Disclaimer: It's not as simple as it might look.

Dead Last

It's an early morning, the sun is shining brightly, and as the last dreams of moonlight die out behind the Hokage Monument, I feel as happy as I could ever be.

That feeling is the reason of my boisterous laughter that has people around me twitching in annoyance. But I pay them no heed, just dart between the men and women walking in the market, crackling as I slide between the legs of a particularly large fellow.

I love being small and quick.

Too fast to follow for the eyes of the civilians, I am only causing undue confusion. The crowd is eager for their purchases and a return to their boring life. Myself, I relish in the opportunity to wreak even more havoc. For some reason, people take offence if you paint the Hokage Monument in varying colours.

They must understand that I have to mark my graduation with something special, right?

The ANBU are, as usual, giving me chase. They are shadowing me on the rooftops, slowly creeping up from behind, cutting through the crowd with precision of trained shinobi. Getting closer.

They have no chance - not against one Uzumaki Naruto, they don't.

I leap for one of the market stands, stepping on the face of a bored looking passerby. He falls with a heavy thud as I land on the unsteady wooden roof and continue my journey towards the large nearby building. From the stand, it might be possible to reach the second floor window - and-

My foot slips a bit and I only manage to catch on the windowsill at the very last second.

I start heaving myself upwards.

It is a good choice - the house I'm breaking into. Half-abandoned, it is now under repairs - meaning many routes for my possible exit, and a maze that I know as well as the back of my hand - and these ANBU do not. And not only because I rearranged the inside of the building beforehand.

However, such a brash action, preceded by a mild slip, draws attention of my pursuers. They start converging on me, as I am struggling to pull myself up.

This time, I give the villagers a good look at who exactly had disturbed the already fickle peace in the market district.

"Monster!" a villager shouts, throwing an old, smelly apple right at me. I would dodge, but I have my hands busy and my feet are not actually touching anything. The rotten fruit slams into my back, and splatters painfully.

What kind of crazy civilian has such a strong arm?

"You bastards!" I shout downwards as another spoilt vegetable hits me right at the back of the head. At least it proves the incentive to roll inside, landing painfully at the wooden floor. "You're the true daemonspawn!"

There's some angry shouts from outside, and some cheering - for the ANBU, encouraging them to catch me.

I have to move. I roll to the side - since getting up seemed that it would take a bit too long, and grab onto the rope that I had left to myself yesterday evening. There is a loose plank and my weight pushes it aside, letting me plummet downwards to the first floor - while holding onto the rope.

The first ANBU lands on the window, and gets to experience the the shutters slamming right into his back. Exactly as I hoped - the rope dragged them together with me.

They slam with enough force to send him flying. Somewhere.

Meanwhile, I am right next to the ground, hanging on the rope in question.

I rub the back of my head in sympathy. "Ouch."

There must be more of them. I quickly dive to hide under the chaotic pile of various building materials, pulling down a couple of roof tiles to cover the hiding place. There's barely enough space for me, but it's a good place to remain unnoticed.

The ANBU are swarming the building, as I try to stop breathing. Someone might hear me.

One of them finds the bear trap I left for them. Another one - my painting supplies.

Both traps succeed spectacularly - but, on the downside, turn out to be a tad bit too painful.

It doesn't really help me to stay quiet and calm.

Just as I almost give myself away, yet another mistake is made, and the cracked support beam snaps, bringing half of the second floor crashing down on them. That one - was actually a stupid miscalculation on my part, but no one is going to make me admit that. The half of the building lands right on top of my hiding place, and it is just my luck that I manage to avoid getting squished.

Still, it's creaking dangerously, and I start to slither outside. There's a tearing sound as I rip my jacket, but I escape the clutches of the rubble as the last ANBU approaches me.

"Uzumaki Naruto, you will come with me," he demands.

I show him my tongue and dart aside.

He throws a kunai at me - embedding it straight into my left leg.

"Foul!" I cry out in pain, collapsing on the floor "You can't do that."

He laughs. The mask of the cat looks unusually menacing. "Can't I?" he says with a certain tone of madness. "I think I just did."

I growl at him.

He jumps back a bit.

It hurts, but I grab on the kunai, and pull... It comes free with great difficulty, and the ANBU draws out another one.

We throw our weapons at nearly the same time.

His scratches my cheek, and mine misses him entirely.

"Oh," he manages a half-turn towards my intended target, and then, he is buried under the pile of rubble my kunai just loosened up.

It would do well for me to collapse on the ground and sleep, but I do not. There's not much time to spare, and I'm already late.

"You're late!" Sakura announces harshly, as I run up to her. Then, she proceeds to plonk me right on the top of my head.

"Hey, hey, Sakura-chan!" I protest loudly. "I made better time than Kakashi - didn't I?"

I get hit again for my trouble.

"I was injured!" I say, like it would change her mind. "On the way here!"

"Hn?" The third wheel of our group looks at me with a certain degree of curiosity. Too much than I would think would be normal for Sasuke, but it isn't like I can really judge that, can I?

Sakura smacks me once more, for good measure, and turns to Sasuke. "Sasuke-kun, when did you come here?" There's definitely something lacking in that exclamation, but I don't point it out.

He ignores her, of course.

I am simply too exhausted from all the running to care about their behaviour, and the leg wound hasn't healed properly yet.

"Damned Kurama," I mutter under my breath. There is no reply, even if Sasuke continues to give me a weird look.

"What?" I finally snap at him.

"What did you get up to this time?" he asks, as if the question was hanging on his tongue for a long while, but he couldn't just bring himself to ask before I prodded him. "The ANBU were jumping all over, looking for you."

"There was this one collapsing building," I say, scratching the back of my head. 'Thanks for caring."

"Hn," he grunts and turns away from both me and Sakura. I didn't expect anything else.

I open my mouth to start with an insult, but I get interrupted.

"Yo," Kakashi enters the scene, casually walking on the bridge, one of his perverted books held firmly in his left hand.

"You're late!" all three of us shout at him.

Sakura and I glance at Sasuke, who looks weirded out by his own reaction and goes to pretend that he never said anything.

Kakashi laughs. It's a short, annoying laugh. "Naruto, you have an appointment with the Hokage after we finish with this exercise."

I shrug. "Alright."

"Taking out a squad of ANBU," Kakashi shakes his head. "And I planned to go easy on you three today... What are they teaching you in the Academy these days, I can't even imagine."

Sasuke is looking at me, gaze evaluating and - dare I hope for it - jealous. Sakura looks simply excited to finally do anything after all this waiting. After all, she was the first one to the meeting spot.

"Now," Kakashi uses his left hand to point out two little bells tied onto his belt. "I believe we have an exam to get on with."

We quickly stand to position. I glance at Sakura.

She notices my look, blushes and then slaps lightly at her forehead. "Why are there only two bells, sensei?"

Kakshi grins. "If you fail to get a single bell, you fail."

I groan. "You're going to send us back to the Academy? But we're the best team there is!"

"Hn," Sasuke points out.

"We are," I say, crackling with my boisterous laughter. "Of course, I could take on Kakashi-sensei alone."

"Please do," Sakura says cheekily. "Go for it."

I place my hands in the clone seal and bring about a handful of carbon copies of myself. "Here I go!"

Kakashi mirrors my technique. He is far more reserved, and summons only a single one of himself.

The original sits down to read his book, entirely lost in it.

Or, he wants me to believe so.

We charge in. At both Kakashi's.

The 'original' is forced to stop his reading and retaliate.

My left foot is buckling under strain, making for a rather difficult exercise in taijutsu, providing Kakashi with a perfect advantage. Sensei is fighting with a certain freedom of movement, faster and better, pushing me to my very limits, dispelling a clone, or handing out me painful punches as my punishment with each hit.

Both Sakura and Sasuke are looking at the display of power, rather unexcited. I can't help but feel disappointed at that, for it surely looks most impressive - me almost matching a Jounin of Kakashi's level.

"Maybe we should join in?" she asks then, and Sasuke looks at her weirdly.

"On whose side?" he asks then, as if the question isn't straightforward enough. "Naruto has it too easy."

Hatake Kakashi doesn't take too well to being mocked, and he grabs onto his hitai-ite with a deft movement, tossing the Icha Icha Tactics aside. His clone mirrors the movement.

"Good," I exclaim. "Show me what you can do!" And I summon some more Kage Bunshin, just because.

His sharingan looks weird, red and misshapen, but if I concentrate, I almost feel the pulsing power in the cursed eye.

His next punch catches me off guard and I slam into the nearby tree, snapping it in half and hurling me past, to find yet another one.

Needless to say, it hurts like hell.

"Are you alright?" Sakura is looking at me from above, standing on the side of second tree - one with a Naruto-shaped indentation. "Need some healing?"

"Yes," I wheeze out.

She nods and gets to work.

Meanwhile, Kakashi is playing with my clones. Sasuke looks like he's waiting to join the party, but doesn't move forward, not until there's only Kakashi standing on the field. Show-off.

Sakura's hands are glowing with a green glow of medical chakra. Weak and unfocused, but it's medical chakra. I don't object to her trying to heal me. Who would?

She even smiles as she closes the gash on my cheek - why didn't I ask for her to look at it, before?

Sasuke, with his own red eyes, is sparring with Kakashi. Unlike my own fight, this one looks entirely too artificial. Both of them are pulling their punches, instead choosing to lightly tap at each other - the hits are rare, and it looks like Kakashi is winning.

But then, I am ready for more.

"Let's go." I gesture for Sakura, and we dance into the fray.

Kakashi has to face three of us at the same time, and there's only two of him. Even if there is a hundred of me running around, I still only count as one, don't I?

"Hey, Dead Last!" Sasuke shouts at me. "Stop daydreaming and help."

I sigh and redouble the effort of my assault. With me, unlike like with Sakura or Sasuke, Kakashi doesn't hold back one bit.

"Hey, sensei," I mirror the way Sasuke called me seconds before. "Don't feel too cocky." And, to drive the point home, I plant a perfect hit at the middle of his chest.

He disappears in a puff of smoke, and I suddenly experience a sharp pain right back at the centre of mine. I stumble backwards, Sakura only just managing to catch me before I fall.

"Careful," she says, with genuine worry. "We cannot lose you."

The very next second, Kakashi jumps right at me, kunai homing right at my throat.

There's a deep madness shining in his eyes. Dark and foreboding. He is moving with blinding speed, and in my current state, I'm not going to dodge in time.

Sakura knows it, Sasuke can see it with his fancy sharingan, and Kakashi is actually fuming from his mouth. That's something that I didn't expect. At all.

Sakura leaps to cover me with her body, as Sasuke charges a quick Raikiri, jumping to intercept.

The assassination jutsu strikes at the very heart of our sensei at the same time as Sakura gives out a quiet yelp of pain.

I black out - rather unexpectedly, too.

It is only a short while that I'm gone - seconds, maybe a minute or two, nothing more.

I open my eyes to see Sasuke sitting on a trunk of the tree, a look of worry in his face. "You woke up," he says in his own, annoyed voice, but it doesn't sound like he truly is.

"I did," I look around. Our fight was almost entirely jutsu-free, yet the training grounds are already in a sorry state. "Sakura?" I have to ask.

He shakes his head. "Do you know what happened to Kakashi?" he asks cautiously. How can I know that it won't happen to me? remains unsaid.

"I don't know." I really don't - there's rage, a certain sense of madness, but there's no explanation. It doesn't make sense. "It just doesn't..."

"...make sense." Sasuke finishes for me. "We barely even knew the guy."

I give him a look.

"Do you think they are going to send us back to the academy, now that I've put him down?"

For some reason, that calls out a guffaw out of me.

In a few seconds, both of us are laughing like we don't have a care in the world, like we just didn't loose Sakura, and like our Jounin instructor didn't just try to kill me in the midst of our exam.

Sasuke is laughing.

The end is nigh.

"Uzumaki Naruto." A sharp voice wakes us up from our laugher. "You're under arrest for defiling the face of Konoha."

"Jiraiya?" I blink at him suspiciously. "What-"

Sasuke stops laughing abruptly, and outright stares at the white-haired shinobi. "Weren't you supposed to be somewhere else until the exams?" His voice is completely non-Sasuke like.

There's a short pause. And a pointed look from me.

"Fine." Sasuke sighs, his voice gaining a much more Sasuke quality again. "Kakashi just went mad," he says as if it explains everything. "We should find out why."

"I told him to," Jiraiya replies. "He listened."

"Why?" This time it's me who is looking at Ero-sennin suspiciously. "Are we still going on with the plan?"

"Oh yes," he replies. "But not your plan."

"Hey," I protest. "You can't do anything else but follow my plan."

"I found a way to escape this place. For good, this time." Jiraiya grins. "Now, Naruto, don't be an annoyance and just go with it."

"Does it, in any way, entail me dying?" I ask, grim. "You know that I can just cut off your-"

"You can't." He says with a certain sort of finality. "You gave me knowledge of sealing, just enough to counter that solution."

I still try to dispel him. I doesn't work.

"Sasuke," I glance at my last teammate. "Will you help?"

"Should take only one hit, right?" He asks and smirks. "Sure, let's have a contest."

"Sasuke," I snap at him. "Be serious, this is dangerous."

"Oh, no, it isn't." Jiraiya laughs and shows me his fingertip. "Not yet." There's a drop of blood there.

"How did you get my blood?" I demand from him, all pretenses of continuing with the play broken.

"Your little trap for ANBU. You left a blooded kunai," he helpfully explains, as he moves through the seals for the summoning jutsu.

"Don't!" I shout loudly. "Stop him!"

I dash forward, a kunai in hand - drawing natural energy as I go - if Jiraiya succeeds, all is going to go to hell.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu," Jiraiya slams his hand on the ground, and with a loud rumble, the abomination that Bunta exists as these days appears just under him.

"Naruto," Bunta laughs with a dead toad's laughter. "You're still alive?!"

I ram into the Boss Summon, pushing him backwards a couple of feet. I need to be quick. Rasenshuriken is already forming in my hand. All or nothing.

Jiraiya jumps right next to his summon, grinning. "Don't worry Gamabunta, we'll take care of this little squirt and all is going to be well again." And he calls his own Rasengan.

Sasuke tries to take him out with another Raikiri, but gets captured by Gamabunta's tongue, and dissipates in a cloud of smoke.

"No!" I shout loudly, because this time, memories hit me hard. Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi are people that cost me the most to make, and they hit me like a steel hammer when they die.

That's what knocked me out before - when Kakashi and Sakura bit the dust at the very same time.

Sasuke's demise disrupts my progress, and Gamabunta approaches me, the land trembling. "You should give yourself up," he offers in a strange, booming voice.

"No!" I shout out, climbing on my feet. The eyes of the Toad Sage, with oblong pupils stare into the Sharingan of my enemy. The copy wheel eyes that Gamabunta shouldn't really have. "Never."

"It isn't as bad as you fear, Naruto," the humongous Toad attempts to stomp on top of me.

I dodge.

Jiraiya jumps in to attack with the Rasengan, but I trick him with a quick substitution with a clone.

"You can't keep running forever," Bunta presses on. "You already lost."

"I didn't!" I know I didn't.

"It has been years," the Toad's words bite me hard. "You're going insane, Naruto, and you're going to die by your own hand, if you continue this madness."

"I'm not giving in." I'm not insane.

Gamabunta launches a spray of water at me, one that I don't manage to dodge - one that sends me into the outer walls of Konoha. It also makes a short work of Jiraiya, but this time, the memories don't hurt. They make me furious.

"Let's get that bastard!" I shout out at the village, pushing the command with my chakra.

Konoha is a large village. It is not a city yet, but only nearly. There are thousands of civilians. Hundreds of shinobi. Some of these are experienced ANBU, veteran Jounin. Tsunade of the Sannin, the current Hokage, and only because I hate that job feeling too much like a lie. The Konoha nine, all of their senseis... Each of them, but a set of memories and a remembrance. No, it's not one and the same.

But they all have one important quality.

They all are me.

My vicious grin would make Gamabunta back up alone, but he's nothing more than a soulless puppet. Thousands of me that rush him from all the corners of the village, do. This is not in the script. Any and all attempts upon my life by an outside force stop the charade.

I attack.

We swarm the Gamabunta and force him down, the Sharingan eyes spinning, spinning in an endless dance of the void.

"I'm sorry," I say, and slam the Rasenshuriken point blank into his face.

The explosion levels half of the district. It tears down my arm horribly, but I can't find it in myself to care.

Gamabunta falls down, dying.

I reach out for him, touching the essence, learning, trying desperately, to remember, to hold an image of him down in my mind. Same as I did thousands of times, same as I will do a countless times more.

I have learned the Kage Bunshin when I was but a child, a technique that simply makes more of myself. But I have also taught myself another trick, wrestled it from the spinning red moon in the sky. A Kage Bunshin that carries all of my memories about a certain person. Be it a teammate, a friend or a man I have only ever seen once, throwing a rotten apple at me when I was five.

I remember them all.

I killed nearly all of them with my own hands.

Otherwise, I wouldn't remember as well.

Kakashi died by himself. Jiraiya never returned from his reconnaissance mission. I never counted all the bodies of the ANBU.

They might still be existing in a way of lifeless husks, trapped in this mad world, waiting for me to come and end their suffering. I still can't help but recall them each time I rebuild Konoha. They can't help but turn out different than the ones I have freed with my own hands.

I knew them too well for them to remain as they should be.

It is only a matter of time, until one of them slips. And even when that happens, I usually manage without - this.

Konoha is decimated.

Again.

The clone numbers are halved.

Again.

We have to move away from this place.

Again.

The clones don't really need food. They don't really need sleep. They don't really need rest.

I do.

But we pretend.

For me.

I leave this Konoha behind me easily. It is not that hard to fall to habit.

I walk alone. It is safer, much safer to travel by your lonesome. Especially if you're secretly carrying the whole village inside your heart.

I know that it might take years, or that I might never succeed to pluck down the moon from the sky, but I know one thing. Only one thing that keeps me going.

If I give up, I will never free everyone else.

When the day draws to a close, and the moon rises up again, I bask in its red sunlight.

Kurama is there - somewhere with the other Bijuu - but I know he is watching me.

I can't help but realize, that being the last one to truly die isn't really that bad.

I feel as happy as I could ever be.

END

A/N:

This is a complete story, but I might, at some point of my strange existence, dish out a sort-of-prequel. However, at this point, the story is completely stand alone, and anything I write for it would be more of an extra than a normal sequel (at least not like most people understand them).

In terms of spiritual closeness, this is the cousin story to the "The Last Enemy to be Destroyed".

It has nothing in common with SMTG, I think.

Cheers,

Nauro