Tenji and Sasori walked north, into the Land of Rain. They were making good time since Tenji felt the need to hurry because something was happening. And he was right. Something was indeed taking place in the Village Hidden in the Rain.
The Land of Rain was special. It was special for different reasons. The first one was that it constantly rained there. Not once was the sun out. It was always wet. On the other hand, the location was special as well. It lay between three of the Five Great Shinobi Countries: the Land of Fire, with Konohagakure, the Land of Wind, with Sunagakure and the Land of Earth, with Iwagakure. This strategic position has made it a frequent battleground during the Great Ninja Wars, especially during the second. And it was about to become another essential place for a historical moment.
The rain, ever present, symbolised the struggles and sadness of its people, reflecting the village's bloody, tragic history. So many children either died or lost their families, especially during the Second Shinobi World War. This was the case for three very special kids. Three orphans, two boys and one girl, who found each other and chose to support one another while no one else would.
Yahiko, Konan and Nagato.
They had a fortunate encounter with Jiraiya, a strong Konoha shinobi, who was kind enough not only not to kill them but also to teach them ninjutsu and taijutsu. Jiraiya told the three the value of peace and then left them to fend for themselves. Armed with knowledge of how to use chakra now and new dreams of a peaceful world, the three started gathering comrades who had experienced similar things and saw the world as they did, willing to change it.
The Akatsuki was born.
Yahiko became their leader, and together they quickly gained fame. People approved of their philosophy of seeking peace that was minimally based on military might. However, the Third Great Shinobi War started, and with it, the problems returned. Rumours of the Akatsuki reached Hanzo the Salamander, the leader of Amegakure, the village hidden in the rain. He approached them because he could no longer ignore their existence.
Hanzo proposed making them a nexus to launch peace negotiations between the Three Great Nations. The Akatsuki's power would be used to elicit mutual agreement from all the parties. They decided to cooperate on that plan. Sadly, as it turned out, they were still children and naive about the world. Jiraiya hadn't taught them enough.
.
Yahiko and Nagato stood at the bottom of a hill, looking up. There stood Hanzo with Amegakure shinobi on one side and masked shinobi on the other side. Both young men were shocked to see Konan in the hands of Hanzo, who had orchestrated all of this.
In truth, Hanzo never planned to have the Akatsuki be anything other than dead. He was paranoid that they would steal sovereignty over Amegakure from him, and for that petty fear, he orchestrated this plan. He took Konan as a hostage. On this day, the day of the rendezvous point where the negotiators were supposed to meet, Hanzo's subordinates and Konoha's Black Ops lay in wait for them.
Hanzo had allied with Danzo Shimura of Konohagakure to try to eradicate the Akatsuki, seeing them as a threat too great to ignore. Danzo joined forces with Hanzo and sent his secret force, the Root, to usurp the Seat of Hokage for himself.
"Your organisation is simply a nuisance," Hanzo said.
He held Konan in front of him and looked down on the two friends who hadn't recovered from the deception. He took out a kunai, placing it at Konan's throat.
"Yahiko... you are the leader, so you must die. Resist, and I'll murder her instead! You, redhead... kill Yahiko with that. If you do, I'll spare you and the girl."
"..."
Nagato stared into the air, unable to process everything. His mind was blocked, as it faced the insurmountable wall.
"Nagato don't!! Forget about me, just run away, both of you!!" Konan screamed.
"..."
"Nagato..." Yahiko called out gently. "Kill me."
Nagato started to breathe hard. His pulse raced, and his breathing grew shallow and fast. He wanted to protect Yahiko and Konan; that was all he ever wanted. He followed Yahiko's dream and had no ambitions of his own. But now he faced the cruel truth and was forced to choose between the two people he truly loved.
At that moment, Tenji and Sasori arrived and observed the gathering.
"NAGATO!!" Yahiko shouted, trying to get him out of his stupor.
"NO!"
"Hurry up. Do you want this girl to die?" Hanzo pushed further.
Nagato absentmindedly picked up the kunai, which Hanzo had thrown in front of him. He stared at it, unable to process things. He didn't notice that Yahiko chose for him and ran forward. He grabbed Nagato's hand holding the kunai and stabbed himself with it.
"Live... no matter what it takes, you and Konan... you are... the saviour of this world... I know... You can... do it..."
"YAHIKO!!" Konan screamed.
.
Tenji's mind was working fast, immensely fast. He felt the 'call' as he chose to name it, from the red-haired young man. Sasori and he both understood what was likely happening, but not why. Tenji's senses had grown immensely through the conditioning of his cells with Nature Energy. So he once more sensed the immeasurable pain as Yahiko impaled himself to spare his friend from having to do so.
Again. It was the same trope. Again. And ironically, another redhead.
Tenji looked at the man responsible for this. He felt a familiarity with him, but ignored it for now, as he heard his words.
"Kill him!" Hanzo demanded.
The shinobi started throwing hundreds of kunai towards Nagato. Tenji got moving and spoke with Sasori just as he left.
"Kill them all!"
Sasori understood right away and got going. Nagato raised his hand and sent out an invisible repulsive force, that repelled all the kunai. The shinobi were shocked and didn't understand what happened. Nagato bent his legs and jumped up, reaching Hanzo's position, who dodged. Nagato reached Konan, seeing her as his most important person to save right now.
This turned out to be a trap though, as Hanzo had a lot of explosive tags prepared underneath Konan, which he activated when Nagato reached her. They attached themselves on his legs and exploded a moment later. The explosion very badly damaged his legs.
"Nagato!" Konan said weakly, seeing the terribly damage.
She couldn't move due to her chakra having been sealed.
"Konan, hold on to Yahiko for--"
Nagato stopped talking and turned his head to the side, where Yahiko lay on the ground. There, next to him, knelt Tenji holding his palms on his body, which shone with a strange light. Seeing this, Nagato's eyes widened in fear, shock and rage.
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!!" he shouted.
He held his palm towards Tenji and used the same repulsive force on him, making sure not to hit Yahiko. Tenji felt the force which hit him backwards and shot him through the air.
"Impressive, boy! You escaped even while being hit by my baton!" Hanzo said from above.
"Uaahhh!!" "Kill him!" "How did he get here--?!"
Hanzo looked to the side, where his subordinates and the Root shinobi were fighting against dozens of puppets. His eyes narrowed as he recognised the one responsible.
"Sasori of the Red Sand... what are you doing he-- !!!!"
He stopped talking and turned back to Nagato, feeling enormous amounts of chakra coming from him. The Root shinobi jumped into action, wanting to kill the kid and take his eyes, just as Danzo had commanded them. Nagato, who had fully lost himself to his rage, slammed his palm on the ground, following his instinct.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu - Gedo Statue!!"
The ground opened up, and a giant rose. It was an earthen-coloured humanoid entity with a mummified appearance, a body resembling a robe, and numerous spike-like protrusions on its back. As it appeared, it roared, making its presence known. A powerful pressure rolled over all those present, evoking a sense of fear. However, one person who was present was not afraid. Quite the contrary...
"This... this is it! YES!"
Tenji was ecstatic. He could feel it, the reason why he felt a connection. The statue had an unimaginable resemblance to his wife. Not the same, but it was unmistakable to Tenji. He had the biggest grin on his face as he stared up at the Gedo Statue.
He had to get closer, had to understand it, how it was connected to his wife, how he could use it to reach her, to finally touch her again. It almost killed his ecstasy right away and brought him back to the battlefield. He watched as Nagato connected to the enormous statue by having several black rods impale his body in different places. The Gedo Statue opened its mouth, and a large purple-ish wave of chakra emerged from it. The wave attacked the shinobi and washed through them.
As it washed through their bodies, something terrible happened. Each shinobi had their souls ripped out and collected through the purple wave of chakra. It targeted Hanzo after most shinobi had died. Hanzo understood that he had made a mistake in thinking that Yahiko were the strongest, because he was named the leader of the Akatsuki. He raised his hand and performed a single seal.
"Art of Teleportation!"
In the next moment, he disappeared from the battlefield. Tenji pushed himself off the ground and zoomed through the sky, reaching Sasori just as the purple wave was about to make contact with him. Acting on instinct, Tenji pushed his first retainer and friend out of the way, taking the full brunt of the attack. He felt his soul shake and quake as an unbelievably powerful suction force tried to sever the connection to his body and rip out his soul.
The power was immense, so immense in fact, that Tenji almost succumbed to this. His inexperience in matters of the soul would have cost him his life. But just as his soul was about to be sucked in, something he couldn't explain took place and pushed his soul back into his body. For Tenji, it felt as though he had lost consciousness briefly and then woke up again. But as he did, he gasped loudly.
"Haa... haaa... what was... that?" he asked.
"UWAAAAHHH!!!"
He looked at the broken man who roared in the distance. Tenji ignored everything for now and stood back up. He cracked his head and started walking towards Nagato. Seeing Tenji approach him, Nagato, who was still seeing red, used the last drops of his chakra and moved the Gedo Statue. The large hands shot through the air and tried to flatten Tenji to death.
The large hand impacted Tenji's body and shattered the ground beneath him, causing dust and debris to fly everywhere. Nagato's eyes widened, being the only one who felt Tenji's chakra and saw what was going on. As the dust settled somewhat, he had the Gedo Statue pull back his hand and reveal the unbroken and even unhurt figure of Tenji.
"Earth Style: Full Diamond Outer Body"
This was Tenji's advanced variation of 'Earth Style: Diamond Body.' Golden, diamond-like skin covered him and protected him from both physical and most chakra damage. He looked at Nagato and pushed off the ground, charging forward. The Uzumaki had used far too much chakra doing what he had done up to this point and wasn't able to fully block the attack. The Gedo Statue held out its hand, protecting Nagato in the last second. Tenji's fist hit the palm and shattered it.
His fist passed through the palm and even reached Nagato on the other side, knocking him out.
"NAGATO!" Konan shouted.
"Don't worry. He's only unconscious. The statue's hand took 95% of the force. He'll wake up again," Tenji said.
Tenji ignored the words of Konan and placed his palm on the Gedo Statue, allowing his mind to flow through it.
...
..
.
In a dark cave, deep beneath the earth, a dark figure suddenly opened its eyes and looked up. Its body shook all over.
"... Father..."