Phew, took longer than I thought. Hope you enjoy it.

Don't own Naruto. Too bad.

Shia sat huddled in a corner of her crude cell, wrapped in her dirty comforter up against the seal-decorated bars. Her brown eyes were locked in horror at the sight across from her.

Lying against the opposite corner was a perfect mirror image of herself, albeit with a few differences of the personality aspect. The false mental projection sat cross-legged with one elbow balancing on a knee while the adjoining hand supported her head. A sick grimace spread across her messy features and she spoke with a certain tone that the disturbed girl lacked… sort of.

"Look at how bad things are," the image stated simply, "That you're even starting to see me."

"Shut up," Shia whispered, terrified that her second personality had begun to manifest itself into a hallucination, "J-just shut up…"

"And what can you do?" the projection continued unabated, "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. In fact, that's why I exist at all…"

"Shut up." Her voice was growing louder.

"To pull your sorry ass out of the fire. I am a necessary part of your sad existence."

"S-shut up…"

"I am everything you're not. I think about your situation, I am your passion, I am your strength!"

"Shut up!" Shia lost her cool and shrieked at the empty corner, "Shut up! S-shut up!"

The image's eyebrows arched upwards at the sudden display of confidence. "Fine, I'll stay quiet for now… but you gotta realize you can't do this forever."

The brown-haired girl said nothing as she stared into the abyss. Her alter ego's words struck deep, and deep down she knew her second personality was right.

"Shia," the mental projection said authoritatively, "I don't care if you wanna die or not, but you're not dragging me down with you."

"W-why do y-you care?!" the disturbed girl shouted in pent-up frustration, "It's m-my life!"

"It's my life too!" the vision stood in anger and approached the prone girl, "Just because we share the same body doesn't mean we share the same fate!"

"I-if it wasn't f-for me, y-you w-wouldn't exist." She began to crawl back into her hole of shyness.

"Damn right," was the merciless reply, "If it wasn't for your weakness, I wouldn't have to shoulder your problems." The cruel second self's features softened ever so slightly and she took a seat at Shia's feet, peering at the young girl with cold, calculating eyes. "Every action I've taken has been to keep both of us alive, and you know that's true. I'm just telling you what you need to hear." She leaned forward a hair. "If you get outta here, don't stay with Curse."

The brown-haired girl blinked away the oncoming tears and glanced at the image with surprise. "W-what?"

"You know what I'm talking about. He's treated you well so far, but who knows how long that will last?" She leaned back and sighed. "If you stay with him, you're going to die. Mark my words on that one."

Shia could say nothing in return as her alter ego slowly began to fade from view. She knew full well that her second personality had never led her astray in the past, but it had also never made such a far-flung prediction either. Her troubled mind didn't know what to think. Her brown eyes suddenly focused on the transparent ghost before her and she shot out the first thing that came to mind. "D-do you have a-a name?"

The disappearing image's eyebrows arched in honest surprise before her eyes narrowed and lips split into a sick grin. "Thought you'd never ask. Call me Aiya."

--

Takaimi sat in her uncomfortable stone chair drinking hard whiskey and smoking unfiltered cigarettes per her custom when the Jashin follower entered the large chamber. "'Sup, fucker?" she greeted nonchalantly.

"Nina spotted Curse and Silence breaching the outer perimeter and Dual's team is moving to intercept them."

"Dual radio it in?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Don't call me that, asshole. What about the rest of my dumbass troops?"

"Only a few teams are stationed in the catacombs. The rest are on assignment as the nobles' servants and guards."

The fiery woman sighed hard and took a swig of liquor followed by a long pull on her cigarette. She exhaled a puff of pristine smoke and spoke again. "Any chance we can call some back as reinforcements?"

"Not without alerting Konoha to our presence."

"Ah, fuck…" she depleted the current object of her oral fixation and lit another roll of tobacco. She exhibited no concern whatsoever. "Oh well, can't win 'em all I guess."

"Do you expect Dual's team to defeat them?"

"Dual? Nah, no fuckin' way. Got too much shit on his mind; clouds his judgement."

Fumetsu briefly recalled his crude commander's situation involving her daughter. "The same could be said about you as well, commander…"

Her eyes darkened and she glared daggers and hate into the undying assassin. "Fuck off." Her words were filled with as much venom as she could muster and were spoken with slow clarity so as to portray her lethal seriousness.

--

Curse and Silence charged down an enlarged hallway with minimal noise being generated by their swift footsteps. According to Shia's notes, their current position was somewhere just behind the perimeter of the foreign army.

"Hey," Hinata began as they ran, "Where is everyone?" Her Byakugan didn't see anything, but she knew full well that there were certain combinations of seals that could impede its sight. "If these guys have been here for as long as I think they have, they might know about its weaknesses…"

Naruto managed to shrug in mid-stride. "No idea. I wonder if anyone's waiting for us… what?!" he suddenly cried as he was shoved to the side, "What are you… oh." His answer flew by attached to a chain. In a flash, he repositioned himself in midair and his steel-plated geta sandals slammed into the wall.

The blue-haired genius landed similarly on the opposite wall, clenching her teeth as she did so. "Oh yeah, they know how to bypass the Byakugan. Good thing that… thing… was in the open." She didn't have to glance back to see the clear form of a freakishly long staff with two opposing sickle blades at either end. "Curse!" she called as she reached for Yin and Yang, "At the end of the hall!"

"Got it!" he yelled back then spun off the wall and grasped the long chain attached to the dual sickle. He reeled back, collecting chakra in his chest and preparing to exhale in a burst of searing flame. But before he could do anything, he was jerked forward when the chain surged back.

"Get off!"

"I know!" He leapt back against the wall as the huge double sided weapon spun back down the corridor like a rotor from hell. When the huge weapon disappeared into the dim light, both prodigies sat still against the walls in preparation for another onslaught.

"You missed!" a harsh voice echoed from the shadows, "You suck!"

The Konoha duo released themselves from the sides of the tunnel and landed on the floor, crouched and ready for the voice's owner and anyone else to emerge from the shadows. The patter of feet sounded off the walls in a casual manner and, slowly yet surely, four figures appeared from the darkness.

"Curse and Silence, eh?" a man donned in a mismatched mask greeted unpleasantly, "Pleased to meet ya!" His brown hair was a tangled mess on one side and neatly combed back on the other behind a visage painted porcelain white on one side and dull olive green on the other. His clothes consisted of a bland light grey vest strapped over an extremely baggy brown sweater and loose-fitting pants of a similar color. "Now, Curse…" he turned towards the aforementioned genius with an outstretched arm, "They call me Dual, and I got business with you!"

Naruto's hidden azure eyes darted back and forth between the quadruple combatants, sizing them up as best he could. He instantly found the owner of the huge weapon, and he could best describe the man as evil personified. The tall man was covered from neck to toe in dozens of overlapping dark belts that only broke around the black-clad joints. His head hung low, face covered by a wild mane of long dark hair that sprung out in every direction, giving him the appearance of something demonic rather than human.

In stark contrast to the swarthy man was a girl donned in cool, vibrant colors standing next to him. Her eyes were such a light crimson that they appeared pink in the poorly lit corridor and her deep violet hair flowed gracefully between her shoulder blades. She wore something of a battle-ready kimono of a similar purple that was trimmed with a soft fabric that matched her eyes and held together by a smooth silk rope. The lower portion of her garb parted, revealing her legs clad in a similar violet fabric and feet wrapped in corresponding cloths without being sheathed in any kind of real footwear.

Hinata wondered about the nationality of the girl who appeared only a few years her senior when she noted the final combatant. Her bloodline instantly penetrated the odd man and she stifled a gasp. "What the hell happened to him?" she wondered as she gazed at the man constricted by a straight jacket. The enemy swayed back and forth, swishing his overly colored hair in the air as he twitched every once in a while. The only outward evidence that anything was wrong with the man was the all metal boots that he wore… with four elongated steel-clad toes each that moved on their own accord.

"What're you staring at?!" the masked man shouted, clearly irritated at the brief awkward silence. "You little pieces of shit! I'll kill you both!" He shook his head to calm himself then slapped a palm against the ninja in a straight jacket. "Mosh-mosh, you're with me. Nina, Scythe," he addressed the other two, "You take the chick."

The silent duo nodded and leapt forward with newfound speed while Dual lunged at Naruto alongside Mosh-mosh. The Uzumaki and the Hyuuga readied their weapons of choice and the battle began.

--

Sarutobi sat in his recreational room in the Hokage tower enjoying a late-night smoke. He hadn't been able to sleep well because of the recent news regarding Orochimaru, and he preferred to spend those sleepless nights in the lobby set aside for his personal use. He normally resided in solitude while lost in his own thoughts, but tonight he had company who was equally disturbed about the return of the snake sannin.

"Lord Hokage," Anko said, anxiety dripping off of her like water, "Is there really nothing we can do about him? Do we really have to sit around waiting for him to make his move?"

"I'm sorry Anko," the elder shinobi returned between pulls on his pipe, "But the situation is very sensitive, and acting against him may start an international incident." He sighed at the ill memories of his former pupil. "It pains me just as much, but it is my duty to ensure the absolute safety of the village…"

"Safety?!" the Mitarashi shouted in anger, "If we don't kill him soon, Konoha's safety will be the least of our problems!" She slammed her palms on the table. "We have to take action now!"

"Anko, please calm down. We have to…" he paused, a look of minor concern etched across his aging features, "Did you feel anything?"

Anko scrunched her face up in concentration then slowly began to shake her head. "No… I didn't notice anything…"

"Sorry, guess I'm just getting old…"

--

"Hey Curse!" Hinata shouted then ducked under the vertical whirlwind of steel that was the double-sided scythe, "A little help here?!"

"I got problems too!" he shouted back, dodging a flurry of stubby wide blades as they danced around his head before shooting out a leg and catching Dual squarely in the gut. The masked man flipped backwards two meters, landed against an airborne Mosh-mosh, and launched himself back into the fray.

The four mysterious combatants had forced the budding geniuses back into the Hub. Their teams acted together in perfect unison, leading the prodigies to believe they had either been working together for years or their abilities complimented each other like no other. The huge vertical tunnel had been rocked once with an inhuman pulse of chakra delivered by Naruto that the enemies didn't even blink an eye at between attacks. At the moment, both Curse and Silence were, figuratively speaking, being screwed to the wall due to the tenacious ferocity of the unusual ninjas.

The blonde turned as he leapt between bridges, unsealing a pair of windmill shuriken and tossing them at the mismatched mask barreling down on him. Dual threw his arms out and brought his weapons, two retractable blades hidden in the sleeves of his dingy jacket, into the holes of the large ninja stars. He instantly flung the weapons to the sides and slashed at the boy's neck, failing as the target grabbed the blades with bare hands. Mosh-mosh, bounding in from somewhere, wrapped his ironclad freak toes around the Uzumaki's arm, reeled back without support, and flung the genius wildly into the air.

"Oh hell," the undercover prodigy thought as he landed against a support pillar and secured himself in place with chakra while sending the fox's energy to his injured hands. The cuts smoked shut and he pulled the extremities back to the tattoo seals on his arms and began a series of rapid movements, unsealing every variety of throwing weapons from the marks and tossing them at the freaks attacking him.

The guy in the straight jacket, per usual, hopped around like a possessed spring while the masked man charged headlong into the onslaught. Curiously, Dual turned to one side and his arm danced in mad random patterns, yet somehow he managed to deflect every single weapon thrown his direction. Upon approaching the prone boy, the odd man twisted to the other side and, with cold precision and determined movements, thrust the other blade at Curse's head.

"Where did you hide Shia?" he asked calmly as he began a lethal tango with the crimson-masked boy.

"Why do you want her back?!" Naruto replied as he parried the dual short blades with his own twin broadswords.

Dual's head shook violently for the briefest of moments and he shrieked, "Just shut up and tell me, you freak!"

"You're one to talk!" The blonde noted the sudden change in temperament, an aspect of this enemy that showed itself more and more as time went on. "Mood swings much?" he mused internally as he weaved around the flurry of blades.

Hinata wasn't faring much better. From what she could see, the enemy girl was a medic of some sort. Every time she scored a hit on Scythe, Nina would latch on to the belt-bound shinobi and promptly heal the injuries without saying a word or displaying any emotion whatsoever. The Hyuuga wondered why such a colorful person showed no corresponding feelings.

The demonic-looking man twisted his arm back then lobbed his double sided weapon at her, giving it a trademark deadly spin. Silence pulled her knees in to lower her total surface area as much as possible so she could utilize Yin and Yang's magnetic field and repel the tool of death. The generator inside the lethal top crackled as it spun and, a moment later, a wave of opposing electric power formed a sphere around her and pulsed outward, knocking the elongated scythe away…

But not the entire threat. Silence peered up to find the medic girl had attached herself to the rotating weapon and, now that the instrument of battle had been thwarted, launched herself off with chakra at the female genius. Hinata swung her left arm out and ejected her needle-filled blade from its gauntlet. The weapon missed the target, instead impacting with a steel-toed foot that came out of nowhere. "This guy again?!"

Nina took the opportunity to reach around the interrupting limb and jab a precise scalpel of chakra into the Hyuuga's right shoulder, temporarily rendering the limb numb and immobile. "Shit!" the prodigy cursed and remotely popped the bolt holding her blade in place, releasing the sharpened piece of metal then split from the scene to put some distance between her and the multiple enemies.

"Mosh-mosh!" Dual shouted, catching the attention of the absentminded man, "Get back here!"

The bound man gurgled something unintelligible and turned to his superior and did something the prodigies had yet to see- stuck his tongue out. However, to say this was a childish gesture of defiance would be foolhardy; the organ slurped towards Curse, who was at least a dozen meters away, and two ringed piercings at the tip of the tongue supported dual strings of barbed wire that emerged from the man's ever-smiling mouth.

"What the shit?!" Naruto cried as the moist and bladed organ wrapped around his arm and prevented him from swinging his ninjato against the masked ninja. The elongated tongue squeezed and dug into his flesh. "Ow! Ow!"

"Curse!" Silence shouted as her chakra revitalized her right arm. She aimed her twin stake launchers at the stretched organ and fired with a blast of steam. Mosh-mosh seemed to get the point and retracted the makeshift weapon as he performed another gravity defiant series of flips and twists. There was no way a normal person was that agile…

The Hyuuga's airborne bolts exploded harmlessly, sending a hail of shrapnel in all directions but injuring no one. An idea struck her and she began to dance around the small fields of jagged needles left behind by her stakes, stringing wire around the slivers of metal with her foot like a living sewing machine. Her Byakugan saw Scythe's oversized weapon fly towards her and become entangled in her makeshift web. She glanced up to find Nina charging down the taut chain attached to the double sided instrument of war and smirked; if this worked, she'd kill two birds with one stone.

She pulled Yin and Yang from its supports on her back, unleashed its many curved blades from its center, and harshly inserted the weapon into the gaps of the long chain. The genius girl leapt from the kill zone and activated her electric device, sending a massive jolt of lightning up the steel links. Her bloodline eyes peered up and saw Scythe receive the full brunt of the attack; the metal loops in his many belts not helping his situation in any way. Hinata smirked when she saw him collapse on his perch then grimaced when she noticed that Nina had, somehow, acted in time to avoid being toasted. The medic girl leapt off, twisted in midair, and then landed dead center in the electrified field of wires…

But she was already wise to Silence's plan. She landed upside down on her extended index fingers, the digits meticulously placed between gaps in the metal strings. The Hyuuga stepped forward in preparation to rush the medic while she was vulnerable, but her foot slid the moment it touched down. She glanced down to find her discarded blade lying beneath her and her intelligent mind acted swiftly. Bending over, she snatched the needled weapon off the ground and flung it with all her might with a chakra-charged limb.

Nina saw the impromptu boomerang fly towards her and, with alert eyes, pushed herself off and started pulling her arms in, but it was too late. The rotating blade passed cleanly through her wrists, amputating her hands. The transferred momentum was enough to destroy her planned trajectory and she fell back down on the wires. At the last moment, she attempted to use her feet to push herself out of the way of the electrified field of wires, but the pain in her limbs distracted her too much; she fell flat on her face and everything went permanently dark as electricity crackled through her.

"Man, can I think on my feet or what?!" Hinata congratulated herself internally before rushing off to assist her temporary ally.

Naruto was having a rough time with Dual; the man was pissed at him for whatever reason and he could implement his anger in his attacks flawlessly. "Why do you hate me so much?!"

"I don't have to answer to the likes of you!" He shrieked back and glanced at an oncoming Silence and grinned behind his mismatched visage. "But I'll fight both of you on equal ground…" He leapt forward and engaged the blonde with the left side of his body- the side that acted cold and logical.

"Hey Curse!" Hinata announced as she entered the fray and was met with the stranger's other side- the chaotic one. "Need some help?!"

"Yeah!"

And so it went on. Dual's strange way of fighting simultaneously with separate styles did very well against the geniuses, and the Konoha duo countered every move. Strangely enough, no one ever gained the upper hand longer than a second and a half and the masked man's skill was shown off by the fact that, despite the Uzumaki and Hyuuga's use of advanced ninja techniques, he managed to outmaneuver them using hand-to-hand moves exclusively. The longest ten minutes of the prodigies' lives passed without producing any definite results, save the drain on their chakra reserves.

"Where's that freaky guy?" Naruto asked his companion nonchalantly as he ducked under a solid swing.

"Mosh-mosh?" Dual replied, not wholeheartedly pissed for once.

"Wasn't talking to you!"

"Whatever." He sidestepped a blast of chakra-enhanced wind.

"Where is he, anyway?" Hinata wondered out loud.

"Who the hell knows?!" he slipped back into disgruntled mode. "He does what I say, and I wanna kill you two myself!"

"What is he?" the blue-haired girl continued. If she could keep the guy talking, it might divide his attention.

"He's a freak built by our fucking leader! Dunno why he only listens to me, but he does!" His mismatched mask glanced at the blonde boy and the wild half of the man's hair quivered as if enraged. "And you!" He lunged with both arms. "Tell me where Shia is!"

"There's my chance!" the pale-eyed girl realized, seeing Dual's exposed side. She leaned forward and pressed her stake launchers against the man and fired at point blank range.

The combatant felt the weapons touch his clothes and arched his back to avoid being punctured and succeeded… somewhat. The timers inside the rods had been severely reduced for such a situation, resulting in the bolts exploding in a shower of shrapnel, peppering all three ninjas but hammering the enemy much harder than the intelligent duo.

Dual hit the ground shrieking in torment, squirming in unison with his pained voice. "Mosh-mosh! Get me outta here!" The freak complied with a tongue wrapping around his jaw and yanking him from the fray.

But the damages were not exclusive; both Naruto and Hinata received their own share of molten needles. On the plus side, no permanent injuries were inflicted such as the gouging of eyes and whatnot, but the pain was still there, and it was spread around evenly. The Hyuuga had a harder time dealing with it; she didn't have a demon inside of her willing to heal every little physical altercation. She hit the ground, wincing and whimpering as she moved to yank the shrapnel from her body.

"Lemme help you," the blonde said as he extracted the last of his ragged needles. He knelt beside her and began systematically pulling the shards of metal from his ally. He was used to such things, but he knew she wouldn't be. "You can heal these, right?" he referred to the minor injuries.

"Yeah, yeah," she panted, smiling behind her crisp blue mask that someone would go out of their way to help her. The boy stood before her and helped her up as she began utilizing her chakra to plug the many holes. "Thanks," she said humbly.

"No problem."

"Where's Dual?" she changed the subject. They began scanning the area to find said ninja and found him lying face up under the freak in the straight jacket.

"Mosh-mosh," the critically injured man gasped. His mismatched mask had slipped off to reveal brown eyes full of hate amidst a field of old scars. "This is my final order." A trembling arm reached up behind the sleeves of the straight jacket and slipped in to cut the straps. With the last of his strength, he yanked back and freed the man's arms. "Kill them all," he spoke his last and passed on with open eyes.

The sleeves parted and the man's arms fell to the floor- well, his hands did. In place of his arms were coils upon coils of barbed wire surrounding some kind of stringy membrane that connected the hands to the body. The freak began to dance in an epileptic circle, building up momentum before throwing his arms out.

"Holy shit!" the blonde shouted as he ran out of the way with his partner in tow.

The faux limbs flew past him and the clawed hands clenched the pillar behind them. Mosh-mosh pulled back, launching himself into the air at the young targets. He opened his mouth and shot out that unnatural tongue at the two, catching Hinata around the arm. Yanking his head back in a way that would snap a normal person's neck, he jerked the intelligent girl away from her rival and positioned his clawed feet to dig into her skull.

"Silence!" Naruto shouted as he unsealed an oversized shuriken and tossed it at the airborne man. Despite his impeccable aim, the enemy twisted impossibly in mid-flight and continued his descent towards the trapped girl. "Shit, shit, shit!" the Uzumaki cursed as he unleashed his twin broadswords and stood over the Hyuuga, ready to attack the freak when he got there. The enemy came within striking distance and the boy thrust a sword at him…

And missed by a mile. At the last possible second, the multicolored freak twisted out of the way and landed right behind the young genius. Mosh-mosh swung his barbed arms into the boy while unraveling his tongue from the girl while simultaneously running the organ painfully around his body. The blonde grunted as the many barbs scarred his flesh. He had hoped to take advantage of the enemy while all his resources were focused on him, but every limb was a fully-utilized weapon…

The freak suddenly shrieked in pain and reeled a bloodied tongue back into his mouth. Curse's hidden azure eyes glanced at his ally to find that she had punctured the sensitive organ with a piece of shrapnel while she had the chance.

"Thanks a ton!" the intelligent boy said as he secured the enemy's faux limbs to his bleeding body and attempted to throw the combatant into an uncontrollable spin. Sadly, it didn't work as Mosh-mosh merely moved in closer, leapt up, and painfully grasped the blonde's shoulders with clawed feet. The boy screamed in torment as the steel-toed digits dug resolutely into his flesh, and there was no way to shake the freak off.

"Dammit!" Silence swore when she saw her partner trapped by the insane man. She stood and charged him with the intent to shoot an explosive rod right into his head. Upon reaching the guy, she pressed her stake launchers into the enemy's mane of messy multicolored hair and prepared to fire…

But to no avail. Mosh-mosh, in a fit crazed movement, turned and smashed his forehead into hers, rendering her unconscious. The blue-haired girl fell to the ground, unwillingly leaving her ally to fend for himself.

"Silence!" Curse called when he saw her hit the dirt, "Are you okay?!" The freak's tongue reemerged and wrapped around his neck, cutting off his breathing. "Silence," he gasped for the life-giving gas as the world began to darken, "Silence, get up… please get up…" His consciousness faded.

The next thing the boy knew, he was standing over a bruised and broken Mosh-mosh. The man's limbs, false or otherwise, were either bent in unnatural directions or snapped off and straddled over the sides of the battle-torn bridge beneath his feet. "What happened?" he wondered as he began to inspect himself, finding no wounds whatsoever. "Oh shit," he came to an unfortunate realization, "Did the fox take over?!" He suddenly remembered his companion and ran towards her. "Silence?! Hey, Silence?! Are you okay?!"

Hinata stirred and found herself staring into the eyes of her temporary ally. "What's he doing here?" she thought in a daze, "Shouldn't he be… oh, damn!" She bolted up and peered intently at the freak's mangled corpse before glancing back at her rival. "What… what happened?"

"I'll get to that later. First off, are you okay?"

She stood to her feet and stretched a bit, noting any injuries as she did so. After satisfactorily determining that she wouldn't die, she replied. "I'll live. Now," her voice took a lighter tone, "You only got one; I got three." She held out three fingers, smiling behind her blue visage. "I won this time!"

Naruto's jaw dropped at the curveball then curled into a wide smile. "Yeah, I guess you did," he admitted his loss jovially, "Really kicked my ass…"

The two laughed the situation off and the Hyuuga spoke again. "I'm beat. You mind if we try again later?"

"Not at all; I'm tired too. See ya around."

"Catch you later."

As they parted ways, the blonde scooped up Dual's white and green mask while the pale-eyed girl gathered up Mosh-mosh's corpse for observation. Each party worked in silence at their small tasks; there might be something to learn from both.

--

Naruto returned to his secret chamber and sighed heavily. He was exhausted, no two ways about it. Moving to replace his current clothes with those of his idiotic image, he decided against it; Shia had never seen the orange jumpsuit and, if he could help it, she never would. He took the mismatched visage with him and opened the door to her crude prison.

"Rise and shine," he announced his arrival.

"I-is it m-morning?" was the nervous reply.

"No, just felt like saying that. Listen," he strolled up to her, "I fought some more guys tonight, and some of them were real freaks. Do you know about any more of them?"

"W-who d-did you f-fight?"

"This guy." He tossed the mask onto her lap.

Shia handled the scarred visage with shaky hands as she lifted it to her face. "Y-y-you f-fought th-this o-one?"

The blonde frowned at the increase of her chronic stutter. "Yeah. You know him?"

"A-a-a-and y-you k-k-killed h-him?" Tears began to well up in her brown eyes.

"This can't be good," he thought as he voiced a simple answer. "I wouldn't be here now if I didn't."

The girl clasped the mask to her chest and broke down in the hardest fit of crying the boy had ever seen her exhibit. "Th-th-this i-is m-m-m-m…"

"Calm down," he held up his hands and softened his voice, "Take it slow. Who was this?"

"Th-this i-i-is my b-b-brother's m-mask!" The rest of her blubbering was unintelligible.

"Oh, dammit. I just killed her only emotional support… wait, wasn't he her remaining family, too?"

Shia held nothing back as her head leaned against the bars as her tears flowed like waterfalls. In the back of her mind, Aiya tried to rationalize things, but her secondary self was every bit as attached to Dual as she was. The ground below soon became slick with salty tears and the distraught girl was nowhere near finished.

Naruto watched this display of sadness with mixed feelings. On the one hand, he knew he had to approach something like this with cold hard logic, but on the other hand he had just killed off the only relative this girl had. His intelligent mind wracked itself on what to do but eventually empathy won out, seeing as how he had grown up without any family of his own. He knelt down before her and reached through the seal-decorated bars, placing his hand on the back of her head and slowly massaging it.

He said nothing during the whole ordeal, but he didn't have to. Shia didn't reel back from the physical contact and it seemed to have a calming effect, if very small. Twenty minutes later, the girl cried herself to sleep and the blonde gently laid her on the ground through the prison bars. He stood to leave as quietly as possible and made his way for the open doorway. Before shutting the door and bolting it shut, he glanced at her one last time and muttered, "I'm sorry, Shia. I'm so sorry…"

Aww... ain't that cute?