AN: First of all, I want to apologize for making you all wait so long. There'll be more explanation about that unexpected hiatus at the end of the chapter, but I want to preface all this with my very sincerest apologies for that.
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Enough of that, let's get this show on the road!
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EPILOGUE - THE GOD OF DARKNESS
==Meanwhile, Ghost==
Spin, deflect and shove, I grinned as I effortlessly dodged out of Kakashi's way and into a stance. "Nice try," I told him, "But you'll need to be a little bit quicker than that if you're going to hit me."
Kakashi turned back to face me and then Guy, Hiashi, Asuma, Shikaku, Inoichi, Choza, Yamato and Ibiki Morino all landed around me, along with over two dozen ANBU. I looked around and raised an eyebrow,Well, I guess the jig's up.
I smiled in as friendly a manner as I could, "Oh my, what a great many of you there are." I tilted my head slightly to the side feigning ignorant curiosity, "Are you all here for a fight?"
"Drop the act," Shikaku ordered coldly, "We know you're not Shikamaru. Now what have you done with my son?"
I blinked and then shrugged, "Weeell if you must know, he's still right here. This is his body, buuut," I slid into an evil predatory grin, "As you have guessed, I'm not him. Allow me to introduce myself…"
I manifested a living clone with a thought and immediately fell to the ground twitching and writhing, howling in feigned agony as my clone transformed into a massive monstrous form.
"I am the Lord of Darkness," my Oni-shaped clone declared. He was eight feet tall with ghostly white skin. His eyes glowed with purple black chakra and his mouth was a gruesome slash that stretched from one corner of his jaw to the other, lined with razor sharp fangs. His hair was long, spiky and jet black, tied back in a pony tail reminiscent of Jiraiya's. He was clad in a pitch black cloak that could become his wings and was speckled with little white sparks like the stars in the night sky. He wore armor that was coal black but took on a reddish hue thanks to the hell fire burning around his feet.
Yami (as I called him) had two antlers with a total of eight points curling up out of his forehead and sweeping back to form a sort of crown over his murderous alien eyes. He gestured with his hands tipped in insanely sharp shadow claws that were tipped in the blood red youki of the Bijuu, "So, now you know the truth. The boy will never be quite the same, he's been inhabiting my mind for a week now. If you want to fight, then come on. Otherwise, I'll be going on my merry way." The purple chakra flared around his eyes and his gruesome smile turned to a frown, "Hmm…I see you've exorcised my pet bakeneko from Hinata. That's troublesome…" then his smile returned, "But that's fine too. Ahhh well…C'est la vie!" Then he was gone and I was quickly surrounded by concerned shinobi.
My only thought as my clone began to unravel time from a hidden location using the power of the Yamigan for a second try? Suckers.
AN: Heeey everybody, Ghost here. Yeah, sadly it's just me now. What started as a gleeful circus is now down to just me: a sad little clown on a rusty unicycle with a flat tire and a drooping balloon in an empty big top...
My co-author Empress has moved on to other things, so I'm just going to put an end to this one here. Don't worry, I'm not hanging it completely out to dry. I had a LOT planned for this one, so a reboot's coming with just Shadow, and hopefully I'll be able to keep a little bit better of an update schedule on the reboot since I won't be having to coordinate with another author with a very different schedule from my own.
I can't tell you all how sorry I am that this is how it ended. Rest assured, I've learned my lesson and won't be trying any more co-authoring ventures. This is...it's just...(shakes head)
Please forgive this severely lame ending and enjoy some of my other works until I get the reboot up and running.
Again, my sincerest apologies, I know this is NOT the ending you were all waiting for (trust me, I'm not at all pleased either), but rest assured that this is...
NOT THE END