[The Renegade] Chapter 8 - The Battle of Amegakure (Patreon)

Chapter 8 - The Battle of Amegakure

Just as Tenten was about to stick the sealing tag on Naruto's forehead, a hand shot up abruptly and caught her wrist in a vice-like grip.

The girl didn't even have time to react before she was yanked by her arm and thrown straight through the window on the opposite side of the hospital room.

"Tenten!" Neji cried out and jumped out the window after her to rescue her.

Due to Neji's shout, Naruto understood right away who the ones that had attacked him in his sleep were.

"Neji and Tenten… Konoha finally made a move, huh?" Naruto said as he got up from the bed. "To think you'd even go as far as to attack me in my sleep when I'm in the hospital…"

Since their pre-emptive strike had failed, Kakashi stepped forward in an attempt to salvage the situation before it could escalate any further.

"We're not trying to hurt you, Naruto."

"Secretly infiltrating Amegakure, sneaking into my hospital room in the middle of the night, and attacking me in my sleep. I may not be as smart as Sakura, but do you think I am that stupid?"

"Our plan was to talk it over with you at first. But you were unconscious, and we couldn't afford to spend god knows how long waiting for you to wake up. Trust me, Naruto, I would never willingly hurt you. You are my student."

While Kakashi was talking, Naruto heard the sound of the footsteps of half a dozen people approaching from the corridor.

"Was I not your student when you threw me into prison?" Naruto shot back, his voice almost cracking due to his building rage. "In the Ninja World, those who break the rules are scum, that's true...but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum - that's what you told us years ago, do you remember? I wonder what attacking the one who saved your fucking life makes you? What kind of trash not only betrays the one who saved their lives but even tries attacking them in their sleep?"

"Naruto-kun, we were in the wrong for not trusting you, yes, but we're sorry! Nobody thought you were actually guilty!" Sakura, who had arrived a moment ago, said. Her voice sounded as if she was holding back tears. "Come back with us to Konoha, we all need you there. Lady Tsunade misses you. And I-, I miss you too, Naruto. I never realised how much I cared about you until you left. I think I l-love you. I don't know when I fell for you, but my heart-"

As she was talking, Naruto brought a hand to his face and ripped the white bandages wrapped around the upper part of his face. At the sight of his eyes, Sakura choked on her words and involuntarily stepped back.

"You 'love' me?"

She was not the only one who reacted that way. Even Kakashi and Yamato subconsciously took a step back, their hands going to the kunai pouches strapped to their thighs, and Maito Gai got into a fighting stance.

When Naruto opened his eyes, instead of the warm and bright blue eyes that everyone was familiar with, his eyelids revealed the cold and steely purple colour of the Rinnegan.

The deathly silence that was instilled in the hospital room made his voice sound eerie when he spoke next:

"Shinra Tensei!"

An unearthly sound rang, and then the outer walls of the hospital room were obliterated, with the Konoha nins all getting blasted out violently.

⁂

"Lee! Lee! Get a hold of yourself!" Gai shouted while shaking Rock Lee's shoulders.

Naruto's hospital room was located on one of the uppermost levels of the tower that served as the hospital. The full brunt of the Almighty Push, followed by his fall from such a great height, had left him unconscious.

"He can't be reasoned with," Yamato said. "What are we doing, Captain?"

"We… we follow the mission," Kakashi said in a defeated voice.

"Gai-sensei! Everyone! What happened?!" Tenten shouted as she and Neji arrived at the place where they had crashed. The two of them had been lucky enough not to get caught in the Almighty Push.

"Naruto got Pain's Rinnegan, and he attacked us," Kakashi explained, standing up as all traces of hesitation left his voice. "If he has the Rinnegan, I don't think it's possible for him to be under anyone's genjutsu. He attacked us of his own free will. He has no intention of returning to Konoha."

"But, sensei, it's still Naruto!" Sakura pleaded with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"You knew what you signed up for when you accepted this mission, Sakura," Kakashi said, not in the mood to entertain her feelings at that moment.

"We have four to five minutes tops before the Amegakure troops swarm us. We're on borrowed time now." Kakashi said as he removed his headband from his eye, revealing his Sharingan.

"Sakura, take Rock Lee and run to the sewers where Gai's summon is waiting for us. Don't question my orders," he said sharply.

Due to how emotional she was, Kakashi did not want her to drag the entire team down with her crying or doing something dumb like trying to get between them and Naruto to defend him. Besides, someone had to take Rock Lee to safety.

"Gai, no feeling-out process, no testing the waters. We don't know how many Rinnegan techniques he can use, so don't underestimate him. Start with the 5th Gate directly and go up to the 7th Gate if necessary."

"Yamato, protect us from all the incoming Ame shinobi and kunoichi. Don't spare any chakra, use your largest area of effect technique."

"Neji, engage in Taijutsu together with Gai and shut down his tenketsu."

"Tenten, don't interfere until I give you the signal. Be prepared to seal his chakra at any moment."

"Everyone, don't pull your punches. Remember, even without the Rinnegan, in his Sage Mode, Naruto is not the type of opponent any of us can fight fair and square in a one-on-one. As long as you don't kill him, go all out."

Letting out a shout of acknowledgement, everyone got ready to follow their orders.

"Mokuton: Deep Forest Emergence!" Yamato said and slammed his palms on the street below.

Branches, roots, and tree trunks broke through the concrete and rose towards the sky, enormous trees rivalling in height even the tens of metre-tall skyscrapers of Amegakure. With the hospital tower as the centre, an entire district of the city was covered by a gigantic forest.

"I won't be able to control this jutsu for long!" Yamato said, his forehead already drenched in sweat.

"Don't worry, Yamato-sensei. You won't have to," Naruto said as he landed in front of them.

"Come with us willingly, Naruto," Kakashi pleaded. "This is the last time I ask you this. Don't make us do this. Don't make us fight you."

"If someone unrelated heard you speak, they'd think I'm the villain in this story and that you're the good guys."

After saying that, an orange pigmentation appeared on the side of his eyes. Even in the darkness of the night, the orange markings of his Sage Mode made a stark contrast with the steely purple colour of his Rinnegan eyes.

"I'll send you packing back to Konoha," Naruto said, and two Shadow Clones appeared behind his back.

Kakashi's eyes widened as he recognised the wind technique Naruto was about to cast when the two clones started moulding chakra in the hand he raised above his head.

'Fast!'

Normally, it took Naruto several good seconds to create a Rasenshuriken, which was a very long time in a fight between elite shinobi. However, for some reason, the Rasenshuriken formed instantly this time.

His Sharingan eye morphing into the pattern of the Mangekyo, Kakashi shouted right as Naruto threw the devastating wind jutsu at him:

"Kamui!"

"I knew you were going to do that-" Kakashi heard Naruto's voice coming from behind him. He had been so focused on Kamui-ing away the Rasenshuriken, and Naruto's body flicker movement was so fast that Kakashi was caught completely off guard. He only had time to turn his head back and see the glowing sphere of blue chakra heading towards his face.

"Konoha Senpuu!" Gai screamed, and his whirlwind kick smashed mercilessly into Naruto's head, sending him flying. The blond crashed so hard into a nearby building that he left a human imprint on its outer wall.

Naruto wasn't allowed even a moment to catch his breath as Neji appeared at his side in an instant, and shouted:

"Eight Trigrams, One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms!"

However, to his shock, the first ten lightning-fast gentle fist jabs he threw at him were all parried, and Naruto even counterattacked with a punch of his own.

'His taijutsu is still not up to par-' Neji thought as he easily weaved through the seemingly sloppy swing and was about to resume his onslaught of gentle fist attacks when a cracking pain in the side of his face made him see white for a moment.

The next moment, Neji found himself flying through the air, unable to control any of his body's movements. He didn't even know what had hit him; the Frog Kata was almost impossible to defend against when faced with it for the first time. Even after crashing onto the ground, that senjutsu-empowered strike was so powerful that Neji couldn't muster any strength to get back up again. He slipped into unconsciousness.

However, right after knocking Neji away, a lightning beast pounced on Naruto from behind and shocked him. Even with the enhanced physical ability granted by his Sage Mode, Naruto was paralyzed for a second.

"Nice, Kakashi!" Gai yelled out in approval and then shouted: "Fifth Gate, Gate of Closing, Open!"

A vivid green aura burst from his body, and his pale skin turned a reddish-brown colour.

"Leaf Great Flash!" Gai yelled, throwing a head kick so powerful that it triggered a shockwave in its wake.

An even louder shockwave rang when his shin smashed against his target… except that it wasn't Naruto's head.

"No freaking way!" Tenten exclaimed in disbelief when she saw Gai's ferocious kick being stopped by Naruto with a single hand.

Team Gai had been away from Konoha on a mission during Pain's invasion, so they hadn't seen Naruto's Sage Mode in person. All they knew were stories they heard from others. They didn't know that, in his Sage Mode, Naruto's physical strength enhancements were so insane that he could make craters with his punches, crush boulders in his hands, and throw around dozens of tons effortlessly.

"If I fought you seriously, both Neji and you would be dead now," Naruto said, and Gai winced when Naruto's grip on his leg tightened to the point where his bones started creaking.

Unable to hold her cool any longer, instead of listening to Kakashi's orders to not interfere in the fight, Tenten unfurled a large sealing scroll, and three throwing javelins appeared in her hands.

"Let Gai-sensei go!" she yelled and threw all three javelins at Naruto in quick succession, with deadly accuracy.

Unfortunately, that proved to not be a very bright move as Naruto yanked Gai by the leg and threw him into the trajectory of the javelins, using him as a meat shield.

The worst-case scenario did not come to pass, however, seeing as, at the very last moment, a mud wall rose from the ground between Gai and the incoming javelins courtesy of Kakashi.

Kakashi had just finished casting the earth technique when Naruto lunged at him with another Rasengan in his hand. He managed to dodge the Rasengan by ducking under Naruto's lunge and came back with a chakra-enhanced uppercut… only for Naruto to blow up into his face. It wasn't the real him; it was a clone - and not just any clone but an exploding clone.

Yamato also happened to shout from the distance at that moment, "The Ame troops have started attacking in full force! My Mokuton Jutsu won't last much longer!"

Rock Lee and Neji having been knocked out, Kakashi getting gravely injured by the Exploding Clone that blew up in his face, and Yamato's exhausted appearance as he struggled to hold back dozens of Ame shinobi that were trying to breach the giant forest he had created - as Maito Gai took in the situation, his facial expression hardened.

"I've never used my Eight Inner Gates to their fullest power against an ally before. Despite your defection from Konoha, I still considered you one of my students and one of my comrades. However, you leave me with no other choice. I am sorry, Naruto."

As Gai said those words, he got into a stance with his hands crossed in front of his face. The veins on his forehead looked like they were about to burst when he shouted:

"The Eight Inner Gates: Sixth Gate! Gate of Joy!"

As the cloak of green chakra around Gai more than doubled in intensity, Naruto got a bad feeling. Raising his hand and aiming it in his direction, he shouted:

"Shinra Tensei!"

A massive force exploded from his hand, blasting Gai away like a leaf in a hurricane. The force of the Almighty Push was so powerful that it sent Gai flying through a tower and even destroyed the Deep Forest Emergence technique in which Yamato had poured the entirety of chakra to cast.

However, much to Naruto's disbelief, although battered, bruised, and bleeding from countless scrapes all across his body, Maito Gai was still standing when the Rinnegan technique ended.

With the last drop of his strength, Gai screamed:

"The Eight Inner Gates: Seventh Gate, Gate of Shock, OPEN!"

As Gai took a stance with one of his palms forward, a feeling of danger washed over Naruto - one of the Toad Sage Mode's abilities was to sense danger.

'If I let him complete that move… I will die.'

Time seemed to slow down in his perception as a mixture of feelings bubbled in his heart. Disbelief that someone from Konoha would even go as far as to seriously try to kill him… Frustration at himself that he had not incapacitated Gai when he had had the chance… Unwillingness to leave the world of the living behind with so much unfinished work and so many unfulfilled promises… And, at last, a feeling of rage suddenly exploded from his chest. It was an overpowering emotion that extinguished any other feelings he might have had.

At that moment, as he made a Tiger seal, Gai thrust his hands forward and screamed:

"Hirud-!"

A split second before Gai could finish launching the ultimate move of his Seventh Gate, Daytime Tiger, Naruto raised his hand and shouted:

"Bansho Ten'in!"

"Heugh!" Gai let out a grunt of surprise as he was unexpectedly yanked forward against his will.

But even as he was being pulled forward, he manoeuvred his body into a flying kick position, intent on taking Naruto's head off if he maintained the technique until the end.

Gai's flying kick never reached Naruto, however.

A screeching sound suddenly filled the air.

Then, Gai's body was split in half cleanly by a Rasenshuriken.

Tenten and Yamato watched in horror how the devastating wind technique not only killed their comrade but even reduced the rest of his body to atoms.

Gai was dead; Kakashi, Neji, and Rock Lee were knocked out; and Yamato was on the brink of fainting due to chakra exhaustion. Tenten lost the feeling in her legs and fell to her knees in despair.

As she glanced up at Naruto, overwhelmed by panic and terror, the stony expression on his face and his inhuman Rinnegan eyes made him look especially menacing. From her distorted point of view, she did not notice the tears that started falling down his cheeks.

⁂

"Yo, Sasuke!"

An orange-masked man with a single eye appeared out of nowhere in front of Sasuke and his team, causing them to abruptly stop in their tracks.

'I didn't sense his chakra; he appeared out of nowhere. What's going on?’ Karin couldn't understand it. Nobody had ever fooled her senses before, due to her kekkei genkai.

"How did you know where to find me?" Sasuke asked, his eyes narrowing at him.

As far as he knew, he and his team had been travelling under the radar for the past several months, staying out of the public eye and plotting their next course of action.

"Don't underestimate me," Tobi said. "I have considerable powers."

"So what do you want with me now?" Sasuke cut straight to the point. "Taka left the Akatsuki. We're done with you."

"As it stands, you reneged on your promise to me," Obito said.

His words made everyone in Sasuke's team become alert and prepared for battle.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about hunting the Tailed Beast."

"We already caught the Eight-Tails and delivered them to you!" Karin said.

"That was just a clone. A special clone technique, but a clone nonetheless. You've been fooled. In other words, you guys failed."

While Sasuke was thinking back on the moment of his fight with Killer Bee in an attempt to discover when the jinchuuriki managed to escape, Tobi continued:

"Frankly, I'm disappointed in you all."

"So what are you going to do about it?" Suigetsu shot back snarkily. "It's none of our business now."

"Nope. You will finish whatever work you started as members of the Akatsuki… but, having said that, forget about the Eight-Tails for now. I've decided to give you a different task."

"And if I refuse?" Sasuke asked.

"Then we'll fight it out right here. And you won't be able to go to the Hidden Leaf Village. Alas, it's too late for you to go to Konoha now either way. Konoha has already been destroyed."

Sasuke, whose hand had just been engulfed by lightning, suddenly froze at his words.

"What do you mean by that? What the hell happened? How would Konoha just get destroyed overnight?"

"You've been living under a rock in the past two months, or what?" Tobi said. But he did not continue to antagonise him and told him the short version of the events that had transpired.

"My subordinate, Pain, destroyed the Hidden Leaf Village. And since both you and Pain were a bit too overbearing, the Five Kage are now in the middle of a summit."

"And what does that have to do with me now?" Sasuke said belligerently.

"You don't get it, do you?" Tobi said with a shake of his head. "With Pain dead, as of now, you have become the most wanted person in the Elemental Nations. And, especially with how cocky and reckless you've become, I'll give you one year at most before you end up dying in a ditch."

At Sasuke's scoff, Tobi asked a question:

"Tell me, Sasuke, have you ever seen a rogue nin from Kumogakure?"

Thrown off by the seemingly random question, Sasuke didn't reply.

"My bad, it was a poor choice of words on my part considering you're almost blind now," Tobi said mockingly. "When is the last time you heard about rogue ninjas hailing from Kumogakure? That's right, you haven’t. Not in your lifetime. Do you know why? The Cloud Village has the most disciplined, numerous, and relentless black ops shinobi in the world. The Akatsuki had members from Suna, Iwa, Kiri, Konoha, and other minor villages. But none from Kumo. Kumo always takes care of its trash."

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Sasuke shouted, starting to lose his patience. "Get straight to the point."

Tobi shrugged uncaringly at his outburst and said:

"Honestly, at first, my plan was to break into the Kage Summit and declare war on the Five Great Elemental Nations. But I ran into quite the unpredictable situation."

Suigetsu and Karin both started laughing at him.

"You wanted to declare war on the Five Great Hidden Villages? All by yourself? Hahaha! You're out of your mind!" Suigetsu said, holding onto his belly with his hands from laughing too hard.

Ignoring the two that were clowning on him as if they were beneath his notice, Tobi spoke again:

"I want you to help me retrieve something from one of the former members of the Akatsuki."

"You were going to declare war against the whole world. Beating up some rogue ninja should be a piece of cake for someone with your considerable powers."

The sarcasm in Sasuke's words wasn't lost to Tobi if the narrowing of his eye was anything to go by.

"Konan proved to be way stronger than I had expected. Looking back, she must’ve been one of the strongest members we had. I shouldn’t have underestimated her considering she was the one who defeated Sasori and forced him to join… But that is not here nor there. Her power is hardly a problem. I won our little scuffle when we clashed… but I had not expected to see the Nine-Tails Jinchuuriki come to her aid."

Sasuke's face morphed into an expression of surprise.

"Naruto?"

"Yes," Tobi confirmed. "Don't look down on him. He's not the same person you used to know. He's proven his strength when he defeated Pain - he is stronger than you now."

"But why would Naruto help a member of the Akatsuki? He's a jinchuuriki, it doesn't make sense."

"Ah, I must've forgotten to tell you - Uzumaki Naruto has defected from Konohagakure."

"What?!"

Sasuke couldn't believe his ears. Of all people, Naruto became a missing-nin? Naruto, who had chased him all over the continent in the past three years, trying to bring him back to the village?

"Honestly, his reaction was perfectly justified. No, if I had been him, I would've probably burned whatever was left of the village to the ground before leaving. Regardless, this is what I want you to do: assist me in retrieving my possessions from Konan, the leader of Ame. You don't have to participate in the battle against her or the rest of the Ame shinobi. All you need to do is keep Uzumaki Naruto busy while I deal with her."

"Why would I do that? And don't tell me that you'll offer me protection. I can take care of myself just fine," Sasuke said.

He had recently defeated the full form of the Eight-Tailed demon beast and its jinchuuriki too. Sasuke was so confident in the power of his Mangekyo Sharingan that he couldn't envision a scenario where he would lose to anyone anytime soon.

"Your vision is worsening by the day. The more you use your Mangekyo Sharingan abilities, the faster you will lose your sight. Do you remember these?" Tobi said and took out a sealed flask containing a green liquid and two eyeballs.

At Sasuke's grim look, Tobi said in a self-satisfied voice:

"That's right, I still have your brother's eyes."

Sasuke glared at Tobi, all the while mentally kicking himself for not having the presence of mind after his battle with Itachi to take away and preserve his body. But, in all fairness, Itachi's remains were the last thing on Sasuke's mind after their battle due to how overwhelmed by emotions he was at that moment.

"You do understand what I mean, don't you?" Tobi said when he saw that Sasuke kept silent.

"Of course I do."

"Then, do we have a deal?"

"Alright. But I want to get the eye transplant before the fight."

His words could be interpreted in two ways: either that he did not trust Tobi to hold his end of the bargain if he waited until the end of their job to get the eyes or that he did not want to go to battle without Itachi's eyes and risk becoming blind in the middle of it.

"That's fine with me," Tobi said with a shrug. Whether Sasuke had Itachi's eyes or not, to him it was all the same. Either way, he did not think Sasuke could pose a real threat to him. "Let us go to our hideout. Do not resist."

Saying those words, Tobi took the Taka team into his Kamui dimension and disappeared in a swirl.