Chapter 45: The Gathering Storm


"His Excellency will see you now."

Danzo Shimura rose from his seat, ignoring the slight pain of joints that were not as flexible as they had been in his youth. Like the rest of his body, they continued to serve adequately despite his years. Danzo leaned on a cane carved from a gnarled taproot that was more of an affectation than a necessity. He gestured briefly to the three nondescript young men who had accompanied him, and they remained still as statues.

Danzo stepped through the ornate, gilded doors of the Fire daimyo's private audience chamber. Inside, a beaded curtain shrouded the space where the nation's ruler rested, his dais flanked by Mina and Vath, two of his Twelve Guardians. Danzo knelt before the daimyo, on a soft cushion that had thoughtfully been provided for him.

"Lord Shimura." The voice was weathered slightly with age, but had a surprisingly high pitch for a man. In the past more than one person in the court of Fire had joked about the daimyo's effeminate voice and features. Those whose words reached their liege's ears rarely joked about anything ever again.

"My liege," Danzo replied smoothly, bowing deeply enough that his forehead touched the reed mats on the floor. "I am here, as requested."

"Ever you have been our faithful servant, Danzo," the daimyo said. "Grateful we are to have your counsel in these… troubled times."

"I am your humble servant. How may my meager wisdom serve?" Danzo asked respectfully. He felt a slight itching running up his right arm, but put it aside for the moment. The limb was banded in steel and shrouded in a bandage sling, ostensibly useless.

"We are… troubled by the events that have taken place in Konoha of late," the daimyo admitted. "Great is our respect for the wisdom and power of Tsunade Senju, but even she, it seems, is unequal to the task at hand. The menace of demon attacks grows within our borders, and the shinobi of Konoha seem ill-equipped to counter it. We are most dismayed of all to learn that there was an attack on Konoha itself, and that the Hokage was injured in battle."

Danzo suppressed the smile that threatened to cross his withered lips. Jiraiya had done an admirable job of suppressing news of Mayonaka's attack and Tsunade's lingering coma. For the most part, Danzo even agreed with the decision; Konoha could never appear weak to outside eyes. He had, however, made sure that news of what had truly passed as a result of Mayonaka's appearance and the disastrous ward program had made its way to trusted ears in the court, and eventually to the daimyo. "Tsunade's stand in defense of Konoha cannot be faulted," Danzo offered. It was best not to speak ill of the revered Sannin directly. "Had she not driven the creature off, many more lives would surely have been lost."

"Yes, yes," the daimyo mused. "We will take your word that it is so."

"The ward program involving the Iwa survivors, however, was perhaps… overly optimistic," Danzo continued. "The demon-infested Rock shinobi actually did more damage than their queen."

Danzo heard the snap of a silk fan behind the curtain, and the itch running down his right arm started nagging at him again. "We are surprised to hear you say so," the daimyo commented. "Your voice was among those raised in favor when the idea was proposed in the closing days of the war on Iwa."

Danzo was reminded once again that while his liege often played the part of the fool and dandy that he appeared to be, he was not a stupid man. Having held onto his throne for thirty years was more than ample proof of the sharp mind behind the soft face. "Forgive me, my liege, but my support was for a very different program than what the honored Hokage implemented."

"Oh? How so?"

"It was never my recommendation that the captured Rock ninja be offered parole and homes within Konoha. I felt that was certain to backfire, and it did. My suggestion was that the captives with desirable bloodlines be… encouraged to produce offspring without being released from prison, and that their children then be integrated into Konoha's population."

The silk fan tapped against the rice paper barrier between the daimyo and a desk where his niece – a royal scribe – waited. The young woman was tasked with recording the current meeting, but put down her pen and pulled down a ledger from a shelf. "Lord Shimura's recommendation was indeed as he stated, your Excellency," the scribe stated a moment later as she read the notes. "The Hokage and Lord Jiraiya both argued that Lord Shimura's proposal would be harmful to Konoha's reputation if discovered, as well as taking longer to produce usable earth-type shinobi."

"Thank you, dear," the daimyo replied. "Our apologies, Lord Shimura; our memory is not what it once was."

Danzo didn't believe for a second that his liege had forgotten the details of the meeting, but he bowed with a smile. "Of course." He recalled his conversation with Tsunade after that meeting. She'd been upset with him for making the suggestion, adding in private that in addition to her stated objections before the daimyo, the idea of forcing prisoners to father or bear children against their will was 'disgusting, abhorrent, and nothing that Konoha will ever be a part of while a Senju leads it'.

Danzo had smiled, conceded the point, and even assisted with the setup of the ward program. Once the clans were done skimming off the top of the available talent pool, Danzo had quietly arranged for the best of those who remained to fall into Root's hands. The ward program may have blown up in Tsunade's face, but in another generation Root would have no shortage of strong and loyal earth ninjutsu adepts. It was a rather unpleasant process for the captives in question, of course, but they were Konoha's enemies, and thus unworthy of consideration. He certainly hadn't lost any sleep over the matter.

"We are told that the Hokage has yet to recover from her injuries?" The daimyo inquired.

Danzo nodded. "Yes, my liege. Regrettably, Tsunade has not regained consciousness. Mayonaka tested her to even a Sannin's limits and left her with grievous wounds. We all hold out hope for her recovery, of course, and Lord Jiraiya – along with the advisory council – has provided interim leadership."

"We are sure that everyone is performing to the best of their ability, Lord Shimura, but these are trying times, and Konoha cannot be without a Hokage's leadership." The silk fan snapped shut, and once again Danzo's right arm began itching fiercely. This time the sensation spread to his bandaged right cheek, and he began to wonder if his usual medic – a loyal Root operative – had gotten some irritant on his bandages before applying them. "Will Lord Jiraiya accept the mantle, at least until such time as Tsunade Senju is able to resume her duties?"

Danzo feigned consideration of that, while cursing mentally. The widespread respect and awe directed at the remaining Sannin – mostly unearned, in his opinion – had been a pain in his ass ever since Jiraiya had schemed to use the Uzumaki boy to convince Tsunade to return to Konoha. Moving against them had to be done ever so carefully. "I am certain, my liege, that Jiraiya would accept the mantle of Hokage if you asked it of him. He continues to believe, however, that he is better positioned to serve the Land of Fire and Konoha as its spymaster, rather than its leader." That even had the virtue of being true; Jiraiya didn't want the job of Hokage, and never had. Homura and Koharu's attempt to put him in his sensei's chair had been what drove Jiraiya to track Tsunade down in the first place.

"Hmm. Regrettable," the daimyo mused. "What of the Copy Ninja, Kakashi Hatake?"

Danzo resisted the urge to grind his teeth, wondering if his liege was toying with him. Kakashi was a warrior with few peers, but not terribly well suited to be an administrator. You know I want the job and that I'm the best suited; you just want to watch me squirm. Deciding not give the daimyo the satisfaction, Danzo answered smoothly. "Kakashi is recovering from his wounds after confronting Mayonaka by the Hokage's side, but he will not be back to full strength for some time. I will, however, inquire if he would be willing to take on the responsibility, if you wish it."

"Please do," the daimyo purred. "Dear? Leave us for a moment, please." The daimyo's niece bowed to him before departing the room, and Danzo's eyebrow rose in surprise. Rarely was the daimyo without a scribe; only the most secret of information was not recorded somewhere in the archives.

"My liege?" Danzo murmured politely.

The daimyo nodded to one of the Twelve Guardians attending him. The kunoichi Mina Ki stepped forward towards Danzo, carrying something long and slender, wrapped in silk. When she drew close she knelt beside Danzo, parting the fabric to reveal a wakizashi. Danzo was no swordsman, but he could see that the weapon was old and valuable, the dark wood of the scabbard tooled with gold and the short hilt wrapped in pale sharkskin with a ruby adorning its base.

"A beautiful weapon, my liege," Danzo noted.

"Give it to Kakashi Hatake," the daimyo instructed. "It will be his mark of my favor to serve as the interim Hokage." Danzo's visible eye narrowed as he realized that the daimyo wasn't playing any games. He actually meant to make Kakashi the next Hokage. "Of course, my liege," Danzo murmured, thinking furiously about how to turn this around. Kakashi was young; his reign might stretch longer than Danzo's remaining life span.

Danzo was reaching out to pick up the antique blade when the itching returned again; this time in his hidden right eye. He opened that eye, the stolen sharingan's keen gaze easily piercing the thin gauze bandage covering it. What he saw through the stolen eye alarmed him. A sinister chakra shrouded the blade, so subtle he hadn't sensed it directly. Similar dark auras covered Mina and Vath, but worst of all, black chakra practically poured from underneath the beaded curtain separating the daimyo from the rest of the room.

Danzo had watched his loyal, capable Root agents dispatch one of the corrupted wards in Konoha. He'd lost two men to the monster, and he'd gotten a good look at the battle with both eyes, so he knew what he was seeing immediately. What to do about it was the problem.

Danzo continued the motion as though he intended to grasp the blade, but instead he reached around it and grabbed Mina's wrist at the last moment, squeezing as he did so. Her eyes widened in shock, and the sword fell from her hand to the floor. Even as she started to recoil, Danzo struck with his shrouded right arm. Mina had left herself open because – like most people – she believed the limb to be crippled and useless, when it was in fact far stronger than the arm he'd been born with. It was also covered in a thick metal bracer, and Danzo bashed its considerable weight into the side of her lovely face with vicious force. Blood and a few teeth went flying, and Mina was out cold before she hit the floor.

"Danzo!" The daimyo screeched. "What is the meaning of this?" Vath drew his metal quarterstaff from its sling across his back, stepping between Danzo and the nation's ruler.

"My liege is no demon," Danzo replied coldly as he rose to his feet, tossing aside his sling and settling into a combat stance. "Vacate his body immediately, or I will destroy you."

A surprised expression crossed Vath's handsome face. He glanced at the daimyo's enclosure. "Looks like the jig's up, pops. What now?"

"Kill him, of course," the daimyo replied from behind the curtain, his voice suddenly heavy with menace. "He's only one old man."

The demon that had once been Vath the Living Flame shrugged. "Fair enough." He twirled his staff in his one remaining hand – his other arm having been lost to Haku of Mist months earlier – and bright flames sprang from its tips. "Sorry old dude; nothing personal, but you've got to die. Don't worry, we'll make up something suitably heroic. Maybe we'll say you died stopping an assassin!"

"I'm not dead yet, whelp," Danzo growled.

"Well yeah… but you're old," Vath pointed out. "Plus you're a wind adept and I make fire. You have to know what that means. Anyways, I'll make this quick." Vath swing his staff, and a wave of fire that filled the room swept toward Danzo, a wide-area attack he would have been hard-pressed to dodge even in his youth. Fortunately, he had other means of defense. Instead of trying to dodge, Danzo simply twisted his right wrist, the motion opening the bracer. Gravity did the rest, removing it from his arm. Danzo closed that hand into a fist, and one of the implanted sharingan on his arm closed forever as the flames hit him.

Danzo Shimura experienced the incredibly disjointed sensation of both dying and not dying. His body was both incinerated in an instant by Vath's flame, and left entirely untouched by it. The second reality overrode the first, and he was standing behind the colorful fire ninjutsu master. He extended his left hand, his palm coming to a stop centimeters from Vath's spine. He exerted his natural element, the wind chakra Vath had so casually dismissed a moment earlier. A loud 'pop' was followed by a sickening crunch and a strangled scream that quickly cut off. Vath hit the ground in three pieces: the armpits up, the hips down, and a dense, compressed ball of flesh that had been the bulk of his torso and abdomen.

Danzo felt the temperature in the room drop dozens of degrees in seconds. He lashed out to the side, creating horizontal blades of wind that shredded the daimyo's enclosure. Dozens of long, thin lances of ice shot out of the collapsing wreckage. Danzo held out his left hand, forming a shield of hard air upon which they shattered. The shards didn't fall but swept around to strike from every side. Danzo took a blurring step that carried him across the room before the ice needles impaled the empty spot he had occupied. He couldn't hold back a pained grimace at the protests from his body; shunshin was a skill meant for the young and spry, not the old and slightly arthritic.

Laughter accompanied footfalls as the wreckage of the daimyo's shrouded dais was blown away from the center. Danzo looked upon the face of his liege for the first time in years, and sadness filled his heart. The man looked the same; a soft, lined framed by wavy black hair falling to his shoulders that would be gray without dye. His clothes were of the finest silk and embroidered with gold thread, his slippers alone worth more than most of his subjects would earn in a year. All of that was familiar, but the sheer malevolence pouring off of him in waves was new.

"Marvelous, really," the demon wearing the daimyo's skin said with a mocking clap. "You are the first mortal I've encountered who has managed to fool this host. He actually believed you were a crippled old man."

"Sorry to disappoint," Danzo replied, wary of the next attack. He had to figure out how to survive and save his liege; unlike the bodyguards, he was loathe to damage the daimyo's body. "That body can't be one you can use to its fullest extent. If you're willing to vacate it, I could provide you with a young, strong shinobi body to inhabit instead."

"He was right about your ruthlessness, though," the demon daimyo mused. "A tempting offer, but no. This host is adequate for my needs."

"I cannot allow the lord of the Land of Fire to remain under a demon's thrall," Danzo rumbled. "I will destroy you, if I must."

"You would strike down your liege lord? That won't end well for you," the demon noted mockingly.

"Search his memories," Danzo replied bluntly. "My liege knows I'm a patriot above all else. I will protect this nation, even if it means being remembered as a regicide. Now get out of that body."

The demon's dark eyes flickered, and a snarl crossed its aged features. "You seem so very sure you can kill me," it murmured dangerously. "I won't fall as easily as my kin."

The demon swung the fan in its hand – an expensive masterpiece made of carved red jade with painted silk between the blades – and an arctic blast howled over Danzo, followed by countless lances of ice. He formed a barrier of hard air to protect himself, but the demon grinned and flickered, passing through its own storm of ice. The daimyo's gnarled, veiny fist struck the barrier and shattered it. The ice knives curved around him and continued on their path. "Die," he hissed.

Another stolen sharingan on Danzo's arm closed permanently, and even as the frozen projectiles tore his body apart he rejected that fate and appeared behind the daimyo. "Not today," Danzo grunted, offering a mental apology as he planted a kick in his liege's lower back, sending the demon sprawling on the floor.

With a moment to assess his surroundings, Danzo shed the last of the bandages clinging to his arm and face. He knew he didn't have much time before someone registered the disturbance and investigated. What he didn't know was if any other members of the daimyo's staff or Twelve Guardians were possessed. Even if they weren't, everyone under arms in the palace would obey the possessed daimyo unquestioningly.

A flash of orange light from the edge of his vision provided Danzo bare warning to duck as a fireball roared through the space he had been occupying. Turning to the new threat, he saw that Vath's head and upper torso were still alive and had just launched an attack. Wait a minute… Danzo studied Vath and the rest of the room with his rarely used sharingan, and finer details in the stolen eye's vision became apparent. The dark aura around Vath was coming from the staff he gripped tightly, and closer study told Danzo it wasn't the same weapon he'd seen the man with in years past; it was older, almost an antique. The wakizashi he'd been offered had the same aura, and when he studied Mina Ki, he noted that her demonic shroud was coming from an ornate earring hooked into her right earlobe.

Danzo looked back at the daimyo as he climbed to his feet, and it all made sense. How would a corporeal demon get close enough to the nation's ruler, anyways? "This is your last chance to leave that body and run, demon."

The demon snarled, lashing out with the jade fan again. Danzo slipped to the side to avoid the ice projectiles, and then retaliated with ninjutsu of his own, the same technique he'd used on Vath, but on a smaller scale. The daimyo dodged, but Danzo had long ago learned to shift the target even after releasing it. Air rushed inward with crushing force to fill a sudden void, and the daimyo screamed. Danzo winced at the sight of two of his liege's fingers vanishing, but the attack hit what he meant it to; the red jade fan was caught in the center of the vortex and crushed into dust.

The demon-possessed daimyo screamed once as he fell. Seeing a raging black marble of energy at the center of his vortex, Danzo threw himself into a shunshin once more, catching the daimyo on his arms and carrying him away at the crushed remains of the red jade fan exploded violently in a torrent of black chakra. Danzo turned and took the hit against the wall himself, shielding the daimyo from further harm. Dazed by the shockwave and following impact, Danzo nonetheless checked to see if his liege was safe. The daimyo groaned, his eyelids fluttering.

That was the moment when multiple doors to the room flew open and people started pouring in. Carver the Vampire and two more of the Twelve Guardians entered, and for a moment Danzo wondered if they would attack him at the sight of their wounded daimyo in his arms. But Vath chose that moment to launch another attack at Danzo and the daimyo. Carver blurred into motion, taking the flames across his back. His tattoos absorbed the fireball, and he followed up with a whirling slash. His bared steel took off Vath's head, but the remains didn't stop moving. "Destroy the staff," Danzo called out. At the same time he closed his right eye and slipped his artificial arm into his kimono before anyone got a good look at him.

Carver took Danzo's advice, running chakra down his blade before setting it into motion once more, dicing the metal staff into half a dozen pieces in a second. Vath finally stopped moving. As more members of the court entered the audience chamber the daimyo came to his senses, crying out in pain and gripping his right hand, which was missing the middle and ring fingers just above the first joint. Physicians and bodyguards clustered around him.

"What happened here?" Carver demanded.

"Lord Shimura just saved our nation, is what happened," the daimyo replied irritably. Displaying more fortitude than Danzo would have given him credit for, the nation's elderly ruler got to his feet while his bleeding hand was still being tended to, creating a sudden silence in the room.

"Demons were here, in the heart of my liege's court," Danzo growled. "I'd like to know how that happened and wasn't noticed!" He looked around. "Where are the court priests?"

Carver blinked, and then swore softly. "His Excellency commanded them to join the others of their orders in hunting the fiends plaguing the Land of Fire."

"It was the first thing I did," the daimyo agreed wearily, "as soon as I picked up that damned fan."

"The red jade fan," Danzo asked, "where did it come from?"

The daimyo's niece the royal scribe, who had been hovering over her uncle as his hand was cleaned and bandaged, looked up in surprise. "It was among a shipment of items taken as spoils during the invasion of the Land of Earth," she exclaimed.

"It was a trap," the daimyo stated bluntly. "It belonged to my grandfather and was taken in the last war with the Land of Earth. Someone knew I would reclaim it."

When the daimyo was tended to the doctors moved to Danzo, but he politely refused their attentions. While Carver was busy destroying Mina's earring and sending for a sealed container to hold the wakizashi, Danzo's Root bodyguards slipped into the room. One of them quietly retrieved his bracer, while the medic of the trio carefully re-bandaged his arm and face without letting anyone see the secrets embedded in them.

Ignoring the urging of his physicians to retire, the daimyo approached Danzo. "That damned demon was right about one thing; Konoha needs strong leadership now more than ever. Its selection was not the proper one, however." Danzo resisted the urge to smile. "Lord Shimura, until such time as Tsunade Senju is fully recovered, you will serve as Hokage."

Danzo bowed. "It is my honor to serve, my liege."


When black clouds overcame the sunny sky over Uzushio, Naruto thought at first that Uzumaki was upset about something again. That supposition lasted until he felt a titanic chakra pulse originating from the rooftop of the next tower over. The 'flavor' of the chakra was hauntingly familiar; he'd last felt it the first time he'd set foot in Uzushio on the day he'd almost died at the Akatsuki's hands.

Rushing to the window, Naruto saw multiple individuals on the neighboring rooftop shrouded in black cloaks with red clouds. Towering over them was an unmistakably demonic form, as tall as Uzumaki, but with emerald skin and a female figure.

Naruto heard an enraged roar from a few stories up. Looking skyward, Naruto saw Uzumaki fly across the intervening space between the towers. The Akatsuki scattered, while Mayonaka merely smiled and braced herself for the charge. The initial impact between the two demons shook the building on which they fought.

"You dare encroach on my domain in the presence of these upstarts, sister?" Uzumaki roared. "Have you forgotten that I am the eldest? The strongest?"

"As if you'd ever let anyone forget it, big brother," Mayonaka sneered, meeting him blow for blow. "But I have grown while you huddled in exile. Don't expect this to end the way it did when we were only as high as mother's knees."

Hearing screams and sounds of combat elsewhere, Naruto turned to look at the harbor and saw the water churning. Dozens of towering bodies composed of ice chunks and seawater were climbing out of the bay and onto the docks, attacking everything in sight. The rumbling of stone from the mountains ringing the island heralded more demons, these ones formed of animate rock. In addition to that assault on two fronts, the same pale figures that had accompanied the Akatsuki Zetsu on his last visit to Uzushio were crawling out of the ground everywhere and attacking anyone in sight.

Naruto saw the shinobi of Uzushio rushing out to meet the demons and clones as the civilians evacuated, heading for the tunnels and vaults under the city for shelter. The Whirlpool ninja were a more formidable force now than they had been during the Exile, their numbers bolstered by immigration and their training vastly improved by Naruto and his band. Still, they were badly outnumbered and under attack from all sides.

Hinata, Ino and Haku joined Naruto at the window. Hinata was already strapping on the baby carrier. "What's going on?" Ino asked.

"Looks like the Akatsuki are making their move," Naruto replied grimly. "That has to be Mayonaka, and it looks like she's prepared to tussle with Uzumaki." As they watched, several of the purple-eyed Paths of Pein leapt across the gap from the next tower to theirs, disappearing from sight as they landed on the roof. Uzumaki attempted to follow, but Mayonaka put herself between her brother and his home, denying him access. The air rippled around Uzumaki as he tried to teleport, but Mayonaka lashed out with a gout of blue chakra, disrupting the attempt. "You're facing me, dear brother," Mayonaka taunted him. "No running away."

"They're after Konan," Naruto realized aloud. Glancing at his bond mates, Naruto came to a decision. "The three of you should go to the shelters. Keep the civilians safe if the demons break through the defensive lines."

Hinata's eyes narrowed. "What are you going to do, Naruto?"

Naruto sighed. "In spite of my reservations, I need to help Uzumaki; Uzushio is our only safe haven, and without him the city will fall."

"Naruto, you can't face the Akatsuki alone," Hinata exclaimed, worry furrowing her brow. "Pein almost killed you last time you fought him!"

Naruto kissed her brow and ruffled Minato's downy hair. "I wasn't ready for him then, love. I am now. Please Hinata, get yourself and Minato to safety; I can't focus on this battle if I'm worrying about you two." Hinata nodded reluctantly, and with Haku and Ino flanking her headed for the stairs. They were quickly lost in the tide of people headed for the shelters.

Naruto stilled for a moment and closed his eyes. When he opened them, colors were more vibrant, and he could faintly see the natural chakra flowing through the walls of Uzumaki's tower. "Thank you sensei," Naruto murmured. He was grateful that Jiraiya had given him a parting gift of instructions for reverse-summoning himself to the toad realm to learn senjutsu. Normally he had to hold still to gather natural chakra for 'sage mode', but upon returning to Uzushio he'd discovered that Uzumaki's towers were conduits for the power of the earth. Tapping into the energy they channeled was so easy it startled him, but at the moment he wasn't complaining.

Naruto exploded into motion, and the interior of the tower blurred around him. It took just seconds to reach the residence at the top of the building, where a fierce battle was already underway. Konan and a dozen of the best of the shinobi he'd been training with the help of his bond mates were locked in combat with the half-dozen eerily similar men who made up the Six Paths of Pein.

Konan launched three spears of folded paper at the Deva Path, which calmly deflected them with a gesture. One hit a Whirlpool shinobi in the leg, one thudded into the stone wall, and one sailed in Naruto's direction. He casually snatched it from the air and hurled it back at the Deva Path. He knew from Konan's confessions on the nature of Pein that the Deva Path had a cooldown time between pulses of attraction and repulsion.

Unfortunately, the other trait of the Six Paths prevented a fatal blow. The six-armed Asura Path took a step back from its melee with some of the Whirlpool shinobi and extended one fat limb, taking the spear through the bone before it could reach the Deva Path.

Before he could do anything else, Naruto was attacked by seven large panthers that sprang from the ground in front of the Animal Path. Each had purple whorled eyes and black spikes through their skulls just like the Paths. Naruto scowled and got to work. He crushed the skulls of the first three panthers with surgical precision before the rest closed in, then grabbed the tail of one of the falling corpses and swung it in a wide horizontal arc, batting away the rest.

"I'm not going with you, Nagato," Konan raged as she fought. "My place is here, with my husband and my son!" Past Konan, Naruto could see Princess Alara curled up behind a hastily arranged barricade of overturned beds and dressers. Her stomach was swollen with the child she could soon deliver, and she held Konan's son Unmei in her arms, trying to comfort him as he wailed.

"Your place was never here, Konan," the Deva Path replied calmly. "I promised I would free you, and now I have a way."

Naruto twitched in surprise at that revelation, but before he could think about it anymore he was back in the thick of the melee. Most of the Whirlpool shinobi were dead, and as he maneuvered to Konan's side more of the Paths focused on him. He struggled to avoid the Asura Path's clawed swipes and prehensile sawblade of a tail. That got harder when the Animal Path spread its arms wide and unleashed a flurry of wings, countless birds with violet eyes swarming Uzumaki's chambers, pecking at the eyes of any target they found.

Naruto formed hand signs and unleashed a spray of wind blades, cutting into the flock and making bloody feathers rain to the floor, but the Animal Path kept summoning more. Naruto was being driven back when a blast of flame from the stairs washed over the attacking birds, incinerating them by the hundreds. Glancing to the side Naruto saw Ino's lips wide as she spewed forth the fire ninjutsu that Konoha was so feared for.

Putting aside the question of what Ino was doing away from Hinata, Naruto took advantage of the distraction. He formed a shadow clone and a rasengan, lunging at the Asura Path. It placed its humming saw blade in his path, but the clone grabbed the prehensile weapon and tugged it out of place before being dispelled by its edge. Naruto drove the rasengan clean through the Asura Path's chest and then twisted using that point of contact as a fulcrum. His knee slammed into the side of the abomination's metal-clad head, and while the blow sent pain shooting up his leg, he felt the Asura Path's thick neck break.

Meanwhile the Preta Path had turned on Ino and was advancing on her, absorbing the chakra-kindled flames she spewed forth. Naruto moved to help, cursing internally as he saw the Naraka Path gather up the fallen Asura and toss it into the gaping maw of the King of Hell.

"No more, Nagato," Konan called out coldly. "I didn't want to do this, but you leave me with no choice!" The blue-haired kunoichi's chakra surged, and every surface of the large room – floors, walls, ceiling and furniture – exploded into an absolute flurry of paper.

"Oh hell," Naruto exclaimed at the sight of tens of thousands of explosive tags filling the air. He changed course, tackling Ino away from the tags and the Paths.

The Deva Path deflected the first wave of explosive tags and they detonated harmlessly, but the flurry only intensified. Konan's expression was savage as a paper barrier formed to shield her as well as Unmei and Alara. "Goodbye, Nagato," she whispered. The explosive tags closed in on the Six Paths from all directions.

Naruto and Ino landed hard on the stone floor. He thickened the veil of chakra around his body to shield her from the blast as much as possible, but the anticipated explosion never came. Instead the temperature in the room dropped dramatically, an icy chill washing over Naruto that he felt even through the fox cloak. Looking up, he saw that every one of Konan's bomb tags had been encased in its own thin sheet of ice. As one they fell, and shattered on impact with the floor.

The shadows behind Konan writhed and then unfolded like a flower's petals, and an infernal chakra presence filled the room. The former Akatsuki whirled, her eyes widening in dismay. A tall, slender female demon appeared from the darkness. She was unnaturally tall, easily two and a half meters in height. Her skin was a deep violet, and she wore no clothing to conceal it. Pale blue, glowing eyes studied the scene with faint amusement. "Mother was right," the new arrival purred in an oddly echoing voice that hit two different octaves at the same time, "the mortals of this era are all full of surprises."

Konan saw a threat near her child and acted, blurring across the intervening distance. As fast as she was, however, the violet-skinned demon was faster, her curled fist striking Konan's solar plexus the instant she exited the shunshin. The blue-haired woman folded over, breathless, and the demon's deft fingers grabbed a handful of Konan's hair, drawing her head up just enough to take a brutal knee to the face. The kunoichi's nose broke and blood sprayed away from the blow. She collapsed to the floor with a groan. Alara's horrified scream as she processed what was happening joined Unmei's distressed wail.

"You dare?" The Deva Path thundered at the demon. She studied him indifferently, stepping back as the Naraka Path picked Konan up gently in its arms.

"Should I have let your lover destroy your toys?" The demon replied haughtily. "She's not badly hurt."

"Who are you?" Pein growled in response, only partially mollified. "What are you doing here?"

"My name is Kafu," she replied with a sniff. "Mother asked me to make sure nothing unexpected happened to you." She glanced over her shoulder, out the window toward the adjacent tower that was starting to crumble under the force of Uzumaki and Mayonaka's exchanged blows. "We should go before dear Uncle tries to intervene. Mother can make her own retreat and break your beloved's bond once you're away."

"Can't let you do that," Naruto replied wearily, having climbed to his feet.

The Six Paths turned to direct ireful glares at the blond jinchuuriki. "Be grateful that I am not here for you today, boy," the Deva Path grated. "Else I would take the time to end you." He waved a hand negligently at Naruto.


Ino winced as she got to her feet in the wake of the almost-explosion that Kafu had foiled. I must be insane, she reflected glumly. She wasn't entirely sure what had possessed her to come back up the tower once Hinata had been escorted to safety. It wasn't as though she really cared about anything the Akatsuki, Naruto and Uzumaki were fighting about. Still, the thought of Naruto fighting alone against such overwhelming odds didn't sit right with her, and she'd felt compelled to lend her aid. It's probably just the bond messing with my head.

Ino's musing halted abruptly as Kafu spoke. "We should go before dear Uncle tries to intervene. Mother can make her own retreat and break your beloved's bond once you're away."

"Wait, what?" Ino whispered to herself. Was that possible? Why would they have come for Konan if it wasn't?

"Can't let you do that," Naruto said, setting himself against the Six Paths and the new demoness Kafu.

"Be grateful that I am not here for you today, boy," the Deva Path replied. "Else I would take the time to end you." Ino watched the purple-eyed man wave a hand. One instant Naruto was there, the next he was gone. She turned in shock to see a hole in the wall behind her, and a dot disappearing into the distance. "Let us be gone, then," she heard the Deva Path say.

"Wait, don't go," Ino exclaimed as she turned back. Six pairs of creepy rinnegan and two amused demon eyes bored into her.

"You intend to die trying to stop us, girl?" The Deva Path asked idly. The freshly resurrected Asura Path stomped toward Ino and she hastily stepped back, raising empty hands before her.

"I couldn't care less if you take Konan," Ino protested hastily. "Just tell me: that demon out there can really break the Soul Mirror's bond?"

The Deva Path looked curious at the odd question, and the Asura Path halted. "She claims that she can," Pein replied.

Ino swallowed hard. "Then ask her to break my bond, too." It was an insane risk, but Ino was willing to die to get rid of her hated bond with Naruto; beside that, what else was too dangerous?

The Deva Path blinked, looking surprised and then amused. "Why would I do that?"

Ino managed to look more confident than she felt. "Because you aren't dumb enough to trust a demon and you haven't seen the results of whatever she's planning to do to Konan. There aren't any bonded women outside of this city that you could have tested it on. You really want to risk an unknown procedure on someone you care about?" Ino spread her hands. "Have her do it to me first."

Pein's multiple faces looked thoughtful. "Bold and unexpected; I accept your offer." The Deva Path's hand came up, and Ino found her body accelerated forward. The Asura Path caught her out of the air, his four arms wrapping around her body. Reflexively she squirmed, but it was like being encased in steel. A warning squeeze that made her bones creak convinced Ino to hold still.

The Deva Path snapped his fingers and a skinny man in an orange mask appeared from a vortex of displaced air. "Take us home, Tobi," Pein commanded. A larger vortex enveloped them all, and Ino felt like she was falling in every direction at once.

When the vertigo faded Ino was somewhere dimly lit. Looking around as her eyes adjusted, Ino realized she was underground, though the stone walls around her were too smooth to be natural. The Six Paths were there along with Tobi and Kafu. A moment later Mayonaka appeared as well with a 'pop' of displaced air. The larger demon frowned at the smaller one. "Daughter?"

Kafu shrugged. "The mortal was in peril, mother. I intervened as you directed."

"What is this, Mayonaka?" Pein demanded. "You've been keeping secrets from me?" Pein growled. "That's not acceptable."

Mayonaka looked innocently at the Six Paths. "I told you I was the Mother of Demons, Pein. This is my eldest daughter." She glanced at Kafu. "Go, now." Kafu bowed to her mother and took a step backward into the room's deepest shadows those shadows wrapped around her, and she was gone. "Should I not have tasked her to protect your vaunted Paths if they were in danger? You've emphasized how important this endeavor was, and now you've succeeded," she gestured to Konan, who was stirring in the Naraka Path's arms.

Pein glared for a moment before subsiding. "Fair enough."

"Shall I break her bond to Uzumaki now?" Mayonaka inquired, striding toward Konan.

The Deva Path stepped between them, shaking his head. "No." he pointed to Ino, who had been watching cautiously from her prison in the Asura Path's arms. "That one had volunteered to undergo the severing first. I'm… eager to see what form this salvation of yours takes."

Mayonaka rolled her shoulders lazily. "As you wish."

Ino flinched as Mayonaka loomed over her, the demon's icy chakra washing over her in waves, making her shiver. Mayonaka gripped her chin with bruising force, lifting her head. "Hey, what are you- mmh!" Ino's words faded to an expression of disgust as Mayonaka kissed her. Then her silver eyes widened in alarm; something cold and slimy forced her mouth open and slid down her throat.

Mayonaka and the Asura Path both let go, and Ino sank to her knees on the stone floor. "What-" she coughed and gagged, "was that?"

"Your salvation," Mayonaka murmured with a cruel smile. "Now you are free of Uzumaki's silver eyes."

Before Ino could reply, pain spiked through her guts and she screamed, curling up into a ball on the floor and clutching her belly. She vomited blood as the thing inside of her stomach started digging through her flesh, angling up toward her heart.

"It hurts!" Ino screamed. "It's killing me!"

Mayonaka knelt next to Ino, her long fingers stroking the blonde's hair. "Change is always painful, young one," she murmured.

The thing clawing up through Ino's body reached her heart, and for a moment it stopped beating. The pain faded, but Ino felt cold in its wake. Is this… what dying feels like? A moment later her heart beat again, and carried with it a pulse of chakra that surged through every mote of her being. It reached her mind last – and there it stopped, brought to a sudden halt. Ino's eyes narrowed, because the sensation was horrifyingly familiar.

"No," the blonde growled between gritted teeth, seeing Mayonaka jerk back in surprise. "Not again… never again!" Living, thinking, hungering chakra tried to subsume Ino's mind, but she'd been possessed by a demon twice before, and she knew how to fight it now. In fractions of a second she wove a maze of infinite complexity within her mind, creating branching passages without end. The demon Mayonaka had forced into her slithered down those pathways, and Ino closed the only true entrance to the maze behind it. The pathways would grow forever, and the demon would never find a way out.

Ino slowly climbed to her feet, glaring at Mayonaka. "Demonic possession is your solution to the Soul Mirror's bond? Talk about the cure being worse than the disease. But you failed; my mind is my own, and no one will ever take it from me again."

Mayonaka's eyes narrowed dangerously. She lashed out at Ino – but the Deva Path waved a hand and sent the demon flying, embedding Mayonaka in the room's far wall. "Was this your game then?" Pein growled dangerously. "You meant to make my wife a demon?"

"What you asked is impossible for a human," Mayonaka gasped out, her words coming slowly under the crushing pressure of Pein's power. "The Soul Mirror changes the mind on a physical level. Humans are too weak to survive the reversal of those changes. Only a demon is resilient enough."

While Pein and Mayonaka argued, Ino closed her eyes, feeling tears trickle down her cheeks. Finally, it's over. Her sick, impossible love for Naruto was gone. She was free to despise him for what he'd done to her. Mayonaka had tried to make her a demon, but it had failed, and more importantly it had worked. The bond was gone.

"I should destroy you, then," Pein growled. "You're useless to me." The Six Paths gestured as one, and dark radiance surrounded Mayonaka's jewelry and crown. She shrieked, writhing on the floor. Ino suspected no one would be sorry to see Mayonaka perish, but she had her own neck to think about, and the likelihood of the Akatsuki doing something unpleasant to her if she was no longer useful to them.

"Wait," Ino called out, but Pein didn't even acknowledge her. "There's still a way to save Konan!"

Pein halted his assault on Mayonaka, and the Deva Path glared at Ino with dangerous eyes. "Speak quickly then."

"No one deserves to be shackled by the Soul Mirror; not even a terrorist," Ino said quickly. "Let Mayonaka do what she did to me, to Konan. Then I'll trap that demon just like the one that's inside me. Konan will be free in her own mind, from the Soul Mirror and the demon."

Pein sneered. "Why would I trust you any more than this treacherous demon?"

"Oh my god every missing-nin is so paranoid!" Ino muttered under her breath. "How can you trust me? I don't know, maybe because you Akatsuki scare the crap out of me, or because you or one of your bully boys could find and kill me anywhere in the world if I crossed you? The question to ask yourself is why wouldn't I want to help you? I'm an exile from Konoha, and I'll cut my own throat before I go back to Uzushio. I've got no reason to oppose you anymore. I'm just looking to be useful enough to you that I make it out of here alive."

Kisame's nostrils flared as Ino spoke, and once she was done he glanced at Pein. "For what it's worth boss, I haven't smelled a lie from blondie yet."

Pein scowled, but some of the anger faded from his face. "This 'demon trap' technique of yours is, to my understanding, not flawless," he challenged Ino.

"Nudity and dark chakra in Konoha's red light district," Zetsu agreed from the shadows. "Many lives lost. Sexy, though." Ino saw the plant-man licking his lips, and shuddered.

"The trap my father created failed, it's true," Ino replied. "But I've improved on the technique since then. It would take an enormous mental trauma to damage mine; it will hold, and even if it begins to fail there will be warning signs and time to reapply it."

Pein's eyes narrowed. "If we were to reach a bargain that didn't end with Zetsu eating your corpse, it would involve your acquiescence to being available to me at any time and place to preserve Konan's mind."

Ino winced. She didn't like the idea of being tied to the Akatsuki long-term, but it had been a statement not question. She saw Zetsu actually salivating a bit at the suggestion that he might get to eat her, and she hurriedly nodded. "Yeah, sure; deal."

Pein turned back to Mayonaka, who was curled up on the ground groaning. "'Cure' my love then, demon," he growled as he let her rise to her feet.

"Why should I consign another of my children to imprisonment, mortal?" Mayonaka spat.

"Because if you do not, I will devote my full attentions to finding a way to kill you," Pein told her. "How confident are you that I could not discover a means?"

Mayonaka's glowing eyes locked with Pein's purple ones, and she looked away first. "Fine," she grumbled. Kneeling over Konan, she applied the same forceful kiss, and Ino watched Konan's throat bulge as the thing slid down into her stomach.

Konan quickly woke, screaming and clutching her gut. Pein held her in his arms and glared at Ino. "Do it, now!"

Mayonaka backed off with a scowl and Ino gripped Konan's head in her hands, forcing her will into the other woman's mind. When the demon tried to crawl into Konan's psyche, Ino was waiting. Generating the endless maze in someone else's mind while they resisted in a confused panic was much harder than doing it for herself, but Ino sweated and persevered. Konan's struggles ceased. She lay still for a moment before her eyes focused on Pein's concerned face so near hers.

"…Nagato?" Konan whispered hoarsely. "Is this another cruel dream?"

For the first time, Ino saw tenderness soften the harsh faces of the Six Paths. "No, my love," he murmured, caressing her cheek with one hand to wipe away her tears. "You are free at last."

The other Paths escorted Konan out of the room, but the Deva Path remained. Most of the other Akatsuki departed, but Pein motioned for Deidara to remain. Once Mayonaka had slunk off to wherever she laired, Pein studied Ino thoughtfully. "So what am I to do with you now?"

Ino blinked. "Umm… well, dropping me off at a town or city somewhere would be nice, but I'd settle for directions to the exit. I'm not picky, really."

Pein shook his head. "No."

"But we had a deal," Ino complained.

"We do," Pein agreed. "But I cannot allow you to leave on your own now that you are important to my love's wellbeing. We Akatsuki know better than most how dangerous life as a shinobi without a village can be. I can't risk you dying." Pein drew a long piece of black metal from his cloak, and it flew across the space between them.

Ino tried to dodge, but it followed her and wrapped itself around her neck. Tugging at the black metal in dismay, she discovered it was already a seamless whole. Remembering Sakura's stories about her long captivity and wearing a similar adornment, Ino looked at Pein bitterly. "This isn't much of a thank you," she noted sarcastically. "So I'm your prisoner? Are you going to cut off my hand next?"

"Don't tempt me," Pein growled darkly. "But no; with the loss of Ame, we no longer have facilities for prisoners. You'll be pulling your own weight."

Pein gestured, and a black cloak with red clouds flew from the shadows, settling itself around Ino's shoulders. She stared, startled. "You're joking," she protested weakly.

"I don't joke," Pein replied. "Welcome to the Akatsuki, Ino Yamanaka. Deidara, you've been operating solo for too long. She'll be your new partner. Try to keep her alive." Without another word, the Deva Path departed.

"This can't be happening," Ino groaned. She hadn't even had time to be happy about being free from Naruto, and now this!

"Seems like it is," Deidara spoke up. "If you want to argue with the Leader some more, you know where he went. Otherwise, I'll show you where you can bunk until we head out."

Ino swallowed hard, and after a moment followed Deidara deeper into the base dejectedly. "My gear and clothes are still in Uzushio," she muttered.

"Gear we have, but we'll have to go shopping for women's clothes if that's something you need," Deidara told her once he'd shown her where she'd be staying: a bare and functional set of rooms cut from solid stone like the rest of the base. "I'm going to need to get you fitted for some armor anyways, if the Leader wants your hide kept intact."

"Armor? Why do I need that?"

Deidara shrugged. "Well, now that Konan's back I suspect we'll be returning to work, and even with you we're still down a few members from when we started this job."

"You mean that insane plan to use the bijuu to create a 'better world'?" Ino asked incredulously.

Deidara studied her seriously. "As much as life has shit on you, do you really disagree that this world is hopelessly corrupt?"

Ino was taken back enough by Deidara's sincerity to think about it for a moment, and she didn't like what she realized. Having turned against Naruto by asking Pein to free her, she didn't really have anyone anymore. She was an exile from Konoha, and Uzushio had never been home. Her family had turned their backs on her, and her own uncle would certainly make sure her exile stayed permanent. Other than her mother and her old genin team, Ino couldn't think of anyone she could actually turn to. "Okay, yes, maybe this world does suck, but if Hashirama Senju couldn't change it, how are you going to do it?"

Deidara shrugged. "The First Hokage thought believing in people was enough. We know better. Instead of sitting and hoping, we're going to improve humanity; everyone, everywhere, all at once. But that's far in the future. What's right in front of us is the next bijuu."

"Which one?" Ino asked.

Deidara shrugged. "We need to track down number six. Mayonaka can't sense this one like she could the others; apparently Kiri created a seal for its jinchuuriki that masks its chakra entirely unless he uses it. So once we get you geared up, you and I are going to go looking for him."

"Now hang on," Ino protested. "Just because creepy-eyes thinks he can press-gang me doesn't mean I'm going to help you hunt down and kill another poor jinchuuriki."

Deidara shrugged. "That's up to you. The Leader probably won't kill you if he needs you around, but there's really nothing stopping him from sticking you in a very small cage and maybe never letting you out if Konan doesn't wind up needing your services again."

Ino shuddered. "Okay fine; armor and then some scouting?"

Deidara grinned. "That's the spirit!"

Ino trailed along reluctantly behind her new partner to go shopping apparently, and it was a measure of her depressed mood that the prospect didn't cheer her up. I don't regret finding freedom from Naruto and the Soul Mirror, but how am I going to get out of this mess?