Once More by ItsHardToFindAPenName

Chapter 29: Rescue

Naruto and Itachi stared at the six beings in front of them in horror. Pain had noticed their escape, and was now pulling all of his force to stop them.

Being in the Akatsuki for a long time, Itachi had known that the Rinnegan possessed by Pain had incredible abilities which could even be considered godly. But he had never seen the full power of the Akatsuki leader before. Every time the organization gathered, Pain only used one single body: the body with orange messy hair. Never before had he seen him utilizing all six bodies like this.

"It seems I was right when I decided to keep an eye on you, Itachi," said Pain in a cold voice. "Just as I thought, you Uchiha can't be trusted with anything."

Sweat rolled on Itachi's forehead down to his cheek. His own body still hadn't completely recovered from the battle with the Naruto. There was no way he could take on six enemies at once like this, even if the enemies didn't possess the legendary Rinnegan.

And Naruto, being disabled like this, couldn't help anything. It meant he would have to fight this battle all alone.

There was no other choice...

He unsheathed his weapon and got into his battle stance. What he needed to do right now was to make an opening for Naruto to escape first.

Pain didn't waste any second. His Animal Path immediately slammed his hands on the ground, and in a burst of smoke, a huge rhinoceros appeared and charged Naruto and Itachi with the speed of a train. But Itachi didn't even flinch. He kicked the ground and leapt up, and to the creature's surprise, he landed on its head between its horn and forehead. A flick of his wrist send a kunai into his hand, and with both weapons on hand, he mercilessly stabbed the summoned animal in both of its Rinnegan eyes. Blood poured out of the destroyed eye sockets, and the creature howled and thrashed around in pain, before disappearing in another puff of smoke.

The Deva Path narrowed his eyes. From both his sides, the Asura Path and Human Path rushed out towards Itachi, with the former sprouting two additional arms from his back and the latter pulling out its black rods from its sleeves. Itachi grimaced; they're going to fight him in close combat...!

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Another Itachi appeared in a puff of smoke, who immediately started to engage the two Paths of Pain together with the original in a deadly dance of blades. While the Paths of Pain had brute strength, Itachi also had his skills which had been honed during his days in ANBU, which allowed him to keep up, and even push the two Pain back a little.

Then Itachi's eyes widened when he saw a giant bird with the Rinnegan descending down his head, its beak spinning like a drill with the velocity of rockets from above. The Animal Path must have summoned it while he was distracted by the two other Paths.

Shit...!

He didn't have anything in his arsenal to deflect something that big, that fast. And there was no way he could dodge when it had already been this close...

Suddenly, something hit the bird at the stomach and flung it away like a ragdoll. It flew over the walls of Amegakure and disappeared behind it. The ground rumbled when it landed. The two Paths of Pain looked up in surprise, only to take two giant fists made of chakra to the face. They flew backward, confused.

Itachi blinked. Standing next to him now was Naruto, coated in his chakra shroud. At the places which were supposed to be his arms were two arm-like appendages made of pure, solid chakra, with functionable hands and fingers connecting to the shroud.

'Are you really trying to fight Pain?' Naruto heard Kurama asking skeptically. 'The last time you fought him, you were in your full power, 16 year old body. And you also have Sage Mode to boot. Without it, there is no way you can get past that freak who can absorb jutsu.'