Ragged breathing filled the air, though he tried keeping it as silent as possible. He was doing all he could to mask his chakra, but he wasn't sure it would be enough. He was exhausted and had been running for what felt like an eternity. Being forced to hide - to stand still for an extended period of time - was allowing that tiredness to creep up on him like a shadow. Every muscle in his body was crying out for him to stop, but he wouldn't listen. He couldn't stop until he knew he was safe, if anywhere 'safe' still remained. Swallowing hard, he closed his eyes and tried to regulate his breathing. A slow breath in through his nose, a slow breath out through his mouth.

He hated having to close his eyes for any reason. Past events replayed as vividly as if he were standing there, watching them all occur in person once more. The nausea that accompanied these visions never got any better over time. Just the opposite, in fact. The closer someone had been to him, the sicker he felt when he saw their death play out. He hadn't been good enough to save any of them, in the end. He was the only one left, and if he was captured, the entire planet would fall victim to Uchiha Madara's insane scheme.

Uzumaki Naruto cracked his eyes open slightly, daring to peek around the corner of the cave he had taken refuge in. He hadn't heard anyone for a few minutes, and he couldn't hear anyone now, either. That meant very little in his world, however, and he knew that fact all too well. Pulling back into a proper hiding position, he let himself slump down to the ground. One last time, he needed to talk to the Kyuubi. The plan they had been formulating for so long had to occur that day. If they missed their chance, it would take another half a year before they could make another attempt. Naruto knew he wouldn't live to see that second attempt. It had to occur that night.

"Well?" He whispered almost inaudibly. "Do we still have enough chakra to do this?"

From inside his head, a deep, rumbling voice replied, "We do... though only just. If we go through with this and fail, we'll be as good as dead."

"We won't fail." Naruto murmured, resting his head back on the uneven surface of the cave wall, paying little attention to the pain. "We can't fail."

"You don't sound very sure of yourself." Growled the Kyuubi.

"Never been less sure of anything in my life." Naruto admitted. "But I trust you. You wouldn't let me die. You'd die, too. And if you say we can do this... then we can do this."

"You speak as if I have ever attempted this. You know very well I haven't. If it were anyone else, their body would be torn asunder almost immediately. I suppose I was lucky to be shackled to someone as tolerant of pain as you."

"I'll take that as a compliment. So..."

"You know what you need to do?"

Naruto nodded, smiling despite himself at the gesture. "By heart. There's a lot riding on this. I can't afford to screw this up like I have with everything else."

There was a guttural noise from the Kyuubi before it continued, "When you give the word, I will start cycling my chakra through you. I won't be wresting control of your body away this time, so you'll have to tolerate whatever discomfort it causes you. You have to remain conscious until we're both ready to throw every ounce of our remaining chakra into this."

"And... you're sure we'll remember this?" Asked Naruto, his weary voice even softer now. "We'll remember that we went back?"

"I have no answer for that." Replied the Kyuubi. "As no one has ever succeeded. But you will need to remember to break the seal as soon as you can."

"Yeah... otherwise there's a long wait until we talk again. Can't have that. You're a better strategist than me. And if I'm not able to talk about this to anyone there, then I'll need an outlet for it."

"If all goes well, we shall merge with them and share our memories. In time, we will be fully assimilated into them and they will be the dominant personality. Until then, we will probably be in charge. If all goes well, by the time that happens, we'll be as we are today, anyway. And if not, I pray we are smart enough to work out what to do."

"Can't believe we're actually going through with this. Of everything, I didn't think I'd end up killing myself to escape Madara..."

"Death is merely the beginning. We will fix this. I dislike being made a fool of. And I dislike the thought of being used as a weapon even more. Uchiha Madara will suffer eternally for what he has done. I will make sure of that."

"This is going to be difficult..."

"Do not think of it in terms of difficulty."

"Then how should I think of it?" Asked Naruto, bringing a hand up to brush hair away from his eyes. "This is going to be the hardest thing I've ever done for a lot of reasons..."

"Instead, think of being able to see them again. Alive and well. Use that as your focus." Said the Kyuubi.

"Alive and well... huh?" Naruto repeated, a weak smile forming. "This is going to suck. Isn't it?"

"Incredibly."

"Then let's get it over with. And... if all goes well, I'll see you on the other side."

"And if it does not?" Asked the Kyuubi.

"Then at least we keep Madara from winning. When I die, you die. Regardless of whether we succeed or not, we still cut off his access to the final jinchuuriki he needs to invoke Tsukuyomi on the moon. We win, either way." Naruto said, staggering back up to his feet. "Next time..."

"Next time, we will be the ones standing over his dead body." Snarled the Kyuubi.

Placing one hand over his chest, and the other over where the Kyuubi's seal had once been on his stomach, Naruto closed his eyes. This was absolutely insane, and the chances of it working were next to zero. As the surge of chakra crashed into him, he struggled to remain awake, let alone in control of it all. They would be able to sense it, too, if they were still close enough. They had precious little time and only one attempt could be made, as even if they failed to disconnect their souls from their body, they would still be turning their body into a lifeless husk.

Eyes glowing red as they slowly opened again, Naruto whispered, "Wait for me, Uchiha Madara. The next time we meet, I'm going to split more than your mask open."

There was a sudden jolt, and Naruto felt like someone had lit his body on fire. Pain like he had never felt before coursed through him and seemed to centralize itself between his eyes. He could hear the Kyuubi talking to him, but it was faint and garbled. He couldn't make out any of it. He couldn't figure out what was going on. He was standing there, only he wasn't, as he was looking down at himself. Slowly turning, the motion accompanied by the feeling of thousands of needles stabbing into him, he saw what had to be the Kyuubi, being pulled into some kind of spiral-shaped burst of chakra.

He stopped fighting the pull of it, and was slowly dragged towards it as well. And, as it began to twist him into itself, he gave his body one last look.

They had lost. Everyone he had known and loved had been killed. Everything he had fought for had been destroyed. Every time he got stronger, it hadn't been enough. In the end, all he could do was run away. And now, in a nondescript cave in the middle of nowhere, he had killed himself in a desperate gamble to turn that loss into a victory.

As his consciousness was ripped away from him, he thought he saw shapes move in front of the cave's entrance. Words were shouted, but he couldn't hear them. The world around him spun out of existence, and he was left in a black, shapeless void.

It wasn't over yet.

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

Author's Notes: Oh god, what have I gotten myself into? I'm already slow at updating as is. Uh... well, hello to everyone who's reading this, I suppose. This is to be the prologue for the first 'volume' of something of a rewrite. ...Which seems to be my gimmick when I stop to think about it. This is my first dance with anime fanfiction in a long, LONG time. The way I figure it, by the time I get anywhere even close to the halfway point in this story, the manga itself will have long since come to a close. So I'll have that going for me.

Updates to this will be slow, since it's technically only a side project. Got a big Harry Potter monstrosity rolling right now, and that's my main focus. This is a more 'when the mood strikes' type thing. I will be doing some tweaks and adjustments here and there, since doing straight re-writes bites the root, man. Off the top of my head? This'll be Naruto x Sakura primarily. It'll probably be laced with enough angst to drown a town populated by emo kids. And if I don't have some dedicated chapters to Neji x Hinata, then I've done something wrong. Those are the only two pairings I've got set in stone right now, though. Not sure who to put Ino with. Ah well, I'm sure I'll figure something out. Bullshitting as I go also seems to be a gimmick of mine.

Updates will come sporadically. Check my profile (or my twitter, which is linked there) on updates, since I keep something of an update blog on my profile page and comment on what I've written as I write it over on twitter. The next chapter will be a full-sized one. Which is to say it should be about 6,000 or so words and clock at around 30kb. That's standard chapter size for me these days.

I hope I can do this justice. It's been tough convincing myself to do this, let alone put it up for criticism. Still, it's one of those 'if you don't see it, write it yourself' type things. I'm insanely picky about what I read. Here's to a hopefully successful side project. I'll see ya next time, kids.