Chapter 56.1- Gamer of the Desert

All the sand I had chasing him raced back towards me. I funnelled large swathes of my chakra into the sand to increase the density of the ultimate fence. Magnet release applied to my sand. It allowed me control the destiny of the material. I was using it liberally. Enhanced in effectiveness by Senjutsu chakra. Even with that, I felt it would not be enough. So I pumped chakra into the sand once more. Ohnoki’s super heavyweight boulder technique came to me easily. The sand now weighed a whole order of magnitude more than it already did.

“Shinra Tensei” I heard Nagato proclaim. He was aimed at me. Me, and the village behind me. I knew that if I made my shield any larger, then I risked leaving it too thin and risked my own life in the same vein. Konoha would know Pain in the same way it had in the other universe. The more things changed, the more they remained the same. I felt the gravitational force of the almighty push strain against my shield. The irroestiable force versus the immovable object. What happens when they clash? I wondered.

It seemed I was going to find that out now. It pushed, and pushed, and pushed some more. I strained, maintaining the shield. I couldn’t see Nagato. I had no idea what he was going through now. But I could ‘see’ the village behind me. Everything had been pushed away by Nagato’s singular attack. Where once was a village now was crater. Most of the stronger shinobi had survived, but most of the village’s infrastructure was gone. I had done a lot of damage to Konoha. I didn’t care much for the village, in truth. But this? This kind of indiscriminate destruction was senseless. Completely senseless.

I felt rage build in my chest. And then the gravitational force gave out. It was spent. I bent my shield around me to give myself a look at the man of the hour and noted that he looked exhausted. Nearly slumped over on himself. Ridiculous. “You arrogant fool” My sand reached him this time. What chance did he have of outspeeding it. He tried reaching down to drain the chakra from the tendril around his leg. A fool. I commanded the sand to begin spinning him around the sky. And then I slammed him into the ground. Right at the centre of the crater that had once been a village.

“This is senseless. This kind of destruction. Wasteful. Achieves no purpose. That is what you are” He picked himself from the ground. I walked up to him. He tried a punch. Foolish. I leaned out of the way and kicked him in the stomach. Too slow.

“You think yourself some sort of great liberator. Some chosen one. But you are nothing” I said. He tried to pick himself up. Already on his arms and knees. I ran forward and kicked him in the stomach, making him fly for a second or two before he crashed into the earth again. This time, he prioritised taking me down. He pointed an arm at me. An arm turned into a plasma canon. I watched him charge up the attack for a second before I grabbed the arm with my sand and crushed it. He screamed. I enjoyed that sound. His screaming.

“What have you done with your life, huh? What has your life’s mission been? Nothing useful. You sought the tailed beasts. You thought you could use them to power a weapon so powerful that you’d create world peace by using it once. What a fool you have been, Nagato.” I reached him again. I picked him up by his Akatsuki Cloak. He sprung his trap, growing a hand from his chest to grab at him. Sand was in the way. Before he could absorb the chakra in the sand, I threw him to the side again.

“You think you have any idea what the Gedo Mazou is? You think you were chosen with those eyes of yours? Newsflash boy, those eyes were never yours.” He looked up at me. He didn’t believe me. Fool.

“Never yours, Nagato. Those eyes belonged to Madara Uchiha. He implanted them in you as a baby and expected you to use them to achieve his goals and then bring him to life with the Rinne Rebirth. You thought yourself a player in the great game, Nagato. But trust me you are nothing more than a pawn. And I’ll be taking those eyes.” I said. He realised the threat in my voice and began to crawl backwards.

“Trying to run? From me? How disgraceful. Are you not Pain of the Akatsuki? Let me show you a thing or two about Pain.” My sand grabbed a hold of him, keeping him mummified. I thickened the sand by several layers. He could absorb the first few layers, but there had to be a limit. And even if there wasn’t, I had enough time to get this done.

“Please move and scream as much as possible. This will hurt, I promise” My hand glowed a malicious purple as I commanded the senjutsu chakra running through my tenketsu to form a chakra scalpel. I walked forward. I hadn’t even reached him when he began to scream. He knew I had him.

“I’d have expected you to face your end with more dignity. How disgraceful, Nagato” I scolded with a laugh. He struggled and strained against the sand. He was absorbing the chakra, but not fast enough. I placed one hand around his chin to hold his head still. Next thing I struck with my left hand. The Rinnegan was about to become mine. Everything. Nothing. No opposition would matter after all this. But instead of soft flesh, I felt my hand gripping nothing.

There was a chain around my elbow, I noticed distantly. Distantly because it was deadening my chakra. Not draining it, just not letting me use it.

“Leave Cousin Nagato alone, you monster” The words had come from the same woman the chains were connected to. Multiple chains. All around my body, I observed. A very familiar red haired teenager. Karin Uzumaki.

‘So that is how you did it, eh? Nagato?’ I thought to myself, barely able to feel my body being tossed into the air as she ran past me and right at him.

A/N; Phase two begins.