Chapter 278: Face to Face
Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 278: Face to Face
Naruto flew out of the village, following the chakra signature that could only belong to the real Pain.
He could feel the traces of Divine Energy on his target, even from several miles away.
"There…" Naruto looked toward the thickest part of the Konoha forest. There was a large tree with a hollow trunk… inside it was Pain, as well as someone else he was not familiar with.
"Huh?" Just as he was about to resume his flight, he spotted the ground moving beneath him.
Large pieces of rock shot into the air and flew toward him.
Naruto avoided them, but more and more rocks began to circle around him.
"You still have a few tricks… I see." This was the same power used by the Deva Path puppet. If he had to guess, the real one was able to make use of all the abilities from his puppets at the same time.
"Then why not face me directly?... Why use those useless toys?" Naruto wondered for a moment as the rocks grouped together and trapped him inside a stone sphere.
Naruto made his chakra explode outwards, decimating all the rocks around him and turning them to dust. "Why are you hiding?"
Something moved in the forest, near the area where he had first detected Pain's presence.
Naruto descended to the ground and took a better look around. He could now detect more signatures in the area. They had appeared out of nowhere, but the real one had not moved from his spot.
Six shadows leaped from the trees toward him.
"Not this again." Naruto groaned when he saw six more puppets standing in his way.
They were different from the ones before, so these must have been spare corpses he kept in storage in case the others were destroyed.
They began the same strategy as before.
The Naraka Path would summon their King of Hell, the Animal Path would call forth creatures, and the rest would protect them.
"Enough." Naruto's golden aura intensified, the previous serenity replaced by a violent outburst.
He was no longer inside Konoha, so there was no need to worry about collateral damage.
A small blue Rasengan manifested in front of him, quickly growing in size and shifting from blue to orange, then red.
Sensing the danger, the puppets moved to attack, but Naruto was not alone...he was never alone.
Hundreds of clones appeared around him, standing guard and preventing any puppet from getting close.
The red Rasengan emitted increasing heat as it spun faster, its color shifting until it turned completely white. The sheer heat radiating from it began incinerating the surrounding forest.
Then, Naruto released it, letting the sphere of destruction surge forward.
He saw the Preta Path puppet rushing toward it.
Naruto found it amusing. "Go on… try to absorb that. Let's see how that works for you."
The puppet did try. The moment its hands neared the fiery sphere, it expanded violently.
The puppet's arms were engulfed, the intense heat reducing them to cinders before consuming the rest of its body.
Naruto made a subtle gesture, and the rotating sphere rose into the air, growing even larger and brighter.
"Great Sage Art… Collapsing Star."
The orb detonated instantly, unleashing an explosion that consumed everything in a fiery embrace.
Naruto shielded himself with multiple layers of his turtle shell technique to avoid being burned by his own attack.
This technique was a step above the 'Infernal Lotus' he had used against Orochimaru. Back then, that had been his second most destructive technique, but now, he could do much more.
His physical eyes couldn't see past the blinding light, but his other senses told him everything he needed to know.
The six puppets were gone. The chakra signatures of Pain and his companion had weakened drastically, they must have struggled just to survive.
Part of him had expected that. It would have been a shame if those valuable eyes were lost… but if they couldn't endure this, they weren't worthy of him anyway.
The light finally faded after a full minute, leaving behind a charred wasteland.
For miles around, nothing remained...no trees, no life, only ash.
Ahead of him stood a small black mound, all that remained of the massive tree where Pain had hidden.
The only reason anything survived was because it had been protected.
Naruto pointed at the mound and snapped his fingers.
"Ahh!"
A woman's scream echoed as he obliterated their last barrier with a high-pressure blast of wind, pushing her away in the process.
Revealed beneath it, was a short-haired woman in an Akatsuki cloak, blood pouring from her lips, her body trembling with exhaustion.
But Naruto's focus was on the other figure.
A man with black hair, seemingly fused into a strange stone chair.
Black metallic rods protruded from his back, and tubes connected him to the structure.
'No wonder he didn't come to fight me in person. He can't even move. That chair must be sustaining him somehow… and those rods are how he controlled the puppets.' Naruto assessed the Akatsuki leader at a glance.
"Naruto Uzumaki…" Pain's voice was weary. "You are… much more than I expected…"
Naruto took a step forward, and the woman immediately blocked his path, ready to fight to her last breath.
"Konan, stay out of this," Pain ordered.
"But Nagato—" She glanced back at him.
"I wish to speak with you, Naruto Uzumaki… if you would listen for a minute."
Naruto crossed his arms. "You have one minute to say what you want… then your life is mine to take."
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