2,004Naruto wasn't sure what he hated most about the explosion he just suffered. The bright flash that disoriented him? The boom that deafened his hearing? The unappealing smell of clay and burnt flesh from the summons?
Well, there was the explosion itself. Which stung like hell, mainly in the eyes and the tongue.
A relatively small drop of blood dropped from his maw.
Actually, yeah, it was the explosion.
"Universal-"
"Oh, fuck off with that!" Naruto snapped, one of his tail tips slashing against the ground, sending a slash of earth and stone to strike at the so-called god.
Pain calmly but quickly dodged the attack, but immediately found that Naruto wasn't giving him any opening now. Attack after attack came from the tails. Nothing he couldn't deal with, but with five of the nine tails sending blades of earth, sand, water, wind, and the occasional attack sending trees and rubble hurling into his direction? If he used Universal Pull or Almighty Push, it would leave him open to an attack that he would be better off not taking.
He still had the Naraka Path, but he wasn't confident in Naruto giving him the chance to revive any bodies.
Naruto growled as he scratched at his head, looking around. There were still more summons to clear out, pulling themselves out of his earthen trap. "Where the fuck did that bug-bomb come from...?"
"Naruto!" Kakashi yelled, now on Naruto's head and fighting...something? Something popped after being kicked away?
"Sensei, the fuck?" Naruto asked, trying to ignore the need to scratch his head.
"It's Deidara of the Stone! He's a terrorist known for jutsu that use exploding clay!" Kakashi warned urgently.
"Okay, but the fuck are you fighting on my head!?" Naruto asked in concern.
"He left you gifts, Kyuubi. Exploding clay fleas!" Hanzo warned, fending off his own share of the smaller clay beasts.
"...Oh, fuck THAT! Sensei, Salamander! Get the hell off now!" Naruto warned in frustration.
The two ninjas only had a few seconds of warning to get down and off the Bijuu as Naruto enveloped himself in a wave of golden chakra. All at once, the "fleas" of clay went up into the air, exploding all just away from Naruto's head and neck. "Okay, you sculpting bastard! Where the fuck are you!?" Naruto called out, eyes scanning over the remaining summons he still had to deal with.
None of them looked like they were made of clay at least.
Hanzo glanced between the group of orange-haired enemies and the Kyuubi that still had summons to fight. "Fox, how about we trade targets!" Hanzo offered as he ran through a series of hand seals, cutting his thumb before slamming it down on the ground.
Kakashi quickly recognized the situation and body-flickered back up to Naruto's back.
Naruto raised an eyebrow as a poof of smoke erupted, fading to reveal Hanzo standing on top of a giant salamander. It looked eyeless and was much smaller than Gamabunta for sure, but he got the sense that size wasn't the biggest factor with this one.
It might have something to do with the creepy purple mist oozing from the creature's mouth.
"Shall we, Ibuse?" Hanzo asked with a smirk beneath his mask.
The creature made a strange croaking noise of agreement.
Hanzo already sensed the attack coming, turning to block yet another ring-eyed enemy. Granted, this one was bald, but Hanzo was more focused on the sword that appeared to literally be part of his arm, which Hanzo was fighting off with his blade. "Dammit, how many are you?"
"We are the Six Paths of Pain," the Asura path answered, right as the Deva path appeared behind Hanzo.
"And there will be no tomorrow for you, Hanzo the Salamander," the Deva Path finished ominously. "Al-!"
Pain almost didn't get the chance to finish as Naruto turned, the Bijuu trying to smash the corpse of a giant gorilla down on top of Pain. He narrowed his eyes, redirecting his attack to the ground. "-mighty Push!"
The force propelled Pain's favored body away from harm, but could only watch as the mechanical asura path was swatted away from Hanzo by the tip of Naruto's tail. He stared up at Naruto, who was giving him his full attention now.
Any damage to the Bijuu, if there ever truly was any, had already healed. "...Six, eh?" Naruto mused. "Hanzo? Have fun with the summons."
The leader of Rain nodded as he sped off on his own beast. Pain briefly considered another attempt to end him, but-
Naruto slammed a fist down on the so-called god, forcing him to leap back a great distance. "Let's dance, God of the Akatsuki!"
Meanwhile
The earth trembled, even from miles away.
"Just what the hell is going on?" Kurotsuchi mumbled to herself as she observed the distant battle with a pair of binoculars.
"Kurotsuchi," Akatsuchi said in concern. "We need to return to Iwa. The Tsuchikage-"
"My grandpa is worried about this furball. He treats it like an explosion tag you can't dodge if you set it off," Kurotsuchi said with a frown. "But he's having trouble with just a few rain ninjas."
"You know we can't act unless he crosses OUR border! We're not even sure if he's crossed Rain's!" Akatsuchi reminded imploringly.
"Why don't we ask our tailed friends before deciding that?" Kurotsuchi asked with a smirk as she turned to the two men with them.
Han narrowed his eyes from behind his hat, standing with one hand in his kimono. Roshi sat on a rock with his arms crossed, their perch on the hill giving a good and safe location to watch the distant conflict.
"You want us to fight the Kyuubi, even if it's not approaching Iwa?" Roshi asked with a scuff. "Are you foolish or ambitious?"
Kurotsuchi narrowed her eyes. "The Kyuubi, new or old, is a weapon of Konoha. One they're basically flaunting now. I'm sure your beasts have some pride and want to prove to this human that stole their fellow bijuu's power that he is not at their level."
"They do have their pride," Han agreed in an easy tone. "But they will not interrupt his hunt for this skeleton monster."
"...It's real?" Kurotsuchi asked with narrowed eyes.
"The old ape says they used to show up more in the old days, whenever that was," Roshi informed, scratching the back of his head.
Akatsuchi looked between the three in surprise. "If this monster is real, is it a threat, even to a bijuu?"
"No," Han answered. "That's why they want to see how he handles it."
Kurotsuchi hummed. "As appealing as letting something like that weaken the whole of Fire Country is, I suppose it is better if it is put down before it becomes a problem for us. But tell me, are they scared of the Kyuubi?"
Han and Roshi shared a look before Roshi answered. "They said that if this was the old Kyuubi, what you're proposing would be suicide. For us, the hosts, specifically."
"The question remains, just how powerful this one really is," Han mused.
Kurotsuchi tsked as she turned back to observe the battle. "Cowards."
"Tell me, what bothered you more, Grand-Brat of Onoki?" Roshi barked out. "That you can't challenge a Bijuu yourself? Or that your grandfather thinks that Kyuubi out there is the child of the Yellow Flash?"
Kurotsuchi didn't answer, just gritting her teeth.
Meanwhile
People often thought having a bigger summon was the best option. That size was a factor of power. Those people tend to not realize that even though many summons were the same size as the mighty Bijuu, those summons had no chance against such power.
Similarly, just because Ibuse the Salamander was much smaller than many summons, he was still more than an equal to other summons bosses.
Hence how Hanzo now stood atop Ibuse, who stood atop the corpse of a much larger tiger summon. Without sight or command, Ibuse gathered a poisonous mass within his mouth and spat it as a poison bullet.
The purple mass impacted as both liquid and gas, right into the eye of a charging boar summon. It squealed in agony before falling to the ground.
Hanzo held his blade at the ready as he surveyed the situation. Most of the summons were dead. In fact, it might be all of them by now, the poison from himself and Ibuse coating the area heavily. Deidara hadn't made an appearance yet, so he was either gone or hiding further away.
Hanzo paused as an ant the size of Ibuse rushed at them from behind. With an almost disrespectful flick of the tail, Ibuse sent the controlled summon to the ground. Hanzo seized the moment, leaping down to stab the insect through the eye. If his blade didn't hit the brain, the poison coating it sure would. True enough, the oversized ant quickly shriveled up and succumbed to death.
A loud bang drew his attention back to the northwest, and he saw the fist of the golden fox sending a body barreling into the ground like a comet. Something like that would kill most men.
Pain scowled as he flew through the sky and saw that his human Asura path was destroyed. This was quickly becoming against his favor. The Animal Path was practically useless now, the same as the Human Path, but they were at least still bodies to keep the Bijuu distracted. The Naraka Path was in hiding to revive the bodies when the chance arrived.
That meant the Deva and the Preta were the only ones that might make a difference.
A tail came barreling towards him.
"Almighty Push!"
The tail paused but it still kept pushing against the gravitational pressure. He glared, pushing more chakra into it.
"My pain...is not that weak, Kyuubi!" Pain declared as the tail was deflected with a final pulse.
"Didn't ask!" Naruto retorted, another tail slamming into the Deva Path's backside before he could dodge. With all his strength and frustration, he flung the self-proclaimed God down to the earth and into the forests.
Pain, however, smiled. Just what he needed, a bit of room.
Konan narrowed her eyes. She knew that Pain could have dodged that attack, he had to have seen it coming with all the eyes he had on the battlefield. Which meant he wanted to appear like he had been struck down. So, what was he planning?
"Okay, that's two of you! Four more!" Naruto growled out.
"Two more, right here," two of the bodies spoke in one, landing on top of Naruto's head, black rods coming from their hands as they made to stab out the eyes.
"Fuck off!" Naruto yelled as he flared his chakra, long and hard. He could feel the bodies trying to stay rooted to his fur with their own chakra, but it was to no avail as they were sent flying as well. "Push that!" Naruto yelled, reaching up to grab the freefalling enemies. With a growl, he sent them down to the ground.
He paused only for an instant to consider the broken bodies he just left lying on the ground. If this had been his first kill, or if he had been human still, this might unnerve him some. But he wasn't. It might have been all the dead bodies he had seen already, or maybe it was just because he could sense the other "Pains" lurking about, or it could be him losing his humanity. He was hoping it wasn't exactly the last one.
His ears pricked up as...something filled the air. A sound, and an energy. He narrowed his eyes as he saw a black sphere rise out from the tree tops, right where one of the bodies had landed. With a strike of three tails, he struck and shattered the ground while he reached up to grab and crush whatever the orb was. But it rose fast and high away even from his grasp.
And Pain's voice echoed in his ears with two words.
"Planetary Devastation!"
Naruto roared as he found himself blinded by rays of light, the orb lighting up while he stared at it. He felt the earth trembling beneath him as the spots cleared from his vision. He blinked until he could see clearly and...
The entire earth was breaking apart around him, huge chucks rising into the air. He could feel it pulling even on his own body, this feeling of gravity suddenly being inversed towards the sphere, which was rapidly becoming a giant ball of earth, stone, and trees.
Naruto decided that just maybe the title of "god" wasn't just for show this time.
Meanwhile
"What the hell is that chakra?" Jiraiya asked with a scowl.
"I was hoping you could tell me, Lord Jiraiya," the toad he was riding on answered in concern.
The Toad Sage had redoubled their speed to Rain when he felt Naruto fighting in the area. Why, he couldn't even begin to fathom. It was day, so unless it was the Hakaju, there should be nothing for Naruto to fight out there.
Then again, Jiraiya had been heading there to check just that, if the undead beast's grave was in the area. Maybe Naruto had found it first. But that didn't make much sense, the Hakaju's chakra wasn't this easy to sense.
"Just what have you gotten into, Naruto?"
Meanwhile
What HAD he gotten himself into?
Naruto wondered when his life had gotten THIS strange. Curse marks were one thing, sand demons too. But how did it all go from him being a megaton fox that was hunting for an undead beast to floating in the sky as some piercing-obsessed freak tried to bury him inside of a mini-moon?!
Maybe it was his imagination, but he felt like several levels of absurdness were skipped.
He growled as he found himself on the moon-like structure, being pelted by various sizes of boulders. He tried to pick himself up, but the gravity pull and the build-up of stone and earth around it was slowing him down. Worse than trudging through water. From his upside-down position, he eyed where he was fairly sure the bastard was. He pulled one of his tails free and sent a blade of earth down. Sadly, the jutsu failed as the element just ended up being pulled back into the mass that was trying to swallow Naruto.
Trying, and slowly succeeding.
He could feel and hear Pain struggling, almost screaming from the strain to bring more and more up in an attempt to subdue him.
Naruto was at a loss for how to beat this. Riding it out might be best for now. Not that he stopped struggling, he didn't like the idea of being buried alive, thank you! But Pain definitely couldn't keep them up forever.
However, the big concern now, is what the hell was the end goal of this!?
Were they going to try and seal him, or just drop this entire thing with Naruto landing headfirst at the bottom? Because he didn't know how much it would take to kill a bijuu, but dropping a tiny-moon on him seemed like a good place to start trying!
He gritted his teeth as more stones and dirt pelted his face before...
"Hmm?" Pain squinted the eyes of his Petra path, having gathered by the bodies for the Naraka path to heal. He studied the growing, enormous contrast he had made in the sky and saw that the golden fox was no longer visible. "I think he actually gave up."
Naruto, however, had not given up. "Wow, that worked," he groaned, now inside a small cavity of the stone and earth. Small for him, at least. He had used all nine of his tails and both of his hands, but he had managed to force an opening inside, his tails now against the walls. His chakra flowed through his tails into the groaning stone, trying to keep it from all collapsing in on him.
Now he had a moment. A moment to make a plan to get out of this mess, and see how far this Pain would take this jutsu.
Still, he hadn't even known something like this was possible. He found himself grinning despite everything. It almost had his blood pumping again.
"I hope Kakashi-sensei is having more luck than me."
Meanwhile
Kakashi indeed had been luckier than Naruto.
"I'll kill you next time, you cyclops bastard!" Deidara's angry voice rang out as the man left the area on a giant clay bird.
Now sporting a missing hand.
Kakashi was rather proud of that, even if it had got him blown into a tree so hard it dislocated his shoulder.
Still, with that enemy retreating, he turned his attention to his fluffy student's ordeal.
Kakashi had seen the giant sphere of stone forming from the beginning. He had already gotten over his shock and awe, for the most part.
'So, the only things to slow Naruto down so far are an undead bijuu that teleports, and someone trying to bury him in a miniature moon,' Kakashi mused to himself, popping his shoulder back into place. 'Yeah, that sounds about right for him.'
End of Chapter
And the fight continues on. Yeah, Planetary Devastation is the big WTF moment the first time it gets used, even for Kyuubi Naruto. It didn't really stop him, but it has slowed him down for now. Meanwhile, others are watching this still.
But yeah, Kakashi managed to chase of Deidara, even cost the bomber a hand in the process. Because Kakashi is badass.
Not much else ot say. Fight will end next chapter. Hope you enjoyed this!
Early viewing of chapters 26-27 available on my pat-reon:
p a treon . com (slash) akumakami64