Paths of Pain

"Before accepting Daimyo's mission, I told Itachi and Shisui that I might need their help."

"They were my backup plan, in case Akatsuki traps me successfully."

"But I haven't called them yet, so I hope they are still waiting for me in the village."

Sato muttered absentmindedly. He kept rushing forward, but the progress was slow.

He couldn't use his full speed while Anko was with him; even with Curse Mark, she couldn't keep up with him. He had to slow down for her.

"Raikage sama."

Anko suddenly spoke. From Sato's serious eyes, she could see that Sato was concerned.

Akatsuki was bugging him a lot, he wanted to run back to the village quickly.

"I am dragging you down; if you want to reach the village sooner, you should go without me."

Anko decided to stay back; this way Sato could use his full speed and run to the village as quickly as possible.

Sato pursed his lips. Normally he wouldn't agree to such a demand, but Pain not attacking him was bothering him.

He should have been the next target; they couldn't complete the ten tails without him; they needed him urgently.

Pain should totally be hunting him down right now. But he wasn't.

"Anko, I will take you up on that offer. I will leave first."

Sato agreed to Anko's suggestion with a bothered look on his face.

"I am sure about one thing. Akatsuki needs the two tails, but they aren't after me anymore."

"And that's what's bothering me; I am worried they somehow found Yugito."

Sato sighed helplessly. Anko's eyes went wide; this shouldn't be possible.

"But we spread rumors that you are the new two-tail jinchuriki."

"Nobody knows Yugito is still alive; Akatsuki doesn't know the truth either, or Tobi wouldn't have attacked you."

Anko argued against Sato's logic, and Sato agreed.

"I know, that's why I am confused. If they knew about Yugito, they wouldn't have attacked me."

"But it's a fact that their leader is not coming after me."

"Akatsuki is very serious about tailed beasts; they wouldn't give up, because I beat them once."

Sato rubbed his hair, then straighted his body. His lightning aura burst into life.

"Maybe I am wrong; maybe the Akatsuki leader is busy with something else."

"But there is a chance that they found Yugito. And I am not willing to take this risk."

"I am leaving now; you should catch up as soon as possible."

Bzzzt

Sato disappeared like a lightning bolt, Anko was left in the dust with how fast he went.

The world was in slow motion for Sato; he jumped over obstacles and rushed past hills.

He maintained rapid speed throughout the journey, without worrying about Chakra cost.

Such high speed let him reach his destination far sooner than it was normal.

Bzzzt

But when he reached his village, Sato stopped in his tracks. He was blankly staring at his village, or what he thought was his village.

"You are kidding me."

Kumo was a village built on top of natural mountains; it was a beautiful cloud-filled environment. But this natural wonder was no longer there.

In its place was a massive crater. A large stone sphere was floating above this crater.

Sato couldn't believe his eyes; his village was no more. The hidden cloud was erased from the map.

"I thought only Yugito was in danger, but Pain nuked the whole village."

Sato clenched his fist; he could still smell some people above the ruins; he had to get to them.

Bzzzt

Running towards the crater, which was his old village, Sato found corpses scattered everywhere.

Mangled bodies of Kumo ninja and civilians were spread around the place.

While on his way, Sato noticed a particularly bloody corpse. From the ninja tag on it's chest, Sato confirmed this was C.

'Nagato killed him brutally. He died from a missile hitting his head.'

Sato analyzed the damage, closed C's eyes, and moved on. His destination was a group of people who were still fighting right now.

From their smell, Sato could tell that two of them were Third Raikage and Itachi. And they were fighting against the paths of pain and Konan.

Bzzzt

Without wasting a single second, Sato appeared on the battlefield, right in the middle of both groups.

"Sato!"

"Sato sama, you are back!"

The red-hot battle stopped, Third Raikage and Itachi relaxed, they were relived Sato was here at last.

The paths of pain showed no emotion, but Konan frowned slightly.

"Pain."

"Can you tell me why you did this to my village?"

Sato took a deep breath and asked Nagato. Nagato didn't show any emotions on his face, and said bluntly.

"Raikage, you have a reputation for being smart. We thought you might notice something was wrong, and not accept Hidden Sand's mission."

"So, we decided to wait for you in your village. We assumed you would come home eventually."

Pain coldly watched Sato and pointed towards a female corpse, her blonde hair stained with mud.

"But as fate would have it, while waiting for you, we found Yugito, the two tail jinchuriki you tried to hide."

"She put up a pitiful fight; your whole village tried to stop us. But you cannot stop God."

Pain spread his arms, as if showing the whole world what happens when you stand against him.

Sato silently watched all of this, then sighed while holding his forehead.

"What's that stone ball? Is someone trapped in that thing?"

Sato ignored Pain and asked Itachi lightly.

"That's a sealing jutsu; Shisui and Killer B are in it!"

"Before pain sealed them, we were fighting together; we almost destroyed the Akatsuki organization."

Itachi clenched his fist, his fingers pointing towards some dead bodies. Those were Akatsuki members.

"Pain calls himself god, but our village was so strong, he had to call the entire Akatsuki to fight us."

"We fought bravely until death; Akatsuki is also dead. Only pain; Konan and a guy named Tobi are still alive."

"But in the middle of the fight, Tobi ran away with the two tails. He probably betrayed this idiot god."

Itachi spat venomously; if he wasn't running out of chakra and wasn't suffering from many fractures, he would have attacked pain already.

"Idiot god..?"

Pain narrowed his eyes; the word idiot god made him look at Itachi coldly.

"Their death doesn't matter to me; God doesn't need anyone."

"Akatsuki might be dead, but your village is also dead."

"Without Akatsuki, I am still a god. But without your village, you are not nothing."

Pain slowly started flying, and his puppets also began preparing their abilities.

Third Raikage and Itachi tensed up; they knew how dangerous pain was. They had seen him flatten their village after all.

The whole battlefield was tense; it was like dynamite ready to explode.

"You are right Pain; we are nothing without our village."

In this unstable situation, Sato sighed loudly. Which made everyone look at him.

Rubbing his hair in distress, Sato's eyes scanned the devastated village.

"Without my village, I am not even a Raikage. I understand what you mean."

Sato nodded helplessly, and Pain raised his eyebrows.

"So you give up?"

Pain asked with genuine confusion in his tone. Sato blinked weirdly, as if asking why pain would think so.

"Why will I give up? I said I am not much of a Raikage without my village."

"So-"

Sato narrowed his eyes; his careless expression slowly morphed into one of wildness.

"So, I just have to bring them back!"

Sato's body burst into wild blue flames, three whisker markings appeared on his cheeks, and his eyes glowed bright yellow.

"Forbidden jutsu: one's own life reincarnation!"

Sato rapidly weaved hand signs, and before anyone could react, a bright blue light covered the village.

The mangled dead bodies of hidden cloud residents started to heal; the lifeless village was being filled with new life, once again.

Meanwhile, Sato's own body started losing it's life rapidly.

"A forbidden jutsu?!"

"You are sacrificing your own life to revive your village."

"Why...?"

Pain was taken aback; he was shell shocked. After Yahiko's death, he didn't think there was value in self sacrifice.

He only wanted the world to feel pain, and then stop wars that way. But Sato's sacrifice confused him completely.

If a leader was ready to do so much for his village, was the path of pain really the right approach?

"Sacrificing my own life?"

"What are you talking about?"

But suddenly Sato chuckled; his life force, which was rapidly draining a second ago, started coming back.

Pain's eyes widened; he was sure Sato's forbidden jutsu was a self-sacrificing jutsu. Then why was Sato still alive?!

"Confused? You aren't wrong; this jutsu uses your life force to revive someone."

"A normal human would be dead after using it once. But I am not a normal human."

Sato smiled widely as he saw the dead kumo ninja begin to wake up again.

"I am tailed a beast. I am immortal, with infinite life force."

"This jutsu will never kill me. And with me around, you can never kill my people."

Sato spread his arms wide, and behind him stood the revived cloud village. Everyone was angrily staring at pain.

Even with his strength, Pain felt a little intimidated by this army. Which might as well be immortal now.

"Pain, I hope you are ready for round two."