Chapter 80 - 73: An Attack On The Leaf!

(Time Skip)

It's been a year since he met Azumi and it's now July 13.

Recently, he's heard news of Akatsuki making their move. Out of all the tailed beasts around the elemental nation, 7 were already captured by them. Hikaru could've helped them but he has another idea that would relieve them from their curse, I.e, their tailed beasts.

As you know, Jinchuurikis are not like well in the elemental nation because of the beasts sealed inside them. They were all labeled as monsters, demons, and many other things. And all of that suffered throughout the rest of their lives. But, since the Akatsuki had already captured them and extracted their tailed beasts, he can now revive all of them. And his method of reviving them?

Fighting the literal God of Death of this world, the Shinigami. It was mostly one sided though since the Shinigami was quite stubborn on not giving back their souls, since he already owns them. But Hikaru did not take that and beat him to pulp for an entire week without rest before he finally gave in.

Kami and Yami were there too and tried to stop him but they only got their asses kicked, too. So, as to not get hurt anymore, the two goddesses decided to stay out of his way. They couldn't use their full power since it would probably destroy most of their home.

Now, he has their souls in his jars and he is making bodies for them. Hikaru wants them to help Azumi in the upcoming war but before that, he's gotta reinforce some equipment for them. He'll do that after he's revived them.

Also, as a punishment for being stubborn, he took Minato and Kushina's souls from the Shinigami. He directly burrowed his hands on his stomach before he forcefully took out their souls.

Right now, he's just nervous since he's meeting the parents of his girlfriend. Well, any guy would but he is much, much worse than just "any guy". He is currently designing their bodies through his imaginations with Itachi helping him. He is using his Homunculus Creation technique for their bodies and then he would put their souls inside those bodies.

Anyway, it's gonna take quite a few days to make those bodies. So both of them decided to return to Konoha and see what's their situation.

(Scene Break)

Since he wasn't rushing that much, they reached the village in a day.

Yet, they only found ruins. Not a single thing was left of Konoha, only the Hokage mountain was recognizable. The village was a wasteland but they could sense other people who were alive. Some were very low on chakra and some were gravely injured.

"What happened to Konoha…? I can barely recognize it!" Itachi exclaimed in shock.

Itachi was on top of the front gate of Konoha while Hikare was levitating from the ground, his expression solemn.

"The only person other than me and our subordinates that can do this is Pain, or Nagato. So, he has invaded the village, huh?" Hikaru said, not surprised by the destruction in front of him. He can feel both Sasuke and Azumi fighting Pain, and other Akatsuki members. It seems like both of them grew even stronger after he left.

Sasuke is already on Kage level and has awakened the mangekyou sharingan. He can feel the chakra from his eyes radiating. While Azumi has perfected her Sage Mode and she can now use the Kyuubi's chakra to a minimum level. It seems like she fought with the Kyuubi and took its chakra after its defeat. He doesn't know how she did that but he felt proud of her achievements.

But something is strange, Jiraiya should be in the village. Why isn't he sensing him? And Kakashi and Hiruzen also, it seems like they've vanished from the face of this world.

"Itachi!"

"Yes, I know." Itachi disappeared in a burst of speed from the tree, and Hikaru could see him go towards where Sasuke and Azumi were fighting Pain.

"Hmph, to have the balls to attack this village. Unforgivable. I have this village under my protection, to dare to invade it with so few people is insulting." Hikaru stated coldly, yet no one heard him. His murderous aura reached its peak but he quickly calmed it down, knowing that getting angry won't get him anywhere.

He pulled out 20 stones carved with images before summoning 20 Black Knights. They were all equipped with Halberds and were ready for war.

"Go!" Hikaru ordered and they all rushed towards the center of the village. They were fast, faster than any Kage level ninjas.

(Scene Change)

The entire village was suddenly invaded by the Akatsuki just after they were reported of Jiraiya's death. He infiltrated Amegakure, where they found evidence of Akatsuki making that place their base. He wanted to confirm whether it was true that his former disciples were the leaders of this Organization and it ultimately caused his death.

They had no time to mourn for him, the Akatsuki and its leader suddenly invaded the village without any warnings.

There are only a few Kage level shinobis in the village while Akatsuki has 7. They killed Kakuzu and Hidan after they killed Asuma. And surprisingly, Zabuza. They were surprised, since they thought that they'd killed Zabuza back then, they didn't know he had an apprentice. They managed to kill Zabuza but Haku escaped to Akatsuki. They were hard to find and the only time they could find them when they were the ones hunting them.

The Third Hokage died a few months ago due to old age, that's why he couldn't help them.

Kakashi tried to fight Pain but he died when they all cornered him and he couldn't escape.

Right now, Azumi and Sasuke are having a hard time fighting these seven Kage level shinobis. No, make that 12. Pain also has his Six Paths Of Pain. They are really annoying to fight, since they just kept reviving and reviving.

Even though she had her summons with them, it was not enough.

She dodged another ice jutsu from Haku while counter attacking. Golden Chakra shrouded her entire body, this is the result of taking the Kyuubi's chakra. Her strength had jump leap and bounds but it was not enough. She may have near infinite chakra but she can't keep this up for long.

She sensed another Akatsuki member coming form behind her, Kisame.

"Hah! Die!" Kisame shouted as he tried shredding off her head but she just dodged it and quickly made a Rasengan before shoving into his face.

Boom!!

Kisame was launched into great speed but he suddenly stopped mid-air and stood up. His face was crushed by Azumi's Rasengan but it regenerated slowly, just like her healing factor.

"Heh, do you think this is enough to defeat me!? Hahahaha!!" Kisame mocked her as his face regenerated.

"Tch."

There's also a reason for this. Kabuto, who was Orochimaru's right hand man, joined Akatsuki with the intent of purposely making them stronger to kill a certain someone. Kabuto had somehow mastered the snake summon's Sage Mode and also perfected sage mode, like Azumi. And right now, he has surpassed Orochimaru in intelligence. He managed to make the members of Akatsuki's healing factors to rapidly regenerate when they take damage. Of course, this isn't immortality. They can still be killed if someone cuts off their head. But it's almost impossible to do that, since they always dodge any fatal wound.

Suddenly, countless paper shurikens were thrown at her. She deflected all of them by using her chakra cloak, but another attack came from behind her. She used her Sunlight Straight Sword to deflect it.

It was Haku, who's holding a blade made from her ice.

Three opponents were fighting her while Sasuke was fighting four. He is holding his own quite well with his Susanoo but Pain's attacks seems to be breaking it.

They were in a hopeless situation. Neither sides were losing nor winning. If this goes on, she might have a chance to kill them. But the problem is, they aren't using that much chakra to conserve it. They've realized that slowly weakening them could be quite effective.

'I have to end this fight quickly!' Azumi said inside her mind.

"Chief!" She shouted at Gamabunta.

"Haa!" Gamabunta attacked them with his large sword and they dodged it before Azumi made a Rasenshuriken in that short time.

With her Rasenshuriken in her hand, she then threw it at the three. Of course, they tried dodging it only for dozens of clones to appear in a poof of smoke.

"What?!" Konan shouted in surprise.

The clones then formed their own giant rasengans before they separated and attacked the three of them simultaneously.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

"Yes! It worked!" Azumi said joyfully.

She made that Rasenshuriken and used it as a catalyst for summoning the clones. Even if her chakra is apart from her, she could still control it in a way she wanted it to. This is the epitome of chakra control, at least in the mortal eyes.

"You did a good job, Azumi-kun." She suddenly heard a voice!

She looked around and not before long, she saw Itachi descending from the sky. He still wore that black robe along with his bamboo hat but his sharingan is activated this time.

'Itachi!? If he's here, that means!' Azumi excitedly thought inside her head.

"Aaah!! What are these things!?" She heard a scream and she saw her beloved Hikaru's knights. There were 20 of them! She saw them attacking the snake Kabuto and that guy who's wearing a weird mask.

They couldn't fight back at all!

Kisame was about to stand up when Itachi threw a kunai coated with his amaterasu and it killed him almost immediately.

"These things are dangerous!" Kabuto shouted to Tobi.

"No shit!" Tobi replied as he tried dodging another sword swing aiming for his neck.

Pain did not look away from Sasuke and continued attacking him relentlessly.

"Oi, oi, your comrades there are getting attacked, you know!" Sasuke said as he shot another arrow at Pain using his imperfect Susanoo.

Even though Zetsu was not exactly the fighting type, he would sometimes use a surprise attack to distract him from Pain. Since he's hard to notice, Sasuke was having a hard time sensing where he's attacking next.

Pain dodged the gigantic arrow and went to attack Sasuke with his Gravitational jutsu.

"Shinra Tensei!" He shouted the name of his technique.

Woosh!

Crack!

"Tch, my susanoo cracked again! This is the 10th time, seriously." Sasuke said, stressed out.

Even though the entire Akatsuki were being attacked by these Knights wearing charred armors, Pain still kept his cool. The situation's bad, he knows that but there's no use panicking.

'The Kyuubi is strong and this Uchiha Brat is annoying. He keeps getting in my way whenever I try capturing the Kyuubi. I need to end this quick or those Knights would set their eyes on me. But I can do this, I'm a god after all.' Pain thought inside his head quite arrogantly.