Author's Note: SWEET JUMPING CRAP. Finally, I have returned to writing fanfic. FINALLY. This is just an idea that occurred to me and just wouldn't go away until I wrote it. Its very….grimdark. But I like it. I hope you do too. Remember to comment, and constructive criticism is welcome, and as is commonly asked, no flames please.

-After-

-Prologue-

My name is Uzumaki Naruto. My father's name was Namikaze Minato, he was the Yondaime Hokage. My mother's name was Uzumaki Kushina, she was a Jinchuuriki. Like me. She held the same monster that I did. The last and most powerful of the Biju, Kyuubi no Kitsune. A massive fox, made of chakra and malice. A creature of great power, and even greater evil.

At this point, I think I owe you some background. I was a ninja, and I used the power of the Kyuubi to try and do good. I did good. I helped people. I saved people. I killed some people too. But they say bad things happen to good people. Maybe I should have been a bad person. Then maybe none of this would have happened.

There was an organization, called Akatsuki, their mission was to find all of the Jinchuuriki and rip the Biju out of us. Their leader, an insane man by the name of Uchiha Madara wanted to use their power to recreate the first Biju. A creature even more evil and powerful than the Kyuubi. The Jubi. I was the last one they captured. They got them all. Even Bee, who had become my friend. Before long I stood alone against the, unwilling to let my friends and loved ones get hurt because of me. They begged me not to. They begged me to let them help. Maybe I should have let them. In retrospect, all of what has happened is because of me. Because of my stubborn pride.

I stood before Akatsuki. Madara and Kabuto, with their army of Zetsu and long dead shinobi. They had hurt my friends. They had hurt me. They stood before me. I let the rage take over. Let the chakra I had so recently taken from the fox control me. I destroyed them. And when victory seemed sure, all of it left me. My chakra, I couldn't use it.

And I was afraid.

But I didn't stand down. Didn't flee. I kept fighting. Hoping. Hoping that I would make it through this. That I would return to my friends. I knew my hope was empty. My foolishness had let Madara win.

Finally they brought me down. They bound me. Dragged me before that statue. But no...it was not my folly. It was theirs. They thought that the Jubi would simply be the sum of the other Biju. It was so much more. They ripped the Kyuubi from me, along with all of its chakra, and by some miracle I lived.

I saw the chakra enter the statue. I saw the ninth and final eye open. I saw a white light. I though it was over. I thought I was dead. If only I had been. The light faded, and I saw only darkness.

I awoke later, how much later, to this day I do not know. But before me stood the man that had driven my surrogate brother to madness. His clay body cracking, he looked at me. All around us, a perfect circle of undamaged ground. Beyond it, devastation. The statue could not contain the power of the Jubi, and in response to the foolishness of Madara, and against the Sage who had long ago defeated it, it had enacted its vengeance against the world. Itachi had saved me. He used the black flames, and most of the power that animated his body to make a barrier to save me. He called it recompense. I called it mercy. The last of his power, he gave to me. I can feel it still. I can feel it always. The fluttering of dark wings, in my chest, in my head...in that empty space where the fox used to rest.

I walked for days after that white light. Aimlessly. Everywhere I went I saw the same thing. Destruction. Villages burnt to cinders, their citizens dead or dying. I cried nearly nonstop those first few weeks. My eyes were raw.

I found it a few days after I finished crying. Konoha. That place that I had called home. That place that I had fought so hard to protect. That place that for so long, I secretly called hell.

I found my old apartment, and l couldn't help but laugh at the fact that the world ending didn't make the shithole look much worse. I slept for a few days on a slightly charred bed before beginning to explore. I found a few people, civilians mostly. But on the fifth day...I found a flower shop. She was there. Yamanaka Ino. Her hair was longer. She had lost weight. She was the first of my friends I had found. I had never seen anyone so beautiful. We spent the next few days together, in what was left of her family's shop, before looking for more of our friends. We found a few.

We found Shikamaru, he looked tired. So tired. He had in his hand an unopened bag of chips. Chouji was nowhere to be found. We found Lee later, his face blank, his usual enthusiasm nowhere to be found. He was only counting as he punched a wall endlessly. How long he had been like this he wouldn't say, even long after. But the wall was almost broken. His wraps had long ago torn, and his hands were bloody.

We looked for weeks on end through the ruins of Konoha, and found nothing. People were simply...gone. We could find no evidence of the deaths of our friends. They just weren't there.

We sat around our fire, no longer able to stomach being inside of the broken buildings. We sat in silence for a while, then Ino spoke. "The marks on your face...they're gone."

I pulled off my headband and used it as a mirror. The whiskers were indeed gone. The marks of the Kyuubi that had marred my face for so long were no more. Somehow...it didn't feel right. Before my friends could stop me, I pulled out a kunai and made six quick slashes on my face. "Better." I smiled wryly. This is who I was. Who I am. Who I always would be. Uzumaki Naruto. The blond with the whiskers. Not even the Light would change that.

Ino got up and sat next to me, slowly healing the cuts, careful to leave the scars that she knew I wanted. As she did so, Shikamaru shifted to look at me, I could hear the chip back crinkling in his equipment pouch. "Now what. Where do we go now? Staying here...I don't know if we can do it much longer."

I was silent. It was Lee that answered. "We go to Suna. We need to know what happened in the other villages. We should start there." I nodded my silent agreement.

Shikamaru simply sat there, his chin resting on his interlaced fingers, "We'll leave in the morning."

Author's Note: WELL THAT WAS FUN. Who else gets to live? YOU DECIDE! Suggest who else should live, good guys, bad guys, it doesn't matter. And as of yet, I'm not really sure where the plot of this thing is going, so if you have any suggestions, drop me a PM. I'll gladly think about any suggestions I receive.

ALSO, and this is really the most important part. I WILL NOT CONTINUE WRITING THIS STORY UNLESS I GET A MINIMUM OF TWENTY REVIEWS. So if you like this story, and want me to keep going, tell your fellow fanfic writers and readers about it. Give them a link, just spread it around, and you shall be rewarded with delicious fanfic, and a mention in my author notes.

-Ōku ga daisuki!

-Seigyoki Maou