, with the incident involving Jiraiya and Naruto and the eventual declaration of war around two months later. But in that entire span of time, the quality of life in Ame had declined steeply.

The setbacks after the initial victories in the war had illuminated it, but ever dutiful to the cause of supporting her childhood friend she ignored them.

After the war everything would get better; that was what she told herself. War brought hardship in heaps, and after they won and achieved it all the sky would be the limit. These were the thoughts that she used to cloud the logical perspective that she should have had regarding her home's situation.

Nagato simply did not have the ability to see what was in front of him that was necessary to run the day-to-day of a village. Akatsuki had no hierarchy; it was Nagato telling the others what to do, and it worked because their task was simple and there were just 10 of them at their height of manpower.

He tried to run Ame similarly. He'd give blanket orders; issue general commands to the entire population. After taking over he'd killed everyone attached with Hanzo's rule, basically stripping the entire governing hierarchy and had never been replaced, so there was no quality control, no micromanagement.

A hidden village ran like a machine, with integral parts all over that were needed to ensure that the main part was able to do what it needed to. It had to work like that in order to thrive, but that didn't exist here. There was no system of command.

How he could believe that everything would still work the way they had originally designed it to? After everything that had happened, after it had all come down to the two of them and the village that surrounded them incurring the wrath of all five major hidden villages, four of whom were aligned together… it reeked of lunacy.

This wouldn't drag the entire village down with them would it? It couldn't. Even as he was, Nagato wouldn't let something horrible happen to Ame would he? Above everything else, this was the place that they swore first and foremost, above everything else, to protect from the injustices of the bigger villages. Or had he forgotten that?

XxX

(Konohagakure no Sato – Academy Roof)

With the closing of the eastern front for Konoha, many ninjas came home in time for the funerals from the defense of the village, even returning with bodies from their theater of the war to bury and pay their respects to as well.

It was a moment of closure for those that had been fighting so hard out on the battlefield, and the village shut down for a few hours for the duration of the service. But it could only last for so long. Like the machine that it was, there was still work to be done, and those within the walls of the village remained strong.

Tomorrow was the day that those meant to head out to join up with the division on the western front were to be dispatched. It was all coming to a head. Most of the ninjas that knew they were going walked around the village with a nervous swagger.

These people would be shoulder-to-shoulder with their trusted comrades and they were still nervous. There was one man that had decided that it was up to him to take his own approach to keep more lives from being lost.

If this worked, not only would less G.S.A. ninjas die, less ninjas from Ame would die as well. Only one hurdle left, and Naruto's generation would have survived their first major war. Hopefully they never got any bigger than this.

"So the only other person I've told my plan to assassinate Pein to is still pissed off at me, which is great." Naruto finished sarcastically to Jiraiya as the two of them sat on the top of the Academy looking out at the town, "From how you reacted just now, I'm probably not gonna tell anyone else about it until after I do it." He thought it was a great idea.

"First of all brat-." Jiraiya said with a dry look on his face, "-I don't trust plans that come with their own acronyms, especially when the one that made the plan made the acronym to go with it. Second of all, say that your little plan doesn't make you crap out your spine or you don't get stopped after you get in, how the fuck do you plan on getting out after you finish the job, in a box?"

"No! I've got a plan, just trust me. Can you trust me? This is what I was made for. I used to do S-rank infiltration all the time until you and me screwed up the last one in Ame. Then Tsunade-baachan retired me from it."

"…Every fiber of my being is screaming at me to tell Tsunade-hime what you're going to do, but hell, I'm 0-for-2 when it comes to anything having to do with Amegakure, so what do I know?"

"Good."

"You're not going to tell anyone what you're going to do are you?"

"Nope."

Jiraiya sent his last student a glare of warning, "Kid…" Doing something as idiotic as what Naruto was planning on attempting was one thing. Doing it all alone was another. Doing something that idiotic all alone without informing a soul what you were going to do, even when you were going to be the focal point of a major military action was just too much.

"Ero-kyofu, if I tell Shikaku what I want to do and if he agrees to it he's going to alter the whole plan of the army's approach, because he's going to do whatever he can to make sure I don't go in without some kind of out." Naruto reasoned with his godfather, "That's not gonna work! The more people involved in this the less chance it has of going off without a hitch."

It sounded dumb, but the fact of the matter was that there was some credence to it. 1000 damn good ninjas didn't even get within sight of Amegakure. Hundreds of Root ANBU only got into Ame after Naruto and Jiraiya made the biggest distraction in history in fighting all six of Nagato's Paths, Konan, and a quarter of the ninjas stationed in the village.

Two people had been too many.

Jiraiya and Naruto had gone in alone, just the two of them, and took harsh, painstaking methods to hide their insertion. They had been pegged before they ever even started crossing the river from one of the outlying villages.

That rain of Nagato's was the radar, and there was no way around that other than two. First of all, there was under it the way that Iwa planned on trying before they were preempted, but they'd gotten too close to tunnel. They'd been in the rain before they even set up their base camp. Then there was the second way. A bit trickier to execute.

Over it.

Naruto would still be with the main attack force. He just wouldn't really be him.

"You do know that Tsunade's going to cut your head off and put it on a stake with your balls hanging out of your mouth if she finds out."

"She'll understand afterwards, no matter how it turns out." Every other Hokage died risking their neck by themselves to protect their village or their people. It was time for that little requirement to be fulfilled by Naruto, "…Unless she knows right now."

"How could she-... Sarutobi-sensei's crystal ball? You think?" Maybe she was watching one of or both of them? It wasn't like they were trying to hide their signatures any, and all you needed was the ability to lock onto one that you knew within the limits of the village.

"I'm pretty sure she figured out how to use it after four years even if it doesn't come with instructions." Naruto added with a grin, "That thing is magical. She threw it at my head a long time ago and it didn't even scratch."

Jiraiya just chuckled and punched Naruto on the shoulder, "Have I ever told you about the time I actually wound up stealing that thing from sensei?"

"No. You stole it before? Why?"

"Heh-heh… well he had at least one spare, and do you remember that story about how Tsunade almost beat me to death for finding me peeping at her?"

"Yea-? Oh, no way. You didn't."

"How do you think I did it, in-person? No, I had it for three weeks, and then fucking Orochimaru decided he had morals about something…"

Jiraiya personally wouldn't be going tomorrow, but he'd prepared Naruto as best as he was able to, and he could say that he had been surpassed, even if Naruto never wound up being Hokage. If this was the last day he was going to get a chance to spend time with his godson he couldn't think of a better way to spend it.

…Well, maybe he could think of a better way, but Naruto wouldn't go with him to peek on hot springs. He had enough potential ladies in his life both near and far that it made doing so redundant for him.

XxX

(A Few Days Later – Kumogakure no Sato – Raikage's Office)

"Go home. Get some rest." A stated commandingly to his second most powerful ninja under his command as she stood in front of him, making a request fresh off of a sortie on the battlefield, "Yugito, you just had ten straight days in the field at the front of the lines. I'm not sending you across the continent to take part in that battle."

Even as she was standing trying to fight for her request to go through, Yugito looked tired. Ever since being returned to the village by Naruto's escort she had been set at the front lines where she had been invaluable at lessening the losses in the days of the cross-country offensive breakout.

For the last week since Kiri had been making landings and switching out with Konoha, Yugito had been used in the liaison role she'd been used in with Konoha in order to teach Kiri about fighting the kind of war they were getting themselves into. With that job it brought even more constant combat while Kiri ninjas were getting their feet wet and taking over the heavy lifting for Kumo in the waning days of that conflict.

High levels of stamina or not, her never-ending schedule and the nature of her work had put her through the wringer.

"Raikage-sama, I know the dangers of travelling through the countries right now, and I'm not asking for anyone else to come with me." Yugito wouldn't put people at risk like that for something that she wanted to go do. It wasn't really a mission she wanted to go on in particular. It was just that she was afraid. The only way this would end was when Pein went down, and there was only one Konoha ninja she knew that would be positioned to fight him, "…I just want to go."

"I can't let you." As much as A understood, he wasn't willing to send his best jounin that he could let outside of the village that far away for something that she probably wouldn't arrive in time for anyway, "By the time you get there, everything important will be over."

By now, Konoha had long situated themselves in position to make whatever move they were going to make. It would take five to six days for her to even get there. She'd be killing herself to get there in time for the fallout in the aftermath at best.

Even if she did have strong feelings for Naruto, and even if he did know how important a relationship that close and intimate was for a jinchuuriki like her, he could not justify sending her out there.

"…Then put me back into the field." Yugito requested, her muscles tense as she dealt with the refusal from her village leader, "I would rather be working than sitting around and waiting." Another short campaign and when she returned the next time she could get her news from abroad and know one way or the other what had happened while she was gone, "Anything would be better than sitting around and waiting."

"And what exactly would you be fighting with?" A asked rhetorically, "I'm not putting you back out there and letting you get killed by a stray dumb luck attack or trap because your mind is wandering or because you were simply too tired to get yourself out of it. The best thing you can possibly do is rest. Or is your belief in Uzumaki that low?"

An accusing look came to her eye as she recoiled slightly, "How could you even ask me that question? But he's in a fight with a man that possesses the Rinnegan!"

"That boy is more dangerous than his father." A said resolutely, "He lacks the ability of the Hiraishin, but he reminds me greatly of him in more than one way. He has certain qualities that the Namikaze had with a more ruthless aspect to him. He was defeated once, but do you really believe that someone such as him would lose twice to the same enemy under any circumstance?"

"In a straight battle against that man…" Yugito said with a sad shake to her head, "…Even with his mastery of Sage Mode, I don't see how he can win."

As A stood up, Yugito expected some sort of characteristic outburst from him and was prepared to call Mabui and tell her that a new desk was needed or that a wall needed to be fixed. Instead, he walked up to her and set his hands on her shoulders, "And that's your problem."

She had not expected him to remain that levelheaded in his speech. Not to sound somewhat understanding, "What?"

"Your expectations of his actions are too straightforward." A elaborated, "He would never fight someone he already lost to the exact same way he tried to do it once before."

"I'm sorry?"

A smiled at his finest kunoichi and chuckled in a manner warmer than she'd ever heard the hot-tempered top ninja ever sound to her, "There are certain people who come upon an impossibly large boulder blocking the road and complain that their way has been blocked. There are other people who will try to find ways to move that boulder no matter the cost and proceed down the road. And then there are people who will find the path the rolling boulder created and follow it to an entirely new road altogether."

"Raikage-sama, I…"

"Just think about it." A told her before turning her around and shooing her off, "Think about it at home. And when news breaks from the west, I want you to come back and say one thing to me. I want you to say, 'I understand what you meant Raikage-sama.'"

After having heard of and at times having personally dealt with the actions of Konoha's current greatest export over the last few years, A had long since determined that if you figured that Naruto would zig when it would have been expected to zag, instead he would give you a bumblebee's flight pattern. Even if you expected him to carry out his job in an unorthodox or shady manner when most others would do things directly out of a lack of apparent options, he would do so in a manner that would still leave you stunned.

XxX

(Amegakure-held Lands – Konohagakure Operational Headquarters)

"If we go any farther into these lands we'll begin being assaulted by Ame ambush squads." Yamato reported to Shikaku Nara. While Yamato might have been in command of Konoha's western operations, Shikaku was the overall man in command of the army's machinations and he reported to him, "We've been observing with recon teams. They've got eyes of their own on our divisions. If we break off and either send a diversionary division around or leave one here to mask our movements they'll know it."

Amegakure for some reason had always been extremely good at keeping the enemy from getting too close to their home village, even at the cost of allowing foreign ninja forces to occupy other settlements around the country.

Having been brought in from the reconstruction of Suna along with a few platoons of ninjas that had been stationed there on the mostly peaceful mission of guarding the vulnerable desert village, Kakashi was willing to present his own views and experiences of dealing with Ame, "Anytime you see rain on the horizon, that's the trick to their sensor jutsu. Pein is the strongest at it, but it's a technique taught to more than a fair share of those that have shown exemplary service."

"A system of marking their officer jounin." Shikaku said with a click of his tongue. Getting past that kind of sensor jutsu wouldn't be easy. It rained almost every moment of most days in Amegakure. They hadn't wandered far enough into the country for that climate to make itself known, but once they did the enemy could use it to track their location at all times.

Kakashi's visible eye panned over to the person sitting in on the meeting of commanders and their general; the son of his sensei and his own former genin squad member, "…The second they find which group Naruto's in, that's the one they'll know is the real threat."

Like it or not, Naruto was the only one that could defeat Pein. Everyone in Konoha knew it and everyone in Ame knew it as well.

No matter how they'd try to disguise it with numbers, or movements, or path taken, Naruto was the key to it all. No matter who he was with, where he was coming from, none of that mattered. The second they sensed him, they would know that whatever capacity he was being used in, that was the method of checkmate being used against them.

For some reason, Naruto began to grin in front of all of them, "Come on, really?" He simply crossed the index and middle fingers of one hand with the ones on the other, "How many divisions do we have?"

Naruto's clones. You couldn't tell them apart from the genuine article even with sensor techniques, even with doujutsu such as the Sharingan or Byakugan. You had to simply select one and engage it, and hope that it was the real deal.

You couldn't tell which group was the main attack force if there was a Naruto clone with each one.

A smile slowly began to grow on Shikaku's face, "When the war started and Hokage-sama had you in reserve sitting in on the early meetings with me, I thought you said you weren't good at strategy."

"I'm no general." Naruto admitted, "That's why you're still telling me where to go. I'm good at tricking people though."

A nod came from Shikaku as he started feeling better about the chances of keeping their losses low on the push farther into the country, "Let's start putting the finishing touches on the advance strategy then."

XxX

(With Naruto – 17000 Feet Above Amegakure no Sato)

Yes, Naruto was good at tricking people. For better or for worse.

The thing about Pein's sensing abilities with rain that had been picked apart and scrutinized after the disastrous Iwagakure attack attempt was his range. He couldn't possibly be in control of all of the rain that fell all of the time. Being able to manipulate when it rained was a powerful ability, and that led to even further delving into the ability.

His ability to sense was extremely powerful. Stronger than anyone else's that he'd taught the technique to. It ranged for miles and miles, but its effectiveness varied until you got within three miles of Ame. Three miles, because that was how high up the clouds were in the sky.

If Naruto could move fast enough, he could outpace the technique's ability to allow Pein to sense him. That kind of speed would be faster than a ninja could possibly run on foot or move in a direct line without the assistance of some ungodly sort of speed or space/time technique. He didn't have that option or that ability, so he had to be stupider in his approach.

Stupid like a fox.

A suicidal fox.

Wearing modified breathers over their mouths that they'd copied technology-wise from Amegakure shinobi, Naruto and Sai sat on the back of a large ink bird circling the area they'd marked as being above Ame itself.

For the sake of preserving the weapon safely in case something went horribly wrong, Naruto had left the Sen'nenki no Ken at home and instead replaced it with a regular ninjato for the time being.

He didn't know if it could be sensed or not due to how powerful the weapon was, but he didn't want to take the risk. This wasn't about brute force and having a bigger cannon than the other guy. He just needed to get close enough to seal the deal, not to nuke the whole town.

Due to the chill of being that high in the air, -4 degrees Fahrenheit, the two of them wore thick, full-body covering versions of their usual Root-based outfits. No bare midriff for Sai unless he wanted frostbite, "So…"

"Yep. Tsunade-baachan would murder me if she ever found out I did this. This is the second worst idea I've ever had." Naruto commented to Sai through a two-way short-wave radio built into the porcelain masks on their faces, "The messed up thing about this is; if this works, I'm training a squad of ANBU to do this after I become Hokage."

"Hopefully you'll find a way for others not as adept in wind release and senjutsu to execute it." Sai said amusedly behind his mask, "You'll have to work the other kinks out as well."

"There better not be any other kinks." Naruto groused, remembering just how much preparation went into this on short notice, "We practiced this. We even had Maki-chan work out all of the medical stuff." After she'd gotten over how foolishly dangerous the entire endeavor was of course.

"…Well first of all, in the future we can come up with better situational clothing for the operation."

"I know! It's cold as fuck up here!" Naruto shouted safely. There was nothing near them in over three miles, and that was all downward to boot, "There's nothing even blocking the sunlight. Why's it so cold?"

"I'm not a scientist Naruto-senpai. I couldn't tell you." Sai responded in his efficiently dry manner of speaking, "Is this really the best thing to spend the last minute before zero-hour talking about?" There were better things, like going over the plan once more, or talking about the contingency plan in case Naruto's landing was off.

"…I wonder, if I spit right now could I beat my loogie to the city?" Well that was a random thought for the situation they had found themselves in, as well as wildly untopical.

"I wouldn't recommend worrying about that right now."

"I know, I know, I'm just nervous. If this doesn't work I've got exactly half of my chakra to work with."

"You have fifteen minutes to get this done no matter what."

"I know that Sai. I was right there with you when we were making the plan. I'm not going to forget a step."

"I guess I'm just nervous too."

In return, Naruto just patted his junior on the shoulder before he made his way to the underside of the bird where he stuck with chakra, crouched and prepared to rocket himself off downward at a moment's notice, 'Kurama.'

"Sage Mode on, and just remember; you're aiming for the big gaudy tower in the middle."

Feeling the wash of natural energy being regulated within him, Naruto let out a sigh and allowed his Sharingan eye to show itself behind his mask, "…I guess I'm ready for the scariest two minutes of my life."

"No matter what senpai, pass or fail this mission, you have to last fifteen minutes starting-." Looking at the synchronized watch on his arm, Sai timed the exact moment of beginning the mission perfectly, "-Now."

Naruto jumped as hard as he could, aiming himself straight at the ground. The force almost disrupted the flight pattern of Sai's bird, but he simply used the kickback to turn it around and send it back off in the direction of Konoha.

As he flew off he turned his head in time to see Naruto fall the first few thousand feet into the rainclouds. If all went as planned, Naruto would use the principles of his Burst Limit flight ability to slow and stop himself at a low altitude after inserting himself into the village faster than the rain could keep up with sensing.

Depending on where he landed and how smooth the landing was, Naruto could infiltrate Pein's tower without ever touching the ground. That was where the Sharingan came into play. The Sharingan coupled with Sage Mode would allow Naruto to not only analyze his rapid pattern of descent and his trajectory mid-fall, it would allow his body the reflexes to alter his motions as needed to guide his way smoothly.

Sai's job was done. There was nothing else he could really do, he'd performed his task. The rest was up to Naruto to put this to rest.

As Naruto flew down through the clouds, in a matter of five seconds he'd dropped the few thousands of feet to begin passing through the rainclouds, emerging through the other side soaking wet. The circular target that was Amegakure grew bigger and bigger as he got closer to it.

In Naruto's head he counted the seconds he needed before it became necessary to apply the air brakes as it were. Would be discovered and picked out of the sky before he even landed? Would something go wrong and cause him to turn himself into a stain on the ground?

No. To hell with that. He was going to survive this. He was going to make it home. There were too many people waiting on him. Too many people he would leave hanging if he failed. This needed to be done before Konoha tried to move forward and advance.

Naruto waited until he could make out the spires of the skyscrapers and began slowing his descent with a spread-eagle posture, pumping wind chakra ahead of him to prepare for the eventual gravity-defying jutsu needed to complete the jump.

It was kind of funny. All of this started with an S-rank infiltration mission on what was a former Akatsuki member in Orochimaru, and now it was ending on another Akatsuki member years later.

Hopefully this one would end better than that one did. Either way, it felt like things had come full circle.

XxX

(Pein's Tower)

Konoha would not beat Amegakure to the punch when it came to the resetting of the battle lines. No matter how fast they turned things around for the move on the village, it didn't matter. The moment Ame realized that Kusa was a lost cause they abandoned the sinking ship of fighting that campaign and departed back to shore up the lines of their own nation.

Even with Nagato's rather vague orders as to how to handle the threat of invasion, there was still enough of a dearth of ninjas that had lived through Hanzo's rein to know exactly how he would have had them go out and keep the enemies from reaching the gates. It had been effective, had never been figured out, and hadn't rusted in that effectiveness in more than twenty years. Added on top of that, Nagato actually wisely teaching dozens of high-level ninjas Ukojizai no Jutsu (Rain Tiger at Will Jutsu) was one thing he'd actually done that made the military ability of Amegakure stronger as a whole.

Nagato was preparing himself mind and body for the coming defensive campaign. He would be stretching himself thin, splitting the use of his Paths all around where needed when the reports of the battles filtered to him in real-time.

'My entire life has been preparing me for this moment.' He thought to himself, breathing deeply as he finished his introspective meditation. This was a time where he needed the most clarity he'd ever had in regards to his overall goal, 'The thought that they can come into a place where they have never won, to a village and country that has never been conquered… arrogance.'

This was what they referred to as the quiet before the storm. The storm that he would cause. There was only one ninja the level of a kage left in Konoha's current forces that would undoubtedly come for him and attempt to meet his Paths on the battlefield. They needed one in order to take him on, and the only one they currently possessed had already been crushed by him.

As he contemplated things to himself, a dark-clad, porcelain-masked figure climbed his way up from underneath the balcony at the far left end of the room, shielded from the rain by the awning that completely covered it from above.

Needless to say, Nagato was not what Naruto was expecting. He had to take off his mask just to make sure he was getting a good look at him, Sharingan be damned. He had to make sure what he was looking at was the man himself.

Matted red hair, skin as pale as death, emaciated to the point of being skin and bones, stuck full of more strange rods in his back than a radio relay station all in his back, confined to what could only be considered a chakra-powered wheelchair.

Fuck. This was a crying shame. What kind of human being should ever have to exist like this? After everything that Jiraiya told him he remembered about his first students, this was a nothing less than a damn shame.

But also… with no hesitation on his part, Naruto readily acknowledged that this man was something of a genius. As much as he hated Pein/Nagato's guts, there was nothing but respect from Naruto as to what this man managed to accomplish from what he was. He had brought the Elemental Nations almost to their knees in this sorry state of being.

It had been impressive to learn the truth of the technique before when Jiraiya had explained what he'd figured out, but now as far as Naruto was concerned, after seeing the user of the jutsu firsthand, the Six Paths of Pein were the greatest show of smoke and mirrors he could personally say he'd ever been subjected to in his entire life.

It was right up there with Danzo maintaining his status as disabled for decades to mask his Sharingan implants. It was right up there with Itachi Uchiha's double-agent status in Akatsuki. Without a doubt. No question in his mind.

He couldn't talk about the other two things, but this…

…This would be put in textbooks in the future, to drive home to every ninja student hopeful just what it meant when they were told the importance of looking underneath the underneath.

Who would have ever assumed that the greatest terrorist the ninja world had ever known in its current state of existence was this skeleton of a man? A man that looked ready to keel over at any moment.

Naruto just stood right in front of Nagato and marveled, 'This is the man that almost tore the world apart.' It was almost too surreal to stomach.

Slowly opening his eyes, Nagato didn't seem at all surprised to see Naruto standing in front of him. His first instinct was to bellow in amazement and question how he was standing there before him, 'But after killing Tobi, I shouldn't be surprised.' "Out of all of the people who have ever tried to assassinate me, no one else has ever been this close before. And yet you haven't killed me."

Naruto, having long since turned off Sage Mode for the sake of stealth after landing safely, pulled the rebreather connected to the portable oxygen tank on his back from his mouth, "You're not going to ask how I got in?"

"It crossed my mind." Nagato admitted, "I guess you don't mind sating that curious little part of me since you were the one that brought it up. The last time you intruded on my domain, I discovered you before you ever began to cross the water around the village."

"I had to kind of invent something to get through your sensor rain. Did you know that when you go up past the clouds it's really cold even though the sun is right there? Because I didn't until a few days ago."

"Leave it to a student of Jiraiya-sensei to attempt the suicidal. They never seem to disappoint in the end."

"Right back at you."

The two lapsed into a silence, and Naruto slowly saw Nagato's face morph into one of growing anger at something that Naruto could only guess at. After what he'd done before making his way to the top floor, he had a pretty good idea of what the problem was.

Naruto shook his head and pointed down, indicating the floors below them, "If you're waiting on your Paths to come busting in here, keep on waiting." Holding up one of the piercings that were the hallmark of Nagato's trademark jutsu, he made sure it was seen clearly before throwing it to the ground, "I didn't really appreciate you taking Danzo-jiji's body for that." He said somewhat darkly.

He disabled the Paths? No, that wasn't possible. But he knew how the jutsu worked apparently, otherwise he would have just disabled the Paths and maybe destroyed the he went to the top to ensure that he finished things, which meant that he knew Nagato would be there without a shadow of a doubt.

When he wasn't using the bodies and had them stored, Nagato turned off the connection between them and himself. That way he could rest and conserve chakra because it required a constant flow to use the jutsu. Damn it.

"Why?"

That random question confused Naruto. What did he mean? Why else would he have done any of this? He was trying to drag every ninja in the world into a state of false idol worship and terror.

Nagato wasn't asking why Naruto was there to kill him however. He wasn't asking Naruto anything at all. He was asking the cosmos themselves a question.

"Why would you give me all of this power, put me through the life I had, show me the true path to changing this world for the better…" Nagato said softly, eyes turned to the heavens, "…Allow me to get this close, and then TAKE IT ALL AWAY WITH THE HANDS OF ONE OF THEM!? The propagators of what makes this world so sick on the inside!"

Naruto didn't flinch at the sudden change in tone as Nagato spat his message hatefully. There was nothing he had to say in return at first. This sort of rhetoric had been ingrained in him, and Naruto's actions during their last meeting and the war overall wouldn't have done anything to give him the sort of stance to rebut such.

He was a killer. He killed people. He knew this. More people that faced him in real battles died than survived. He had come to terms with just what he was a long time ago.

"Because you're such a messiah of peace and all." The scar-faced blond muttered in return, "I'd admit to everything you just said, if you hadn't spent the last twenty years trying to end the world as we know it. I kill, but Root NEVER killed civilians!" Even when sacking Takigakure, the targets were extremely detailed for a terror assault of that nature, "I've never tried to justify any kill I made by saying that I was some sort of God!"

"No one that supports this cancerous system is innocent."

"Really? How many civilians in Suna did you kill when you crushed it? And I remember hearing people say that you didn't just kill Hanzo and people loyal to him. You killed their families. You killed Hanzo's family, down to the kids. The untrained kids! The toddlers that weren't even ninjas!"

"Who are you to question my actions?" Nagato replied, "You, who readily claims your foundations in Root. An organization more steeped in violence and the continuation of armed conflict in the world than any I could ever bring up."

"I just said I never justified anything I did. But you still are." Naruto didn't raise his voice. He didn't have to. His point could be made on his end without having to scream it in Nagato's face, "If you'd just come out and tell the truth, I think I could have some actual respect for you, because you got this close-." Naruto held his index finger and thumb less than an inch apart for emphasis, "-To changing everything."

"You say that as if I'm finished."

The front of the chair opened up and shot a long black chakra receiver rod out directly at Naruto's chest, only to find it slashed away by a quickdraw of Naruto's sword.

"I just want to understand." Naruto said, as if he hadn't just been attacked by the head of the C.N.F., the head of Akatsuki, and his enemy, "What makes anyone think they're a God just because they've got a pretty pair of strong eyes? Why you think you've got the right to pass judgment and 'show the world what pain is', or what makes Amegakure so pristine and innocent compared to the rest of the world?"

"How could one such as you ever understand? You're a blight on the planet that can only destroy! I can give life just as easily as I can take it away! This isn't the peak of my power! Until you've lived the life I have, until you've endured the constant struggle I have, surviving day-to-day, seen the cruelty of the major villages, and seen betrayal, you can never understand!"

Naruto just shrugged his arms out and looked around as if waiting for some sort of orchestra to start, "Your parents were killed in front of you? So were mine. And we both got the people that did it back, it just took me longer. Your friend died in your arms? I just had to pull piercings out of the man that believed in me enough to stake everything he built from the ground up on me, because you were controlling his corpse."

"What's your point?"

"My point is; worse things have happened to way more people. Welcome to the life. Suck it up."

Ninjas didn't get to make excuses for becoming a psychopath. You lost that right the second you took on the lifestyle of people training to learn how to deal with killing people and fighting against others entirely willing to do the same thing in return.

"I did suck it up." Nagato spat bitterly, "Those events enlightened me and formed who I am today. I became a God that will guide the world to understanding by inflicting immeasurable loss and pain on it."

Naruto just shook his head, "It does sound like you've had a hard life though."

"Like I said, you would never understand."

"…It's a good thing it's over."

Naruto's run-of-the-mill ninjato buried itself through Nagato's chest and found itself twisted deeper by its owner before the victim was allowed to react. In a bid to keep from wasting time in some ideological battle any longer, Naruto activated Sage Mode on the spot to cover even the short ten-foot distance that it took for him to get to his target.

Constantly twisting the blade deeper and deeper until the guard touched Nagato's chest, Naruto held one hand over Nagato's mouth, muffling any noise of pain he would have made. His physical body was too weak to do anything to cast the young killer off in the slightest.

"My real problem with you isn't that you started all of this. You see a long time ago I came to terms with the fact that people are going to do what they're motivated to do." Naruto whispered to him as Nagato continued to physically struggle futilely, his life slipping away as Naruto continued to twist the sword when there was no way to stab any deeper, "No, what I really hate about you, is that you dragged your home, full of people that believed in you, that you were supposed to look out for first and protect, into your little beef with the world."

You could do whatever you wanted. There was a reasonable excuse to do almost anything as a ninja to a ninja, but the moment you took over leadership of a country with people to do right by, and you used them as nothing more than vehicles to get your revenge, you didn't deserve the honor of being any kind of leader.

With his peace spoken, Naruto moved his hand from Nagato's mouth to the top of his head, "…Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)."

Take the principle of forming a Rasengan inside of a balloon without popping it, add years of experience forming it in various ways, and apply it to the human head.

He was unable to see just what that jutsu did to the inside of Nagato's skull, but then again he didn't need those nightmares. The blood that ran freely from his sockets upon the rupturing of his Rinnegan eyes, as well as from his ears, nose, and mouth was more than enough of a visual for him to declare that he'd finished the job.

There was no coming back from that.

Pulling his sword out of Nagato's chest, Naruto swung it to clear the blood from it and resheathed it. He heaved a huge sigh from his body. That was more violent than he wanted it to be, but he had to ensure without a doubt that Nagato died, 'At least it took care of the Rinnegan issue too.'

Nobody needed those implanted just to restart this nightmare all over again.

A quick glance down to the watch on his arm told Naruto that there was no need to let the adrenaline fade yet. He took a few steps away, but he wasn't going outside unless forced out there, and he had a bit more time left on the mandatory clock.

"I have altitude sickness. Like hell." Naruto said in a by the way manner, gesturing with his arms wide open, "If you want to take your shot, this is probably the best chance you're ever gonna get again."

It took a few seconds, but the wall collapsed to reveal that Konan had come into the room sometime during the actual process of the assassination.

There wasn't any disguising her appearance, the tears streaming silently down her face, "No. It won't change anything." She said, walking past Naruto and over to Nagato to smooth down his eyelids to give him some semblance of peace in his postmortem appearance.

Naruto simply let her move past and do as she wished, but he had to ask, "You could have stopped me. Why?" When he'd turned Sage Mode on, he knew she'd entered the room after he'd stabbed Nagato. She could have saved him, but instead chose to see things out until the end.

"Because I knew it had to be done." Konan said, voice trembling as she tried to retain some sort of composure, "Because he'd forgotten why we started this in the first place. All of this inflicting pain… he wasn't about the peace any longer. All he talked about was making the world understand suffering. The people of this village just became spare bodies."

"Why didn't you-?"

"Because he was still Nagato! How could I!" Konan shouted at him before dropping to her knees in sorrow, entirely spent, "So I'm all that's left. Now go ahead and finish it."

"No."

Konan's amber eyes went wide and she peered up at Naruto, who said that with no absence of seriousness on his face, "W-What do you mean no?"

"I'm not saying that I'm doing this for you out of some kind of pity or remorse for killing Nagato." Naruto said bluntly. Now was not the time to mince words or sugarcoat things. He was working with a limited time span at the moment, "I'm doing this because if I kill you, who's gonna tell everyone out there to stop before this place gets destroyed?"

Konan looked out of the opening past the balcony and at the skyline of the village. Her village.

They would keep fighting even after she and Nagato were killed. It would be horrible. The only thing worse than getting sparse orders like the kind Nagato had been issuing were getting no orders at all from your central command. It would be an absolute disaster. There was no system of command. No hierarchy past Nagato and Konan. The buck stopped with the two of them. Control didn't trickle down any further.

Any ninjas that perhaps would have somewhat qualified for the position of village leader had already been killed in the purge of Hanzo's regime. There was literally no one else that could do the job.

If she didn't, Amegakure really would be destroyed.

"I don't want this to go on anymore." Naruto said, "I don't want Ame destroyed. So I'll ask you one time… are we done?"

"There's nothing left. Without the Rinnegan, the Gedo Mazo can't be used to contain the power of the jinchuuriki. It can't even be accessed." Konan admitted remorsefully, "I couldn't continue this. And even if I could, I'm tired of the blood. Just leave me Nagato and Yahiko's bodies."

Naruto nodded. He'd already taken Danzo's body and sealed it away, and with the Rinnegan gone he had no other use for anything involving Nagato's corpse, "You're wrong about something though. You don't have nothing. You still have Amegakure."

Konan smiled bitterly. It didn't come anywhere close to even reaching her tearful eyes, "For the sake of my village and every man, woman, and child that calls this place home. As the new village leader, effective immediately… Amegakure no Sato surrenders unconditionally to Konohagakure no Sato and the Grand Shinobi Alliance."

In a show of this, Konan laid an Amegakure hitai-ate onto the floor and drew her own blood deeply from her hand to drip freely across the metal plate and cover the grooves of the insignia.

The old way of acknowledging definite surrender.

"…I'll send word to the Hokage and the rest of the army." Naruto said quietly, "Call your people home."

Wanting to ask how he could possibly do such a thing before battle began between the two sides and it became chaos to try and bring them to a stop, Konan was preempted by Naruto disappearing suddenly in a puff of smoke. No warning.

Looking out through the doorway to the balcony, Konan began to tear up anew.

Of course the rain would stop now of all times.

XxX

(Mt. Myoboku)

PUFF!

Appearing in a large plume of smoke, Naruto was greeted by the sight of nearly every toad seemingly waiting on what he had to say after Fukasaku had reverse summoned him. Before any of this ever began, Naruto, Sai, and the toads were provided synchronized time pieces so that the time allotted for Naruto's mission was set equally on all sides: the insertion, the mission itself, and the extraction.

No matter what, he was only getting fifteen minutes to do it, whether he finished everything in three, or died by the time they tried to bring him back. Fortunately this strict time limit was successfully implicated.

"Well Naruto-chan?" Fukasaku asked, seeing Naruto's clothes covered in blood that clearly was not his own. But then again, that could mean anything, "Is it over?"

Naruto just walked past Fukasaku and Shima and was given plenty of space by the other toads in the background to lumber past them. He spared a second to create a clone and instantly dispel it immediately thereafter to relay the results of everything to his clone(s) with the standing army, "Kami, I hope so. I really can't think of anything else that the universe could possibly throw at us anytime soon."

Shiima nodded grimly in understanding, "Ya killed Jiraiya-chan's first tadpole didn't ya?"

"Yeah…" He answered in a somewhat weakened voice, "Can you guys take me home? I think I've got the bends."

"What the hell does that mean? The bends?" Gamakichi asked, shouting over his older toad brethren to be heard.

"Altitude. Altitude sickness. Bad." From 17000 feet in the air, to below sea level, to the top of a mountain in less than fifteen minutes. Yes. Altitude sickness was a definite possibility.

"Ooh."

"Can I go lay down until someone summons me back to Konoha? Fast? Kinda got some wartime news to break. Ame… surrenders." Swaying on his feet for a moment, Naruto eventually did an abrupt faceplant into the grass and didn't get back up.

"Aw hell." Fukasaku said with a deep sigh, "Ma, would'ya mind headin' ta Konoha and summonin' Naruto-chan on Tsunade's desk? Hopefully after she finds out what happened she won't stomp him through it."

Glorious, glorious victory. It tasted like toad mountain grass… which didn't taste that bad actually.

Apparently it was great for nausea.

Or was that just for dogs?