A coma is a state of unconsciousness with no reaction to outside stimuli that a person falls under for a prolonged period of time. Comatose patients have a hall of their own in the hospital so their family members can visit whenever they wish. Some patients have an additional bed for those really worried relatives or in the Hyuuga clan's case, a bodyguard to watch over the potential heiress twenty-four seven. The guilt punches him in the gut again as he watched, also standing silent vigil over Hyuuga Hanabi, who had been bathed before he entered and smelled of spring and strawberries. With the branch member behind him, in a pure white garb like an angel with his pure white gaze digging spite into his back, there was nothing much to do but give silent prayers and apologies. He did not foresee this happening; head bent low '…Sumimasen Hanabi-chan.'

The doctors were quite optimistic, claiming that the chances of the girl waking within a week were high. But that might have been said to console her father, who, though under a mask of stoicism, was panicking. And the entire clan emulated their head, walking about the village a tad more agitated than the norm, jerky. Their Chibi-Hime was in serious danger and her fate lies in Senju-san's expertise. And Hanabi's predicament wasn't the only thing on the Hyuugas' mind.

Neji still hasn't come home yet and has been declared MIA. That issue was working its way steadily to the top of his list of 'Things to Deal With.' And then Hinata-chan caught him at a small bar that sold cheap seafood, latched onto his arm, and gathered her courage to ask about him. "Hokage-sama? About my cousin, do we…" Her stuttering problem had improved, that's for sure. As for the question, he couldn't console her and tell her about feeling extremely reluctant to send any able-bodied ninja outside the Walls. Information going in and out of the village had slowed to a trickle, a couple drops a minute. People get ambushed out there, the jungle of wild animals. So instead, the reply, spoken loudly over the regulars, was, "Sorry, Hinata-chan, but my hands are tied," and mouth tightly shut afterwards, all the while, thinking, 'what is she doing in such a rundown, low class establishment?' His thoughts mirrored his puzzled gaze, which she caught and blushed before hurrying out of the area.

Later in the evening, when Hiashi entered his office, he, twirling his pen between his fingers in an impressive show of dexterity, idly entertained the possibility that Hinata had been sent to him to inquire upon her cousin by her clan or was it her genuine worry. Back ramrod straight, the Head of the prominent clan had formally asked permission to send out loyal branch members out of the gates to search for the Hyuuga prodigy, claiming that, "They are highly qualified for this endeavor. I have my utter most faith in them." It's funny how worry can force a man to reveal his soft parts, the interiors that are usually shielded from an unforgiving world. Hiashi didn't flinch from his stare, which he hoped was unsettling and digging, and that impressed him enough to give a blunt answer.

The Hyuugas are a clan of doujutsus, a coveted kekkei genkai by the rest of the Great and Lesser Nations and Otogakure is not an exception. The Curse Seal on the branch members may stop anyone from learning the secrets of the Byakugan, but it doesn't stop a freak like Orochimaru from trying. With time comes progress and the Curse Seal is an old design. Jiraiya had sent a message about his ex-teammates new interest and mastery in the obscure branch of Seals a month back through a messenger toad and there is this saying about trial-and-error… The answer to Hiashi was a flat, "No." No explanation was given; the man was smart enough to figure it out, though it was clear that he didn't want to, judging from the small lines at the corner of his mouth that had stretched thin. Well, it was no one's fault. Entire fault. The Hyuuga swept out of his office in a noble fashion, leaving him alone in the round room. Later picking at his skin and scabs that won't scar, he shrugged at nobody in particular: well, that was the end of that. What can be done? Neji was on his own.

Smelling the scent of cleaners, he blinked back into reality and focused onto Hanabi's bedridden body. The bodyguard behind him politely coughed; his amount of time here was almost past what is socially acceptable for a responsible leader. Reluctantly, he left.

The stairwells with dust drifting in the air were empty; he reached into an inner pocket of his trench-vest and pulled out a small paper. It was exchanged among a series of different hands, finally reaching him via pigeon as he was discussing with Ebisu-sensei the training of the Konohamaru corps, which was going splendidly, yesterday morning. No traps were on the scroll. The foul scent of snake still lingered in Orochimaru's message, which offered more questions then answers, typical. Again, he read the elegant handwriting, 'The Laws of Hierarchy states that the Created must bow down to the Creator. Creators are formed under the tutelage of science and the thirst of knowledge. Will you kiss the feet of Kami?'

One finger pressed to his temple. What the fuck is that suppose to mean? It made no sense at all, semi-religious jargon: wonderful, the Otokage has officially transcended his sanity. Did the insane man think that he was Kami or is it something else? Then what does the first half mean? The Created and the Creator? A hand clenched to his forehead as the other hand pushed the door to the outside. Riddles and mind games suck. He descended the few steps and onto the sidewalks, lost in his thoughts. The second half was homage to his previous history of research that occurred in his hidden, underground lab before Sandaime-jiji caught him (and had let him go). There was a dossier on the incident, detailed information on human experimentation, DNA splicing and injection, mutilated babies with no eyes and six mouths and one limb and special chakra, child soldiers; those sorts of things that one could only see in nightmares. Not anymore though. But why put that sentence in? He figured that Orochimaru is similar to Sasuke-teme, like how a megalomaniac is similar to a prima donna. There must be something that he doesn't know, can't see, something right under his nose that even the previous Hokages missed and he's being laughed at right now. What's going on? He's racking his brain on this issue because it's important and he needs to figure it out because it means something and if he doesn't figure it out something bad will happen and it's important and---

Duck into an empty alleyway: hand fingered a bottle of pills; he took four blue pills dry and gasped heavily. 'Ow,' he hit his chest twice and coughed, 'Ok, get thoughts back on track…' The enemy is the quintessential evil genius hell-bent on taking over the world; he can deal with this, just not now, maybe later, when inspiration strikes.

On the intersection of a cobblestone street, in front of a yelling merchant with his wagon of heavy watermelons, was a group of children playing ball. A group of moms were knitting under an awning. No one had noticed him as he walked closer to the shadows of the walls to look for a suitable place to rest. His breath tickled his palms.

At a dark side with the ground relatively clean, he gingerly sat down with his back to wood, hands resting on knees: look up and breath out, feeling estranged from the commonwealth in general. Sleep beckoned with its alluring voice. For privacy, he drew his youki out and casted a small illusion about him.

Heavy eyes closed, slowly drifting off into a tunneling feeling where the walls are curved and rushing past him in shades of blurry red and blue that bled purple. Soft gravity lifted morose thoughts into a memory.

The clouds spitted out lightning and the embers from the burning houses floated upward, prickling his face as he howled to the moon. Crackling and screaming joined into one continuous wail, "It's the demon! Hokage-sama!" And glee erupted in his features, stretching his sharp, bloodstained grin as he barked and growled, snapping up the mortals… morsels: they were hardly filling for a being such as him. Wasn't there a clan that produced the more fattening variety? Or a clan with above average amounts of chakra? And through this village, he did what he was summoned for, to annihilate the country, whose founder is the only one who could tame him.

And then there was a burst of power, chakra, and there appeared giant toad with a sword. The standoff was horribly brief. The animal, of which he knew quite personally, was no match for his power, and immediately cowed away when he delivered a blow to his, Gamabunta's, eye. The toad roared and yelled out something that he can and can't hear, was it important? A small dimension opened on top of the animal, a yellow flash, a fair-haired man appeared, holding a bundle that smelled like the man, a bundle that wasn't breathing. He snarled: no known ritual sealing is powerful enough to hold him. And yet a small nagging instinct questioned but could not take root, thoughts ran by as emotions, wordless and primal, 'Was this to be a jinchuuriki? All sealing rituals require a living human, and a payment. Could this mortal have created a new sealing technique recently? To power a corpse, death must be received from Shinigami-sama; who'll be here to take the life and soul… But, unless… unless…'

His shoulder was being shaken roughly, "Hey kid. Kid? Hokage-sama?" Eyes opened blearily, palms coming up to rub grit out of the corners as another foreign hand rubbed his head affectionately. He looked up and saw Mitarashi Anko, the crazy chunin-exam lady, Yuhi Kurenai, Genjutsu mistress; it explained why his illusion was broken, and Yamashiro Aoba, that tokubetsu jounin that apparently said something to cause Sasuke to run after his brother who was visiting Konoha. The sky was artistic dark lavender with silver clouds. A breeze caught a leaf on the empty road, swaying the curtains beyond the open windows of the civilian homes. "Hokage-sama? Are you ok there? We thought that you were injured. Do you need to get to the hospital?" The unusually worried snake-mistress quickly scanned his body and raised an eyebrow. "Is it psychological damage?"

Still confounded, he looked up to no one in particular and slurred, "I was born dead," and closed his eyes again.

"…I think he ODed." The spiky haired man noted.

"No shit? I was never good at the medical crap, but I heard from Yuugao that the effects of the kid's special happy pills could only be waited out. No treatment, just minor hallucinations or drunken ramblings, I think." Anko lifted him up with impressive strength and placed him on his two legs, (the world spun around him) which immediately failed. "Whoa there, guess we'll be helping you along then." Along where? Don't want to go anywhere right now. But feeling too tired to move; there was heat that attracted him and guided him away from his safe, dark haven.

"You are taking him to the dango shop are you?" A female voice accused behind.

"Of course I am, Kurenai!" The voice, sounding slightly offended but still 'chirpy', was right in his ear, but he didn't wince, "Dango cures everything. How could you say it won't?" Both of his arms were flung up and over two people as supports. They turned swiftly into the road, making his legs swing, someone tsked. "Ok, ok, let's get him some dango and drop him off at Yuugao's place. She can re-cook them later for him when he's lucid. How about it?"

He giggled a bit, making his three new companions silent. Someone offered dango. Years ago, Uzumaki-san also offered him dango, once, when he had just learned how to understand speech. She had held it above his head mockingly, pulling her hand up whenever he jumped and tried to reach with his greedy little fingers. Kami, whenever she played the Game, he was so hungry and always felt faint as she yelled, "Don't you want food? Do demons eat? Don't you want it? It smells so good," she mocked, tossing back her red hair over her shoulder and taking time to lick the last and only piece. He had made straining noises, trying to reach, his mouth was salivating from the smell that wafted tantalizingly to his nose along with the other smells of dinner that floated in the summer streets, and he was so hungry. "Don't you want it?" She asked, smirking. He nodded eagerly and licked his lips.

Her beautiful face twisted into a snarl, "Well you can't have it, demon-brat!" She ate the remaining dango and threw the stick into the grass behind her, "Little monsters like you don't deserve to eat!" She bent down and shook his shoulders roughly, "Do you hear me? You don't deserve to eat, monster."

"Just be happy that dear Anko is helping." Aoba whispered. Anko muttered sullenly in response.

"I just feel sorry for the poor boy," The sensei for Team Eight sympathized, "He has been through a lot, but he still came out on top. He always pulls out these surprises when no one is expecting them. Just when you thought you figured him out,"

"-he regains his title as Konoha's Number One Surprising Ninja." Aoba finished, "You should hear some of the stories Kakashi told me." The area the group reached had a more dense population of noises and activity. Anko loudly demanded five sticks of dango, all different flavors. The waiter strolled off into the scents of food and noises of clanging pots and hot oil. Were people staring? For some minutes, cheek cooled by the counter, drifting in and out of the world of consciousness, barely able to deduce the fact that Aoba and Anko were right and Kurenai left. His vision was mainly purple tinted with little patterns that are supposed to be a granite top.

"But he is a good Hokage, is he not?" The genjutsu mistress softly asked, "When we came back from Kiri, he managed to pull the village together, showing the ability to plan well under pressure. Not many would have been able to accomplish what he has done. From what I heard, the Go-Ikenban had been in anarchy while he was gone," the conversation continued along the line of his unusual accomplishments and decisions. His ears felt like they were covered with wax, muting the sounds and this time, he entered the realm of dreamless sleep.

Speaking of the Go-Ikenban, the some of the elders were still adamantly avoiding his wrathful eye. Even Homura and Koharu acted unusually humble in his company whenever he tried to discuss the next courses that Konoha should take to maintain its security and actually deferred some decision-making to him without arguing. That never happened before. But while half of the counsel has been shying away from him in shame, he has been evading the general masses out of fear. Like looking over the edge of the cliff and daring the cliff to move.

On his desk was a dissertation by one of the better known economists of the village that stated that, to summarize a ten-page thorough report- if the economy had suddenly been petrified, there would have been havoc. Fortunately, vendors and wares were barely coming in at a steady rate. The secret was the ANBU-escorted passages through the Hokage Mountain. Each person had to visit Ibiki before granted temporary access into Konoha. As concluded, rationing out items was a must.

There had been numerous meetings with Tenzo, appointed ANBU representative, and Danzo, head of the secretive Root division, to address this problem. The consensus was that there must be a counterattack soon against the enemies that surrounds the village. Tenzo wanted the preparations done within a week, Danzo wanted to wait. Danzo has seniority and more leverage in the case with specific, politically powerful, fellow, council members, citing the vital ability to plan and wait. Tenzo had turned to the old council member with a scathing remark on Danzo's dubious loyalty. Danzo replied with words, subtly attacking the young ANBU as an ignorant and arrogant visionary with non-existent parentage. He had to break the argument by saying that to a certain extent everyone needed to be a visionary and immediately changed the topic.

But Danzo's plan was suspicious. A piece of an important puzzle was missing and there was no time to find it. The leader of Root was biding his time over something…

Today, he called all ninjas, ranking chunins and above, to a large chamber in the Hokage's Tower. Everyone was there within half an hour, even Kakashi, conveying the upmost importance of this meeting. In front of the assembly, he held up a headset, small enough to hang off of one ear, and an attached mouthpiece, the same device that is being distributed to his audience by ANBU. The ninjas' acceptance was slight, they turned their headsets over and over, brushing their fingers over the switches and tried them on for size and adjusted accordingly. The faces one could see was largely apathetic, wartimes were grimmer, hardened eyes no longer shined with an inner light.

The air was stuffy; the sunlight came through the window in single beams that made the floating dust visible. At the corner of the chamber was the doorway to an upper ledge with the view of the entire village, guarded by a Ne agent hidden in shades of black. Some ninjas below looked up for clarification, others waited patiently for further instructions. Emotions, invisible, were easily felt, charged, crackling in the air, spreading from one to another. A crowded setting, each breath was somewhat strained and the air inhaled was the air exhaled.

The majority here had experienced war, the grotesque corpses, the trauma, the waiting, and survived with their limbs intact; they didn't need an explanation. Old timers were often cloaked in a suffocating air of wizened experience that they'd seen trauma that mangled their soul so much that when they looked upon the younger generation, 'You have no idea what it's like. You're still too innocent, naïve, ignorant.' Senior nins contained something that makes them larger than life, a quality that wasn't named or spoken of that puzzled everyone else. The newbies, including him, will figure it out soon enough.

"Jounins with genin teams will have their assigned training grounds as the designated meeting." He announced after half of the ninjas got their sets, "In the day, a selected group of chunins will be assigned to the Academy. The… Normals will be either locked into their homes or evacuated to the shelters." People below him shifted nervously at his derogatory term to the civilians. "From now on, you are to wear these at all times." He held his own up with two hands, palms up, and "Once you hear the Siren, you better be fucking ready." Eyes were trained upon him, he smirked at them, "the instructions are self-explanatory. Medical staff will report to Shizune-san here. Tsunade-san will order the troops if an attack comes." It was more prudent to have a Sannin to command the forces: many factors were in play- boosting morale, more tactical experience, and more authority than a thirteen year old kid. Therefore, the ripple of shock that extended outward caused him to raise his eyebrow as he casually waved them away, they should have expected this. "Dismissed."

Small miniature leaf whirlwinds, people started to disappear via shunshin. The Go-Ikenban behind surreptitiously began to rise from their seats and exited in groups of three or more. No one talked to him; motion surrounded him and left an invisible shield around him, like he was diseased. Crossed legs, he sat back on his high chair, tapping a rhythm on the arm, feeling, irrationally, that he was in an empty interrogation room.

When the last person left, tell-tale sounds of a shutting door, he reveled in and surveyed the darkness, massaging his forehead. Everything was so troublesome. Compress the entire body and then, muscle by muscle, loosened each limb with painstaking concentration. Breath, don't freak. Kami, no child should have to go through the stress he's put under each day. Imagine that the negative feelings were all wrapped up in a ball in his chest, right below the heart so that it won't weigh the organ down. Then float the ball through his center keirakukei, and emerge through his chest and banished into faraway places, and afterwards, imagine all the good feelings in the air amass around him and absorb into his skin, warming him. He plastered a smile, not too wide to be disturbing, onto his face and made sure it stuck and looked natural. Then, he too exited the compound.

'Word travels really quickly,' he absentmindedly thought; the fear from the village escalated and turned the air outside bitter. Interesting to a psychologist- mayhaps the civilains had been denying their danger outside, but with the headsets, everything just turns more real. Welcome to reality, you're going to die if you step a foot out of these walls alone. People are taking action, you can't fake that. You see the fear, you feel the fear and it's there like red on a black and white artwork, its reality. But the looks aimed at him were bubbling with optimism. You'll save us, our last resort, we believe in you. He looks away and wants to close his eyes. The masses are unpredictable, one day they hate you and another- they love you.

He took two blue pills.

The rooftops offered a solace from the noise and motion going under on the streets; here, one simply feels superior. A common human thing- that if physically one was above everyone else, then there was an easy connection to be made that one was wholly better than everyone else. Therapeutical- with more confidence, the mind wanders from its original source and deviates off into parts of the head that are usually untouched by the typical civilian. Yakushi-san had once published a paper that hypothesized the various ways of tapping into nine-tenths of the brain that were usually not in use such as meditation, relaxation, and letting the mind deviate. The medical community had later unanimously agreed that the Nara Clan has taken this hypothesis to new bounds.

…Can you imagine being separate from the rest of the Academy students as a late-starter? People whispered behind his back that he was a foreigner from Iwa, hailing from the Namikaze Clan. Namikaze Minato = Foreigner- the word back then had different connotations, they implied Alien. The word came up frequently whenever he got beat up. He was fighting social suicide; no one was willing to befriend him. Isolation does things to a child; it twists the process of development. In free time, he took long detours around the village and imagined his mom beside him, holding hands. On some days, he skipped rocks across a nearby river while watching kids on the other side frolicking on the playground. Books and scrolls offered another distraction. Having no friends made him observant of other people, taught him to read minute movements of the hands and eyes, brows sweating and hands twitching, their fraction movements of the mouth could be all their emotional response and it could be enough; he memorized human nature and wished that his friends and family was back with him.

The Academy back then had different standards that were much higher. For one, each aspiring student needed one sponsor, Jiraiya, strange man that one, was willing to fill in that part, and needed to pass examinations to assure minimal amount of competency in thought and memory. No one was allowed to drop out. Still, the Academy's hard standards still couldn't hold a flame to what they did with kids in Iwakagure. (The day before his mother and he were on the run from death, he had just about finished mastering the art of roof-jumping.) So after he had sped through the curriculum at a breakneck speed, it was no surprise that his new sensei was Jiraiya, along with two other Konoha kids that he was not familiar with.

Hyuuga Haruka, a privileged branch member with no Byakugan, and Nakamura Yasu, a boy twice removed from the better known Morino Clan, were both great teammates. The three of them meshed perfectly well on all exercises to the delight of sensei. They were friends, closer than kin, making a point to have Sunday morning ice cream, daily trainings, and exchanges of lewd jokes- kiddy stuff, making childhood memoires, interspersed with missions. He felt like he belonged in an adoring dysfunctional family and relished in the feeling of close-knit and security.

And then, two of the four from Team Jiraiya were dead on a B-mission. The Hyuugas never really forgave him for that. In his memory, Jiraiya-sensei is sitting across the camp, the fire put out to avoid attracting enemies, dirty from burying the two chunins, two teammates. He was only thirteen, they were only thirteen. At dawn, the campsite will be dutifully torn down, the dirt will be kicked over any evidence of human, and they'll leave. He picked at the lint on his chunin vest and stared despondently ahead. He couldn't meet their eyes, opened and glassy when they died, when he used his sleeve to wipe the blood from the corner of their mouths. How did it feel to drown in your own blood? Was there a sensation that's unique to the process of dying: a flutter of the soul into a night sky, soaring away from imperfections of a body and grieving friends on the earth? Fortunately, he wasn't crying, big thirteen year old boys with favors can't cry. Instead of crying, he stared with eyes as glassy as his ex-teammates'.

But his memory was hazy of that night and a frown creeps up on his face because it's hard to imagine dark nights while dwelling in the sun-lit world. In reality, he had stopped on a roof of Neko-chan's building; in front of him was Jiraiya, old Jiraiya, who apparently had been waiting for him. The Sannin looked up from his notebook, stood up, and held out a hand, his furrows and wrinkles fazed out of view and then reappeared- is Jiraiya old or young? Young Jiraiya across the pile of charred twigs, old Jiraiya with the sunlight behind him casually bleaching his already skeleton white hair. Living in two worlds at once, he rubbed his eyes: is this a genjutsu?

Tense and ethereal, it described the air; it wasn't everyday conversation, but something so much deeper (look underneath the underneath). How deep? He greeted the Sannin with words that only half seemed to belong to him. He remembered saying the words to young Jiraiya-sensei after sweating with back-breaking labor, digging graves and offering proper services to his fallen comrades, while digging a small epitaph with his kunai, forgot what it said, on a nearby tree, "I often wonder whether I misspend too much of my life obsessing over fragile things. Life fractures too easily, sensei; won't it be easier to forgo all potential harmful aspects of a human mentality?" He could later chalk it up to the influence of his medications.

The pills hazed his mind making memory Jiraiya, smoking a pipe, and reality Jiraiya, scribbling into a notebook, melded together (he was in the present and yet he was not), making the exact speech, "Ninja life is hard on me as it is hard on you, gaki. It's our job, who we are, we kill to serve and to live. They fought for the same principles that you do, Naruto (Minato)-kun, and they died with a tangible honor that we must keep within us. One day, we will join them, but for now we live, let live and live to the greatest. That's what they sacrificed for, happiness. The sooner you can accept this, the sooner this will be easier on you." The same speech from that occasion all those years ago, the night before Jiraiya took his training seriously and paved his way to become the Yondaime. In a fashion, the Sannin was testing him. Haunted eyes could gaze with the power of Orochimaru's killing intent without the chakra, merciless and overbearing.

"Hai, sensei." He said… he says… With blandness that made the elder ninja lean forward, worriedly searching his face for a sign, maybe a divine message on his skin, a sanguine expectation that the past was never as gone as most philosophers say.

"Are you sure you are ok?" Jiraiya asked one last time.

He, as Namikaze Minato and as Uzumaki Naruto, closed his eyes and gave a bright smile, hearing two voices, memory and reality, overlap in his all too simplistic answer, "Yare yare, sensei, I'm fine. I just think you are wrong on one small detail," he pressed his thumb and index finger to demonstrate how miniscule the problem was, his voices continuing to robotically harmonize with one another, past and present, "We will fight for our principles. But at that last second before a ninja realizes that the Shinigami is inevitable, they are fighting for themselves to escape from his clutches. But the Shinigami always comes and does not spare. Happiness is not in the equation, it does not even compute. I don't think anybody can self-sacrifice for the well-being of others, it must be for themselves, what we perceive as heroics are accidents." He bit into his rations, the discussion ended. They ate the military issued food, nutritional, unscented, blocks of shit that took too long to chew and digest. The taste of nothing lingers just as badly as the metallic taste of blood.

Reality Jiraiya paled as, word for word, he heard the answer that had once come from his prized student. He, on the other hand, was engrossed in his moment, Death contained no survivors. The two, dead, Konoha teammates who will one day be at most a whisper at the back of his mind were prayed for with all his heart. Blessings given for whatever the afterlife, if there was one, contained: a safe journey and a just reward. He hadn't forgotten Haruka and Yasu, not yet, but he might. With emotions too painful to handle, the Sannin left in a puff of smoke.

After vaulting over a gutter, he cleanly swung into a window that connected to a hallway of familiar doors. Without pausing, he made his way to one and sharply rapped twice and waited. To his consternation, Sai answered the door, wearing a disheveled look about him. The average eyes can't see much, but there was that hint of exhaustion in the Ne agent. Sai leaned forward and gave the most cynical eye-closed, mouth-closed, invading personal space smile that said, 'I am fucking tired so be glad that I am tolerating you.'

"Ohayo?" He tried, leaning as far back as he could without moving. "Are you ok?" The other stepped aside sans reply.

The curtains blocked out all the incoming light, but lit up the curtains themselves, emphasizing the brown embroidery patterns of homely flowers and swirls that lined the edges in dark ocher and gold. A lilted voice, "Perhaps I was too hard to him; he's such a nice boy. Devoted, that one, so nice to me, caring too." Lying on the couch, hair splayed over the side in abandon, Uzuki Yuugao sleepily looked up and smiled. "I'll make it up to him one day." Feminine hand self-consciously rubbed the noticeable bump. "Hello, Naruto-kun." He pulled up a chair to sit next to the soon to be mother and rubbed small circles to her palm. From his vantage point, he can easily imagine the baby, chibi Ran-chan, curled up and growing in the safety of a mother's womb.

"No need, Hige-kun." Sai walked in with three cups of fresh tea and took a seat at the arm of the couch, "I'm fine. It's just… her food preferences…" The usually stoic ANBU grimaced at unpleasant memories while Neko-chan had the grace to blush in embarrassment.

Seeing the two so comfortable around each other made him proud. Sai's improvement in displaying emotions was noticeable. He wondered how Danzo was feeling about his Ne agent, can't be too happy now, but the old coot hasn't said anything. Heh, he was probably still reeling in shock when the entrance to Sector Thirty-seven was closed up to him with youki. (Only the real citizens and those personally escorted by the citizens can pass now and though that'll put a damper on the sex trade, the small community can still rely on its agriculture survive, at least until he figured out what to do with them.) "Oh? What is it? Did she want pickles and ice cream together?"

The bland answer, "…Rocks. At first she wanted to eat rocks. And not just any rocks, but rocks that tasted 'good'. Not that I could tell a difference. And if I didn't bring the right type of rocks, she'll lob them at me with deadly aim." The female ANBU blushed even harder, "It took me a while before I realized that she doesn't have enough calcium and salt in her diet."

"Neko-chan with her neck in hormones could be pretty scary eh, Sai? It's hard to imagine." He threw his head back and gave a bark of laughter, "Oh man, I wish I was there." Wiping tears from his eyes, "I think that I really should thank you for looking after Neko-chan so well when I couldn't. I'm sorry that-"

"No need," Sai said patiently, "We both understand the extreme circumstances you have been subjected under." A long finger traced patterns onto the arms of the chair, "The rewards to devoting my time to her will be worth it."

He directed a glance at the shinobi, "Time? What about your boss, Danzo?"

Pale hands clasped his shoulders and fingers dug into an old bruise, "Hige-kun." Sai whispered, eyes flickering around the room due to habit, "None of them know about Uzuki-san. Danzo-sama still thinks that I'm monitoring you, which I am, at random intervals of time," a small gesture to the closed curtains.

"What do you tell him?"

Sai adopted a faraway expression, "You're doing your Hokage duties, you're working on diplomacy, you're avoiding the common people, and you're not doing anything suspicious." A pointed look to Senju-san's necklace, "You know that he already knows about that so I didn't bother to tell him of old information. He's waiting for you to leave the village, which," he continued over his protests, "I'm sure you will. It's not your fault, if I was in your place, Hige-kun, I would want to leave too."

Neko-chan sat up and peered around Sai's bare side to note, "You keep it around you at all times. I've read that the Shodaime's chakra is supposed to help suppress the Kyuubi no Youko. Does it?" He took off the necklace and offered it to her while shaking his head. She took it and held it in a way that it illuminated with its own light, "You can buy a small country with this, Naruto-kun. How is your progress at breaking the Go-Ikenban's seal?" She handed the green gem back.

He took it and started twirling it in fast circles in amusement, "I don't think this is what the negation-seal needs to activate. They said the heart of Konoha: at first I thought it was the ancient trees that were created by the Shodai, then the necklace, but those two aren't it. They are both holders of another sort of nature-chakra, more ancient. If I try the ritual again, it might just annihilate my body. The key may be the Shodai's Mokuton chakra." The anti-sealing method didn't work, "Hyuuga Hanabi managed to cut my bonds with the council members and the only thing tying me is the bond to Konoha," and something else that he lost but he can't wrap his head around this object that he desperately needs. It was so hard to describe, the emptiness; it was something that the fox inside was wordlessly screaming for to be returned, but the name eluded him like running water. The nightmares were slowly growing worse and some nights he was forced to stay awake out of fear, fisting his hands so hard that he drew blood. As the moon passed overhead, he could feel circles digging underneath his eyes as he memorized details of the ceiling and the light hanging over. "Hanabi still hasn't wakened up yet. It's bad." After another bout of silence, "and if Konoha falls, I'll die." For a few seconds in some minutes, he swore that he could hear the dust settle onto the wooden floors as loud as two-by-fours falling from a height of two stories.

The woman stared up at the ceiling and offered, "Tenzo, codename Yamato, has the Shodai's DNA, courtesy of Orochimaru. He can achieve various Mokuton jutsus." She flippantly tossed her hair behind her shoulders to air the back of her neck, allowing the miniscule amounts of sunlight to shine upon the dark tresses. "He tends to dislike the true camping of the outdoors and make his own makeshift huts with mokuton trees." That's like the Nidaime using Suiton jutsus to fill his mug for tea. "But when life gives you lemons, I guess you make lemonade."

He cast a pitiful glance toward her, "But is he willing to lend me Mokuton chakra?"

A deep breath out, the unspoken answer was, 'I don't know.' But he heard, "Tenzo is quite fond of you, Naruto-kun and he'll do whatever he can to serve you. I quote from him, 'the blond kid is a pretty, damn, good Hokage, considering everything. Better than any other I can think of save maybe the Sannin, but we know how that went.' So I can't promise much if I talk to him." Tenzo wanted him to continue as the Godaime, if the ANBU catch wind that his need for Mokuton chakra has to do with separating himself from the village. He continued to twirl the Shodai's necklace by the chain, watching the gem blur into a green circle, whistling, it continues to spin, and concluded that the aftermath won't go pleasantly.

Yuugao-chan drifted off to sleep not soon after. Sai pulled the blanket up to her collar and softly ushered him out the door.

Can you feel it? The mutable winds are blowing and blowing, uprooting tradition and routine. It's instinctual for those who have survived at the edge of life and death, but for others, it's perceptible. Foreboding, ice down one's back on a cool night. People moving, preparing, training, even him, who somehow, between his responsibilities, is fine-tuning his abilities: taijutsu, chakra control, seal mastery. A secret competition between the Konoha nins of skills, they're turning more aggressive against each other and nobody questions it, be on your toes, be on your toes. They need an outlet.

The outlet used to be him, whenever he pranked Konohakagure, the chasers were usually ANBU and those who volunteered to stop the little brat. They had directed all their anger at him as he high-tailed around the alley ways and narrow paths. Over the years, there was a sort of twisted understanding between predators and prey, the insults lost their edge. For his pursuers, it was a coping mechanism: refreshing to run for something that wasn't so deadly. For him, it was the first taste of acknowledgement and it grew addicting. Nothing like this happened in the other hidden villages. Sandaime-jiji understood; his punishments weren't so severe, some cleaning duty, extra lines, paperwork, maybe a playful flick on his forehead. A win-win situation that everyone else, the civilians, looked on in distaste. But the Pranking days were over: Konohamaru tried to pick up the pace, but he's actually a good student at the Academy.

And hence, the exponential increase of bar fights and, alarmingly, mental breakdowns and suicide rates. That wasn't foreseeable at all.

The morning sun was just above the horizon, pastel-ly colors on the sky, blended with water and blurred with a camera. Ayame kept him company at Ichiraku's as he read Deidara's message for third time, making sure that he didn't mess up on his decoding, 'Kumo's rebellion is growing in size. Iwakagure fell: the entire village is burned to the ground by a large army with no real leader that is now heading to Takigakure. Iwa's two jinchuuriki's are dead, the demons are roaming free. Oto is pushing out its feelers; I'm coming over.' A bowl of ramen with eggs and miso appeared in front of him.

He gave a grin to the server and broke his chopsticks cleanly in two, "Itadakimasu!" and closed his eyes in heavenly bliss as beautiful scents danced its ways up his nose. He leaned over and inhaled the whole dish, a small giggle from Ayame caused his to crack open one eye and observe the girl.

"Naruto!" She chided, wagging a finger in his direction, "What did I say about eating too fast? You'll throw up, just like last week, if you shove it down your throat before your stomach can catch up."

He slurped his noodles and chatted back as his chopsticks began to twirl around another clump, "Aww, you just want me to eat slower because you enjoy my company!" He giggled with mirth before slurping another mouthful, "Don't worry Ayame-chan, I can eat a lot. By the time I'm done, you'll be so sick of me!"

For that comment, he got a tinkling laughter and a hand ruffling his hair, "You're so cute! No one can be tired of you because you're someone people want to stay." She headed back into the kitchen to prepare a bowl of beef ramen. While swallowing another satisfying mouthful of ramen, he eyed her backside with a thoughtful expression.

Ayame and Teuchi are awesome people who own a family business that he and his allowance, from Sandaime-jiji, had single-handedly kept intact. Recently, Neko-chan had demanded him to eat more healthy foods, making him develop a taste for other dishes besides ramen. The majority of the civilians are unemployed, running on government sanctions. Rarely did any raw ingredients come in; Teuchi's stock of flour was still healthy but not going to be replenished anytime soon. But the owners of the ramen bar were determined to face every obstacle with a cheerful countenance. With his recent popularity from an outcast to a beloved Hokage, people have been stopping by at the bar, especially his previous genin and chunin friends who, though Ayame says they reluctant to admit it, were looking for him.

Alone in the bar: his legs swung idly, knocking against the wood that held up the place as he impatiently tapped two separate beats onto the counter. Wish that he had a way to tell time, a hopeful glance at the sun, no, not working. Right eye gave an involuntary twitch as he waited. The meeting time had been discusses between him and the expected guest some days past and the guest isn't known for being late, unlike a certain Cyclops-ninja. The rendezvous must be productive, this will be the only time he will ever have the advantage to elude his guards, who still underestimate his skill at disguises and evading notices, and before reality kicks in for him.

A casual turn of the head, no one, but paranoia still was a problem in his psyche. He hummed a melodia under his breath and watched for the slightest hints of movement…

Emerging from the shadows, too lazy to walk the distance from his house to Ichiraku's, the guest took a seat on his left and ordered a bowl of miso ramen. Ayame came in to pick up the guest's order, making a 'hmm' sound before smiling brightly and retreating back into the bar. Picking at his yellow hair in his bangs, he brushed them to one side and greeted, "Hey Shika-kun," in a neutral tone, displaying passivity.

For half an hour, they didn't talk but indulged themselves. Deidara's note was tucked into the inner pocket of his trench vest, which the edges have begun to fray. He picked at the threads and used his nails to scrape off the dirt that accumulate whenever he walks. Huh, did Neko-chan ever try her hand at sewing? When he was little, he learned how to darn socks, but then realized an exercise in futility when the socks, piss-poor quality to start with, couldn't always be perfectly repaired after some odd six holes, one for each toe and his heel, and had taken up to going out either barefoot or in sandals. The habits he gained from an unusual lifestyle certainly gave him the nickname on the streets as a savage, if not monster.

The Nara heir continued to swallow slowly, small sips, small bites, and chewed even more slowly. A trio of chunins walked past paying no attentions to the establishment, talking about women and medic nins, their loud voices betraying their soft footsteps. Halfway through his bowl, Shikamaru asked calmly, "Destination?"

"Graveyard: the northwestern corner. You can't miss me." The taller boy nodded and slipped back into the shadows, miso ramen unfinished. He eyed the dish and then at the empty stool where the chunin once sat, how wasteful, didn't he know that there are those hailing from Iwa that will fight and kill for food now? At the poor sectors of Konoha, people beg on their hands and scrapped knees for edibles. As a little boy, he used to go dumpster diving and garbage hunting for dinner scraps when things got really bad. It wasn't the other nin's fault, his clan is prominent, they never slept on an empty stomach. Poor souls, he shook his head, so ignorant of our ways. Forget about it, it's no use thinking about trivial things like that. After a moment of deliberating, he pushed aside his finished breakfast ramen bowl, ate Shikamaru's unfinished ramen, put out the tab to Ayame, and disappeared in a whirlwind of leaves.

When he reappeared in a sea of tombstones, unorganized and some unmarked, some were mass graves, he spotted the shinobi a couple paces from him. Slouching, Shikamaru looked up with his arms supporting his head, "Mendokuse, so what is this you want to talk to me about?" On the other side of the cemetery was a retired civilian using an old fashioned broom to clear a path, she seemed to be deaf.

With his hands clasped behind his back, he tilted his head and mourned, "My potential successor. I want the Rokudaime to be Kakashi-sensei; he's the only student of the Yondaime. But it won't be him."

"Danzo."

"Yeah." He nodded. Shikamaru sighed and turned away, observing the embedded words on the stone, but it didn't deter him. "The man's motives are clear; he wants Konoha to reenter the glory days, the glory and bloody days. He's ambitious and the Hokage position might as well be a shoo-in for him as he already controls half of ANBU and half of the Go-Ikenban." With his sandal, he cleared away the fallen leaves on Uzumaki-san's grave and swallowed, "If he gets the power, I'm not sure, but I can imagine an oppressive dictatorship." Ushi-kun and Kurama Yakumo were buried at their clan's special ground but the ninjas and civilians here, lying side by side, may never be acknowledged again. A matter of ideals, you honor them and forget them. Like… like… he squinted while thinking, like Hyuuga Haruka and Nakamura Yasu. He imagined bones and skeletons lying under the ground, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

"Is there anything that can be done? The only way, you are implying, to stop Danzo is to have the seat occupied, by you. But you are about to resign from the position, aren't you?" No answer, the dark haired nin turned and fixed his eyes on his own, "You aren't telling me everything. Don't you trust me?"

He tore away from the gaze and nonchalantly shrugged toward the grave mark, "I don't know. I just want to warn you." The Nara scion was a friend, not close enough to know any particulars or to trust, but to inform; he lies in a special place in his heart that is neither black nor white, but gray. He heard a sigh of wind and a rustling of leaves across stone and looked up. No one was there. The old lady in the distance moved her broom in a practiced swinging motion that was rhythmic, like a pendulum.

He never talked to Shikamaru again, at least not for another three years, but was sure that the shadow manipulator passed the message quickly among the rest of the Konoha twelve… eleven, if not Rookie nine. And life went on as usual. Hinata bowed to him once on the street with a soft murmur. Other than that, he was careful to avoid the others. The Konohamaru corps was training hard with Ebisu and sometimes walked with him from the Hokage tower back to his apartment. He met important people, personal and political, and consulted with them on various matters and preparations. Time passed, the sun made multiple trips over the sky.

The tea on his desk was cooling, small wisps of steam curled and unfurled and disappeared into the air. Hands rubbed together to make heat from friction and he blew on them, hot, fleeting, not enough. The caffeine in the tea allowed him to work on a moonless night. A kitsune-flame appeared in the air above him and joined another two to add more light to the room. Everyone else was working on the floor below him; even his secretary took a coffee break to chat up with her fellow workers. The tea cup provided warmth through the porcelain, at least till he placed it down. Thumb outlined the patterns on the cup, over and over again, staring blankly into the window ahead, thinking about nothing, caring about nothing. This village in front of him should not be his problem anymore. Why did he have to matter so much to them?

Thumb stopped in mid-tracing, light footsteps was coming up the stairs; his hand went up to smother his nose and mouth. To his mortification, he was involuntarily salivating and he fought down the response to open pouring red liquid. Tears in his eyes, a coppery scent of blood made his teeth ache. Kami, didn't ninjas get the hint that unless it was absolutely an emergency, he wanted the people to recover at the infirmary and hand in the report via medic nin or at a later date? What the hell? A weak voice, holding stubbornly onto the last vestiges of noble blood, Hyuuga blood, and familiarity that was able to ignite a memory of a lecture on Fate and Predestination, called out with a hoarse cough, "Naruto?"

He rushed to the double doors, swung them open, and stared in shock. "N-Neji?" Said chunin looked like someone had thrown him through an incinerator and then an assembly of torture devices. His hair was matted with blood and multiple wounds were infected, open, or poorly wrapped in bits of his own clothing, which was tattered beyond belief. His eyes were half-closed and swollen. There was probably a bad limp on his left leg which exposed bone. But in a way that he held himself, it was clear he was asking for no pity. Where were his other teammates? Who captured him? How did he enter the village and into his tower without anyone else knowing or escorting him? Why the hell wasn't he in the hospital? What has he gone through?

The Hyuuga's tongue licked his lips and slowly, blankly, intoned, with a pattern that was instilled in children of ninja clans since they first learned to speak, "Identification: Hyuuga Neji, chunin, one-four-nine-eight-seventeen," and teetered precariously on his feet. "Mission changed to S-class. I saw… my father." Eyes closed and the body was about to shut down. He was barely caught in time.

"Kagebunshin no Jutsu," without seals, five replicas popped into reality around him, one of them henged into a stretcher. His clones slowly lowered the battered shinobi onto the bed while one of them went off screaming for a medic. Another grabbed a roll of bandages and alcohol from the desk and began to try and clean the injuries. His eyes scanned the bloody footprints and followed them to a dark archway that had appeared in the wall at the corner of the chamber that was lined with paper seals. Eyebrows nearly extended beyond his hairline: a secret passage? Did anyone know it existed? The Sandaime? Danzo? It doesn't seem like it or else this pathway would've been used to its full advantage, Danzo is political and underhanded but not so impatient that he would have waited for the Sandaime to finish his rule, then where does the darkness lead to? The paper seals sticking to the dirty stones were all anti-detection seals and false-surroundings, none of them were trip-wired or motion detective explosives.

He finally heard the medics finally came rushing up, headed by Shizune, yelling out orders of the beginning of the on-sight treatments. He was about to walk away from his clones when a hand weakly tugged on his trench-vest. Battered and seeming a bit better off than what he was a minute ago, Neji looked up with semi-coherent eyes and mumbled, "Escaped from the lab, walk through the passage ways lead from here all the way to Oto. Team all dead, saw my father. He was alive and on the operation table, told me to live. He called me, 'son.' Kumo-filth and Orochimaru are working together. They're coming." Neji tightened his grip, his white eyes were tinted pink, "They're coming." The hand released him, spent; the ninja closed his eyes, just as the medics began swarming around him.

"No jostling him around! Put him stable if possible, this only looks worse than it really is." Shizune ordered with her glowing hands over Neji's chest, checking stats, as one of her helpers scrambled to prepare shots.

One of the doctors, IV in hand, looked over, "Hokage-sama?"

"He was most likely experimented on." His reply was after a wince, "from the Hebi-Sannin. Just do your job, don't follow me. I need to investigate this alone, 'k?" he replied distractingly, turning his head around to survey the passage way, a dank smell of formaldehyde and other chemicals emitted from the arch. It reminded him of the morgue when he stared down at Ushi-kun's corpse and gave the cause of death to Jiji.

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

As he walked into the unknown, the medics were furiously working to keep the chunin alive, "Kami, the number people did on him. Some healed bones haven't been set right, they need to be re-broken. Umi-san, you're in charge of the flesh wounds, staunch the blood flow. I bet his captor starved him, is the IV in?" Sounds of an unfurled scroll, something 'poof'ed into existence and clanged onto the floor.

"Hai, Shizune-sempai." There were also sounds of cursing and bustling. A machine began beeping out the heart rate and statistics.

"Good. We'll begin wheeling him out. Keep him awake! Keep him awake! His blood pressure can't be any lower than---." They faded out as he silently walked down a flight of stairs with two fox-flames accompanying his front. But even with the aided light, he couldn't see much. The sixteenth step down was a weak step and crumbled under his foot. He stumbled and slid some steps down before grabbing onto the handrail. Deep, he noted when the rock finally came to a rest at the bottom of, whatever it was.

He extended his senses and smelled no one and chemicals and machine oil. There were cobwebs that were recently disturbed, probably by Neji. Flick of his wrist, another twenty kitsune will-o'-the-wisps appeared and dispersed to dark areas ahead. His surroundings weren't still clear, but any more fire risked the chance of an explosion right under the heart of Konoha. It was already hot enough. Whatever this place was, it was big. Each foot tested the strength of his next step to assure that the ground won't collapse underneath him. Hand went up to ghost over the dirty walls, adrenaline pumped into his veins. He reached a chamber and summoned another flame into his hand and willed it to float around the entire area. This abandoned place was big, how come nobody found out? How well protected was it? How many protections and wards were built into the walls?

Tubes of preserved organs, dusty, cylinder shaped machines that he can't tell what they were, perhaps they once held human bodies. A brain scanner with a helmet connected with wired to, he squinted at a blocky, dusty machine, a reader with a printer. He cautiously walked through, swatting at the spiders in his face, on the wall to his left was an incinerator and he looked inside: black bones, pictures of faces, bodies with numbers imprinted on their chest, a double-helix structure, a coded letter, and the smiling faces of Orochimaru and Sandaime-jiji, all hastily and poorly burnt. Ooh, someone left in a hurry. Scurrying in the corner- freeze, turn… only a cockroach, leaving his heart beat furiously pounding.

The flame made the door on the opposite wall visible, making big and foreboding shadows that flickered, grew, and shrunk. The cockroach crawled across the floor and under the entry. There was siren instinct that invited him to enter as well, a nearly magnetic force that attracted his being. At first he tried to ignore the sensation by examining other medical and torture equipments and picking up an old thesis on chakra exchange. It wasn't due to the fox, but who his is, it held him so close and pulled and pulled so great that he was trembling, until he finally relented. Feeling apprehensive and uneasy, he crossed the chamber and opened the door and felt his blood freeze.

These body tubes weren't empty, there were floating, dead, blond babies, nine in all, each with a ghostly tint, and their eyes were partially open, their chubby fingers reached for a void. If they were alive, they would have grown to look exactly like him. His eyes widened in realization, When? Who… what did this? He recognized them as himself and could feel a connection between them; it felt like he was going back to his origins. Any moment, the babies would open their blue eyes, extend an inviting hand, and mouth an invitation to join them, to become one. 'Brother, oh beloved and long missed brother, where art thou? It's been so long.' What's going on? What's happening? He's not them; he's not one of them! He violently tugged at his hair and gave a low moan, eyes flitting around the room in fear, a door, the babies, a cracked picture frame, the babies, a complex machine, the babies…

A desk was beside the tubes… There! He ran forward and ripped open the drawers and desperately searched for notes. Sneezing through the dust, he scattered the papers, looking like letters, over the surface and began scrutinizing the miniscule handwriting, neat and compact. He mouthed the words, skimming through, struggling to summarize the situation. 'The brat Namikaze knows of my secret labs, he is the only one, but he doesn't say anything but watches me and stares. He knows and I know that he knows. As Hokage, he can demand an inspection and have me exiled, but he doesn't…' 'The brat made a deal with me when word of the Kyuubi no Youko was about to arrive. He needed a jinchuuriki but a special one…' '…cloned baby of Namikaze Minato, soulless with enlarged keirakukei…' 'The brat planned to have his memories implanted in the infant's subconscious. The infant is dead but apparently, during the Kyuubi's sealing, the Shinigami will extend its essence into the baby and youki will jumpstart the new life. It's genius…' '…to be the Yondaime's legacy. I anticipate…'

He tore himself away from the desk and stood, breathing heavily. …No… He, Uzumaki Naruto, isn't human. He, Uzumaki Naruto, is a goddamn clone. His entire life has been a lie, what is he: human, demon, or a replication? The use of Kyuubi's chakra held the hidden memories of the Yondaime. The shock is too much, a forced laugh. He leaned over the desk; hand covering mouth as he dry gagged, his stomach burned, and the seal was glowing through his shirt, tears formed in the corner of his eyes. Revelation after revelation assaulted him; all the pieces came together, twisting forms to shape themselves into conspiracy. The Uchiha's sharingan was a gift from the Kyuubi, Itachi's Mankeyo was a catalyst that accelerated the process of absorbing the characteristics of Namikaze Minato. His stomach was throbbing and aching; feeling ill, he grabbed the opposite edge of the desk and bit his lip, tasting blood, his canines extended. Legs, too weak and trembling, failed him, head thudded against the desk. The world, dank and dreary, spun.

With the same long, black hair, and pale face, Orochimaru was across from him in the same lab that was pristine, crossing his arms with a bored but slightly interested expression. Underneath the façade was an underlying base of jealousy and hate. One was Hokage and one coveted the position. Back in the day, he had less wrinkles and there was a distinct absence of that Mitarashi girl that usually hung off of him. Words spilled out his mouth fluent and deeper timber than what he was used to, "…demon is coming. Your lab can be completely legal, you'll be allowed to work with POWs and other inmates, maybe even a member from a clan or two. The infant body needs to stand an infinite amount of chakra and use only my DNA. I trust no one else." Orochimaru's face widened into a grin that was all teeth and glittering eyes.

"Of course, Minato-kun. If that is what you wish." He crooned with delight.

His face laid on the desk, his sweat made the papers stick to his face as he eased himself into a standing position, breathing heavily and wincing in pain. He understands now. Nine months later, Minato was renamed to Naruto. The creator, Orochimaru knew what he was talking about in his message when he sent it to him, the created. This… was wrong; it was completely against humanity and the laws against nature. He has no parents, he's not human, he's a demon. He's unnatural, created from an arrangement, he doesn't deserve to exist. He clenched at his head and screwed his eyes shut.

From a distance, a siren began to sound, "This is not a drill. Enemies spotted on the West side, fast approaching with heavy arms." Even slightly muted, there was that distinct blare that made it sound like someone was coming a approaching with a horn, it grated on his ears. "Evacuate from the west side, preparing ballista." He scrambled to his feet for the second time, but the last comment made his pause, according to his internal map; this lab is on the west side…

Shit.

A blast shakes the underground and sends him to his knees. In front of his very eyes, the brittle walls ahead began to crack, break off, and finally fall into a rising cloud. The lights above shake and release more dust into the air, he sneezes twice. Rubbing his nose, 'This hasn't happened before in the Chunin exam Invasion. Was the attack designed and aimed specifically for this place?' If Orochimaru came, then he would want to destroy all evidence of this area.

The siren continued impassively, "Jounins, attend to your stations, man your forces and report to duty." The voice was accompanied by screams of terror, people were yelling for him. Hokage-sama! Hokage-sama! Save us! A higher pitched mocking voice joined the screams of the people outside.

Dusting his shoulders, he looked up rubbed his eyes and blinked ahead before sighing at his fate. Again? So… the failure of the walls indicated that beyond the barrier was another secret chamber? 'Wow, talk about luck, eh? I mean, what are the freaking chances?' This one perhaps was unknown to even the snake-sannin? Great, another mystery that needs to be solved. He walked to the chamber which radiated a soft purple and red light, his floating lanterns trailing behind him. He peaked inside and his breath was caught in his throat at its splendor.

This place was well kept, more people knew about it. A low hum of continuous protections and chakra emanated from the ritual circle that echoed into a higher pitch of children singing. It placed him in a trance of a half-minded daze, bringing happiness to his heart and tugging a stupid grin to his face. The upper level that was filled with chaos was meaningless as compared to now. Pillars held the inscriptions of repeating characters for Tree and Fire surrounding a huge seal chamber, where in the middle was a single small orb. His kitsune's ball, his Hoshi-no-Tama! He remembers everything that had frustratingly eluded him. His precious orb was hidden in the deep confines of the village, right under his very feet! Relief flooded him as he laughed shakily, noises of death and bloodshed above him muted, this was so much more important. The chakra, purple and swirling, caused the inscriptions to glow on the pillars, making the supporting structures tremble at odd moments, a good sort of trembling, not the earthquake that could bring down this structure. This was the reason why he couldn't abandon Konoha, but now, all bars are off, he grinned with anticipation.

The Kyuubi gave an uncharacteristic purred: Mine. Mine.

Without hesitation, he stepped into the circle, entranced and trembling, disregarding all his other senses except his eyes. The ritual circle and the chakra embraced him like he was a part of their own and kissed his skin, creating goose bumps. Welcome. Welcome, we have been waiting for you. See the Hoshi-no-Tama? Please, we beg you to take the object that belongs to you. The Go-Ikenban must know about this place and failed intentionally to tell him. Walking slowly to the revolving orb, his hand slowly reached out; he saw a purple tint, hand out stretched, closer, closer, closer…

At the first contact, the pillars release a burst of youki that was hot against his skin, expelling him from the circle. His back struck stone and he slowly slid down, breathing heavily, 'that's going to leave a mark.' The Loyalty seals were frayed around him; all he needs now was Mokuton chakra. But right now, he could celebrate a minor victory; his kitsune orb was in his hands, secure and brushing against his mind, whispering soft words. Reconnecting with reality, his head was clearer than ever and sounds rushed into his head. Sirens were still sounding. For the last time, he hauled himself to his feet and ran back to the entrance. With an unashamed amount of comfort, he saw fleetingly that Orochimaru's attack didn't manage to break the tubes that held the babies. His hand going into his pockets, out of pills, damn it, and pulling out his own headset. His feet pounded on the stone, through the room. Fingers dancing over his headset, pressing the 'on' button.

"crrrrk---Err, hi, this is Naruto. Umm, what are the stats?" Run up the stairs.

Stunned silence as every single high-ranked ninja finally heard the voice of their Hokage. Tsunade, the only one besides him and Tenzo who were able to talk over the connection yelled out, "Some Hokage! Where the fuck were you, brat?!"

Ow, shrill banshee. At the archway to the chamber outside his office, well, there was no chamber, just a blank wall at the top of the staircase, he cursed mildly under his breath. Damn it. "I had more important things to deal with, confidential. I need stats. Are the invaders from Oto?" He concentrated chakra into his hand and swirled it out into a ball ('Rasengan!') and pushed it into the wall, watching in satisfaction as it cracked and crumbled to his feet. He stepped out of the rubble (Neji's blood innocently stained the ground) and ran to the nearest exit.

"Yes, Kumo too. Our treaty with them is void. Yamato-san is commanding the main assault at southwest… It would be best if you see yourself." He nodded, though the woman could not see him, and leaped off the window ledge. At the moment, it was her duty to oversee the procedure, observe, and be the calm voice of reasoning giving orders to her soldiers, out there fighting and playing their own part in the mechanics of the shinobi society. And keep as many alive as possible while doing it.

In the air, he noted the dark shapes of foreign stealthy ninjas creeping discretely over the wall farther to the east, and Tsunade was quick to command, "-need a small squad to reinforce territory to the east; possibly six unknown infiltrators-" and then, having to quickly amend before anyone got themselves killed, "-cancel that, a large platoon will be needed; it now looks like ...eighteen infiltrators. And more are coming-". It made him wonder how hard her binoculars are pressed to her face.

He could hear her voice forcing to stay calm when on the inside she was half-panicking, "-watch yourselves now! We have enemy archers, repeat, enemy archers lining up to the west; some arrows look to be flaming; possibility of jutsu being worked on them. Take them out, but be careful!-"

"-sloppy formation around the sheep corrals, get your act together! There's a dozen or so enemies hiding in the clump of trees - no! The other one! Yes, good, flush them out-" His transmissions were broadcasted on a coded, secure channel to every Konoha ninja that had been issued a headset.

He concentrated on the inner burning chakra at his stomach and focused. His canines grew, heat concentrated at his eyes and his hands… claws. Something protruded behind him; a tail of pure chakra was swishing behind him. No gigantic toads anywhere protruding from this chaos- where was Jiraiya? Either on the other side of the wall, cutting the attack off at the knees... or he was behind the monument, somewhere deep in the forested area atop the large plateau that granted the city so much natural protection. Insuring the enemy didn't attack from any other directions. In any event, he was likely doing something helpful, in his own bizarre only-works-if-Jiraiya-does-it way. Not to mention that frightening Swamp-creation technique the man was a master at. He landed on a high siren pole and looked around.

"-large group performing ritual against the wall; get out of there! Get out of-" From a high vantage point, he literally saw the village quake. "... We have heavy losses against the perimeters; the wall has sustained heavy damage; ten foot diameter hole has been punctured. Reinforcements needed..." He cocked his head to the right. Tsunade-san wasn't as ordering her troops to attack as to detailing any way they should defend. Why hadn't the troops been more adaptable, organized, and adroit? The whole village was responding so sluggishly. Peacetimes made them lazy. On a positive note, the civilians were no where to be seen, hiding away from danger, unable to hinder a soldier's work.

In a twisted, convoluted way, Danzo's philosophy made sense.

Bitting his thumb, he swiped the blood across the seals on his shoulder blades and took out two kunai and narrowed his eyes, "I can cover that, Senju-san." And he shunshined to the sight near destruction, wrinkling his nose as he smelled the familiar scents, so like those that happened thirteen years ago, on that fateful day on October tenth, except for the odd crackling sounds of a Raiton jutsu or the high pitched attack of a sound oriented jutsu. He felt the invisible embers rising to his face and the bloody taste of bodies and shook his head. An indefinite number of bunshins popped into place besides him, already installed with his mental orders: check on Neko-chan and Hanabi-chan, otherwise, aid in his fighting.

"Brat! What are you doing? Get back here! You might be the only one available and powerful enough to kill Orochimaru or the Raikage if he's here!" He rolled his eyes and sped up his pace while making a rude gesture behind him to the general direction of the Hokage Tower where Senju-san was suppose to be. She became white noise.

An enemy appeared up in his peripheral vision and sent out a blast of sound in such a high frequency that it was unheard; he swiftly ducked under the aim and allowed his clone to stab downwards. As the backside has many muscles, therefore the clone stabbed many times. The enemy spat out blood before falling partly onto him. 'What is it to regain humanity?' He wondered as small drops of blood fell upon his cheek at the moment of clarity from his opponent before eyes closed. The question weighed him down like the dying man he held over himself as a shield from other attacks, 'Is it to feel remorse? I don't feel anything. Slowly, I've become numb, I can't feel any emotions except for those that are too strong to ignore. Is this a slow process?' He dodged around the enemy and continued sprinting to a smaller figure, Konoha genin, engaging with a larger female.

Jump over a kunoichi, a flick of his wrist, two kunais lodged into two eye sockets. His aim has improved enormously. "Naruto?!" Angles his head, he paused at the sight of his old teammate. Wide, disbelieving eyes, Sakura wasn't even covered in blood yet but was applying a minor genjutsu over the fields to help Hinata as she battled, hand to hand combat, with another ninja. Oh, Sakura wasn't alone, good, she wasn't as stupid as he thought she was. In the distance by the shadows of the road, he could see more members of the Rookie Nine using teamwork to catch the stragglers that managed to pass the main lines. The Rookies weren't disabling but full-out eliminating any threats. Most of the enemy nins were weak, the ones that the higher-ranking nins at the front lines looked over, strange, that.

This reunion was becoming increasingly awkward as seconds ticked by. No one else besides the pink-haired girl, who gaped at him like a stupefied fish, noticed that he was among their numbers. "Ah," he channeled chakra into his legs, not wanting to be bogged down, "Bye, Sakura-chan." He wondered how feral he looked, mouth with fangs and a tail behind him.

"Wait! Naruto!"

He jumped from roof to roof, Kumo shinobi ahead in the midst of a Raiton technique. A stray weapon hit his back with a low 'Thud'. Another swipe of blood, he used his arm to catch the man in the arm with two shurinkens and jumped to his side, used his claws that bleeded red chakra, and struck. 'How interesting, youki burns human flesh rather quickly.' The ninja screamed in pain, but then he aimed at the face and suddenly, there was a skull with pieces of flesh hanging off. He glanced down at his bloody claws with awe and then quickly ducked at an incoming barrage of kunai from the dead ninja's furious comrades. Switching places with a nearby bucket, he ran alongside the shadows before catching them at their blind spots and using his red claws… again, a shower of blood and strangled screams

Damn, his jutsu repertoire was still deplorable, and it still took precious seconds to get the Rasengan in its final spinning stages before it could be thrown forward. Not good at all. It seems like there is a special platoon to ensure his death, as he saw around ten shinobis and kunoichis surrounding every side of him. Their faces were covered but their body language betrayed their determined stance. Specifically, they were determined to kill him. 'Great,' eyes narrowed. Without speaking, twenty clones popped up beside him and as one, they all jumped to avoid the explosive tags thrown underneath. Each one held out their hands like they were holding a disk, chakra spiraled in their palms. They used their entire arm to hurl the attack forwards, one, two, and "Chakra endan!" On contact, the tags blew up.

The double explosion sent out a shockwave that took the shingles off of some moderately stable edifices nearby. Clones were gone; he was thrown into the air and somersaulting, trying to control his descent and not land on anything sharp. And his senses looked for the nearest inanimate object, a log, and he switched. On the ground, he panted while hearing voices around the corner, "Where is he? Where is the kid!?" and "Crap, half of us are already injured. Should have used Tactic B." Someone cried about their mangled legs. Too quick, everything was happening too quickly.

His clones had popped, relaying the message that Neko-chan was safe and that Hanabi was gone from her room. Hopefully, the Hyuugas haven't let her out of their sight. He got onto his knees and checked, nothing broken. The sleeves of his mess shirt are in rags; both arms are a mix of his blood and of others. He's bleeding in all places and still hasn't fainted from blood lost. He grasped on the handle of the kunai lodged in his back and jerked hard, narrowly avoiding some precious neves, hissing in pain as he wretched the weapon (kunais from Kumo are significantly larger than kunais from Konoha) out. Red chakra was pouring out of him and he could feel another tail of youki forming behind him, joining the first. A touch of blood smeared over a seal, he pulled Ushi-kun's sword out of his shoulder and two shurinkens from his wrist. It was really dark; he waited for his eyes to readjust. No, he must move, youki was distinguishable from human chakra.

Tsunade's voice shouted into his ears, "You idiot! You're the Hokage! We can't afford to loose you!" As he ran to the gates, the volume module on the headset was drastically lowered; he tilted his head toward the damaged walls and sniffed the air, drawing back his teeth when his brain registered snake and chemicals and rotting organs: Orochimaru. Tsunade, sounding furious over the transmission, ordered ANBU teams to follow him as guards. He scoffed, guards weren't needed, and who cared if he dies? He needed to get to the Hebi-Sannin right now, before all his other chances were gone to discuss a few topics pertaining to his own humanity. It brought closure, at the very least. If he was a clone, then does that mean that the imitation was as good as the original? He flicked out his two shurinkens which only made minor flesh wounds and got rather accurate hits from senbons that temporarily dislodged the nerves connecting to his arm. Those had to be pulled out quickly.

Also, as the Hokage, he should be facing his opposite equal in battle, right? Just sitting back and watch other people (his people, he should be thinking) doesn't agree with his conscious at all. Nobody would truly understand that it was what he was meant to do. The bastard was right there over the walls, waiting for him, to do what, it wasn't sure. But they both knew that this was it- what they both represented, their villages, were on the line. It was staked upon this single battle that would determine what will happen, what would be--- A single bound to the tops of the walls, the barrier seals granted him access. Hands… claws on the ledge, he leaned over and opened his mouth and tasted smoke that came from his lungs, and screamed, "Orochimaru!"

A rushing sound to the ears, going over the head, as he saw mouths moving but heard only wind swirling, swirling. Hearing a snarl-howl hybrid, it issued forth from his own mouth to attack the primitive conscious of people around, the parts of the mind that existed before ninjutsu, the parts that they are ashamed of, because it invited unrelenting fear. When humans were still the weakest beings on the planet that fear was their instinct to run or to end their own life to save themselves from subjecting to... Orochimaru, who had appeared in front of his troops, it was the real man, not a scented mud clone, held a curious and gleeful look on his face, too confident in his own skills, and perhaps he had the right to be arrogant. Under the visage was the same underlying base of jealousy and hate. He snarled again and felt his whisker marks dig deeper into his skin and another tail form behind him. "Hello my incomplete son. I'm happy that you know of your origins, now be good and submit to the purpose of why you were created."

It wasn't that he had gone completely mad; he couldn't hear anything but rushing sounds, but his brain still told him that he was telling Hebi-teme, "I know you and what you did. I saw everything. If you think that you can throw me off guard with the secret, you've got another thing coming!"

"Oh? And how does that make you feel?" The man sibilantly hissed, "Did you never belong with proper humans, unable to keep up with them because you were a freak of nature? I am one too, Naruto-kun."

(Tsunade warned, "You're control over the Fox is slipping. Careful!")

It was an offer to serve the Otokage. Hell no. He-ell No. He took out two shurinkens, hid one in the shadow of the other, and threw both of them out, using Kage-shurinken on the weapons so they multiplied to over a hundred, and aimed. It took a lot of chakra to replicate solid weapons, even more to copy the explosion tags hidden with a kitsune-genjutsu on the underside of the handles. Missed, but the explosion that proceeded was impressive. The aftershock did nothing but caress his hair and he withstood it like a mere wave of water. Too much smoke hindered his vision, the Otokage was gone and he was left vulnerable to any attacks, above, sides, behind, below… Skin dripped and bubbled with fire. With his claws, he weaved a triple-layered illusion of himself warily accessing his surroundings in place of his real self.

He held Ushi-kun's katana in his right hand, the bandages on the handle burning off, over his left palm and he commanded the flaming wave to surround his blade, increasing his control over the element. The sword was a channeling for his power, it make the difference like a brush compared to finger-painting. Fire was hot with the burning of a thousand suns.

Fire was unpredictable, like his own personality, tempered by steel and the memory of a loved one, 'Thank you, Ushi-kun.' He will burn the enemy into a crisp, count on it. Eyes grew lidded as he concentrated youki into his lungs, blew out fire from his mouth to the sword and arced the weapon over the entire battlefield, commanding the element to spread amass to the Oto troops and to torch the forests. (The forest will retaliate by sending Tenzo more nature chakra, willing the ANBU to the damaged area to repair the trees.) More clones with overloaded chakra coils popped up around him and dive-bombed off the walls, and exploded, decimating both Oto and some Konoha men and women, hopefully in smaller numbers.

A battle cry worthy of samurais rushed at him, the main flank was heading straight toward him. Let them, he grinned menacingly, he was ready for all of them. His body was filled with youki and he parried the blows from his enemies, and stabbed and slashed at them with frenzy. Couldn't bother to count, there was too many of them. They suddenly seemed so weak compared to him, slower to move, slower on the intake that, whoa, their arm is missing. He caught one on the underside of the jaw and forced the sword up. Then twists, deflecting two minor attacks, flip back; allow another ninja to take the brunt force. Shrug off their attacks like oil off the back. Thrust his sword forwards and took two at a time, kick back, claw in another's chest, rip out the heart. More blood, more blood, it was so… beautiful. With every kill, the urge for more enlarged. He grinned as blood splattered onto his lips, warm, coppery, he rushed forward, cutting a hostile's throat, latched on, and drank. And as he greedily sucked from the screaming nin, he felt his power rise and the air around him burn.

Strange that he became such an engrossing sight. The attacks temporarily paused for a second. Out of the corner of his eye, the sun caught something in the trees, glasses, Kabuto was watching. He looked up at the eyes of his enemies, licked his lips and grinned. They stared at him with a perfect mixture of disgust and fear, unwilling to attack him. How did he look? What a monstrosity he must be!

"Hokage-sama! What are you doing?!" Tsunade's shocked voice screamed. In a fit of annoyance, he took off his headset and lobbed it over to the direction where the wind was bringing a familiar scent of burning wood. He hurled his fire toward the contraption and crisped it beyond all repair. He knew, deep down, that the Slug-Sannin was right, his control was loosening, and he was becoming more animalistic. But the problem was that he didn't want to fight it, why should he when this state of mind was beneficial to him?

A smell of taint and fresh snake assaulted his senses. A familiar challenger who decided to come back and visit his home country, how touching. Inwardly Kyuubi howled in fury at the near feel of the Sharingan. Uchiha's chakra had always felt evil, this one more so than usual. He grinned at the appearance of a teammate he once, once, held dear. "Koinichiwa, Sasuke-teme." He purred.

Sasuke stood between two snakes that were as tall as trees, himself in the first stages of the Curse Seal's effects. He grew taller, transforming into something Sakura might have once mooned heavily for. The signs of boyhood were dissipating from his face and body and were replaced by hard lines that would later become a broken man. "Dobe," he acknowledged with a mocking sneer and then melted into the ground.

The dance started. Quickly, whip around, he stepped off the building with more clones around him, using chakra to anchor his feet into the building, he jumped back to avoid the Kusanagi's blow to the head. He jabbed at Orochimaru's chest, only to be blocked by a breastplate. Clang, God damn it! The Uchiha reappeared at his blind spot but the tell-tale signs of the chirping of a thousand birds. 'Where in hell were the other fighters? Too scared to help him? Was his youki able to kill his allies too? Well, who needs them?! I can do this by myself!' Sasuke activated the second stages of his Curse Seal; ugly winged like hands emerged from his back. Hand channeled chakra into a swirling red ball; with every intention to counter the Chidori with a large Rasengan. "Going to try the same thing again, Teme? Think that my death can help you achieve the Mankeyo?" He got no answer, "Hate to blow it to you. But you're not my friend anymore."

Narrowed eyes, furious, the Uchiha quickly diverted his Raiton attack to the ribs, "Did it occur to you that I'm simply trying to kill you to simply kill you, dobe?" which he dodged by jumping and took two kunais in the legs. "I'm ridding the world of a pest." The other nin smirked while starting hand signs for another Raiton attack. Smart, he learned that all Katon jutsus are useless against him. "If nature, if the world hates you, what use do you have to exist?"

"I still exist. Forsaken doesn't mean shit," he grabbed Sasuke's wrist and channeled youki into the skin, burning the skin away, and held on as the flesh at the area began to melt. It pained to hold onto him as much as it pained to being held by him. The youki and the black chakra fought against each other, intent on hurting the opponent as much as possible. Neither made a noise pain when they felt as is their nerves were on fire. "I'd… like… to think that I'm ten times the person… than you…" He was about to fling the missing-nin to the Hebi-Sannin when one of his bunshin's memories reinserted them into the forefront of his mind.

'No, not now.' He vainly tried to keep in the present, but this was one of the side effects to mastering the Kage-Bunshin. The clone was popped by Hanabi via tenketsu strike who was trying to escape from him, screaming that, "The real Naruto-kun nee---."

Just then, a pale hand glowing with black chakra slammed, open palmed over his stomach.

He woke up in a large, leaking chamber with pipes decorating the walls, standing before a sealed, barred cage and on instinct, he knew where his was. Malice drifted through as a haze. But despite it, he felt more human, able to reflect on how dangerous his small thread of control was at the warzone. Rubbing the back of his head, spilt milk didn't need to be cried over, he guessed. And he came out relatively unscathed right? Well, Tsunade was probably still inclined to rip his balls off. He shuddered.

Scratching noises were on the other side of the barrier; he looked up and saw two enormous red eyes staring him down. Shrouded in the shadows, the Kyuubi grinned, revealing two rows of sharp white teeth, "Welcome to our first meeting, my jailer, I hope it'll be memorable. In this realm, time has no bounds." The voice wasn't spoken, but aimed directly into the space of his mind, bouncing off the mental walls, shaking them. Some dust fell from the ceiling and into his eyes, he sneezed. The monster doesn't speak in a physical way, but projected its emotions into words; the general basis was glee and anger. "Tell me." The fox stared at him with malicious eyes, pronouncing each word slowly and clearly, "Do you know why you are here?"

He squinted into the darkness like a newborn to the light, feeling the need to step back but forcing himself not to, "It is because I am too weak. But," He used a half-gaze to the demon and stepped forwards, on the balls of his feet, "Your power belongs to me. You have to help me, it's only right; you take up a large expanse of my mind." This was his key to defeating Hebi-teme, stories of unlocked powers, just waiting to be useful. Try to convince that youki is a tool that ninjas use, just like Kekkei Genkais and shurinkens. At the height of its power, the fox was more menacing in real life than in his nightmares, he breathed in, sucked up all his courage, and held out a hand, "You paid too little I demand more rent." Amazing that his voice was steady.

The fox flung back his head. A high pitched laugh, rasping, "Even after you could barely hold together? Weak. I ask you, can you handle my power or will you burn?" Mocking, "Three tails is nothing, what about nine?" From the bars shot out nine tails, nine, scarlet, bloody tails that entwined him at the waist. White hot fire entered his skin and to his center core, moulding and condensing to make way for even more power, unending, rushing. It was like being touched by blades that came straight out of a burning forge from all sides and then on his innards that melted with the heat but was quickly repaired and melted again. Kyuubi's chakra was demolishing and rebuilding him at the same time and all the while, more and more entered through the tails.

The process took hours, maybe days to complete. His world was nothing but himself and the demonic energy. The monster's cruel laughter at his expense was one of the things he was able to register.

He also heard haunting screams and realized that it came from him.

Flung back into the real world, dodge a blow to the head, body condensed with energy, brimming at the top, reigning in the youki. Hands to the wall, he arced his body back and delivered a powerful kick at the Uchiha's torso and spring away from Orochimaru's reach, the Kusanagi made a glancing blow toward his arms. On the top of the alarm tower, he shook his head, making his vision bleed. His two key opponents shouted words at him which he refused to hear. His arms and hands were swamped in youki and he would hate to see his own reflection.

People were yelling at him, yelling for him. Fear and Hope.

And he allowed his unearthed knowledge work on automatic, his hand, still holding onto Ushi-kuns' katana, moved slowly in a circle, the beginning of a seal design, leaving a red afterimage in the air. He knew about the attack, he knew the design and the resulting force; it was like he dreamt of doing this before, but to the village, not for it. But that was years ago, years and years ago. The fox's power, which was painful in a way that they stretched his coils and blindingly hot, was poured into this one single attack. This better be enough. The array before him was full of inscriptions of fire and wind, of demon and chakra. Glowing and pulsing like a sentiment being, the array began to spin by his will. His throat was dry, lips were parched, there was no water, "Makai: Hiarashi."

And then he unleashed…

From the circle emerged a sample of the fire that once ended the world, a combination of Kami's wrath upon the lands and seas. It sought to destroy everything in its path, swirling fire and embers touched what it burned and burned what it touched, it was hard to control. Hands outstretched, right now, he was aiming the core of the flames at one single target, his own creator, Orochimaru. Sasuke will be dealt with later. Enemy nins collapsed on the spot due to the unbearable heat and never rose again. But fire has always been unpredictable. There was no symbolic creature at the head of the flames, but just the sudden burst of power, a vortex of a perfect FireStorm. The heavens shook and groaned, he saw red, and it was a clean burn, no fire, just destruction. Catharsis was the correct term, a purification of humanity. Clouds in the sky turned black as he fought for control. Obey… obey… Tears were smarting in his eyes and evaporating just as quickly, but the air had grown dry, turning everything into charcoal.

He saw the Sannin's eyes widen in shock, then terror, for just a second, and then engulfed. No one was able to save the Otokage, no one tried. When the offense swept by, there was nothing to prove the existence of the once great man. The fire surrounding him, he looked around, now to deal with the Uchiha.

He sensed incoming ANBU to whisk Sasuke away. When his vision began to clear, unraveling the pure chaos that he had created, all in different shades of black, there were skeletons littering the ground beneath him. He hoped that most of them were Oto and Kumo nins. A hand to swipe his bloody bangs out of his eyes, he looked behind him and saw nine tails fanning behind him languidly. And that was why he wasn't surprised when trees shot up from the grounds and curled around his ankles as more arched over him, so high that they blocked the sky, and swallow him, bathing him in Mokuton chakra. There was no time to even make a sound, Tenzo worked quickly. He felt the malicious power retreat back to the Kyuubi and his head clear to humanity. Slowly, his tails were neutralized along with the seals he had to the village.

He tiredly grinned. Unintentionally, Tenzo broke the last bonds he had to Konoha.

In the shadows of the creaking branches, he relived the last moments of the Yondaime Hokage. On top of Gamabunta, holding himself in a blanket, the working seal at the back of his mind, he listened closely to the large toad's grave speech, "The Kyuubi," the summon began, his voice in a rich timber, "is a being of chakra and fire, the servant to the gods. It sensed a threat in this world that might destroy its existence. Should this work and should the baby die; the Kyuubi won't necessarily perish with him, but would automatically be transported to its own world, unable to deal with the threat."

"And there still isn't any idea why a servant of Kami Inari decided to descend upon us with a fury that was only ever told in storybooks?" He murmured, gliding a finger upon the infant's smooth and cold cheek. The answer couldn't be found. The monster howled. But with the end so near, the destruction of Konoha didn't seem as important as it was now, not when it would all end soon. At the expense of his life. He sighed and tightened the blankets around the baby, his baby, his self.

The toad huffed out a sigh, "I think this is goodbye for now, Minato."

"You are wonderful, Gamabunta." He cheerfully replied, setting down the infant. He kissed the smooth and cold forehead, "Goodbye Naruto-kun, my dear legacy," and stood up with his hands moving quickly. This was it.

In the darkness, smelling nature at its finest, he cleared his thoughts.

Another bunshin had just popped; Tenzo was transporting Hanabi to safety. Oto troops were still fighting below but in a less organized fashion, now more desperate and vicious, knowing that if they were captured, they would have no room for negotiation as there was no leader. Apparently, they didn't identify Kabuto as the proxy. Most Kumo nins had abandoned the mission at the first sign of his power with the Raikage, leaving only stragglers. They were all going to die, the Konoha troops were picking them off like flies, he grimly noted.

He plucked off a leaf from the wood that encased him and tore it into small bit and watched them flutter to the ground. Then he grabbed another leaf and compared its appearance to the leaf insignia on his hitai-ate. His job was done; he was too tired to fight. Wallowing in his own pity and angst, he stared at his hands, the claws were gone. He felt tired and wanted to be left alone, no more puppet strings, no more manipulations. For his entire life, he was subjected under mind-controlling and binding seals. People in this village detested him, their behavior encouraging his self-destructive tendencies. They sabotaged and ridiculed him, all under belief that he was the Kyuubi and that he was unable to retaliate against them. Konohakagure was run by greed, fear, and the instinct to survive. Their presence choked him, metaphorically and often literally.

The mokuton jutsu around him finally unraveled him to the world. But he was still stuck in his own thoughts, unmoving. He doesn't want to keep looking over his shoulder for attacks and assassins. Once upon a time, Jiji used to protect him from danger. The old man was gone, Ushi-kun was gone, Yakumo-chan was gone. Who next? Hanabi? Neko-chan? Sai? What of this curse? He can't stay here- the village will continue to hurt him by killing all those he holds dear. They ruined his childhood and if he stayed, they will ruin his life and everything he has fought for. He longed to leave this personal hell.

He hated Konoha with all his heart. It was time he took a fresh start. Right hand reached up to rub at his face only to find that it was… wet? Oh damn, when did he start crying? He rubbed at his eyes and blinked rapidly when dirt and blood mixed with tears and started stinging.

The people looked at him with jubilant expressions, "Hokage-sama! You did it!" Cheers broke out among the crowds of the injured. They were far away enough that their celebrations weren't a hindrance to his thoughts. Medic nins arrived at the scenes, preparing for intensive care units. From storage scrolls, the medics took out various high tech equipment and aid packages, treating their patients with a brutal efficiency. From specific safe houses, civilians began to pour out and stared in shock at the damages and pure destruction done onto their beloved village. Some cried out in horror, rushing over to their once homes, others turned in upon themselves into a catatonic state.

A shadow passed by in the form of a giant winged bird, a clay bird to be exact. A gust of wind pressed down upon him. Remembering the message the bomber had sent out- aniki kept his word! Deidara had flown well above any arches above the walls and was closing in at a rapid speed. People ducked under his bird, too surprised to attack at the stranger who didn't look to hostile to begin with. Still, the bomber was too reckless in his actions, thank kami he was reckless. "Naruto!" He shouted, waving his arms. "Over here! What ha-"

"Deidara-nii!" He croaked and coughed, throat was still dry. "It's broken!" He proudly, as proudly as his tired self could be, with the limiting amount of coded words, "I broke it!" The seal was broken! He was free!

And what a twist of fate, this is his chance to leave! ANBU was far away from him, enabling precious seconds for the elder blond to come and sweep him into the sky. Nobody was near enough to stop him from abandoning everything here and hightailing out to remote areas of the wild. He was like Uchiha Sasuke now, isn't he? Both of them turned traitor on the village. Ah, the irony.

Body aching like no tomorrow, wounds, fried chakra system, more wounds, he signaled downwards. Stumbling forwards, he regained momentum, jumping to the roof of the tallest house in the vicinity. Ushi-kun's katana slid back into its sheath. One final leap, he grasped onto Deidara's hand. Deidara grunted as he singlehandedly hauled him up onto the back of the clay bird. His robotic eye clicked every time his other eye blinked. "Are we leaving?"

"The Hokage willingly went with the foreigner!"

He nodded, curling into the back of the elder shinobi and staining the fabric he touched, "I can't stand it here. This place has too many painful memories." Digging his face into the fabric- if he can't see them, they can't see him. He could feel the villager's mood turn from cheerful to shock.

"Come back! What are you doing, Naruto?! Come back!"

With understanding, Deidara replied, "Un," and thankfully didn't ask any other questions. A hand reached over and rubbed small, comforting circles on his back. "Rest and forget, Naruto-kun, rest and forget."

An elderly lady, Koharu, shrieked, "Stop them! He's our kage, he must not leave. Stop them! Danzo, do something!"

"And what," the cold voice, slightly amused, replied, "Do you suppose I should do?" There were fast footsteps, clicking noises, rushes of wind and fast-moving bodies.

"Jounin! Bring down the apparatus!"

"Katon: Goryuka no Jutsu!"

The clay bird swerved to the right to dodge the incoming flaming dragon. "Stop!" Someone yelled, more footsteps, "You'll harm the boy! Don't hurt him!"

He was leaving the populace below to their devices. It was his right to leave a village whenever he saw fit to. He shouldn't be feeling guilty about anything; so that feeling that is gnawing on his heart, it's not guilty. He can deny all he wants, it's not guilt. Tears ran down again from his eyes, he cried into Deidara's shirt. Soft sobs of relief racked his shaking body as he cried for the people that will never be in this village, for those he lost. There are still people he loved that are down there somewhere, will they feel betrayed because he's leaving? They should understand and comprehend his trials he had been through just to serve this village, against his own will. He should have the right to leave Konoha. And yet… He thought wistfully. And yet, no matter how bad it was Konoha is the place that shaped him to become what he is today.

No more thinking, thinking will make him regret. He can't regret his actions; this is all that he's left. Will they understand? Stop thinking, stop mulling. The mind blanked out, eyelids were heavy.

Shouts of outrage below him weren't so loud anymore as they rose in the sky, safely away from any attack. The farther they were from the village, the lighter he was, until he could walk on eggshells without cracking them. He rested his chin on Deidara's back and closed his eyes, blissfully succumbing to sleep. The hand that was rubbing his back ruffled his hair twice before going back to the clay bird.

No more puppet strings, he was free. This is the end and the beginning.

They flew over the rubble of the village walls and headed north with no other interruptions in their flight.

The Godaime Hokage had just gone missing-nin.

If I could rest by your heart and say these few words

Shouted to the sky with the glorious happiness never touched wrongly

We purge and become one of your thoughts

Away from our chains that we've never thought fondly

Goodbye

Goodbye

Keirakukei. Chakra coil system.

Makai: Hiarashi. Demon Realm: FireStorm.

Author's Note: Lines taken from Transition Anchor. I don't own Naruto.

And that's the end of FireStorm: it's been a long and hectic journey through this style of writing. I'm proud of this work, just not proud-proud of it- there were lots of ideas that I threw in there and never elaborated or played on. It wasn't necessarily a plot hole, but more of a plot bump. Anyways, never again will I experiment with something so grammatically incorrect that it sends editors into spontaneous conniptions just thinking about it. Well, if you can figure it out: the story isn't all that done. I was planning for a sequel, but it seems like I lost the will (Oh noez!) to continue on with this storyline, which was going to be called something along the lines of: Warfare. I know, creative, huh? So I was thinking that since I'm not even going to start on this non-existent story, I might as well give you the basic plot line- if you're interested. It's long and I've only touched upon the main points and none of the details.

Warning ahead-- faux-Spoilers.

Three years have passed since Naruto left Konoha with Deidara. The two of them have been hiding in the border towns between Ame and Suna where both leaders turn a blind eye to his presence. Naruto's new skills are a more proficient knowledge of seals and tactical, creative methods to use them, some handseal-less jutsu that he mastered simply because he uses those specific jutsus so many times (Kagebunshin, henge, kawarimi, shunshin, bunshin daibakuha, etc.), mostly wind jutsu of his own invention with some earth jutsus taught to him by Deidara and a smattering of water jutsus, his taijutsu is high-chunin level, and he has mastery over youki and fire. Hunter-nins were constantly after Naruto and Deidara but were always gone 'with a bang'. Hence, in the Bingo Books, they are both SS-class missing nins to 'engage only with adequate force.' During those three years, isolating himself from his previous contacts, Naruto heals from most of his mental abuse that he received over the years and adopts a personality that is a combination of his previous exuberance with a sort of sly humor that Namikaze possessed. He and the Kyuubi silently agreed on a status quo ante-bellum. The nightmares are still there and after every nightmare, he rubs the Hoshi no Tama between his hands for comfort. From the ashes and ruins of Iwa, there is a quiet threat that makes all the other hidden villages on edge, but no one from any village is able to infiltrate the 'Dead Lands'. They say that the threat is the Sage of Six Paths and his army of people he forced to fight for him. Iwa's refugees are scattered far and wide, the displaced have found new homes in streets, houses, backwoods, and caravans, usually supporting only one another, as they believe that they are forsaken.

Starting the story: Naruto and Deidara bumps into Genma who was returning from a reconnaissance mission from Kumo. Genma is started but happy to see Naruto and pleads that "Hokage-sama must return back to Konoha where he will be greeted with open arms." And here they learn that Danzo, true to Naruto's predictions, is ruling the village with an iron hand, said iron hand being Ne. Sasuke is locked in the village with his chakra sealed as a pariah. Friends of Naruto are still in political hot water but due to years of inactivity, Danzo's paranoia lessened by only a fraction.

Worried about Kumo's insurrection, Naruto decides to visit Kumogakure. He says his good-byes cheerfully to Gaara and, to an extent, Pein, and departs. The constants of the story are this- The basic idea of his travelling will be that day represents when he is cheerful and night represents his mourning for those who are dead and the people he left behind in Konoha. He constantly agonizes over his status as an imitation of a person, a clone. At night, Deidara tries to cheer him up by making small clay figurines and talking him out of depression. I'll try and emphasize their mock-sibling relationship here. Nobody truly recognizes the duo's true identity since they usually wear brown cloaks, heavy makeup, and a straw hat until they reached Kumo. Naruto is still addicted to his medication and now is also, with Deidara, an alcoholic.

While in Kusa, they skirt along the borders of Iwa and observe the wreckage. In Kusagakure, there is a man with amazing rhetoric, managing to convince his civilian audience that chakra, which is the source of ninja techniques, eventual war and death, is something to abhor. The civilians cheer, the Kusa ANBU drags the man away. The civilians boo. In Takigakure, a similar looking man from Kusa with the same story is hanging dead at the entrance cave systems. The leader, an apparently immortal man named Kakuzu, is bemoaning how the Normals are leaving his village and taking away his profit and the spoke-man had managed to influence the Shichibi into believing that as a demon, she is evil and therefore must be purged. After destroying half of the village in crazed rage, taking away Kakuzu's two hearts, the Shichibi was never seen from again. In Otogakure, Kabuto is desperately fighting off the Hi no Kuni persuasion that his land should be annexed into the larger nation. There are two political parties, one that wants to join the Leaf and one that wants to remain independent. The area is mostly poverty with people of deformed bloodlines. (Naruto briefly wonders what will be the product of two different bloodlines and imagines Siamese twins with six arms.) They stay in the area for half a year before Naruto finds an underground complex of Orochimaru's chain laboratories. Out of sympathy and a bit of glee, Deidara blows up the entire complex and leveling all the research facilities in the country. The two run off.

Here, the Kyuubi makes a minor appearance, it (It's not a he or she but a pure being of chakra) mocks Naruto by saying that he is now demon by morphing into a nine-tailed version of Naruto with red eyes. The fox informs him that by absorbing all of his youki, as that is what the seal is designed to do; Naruto will be more in tuned with his past. According to reason, the Kyuubi will be able to have say in Naruto actions, able to live vicariously off of him since they are now essentially one being and Naruto won't even know he's being influenced. The fox does not seem bothered by this and this, in fact, bothered Naruto greatly. In the future, this is the form that the Kyuubi takes to talk to its jailer.

Finally arriving to Kumogakure, Naruto and Deidara bump into the rebellion group which consists of Kirabi, the Hachibi, his elder brother, and their followers. Recognizing the Godaime and Deidara's bloodline, they ask him for help, Naruto agrees and names his price: room and board and a single prisoner from Kumo. The deal is set. Headquarters are in the mountain backdrops. For the next two years, Naruto uses Kage-bunshin to facilitate anarchy by committing public suicides, henging into protestors, and making numerous attempts at high officials, leaving only the Raikage untouched. Kirabi frees Nii Yugito from the basement of the administration building. Naruto realizes that the spokes 'man' isn't in Kumogakure because it is a pure ninja-village. Anyone looking like a civilian is still a ninja. Kirabi's brother's followers slowly worm their way into the higher echelons of Kumo's society, usually through underhanded measures (bribery, flattery, connections, sex…). Finally, they begin a slow takeover that finally results of a successful coupe and Kirabi's brother becoming the new Raikage. Naruto takes his prize, the alive (due to Orochimaru's experimentation when Kumo and Oto allied) and unwell, Hyuuga Hizashi.

Deciding that route via sea would be better; the three ninjas hitch a ride on a boat, traveling for some days only for the entire ship to encounter ninja pirates. After blowing up both the merchant ship and pirate ship, Deidara summons his giant clay bird and the three ninjas fly south because of a dream that Naruto had: Itachi, through a link that he managed to place in Naruto's head by the Mangkeyo Sharingan, has decided to tell him that the threat in Iwa has moved south to Suna at the same time Suna was holding its chunin exams. Apparently, Pein, being controlled by his ancestor's Rinnegan, had gone completely nuts and started a battle to draw attention away from the fact that there was an entire invading force at the gates and around the desert. Though Gaara put up a strong defense with his sand monsters and finally the resurrection of the Ichibi, he was seemly mortally wounded and taken away. This time, the invasion left nearly no survivors. The only Suna citizens, Sasori and his apprentice, Kankuro, fled to Konohakagure. There is a mini-tale that Kankuro's hair is forever a special shade of red from the stain of blood on that fateful day.

The Kyuubi adamantly, forcing pain by its will, refused to go to the country where Madara is. Instead, the trio stopped at Wave Country, where is, surprisingly, where Sai, Uzuki Yuugao, and her daughter, Gekko Ran, are monitoring and overseeing the trading of goods. There is a tearful reunion, Yuugao is still beautiful, kind, and skilled, Ran is epically cute, Sai is still an asstard but at least he has feelings. Sai also has a minor obsession with drawing Ran with his special ink, creating ink-Ran clones that the little girl can play with. The group stays at Inari's, who is ecstatic to see them. At dinnertime, Inari and his mother both make an discuss about the unrest between the ninja villages, making an offhanded comment about how ninjas and chakra are the source of all bloodshed, perfectly reflecting the ideas of the mysterious spokes-man.

With the distance between them now shorter and the connection stronger, at nighttime, Naruto and Itachi are able to communicate more easily through Naruto's subconscious link. In conclusion, Itachi is messed up. The Yondaime had given the Uchiha a mission to kill every single member of an Iwa bloodline clan that Deidara is a part of because every member of that clan knew of Namikaze's less than honorable origins. Especially after the war with them, Konoha citizens will not be happy that their leader claims his motherland was in enemy territory. The Yondaime had placed a seal on Itachi to ensure that he will be motivated to finish this task at all costs. At the death of the Yondaime, Itachi had to balance his attention between the Go-Ikenban, the Sandaime, and his own clan, already walking precariously along the border of insanity and sanity. The night the Uchiha clan planned to initiate their coupe, Itachi slew every single member except for his little brother, whom he loves. The thing was, Sasuke was not supposed to know that it was Itachi who massacred the clan, but was to think that his 'aniki' was also part of the body count. Trying to make the best of it with his messed up, sealed, and guilty brain, Itachi tried to have Sasuke become strong to redeem the clan. Sasuke became strong in the worst way possible. So free from a village, Itachi tried to bring rest to his mind and searched for Deidara, using his Sharingan to try and lure the Iwa-nin into a trap. But Deidara had fled to Konoha, met Naruto, and spent his time there creating a robotic eye that will repel genjutsu. The rest is history.

More news comes in, Jiraiya and Pein killed each other. Konan is forced to flee from Ame with her people as the Sage of Six Path's rage falls over her. Naruto recites the ninja mythological cycle. Takigakure falls. People are seen outside holding signs that say it's the end of the world. Hizashi and Naruto develop a certain rapport between them, through poker. The last night Yuugao, Sai, Ran, Hizashi, Deidara, Naruto, and Inari are together, they play a marathon of card games accompanied by sake (not Ran, of course, she got milk). After that, Hizashi left with the Konoha group with Naruto's parting words, "Don't get killed, and tell Neji I said, 'hi.'"

Naruto and Deidara go back north to Iwa, thinking that since the Sage has already left the country, maybe they'll have a hint as to what in the world is actually going on. For the entire 'world war' the countries have been operating blindly since they usually fall with seemly no opposition. At the heart of Iwa, they find a lot of 'dirt and ground' that has disappeared. Deidara whispered that it must be for a creation of the Chibaku Tensei. Over there, the Kyuubi rears its youki and Naruto falls unconscious.

Naruto, in his mind, and Kyuubi finally meet Namikaze Minato, who is amiable and unperturbed by the other two's hostility. Minato offers a solution by giving an in depth look at the immortal Sage of Six Paths. The Sage is the founder of chakra and its manipulator who shared his secrets to others, bringing the gift of ninjutsu and the birth of ninjas and eventually, the hidden villages. Ever since there were ninjas, people who held too much power that corrupts, there had been corruption, political assassinations, murder, theft, and bloody ninja wars. Viewing himself as a civilian, the Sage witnessed numerous counts of where innocents were harmed in the crossfire, mutilated bodies, heart-broken families, abysmal living conditions, damages to a mentality of a generation. With this guilt, the Sage vowed that he would take back his gift of chakra by removing the definition of ninjas. In reality, he had declared war on the world.

Horrified, Naruto realized that with this reasoning is wrong, Minato agrees, Kyuubi is silent. Before he leaves his subconscious, Naruto asks, "Am I human?"

Minato replies, "It doesn't matter; you are my legacy."

Feeling the need to warn what is left in the world, Naruto and Deidara, who has been busy trying to negotiate an alliance with Kumo, returns and rushes both of them over to Konoha, where they enter secretly by Sector Thirty-Seven. Ayame happily meets them and brings Hizashi, who is reintegrated into the Hyuuga clan, over so that he can escort the two nuke-nins to the Hokage Tower.

Danzo, the Rokudaime, agrees that the threat of too much for Konoha and listens with no emotions about Naruto's findings, hinting that if they survive this battle, Naruto will be punished for his actions. Naruto doesn't believe it. Danzo reveals that he has taken many preparations by accelerating the Ninja program and adding more tests of loyalty and subservience into both the civilian and ninja life. There are Ne agents, sort of like 1984's Thought Police which patrol the conversations at public areas. 'Traitors' are executed. The new Ninja program is more intense. The suicide rate of Konoha is absurdly high. It's all… wrong.

For the time, Naruto is sent back to Yuugao's apartment. On his way there, most people do a double-take, whispering that he is the Yondaime who has returned from the dead to protect them. The Konoha Twelve drags Naruto into a discussion over dinner, like a repeat of what happened after the Oto-Suna chunin exam invasion. Naruto is again updated, treated like a Hokage, about the doings of the village and the training regime that is mandatory. The ninjas have less freedom and are forced into more missions that sometimes are too much for their skill level. Naruto also gets briefed on how each person of the Konoha Twelve improved. Neji, Sasuke, and Shino are ANBU members. Neji profusely thanks Naruto for rescuing his father. Kiba is a hunter-nin. The kunoichis are getting special medic training: Sakura is finally Tsunade's apprentice, Hinata is the head of her clan, Tenten is a weapons mistress, Ino works with Ibiki. Lee has surpassed Gai. Shikamaru is a tactical commander and Chouji has mastered his clan's techniques.

The Konohamaru corps is all strong chunins under Ebisu and are all exuberant as ever. Tsunade slapped Naruto hard before hugging him. Naruto tells Kakashi, "Minato says, 'yo, kashi-kun.'" While Naruto was playing games with Ran, he sees Hanabi walk by with a hitai-ate over her forehead. The two of them engage in pleasant talk before the younger Hyuuga couldn't hold her happiness in anymore and hug her friend. Naruto and Shikamaru play three Shogi games, at each one has three separate debates, one over the meaning of friends and acquaintances, one over imitations and clones, and one over the morals of a ninja's job- is it honorable or reprehensible, a justification to kill?

The next day, there is a meeting with the Go-Ikenban and the Hokages. They outline the details of the battle, unsure of their enemy numbers; they decide that instead of outflanking, they'll fortify the walls and pick off the hostiles. Naruto learns that Konoha, with the farming district of the still private Sector Thirty-seven, is still-sufficient. They discuss their allies, their jinchuuriki's, the conscious of the Sage and the mythological cycle. Due to the fact that Konoha is still in virtual lockdown since that time more than three years ago, the spokes 'man' now revealed to be a 'path' of the Sage, was not able to enter the village to influence the minds of the civilians without rousing suspicion. Shikamaru adds in more details and the plans are finally submitted to the Nara clan to iron out any inconsistencies.

A week later, the Sage of Six Paths, along with all of his Paths, the Normals, the Daimyo's samurais and anyone who is not a ninja comes knocking on Konoha's footsteps. The Normals believe that they're doing the right thing, that ninjas are evil and demonic and bring nothing but blood and death. After barely managing a day and night of defense, allies from Kumo help to try and fend off the invaders. The Deva path activates a modified version of the Chibaku Tensei and brings down a round ball of mass and Earth that resembles the moon that takes away three-quarters of the village's infrastructure. The ninja forces manage till the afternoon before the west wall starts to crumble. At this moment, forces from Kiri, led by Itachi and Yagura, block the hole and start to destroy with their signature attacks. Kirabi and Nibi destroy the Deva Path and the Animal Path but not before Deidara dies by having his soul ripped out by the Human Path. Naruto goes bat-shit crazy and blows out two-thirds of the enemy lines with a big blast of acidic-fire oriented chakra. He grows eight tails and is about to be consumed by the Chibaku Tensei. Sensing his loss of control, appearing out of thin air, Madara activates his eyes and forces all of his chakra into Naruto's stomach seal, sacrificing his own life and releasing the Kyuubi, giving the order to destroy the Sage and to disappear back to Makai. Madara cites his reasons as his only redemption, says goodbye to the world, and is gone. Naruto falls unconscious.

In his dream, Naruto meets the Kyuubi as a tall, red-haired man with nine tails and whisker-scars. Kyuubi revealed that it had torn through the Chibaku Tensei and obliterated the Sage of Six Paths. They muse about the thoughts of the Sage and whether he was morally right or wrong, with Naruto finally deciding, "To hell with it. We live with what we do, we face our consequences. It's too late anyways; I'll still choose this life over everything else." The Kyuubi mutters about Inari's wrath and prepares to leave with more sanity than was ever seen before. Before leaving, the Kyuubi ruffles Naruto's hair and says, "Good-bye."

A month later, Naruto wakes up at the hospital with the celebration outside the building, or what's left of it, still going strong. Hanabi and Shikamaru are sitting at his bedside. It turns out that Danzo was killed sometime in battle; Shikamaru is now the new Hokage. He talks about rebuilding, treaties, negotiations, and recreating and how the Go-Ikenban demands that Naruto, the jinchuuriki, stays with them.

Feeling a familiar pain on the top right side of his chest, Naruto starts breathing heavily and crying and asks Shikamaru to, "Take it off." Shikamaru is alarmed by this and asks to clarify, to which Naruto says, "As the Hokage, you bind yourself to the powers of this village without anyone else binding it to you. You have to power to free me, take it off. I can't stay here imprisoned again, let me free."

Shikamaru understands and wordlessly wills away a second chain-seal on Naruto's chest. Naruto hugs both of them: Shikamaru is stoic but sad, Hanabi cries. He returns the Shodai's necklace to Tsunade baa-chan. He joins an entire day at the festivities, only able to watch because of his injuries, chakra burn. At night, he kisses Ran on the head, hugs Yuugao, and gives a man-hug to a bemused Sai. At dawn, he marvels at his lack of nightmares and visits an unmarked grave and say goodbye to Deidara.

In the morning, he is gone and never seen again.

End Spoilers.

I kind of have another Naruto idea in the works. But we'll see.