A single figure stood in a lab. The dim lights made it hard to see him clearly, but one could easily make out his glowing eyes. The dark, nearly black, crimson color that they were was shaped uniquely, like some strange glitch. One of the few doors to the room creaked open, and a new, smaller figure joined him, his pink 'pupils' darting around like anything may pop out of anywhere and end him. The new arrival looked at the one who had already been there.

"sir? where is she?" His voice was deep for someone of his stature, and he seemed reluctant to have spoken in the first place, but he had to know.

"You mean 9-K?" The taller figure elaborated. His hands flew across papers, neatly writing out calculations and notes as he spoke in disinterest.

"y-yes sir." He was really regretting asking the taller one now. Any second, he could decide that it would be a good idea for a new test. ...but that didn't stop him from worrying about her, despite his efforts to hide it.

"She was causing problems. Messing with what she shouldn't have. I had to dispose of her."

The shorter of the two nearly stopped breathing as he began to feel numb. "d-dispose of her?"

"Yes. Did you not hear me clearly?"

"…" He didn't trust his voice. She was gone. No, wait. No, no, no no no. He was just playing his twisted mind games again. She was too valuable to 'dispose of.'

"You will rest for today."

"w-what?" ...that was sudden.

"Your attachment to 9-K will weaken your judgement too much to be of any use today. I expect you to be able to assist me tomorrow, 1-S."

"y-yes sir. thank you." Did this mean- no. He was keeping up his mind games. There was no way...

"Just go."

Another creak of the door, and it closed behind '1-S' as he left.

'...she isn't gone.' Despite his conviction, dread filled him. He knew she wasn't dead. He could feel it in his SOUL. ...yet, at the same time, he could feel that she really was gone. He couldn't feel her presence whatsoever.

At that, his eyes darkened to a rose red, and his limbs shook. He walked towards his quarters with barely held calm, when the one known as '2-P' bounded up to him.

"BROTHER! DO YOU WANT TO PLAY WITH ME?" The small one's fuchsia eyes gleamed in excitement.

1-S was not in the mood. He just wanted to be alone as soon as possible to deal with the fact that she was gone. She was gone forever. He couldn't feel her SOUL anywhere. He shoved 2-P aside and made to continue on his way to his living accommodations. 'not now of all times, dammit.'

"BROTHER, YOU FINALLY HAVE TIME! PLEASE PLAY WIH ME!"

"not now. i need some time." 'just go away.'

"BUT YOU HAVE IT RIGHT NOW. I HEARD HIM SAY YOU HAVE TODAY OFF."

"not. now." 'i swear if he doesn't shut up...' 1-S's patience was wearing thin. Very thin.

2-P grabbed his hand. "BUT-"

1-S snapped. He grabbed the object nearest to him - a puzzle cube - and threw it at 2-P, as he yelled, "not now!"

Then, what he just did sunk in, as he stiffened and froze. His 'eyes' widened drastically and he took in the crack now adorning 2-P's skull, going over his left 'eye'. His once bright 'eyes' were now a scarlet red as he glared at his brother with pure venom.

"i-i…i didn't…" 'th-i swear-...l-little-'

"I HATE YOU."

'...what did i just do...'

Then a voice echoed through the room, but the two in it gave no evidence of it truly existing.

"Don't forget. Find the truth."

Yes, yes, I know. I've already got two stories going on, and a third one that needs more depth, but I can't help it! I know, Zongakure is on a hiatus because of me not thinking it through, and Kitsune can be like Phoenixes is gonna be a LLLLOOOONNNNGGGG story due to how I gotta follow the show. Yes, the poll is over, and I got 24 votes in all.

In first place, there's 'following the Omniverse timeline' with 12 votes. 11 were for adding in other Naruto characters and, most likely, messing with the regular Omniverse timeline, and the last vote was for an idea of their own, but I never got a PM. Thank you, all who voted!

This story is actually more thought out than KcblP, but I would hope so, since now I just have to follow Omniverse's storyline with a small Naruto twist. But hey, I actually thought a story through a bit before typing it! Not that I didn't do that for my other stories, but the storyline I came up with was more of a "it's gonna start like this, and end like this", with no actual plot.

And finally, if I ever end up not really going with any of my stories, you can adopt any of my ideas. Just PM me, and I'll tell you the basic idea behind this tale. Because, honestly, it's very hard to write something without giving everything away in the very first chapter. (Believe me, the rough draft had pretty much everything explained prematurely.)

Have a nice day! ~Wulfie