Chapter 68
TSUNADE SENJU
"Cuff. Cuff, Tsunade coughed out some blood as tried to open her eyes. Her whole body ached because of the sheer ferocity of the attack. Despite their best effort, it seems that their efforts in constructing the barrier weren't completely successful. Her eyes saw through the destruction and debris the devastation doled out around her. The whole Hokage building and its surrounding area had been leveled.
Such a shame! Her fists clenched as she reminisced slightly about the history of the building, yet the thoughts were out of her mind a second later as she saw a form descend to the ground at the center of the crater.
She looked past the figure of the Akatsuki's leader and got a look at her teammate, and found him injured just like her. Injured but not incapacitated, to her relief.
Pain seemed nonchalant as he began to look at all four of them, though his eyes finally settled onto the bloody form of the elder Uchiha's bloody form.
"It seems to me that you have surprised me once more, surviving my attack and limiting the damage to only such a small portion of the village. Impressive," said the man that had just tried to commit genocide on her village. Tsuande's blood boiled as she struggled to her feet, her eyes bloodshot and narrowed into slits.
"You bastard preach about peace, yet here you are trying to destroy this whole village. You seem blind to your own hypocrisy!" she spoke up as her chakra began to cycle through her body, reenergizing them as she felt her wounds begin to heal up.
Pain's eyes turned toward her, and he seemed unbothered by her accusations, making her temper further flare up.
"You speak of hypocrisy. You Konoha! Your village has preached about the importance of peace and prosperity on the one hand and, on the hand, has played a major part in destabilizing the smaller villages to assert their dominance!"
And she could only grit her teeth at this. Their initial plan had been a partial success. Her student's idea to contain Pain's attack had worked in a limited capacity. And from the way Pain had not tried to attack again was an indication that Shinso's other prediction may be right as well.
Pain's massive attack must require a large amount of chakra, and this meant that there was a large cool-down period. Time that they could use to neutralize him.
"Unlike you, Konoha shinobi, I understand the consequences of my action. I don't behind the pretenses of war and stability. I recognize the sacrifice required to bring true peace into this world and am ready to bear the weight."
Pain finished before focusing on Itachi's struggling form. Tsunade could tell that the boy was out of the fight. His fragile health had finally caught up with him.
"A burden that I was ready to share with comrades. The comradeship that you betrayed, Itachi Uchiha! And now you must answer for this!"
She saw him raise one of his arms as a bunch of his signature metallic rods levitated behind him, making her eyes go wide.
"Get out of the way, Itachi!" she screamed at the Uchiha, who tried to stand up yet failed, as Pain flexed his hand, prompting the projectiles to rush towards the Uchiha.
Tsunade pushed chakra into her legs, her body pained in protest, yet she gave it no mind and powered through as the ground cracked beneath her feet, propelling her toward her desired position.
Her muscles screamed as she dug her feet into the ground to stop her body in front of the Uchiha. With no time left to shore up the defense, Tsuande could only raise her arms as she tried to defend Itachi.
But then, despite her wait, she felt no pain. She opened her eye and found the white mane of Jiraiya's hair right in front of her as his elongated hair formed a protective coat around her.
She looked up and caught a glimpse of her teammate's face, which had now lost all shreds of its usual cheer. His eyes narrowed into slits, power, and devastation radiating off him.
CLING. CLING. CLING.
The metallic rods fell down, and his hair began to shorten up, showing her the form of Akatsuki's leader once more.
"You truly have some gall attacking Konoha like this," Jiraiya began to speak up as he picked up one of the metallic rods.
"I don't know whether you are my old student or not or why you are pretending to be him, but now I don't care. If you think you can barge into Konoha alone and get out alive, you are perhaps the biggest idiot on the continent!" Jiraiya's voice promised retribution and carnage as he crushed the metallic rod with his fist.
Jiraiya was angry. It was evident from the waves of chakra rolling over him. Jiraiya had been highly concerned that this Pain might have been his old student and had wanted to trap him to sort this out with a talk.
Yet the wanton brutality shown by Pain had perhaps caught him off guard. Jiraiya cracked his neck as he stared straight at the form of Akatsuki's leader.
"It seems I must beat into your skull why Konoha never lost a war in its history," and she felt the air ripple as Jiraiya flooded the area with his chakra. Though Pain seemed undeterred and simply replied in an even tone.
"Who said anything about coming alone?" and she saw blurs race across the area as five figures landed right beside him, dressed in a similar fashion. Each with those special rods studded across their bodies. Could it really be as Shinso had predicted? Could they really just be puppets?
"You think these puppets of you will be enough to stop us? It seems to me you have forgotten who we are!" Tsunade mocked Akatsuki's leader as she stepped up to stand beside Jiraiya.
"We are the two last remaining members of the Densetsu no Sannin. The whole continent speaks our name with reverie. It seems it is time for you to learn your place!" She began to crack her knuckles. Her mind now completely focused on the upcoming battle.
"OH! It seems that you guys are mistaken. I was not talking about them. You see, just a little time ago, the Akatsuki got its hands on a very special jutsu. A Jutsu that I believe that you will find extremely familiar," Pain began as one of its paths stepped forwards and began to cycle through a series of handseals.
Besides her, she saw Jiraiya's body tense up as his eyes went slightly wide, perhaps in recognition of the set of handseals.
"Impossible," she heard him mutter as the Pain projection stuck its hand onto the ground.
"When I mentioned company, I wasn't talking about these guys," Pain began.
"SPECIAL SUMMONING JUTSU!"
Smoke covered the area as suddenly Tsunade felt the hairs on her neck perk up. Her senses began to scream at her to move away. It was as if her whole body was warning her about impending doom.
And the reason became quite obvious as she stared at the new figure that stood in front of Pain. Her eyes went wide as she recognized the shinobi standing right in front of her, her mind going back to the time she had fought him. No, they had fought him.
And lost.
"I was talking about him!" Pain finished, and his voice showed a hint of smugness as the shinobi stepped out of the smoke, revealing the specialized mask covering his face along with his characteristic armor.
Standing right in front of them was the man who had given them the title of the Sanin. The man that had single-handedly kept up Amegakure as a significant power on the world scale. The hat-less Kage.
It was Hanzo the Salamnder.
0000
SHINSO KEN
Shinso huffed as he laboriously stopped himself from screaming. His whole inside burned because of his premature usage of sage mode. While in the sage mode, he had been on a kind of power high, and now without it, he could feel the damage its use had caused.
"Are you fine, Shinso-kun?" Haku asked him with a tone that had a hint of fear mixed with the prevalent concern. The reason for such fear was evident by the scorched and cratered land right in front of him.
"Yeah, just give me a minute," Shinso replied, holding up his sword's hilt. The blade had been disintegrated, not bearing the sage chakra he pushed into it. This was the second sword that he had lost now, two swords in a single fight.
He glanced up at the immobile crumbling form of the third Raikage and felt a sense of accomplishment at what he had achieved. The Third Raikage, even not at his full strength, was one of the strongest shinobi in this world. And yes, he had needed assistance from the team to gather the nature chakra, but he had beaten the man in terms of pure fighting prowess.
A sheepish grin arose on his face but was soon followed by a realization about the current scenario. Since Kiri was getting attacked, what was the situation in Konoha? Both Tsuande-sama and Jiraiya-sama were present, but if the nature of this assault was anything to go by, Akatsuki was not pulling its punches.
"ROARRRRRRR!" suddenly, the ground shook once more, and the whole area was swathed by dominating wave of chakra. A wave, much similar to that of a tailed beast.
"Someone's coming," Haku suddenly spoke out as he took out a senbon and began to scan our surroundings. Shinso himself expanded his senses, and soon found the chakra of the incoming threat.
"Ohhh, what do we have here?" came a very sharp voice as the intruder landed on the ground with a thud. His akatsuki robes not quite matching with his bluish skin. In front of me I could see haku stiffen as he probably recognized the shinobi in front of us.
"It's Kisame, Hoshigaki Kisame," Haku muttered in a daze making Kisame focus on him.
"Ohh, it seems you have heard of me. No matter, since you seem quite fresh and hale it must be the kid behind you who faced this corpse," he finished, his eyes now focusing onto me as he extended he crushed the reanimated corpse of the Third Raikage with a swing of his sword.
"Now, my mission here is to retrieve the third tails sealed right behind you," he began once more in a completely non-chalant voice. Shinso's mind raced as he thought up any possible solutions yet they were boxed in. he was in no conditition to face Kisame and as skilled as haku may be Kisame was a monster we couldn't afford to face.
Haku stiffened up and got ready for combat but Kisame simply turned his head to the side, his eyes still narrowed on me.
"Ohhh, you do have courage standing upto me like that. Now, I could actually make my way through the two of you but consider me impressed by your skill. And so, I have a proposition for you," and Shinso began to struggle to his feet, his body aching with every small movement.
Suddenly there was a suffocating pressure emanating throughout the area, as Kisame had a huge maniac grin on his face showing his pointy teeth.
"Why don't the two of you get out of my way and I will spare your miserable lives ehh," he made his proposition and his presence around us thickened, making it even difficult to breathe.
Shinso scanned his surrounding, there was little chance of help coming their way. He then focused on the man infront of him, and considered the chances of survival if they fought and yet all those scenarios ended in their demise. He was in no shape to fight and Haku wouldn't stand a chance against the tailless tailed beast.
His mind raced as he though up plans, escape routes until he got a brilliant idea. His reserves were low, yet he just might be able to pull it off. He saw the sealing pot with three tails sealed inside it and his mind raced as he did the calcualations.
It could work. They had a chance.
"Haku, stop," Shinso spoke up making the Ice style user look at him with a perplexed gaze. And Shinso simply shook his head.
"We can not face him, fighting him is useless," and Shinso could see the internal struggle in the Ice style users mind.
"Ohh, it seems we have reached an accord then. Now why don't you pass me the sealing pot and I can be on my merry way," Kisame said with a cheer and Haku was about to attack until I held his hand stopping him from making the mistake.
"Just listen to me, we can not fight him," and he looked her straight in the eyes, hoping that he would get the hint.
"Listen to your partner kid, you are years away from facing someone like me," Kisame added from behind and after gritting his teeth Haku relented his arm losing its power as he gave me a nod.
"Well then throw mw the sealing pot now kid, my patience is running quite thin!" Kisame's voice came, showing a bit of irritation. Shinso chewed his lips and turned to face the sealing pot, and placed a hand on it seemingly picking it up. Then suddenly he glanced at the Akatsuki member and saw the smirk vanish from his face as he finally saw blood smudged on his hand.
"See you!"
"YOU BASTARD!" Kisame screamed as he tried to rush forward but it was too late now.
"REVERSE SUMMONING JUTSU!"
PUFFFFFF!
0000
Now, Shinso can barely pull it off even with a good reserve of chakra. And the only reason he was able to pull it off is because the three tails is sealed into a device, otherwise, it wouldn't have been possible.