There was a lull in the night once Ichigo left. Moegi believed they all took for granted just how reliable he was. Ever since he appeared before them, his mere presence was enough to give them confidence that not all was lost. One after the other, they began to win battles rather than forestall the inevitable. With three Akatsuki dead and a fourth defeated, she had a genuine hope that they had the possibility of overthrowing Pain's hold on the world.

She just hoped there wasn't any complications with Ichigo's rescue and that he'd return soon. Despite the musky, damp warmth of the Hidden Grass countryside was used to having -especially this time of year- she couldn't help but shiver nervously. Like a chill from an unseen wind that swept their vicinity. With the alleged Reaper gone, she felt vulnerable and a prime target.

Seemingly alone in her thoughts, she couldn't help but turn to see Shikamaru look up at the sky. As clouds were not so prevalent, only casting a shadow hither and dither, one could see the half moon carrying a serene gleam. But within its dark side, the astute cloud gazer saw something high in the air. With furrowed brows, he observed what looked like a single avian silhouette.

Crossing into the light of the moon, the Shinobi withdrew a Kunai and threw it towards the creature. While it seemed to fall short, he formed a single hand sign and the light of the moon combined with the altitude of the blade shot out a strand of shadow that entangled the creature. Unable to keep flight, it was pulled down to the Earth and landed with a sickening thud.

"Shit," Shikamaru swore under his breath, knowing the sight of the crow wasn't natural and its eyes were a deep purple with many rings around its pupil. "Looks like we've gotta move. Either they just found us or the Akatsuki were waiting for him to leave."

Moegi's breath hitched at the revelation and then squeaked impotently as she felt something grap her feet. Eyes widening, she felt the ground buckle beneath her, causing her twin-tailed head to turn around in time to see an enveloping emerald of vegetation envelop her in a sticky darkness within. Letting out a scream, she struggled as she was being pulled into the earth below.

"Doton!" A voice called out, its source clapping its palms and slamming them on the soil before it. "Jōshou Kōken Kobushi!" (Earth Release, Rising Guardian Fist)

Just as quickly as everybody's attention turned with alarm at Moegi's capture that a human-sized fist shot up from the ground with the culprit with it. A mangled white body with veined green appendages akin to a venus flytrapper's mouth split open, revealing a disoriented Moegi flying out. Managing to land on the upraised fist while the humanoid being fell down with a wheezing groan, she wiped the viscous drool off her head and face long enough to identify her savior; the bespectacled, black dressed brunette childhood friend, Udon.

"Thanks!" She cried out quickly, hopping down from the earthen fist.

"Moegi! Use your Sensory Jutsu!" Shikamaru ordered, already quick to draw a new kunai as everybody looked around for more enemies. "This is Zetsu's doing. These must be his Parasitic Clones. If there's one, there's bound to be more."

"Got it!" Moegi nodded, making a forefinger sign in front of her closed eyes. As her Chakra thrummed around her, pulsing about the soles of her feet, she felt a tremendous feedback of signatures. Her eyes widened and her body trembled, mouth parted with pupils dilating. "N-No way..."

"Moegi?" Konohamaru asked with a guarded look of concern, now standing by her side protectively.

"The Akatsuki," She said, her answer making everybody look pale and bead sweat. "They're all here!"

A maddening cackle resounded in the thick wall of grass surrounding the grass village. Among a slew of white bodies with green flora appendages attached to them came a black cloaked man with an all too familiar red, triple-bladed scythe. An insane gleam sparked in his eyes as he shot through the air at a dead sprint, cutting through several villagers who were unable to defend themselves, he locked his gaze with the shocked Shikamaru.

"Foooooooooound youuuuuu!" He bellowed out, somersaulting forward in a dizzying spin that ended with him slashing at a backflipping Shikamaru who narrowly avoided the slash. Continuing his aggressive twirling strokes, he pressured him across the lay of the land in his bid to spill his blood. When the Shinobi finally halted his retreat, he surprised the berserker Akatsuki by exploding into a column of smoke.

Smoke that produced a head of grass roughly his height that possessed paper bombs.

"Ah, shit-!" He swore as he was caught in the explosion, the orange-red blast substantial enough to send him sprawling backwards, accidentally knocking a few charging White Zetsu off their feet in the process. Other than some lacerations and burns, however, the passively healing Hidan flipped back onto his feet and looked around with scythe in hand, relatively unfazed by the technique. "That shit hurts, Shadow Brat! Come on out so I can cut you up for old times' sake! Every day I spent in that hole eating dirt and feeling bugs crawl on my skin I want to peel off my face so you can feel it every moment I do! YOU HEAR ME?! I WANT TO HEAR YOU SCREAM!"

"I swear, Hidan," A voice encroached from swirling air, the distortion of space spiraling into form as Madara's hood adorned cloaked body dropped beside him. "Try to target more than one particular Shinobi, please? There's at least a good number of others that just went to regroup thanks to your inane charge."

"Pfffft, they didn't insult Jashin like he did. He made me perform a false sacrifice and then damaged this temple that is of his use! It is a deliberate sabatoge of his magnanimous murderous ways!"

"...do you want me to put you back in the hole I found you?" Madara threatened lowly.

Twitching at the threat, Hidan grimaced and looked away, leaning the pole of his weapon on his right shoulder. Exhaling through his nostrils, the immortal looked around at the village, noticing most of the bodies of White Zetsu and other unarmed villagers was scarcely populated. Scowling eyes made him look about and realized everything was too quiet.

"How many of those clones did Zetsu make?" Hidan asked.

"From what he spared, about two hundred, give or take," Madara intoned, his passively glowing Sharingan piercing the veil of shadows his hood possessed. "But I see their Chakra has vanished in the grass. This must be the work of the Kusa Shinobi's Jutsu."

"Got many of us here?"

"We established a Sensory Barrier before entering their village's perimeter. On top of that we have our colleagues' covering every cardinal direction," He explained neutrally.

"So what, they're going to sit on their asses and let the help do all the work?" The Jashinist complained with a wave of his scythe, glaring fully at the man's cloaked side.

"They expect to escape in the confusion of our ambush. They're sorely mistaken that Ninja as threatening as them can get away from the Akatsuki when we've come in full force; including our new recruits," Madara revealed with a hidden smile. "Our task is simply to drive them into a corner, so we can properly eliminate them without possibility of disappearing. Our mission at Konoha should've finished them off two years ago. But that beast...Might Guy...completely derailed our efforts. I won't let such an error happen again!"

"What did he do? He didn't kill all of you, did he?"

"Something like that," The Uchiha bemused with a dry chuckle. "But he failed to destroy us, thanks to Pain and I. Now we just have to correct that misstep and finish what we started."

"Just make sure to leave that Shikamaru guy to me! He must be sacrificed properly!" Hidan insisted with a savage, tooth-bearing smile.

"Of course," The hooded Akatsuki Shinobi nodded with acceptance. "Just do your part and help us root them out of hiding. I can't do all of your work, after all."

"Alright!" Hidan crowed out, launching himself into the air and landing on the Kusagakure's Chieftain tent. His gleaming dull violet eyes scanned the area, his hand gripping the rope attached scythe connected to his waist. Twirling it around beside him, he cast it towards something he viewed as movement and shouted out loud. "Prepare to be sacrificed, heathen!"

Chapter 21 - Bloody Dawn

The hardest part of being on the run was dealing with the unknown. This is what Shino had to deal with for the past couple of years since Konoha was destroyed. He always had to plan for the unexpected, because everything he could predict would eventually become unpredictable. So the moment he came to rest in this sub-village of Kusagakure, he prepared the entire field of towering grass with special insects that produced a masking field of chemicals that blocks out the impression of Chakra emission. This not only helped when he avoided both Uchiha of the Akatsuki, but most Sensory Ninja at the Order of Pain's disposal.

Even as White Zetsu clones appeared during their route, they were quickly and quietly dealt with by the most experienced of the allied Ninja. Currently he was leading a number of Kusa Shinobi and Kunoichi, with Lee and Shizuka not far away. Shikamaru, he figured, was helping out the leadership of Kusa get away with Kiba's help while Chōji led some others with Iruka. The only ones he didn't account for was the three younger Ninja: Moegi, Konohamaru and Udon.

"Hey, there's another one!" Ten-Ten whispered out, making him remember she existed, and was nary three arm lengths away from him.

"I see him," Shino vocally confirmed, palming the earth and excreting a mass of parasitic beetles. Like a black, writhing carpet they shuffled faintly over to the halfway emerged clone that was scanning the area. By the time the insects attached to its arms and waist, the sentient copy could do little but gasp and squeal as it was quickly covered by the parasites. As his Chakra was swiftly drained and he bodily jerked to and fro, Shino called the insects back to him so they could move forward.

"To think that they found us just as Ichigo left," Ten-Ten muttered under her breath. "This couldn't have been worst timing."

"It's possible that they were waiting for him to leave, so we'd be at our most vulnerable," Shino hypothesized as he continued to scan for more clones through his thick goggles. "Either way, all we can worry about is getting free. We'll find a way to reunite with the Reaper and Hinata at a later time."

"I just hope Hinata's okay."

"She will be. She's strong, stronger than most of us. Neji had said she could surpass him in time. Her status as a Reaper herself might be the edge that will help us in this war," He digressed.

"Yeah, let's hop-"

"Prepare to be sacrificed, heathen!"

A voice howled out, just as the distinct swish of the triple-pronged scythe cut through the thicket's top towards her. She barely leaped out of the way, the metal instrument slamming into the earth with enough pressure to upheave it and make the others backpedal away. In that instant, Shino could tell the insects had scattered in their area and undid his Jutsu. Twisting on his heels he saw the air distort and a pair of red eyes come into view as a cloak swirled into form in front of him and those gathered behind him.

"Found you, Aburame Shino," Madara stated with a deep, intimidating timbre. "You, who once tried to capture me all those years ago, will now be drawn into my trap. I find this a fitting end for you, don't you agree?"

"This is bad," Shino thought with a bead of sweat crawling down his neck, beneath his heavy hooded coat. "Fighting Madara Uchiha, even with those in my company, is suicide. I need to find a way to distract him, but how-?"

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

After a bellowing proclaimation, Ten-Ten emerged in front of a dissipating smoke cloud. Pulling on what looked like a metal chord attached to a forearm length rod, she twisted a few switched on it and pulled it over her shoulder. In that moment, a sizable concussive blast was released in a buffeting wind that made all those present brace themselves; save for Madara.

"Ho," The Uchiha commented, his whipping hood arching up to see a chain attached, spiked iron ball propelling up into the air. A secondary blast of air pressure send it rushing towards his location, crushing his form underfoot. The thundrous impact was great enough that it buried the ball into a ten meter deep crater, its width being almost double of that. Such force and sound was made that a dust cloud rose upward, announcing to anybody in the thicket that their fight had begun.

However, it didn't stop the age-old Shinobi from walking out of the ball and up onto the edge of the crater, making the guarded Ten-Ten grit her teeth with visible fear.

"Such an interesting contraption you have. However, you're using it for the wrong opponent," Madara intoned. He moved forward in a blur of black and red, his gloved right hand reaching out to grab her, only stopping short at the sound of air being sliced apart. The Uchiha stopped himself inches from grasping Ten-Ten's throat, activating Kamui to allow the cutting blade of wind to pass through his body.

Consequently, Lee's own green frame streaked to knock Ten-Ten to the ground to avoid the cutting wave that sliced through meters of tall grass.

"Leaf Hurricane!" Rock Lee cried out, turning his crouched frame to swing his legs around to hit Madara's body. The sensation of hitting air was all the Taijutsu expert felt as his legs slipped through his cloaked body, only being caught by the left heel as the right leg moved ahead. Using his hands to grip the ground, he flipped his body around to swivel his free leg to hit his head only to gesture his hood to avoid being hit, grabbing it once it moved past his concealed visage. "Oh crap!"

"You're a nuisance," He murmured, his Sharingan glowing brightly, allowing the Kamui to begin to cyclone him into his right eye. It was during this instant that Shizuka rushing to his left that Ten-Ten clicked her iron ball's handle, shooting a spike so that it would impale him from behind while moving between Lee's legs on the other side. As he phased through the attack, Lee's legs were freed, but not before Ten-Ten formed a single sign with her free hand, allowing him to see an engraved paper tag on the back of the spike.

A flashbang blasted out, causing many in the vicinity to shield their eyes and the onlooking White Zetsu to recede back into the earth to avoid being stunned. As this happened, Madara lost his vision in a sea of white and ringing static. He grunted, stumbling back and using a hand to cover his hidden face.

"Now!" Shizuka thought, her body propelling in a Wind-Nature guided Shunshin to approach his left side. Even as his left arm motioned to grab her, she responded by stopping short and swinging either hand towards him. A sudden shriek and the grinding air pressure spiraled into Madara's form, lifting him off his feet and sending him careening across the thicket to end with a shockwave. Sighing with relief, she was about to relax her guard just as she heard the cackling of a distant Shinobi heading their way.

"Here he comes!" A Kusa Shinobi announced, watching Hidan descend towards them from a far-distance leap. One pulled out a Nodachi and clashed against the Akatsuki's scythe, catching it in the middle prong and twist it aside. This left him open for two of his comrades -a lithe Kunoichi with lime colored hair and a wiry brunette Shinobi- to hit him with a right hook and roundhouse kick to his jaw and torso simultaneously. Even upon getting hit, the berserker yanked his scythe with the rope and caught the swordsman by his collar, pulling the weapon over to impale him and make a mere incision on his abdomen.

Coughing up blood, the Ninja was headbutted and kicked aside, with Hidan twirling his impaled body around to bludgeon the two proximate comrades of his to great effect. When he flung him over his head at several others, he watched them scatter and try to rush into the brush. It was to the bloodthirsty rogue's dismay that he saw Parasitic Clones rise up and begin to ensnare them with flora appendages while also grappling them, siphoning their Chakra from their very bodies.

"Tch, what a waste!" Hidan spat, his navel already healing passively upon observing his remaining enemies. They too also defended themselves against the onslaught of White Zetsu copies that were rising out of the ground like ugly daisies. The only one that hadn't picked up arms against them, was the creepy guy with goggles and baggy clothing. Grinning, he hefted his weapon off his shoulder and pointed in his direction. "Are you going to offer yourself to Lord Jashin?"

"Are you stupid?" Shino inquired in a monotone.

Reflexively, the berserker kicked off the ground and moved with surprising momentum towards the bug tamer. He gawked as his scythe was stopped by a rising tide of insects, using deft amounts of metal twine to wrap around the prong's edges and grip it in a knot. Stretching his hand out, the Jashinist barely had time to backpedal as a horde of parasitic beetles caught his legs and began to cover him in their leeching grip.

"I'm not the offensive type," Shino declared lowly, taking out a Kunai to cut the rope connected to Hidan's bug covered body. Catching it with one hand, he threw it away into the battle-damaged thicket, making sure it was out of the madman's reach. Looking back, he watched him writhe and scream in pain from the Chakra siphoning incuring on his body. "But I always have a plan when some idiot charges at me with reckless abandon. Are you seriously an Akatsuki?"

Hidan had no retort. Without any of his colleagues nearby, all he could do is spasm and choke on empty air as the life was drained out of his body. Shaking and gnashing his teeth, he couldn't utter a single retort until he was nothing but a shriveled, deathly still husk. Once he was dealt with, the beetles swarmed around the bug tamer, and he gestured his hands towards other White Zetsu parasitic clones. They easily overwhelmed them, like a black writhing sea as the semi-sentient humanoid creatures were sapped of their own Chakra while Shino kept a wary eye on their surroundings, covering the recovering Kusa Ninja in their midst.

Just when he could breathe a sigh of relief, Shino felt a tremendous amount of heat projecting from his left. To his shock and horror, shared by the Kusa and Konoha colleagues battling it out with the Parasitic Clones, they saw the distant silhouette of Madara spewing what looked like a spiraling twister of fire heading their way. Given its unusual shape and unnatural speed, avoiding it entirely was out of the question.

There was a searing orange-gleam of light followed by a pyrotechnic explosion that detonated with extreme prejudice. An exposed face of the Uchiha grinned with satisfaction at the carnage his Jutsu wreaked. Grasping the hem of his hood, he concealed his face once more as he walked towards the site of the attack, thinking to himself with satisfaction of how his body has reached near full strength.

"Soon, Reaper, I shall test this strength against you to see if I'm ready to use those eyes once more..."

Upon reaching the site, he was quite surprised to see a massive dome of insects had formed around the vicinity of his Jutsu's attack. The majority of them began to crumble away into ash, leaving a fraction still left, gorged on the fringes of his technique's Chakra. Flowing back to Shino, they'd see the slightly scalded but kneeling on his left leg and panting heavily from the exertion. Everybody else was protected by the massive fireball that had crashed into their midst.

"I'm impressed, Shino Aburame, that you were able to nullify my Jutsu so quickly and so skillfully," He complimented, observing as Lee and Shizuka stood in front of him in a quick form of defensive posturing. As the Kusa Ninja with Ten-Ten's help geared up for the Clones to attack, Madara grinned and protruded a Chakra Control Rod from his right sleeve in preparation. "I'll make sure you die a warrior's death, Leaf. Do please dance a little before you leave this world."

"They're in trouble!"

"Stay focused, Chōji! We have to keep them moving, otherwise their lives will be put in peril. I can't protect them alone, I need your power. Please."

It took all Chōji had not to abandon his station, despite knowing what Iruka said was right. Hundreds of people's lives depended on him being able to get them out of harm's way. Most of the villagers had some capacity to fight, one way or the other, but some were elderly or were children. While this wasn't the largest sub-village Kusagakure had it was still important to preserve their lives at all costs. It was one of the only reasons he kept fighting after Konoha was destroyed.

To save those who can be saved.

So in the ensuing explosions and sound of audible battle in the distance, he chose to use this opportunity to get as close to the exit of the thicket as possible. The sooner he can save these people, the better. After he ensured their escape was certain, he could go back to help-

"Hello there," A voice pierced through the thicket, causing him and the villagers to stop still. Emerging from the tall grass before them was a man of grey mane, reaching to his broad shoulders and wearing a sleeveless Akatsuki designed jacket with the front opened to reveal a muscular torso. Grinning at the stunned Leaf Ninja, he enjoyed putting a fist into his open palm while eyeing the rest of the Kusa villagers. "Looks like you guys are being left out of the party. Don't worry though, I'll volunteer."

"Mizuki Sensei?" Chōji inquired, suddenly recognizing the man despite the years and drastic appearance being different than his days as an instructor at the academy. "What is this?! You're with them?!"

"Of course, chubby," He derisively snarked, shrugging nonchalantly as he approached him, withdrawing a bandoleer strapped giant Shuriken into his right hand's grip. "I was left to rot in a prison for the rest of my life, no thanks to Konoha and that Nine Tails brat! But after left some time thinking things through, I realize where I want to be; with the Akatsuki, slaughtering you weak fools!"

Snapping out of his shock filled reverie, the rotund Shinobi snapped his left arm and made a partial expansion with the appendage. Stretching out like rubber and expanding to a enormous level, it crashed into Mizuki with such speed and force that it bowled into the man before he could thrown his weapon. It only occurred to Chōji what was wrong when the body had turned into mud and splattered away, ninja tool included.

"You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?" Mizuki crowed out loud, his body emerging from the earth in multiple spots around and between the villagers. Some of them reacted with violence, cutting at the copied bodies only to meet the same result with new ones taking their place. Chōji knew this had to be some form of Genjutsu, so he tried to make a release seal, only to hear the cries of some of the innocents being cut down or dragged beneath the soil to screaming deaths. "Can't figure it out yet? I'm quite frankly disappointed in you, fatso! Thought you graduated from the academy or something?"

"Chōji!" Iruka shouted from the midst of the earth nature copies, twisting around to land several blows to the doppelgangers while gaining his pupil's attention. "These are all Earth Style Clones, just lacking substance and ability to attack. The real Mizuki is hiding underground, attacking during the chaos!"

"Got it!" The Akimichi Ninja acknowledged, leaping up into the air and clapping his hands together. With stoic concentration, he focused Chakra into his limbs and body, increasing his mass at an exponential rate. In a billowing blast of azure colored smoke, he became a giant and used his newfound mass to descend to the earth with a magnanimous stomp that levelled the grassy field they were fighting in.

Doing so made the Mizuki copies disperse in a field of muck, the cracking dirt revealing a form that shot out of the ground and landed amidst the slew of Ninja. He revealed something different than before, his arms, chest and face gaining claw-marks akin to tattoos but more animated. His eyes became slitted akin to a cat's, and his Chakra ceased to be sensed. With a feral grin, he shimmered out of view of the Shinobi and villagers' present.

When he was revealed, he had sent dozens of men and women flying through the force of his charge, stopping short in front of a wide-eyed Iruka. Smiling, he swung his arm to strike his old friend, connecting with nary the space in front of his nose. The Nature Chakra coalesced from his hand made contact instead, breaking the Chuunin's nose and sending him flying back to the scattering villagers.

"Iruka Sensei!" Chōji howled, swinging a behemoth fist to connect with the Tiger Sage. To his horror, the man-sized digits were stopped, the backlash creating a shockwave from making impact. Looking hard, he could see Mizuki's one arm caught his middle finger and heels dug into the indented floor. Before he knew what was happening, he was pulled by his hand and hurled head over heels to smash into the earth with merciless impact. The power of which made him shrink back to his base size as he gasped for air.

"What an underwhelming conclusion that was," Mizuki proclaimed, stalking towards the obese Ninja with a predatory step. His eyes gleamed gold, dagger-filled eyes staring down at the young man as his shadow covered his heaving frame. Even the eyes that opened with a grimace couldn't help suppress the fear glazed in his dark orbs. Raising his hand, he formed a Nature Chakra field around his arm to make an invisible blade that extended six inches past his clawed fingertips. "I'll put you out of your misery, tub of lard!"

"Shut up..."

"What was that?" The Akatsuki asked with a cock of his head. "Speak up, I couldn't hear that, fatass-"

A sudden eruption of Chakra billowed the earth and expanded outwards at a significant rate. To Mitsuki's surprise, Chōji's form backward flipped from the ground in a dizzying spin and launched a pair of punches. He backpedaled, but not before they instantly expanded into a pair of tower-sized knuckles. Dispelling his blade, he put his Nature Chakra around his arms and blocked the monstrous fists, his heels skidding across the grass-covered field.

"So, you got some fight left in you?" Mitsuki asked with a malicious grin, lowering his arms to see his enemy glaring back. With butterfly wings of intense Chakra protruding from his back, he could see why that last hit hurt him, even in Sage Mode. The fat was slowly but surely being sapped from his body and turned into raw, focused power. Laughing out loud, he swung his arms in either direction with bravado. "That's some nice power you got there! But, even I can see that you can't maintain a form like that forever. Plus, compared to Nature Chakra, you're just wasting your life away. Is your pride worth the extra pain?"

"Maybe not," Chōji replied sternly, unlike the timid fat child he had known from the Academy. With a strong jaw replacing his ovular face, he spread his teeth in a bared look of preparation as he settled into a crouched, fist-clenched stance. The wings howled even more fiercely, sending buffeting waves of air swirling all around him in a cycloning effect. With his body glowing blue, he shouted out loud with anger. "But you lay another hand on Iruka Sensei, and I'll make you regret it!"

For a moment, Mitsuki remembered a certain orange-clad Genin who said something similar.

"If you ever lay a hand on my sensei, I'll kill you!"

"You little shit!" The rookie Akatsuki snarled, his body streaking forward at a surprising pace, surprising Chōji at how close he got in a short span of time. Swinging his right clawed hand towards his face, he'd suddenly detect a swift Chakra presence coming from behind. Twisting around on his heels, he leaped over the attacker, seeing Moegi narrowly miss with a Lightning Beak attack covering her right arm. As he dropped down, he snapped both of his feet at them, observing with disdain that Chōji was able to back away from his foot while Moegi swiftly shimmered to a distance. There, she stood flanked by Konohamaru -armed with the Adamantine Staff- and Udon, with a Earth Release crafted pair of stony gauntlets. The scene of resistance made him seethe, and Mitsuki's Chakra billowed out, creating a blistering wind that stung Chōji and the youth's faces. "I'll tear you all apart for looking down at me! You and the rest of Konoha, die here!"

It was a dangerous predicament. Shikamaru knew this as he led the Chief and leadership with a complement of Jounin and Chuunin with him. Based on what he could hear, the chaos was getting out of hand and all of the groups trying to escape the thicket from the attacked village were being sought out by the parasitic clones and Akatsuki accompanying them. With a grimace he knew if they didn't get help from the Reaper soon-

"That's far enough."

A voice echoed out, making Shikamaru and the rest stop dead in their tracks. The ominous, otherworldly deep timbre complemented by a pair of violet ringed eyes appearing from the penetrating the brush made him far too aware with what they were dealing with. He had hoped that someone else, anybody, would be placed before him. Unlike his awry friend of the Sand, he didn't work well under pressure.

Especially under such an intense Chakra he was feeling.

"Shikamaru Nara, tactician and leader of the remaining Konoha fugitives," The Deva Path, primary and strongest of the Pains, walking ahead of the others that formed a line behind him. His casual gait spoke volumes of his confidence in capturing the lot of Kusa and Leaf Ninja before him. "I will capture you, interrogate you and make you an example for those who go against the Akatsuki; against the will of God."

"Ho? You're saying you're a god, huh?" Shikamaru asked incredulously, doing his best to jest under the given situation. Despite cold sweat forming on his brow, sliding down his cheeks, he couldn't help but show a sardonic grin. "I don't particularly believe in a higher power other than man, so your words don't intimidate me."

"Is that so?" Deva Pain asked, raising a hand while approaching him, palm nearing the paralyzed Nara Clan Head. "I'll teach you to fear God, unbeliever."

It was only during his boldness that Shikamaru felt a brief tremor underground. His footing unstable, he stumbled back, as did Deva Pain's. The earth splintered, the grass blew back and soil erupted with a pair of blurred drills shooting from opposing sides. Even with the brashness of their attack, they made contact with a loud, sparking collision that rang in the air like grinding metal.

But to Shikamaru's shock, the surprise attack did little to move Pain. In fact he stood still between both holes and hands outstretched to catch both twisting figures at their attacks' epicenter. Smoke and sparks flew from his palms, billowing his coat's sleeves but did no damage. By the rotations' end, they were both caught by their scalps, and smashed into the earth with extreme prejudice.

"KIBA! AKAMARU!" Shikamaru cried out, seeing the whites of both Ninja and Hound's eyes as they were brutalized.

"Try any method you'd like," He dared them, looking to the horrified Chieftain and the rest of the Kusa leadership. "But know you will fail. Your savior, in all of his power and rage, couldn't defeat me. To what end would you sacrifice yourselves when you know it is pointless?"

"Freedom," Shikamaru heard the Chieftain reply, surprising the Nara Head with a head tilt and eyes widening at the wizened old man's scowl aimed at Pain. "From a tyrant like you, is worth any price!"

Sighing, Deva Pain extended a sharp-edged rod from his cloak. Without another word said, an invisible force yanked on the old man and pulled him towards the crudely made weapon. Gasping in panic at the unearthly gravity yanking him forth, it was only through the Konoha Shinobi's quick thinking that he formed a seal and stopped his attraction bare inches from the rod's edge.

"Let him go," Pain quietly ordered.

"No!"

"You can't protect him. You can't defeat me. Why bother prolonging the inevitable?" He asked despondently.

"B-Because...because I," He began to say, his eyes watering up and his body shaking as he put all of his Chakra he could in yanking the Chieftain back another few inches. "I am a fool who believes in a world without this despair you create! And I believe that Naruto didn't die in vain, saving those who would one day liberate our home from your clutches! Yes, I am a fool, who will die for the sake of others, so that one day they can live freely!"

Pain's eyes widened for a moment. A second of hesitation and he swore he saw the long-dead Shinobi standing behind the Nara Clan Leader. The impression vanished in an instant, his eyes blinked, and a cold smile spread across Deva Pain's lips to reflect the user's emotion.

"You really are a fool, Shikamaru Nara."

A second later, a pulse of Chakra flared up around Deva Pain and Shikamaru could feel his Jutsu undone through sheer force. The Chieftain was launched into the path of the Chakra Control Rod and impaled through the heart out his back. Through instantaneous death, Shikamaru felt the will to fight diminish entirely.

Elsewhere, the sounds of battle had all but silenced.

Lee heaved heavily along with Shizuka, the latter of which was on one knee as he was barely standing. Despite being in clad in the power of the 5th Gate of Closing, the red-faced Shinobi hadn't laid a real hit on Madara. Worse still, Ten-Ten was covered in bruises and sweat, on her last legs with the seemingly endless wave of Parasitic Clones that were climbing over the dead Kusa Ninja around to get to her. Shino himself was beneath his boot heel, placed firmly on his head, with a pool of blood smeared across the dirt coming from Chakra Control Rods embedded in his shoulders and thighs, immobilizing him completely.

Mitsuki held Chōji up by the neck, now skinny and on the verge of aphyxiation. Moegi, Udon and Konohamaru lied astrewn; bloodied, bruised and unable to move. The orange-haired Kunoichi craned her head up to see the formerly rotund man squirm in the ruthless traitor's grip. Tears welled up in her eyes, the sense of dread overwhelming her and desire to see someone save them.

"Someone! Anyone!" She pleaded as Chōji's face became blue, Madara raising a rod to impale Shino's back and Pain tossing aside the Chieftain to glare at the terrified Shikamaru. "Save us!"

A sudden pulse of pressure with a blistering wind struck the combatants. Eyes enlarged, senses alarmed and mouths opened. The sensation of a destructive inferno was prevalent and the bugs that hadn't left completely from the thicket rose up in a swarm to join all the animals still foolish in being anywhere close to the battlefield.

"What's this pressure?" Mitsuki inquired, eyes glaring at the horizon, his grip still holding Chōji's neck but now relaxed at this new stimuli he felt. "This doesn't feel like ordinary Chakra."

"I see a tidal wave of malevolent energy heading our way," Madara muttered, his eyes widening at the sea of black, the head of it forming a mask imprint. "The Reaper?!"

"So you've come," Deva Pain turned, his head cocking to look over at a streak of midnight arching overhead and zooming down to his location. Twisting his heels his body reared back and unleashed a hand to be but a few meters away from an offending razor tip. Instantly a clash of powers transpired, as an invisible wave of force crashed against a palpably red-black mass of Reiatsu that pulsed wildly against it. The air was thick and heavy, the sensation akin to the desire to kill with a miasma of rage.

The event was all but seconds long, but what felt like hours, the exchange broke off with a collapse of the atmosphere in their vicinity with a loud pop. Separating from each other, Deva Pain backed away while the Substitute Shinigami dropped in front of Shikamaru, his back tall and resolute to the Shinobi's eyes. Despite Ichigo being notably angry, the Leaf strategist breathed a sigh of relief at his arrival.

"Sorry I'm late. Hinata and four eyes are right behind me," Ichigo announced, the feeling and sight of two auras of violet and teal appearing in the horizon and breaking off in two varying directions. Hinata, bowling into a surprised Madara, managed to knock him back with a palm-thrust pressure wave while Kabutomaru used K-7's body to take Mitsuki by surprise and kick him in the back to release the nearly strangled Chōji. While all eyes remarked their two respectable saviors' with varying looks of shock, Ichigo's eyes became a menacing gold with black covering his sclera as thick rising flames of his own Reiatsu rose up from his body. The very use of it tampered with the heavens, swirling of dark storm clouds and creating blistering winds to scatter debris from the thicket. As he clenched his sword tightly, he saw Deva Pain stare on, a subtle hint of anger behind his violet rings for eyes. Baring his teeth, Ichigo finally shouted out loud. "I'M GOING TO END YOUR NIGHTMARE TODAY, PAIN!"

"No, Reaper," Pain replied, his coat fluttering as his Chakra began to manifest around him in preparation for the battle to come. "It is your nightmare to this world that will end. By the Will of Pain, it will be done."

A/N: And done! Wow that was a fun chapter! Full of action, drama and suspense! I hope to see some reactions this chapter around and (with luck) get more than two reviews this time around. But meh, I might be asking too much, given how infrequently I've updated this. I'd apologize but, I can't control how this goes with how busy work and life has been for me. Also trying something new to see if it catches on, but anytime I write up a new Jutsu I'll write a parentheses captioned translation. That way, none of you are left to google search for a translation or wonder what the Hell I just wrote XD In any case, I hope to hear about it one way or another.

I'll look forward to the next eventual update of Reap the Pain!