The Angel's Ambivalence [Naruto]

Minxie & Naruto vs. Pain

"Hatred is born our of the desire to protect loved ones."

Minxie's POV

After all of the confusion and endless drama in my life, you'd think I'd be used to the ninja world. Although, I couldn't really just call it the ninja world, could I? Because no matter what I called it, it was real, and it was happening right now.

I didn't want to fight Pain; that much was obvious. But he'd done something drastic and unforgivable when he targeted my village. I couldn't let that go. I'd have to fight him, and I'd have to protect Naruto.

But would I really be able to stand against Pain? After almost three years of being around him in the Akatsuki hideout, I'd grown attached to him. I loved my village, but throwing all of the memories I shared with him -even if they weren't all exactly comforting- seemed impossible.

My mental war was rudely interrupted when the female Pain, Chikushodo, slammed her palm to the ground, summoning one of her enormous animals. I couldn't decide if it was a boar or a rhino, or maybe even an armadillo. Now that I think about it, what the animal was didn't really matter much while it was trying to kill me.

Before I could react, however, Naruto stepped in front of me, grabbing the freaky hybrid animal by its horn, halting it. If that wasn't crazy enough, he was able to pick it up, spin it around, and fling it into next year.

Naruto must have sensed my wide-eyed stare, because he turned to face me, a grin threatening to spread across his face.

"Surprised?" He asked, grinning at me. I could only nod once in reply. "Told 'ya I got ridiculously strong."

I couldn't throw a witty reply back at him, because Chikushodo summoned another two of her animals, a dog and a bull. The beasts charged straight towards us, but Lady Shima and Lord Fukasaku were prepared.

The two toads jumped into the air, using their 'Sage Art! Frog Song!' jutsu. The jutsu made the dog and bull stop abruptly, and Naruto charged forward.

He made two copies of himself, sending them after the animals with his Odama Rasengan. They were tossed into the air, and the three large toads gathered around Naruto went after them.

Suddenly feeling useless, I took my fighting stance to deal with the next Pain that came towards us, Gakido. Before I could use jutsu on him, Katsuyu's warning came to my ears.

"Minxie, no! Ninjutsu doesn't work on the Pain in front of you. He will merely absorb your attacks," the tiny slug copy told me.

"Unfortunately for him, I've got some wicked taijutsu up my sleeve," I replied, charging towards Gakido. We raised out arms at the same time, ready to punch each other. 

Before he could hit me, I activated my Heart's Eye, using it to create a tiny split in space. At the speed of light, I appeared on the other side of Gakido, landing a solid punch to his jaw.

Gakido flipped over a few times before landed on the floor, completely knocked out. This time, it was Naruto's turn to gape at me.

"What?" I asked, mocking shock, "You thought you were the only one with new tricks?"

The blonde shook his head, a smile on his face. "No... Just remind me not to get you angry. Ever."

I smiled. It was odd, of course, that I was smiling while I was in what could possibly be the last fight of my life. But I just couldn't help it. Naruto was so warm and happy. Even though we'd lost a lot, we still had each other, and no one, not even Pain himself, could change that.

"My new jutsu will finish this one in one try!" Naruto's voice exclaimed, echoing across the wasteland that was once our home. He created shadow clones, making me raise an eyebrow. What new jutsu was he talking about?