The battle began with a literal bang as air itself thickened and surged outwards towards the Konoha trio and Gamabunta. A shrieking hiss of ringing steel was the Toad Boss's rebuttal. His tantō flashed through the air so fast that it left contrails in its wake as he attempted to parry the Shinra Tensei with an expert flick of his blade.

Attempted being the operative word.

A sharp pain shot through Bunta's wrists as his blade rattled harshly against the strength of the technique. It had as if he'd struck a mountain with his counterblow. He widened his stance and dug his feet deep into the earth but it wasn't enough to keep the giant toad from being pushed back to the edge of the Shinra Tensei's range.

The enemy saw their opportunity to take the ground that had been given up and raced forward.

True to Iaijutsu form, Bunta re-sheathed his blade before whipping the steel behemoth free towards the swarm of Rinnegan-wielders that now rushed towards him. The blow came so quickly that it was nearly impossible to dodge with speed alone. It was a common misconception that the massive boss summons were slower than their smaller subordinates, but this was entirely false. It was because they were so big that they could cover so much ground with such a small expenditure of energy on their part.

Unfortunately, because of their size, it was also easy for a well-trained ninja to take note of their striking pattern and avoid it. Two of the Six Paths ducked under the blade and tumbled back to their feet as they rode the impact shockwave closer to their targets. The other three merely vaulted the blade in an impressive display of acrobatic ability.

The last Pein had hung back behind the rest of the main group, an act which immediately set the Konoha team's danger senses on high alert.

Uchiha Madara was nowhere to be seen.

"Bunta! Oil!" The Toad Sannin yelled as he began to run through signs.

"You got it, kid!"a torrential flood of amber-hued liquid gushed from the summon's mouth and was quickly set ablaze into a massive flood of white hot napalm and boiling grease. The scale of the attack was such that it could easily incinerate an entire army.

It was the kind of attack that spelt the end of a battle.

Against the Rinnegan it was nothing.

The Preta Path swung its arms open wide in what appeared to be a suicidal gesture until the crashing waves of flame came within a few feet of its body. Then suddenly they were gone. It was as though the blazing sea had crossed some sort of invisible barrier that had caused it to wink out of existence entirely.

In the wake of safe ground behind the Preta Path, the Animal Path once again slammed its palms to the ground.

Smoke erupted from the summoning array and cleared quickly to reveal the abhorrent form of a colossal drill-beaked bird of prey. An ear-splitting shriek echoed through the clearing as the great bird took to the sky with yet another Path securely affixed to its back with chakra.

Slats on the forearms of the Azura Path slid way to reveal a pair of long metal tubes mounted atop a platform of whirring and clicking gears. The tubes flared to life with a series of sharp mechanical snaps as they breathed a stream of hot lead down toward the Sannin and his summon.

For Butna the attack was more of an annoyance than a threat, but the bullets were sharp and their speed was great enough to pierce his thick hide and leave a ragged trail of bloody holes where they touched down. Jiraiya, on the other hand, was forced to avoid the stream of fire lest he be torn apart by the storm of metal.

He'd begun to retaliate and was just about to form the final seal of his jutsu, when a leather-clad hand erupted from toad that he was standing on.

Madara took hold of Jiraiya's throat in an inhumanly strong grip and slammed him to the ground, but the sage was quick to retaliate. He lashed out with a kick to bring the Uchiha's legs out from underneath him, but Naruto's warning from before rang true in his ears as the sweep passed straight through his opponent's body. The man's index fingers came together in a point and he interlocked the rest into the sign of the uma. An intake of breath and the sudden spike of chakra was the only warning that Jiraiya had before the jutsu was cast.

"Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"

The attack went off at less than three meters away and it immediately felt like Jiraiya's body had been tossed into a blast furnace. The flames didn't even need to touch him to cause his clothing to begin to smoke and his hair to curl and burn as the Uchiha released the most powerful fire jutsu that the sage had ever seen.

Fortunately, Shima had just finished weaving signs of her own.

"Senpō: Toad Gun!"

The liquid bullet that the toad elder had released was in no way comparable to the shear mass of fire that rushed towards them, nor could she possibly hope to extinguish the flames. However, what her attack lacked in volume it made up for it in terms of raw penetration. The cylinder of compressed water carved a tunnel of safety through their opponent's attack and still had ample strength to smash flesh and bone into jelly were it to strike its target.

But just as before, the attack shot through Madara's intangible form and the man was weaving signs again.

Jiraiya knew that he couldn't stay at range and risk taking fire from yet another high level jutsu. He had to go on the offensive. He closed with Senjutsu-enhanced speed and fired off a barrage of punches that forced his opponent to once again become immaterial. Each blow broke the air with a crack but that was all that he managed to hit.

Madara eyed him patiently, waiting for a break in his assault. A misstep. A single mistake. A pattern in the attacks. That was all the Uchiha needed to retake the initiative in this fight.

He saw his opening and struck. Jiraiya's head snapped to the side as Madara unleashed a thunderous cross-counter to his jaw. His legs went weak as his brain rattled inside his skull, and the intense radiating pain told him that his mandible was definitely broken, but that didn't keep a savage smirk from crossing his lips.

The twin toad elders atop his shoulders let loose a deafening screech that caused Madara recoil as if he'd been stabbed in the eardrums. On instinct, he activated his Sharingan to escape the auditory assault, but the feelings of nausea and vertigo only grew.

Genjutsu, especially auditory genjutsu, was one of his few weak points. For Jiraiya to discover and exploit it so quickly spoke volumes of his skill.

The Uchiha was forced to disengage as the effects became more pronounced and he began to lose feeling in his arms and legs. He dove back through the Toad Boss who had become their battlefield, giving Jiraiya just enough time to dodge out of the way as a series of missiles slammed into his summon.

Gamabunta roared in pain as the projectiles detonated with a shower of burnt flesh and gore. The bullets may have been only a nuisance, but those rockets could do some serious damage, and the great toad could no longer stand his ground and continue to harass the other Paths of Pein while being bombarded from above.

He leapt into the air just as their opponent released another salvo. With his blade, Gamabunta batted aside what projectiles he could and steeled himself against the painful impact that was sure to follow. A pair of fresh wounds were torn open by the explosive ordnance, but the toad boss was more than willing to take that trade as he brought his blade up through the bird's neck in a clean executioner's strike.

The bird reverted to vapor with a pitiful squawk suddenly leaving the Azura Path with no ground to stand on. Its legs folded back to reveal a pair of engines that roared to life with a blast of flame, but there was no time for it to generate the necessary thrust to evade the second part of his opponent's combination attack.

Jiraiya came rocketing through the air, arm cocked back, holding a sky-blue orb of chakra that was nearly the size of a wrecking ball. He slammed the Rasengan into his foe and watched with a certain satisfaction as the man's mechanical body was twisted like a rag-doll before being flung back to earth with enough force to reduce his opponent to a smoking stain on the forest floor.

The Sannin landed atop his summon's head once again and the pair crashed to the ground with a resounding bang just in time to see the Animal Path bring its hands down once again.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Booming footfalls echoed through the clearing. The smoke faded to reveal the form of a building-sized rhinoceros already in the middle of a dire charge straight for the Toad Boss and his summoner.

"Bunta, handle that! I'll deal with the summoner!"

Jiraiya was gone before the great toad could reply.

'If we live through this you owe me a river of sake, you lousy brat…' The amphibian huffed as he re-sheathed his tantō and waited for the enemy to enter his striking range.

Three Paths of Pein rushed toward the pair of Sharingan-wielders.

This was hardly a favorable engagement.

The initial prospect of having to fight a trio high level opponents while outnumbered three on two would have been bad enough. Having to take on that same trio after spending both blood and chakra was beginning to look like a losing battle. And then, on top of that, having to keep track of the injured defectors during the middle of a pitched melee seemed downright impossible.

But ninja careers were built on doing the impossible, and Kakashi and Itachi would make their enemy pay dearly for every inch of ground that they took.

The Copy-nin ripped through the air like a gunshot as a crackling mass of ozone took shape in his hand. He meant to end the fight as quickly as possible which meant that he'd be pulling out exclusively high-level techniques until he ran out of the chakra and stamina to use them.

"That won't work!" Naruto yelled as he struggled to get to his feet. His body begged him to lay back down with every ounce of pain that coursed through his system, but he ignored it. He could rest when he was dead. "The Preta Path can absorb ninjutsu! The Human Path can steal people's souls! And the Deva Path can-"

"Shinra Tensei!" Pein roared as Kakashi came close enough to strike.

All at once it was like Kakashi had been struck by a train. His outstretched arm crumpled like an accordion, revealing torn muscle and splintered bone, before the wave of force slammed into his body, collapsing his ribcage and sending him flying.

The leader of Akatsuki then turned his Rinnegan to Naruto.

Naruto gave a shuddering gasp as pain arced through every fiber of his being. The second he'd shown any sign of resistance the Amekage didn't hesitate to enact his failsafe plan. Foreign chakra invaded every cell of the young Jinchuriki's body through the numerous black rods that studded his body, and immediately began shutting down his tenketsu. He toppled forward hard, slamming his head against the cold wet earth. He couldn't force his body to obey his commands.

He was utterly paralyzed, unable to escape and unable to reveal more secrets.

Itachi's hands were a blur as he began to harry the group with a blizzard of shuriken.

By and large, shuriken were not used to deal the killing blow to an enemy. They lacked the mass to penetrate as deeply as a kunai, and their blades were often too short to dig into the deeper tissues of their target's body.

However, they made for an excellent distraction.

With a whiz-clang of steel on steel, Itachi deflected a pair of kunai off his shuriken which caused the knives to abruptly alter their course and embed themselves in the shoulder of the Human Path and the knee of the Preta Path.

The Uchiha genius then whipped out a pair of knives with a distinctive flourish and began to backpedal as the three paths blitzed him.

Itachi was used to fighting multiple opponents and knew that he wouldn't survive for long in a three on one taijutsu brawl. The Path that he'd hit in the knee was showing signs of slowing down. So long as he engaged them one at a time, and didn't allow them to surround him, he would be able to hold out long enough to regroup with his comrades. That would have been the smart choice, but unfortunately it would have also cost them Naruto and Konan.

Retreat was the same as failure in this battle.

Itachi did what he could to stay mobile and keep his opponents where he could see them, but the Paths of Pein fought in perfect combination with one another. He lashed out with his knife but the Preta Path deflected the blow and then bowed out to allow the Human Path to counter. A harsh palm strike was redirected from Itachi's nose to his cheekbone, but as the Uchiha went reciprocate the blow he felt his body lurch backward at the behest of the Deva Path's outstretched hand.

The hit was savage, and the young ANBU captain could taste the coppery tang of blood in his mouth as he rolled to his feet just in time to dodge a stomp to the head.

A familiar yet deafening scream of electricity filled the air as a blur of silver and black careened out of the its hiding place in the woods to flank the Paths.

Their plan had worked.

"Senpō: Raikiri Riot!"

The Preta Path spun on its heel and held out its hands to intercept the attack. As before with Jiraiya and Gamabunta's tandem jutsu, the massive spheres of electricity bled away and fizzled into a stream of weakly sputtering sparks. The Path then took hold of the Copy-Nin's hands and forced him to a knee as he began to rapidly leech all the chakra in the man's body.

But Kakashi didn't stop. His Sharingan once again took on a xanthous hue as he gathered nature chakra into his body. With a snap-hiss, his twin lightning-cutters surged to life once more, but true to its namesake, the Preta Path hungrily consumed the chakra before it could reach his body.

Itachi ducked out of the way of a kick that nearly threatened to take off his head and then pivoted on the spot to deflect a stab from a chakra disrupter that was poised to lance him through the heart. He was forced back by another sweep from a chakra disrupter, this time covered in faintly humming wind chakra, only to take a hard kick to the side that had him doubling over in pain. The human path then closed, and with a wringing twist, took hold of the Uchiha's soul and wrenched it free from his body.

The young genius' eyes went wide with shock as his Sharingan deactivated and he pitched forward. Only to dissolve into a mass of fluttering wings which quickly transformed into a spray of shuriken.

The Deva Path blew the attack away with a casual flick of his hand. 'Genjutsu. When did he-' The image of Itachi drawing his blades with a flourish played across his eyes.

Suddenly the visual link between himself and the Preta Path was severed as Kakashi took rough hold of his enemy's hands and swung a Sage Mode fueled headbutt into the Path's skull. With a sickening crack, the Rinnegan-wielder's eye sockets were crushed and blood darkened its vision. That brief second before the other Paths could round on him was all it took for Itachi to finish the job.

He landed silently behind their enemy, wrenched his head back by the hair, and used his kunai to drag a ragged gash across the man's throat, ending it with a spray of blood.

Their victory was short-lived as a figure materialized from out of nowhere and slammed his fist into the side of Itachi's head.

His whole world tipped on its end and took on a sort of weightless quality as he fell. He was unconscious before he hit the ground but came to quickly enough to see Kakashi's Raikiri pass straight though the man's torso.

With his vision obscured by the intangible opponent in front of him, Kakashi reacted on instinct to dodge the chakra disruptor that suddenly erupted from Madara's chest. For all his speed, he still wasn't fast enough to evade the attack completely. The stake of black iron bit deep into his bicep and all at once a flood of pain and dizziness washed over him as Pein's chakra spread through his body. Still off balance from the surprise attack, the Copy-nin was only able to partially avoid the now very solid uppercut from the Uchiha patriarch. Madara's fist tagged Kakashi in the nose, breaking it easily, before once again becoming intangible to weave signs.

A blast of force caught both Itachi and Kakashi and the duo were sent flying just as Madara finished his jutsu.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

Neither of them had any time to counter with ninjutsu of their own. Not that it would've helped them even if they did have time. Kakashi's arm had gone completely numb as the Shinra Tensei had driven the chakra disruptor deep into his bone, and Itachi's arm was cocked off at an unnatural angle since he'd used it to shield himself from the blast that launched them airborne.

If there was ever a time to use the trump cards that they'd been holding onto, now would be the time to do so.

The eyes of both Konoha Jonin flashed into the pinwheel form of the Mangekyō Sharingan.

"Kamui!"

The onrush of flame suddenly dispersed as a perfect cookie-cutter hole was blown straight through it.

Through the dying blaze, Itachi leveled his Sharingan on the Deva Path who was poised to take hold of Naruto, and let the chakra flow through his gaze.

"Amaterasu!"

Five seconds hadn't passed yet, and the technique was too fast to dodge completely. Even the barest touch of those black flames would spell his end.

The Human Path moved to push him out of the way in a display of self-sacrifice, but it suddenly found itself hurled to the ground as a long kunai made from paper slashed through its Achilles tendon.

The corpse of Yahiko only had the briefest of moments to trace the projectile's path back to the still prone form of the woman who he'd once called his closest friend. There was no warmth in her eyes for him. Only defiance and frosty satisfaction as his body erupted into an ebon black funeral pyre and began crumble to ash.

XxXxX

Gamabunta had dispatched the Rhino, but the second the summon had died the Animal Path was all too eager to fill its vacancy with yet another summoned monstrosity.

He was currently staring down a colossal chameleon-like creature that kept flitting in and out of view to strike when his guard was weak. The Toad Boss was starting to slow down. His wounds from before were now bleeding heavily and his grip was starting to weaken around his blade. All he could do now was keep the summons off Jiraiya and hope that the Sannin could end this battle soon.

For his part, Jiraiya was fighting like a man possessed as he was once again forced to fight a battle on two fronts. He'd realized all too quickly why the final Path had hung back at the start of the fight. He slipped fire from yet another barrage of the Azura Path's weapons. Although the Naraka Path wasn't the most combat inclined of the Six Paths, it was definitely one of the most dangerous ones. The ability to simply reverse all the work that he and Bunta had done to bring down the Azura Path was more than enough to put the Naraka on his shit-list.

Shima and Fukasaku were quick to return fire with a pair of Senjutsu-heightened Toad Gun techniques, but the Animal Path was just as quick to summon more disposable cover in the form of a giant panda seemingly made from stone.

From behind his cover, the Azura Path's skull plate folded back to reveal a strange mechanized device composed of lenses and mirrors that began to rapidly condense its chakra. With the eyes of its summon trained on Jiraiya, there was no guesswork involved with its attack. The Azura Path discharged its laser-like blast straight though the summon's back without ever breaking cover.

The Sannin rolled out of the way, but the impact of the chakra gun was so great that it sent him flying backward, blistering his skin and igniting the tips of his clothing with the heat from the explosion. He barely had time to regain his footing before he was under attack once again, this time by the Animal Path.

It came flying through the air wielding a chakra disrupter like a bo-staff with such ferocity that Jiraiya couldn't hope to dodge its attacks. He brought his arm up to guard a particularly savage blow aimed at his windpipe and grunted as the impact sent tremors of pain up and down the length of his forearm. The Animal Path didn't let up as it began to channel water chakra into one head of the staff and lightning chakra into the other end. A series of rapid jabs narrowly whizzed past the Sannin's head as the Rinnegan-wielder attempted to run him through followed quickly by a spinning snap kick to the ribs which had him staggering backwards. Intent on keeping his former teacher off balance, the Path whipped out with the water-infused end of its staff and felt the weapon rattle with the satisfying crunch of metal striking flesh.

Naruto's hypothesis from before had proven to be horribly correct. Streaming water chakra into a weapon was indeed the most lethal element that one could use, as just the glancing blow to Jiraiya's leg suddenly blew a significant portion of the man's blood straight through his flesh as it tried to follow the arc of the chakra. All at once, Jiraiya's face went deathly pale, and for a few seconds he was dodging completely blind as he threatened to black out right then and there.

Shima lashed out with her acid soaked tongue and wrapped it tightly around the Animal Path's neck. Its flesh began to bubble and dissolve with a horrible hissing sound as the Toad Matriarch slammed it into the ground and tightened her hold on its windpipe. A barrage of rockets filled the air as the Azura Path broke cover and rushed towards them. However, Shima didn't relinquish her hold. Instead she reeled the thrashing Animal Path into the range of Jiraiya's technique.

He didn't have time to finish his handseals, not by himself anyway. While fused together, he and the Toad Elders acted as one being with a shared chakra system. Fukasaku simultaneously performed the finishing seals of the jutsu as Jiraiya completed the first half of the jutsu.

Their voices cried out at one "Ninja Art: Toad Mouth Trap!"

Everything went dark as the missiles impacted on the outside of the summoned organ with a series of dull thuds. The Animal Path, blind and still clawing at the corrosive appendage that was cutting off all hope of escape, had no way to defend itself from against the maelstrom of chakra that had coalesced in the Sannin's hand.

The Rasengan smashed through its head like a drill, kicking up an impressive spray of gore and brain matter which finally ended their fight.

By this time Jiraiya was panting hard and fighting back the urge to vomit. The leg that had been struck by the water-inundated chakra disrupter looked like it had been put through a thresher, and no amount of adrenaline would be enough to overshadow the sickening agony and blood loss that the Sage was currently experiencing.

He couldn't back down now though, he lamented as he pulled free a strip of his charred vest and quickly dressed the terrible wound with a makeshift bandage. With their summoner now dead, the summons that had been hounding Gamabunta's steps from the get-go where now gone. They simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to engage their enemy in an even matchup.

His Sage Mode granted sixth sense went off and the Sannin threw his battered body to the ground purely on instinct. A fraction of a second later a beam of white hot plasma tore through the supposedly impervious esophagus of the great mountain toad courtesy of the Azura Path.

Jiraiya canceled his technique and leapt forward with his one good leg, fervently weaving seals as he flew towards the enemy. He had no more backup plans. He was too injured and too tired to keep fighting like he had been even with the meteoric boost that Sage Mode afforded him. If Bunta wasn't in position he was likely about to meet his death.

"Senpō: Raging Lion's Mane!"

His beard and hair became crushing cables of iron as he sent them forth to bind his opponents. The Azura Path was mid-dodge when the toads atop his shoulders suddenly began to scream their ear shattering frog song with renewed fervor. The Genjutsu took effect quickly, robbing the Paths of their motor control and causing them to stumble for a few crucial moments.

They were ensnared within the wild web of hair and quickly began to struggle to little avail. Had Jiraiya been in better condition, he would've been able to finish the fight on his own with a follow up attack, but as it was he feel his head growing fuzzy and his vision growing dim as his brain cried out for oxygen.

'Cmon Butna! Make it in time!'

That was the last thought that crossed Jiraiya's mind before he pitched forward into the void of unconsciousness.

The instant he fell, the bonds holding the Paths went slack and they were quick to free themselves. The Naraka Path immediately rushed forward towards the corpse of the headless Animal Path and the Azura Path, not wanting to take any chances with a point-blank execution, took aim with its chakra laser and began to accumulate energy once again.

Neither of them had their eyes on the sky.

Gamabunta crashed down on them like a thunderbolt, his massive tantō slashing clean through both of his opponents with such an egregious use of force that he sent them flying like comets through the air. The Toad Boss let a tired yet deeply satisfied grin cross his face as he watched the pair of bisected corpses skip off a boulder, go airborne, and fly deeper into the forest.

The Azura Path lay in a ruined heap, its gears clicking and wires sparking as its body slowly began to wind down.

That was fine. its final jutsu didn't require the use of hand signs.

Its Rinnegan could easily feel the amount of electrical energy that had been built up in the clouds overhead, and slowly, wordlessly, it let its hand fall forward as it called down all the fury of the sky to smite its enemies.

It seemed that Jiraiya had truly exhausted all of his strength as the dying Path could no longer sense the presence of his chakra.

That was fine.

The life of his summon would make a acceptable consolation prize.

Fukasaku detached himself from his student's shoulder and began to perform what little medical jutsu he knew on the man's shredded leg.

"Fine work Bunta m'boy!" He shouted to the Toad Boss. "Ma and I 'll take care of Jiraiya-chan! Go help Kakashi-chan!"

Gamabunta let out a tired sigh as he sheathed his blade for a final time and took off towards the second battle.

He never made it.

A bolt of lighting, so raw and powerful that it was as if the fist of God himself had plunged down from the clouds, ripped through Gamabunta's body before he had a chance to blink. What came next was a cacophonous crash of thunder so loud that it flattened the nearby trees, followed by a torrential explosion of gore and chunks of pulped meat that rained down across the entire clearing.

Shima's horrified hysterical screams were lost amid the sound of the pouring rain and the echoing booms left in Kirin's wake.

Kakashi's Sharingan watched in horrible, exquisitely preserved, detail as the bolt of lightning split the Great Toad's skull open in a lurid flaming gash. A blackened tongue lolled out of the side of his mouth as his eyes bubbled and burst like overripe fruit from the heat of the killing stroke. He was then forced to witness as his contract-holder's body seethed and boiled from the inside out before finally tearing open at the seams to splatter the ground and trees with his life essence.

Kakashi let loose a mad howl of anguish as he tore the chakra disrupter free from his arm.

"Kamui!" He screamed as he let his vision lock onto the downed Human Path.

Space itself rippled like water, quickly forming a whirlpool-like pattern in the air with the Akatsuki leader's head trapped at its nexus. Then space collapsed taking the final Path's head along with it.

With the last Rinnegan-wielder dead, Naruto let out a harsh gasp of relief as his body once again was his to command. He looked up just in time to see Madara smash his knee into Kakashi's head, take hold of the man's hair, and whip his rescuer's unconscious body into the ground. The Uchiha was poised to deliver the killing blow when his clansman stepped in to fight on Kakashi's behalf.

Itachi spun and slashed through the air in an impressive taijutsu flurry, that was met with a patient stare of his untouchable opponent. As before with Jiraiya, Madara waited until the perfect moment presented itself. He let the kunai plunge deeply into his arm to halt the weapon's movement, not even reacting to the pain as he took hold of the other Uchiha's throat and activated his Mangekyō Sharingan.

If he'd had the chakra to do so, Itachi wouldn't have hesitated to cast his Tsukuyomi upon his opponent. However, two castings of Amaterasu, an emergency field surgery, and an utterly savage beating from Pein and Madara had robbed him of everything he had left. There was nothing he could do as Madara began to suck him into the extradimensional rift generated by his unmasked eye.

A kunai, the same kunai that had crippled the Human Path, whipped through the air and straight into Madara's back.

And it hit.

It actually hit and lodged itself deep in his shoulder causing a white hot wave of electricity to spread through his limb as its nerve was severed.

Naruto cursed his poor vision. He'd been aiming for the man's skull.

Madara smashed Itachi in the face with a superhuman punch from his good arm before rounding on the boy who had quickly become far more trouble than he was worth. Necessary though the boy may have been, it wouldn't save him from the Uchiha's fury.

Madara forced himself straight though Naruto's guard and began to mercilessly slam punches into the boy's already injured body. He felt the child's ribs give way with a satisfying crack followed shortly thereafter by the boy's nose and cheekbone. The young Rinnegan-wielder staggered on his feet before taking a particularly brutal kick to the stomach which sent him flying backward into the solid trunk of a tree. He didn't even have time to hit the ground before Madara was on him again, raining blows on every part of his body that he could. Blood poured from Naruto's mouth as a left hook smashed a pair of teeth free, but his opponent didn't let up for a second. He took hold of Naruto's small throat in his mitt-like grip and began to strangle the life from him, all the while slamming his knee into the boy's exposed midsection.

He was so consumed with rage that he didn't even hear his attacker before she struck.

Konan lunged at him, ramming yet another paper kunai up the hilt in his back.

On instinct, he dropped the boy and rounded on her with a vicious backhand that nearly had the strength to snap her neck. She fell immediately. She had barely been strong enough to walk due to the totality of her previous injuries, but something inside her surged with white hot rage at the sight of the man nearly beating Naruto to death. With that last bit of energy spent, Konan was defenseless to resist the beating that was sure to follow.

As Naruto regained consciousness the first thing that met his ears was a harsh ringing followed by a scream of pain. His eyes snapped open to the scene of Uchiha Madara staking Konan's wrist to the ground with a thick shaft of wood.

He couldn't force his body to move.

'Stop it!'

Another scream tore itself from her lips as Madara did the same to her other wrist.

"Stop it…" he gurgled weakly through a mouth of blood.

He took hold of her neck and began to squeeze.

'Kurama! Rikudō Sennin! Please!'

He didn't care about the pain. He didn't care about his own life. Konan had to live, and he welcomed any form of torture if it meant that he could save her.

He activated the Preta Path and ripped the mental stitches clean out from his psyche.

"STOP IT!"

The horrible memories returned like a tsunami, drowning him with their intensity. Being nearly beaten to death for refusing to smile. Being held down and strangled like Konan was as they violated him.

All of it came flooding back in an unspeakable tide.

But so too did the power to save her.

The Kyuubi's chakra manifested itself as a seething cloak of crimson chakra that took the shape of a fox with three tails. Then the liquid moonlight came back. It clad his body in a miniature Susanoo with an appearance reminiscent to that of the Sage. His Rinnegan burned like hot coals in his eye sockets as they became silted and took on a deep scarlet hue. A single Tomoe along the outer most ring of his eyes burned like the sun as he leveled his gaze upon Madara.

He was gone.

The distance was crossed so fast that the Uchiha's Sharingan couldn't track his opponent. He activated his Kamui just as the chakra construct's fist came thundering towards him.

Naruto's left eye was leaking blood. Overlaid upon that fearsome demonic Rinnegan was his own Mangekyō Sharingan.

For the first time in years, Madara felt true fear.

The blow smashed through the Uchiha's skull like it was wet tissue paper, dousing himself and Konan with a hot spray of gore and grey matter. The impact was so great that the man's headless corpse was sent careening like a rocket into the sky, all but blowing away the cloud cover as it entered the troposphere and vanished from sight.

Naruto toppled forward into a pool of his own blood and knew no more as the darkness took him once again.

For a long while everything was still. Kakashi was the first to stir and was instantly on his feet and gathering Nature Chakra as he scoured his senses for any trace of the enemy.

There was nothing.

Then suddenly a stirring.

He watched as Uchiha Madara's body reformed as though he were a mirage given tangible form. He spied the bloody forms of Naruto and Konan on the ground at his feet and readied his Sharingan to fire off another, his last, Kamui, but the sound of soft chuckling caused him to give pause.

Uchiha Madara was laughing.

It started quiet at first but quickly devolved in to full-blown hysterical cackling.

"You bastard!" He screamed at Naruto's unmoving body. "You really forced me to use my left eye! You bastard!" He whipped around to face Kakashi causing the man's blood to freeze in his veins.

"No…" he whispered in shock. "It can't be…"

Obito.

It was him. No question. He was older and the left side of his body was a patchwork of scars but it was him. Kakashi watched as the Sharingan in his left eye faded to white.

For the briefest of moments, Obito seriously considered snapping the Jinchuriki's neck along with the blue haired defector but he tabled the notion. It was true, he did have a ten-minute window of immortality thanks to Izanagi, but he wasn't willing to risk even the slightest chance that he might actually die. Kakashi's eye was sister to his own, and he didn't know what kind of effect it could have on him were he to be targeted by his old teammate's Kamui. Not to mention the fact that if Itachi were to enter the fray and trap him within the Tsukuyomi all of his plans would crumble.

His mission was done regardless. The defectors would soon be dead and any information they carried of his schemes would die with them. The loss of Pein's weapon was regrettable. Experiencing the boy's raw power firsthand only to now have it bleed out on the ground in front of him was a stinging blow, but there were other Jinchuriki and other Uzumaki that the Akatsuki could use.

He gave Kakashi a wicked parting grin as his eye activated and sucked himself into the Kamui dimension, suddenly leaving the man alone amidst a battlefield of corpses.

Against his better judgment, Kakashi rushed to Naruto's aid as soon as Obito had fled. His mind was a whir of questions but now was not the time for such things. With one hand he prepared the transfusion kit and with the other he began to fuse Naruto's broken body back together with as much nature chakra as he could muster.

A few more minutes passed before Itachi regained consciousness and made his way over to Konan. The pair worked as quickly as they could to save the defectors, but their situation was bleak. They were fighting a losing battle and they knew it, but they would be damned if they were going to give up now.

If Naruto and Konan's lives were in the hands of God now, then they would do all that could.

And beg Kami for a miracle.