Chapter 37

"Hold on," Shikamaru said as he and the rest of the team finally grouped together upon the realization that Orochimaru was a minimal threat "it can't be that easy."

Naruto looked at Shikamaru, shocked "you're not entertaining the idea of sacrificing the main character, are you?"

"What? No, don't be stupid. I meant finding out the parameters of the end game. I tried asking that question a dozen times over each with a different way to phrase it. How is it that Orochimaru has the right to do so?"

"Also," Ino piped up "what exactly is GAME OVER? 'Cuz that sounds way too ominous."

Orochimaru shrugged. "Somehow, I doubt it will have something to do with the death of all the players. Most likely, the guidebooks and all related hardware will simply vanish. That's all conjecture though."

Chouji tapped Shikamaru's shoulder and leaned in close to his ear so he could whisper "Shika, should we be talking to him? Weren't we sent here to… you know…"

"I can hear you perfectly fine, little butterfly," Orochimaru said, very amused at the now blushing Chouji. "If you wish to kill me, then fine. Nothing's stopping you. Well, nothing except the fact that I'm practically immortal and I will most definitely be back. But if you do kill me, then you won't receive what I have to offer."

"I don't like this," Neji stated defiantly. "He's a snake in both a literal and metaphorical sense. He's planning something and there's no telling what havoc he will sow. We should kill him. As many times as it takes for him to stop coming back."

"I can promise you that the gifts will be worth it," Orochimaru said enticingly.

No one said anything after that for a few tense seconds. In it, everyone eyed everyone else, trying to grasp what they were thinking and what their next plan of attack would be. Everyone except for Orochimaru and Naruto, who hadn't stopped his intense glare at the Snake in question.

"We should at least hear him out," Kiba said finally. "Gifts don't exactly sound like the worse things in the world right about now."

After a few more seconds of no one saying anything, Orochimaru took that as a yes and reached inside his robes to pull out a few small boxes. He reached them out to Naruto, but Naruto held up a hand and said "no, open them up first and show us the contents."

Orochimaru did so obediently and held up a few pairs of sunglasses and a smaller rectangular object. The rectangle opened up and inside were a couple of pairs of medical grade eye contacts.

"What do they do?" Naruto asked.

"It would be easier for you to see for yourself."

Naruto let loose a large breath of air. He honestly didn't have any time to be dealing with Orochimaru. Sasuke was only going farther and farther and Naruto was stuck dealing with a backstabbing snake. "Fine," he growled, taking the glasses and contacts from Orochimaru and running a diagnostics over them for a few seconds. From his quick observations, he could tell that they weren't designed to be innately harmful. Instead, they filled a sort of support role. What that support role was, he couldn't tell.

When he put them on, he had to blink a few times to see if he was actually seeing right. Over everyone's head was a red bar and a blue bar with a quick name or description above them and their levels. Orochimaru didn't have a red or blue bar and instead had a single purple bar. Looking around, the snake Sannin wasn't the only one with an irregularity in that regard. Shino also lacked a blue bar, but save for that, everyone was normal.

"What is it?" Shikamaru asked.

"I can see everyone's health and… that's chakra, right? The blue bar? How did you make this?" he asked.

Orochimaru grinned. "You don't have enough time for that. Sasuke went in that direction," Orochimaru pointed in the exact opposite direction of where the line of destroyed trees went, "he left about 18 hours ago. He was booking it, but I'm sure your group can go faster."

Naruto was busy handing out the contacts and sunglasses to everyone as Orochimaru was talking. "But wait… why are you helping us? You're a sworn enemy of Konoha. We were ordered to kill you if we could."

Orochimaru shrugged. "I just want to see something interesting. Now, I'm taking my leave." The snake slithered back underground as soon as he was done talking. Naruto could have stopped him easily, but he didn't. It would take too long to deal with him.

"Everybody ready?" Naruto asked, looking to Kiba and Hana. "You got the trail?"

"Umm, hold on a sec," Hana said as she jumped off to where Orochimaru pointed with Kiba running after her.

"You needn't worry," Shino said from behind Naruto "I have some of my trackers in Orochimaru's system. He's not near us anymore."

"Where's he going?"

Shino paused and thought for a second. "It would appear… Konoha."

"Ahh, shit."

"I don't detect any hostility from him. I'm sure Konoha will be safe. And even if he does mean harm, Fu will stop him before he can hurt anybody."

Naruto eyed Shino appraisingly. "I never actually asked Fu how powerful she was. You two seem close. You have an idea, right?"

Shino paused again in thought. "Fu doesn't anger easily as I'm sure you're aware. But when she does, no one with be safe from her wrath."

Naruto whistled. "That much?"

Shino nodded.

"Then it looks like Konoha's in good han-"

"No way!" Shikamaru shouted excitedly. It wasn't really the loudness of the tone that drew Naruto's attention to the lazy Nara and more the fact that he seemed to actually very happy and surprised, something that was a rare occurrence outside of him talking about worldly finance.

"What's happening?" Naruto asked, walking over to him. There was a medium sized box in front of Shikamaru that had sorts of strange statistics on them. He could make out Desiccated Secret base and Surrounding Forestry: $12,000,000 before Shikamaru excitedly pushed the affirmative button and it blinked out of existence.

"These contacts can see more than just health and chakra. There are also other secrets in this world that are revealed by them. Things like being able to buy places that you or a team member destroyed or liberated. We can do so much good with this! And that's only what I just now found. There could be any number of other things we could find out using these contacts."

Naruto patted Shikamaru on the back a few times. "There there buddy. We'll collect all the secrets. I promise, we'll do it. First, we just have to drag Sasuke back, then I promise, we'll go right out to expose the mysteries of the universe."

Shikamaru Tch'd. "Don't speak to me like I'm a child who just got a new toy."

Naruto continued to pat him on the back. "I'm not, I promise. Though to be perfectly clear, you absolutely are."

Before Shikamaru had time to refute Naruto's statement, Kiba and Hana loudly called everyone to their proverbial tails as they took off with their companions to where Sasuke had run off in the direction of.

Naruto smiled and chased after them. Everything was going to go back to normal soon.

00000000

Madara looked at the assemblage of unconscious Jinchuuriki with unrestrained glee. The Yonbi Jinchuuriki, oldest of the alive Jinchuuriki and arguably the most powerful. The Gobi Jinchuuriki, despite his significant hulk and body armor, considered simultaneously to be one of the fastest and strongest people alive with a heavy repertoire of cunning moves up his sleeves. The Rokubi Jinchuuriki, estranged from his homeland and while not the strongest opponent, probably one of the slipperiest. Madara still didn't know how Obito managed to beat him to submission.

Turning his eyes away from the Jinchuuriki and to Nagato, who was staring at him with an intensity that Madara doubted even he knew of. "You have something to say?"

Nagato eyed him some more with that detestable squint of his. "What is your goal?" Nagato said slowly.

Madara shrugged. "Same as yours, I suppose. Why else would we both be here?"

Nagato shook his head and hid his eyes under his bangs, giving him an ominous look. "I should rephrase that. Why do you have your goal? For what are you doing this?"

He went into his spiel like a well-oiled machine. He'd obviously practiced it often. "The world is too mired in the concept of winning and losing. We sit on a bed of ideals about peace and happiness for all and yet we fight war after war, sowing hatred and loss in the fields of the world only to be surprised when they bear fruit. I've come to realize that this give and take is an integral part of what makes humans, humans. So I'll create a world where there is no war and where everyone actually can be happy. A world that peace will rule over. That's what you want, right? A world of peace?"

Nagato shook his head again. "I'm not quite so pessimistic as you. I truly believe that humanity is capable of wishing for and attaining peace. It's just that the ones on top have to know what it's like to be on the bottom for that to happen. When everyone know what pain, true pain, feels like, that's when I believe they'll all come together for peace."

"And what will you do when they forget that pain? When their sons and daughters take up the blades that their parents left behind, forgotten in the mud? There will be war again."

"No. I will be there forever. A god who can guide the people towards what they need."

"And what if what they need isn't what they want? You're no god. You're man. They will raise their weapons against you and depose of you, then claim what they want."

"And your plan is better? Create a false reality where nothing is gained?"

Madara smirked at Nagato. Talking with him was actually kind of fun. "And how can you be sure that we aren't already under the illusion?"

"…I don't understand."

"It's really rather simple. How can you be certain that we aren't under the illusion of, let's say, and evil demon. This evil demon has complete omniscience and control over what you see and experience. How can you prove that this life isn't created by him?"

Nagato fell silent as he pondered this question. Madara didn't say anything while he did so.

"We… couldn't," Nagato finally said.

"Exactly. How can you say that this life will be worth less that the next life? If we think it's reality and it feels and acts like reality, then for all intents and purposes, it is reality."

Nagato pursed his lips. "I still believe that your way of doing things is too drastic."

"It's what Obi-, Sorry. It's what Tobi thought was for the best. I trust his judgement. You should too."

Anything Nagato was about to say was interrupted by Obito appearing out of thin air with a child slung over his shoulders. "I apologize for the delay," he said as he lay the child down next to the other three. "The Sanbi had already regenerated and I was forced to perform and impromptu sealing. Shall I give the signal for the teams to begin their phase of the plans?"

"Give it in a few hours," Madara ordered, getting up from his cross legged position. "I want a head start on the sealing. With all our combined powers, it will still take about a day to seal away four of the Jinchuuriki."

Obito fidgeted uncomfortably. "But… master. Don't you have complete control over the Gedo-"

"I want to save my eyesight for when our part is to play. Now then, let's start."

00000000

8 hours later

"I don't like this, kit."

'So you actually are still in there. I was beginning to think that you disappeared."

"You wish."

'Don't get fatalistic on me. What don't you like?'

"Couldn't tell you even if I wanted to. Just a feeling."

'Well good. I thought you were about to lecture me on my choice to save Sasuke.'

"I don't give a flying fuck about what happens to you or your friends. We're in a symbiotic relationship now, remember? That just means that we only have to care enough about each other to know that the other is doing their best not to get our collective selves killed."

'I haven't forgotten. I still think that somewhere in that big lug heart of yours is a secret affection towards me, but that doesn't matter now. If you're not going to tell me what's bothering you, then why bring it up?'

"I don't know? Think of it as a warning if you will. Be on your guard and all that."

'Well, thanks I guess. I'll be on the lookout for anything that might make a giant fox demon quiver in its fur.'

Naruto stopped listening to the large fox sealed in his gut when he felt two strange chakra signatures a few kilometers away from where they were heading to. Signaling the group to stop, Naruto quickly informed everyone of what he sensed and deferred to his sense of chakra rather than the Inuzuka's sense of smell. They all got into battle formation and headed to where the signature was. As they drew closer, he realized that what he thought was just one huge chakra signature was actually two large ones very close together, almost like they were hugging.

When they came into view of who it was, Naruto expanded his sensory range out as far is could go, just to make sure there were no tricks afoot. Hoping that they hadn't been noticed yet, Naruto signaled everyone silently that he was to go alone and scout out the situation with them as backup should anything go wrong.

Pulling gloves on and buttoning up his trench coat with the hood laying low on his face, Naruto layered on his invisibility jutsu and went forward, clinging to the grass without making a sound as he approached the two.

It was a plateau-like hill surrounded on all sides by waves of tall green grass growing up to the hip that Kisame and his sword, Samehada, was guarding. It was a suspicious sight to be sure, but where shark men were, Uchihas tended to be near; specifically, clan murdering Uchihas. And where clan murdering Uchihas were, avenging Uchihas tended to be near.

As Naruto drew closer, his confusion only grew greater. Kisame wasn't even doing anything. He was just standing there with his arms crossed over his chest, looking over the waves of rolling grass with no discernable expression on his face.

Sealing Mastery Mutation (Sneak Seal): By completely mastering the use of sealing instruments, you may now unseal items without any sounds or puffs of smoke. Although this takes twice the chakra to do so, it is a must have skill for anyone who wishes to take sneakery to the next level

Naruto unsealed his staff, now collapsed into a manageable stick and hidden underneath his robe, and snuck his way to the shark man in question. Everything related to the senses, sight, smell, hearing, and even taste is muffled by his cloak. It was an item he made by combining elements from only the best of fibers spun into only the best thread, knit without imperfection into textiles and finally formed by Naruto by adding seals aplenty to give it its trademark invisibility. It wouldn't last being repeatedly punctured, but that didn't factor in when no one could sense him behind them in either a physical or spiritual way.

By the time Naruto was almost within striking distance, hoping to end their confrontation with the blunt end of his staff and question him for information later, Kisame had swiveled his head to Naruto and stared him directly in the eyes. For all his worth as an unshakeable ninja captain, Naruto froze more out of shock than anything else. No one could sense him as he was and no one ever had, not even the Inuzuka siblings. To stare a man more beast than human in the eyes while under the guise that he was perfectly undetectable got him to pause for two seconds.

If those two seconds had passed without either one making a move, Naruto would have turned Kisame's head into a fine paste by shocked reflex. Luckily for both of them, Kisame raised a hand and greeted Naruto with a smile.

"Hey, I know you're there. Come on out. Don't worry, I don't bite… well…"

Naruto straightened up and undid the invisibility on his cloak. His body was tense and about to spring into action at a moment's notice. Naruto didn't trust him, but did take solace in the fact that he at least didn't seem to have fanatical ideals. In his experience, fanatics were just about the worst kinds of people to deal with.

Kisame laughed at seeing how tense Naruto was. "Hahaha. Kid, you really need to loosen up. You look like you're about to implode."

"W-Why… are you here?" Naruto asked, berating himself for stuttering. He wasn't nervous. It was just hard to form questions when in a situation you never thought you'd be in.

Kisame shrugged and glanced back at the mountain behind him. "I'm on guard duty. You know, I gotta say kid, that cloak was really cool. Sure, it's ineffective against me, but cool nonetheless."

"How does it not work on you? It completely hides my scent, my chakra signature, muffles my movements… no one should be able to know that I exist when I put it on."

Kisame looked genuinely amused by Naruto's confusion. "Your cloak of invisibility doesn't hide your scent, it neutralizes it. Imagine smelling something that just doesn't have a smell. If everything you're looking at has a smell, then the one thing that does not have one, well, then it becomes pretty obvious that something foul's going on. You become easy to detect because by putting on that cloak, you turn into a blob of nothingness on a picture of everythingness."

"Well… shit."

"Ah, well, it really only works for me though. Part shark and everything. My senses are a lot better than the best of even the Inuzuka clan."

"I guess there's that, then," Naruto said, dropping his guard for a second.

Lying Mutation (Lie detector): Under no circumstances will anyone in the world be capable of hiding their truth behind lies. You are able to detect when someone is lying and what their true disposition is.

Naruto did the signal for everyone to move up. As he waited for them to catch up, he looked behind Kisame at the mountain for anything that might denote why he was guarding it.

"Curious?" he asked.

Naruto nodded.

Kisame chuckled a little bit. "Don't really know to be perfectly honest. One second we're on our mission to drown Iwagakure, the next we've got a snake in between us talking about global conspiracies. It went over my head, but Itachi took that shit to heart and abandoned the mission right then and there. We came here and Itachi told me to wait outside, something about needing to work something out with his brother.

Naruto's eyes widened. "So, Sasuke and Itachi are in… there?" Naruto asked while pointing.

Kisame nodded. "Why? Got business? Sorry, but I'm on guard duty. Can't let you interrupt them. You know how it goes."

Kashikoi was the first to get there and paused, shocked that she was meeting he guy she ate the throat of a few years ago once more.

"Kashi," Naruto said, tossing his staff to the large fox "take care of him. Guard duty or not, I'm going up there."

The staff enlarged and expanded at a rapid pace. When it hit the fox, it unfolded and completely encircled the fox, clicking its parts together and shifting all around until she was encased in a golden colored power armor.

Kisame detached Samehada from his back and planted one step behind him, eyes wide from the strange and menacing sight before him. "Nice foxie, nice f-"

Kashikoi launched herself at him with all the power of industrial pistons. Her impact with his sternum would have powdered his bones and evaporated all the blood in his body were it not for the fact that he got Samehada in between him and her right before contact. A few of his blade's sharp scales skittered away and got lodged up to base in rocks and trees and he was spun around a few times, eventually planting Samehada in the ground in order to keep still.

The shark man glanced behind him to see Naruto racing up the mountain at a feverish pace, but wasn't able to keep his gaze away from the mechanized vulpine for very long. She ran around him and breathed fire on the ground, catching it in the long grass and sending a circular blaze up and around the shark man. A piece of her back armor expanded and lifted up, sucking in and blowing out the air behind her right into the flame, whipping it up into a fire tornado.

The circle of destruction didn't last for very long, however, as a geyser of water erupted from the middle and quickly overtook the blazing inferno, sending boiling hot water crashing down everywhere within a fifty meter radius. A good portion of it landed on Kashikoi, but the suit protected her from any real harm.

Kisame shot out of the steamy mini-swamp and swung Samehada overhead and to the ground at Kashikoi, like he was swinging at a golf ball. It hit her in the side and sent her on a wide arc into the grass, nearly hitting Ino, who had been following the rest of the team and like them, was trying to escape notice from the shark person. Her yelp of surprise gave her away and with as much wits as she could muster, booked it to the small mountain Naruto was now half way up.

Seeing Ino go into full on sprint mode, everyone else shot up from the grass and ran, putting their trust in a three year old fox to keep a tower of man eating muscle away from them.

"Ah, shit," Kisame groused. There was no way he was going to manage to keep them out of Itachi's and his brother's fight with so many high ranking ninja racing towards their location.

Kashikoi launched out of the long grass and was aiming to rip his throat out for a second time with her new and improved mechanized chainsaw teeth. She wasn't going to for high impact this time and as such, when Kisame just barely got Samehada in between them, she didn't fly off from the ricochet effect and instead latched on with metal hooks extending from her paws.

Flames erupted from her jaws again as she peered around the edge of the flaying machine, searing all the flesh on his right side. He gasped in pain and swung Samehada to the ground, trying to crush Kashikoi under its weight. Her paws unlatched at the last second and she jumped off, her muzzle aiming for his left leg.

Kisame screamed in pain as his leg started to get mouth chainsawed off right below the knee. His hands flew in a flurry and ended up with his cheeks puffing up with pressurized water. The liquid bullets hit her square in the face multiple times in the time span of a second. It dented her head armor in a few uncomfortable ways and made her careen off back into the long grass, his lower leg firmly lodged in her jaws.

She shook her head to get rid of the cobwebs and slowly walked forward to get a good look at him. He was still on the ground and gritting his teeth as he held onto the stump of his leg. To her great surprise, his health hadn't gone down all that much. About an eighth of it was missing along with small text above the red line that read left leg: crippled.

Kashikoi watched with rapt, fascinated eyes as Samehada inchwormed its way to Kisame's side and fused into him. The two pairs of red and blue lines became one as Kisame's appearance changed to that of a bipedal shark's. He got up slowly and glared at Kashikoi despite her being concealed by the grass. His eyes shifted from her and towards the mountain. The Uzumaki had gotten all the way up and his teammates weren't that far behind.

In short, he'd failed. He'd failed and there wasn't even anything in his repertoire of sick ninja moves to even hinder them a little bit. Nor had he failed in any particularly climactic or cool looking way.

He huffed out annoyance and turned his attention back to the fox. "What is that you guys want, anyway?"

A sort of british sounding male synthesized voice came from the brush. "My partner just wants to bring his friend back home."

"And that little friend of his is the Uchiha? The younger one?"

"Yes."

Kisame barked out laughter from deep in his stomach. "Might be a little late on that one. That kid's too far gone."

"What do you mean by that?"

"His brain's FUBAR. You hear me? Fucked Up Beyond All Repair. He's crazy."

Kashikoi hadn't known Sasuke very well back when they were at the village. But the only impression she had of him was that he was just a broody teenager with a stick up his ass. Hardly the only one to come to existence and hardly the last one either. Hearing that he'd gone crazy during their training away didn't make her worry for him, though. It made her worry for Naruto. She'd heard him talk about Sasuke. If she were completely honest, Naruto talked about him like he was his brother. She didn't want to think about what might happen should worse come to worse.

"How crazy are we talkin 'bout here?"

"I don't know. Is there a scale? Detached from reality. Maniacal. Talking to himself a little bit. Didn't really seem to know what was happening around him. You know, crazy. Anyway, I thought you were a vixen. Did you get your balls cut off? I can almost forgive you for my throat and leg now," Kisame said in reference to the male synthesized voice that was programmed into V-chan.

Kashikoi tentatively walked out of the long grass and sat down in front of the fused shark man. "It's part of the suit functionality. I can't talk to humans yet, so I use this."

Kisame clicked his tongue and sat down on his ass, looking up at the mountain.

Kashikoi walked next to him and admired the same view. She still didn't trust him, so she kept the suit on, but could also sense there was no hostility coming from him. There were flashes of fire and lightning coming every now and then from the top of the mountain, sending boulders and dust crashing down the side. "So, why do you follow Itachi? I heard he was crazy. That he killed his entire clan. I can't imagine he'd be too charismatic a leader."

Kisame ripped out a piece of grass on the ground and started playing with it. "Ahh… it'd take too long to explain. I just trust him. And I'm not one who trusts easily."

"Is he gonna to die?"

Kisame shrugged. "Maybe. Probably."

"Are you gonna to stop him."

He shook his head. "No… no, I'm not going to stop him. He knew that he was going to die. I could hear it in his voice."

"Isn't it a friend's job to stop another friend from dying?"

"I wouldn't call us friends. And I'm not cruel enough to try to keep a man from his last wish."

"How can you be sure he's gonna to die? Not as strong as he's made out to be?"

"He's got a terminal illness. Not much time left."

"Ah."

For a period of time, the two of them just sat there and watched what was arcing out the top of the mountain. Blue fire. Strange beams of light that made everything look neon. Long purple chains.

"…You worried about your partner?" Kisame asked, breaking the silence.

"Not really. He's strong."

"Think we should check on them?"

Kashikoi's eyes widened in surprise. Thinking quickly, she sunk her teeth into the soft flesh of his newly made leg.

Just as he yelped in pain and surprise, they vanished.

00000000

Sasuke was breathing heavily, nearly doubled over from the pain of almost getting his torso smashed inwards. One of his eyes was puffed over and closed because the gash on his forehead was leaking too much blood into it. His left leg protested to being moved because of the burn all along his thigh, exposing muscle and even a little bit of bone; even so, he hobbled forward.

What started out as a sort of hideout inside a small hill quickly turned into a collapsed mound once their ninjutsus started to really get going. The ground swarmed with snakes from one of his summons, but left two spots conspicuously alone: the ground around Sasuke and the pillar where Itachi was leaning against, leaking blood from puncture wounds all over his body.

Then Sasuke laughed.

A deep chortling laughter that was strained against his traumatized lungs. He almost passed out from it because of the lack of air reaching his body, but managed to go operate on sheer willpower alone.

Every trudging step he made to Itachi, his happiness grew. Actually, it shouldn't be called happiness. He considered happiness to be a foreign concept from an age far gone to him. What he was feeling wasn't happiness or even any positive emotion for that matter. It was just… there. It was the indescribable feeling that something one had obsessed over for so long was finally becoming theirs.

The top six inches of his chokuto had been broken off, but that was good enough for him to use it as an impromptu walking cane. It left deep gouges in the ground whenever it rested.

Finally, when Sasuke was in front of his accursed brother, trying to gain the footing to strike one last time, he said, words dripping in contempt "any last words before I take your eyes, brother?"

Itachi blearily looked up with clouded, unseeing eyes. There was a smile on his face. Not the sort of manic, depraved smile that Sasuke had plastered on his face ever since he moved out of Orochimaru's compound. No, it was a smile of content. "A few, I suppose," he said lightly, blood frothing slightly at the corners of his mouth.

Sasuke rested the tip of his broken sword against his brother's neck, glaring at him with an expression that clearly said 'Hurry the fuck up.'

Itachi's grin faded as he looked to the ground. "I… didn't have many options, if you could believe me. I acted on what I thought was the best for Konoha and for you. It's not perfect because nothing ever is, but I truly do love Konoha. I just wish that you could have loved it the same as me."

Sasuke didn't understand what he was saying. All his life, he'd been fed the tale of his brother being a rogue element that despised Konoha to the point of destroying one of their most prized families, his own family, by testing his might on them. It was by Itachi's words that stayed Sasuke's hand, if for only a slight bit longer.

"Tell me, little brother, do you have someone that you cherish?"

Sasuke said nothing. A brief image of his idiotic teammate surrounded by all the genin of Konoha 12 with all their jonin-sensei and all the people who showed him kindness briefly flickered in his mind, but he squashed that image down as quickly as it came up.

"Well, you must have if you have those eyes. We Uchiha carry with us the curse of hatred. I personally think that it was meant for goodness. Witnessing someone you love dying sparking a hidden, latent power. It's obvious to me that the power we Uchiha gain is the power to protect and cherish those around us with that newfound power, so that we don't feel that anguish again. Some don't break away from that hatred. I don't want you to be like one of tho-" he interrupted himself by coughing a new flow of blood from within him.

"Where do you get off on saying those things? YOU KILLED OUR ENTIRE FAMILY!"

Itachi's head bobbed up and down a few times, what he tried to pass off as nodding. All the power left he had was used in bringing his head up to face Sasuke's. "I had to. Our entire family was conspiring to start a coup d'état. It would have ended with so many more dead. I didn't leave you alive so I could test my metal against you. I left you alive… because I love you."

Those words struck Sasuke deep to the core. He froze. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to say. What he did know was that his conviction was too far embedded in him and that to turn away now was completely unacceptable to all the things he threw away to reach his goal.

His face scrunched up in fury. He jerked his arm to the side, severing his brother's throat and sending congealed blood splattering into the bed of snakes next to his brother.

Sasuke fell to his knees and cried. Large globules of tears fell to the ground and Itachi's stained black trousers. His anguished shouts of pain, both physical and emotional, could be heard everywhere across the ruined grounds he was in.

His eyes started burning with pain. It wasn't too bad, not in comparison to what he'd felt before, and even felt a little bit familiar.

His hand numbly went to his hip pouch, which was miraculously untouched by the battle, and took out his bastardized guidebook. Opening it to the only decipherable page on it, he was greeted with the words:

New Perk: Eternal Mangenkyou Sharingan

By avenging you clan and murdering you brother in cold blood, you have gained the ability to use your Mangenkyou Sharingan without running the risk of blindness. Abilities are enhanced and side effects are nullified.

That's it.

That's all you've accomplished.

Feel proud of yourself now?

Feel good about what you did to get here?

Well you shouldn't.

Feeling disgusted by the guidebook in his hands, he threw it away amidst the rolling piles of snakes. He knew it would return to him sooner or later, but didn't care.

The sound of crunching stones and the hiss of snakes being tossed aside came a ways behind him. With it came an exasperated voice that didn't really like dealing with snakes. Sasuke turned around slowly, face still disfigured by his pained expression.

Naruto's eyes lit up upon seeing his brother figure. He rushed towards Sasuke, uncaring of the debris and furious snakes, with a grand smile on his face. "Sasuke!" he yelled happily. The Uzumaki kept his pace until he could see the expression on the Uchiha's face, wracked with grief and anger, where he slowed and allowed his expression to turn downwards.

Sasuke didn't say anything as he stood up and turned to his best friend. "Leave me alone," he warbled out, voice cracked and fluctuating pitifully.

Naruto walked forward, undaunted, and extended his hand. He honestly didn't know what it was for. For all he knew, it could have been to shake hands, or support him, or to bring him into a bro hug, and possibly even to knock his head back into place. Whatever it was for, he never got to find out. Once he was within reach, Sasuke flung his chokuto in a wide arc, opening a small gash on the outstretched hand of one of Naruto's fingers. If Sasuke hadn't forgotten about the loss of reach with the sword, he would have taken the entire hand off.

Seeing the blood drip from his fingers made him stop in his tracks. His concerned eyes met Sasuke's for the first time in a long time. He didn't see the eyes of an individual with cognizance and human understanding. He saw the eyes of a child just a few seconds away from throwing a temper tantrum. He likely wouldn't listen to reason or logic, instead offering only his rolling emotions as a response.

"C-Come Sasuke, we can talk," Naruto said feebly.

Sasuke shook his head. "No. We can't. I just- I want to be alone now. Just leave or I'll kill you."

The threat to his life didn't faze Naruto in the slightest. "Look, I came from Konoha. I spoke to granny. She says that if you come willingly, then she'll pardon you for anything that you did against Konoha. You can join the roster again. We can be teammates with Sakura and Kakashi. Everything will be back to normal."

Sasuke chuckled darkly. The resemblance of this one sided conversation to the one in his dream was just too surreal. "No, nothing can go back to normal. Everything's changed. Now step back, or I'll kill you."

"Don't say th-" Naruto was interrupted by a giant purple fist impacting him in the chest and sending him flying backwards, cratering one of the walls.

Earth Chakra Mutation (Stonewall): your bones become ceramified and nearly impossible to break via conventional means. Organs can also now withstand more punishment and higher degrees of movement.

Naruto got up from the wall and brushed the dirt and dust off his jacket. Seeing no use for it anymore, he shrugged it off and repositioned his samurai kimono a little bit to make it more comfortable to walk in.

Enhanced Samurai Garb: originally an ancient outfit from the most venerated order of fighters in the elemental kingdom, these clothes have been reinforced and brought into new usefulness. +50 speed, +20 strength, +200 kenjutsu: versatility.

"Well then!" he shouted to Sasuke, who was now enshrined with the purple armor of Susanoo, "I guess I'm dragging you back to Konoha!"

He took a scroll of inside of his kimono and unsealed its contents.

Kiba, the twin lightning blades: gained from defeated Raiga Kurosaki in one on one combat, these swords' ability to channel lightning is unmatched by any other metal of any other blade. They are classified as one of the seven ninja swordsmen's weapons. A truly legendary story in the making.

Lightning Chakra Mutation (Jitterbug): lightning now passes through your body without doing any damage. Be careful though, this only applies to its charge. You can still be pierced by lightning jutsu if that is its primary function, though it will be lessened in most cases.

The red part of Sasuke's bar was decreased to a little less than half, but there was another bar running directly behind it that was full to the brim colored purple. His chakra bar too, which was significantly lower than his health, got the same treatment. However, the purple was slowly lowering at a fixed rate while the red and blue did not.

Lightning arced in between the tips of the two blades menacingly. He held the right one straight in front of him and pointed it at Sasuke. Immediately, an arc of lighting bounced through the air and hit his avatar square in the chest. The red bar didn't lower, but the purple did, if only a fraction.

While Naruto was still trying to figure out the purple bar, Sasuke's avatar had spawned a bow and loosed an arrow his direction. Naruto crossed the twin blades over his chest and batted the arrow away, sending it skittering off to the side. Then he did the same to the second arrow. Then the third.

Deciding he'd had enough of that game, Naruto instead ducked under the fourth and threw one of the Kiba blades in a lazy arc across the battle field at Sasuke. Before the Uchiha could shoot it down, Naruto teleported to the seal that was inscribed on its handle and clanged both the swords together, creating a web of electricity between the blades.

The avatar's other arm spawned a buckler and used it to swing at Naruto. The collision between the shield the size of a shack and the two electricity swords created a deafening crack and a blinding flash supercharged with lighting. If he were a normal human, Naruto would have been hit to the moon to meet a rather irate Ootsuki. As it was, he got forced back about ten yards away from the avatar and resealed the Kiba back into a scroll.

'Okay, time for the big guns,' Naruto thought not only to himself, but also to the fox in his gut.

"So be it."

An orange chakra shroud appeared all around Naruto, giving a sort of spiritual look.

Jinchuuriki Jutsu Control Mutation (At Peace): You may call upon the complete shroud of Kurama in an instant with absolutely no mental fatigue or other negative side effects. There is no need to unlock your tailed beast with this mutation.

Jinchuuriki Jutsu Shape Manipulation Mutation (Doppler): The wall between your physical body and your tailed beast chakra is lost. You may contort your body in any which way with this mutation when enshrouded with your beast.

Around his arms grew purplish looking chakra chains. Each had links about as thick as a normal person's forearms and was replete with spikes all along the sides.

Perk: Chakra Chains: with the blood of the Uzumaki coursing through your veins, you now have the power to use one of their signature moves, the chakra chains, known to even be able to restrain the strongest forces of nature in the world, the tailed beasts.

The chains were coiled up and around his arms reaching up to his shoulders. In his hands, their length stopped at about six feet. Twirling them around his head with such practiced ease and speed, Naruto threw his right arm forward and with the added momentum, it flew at unexpected speeds towards the purple titan, expanding all the way.

Sasuke tried to block it with an arm, but the chain hit the side and wrapped around it, getting thoroughly tangled up in the process. Getting an idea, Sasuke gripped the chain with his unrestrained arm and pulled as hard as he could.

Smiling, Naruto accepted this and flew towards Sasuke, the other chain trailing behind him. Once he was near, Sasuke brought the arm that the chain was coiled around down on Naruto, but wasn't able to as Naruto moved just out of reach with the help of his beast cloak. Flinging his other arm around, Naruto got the second chain coiled around Sasuke's free arm and landed with a heavy thud a ways behind him.

Sasuke turned around and made to yank Naruto forwards again, but Naruto already started to reel himself in at a rapid pace. Naruto coiled his body into a ball with two arms sticking out, still attached to the chains, practically turning himself into a human bullet.

Once the speed was great enough and the aim exactly where he wanted to be, Naruto let the chains fizzle out of existence and tucked himself fully into a ball. Traveling at Mach speed, Sasuke couldn't move in time as his titan's face was hit by one of the fastest flying straight kicks in the history of flying straight kicks.

The impact was so great that Naruto went completely through the head and went flying out, having to anchor himself to the ground using giant hands sprung from his back cloak. Looking at the bars above Sasuke's head, he could see that the purple in the health bar section was steadily at half, possibly a tinge higher, whereas the purple in the chakra section was barely touched.

'Ohh, so the purple represents Susanoo. Good to know,' Naruto thought, storing that particular tidbit of information for later use.

"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" Sasuke wailed through the still air so loudly that it penetrated the thick substance of Susanoo and caused Naruto to stagger back slightly from the severity present in Sasuke's tone.

The large purple being began to destabilize and find its home back in Sasuke's body, but reignited with an intensity when it was almost gone. It grew to easily twice the size of the Susanoo before it and them some. Clad in a glowing purple old fashioned samurai armor and mask coming together from pieces fitting together like a robot were assembling it on his face, Sasuke leveled his newly made sword at Naruto's diminutive form.

A sort of beam blasted from the tip of the weapon and hit Naruto square in the torso. It carved him into the ground, sliding him across the battlefield and finally into a thick beam, where he leaned, dazed.

Naruto's hand felt the familiar slickness of thick blood. But that wasn't supposed to happen. He didn't bleed in Kyuubi Mode. Turning his head, he was shocked to see the dead and nearly untouched body of Itachi.

Shaking his head out of such useless observations, Naruto skirted away just before the next beam hit and managed to avoid getting sent for another ride.

Fire Chakra Mutation: The very essence of fire shall be bent to your will and your will alone. The consumption of chakra when using fire chakra is lowered to the point of near nonexistence and you can even manipulate enemy fire jutsus away with nothing but the want to do so.

Naruto unsealed two more of his more vaunted possessions: two circular dishes about half the size of a man that were clipped to either of his forearms. They were basically just two really big shields, but the thing that made them special was the fact that they were composed solely of chakra metal.

He flowed Kyuubi chakra into the shields, making them flare up with a spiritual aura. Then he made the Kyuubi chakra ignite into fire and coalesce inwards, becoming more and more dense until the shields merely shimmered slightly with the barely contained might of Kyuubi fire.

Sasuke's Susanoo form took a mighty step forward and swung his gargantuan blade in a sweeping motion at Naruto. Just when he was about to be sliced in two, Naruto ducked quickly and whacked the flat of the blade with one of his shields, releasing an explosion that sent the blade skewering upwards and throwing the giant off balance.

Naruto ran forward, brandishing his shields in front of him with the aim of ripping Sasuke out of his avatar.

He wasn't making it easy for Naruto as another beam of energy emitted from his masked jaws. It was bigger than the one that came from the sword and it carried a power exponentially more lethal.

Naruto stopped, got on one knee, and overlapped the swords over his body, sending roots of Kyuubi chakra into the earth to keep him in place.

The beam hit him like the wrath of God, making him lose ground ever so slowly, ripping up from the ground and eventually getting pushed to a slanted angle. It continued for what felt like hours, surrounding Naruto in an inescapable heat, but what was probably only a few seconds in actuality.

It stopped with a suddenness that Naruto was unprepared for. He peeked out from the safety of his shields for a second, only to get squashed in between the ground, his shields, and the giant samurai sword holding him in place. A whoosh of dust was sent rolling in and out of the crater they were fighting in from the quickness and intensity of Sasuke's Sword hitting Naruto to the ground.

The head began charging up for another beam attack, announced by the glowing becoming more and more pronounced between the cracks in the mask.

Naruto, thinking quickly, slanted either of his shields opposite each other and ignited an explosion from either side. The resulting impact from both shields colliding against the sword in a scissoring motion sent a huge crack racing up the purple metal material, even reaching the top of the sword. With one last push, Naruto fully broke the sword in two and scrambled out of the grip he was put under.

Sasuke, not having expected this eventuality, accidentally stepped forward a few paces to right himself and hastily aimed the head cannon to where Naruto was. Naruto strafed to either side as the beam carved up the earth into a molten slag.

Naruto shot two chains out of either wrists and anchored his body to the part of the torso directly in front of the real body of the mad Uchiha. He reeled himself in faster than he ever had before, both fists extended with the two explosion shields on either of his sides. He ignited them on impact, creating a sonic boom that reverberated across the land for tens of miles around.

What was left of Sasuke's Susanoo's torso armor was an indented crater with a dazed Uchiha trying to get his bearings in the middle. Naruto resealed the shields quickly and grabbed Sasuke out of the hole with a cloak extension, throwing him to the ground with a little bit more force than was warranted for what the situation called for.

Naruto too, fell to the ground and dispelled the cloak at the same time the Susanoo construct began to disappear.

Looking at Sasuke as he tried to regain his breath, Naruto stumbled forward and started up his medical chakra

Medical Jutsu: Learning Rate Mutation (Medical Genius): You just understand how medical chakra works on a fundamental level. All medical jutsu learning now comes to you easily.

Medic Jutsu: Ability Mutation (Benevolent Hand of God): All but the most fatal of injuries are healed in seconds. The speed of recovery, however, depends on how much chakra you wish to expend.

Naruto got to healing Sasuke's wounds, slowly bringing his red HP bar up to a manageable level. Sasuke cracked an eye open as he watched his former teammate get to work.

"Why do you care so much?" Sasuke asked dejectedly.

"Because you're my friend and brother. I'm not giving up on you so easily as that."

Sasuke chuckled darkly. "You're so simple."

"And you're a fucking dumbass."

"Yeah, I guess so."

Naruto continued to work on his wounds in a strained silence. It was only a matter of time before he wouldn't be able to take any more of that shitty silence and finally asked "you feel happy now?"

"…Hm?"

"Do you feel happy now? You killed Itachi, avenged your clan, yadda yadda yadda. Do you feel happy now?"

Sasuke pursed his lips. "Nope. I don't feel happy at all."

"Yeah, well, that's what can be expected from revenge."

"What would you have done then? Was I just supposed to forgive him like a hapless moron and try to find happiness?" Sasuke asked with derision. He said 'happiness' like one would say 'that puddle of seminal fluids over there'.

"Sometimes it's not about forgiving or not forgiving. Sometimes it's just about living differently. You didn't have to forgive him. You didn't have to throw everything away in order to kill him either."

Sasuke sighed and laid his head down, looking at the blue sky beginning to darken with oranges and pinks of the evening.

The rest of Team Naruto, who had been hiding at the lip of the crater, trickled in.

"Hey guys, where were you?" Naruto asked. "Scared of getting wrapped up in the fight?"

"I wish," Hana said gruffly "Mr. Money Millions here wouldn't let us. Said you had to work things out on your own."

Shikamaru had at least the decency required to look to the side ashamedly.

"You going to do something stupid?" Naruto asked Sasuke.

He shook his head. "No. I need to… I need to have a chat with Tsunade about some… things, though."

Naruto stopped his healing and looked him dead in the eye unamused. "Why do I get the feeling that you want to ask those questions from the tip of a sword?"

Sasuke scrunched his nose up and down distastefully. "It's something Itachi said… before I killed him. If things don't go right with our talk, I don't know what I'll do."

Naruto gazed at him for a while, sizing up his true intentions to his stated ones. He wasn't lying at least. That was a start.

"Well, if you do anything stupid, I'll just beat you down again," Naruto assented.

"I was half dead by the time we started fighting. Don't get uppity."

"And I only used half my power."

"Bullshit."

Naruto shrugged. "Believe what you will." Getting up, Naruto extended a hand to the downed Uchiha, health bar now completely full from Naruto's handiwork. Sasuke looked at the hand like it were a foreign object for a few seconds before tentatively reaching out his own and taking Naruto's proffered appendage.

Next, Naruto signaled the seal he placed on V-chan and waited a few seconds to teleport his tool of choice along with the fox he was partnered with to him. What appeared when he did so was not what he was expecting.

Everyone of their right mind brandished their own weapon of choice at the shark man held by the leg by Kashikoi who appeared with her. Kashikoi released and barked a few quips at Naruto, who ordered everyone to lower their weapons. "Don't worry guys, he's cool… apparently."

"Cool?" Ino asked, shaking her head "Nope, not cool. Not cool at all."

Kisame mostly ignored their various states of alarm and hissed out in annoyance as Kashikoi's teeth marks closed. He got up with little difficulty and looked around until he spotted Itachi's body. Watching him go and inspect said body, everyone remained silent and with baited breath, waiting to see where his alliances went. He collected every odd scroll that Itachi had on his body and skimmed through them all before tossing them behind his back carelessly.

Eventually, he stopped this pursuit and walked back to Team Naruto. "You Naruto?" the Hoshigaki asked.

Naruto nodded slowly, still sizing him up for a fight.

Samehada extracted itself from Kisame's body, reverting him to his… normal shape. If that could even be called normal.

"Itachi seemed to have a lot of faith in you. Think Konoha would be willing to pardon a member of Akatsuki?"

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know, maybe."

Shikamaru edged his way to Naruto. "I'm not sure if that's the best idea," he whispered in Naruto's ear.

"He seems trustworthy enough," Naruto said simply, expecting that to end the conversation.

Although Shikamaru wanted the leader of their group to think about his choice a little bit more, he was interrupted by Shino who remarked "I think we have to get back to Konoha right now."

As he was mostly silent, the rare times he spoke was enough to stop everyone in their tracks and pay attention to what he said. They all looked at what he was staring at and was left speechless by the red dot in the sky trailing a fiery tail. It looked almost like a comet.

Except everyone could see a tiny little status explanation above the dot reading: Extinction Meteor

Naruto felt his pouch buzz with vibrations. Confused at this, Naruto reached in and grabbed his guidebook, the vibrating object in question. This was the first time it ever vibrated.

Naruto flipped through the book and read the blue box that appeared on all the pages of the book, blurring its background. Every single box said the same thing:

Quest! End Game: stop the machinations of evil

Reward for completion: Game Over

Consequence for failure: The death of everything

Everyone who brought their hardware along with them all began to get the same messages that appeared in the same manner. Sasuke even got one.

Everyone silently looked at the meteor and mentally traced its trajectory, all somehow knowing exactly where it was heading.

Konoha.

AN/ have a gentlemanly day.