Kusari no Naruto

Twenty Ninth Link

Naruto stared down at Pein's broken body dispassionately. Evidence of the Asura Path had retreated, leaving an ordinary corpse lying in the rubble of his technique. Ordinary, except for the piercings he had used to give himself the countenance of a God. Naruto scoffed at that; if it wasn't a hallucination, then he had met a real God. Pein couldn't begin to compare to the sheer otherworldliness of Jashin. He could still feel the subtle burn of her symbol keeping the will of the Kyuubi at bay.

Pein certainly didn't look Godly now, half-naked, with a leg missing and his other limbs twisted and broken.

"Good work kid," Jiraiya grunted as he carefully made his way over the loose earth and rocks, patting the blond on the shoulder. He was still using that weird technique, and Naruto expected it was the only thing keeping the older man going. Even now he wore a grim face, clutching at the stump of his left arm. He also appeared to be rubbing something brown and gloopy into the wound; Naruto didn't care to ask.

"Need a hand?" He asked, surprising himself with the flippant question. He suddenly felt detached from the whole situation, like it had been somebody else fighting and he was just an observer. He felt colder now, without the burn of the Kyuubi's Chakra rushing through his body; emptier.

"Har har," The sannin groused, staring down at Pein's body with a strange expression. The two toads on his shoulders – something else Naruto didn't want to ask about – remained quiet, sharing in the man's pensive mood. Naruto turned his attention back to the body, but that was all it was to him, a corpse.

His eyes widened slightly and he turned, but Jiraiya caught his arm, holding him in place.

"She's fine, you can go see her later."

When Naruto glared at him the man finally tore his attention away from his former student.

"Yes, that wound is lethal, but I've made arrangements to get her and the rest of your ANBU friends back to Konoha." He motioned, and Naruto spotted the group in the distance. Nezumi had been delivered to the rest of the team and they were currently in the process of being swallowed by a large toad. "Normally, her wounds would be fatal. So would Aki… I mean, Saru's. Luckily for them, Toads are awesome in all sorts of ways."

The elderly toads on his shoulders seemed to preen, and Jiraiya moved his hand with a wince, showing the sticky substance on his fingers. "Toad oil has light restorative properties, not enough to save them, but enough at least to get them back to the village."

Naruto's face betrayed his relief, but a moment later tightened back to a scowl. "Then I'm going with them."

Jiraiya let out a long sigh. "Of all the times for you to get sentimental. No, we're not done here yet." He stood there a moment, only to grimace in irritation. "Still not used to having one hand. I really hope there's something Tsunade can do about that." He motioned with his good arm to Pein's body. "This, and the others, were just puppets. We still need to go confront the real threat."

"In our condition?" Naruto wasn't outwardly hurt, the Kyuubi's Chakra made sure of that, but he wasn't exactly fresh. That much power coursing through his body left a toll, and he was quickly approaching his threshold for exhaustion.

"I'm not thrilled about it either," Jiraiya muttered. "If you hadn't noticed, I'm not exactly as handy as I once was." He sighed. "But it's better than letting Nagato regain his strength and do all of this again."

Naruto glanced around at the destruction and grimaced. The field had been completely destroyed, first by the Chibaku Tensei ripping up the ground, and then again by the resulting planetoid crashing back to earth. They got lucky with the arrival of his squad; he wasn't so certain that he and Jiraiya alone could have defeated Pein.