A Different Path

Peace Begets War

Sasuke's POV

"I'll go this way! You take Sakura and meet up with Kiba!" Sasuke yelled at Shikamaru as he ran along the damaged street. There was debris everywhere and people were running wildly, fear visible on their faces.
"Right! The Fifth said to get the villagers to safety near the Hokage Tower!" The Nara yelled back, his eyes assessing the destruction.
"Got it!" Sasuke used his ninja reflexes to sail through the sea of distressed villagers. He's here. He's already killed the eastern guards and his puppets are asking everyone about Naruto's location while the others are rampaging through the village. But why? Wasn't Naruto going after him? Where is he? Unless.. Pain's drawing him here! So Shikamaru was right.

The crowd was getting pushy and Sasuke had to go against the strong current of people. Realizing that he wouldn't be able to run past it, he jumped onto a building's wall to his right and onto the other one to his left, reaching his destination. Once he landed, he heard a weird sound coming from behind. He turned his head around to see a giant centipede with black rods embedded into its muzzle, heading straight for an old woman holding desperately onto a small girl in her arms. A summoning? Tch! Out of all times!

Sasuke wrapped his right hand's fingers around his left arm, his legs parting a little bit to gain more stability. A few sparks popped until a cloud of lightning formed in his palm. Without a second to hesitate, he jumped onto the beast's back before it could reach the two villagers and plunged his hand into the centipede's eggshell-like skull.
"Chidori!" He yelled as he cracked its skull open and crouched after he jumped down onto the ground, letting it fall to a side with a loud thud.

Sasuke placed a hand on his right knee to support himself as he got up to his feet. He raised his gaze to see the woman's eyes fill with relief.
"Thank you very much!" She bowed with appreciation. The girl frowned softly as she touched the cut on her knee. But Sasuke didn't know any medical ninjutsu. The woman wrapped her arms tightly around the child, realizing that she wouldn't be able to walk.
"I'll take care of it, Sasuke. You go take out some more of these creatures." Ino jumped down from a rooftop behind him. He nodded his head as a 'thanks'. "They're everywhere. And not just them, they're-!" A huge explosion occurred somewhere to their left, causing them to close their eyes and place their arms in front of their faces to deal with the dust. The blonde coughed before speaking again. "It's not just one Pain. They're six in total and they're all destroying the village. This is.. More than we had prepared for." She clenched her small fists. Six, huh? So he's attacking us the same way he attacked Lord Jiraiya.

"We'll kill all of them and save our village. We're shinobi, Ino." Sasuke's gaze softened slightly. She smiled at him before she walked over to the wounded child. The raven took off towards a huge cloud of smoke from where he was suspecting to find more summonings. He jumped over some broken rooftop tiles and widened his coal-black eyes upon the sight, a sweatdrop rolling down his pale forehead. He had thrown a look over the body Lord Fukasaku had brought to them but this Pain seemed different. This one's face was different although he still had those black rods and the Rinnegan. Sasuke's gaze moved over to the kid he hoped that he wouldn't find in trouble. Konohamaru! The boy's back was against the wall of a building and Pain was sitting in front of him with his right hand aiming for the other's neck.

Before Sasuke could react, the enemy gripped Konohamaru's throat as the boy's eyes widened in fear, his gaze looking past Pain. There must be something about his power that only the ones he catches can see. Suddenly, a beaten-up Ebisu appeared out of nowhere as he hurried to save his student but Pain kicked him square in the jaw, throwing him five meters away and onto the ground. Sasuke gritted his teeth and jumped right next to Pain, his leg going for the other's torso and his kunai cutting into the flesh of his left arm, leaving him to dodge the kick and let go of Konohamaru. The Uchiha caught the boy as he ran to a pile of wooden planks and cracked cinder blocks where he put him down. Konohamaru coughed loudly, running his fingers along the swollen surface of his neck.
"T-Thanks, Big Brother Sasuke." Sasuke's eyes moved back to Pain who had already recovered from the attack, the spirals in his Rinnegan widening.

Different Pains, different powers. This one appears to extract the souls out of people. Whatever I do, I need to make sure he catches me. Sasuke jumped from his place, heading for the enemy. He fingered his pouch and fished out a kunai which he threw at him, but it went between the other's legs and plunged into the ground, half a meter behind him. Pain ignored it and lunged at Sasuke who dodged the black rod as he jumped high in the air, forming six hands signs in a rush.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" The multiple fireballs flew wildly and Pain wasn't able to dodge two of them which broke his rod and burned the cloth covering his right leg, as well as the edge of his black cloak. Although he had managed to hit him, Sasuke was now dangerously close to Pain. Before his could react, the enemy grabbed the raven by the throat and threw him into the wall to their right, his grip still present.

"Where is Naruto Uzumaki?" His monotone voice was nowhere near as pleasing as Naruto's. So he doesn't actually know? Where did Naruto go after all? Sasuke felt like laughing in his face, but he could really breathe properly.
"I-I wouldn't tell y-you even if I k-knew." He rasped out. In the blink of an eye, his lips curled up into a confident smirk which made Pain narrow his purple eyes. He disappeared into a puff of white smoke, taking the other by surprise.

"A Shadow Clone?" He said, or more like asked himself. The kunai to his left transformed into the young Uchiha who had a Chidori ready to kill. He plunged it into Pain's chest, leaving his mouth gaping as if he couldn't believe that he had gotten hit. Sasuke saw Konohamaru and a Shadow Clone coming at them with the corner of his eye so he quickly pulled his hand out and took a few steps backwards only to gape as well.

What he saw next made him feel equally amazed and nostalgic.
"Rasengan!" The genin yelled as the two pushed a blue sphere of chakra into Pain's torso, sending him flying into the wall and then through it. He didn't seem to be moving and his eyes were closed. He was surely dead. But Sasuke still wasn't satisfied. Ebisu had managed to drag himself over to the two shinobi, his hand clutching the wound on the right side of his body.

"The Rasengan? Where did you learn that, Konohamaru?" His glasses were on the edge of his nose, ready to fall off and he didn't seem to intend to push them back any time soon.
"Big Brother Naruto taught me!" Konohamaru smiled proudly. Sasuke let out a breath of relief he didn't know he was holding. He looked at the boy who was now frowning and the raven had a guess about it. "Before he left.."
"Naruto would be proud of you." The genin looked at him and flushed slightly, his smile wider than before. "You should get him to a medical nin." Sasuke pointed at the coughing Ebisu.

"There's no need. Lady Tsunade has sent me to take care of the wounded." A blue and white slug spoke in a feminine voice once it had reached their location.
"Thank you, Lady Katsuyu." Ebisu laid himself down, gritting his teeth from the pain.
"I'll be going, then. Go somewhere safe." Sasuke flicked his head in their direction and heard Konohamaru hum in response before he jumped back onto a rooftop and then towards an empty street that led to a whole bunch of wild summonings, given the explosions and flying debris.

Suddenly, the air around him grew cold and he felt a chill run down his spine. A feeling of dread and hate overcame his body as it went numb, leaving him completely frozen and unable to turn around and identify the source of his distress. He could feel the blood boil in his veins, his breathing getting faster. That was when he heard a dead whisper in his ear, his eyes widening like never before.
"Hello, little brother."

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Phew! It's finally done! It took me two hours to write this from scratch and 1600 words. Daaaamn. Anyway, I don't think I even have to tell you guys who this last guy was, really now. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know in the comment section!
Next time, on Naruto Shippuden:
'War Begets Pain'
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~See ya!~
~Bella~
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