Phew. Took long enough, and they're lots of reasons for the wait, but here's the next chapter nonetheless. Loaded with action too, so enjoy.

Shikamaru and Ino ran hell-bent through the forest, their feet pounding on the high tree limbs and the veins in their legs pumping with blood and exhaustion. The Nara glanced back with a worried grimace, the blood on his face cool in the rushing wind.

"Is he there?!" Ino cried, her eyes as terrified as her teammate's.

"I don't see him!" he shouted, "Just keep moving!"

Ino squeezed her eyes shut, tears beading in the corners. "I don't wanna die, Shikamaru!"

"Shut up, Ino!" he berated her, eyes also welling with hot tears. "Just shut up!"

"But…" she argued, body strained to its limits, "But after that?! What can we do?!"

"I don't know!" His frustration kept mounting and he couldn't think clearly. The blonde crying at his side didn't help matters any. "Just keep running!"

And so they did. The two members of Asuma's team ran through the trees without regard for stealth. Even if another squad saw them, they would provide an ample distraction for the horror following them. If only they'd left it alone…

An eternity brought them to a break in the trees. Blinding sunlight shown through the crack in the canopy, casting dark shadows and painting the area in bright contrasts of green and gold. Even the bloodstains smeared into the ground held a kind of majestic beauty, the brilliant sunlight washing over them as a natural spotlight.

Ino landed on one such smidgen of blood and slipped with a yelp. She crashed on her back, smearing fresh gore all over her stylish outfit.

Shikamaru stopped and turned back for her. "Ino!" he reached out in haste, "Get up! Quick!" He was about to grasp her hand when he felt a presence watching over them. His eyes darted to the side and he leapt back just in time to miss being impaled by a spear.

Said weapon sailed into a nearby tree and wobbled, a severed head stuck to the center dripping black bile and oozing clear and crimson gore from its pierced eye socket. Ino gaped and crawled away from the disembodied head while Shikamaru drew a knife to face the unseen foe.

"Where are you?!" the Nara shouted. The foliage was dark under the abysmal shadows, and the owner of the pike could have been anywhere within.

No answer came for several seconds, and Ino scrambled to her feet. "Let's get out of here," she whispered, voice subdued by the bloody head. "We've gotta get out of here, Shikamaru…"

Shikamaru stiffened and Ino froze in reaction; a silhouette moved in the shadows and approached them. Another few seconds and the figure stepped into the open- black clothes soaked in dark blood, crimson belt catching the wind, and an amused smile that couldn't have been mistaken for anything other than brutality.

"N-Naruto!" Ino cried, "What are you doing here?!"

"Ah," he recognized them, "It's you guys. Couldn't quite make you out from there." The blonde strolled towards them and they unconsciously backed away. Shikamaru kept a suspicious eye on him the whole time while Ino gazed at him with shell-shocked eyes.

"What are you doing here?" the shadow user asked, trailing his drawn weapon against the Uzumaki. "He didn't take the written test and he wasn't at the gates. And those clothes…"

Naruto grinned at the boy in maniacal triumph. "Just getting my weapon." He approached his stuck spear, grasped the bladed end, yanked it from the tree, and slid the mutilated head off with a sickening squelch. "Didn't expect to run into you guys here."

Ino's eyes widened in realization; Naruto killed this man… and cut his head off before impaling it on the spear. She trembled in fear and shivered in sight of the blonde; he was every bit as terrifying as the horror chasing her. "Oh God…" she muttered, "He's Anko's partner!"

Naruto heard her and regarded her with a disturbing smile. "You're smarter than you look," he aimed the bladed end of his spear at her, "Too bad brains don't matter when you're dead."

Shikamaru leaned forward with wide eyes. "Wait- you're Anko's partner?"

The blonde killer glanced at the Nara with suspicion. "Yeah… why?"

But before Shikamaru could answer, a bloody mass of hair and flesh flew from the trees and smacked the ground before rolling away in uneven patterns. All eyes traced the thing's path and recognized the remains once it came to a halt.

Ino almost fainted, but her tiny voice merely faltered. "C-Choji…"

Shikamaru, however, knew the further implications. The world slowed as he turned to the darkness from which Choji's head came, and the rustling shadow coming for him was preceded by a lone tail…

The undergrowth exploded, a spine of scythe blades reaching out for anyone in its chaotic path. Ino and Shikamaru ducked the instant the hot steel touched flesh, although the shadow user wasn't quite as agile as his female teammate- he sustained a massive gash across the left forearm that left him on the ground.

Naruto, however, wasn't so lucky- try as he might, the weapon coiled around him as though he were its target. Several scythe blades dug into him, tearing into his vitals as the cable wrapped around him haphazardly. He winced at the sharp pain but didn't look to be affected otherwise. "Oh, damn it…"

The bladed cable went taut and a man approached with the other end in hand. His bare arms dripped with blood and his black clothes mirrored Naruto's in color and substance. The simple circled triangle pendant around his neck gleamed in the sunlight, reflecting the light in Naruto's bright eyes and equally shiny pendant.

"Deadman…" the blonde immortal addressed the newcomer with no shortage of disgust. "When did you get here?"

"Uzumaki…" he regarded said killer with a snarl and eyes brimming with hate. "I found you."

"Why are you here?"

Deadman's lips curled into a disgusting smirk. "To exact punishment for your sins."

"My sins?" He quirked an eyebrow. "What sins?"

He tightened his grip on the unique weapon. "You've become attached to the Hyuuga girl. This must be punished."

Naruto pursed his lips in dissatisfaction. "I'm not attached to her."

"Affection clouds the mind and stays the killing blow," he quoted from Jashin's scriptures, "You're committing the greatest sin against lord Jashin, and I'll be damn sure you pay the price."

The blonde grit his teeth in anger. "Fuck you!" he screamed, "What do you know?! I kill for lord Jashin, without discrimination!"

Deadman's eyes darkened with hatred deeper than any sea. "And yet you won't kill the Hyuuga girl."

"She dies when I say she dies!"

"And I'm telling you she has to die now!" Deadman lost it, shrieking against Naruto in a voice from hell. "If you're going to kill her one day, kill her now! It won't make a damn bit of difference! Why do you hesitate?! You've had your fun, now finish the job!"

"Lord Jashin says nothing about when we kill- only that we do!"

"And the longer you wait to kill her, the longer it'll take for lord Jashin's second coming!"

Naruto fumed, his face turning as red as Deadman's before he shouted in retaliation. Ino and Shikamaru, confused beyond reason, scooted away from the unholy argument as quietly as possible. Thankfully, the two immortals were too wrapped up in the verbal battle to pay them any mind.

The Nara was solely focused on escaping in one piece, but Ino couldn't help overhear the immortals' words. "Naruto has to kill?" she wondered, "And he has to kill Hinata? Why?"

The blonde immortal's shrieks rang in Ino's ears. "We're allowed to do anything as long as we kill for lord Jashin!"

"Listen to yourself! You pledged to live for lord Jashin, and now you think you can back out?!" The whites of Deadman's eyes flooded with wet crimson as blood cells burst under his rage. "This isn't one-way, Uzumaki! You kill for lord Jashin, and you do it without any regard for yourself!"

"Where's the fun in that?!"

"There is no fun! Look in a mirror! You're a testament to lord Jashin's power! You can pretend all you want, but you're still immortal- you've already taken a side! You must kill in lord Jashin's name!"

Naruto sneered, but Deadman's words hit a chord. "He's right," he knew, "Friends, a normal life… even if I had all that, at the end of the day I still serve lord Jashin. I pledged to kill in his name for all eternity…" A lump formed in his throat and his eyes flittered at the depressing prospect. He calmed himself and took a few deep breaths before speaking. "I know… I know. But what about what I want?"

Deadman snorted and replied with a lowered tone. "What we want is irrelevant, because we'll never have it. This is something that can never change, no matter how much we fight it."

The Uzumaki felt the bladed cables loosen by the smallest fraction and decided to go for it- he flung his arms out and freed them. "I can still take what I want and serve lord Jashin…"

Deadman flipped his bloody arm in a circle, ensnaring the blonde once again by whipping more of the weapon around him. "Spoken like a true believer," he stated with a wry sneer, "But your words will be worth more if the Hyuuga's taken care of separately."

Naruto froze, partially because he was captured again. "What did you do?"

His lips parted in a smile befitting a demon. "The Telsel twins are heading to pay her a visit. Should be quick."

The blonde's brilliant eyes widened to display something they hadn't since his conversion; fear. It was only for a moment, and Deadman missed it because he blinked, but Ino caught it. The second passed and Naruto strained against the bladed weapon with renewed vigor. "You son of a bitch! The Telsel twins?! Are you out of your fucking mind?! She's mine!"

Deadman scowled as he put more effort into restraining the treacherous comrade. "Her life belongs to lord Jashin, and since you won't deliver it, they'll be ones to do it."

"You can't do that! This is my city- my territory! Not yours!"

The hot malevolence drained from Deadman's eyes and melted into a cold stare that echoed something eternal. Something that transcended mere violence and rage, and rang with more anguish than any one lifetime could temper.

The true face of evil.

"Heretic." The immortal's voice was deep and neutral, a menacing sign to anyone who'd heard him speak before. That single word said all that needed saying before an errant shadow crept upon Deadman. "What the hell! Again?!"

All eyes swung to Shikamaru as the boy lowered his hands to nurse the massive gash in his arm. Deadman copied the movement, releasing the cabled scythes as a result, and the Nara sported a weary grin when Naruto instantly fought to free himself from the many blades buried in him.

"Shikamaru!" Ino saw the exhaustion in his eyes, "What are you doing?! You're too injured to keep this up for long!"

"I know," he sighed, chest heavy from blood loss. "That's why you should get outta here now. I'll… hold him off for as long as I can."

Ino's eyes welled with tears- she'd already lost one friend today, but to lose another so soon? "This can't be happening…" she thought, "This… this is just a nightmare… just a bad dream!"

Shikamaru saw Naruto yank the final scythe from his side and placed a rough hand on his teammate's shoulder. "Ino, move!" he shoved her, "Get going! I can't hold him for long!"

The Yamanaka hesitated- she didn't know what to do. Naruto was free and already running, and Shikamaru was pushing her towards him. Ino panicked, surrendering to instinct and following after the mutilated blonde. She glanced back with hot wet eyes every few steps, still trying to fully comprehend that this would be the last time she saw her teammate.

"I'm sorry, Shikamaru! I'm so sorry…!"

When Ino was finally out of sight, the shadow user smirked to himself. His arm ached, blood oozing out onto the ground as his body strained to maintain the restraining technique. His legs shook, his strength dripping from his body with every drop of blood and his vision fading with every passing second.

In his mind, Shikamaru was slowly accepting the inevitable. "It didn't work the first time," he knew- Chouji proved that, "It won't work for long again. At least Ino's safe… and she's got Naruto with her. He'll keep her alive…" He swallowed hard; his throat was sore. "…I hope."

All the while, Deadman cursed up a storm; the young ninja felt the bloodlust and mounting rage rolling off the immortal like so many rivers. He didn't bother turning his head to look at the furious killer, and he didn't fight the urge to run when his tired body could take no more and freed his captor from the shadow. He gazed through the bright canopy above to see the clouds for one last time, the final view that would send him off from the mortal coil.

He frowned; it might have been his imagination, but he could have sworn that a handful of clouds were shaped into an open smile.

An instant later, hot crimson blurred his vision, then nothing more.

-----

Naruto never ran so fast in his life- the trees and foliage blurred brown and green in his peripheral. Even the other presence alongside him was nothing more than a purple smear. Normally he would have minded the company, but the impending loss of Hinata was far more prevalent.

Ino, however, was terrified. Her mind had finally wrapped around the reality that her team was dead and that she could very well be next. Tears streamed across her cheeks and her lungs heaved unevenly- death was so close, and it was smiling. "I…" she stammered, still trying to make sense of it all. She couldn't, so she resorted to the only thing to which she could relate. "Naruto!"

The blonde glared back at her, annoyance clear in his brilliant eyes. But he didn't say a word.

"W-who was that?! What was he talking about?!" In the desperation to ignore her dire situation, she came up with anything and everything. "And what was all that about Hinata?!"

He ignored her and looked back to the imaginary path.

"Why do you have to kill her?!" She especially didn't understand that, and the notion of death watered her eyes with fear for her own life.

Once again, Naruto said nothing.

"I don't understand!" She was openly crying now, running for her life. "Chouji… Shikamaru… why did they have to die?! Why does anyone have to die?!"

Naruto grit his teeth; Ino's emotional outburst was infectious.

Her eyes were blurry- she followed the black smear in front of her while she practically emptied her soul to it. "Why do you have to kill anyone?! What did they ever do?! What did Hinata ever do?! What did I ever do?!"

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. The Uzumaki jammed his heel into the ground and twisted back, slamming his bleeding palms into the Yamanaka's shoulders and driving her to the ground.

"Will you shut up!"

Ino blinked in surprise at the angry outburst. But the shock wore off and her eyes welled with tears again. "P-please!" she begged, forcing herself to her feet, "I don't want to die!"

She stumbled to him in her sobbing stupor, and that threw him off guard. It wasn't so much that she was a surprise threat, he was simply confounded by the sight. "This… has never happened before…"

She approached him, her arms out for what looked to be an embrace. "I-I'm begging you, Naruto…"

He sneered at the perceived contact and swept her legs out from under her. Predictably, she fell, but that wasn't the end of it.

She'd tumbled forward, caught herself, and lurched forward on her knees, ensnaring Naruto's feet in the process. At this point, she was delirious; was Naruto as heartless as Deadman? Was he worse? All she knew was that she didn't want to die, and being next to him was her best chance for survival.

However, he disagreed. He freed one of his feet and stomped on her back. "Let go of me!" he shrieked, rage building when she refused to release him. "Get off me! Stop following me!"

But the kicking didn't register as malevolent in her hallucinating mind- they were nothing more than impulse moves. None of them really hurt enough to belong to someone aiming to kill her, and that was all that mattered to Ino's muddled brain. "Please, Naruto," she whimpered through the onslaught, "I-I'll do anything you s-say, I'll do w-whatever you want, I'll h-help you s-save Hinata, just p-please save me!"

That struck the blonde harder than any kick, and he stopped for a moment.

Ino looked up now that the blows ceased, her eyes red, face streaked in tears, and voice shaky from fear. "P-please… save me…"

Naruto stared at her with harsh eyes, wondering how to respond to that. He'd never been in this position before with someone groveling at his feet, asking for his help, offering anything he wanted in return. For the first time in his life someone consciously entrusted their life in his hands. The fear in Ino's eyes was as plain as day to him, and he took a few long seconds to really think about it.

He realized what he was thinking of doing- saving someone's life to save another. But this was Hinata he was thinking about… and that was the problem. "Why am I so worried about this? Deadman's right- she has to die. She's my responsibility- I have to kill her…" He wouldn't admit it, even to himself, but he didn't want the Hyuuga to die so soon. She was his, and it was his decision when to kill her… right? That was enough, wasn't it? Jashin never decreed anything about killing quickly, did he? Did it even matter who killed her, whether it be him, Deadman, or the Telsel twins?

He bared his teeth at the world, wishing he never had to deal with this conflict. What would it matter if the Telsel twins murdered Hinata… his Hinata in his territory?

In this line of reasoning, he found his logic. "No… this is my city, my rules. It has to be ME, and no one else!" With a hope and silent prayer that his actions weren't irredeemable in Jashin's eyes, he regarded the blonde girl before him.

"Get up," he whispered. When Ino didn't move from his feet, he bent over and jerked her arm. "Stand up!"

Ino gazed at Naruto as he pulled her from the ground, a heavy burden lifting off her shoulders. In all honesty, it was the most relief she'd ever felt at one time- Naruto, however brutal his reputation and cruel his speech, was agreeing to save her life after his associate threatened it. Her heart still remembered the terror of watching Choji being torn asunder and the guilt of leaving Shikamaru to die, and she still felt the heaviest sorrow anyone could endure…

But in a way, everything was okay now. She would spend years recovering from the trauma of today, but she was safe now, all thanks to the blonde immortal. She couldn't help but look at Naruto and see him differently- no longer a heartless mystery who isolated himself from the world. However small, there was something human to him now, and it took this tragedy for her to realize it.

The moment the immortal let her go and she could stand properly, she pushed forward and embraced him tightly, her tears streaming onto his shoulder. "T-thank you…"

Naruto froze for an instant then shoved her away, the look on his face displaying his begrudging discomfort at physical contact. "Don't… just…!" he sputtered, wanting to scream at her but also trying to process what just happened. He couldn't do either simultaneously, and he idly wondered how soon he would regret this decision. "Just follow me."

Ino watched him turn and nodded, tears still warm on her face and a smile creeping onto her face. "He's a good guy after all…"

And so they ran, and they ran hard. Ino could barely keep up with the immortal, amazed at his prowess. Naruto could have cared less about the girl being spattered with blood from his open wounds; his mind was focused solely on reaching the Telsel twins before they found Hinata.

"Naruto," Ino's voice finally found his ears, and he whipped over to find her by his side. He glared, not wanting to reply. "How are we going to find Hinata?"

He stared back at the path, seemingly blotting out the world. "We aren't."

That confused her. "Then who…?"

"The Telsel twins."

"I… see…" She remembered that name from Deadman's furious ranting. "How will we find them?"

He glanced at her, wondering how much wisdom to impart to her. Truthfully, he didn't know much either, but it was enough. "They're younger than I am, and they're batshit crazy. It won't be hard to find them. Just listen for a child's rhyme."

She frowned, trying to understand Naruto's world now that she had invariably intertwined herself with it. "How… how can I help?"

He didn't bother looking at her again. "What can you do?"

"I…" She wiped a blood drop from her face, still distancing herself from Shikamaru and Chouji in her mind. "I can transfer my mind and possess the enemy with my family's technique…" She gazed at the blonde beside her, trying to read him and failing miserably.

His voice was devoid of feeling. "Would you feel their pain?"

She clenched her teeth; this wouldn't end well, she could tell. "Yes."

"Would it kill you?"

"N-no…" She rubbed a soreness on her leg. "As long as my body is protected…"

Naruto snorted in thought. "Guess there's only one way to use her." He glanced at her again and saw something in her eyes he'd never experienced before. It was a spark he'd never seen in Anko's eyes, and not even the Hyuuga sisters regarded him this way. "What?"

She shook her head. "Nothing, just… you're really doing this to save Hinata?"

He glared at her; 'save' was almost as taboo as 'friend' in his world.

Ino took his silence differently. "I was wrong about you. You're not a monster… in fact," she ran a little closer to him, "You're… ah!"

The immortal tumbled to the ground alongside Ino before frantically searching for an enemy. His heel burned with a sharp pain, and he noted that his Achilles tendon had been sliced through. Ino's newfound shrieks caught his attention, and her clutching and clawing at her leg told him that hers was cut as well. His mind raced for a reason behind the sudden wound, but it only took a moment to figure it out.

The blonde killer spotted the smallest of cuts on Ino's thigh just below the bandage leggings- an insignificant injury that gave the barest amount of blood. "Deadmen nicked her back there," he realized, "And now both of us are caught in lord Jashin's gift…"

Naruto pulled himself to his feet then fell to his knees again. His right lung ruptured, and new wounds cleaved across his heart. The pain was great, but nothing he hadn't inflicted on himself before. Ino, however, was another story.

The Yamanaka cried out in pain and rolled onto her back with eyes wide and chest heaving for air. She couldn't think through the pain, much less form a coherent sentence. "Happe…ning?" she gasped.

Jashin's young immortal sucked air through his teeth and glanced at her. "Deadman's trying to slow me down. Looks like he mixed a drop of your blood into mine…"

Chest still pumping for air, her eyes stared at him with the most intense fear he'd seen in a while. It wasn't a terror like Hinata's cold eyes, but there was a certain… satisfaction in them. Certainly more than Hinata had produced as of late. Naruto blinked after what felt like an eternity to find himself leaning closer to the dying girl in reaction to her horror. "It's been a while since I've seen someone so afraid… almost forgot what it was like."

"Na…ruto…" she could barely speak, "S-save… me… please…"

He frowned and grit his teeth; what did he do now? Deadman had obviously meant to slow him down with the sudden pain, so he was assuredly on his way. If he left Ino to die, he might slow Deadman down a little bit… "But would it be enough time? Will Deadman even stop to finish her off?" He shifted his legs to launch himself to his feet and run, but a sudden tug at his arm stopped him and commandeered his attention.

Ino had grabbed the end of his sleeve in desperation. "N…aruto…" dark blood pooled in her mouth and oozed forth, "I… don't… want to… die…"

Naruto stared at her, a little surprised at her resolve to live. More than that, she was still entrusting her life to him, something he'd never seen another do. Every victim he'd ever sacrificed fought the desperate battle for life tooth and nail even with the knowledge that it would be in vain, but no one ever sought out the assistance of another, especially not him. It was an odd thing seeing someone so focused on living yet maintaining enough composure to seek out another. It reminded him a lot of his own resolve as a child.

He knelt over her again, once again at the crossroads of whether or not to save her. "She's bleeding out," he analyzed, "There's nothing that can save her, not now. Unless…"

An idea struck him, one that he knew wasn't considered heresy. Frowned upon, perhaps, difficult, absolutely, but Jashin would approve of it. The blonde immortal gazed blankly into Ino's frightened eyes as he brought forth his javelin.

"Ino, how badly do you want to live?"

She stared at him with inherent confusion breaking through the agony.

"Would you do anything to survive? Absolutely anything?"

She choked on the blood and nodded, her eyes telling him everything he needed to know. With that, he got to work.

He wiped a dollop of blood from her lips and smeared a hasty circle beneath her, followed by a bloody triangle. In a matter of seconds, Jashin's mark was completed with Ino's blood, the girl herself lying atop it. Naruto brandished his javelin to the sky and held his free hand out in a grandiose gesture. "Hope I remember the prayer right…"

"Lord Jashin!" he called to the sky, "Your humble servant beseeches you, that you may grant through him your gift of eternity to the mortal upon your eyes! Bless only the strong with your gifts, that they may serve you for all their days until your coming! In your glory, lord Jashin, amen!" With that final cry, he plunged the javelin to the center of the mark, directly over Ino's heart. This was the first time he'd ever performed a conversion, and as the blade moved through the air, he wondered if he'd performed the incantation correctly.

Sadly, he would never know. Mere inches from the Yamanaka's heart, a foot slammed into his gut and tossed him aside like a rag doll. He sucked in a breath and recognized his assailant- that freak with the eyebrows and green leotard on Sasuke's team. He slammed into the ground several meters away from Ino, but his attacker didn't stop there. Before Naruto could recover and bring his blade to bear in retaliation, Lee disappeared from view and slammed another foot into his chest, knocking him back further. Only then did the experienced genin let up.

Naruto coughed and wheezed as he stood. "You…" he hacked up a lung, "Son of a… bitch! What do you think… you're doing?!"

Lee stood at odds with him in a wide stance, ready to act on the slightest move. "Protecting a fellow ninja from being murdered in cold blood."

The immortal sneered at the close combat expert and noticed the others come out of the woodwork. The girl with the buns in her hair rushed over to Ino's prone form while Sasuke backed up Lee. But to Naruto, the Uchiha might as well have been alone. "Sasuke…"

"Naruto," the genius spoke, "I'm surprised to see you here. I never thought you'd be the proctor's 'comrade'…"

Tenten shouted over the two, wishing to be heard. "You monster!" She tore through her medical bag as fast as she could. "How could you do this to someone from your own village?! From your own goddamn class!"

Lee spoke up, still unmoved from his stance. "I agree, Uzumaki. How one could be this cruel to someone who's never done you wrong… it is unforgiveable!"

Naruto's eyes boiled in rage and he ran at the green-clad ninja with weapon ready to strike. "Like I give fuck what you think!" Predictably, he was thwarted by Lee's superior speed, but his endurance would quickly come into play and force Sasuke to play his hand in the ensuing brawl.

As Naruto tussled with Lee and threatened death to Sasuke, Ino gasped for air. Her chest was drowning in burning blood and the only feeling left in her veins was a cold numbness that gave way to a painful lump in her throat. The colors shimmered away from her vision, but her eyes saw nothing of the physical realm. Rather, her short life passed before her in a fraction of a second. Her infant years with her father and mother, her childhood and her friends- her best friend, Sakura, and the ambitions they shared, her years in the Academy and the subsequent crush on Sasuke that drove her and Sakura apart… the nightmare of Chouji being torn apart before her eyes and her abandonment of Shikamaru to certain death…

Every memory and event she hadn't thought of in years flashed before her eyes. And now that death was settling in, she realized that all her little worries, all her squabbles over a crush, all her girlish aspirations meant absolutely nothing. Her life was ending, and blue sky and white clouds was all she noticed in the world. How crisp and clear it was… and then she saw it.

Naruto had said something about immortality, and how one had to want it more than life itself. He said she had to do anything for it… absolutely anything. Did that mean dying? Instead of clinging to life, would she have to die first so that she may live eternal? If that was true, it sounded more like salvation rather than damnation. Even a life of servitude would be better than this cold, empty feeling of death.

"I… see it," she stared at the sky, gazing at the majestic swirls in the clouds and the shadow that hadn't been there a moment ago descending upon her. She raised her weak arms to the dark shape, ready to embrace this powerful force of death and life everlasting with tears beading at the corners of her pale eyes. "I… can see it… Naruto," she whispered louder, the shadow growing greater with every passing instant. She smiled when life eternal clouded her vision entirely. "It's so beautiful…"

The instant after, a boot crushed Ino's head with a sick squelch and spattered the ground with bits of skull and brain, ensuring her everlasting peace.

Tenten yelped and scampered away from the sudden stranger, and all the boys turned to the horror that fell from the sky to find a figure donned in black and smothered in gashes and blood. The phantom stood and blades uncoiled from around its body, glinting in the sunlight with rough edges and slick blood. The monster turned to face Naruto and glared with eyes so brimming with hate that even a veteran ninja would have been paralyzed with fear. But even amongst the million cuts and bruises and smears of blood both old and new, the most ferocious aspect lied within its eyes.

The blood vessels in Deadman's eyes had burst, and the blood pooling in them formed around the corneas to form rudimentary symbols of Jashin.

"You…" Deadman took a step forward, the sticky remains of Ino's head dripping off his boot, "You little fuck! Think you can get away with this?!" He swung out his chain of scythes at the blonde, barely aware and wholeheartedly uncaring of the three mortals scrambling out of the way. "Fuck the Hyuuga girl, I'll make sure to kill you!"

Naruto ducked and the bladed weapon wrapped around his javelin, but Deadman whiplashed the cable back again and ensnared the Uzumaki in its blades once again. Without hesitation, the older immortal pulled the line taut and charged Naruto with a certain fury not even the flames of hell could overcome. The blonde shrugged and the scythe blades piercing his body relaxed a bit. He moved to jump from Deadman's path, but the elder killer slammed into him full force and drove him to the ground.

Deadman sat up and straddled Naruto, being sure to tighten and raise the boy's legs enough so that the blonde had no leverage to dismount him. Deadman then grabbed Naruto by the throat with an iron grip that crushed the windpipe, his eyes bleeding at the corners and dripping onto the blonde's face. He raised a fist to pound the heretic's skull in, but a sudden sharp pain reverberated down his outstretched arm and suddenly repeated all the way down his back. "What the fuck?!" he sputtered, jaw practically unhinging in his rage as he turned to the interlopers. "How many times do I have to deal with this shit?!"

Lee gaped at the killer in shock; this man had just taken a blade to the arm and a half dozen swords in the back without so much as flinching. He glanced at Tenten to find surprise in her eyes and hands hesitant to release more swords from her scroll. Neither had seen such a human in their life- was this an illusion? Did he have several lives? Was he immortal?

As dumbfounded as Gai's team was, Sasuke recovered quicker than his comrades. He turned to them, eyes blazing with the Sharingan awoken by his teacher's insane training. "Get moving!" he spat, breaking them from their stupor. "Stick with the plan, just like we discussed!"

Both nodded, and Lee took off to the right in a blur of green while Tenten unleashed several kunai and maneuvered to the left. Sasuke remained, extracting a spool of razor wire from his weapon pouch to wrap around some shuriken. Now that his bloodline was active he could easily perform this restraining technique, but slivers of doubt arose in his mind now that this monster of a man had proven indestructible. "Just gotta stick with the plan…"

While Sasuke fingered his wires through his shuriken, Lee slid in for a kick to Deadman's wounded arm. He connected with the hilt of the short knife and drove it clean through the limb before darting away… or so he tried. Before he could think, he was jerked back and he screamed when pain shot up his foot.

Deadman had caught the specialist's foot on the rebound and crushed it with little effort. Tiny bones jabbed his palm and hot blood warmed his hand, and for a second he considered letting the young fool go and finishing the job later. Ultimately, he had no say in the matter.

Tenten almost lost it when Lee's foot exploded in blood. "Lee!" She unsealed another sword from her scroll and thoughtlessly brought it down on Deadman's head in the subconscious hope that he would die, but instead she was met with a pair of terrible bloody eyes.

Deadman released Lee to scramble away and stood into the blade's path. Naruto squirmed and cursed beneath him, but a quick foot to the jaw kept him firmly in place. He shot out his hand, caught the sword in mid-swing, and promptly ran his fingers down the blade to the hilt. His newfound grip wrenched the handle from Tenten and he swung his other arm around to spin the blade around.

Before Tenten grasped that she'd been disarmed, the sharp edge of the stolen blade cleft through the ring and pinky finger of her hand, cleanly severing them away along with most of her middle finger. She yanked her hand to her body in reflex, darted away, and screamed when the realization of pain and dismemberment set in.

Sasuke kept his eyes glued to Deadman and did his best to ignore the cries of his wounded teammates. His technique ready, he tossed the shuriken forward and the entangled wiring glinted in the sparse sunlight and crawled like snails in the eyes of his Sharingan. Even when the undying monster bent down again to refocus on the Uzumaki, Sasuke could manipulate the wires to ensnare him with little difficulty. And sure enough, the killer was caught. But… "It's not working! Shit, it's not working!"

Deadman noticed the wires digging into his flesh and decided to let this annoyance slide for the moment- if he were to go after the fool behind this, he would lose his hold over Uzumaki. Rather, he straddled Naruto again and planted the sword to his throat with no resistance from the taut wires.

"Fuck you Deadman!" Naruto shrieked, "Fuck you!"

He grit his teeth back at the boy. "Fuck you!" He slammed the blade to the ground, beheading Uzumaki in one swift motion. The blonde's body ceased all movement and Deadman finally unleashed a murderous grin at the boy's sputtering head. He grabbed Naruto by the hair and stood over the headless corpse, the blonde cursing him all the way.

"Fuck you to hell!" Naruto shouted as Deadman leveled their faces. "I'm gonna kill you, Deadman! I'll fucking kill you!"

"Like this?" Deadman's voice was calmer now that he was winding down from the fight. "No. You're gonna watch Tel and Sel take the Hyuuga girl apart, and you'll watch when your territory burns to the ground as penance for your sins."

Sasuke gazed wide at the spectacle, unable to comprehend the scene before him. Naruto was beheaded but still talking? This Deadman was going to destroy Konoha? And what did Deadman mean by sins? "And 'Hyuuga girl'… Hinata? What's she have to do with all this?" He didn't know what to think at this point, so he gently laid the wires to rest and slowly backed away, hanging on every word of the immortals.

Naruto didn't respond well to Deadman's threats. If anything, they only further infuriated him. "I've killed an immortal before! I'll do it again!"

Deadman brought the boy's head closer and sneered, his eyes still bleeding with Jashin's symbol. "You think you're the only one who's ever killed an immortal?"

That stopped the ranting. Naruto's brilliant eyes hardened in fierce confusion, and for the smallest moment his rage subsided.

The confusion only made Deadman laugh. "You think you're so damn special!" he snickered, "Well guess what? I've…" he felt movement at his feet… movement from Uzumaki's corpse… the headless corpse. The older immortal glanced down and froze at the sight. "What… the... fuck…?"

A head with short blazing red hair stared right back at him. A head that grew from the stump that was the Uzumaki's neck. The head glanced one way, then another, smirked, and then spoke in a gruff female voice.

"Finally! I'm back, motherfuckers."

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand it's back! Are you ready to rumbllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllle?!

I originally intended for this chapter to be at least twice this size, but the more I wrote, the more I realized it was getting rediculously long. So I cut out the stuff after this and saved it into the next chapter's template.

So... yeah. I intend for the next chapter to wrap up this little arc (and introduce some unusual surprises), so look forward to it. A little of it's already written too, so it shouldn't take so damn long. Good news for everyone, I guess.