Demon Dragon Rider

Chapter 26: The Day of Pein

Tsunade smiled happily as she finished the last piece of paperwork on her desk. It was a good day for her. The day was beautiful. Konoha and her allies had turned the tide of war, she had a lovely breakfast with Naruto and Kushina and she had just finished her paperwork for the day. Life was good.

She grinned, getting her secret stash of rice wine and cup. However, just as she was about to pour the rice wine into the cup, the small drinking vessel cracked.

Tsunade stared at it before setting the bottle down. She knew this day had been too good to be true. She was about to call Shizune in to give orders when Jiraiya came in through the window. However, his usual goofy expression was gone, replaced with the serious expression of the veteran ninja she had fought alongside in the Second Shinobi World War.

"Tsunade, I've got some bad news," he said, pulling out a small slip of paper. "I got a message from Itachi. The Akatsuki is coming to Konoha. It's their leader, Pein," he said.

Tsunade took the message, reading it over. "How bad is he?" she asked.

Jiraiya sighed as he sat down. "Do you remember those three kids I trained in Ame? He's the one with the Rinnegan that I told you about. Itachi sent me all the information he could on this guy. He uses six bodies to actually attack his opponents while he controls them from a distace. He's guarded by Konan, a kunoichi skilled in using paper based Ninjutsu. Pein plans to force Naruto to fight him or he'll level Konoha to bring him out," the Toad Sannin said, looking exhausted.

Tsunade nodded quietly. "Do you have infor on these bodies?" she asked, setting Itachi's message aside.

Jiraiya shrugged. "Only what Itachi has been able to gather. He knows the powers for the body he met he first joined the Akatsuki. Apparently, this body uses jutsu capable of controlling gravity itself, allowing him to float and manipulate others around him. From my studies of the Rinnegan, that is one of its powers, as well as the use of all elemental based jutsus. I have no idea what the other bodies can do, as Itachi hasn't seen them in use yet. He's only seen the one and its powers."

Tsunade took a deep breath, closing her eyes and thinking over this whole situation. She finally looked up at Jiraiya. "So what do we do?"

Jiraiya looked down quietly. He didn't speak for several moments before finally answering. "I think there's only one option really. I know you may not like this, but Naruto will probably have to fight Pein outside the village."

Tsunade shot up from her desk. "You're right. I don't like it! Are you insane? That would be giving them what they want!!"

Jiraiya held up his hands. "I don't know what else to say! This man practically destroyed Itachi using only one of the bodies at his command. Using all six, he could probably invade this village all by himself. You and I are maybe the only ninjas here who can fight him and even then I don't know if we could win. You know that Naruto is more powerful than us. And he wouldn't be alone. He'd have his dragon and Hinata with her dragon out there too."

Tsunade paced angrily for several seconds, trying to come up with a counter. Finally she stopped, glaring at him. "It doesn't mean I have to like this," she said before sighing and sitting down. "Bring him in. He needs to know," she said softly.

Jiraiya nodded as he disappeared out the window. Tsunade meanwhile just sighed as she leaned back in the Hokage's chair. 'All good things must come to an end,' she thought tiredly as she went to work.

About an hour later, Jiraiya returned with a serious looking Naruto. "Pervy Sage said we've got a problem?" he asked, still using his nickname for Jiraiya. Anything else sounded off to him so he stuck with he felt right.