He curled his fingers around the corner of the seal and wrenched.
The purpose of his existence from the moment of birth, his curse, his gift, that which had made him who he was - it tore as easily as tissue paper.
Open came the cell door, and its occupant lumbered out. He watched it with dead eyes.
It stretched itself, shaking out its fur like a dog, and turned to regard him with a baleful gaze. He met it dully, and wondered whether it would devour him. Then he wondered if he minded. For the first time in his existence, death did not seem so terrible.
The fox smiled at him.
"You have done me a great favor, brat." It let out a rumbling laugh that echoed around the vast dimensions of the illusionary dungeon. "Should I apologize, that I have only a little favor to offer in return?"
He gave the smallest of shrugs. He couldn't find it in him to care anymore.
Nine tails swished through the air. "The Uchiha scum are not the only ones capable of lifelike illusion," it said. Already its breath smelled of carrion. "Those under my power, I can cause to experience eternity in an instant. Indistinguishable from life, inescapable, impenetrable... All mortal illusions are but pale imitations."
"Nn. That's nice."
It chuckled, a low, reverberating sound. "You are broken, aren't you, brat?" It raised its head and looked down its muzzle at him. "Your life has been nothing but a meaningless, melodramatic joke. You started as nothing and have returned to nothing. It is rather... pitiful."
He said nothing. It was the truth.
"So here is my offer." The tails swished again. "A mercy, from one who is not merciful. You will not remember this conversation. You will fall into a dream from which you shall never wake. But, within the dream, you will see your every dream fulfilled."
He gave a shallow laugh, which died down into a broken little chuckle. "What dreams? Everything I knew and loved is dead. Or soon will be." He shook his head. "If you don't kill them, Pain or Akatsuki will."
The fox gave an almost human shrug. He watched the gargantuan muscles ripple beneath its fur. "That is in reality," it said simply. "It will not be so within the dream."
"How? They're already dead. Will you make me forget that, too?"
"They shall return," said the fox. "Ah, I see your incredulity now. But will you express such skepticism when you see your loved ones returned to you? Would you stand your ground and insist to their faces that they could not be real?"
He lowered his head. He would not.
"You will have everything," the fox said in an almost fatherly voice. "You will defeat Pain, and he shall die having accepted your vision. Akatsuki will soon join him." The tails swayed back and forth. "A villain beyond any that humanity has ever faced shall arise, and the ninja world will unite behind you to stop him. You shall become a shinobi beyond all shinobi: you shall battle a goddess, and she will be the one who falls." It chuckled. "Why, you'll even become Hokage."
At the mockery of his driving dream, he looked away. He could not demand that it cease to laugh at him. There could be no longer be a Hokage when there was no longer a Konoha.
"Sasuke will return," it continued in a lulling voice. "You alone will save him from the abyss. The second battle at the Valley of the End will accomplish what the first did not.
"All will be well. The family you always wanted will be yours. You'll have a loving wife, a darling daughter, and a skilled son. He'll befriend your teammates' daughter - perhaps they'll even wed. Won't that be touching - your old team, united as a family?" When that failed to stir a reaction from him, it added, "Why, you'll even meet your parents."
His head jerked up. "What? But - how are you going to explain that? They've been dead from the night of the attack! How will you bring them back?"
"One explanation is as good as another, to one in the depths of illusion." It rolled its neck. "Perhaps I could claim they were within the seal all along. After all, your father was present at its creation."
"My dad? But why-"
The cliff-graven face of the fourth Hokage, which he had so casually defiled upon a time, came roaring into his mind. "No," he said weakly, his hands catching him as he slumped forward into the water. His mind superimposed his coloration upon the colorless stone face; his mind screamed. "No."
His field of view, when he raised his head, was filled with teeth. "Your own father threw you to the dogs," said the voice that filled the world. "Did you never wonder how a newborn infant was so freshly at hand, on that night of all nights? He cut you from the womb himself." Water rippled with the force of the laughter. "He could not possibly ask anyone else to offer up their precious child! But his spawn? That was his to dispose of as he pleased."
"And - my mom -"
"Ah, yes, her," the voice said blithely. "The shock of having the burden she had carried for so long torn from her all at once... proved too much. She did not survive the experience."
He couldn't form words. There were no words.
He knew the fox was lying, at least in part. He knew it was bending whatever truth it told.
It didn't matter. Its words had accomplished their goal. Whatever last bit of pride and belief had been left in him was gone.
"Would you like to meet parents who love you?" it asked with cruel softness. "A father who was protecting you all along? A strong, vivacious mother? Both of whom were always, secretly there for you?"
"Yes."
The word was choked, quiet, and almost blotted out by the rumbling laughter that followed. "Look up," the voice directed him, and he complied without any further hesitation.
The tails twitched back and forth hypnotically, like leaves stirred by a breeze. Like the leaves of Konoha...
Unconsciously, he began to count along with their movements. One, two. Three, four. Five, six. Seven, eight.
Ni-
He curled his fingers around the corner of the seal and-
A hand clamped around his wrist. He jerked back and stared, wide-eyed, at the man who stood with his back to him - a back upon which was written The Fourth Hokage.