Kusari no Naruto

Twenty Eighth Link

Pein moved through the forest, unhurried. He scowled, irritated by the loss of the Animal Path. Any escape plan he would make now would be much more difficult without removing all the obstacles in his way. The ANBU unit that had stumbled upon the fight had been unplanned. It was much harder to account for Konoha's movements since losing Sasori's more prominent spy in the village. Still, he had been handling Jiraiya perfectly well before they arrived, dealing with a few grunts wouldn't increase the difficulty too much, even if they were putting up a remarkable fight.

He watched through his remaining paths' eyes, noting the woman's excellent sword technique. It was inconsequential now; with three of the Paths taken out of commission, he could double the Chakra sent to those that remained. Each was now twice as strong, and he made good use of that strength. The Asura Path was always his most difficult of abilities to control, requiring both focus and precision to shift its body, but with his attention split only three ways it became vastly easier.

The body disposed of its cloak, revealing the four additional arms that made its name so apropos. With its pale, shiny skin and numerous piercings, not to mention the permanent manic grin, it really did look like a demon of the second realm. The taijutsu bout only intensified, all eight arms involved becoming a blur of motion. The monkey-masked captain shifted his feet, clearly looking for an opening, but he would never find one.

His Rinnegan could see his every move, and any attempt to flank the Asura Path was rendered moot by the two additional faces. After Tendō, it was his most powerful body. Arms strong enough to tear steel and a body tough enough to withstand the most devastating of Jutsu. This man with his simple and predictable taijutsu stood no chance.

He was more concerned with his Preta Path. Without that one, subduing the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki might prove difficult without resorting to drastic measures. The woman it was fighting proved skilled with a blade, easily fending off his flurry of swipes with a Chakra rod. Off the six, Gakidō was his slowest body, hampered further by the damage done by the Jinchuuriki. Its ability to absorb and use an enemies Chakra was usually enough. Irritatingly though, the woman barely seemed to use any, and only in enhancing her own body.

Pure kenjutsu was, admittedly, a poor match-up. He pressed harder, knowing that if he didn't finish her soon, one of the others might get the drop on his body. With two sets of eyes on the field, and the extra coverage Shuradō provided, he had good visibility of the entire battlefield, but not perfect. That in mind, he forced Tendō to pick up the pace slightly. A God could never appear impatient, but he increasingly felt the need to put a swift end to this.

It came too suddenly. One moment he was keeping perfect track of both fights, the next he felt one of Shuradō's arms fall to its side, limp. It was quickly followed by another. He forced the body to move back, but the ANBU captain pressed forward, his arms only seeming to speed up. No, he realised, the man wasn't speeding up, the Asura Path was slowing down. His connection with the puppet body was weakening.

He soon realised why when he noticed the slim black piercings littering the ground at their feet. He had been so focused on where the man's hands were that he hadn't noticed what they were doing. Still, to remove his Path's piercings in the middle of a Taijutsu bout? His scowl returned as he forced Shuradō to leap away, disengaging long enough for him to shunt Chakra through the body. It bowed forward, the top of its head splitting open to reveal a metallic chamber that glowed intensely.

He knew the man wouldn't be able to move out of the way in time; nothing could move faster than light. The lance of pure energy surged forward, splitting the air itself with a tremulous whine. He maintained it for a solid three seconds, making sure that nothing would survive, only to frown. His eyes never lied, and he detected nobody in the path of the stream, just…