S'more

Twas needless to say that the nine tailed fox had lost all of his power, and with it his rage. The once great demon was no a source of wisdom for the young Uzumaki.

"Kyubi, I need your advice."

"Naruto... boy, what do you seek?"

"Something is terribly amiss. I can't put my finger on it... but something just isn't right.

"With what?"

"With every thing!" Naruto paced back in forth in front of the fox, the once barred cell was now a large empty room, and the chains on the fox were gone as well. "There has to be something else!"

"Naruto..." the foxes voice took on an unfamiliar calming tone, "You just feel abandoned... my power made you the world's greatest ninja... you've been thrown back into the real world... you've lost you're title, and it's upsetting you."

"No, that can't be it." without waiting to hear the Kyubi's rebuttal, Naruto did something he seldom did. He took a long walk through the deep recesses of his soul. He past battles long won, heartaches long felt, and victories long forgotten... yet he could not find peace.

Then, in the darkest corners of his mind, he found an obsidian door that was partially opened, a red light shone from inside it. Naturally, he took a step inside.

The room was black, so black he couldn't tell how large it was... but in the centre, several feet in front of the door, a woman sat in a wooden chair. A woman with pink hair. She and the chair were both illuminated by a bright red light that had no source.

"Who are you?"

The woman stood up slowly, and turned around even slower. She was Sakura, but some darkened version of her. Her lips were so black they had no sheen, and her eye shadow was the same. The only thing about her that was brighter than her real life counterpart, were her eyes... which were now an almost blindingly bright green.

"Sakura?" In response, the dark Sakura tilted her head, the image this produced was frighteningly beautiful... and Naruto moved closer to her, "What are you doing in here?"

To this question dark Sakura smiled... then kissed Naruto on the lips. It was the most passionate kiss Naruto had ever received... but it was cold... wrong...

Amazing, but evil.

Naruto pushed Sakura away, and her smile returned... twisted, and sinister. Then her eyes began to glow red and she started laughing. Only no sound came out... the laugh was silent, and the movements jarring. Then she turned into a red and black smoke, and Naruto was expelled from his meditation. He found himself standing, with his blanket wrapped around him like a cloak, several feet from where he had begun his meditation.

He looked at his hands, and saw that they were glowing with swirling red and black energy.

This was power, he could feel it... this was pure power embodied by this red and black energy... this malevolence. Just like the dark Sakura, he could feel the evil of the malevolence, and just like the dark Sakura he forced it away, and it dissipated into his surroundings... into his blanket.

And now that he no longer held the power, now that the malevolence had seeped out into everything around him... it had lost its darkness, its evil nature. He could feel it in the air, in his blanket. Just like the tailed beast, it had been purified by its release. It was then, in that instant that he understood what was wrong with his life. It was then he understood the true purpose of the dark energy that swirled inside of him.

Naruto fell out of his memories when a familiar voice called his name. Looking to his left, he saw Kakashi Hatake walking toward him. He had long forsaken the black mask, and in place of his headband he wore a thick pair of sunglasses. Not that he needed his sharingan anymore, he had been retired for almost as long as Naruto had... yet he was a cautious man, and never knew when he might need to jump into battle once more. Naruto stared down at Kakashi's close fitting windbreaker, an embroidery and a medallion were all he received for his years of commitment to the protection of the village, and he wore them proudly.

"Hello my fellow geezer." Kakashi liked to make jokes about him and Naruto quitting the game so early, but that was the beauty of the militia. Ninja today could retire long before they were dead. Naruto had never asked why Kakashi retired, he respected his mentor's privacy, "How are you Naruto?"

But he had a few ideas why the legendary copy-cat left the business.

"I'm great... well good. Fine actually." Naruto ran his hands through his hair, feeling scar tissue right behind his left ear... a close call with a hammer. "What about you?"

Kakashi shrugged.

"I heard our pink haired lady-friend had a run in with death the other day."

Naruto nodded, and Kakashi followed him into an empty shoe store. Naruto cleared his throat, and picked up a shoe from a nearby rack, he played with the laces absentmindedly.

"What do you think?" He asked.

"Well for starters those are women's shoes..." Naruto smirked at Kakashi's lame joke, but didn't make a come back. He waited for Kakashi to provide an actual answer, "I'm not sure."

Naruto nodded.

"Who would want Sakura dead? Tons of people... she is the best medic in the village... she has even surpassed Tsunade, you and I both know this from experience... but who would have enough money to send an assassin of such high caliber? I mean from what I hear he was even faster than you."

"And who did you hear this from?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi just smiled in return.

"C'mon, I'll buy you some ramen to make you feel better."

Naruto could never say no to that.

S'more to come.