Naruto didn't bother celebrating with his friends. He knew the that the fight still wasn't over. The blond knelt down and picked up one of the chakra receivers that fell off of Tendo's face and coursed his chakra through it. With it, he saw where the puppet master was. He was nearby in the forest, inside of a tree.

The blond's eyes shot open and faced the five. "We're still not done. The marionette is still alive."

The others stopped celebrating, looking at the blond with a serious look. Naruto looked at Azure and gained a somber look. "Think you can look after Hinata-chan?"

Azure nodded, prompting Naruto to gain a slight smile. He looked at the other four and nodded. The five of them quickly moved out and jumped out of the crater, heading towards Pain's location.

Azure frowned and knelt down besides Hinata's still unconscious body. Her hands glowed green and she hovered it the Hyuga's body. She so was focused at her task, she didn't noticed another pair of hands hover over her's.

Sakura looked at Hinata's body and sadly smiled. "You really do love Naruto, don't you Hinata?'

As she was thinking this, more medic-nins started to scour the crater for any others that were injured during the ensuing fight.

Back to the five, they were already at Konoha's near-by forest. Narut's face contorted into a determined glare, not wanting to stop. Unfortunately, Midnight had them do so. The white-haired shinobi narrowed his eyes, hearing the sounds of electrical currents coursing through the forest.

Before anyone could utter a word, dozens of Lightning Puppets dropped from the trees. Midnight's hand slowly went for the hilt of his blade, glaring at the puppets. "I'll hold them off. The rest of you, get to Pain and kill him."

As soon as he said this, Puppets with the Kanji of Wind were summoned. Breeze glared at the new arrivals and unraveled her fans. She didn't bother looking and addressed the two behind her. "Crimson-aniki, Scarlet-kun. Keep nii-san safe will you?"

The two aforementioned males nodded. Naruto crossed his arms and jumped over the puppets, prompting Scarlet and Crimson to do the same. The puppets spun around to chase after them, only for a spear of lightning and a barrage of wind blasts to interrupt them.

Midnight grunted as his hand crackled with Raiton chakra. "You're not going anywhere." MIdnight's face grew sadistic. He slammed his hand down, a stream of lightning speeding toawrds the puppets. "Chidori Nagashi!"

The puppets didn't have any time to react, electrocuting about seven of them, which was enough to dispel them. Breeze jumped over her boyfriend and smacked one of the Wind puppets with her fan. She flipped herself back and created a blast of wind that slammed back three puppets, which promptly dispelled.

Breeze turned around and blocked five Lightning Puppets' fists. Midnight saw his lover in peril and quickly flashed next to her. Channeling Raiton into his blade, he impaled it in the side of one of the puppets, right before a spear popped out and stabbed the other four, dispelling them.

All of the puppets converged, making the two quirk an eyebrow. To their immense shock, they began to perform the very jutsus they just did. Midnith and Breeze quickly jumped onto a tree, dodging the jutsus by the skin of their teeth. Midnight narrowed his eyes as he dropped back down.

"Copy cats...I despise them!"

Electrical currents began to spark from around Midnight's body as he shouted. The white-haired shinobi erupted in a flash, his hair spiking up, an lightning-like aura cloaking around him.

Breeze smirked and sat down on the branch she stood upon. She crossed her legs and focused on the nature chakra around her. Her eyes shot open, her eyes turning yellow, toad-like irides, orange pigmentation around her eyes. The blonde stood up and shot herself into a group of puppets, Rasengan forming into her hand.

"Senpo-Futon: Rasengan!"

Breeze slammed the jutsu on top of the puppets,

Midnight started to get surrounded by Lightning puppets, making him smirk. The white-haired male grabbed his chokuto and disapepared in a blur, leaving the puppets confused. Midnight reappeared,sheathing back his blade and the Puppets exploded in a flash of lightning, dispelling them.

The trio charged on, unwavering. Naruto's eyes hardened as they neared their objective. However, before they could continue, Fire Puppets dropped down, completely covering their entrance and exit. The three of them gritted their teeth and backed up into each others backs.

Scarlet sighed and looked at his two best friends. "Hey guys, think you can keep a secret?"

Naruto nodded, while Crimson looked absolutely offended by the question. "Of course we can. Scar, we're your best friends for life. You can trust us with anything."

The bruentte sighed and galred at the Fire-Style Puppets. Much to the blond and the orangenette's shock, Scarlet's eyes flashed red, right before a drip of blood rolled down his left eye.

"Enton: Kagutsuchi!"

A wave of Amaterasu appeared right in front of the three, burning the near-by puppets. The black flame enlarged, right before it spread through the puppets, burning every single one to ash.

Scarlet smirked but felt pain course through his eye, causing him to kneel down and cover his eyes on instinct. Naruto quickly went up to his friend, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"You good?" asked Naruto.

Scarlet sighed and nodded. "Yeah. Enton just takes up a lot out of me."

Crimson gave his friend a teasing smirk as he helped him up. "You know, your Sharingan could've been a GREAT help earlier."

"I'm sorry. But, Jiraiya-sensei asked me to keep it a secret. Use it as a secret weapon."

Naruto and Crimson nodded in understanding. The three of them spotted a large tree just a few miles away.

Almost immediately, they saw something off about the tree. It wasn't natural, it was made out of paper. Scarlet walked up to the tree and carressed it.

"No doubt about it. This is where they are. The tree looks like its made out of paper, how ironic."

The brunette looked at his best friends and nodded. The three entered the tree and was immediately met with a flutter of paper. As they were about to cast a jutsu, a weakened, yet powerful voice boomed.

"Konan, enough!"

The flutter of paper was drawn back, revealing two figures. One of them was Konan, the other was an extremely skinn redheaded male. He was so skinny, his ribcage is showing. One of the prominent features about him was the Rinnegan, and the fact that he's in some sort of contraption.

Naruto stepped forward, glaring at the redhead. "So, you're the one behind Pain?"

The red-haired man nodded. "Indeed I am. My name is Nagato Uzumaki, the one who controlled Pain."